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Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Social groups & communities > Associations, clubs, societies
The Muslim Brotherhood in the West remains a mysterious entity. In
The Closed Circle, Lorenzo Vidino offers an unprecedented inside
view into how one of the world's most influential Islamist groups
operates. He marshals unique interviews with prominent former
members and associates from Europe, the United Kingdom, and North
America, shedding light on why and how people join and leave
Western outfits of the Muslim Brotherhood. Drawing on these
striking personal accounts, Vidino weaves together the experiences
of individuals who participated in and later renounced Brotherhood
groups. Their perspectives provide a wealth of new information
about the Brotherhood's secretive inner workings and the networks
that connecting the small yet highly organized cluster of
Brotherhood-influenced groups. The Closed Circle examines the
tactics the Brotherhood uses to recruit and retain participants as
well as how and why individuals make the difficult decision to
leave. Through the stories of diverse former members, Vidino paints
a portrait of a highly structured, tight-knit movement. His
unprecedented access and understanding of the group's activities
and motivations has significant policy implications concerning
Western Brotherhood organizations and also illuminates the
underlying mechanisms found in a range of extremist groups.
In Spain, on May 15, 2011, a movement against austerity measures
began. In a time when representative democracies were under threat,
15M came to life as a virtuous and democratic response to the slide
into far-right populism and authoritarianism. More than a social
movement, 15M became a mode of being with transformative,
democratizing potential. In Democracy Here and Now, Pablo Ouziel
offers a grounded analysis of 15M. At the time of the movement and
during the ensuing encampments, Ouziel travelled extensively,
speaking to participants, and keeping an ongoing record of his
conversations. Presenting an original participatory mode of
research, the book reveals six types of intersubjective, "joining
hands" relationships that 15M has brought into being and works to
carry on in creative ways. The book shows how the movement's way of
being and temporality persists in Spain following the square
occupations, while 15M citizens continue to learn and move forward
in less perceptible ways. Democracy Here and Now sheds light on a
deeply relational, intersectional, and eco-social mode of
democracy, and shows how 15M's ongoing democratization practices
are exemplary of similar grassroots movements around the world,
broadening our understandings of what it means to be democratic in
the here and now.
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