I The development of social movements and the modern repertoire of action (the mediated repertoire that embraced tactics like mass meetings and marches, demonstrations and petitions, all geared toward public claim-making) at the end of the
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Violence, Social Movements, and Black Freedom Struggles
Ten Theses toward a Research Agenda for Scholars of Contention Today
AK Thompson
Social Movements and Social Policies
Political Challenges under Austerity in the UK
Gregory White
The economic crisis of 2007/2008 presented a challenge to the welfare state in the UK, and, more widely, across Europe. It also presented a challenge to many citizens, who were on the receiving end of the austerity agenda, and subsequent tightening of welfare spending. If nothing else, the financial crisis demonstrated the hegemony of economic theories prominent in neoliberal capitalism. As many academics and commentators have identified, however, the current period of instability is indicative of a systemic crisis. In addition to this analysis, the crisis also exposed the intricate and opaque links between western governments and the financial sector. During and after the crisis an eruption of activity in civil society galvanized many that had been directly affected by either the crisis itself—through loss of employment—or by the subsequent austerity measures imposed. This article aims to examine the current crisis affecting the welfare state in the UK, and social policy more broadly, and, begins to suggest how social movements are seeking to challenge the dominant discourses surrounding austerity politics. The article suggests some reasons as to why traditional forms of resistance and organization—such as the mobilizations of the trade union movement—have largely been unsuccessful in challenging such narratives. The article concludes by considering the shift from trade unionism in the UK to post-crisis social movements, and where an anti-austerity movement more broadly might develop further in pursuit of defending the principles of social welfare, and, ultimately, the welfare state.
Eduard Ballesté
assemblies. However, as the end of that year approached, many of the activists were already focused on creating new and more specific social movements to protest against cutbacks in different social sectors (health, education, social services, etc.), as well
Michelle I. Gawerc and David S. Meyer
invited her to participate in Movement/Media Research Action Project (MRAP), which he founded and co-directed along with Charlotte Ryan. MRAP's mission was “to strengthen progressive social movements working toward social justice and inclusive
Nadia Ferrer
In current and future situations of trans-global crises, social dissent and related practices of resistance cut across conventional country boundaries. Expressions of dissent and resistance pursue change through unconventional practices not only to challenge current governance, but to re-invent participation. They seek to impact society by transforming acquired values, subjectivities and knowledge. Despite these transformations of people’s subjectivities, majoritarian theories examining social movements still focus on finding rational patterns that can be instrumentalized in data sets and produce generalizable theoretical outcomes. This paper problematizes how social theory makes sense of collective action practices on the ground. Everyday non-discursive practices prove productivity-led theories' increasing disengagement with their object while challenging the excessive bureaucratization of scientific knowledge (Lyotard, 1997). That is, people experiment collectively with their capacities, and create their own initiatives and identities which do not follow determined patterns but do-while-thinking. The dichotomist approach of majoritarian debates in collective action theory is critically analysed by introducing the work of ‘minor authors’ and ‘radical theorists’. The fundamental purpose of this paper is to open a discussion space between the field of social action theories and activism knowledge, hence encouraging the creation of plateaus that blur academic boundaries and construct new subjectivities beyond “the indignity of speaking for others” (Deleuze in Foucault et al., 1977. p. 209). Drawing on the experience of the 15th of May 2011 in Spain, I analyse how radical theory reflects on current movements and collectives."
Srdja Popović and Slobodan Djinovic
In the academic world, scholars sometimes adopt quite complex and varying definitions of social movements. In public discussion and civic debate, a social movement is usually defined as a loosely organized but sustained campaign in support of
Sam Beck
Abstract
The nature of capitalism in its neoliberal form is decreasing higher education’s exclusive domain of knowledge production by exposing students to and exploiting local knowledge production. This has created a paradox. Experiential learning is being supported as ‘academic’ because students learn skills, values and perspectives by engaging in communities of practice. Through community service learning and social justice oriented internships, students learn about emancipatory social movements while simultaneously providing their intellectual capital. Urban Semester Program students participate in the movement for affordable housing, with its origins in post-war Williamsburg, Brooklyn, where many Puerto Ricans settled. Engaged in a struggle against displacement, for self-determination and developing community sustainability by advocating and winning low and moderate income housing, residents are determined to remain in their neighbourhood. Students are engaged in this struggle and connect this exposure to their internships, and the globalising world economy, the role of the state, and corporate power.
In Anthropology in Action
- Published (Print):
- 01 Mar 2016
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 22–30 (9 total)
Understanding Urban Social Movements in Cognitive Capitalism
Methodological Reflections on Participatory and Ethnographic Research
Marion Hamm
The concept of participation is currently evoked by constituencies as varied as urban planners, local governments, universities and social movements. This coincides with a revival of participatory research methods in the social and cultural sciences. This article argues that the critical potential of participatory research methods should not be taken for granted in cognitive capitalism, where participation is as much an instrument for governmental regulation from above as it is a practice for democratic self-determination from below. First, the politics of participation from the emancipatory departures of the 1970s to today's revival are being discussed. Second, based on a long-term ethnographic study on the transnational Euromayday movement of the precarious, it is demonstrated how positioning the researcher using reflexive ethnography can support a critical research attitude through a process of reflexive hybridisation. In concluding, reflexive activist scholarship is outlined as a critical research attitude which encourages participatory knowledge production in a way that responds both to the field of activism and the field of academia.
In Anthropological Journal of European Cultures
- Published (Print):
- 01 Sep 2015
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 16–33 (17 total)
Reconceptualizing Democratic Innovation
“Democratic Innovation Repertoires” and their Impact Within and Beyond Social Movements
Cristina Flesher Fominaya
innovation has yet to adequately interrogate the role of social movements, and more specifically the role of democratic imaginaries, in innovation, nor has it considered the specific mechanisms through which movements translate democratic imaginaries and
In Democratic Theory
- Published (Print):
- 01 Dec 2022
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 78–100 (23 total)
Deanna Dadusc
This article will analyse the power relations involved in social movement research, exploring alternative epistemological practices that resist and subvert academic conventions in order to create new modes of knowing. I will critique the production of a knowledge that aims at liberation and emancipation by conducting research 'about' or 'on behalf of' social movements, and I will show how this approach might lead to their very subjection. It will be argued that, in order to avoid the reproduction of power relations they seek to resist, research practices need to go beyond dialectical modes of knowing, departing from assumptions of the subject/object of knowledge, of objective/subjective research and from the hierarchy between theory and praxis. A precedent is found in the research approaches of post-colonial, activist, and queer studies that seek to experiment different modes of knowing, based not on observation and participation, but on learning from the experience of resistance in social movements: in this way resistant practices become an epistemological perspective rather than an object of study, and research can become a tool of resistance.