scholarly journals Toxic Research

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-24
Author(s):  
Noah Theriault ◽  
Simi Kang
Keyword(s):  
Collective Action ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Toxic Substances ◽  
Complex Forms ◽  
Political Ecologies

In a world saturated by toxic substances, the plight of exposed populations has figured prominently in a transdisciplinary body of work that we call political ecologies of toxics. This has, in turn, sparked concerns about the unintended consequences of what Eve Tuck calls “damage-centered research,” which can magnify the very harms it seeks to mitigate. Here, we examine what political ecologists have done to address these concerns. Beginning with work that links toxic harm to broader forces of dispossession and violence, we turn next to reckonings with the queerness, generativity, and even protectiveness of toxics. Together, these studies reveal how the fetishization of purity obscures complex forms of toxic entanglement, stigmatizes “polluted” bodies, and can thereby do as much harm as toxics themselves. We conclude by showing, in dialog with Tuck, how a range of collaborative methodologies (feminist, decolonial, Indigenous, and more-than-human) have advanced our understanding of toxic harm while repositioning research as a form of community-led collective action.

ACTIVISM WITHOUT ACTIVISTS: NEWS MEDIA COVERAGE OF YOUTH AS ILLEGITIMATE POLITICAL AGENTS IN THE VIRGINITY-PLEDGE MOVEMENT AND GAY-STRAIGHT ALLIANCES*

2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 349-364 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heather Hensman Kettrey
Keyword(s):  
Collective Action ◽  
News Media ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Political Identities ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Political Agents

How do news media portray collective action involving activists who are deemed illegitimate political actors? The news media has a well-documented tendency to disparage adult activists by excluding their voices from coverage, attacking their political identities, and minimizing their collective action outcomes. However, the perceived illegitimacy of youth activists suggests they have no voices to be excluded, no political identities to be attacked, and no outcomes to minimize. This study analyzes coverage of the virginity pledge movement and gay-straight alliances in nationally circulated newspapers across two decades. Findings indicate youth activists' illegitimacy actually guaranteed youth a voice in the news media, but this came with unintended consequences. The news media used this perceived illegitimacy to undermine youth activists in three ways: (1) restricting youth voices to personal (apolitical) testimonies, (2) engaging in displaced disparagement by attacking adults and other legitimate targets, and (3) holding adults accountable for collective action outcomes.

What happens to social movements after policy success? Framing the unintended consequences and changing dynamics of the Korean women’s movement

2014 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Doowon Suh
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Women's Movement ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Negative Evaluation ◽  
Policy Success ◽  
Movement Dynamics ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Personal Assessment

Since the late 1990s, the consequences of collective action have been subject to an expanded scholarly inquiry. In particular, a growing body of analysis has elaborated on the impact of social movements on policy, coupled with studies dealing with structural, organizational, and biographical changes. On the whole, however, the literature continues to under-recognize how unintended consequences affect the way social movements function. In order to illustrate the unanticipated yet profound impact of unintended consequences on movement dynamics, I examine the Korean women’s movement as a case study. My analysis focuses on establishing the following three propositions. First, unintended results motivate movement participants to react promptly; this leads them to voluntarily or involuntarily alter their organizational infrastructures, thereby effecting changes in movement dynamics. Second, the impact of unintended consequences is transmitted to movement participants through the process of framing; it is one’s personal assessment rather than a detached appraisal of collective action outcomes that influences movement dynamics. Third, a negative evaluation of the unintended consequences may generate an impetus for reinvigorating collective action.

scholarly journals Complex systems of knowledge integration: A pragmatic proposal for coordinating and enhancing inter/transdisciplinarity

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Teixeira Melo ◽  
Leo Simon Dominic Caves
Keyword(s):  
Collective Action ◽  
Complex Systems ◽  
Complex Network ◽  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
Knowledge Construction ◽  
Knowledge Integration ◽  
Thought Experiment ◽  
Complex Forms ◽  
Different Levels ◽  
Forms Of Knowledge

Humanity’s biggest challenges call for organised collective action, informed by the most complex forms of thinking. Different forms of knowledge and practices of knowing operate at different levels of organisation within society. Scientific knowledge is one form of knowing, but the development of science under a culture of disciplinisation and increasing specialisation has led to its fragmentation and blinded it to the possibilities offered by the integration of knowledge. Interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity are privileged routes for rich knowledge construction and integration. There is a pressing need for efforts directed toward the intentional construction of a culture where interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary practices may flourish. However, we believe significant change will only occur through the orchestration of a set of activities that attend to the complexity of knowledge construction and integration as emergent outcomes of a complex network of processes and relations that constitute an evolving inter and transdisciplinary ecosystem. In this paper we present a thought experiment in the form of a proposal for the organisation of an Alliance for Knowledge Integration and of Inter/Transdisciplinary Hubs aimed at coordinating collaborative actions and contributions from a diversity of agents and systems from different levels of organisation of society towards richer and more integrated practices of knowing.

Problem Characteristics

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth R. DeSombre
Keyword(s):  
Collective Action ◽  
Environmental Issues ◽  
Environmental Problems ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Social Structures ◽  
Time And Space ◽  
Economic Choices ◽  
Do So

Problem characteristics and social structures make environmental problems easy to create and difficult to address. Environmental problems are externalities—unintended consequences of other goals and activities people pursue. Because people don’t individually experience much, if any, of the harm they create (which is likely to affect others distant in time and space), it is difficult and costly for them to prioritize avoiding it. Collective action, necessary to make a difference environmentally, is difficult. These characteristics of environmental issues themselves are embedded in broader social structures—infrastructure and economic choices we do not directly or immediately control. These problem aspects suggest strategies: people are happy to accomplish their goals in a way that does not harm the environment if it can be made convenient for them to do so. In some cases aspects of an issue’s characteristics, or even social structures, can be changed.

Ideas and Leaders in Contentious Politics: One Parish Priest in El Salvador's Popular Movement

2014 ◽  
Vol 38 (01) ◽  
pp. 76-101
Author(s):  
PETER M. SANCHEZ
Keyword(s):  
Collective Action ◽  
El Salvador ◽  
Liberation Theology ◽  
Contentious Politics ◽  
Religious Leaders ◽  
Political Movement ◽  
Parish Priest ◽  
Historical Moment ◽  
Resource Mobilisation ◽  
The Church

AbstractThis paper examines the actions of one Salvadorean priest – Padre David Rodríguez – in one parish – Tecoluca – to underscore the importance of religious leadership in the rise of El Salvador's contentious political movement that began in the early 1970s, when the guerrilla organisations were only just beginning to develop. Catholic leaders became engaged in promoting contentious politics, however, only after the Church had experienced an ideological conversion, commonly referred to as liberation theology. A focus on one priest, in one parish, allows for generalisation, since scores of priests, nuns and lay workers in El Salvador followed the same injustice frame and tactics that generated extensive political mobilisation throughout the country. While structural conditions, collective action and resource mobilisation are undoubtedly necessary, the case of religious leaders in El Salvador suggests that ideas and leadership are of vital importance for the rise of contentious politics at a particular historical moment.

Organization of the Pellicle and the Muciferous Glands in Euglena Gracilis

1970 ◽  
Vol 28 ◽  
pp. 104-105
Author(s):  
Hilton H. Mollenhauer ◽  
W. Evans
Keyword(s):  
Plasma Membrane ◽  
Euglena Gracilis ◽  
Complex Forms ◽  
Secondary Periodicity

The pellicular structure of Euglena gracilis consists of a series of relatively rigid strips (Fig. 1) composed of ridges and grooves which are helically oriented along the cell and which fuse together into a common junction at either end of the cell. The strips are predominantly protein and consist in part of a series of fibers about 50 Å in diameter spaced about 85 Å apart and with a secondary periodicity of about 450 Å. Microtubules are also present below each strip (Fig. 1) and are often considered as part of the pellicular complex. In addition, there may be another fibrous component near the base of the pellicle which has not yet been very well defined.The pellicular complex lies underneath the plasma membrane and entirely within the cell (Fig. 1). Each strip of the complex forms an overlapping junction with the adjacent strip along one side of each groove (Fig. 1), in such a way that a certain amount of sideways movement is possible between one strip and the next.

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