Competing Theories of Nonviolent Politics

2020 ◽  
pp. 83-121
Author(s):  
Karuna Mantena
Keyword(s):  
Distinctive Feature ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Social Power ◽  
Contemporary Literature ◽  
Political Strategy ◽  
Ethical Practice ◽  
Mass Mobilization ◽  
Nonviolent Action ◽  
Dynamics Of Action ◽  
Conceptual Logic

The contemporary literature on nonviolent politics relies upon a sharp distinction between strategic and principled nonviolence. Gandhi and King are associated with the latter, defined as a strict moral commitment to nonviolence that both scholars and activists view as unnecessary for the successful practice of nonviolent politics. I argue the distinction between strategic and principled nonviolence is misleading. It misunderstands the most distinctive feature of classical nonviolent politics, namely, how Gandhi and King tethered ethical practice—practices of self-discipline or suffering—to political strategy. This chapter reconstructs an alternative account of nonviolent action—nonviolence as disciplined action—and argues that it is also strategic in orientation but premised upon a different theory of politics and political action. Disciplined action is underpinned by a skeptical ontology of action which highlights the affective dynamics of action. I contrast this to the prevailing model of nonviolence as collective power, which focuses on techniques of mass mobilization and the generation of social power. I distinguish the conceptual logic of these competing theories of nonviolent politics and the differing forms of protest and dissent they recommend.

Red for Ed Teacher Movements: Exploring Roles and Symbols in the Politics of the Superintendency

2021 ◽  
pp. 0013161X2110344
Author(s):  
Michael A. Szolowicz ◽  
R. Aaron Wisman
Keyword(s):  
Political Action ◽  
The United States ◽  
Instructional Leader ◽  
Political Strategy ◽  
New Wave ◽  
Symbolic Politics ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Semistructured Interviews ◽  
Embedded Case Study

Purpose: In recent years, a new wave of teacher-led political action has erupted resulting in work stoppages in several states across the United States. This study examines how superintendents navigated this Red for Ed movement in two representative states. Methods: Framed as a multisite, embedded case study, we drew from public documents and semistructured interviews with superintendents. We took a deductive approach to data analysis, seeking analytic generalization to the theoretical frameworks adopted herein. Findings: Red for Ed-motivated teacher job actions did create a political dilemma for superintendents. Superintendents addressed the dilemma by utilizing the roles of business manager, instructional leader, and politician as expressed through symbolic politics including assigning responsibility and vaguely supporting the Red for Ed cause. Superintendent responses are consistent with isomorphic tenants of sociological institutionalism. Implications: Considering the modern superintendency’s political nature, superintendents might benefit from preparation in political strategy and tactics.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Star
Keyword(s):  
Distinctive Feature ◽  
Philosophy Of Mind ◽  
Philosophy Of Language ◽  
Contemporary Literature ◽  
Normative Reasons ◽  
Main Body ◽  
Language Philosophy ◽  
Key Concepts ◽  
The Way

The purpose and plan of the Handbook is described herein. Key concepts in the contemporary literature on reasons and normativity are introduced, and the forty-four chapters that make up the main body of the Handbook are each summarized. In the process, important connections between the chapters are highlighted. A distinctive feature of the Handbook is said to be the way in which it surveys work on normative reasons in both ethics and epistemology, focusing, when appropriate, on issues concerning unity or lack of it in different domains. It is noted that discussions of reasons and normativity in philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, and aesthetics are also surveyed in the Handbook.

scholarly journals ‘To Act upon one's Time …’ From the impulse to resist to global political strategy

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Birgit Müller
Keyword(s):  
Food Security ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Political Action ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Strategy ◽  
Political Resistance ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Strategic Action ◽  
Political Actions

This article reflects on the possibilities for political action emerging out of quotidian engagements. Following controversies on the patenting of seeds in Canada and globally within the Committee for Food Security I explore what gave the impulse for political resistance in these different arenas. How did collective action emerge and how did it sustain itself? Three political concepts are important for understanding the political actions that I observed: Eigen-Sinn, empathy and strategy. These allowed me to follow and theorize political engagements. I first reflect on the potential to resist as a capacity of all human beings, because they have Eigen-Sinn: the capacity to attribute their own meanings to things, and act in their own self-interested way according to the meaning given. Self-interested action can only become political, however, when humans go beyond their strictly individual interests and empathize with others (humans and nonhumans), what Adorno described as getting into ‘live contact with the warmth of things’. Finally, I discuss how collective action can become not only possible, but also effective, by building and defending a space for strategic action.

Anonymous glory

2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patchen Markell
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
William Faulkner ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Social Power ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
Reliable Source ◽  
Anonymous Processes ◽  
The Human Condition

Hannah Arendt’s political theory is often understood to rest on a celebration of action, the memorable words and deeds of named individuals, over against the anonymous processes constitutive of ‘labor’ and ‘society’. Yet at key moments in The Human Condition and The Origins of Totalitarianism, Arendt seems to signal a different relationship between political action and anonymity; and she does so in part via citations of the novels of William Faulkner. Using the apparently contradictory notion of ‘anonymous glory’ as a heuristic, this essay reconsiders Arendt’s political thought through readings of the novels she cites, A Fable and Intruder in the Dust. The essay argues that, for Arendt, a conception of action adequate to the scale of modern social power must somehow be both indelibly tied to individual deeds and immersed in a processual field that is indifferent to the needs for meaning or purpose or satisfaction that individuals bring to what they do; and that Arendt’s engagement with this problem both complicates the relation of action to its supposed opposites, and makes it more difficult to conceive of action’s recovery as a reliable source of theoretical or political redemption.

Kim Stanley Robinson

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Markley
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Science Fiction ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Contemporary Literature ◽  
The Past ◽  
Science Technology ◽  
Fiction Writers ◽  
Economics And Politics ◽  
Time Culture ◽  
Selection Of

Kim Stanley Robinson is the first full-length study of one of the most widely read and influential science-fiction writers of our era. In dicussing eighteen of his novels published since 1984 and a selection of his short fiction, this study explores the significance of his work in reshaping contemporary literature. Three of the chapters are devoted to Robinson’s major trilogies: the Orange County trilogy (1984-90), the Mars trilogy (1992-96), and the Science in the Capital trilogy (2004-07). Two other chapters consider his groundbreaking alternative histories, including “The Lucky Strike” (1984), The Years of Rice and Salt (2002), and Shaman (2014), and his future histories set among colonies in the solar system, notably Galileo’s Dream (2009) and 2312 (2012). The concluding chapter examines Robinson’s most recent novels Aurora (2015) and New York 2140 (2017). In interviews, Robinson describes his fiction as weaving together, in various combinations, Marxism, ecology, and Buddhist thought, and all of his novels explore how we might imagine forms of utopian political action. His novels—from the Mars trilogy to New York 2140—offer a range of possible futures that chart humankind’s uneven progress, often over centuries, toward the greening of science, technology, economics, and politics. Robinson filters our knowledge of the past and our imagination of possible futures through two superimposed lenses: the ecological fate of the Earth (or other planets) and the far-reaching consequences of moral, political, and socioeconomic decisions of individuals, often scientists and artists, caught up in world or solar-systemic events. In this respect, his fiction charts a collective struggle to think beyond the contradictions of historical existence, and beyond our locations in time, culture, and geography.

Motive and Goal in Hannah Arendt's Concept of Political Action

1980 ◽  
Vol 74 (3) ◽  
pp. 721-733 ◽  
Author(s):  
James T Knauer
Keyword(s):  
Political Action ◽  
Political Strategy ◽  
Jürgen Habermas ◽  
Jurgen Habermas ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

Hannah Arendt's work is of major importance primarily because of the categories of thought she originates, especially her concept of political action. But this concept has frequently been criticized for being irrelevant to, or incapable of comprehending, strategic concerns. This criticism however, is based on a misreading of Arendt on the relationship of specific motives and goals to political action. The critical interpretations of three commentators are considered here: Kirk Thompson, Jürgen Habermas, and Martin Jay. A detailed explication of the relevant texts from Arendt demonstrates the misreading of Arendt on which these criticisms are based and at the same time reveals the subtlety and power of Arendt's conception of the relationship between instrumentality and meaning in political action. Once this relationship is correctly understood, it becomes possible to appreciate the implications of Arendt's work for questions of political strategy.

When Do Firms Prefer Individual Action to Collective Action in The Pursuit of Corporate Political Strategy? A New Perspective on Industry Concentration

2009 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mine Ozer ◽  
Seung-Hyun Lee
Keyword(s):  
Collective Action ◽  
Research And Development ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Industry Concentration ◽  
Government Contracts ◽  
Political Strategy ◽  
Individual Action ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
Corporate Political Strategy ◽  
Contingency Approach

In this study we advance the current research on corporate political strategy by examining how firms decide on their level of engagement in political action. This study proposes a contingency approach that identifies conditions in which firms prefer individual action to collective action in their pursuit of political strategy and introduces a framework that addresses this preference. Our results show that even in concentrated industries, a firm's preference of individual action over collective action varies when government contracts or research and development intensity are important considerations.

Probing Gandhi’s Political Strategy in View of His Civilisational Politics in India

Social Change ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 104-116
Author(s):  
Arun Bandopadhyay
Keyword(s):  
Political Action ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
Indian Society ◽  
Political Strategy ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Short And Long Term ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Many ◽  
The Impact

The present article seeks to critically probe Gandhi’s civilisational view of Indian society and politics both from his few articulate and many hidden statements at different stages of his life. His civilisational view is, therefore, analysed from a variety of perspectives: its origin, direction, advocated methods and long-time impact on Gandhian thought, philosophy and activities. It is presumed that such an analysis of Gandhi’s political philosophy with special reference to his civilisational view may clarify some of the mysteries associated with his much cited and often criticised ‘strategies’ of political activity. The article has three parts. The first dwells on the background of Gandhi’s civilisational critique and touches on some of its contents from the political standpoints. The second probes into the many meanings of civilisational politics both from Gandhi’s articulate and hidden statements on the subject. The third reviews the impact of Gandhi’s civilisational politics on the course and strategy of his political action, and its legacy for the future. The underlying idea is that satyagraha in the Gandhian philosophical context is most intelligible when viewed from the short- and long-term perspectives of civilisational politics.

scholarly journals Domination and Disobedience: Protest, Coercion and the Limits of an Appeal to Justice

2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 666-679 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guy Aitchison
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Majority Rule ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Social Power ◽  
Authoritarian Regimes ◽  
Mutual Respect ◽  
Arbitrary Power ◽  
Democratic State ◽  
Material Interests ◽  
Moral Persuasion

I offer a conceptual framework for assessing the normative legitimacy of coercive disobedience—involving threats, disruption, force, and deceit—by social movements. A standard liberal view is that while coercion may be required to resist authoritarian regimes, it is illegitimate in a democratic state since it conflicts with majority rule and mutual respect. In restricting disobedience to a form of moral persuasion, this perspective neglects how social power and material interests can distort the conditions for open, fair deliberation. I offer a principled defense of coercive disobedience, not only in repressive states but in plausibly democratic societies. I argue that coercion can be justified on democratic republican grounds as a means to collectively contest objectionable forms of political domination. The use of coercion can be justified as asurrogatetool of political action for those who lack effective participation rights; as aremedialtool to counteract the dominating influence of powerful actors over the process of democratic will formation, and as amobilizationaltool to maintain participation and discipline in collective action. I conclude by proposing democratic constraints on the use of coercive tactics designed to offset the potential movements themselves become a source of arbitrary power.

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