Unravelling Resistance: Data Activism Configurations in Latin American Civil Society

This work examines the evolution of Latin American Civil Society Organizations’ (CSOs) resistance practices in the context of datafication and how these relate with the overall notions of symbolic domination denounced by the Latin American School of Communication. Although CSOs in Latin America are still exploring the problems surrounding datafication, signs of vitality are already showing in broader debates around human rights, community development, and media policies. The study identifies the main themes underlying datafication work by Latin American CSOs and assesses how they shape resistance practices and CSOs’ perceptions of asymmetrical power relations. While some patterns can fall into existing conceptualisations surrounding resistance practices and data activism, this paper identifies new conceptual and empirical approaches to face the challenges posed by a datafied society.

Interventions with Fathers: Effective Social Work Practice for Enhancing Individual and Family Well-Being

Father involvement, as specifically parent-led or engaged activities, is recognized and understood as distinctively broad in scope, but also rigid and historically prescribed by gendered social roles such the provider and protector roles. American fatherhood is rooted in masculine tropes that historically restricted men to narrowly circumscribed social roles and expected parental performance. All too frequently hegemonic masculinity stifles broad paternal engagement and ingenuity as well as children’s and families well-being. In addition, racial and ethnic bias and discrimination limits Black and other men of color’s ability and access to enact paternal expectations and obligations broadly shared by American civil society and the fathers themselves (Johnson & Johnson, under review). Interventions with these fathers and their families frame the empirical studies in this Special Issue of Research on Social Work Practice.

Musical Organizations and the Politics of American Civil Society

This chapter follows the influence of elite ideas about the role of music into the realm of early musical organizations and societies. Through a focus on the founding of two of the most influential early American musical organizations–the Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia and the Boston Academy of Music–the chapter, more than simply highlighting the scale and variety of early American civic society, argues that these organizations consciously sought to influence the relationship between civil society and the state by promoting a highly hierarchical vision of society–one in which the nation’s success depended on respect for authority, subordination to an educated elite, and a willingness of the majority to accept their place in the greater chorus of the nation.

The recovery of tradition

Scholars have increasingly conceptualized American civil society as a realm of mediating structures that humanize our lives by shielding us from the power of society’s megastructures (whether the State or multinational corporations). This focus on structural position and the work of “mediation” has tended to crowd out an alternative exploration of the family, faith communities, clubs, and voluntary associations rooted in an exploration of their custodial and creative functions in relationship to the traditions through which American society persists. This chapter draws upon Edward Shils’ seminal work, Tradition, to argue that the essential function of these social institutions is to renew the patterns of belief and conduct that guide human action and enable the re-enactment of such patterns across generations. It highlights the importance of Shils’ understanding of the intrinsic value and authority of traditionality in light of the ultimate frailty and insufficiency of rationality by itself in enabling human beings to solve the important problems that confront them individually and as participants in a shared culture.