Change by Activism: Insurgency, Autonomy, and Political Activism in Potosí-Jerusalén, Bogotá, Colombia

Cities today face a context in which traditional politics and policies struggle to cope with increasing urbanisation rates and growing inequalities. Meanwhile, social movements and political activists are rising up and inhabiting urban spaces as sites of contestation. However, through their practices, urban activists do more than just occupy spaces; they are fundamental drivers of urban transformation as they constantly face—and contest—spatial manifestations of power. This article aims to contribute to ongoing discussions on the role of activism in the field of urban design, by engaging with two concepts coming from the Global South: <em>insurgency</em> and <em>autonomy</em>. Through a historical account of the building of the Potosí-Jerusalén neighbourhood in Bogotá in the 1980s, it illustrates how both concepts can provide new insight into urban change by activism. On the one hand, the concept of insurgency helps unpack a mode of bottom-up action that inaugurates political spaces of contestation with the state; autonomy, on the other hand, helps reveal the complex nature of political action and the visions of urban transformation it entails. Although they were developed at the margins of conventional design theory and practice, both concepts are instrumental in advancing our understanding of how cities are shaped by activist practices. Thus, this article is part of a broader effort to (re)locate political activism in discussions about urban transformation, and rethink activism as a form of urban design practice.

Rise and Fall of Digital Activism in Mexico From 2000-2019

Political activism is more alive than ever. After the scandal of Facebook and Cambridge Analytica, online social media platforms restricted the distribution of content to privacy laws. But populism disruption in many countries fosters political discontent. Online protests and everyday claims are rising. Add to this context environmental problems and an absence of an ideological framework. All these conditions foster the use of digital activism. But this field of research has studied single cases, losing connections with societies and history. The aim of this chapter is to explain the evolution of digital activism in a long period of time. To achieve such purpose, the author analyzes 11 Mexican events that took place from 2000 to 2019 and provide a classification framework to understand how digital activism transforms over time.

SOCIO-POLITICAL ACTIVISM OF OF RUSSIAN YOUTH IN THE CONDITIONS OF THE INFORMATION SOCIETY

The rapid development of digital technologies and their mass application in all areas has a significant impact on the forms of the socio-political activism of young people, as well as on the formation of young people's civic and political stances. Currently, the classical institutions of civic participation are being transformed under the influence of the digital environment, which leads to the emergence of new formations, which cover increasingly broad cohorts, have specific functioning features and tools. In the study, the author considers various approaches to work and forms of socio-political activism in the modern digital environment, identifies signs of the classification of the digital institutions of civic participation, as well as the subjects of the socio-political activism of youth in information society. The very notion of the digital institution of civic participation as a form of interaction between individuals through the digital environment is defined, which is used to implement joint goals and objectives that are relevant to all community participants. The author concludes that the interaction of traditional and digital tools, their mutual supplementation will allow to realize the socio-political needs of young people at a much more effective level, which are due to both objective age and psychophysical factors and the conditions of the external environment and current political reality.

Political Participation and Request for Change: The Role of Education

The article tests the hypothesis, based on the concept of post-industrial society that people with higher education will be more politically active, especially in the manifestation of the demand for change. For this purpose, the materials of the All-Russian poll, organized in March 2021 by the Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, are used to analyze the sociopolitical characteristics associated with political activism and the formation of a demand for change among different educational groups of Russians. The conclusion is made that, first, education in modern Russia does directly affect an individual's preparedness for political action: more educated Russians are more interested in the political life of the country and are more aware of their ability to influence the "rules of the game". Second, education does directly affect actual involvement in social and political activism. However, concerning conscious political participation, this effect relates not so much to everyday, regular, as to its extreme protest forms. Third, the education of Russians has no discernible correlation with the presence/absence of a liberal demand for change. In terms of meeting the minimum requirements for political participation, Russian educational groups currently correspond to the Western political science mainstream theory and the practices of developed countries. Nevertheless, the highlighted features of the political characteristics of Russians with higher and post-higher education (not all of the examined indicators are stable in dynamics, not all differences between educational groups are clearly expressed, and, in general, the participation of highly educated Russians in the political life of the country is rather formal) lead to the need for a more careful study of the findings not only of the Western scientific mainstream but also of alternative concepts of Third World researchers. In addition, it has been suggested that the emancipation of a group of highly educated Russians from the state is incomplete. Consequently, they are aware of their objectively central place and leading role in political life.

Politics of Togetherness in Dance: The Affective Persistence of somatic Collectivity under post-Fordism.

The last decade of scholarship in dance has produced a number of literary contributions which account for the need to theorize the radical potential of dance as a site for political activism in the context of global social and economic crises. As a practitioner, teacher and theorist in dance and performance, working in a UK university, I am interested in exploring the potential of somatics to resist a seemingly utilitarian incorporation of somatic principles into the agenda of neo-liberalism under post-Fordist conditions. In this article, I refer to somatics as an umbrella term to discuss practices related to the dance field including protests, walks, flashmobs and choreographic explorations of performative participation. While these practices might not be widely recognized as somatic practices, I argue that all operate at a somatic level and point to an ever-shifting relationship between the individual, the collective and the social environment. I reflect on a number of theoretical ideas pertaining to the relations between the development of somatics and the intensification of cultural capitalism in contemporary western society. In doing so, I aim to theorize somatics as critical and political practices of collective forms of being and working together. Drawing on instances of collective embodiment, I argue for the politicization of somatic practices as it relates to ideas of affect, ethics and time. I suggest that embodied expressions of collectivity as politicized somatics can develop valid tactics to counter what I observe to be a mimetic phenomenon between dance practices and capitalism. A situation that has been only exacerbated by the Covid 19 pandemic. I propose the concept of somatic collectivity as a way to describe the critical potential of collective embodiment found in dance and its expanded field of practices.

Pandemic Automobility. Patterns of Crisis and Opportunity in the American Motor Culture

This article traces the recursive character of automobility from a perspective of cultural crises and traumas that accompany motor culture development in the USA. The American automobility system has been caught in the treadmill of ideological criticism that defined the current role of motor vehicles in forms of political activism and cultural criticism. The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic is different as it seems to bring restoration to the original character of motor culture with its defining features of individualism, freedom, and opportunity achieved through mobility.

Stranded Assets: How Policy Uncertainty affects Capital, Growth, and the Environment

The paper considers stochastic environmental policy and its effects on the environment, portfolio composition, and economic growth. Capital accumulation causes pollution which is reduced by private green services and public abatement. The government subsidizes green services and taxes dirty capital albeit at a rate which may become random, causing unexpected capital write-offs. Tax jumps depend on natural degradation and environmental activism. We derive how uncertainty and political activism affect the risk premia for investors. We analyze the incentives for firms to increase the greenness of production in order to reduce political uncertainty. Stochastic taxation is shown to act as a substitute for green subsidies when uncertainty decreases in the ratio of green services to capital and agents use their green activities strategically. Tax uncertainty may trigger precautionary savings, causing additional growth and enhanced environmental deterioration.

Conservative news nonprofits: Claiming legitimacy without transparency

This study examines the field of conservative news nonprofits, using discourse analysis to explore their missions and other public statements. We find that many of these organizations draw on the legitimacy of mainstream journalism outlets while critiquing them, at once associating with and dissociating from them. This enables them to justify their engagement in political activism even as they obscure their ideological orientations and funding sources, behaviors that challenge the normative boundaries of mainstream commercial journalism in the U.S. This work shows how self-described outsiders to a field build and maintain boundaries to legitimate their own work in relation to that field.