Terrorism, counter-insurgency, and societal relations

2019 ◽  
pp. 266-274
Author(s):  
Gareth Jenkins
Keyword(s):  
Societal Relations

Alice through the Looking Glass: Marginalisation in the Aboriginal Town Camps of Alice Springs

1980 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 427-448 ◽  
Author(s):  
D Drakakis-Smith
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Third World ◽  
Field Experiences ◽  
The Town ◽  
Looking Glass ◽  
Statistical Results ◽  
Societal Relations

This paper was written immediately following an extensive period of fieldwork in the small Australian town of Alice Springs. It was deliberately written before most of the statistical results of various surveys were available in order to crystallise the less quantifiable impressions and features of the Aboriginal position in the town around a conceptual framework of societal relations. The few studies of urban Aborigines to date have been more descriptive than analytical. To this end, and based upon my own previous field experiences, I have borrowed from contemporary Third World studies the notions of marginality and marginalisation, and assessed the situation in Alice Springs in these terms. The reasons for this particular choice of concepts was partly because of the location of Alice Springs in ‘colonial’ Australia but primarily because of the etymological and philosophical links with the prevailing opinion of most Aborigines in Alice Springs as fringe dwellers—people on the margins of the town and its society. There have been few attempts to examine the position of Aborigines in contemporary Australia in conceptual terms and this effort will undoubtedly have many shortcomings. However, its purpose is not to be definitive but rather to stimulate further investigation and discussion.

Model Minority

2015 ◽  
pp. 259-290 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen Sy de Jesus
Keyword(s):  
Asian Americans ◽  
American Dream ◽  
Model Minority ◽  
Social Injustice ◽  
Paradoxical Effect ◽  
Exceptional Group ◽  
American Society ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Societal Relations

Since the 1960s, Asian Americans have been hailed as the model minority of American society. Seen as the exceptional group of immigrants and the example of successful assimilation, they are presumed to have achieved the American Dream and to be free from racialization. This chapter disrupts the idealization of the myth by analyzing the ways it contributes to maintaining social injustice. Grounded in Michel Foucault's (1977) notion of the norm, this analysis demonstrates how an affirmative stereotype that reflects exceptionality and exemplariness fosters and reproduces relations of discrimination and alienation. Butler's (2004) work on vulnerability is used to illuminate how this paradoxical effect of the norm takes place through the structuring of relations between Asian Americans and White mainstream Americans, between Asian Americans and other minorities, as well as among Asian Americans. This chapter challenges the reader to re-examine the myth and to explore ways to transform societal relations.

scholarly journals Social Ecology as Critical, Transdisciplinary Science—Conceptualizing, Analyzing and Shaping Societal Relations to Nature

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (7) ◽  
pp. 1050 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diana Hummel ◽  
Thomas Jahn ◽  
Florian Keil ◽  
Stefan Liehr ◽  
Immanuel Stieß
Keyword(s):  
Social Ecology ◽  
Transdisciplinary Science ◽  
Societal Relations

Leading from behind: democratic consolidation and the chieftaincy in South Africa

2004 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 113-136 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Michael Williams
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Local Government ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Democratic Consolidation ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
Social Environments ◽  
The Social ◽  
Transformative Process ◽  
Official Recognition ◽  
Societal Relations

Despite the dramatic changes that have occurred in South Africa over the last fifteen years, the chieftaincy remains an important political institution that continues to exercise authority. It has not only been given official recognition and protection in the constitution, but has attempted to become more involved in activities such as development, local government, and elections. How this institution might affect the process of democratic consolidation, however, has failed to generate much research. This article explores the ways in which the chieftaincy has responded to the introduction of democratic electoral practices at the local level. While the chieftaincy has not been immune from the social and political changes that have swept through the country since the transition, it has nonetheless sought to direct, or redirect, these changes in ways that bolster its own authority. Many local communities expect the chieftaincy not only to assist with the formal electoral process, but also to allow for more participation within local level chieftaincy institutions. A close examination of chieftaincy–societal relations demonstrates that while the chieftaincy has been affected by new democratic rules and practices, it has also influenced how local communities practice and understand these same rules and practices. This mutually transformative process illustrates the complexity of democratic consolidation, as well as the ability of the chieftaincy to adapt to changing political and social environments without sacrificing its unique claims to authority.

scholarly journals Principles of Inter-Societal Dynamics

2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 649-677 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan H. Turner
Keyword(s):  
System Analysis ◽  
World System ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Sociological Analysis ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Global System ◽  
Hunting And Gathering ◽  
Societal Dynamics ◽  
Important Shift ◽  
Societal Relations

World-system dynamics are re-conceptualized as inter-societal systems with some de-emphasis on the notions of core, periphery, and semi-periphery.  This tri-part division has been useful in forcing sociology to rethink macro-level sociological analysis and in establishing the importance of considering inter-societal systems as a fundamental unit of human social organization, but this Weberian-like ideal type is constraining theoretical analysis. Moreover, core, periphery, and semi-periphery are not consistently found across a broad range of inter-societal systems, beginning with those among hunting and gathering societies and moving to the current capitalist inter-societal system. Furthermore, the often-implied view that the current geo-economic global system has replaced geo-political systems is overdrawn because geo-economics and geo-politics constantly intersect and interact in all inter-societal systems. Some illustrative general models are drawn for geo-political systems, while abstract principles for geo-political and geo-economic inter-societal relations are articulated.  The goal of the paper, then, is to move current world-system analysis back, in a sense, to earlier conceptualizations of geo-economics and geo-politics and empire formations that have always existed among human populations and that now drive the dynamics of the globe today. In this analysis, the seminal work of Christopher Chase-Dunn is referenced as a source of inspiration for this small, but important, shift in analysis and modes of theorizing. 

The local translation of global indigeneity: A case of the Chittagong Hill Tracts

2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 68-85
Author(s):  
Nasir Uddin
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Identity Politics ◽  
The Political ◽  
Local Translation ◽  
Chittagong Hill Tracts ◽  
International Support ◽  
Indigenous Groups ◽  
Public Debates ◽  
Indigenous Movement ◽  
Societal Relations

Indigeneity, a concept and construct, is increasingly gaining currency in academia, in the political sphere, and in public debates. Indigeneity as an active political force with international support has become a resource in identity politics. This article focuses on the dynamics of how the transnational idea of indigeneity has been nationally installed and locally translated within the context of the ethnohistory of an Indigenous movement that stemmed from local–societal relations with the state. The idea of indigeneity is seen as both local and global because it is globally circulated but locally articulated as well as globally charged but locally framed. Focusing on the Chittagong Hill Tracts, in the borderlands of South and Southeast Asia and home to 11 Indigenous groups in Bangladesh, the article argues that the local translation of global indigeneity is necessary for ensuring the rights and entitlements of Indigenous Peoples.

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