Bastards of Utopia, the companion to a feature documentary film of the same name, explores the experiences and political imagination of young radical activists in the former Yugoslavia, participants in what they call alterglobalization or ""globalization from below."" Ethnographer Maple Razsa follows individual activists from the transnational protests against globalization of the early 2000s through the Occupy encampments. His portrayal of activism is both empathetic and unflinching-an engaged, elegant meditation on the struggle to re-imagine leftist politics and the power of a country's y
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Users play an increasingly important role in European innovation policy. They are commonly seen as drivers of and active co-creators within innovation processes. However, user-driven innovation remains infused with a number of assumptions about users, technology, and "successful" innovation, which (partly) undermine a more democratic, open approach to innovation. In this contribution, I investigate the interplay between broader policy assumptions in the European discourse on user-driven innovation and its practical performance within an innovation project centring on healthcare robotics. Here, I argue that the politics of user-driven innovation harbours particular assumptions that, in effect, restrict the agency of users while also engendering conflict and contradictory outcomes. Hence, user-driven innovation is not simply about users driving innovation but rather about interfacing users and their concerns with (robotics) developers and their technology. For this, I propose an analytics of interfacing, which draws together literatures on the performative dynamics of participatory processes and more recent work on the political economy of participation. Here, I contend that it is not enough to investigate the construction and performance of publics; rather, it is additionally necessary to follow the manifold practices by which those publics are rendered available for certain technological solutions - and vice versa. Such an analytical approach opens up a fruitful avenue to critically enquire into the politics of participation - sitting in between innovation policy and practice.
This article examines the consequences of the insider–outsider divide on contentious labour politics. Focussing on work-related collective actions occurring in Italy between 2008 and 2018 (N = 9,935), it is investigated how trade unions and new groups supporting insiders and outsiders are involved in actions that differ in repertoire, scale, issues claimed and by duration. Results show a tripartite field of actors who are engaged in contentious labour politics: trade union federations and professional associations – mostly representing insiders – support institutional, large-scale actions and economic claims. Unorganised and self-organised workers – mostly mobilising outsiders – are active in traditional, disruptive and small-scale actions related to economic issues. Non-working categories – students, political parties, loosely-organised groups – are engaged in traditional, large-scale actions motivated by political and social rights issues. The conclusions discuss the consequences of the growing heterogeneity of workers' representative bodies on insider–outsider political inequalities, and on class representation which hinders the emergence of a cohesive labour movement.
The nature of relations between non-Bolshevik party workers & the Bolshevik party in Moscow during the early 1920s are examined. It is contended that the graded food rationing policy initiated by the Bolsheviks to address Moscow's food shortages following WWI precipitated later confrontation between the Bolsheviks & non-party workers. Workers' self-interest in not starving & egalitarian opposition to the unequal distribution of food supplies are identified as the driving forces behind the non-party workers' resistance to Bolshevik policy. In addition, it is demonstrated that by early 1921, the Bolshevik party had started to consider non-party workers' arguments, particularly those promulgated by Socialist Revolutionary sympathizers, about Bolshevik wartime & food distribution policies. After analyzing the non-party workers' strike movement in Moscow from Feb-Mar 1921, the movement is compared with that which concurrently occurred in Kronstadt; it is subsequently asserted that these strike movements did not constitute a viable revolutionary threat to Bolshevik power. The extent to which the nation's poor material circumstances & the Bolsheviks' understanding of class prompted the party to reduce non-party workers' democratic participation is also addressed. 52 References. J. W. Parker
Previous research has established that the original bases of support for the two large Irish political parties, Fianna Fail & Fine Gael, differed considerably but that these differences faded within twenty years of the new polity's independence in 1922. Post-1943 residual differences between their electoral support bases are examined. A model without persistent differences is contrasted with 4 models with such differences: Rural class, subculture, clientelistic, & partisan cleavage. Multivariate analysis of voting results from the 1945 presidential election for the whole country & for eastern & western regions leads to the conclusion that Fianna Fail's support remained disproportionately traditionalist & populist, & that this is a key to differences between the two main parties. 6 Tables. Modified HA.
"Exploring divergences in the choice of neoliberal policies by labour party governments in New Zealand, Australia, and Britain, this book challenges common explanations of the embrace of neoliberalism by social democratic parties. It argues that the diminishing influence of labour unions within these parties is the result of a lack of strategy on the part of the union movement itself. Be it due to a lack of interest by the unions in engaging in politics or a passivity resulting from years of anti-union Conservative rule, Union interests particularly in New Zealand and Great Britain have been neglected by party leadership when formulating policies. In contrast, it poses the Australian example as one in which the unions were sufficiently united, disciplined, and strategically minded to ensure that a Labor Party government integrated them into the making of policy. The book lays bare the Australasian "roots" of Britain's New Labour era. In an age in which the macroeconomic, industrial, and social policies of social democratic parties have so often moved to the right, this book asks the question: how can trade unions retain some measure of control over the policies of the parties that are ostensibly theirs"--
'Place-based explanations' of politics in the U.K. tell sweeping narratives about 'Two Englands', or of sizeable regions of the country that have been 'Left Behind', reinforcing popular accounts of a North–South or city-town divide. We introduce the concept of nested deprivation – deprivation that may occur in just one housing estate or even one row of flats within neighbourhoods that are otherwise affluent. We report on intensive fieldwork in 8 neighbourhoods varying in relative affluence and density of population (including urban, suburban/satellite, market town or rural village). Three key themes and consequences emerge for those living in nested deprivation in relatively affluent and geographically dispersed contexts: (a) either disconnection from or entrapment within the local economy; (b) social isolation and atomisation; and (c) powerlessness to affect politics. 'Place-based' explanations of rapid and radical changes to political participation in Britain need to take fine-grained geographical distinctions much more seriously. Our study provides evidence that the rising tides in affluent areas are drowning some residents rather than lifting all boats. Where deprivation is dispersed and then nested within mostly affluent constituencies it does not allow for the political mobilisation among communities of interest that is a necessary condition for pluralist representative democracies.
The media plays an important role in how the American public understands controversial social and political issues, such as immigration. The purpose of this article is to examine how key features of the media, such as location (Arizona vs. National) and political ideology (Liberal vs. Conservative), affect the framing of arguments supporting and opposing the anti-immigration bill (Arizona SB 1070). A content analysis was conducted using 3 weeks of newspaper articles from two Arizona newspapers (one Conservative, one Liberal) and five national newspapers (three Conservative, two Liberal). Analyses revealed that both location and political ideology influenced the framing. Specifically, the national newspapers were more likely than Arizona newspapers to frame arguments supporting the bill in terms of threats (e.g., threats to economic and public safety) and to frame arguments against the bill in terms of civil rights issues (e.g., racial profiling). In terms of political ideology, Conservative newspapers were more likely than Liberal newspapers to frame the bill in terms of economic and public safety threats, but did not differ in mentions of civil rights issues. The implications for attitudes toward immigrants and legal ethnic minorities and for defining the boundaries of the American national identity are discussed. Adapted from the source document.
First paragraph: Hegemony is a term both elusive and recurrent. It provides a theory of the social for a world in which all universalizing truth narratives have lost their fantasmatic hold over our lives and, in their withdrawal, we are forced to confront the fictions that they in fact always represented. In a certain sense, hegemony theory is the fiction of social fiction; a fiction designed to account for the groundlessness of the social imaginaries with which we construct our respective worlds. It is a term with particular currency in the field of Cultural Studies, where the emergence of the concept as part of a new methodological practice in the study of politics at the University of Essex (among scholars such as the young Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe), and its reception in the Birmingham Contemporary Centre of Cultural Studies (particularly in the writings of Stuart Hall), makes it a fundamental part of what Fredric Jameson once called, not without a hint of irony, the "desire" of Cultural Studies (1993, 17). Indeed, Jon Beasley-Murray has gone as far as to say that hegemony theory should today be considered the "master trope of cultural studies" (2010, 39).
Plant-based milk alternatives–or mylks–have surged in popularity over the past ten years. We consider the politics and consumer subjectivities fostered by mylks as part of the broader trend towards 'plant-based' food. We demonstrate how mylk companies inherit and strategically deploy positive framings of milk as wholesome and convenient, as well as negative framings of dairy as environmentally damaging and cruel, to position plant-based as the 'better' alternative. By navigating this affective landscape, brands attempt to (re)make mylk as simultaneously palatable and disruptive to the status quo. We examine the politics of mylks through the concept of palatable disruption, where people are encouraged to care about the environment, health, and animal welfare enough to adopt mylks but to ultimately remain consumers of a commodity food. By encouraging consumers to reach for "plant-based" as a way to cope with environmental catastrophe and a life out of balance, mylks promote a neoliberal ethic: they individualize systemic problems and further entrench market mechanisms as solutions, thereby reinforcing the political economy of industrial agriculture. In conclusion, we reflect on the limits of the current plant-based trend for transitioning to more just and sustainable food production and consumption.
"The toppling of statues in the name of anti-racism is disconcerting, as is the violence sometimes displayed towards others in the name of gender equality. The emancipation movements of the past seem to have undergone a subtle transformation: the struggle now is not so much to bring about progress but rather to denounce offenses, express indignation, and assert identities, sometimes in order to demand recognition. The individual's commitment to self-definition and self-appreciation, understood as the exercise of a sovereign right, has become a distinctive sign of our time. Elisabeth Roudinesco takes us into the darker corners of identity thinking, where conspiracy theories, rejection of the other, and incitement to violence are often part of the mix. But she also points to several paths that could lead us away from despair and toward a possible world in which everyone can adhere to the principle according to which "I am myself, that's all there is to it" without denying the diversity of human communities or essentializing either universality or difference. This bold and courageous interrogation of identity politics will be of great interest to anyone concerned with the state of our world today."--publisher.
In 1843, a 16-year-old Canadian housemaid named Grace Marks was tried for the murder of her employer and his mistress. The jury delivered a guilty verdict and the trial made headlines throughout the world. Nevertheless, opinion remained resolutely divided about Marks in terms of considering her a scorned woman who had taken out her rage on two, innocent victims, or an unwitting victim herself, implicated in a crime she was too young to understand. In 1996 Canadian author Margaret Atwood reconstructs Grace's story in her novel Alias Grace. Our analysis probes the story of Grace Marks as it appears in the Canadian television miniseries Alias Grace, consisting of 6 episodes, directed by Mary Harron and based on Margaret Atwood's novel, adapted by Sarah Polley. The series premiered on CBC on 25 September 2017 and also appeared on Netflix on 3 November 2017. We apply a qualitative (corpus-driven) and qualitative (discourse analytical) approach to examine pronominal reference for what it might reveal about the gender politics and social class in the language of the miniseries. Findings reveal pronouns 'I', 'their', and 'he' in episode 5 of the miniseries highly correlate with both the distinction of gender and social class. These patterns of repetition are indicative of the discourse structure of the TV miniseries Alias Grace.
The Three Gorges project, one of the largest construction plans in Chinese history, is once again on the agenda of mainland China's state council. In July 1990, more than seventy scientists and experts met at a conference supported by the State Council to appraise the plan to build the world's largest dam in the Three Gorges area. The author outlines the differences of opinion over the major technical issues of the Three Gorges plan and looks at the post-1986 development of the project. (DÜI-Sen)
