Working the Political Field in Stormy Weather: A Mayor's Role in the Quebec Municipal Mergers

2009 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 773-792 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Mévellec
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Provincial Government ◽  
The Political ◽  
Research Subject ◽  
Political Field ◽  
New Knowledge ◽  
Stormy Weather ◽  
The City ◽  
Scale Transformations ◽  
Municipal Level

Abstract. Canadian political science often neglects the municipal level as a legitimate research subject, even when large-scale transformations are implemented, such as the 2001 territorial reorganization in Quebec. This paper shows how mayors were involved in municipal mergers, mainly led by the provincial government, and especially how they played different roles in order to ensure their legitimacy as leaders of their communities. Specifically, the creation of the City of Saguenay has been studied through an examination of the activities, strategies and discourses of the mayors of this agglomeration in order to highlight normal and extraordinary levels of action. In doing so, this article contributes new knowledge of the mayors' own conceptions of their duties and roles and also of the rescaling process.Résumé. Le palier municipal attire peu d'attention en science politique canadienne, même lorsque surviennent des réformes substantielles comme la réorganisation territoriale municipale entreprise au Québec en 2001. L'article montre comment les maires ont tenté de s'approprier la mise en œuvre de ces fusions municipales organisées surtout par le gouvernement provincial, en insistant sur les rôles divers qu'ils ont joués pour assurer leur légitimité en tant que chefs de leur communauté. L'étude de la création de la Ville de Saguenay a permis d'examiner de plus près les activités, les stratégies et les discours des maires de cette agglomération et de mettre en lumière leurs registres d'action ordinaires et extraordinaires. L'article jette ainsi un éclairage nouveau sur les perceptions qu'ont les maires de leur rôle et de leurs responsabilités et sur les effets politiques de la réorganisation municipale.

The Specter of ‘Politics’ and Ghosts of ‘Alternatives’ Past: Lebanese ‘Civil Society’ and the Antinomies of Contemporary Politics

2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 359-377 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mona Khneisser
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Political Order ◽  
The Political ◽  
Gradual Change ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
Contemporary Politics ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
The City

The Lebanese scene has witnessed important developments since the onset of the garbage crisis, particularly in the translation of ‘civil society’ activism and political disaffection into ‘alternative’ realms of political mobilization and participation. The social movement scene witnessed for the first time on such a large scale the multiplication of campaigns denouncing the political order. However, groups’ contending strategic and ideological orientations raised tensions between tendencies hoping to focus singularly on the garbage crisis and others hoping to place the crisis within its larger structural context. The Hirak’s (movement) inability to affect change compelled several activists towards reformist agendas through the electoral process and logic of gradual ‘change from within.’ The most prominent electoral initiative sought to reclaim the city and representative politics under the name (‘Beirut, My City’). The municipal electoral campaign, however, sidelined contentious political issues and structural inequalities vested in the city in favor of an accommodating developmental programe. Following months of deliberation, Beirut Madinati decided to ‘remain at the local level’, while some of its members joined force with other groups to form nationwide parliamentary electoral alliances, alongside a nascent ‘political party experiment,’ Sabaa (Seven). Exploring the recent developments in ‘alternative’ collective action in Lebanon, this research makes use of a content analysis of Facebook campaigning posts and interview data to study actors’ contending relations to ‘the political.’ The research concludes that rather than reconcile citizens with political participation, nascent groups that claim to represent ‘alternatives’ to the ‘corrupt’ political parties and sectarian political order, instead advance a consensual understanding of politics and social change that is more techno-moral and less contentious.

Mobility in the City

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (94) ◽  
pp. 124-141
Author(s):  
Yumna Siddiqi
Keyword(s):  
Urban Life ◽  
The Political ◽  
Urban Experience ◽  
Political Field ◽  
The City ◽  
Northern City

In his novels Cockroach and Carnival, Rawi Hage explores the varied experiences of postcolonial migrants to the northern city. His protagonists are antiheroes, hustlers who reject the demands of good immigrant citizenship. Theorists of urban life applaud the city as a space that is hospitable to encounters with difference; they fail to consider the ways in which processes of bordering and differentiation are part of economies that exploit migrants. This article focuses on Hage’s portrayal of migrant mobility in the city. By bringing together a critique of these theorists of urban experience with Sandro Mezzadra’s arguments about the autonomy of postcolonial migrants, who are subjects and agents despite and because of the determinations of the political field, this article probes the subjection of postcolonial migrants in the city. The “politics of mobility” also determines migrants’ modes of conviviality and labor. Hage’s protagonists survive by maneuvering underground, in the interstices of the city, or in a cab, their space of work and mobility in the city, and using a rich verbal medley to tell its myriad stories. Thus Hage presents counterhegemonic narratives and visions of postcolonial migrants in the city.

scholarly journals ndividuals and Crowds. Presidential Leadership and Political Scenes of Representation in Media and Networks in Argentina (2008-2019)

2021 ◽  
Vol 06 (02) ◽  
pp. 57-83
Author(s):  
Mariano Fernández ◽  
Gasón Cingolani
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Political Representation ◽  
The Political ◽  
Material Surface ◽  
Political Field ◽  
Political Subject ◽  
Predominant Form ◽  
Comparative Reconstruction ◽  
The Impact

This article offers a comparative analysis of the construction of political scenes of representation by two former Argentine presidents, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner (2008-2015) and Mauricio Macri (2015-2019), based on televised speeches and social media postings. As there is no political representation without staging, and any staging needs a material surface for its deployment, the comparative reconstruction of scenes of representation is required for understanding the impact of socio-technological transformations in the political field. Our analysis assumes that the political dramaturgy of representation entails: (a) that the leader must show a way of connecting with his constituents; (b) therefore, the leader must configure a preferred political subject (i.e., a predominant form of figurative citizenry); and (c) that this configuration constitutes a possible portion of the entire population that can be represented. According to our analysis, each leader is associated with a different type of representation scene. While one leader configures her scenes with large-scale crowds and via national television broadcasts, the other configures his encounters with individuals via social media. This engenders two opposing conceptions of citizenry, connectable to two different classes of Interpretants: a political-ideological Interpretant and an un-political and para-ideological one.

scholarly journals Local Power and Its Limits: Three Decades of Attempts to Revitalize Kitchener's CBD

2013 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pierre Filion ◽  
Trudi E. Bunting
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Central Area ◽  
Central Business District ◽  
Local Power ◽  
Business District ◽  
The City ◽  
Partial Implementation ◽  
Political Scene ◽  
Municipal Level

This article which covers thirty years of central-area change in the City of Kitchener, Ontario focuses on the initial impetus that led to the preparation of large-scale plans, on the down-scaling and partial implementation of those plans, and on the current decision-making environment that allows for more public participation than existed in the past. The local political scene was dominated by a well-organized coalition of interest groups promoting urban renewal in the central business district, yet this coalition was unable to achieve its objectives. The situation is attributed to suburbanization and related shifts in political and economic power at the municipal level; the vulnerability of municipal administrations to senior governments' priority changes; tensions within the coalition itself; and the growing empowerment of other local groups unsympathetic to the coalition's goals. Generally, the emphasis is on limitations to the capacity of locally-powerful actors to implement large-scale and long-term policies in a consistent fashion.

Göçmen edebiyatında din ve kimlik yansımaları -Fakir Baykurt’un Yarım Ekmek Romanında Din ve Gelenek-

2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 117-145
Author(s):  
İsmail Güllü
Keyword(s):  
The Political ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Cultural Shock ◽  
Turkish Literature ◽  
Socialist Realist ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Societal Structure ◽  
Immigrant Religion ◽  
Turks In Germany ◽  
The City

Yarım aşırı aşan bir geçmişe sahip Almanya’ya göç olgusu beraberinde önemli bir edebi birikimi (Migrantenliteratur) de getirmiştir. Farklı adlandırmalar ile anılan bu edebi birikim, kendi içinde de farklı renkleri de barındıran bir özelliğe sahiptir. Edebi yazını besleyen en önemli kaynaklardan biri toplumdur. Yazarın içinde yaşadığı toplumsal yapı ve problemler üstü kapalı veya açık bir şekilde onun yazılarına yansımaktadır. Bu bağlamda araştırma, 50’li yaşlarında Almanya’ya giden ve ömrünün sonuna kadar orada yaşayan, birçok edebi ve düşünsel çalışması ile Türk edebiyatında önemli bir isim olan Fakir Baykurt’un “Koca Ren” ve Yüksek Fırınlar” adlı romanları ile birlikte Duisburg Üçlemesi’nin son kitabı olan “Yarım Ekmek” romanında ele aldığı konu ve roman kahramanları üzerinden din ve gelenek olgusu sosyolojik bir yaklaşımla ele alınmaktadır. Toplumcu-gerçekçi çizgide yer alan yazarın, uzun yıllar yaşadığı Türkiye’deki siyasi ve ideolojik geçmişi bu romanda kullandığı dil ve kurguladığı kahramanlarda kendini göstermektedir. Romanda Almanya’nın Duisburg şehrinde yaşayan Türklerin yeni kültürel ortamda yaşadıkları çatışma, kültürel şok, arada kalmışlık, iki kültürlülük temaları ön plandadır. Yazar romanda sadece Almanya’daki Türkleri ele almamakta, aynı zamanda Türkiye ile hatta başka ülkeler ile de ilişkilendirmeler yaparak bireysel ve toplumsal konuları ele almaktadır. Araştırmada, romanda yer alan dini ve geleneksel unsurlar sosyolojik olarak analiz edilmiştir. Genel anlamda bir göç romanı olma özelliği yanında Yarım Ekmek romanında dini, siyasi ve ideolojik birçok yorum ve tartışma söz konusudur. Romandaki bu veriler, inanç, ritüel, siyaset ve toplumsal boyutlarda kategorize edilerek ele alınmıştır.  ENGLISH ABSTRACTReligion and identity reflections in literature of immigrant: Religion and Tradition in Fakir Baykurt’s novel Yarım EkmekThe immigration fact which has nearly half century in Germany have brought a significant literal accumulation (Migrantenliteratur) in its wake. This literal accumulation, which is named as several denominations, has a feature including different colours in itself. One of the most important source snourishing literature is society. Societal structure and problems that the writer lives inside, directly or indirectly reflect on his/her compositions. In this context, the matter of religion and tradition by way of the issue and fictious characters in the novel of Fakir Baykurt who went to Germany in her 50’s and lived in there till his death and who is a considerable name in Turkish literature with his several literal and intellectual workings; “Yarım Ekmek” which is the third novel of Duisburg Trilogy with “Koca Ren” and “Yüksek Fırınlar” are discussed sociologically in the study. The political and ideological past of the socialist realist lined writer in Turkey where he spent his life for a long time, manifest itself on the speech and fictious characters of novel. In the novel, themes of new Turks’ conflict, cultural shock, being in the middle, bi culturalism in their new cultural nature in Duisburg which is the city they live in. The writer not only deals with Turks in Germany but also personal and social subjects via comparing them to Turkey and even other countries. In the study, religious and traditional elements analyzed sociologically. Besides the speciality of being a migration novel in general, there are a lot of religious, political and ideological interpretations and discussions in the novel. These datum in the novel are examinated in the context of belief, ritual, politics and social categorisation. 

The Fragmentation of the Palestinian Political Field

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 189-216
Author(s):  
Jamil Hilal
Keyword(s):  
Women Workers ◽  
Political Leadership ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Field ◽  
Cultural Field ◽  
National Representation ◽  
1960S And 1970S ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Palestinian National Movement ◽  
The Relationship

The mid-1960s saw the beginnings of the construction of a Palestinian political field after it collapsed in 1948, when, with the British government’s support of the Zionist movement, which succeeded in establishing the state of Israel, the Palestinian national movement was crushed. This article focuses mainly on the Palestinian political field as it developed in the 1960s and 1970s, the beginnings of its fragmentation in the 1990s, and its almost complete collapse in the first decade of this century. It was developed on a structure characterized by the dominance of a center where the political leadership functioned. The center, however, was established outside historic Palestine. This paper examines the components and dynamics of the relationship between the center and the peripheries, and the causes of the decline of this center and its eventual disappearance, leaving the constituents of the Palestinian people under local political leadership following the collapse of the national representation institutions, that is, the political, organizational, military, cultural institutions and sectorial organizations (women, workers, students, etc.) that made up the PLO and its frameworks. The paper suggests that the decline of the political field as a national field does not mean the disintegration of the cultural field. There are, in fact, indications that the cultural field has a new vitality that deserves much more attention than it is currently assigned.

Creating a local food procurement community of practice: The Alberta Flavour Learning Lab

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 155-169 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary Anne Beckie ◽  
Leanne Hedberg ◽  
Jessie Radies
Keyword(s):  
Community Of Practice ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Food System ◽  
Local Food ◽  
Provincial Government ◽  
Local Foods ◽  
Social Infrastructure ◽  
City Region ◽  
Physical Scale ◽  
Common Framework

In order for local food initiatives (LFIs) to have a transformative effect on the larger food system, greater levels of economic, organizational and physical scale are needed. One way for LFIs to reach the scale necessary to generate a more significant impact is through increased institutional procurement of local foods. But how do people and organizations come together to generate the social infrastructure required to shift food purchasing practices and processes? This field report shares the story of an innovative community of practice consisting of institutional food buyers, large-scale distributors, regional retailers, processors, producers, researchers, municipal and provincial government representatives within the Edmonton city-region that formed for the express purpose of “creating a positive community impact by getting more local foods on more local plates”. In describing the formation and first three years of the Alberta Flavour Learning Lab we examine the unique characteristics of this community of practice that has aided the development of a common framework for learning, understanding and joint action. In addition to the accomplishments to date, we also discuss the challenges faced by the Learning Lab and the strategies used to overcome them.  

CONCEPT OF THE IMPROVEMENT OF A KEY PUBLIC SPACE (USING THE EXAMPLE OF «ALLEY OF ARCHITECTS», VORONEZH)

2020 ◽  
pp. 97-109
Author(s):  
С. Л. Подвальный ◽  
О. А. Сотникова ◽  
Я. А. Золотухина
Keyword(s):  
Urban Environment ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Economic Value ◽  
Ecological Condition ◽  
Territory Design ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The City ◽  
Modern Technologies ◽  
Intensive Growth

Постановка задачи. В настоящее время формирование современной комфортной городской среды приобретает особое социально-экономическое значение и выдвигается в число приоритетных государственных масштабных программ. В связи с этим необходимо разработать концепцию благоустройства ключевого общественного пространства, а именно: определить основные и сопутствующие функции данной территории, создать эскизное предложение проекта благоустройства с учетом всех необходимых норм и стандартов, внедрить современные технологии. Результаты. Выполнен эскизный дизайн-проект «Аллеи архитекторов» по ул. Орджоникидзе г. Воронеж, включающий в себя основные элементы по зонированию территории, проектированию акцентных объектов и внедрению инновационных технологий «умного города», позволяющих повысить уровень комфорта горожан. Выводы. Благоустройство населенных мест приобретает особое значение в условиях дискомфорта среды. С выполнением комплекса мероприятий, направленных на благоустройство, и с внедрением современных технологий значительно улучшается экологическое состояние, внешний облик города. Оздоровление и модернизация среды, которая окружает человека в городе, благотворно влияет на психофизическое состояние, что особенно важно в период интенсивного роста городов. Statement of the problem. Currently the formation of the modern comfortable urban environment is gaining a special social and economic value and moving forward in the priorities of state large-scale programs. The purpose of development of the concept of improvement of public space is definition of the main and accompanying functions of this territory, design of the outline offer of the project of improvement considering all necessary norms and standards and implementation of modern technologies. Results. The conceptual project of “Alley of Architects” includes the basic elements of territory zoning, design of accent objects and implementation of technologies of a “smart-city”. These elements allow one to increase the level of comfort of inhabitants. Conclusions. Improvement of the inhabited places is of particular importance in the conditions of discomfort of the environment. Carrying out a complex of the actions directed to gardening and improvement, introducing modern technologies, the ecological condition, the physical appearance of the city considerably improves. Improvement and modernization of the environment which surrounds the person in the city influences a psychophysical state well that especially important during intensive growth of the cities.

Introduction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aled Davies
Keyword(s):  
Industrial Development ◽  
The Political ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
Financial Centre ◽  
Conservative Government ◽  
The Social ◽  
Post War ◽  
City Of London ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The City

This book is a study of the political economy of Britain’s chief financial centre, the City of London, in the two decades prior to the election of Margaret Thatcher’s first Conservative government in 1979. The primary purpose of the book is to evaluate the relationship between the financial sector based in the City, and the economic strategy of social democracy in post-war Britain. In particular, it focuses on how the financial system related to the social democratic pursuit of national industrial development and modernization, and on how the norms of social democratic economic policy were challenged by a variety of fundamental changes to the City that took place during the period....

scholarly journals City library network knowledge management for social cohesion: The case of Santa Coloma de Gramenet, Barcelona, Spain

IFLA Journal ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 52-63
Author(s):  
Daniel García Giménez ◽  
Lluis Soler Alsina
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Management ◽  
Social Cohesion ◽  
Technical Assistance ◽  
Public Libraries ◽  
Provincial Government ◽  
Strategic Orientation ◽  
Equal Opportunities ◽  
Library Network ◽  
The City ◽  
Historical Periods

In Santa Coloma de Gramenet (Catalonia, Spain) there is a network of four public libraries. They belong to the City, with technical assistance, strategic orientation and financial support from the provincial government, Diputació de Barcelona. These four libraries have been built in different historical periods and located in neighbourhoods with very unequal social backgrounds. They have been working on adapting their services to their neighbourhoods and as a network they have been moving on along the differences. Even so, the current information society challenges require a city library project in order to guarantee social cohesion and equal opportunities. This article tries to explain the strategy to achieve those goals, based on knowledge management and networking, transversal workshops and a shared communication circuit that so far has allowed this urban library network to extend and to renew services as well as to empower vulnerable sectors in accordance with the United Nations 2030 Agenda.

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