Reframing the past to legitimate the future: Building collective agency for social change through a process of decolonizing memory

Leadership ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 174271502199989
Author(s):  
Antonio Jimenez-Luque
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
American Indian ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
The United States ◽  
Collective Agency ◽  
Critical Approach ◽  
Indigenous Leadership ◽  
Leadership Perspectives ◽  
History Of

Subaltern social groups do not see their conceptualizations of leadership represented by the images of leadership and leaders portrayed in the narratives of the “official” history of their countries. This article draws from the experience of an American Indian summer leadership camp in the United States (US) where memory is used by the organization as a resource for legitimizing their power and leadership perspectives to effect social change. Through a leadership work based on rhetoric and framing to decolonize the dominant history of the US, a process of collective sense and meaning-making is unfolded. This work of leadership builds collective agency that contributes to legitimize both American Indian memories and leadership perspectives. Through legitimacy, subordinated social groups develop the capacity to justify that they hold the power to govern themselves and not just to consent and submit to external actors. Eventually, legitimacy of memory and leadership perspectives can be leveraged as power since the group believes in their potential. Through a critical approach drawing from history and sociology, the study contributes insights to both the social change and the Indigenous leadership literature.

Decolonial leadership for cultural resistance and social change: Challenging the social order through the struggle of identity

Leadership ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 174271502095223
Author(s):  
Antonio Jimenez-Luque
Keyword(s):  
Native American ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Social Order ◽  
The United States ◽  
Collective Actions ◽  
Critical Approach ◽  
Cultural Resistance ◽  
Indigenous Leadership ◽  
The Social ◽  
Current Article

The current article focuses on subaltern social groups’ efforts that emphasize the struggle of identity with purposes of cultural resistance and social change. Through a critical approach that incorporates the reality of “coloniality” as the context within leadership emerges, the article draws from the experience of a Native American organization in a middle-size city of the United States that uses identity as a resource to challenge the dominant Eurocentric social order. The construct of “decolonial leadership” is proposed to illuminate the emancipatory process of this organization that aims to decolonize society debunking myths and narratives imposed with the dominant social order and taking control of reality from their cultural perspectives and leadership approaches. A process of decolonial leadership creates spaces from which developing collective actions and sense-making processes that eventually contribute to building symbolic power to change the dominant social order. Using a sociological and anthropological lens that challenges leader-centered perspectives and focuses on the collective dimensions of leadership, the study contributes insights to both the social change and the indigenous leadership literature.

The Feminization of Etiquette Literature: Foucault, Mechanisms of Social Change, and the Paradoxes of Empowerment

1996 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 417-434 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jorge Arditi
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Change ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Other ◽  
Women’S Empowerment ◽  
Discursive Space ◽  
History Of ◽  
New Space ◽  
The 19Th Century

This paper explores the opening of a discursive space within the etiquette literature in the United States during the 19th century and how women used this space as a vehicle of empowerment. It identifies two major strategies of empowerment. First, the use or appropriation of existing discourses that can help redefine the “other” within an hegemonic space. Second, and more importantly, the transformation of that space in shifting the lines by which differentiation is produced to begin with. Admittedly, these strategies are neither unique nor the most important in the history of women's empowerment. But this paper argues that the new discourses formulated by women helped forge a new space within which women ceased being the “other,” and helped give body to a concept of womanhood as defined by a group of women, regardless of how idiosyncratic that group might have been.

Introduction to Faith in State Legislatures

2022 ◽  
pp. 1-23
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Change ◽  
State Legislatures ◽  
The United States ◽  
Protestant Reformation ◽  
Central Question ◽  
Politics And Culture ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The U.S

This chapter introduces the complex history of the founding of America. Colonization of the United States was fueled by European upheaval unleashed by the Protestant Reformation. Religion in part gave birth to the United States. However, keeping religion out of government is a central question inherent in the history and culture of the U.S. The relationship among faith, politics, and culture is explored and contributes to either the support of or opposition to social change in state legislatures.

The Chickasaw Press: A Source of Power and Pride

2018 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 183-202
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Rule
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
American Indian ◽  
Traditional Knowledge ◽  
Publishing House ◽  
Active Agent ◽  
The United States ◽  
Cutting Edge ◽  
National Initiatives ◽  
The Press ◽  
History Of

Established in 2006, the Chickasaw Press is the first tribally owned and operated publishing house in the United States. This article recounts the history of this innovative Indigenous enterprise, explores its decolonized practices and publications, and connects the press to national initiatives for American Indian cultural revitalization. In doing so, I reveal how the press serves as an active agent in the movement for Indigenous cultural and intellectual sovereignty and showcase how this outlet brings together traditional knowledge and cutting-edge technologies to decenter colonial narratives about the Chickasaw people and, thus, to reinstate Chickasaw tribal knowledge and perspectives.

Epic Learning in an Indian Pueblo: A Framework for Studying Multigenerational Learning in the History of Education

2014 ◽  
Vol 54 (3) ◽  
pp. 286-302 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrea Lawrence
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
American Indian ◽  
North American ◽  
Southern California ◽  
History Of Education ◽  
The United States ◽  
Indian Populations ◽  
The North ◽  
History Of ◽  
North American Indian

Writing from her position as the Office of Indian Affairs (OIA) Superintendent at the Potrero School on the Morongo (Malki) reservation in southern California in 1909, Clara D. True concluded an article on her experiences as an Anglo teacher working with American Indian populations in the United States: The more one knows of the Indian as he really is, not as he appears to the tourist, the teacher, or the preacher, the more one wonders. The remnant of knowledge that the Red Brother has is an inheritance from a people of higher thought than we have usually based our speculation upon. It is to be regretted that in dealing with the Indian we have not regarded him worthwhile until it is too late to enrich our literature and traditions with the contribution he could so easily have made. We have regarded him as a thing to be robbed and converted rather than as a being with intellect, sensibilities, and will, all highly developed, the development being one on different lines from our own as only necessity dictated. The continent was his college. The slothful student was expelled from it by President Nature. Physically, mentally, and morally, the North American Indian before the degradation at our hands was a man whom his descendants need not despise.

scholarly journals Anti-science Misinformation and Conspiracies: COVID–19, Post-truth, and Science & Technology Studies (STS)

2021 ◽  
pp. 097172182110034
Author(s):  
Amit Prasad
Keyword(s):  
Social Groups ◽  
The United States ◽  
False Information ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Conspiracy Theories ◽  
Science Technology ◽  
The Us ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
History Of

COVID–19 has not only resulted in nearly two and a half million deaths globally but it has also spawned a pandemic of misinformation and conspiracies. In this article I examine COVID–19 misinformation and conspiracies in the United States (US). These misinformation and conspiracies have been commonly argued to be anti-science. I argue, although it is important to rebut false information and stop their spread, social scientists need to analyse how such anti-science claims are discursively framed and interpreted. Specifically, I show how the framing of the anti-science conspiracies utilise the credibility of science and scientists. I also explore how the COVID–19 misinformation and conspiracies were given different meaning among different social groups. The article is divided into three sections. In the first section I analyse the discursive emplotment of the Plandemic video that had Dr Judy Mikovits presenting several COVID–19 conspiracy theories and went viral before it was taken down from major social media platforms. I show how the video draws on the credibility of science, scientists, and scientific journals to present misinformation and conspiracies claims against vaccination, mask wearing, etc. The second section explores how COVID–19 misinformation and conspiracies were interpreted among the African-American community by drawing on the history of black community’s experiences in the US and as such how their interpretations stand in contrast to the interpretations of the COVID–19 misinformation and conspiracies among the White community. The last section analyses the role of STS in engaging with anti-science and post-truth issues and emphasises the need to excavate genealogies of the present even with regard to misinformation and conspiracies.

scholarly journals Reflections on an Effort to Develop a Cross-Disability Consciousness Inclusive of People with Psychiatric Disabilities

2007 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Israel Sykes ◽  
Eyal Menashe ◽  
Elliot Lazerwitz ◽  
Ayala Vlodavsky ◽  
Limor Zaga-Shabbat
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Present Article ◽  
The United States ◽  
Psychiatric Disabilities ◽  
Disability Rights ◽  
Disability Group ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Cross ◽  
Social Change Organizations ◽  
And Training

While cross-disability consciousness developed in the United States and England in the 1970's, a similar consciousness failed to emerge in Israel until the late 1990s. Furthermore, even in countries with a long history of cross-disability collaboration, there is a tendency for people with psychiatric disabilities to remain excluded from the ensuing disability community. The present article had its origins in the course "From Personal Coping to Social Responsibility: Leadership Training for Social Change for People with Disability," initiated and funded by the Disability Rights Commission in Israel, and developed and implemented by Shatil, the Empowerment and Training Center for Social Change Organizations. An explicit goal of the course was the development in Israel of a cross-disability consciousness inclusive of people with psychiatric disabilities. In the present article, three course graduates and the course facilitators reflect upon the insights that emerged from the cross-disability discourse generated among participants, during the course and in the course, of joint writing about the course. Special emphasis is given to the dynamics and effects of the inclusion of a large sub-group of people with psychiatric disabilities in the cross-disability group.

Civic leadership, emotions and social change: decolonial ethnographic research on an American Indian non-profit organisation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonio Jimenez-Luque ◽  
Melissa Burgess
Keyword(s):  
Native American ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
The United States ◽  
Leadership Studies ◽  
Non Profit ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
Civic Leadership ◽  
American Society

The non-profit sector in the United States (US) plays a key role in reproducing racism and classism. These two systems of oppression within non-profits mirror colonialism since their agendas and decisions about their implementation are made by elites rather than by people directly affected by the issues at hand. Through a case study of a Native American non-profit organisation in the north-west of the US, this article explores how emotions, particularly the processes through which people regulate emotions, can be used as resources for social change. Drawing on decolonial theory and combining critical non-profit and leadership studies, the research included observations, the gathering of artefacts and 13 interviews/conversations with individuals and groups. This article offers leadership strategies and actions for decolonising structures of the non-profit sector using emotions as assets for meaning-making, communication and resistance. Two central findings emerge: (a) emotions can change the dominant script; and (b) emotions can be used to resist, raise voices and contribute to social change. These findings bring new perspectives and nuances to better understand public leadership within postcolonial societies and are especially relevant for non-profit organisations led by marginalised social groups that have initiated collective struggles of social change to decolonise American society.

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