scholarly journals A walk in the park: political emotions and ethnographic vacillation in activist research

2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 554-564 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theresa L Petray
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Theoretical Approach ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Critical Reflection ◽  
Early Morning ◽  
The Political ◽  
Research Participants ◽  
Power And Resistance ◽  
Political Emotions

Critically engaged activist research blends a theoretical approach towards power and resistance with a practical methodology for ethnographies of social movements. However, when undertaking this sort of research it can be easy to lose sight of critical analysis because of the political emotions that researchers share with activist participants. I was reminded of the need for critical reflection by a particularly jarring ethnographic moment: during a quiet, early morning walk through Brisbane’s Musgrave Park I became a witness in a murder investigation. This moment, and the aftermath of it, led me to critically analyse my own political emotions and those of my research participants. This article examines the role of activist researchers through the lens of my moment in the park. I argue that, while it is important to share political emotions with research participants, activist researchers must remain reflexive and critical of those emotions.

Indymedia in Belgium: the delicate balance between media activism and political activism

2020 ◽  
Vol 42 (6) ◽  
pp. 1031-1038
Author(s):  
Robin Van Leeckwyck ◽  
Pieter Maeseele ◽  
Maud Peeters ◽  
David Domingo
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Political Activism ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
European Countries ◽  
The Political ◽  
Media Activism ◽  
The Media ◽  
Original Website

Belgium was one of the first European countries to establish a local ‘national’ branch of the global Indymedia network. The diversity of those involved in this ‘national movement’ ultimately turned out to be both the strength of the original website and the cause of its decline. Indeed, due to political and organizational disagreement, many activists decided to create their own ‘local’ Independent Media Centre (IMC). This article distinguishes two perspectives on the role of Indymedia: the political activists saw Indymedia as a means to an end, as an instrument to discuss strategies and tactics, and to coordinate social movements and grassroots movements. The media activists, on the contrary, saw Indymedia as an end in itself, as a platform for civil society organizations to make their voices heard and facilitate democratic debate – in this vein, the experience of Indymedia.be was transformed into the alternative news site DeWereldMorgen.be.

Interrogating Klein's Shock Doctrine

2010 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 116-128
Author(s):  
Saroj Giri
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
The Political ◽  
Democratic Socialism ◽  
End Of History ◽  
Political Sphere ◽  
Democratic Capitalism ◽  
The End Of History ◽  
Movimientos Sociales

In The Shock Doctrine Naomi Klein rightly critiques capitalism in its repressive ‘market fundamentalist’ avatar. But she does not problematise ‘democratic capitalism’ or the very form of capitalist democracy. Instead she advocates the latter. Thus for her the role of social movements is limited to the extension of democracy, from the political sphere, to the economic. No problem as such there – until we find that her advocacy for social movements derives from the need to make sure “disillusioned citizens would not go looking once again for a more appealing ideology, whether fascism or Communism” (p. 54). It is hard to overlook her liberal rationale. Neoliberalism must be challenged, since it is a bad candidate to keep the ‘hard left’ in check. Klein functions within the paradigm of the ‘end of ideology’ and the ‘end of history’: anything beyond liberal capitalist democracy takes us to ‘totalitarianism’, where fascism and communism merge. Social movements and people's subjectivity that tend towards the ‘hard left’ (for example, those on the left of Allende's democratic socialism in Chile who were fighting the coup), finds mention in her analysis, if at all, only to be repudiated as a danger. En su La Doctrina del Shock, Naomi Klein critica correctamente al capitalismo en su versión represiva, de ‘fundamentalismo de mercado’, pero no problema-tiza sobre ‘el capitalismo democrático’, o sobre la forma de la democracia capitalista misma. De lo contrario, la apoya. Es decir que para ella el rol de los movimientos sociales se limita a extender la democracia desde la esfera de la política hacia la de la economía. Hasta ahí no hay problema, hasta que nos encontramos con que su apoyo a los movimientos sociales es un resultado de la necesidad de asegurar que “ciudadanxs desilusinadxs no se [metan] en la búsqueda de una ideología más cercana a sus intereses, sea el facismo o el comunismo” (p. 54). Resulta difícil dejar de lado su racionalidad liberal: hay que desafiar al neoliberalismo porque no es buen candidato a mantener a la ‘izquierda dura’ bajo control. Klein funciona claramente dentro del paradigma del ‘fin de las ideologías’ y del ‘fin de la historia’: todo lo que existe más allá de la democracia liberal capitalista es el ‘totalitarismo’, adonde !facismo y comunismo se fusionan! Los movimientos sociales y la subjetividad de quienes tienden hacia la ‘izquierda dura’ (por ejemplo, aquellxs a la izquierda del socialismo democrático de Allende en Chile que lucharon contra el golpe) son mencionados en su análisis (si es que son mencionados) sólo para ser repudiados por ser considerados como un peligro.

Civil Society, Social Movements and the Irish State

2010 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peadar Kirby
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Political System ◽  
Free Market ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Social Partnership ◽  
Corporate Profit ◽  
Fianna Fail

This article develops a theoretical framework to consider the symbiotic relationship between civil society, social movements and the Irish state. Civil society, largely through social movements, laid the foundations for an independent Irish state in the half-century before independence. Following independence, the nature of the civil society–state relationship changed; civil society became much more dependent on the state. The article empirically traces the nature of society's relationship to the state since the 1920s, and examines the nature of the political system and its major political party, Fianna Fáil, the structure of the economy, and the dominance of particular understandings of the role of civil society and the nature of society itself. The period since the advent of social partnership in 1987 is examined; this period marks a new attempt by the state to co-opt organised civil society making it subservient to its project of the imposition on society of the requirements of global corporate profit-making. The more forceful implementation of a global free-market project by the Irish state since the 1980s, and the co-option of organised civil society into this project, has left huge space for an alternative to emerge, the potential of which was indicated by the success of the ‘No’ campaign in the 2008 Lisbon referendum campaign.

Building Taiwanese history and memory from below: The role of social movements

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-38
Author(s):  
Taru Salmenkari
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Political Process ◽  
The Political ◽  
History And Memory ◽  
Taiwanese Identity ◽  
Memory Tools

Social movements use memories not only to inspire and mobilize movements but also to struggle for justice. Using memory tools, Taiwanese social movements have challenged official interpretations of history, pluralized subjects worth having their own history and democratized the process of demanding that certain memories should be preserved. They have used memory to fight for social justice and for Taiwanese traditions against modernization and globalization. Social movements have used various memory tool kits, depending on their causes, understandings of Taiwanese identity, current social struggles and access to the political process. Different memory tool kits have led social movements to interpret differently which injustices matter and which gaps in hegemonic narratives deserve their attention.

scholarly journals 15 YEARS OF THE REPUBLIC OF SLOVENIA IN NATO – A CRITICAL VIEW ON DEFENCE SYSTEM

2019 ◽  
pp. 83-94
Author(s):  
MARKO CEHOVIN
Keyword(s):  
Human Resource ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
Critical View ◽  
Defence System ◽  
Defence Spending ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Developed World

Abstract Shortly after Independence, and even more profoundly after joining NATO, the issue of defence and security in Slovenia was set aside. It has been quickly forgotten that an army is a fundamental element of statehood, and that several times in history Slovenes have been forced to defend their existence with an armed force. “Budgetary malnutrition”, in combination with malfunctioning human resource management, has pushed the defence system into a spiral quest for the lowest point. By failing to fulfil its commitments on the level and structure of defence spending, Slovenia has lost much of its credibility in the Alliance in recent years. Slovenia gained a great deal by joining NATO. Geopolitically it has (re)positioned itself as part of the most developed world. The most significant benefit of membership is collective security, which has brought manifold effects, including economic ones; defence is much cheaper today than it would be if Slovenia were not a member of the Alliance. After fifteen years of NATO membership, Slovenia is still divided between peace idealism and realism that historically confirms that allies are required. The defence system needs to be renovated, transformed and integrated, and solutions that have been repeatedly already identified must be implemented. The role of the political elites is to recognize, lead and guide these challenges. Key words Defence system, NATO, critical analysis, reforms.

scholarly journals "What happened was foremost an assault by interests of the big capital." An interview with Breda Pavlič.

2017 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 251-261
Author(s):  
Sašo Slaček Brlek ◽  
Jernej Amon Prodnik
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
The Political ◽  
Academic Field ◽  
Communication Problems ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
Communication Policies ◽  
Free Flow Of Information ◽  
Flow Of Information

Interview with Breda Pavlič, critical researcher and former staff member of UNESCO’s Division of Free Flow of Information and Communication Policies in the 1980s (1984-1989). We discussed her path towards the critical-analysis approach to information and communication problems, the role of such analyses in the academic field of the time, as well as within the political context of the Movement of Non-Aligned Countries, and their initiative in UNESCO and in the United Nations Organization for a New international information and communication order (NIICO).

scholarly journals Ideology in the Era of “Cynical Reason” (Interpretation of Ideology in Slavoj Žižek’s Works)

2021 ◽  
Vol 103 (4) ◽  
pp. 6-23
Author(s):  
I. V. Demin
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
The Political ◽  
High Demand ◽  
Ideological Criticism ◽  
Political Sciences ◽  
Philosophy And Religion ◽  
Peter Sloterdijk ◽  
Human Thinking

The article is devoted to the critical analysis of the concept of ideology developed by Slavoj Žižek, the modern Slovenian philosopher. The author reveals the possibilities and limitations of Žižek’s approach to understanding the phenomenon of ideology and considers the initial presumptions and methodological assumptions that this approach is based upon. The article shows that despite the indisputable originality, Žižek’s theory is not devoid of contradictions, and the interpretation of ideology as an illusion and mystification, which is justified within the framework of Marxist political philosophy, loses its foundations in the context of the post-structuralist methodology. According to I.Demin’s conclusion, Žižek’s philosophical and political thinking falls prey to the scheme that Peter Sloterdijk defined as “mutual tracking of ideologies”. Criticism of ideology here implies criticism of one ideo logy from the standpoint of another, or criticism of “bad” ideology from the standpoint of “good” ideology. The “criticizing” ideology is not clearly articulated, but implicitly assumed. The fact that the “critic” of ideology prefers not to reveal his own bias constitutes an integral part of the strategy of ideological criticism, as opposed to scientific criticism. Ideology as the principle that structures social reality obtains an allencompassing character in Žižek’s interpretation, since it underlies all human actions and human thinking. However, if there is no way to separate ideology from scientific knowledge, to distinguish between ideology, philosophy and religion, it turns out that ideology is everything and nothing at the same time. With this interpretation, “ideology” becomes an unoperationalizable concept for Social and Political Sciences, and therefore useless. At the same time, a number of the provisions formulated by Žižek (on ideological “fastening”, on the role of the enemy figure in the ideological discourse, etc.) may be in high demand in the course of developing an adequate methodological strate gy for studying the phenomenon of ideology, which distances itself from both “naïve” objectivist doctrines and the extremes of the political anti-essentialism and anti-universalism.

Semiotic study for the analysis of communications within organizations: Theoretical approach from organizational semiotics

Semiotica ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 (215) ◽  
pp. 281-304
Author(s):  
Carlos González Pérez
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Theoretical Approach ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Specific Mechanism ◽  
Organizational Environments ◽  
Semiotic Approach ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Dynamic Objects ◽  
Organizational Semiotics

AbstractIn this paper we develop a methodological proposal for the study of communications within organizations from a semiotic approach. This proposal includes a semiotic study based on three central concepts: 1. the sign and its development – we begin with Charles S. Peirce’s well-known concept of sign and continue with the discourse transformation perspective; 2. the development of operations for the analysis of semiotic expressions to find a specific mechanism which enables us to analyze interpretative-cognitive processes in iconic, indexical, and symbolic expressions; and 3. interpretation processes in organizations developed from the analysis of the role of dynamic objects in the creation of signs to try to develop a descriptive, analytic, and reconstructive approach on how dynamic objects work and go further in the description of possible semiotic worlds. We develop concepts such as social semiosis (as a system), semiotic expressions (as updates to this system) in organizational environments, and the concept of semiotic actors closely related to the construction of an organizational world. This study enables us to approach the dynamics in communicational processes within organizations in all its elements to perform a critical analysis.

scholarly journals Resistance and the Radical Imagination: A Reflection on the Role of the Critical Criminologist in Social Movements

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Naegler
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Critical Reflection ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
The United States ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Protest Movements ◽  
Occupy Movement ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Intellectual Leadership

AbstractAt times of global unrest and the emergence of a wide range of protest movements, recent intra-disciplinary criminological debates on the potentials and limits of resistance suggest a paradoxical trend. Critical criminologists—in particular, those associated with the ultra-realist perspective—have become increasingly skeptical of the idea of “resistance,” itself. In the context of these discussions, scholars have resorted to dismissing oppositional activities—including social movements and their different forms of protest—that are both intended and recognized as resistance. In my contribution to this debate, and in response to Jeff Ferrell’s (2019) article, “In Defense of Resistance,” I provide a critical reflection on the analysis of social movements in both ultra-realist and cultural criminological scholarship. Drawing from my ethnographic research with the (post-)Occupy movement in the United States, I argue that the dismissive reading of social movements’ resistance and the calls for stronger political leadership are the result of a narrow analytical lens applied to movements, their temporalities, and their historical context(s). In addition, I contend that the harsh criticism of social movements by ultra-realists connects to the aim of developing an intellectual leadership concerned with informing social movement practice and strategy “from above.” Here, as I maintain, the theory and practice of militant research, or militancia de investigación, as per the Colectivo Situaciones, challenges this understanding of intellectual leadership. The insights provided by radical collective knowledge production in social movements, and their critique of the institutional frameworks of the neoliberal university, allow for a critical reflection on the role of academia in resistance. This critical reflection can generate possibilities for social movements’ knowledge and radical imaginations to influence academic theorizing.

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