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Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > Political activism > Demonstrations & protest movements
Since the 1970s, global capitalism has been marked by evermore intense cycles of boom and crisis. Today, Spain is at the epicentre of a crisis that threatens the future of the eurozone. Drawing upon Marxian value theory, Charnock, Purcell, and Ribera-Fumaz explain the deep historical and structural roots of the crisis in Spain, contextualised within global political and economic transformations in recent decades. They analyse the most recent cycle of boom and crisis in Spain, the nexus among European circuits of financial capital, urbanisation, and the emergent dynamics of state austerity and popular revolt - from the indignados movement to demands for an independent Catalonia.
This unique study argues that the draft dodgers who went to Canada during the Vietnam War were not always the anti-war radicals portrayed in popular culture. Many were the products of stable, conservative, middle class homes who were more interested in furthering their education and careers than in fighting in Southeast Asia. The conflict in Vietnam was just one cause among many for their deep sense of disaffection from the land of their birth. These expatriates remained quintessentially American, because evading the draft was in their opinion consistant with the very best American traditions of individualism and resistance to undue authority or state servitude. Although the war was not the only or even the primary reason for their immigration to Canada, it was the final action in response to an increasing sense of alientation from America that many had felt since childhood. Kusch's work also raises questions about what it means to be an American. Intriguingly, it suggests the actions of these expatriates should be seen not merely as a drastic response to the Vietnam war, but as a commitment to the core ideals of American and European thought since the Enlightenment.
While the 2011 Egyptian revolution has already become the subject of much debate, the roots of the socio-economic context which made the revolution possible have seldom been explored. Roberto Roccu addresses this gap and in doing this provides the first detailed study of the deeper causes of the Egyptian revolution. Relying on an innovative understanding of Antonio Gramsci's thought, He argues that economic reforms implemented since the late 1980s provided the conditions for both the emergence of a capitalist oligarchy within the regime and an unprecedented rise in socio-economic inequality in society at large. These two processes substantially eroded any remnants of hegemony, leaving the Mubarak regime ill-equipped to face the global economic crisis. By alienating sections of the ruling bloc while impoverishing vast strata of the population, neoliberal reforms provided a necessary, although by no means sufficient, condition for the Egyptian revolution to occur.
During the Los Angeles riots of 1992, many Korean-American businesses were looted and burned to the ground. Although nearly half of the looters arrested were Latinos, the media portrayed this aspect of the riots more in terms of the on- going conflicts between Korean-Americans and African- Americans. In another part of the world in 1984, the violence which ensued after the assassination of India's Indira Gandhi was portrayed by officials and state leaders as a spilling over of mass sentiments of grief and anger, a conflict between ethnic groups instead of a pogrom against the Sikhs. Riots and Pogroms presents comparative studies of public violence in the twentieth-century in the United States, Russia, Germany, Israel, and India with a comparative, historical, and analytical introduction by the editor. The focus of the book is on the interpretive process which follows riots and pogroms, rather than on the search for their causes. Its emphasis is on the struggle for control over the meaning of riotous events, for the right to represent them properly. How do political and social forces seek to assign causes and attach labels to riots, attribute motives to rioters and pogromists, and explain why particular groups are selected for violent assaults? To what extent are the state and its agents implicated in those assaults? To what degree does organization and/or spontaneity play a role in these incidents?
When contrasted with the miners' dramatic strike victories in 1972 and 1974, the shattering industrial defeat suffered by British miners in 1985 has been seen as evidence of the further weakening of working-class solidarity. Undertaken with complete unity, the strikes of 1972 and 1974 brought the miners substantial material gains, contributed to the downfall of a government, and reinforced the National Union of Mineworkers' position at the core of the British labour movement. In contrast, the strike in Britain in 1984/85 was marked by internal division and by the miners' attempt to resist the pit closure programme of the Thatcher government, and it ended in bitter defeat.
Matilda Joslyn Gage was a woman's rights' activist during the 19th century, committed to the woman suffrage movement and civil rights. This book brings needed attention to Gage's life and work and explores her impact on women's rights. Using an advanced and distinctive form of feminist thought that encompassed an incisive analysis of patriarchy, Gage even criticized the church as patriarchy's prime sponsor. In fact, Gage connected all of women's oppression, including prostitution, marriage customs, divorce, rape and cusotdy rights to patriarchy, It is perhaps for her radical theory that Gage's arguments remain salient and controversial today. An overdue addition to the scholarship on the role feminists like Matilda Joslyn Gage have played in history, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of United States history, women's history, and women's studies.
The horrific slaughter in Rwanda has once again driven home the deeply rooted existence and continuing presence of genocidal impulses. In this passionately argued volume-first published to great acclaim in France and considerably updated during the translation process-a deeply involved witness of the massacres takes an unflinching look at recent events in Rwanda and what they can tell us about the nature of genocide. Table of Contents
During the early 1980s, large parts of Europe were swept with riots and youth revolts. Radicalised young people occupied buildings and clashed with the police in cities such as Zurich, Berlin and Amsterdam, while in Great Britain and France, 'migrant' youths protested fiercely against their underprivileged position and police brutality. Was there a link between the youth revolts in different European cities, and if so, how were they connected and how did they influence each other? These questions are central in this volume. This book covers case studies from countries in both Eastern and Western Europe and focuses not only on political movements such as squatting, but also on political subcultures such as punk, as well as the interaction between them. In doing so, it is the first historical collection with a transnational and interdisciplinary perspective on youth, youth revolts and social movements in the 1980s.
Can electoral and parliamentary arenas be used toward revolutionary ends? This is precisely the question that held Lenin's attention from 1905 to 1917, leading him to conclude that they could-and would. This book explores the time in which Lenin initiated his use of the electorate, beginning with the Marxist roots of Lenin's politics, and then details his efforts to lead the deputies of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party in the First and Second State Dumas, concluding with Russia's first experiment in representative democracy from 1906 to 1907. During this time, Lenin had to address issues such as whether to boycott or participate in undemocratic elections, how to conduct election campaigns, whether to enter into electoral blocs and the related lesser of two evils dilemma, how to keep deputies accountable to the party, and how to balance electoral politics with armed struggle. Lenin later said that the lessons of that work were 'indispensable' for Bolshevik success in 1917, which means that this detailed analysis of that period is crucial to any thorough understanding of Leninism.
Can electoral and parliamentary arenas be used toward revolutionary ends? This is precisely the question that held Lenin's attention from 1905 to 1917, leading him to conclude that they could-and would. This book explores the time in which Lenin initiated his use of the electorate, beginning with the Marxist roots of Lenin's politics, and then details his efforts to lead the deputies of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party in the First and Second State Dumas, concluding with Russia's first experiment in representative democracy from 1906 to 1907. During this time, Lenin had to address issues such as whether to boycott or participate in undemocratic elections, how to conduct election campaigns, whether to enter into electoral blocs and the related lesser of two evils dilemma, how to keep deputies accountable to the party, and how to balance electoral politics with armed struggle. Lenin later said that the lessons of that work were 'indispensable' for Bolshevik success in 1917, which means that this detailed analysis of that period is crucial to any thorough understanding of Leninism.
The 1986 Chernobyl catastrophe was not only a human and ecological disaster, but also a political-ideological one, severely discrediting Soviet governance and galvanizing dissidents in the Eastern Bloc. In the case of Poland, what began as isolated protests against the Soviet nuclear site grew to encompass domestic nuclear projects in general, and in the process spread across the country and attracted new segments of society. This innovative study, combining scholarly analysis with oral histories and other accounts from participants, traces the growth and development of the Polish anti-nuclear movement, showing how it exemplified the broader generational and cultural changes in the nation's opposition movements during the waning days of the state socialist era.
There are few movements more firmly associated with civil disobedience than the Civil Rights Movement. In the mainstream imagination, civil rights activists eschewed coercion, appealed to the majority's principles, and submitted willingly to legal punishment in order to demand necessary legislative reforms and facilitate the realization of core constitutional and democratic principles. Their fidelity to the spirit of the law, commitment to civility, and allegiance to American democracy set the normative standard for liberal philosophies of civil disobedience. This narrative offers the civil disobedience of the Civil Rights Movement as a moral exemplar: a blueprint for activists who seek transformative change and racial justice within the bounds of democracy. Yet in this book, Erin R. Pineda shows how it more often functions as a disciplining example-a means of scolding activists and quieting dissent. As Pineda argues, the familiar account of Civil Rights disobedience not only misremembers history; it also distorts our political judgments about how civil disobedience might fit into democratic politics. Seeing Like an Activist charts the emergence of this influential account of civil disobedience in the Civil Rights Movement, and demonstrates its reliance on a narrative about black protest that is itself entangled with white supremacy. Liberal political theorists whose work informed decades of scholarship saw civil disobedience "like a white state": taking for granted the legitimacy of the constitutional order, assuming as primary the ends of constitutional integrity and stability, centering the white citizen as the normative ideal, and figuring the problem of racial injustice as limited, exceptional, and all-but-already solved. Instead, this book "sees" civil disobedience from the perspective of an activist, showing the consequences for ideas about how civil disobedience ought to unfold in the present. Building on historical and archival evidence, Pineda shows how civil rights activists, in concert with anticolonial movements across the globe, turned to civil disobedience as a practice of decolonization in order to emancipate themselves and others, and in the process transform the racial order. Pineda recovers this powerful alternative account by adopting a different theoretical approach-one which sees activists as themselves engaged in the creative work of political theorizing.
A rare insider's view of educational development and problems in China since economic reform began in 1978, this volume critically examines the issue of political socialization through curriculum and compares the curriculum used during the Cultural Revolution with that compiled and used throughout China in 1988. Also explored are problems with student dropouts and teacher motivation in rural education and government-supported nonformal education; the tracking system and vocational education development in urban schools; problems that came about with economic and political reform; and the issue of inequality existing between and within rural and urban schools. Turning to recent decentralization efforts in school administration, Jing Lin analyzes evidence suggesting that educational policy is politically controlled. Additionally, the development of educational research in the 1980s and 1990s constitutes the topic of one chapter, based on hundreds of published books and papers. Finally, Lin reflects on the massive student movement that arose in the spring of 1989 and delineates the social, economic, and political changes that sparked it. This final section treats these educational changes as an interconnected whole that underlay the movement and gave it such distinctive characteristics as nonviolence and a rational, constructive outlook.
This study examines the development of Panamanian nationalism, focusing on the period from 1903 to 1941. Utilizing historiography, literature, public architecture, and monuments, Szok posits that Panamanian nationalism is, in part, a legacy of the nineteenth century when Panama experienced a nationalist movement typical of the rest of Latin America. This movement was a creation of the country's white elite, who feared the Afro-mestizo masses and sought the protection of outside powers. Later joining forces with the growing middle class, the upper class continued to emphasize liberalism and promoted nostalgia for things Hispanic. This effort left it largely divorced from the Afro-Caribbean culture of the terminal cities and would ultimately contribute to its loss of power in 1968. The elite's goal of constructing an interoceanic canal that would Europeanize the isthmus and open it to investment was realized in 1903 with the intervention of the United States and the separation from Colombia. The canal and independence soon fostered a rising middle class who became disillusioned with post-independence society and the limits placed upon its professional advancement. Once united with the elite in the protection of their own interests, the middle class used nostalgia to protect their social position even as they continued to press for modernization. Szok challenges some long-held stereotypes of Panama, particularly that it was "invented" by the United States and that its development is unique and thus lies outside the trajectory of Latin America.
Highly recommended. . . . Presented here is a critique of the major ways in which social movements have been conceptualized and interpreted. . . . An excellently documented work, featuring a useful set of references and a good index. Choice A book to provoke and unsettle, a book of enormous intellectual and moral ambition. Contemporary Sociology Brilliantly reconceptualizing social movements from a historical perspective, Foss and Larkin critically review the major theories in social movements. They analyze the mechanisms of the reproduction of social privilege to examine the underlying contradicitons in society which give rise to collective dissidence and conclude with some intriguing speculations as to the possibility of social revolution in the U.S. Essential reading for all social scientists, and for courses in social movements, contemporary social theory, and political sociology.
The Gordon riots of June 1780 were the most devastating outbreak of urban violence in British history. For almost a week large parts of central London were ablaze, prisons were destroyed and the Bank of England attacked. Hundreds of rioters were shot dead by troops and for many observers it seemed that England was on the verge of a revolution. The first scholarly study in a generation, this book brings together leading scholars from historical and literary studies to provide new perspectives on these momentous events. The essays include new archival work on the religious, political and international contexts of the riots and new interpretations of contemporary literary and artistic sources. For too long the significance of the Gordon riots has been overshadowed by the impact of the French revolution on British society and culture: this book restores the riots to their central position in late eighteenth-century Britain.
"Rivers of Blood" offers a glimpse into the brutal world of state terrorism. In this innovative study, the author explores the strategies, targets, and motives of terror by reviewing the conditions surrounding government massacres. By introducing an innovative typology of massacres and a classification of terror strategies, the author develops a structural approach to the study of state terror, thus challenging the viewpoint that state terrorism is a situational or reactionary phenomenon. Case studies of government massacres such as those occuring in China (Tiananmen), Iraq (Halabja), and El Salvador (San Salvador), are included. Each case study includes a discussion on the historical, political, and social climate preceding the massacre. "Rivers of Blood" is a welcome addition to the literature on state terrorism.
This book analyzes the individual and contextual determinants of protest politics in Western Europe. Building on different theoretical perspectives, from social movements theory to political behavior approaches, the author provides new empirical evidence on the patterns of protest politics. Readers will discover why some citizens are more likely to get involved in protests than others, and why levels of protest differ from country to country. The author illustrates that engagement in political protest is often rooted in the interplay of the protester's individual characteristics and their home country's contextual characteristics.
In the famous photograph of Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination, one man kneels beside him, trying to staunch the blood. He was an undercover Memphis police officer who had infiltrated the Invaders, a potentially violent Black activist group then in talks with King. This spy, the kneeling man, was Leta McCollough Seletzky's father. Marrell 'Mac' McCollough was a Black man working secretly with the white power structure. This was so far from Leta's own understanding of what it meant to be Black in America that she decided to learn what she could about her father's life-his motivations, his career with the police and the CIA, and the truth behind accusations that he was involved in King's murder. What would Leta uncover, and did she want to know? How might Mac's story change her own feelings about her place in Trump's America? 'The Kneeling Man' is a compelling personal and political tale of alienation and ambivalence; struggle, self-definition and compromised choices. Set vividly in the sharecropper South, on the streets of Memphis and in the halls of power, the twists and turns of this one man's life tell the story of twentieth-century Black America.
In the 1980s South Africa's urban townships exploded into insurrection led by youth and residents' organizations that collectively became known as the civics movement. Ironically the movement has been unable to adapt to the role of a voluntary association in the liberal polity it helped create, and has great difficulty defining any alternative role. This volume charts the rise and fall of the movement in the transition to and consolidation of democracy in South Africa.
The tide of 1960s political upheaval, while mistaken at the time by some as a unified assault against America carried out by revolutionaries at home and abroad, was actually hundreds of locally constructed expressions of political discourse, reflecting the influences of race, class, gender, and local conditions on each unique group of practitioners. This is a comparative study of how radicals at the local level staged, displayed, and ultimately narrated symbolic acts of performative violence against the symbols of the American system. The term performative violence refers to a method of public protest whereby participants create the conditions in which their violent actions become a political text, a powerful symbol with a strong historical precedent. Recognizing the textuality of history, this interdisciplinary examination deconstructs the performative violence within its historically specific and socially constructed contexts using four representative case histories of late 1960s and early 1970s activism. These are the African-American rioters in Kansas City, the Black Panther Party in Detroit, campus radicals at Kansas State University, and activists at the University of Kansas. Rather than focusing on the major clashes of the Vietnam era, this book contributes to recent scholarship on the 1960s which has attempted to offer a more textured analysis of the era's activism, particularly its political violence, based on more local studies.
The German abandonment of nuclear power represents one of the most successful popular revolts against technocratic thinking in modern times-the triumph of a dynamic social movement, encompassing a broad swath of West Germans as well as East German dissident circles, over political, economic, and scientific elites. Taking on Technocracy gives a brisk account of this dramatic historical moment, showing how the popularization of scientific knowledge fostered new understandings of technological risk. Combining analyses of social history, popular culture, social movement theory, and histories of science and technology, it offers a compelling narrative of a key episode in the recent history of popular resistance.
This volume offers scholarly perspectives on the creative and humorous nature of the protests at Gezi Park in Turkey, 2013. The contributors argue that these protests inspired musicians, film-makers, social scientists and other creative individuals, out of a concern for the aesthetics of the protests, rather than seizure of political power.
Protest is a ubiquitous and richly varied social phenomenon, one that finds expression not only in modern social movements and political organizations but also in grassroots initiatives, individual action, and creative works. It constitutes a distinct cultural domain, one whose symbolic content is regularly deployed by media and advertisers, among other actors. Yet within social movement scholarship, such cultural considerations have been comparatively neglected. Protest Cultures: A Companion dramatically expands the analytical perspective on protest beyond its political and sociological aspects. It combines cutting-edge synthetic essays with concise, accessible case studies on a remarkable array of protest cultures, outlining key literature and future lines of inquiry.
Manzo examines, by means of historical analysis, the effects of global power relationships on the politics of South Africa. The author looks at the ways in which global power constructs identity, normalizes relations of domination, and shapes the form that resistance takes. She asks, for example, why dominated people are so often waging conflicts among themselves rather than directing their resistance unfailingly toward their oppressors. Why, too, is open defiance relatively rare and mass action infrequently used? South Africa, as an example, is used to illustrate the much broader experience of oppressed populations as they struggle against western domination. The book vividly portrays the complexity of relationships in South Africa and the role played by black resistance in economic and political change over time. Manzo's sound interpretation unifies and enriches the historical progression and establishes a solid foundation for analyzing the lessons South Africa offers about the use of power in international relations. |
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