Social Movements

It has been argued that the first presidential campaign of Michelle Bachelet in Chile and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner in Argentina used a rhetoric of newness. Some political observers have said that as the “first women” to successfully run for the highest office in these countries, they were presented as the new faces of democracy. These observers argued that gender was not a determining factor in their electoral success, but the focus on this “first women” frame did generate heavily gendered criticisms of these two candidates. Negotiating Gendered Discourses addresses these views by asking how the gender factor is negotiated when women from the Southern Cone of Latin America run for high political office. In particular, Jane L. Christie examines how Bachelet and Fernández positioned themselves in relation to the numerous women-led social movements, and in doing so, reveals points of intersection between these contemporary political discourses and existing sources of female authority when negotiating complicated ideological debates about human rights, the economy, and women’s rights.

To contribute to studies of contemporary anti-fascism, the goal of this chapter is to provide an overview of the governmental, corporate and activist institutions and tactics that aim to resist the far-right mobilization and recruitment processes. Focusing on the United States, this chapter highlights efforts by actors within the political sphere (e.g. the American State’s repressive and judicial apparatuses), the economic sphere (e.g. the corporate news, entertainment and high-tech industries) and civic sphere (e.g. Left anti-fascist activism) to resist the far right. While efforts by State and corporate actors to take on and take down white supremacist individuals and hate groups are positive and needed, it is important to consider the political possibilities and limits of these challenges to the far right.Racial capitalism and a largely white ruling class persists in the United States, and so the institutional sources and practices of far-right resistance must be critically examined with regard to that social context (Burden-Stelly 2020; Issar 2020; Rahman 2020; Roediger 2017, 2019; Taylor 2016; Virdee 2019). To this end, the first section contextualizes American racial capitalism, the role of the State and political parties in propping up this system and the enduring power of a mostly white and male American ruling class. Following this, the second and third sections identify some U.S. State and corporate sources of opposition to the white supremacist far right, and assess the politics of these within a country whose ‘mainstream’ political and economic institutions have long been enmeshed with the system of racial capitalism and white supremacy. For a potentially emancipatory source of resistance to the far right and to the system of racial capitalism that emboldens it, the third section looks to broad-based left anti-fascist activism.

In the field of identity politics and cultural identity, the representation of differences plays a crucial role. The extent of the differences a society has determines the social outcomes in divergent ways. Surely, there are other variables that cause social anxiety or communal solidarity such as religious views, socio-political conditions and also gender relations. To the point of departure, the case of homosexuality, or in a general way, the boundaries of sexuality is very controversial field so as to reveal the effects of ideologies, social conditions and historical past where all of these evolved through times. In order to understand and to reach a general view, the experiences of small towns are very decisive and unavoidable parts of such studies. As a basic explanation, that is why Arlene Stein chooses to make an ethnographic study in the USA around 1990s. In this paper, I will try to make a basic analysis of ‘The Stranger Next Door: The Story of a Small Community’s Battle Over Sex, Faith and Civil Rights’ by presenting my reading of this story and through reacting to the general points.

The central challenge for theorists and practitioners of radical politics today is to develop the tools for collective action on a global scale, but also account for the specificity of diverse local struggles and promote the free transformation of individual and collective subjectivities through political action. This article examines the radical democratic theory of Chantal Mouffe, post-sovereignty cosmopolitanism of David Held and contemporary anarchist theory, in light of participant research in contemporary global resistance movements. As none of these concepts can meet the challenges facing global resistance movements today or the demands of liberty and equality, ‘democratic insurrection’ is intended as both an alternative theoretical category and a practical tool for radical politics. Defined by a forum–affinity–network system, democratic insurrection is based on voluntary associations and the production of the common. By expanding the democratic moments of deliberation, decision and action across time and space, democratic insurrection allows for democratic practice and acts of resistance on a range of scales and organisational forms. Radical politics today demands the theorisation and practice of democracy beyond the state and insurrection beyond armed revolt. Democratic insurrection demonstrates the possibility of such theory and practice, but must still overcome the persistence of dominant power relations that continue to plague global resistance movements from within.

The limits of the planet and of natural  resources  impede  pursuing  the  modern  project  based  on  permanent
growth  and  represent  a  major  challenge  for  humanity.  Drawing on an  agency-centred  approach,  this paper addresses two two  major  questions:
‘Who are the social actors who challenge the normative orientation at the core of modernization and promote alternative values and practices that may contribute to the rise of a global age, or may embody glimpses of a global age society?’ and ‘Can we grasp some dimensions of life and society in the global age  by studying current social movements?  ’

Not-guilty verdicts, mistrials, and impunity for the Bundy family and many of their supporters in the armed confrontations over public land use in Nevada and Oregon. Expanded access for private oil, gas, mining, and logging industries and the downsizing of national monuments such as Bears Ears lead by Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke. A number of highly contentious debates and sensationalized events have again focused attention on land held in the public domain by the United States. This essay argues that federal land policy as a form of colonial administration has been constitutive for the logic of expectation as property in what is now the United States. From the state land cessions negotiated on behalf of the Articles of Confederation to the preemption acts (1830–1841) to the homestead acts (1862–1916) to present-day demands for land transfer, the acquisition and disposal of the so-called public domain have been central to westward colonization, the consolidation of the nation-state, and the promise of land ownership as the ostensible foundation of individual liberty. These dynamics are evident in contemporary conflicts over public lands and arguments for the transfer of public lands to either state or private ownership. Approaching the Bundy occupations as flashpoints that illuminate competing interpretations and claims to land within the history of westward colonization, this essay seeks to demonstrate the ways in which expectation emerges from particular economies of dispossession of indigenous peoples that have historically worked through and across the division of public and private property.

Ochocientas casitas unifamiliares de planta baja en la orilla del río Besós, cada una de un color diferente, comprimidas entre una zona industrial semiabandonada y la nueva Barcelona del AVE y del Fòrum. En este lugar de márgen, desconocido y estigmatizado, grupos de migrantes y autóctonos lucharon juntos para crear un paisaje humano excepcionalmente denso y rebelde: un barrio anticlerical y anarcosindicalista, en el cual la resistencia duró ochenta años, donde buscaron amparo Buenaventura Durruti, Quico Sabater y un sinfin de excluidos e indeseados de todos los sitios y de todas las épocas.

Mientras las excavadoras del Ayuntamiento de Barcelona avanzan en el derribo de esta ciudad horizontal, un grupo de habitantes retoma la histórica tradición de lucha del barrio para oponerse al nuevo urbanismo de bloques de pisos, reivindicando la importancia de sus calles, de sus estilos de vida, y de la convivencialidad que permitía la forma urbana de qué se habían apropiado.

Este trabajo es el resultado de una implicación a la vez etnográfica, política y humana con el barrio de Bon Pastor durante los años del derribo (2002-2012), para desvelar la profundidad del trauma que representa la desaparición progresiva de un barrio, con sus memorias de autogestión y autonomía, con su vida cotidiana basada en la proximidad, con sus fiestas que servían para resolver conflictos, y de sus conflictos que creaban comunidad.

In December 2018, the United Nations adopted the Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas. UNDROP is the product of 17 years of struggle by La Via Campesina, other transnational agrarian movements and allies that included NGOs, states, UN mandate holders, and academics. It recognises the dignity of rural populations, their contributions to global food production, and their ‘special relationship’ to land, water and nature, as well as their vulnerabilities to eviction, hazardous working conditions and political repression. It reiterates rights protected in other instruments and sets new standards for individual and collective rights to land and natural resources, seeds, biodiversity and food sovereignty. This Grassroots Voices forum includes interviews and articles by activists in the UNDROP campaign: peasants from Indonesia, Belgium, France, Germany, Senegal and Argentina; a US farmworker leader; a women’s rights activist from Spain; a Bolivian diplomat; the Indian leader of a transnational Catholic farmers’ movement; an advocate for fishers from Uganda; a Swiss jurist; a Mexican indigenous rights leader; and human rights advocates from the NGOs CETIM and FIAN. They describe a new kind of people’s diplomacy and an innovative, bottom-up process of building alliances, lobbying, and authoring international law.

Negli anni Ottanta il punk era una forma d’arte, un simbolo globale di ribellione, una cultura musicale e giovanile: un fenomeno culturale complesso, che ha avuto importanti implicazioni politiche, tanto da diventare un nuovo circuito dell’attivismo giovanile e dell’impegno dopo il declino della “stagione dei movimenti”.

Fondato su un ampio ventaglio di fonti, il libro analizza origini e sviluppi del punk e lo colloca nelle sue reti transnazionali di produzione e mobilitazione: quell’esperienza diventa un osservatorio capace di restituire in modo originale le più ampie trasformazioni culturali e politiche del tempo, con particolare attenzione al caso dell’Italia e della Gran Bretagna.

Siamo nati da soli vuole in questo modo contribuire al rinnovamento delle cornici interpretative degli anni Ottanta, mettendo in discussione il senso comune sul decennio come “tempo del riflusso”, di “fine” della politica, di “trionfo” del privato e di “scomparsa” dei giovani.

Resistance against the appropriation of nature, especially land, has been one of the key struggles of the transnational agrarian movement La Via Campesina (LVC) since its inception in 1993. The issue of access to land has become even more central after the food crisis of 2007-08, in a context increasingly marked by land grabbing and climate change. This contribution offers a critical examination of the emergence of the « right to land and territory », both as a collective action frame deployed by transnational peasant movements, and as a new human right in international law. It explores the various ways in which agrarian movements are using the human rights framework to question the establishment of absolute private property rights over land, and restore political limits on access to land. It argues that peasant movements are claiming a new human right to land through a combination of institutional and extra-institutional channels, in an effort not only to achieve increased protection of peasants’ land rights (against and by the state), but also to advance an alternative conception of human rights that resonates with their worldviews, and allows for the development of food sovereignty alternatives, including outside the state.

The book charts the attempts of Islam's largest missionary movement, the Tablighi Jamaat (TJ), to build Europe's biggest mosque in London – the so-called Mega Mosque. The book follows TJ from its founding in India in 1926, to its establishment in Britain during the 1940s, to its plans for construction of a controversial mosque in London. The book addresses the issues emerging at the forefront of national debates across liberal democracies: the role of Islam in the west, conceptions of changing citizenship and national identities, and how best to integrate increasingly diverse populations. What happens to illiberal and politically disengaged groups that wish to segregate themselves from what they regard as corrupt and immoral wider societies? How do these groups engage with government policy that seeks to define good citizens as those that are actively engaged in the socio-political life of the community? Zacharias Pieri provides context and insight to answer these and other important questions.

Ce mémoire a pour but d’évaluer le rôle de la société civile dans le processus de consolidation démocratique sud-coréen à travers l’exemple de la mobilisation sociale ayant suivi le naufrage du ferry Sewol en avril 2014. La préoccupation principale est de déterminer si la société civile est toujours mobilisée vingt-cinq ans après la transition à un régime démocratique. La mobilisation du Sewol montre que la société civile sud-coréenne s’est remobilisée et participe de la politisation d’enjeux afin de mettre à l’agenda des réformes démocratiques destinées à être entreprises par l’Etat. Néanmoins le gouvernement et plus généralement la société politique sud-coréenne est immobilisée, léthargique et ne prend pas la mesure des aspirations de la société civile. Ainsi le dialogue entre société civile et société politique, crucial dans ce contexte de consolidation démocratique, est miné. En raison du manque de confiance entre les deux parties, les membres de la société civile et plus généralement les citoyens ont tendance à contourner le jeu des partis politiques, ce qui pourrait être dangereux pour le futur de la consolidation démocratique sud-coréenne.

Mots-clés : Corée du Sud – Sewol – société civile – société politique – transition démocratique – consolidation démocratique – politisation – mouvements sociaux

This thesis is intended to assess the role of civil society in South Korean democratic consolidation process through the example of the social mobilization following the April 2014 Sewol ferry tragedy. The main concern is to determine whether civil society is still mobilized or not twenty five years after the transition to a democratic regime. The Sewol mobilization shows that South Korean civil society re-mobilized and is currently politicizing issues in order to push for democratic reforms to be implemented by the state. However the government and generally speaking South Korean political society is immobilized, lethargic and does not understand civil society’s aspirations. Therefore the dialogue between civil society and political society, crucial in this democratic consolidation context, is undermined. As a consequence of the lack of trust between both parties, civil society members and citizens more generally tend to bypass the political parties arena, which could be dangerous for the future of South Korean democratic consolidation.

Key-words: South Korea – Sewol – civil society – political society – democratic transition – democratic consolidation – politicization – social movements

Cette introduction présente une perspective sur les mouvements contemporains articulée autour de trois propositions analytiques: 1. Les dynamiques de subjectivation et des dimensions subjectives occupent une place centrale dans les mouvements contemporains. 2. Ces mouvements se déploie et s’organisent à différentes échelles, du local au global. Les dimensions globales de ces mouvements ne doivent pas conduire à sous-estimer l’importance des échelles locales et nationales. 3. L’étude des mouvements sociaux progressistes et celle des mouvements conservateurs ne doivent pas être considérées comme relevant de deux champs d’analyse séparés. Les outils analytiques proposés doivent être tout aussi utiles pour comprendre les mouvements d’émancipation, les acteurs conservateurs ou ouvertement racistes.

Enacted February 24, 2014 and effective until August 1, 2014, Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Act targeted Ugandans of minority sexual orientations and gender identities—many of whom self-identify as 'kuchu'—by imposing life sentences for homosexual sex and same-sex marriage. The original Anti-Homosexuality Bill introduced in 2009 promised even worse for kuchus: it would have mandated that all Ugandans report known homosexuals and threatened execution for serial offenders and other perpetrators of “aggravated homosexuality.” In the context of Ugandan political conflict, emerging international human rights norms, and global asymmetries of power, Uganda has become an ideological battlefront where competing actors—both US-based and Ugandan—advance their respective visions of a just and righteous global society. These factors mandate that US-based activists and organizations painstakingly consider how (or whether) they can advocate responsibly and effectively for international human rights related to gender identity and sexual orientation. Through interdisciplinary lenses and critical analysis, this paper explores three questions:

• How is Uganda distinct from other sites of antigay legislation?
• How have US-based organizations impacted Ugandan discourse and policy toward kuchus?
• How can US-based rights advocates and activists campaign for kuchus without doing them further harm?

The Catholic Worker movement's fusion of anarchism and Catholicism is one of the most unusual hybrids in the history of the anarchist tradition and is sometimes dismissed as paradoxical or contradictory. In arguing that the pairing of these influences is not as counter-intuitive as it appears at first glance, this chapter seeks to explain the elective affinity of anarchism and Catholicism through the concept of exemplarity. The vision for the Catholic Worker devised by its founders Peter Maurin and Dorothy Day was, I argue, informed by interpretations of central Christian figures like Christ, the saints, and the " holy fool " that placed special emphasis on their exemplary qualities. Maurin and Day saw in the Catholic tradition of exemplarity a means of exercising leadership and authority through the power of examples and voluntary emulation rather than coercion, and within the context of the Catholic Worker movement the exemplary influence of Day in particular helped to reconcile the movement's need for coherence and direction with the autonomy and dignity of its members. In highlighting the Catholic Worker's " exemplary anarchism, " this chapter not only reveals one of the ways in which the Worker's Catholicism actually enhanced its anarchism, but also points to the broader relevance of the concept of exemplarity to anarchist theory.

This article discusses the acquisition of a physical impairment/disability through voluntary body modification, or transability. From the perspectives of critical genealogy and feminist intersectional analysis, the article considers the ability and cis*/trans* axes in order to question the boundaries between trans and transabled experience and examines two assumptions impeding the conceptualization of their placement on the same continuum: 1) trans studies assume an able-bodied trans identity and able-bodied trans subject of analysis; and 2) disability studies assume a cis* disabled identity. The perception of transsexuality and transability as mutually exclusive phenomena results from a non-intersectional analysis of transsexuality as an issue of sex/gender, but not ability, and of transability as an issue of ability, but not sex/gender. Difficulty recognizing continuities between these phenomena thus stems from an ableist interpretation of sex/gender and a cis(gender)normative* interpretation of ability. This article aims to: 1) enrich intersectional analysis in trans and disability studies and transability scholarship; 2) complicate disability studies, in which disabilities are often presumed “involuntary”, and encourage the decentering of a cis* subject; 3) encourage trans studies to decenter an able-bodied subject; and 4) advocate for increased dialogue and the creation of alliances between trans and disability studies and movements.

Link: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/hypa.12113/abstract

This book provides an introduction to political psychology through a focus on European politics and topics. It describes a style of doing political psychology in Europe that has developed out of dialogue with as well as critique of North American approaches. By emphasising the theoretical and methodological diversity of political psychology, the book is intended to contribute to a greater understanding of the strength and utility of the field. • Opens up and extends the study of political psychology to a variety of socio-political contexts and manifestations of political behaviour • Clearly outlines the usefulness and promises of distinctive critical approaches in social and political psychology • Explicitly considers the role of language, communication, identity and social representations in the construction of political meanings. Political Psychology will appeal to upper-level students and scholars who seek to extend their knowledge of the complex relationship between psychology, politics and society.

Nos últimos 50 anos, a Amazônia Brasileira, conhecida como a última fronteira do capital natural, foi alvo dos interesses, das políticas e dos planejamentos públicos e privados. Dentre estes estão os mega-projetos de mineração, cuja magnitude acaba por suscitar intensos impactos e conflitos sócio-espaciais no entorno mineral. Neste mesmo lugar, os atores atingidos reagem às transformações sofridas. Neste estudo buscou-se compreender os processos de gênese e expansão das lutas e dos movimentos sociais populares em conflito com as empresas mineradoras e a possibilidade ou não de entendê-los seja enquanto tensões entre “atingidos por mineração” e empresas mineradoras, seja enquanto conflitos ambientais ou territoriais. Como estudo de caso selecionou-se dois projetos de exploração mineral no Baixo Amazonas: o da Mineração Rio do Norte, situado no município de Oriximiná – PA desde 1976; e o Projeto Juruti da ALCOA, em processo de instalação no município de Juruti – PA. Identificou-se que os conflitos não se resumem ao âmbito ambiental, pois a disputa por terra, como estratégia de controle territorial, colocam-nos também na perspectiva do fundiário-territorial. Além disso, constatou-se que os movimentos populares são um produto dos conflitos deflagrados na relação contraditória e dialética com as corporações mineradoras.

In questi ultimi anni, varie formazioni di estrema destra – fasciste, populiste o nazionaliste – sembrano aver assunto una maggiore visibilità e capacità di penetrazione politica tra le popolazioni europee. Prodotto dei forti cambia- menti che stiamo attraversando, sintomo di una progressiva frantumazione sociale, tali formazioni si battono sia contro una Unione europea che ha espropriato gli Stati nazionali della loro sovranità, sia in difesa di una pre- sunta identità culturale dell’Occidente, oggi “minacciata” dai crescerti flussi migratori.
Nel nostro paese, una delle espressioni più evidenti e paradigmatiche di una generale deriva sovranista, nazionalista e identitaria, cui assistiamo in questi anni di crisi economica e sociale, è sicuramente rappresentata da Ca- saPound. Studiarne pertanto la struttura, la cultura e l’azione, come si pro- pongono queste pagine – che raccolgono anche le ragioni di appartenenza espresse dai suoi militanti –, costituisce un contributo importante alla com- prensiene di una cultura politica che va ben al di là di coloro che la riven- dicano apertamente definendosi “fascisti del terzo millenio”. Dall’osserva- zione e dall’analisi antropologica di un caso concreto, cogliendone le pecu- liarità, analizzandone la matrice culturale, il programma politico, le forme della militanza e le tensioni che lo attraversano, emergono in realtà molti degli elementi che in vario modo e in forme diverse connotano i sentimenti e i comportamenti di una parte sempre più consistente delle nostre società, prese nel gorgo di una trasformazione di cui è difficile cogliere il profilo e prevedere gli esiti.

There are more types of borders today than ever before in history. Borders of all kinds define every aspect of social life in the twenty-first century. From the biometric data that divides the smallest aspects of our bodies to the aerial drones that patrol the immense expanse of our domestic and international airspace, we are defined by borders. They can no longer simply be understood as the geographical divisions between nation-states. Today, their form and function has become too complex, too hybrid. What we need now is a theory of the border that can make sense of this hybridity across multiple domains of social life.

Rather than viewing borders as the result or outcome of pre-established social entities like states, Thomas Nail reinterprets social history from the perspective of the continual and constitutive movement of the borders that organize and divide society in the first place. Societies and states are the products of bordering, Nail argues, not the other way around. Applying his original movement-oriented theoretical framework "kinopolitics" to several major historical border regimes (fences, walls, cells, and checkpoints), Theory of the Border pioneers a new methodology of "critical limology," that provides fresh tools for the analysis of contemporary border politics.

Brazil has endured multiple political, economic, and environmental crises-and now the COVID-19 pandemic-which have drawn social inequalities into razor sharp relief. This contribution analyzes the resilience of rural families facing these crises in southern Bahia. These families have benefited from various redistributive policies over the years, including redistributive land reforms (RLRs), conditional cash transfers (CCTs), and recent emergency aid (EA) payments related to the pandemic. Each (re)distributive approach involves different notions of distributive justice informed by competing background theories of "the good, " which hold implications for concepts of resilience. Drawing on long-term research with RLR communities in Bahia, this article considers the gains achieved by different redistributive programs. Families who acquired land through RLR projects appear more resilient, especially in the face of crisis.

The latest encampments in public spaces, such as Occupy Wall Street, Taksim Square and Syntagma Square, have highlighted the significance of public space in shaping social, economic and political struggles around the world. In this paper, drawing on a qualitative study of Syntagma Square in Athens, Greece, we confirm that spontaneous, self-organised movements, such the Aganaktismenoi (Indignant) movement, could function as intermediaries between protest and resistance, leading to the institution of urban practices of commoning. We argue that the innovative attributes of such movements inspire and trigger the introduction of new decision-making mechanisms, social relationships and political subjectivities and the institution of solidarity and collective forms of social reproduction. We conclude that these initiatives constitute a radicalization of political struggles and have a positive effect both in terms of increased civic participation and the emergence of new collective identities and political subjectivities.

We live in an age of movement. More than at any other time in history , people and things move longer distances, more frequently, and faster than ever before. All that was solid melted into air long ago and is now in full circulation around the world like dandelion seeds adrift on turbulent winds. We find ourselves, in the early twenty-first century, in a world where every major domain of human activity has become increasingly defined by motion. 1 We have entered a new historical era defined in large part by movement and mobility and are now in need of a new historical on-tology appropriate to our time. The observation that the end of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first was marked by an increasingly " liquid " and " mobile modernity " is now something widely recognized in the scholarly literature at the turn of the century. 2 Today, however, our orientation to this event is quite different. Almost twenty years into the twenty-first century we now find ourselves situated on the other side of this heralded transition. The question that confronts us today is thus a new one: how to fold all that has melted back up into new solids. 3

The Syrian Salafi armed group Ahrar al-Sham epitomises the most prominent case of politicisation. By 2014, Ahrar al-Sham was the leading insurgent group in Syria, with the largest number of soldiers, presence throughout Syrian opposition-held areas, and relatively strong ties with foreign countries including Turkey and Qatar. Ahrar al-Sham explicitly rejected al-Qaida’s legacy and developed a more inclusive approach to other groups and the population. This chapter traces the group’s emergence and development to demonstrate how pre-war developments and a de-centralised alliance-based expansion underpinned its politicisation over the years. This case study also contends that politicisation was sustained by the group’s internal institutionalisation, which ultimately explains its successes and failures during the conflict. This chapter is based on extensive field research interviews in Turkey and north-west Syria in 2019 with an array of leaders and members of Ahrar al-Sham, armed opposition groups, and independent Syrian Islamists.

Two Systems, Two Countries is an unabashedly heterodox addition to a growing body of critical work on the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) suppression of local identity and political freedoms in Hong Kong. What Carrico’s contribution uniquely provides is a penetrating analysis of the various schools of thought that make up the diverse landscape of Hong Kong nationalism.