Engaged Musicology, Political Action, and Social Justice

Black Opera ◽  
2018 ◽  
pp. 193-208
Author(s):  
Naomi André
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Political Activism ◽  
Cutting Edge ◽  
New Production ◽  
Art Form ◽  
Opera House ◽  
A Site

This chapter examines a new analytical paradigm called “Engaged Musicology” that allows for reading opera as an art form that has potential for being a site for critical inquiry, political activism, and social change. It is fleshed out in two real-life situations: a cutting-edge new production of Bizet’s Carmen (a Trans Carmen in prison) and a concert version performance of Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail. The potential of an engaged musicological practice allows old and new, standard and underrepresented narratives to be voiced in opera. Such a practice would both invite new audiences into the opera house and present traditional opera goers with new realities.

Political Consumption as Supplement to Conventional Political Participation in Promoting Social Change

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-62
Author(s):  
Emmanuel Adugu
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Food Safety ◽  
Food Production ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Ethical Concerns ◽  
Using Data ◽  
A Site ◽  
Political Consumption

Research indicates that individual consumers with food safety, environmental and ethical concerns regarding the provisioning of food may be motivated to use the marketplace as a site for political action to promote social change—a phenomenon known as political consumption (PC). Using data from Ohio 2007 Survey of Food, Farming and Environment, this research examined individual level attributes shaping engagement in PC and conventional political action. Findings based on logistic regression analyses, reveal that engagement in conventional political behavior is positively related to the likelihood of engagement in political consumption. This suggests that engagement in conventional political action and political consumption are not mutually exclusive. The main factors associated with engagement in political consumption are: knowledge about food production, environmental and food safety concerns. These findings suggest that consumers with concerns about the organization and character of food production believe they can create social changes via their consumptive decisions.

‘Agitate! Agitate! Agitate!’: Sport as a site for political activism and social change

Organization ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (6) ◽  
pp. 952-968
Author(s):  
Kwame J. A. Agyemang ◽  
John N. Singer ◽  
Anthony J. Weems
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Political Activism ◽  
Political Protest ◽  
Race And Racism ◽  
High Profile ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Nuanced Understanding ◽  
A Site ◽  
Coffee Shops

Is sport an appropriate forum for activists to engage in political protest? In recent years, this question has been the subject of conversations in households, public spaces such as barbershops and coffee shops, and social media and newsrooms, as various high-profile athletes have used their sport platforms to call attention to various social injustices existing within the US society. The purpose of the following interview is to provide further insight into this intersection between sport and politics and the use of sport as a site for political resistance and social change. Dave Zirin, a critical sports journalist, is the sports editor for The Nation and author of several books on the politics of sport. This interview with Dave Zirin offers a nuanced understanding on the recent occurrences involving athlete activism and the overall use of sport as a site for political activism and social change. Topics covered include race and racism in America, social responsibility, and social movements, among others.

scholarly journals PURSUANCE AND THE PRACTICE OF DE-INSTITUTIONALIZED DEMOCRACY

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Tynes ◽  
Claire Peters
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Political Activism ◽  
Organizational Structures ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Democratic Process ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Digital Space ◽  
Social Actions

The internet offers the possibility of forming de-institutionalized, organizational structures that engage in the democratic process in ways that go far beyond volunteering, protesting, or voting. The digital space enables people to collaborate and communicate with one another more effectively, even if they have never met in real life (Shirky 2009). Formations such as Telecomix and Project PM show that this capability can be harnessed in the service of meaningful collective political and social actions. Journalist and activist Barrett Brown's latest venture, $2 , hopes to further that potential. Pursuance looks to empower political actors via "process democracy" (Brown 2018), offering participants a platform in which they can organize, build, and act on social justice endeavors. Pursuance is important because it provides a means for individuals to rapidly and effectively assemble, disassemble, and reassemble into mission-driven teams. This lessens the need for stable institutions to direct civic or political activism, thus reducing the problems that often follow, e.g. the Iron Law of Oligarchy (Michels 2015). We explore the potential of Brown's endeavor, asking: How can Pursuance most effectively further the practice of deinstitutionalized democracy? What can be learned from past groups that have engaged in the kind of activity Pursuance aims to facilitate?

Creating Mentoring Opportunities to Promote Cultural Competencies and Social Justice

2017 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 137-157 ◽  
Author(s):  
Puncky Paul Heppner
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Real Life ◽  
The United States ◽  
Psychological Research ◽  
Learning Opportunities ◽  
Cultural Learning ◽  
Cultural Competencies ◽  
Strategic Role ◽  
Definition Of

This article focuses on the application of mentorship strategies to develop cultural competencies and promote social justice in future generations of counseling psychologists. Moreover, the emphasis is on building pedagogical structures that provide necessary learning opportunities for mentees, guidance and mentoring, as well as needed social change. Specifically, pedagogical structures paired with mentoring opportunities were created to: (a) inspire and expand students’ cultural learning to promote cultural competencies in both university and community populations, (b) promote understanding of current and historical events affecting the hearts and souls of mentees, (c) provide mentees with strategies to successfully navigate across cultural borders within the United States, (d) promote culturally-infused student services, (e) promote cultural competencies in crossing national borders, and (f) utilize psychological research as a vehicle of social change. Thus, this article expands the traditional definition of mentoring to include a planful and strategic role in creating real-life, real-time educational opportunities to promote social justice at one university across a decade, that are easily transferable to other institutions.

Attitudinal Measures of Political Consumption as a Form of Civic Engagement in a Developing Country

2014 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 28-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emmanuel Adugu ◽  
Richard Ampadu-Ameyaw
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
United States Of America ◽  
Political Action ◽  
The United States ◽  
Political Efficacy ◽  
Trust In Institutions ◽  
Industrialized Nations ◽  
A Site ◽  
Political Consumption ◽  
Higher Institutions

The use of the marketplace as a site for political action with social change motives is referred as political consumption. The phenomenon of political consumption has been widely studied in post-industrialized nations such as the United States of America but less is written about such social change-oriented behaviors in developing countries. This paper aims at determining the attitudinal measures of political consumption in Ghana, a developing nation in West Africa. The study is based on data collected in August 2013 from a total of 356 Ghanaians sampled from higher institutions of learning. Findings suggest that influence over government (political efficacy) is a consistent predictor of the respective attitudinal measures of political consumption. To some extent this pattern of behavior of engagement in political consumption contradicts findings in post-industrialized nations where it is consistently linked to variables such as: socio-demographics, political interest, and trust in institutions.

Political Consumption as Supplement to Conventional Political Participation in Promoting Social Change

2019 ◽  
pp. 362-378
Author(s):  
Emmanuel Adugu
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Food Safety ◽  
Food Production ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
Regression Analyses ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Using Data ◽  
A Site ◽  
Political Consumption

Research indicates that individual consumers with food safety, environmental and ethical concerns regarding the provisioning of food may be motivated to use the marketplace as a site for political action to promote social change—a phenomenon known as political consumption (PC). Using data from Ohio 2007 Survey of Food, Farming and Environment, this research examined individual level attributes shaping engagement in PC and conventional political action. Findings based on logistic regression analyses, reveal that engagement in conventional political behavior is positively related to the likelihood of engagement in political consumption. This suggests that engagement in conventional political action and political consumption are not mutually exclusive. The main factors associated with engagement in political consumption are: knowledge about food production, environmental and food safety concerns. These findings suggest that consumers with concerns about the organization and character of food production believe they can create social changes via their consumptive decisions.

scholarly journals Feminist Mothering: Challenging Gender Inequality by Resisting the Institution of Motherhood and Raising Children to be Critical Agents of Social Change.

2009 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fiona Joy Green
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Gender Inequality ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Raising Children ◽  
Feminist Consciousness ◽  
A Site

In spite of the significant contributions of feminists to feminist theorizing and research on motherhood and mothering, only a few scholars are paying attention to the analysis of the potential of feminist mothering as a site of women’s strength and resistance to patriarchy and as a location of revolutionary activism. This article explores how the work of conscious feminist mothers can empower women to break free from the rules of patriarchal motherhood to create their own models of mothering and, in turn, practice the invaluable work of rearing children to be active conscientious citizens for social justice. Excerpts from several interviews with sixteen self-identified feminist mothers, conducted for a larger research project on feminist mothering, provide concrete examples of how having a feminist consciousness transform the work of mothering into both a “rewarding, disciplined expression of conscience” proposed by Ruddick, and a location of active social change theorized by Chodorow (1978) and Rich (1986)

Enforcing Performance: Disciplining Girls in British Co-educational Boarding School Stories, 1928–58

2008 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 125-138
Author(s):  
CLARE HOLLOWELL
Keyword(s):  
Gender Roles ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Boarding School ◽  
Educational Setting ◽  
Female Characters ◽  
School Stories ◽  
School Story ◽  
Girls School ◽  
A Site

This paper examines girls and power in British co-educational boarding school stories published from 1928 to 1958. While feminist scholars have hailed the girls’ school story as a site of potential resistance to constricting gender roles, the same can not be said of the co-educational school story. While the genres share many tropes and characterisation, the move from an all-female world to a co-educational setting allows the characters access to a narrower range of gender roles, and renders the female characters significantly less powerful. The disciplinary structures of the co-educational schools, mirroring those in real life, operate in a supposedly progressive manner that in fact removes girls from access to power.

Utopophobia

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Estlund
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Ideal Theory ◽  
Theory Of Justice ◽  
Sound Theory ◽  
Theory Versus ◽  
History Of ◽  
Practical Guidance

Throughout the history of political philosophy and politics, there has been continual debate about the roles of idealism versus realism. For contemporary political philosophy, this debate manifests in notions of ideal theory versus nonideal theory. Nonideal thinkers shift their focus from theorizing about full social justice, asking instead which feasible institutional and political changes would make a society more just. Ideal thinkers, on the other hand, question whether full justice is a standard that any society is likely ever to satisfy. And, if social justice is unrealistic, are attempts to understand it without value or importance, and merely utopian? This book argues against thinking that justice must be realistic, or that understanding justice is only valuable if it can be realized. The book does not offer a particular theory of justice, nor does it assert that justice is indeed unrealizable—only that it could be, and this possibility upsets common ways of proceeding in political thought. The book's author engages critically with important strands in traditional and contemporary political philosophy that assume a sound theory of justice has the overriding, defining task of contributing practical guidance toward greater social justice. Along the way, it counters several tempting perspectives, including the view that inquiry in political philosophy could have significant value only as a guide to practical political action, and that understanding true justice would necessarily have practical value, at least as an ideal arrangement to be approximated. Demonstrating that unrealistic standards of justice can be both sound and valuable to understand, the book stands as a trenchant defense of ideal theory in political philosophy.

scholarly journals Exhaustion and possibility. The wor(l)dlyness of social work in (G)local environment worlds during a pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 54-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mona B Livholts
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Turning Point ◽  
Social Problems ◽  
Life Writing ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Local Environment ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Writing Genres

Exhaustion is not about being tired. It is an intense feeling of restlessness, of insomnia, and awakening when I ask myself: have I exhausted all that is possible? Such a state of restlessness and wakefulness represents a turning point for having enough, and opens for new possibilities to act for social change. This reflexive essay departs from the notion that the language of exhaustion offers a wor(l)dly possibility for social work(ers) to engage in critical analytical reflexivity about our locations of power from the outset of our (g)local environment worlds. The aim is to trace the transformative possibilities of social change in social work practice through the literature of exhaustion (eg. Frichot, 2019 ; Spooner, 2011 ). The methodology is based on uses of narrative life writing genres such as poetry, written and photographic diary entrances between the 4th of April and 4th of June. The essay shows how tracing exhaustion during the pandemic, visualises a multiplicity of forms of oppression and privilege, an increasing attention and relationship to things, and border movements and languages. I suggest that social work replace the often-used terminology of social problems with exhaustive lists to address structural forms of racism, sexism, ableism, ageism, which has been further visualized through death, illness, violence, and poverty during the pandemic. I argue that the language of exhaustion is useful for reflexivity and action in social work practice through the way it contributes to intensified awareness, attention, engagement, listening, and agency to create social justice.

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