scholarly journals Entrepreneurial Activism? Platform Cooperativism Between Subversion and Co-optation

2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (6) ◽  
pp. 801-817 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marisol Sandoval
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Public Goods ◽  
Social Activism ◽  
Sharing Economy ◽  
The Other ◽  
Social Solidarity ◽  
Business Enterprise ◽  
Taxi Drivers ◽  
Digital Capitalism ◽  
The One

Platform cooperativism proposes to create an alternative to the corporate sharing economy based on a model of democratically owned and governed co-operatives. The idea sounds simple and convincing: cut out the corporate middleman and replace Uber with a service owned and managed by taxi drivers themselves, create a version of Airbnb run by cities, or turn Facebook into a platform democratically controlled by all users. This article discusses the ambivalences of platform cooperativism, exploring both the movement’s potentials to subvert digital capitalism from the inside and the risk of being co-opted by it. Platform cooperativism aims to foster social change by creating a People’s Internet and replacing corporate-owned platforms with user-owned co-operatives. It yokes social activism with business enterprise. As a result, the movement is shaped by tensions and contradiction between politics and enterprise, democracy and the market, commons and commercialisation, activism and entrepreneurship. This article explores these tensions based on a Marxist perspective on the corrosive powers of capitalist competition on the one hand and a Foucaultian critique of entrepreneurialism on the other. It concludes with a reflection on the politics of platform cooperativism, drawing out problematic implications of an uncritical embrace of entrepreneurialism and highlighting the need to defend a politics of social solidarity, equality and public goods.

‘The Power of Radio’: Radio and Social Change

2018 ◽  
pp. 19-38
Author(s):  
Charlotte Bedford
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
The Other ◽  
Social Relevance ◽  
Governmental Regulation ◽  
Media Activism ◽  
Radio Broadcasting ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The One ◽  
And Control

This chapter utilizes the Prison Radio Association's (PRA) core statement regarding ‘the power of radio’ as a starting point from which to explore the key ideas around radio as a socially and individually transformative medium in order to inform the understanding of how it came to be used in prison. The chapter outlines the shifting relationship between radio broadcasting and social change and argues that the evolution and establishment of radio within prisons is indicative of new opportunities for media activism, demonstrating the enduring social relevance and impact of radio. The chapter also places the development of National Prison Radio within a wider debate on the history and future of noncommercial broadcasting, based on the balance between governmental regulation and control on the one hand, and the countercultural opportunities it produces on the other.

scholarly journals “Liberation” as a political horizon amidst the coronavirus pandemic in the United States

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 314-317
Author(s):  
Nicholas Jon Crane ◽  
Zoe Pearson
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Economic Justice ◽  
The Other ◽  
Social Solidarity ◽  
Police Violence ◽  
The One ◽  
At Home

Participants in diverging US-based protest waves during the coronavirus pandemic are invoking “liberation” as a political horizon. Especially visible are superficially libertarian protests against government “stay-at-home” orders, on the one hand, and, on the other, racial and economic justice organizing around uneven exposure to the deadly effects of the pandemic. Beginning in May 2020, the latter articulation of liberation was amplified by widespread protest against racist police violence. The coronavirus pandemic is putting into sharp relief the contradictions of “liberation” promoted by individualists and underscoring the urgency of organizing for emancipatory social solidarity.

Who Helps Whom Among Scholarly Communicators? Who Profits?

1980 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 12-13
Author(s):  
Alfred Lee
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Social Life ◽  
The Other ◽  
Great Acceptance ◽  
The One ◽  
And Control

In scholarly circles as in so many other aspects of social life, we need both stabilizers and exciters. On the one hand are those who try to give society a higher degree of organization and control. On the other are the experimenters, the innovators, the discoverers, the advocates and organizers of efforts at social change. When the former succeed too well, the resulting rigidity is socially stifling. When the latter find unusually great acceptance, chaos and even revolution can be our lot. Somehow we gain the most by finding ways to benefit from both.

The Emergence of the Sharing Economy: Implications for Development

2017 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 175-190 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andy Hira ◽  
Katherine Reilly
Keyword(s):  
Economies Of Scale ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Sharing Economy ◽  
Taxi Drivers ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
Marginalized Groups ◽  
Transformative Potential ◽  
Introductory Article ◽  
Traditional Service ◽  
The One

With the spread of internet-based technologies, the sharing economy is emerging as a new and rapidly growing sector of the economy. This sector offers transformative potential for many other sectors of the economy, and possibilities for new economic activity and growth in the developing world. The sharing economy is a misnomer, as while there are possibilities for more cooperative economic approaches, the primary emphasis is on the reduction of transaction costs including the elimination of middlemen in sales between a good/service provider and a customer. In this introductory article to the special edition, we provide an overview of both the positive and negative potential for the contribution of the sharing economy to development. On the one hand, we find that the reduction in transactions costs and the low price of mobiles improves access to goods and services, and reduces the need for economies of scale for marginalized groups who lack access to capital and infrastructure. However, we point to the real obstacles that the poor experience in using internet-based platforms to start businesses or accumulate capital. We discuss the potential for labour substitution of traditional service providers, such as taxi drivers. In juxtaposition to some of its claimants, we find that the sharing economy changes the nature of institutional, regulatory and promotional challenges by the state and social groups, rather than reducing the need for them.

scholarly journals ГРОМАДСЬКІСТЬ МІСТА ЯК КОЛЕКТИВНИЙ СУБ’ЄКТ СОЦІАЛЬНОЇ ДИНАМІКИ

2020 ◽  
pp. 13-16
Author(s):  
Mikhno Nadiya
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Social Change ◽  
The Other ◽  
Self Organization ◽  
New Social Movements ◽  
Cognitive Analysis ◽  
Current Trends ◽  
Urban Activism ◽  
The One

The article deals with the phenomenon of urban activism as a manifestation of «grassroots» self-organization of city dwellers. The logic of the emergence of the centers of urban activism in the postmodern cultural situation has been determined, which is marked by the processes of deconstruction of the principles of modernity, in particular the principle of universal rationality. The possibility of conceptual arrangement and cognitive analysis of urban activism through the lens of the study of «new social movements», which is, on the one hand, a catalyst for social change, and on the other, a representation of current trends of postmodernism.

scholarly journals Gender, Families, Social Change, and the Rural–Urban Discourse: “The Polish Peasant in Europe and America” as a Study of Fears and Fantasies Related to Modernisation

Stan Rzeczy ◽  
2018 ◽  
pp. 111-139
Author(s):  
Sylwia Urbańska
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Social Control ◽  
Gender Bias ◽  
Rural Community ◽  
Family Relations ◽  
Family Values ◽  
The Other ◽  
Femininity And Masculinity ◽  
Urban Discourse ◽  
The One

The aim of this article is to reread The Polish Peasant in Europe and America as a representation of the fears and modernisation fantasies of its era. I analyse the patterns of gendered family relations and ideals of femininity and masculinity constructed by Thomas and Znaniecki within the framework of rural–urban discourses. As I will show, in The Polish Peasant we find huge contradictions between the liberal and conservative perspectives presented. On the one hand, the authors introduce the concept of “organisation – disorganisation – reorganisation,” which is supposed to be scientific and thus non-ideological. On the other hand, the authors’ patterns of interpreting empirical data show numerous gender bias and patriarchal schemes. As a result the authors create an opposition in which whatever is rural is the cradle of authenticity, of naturalised national and gendered family values, and whatever is urban is dangerous and demoralising due to escaping the former strong rural social control. In The Polish Peasant the authors thereby construct the “morally healthy” model of a national and patriarchal rural community of families untouched by individualisation and women’s emancipation. Such a model had a patriarchal division of gender roles within a religiously devout, strong (meaning indissoluble), multi-generational family. In The Polish Peasant we can find both a nostalgia – which was typical of its era – for a “pre-modern,” rural, conservative civilisation, and worry about the moral health of women in the urban world. However it is an ambivalent nostalgia accompanied by a conviction of the inevitability of social change.

scholarly journals Singapore: Technocracy and Transition

2021 ◽  
pp. 221-238
Author(s):  
Maartje De Visser ◽  
Paulin Straughan
Keyword(s):  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Political Change ◽  
Blind Spot ◽  
The Other ◽  
Social Solidarity ◽  
Economic Disparity ◽  
Dual Strategy ◽  
The One

This chapter describes Singapore’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The government’s strategy revolved around the two poles of technocratic and expedient governance on the one hand and social solidarity, targeted at vulnerable or weaker segments of society, on the other. A crucial factor in implementing this dual strategy is Singapore’s smallness, in spatial and demographic terms, meaning that there are natural limits to emulation by others. At the same time, Singapore’s approach was not flawless. In particular, the wildfire-like spread of the virus in migrant workers’ dormitories emerged as an embarrassing blind spot. Other serious Covid-19-related challenges remain. The most significant of these are managing the narrative to preserve high levels of government trust and a further reckoning with the stark socio-economic disparity exacerbated by the crisis. The latter in particular may be a harbinger of wider socio-political change in Singapore which will continue to unfold long after the immediate health emergency has passed.

Social Networks and Well-Being in Democracy in the Age of Digital Capitalism

2021 ◽  
pp. 71-109
Author(s):  
José Poças Rascão
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Evolution ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Electronic Market ◽  
Economic Changes ◽  
Digital Capitalism ◽  
Negative Impacts ◽  
The One

The objective of this work is, on the one hand, to study the new competitive forms that correspond to the development of the different markets linked to electronic platforms and social networks on the internet and, on the other hand, to develop a proposal for social welfare for the positive and negative impacts produced by the development of these markets. In the first part, the main social and economic changes inherent to political and social evolution are addressed. The main logical trends of the market are presented about production and modalities of information appropriation, in particular the new forms of information asymmetries in the electronic market.

Russia in Transition: Reflections on International Law Doctrines

1997 ◽  
Vol 66 (4) ◽  
pp. 475-504
Author(s):  
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
International Law ◽  
Historical Materialism ◽  
The Other ◽  
Economic Systems ◽  
Peaceful Coexistence ◽  
Legal Thought ◽  
The Social ◽  
The One

AbstractThe article discusses the development of the Russian international law doctrine from the Soviet to the Russian era. The analysis is conducted by way of examining two Russian international law textbooks, the one being from the Soviet era and the other from the post-Soviet era. At first sight, one is inclined to expect that a deep-going social change, such as the one Russia has experienced, would indeed be reflected in doctrines about international law. The Soviet doctrine of international law claimed to provide a Marxist account of law. However, the base-superstructure analysis and historical materialism are premises that are not easily reconcilable with international law. Therefore, the Soviet writers were prone to much abstract theorizing about the “essence”and “nature” of international law. Furthermore, the revolutionary argument combined with extreme positivism led to a methodological schizophrenia in the Soviet international law doctrine. Now, the Marxism-Leninism is abandoned and the socialist dogmas of “peaceful coexistence of states belonging to different socio-economic systems” as well as “the principles of socialist internationalism” have accordingly become obsolete. The aim of this article is to establish to what extent the social change is reflected in the present Russian international legal thought.

After mobilization

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 74-96
Author(s):  
Iam-chong Ip
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Social Activism ◽  
The Other ◽  
Cultural Representations ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
Cultural Orientations ◽  
The One ◽  
And Control

Abstract My research addresses how social actors “act upon” social change by generating self-interpretation and representation of social life on the one hand and control over values and cultural orientations against the authorities on the other. While the existing literature on social movements overemphasizes the moments of mobilization, this article examines the intersections of social activism, online curative practices, and their everyday life. For this article, I opted to depict three representative cases of Hong Kong young activists who joined the Umbrella Movement in 2014. I argue that despite their similar political experiences, there are three divergent forms of agency embodied in their cultural representations. They figure in contestations which increasingly alienate the politicized crowd from civil society and the establishment.

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