scholarly journals Quantifying Inequality: From Contentious Politics to the Dream of an Indifferent Power

2021 ◽  
pp. 135-166
Author(s):  
Ota De Leonardis
Keyword(s):  
Contentious Politics ◽  
Poverty Threshold

AbstractThe historical meaning of inequality as a bond of domination and subjection at the centre of the vertical political architecture of modernity has been replaced by reference to quantitatively expressed distributive differences. This paper examines the role of the poverty threshold in reconfiguring the welfare field and establishing a binary syntax; the spread of spatial artefacts inscribing unequal positions into space through separation; and numbers that provide the language for measuring the distance between positions. Quantification matters in instrumental and expressive terms: together with tools for knowledge and action, it also provides visions. Further, the vision expressed in the quantified distance that frames inequality corresponds to the dream of a domination free from any bond with the dominated, being cognitively and morally indifferent to it.

Collective Memory and Social Movements: Football Sites of Memory in Supporters’ Activism

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Dino Numerato ◽  
Arnošt Svoboda
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Czech Republic ◽  
Collective Memory ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Contentious Politics ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
European Level ◽  
Significant Component ◽  
The Czech Republic

This paper examines the role of collective memory in the protection of “traditional” sociocultural and symbolic aspects of football vis-à-vis the processes of commodification and globalization. Empirical evidence that underpins the analysis is drawn from a multisite ethnographic study of football fan activism in the Czech Republic, Italy, and England, as well as at the European level. The authors argue that collective memory represents a significant component of the supporters’ mobilization and is related to the protection of specific football sites of memory, including club names, logos, colors, places, heroes, tragedies, and histories. The authors further explain that collective memory operates through three interconnected dimensions: embedded collective memory, transcendent collective memory, and the collective memory of contentious politics.

Social protests, discontent and politics in southern and eastern Europe

2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 195-215 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria da Paz Campos Lima ◽  
Antonio Martín Artiles
Keyword(s):  
Political Institutions ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Contentious Politics ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Necessary Condition ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Social Protests

Taking into consideration the debate on the role of social movements and of trade unions in organising social protests, in the light of contentious and conventional politics, this article examines participation in demonstrations in Europe and the political attitudes of the participants. The article uses data from the European Social Survey to examine the differences and similarities between European countries in respect of mobilisation levels over the past decade, arguing that distrust and dissatisfaction with political institutions might be a necessary condition but not a sufficient one to justify resorting to contentious politics. The article reveals the contrasts between the levels of mobilisation in southern European countries (Portugal and Spain) and Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries (Hungary and Poland) and examines the patterns and (re)configuration of the profile of the protestors in the 2002–2014 period.

‘I am tired of being afraid’: Emotions and protest participation in Belarus

2021 ◽  
pp. 026858092110230
Author(s):  
Olena Nikolayenko
Keyword(s):  
Contentious Politics ◽  
Police Force ◽  
Mass Mobilization ◽  
Police Violence ◽  
Protest Movement ◽  
Media Reports ◽  
High Level

Belarus witnessed a staggering level of mass mobilization in the aftermath of the 2020 fraudulent election and disproportionate use of police force against peaceful protesters. Using the case of anti-government protests in Belarus, this article argues that a confluence of moral and reflex emotions explains an incredibly high level of protest participation in a hard autocracy. Specifically, indignation over the magnitude of electoral malpractices and the intensity of police violence, in congruence with the loss of fear, provides a moral battery for generating and sustaining mass mobilization. It is further argued that a sense of unity within the protest movement mitigates fear of repression and facilitates sustained engagement in protests. Drawing on media reports and protesters’ narratives, the study traces how citizens overcame their fear of state reprisal and took to the street. The article contributes to contentious politics literature by elucidating the role of emotions in shaping mass mobilization.

scholarly journals Victory and Defeat: The Contentious Politics of One Generation of State Workers in China since the 1960s

2016 ◽  
Vol 61 (2) ◽  
pp. 197-222
Author(s):  
Ju Li
Keyword(s):  
Collective Action ◽  
Contentious Politics ◽  
Political Opportunity Structure ◽  
Political Opportunity ◽  
Opportunity Structure ◽  
Crucial Component ◽  
Repertoire Of Contention ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Historical Periods

AbstractBy analysing and comparing three waves of contentious collective action employed by the pioneering generation of Chinese state workers at one particular state-owned enterprise from the 1960s to the present, this study aims to explain its varying forms and to analyse its effectiveness in different historical periods. I argue that the changing political opportunity structure in various historical contexts has greatly conditioned workers’ “repertoire of contention” at each moment and, hence, significantly affected the processes, strategies, and outcomes of workers’ contentious collective action. This article highlights the paradoxical role of the socialist social contract as a potential but crucial component of “the repertoire of contention”, by arguing that different interpretations of the contract, as conditioned by a certain political opportunity structure in different historical periods, could either empower or disempower workers. Both archival and oral history research are used in this study.

Poverty matters: Cannabis use among people with serious mental illness: Findings from the United States survey on drug use and health, 2015

2018 ◽  
Vol 64 (7) ◽  
pp. 656-659 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giuseppe Carrà ◽  
Francesco Bartoli ◽  
Ilaria Riboldi ◽  
Giulia Trotta ◽  
Cristina Crocamo
Keyword(s):  
Mental Illness ◽  
Drug Use ◽  
Serious Mental Illness ◽  
The United States ◽  
Cannabis Use ◽  
Poverty Threshold ◽  
The Us ◽  
Poverty Status ◽  
Contextual Characteristics

Background: Little is known about the influence of contextual characteristics on comorbid substance use and serious mental illness (SMI). Aims: To explore the role of poverty on comorbid SMI and cannabis use. Methods: We used data from the 2015 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, considering those in poverty, with income under 100% of the US poverty threshold. Results: People in poverty were more likely to suffer from concurrent SMI and cannabis use (3.07%, 95% confidence interval (CI):1.84%; 5.07%), even controlling for gender, age, tobacco and alcohol use (odds ratio (OR) = 2.77, 95% CI: 1.27; 6.03, p = .010). Conclusion: The magnitude of the association between SMI and cannabis use is influenced by poverty status. More research on potential mediators like income inequality and impoverished social capital is needed.

scholarly journals Valuing the Cause: A Theory of Authenticity in Social Movements

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward T. Walker ◽  
Lina Stepick
Keyword(s):  
Social Movement ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Public Support ◽  
Contentious Politics ◽  
Social Movement Organizations ◽  
Cognitive Schemas ◽  
Collective Identities ◽  
Central Concept ◽  
Movement Organizations

Scholars of contentious politics expect that social movement organizations (SMOs) are valued according to their ability to craft resonant frames or to enact displays of worthiness. We offer an alternative, relational perspective highlighting the critical role of authenticity in shaping an SMO’s perceived value. Unlike frames and intentional displays, calculated efforts to proclaim authenticity often backfire. We distill two orthogonal types: grassroots (in)authenticity, based on idealized notions of civil society, and institutional (in)authenticity, rooted in cultural-cognitive schemas used to judge fit with established SMO categories. Grassroots authenticity benefits an SMO’s fundamental legitimacy, while lacking it entirely (i.e. “astroturfing”) severely harms public support. Institutional authenticity increases resources and survival chances, intelligibility to elite observers, and clarity of collective identities; still, lacking this (via hybridity) may assist in recruitment and outreach. We build propositions that elaborate these expectations and argue that authenticity should become a more central concept in social movement research.

scholarly journals PERFORMING (IN)JUSTICE: THE CONTENTIOUS POLITICS OF DIGITALLY MEDIATED VISUALS

2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kelly Lewis ◽  
Helen Berents ◽  
David Myles ◽  
Earvin Charles Cabalquinto ◽  
Ariadna Matamoros Fernández ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Hybrid Methods ◽  
Contentious Politics ◽  
Internet Studies ◽  
Ethical Implications ◽  
Sexual Racism ◽  
The Many ◽  
Justice Movements ◽  
Media And Communication ◽  
Key Questions

This panel considers sociopolitical contentions as being increasingly visually mediated and brings together a transdisciplinary group of researchers to reflect on the complex ways digitally mediated visuals construct, sustain and perform (in)justice. To do this, panelists reflect on the many forms and political textures digitally mediated visuals can assume (online and offline), and considers the specific role of digital affordances and platform politics in sustaining these practices. Panelists address key questions: 1) how do digitally mediated visuals enact forms of (in)justice?; 2) what potentials or limitations do digitally mediated visuals generate for scholars wishing to understand broader sociopolitical contentions?; and 3) what conceptual and methodological tools should (Internet) scholars employ to study the contentious politics of digitally mediated visuals (and with what ethical implications)? Drawing from media and communication, international relations, cultural studies and discourse theory, panelists address a variety of sociopolitical topics across platforms (WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter) and territories, including: US black justice movements, sexual racism in Latin America and Southeast Asia, conflicts over representations of death in the Middle East, and transnational movements for trans rights activism. Panelists engage with Internet research to investigate the contentious politics of digitally mediated visuals by drawing on several perspectives to challenge hegemonic conceptions, Western biases and dominant discourses. They also mobilize qualitative or hybrid methods to track the trajectories of digitally mediated visuals to understand their biographies and sociopolitical productiveness in the context of their emergence, methods particularly interesting for Internet studies considering ongoing critiques against big data approaches.

scholarly journals Self-Criticism in In-Work Poverty: The Mediating Role of Social Support in the Era of Flexibility

2022 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 609
Author(s):  
José Antonio Llosa ◽  
Esteban Agulló-Tomás ◽  
Sara Menéndez-Espina ◽  
María Luz Rivero-Díaz ◽  
Enrique Iglesias-Martínez
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
Critical Assessment ◽  
Individual Responsibility ◽  
International Labour Organization ◽  
Gender Analysis ◽  
Individual Approach ◽  
Mediating Role ◽  
Poverty Threshold

In-work poverty reflects situations of income below the poverty threshold among employed people, involving a deterioration of wellbeing. The International Labour Organization prioritises this situation, which in countries such as Spain, Germany or Italy reaches rates of 11.8%, 10.6% and 11.8%, respectively. Within a context of flexibility, the occupational situation tends to be understood as an individual responsibility, which is why this study analyses the increase in self-criticism in these situations, and the role of social support in this relationship. The mediation of social support in the manifestation of self-criticism among people experiencing in-work poverty is analysed. The participants were 1430 employed people, grouped into those in a situation of poverty and those who are not. The results show that people in a situation of in-work poverty present a higher score in self-criticism and lower in social support. Social support is a mediating variable that prevents the manifestation of self-criticism. Lastly, a gender analysis shows that women experience this relationship more intensely. These findings enable a critical assessment of the activation policies that only take an individual approach. As an alternative, we propose strengthening interventions that foster social support, particularly among women.

scholarly journals The Weeks When Decades Happened: A Theoretical Consideration of the 2011 Egyptian Uprising

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Rebekah Anna Jónsdottir Menzies
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Theoretical Work ◽  
Contentious Politics ◽  
Economic Conditions ◽  
Egyptian Revolution ◽  
Factors Influencing ◽  
Authoritarian Breakdown ◽  
Role Of Religion ◽  
Structural Theories

<p>In 2011, the Middle East was plunged into turmoil with a series of popular uprisings ousting a number of long standing dictators. Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s 30 year reign was toppled in just over two weeks. This thesis takes a theoretical approach to the Egyptian Revolution, assessing the extent to which the Egyptian case lends support to various theories which consider transitions away from authoritarianism and towards democracy, and the extent to which these theories can assist us in understanding why democracy has not resulted in Egypt. There are a number of strands of theoretical work which consider both transitions away from authoritarianism and towards democracy, and the factors influencing the timing and mode of transition. These include structural theories related to economic modernisation, inequality and crisis; those related to the role of elites and civil society in influencing transitions, whether from above or below; ideas surrounding the diffusion of, and international influences on, democratisation; and arguments considering the role of religion and culture. This thesis argues that theories of authoritarian breakdown garner more support from the Egyptian case than theories of democratisation. Ideas related to the diffusion of contentious politics and international influences on transition, as well as the role of both elites and civil society, garner support from the Egyptian case. Structural theories related to economic conditions, and the role of religion and culture, garner less support from events in Egypt.</p>

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