New Directions and Virtues in Sustainable Materialist Movements

2019 ◽  
pp. 129-147
Author(s):  
David Schlosberg ◽  
Luke Craven
Keyword(s):  
Collective Action ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Political Consumerism ◽  
New Directions ◽  
Or Practice ◽  
Prefigurative Politics ◽  
Critical Pluralism

After extensive examination of the specifically political motivations of sustainable materialist movements, this chapter focuses on what is new and unique about these movements, and what differentiates them from past notions of environmentalism and ethical or political consumerism. We discuss three key unique properties or strategies of the movements: that they are explicitly focused on collective action, engage a specific notion of systems-based and material sustainability, and embody a prefigurative politics or practice that is based in everyday material needs. Sustainable materialist movements also illustrate a set of key values or virtues, including humility, critical pluralism, and a political boldness that pushes beyond classic and limited notions of political action.

Linking disaster risk reduction, climate change and development

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 216-228 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Lisa F. Schipper ◽  
Frank Thomalla ◽  
Gregor Vulturius ◽  
Marion Davis ◽  
Karlee Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Risk Reduction ◽  
Disaster Risk Reduction ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Disaster Risk ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Climate Risks ◽  
Emerging Risk ◽  
Or Practice ◽  
Future Work

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to advance the dialogue between the disaster risk reduction (DRR) and adaptation community by investigating their differences, similarities and potential synergies. The paper examines how DRR and adaptation can inform development to tackle the underlying drivers of disaster risk. Design/methodology/approach Based on a risk-based approach to the management of climate variability and change, the paper draws from a critical review of the literature on DRR and adaptation. The study finds that known and emerging risk from disasters continues to increase dramatically in many parts of the world, and that climate change is a key driver behind it. The authors also find that underlying causes of social vulnerability are still not adequately addressed in policy or practice. Linking DRR and adaptation is also complicated by different purposes and perspectives, fragmented knowledge, institutions and policy and poor stakeholder coordination. Findings The author’s analysis suggests that future work in DRR and adaptation should put a much greater emphasis on reducing vulnerability to environmental hazards, if there is truly a desire to tackle the underlying drivers of disaster and climate risks. Originality/value This will require coherent political action on DRR and adaptation aimed at addressing faulty development processes that are the main causes of growing vulnerability. The study concludes with a first look on the new Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and how it aims to connect with adaptation and development.

scholarly journals Activismo Transmedia. Narrativas de participación para el cambio social. Entre la comunicación creativa y el media art

Obra digital ◽  
2017 ◽  
pp. 123-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pedro Ortuño Mengual ◽  
Virginia Villaplana Ruiz
Keyword(s):  
Collective Action ◽  
Mobile Devices ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Media Art ◽  
Digital Networks ◽  
Participatory Media ◽  
Network Culture ◽  
Activist Groups ◽  
Media Practices

El artículo propone una revisión de prácticas activistas mediáticas, origen de las formas participativas de la narrativa transmedia, en relación al lugar y la acción política. La implantación de las redes digitales ha permitido el desarrollo de una cultura red. Se analizan prácticas artísticas de colectivos activistas y las nuevas propuestas desarrolladas con dispositivos móviles vía GPS y webdoc. En este sentido, se proponen tres líneas discursivas sobre el activismo transmedia: las aperturas narrativas del territorio y la ciudadanía, las políticas de acción y representación colectiva, y finalmente, la expresión de la experiencia mediante el testimonio.Transmedia activism. Participatory narratives for social changeAbstractWe propose a review of media activist practices giving rise to participative transmedia narratives in relation to political action and location. Digital networks have allowed the development of a network culture. We discuss artistic practices of activist groups and new proposals made via GPS with mobile devices and web documentaries. We identify three kinds of discourse in transmedia activism: narratives that open up to the regionand its inhabitants, policies for collective action and representation, and the expression of experiences through witness.Keywords: Transmedia, activism, participatory media practices, discursive communication, creative communication, social artpp. 123-144

scholarly journals Liberalism, Governmentality and Counter-Conduct; An Introduction to Foucauldian Analytics of Liberal Civil Society Notions

2015 ◽  
pp. 8-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miikka Pyykkönen
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Potential Field ◽  
Political Action ◽  
The Other ◽  
Coercive Power ◽  
Historical Reality ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The One

This article gives an analysis of Foucault’s studies of civil society and the various liberalist critiques of government. It follows from Foucault’s genealogical approach that “civil society” does not in itself possess any form of transcendental existence; its historical reality must be seen as the result of the productive nature of the power-knowledge-matrices. Foucault emphasizes that modern governmentality—and more specifically the procedures he names “the conduct of conduct”—is not exercised through coercive power and domination, but is dependent on the freedom and activeness of individuals and groups of society. Civil society is thus analyzed as fundamentally ambivalent: on the one hand civil society is a field where different kinds of technologies of governance meet the lives and wills of groups and individuals, but on the other hand it is a potential field of what Foucault called ‘counter-conduct’ – for both collective action and individual political action.

La partecipazione socio-politica e il consumo responsabile: tra dimensione collettiva e senso di efficacia

2009 ◽  
pp. 67-94
Author(s):  
Federica Volpi
Keyword(s):  
Collective Action ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Political Efficacy ◽  
Cultural Consumption ◽  
Political Consumerism ◽  
Responsible Consumption ◽  
Close Relationship ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
High Degree

- Participation has been studied from different points of view. One of the possible ways to address the topic is to interrelate it with cultural consumption, con- sidering the relevance of both terms with regard to social cohesion and integration. The essay is designed to evaluate the interaction between participation and cultural consumption, leading to a definition of some citizens' groups with homogeneous features compared to both variables. Moreover, the essay aims to examine the groups' behaviour, compared with a phenomenon related to both cultural consumption and socio-political participation: responsible consumption. The groups' behaviour relative to this variable helps the understanding of some social dynamics and, above all, highlights the close relationship between a particular group (the actives) and alternative consumption behaviours. A thorough analysis of the relationship between a high degree of cultural consumption and a high degree of political participation underlines that responsible consumption is a collective action and, at the same time, finalised to and endowed with political efficacy.Keywords: Political Consumerism, Participation, Cultural Consumption, Collective Action, Political Efficacy.

Self-Undermining Rhetoric in the Past and Present

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam Seth Levine
Keyword(s):  
Collective Action ◽  
Policy Change ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Political Change ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Full Range ◽  
Economic Insecurity ◽  
The Past ◽  
Broad Concept ◽  
The Face

This chapter considers the prospects for political change in the face of communicative barriers to collective action. It begins to address this question by identifying several of the most well-known historical and recent moments in which there was large-scale mobilization on some economic insecurity issues. This discussion, in concert with the empirical findings in this book, helps clarify the prospects for political action (and policy change) on these issues. The chapter then uses the findings from the book to identify three types of people that are most likely to become active. It also talks about the implications of having this (narrower) set of people active as opposed to the full range of people that find the issues to be important. It concludes by reiterating how self-undermining rhetoric is a broad concept that can apply in many different situations beyond those considered herein.

Why Do Patients Protest? Collective Action Processes in People With Chronic Illnesses

2017 ◽  
pp. 1197-1219 ◽  
Author(s):  
Davide Mazzoni ◽  
Augusta Isabella Alberici
Keyword(s):  
Collective Action ◽  
Patient Engagement ◽  
Group Identification ◽  
Theoretical Explanation ◽  
Chronic Illnesses ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Perceived Injustice ◽  
Group Efficacy ◽  
New Directions ◽  
Core Elements

Despite the relevance of the topic, an exhaustive psychosocial reflection on the processes that may facilitate patients' protest is still missing. The chapter provides a theoretical and empirical overview of psychosocial pathways for patients' collective action. Five core factors are reviewed: perceived injustice, group efficacy, group identification, moral convictions and social embeddedness. Each of them provides a different explanation of collective action processes and is examined for its potential impact among patients. The chapter closes suggesting some core elements for a theoretical explanation of patients' collective action and its relationship with patient engagement. Practical and theoretical implications of patients' collective action are discussed to identify new directions for future research and interventions.

scholarly journals ‘To Act upon one's Time …’ From the impulse to resist to global political strategy

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Birgit Müller
Keyword(s):  
Food Security ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Political Action ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Strategy ◽  
Political Resistance ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Strategic Action ◽  
Political Actions

This article reflects on the possibilities for political action emerging out of quotidian engagements. Following controversies on the patenting of seeds in Canada and globally within the Committee for Food Security I explore what gave the impulse for political resistance in these different arenas. How did collective action emerge and how did it sustain itself? Three political concepts are important for understanding the political actions that I observed: Eigen-Sinn, empathy and strategy. These allowed me to follow and theorize political engagements. I first reflect on the potential to resist as a capacity of all human beings, because they have Eigen-Sinn: the capacity to attribute their own meanings to things, and act in their own self-interested way according to the meaning given. Self-interested action can only become political, however, when humans go beyond their strictly individual interests and empathize with others (humans and nonhumans), what Adorno described as getting into ‘live contact with the warmth of things’. Finally, I discuss how collective action can become not only possible, but also effective, by building and defending a space for strategic action.

Collective action as narrativity and praxis: Theory and application to Hong Kong’s urban protest movements

2017 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 260-289 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raul Lejano ◽  
Ernest Chui ◽  
Timothy Lam ◽  
Jovial Wong
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Hong Kong ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Alternative Form ◽  
Protest Movements ◽  
Democratic Community ◽  
Ethnographic Interviews ◽  
Street Protest ◽  
Urban Protest

Policy scholars need to better describe the diversity of actors and interests that forge collective political action through nonformal social networks. The authors find extant theories of collective action to only partially explain such heterogeneity, which is exemplified by the urban protest movements in Hong Kong. A new concept, that of the narrative-network, appears better able to describe movements chiefly characterized by heterogeneity. Instead of simple commonalities among members, a relevant property is the plurivocity of narratives told by members of the coalition. Analyzing ethnographic interviews of members of the movement, the authors illustrate the utility of narrative-network analysis in explaining the complex and multiple motivations behind participation. Narrativity and the shared act of narration, within an inclusive and democratic community, are part of what sustains the movement. The research further develops the theory of the narrative-network, which helps explain the rise of street protest in Hong Kong as an emergent, alternative form of civic engagement.

Sustainable community movement organisations

2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-157 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesca Forno ◽  
Paolo R Graziano
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Political Consumerism ◽  
The Past ◽  
Sustainable Community ◽  
Current Economic Crisis ◽  
Community Movement

In the current economic crisis, social movements are simultaneously facing two types of challenges: first, they are confronting institutions which are less able (or willing) to mediate new demands for social justice and equity emerging from various sectors of society, and second, given the highly individualised structure of contemporary society, they are also experiencing difficulties in building bonds of solidarity and cooperation among people, bonds which are a fundamental resource for collective action. It is in this context that protests waves, which may be very relevant, are in fact often short-lived, and it is in this context that we detect the rise and consolidation of new mutualistic and cooperative experiences within which (similarly to the past) new ties and frames for collective action are created. This article discusses and analyses social movement organisations which focus on both the intensification of economic problems and the difficulties of rebuilding social bonds and solidarity within society, emphasising solidarity and the use of ‘alternative’ forms of consumption as means to re-embed the economic system within social relations, starting from the local level. While discussing what is new and/or what has been renewed in new Sustainable Community Movement Organisations, the article will develop an analytical framework which will combine social movements and political consumerism theories by focusing on two basic dimensions: consumer culture and identity and organisational resources and repertoire of action.

The White Primary: 1944–1948

1948 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 500-510 ◽  
Author(s):  
O. Douglas Weeks
Keyword(s):  
South Carolina ◽  
Democratic Party ◽  
Political Action ◽  
The United States ◽  
Present Moment ◽  
The South ◽  
Circuit Court ◽  
Southern States ◽  
Or Practice ◽  
Primary Rule

The closing chapter in the history of the white primary in the South has seemed since 1944 to be in process of being written. In that year, the United States Supreme Court, by invalidating in Smith v. Allwright the white primary rule of the Texas state Democratic convention, dealt a stunning, if not immediately mortal, blow to this most significant political custom or practice of the Southern states. The refusal of this court on April 19, 1948, to review a federal circuit court decision invalidating the white primary arrangements of South Carolina, created in 1944 to circumvent the effect of the Allwright decision, seems to have administered the judicial coup de grâce. It would, however, be unsafe to predict when “finis” may be set down for all states, political areas, counties, and voting precincts where by one means or another the Negro has long been barred from participation in the all-important primaries of the Democratic party. The remaining suffrage requirements, registration restrictions, and election provisions, and the political and administrative methods of applying them which still are employed in some Southern states and in parts of others in order to render it difficult for Negroes to vote will not be immediately eliminated. Moreover, the effects of political action have not been fully tested by the Democratic leaders of the South. At the present moment, plans for united efforts on their part are under consideration; and these could have far-reaching results before the end of the current presidential election year. Whatever the abstract justice of the situation, traditional attitudes and customs cannot be uprooted easily and have a way of resisting judicial or legislative fiat, particularly when it is honestly felt by many that such fiat has been imposed from the outside and by people unaware of the difficulties and adjustments involved.

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