Everyday Crafting of the Bolivarian State

2016 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 159-179 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iselin Åsedotter Strønen
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Cultural Politics ◽  
State Policies ◽  
The State ◽  
Popular Participation ◽  
Community Politics ◽  
Everyday Work ◽  
State Employees ◽  
Poor Communities

Venezuela’s communal councils are legally sanctioned organs for popular participation implemented mostly in poor communities since 2006. The promotores integrales, lower-level state employees who assist the communal councils in their everyday work, serve as mediators between state policies and community politics, and study of their roles and perspectives provides important insights into the complexities of implementing policies of popular participation and transforming state practices in the context of radical social change. While the cultural politics and knowledges of the popular sectors have become imprinted on the Venezuelan state, attempts to change the state in accordance with Bolivarian ideology are subject to intense contestation and struggle. Los consejos comunales de Venezuela son órganos para la participación popular establecidos legalmente y puestos en práctica mayormente en comunidades pobres desde 2006. Los promotores integrales –empleados estatales de menor rango que ayudan a los consejos comunales en su trabajo diario –sirven como mediadores entre las políticas del estado y la política comunitaria. El estudio de sus roles y perspectivas nos ofrece importantes claves para comprender la complejidad de implementar políticas de participación popular y transformar las prácticas del estado en el contexto de un cambio social radical. Mientras que las políticas culturales y los saberes de los sectores populares han quedado grabados en el estado venezolano, los esfuerzos para cambiar al estado de acuerdo con la ideología bolivariana están sujetos a una intensa impugnación y luchas constantes.

Like the Sound of a Drum: Aboriginal Cultural Politics in Denendeh and Nunavut

2007 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 783-784
Author(s):  
Gary N. Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Northwest Territories ◽  
Cultural Politics ◽  
Local Politics ◽  
Community Politics ◽  
Territorial Politics ◽  
University Of Manitoba ◽  
Political Economic

Like the Sound of a Drum: Aboriginal Cultural Politics in Denendeh and Nunavut, Peter Kulchyski, Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 2005, pp. xi, 305.Much of the existing literature on politics in the Northwest Territories (Denendeh) and Nunavut focuses on the dynamics of political, economic and social change at the territorial level of government. This is especially true if one considers the case of Nunavut. In recent years, a number of books and articles have deepened our understanding of territorial politics and the evolving relationship between the territories and other levels of government in Canada. Very few studies, however, have examined political developments in the territories from the perspective of community politics. Like the Sound of a Drum: Aboriginal Cultural Politics in Denendeh and Nunavut, by Peter Kulchyski, makes an important contribution to this growing literature by exploring grassroots local politics in several communities in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut.

Capital Switching and the Role of Ground Rent: 1 Theoretical Problems

1989 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 445-462 ◽  
Author(s):  
R J King
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Housing Market ◽  
Capital Accumulation ◽  
The State ◽  
Social Conditions ◽  
Rent Extraction ◽  
Economic Sectors ◽  
Speculative Investment ◽  
Capital Switching

The flow of both productive and speculative investment into housing relates to the state of capital accumulation in other economic sectors, as hypothesised in the ‘circuits of capital’ argument, but it also relates to the incentive to ‘switch’ investment into and out of housing, and therefore to expectations of ground rent and the (changing) social conditions that enable ground rent extraction. This is the first of three papers in which the relationships involved in these processes are explored. A series of theoretical problems arising from the argument are dealt with, principally relating to its seeming economic determinism and to an inappropriately narrow treatment of crisis and social change. In the subsequent papers, in this journal, these various ideas will be used to reflect on housing market and related social change in Melbourne from the 1930s to the 1980s.

The resistible rise of Islamophobia

2007 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-86 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott Poynting ◽  
Victoria Mason
Keyword(s):  
Causal Relationship ◽  
Cultural Politics ◽  
The State ◽  
Minority Communities ◽  
Religious Minorities ◽  
Racial Hatred ◽  
Immigration And Settlement

This article compares the rise of anti-Muslim racism in Britain and Australia, from 1989 to 2001, as a foundation for assessing the extent to which the upsurge of Islamophobia after 11 September was a development of existing patterns of racism in these two countries. The respective histories of immigration and settlement by Muslim populations are outlined, along with the relevant immigration and ‘ethnic affairs’ policies and the resulting demographics. The article traces the ideologies of xenophobia that developed in Britain and Australia over this period. It records a transition from anti-Asian and anti-Arab racism to anti-Muslim racism, reflected in and responding to changes in the identities and cultural politics of the minority communities. It outlines instances of the racial and ethnic targeting by the state of the ethnic and religious minorities concerned, and postulates a causal relationship between this and the shifting patterns of acts of racial hatred, vilification and discrimination.

scholarly journals Introduction: Communications Teaching and Research--Looking Forward from 2000

2000 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rowland Lorimer
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Research And Development ◽  
Professional Training ◽  
Research Strategy ◽  
The State ◽  
Complex Media ◽  
Strategic Action ◽  
Media Environment ◽  
Teaching And Research ◽  
The Media

Abstract: This introductory essay examines the state of Canadian communications scholarship. It maintains that the dominant stance taken by Canadian communications scholars is rooted in a leftist critique of the media that has become both detached from the media and disengaged from informed strategic action. In the context of a complex media environment, the paper argues for a refocusing on communication itself, an embrace of professional training, and, in the context of technological and social change, a research strategy based on research and development. Résumé: Cet article d'introduction examine l'état de la recherche en communication au Canada. Il soutient que le parti-pris prédominant de chercheurs canadiens en communication se fonde sur une critique gauchiste des médias qui au fil du temps s'est détachée à la fois des médias et d'actions stratégiques averties. Tenant compte de la complexité de l'environnement médiatique actuel, cet article appuie un retour à des approches portant sur la communication elle-même, une mise en valeur de l'entraînement professionnel et, dans le contexte de changements technologiques et sociaux, une stratégie de recherche fondée sur recherche et développement.

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