scholarly journals Gold Mining and Political Struggles for Access in Banyuwangi, East Java

PCD Journal ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-89
Author(s):  
Indah Surya Wardhani ◽  
Devy Dhian Cahyati
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Gold Mining ◽  
Alternative Explanation ◽  
New Materialism ◽  
Collective Actions ◽  
Structure Approach ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Political Struggles ◽  
Clean Air ◽  
Vital Element

This article explores how the materiality of natural resources influences social movements. Applying a relational paradigm and new materialism approach, this article explores the materiality of gold as a vital element of actor-network linkages, organisation, framing mechanisms, and recruitment. The transformation of gold from an ore into a mechanism for commodification reflects the interactions between capital holders, scientists, political actors, and legislators. This sociomaterial formation has limited residents' access to such resources as gold, water, land, wood, and clean air, and this momentum has given rise to a social movement in opposition to gold mining activities. This article shows that social movements are not monolithic, but rather dynamic movements that consist of various actors, issues, narratives, and strategies. This study focuses on the anti-mining movement in Tumpang Pitu, Banyuwangi, East Java, and its two decades of struggle to illustrate how the formation, networking, fragmentation, and evolution of social movements is influenced by their materiality (in this case, gold). This article finds that the commodification of gold influences movements' repertoires. This offers an alternative explanation for social movements, which have long been dominated by an actor–structure approach that views social movements as linear, monolithic, and constant collective actions that respond to marginalisation and injustice.

scholarly journals Civil Society and Pro-Democracy Social Movements: Troubled Relations Within Authoritarian Regimes?

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Murad Nasibov
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Authoritarian Regimes ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
Collective Actions ◽  
Organic Solidarity ◽  
Mechanical Solidarity ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Conceptual Relationship

This article tries to conceptually lay down the troubled relations between civil society and social movements within authoritarian regimes. This is done by, first, bringing clarity to the conceptual relationship between civil society and social movement and, then, applying it to the authoritarian context, still theoretically. Following the “hints” of the Eastern European intellectuals of the late 1970s and the 1980s and building on the appropriation of Durkheim’s differentiation between mechanical solidarity and organic solidarity, the article distinguishes two types of solidarity: associative solidarity and action and collective solidarity and action. Civil society is proposed to emerge on associative solidarities (and their actions), while social movements build on collective solidarities (and their actions). Furthermore, associative and collective actions are identified to be progressive and transgressive, respectively. Consequently, the proposed theoretical account is applied theoretically to the authoritarian context and several hypotheses are proposed on the relationship between civil society and pro-democracy movement within authoritarian regimes.

scholarly journals What's Left? - an Exploration of Social Movements, the Left and Activism in New Zealand Today

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Dylan Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Economic Transformation ◽  
The Other ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
Collective Actions ◽  
Political Condition ◽  
The Past ◽  
Class Composition ◽  
Third Phase

<p>Surveys of the situation and prospects of the contemporary Left over the past three decades have frequently underscored themes of fragmentation, decline, even terminal demise. This thesis explores the question of the contemporary Left through interviews conducted with participants in New Zealand social movements. The general theoretical literature around the Left and social movements has consistently highlighted a number of social changes and challenges facing the Left today: the split between old and new Lefts following the rise of the new social movements; economic transformation (for instance, post-Fordism), and changes in class composition; the rise of neo-liberalism, and the dislocating effects of globalization; intellectual challenges, such as the demise of Marxism and the rise of post-modern philosophy; challenges to the state, and the arrival of a "post-political" condition. Analysis of the New Zealand literature around the Left and social movements shows congruent arguments and themes, as well as suggesting Antipodean specificities. To examine these contentions, a series of interviews were conducted with participants in "Left" social movements. These interviews suggest both congruence with some of the arguments in the literature and complexities that do not confirm these generalizations. In particular, the suggestion that a third phase of the Left is emerging, characterized by the joining of culturalist and materialist emphases, appears somewhat confirmed. In addition, a number of the challenges signalled in the literature were singled out by interviewees as pressing - for instance, neo-liberalism and the mediatisation of politics. With respect to the modes of action of social movements connected to the Left, there was here too some confirmation of themes from the literature - for instance, the importance of networking. On the other hand, the widespread theme of the wholesale decline of collective actions was put into question by those interviewed. While no definitive conclusions can be drawn from such a study, the interviews suggest the Left may be entering a period of renewal.</p>

scholarly journals The Funny Side of Globalization: Humour and Humanity in Zapatista Framing

2007 ◽  
Vol 52 (S15) ◽  
pp. 21-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Olesen
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Decisive Role ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
The Social ◽  
Subcomandante Marcos ◽  
The Way

This article argues that the literature on social movements and globalization has not paid sufficient attention to the way in which political actors who act globally try to overcome the social, cultural, and political distances that separate them. It introduces the concept of global framing to give focus to the discursive processes central to such “distance bridging”. In particular, it emphasizes how symbols and emotions are crucial in the framing of distance. Empirically, it discusses how the considerable global resonance created by the Zapatistas in Mexico is facilitated by a framing strategy, carried out mainly by the movement's spokesman, Subcomandante Marcos, in which humour, imperfection, and symbols play a decisive role.

Indigenous Politics and Resistance in Latin America: Continuity and Change

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pascal Lupien
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
Indigenous Movements ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Political Autonomy ◽  
Continuity And Change ◽  
High Profile ◽  
Indigenous Groups ◽  
Indigenous Social Movements

Indigenous social movements have become influential political actors in Latin America over the past three decades. Indigenous peoples continue to experience higher than average political, social and economic marginalization throughout the region. The powerful organizations created by Indigenous groups and the positive outcomes they have achieved despite these barriers have produced a body of research that examines how these social movements emerged, why some have succeeded in influencing policy, the construction of collective identity, and the strategies and tactics used. Indigenous movements have made claims based on their status as pre-colonial peoples; their demands include land rights, control over natural resources, cultural recognition, and political autonomy. Indigenous movements in countries such as Bolivia, Ecuador, and Mexico have used disruptive tactics such as marches and roadblocks to demand the attention of governments, the public and media. They have also strategically participated in building alliances across borders, supporting political parties, and undertaking legal action against powerful actors including the state and extractive industries. The high-profile Indigenous protest cycle that marked the 1990s and early 2000s across Latin America began to wind down during the first decade of the 21st century, but Indigenous movements continue to engage in both politics and protest. In the digital age, they have adapted their tactics to include social media and other technologies.

scholarly journals Indigenous sovereignty and the new developmentalism in plurinational Bolivia

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy Postero ◽  
Nicole Fabricant
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous Rights ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Alternative Form ◽  
Indigenous Autonomy ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Indigenous Groups ◽  
Political Struggles ◽  
Emancipatory Politics ◽  
State And Local ◽  
United Nations Declaration

Across Latin America indigenous groups are asserting an alternative form of sovereignty they are calling indigenous autonomy. They have found support in international documents such as the 2007 United Nations Declaration of Indigenous Rights, as well as some Left-leaning governments such as those in Bolivia and Ecuador. Yet, there is a fundamental paradox at play in these demands: indigenous actors must negotiate their self-determination with the states whose essential characteristic is exerting territorial sovereignty. In this paper, we consider the politics entailed in managing these difficult political struggles. We examine one lowland indigenous community, the Guaraní of Charagua, Bolivia, which has articulated a vision of indigenous self-determination based in ñandereku, or ‘our way of being’ in the world. Rather than a liberal notion of territorial administration, this understanding of autonomy implies reciprocal relations between people and the land. We show how the Guaraní must negotiate the ‘spaces in-between’ competing notions of state and local sovereignty to approach their vision of self-determination. We argue that their efforts to assert indigenous autonomy can act as a form of emancipatory ‘politics,’ but that they are entangled with the ‘policing’ of the state, requiring skillful negotiations. Thus, their alternative notions of sovereignty must, at times, be smuggled in under the cover of other seemingly shared agendas such as economic development or liberalism. Here, we dispute Rancière’s notion of politics as the result of radical disagreement. We show instead how political actors negotiate ambiguities inherent in the multiple meanings of sovereignty to promote their own indigenous visions of self-governance. Thus, we posit that politics does not always require radical ruptures, but instead can emerge from productive entanglements in the ‘third spaces’ between neighbors, government entities, and worldviews. We conclude that this sort of balancing act might best be understood through the indigenous idea of ch’ixi, the holding in tension of competing but complementary elements.

Science and Struggle

2015 ◽  
Vol 661 (1) ◽  
pp. 86-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine Bliss
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Popular Politics ◽  
Effect Change ◽  
Political Struggles ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
Practical Implications ◽  
The Way

Analysis of the activism of experts has ignored the way that scientists form their own overt field-based political struggles to effect change on issues such as race. This article analyzes genomic activism around race, drawing on in-depth interviews with thirty-six leading genomic scientists and discourse analysis of 732 scientific articles. I demonstrate how science activists can fashion themselves as social advocates, by using tactics common to popular politics. These tactics can diverge and detract from popular activism and reify deterministic notions of race. I discuss important theoretical and practical implications for science, social movements, and professions.

Democracy and representation

2019 ◽  
pp. 104-118
Author(s):  
Claude Lefort
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Labor Unions ◽  
English Translation ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Institutional Conditions ◽  
Claude Lefort ◽  
Mass Publics ◽  
Sciences Sociales

This chapter presents the first English translation of an essay that was originally presented in 1989 by Claude Lefort at the Colloquium on Latin America, sponsored by the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS), organized by Daniel Pécault. In this essay, Lefort affirms his important thesis regarding the disembodiment of power in representative democracy and begins to elaborate institutional conditions for its modern practice. He emphasizes that representation must be supported by independent political organizing by social movements and dissenting groups within institutions such as labor unions, schools, and hospitals. He also emphasizes the importance of participation, understood distinctively neither as voting nor as taking to the streets but as a feature of political judgment that he terms a “capacity to understand the political game,” a feature that he considers to be lacking where there exist great divides between elite political actors as mass publics.

Beyond Origins

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angelica Maria Bernal
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Latin American ◽  
The State ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Historical Time ◽  
Common View ◽  
Founding Fathers ◽  
Political Struggles ◽  
Political Traditions ◽  
The Common

From classical stories of divine lawgivers to contemporary ones of Founding Fathers and constitutional beginnings, foundings have long been synonymous with singular, extraordinary moments of political origin and creation. In constitutional democracies, this common view is particularly attractive, with original founding events, actors, and ideals invoked time and again in everyday politics as well as in times of crisis to remake the state and unify citizens. Beyond Origins challenges this view of foundings, explaining how it is ultimately dangerous, misguided, and unsustainable. Engaging with cases of founding through a series of “travels” across political traditions and historical time, this book evaluates the uses and abuses of this view to expose in its links among foundings, origins, and authority a troubling political foundationalism. It argues that by ascribing to foundings a universally binding, unifying, and transcendent authority, the common view works to obscure the fraught political struggles involved in actual foundings and refoundings. In the wake of this challenge, the book develops an alternate approach. Centered on a political view of foundings, this framework recasts foundations as far from authoritatively settled or grounded and redefines foundings as contentious, uncertain, and incomplete. It looks to actors whose complicated relations to pure origins both reveal and capitalize on the underauthorized and contingent nature of foundations to enact foundational change. By examining such actors—from Haitian revolutionaries to Latin American presidents and social movements—the book prods a reconsideration of foundings on different terms: as a contestatory, ongoing dimension of political life.

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