scholarly journals War Veterans, Demobilization and Political Activism: Greater Romania in Comparison

Fascism ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-117 ◽  
Author(s):  
Constantin Iordachi ◽  
Blasco Sciarrino

This article aims to further problematize the relationship between patterns of demobilization, fascism and veterans’ activism, on several inter-related counts. We argue that the relationship between fascism and war veterans was not a fixed nexus, but the outcome of a complex political constellation of socio-economic and political factors that necessitates a case-by-case in-depth discussion. Also, we argue that these factors were both national and transnational in nature. Finally, we contend that researchers need to employ a synchronic as well as a diachronic perspective, thus accounting for various stages and forms of mobilization of war veterans over time. To substantiate these claims, the current article focuses on a relevant but largely neglected case study: the demobilization of soldiers and war veterans’ political activism in interwar Romania. It is argued that, contrary to assumptions in historiography, demobilization in Romania was initially successful. Veterans’ mobilization to fascism intensified only in mid-to late 1930s, stimulated by the Great Depression, leading to a growing ideological polarization and the political ascension of the fascist Legion of ‘Archangel Michael’. To better grasp the specificities of this case study, the concluding section of the article compares it to patterns of veterans’ activism in postwar Italy.

Author(s):  
Kristina Dietz

The article explores the political effects of popular consultations as a means of direct democracy in struggles over mining. Building on concepts from participatory and materialist democracy theory, it shows the transformative potentials of processes of direct democracy towards democratization and emancipation under, and beyond, capitalist and liberal democratic conditions. Empirically the analysis is based on a case study on the protests against the La Colosa gold mining project in Colombia. The analysis reveals that although processes of direct democracy in conflicts over mining cannot transform existing class inequalities and social power relations fundamentally, they can nevertheless alter elements thereof. These are for example the relationship between local and national governments, changes of the political agenda of mining and the opening of new spaces for political participation, where previously there were none. It is here where it’s emancipatory potential can be found.


Somatechnics ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-200
Author(s):  
Natalie Kouri-Towe

In 2015, Queers Against Israeli Apartheid Toronto (QuAIA Toronto) announced that it was retiring. This article examines the challenges of queer solidarity through a reflection on the dynamics between desire, attachment and adaptation in political activism. Tracing the origins and sites of contestation over QuAIA Toronto's participation in the Toronto Pride parade, I ask: what does it mean for a group to fashion its own end? Throughout, I interrogate how gestures of solidarity risk reinforcing the very systems that activists desire to resist. I begin by situating contemporary queer activism in the ideological and temporal frameworks of neoliberalism and homonationalism. Next, I turn to the attempts to ban QuAIA Toronto and the term ‘Israeli apartheid’ from the Pride parade to examine the relationship between nationalism and sexual citizenship. Lastly, I examine how the terms of sexual rights discourse require visible sexual subjects to make individual rights claims, and weighing this risk against political strategy, I highlight how queer solidarities are caught in a paradox symptomatic of our times: neoliberalism has commodified human rights discourses and instrumentalised sexualities to serve the interests of hegemonic power and obfuscate state violence. Thinking through the strategies that worked and failed in QuAIA Toronto's seven years of organising, I frame the paper though a proposal to consider political death as a productive possibility for social movement survival in the 21stcentury.


2021 ◽  
pp. 136754942199423
Author(s):  
Anne M Cronin ◽  
Lee Edwards

Drawing on a case study of public relations in the UK charity sector, this article argues that cultural intermediary research urgently requires a more sustained focus on politics and the political understood as power relations, party politics and political projects such as marketization and neoliberalism. While wide-ranging research has analysed how cultural intermediaries mediate the relationship between culture and economy, this has been at the expense of an in-depth analysis of the political. Using our case study as a prompt, we highlight the diversity of ways that the political impacts cultural intermediary work and that cultural intermediary work may impact the political. We reveal the tensions that underpin practice as a result of the interactions between culture, the economy and politics, and show that the tighter the engagement of cultural intermediation with the political sphere, the more tensions must be negotiated and the more compromised practitioners may feel.


Author(s):  
Sondos Atef Jalal Saleh - Emad Sulaiman Sharif Mohammed

This empirical study aims to highlight the relationship between exports and imports on the one hand and the financing of foreign trade in Sudan. If we ignore the meteorologic and the political factors and international economic variability, It is supposed that This relationship is  positive so the increase of the bank financing size leads to an increase in the volume of foreign trade.And to prove it, we have adopted and analytical and deductive approach applied to a sample of economic and  banking data from 2004 to 2012.The results showed that there is a continuous increase in the volume of exports in line with the increase in financing granted for exports. However, there is a fluctuation in the imports financing which was accompanied by a fluctuation in the volume of imports. The study recommended more attention to the export subsidies in addition to the continuous and systematic support to the imports.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pier Francesco Cherchi ◽  
◽  
Marco Lecis ◽  
Marco Moro ◽  
◽  
...  

This paper illustrates a case study of teaching and research applied to the abandoned mining landscapes of the Sulcis area, located in the south-east side of Sardinia, one of the poorest in Europe. Although the region’s critical condition in the present, the area is nevertheless extremely rich in fascination and history. It offers unique natural landscapes, mostly pristine, a variety of archeological sites and, as mentioned, the ruins of the mining installations. All of this makes fore-seeable a concrete possibility of regeneration for the area, based on tourism, one of the island primary resources. The local institutions of Sulcis started a partnership with the University of Cagliari aiming to pursuit not just a practical and economical outcome in the immediate present, more a cultural and deeper rescue with a wider perspective. In the following pages, we present our academic activities in this mark and how we managed to guarantee fruitful superpositions of pedagogy, design, and research in our work within this kind of cooperation.Our focus is, therefore, the relationship between researching and teaching activities and the actions in support of the territory, pursued in a joint venture with the political institution. During these experiences, we defined a strategy to intercross these different layers, bringing the real and concrete dimension into our classroom, sharing our work with the students, and, at the same time, transferring the fruits of the teaching experiences to the territory. The correspondence between these two levels is not free of ambiguity and contradictions, however, we are convinced that it might show very important and fruitful outcomes.


Author(s):  
Maggie Gray

This chapter engages with important strands of scholarship on comics work, arguing for a critical comics studies that attends to the political economy, social relations, and material processes of production. It examines the relationship between struggles over the organization of cultural labor and the forms of value inscribed in comics, via the case study of a specific site of British comics production that reimagined how comics work could be organized and the artistic value comics could have– the cooperative Birmingham Arts Lab Press (1969-1982) and its Ar:Zak imprint. Bringing together archival inquiry and participant interviews, wider historical research into the arts lab, alternative press, community arts and underground/alternative comics movements, and Marxist political and aesthetic theory, this chapter analyzes how struggles for an autonomous, democratized, participatory creative practice that took place within this context of comics production were embodied in the material and visual form of the comics made.


2020 ◽  
pp. 0739456X2097168
Author(s):  
Francisco Vergara-Perucich ◽  
Camillo Boano

This article problematizes the relationship between the ethos of urban practitioners and the ideology of neoliberalism to show how neoliberalism has transformed urban design to make it an efficient mechanism for capital accumulation. The method used in the article is based on archival research and statistical analysis in addition to a comparative housing sample in Chile from the Servicio de Evaluación Ambiental (Environmental Assessment System). What emerges from such unpacking is a severe contradiction stemming from the clash between urban practitioners’ ethical responsibility in developing good cities and the neoliberalist goal of merely increasing the profitability of spaces. The article discusses the political and ideological dimensions of neoliberal urbanisms and the effects of neoliberalism in everyday urban practice of making in neoliberal urbanisms and discusses how to separate urban design practices from the profit-oriented ethos.


1986 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 237-267 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin Law

The rise of the kingdom of Dahomey coincided with the growth of the slave trade in the area, and consequently has often served as a case study of the impact of the slave trade upon African societies. The article reviews the historiography of the rise of Dahomey, in an attempt to clarify the relationship between the nature of the Dahomian state and its participation in the slave trade. It considers, and refutes, the view that the rulers of Dahomey had originally intended to bring the slave trade to an end. It examines the militaristic character of the Dahomian state, and suggests that this is best understood as a consequence of increased warfare stimulated by the overseas market for war captives. Finally, it examines and partially endorses those views which have presented the political centralization of Dahomey as a constructive response to the problems of order posed by slave-raiding.


sjesr ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 154-161
Author(s):  
Muhammad Rashid ◽  
Dr. Husnul Amin

Voting pattern is one of the important themes of political science that, indicates the level of political participation of citizens in modern democracies, through the electoral process. The electoral processes have played an important role throughout history and in the overall political discourse of the modern nation-states. In this regard, this research is designed to find out the determinants of voting patterns in the two Districts of Dir. The objective of this study is to understand people’s attitudes toward electoral politics and voting practices. This study will seek to respond to the query regarding the role of multiple political factors that contribute to shaping voting patterns. The nature of the study is descriptive while using quantitative data.  The collected data is analyzed through statistical and interpretative methods. This research is based on the theoretical framework of sociological, psycho-social, and rational choice models that focus on the political determinants of the voting pattern in Districts of Dir


Author(s):  
Peter Futo

This is an interesting and coherent book which offers a specific interpretation of Brexit by examining the political discourse and investigating its linguistic and rhetoric context. The author applies the method of critical discourse analysis, which links the micro analysis of speech acts (speeches, public statements, political adverts, and interviews) with a macro approach that critically assesses the relationship between speech acts and the historical and socio-economic profile of Britain. The Brexit debate is used as a case study to demonstrate that power is embodied in discourse and knowledge, and that sophisticated verbal constructs are capable of manipulating a range of dispositions, emotions, and identities to the extreme.


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