Challenging Extractive Industries

2016 ◽  
Vol 59 (4) ◽  
pp. 892-909 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alison E. Adams ◽  
Thomas E. Shriver
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Czech Republic ◽  
Natural Resource ◽  
Coal Industry ◽  
Extractive Industries ◽  
State Control ◽  
Corporate Ownership ◽  
Future Work ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
Western Democracies

Drawing from literature on social movements, we investigate how movements in uncertain political contexts can challenge extractive and natural resource–intensive industries such as coal companies. Scholars have analyzed how citizens in Western democracies can confront powerful industries, yet comparatively little research has focused on challenges to coal elites in politically unstable settings. We focus on the community of Libkovice, Czech Republic, to examine how anticoal activists strategically protested against a coal industry in the midst of a transition from state control to corporate ownership. The data for this research were collected between 2000 and 2014, including in-depth interviews, documentary and raw organizational film footage, and archival materials. Findings reveal that ambiguous targets and uncertain political contexts can significantly influence how activists develop tactical repertoires. We conclude by discussing the implications of this research for future work on social movements generally and citizen efforts to challenge powerful extractive industries.

Symbolizing Destruction

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 249-271
Author(s):  
Alison E. Adams ◽  
Thomas E. Shriver ◽  
Landen Longest
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Local Church ◽  
Coal Industry ◽  
Sociological Research ◽  
Documentary Video ◽  
Archival Documents ◽  
Environmental Campaigns ◽  
Coal Reserves ◽  
Depth Interviews

Emotions can play an important role in the perception of grievances, yet we know little about how environmentalists strategically utilize emotions to bolster activism and garner support. Drawing on social movement and environmental sociological research, we analyze how moral shocks can be used to mobilize activists against environmentally destructive activities. We study the case of Libkovice, Czech Republic, where environmentalists battled against the coal industry to save a city from being razed to access coal reserves. The data come from in-depth interviews, organizational and documentary video, and archival documents. Findings indicate that environmentalists drew upon symbols of destruction, such as threats to the local church, to fuel anger and mobilize the campaign. Results show how symbolic environmental campaigns can serve as beacons for future protest.

Collective Memory and Social Movements: Football Sites of Memory in Supporters’ Activism

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Dino Numerato ◽  
Arnošt Svoboda
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Czech Republic ◽  
Collective Memory ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Contentious Politics ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
European Level ◽  
Significant Component ◽  
The Czech Republic

This paper examines the role of collective memory in the protection of “traditional” sociocultural and symbolic aspects of football vis-à-vis the processes of commodification and globalization. Empirical evidence that underpins the analysis is drawn from a multisite ethnographic study of football fan activism in the Czech Republic, Italy, and England, as well as at the European level. The authors argue that collective memory represents a significant component of the supporters’ mobilization and is related to the protection of specific football sites of memory, including club names, logos, colors, places, heroes, tragedies, and histories. The authors further explain that collective memory operates through three interconnected dimensions: embedded collective memory, transcendent collective memory, and the collective memory of contentious politics.

Screening China Emergency Medical Team (CEMT) Members: A Self-Leadership Perspective

2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (6) ◽  
pp. 596-601
Author(s):  
Xinxin Hao ◽  
Xiaoxue Li ◽  
Jingchen Zheng
Keyword(s):  
Leadership Development ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Leadership Strategies ◽  
Medical Team ◽  
Role Clarity ◽  
Publication Type ◽  
Emergency Medical Team ◽  
Emergency Medical ◽  
Future Work ◽  
Depth Interviews

AbstractObjectiveThis study aims at establishing the self-leadership development model (SLM) of China Emergency Medical Team (CEMT) members as a supplement to current selection standards of CEMT members.MethodsRaw dataset was obtained through two ways: in-depth interviews and documentary materials (memoirs and articles). The in-depth interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of 12 CEMT members, all of whom have participated in multiple disaster relief activities and have been CEMT members for more than two years. This paper followed a grounded theory methodology dealing with all data.ResultsBased on tasks, the SLM-CEMT consists of three basic parts: (1) making plans; (2) action; and (3) outcomes. Different parts involve various self-leadership strategies, of which five are the original dimensions of previous research (goal-setting, visualizing successful performance, self-talk, self-reward, and self-correcting feedback) and three are new dimensions (role clarity, self-initiative, and self-vigilance).Conclusions:The SLM-CEMT, with the three new parts, provides a new look at screening CEMT members as well as pondering on future research. Based on the SLM-CEMT, administrators could screen more qualified CEMT members. For the limitations, future work will be on the generalization and confirmation of this model.HaoX,LiX,ZhengJ.Screening China Emergency Medical Team (CEMT) members: a self-leadership perspective.Prehosp Disaster Med.2018;33(6):596–601.

Radical Pessimism

2019 ◽  
pp. 109-136
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Political Violence ◽  
State Violence ◽  
Extractive Industries ◽  
Political Agency ◽  
Personal Interest ◽  
Political Imaginary ◽  
Extreme State

This chapter describes radical pessimism as a neoliberal democratic political affect that combines of radical worldviews with a belief that change is impossible. It begins with the question of how past and present forms of political violence have shaped Mayan conceptions about the limits of democracy and of their own political agency, leading many to “sell out” for personal interest. It documents how Sampedranos retain elements of radical political imaginary that predominated in the region in the 1970s, prior to the extreme state violence of the 1980s, but that routine acts of state violence targeted at social movements that informs engagements with hostile sovereign forces, including authoritarian political parties. The chapter also describes how these political imaginaries are being reconfigured through more recent forms of politics in defense of territory against extractive industries. The conclusion reflects on the possibility of a radical organization of pessimism.

Brokers of hope: Extractive industries and the dynamics of future-making in post-colonial Greenland

Polar Record ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank Sejersen
Keyword(s):  
Extractive Industries ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Human Welfare ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Foreign Companies ◽  
Political Struggles ◽  
Constant State ◽  
New Beginnings ◽  
Entrepreneurial Activities ◽  
Future Work

Abstract In the ambitious strategy of Greenland to attract foreign companies to engage in extractive industries as a means to create increased national independence the question of minerals emerges as pivotal. The article investigates how two prominent Greenlandic premiers (2009–2014) translated hard rock into soft human welfare in a complex post-colonial context. The article develops the concept of “brokers of hope” which points the analytical attention to the entrepreneurial activities of future- and people-makers in a dense field of indigenous politics. By linking this concept to the idea of “resource materialities” it becomes possible to see resources as relational assemblages that are in a constant state of becoming and also to examine how different engagements with substances can make certain political struggles and political systems legitimate. Furthermore, the article investigates how these “brokers of hope” use the Chinese interests, and ideas of new cooperation with Chinese partners to underpin the intrinsic motivation to create new beginnings and thus to transform existing asymmetrical relations between Denmark and Greenland. This process is conceptualised as “double orientalism”. The article points out how hope and promise in two quite different ways are creatively used to make the future work in the present and how people and nations are made up in that process.

Hollow parties and their movement-ization: The populist conundrum

2019 ◽  
Vol 45 (9-10) ◽  
pp. 1084-1105
Author(s):  
Jean L. Cohen
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Political Representation ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Opportunity Structure ◽  
Political Opportunity ◽  
Constitutional Democracy ◽  
Opportunity Structure ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Western Democracies

This article focuses on the relationship between social movements and political parties in the context of populist challenges to constitutional democracy. There are many reasons for the current plight of democracy but I focus here on one aspect: the decline of mainstream political parties, the emergence of new forms of populist movement parties and the general crisis of political representation in long consolidated Western democracies. This article analyses the specific political logic and dynamics of social movements – the logic of influence, and distinguishes it from that of political parties – the logic of power. It addresses transformations in movements, parties and their relationships. It looks at the shifts in movement and party types that constitute the political opportunity structure for the emergence of new populist movement party forms and relationships, focusing on the hollowing out and movement-ization of political parties. Contemporary populist movement parties are not the cause of the hollowing out or movement-ization of political parties. Rather they are a response to the crisis of political representation exemplified by hollow parties and cartel parties. But it is my thesis that thanks to its specific logic, populism fosters the worst version of movement party relationships, undermining the democratic functions of both.

BROKER AND BUFFER: WHY ENVIRONMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS PARTICIPATE IN POPULAR PROTESTS IN CHINA*

2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 115-132
Author(s):  
Yang Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Information Provision ◽  
Coalition Building ◽  
Advocacy Coalition ◽  
Authoritarian State ◽  
The Social ◽  
Political Environments ◽  
Environmental Nongovernmental Organizations ◽  
Movement Mobilization ◽  
Depth Interviews

The social movement literature considers that institutional allies facilitate movement mobilization and favorable outcomes, but it has not sufficiently analyzed how such alliances emerge and endure. This gap becomes more significant in nondemocratic settings, where institutional support of protests is monitored, restricted, and suppressed. Drawing upon fifty in-depth interviews, this article examines the variations of environmental nongovernmental organizations' (NGO) participation in four popular protests in China. I find that environmental NGOs collaborated with grassroots protesters to varying degrees, ranging from minimal presence of information provision, policy advocacy, coalition building, to pervasive participation including protest mobilization. The degree of NGO participation cannot be explained by organizational resources, civic communities, or political environments; rather, it hinges on skillful agencies that broker otherwise disconnected resources and buffer political pressure for their partners. My research contributes to the relational approach to social movements and to studies on the interactions among social movements, NGOs, and the authoritarian state.

Science and Struggle

2015 ◽  
Vol 661 (1) ◽  
pp. 86-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine Bliss
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Popular Politics ◽  
Effect Change ◽  
Political Struggles ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
Practical Implications ◽  
The Way

Analysis of the activism of experts has ignored the way that scientists form their own overt field-based political struggles to effect change on issues such as race. This article analyzes genomic activism around race, drawing on in-depth interviews with thirty-six leading genomic scientists and discourse analysis of 732 scientific articles. I demonstrate how science activists can fashion themselves as social advocates, by using tactics common to popular politics. These tactics can diverge and detract from popular activism and reify deterministic notions of race. I discuss important theoretical and practical implications for science, social movements, and professions.

scholarly journals When Evidence is not Taken for Granted: The Use and Perception of “Evidence” in the Czech Republic Ministries

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 219-234 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arnošt Veselý ◽  
František Ochrana ◽  
Martin Nekola
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
Personal Experience ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Public Officials ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
Large N ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Depth Interviews

Abstract The role of evidence in policy-making is one of the most researched topics in public policy and public administration. However, surprisingly little research has been done on how public officials actually use evidence in everyday life practice. Moreover, these studies have been limited to countries that have been influenced by the evidence-based policy movement (EBP). Little is known about how the evidence is conceptualized and utilized in other countries which have not been so strongly influenced by EBP movement. This paper addresses this gap. Using a large-N survey on the Czech ministerial officials and in-depth interviews with them, we explore what is understood under the term of “evidence”, what kind of evidence is used and preferred by public officials and why. In doing so, we use four theoretical perspectives on the use of evidence. We show that despite the long-established tradition of using research in policy-making the importance of research evidence in the Czech Republic is far from being taken for granted. On the contrary, the immediate and personal experience is often preferred over the research findings. The exception to that are census-like statistical data and comparative data published by international organizations. We find some support for the two-communities metaphor, though these communities are not defined by their socio-demographic characteristics, but rather by their internal discourse and understanding of evidence.

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