Public Architecture in Ancient Mesoamerica

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Takeshi Inomata
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
Political Organization ◽  
Public Buildings ◽  
Underlying Assumption ◽  
1960S And 1970S ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Diverse Groups ◽  
Public Architecture

The study of temple-pyramids and other public buildings has long been an important focus in Mesoamerican archaeology. Scholars generally use the term public architecture to refer to structures for use, visitations, and gatherings beyond individual households, but the term public needs to be examined more critically. Public buildings are tied to the formation and transformation of the public sphere, a social field shaped in specific historical contexts that enables and restrains the political action of people. Traditional studies commonly viewed public buildings as reflections of society, political organization, or worldviews. Investigations before the 1960s often focused on the descriptions of public buildings or used them to define cultural areas and traditions. The rise of processual archaeology in the 1960s and 1970s encouraged researchers to examine social processes through the analysis of buildings. Some scholars assumed that the size of public buildings and the labor investments in their constructions reflected the levels of political centralization. At the same time, the symbolic aspect of buildings continued to be an important theme in Mesoamerican archaeology. The underlying assumption was that public buildings, through their shapes and orientations, or associated images and texts, represented worldviews or cosmologies. While these approaches continue to be common, various Mesoamerican archaeologists have begun to examine the recursive processes in which buildings shaped, and were shaped by, society. In this framework, some scholars focus on people’s actions and perceptions, whereas others view buildings as active agents in social processes. Sensory perceptions, particularly visibility, are examined as critical media, through which the recursive relations between buildings and people unfolded. Construction events are also viewed as critical processes, in which collective identities and social relations are created, negotiated, and transformed. The meanings of buildings still represent an important focus, but instead of searching for fixed, homogeneous meanings, the new theoretical perspectives have urged scholars to analyze how diverse groups negotiated multiple meanings. In the early 21st century, public buildings at archaeological sites continue to be a subject of negotiation among diverse groups, including the governments, descendant communities, archaeologists, developers, and the general public.

Gender insurgency and neoliberal reform: the academy twice transformed?

2010 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 73-91
Author(s):  
Richard Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Considerable Change ◽  
The Public ◽  
Neoliberal Reform ◽  
Social Theories ◽  
Internal Relations ◽  
1960S And 1970S ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Neoliberal Restructuring

English higher education, like other parts of the public sector and higher education in other countries, is currently undergoing considerable change as it is being restructured as if it were a market in which universities, departments and academics compete against one another. This restructuring is producing new processes of subjectivity that discipline those who work and study in higher education institutions. Feminist poststructuralists have suggested that this restructuring is enabled partly through new forms of accountability that seemingly offer the 'carrot' of self-realisation alongside the 'stick' of greater management surveillance of the burgeoning number of tasks that academics, amongst others, must perform. This paper, located in the context of these changes, builds on Judith Butler's insight that processes of subjection to the dominant order through which the self is produced entail both mastery and subjection. That is, submission requires mastery of the underlying assumptions of the dominant order, In this paper I adopt an auto/biographical method and a critique of abstract social theories to explore how the neoliberal restructuring of universities interacts with the gender order. Many universities are being remoulded as businesses for other businesses, with profound effects on internal relations, the subjectivities of academics and students, and practices of education and scholarship. Yet I doubt if we can understand this, nor resist the deep corruption, through grasping neoliberalism's dynamics alone. A longer memory and a more concrete analysis are needed. Today's intense individualisation impacts on pre-existing social relations, which inflect it unpredictably. From my own experience, I evoke the baseline of an older academy, gender-segregated, explicitly patriarchal and privileged in class and ethnic terms. I stress the feminist and democratic gains of the 1960s and 1970s. I sketch the (neoliberal) strategies that undermine or redirect them. I write this, hoping that the next episode can be written differently.

scholarly journals Setting the Ground for Global City Formation: Neoliberalisation and Local Elites in Frankfurt on the Main

2014 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 81-88
Author(s):  
Samuel Mössner ◽  
Tim Freytag
Keyword(s):  
Perspective Taking ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Global City ◽  
The Political ◽  
Urban Restructuring ◽  
Local Elites ◽  
City Formation ◽  
History Of ◽  
1960S And 1970S ◽  
The 1960S

Abstract This paper approaches the global city concept from a local perspective taking into account the political action of local elites in times of urban neoliberalisation. Drawing on the empirical research carried out in Frankfurt (Main), we argue that the very beginnings of the global city formation were less a result of global processes superseding local ones, as is often argued, but rather emerged out of local political action contested by local protests. In the first part, we will revisit the global city concept and contrast it against a critique of urban neoliberalisation. The second focuses on reviewing the history of urban restructuring in the Frankfurt Westend during the 1960s and 1970s. We suggest that the transformation of the Westend into a “strategic site of global control” (Sassen 2011) has been constructed as a narrative in order to legitimise local forms of real estate speculation, marketisation of commodification. Our paper tries to unfold the logics and strategies of such neoliberal urbanisation by critically reflecting upon historical events since the 1960s

Class Love and the Unfinished Transformation of Social Hierarchy in Nepali Communist Songs

Red Strains ◽  
2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Stirr
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Popular Music ◽  
Social Hierarchy ◽  
Political Organization ◽  
Musical Representations ◽  
Stark Contrast ◽  
1960S And 1970S ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Strong Concern

Nepal's twentieth-century tradition of leftist music, known as pragatisil git or progressive song, developed musically during the 1960s and 1970s along with state-sponsored nationalist genres meant to serve as musical representations of Nepali identity. The differences were primarily in the lyrics: pragatisil git's leftist themes were deemed too incendiary for a regime that forbade political organization. Composers writing songs for the national radio were encouraged to produce love songs, deemed apolitical and therefore safe. At first glance, communist pragatisil git avoids themes of love, in stark contrast to mainstream folk and popular music. Yet, while themes of romance are indeed absent from most Nepali communist music, a closer look demonstrates a strong concern with other forms of love and sentiment. This chapter focuses upon the theme of class love, examining how it is imagined to be socially transformative, and how it has changed through different communist parties' imaginings.

Return to Fanon

Contexts ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 70-73
Author(s):  
Michael Burawoy
Keyword(s):  
Social Processes ◽  
Entry Point ◽  
African Studies ◽  
Compelling Argument ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The Social ◽  
1960S And 1970S ◽  
The 1960S

Articulating the dangers and the possibilities of decolonization, Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth, loomed large over African studies in the 1960s and 1970s. With its arousing language, its gripping descriptions, and its compelling argument, it traverses seamlessly between the psychological and the structural, between alienation and domination. Yet, it passes lightly over the connecting tissue, the social processes that are the entry point for ethnography. In this essay, the author sketches Fanon’s theory of decolonization, how it shaped one of his ethnographies of postcolonial Zambia, and ends with reflections on its significance today.

scholarly journals “¡Somos Más Americanos!”: The music of Los Tigres del Norte as Grass Roots Activism

2009 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariana Rodriguez
Keyword(s):  
Mexican American ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
Chicano Movement ◽  
Progressive Politics ◽  
Mexican Migrants ◽  
American Experience ◽  
Mexican Migrant ◽  
1960S And 1970S ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Diverse Groups

The music of popular Mexican band Los Tigres del Norte illustrates a Mexican migrant and Chicano/a tradition of using popular music as an alternative way of narrating community life in the U.S.A., most notably the Mexican migrant, Chicana/o and Mexican-American experience of discrimination along ethnic, class, gender and cultural lines. The band grapples with the ways by which a dominant U.S. national discourse has historically subordinated Mexican migrant and Chicano/a communities. Through their lyrics they propose a kind of progressive politics that underscores the importance of equality and antidiscrimination based on ethnic, cultural, gender and class positions. I believe that Los Tigres del Norte should be regarded as political activists, using their lyrics and musical profile to articulate and present a kind of progressive politics on behalf of Mexican migrants and Chicanos, and in ways that work with the legacies of the Chicano Movement in the 1960s and 1970s. Los Tigres del Norte are worthy of attention for a number of reasons. First, they speak of the importance of community building as a form of empowerment for immigrant groups and ethnic minorities in the U.S.A., as typified by the long tradition of community organizations among Mexican migrants, Chicanas/os and Mexican-American communities. Second, it is arguable that Los Tigres del Norte continue the Chicano/a movement fight for human rights and equality. Los Tigres del Norte claim a place for Mexican migrants and Chicanos/as as a viable and productive constituency within the U.S.A. Third, while these musicians are male performers, who engage with civil and migrant rights, they also deal with female issues and characters, departing from traditional views and ideals of the subordinate role of women in Mexican migrant and Chicana/o patriarchal societies. Los Tigres del Norte also engage with notions of an ‘America’ whose pan-ethnic qualities mark the importance of alliances between diverse groups. Their focus on the immigrant experience –documented and undocumented— makes their music an important example of a political project of pan-Latino and pan-American affiliation. In this way, I argue that Los Tigres del Norte should be regarded not only as ‘the most famous and popular band in contemporary Mexican culture band’ (Wald 2001) but as political activists who, in their lyrics, articulate political and social issues affecting the Mexican migrant and Chicana/o communities which might be read as legacies of the Chicano Movement in the 1960s and 1970s.

scholarly journals The social movement concept under debate: from the sixties to the present day

1970 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristina Nunes
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
Resource Mobilization ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Sixties ◽  
1960S And 1970S ◽  
The 1960S

Departing from the notion of social movement advanced by the theories of resource mobilization, political process and new social movements, the article aims to trace different analytical paths traversed by the studies on social movements and collective action. In this discussion it’s considered the hypothesis that over the past few decades, as the macro-structural approaches were giving way to contributions more focused on the micro-social processes and features of social movements, the debate around the concept of social movement may have lost the relevance assumed by earlier analysis developed during the 1960s and 1970s.

scholarly journals Serviço Social em Portugal no fascismo: oposição, resistência e ação sindical

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (40) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alcina Martins
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Social Structures ◽  
1960S And 1970S ◽  
Union Action ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Trade Union Organization

Resumo – Partilha-se a concepção de que o Serviço Social, enquanto profissão, é indissociável do desenvolvimento das relações sociais capitalistas, não se constituindo num bloco homogêneo. Na senda de Netto, os projectos societários em disputa pela manutenção ou transformação das estruturas sociais vigentes têm expressão nos projectos profissionais. Desse modo, com este trabalho procura-se contribuir para a análise da construção do Serviço Social em Portugal, apreendendo o significado atribuído pelo fascismo à profissão no processo de institucionalização, de 1930 a 1950. Pretende-se também identificar assistentes sociais[1] que se foram envolvendo em movimentos de oposição e resistência ao regime e perceber como, nos anos 1960 e 1970, a profissão se foi distanciando do significado inicialmente atribuído, a partir da organização sindical corporativista. Palavras-Chave: fascismo; Portugal; oposição; resistência; Serviço Social; distanciamento; ação sindical; assistentes sociais.  Abstract – The concept of social work as a profession is inseparable from the development of capitalist social relations, and does not constitute a homogeneous bloc. According to Netto, the corporate projects in dispute for the maintenance or transformation of the existing social structures are expressed in professional projects. In this way, this work seeks to contribute to the analysis of the construction of social work in Portugal, grasping the meaning attributed by fascism to the profession in the process of institutionalization, from 1930 to 1950. It is also intended to identify social workers[2] who have been involved in movements of opposition and resistance to the regime and to perceive how, in the 1960s and 1970s, the profession was distanced of the initially attributed meaning, from the corporatist trade union organization. Keywords: fascism in Portugal; opposition; resistance; social work; distancing; union action; social workers. [1] Entrevistas realizadas pela autora a: Maria Eugénia Varela Gomes (26 de junho de 2000), Maria Gabriela Figueiredo Ferreira (15 e 22 de janeiro de 2001) e Maria Teresa Abrantes Pereira Ávila (20 de junho de 2000). [2] Interviews conducted by the author to: Maria Eugénia Varela Gomes (June 26, 2000), Maria Gabriela Figueiredo Ferreira (January 15 and 22, 2001) and Maria Teresa Abrantes Pereira Avila (June 20, 2000).

The Reconceptualisation of social work in Chile and Argentina: the centrality of the profession’s relationship with social struggles

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katia Marro ◽  
María Lucia Duriguetto ◽  
Alexander Panez ◽  
Víctor Orellana
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Class Struggle ◽  
The Social ◽  
Current Context ◽  
1960S And 1970S ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

This article addresses the relationship of social work with the movements and processes of popular organisation in Chile and Argentina in the context of the Latin American Reconceptualisation movement in the 1960s and 1970s. We will analyse the current context of the class struggle in these countries and the relationship that was established between social work and the social organisations and movements of the subaltern classes. Our hypothesis is that the relationship between the profession and the struggles developed by the subaltern classes, in their peculiarities in Chile and Argentina, was the central mediation for social work to question its social function in the reproduction of social relations and, as a result, erode its traditionalist and conservative bases.

Twentieth Century West Balkan Terrorism, from Sarajevo to the End of State Socialism

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mate Nikola Tokić
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Political Violence ◽  
Interwar Period ◽  
Political Action ◽  
State Socialism ◽  
World War ◽  
1960S And 1970S ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Broad Overview

This article provides a broad overview of the various forms of West Balkan separatist terrorism that developed over the course of the twentieth century. It starts with the Young Bosnia movement, which was responsible for the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand in 1914. This is followed by an exploration of the fascist Croatian Ustaša movement, which emerged in the interwar period. Finally, the article examines the post–World War II diasporic offshoots of the Ustaše, which waged a campaign of political violence against socialist Yugoslavia in the 1960s and 1970s. Although each represents a form of ethnonational terrorism, their development was as much the result of transnational as nationalist influences. The article will therefore analyze the emergence of these movements through the transnationalist structures and activities that contributed to the radicalization of particular nationalisms, resulting in the adoption of separatist terrorism as an acceptable form of political action.

Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Volker M. Heins
Keyword(s):  
Political Action ◽  
Political Anthropology ◽  
Total Power ◽  
Herbert Marcuse ◽  
One Dimensional ◽  
Theories Of Justice ◽  
Agents Of Change ◽  
Transformative Action ◽  
1960S And 1970S ◽  
The 1960S

In his widely read classic One-Dimensional Man (ODM), Herbert Marcuse offers a political anthropology of twentieth-century liberal democracy which is deeply pessimistic and yet has been read in the 1960s and 1970s as a call to transformative action in the fields of politics and everyday life. The chapter begins by addressing the concepts introduced by Marcuse to explain why transformative political action is unlikely to succeed: manipulation, false needs, repressive desublimation. It then considers Marcuse’s search for agents of change who are nevertheless able to undermine or circumvent the total power of contemporary society, as well as his normative vision of a libidinal democracy based on an implicit concept of positive freedom. Finally, the chapter assesses both the limitations of ODM and its continuing, if unacknowledged, influence among contemporary theorists who attempt to move beyond liberal theories of justice.

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