All About Iraq: Re-Modifying Older Slogans and Chants in Tishreen [October] Protests

This paper analyses five main slogans and chants performed during the first 3 months of Iraq’s 2019 Tishreen [October] protests. It aims to trace their origin to examine the transformation in the narratives created by each version. Drawing on a social approach to narrative and a social semiotic multimodal approach to communication, I treat slogans and chants as an evolving genre and performance, capable of triggering, constructing, and negotiating a different set of narratives in each adaptation. Such narratives arguably determine their impact. Unlike earlier versions, Tishreen chants and slogans succeeded in conjuring up collective and cross-sectarian narratives that could challenge master political narratives and heighten an Iraqi identity in the first place. It would, therefore, be hard to erase them from memory.

Irregularities in transnational adoptions and child appropriations: Challenges for reparation practices

Transnational adoption is a global movement of children across borders to new permanent and irreversible legal relationships. It is a circulation that involves social, economic, cultural and political relations marked by geographies of inequalities of power on a global scale. Many of these circulations have been shrouded by illicit practices which mean the violation of child rights. This special issue of the journal Childhood examines individual, social and political narratives on illicit processes surrounding this practice. Drawing from social and political sciences research, the contributors of this collection show the contradiction between ‘silences’ around certain practices in some societies, while in others ‘truth recovery’ has been central to the transition towards democracy. The authors raise concerns about policies and practices that complicate the interests and rights of individual actors.

Zabel Yesayan, “Chronicle – The Role of the Armenian Woman during the War”

The following is a translation of a lecture delivered in French by Zabel Yesayan at the Engineers Hall on 17 January 1920. The talk was originally published, seemingly without much editing, in the French Revue des études arméniennes 2 (1922): 121–138. The lyricism of this nationalist panegyric and ode to the Armenian woman exposes the author’s raw emotions, as she describes the exodus of Armenians from their homeland during World War I, their struggle, their resilience, and the crimes committed against them. Zabel Yesayan’s speech is altogether révolté – in the sense of moral and political indignation – and righteous. It also reveals with poignant and at times excruciating details, the gendered violence that conventional political narratives often silence about women, especially during genocide. The page numbers referenced below in brackets correspond to the page numbers in the Revue des études arméniennes publication. I have maintained as much as possible the orality of this speech, delivered in florid, melodramatic, nineteenth-century oratory style. I have, however, added punctuation when the lack thereof led to confusion or unintelligibility.

Influence of social media will grow in Madagascar

Significance The situation has exposed several scandals, putting President Andry Rajoelina and his entourage on the political defensive. Social media has become a potent political weapon in the hands of ruling elites as a way to shape political narratives and discredit opponents. Impacts Rajoelina will struggle to hold together his circle of political allies in the run-up to the 2023 elections. Opposition groups will have difficulty capitalising on government divisions due to their own fragmentation. Social media will play an increasingly central role in driving political debate.

Voices of Vietnam

On September 2, 1945, Ho Chi Minh read the Declaration of Independence over a makeshift wired loudspeaker system to thousands of listeners in Hanoi. Five days later, Ho’s Viet Minh forces set up a clandestine radio station using equipment brought to Southeast Asia by colonial traders. The revolutionaries garnered support for their coalition on air by interspersing political narratives with red music (nhạc đỏ). Voice of Vietnam Radio (VOV) grew from these communist and colonial foundations to become one of the largest producers of music in contemporary Vietnam. In the first comprehensive English-language study on the history of radio music in mainland Southeast Asia, Lonán Ó Briain examines the broadcast voices that reconfigured Vietnam’s cultural, social, and political landscape over a century. Ó Briain draws on a year of ethnographic fieldwork at the VOV studios (2016–17), interviews with radio employees and listeners, historical recordings and broadcasts, and archival research in Vietnam, France, and the United States. From the Indochinese radio clubs of the 1920s to the 75th anniversary celebrations of the VOV in 2020, Voices of Vietnam offers a fresh perspective on this turbulent period by demonstrating how music production and sound reproduction are integral to the unyielding process of state formation.

LIBERALISM AS A MODERN IDEOLOGY

The article differentiates modern socio-political narratives with their inherent speculative ontological and anthropological foundations and the real causes of social transformations of the modern era and shows that the ideological and socio-political foundations of liberalism emerged in the pre-modern era widespread after the invention of printing technology. Through book printing, liberalism opened wide access to information resources and contributed to the important transformation of peoples into nations, uniting historically conditioned social demands of peoples into an ideological core. The uniqueness of liberalism was determined by the collective interests of the active minority, which, using the achievements of information technology revolutions, made efforts to destroy the archaic unjust orders and systems. The struggle against these unjust orders gave an indulgence to uncriticalism, thus contributing to the penetration into the public consciousness of a large number of ideals and norms, which promoted the enslavement of people, disguising it as humanistic tendencies.

Key opportunities and challenges for the use of big data in migration research and policy

Migration is one of the defining issues of the 21st century. Better data is required to improve understanding about how and why people are moving, target interventions and support evidence-based migration policy. Big data, defined as large, complex data from diverse sources, has been proposed as a solution to help address current gaps in knowledge. The authors participated in a workshop held in London, UK, in July 2019, that brought together experts from the UN, humanitarian NGOs, policy and academia to develop a better understanding of how big data could be used for migration research and policy. We identified six key areas regarding the application of big data in migration research and policy: accessing and utilising data; integrating data sources and knowledge; understanding environmental drivers of migration; improving healthcare access for migrant populations; ethical and security concerns; and addressing political narratives. We advocate the need for increased cross-disciplinary collaborations to advance the use of big data in migration research whilst safeguarding vulnerable migrant communities.