Everyday Routines in Free Spaces: Explaining the Persistence of The Zapatistas in Los Angeles

2010 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 199-216 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pepper Glass
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Los Angeles ◽  
Participatory Democracy ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Daily Activities ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Community Centers ◽  
Repetitive Tasks ◽  
Political Talk ◽  
Free Spaces

While examining the radical potential of "free spaces"—small-scale, grassroots sites for social movements—researchers neglect the daily activities underlying their continued existence. Based on participant observation at Zapatista community centers in Los Angeles, this article argues that everyday routines are important for the persistence of free spaces. Participants spent the majority of their time involved in routines. These were repetitive tasks for maintaining the organization; their focus was practical and immediate, as opposed to theoretical; and the rituals of participatory democracy structured them. At rare times, members reflected on their work, initiating abstract political talk to inspire and unify themselves in response to tedium from mundane activity or a crisis. Yet, reflection also distracted from applied work and even proliferated organizational schism. This suggests that free spaces retain stability by balancing both routine and reflection.

“Change Agents” on Two Wheels: Claiming Community and Contesting Spatial Inequalities through Cycling in Los Angeles

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 965-982
Author(s):  
Jennifer Candipan
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Los Angeles ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Change Agents ◽  
Spatial Inequalities ◽  
Everyday Practices ◽  
Communities Of Color ◽  
Urban Cycling

This study uses participant observation to examine how an all–female collective in Los Angeles uses urban cycling culture as a way to contest inequalities and advocate for social change in communities of color. Bridging the literatures on gentrification and social movements, I examine how the collective uses the bicycle as a unifying tool to draw disparate individuals together and, through the group's practices and rituals, generates a shared sense of collective identity and politicized consciousness embedded within the uneven spatial development of Los Angeles. I demonstrate how this politicized consciousness drives a collective spirit of resistance that challenges gentrification by reimagining and re–embodying space through organized actions and everyday practices. I find that organized anti–gentrification resistance is not merely reactionary, but rather entails pre–figurative action and visioning for space and community. Overall, findings speak more broadly to how communities of color facing exclusion and marginalization make claims to space and community.

scholarly journals Agri-Food Markets towards Agroecology: Tensions and Compromises Faced by Small-Scale Farmers in Brazil and Chile

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 3096
Author(s):  
Estevan Felipe Pizarro Muñoz ◽  
Paulo André Niederle ◽  
Bernardo Corrado de Gennaro ◽  
Luigi Roselli
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Agricultural Development ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
The Political ◽  
Food Markets ◽  
Market Expansion ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Landless Movement ◽  
Small Scale Farmers

One of the main dilemmas faced by small-scale farmers’ movements advocating for agroecology in Latin America lies in the trade-offs between the economic opportunities arising from the organic food market expansion, and the political principles at the core of their action. To provide insights on this issue, a survey was performed in Brazil and Chile. Between March 2016 and December 2018, data were collected through direct and participant observation, documentary analysis, and interviews conducted to peasant organizations’ leaders, technicians and policymakers. In Brazil, the research focused on the Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (The Landless Movement); while in Chile, due to the absence of such a national social movement, it considered a wider set of actors, including the Instituto Nacional de Desarrollo Agropecuario (National Institute for Agricultural Development). The results show how social movements are navigating between the mainstreaming pressures of the conventional markets, dominated by the leading agri-food corporations, and the political efforts they have been doing to build civic food markets as alternatives to conventionalization patterns. Finally, we argue that social scientists should better explain the tensions and compromises the social movements go through in order to coordinate different and complementary marketing strategies.

Nouvelles instances participatives et contre-pouvoirs : Fung et Wright «revisités» à partir des expériences marseillaises et québécoises

2009 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 387-415 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline Patsias ◽  
Sylvie Patsias
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Participatory Democracy ◽  
Quebec City ◽  
Participatory Governance ◽  
General Overview ◽  
Mouvements Sociaux

Résumé. Selon Fung et Wright, la mise en place d'une gouvernance participative impliquerait l'apparition de contre-pouvoirs spécifiques, différents de ceux qui caractérisent les espaces politiques «agonistiques» dans lesquels opèrent les mouvements sociaux. Nous discutons ces conclusions à partir d'une comparaison des rôles joués par des comités de citoyens à Marseille et à Québec dans l'émergence et l'activité d'instances participatives nouvelles. À l'inverse des deux auteurs, nous soulignons que, dans certains cas au moins, la mise en place d'une gouvernance plus participative ne saurait se passer de l'existence de mouvements sociaux, et que certaines des «qualités» que Fung et Wright prêtent aux contre-pouvoirs spécifiques des nouvelles instances participatives peuvent favoriser, au contraire, des logiques de cooptation, néfastes aux pratiques de la démocratie participative. Nous terminons cette discussion par une réflexion plus générale sur les façons de penser le conflit en science politique et sur leur pertinence épistémologique et heuristique.Abstract. According to Fung and Wright, the establishment of participatory governance involves specific stakeholders, different from those characterizing the “antagonistic” political spaces in which social movements operate. We discuss these conclusions via a comparison of roles played by citizens' committees in Marseille and Quebec City in the emergence of new participatory instances. Contrary to the two authors, we stress that, at least in certain cases, the establishment of more participatory governance could not occur without the existence of social movements. More precisely, some features that Fung and Wright attribute to participatory stakeholders could, on the contrary, favour co-optation, harmful to the practices of participatory democracy. We complete this discussion with a more general overview of ways of perceiving the conflict in political science and their epistemological and heuristic relevance.

scholarly journals Differential Column Measurements Using Compact Solar-Tracking Spectrometers

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jia Chen ◽  
Camille Viatte ◽  
Jacob K. Hedelius ◽  
Taylor Jones ◽  
Jonathan E. Franklin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Fourier Transform ◽  
Los Angeles ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Integration Time ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Los Angeles Basin ◽  
Solar Tracking ◽  
Regional Sources ◽  
New Applications ◽  
Atmospheric Phenomena

Abstract. We demonstrate the use of compact solar-tracking Fourier transform spectrometers (Bruker EM27/SUN) for differential measurements of the column-averaged dry-air mole fractions of CH4 and CO2 within urban areas. Using Allan variance analysis, we show that the differential column measurement has a precision of 0.1 ‰ for XCO2 and XCH4 using an optimum integration time of 10 min, which corresponds to standard deviations of 0.04 ppm, and 0.2 ppb, respectively. The sensor system is very stable over time and after relocation across the continent. We report tests of the differential column measurement, and its sensitivity to emission sources, by measuring the downwind minus upwind column gradient ΔXCH4 across dairy farms in the Chino California area and using the data to verify emissions reported in the literature. Spatial column gradient ratios ΔXCH4/ΔXCO2 were observed across Pasadena within the Los Angeles basin, indicating values consistent with regional emission ratios from the literature. Our precise, rapid measurements allow us to determine significant short-term variations (5–10 minutes) of ΔXCO2 and ΔXCH4, and to show that they represent atmospheric phenomena. Overall, this study helps establish a range of new applications for compact solar-viewing Fourier transform spectrometers. By accurately measuring the small differences in integrated column amounts across local and regional sources, we directly observe the mass loading of the atmosphere due to the influence of emissions in the intervening locale. The inference of the source strength is much more direct than inversion modeling using only surface concentrations, and less subject to errors associated with small-scale transport phenomena.

scholarly journals Political Parties and Participative Approaches to Democracy

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristiano Gianolla
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Participatory Democracy ◽  
Good Practice ◽  
Representative Democracy ◽  
Political Movements ◽  
Five Star Movement ◽  
Representative Model ◽  
The Relationship

Representative democracy is currenty facing strong social criticism for its incapacity to envolve people in a way that makes them part of the decision-making process. An existing gap between the representatives and the represented is hereby emphasized. In this space, the role of political parties is central in order to bridge society with institutions. How much are parties concerned about this issue? How and in which context do they interact more with their electorate and the wider society? Participatory democracy is emerging throughout the world in different forms and with different results, but the dominant pattern of democracy remains the liberal western democratic paradigm in which people can contribute barely through electing candidates. In order to achieve what Boaventura de Sousa Santos calls ‘democratisation of democracy’ the role of political parties is therefore fundamental in particular to achieve a more participative democracy within the representative model. This article approaches this theme through a bibliographic review comparing social movements and political parties with a focus on the innovation of the Five Star Movement in Italy. Finally, it provides a reading of the relationship between political parties andparticipation, including good practice and perspectives.KEYWORDS: Participation, political parties, social movements, political movements, representative democracy, participatory democracy.

A Lighter Shade of Brown? Racial Formation and Gentrification in Latino Los Angeles

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alfredo Huante
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
Mexican American ◽  
Racial Inequality ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Economic Inequality ◽  
Racial Formation ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Race And Class ◽  
Racial Ideologies ◽  
Boyle Heights

Abstract Conventional gentrification literature has meaningfully demonstrated how economic inequality is perpetuated in urban settings, but there has been a limited understanding of how racial inequality is maintained. Drawing from participant observation, interviews, and digital ethnography in the barrio of Boyle Heights in Los Angeles that were collected over five years, this study examines how gentrification functions as a racial project and supports new forms of racialization to maintain uneven development along racial lines. Examining the ways that racial formation processes unfurl at the local scale expands conventional understanding of racial formation theory and practice while, simultaneously, illustrating the centrality of place in race-making. This study finds new race and class formations are developed by casting the barrio itself and significant portions of the Mexican American population as “honorary white.” Despite colorblind and post-racial ideologies espoused in majority-minority cities like Los Angeles, this landscape fostered emerging racial formations alongside gentrification processes which have increased racial, political, and economic inequality.

scholarly journals PET VISITATION AS NARRATIVE CARE FOR OLDER ADULTS IN THERAPEUTIC SETTINGS

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S867-S867
Author(s):  
Jill Yamasaki ◽  
Kelley Murfin
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Los Angeles ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Ways Of Knowing ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Term Care ◽  
Personalized Care ◽  
Healing Relationships ◽  
Therapeutic Settings

Abstract A growing body of research highlights the physiological and psychosocial benefits of pet visitation programs in therapeutic settings. These programs utilize the profound connection between humans and animals to promote holistic healing, foster greater quality of life, and influence meaningful communication between patients and providers. For older adults in hospitals or long-term care, these benefits are often correlated with moments of pleasure, comfort, relaxation, and entertainment. The current study builds on this prior knowledge by examining pet visitation programs as a novel form of narrative care that can also help preserve biographical continuity and promote the sharing of lived stories. We worked with two volunteer pet visitation programs in Houston and one in Los Angeles. Our research included a variety of ethnographic methods, including participant observation; informal interviews with providers, patients (or residents, depending on the context), and their families; semi-structured interviews with volunteers; and discourse review of organizational materials. We employed a method of constant comparison to identify and thematically analyze recurrent patterns of behavior and overarching meanings across the data. Three primary themes emerged from the data: (a) compassion, (b) connection, and (c) response. Collectively, the presence of pets prompted stories and behaviors that foster healing relationships characterized by empathy and mutual understanding between patients (or residents), family members, and providers. Pet visitation programs facilitate storied conversations, increased autonomy, and alternative ways of knowing that promote greater understandings of the patient’s (or resident’s) psychosocial context and biographical history, leading to more personalized care and improved well-being.

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