An ‘Expanded’ Class Perspective: Bringing capitalism down to earth in the changing political lives of Adivasi workers in Kerala

2014 ◽  
Vol 48 (5) ◽  
pp. 1334-1357 ◽  
Author(s):  
LUISA STEUR
Keyword(s):  
Model Development ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
Public Debate ◽  
Focused Attention ◽  
Class Analysis ◽  
Land Occupation ◽  
The People ◽  
Development State ◽  
Police Raid

AbstractFollowing the police raid on the ‘Muthanga’ land occupation by Adivasi (‘indigenous’) activists in Kerala, India, in February 2003, intense public debate erupted about the fate of Adivasis in this ‘model’ development state. Most commentators saw the land occupation either as the fight-back of Adivasis against their age-old colonization or the work of ‘external’ agitators. Capitalist restructuring and ‘globalization’ was generally seen as simply the latest chapter in the suffering of these Adivasis. Little focused attention was paid to the recent class trajectory of their lives under changing capitalist relations, the exact social processes under which they were having to make a living, and what had only recently—and still largely ambiguously—made them ready to identify themselves politically as ‘Adivasi’. Demonstrating the usefulness of ethnographic curiosity driven by an ‘expanded’ class analysis, as elaborated in Marxian anthropology, this article provides an alternative to the liberal-culturalist explanation of indigenism in Kerala. It argues instead that contemporary class processes—as experienced close to the skin by the people who decided to participate in the Muthanga struggle—were what shaped their decision to embrace indigenism.

scholarly journals Conceptualising changes to tobacco and alcohol policy as affecting a single interlinked system

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Duncan Gillespie ◽  
Jenny Hatchard ◽  
Hazel Squires ◽  
Anna Gilmore ◽  
Alan Brennan
Keyword(s):  
Health Economic ◽  
Policy Change ◽  
Conceptual Understanding ◽  
Communicable Disease ◽  
Model Development ◽  
Economic Models ◽  
Alcohol Policy ◽  
Policy System ◽  
The People ◽  
Main Components

Abstract Background To support a move towards a coordinated non-communicable disease approach in public health policy, it is important to conceptualise changes to policy on tobacco and alcohol as affecting a single interlinked system. For health economic models to effectively inform policy, the first step in their development should be to develop a conceptual understanding of the system complexity that is likely to affect the outcomes of policy change. Our aim in this study was to support the development and interpretation of health economic models of the effects of changes to tobacco and alcohol policies by developing a conceptual understanding of the main components and mechanisms in the system that links policy change to outcomes. Methods Our study was based on a workshop from which we captured data on participant discussions on the joint tobacco–alcohol policy system. To inform these discussions, we prepared with a literature review and a survey of participants. Participants were academics and policy professionals who work in the United Kingdom. Data were analysed thematically to produce a description of the main components and mechanisms within the system. Results Of the people invited, 24 completed the survey (18 academic, 6 policy); 21 attended the workshop (16 academic, 5 policy). Our analysis identified eleven mechanisms through which individuals might modify the effects of a policy change, which include mechanisms that might lead to linked effects of policy change on tobacco and alcohol consumption. We identified ten mechanisms by which the tobacco and alcohol industries might modify the effects of policy changes, grouped into two categories: Reducing policy effectiveness; Enacting counter-measures. Finally, we identified eighteen research questions that indicate potential avenues for further work to understand the potential outcomes of policy change. Conclusions Model development should carefully consider the ways in which individuals and the tobacco and alcohol industries might modify the effects of policy change, and the extent to which this results in an unequal societal distribution of outcomes. Modelled evidence should then be interpreted in the light of the conceptual understanding of the system that the modelling necessarily simplifies in order to predict the outcomes of policy change.

scholarly journals Tradisi Keagamaan dan Proses Sosial pada Kaum Muslim Pedesaan

2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 193
Author(s):  
Agus Riyadi
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Data Collection ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
Literature Study ◽  
Data Collection Methods ◽  
The People ◽  
Collection Methods

Religious ceremonies that are usually carried out by Javanese are inherited from the ancestors. There are two types of religious ceremonies in the form of salvation in Javanese society, namely life cycle salvation ceremonies and Islamic religious holidays. The research aims to find an understanding of the traditions of religious ceremonies and social processes for Muslims in Karangrayung District, Grobogan Regency. Data collection methods were obtained through observation, interviews, documentation and literature study. After that, the data is analyzed qualitatively-descriptive-interpretative. The results showed that there were seven religious ceremonies and social processes which until now were still commemorated by the Karangrayung people, namely: Sura (Muharam), Rajaban selametan, Mauludan selametan, Selametan Ruwahan, Selametan Likuran, Selametan Bodonan, and Selametan Besar which were held on the 10<sup>th</sup> Zulhijjah. The perception of the people of Karangrayung on religious ceremonies and social processes is a form of virtue that is recommended by Islamic teachings that contain values: 1) charity, 2) ukhwah Islamiyah, 3) help, and 4) share with others

Sozialer Identitätsanspruch und die Legitimation der Betreuung / Social Identity Claims and the Legitimacy of Custody

1977 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Klaus Plake
Keyword(s):  
Social Identity ◽  
Educational System ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
Social Differentiation ◽  
Sociological Analysis ◽  
Borderline Cases ◽  
Political Crises ◽  
The People ◽  
Widespread Belief ◽  
Definition Of

AbstractThe custodial function of people changing organizations is usually latent; as against the socialization/therapy dominating in the outward presentation and consciousness of the members, it only comes into being in borderline cases. Sociological analysis of the establishment of schools and psychiatrical clinics shows however that even from the beginning the development of these organizations only made „progress“, if the socialization was linked with custodial interests - e.g. due to increasing social differentiation or political crises. Also today certain tendencies in the development of the educational system reveal the relevance of the custodial function, although it is partly overlapped by other factors. Contrary to the widespread belief that socialization and custodial functions can be fulfilled simultaneously both functions can only be combined on a marginal basis, because similar implications do have different meanings. Irrespective of numerous endeavours within the people changing organizations to interpret social processes in consistency with the socializing function, the efficiency of the socialization can be completely ruined immediately, should the custodial function become obvious. A less rigid definition of the identity standards could relieve the people changing organizations of custodial demands.

News Media as Gatekeepers, Critics, and Initiators of Populist Communication: How Journalists in Ten Countries Deal with the Populist Challenge

2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 476-495 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Wettstein ◽  
Frank Esser ◽  
Anne Schulz ◽  
Dominique S. Wirz ◽  
Werner Wirth
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
News Media ◽  
Public Debate ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Political Factors ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
The People ◽  
The Media ◽  
Comparative Content

In the wake of the recent successes of populist political actors and discussions about its causes in Europe, the contribution of the media has become an issue of public debate. We identify three roles—as gatekeepers, interpreters, and initiators—the media can assume in their coverage of populist actors, populist ideology, and populist communication. A comparative content analysis of nine thousand stories from fifty-nine news outlets in ten European countries shows that both media factors (e.g., tabloid orientation) and political factors (e.g., response of mainstream parties) influence the extent and nature of populism in the media. Although newspapers in most countries do not overrepresent populist actors and tend to evaluate them negatively, we still find abundant populist content in the news. Several media outlets like to present themselves as mouthpieces of the people while, at the same time, cover politicians and parties with antiinstitutional undertones.

Populism and Praxis

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason Frank
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Boundary Problem ◽  
Related Question ◽  
Focused Attention ◽  
Political Subjectivity ◽  
Central Importance ◽  
Political Identification ◽  
The People ◽  
American Case

This chapter argues that contemporary democratic theory’s approach to populism has been unduly influenced by Carl Schmitt’s theory of political identification. Both liberal critics and radical democratic admirers of populism have focused attention on the question of who the people are (“the boundary problem”) while neglecting the related question of how the people act (“the enactment problem”). This framework obscures the central importance of populism’s experimentation with different forms of egalitarian praxis, and how these forms come to shape political subjectivity. The formative praxis of populism is clearly indicated in the nineteenth-century American case.

scholarly journals The concept “people” in the Cadet Party rhetoric

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 85-98
Author(s):  
F. A. Gaida
Keyword(s):  
Democratic Party ◽  
Political System ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
The State ◽  
Political Crisis ◽  
Constituent Assembly ◽  
The People ◽  
Universal Suffrage ◽  
Political Value ◽  
Revolutionary Period

The article considers the interpretation of the concept “people” by the Constitutional Democratic Party supporters. This concept is of fundamental importance for the analysis of Cadet ideology. The concept “people” was of great political value for the Cadet party. The author correlates this concept with such notions relevant for the Party as society, nation, and nationality. The author examines the relations of “people” with the authorities, the state, the Cadet Party, the Parliament, and humanity. Special attention is paid to the evolution of ca­dets’ understanding of the concept “people” in connection with social processes, the develop­ment of the political crisis and revolutions of 1905—1907 and 1917. The author holds that already at the beginning of the revolutionary period, the Cadets substituted the triad “author­ity — society — people”, which was conservative in origin by the dichotomy “power — peo­ple”, which was democratic in nature. The “people” included the educated public and was opposed to the “authorities”. In its new meaning, “people” was seen as the “third class”, the future civil nation, called to construct a political system based on the idea of popular sover­eignty. In this sense, the Cadet ideology was revolutionary and implied a break from the An­cien régime. The “people” were not considered as some unique whole but rather as an integral part of humanity, developing together with it according to universal laws. The Cadet Party was considered by its supporters as a force representing the interests of the entire “people.” Cadet faction in the State Duma turned it into a popular representation. Although only the Constituent Assembly convened on the basis of universal suffrage can be considered to be a truly democratic representation. Broad democratization during the February Revolution cor­responded to the Cadet concept of people sovereignty. Moreover, the Cadets had no ideological grounds to oppose the further radicalization of the revolution.

Performing Power in Nigeria

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abimbola A. Adelakun
Keyword(s):  
Social Environment ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
The Other ◽  
Political Movements ◽  
Social Milieu ◽  
Archival Material ◽  
The People ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
Cultural Power

For decades, Pentecostalism has been one of the most powerful socio-cultural and socio-political movements in Africa. The Pentecostal modes of constructing the world by using their performative agencies to embed their rites in social processes have imbued them with immense cultural power to contour the character of their societies. Performing Power in Nigeria explores how Nigerian Pentecostals mark their self-distinction as a people of power within a social milieu that affirmed and contested their desires for being. Their faith, and the various performances that inform it, imbue the social matrix with saliences that also facilitate their identity of power. Using extensive archival material, interviews and fieldwork, Abimbola A. Adelakun questions the histories, desires, knowledge, tools, and innate divergences of this form of identity, and its interactions with the other ideological elements that make up the society. Analysing the important developments in contemporary Nigerian Pentecostalism, she demonstrates how the social environment is being transformed by the Pentecostal performance of their identity as the people of power.

The institutionalisation of public opinion: Bentham’s proposed constitutional role for jury and judges

Legal Studies ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 216-235
Author(s):  
Oren Ben-Dor
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Separation Of Powers ◽  
Public Debate ◽  
Popular Sovereignty ◽  
Abuse Of Power ◽  
Legal Proceedings ◽  
Radical Reform ◽  
The People ◽  
Good Government ◽  
Free Interaction

Jeremy Bentham’s constitutional writings are innovative and radical. Unlike constitutional arrangements that sought to attain virtue though the institutional complexity entailed by the doctrine of Separation of Powers, Bentham’s constitution was socially dynamic and designed to facilitate constant and efficient interaction between amorphous public opinion and officials. Furthermore, it was in constant and free interaction between public opinion and officials that Bentham envisioned the determination and effectuation of constitutional limits, namely both the justification and limitation of coercion. The paper begins by outlining Bentham’s principles for a good constitution. It then discusses in detail Bentham’s proposals for incorporating public opinion into legal proceedings through radical reform to the jury. Such incorporation, he believed, would intensify and help to focus public gaze by which officials’ aptitude, and as a result a good government, would be attained with the minimal expense. The proposed institutionalisation of public opinion enabled Bentham to entrust the judiciary with a constitutional role. Judges were conceived as the interface between officialdom and focused manifestations of popular sovereignty. So entrusted, judges could determine constitutional limits, thus protecting against abuse of power. The reforms discussed in this paper are a testimony of the extent to which Bentham saw virtue both in the people and in free public debate.

Understanding Alice: Uganda's Holy Spirit Movement in context

Africa ◽  
1991 ◽  
Vol 61 (3) ◽  
pp. 370-399 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim Allen
Keyword(s):  
Broad Spectrum ◽  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Full Range ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
The People ◽  
Common Causes ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
Causes Of Mortality ◽  
Holy Spirit Movement

This article examines the Holy Spirit movement of Alice Lakwena, which emerged i n Uganda between 1987 and 1989. The popular account of Alice, as told in the Western media especially, ignored die social and historical contexts which are essential to understanding die forces which gave rise to her and her following. The spirit possession revealed by Alice Lakwena took forms which were familiar t o the people of this part of Uganda, aldiough die political and social dislocations of the late 1980s were significant in shaping her actions and in determining the full range of issues with which her spiritualism came to be associated. This can be seen by examining die actions of Alice herself, but also by recognising diat odier spirit mediums were active in the region at die same time. Spirit mediums helped to establish a degree of social accountability in a world where die state had largely lost its credibility and collapsed and where witchcraft and sorcery were widely believed to be die most common causes of mortality. These spirit mediums were influenced by Christian conceptions of morality: it was partly because spirit divination had become closely associated widi die Catholic Church diat Alice and odier mediums were able to marshal such large followings and to appeal to such a broad spectrum of society. The case of Alice Lakwena is fascinating and informative not because of its novelty but because of its mixture of old and new forms, its continuities with die past and widi wider social processes, and its responses to new social traumas.

scholarly journals The role of the proletariat as a class in 1917 and at first after the October Revolution

2019 ◽  
pp. 41-43
Author(s):  
Yevgeniy Ye. Abekhtikov
Keyword(s):  
Social Reality ◽  
October Revolution ◽  
Class Analysis ◽  
Bright Future ◽  
The People ◽  
The Revolution

The article examines the role of the proletariat in the preparation and implementation of the October Revolution of 1917. The author shows that after the revolution, the Bolsheviks had every reason to be disappointed in the proletariat as a class as they started decreasing in number rapidly due to the return of peasants to villages and difficulties in working in enterprises in cities. Much attention is paid in the article to the concept of "dictatorship of the proletariat", which has become the centre of the Bolshevik ideological programme. Due to the fact that the Marxist class analysis turned out to be inappropriate for Russian social reality, the Bolsheviks had to transform their initial ideas, develop a system of measures to educate the people and influence them. To maintain power after its seize, the Bolsheviks created the myth of an enemy class threatening the proletariat and of building a bright future.

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