Towards a dialogical archaeology: an Andean perspective on hermeneutics, interpretation and political praxis

Taking a geopolitical perspective centred in the Argentinian Andes, the authors propose a hermeneutical view of dialogical archaeology. The application of this theoretical and methodological approach to the example of the archaeological site of Huayatayoc (Puna de Jujuy, Argentina) enables an interpretation of the site as a complex woven fabric of diachronic local and scientific practices and narratives. The authors’ work at Huayatayoc provides an example of the potential of this approach for the development of a critical Latin American archaeology, which seeks to acknowledge the multiple interests and narratives of researchers and local communities in dialogue.

The legal field as battleground for social struggle: Reclaiming law from the margins

Scepticism towards law’s potential of fostering social change has been widespread in critical theory and contributed to strengthen social movements’ mistrust vis-à-vis the use of legal tools to advance their claims. Such “anti-law” posture is based on the assumption that law would formalise existing relations of domination and posits the need for a political praxis liberated from “legalistic drifts”. This article discusses how legal tactics in favour of social change have been employed by social movements exerting a counter-hegemonic use of law in the post-2008 economic crisis conjuncture. The example of the struggle for the commons will be analysed as paradigmatic of how the interests of the marginalised can be protected by resorting to existing property arrangements, and how it is possible to reclaim law from the margins.

Imágenes para imaginar: La importancia de atender a los archivos

En este artículo examinamos la importancia de estudiar las imágenes fotográficas del horror, en especial aquellas producidas por sus víctimas, frente a una tradición historiográfica que, en nombre del inimaginable, del irrepresentable de la tragedia –discurso a menudo centrado en el horror del Holocausto nazi– rechaza el estudio de sus restos visuales. Y lo hacemos a través de las reflexiones de Georges Didi-Huberman en Imágenes pese a todo, donde parte del estudio de cuatro fotografías tomadas desde el interior de Auschwitz por un detenido judío, que servirán de ejemplo central para comprender la urgencia de atender a las huellas que nos han quedado del acontecimiento. Será necesario, para ello, repensar la manera en que nos enfrentarnos a este tipo de archivos, realizar una revisión epistemológica de la disciplina histórica. El potencial cognitivo de las imágenes, y su importancia para la praxis ética y política, no serán comprendidos mientras uno no sepa adentrarse en el necesario trabajo de la imaginación. El saber, ante la imagen, ante esa realidad que urge ser comprendida, necesita de un papel activo del observador, de una mirada que sepa reconocer el dolor que hay detrás, la posibilidad de un tiempo no cerrado, capaz de afectar al presente. This paper studies the importance of facing the archives of tragedy, especially those produced by its victims, against a historiographical tradition that, in the name of the unimaginable, of the unrepresentable of the tragedy –often focused on the horror of the Nazi Holocaust–, rejects the study of visual vestiges. We approach it through the reflections of the French art historian Georges Didi-Huberman in his work Images in Spite of All, where he analyses four photographs taken in 1944 in Auschwitz by a Jewish prisoner. It will be necessary to rethink the way to confront these documents. Their cognitive potential, and their importance for ethical and political praxis, will not be understood if we don’t go into the necessary work of imagination. The knowledge, before the image, before that reality that urgently needs to be understood, needs an active role of the observer, a gaze that recognizes the pain behind it, the possibility of an unfinished time.

Ciencia, poder y regímenes de verdad en textos académicos sobre acceso a la profesión docente

The objective of this work is to highlight the performative-ideological effects of scientific discourses, in this case, through the analysis of academic texts published in Spain on a very specific subject: “selective processes for access to teaching work” in public educational system. Epistemologically, it starts from the assumption that the social sciences in general and the educational sciences in particular have been related from historical processes of production and reproduction of the social order. Therefore, assuming the Bourdiean perspective, science is addressed in this work as a field of power that assumes explicitly and implicitly various assumptions regarding the world. Methodologically it is a review article from a historical-dialectical-critical perspective. In this way, the texts are analyzed as an expression of diverse interests and positions that are part of disputes related to the educational field in particular or to the social order in general, the instituted, “the political” in the sense of Castoriadis (1996), evidencing a political praxis.

Buying Voters: Money and Political Transaction in Legislative Elections.

Political transaction has become a common phenomenon that accompanies elections. It does not only occur in countries with well-established democratic systems, but also in developing nations. Academic engagement with the concept of democracy increasingly explores its links to the chaotic commodification of electors' votes. Political transactions can trigger several problems, such as political structures, citizenship awareness, or cultural relations issues that form a democratic structure of the country. Political transactions are processes of negotiation that take place between elites. This paper explores the contestation of social positions to gain electors' votes in the context of the legislative election conducted in Banyuwangi. The strategies used by legislative candidates to obtain votes through transactional relationships demonstrates the various actors involved in general elections. First, the researcher argues that democratization has transformed the sacred position of the elites, especially the religious elite. Second, the complexity of relations between elites presents the position of a broker, which emphasizes the character of democracy in Indonesia, which is marked by issues of clientelism. Thus, it is essential to observe Indonesia's political praxis from the institutional practice point of view and its social problems that distort democratic values. Keywords: Clientelism, Transaction Cost Politic, Money Politics

Colluding With and Resisting the State: Organizing Against Gender Violence in the U.S.

The movements for racial justice, health equity, and economic relief have been activated in the contentious and challenging climate of 2020, with COVID-19 and social protest. In this context, feminist scholars, anti-violence advocates, and transformative justice practitioners have renewed their call for substantive changes to all forms of gender-based violence. This article offers a genealogy of the battered women’s movement in the U.S. from the lived experiences of two longtime activists. These reflections offer an analysis of the political praxis which evolved over the past half century of the anti-violence movement, and which has foregrounded the current social, political, and ideological framing of gender-based violence today. We conclude with a view to the future, focusing on the possibilities for transformative justice and abolition feminism as a return to our radical roots and ancestral histories.

Enacting Feminist Methodologies in Research Toward Reproductive Justice

Reporting on the development of an ongoing qualitative research project with clients of midwifery care in New Brunswick, Canada, this article details the ways that methodology is complexly interwoven with political praxis. Working through the development of this project, this article models one way to enact politically engaged feminist research at each stage of the research process, from developing the research question, through research design, data collection, analysis, and theory generation. In the process, three core principles of feminist research methodologies are extended: co-construction of knowledge, researcher reflexivity, and reciprocal relationships in research. This research is caught up in and responds to a fraught political context where supports for reproductive healthcare are limited, and midwifery, abortion, and gender-affirming care are all framed as “fringe” services that exceed the austerity budget of the province. Participants engaged in this study with a clear understanding of this political terrain and approached interviews as an opportunity to share their experiences, and to advocate for the continuation and expansion of midwifery and related services in the province. Through the research process, it has become evident that midwifery must be understood as part of the struggle toward reproductive justice in this province. These reflections will direct further stages of the project, including ongoing research and dissemination.

The Man Who Struck the Judge with a Fly Swatter: Justice and Performance in Contemporary Kazakhstan

This article investigates a series of events that occurred in Quaragandy, a postindustrial city in northern Kazakhstan in the mid-2010s. These events led to Evgenii Tankov, an established lawyer, hitting a judge, Arai Alshynbekov, with a fly swatter during a routine court session. This research demonstrates that Tankov's act was not a flash of rage or a real attempt to harm the judge. It was, instead, a calculated strategy in which a political statement was concealed if not sheathed within the form of a grotesque performance. Tankov knew he would be judged for disrespect towards the court: and yet he used his subsequent trial to demonstrate the moral and intellectual impasse of Kazakhstan's judicial system. This article claims that as a performance, Tankov's case is useful because it allows one to re-think the genre itself. Moreover, it argues that the form of the trial per se became a genre of political agency in contemporary Kazakhstan. As an example of political praxis, this case allows one to question the ways in which non-political actors produce and affirm their identities and create new forms of political agency in a reality in which political behavior is bounded by a postsocialist authoritarian state.