From Tory Boy to #sadmanonatrain: Great British Railway Journeys and the hard and soft masculinities of Michael Portillo

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 251-263 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin De Ornellas
Keyword(s):  
Social Mobility ◽  
Subject Matter ◽  
Conservative Party ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Free Enterprise ◽  
Small State ◽  
Personal Liberty ◽  
Current Thinking ◽  
Social Liberalism ◽  
The Military

Before 2005, Michael Portillo was a reviled populist, right-wing British Conservative politician. Seemingly, he is a now a mellowed national treasure due largely to his approachable, friendly, prolific series of travelogues, Great British Railway Journeys (2010–present). This multi-series documentary has been a remarkable BBC success: delivering upbeat music, dynamic camera work, a repetitive format, rosy-tinted Victoriana and celebratory subject matter, the programme makers ensure that the programme is feel-good, cosy, nostalgic and soothing. But Portillo’s political inclinations are apparent: Portillo, sometimes quite subtly, expresses consistently his passion for free enterprise, for the supposed benefits of historical colonialism, for the monarchy, for the military and for social liberalism. A believer in an enterprise-encouraging small state and in personal liberty and social mobility, Portillo’s politics chime in directly with the current thinking of the Conservative Party leadership. In short, the apparently benign travelogue series promotes Portillo’s mainstream post-Thatcherite British Conservatism: an analysis of the ubiquitous programme’s understated but clear Conservatism counters right-wing accusations about the BBC’s alleged leftist bias.

The 1992 Referendum in South Africa

1993 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 339-360 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annette Strauss
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Democratic Party ◽  
Conservative Party ◽  
The State ◽  
Reform Process ◽  
Election Campaign ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
National Party ◽  
White Voters ◽  
The Right

The ruling National Party (N.P.) asked white voters during the 1989 election campaign for a mandate to negotiate with all concerned about a new constitution, an undivided South Africa, one citizenship, equal votes, protection of minorities, and the removal of stumbling blocks such as discrimination against people of colour.1 Although the N.P. achieved a cleat majority – 93 seats against 39 for the Conservative Party (C.P.) and 33 for the Democratic Party (D.P.) – the right-wing opposition made destinct progress by gaining 17 seats. After the C.P had captured a further three from the N.P. in by-elections, including Potchefstroom in February 1992, President F. W. de Klerk announced in Parliament that whites would be asked the following month to vote in a referendum in order to remove any doubts about his mandate. The carefully worded question which the electorate had to answer was as follows: Do you support continuation of the reform process which the State President began on February 2, 1990 and which is aimed at a new constitution through negotiation?

Merchants and Society in Tokugawa Japan

1983 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 477-488
Author(s):  
Charles D. Sheldon
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Social Mobility ◽  
Social Reality ◽  
Social Hierarchy ◽  
Ruling Class ◽  
Common People ◽  
The Social ◽  
Tokugawa Period ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Military

Merchants in the Tokugawa period were placed at the bottom of the shinōkōshō hierarchy of samurai-peasants-artisans-merchants. This social hierarchy was produced by a combination of social reality at the time Japan was unified in the late sixteenth century and an ancient Chinese physiocratic theory, never taken very seriously, in practical ways, in China. Once the country was unified, the social mobility of the previous years, of a kind which permitted men of ability to climb from the lowest ranks to join the military nobility—Hideyoshi is the prime example of this mobility—was viewed, by Hideyoshi above all others, as a cause of prolonged chaos and internecine warfare. With the argument that war had been abolished and common people therefore no longer needed weapons, Hideyoshi carried out his ‘sword-hunt’. He thus established the most fundamental of the class distinctions, between the samurai, the ruling class, who now enjoyed a monopoly of bearing arms, and the common people, who were henceforth expected simply to produce the food and other necessities of life, and to pay their taxes, which remained high even though warfare was supposedly ended.

Reflections of a feminist organizational ethnographer: considering the subject matter and the research setting

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Irene Ryan
Keyword(s):  
Subject Matter ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Cultural Landscape ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Research Practice ◽  
Research Setting ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Military ◽  
Practical Implications

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to reflexively reconsider the effects of the author’s pre-understandings, both academic and non-academic, on the subject matter and the research setting. The unforeseen implications of this disjuncture on our research practice and the expected deliverables are discussed.Design/methodology/approachThe paper engages in a critical, self-reflexive dialogue of a journey through a stimulating yet, uncomfortable piece of feminist, organizational ethnographic research drawing on the insights from the author's research diary.FindingsThe account presented in this paper describes the problematic nature of undertaking a collaborative, reciprocal research project in the distinctive and foreign cultural landscape of the military. The author shows the importance of delving into matters of positionality and preparedness for what might emerge, as a form of closure.Practical implicationsThe paper provides insights into the importance of sponsors to access “the field” and our obligation as researchers to produce written deliverables.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to the emerging literature on the significance of reflexivity in feminist inspired organizational ethnographies in highly gendered settings such as the military.

Muslim Origins and Destinations

2019 ◽  
pp. 29-44
Author(s):  
Tahir Abbas
Keyword(s):  
Social Mobility ◽  
White Supremacy ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Global North ◽  
Race Ethnicity ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Right ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Downward Social Mobility

Patterns of racism in the Global North are correlated with the changing nature of globalization and its impact on individual economies, especially over the last four decades. The ‘left behind’ are groups in society who have faced considerable downward social mobility, with some becoming targeted by the mainstream and fringe right-wing groups who do this to release their pent up frustration towards the center of political and economic power. How this form of racism has evolved over time to focus on race, ethnicity, culture and now religion is explored in relation to the UK case, discussing the rise of Trump and the issue of Brexit as symptoms of a wider malaise affecting societies of the Global North. These forms of tribalism act to galvanize the right, combining racism with white supremacy, xenophobia and isolationism.

scholarly journals Policy Change and Partisan Politics: Understanding Family Policy Differentiation in Two Similar Countries

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margarita León ◽  
Emmanuele Pavolini ◽  
Joan Miró ◽  
Antonino Sorrenti
Keyword(s):  
Democratic Party ◽  
Family Policy ◽  
Conservative Party ◽  
Partisan Politics ◽  
Social Democratic Party ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
The Social ◽  
Traditional Norms ◽  
Case Design

Abstract This article looks at how different electoral competition dynamics can result in differentiated party positioning on childcare and family policy. Italy and Spain are compared using a most similar case design. The presence of women in politics, the socioeconomic profiles of the voters of the two main left-wing and right-wing Italian and Spanish parties, and opinions on traditional norms of motherhood explain different policy trajectories and higher incentives for the conservative party in Spain to converge toward the social democratic party in more progressive views of family policy.

Peruvian Social Mobility: Revolutionary and Developmental Potential

1968 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 547-570 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Chaplin
Keyword(s):  
Social Mobility ◽  
Class Structure ◽  
Social Revolution ◽  
Free Enterprise ◽  
Developmental Potential ◽  
Distinctive Features ◽  
Price Structure ◽  
Stage Of Development ◽  
Resource Endowment ◽  
Transitional Type

While Peru's economic development is highly influenced by its resource endowment and the price structure of its exports, the style of industrialization will be determined in large part by the type and amount of social mobility its class structure permits. Although similar ethnically to Guatemala and Bolivia, Peru so far has managed to forestall a basic social revolution and has developed under one of the most private “free enterprise” regimes in Latin America. It should therefore be interesting to examine the type of class structure and social mobility that underlies this stage of development.In terms of a model of the process of industrialization, I shall emphasize the distinctive features of the transitional stage. It seems that a folk-urban, traditional-modern dichotomy—or even a transitional type that is merely halfway between these extremes—is not adequate.

Ideology and Unstable Party Identification in Canada: Limited Rationality in a Brokerage Party System

1987 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 813-850 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Michael Stevenson
Keyword(s):  
Democratic Party ◽  
Party System ◽  
Party Identification ◽  
Lower Class ◽  
Conservative Party ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Liberal Party ◽  
Class Identification ◽  
Canada Limited

AbstractThis article examines changes in individuals' identification with Canadian federal political parties in the period 1977 to 1981. The analysis suggests that differences in class and ideology have a significant, if not very large effect on shifts in partisan identity. There was a slight bias toward more upper-class identification with the Progressive Conservative party and more lower-class identification with the Liberal party. Unstable partisans were at least as ideologically constrained as stable partisans, and partisan instability was more pronounced amongst the more left-wing individuals. Changes in partisanship were more likely among younger respondents, particularly lower-class and more left-wing youth. The largest bloc of unstable partisans was closest ideologically to the more left-wing stable New Democratic party partisans, and shifted only between the New Democratic and Liberal parties. A smaller bloc moved to the Progressive Conservative party and was ideologically closest to its more right-wing stable partisans.

A Catalan contribution to the myth of the contubernio Judeo-Masónico-Bolchevique

Modern Italy ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 461-472
Author(s):  
Paul Preston
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Military Coup ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Second Republic ◽  
School Teachers ◽  
Card Index ◽  
The Military

One of the principal justifications for the military coup of 1936 and the subsequent plan of extermination behind right-wing violence in the Civil War was the accusation that the Second Republic was the anti-Spanish instrument of the Jewish-Masonic-Bolshevik conspiracy. Thus, when the conspirators declared that punishment had to be inflicted on freemasons, liberal politicians, journalists, school-teachers, professors, as well as on leftists and trade-unionists, they used the idea of an evil Jewish conspiracy to destroy the Christian world. Of all of the writers who called for an assault on progressive Spain, those who might be termed the ‘theorists of extermination’, the most influential was the Catalan priest, Juan Tusquets Terrats (1901–1998). Awareness and approval of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion was promoted through his enormously popular writings. During the Civil War, he became an adviser to Generals Mola and Franco and his file-card index of names of supposed freemasons was part of the infrastructure of repression.

scholarly journals Rally 'round the Barracks. Version1.1 (July 6th 2021)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francisco Villamil ◽  
Stuart James Turnbull-Dugarte ◽  
José Rama
Keyword(s):  
Military Personnel ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Radical Right ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Far Right ◽  
Knowl Edge ◽  
Show Evidence ◽  
Military Facilities ◽  
The Military ◽  
The Relationship

Literature on the determinants of far-right support has increased markedlyduring the last few years, expanding our knowledge on who votes for these par-ties. Little is known, however, about the relationship being a member of the mil-itary and voting for the far-right. Recent scandals within the armed forces ofsome developed democracies underscore this gap. In this paper, we argue thatthere is an ideological affinity between the military and far-right parties based onshared values over nationalism and authoritarianism. We use two distinct empir-ical strategies to test this argument in Spain. First, we pool together data fromseveral survey rounds to show that individual military personnel are significantlymore prone to support Spain’s new populist radical right-wing party, VOX. Sec-ond, we show that the location of military facilities across Spain is linked to highersupport for VOX. Using spatial statistics, we show evidence of a diffusion effect.Our findings are relevant to both the literature on far-right support and our knowl-edge of civil-military relationships.

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