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Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > Political activism > Demonstrations & protest movements
The mainstream agri-food system in Thailand has been shaped to aid capital accumulation by domestic and transnational hegemonic forces, and is currently sustained through hegemonic agri-food production-distribution, governance structures and ideational order. However, sustainable agriculture and land reform movements have to certain extents managed to offer alternatives. This book adopts a neo-Marxist and Gramscian approach to studying the political economy of the agricultural and food system in Thailand (1990-2014). The author argues that hegemonic forces have many measures to co-opt dissent into hegemonic structures, and that counter-hegemony should be seen as an ongoing process over a long period of time where predominantly counter-hegemonic forces, constrained by political economic structural conditions, may at times retain some hegemonic elements. Contrary to what some academic studies suggest, the author argues that localist-inspired social movements in Thailand are not insular and anti-globalisation. Instead, they are selective in fostering collaborations and globalisation based on values such as sustainability, fairness and partnership. Providing new perspectives on polarised politics in Thailand, particularly how cross-class alliances can further or frustrate counter-hegemonic movements, the book points to the importance of analysing social movements in relation to established political authority. It will be of interest to academics in the field of Politics and International Relations, Sociology, Development Studies and Asian Studies.
This book probes three issues about the linkage between political protests and social change. First, why do individuals participate in protest activities, including nonviolent movements and revolutions? How do cultural beliefs, sociopolitical structures, personal attitudes, motives and perceptions shape the decision to participate? Second, why do participants choose certain tactics? Protesters use different types of tactics: violent vs. nonviolent, public vs. covert, organized vs. spontaneous and confrontation vs. accommodation with other groups, political parties, and government agencies. Most activists view a particular tactic as a useful means to attain their policy demands. Third, what policy consequences emerge from the activities of protest movements? The book explores the impact of protests on social change and on the distribution of political power, particularly greater access of subordinate groups to government policymakers. A theory of political opportunities helps explain these issues about the origins, activities, and outcomes of protests.
Political theorist Laurie M. Johnson deals with Jung's analysis of the effects of modern scientific rationalism on the development of communism, fascism and Nazism in the 20th century and applies this analysis to the rise of the New Right in the 21st century. Jung's thought provides much needed insight into contemporary ideologies such as neoliberalism, Identitarianism and the Alt-Right. Johnson explains Jungian analytical psychology as it relates to these topics, with a chapter devoted to Jung's views of Friedrich Nietzsche, who exemplifies the modern problem with his proclamation that God is dead, and an in-depth discussion of Jung's views on truth and the psychological function of religion as a safeguard against deadly mass movements. She then turns to Jung's treatment of anti-Semitism and the Nazi movement, and his views on race and racism. Johnson applies these historical insights to the current manifestations of mass psychological disruption in the clash between neoliberals and the right-wing populist and Identitarian movements on the rise in North America and Europe. She concludes by discussing the search for an authentic and meaningful life in a West that rejects extremism and is open to authentic spiritual experiences as a counterbalance to mass mindedness. Ideological Possession and the Rise of the New Right will appeal to both undergraduate and graduate students of psychology and intellectual history. The book will also be of interest to those wishing to understand the new nationalist, nativist and Identarian movements.
This is a remarkable account of the unemployed movement in North East England in the two decades between the wars. It covers, in an exceptionally clear and readable fashion, multiple aspects of the struggle against unemployment and against the hostile and inquisitorial attitudes routinely displayed towards the unemployed and their families by the relief authorities. The National Unemployed Workers' Movement in this part of Britain fought not only unsympathetic authority but also hostile police forces - and the fascists when they tried to put in an appearance. The account is solidly researched throughout, using oral history and contemporary documentation from a variety of sources. Don Watson deals thoroughly with the NUWM in the North East and compares it to other unemployed activities and organisations in the area at that time. The book is an original and valuable addition to the social history of the area and to the study of the inter-war unemployed movement in Britain as a whole. Professor Willie Thompson, University of Sunderland
Prelude to Revolution is an essential history of the May 1968 protests and upheaval in France, during which French workers staged the first wildcat general strike in history and the largest general strike to this day. Daniel Singer discusses how these actions changed the world. Prelude to Revolution is the indispensable study of May 1968. Many generations have looked to older editions of this book for inspiration. Singer was widely considered the most adept interpreter of European politics for American audiences. He shows here how change happens - and why it is needed.
'One of the books of the year. Cunnell's style is matchless: intimate, dark, sincere, wry and exquisitely beautiful' - Irish Times 'A cracking, urgent page-turner of a novel' - Observer The painter Terry Godden was on the brink of his first success. After a violent crisis, he finds himself outcast. In his fifties, and with little money, he retreats to a small island. Arriving in the winter, the island at first seems a desolate and forgotten place. As the seasons turn, Terry begins to see the island's beauty, and discovers that he is only one of many people who have sought refuge here. These independent outsiders, all with their own considerable struggles, have made a precarious home. The island is owned by the business man and art collector Alex Kaplan. His decision to enforce a rent increase as he seeks to improve his property looks set to destroy this community that cannot afford to lose the little they have left. As an artist, Terry believes making the invisible struggles of the island visible to the world will help - but will his interference save anybody other than himself? The Painter's Friend shows the human cost of gentrification for those dispossessed. The novel also explores the role of art in protest, and asks who gets to be an artist and what they owe in return. Written with visual lyricism and driven clarity, Howard Cunnell's incendiary story about class and resistance builds to an unforgettable climax. It is an urgent novel for our unjust times. 'I loved it. Cunnell's writing has an unforgettable visual and moral clarity' - Melissa Harrison, author of All Among the Barley
In 2011, the world watched as dictators across the Arab world were toppled from power. In Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Syria, and Iraq, ordinary Arab citizens mobilized across the region during the Arab Spring to reinvent the autocratic Arab world into one characterized by democracy, dignity, socioeconomic justice, and inviolable human rights. This unique comparative analysis of countries before, during and after the Arab Spring seeks to explain the divergent outcomes, disappointing and even harrowing results of efforts to overcome democratic consolidation challenges, from the tentative democracy in Tunisia to the emergence of the Islamic State, and civil war and authoritarian retrenchment everywhere else. Tracing the period of the Arab Spring from its background in long-term challenges to autocratic regimes, to the mass uprisings, authoritarian breakdown, and the future projections and requirements for a democratizing conclusion, Stephen J. King establishes a broad but focused history which refines the leading theory of democratization in comparative politics, and realigns the narrative of Arab Spring history by bringing its differing results to the fore.
This is a study of the radical peasant trade union which thrived in parts of south and west Germany in the 1920s. The Free Peasantry, as it was known, challenged the authority of the state through food delivery strikes, a separatist putsch which ended in bloodshed.
This innovative and widely praised volume uses the dramatic occupation of Tiananmen Square as the foundation for rethinking the cultural dimensions of Chinese politics. Now in a revised and expanded second edition, the book includes enhanced coverage of key issues, such as the political dimensions of popular culture (addressed in a new chapter on Chinese rock-and-roll by Andrew Jones) and the struggle for control of public discourse in the post-1989 era (discussed in a new chapter by Tony Saich). Two especially valuable additions to the second edition are art historian Tsao Tsing-yuan's eyewitness account of the making of the Goddess of Democracy, and an exposition of Chinese understandings of the term "revolution" contributed by Liu Xiaobo, one of China's most controversial dissident intellectuals. The volume also includes an analysis (by noted social theorist and historical sociologist Craig C. Calhoun) of the similarities and differences between the "new" social movements of recent decades and the "old" social movements of earlier eras.TEXT CONCLUSION: To facilitate classroom use, the volume has been reorganized into groups of interrelated essays. The editors introduce each section and offer a list of suggested readings that complement the material in that section.
Examines the 1980 Solidarity revolution in Poland, the government's subsequent establishment of martial law in response, in 1981, and the eventual transition to democracy in 1989. The 1980 general strike in Poland and the establishment of the independent Solidarity movement, which sought to create a state based on civic freedom, were symptoms of a crisis of the communist system. On December 13, 1981, General Wojciech Jaruzelski on behalf of the ruling Communist Party imposed martial law, effectively quashing Solidarity. Jaruzelski won the battle, but Solidarity continued its revolution in secret and Poland remained politically destabilized. Elections held in June 1989 ended with the defeat of the Communists and the establishment in September of a coalition government in which half of the parliamentary seats went to Solidarity, whose representative was also appointed prime minister. The revolution inaugurated in 1980 by the dockworkers of Gdansk had come to fruition. Revolution and Counterrevolution in Poland, 1980-1989: Solidarity, Martial Law, and the End of Communism inEurope recounts and analyzes the events of this formative decade in Polish history, with particular emphasis on the martial law period. Drawing on extensive archival research, Andrzej Paczkowski examines the origin and form of the Solidarity revolution, the course of the Communist counterrevolution, and the final victory won by Solidarity along with its international repercussions. Andrzej Paczkowski is professor of political studies at the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw. Christina Manetti, PhD, is a translator and independent researcher of Polish history.
With the rise of both populist parties and social movements in Europe, the role of emotions in politics has once again become key to political debates, and particularly in the Spanish case. Since 2011, the Spanish political landscape has been redrawn. What started as the Indignados movement has now transformed into the party Podemos, which claims to address important deficits in popular representation. By creating space for emotions, the movement and the party have made this a key feature of their political subjectivity. Emotions and affect, however, are often viewed as either purely instrumental to political goals or completely detached from 'real' politics. This book argues that the hierarchy between the rational and the emotional works to sediment exclusionary practices in politics, deeming some forms of political expressions more worthy than others. Using radical theories of democracy, Emmy Eklundh masterfully tackles this problem and constructs an analytical framework based on the concept of visceral ties, which sees emotions and affect as constitutive of any collective identity. She later demonstrates empirically, using both ethnographic method and social media analysis, how the movement Indignados is different from the political party Podemos with regards to emotions and affect, but that both are suffering from a broader devaluation of emotional expressions in political life. Bridging social and political theory, Emotions, Protest, Democracy: Collective Identities in Contemporary Spain provides one of the few in-depth accounts of the transition from the movement Indignados to party Podemos, and the role of emotions in contemporary Spanish and European politics.
This is a thoughtful and sensitive analysis of the history and significance of non-violent civil resistance in the Palestinian national movement. It shows how the thread of unarmed struggle has run through the history of Palestinian liberation, from the establishment of the Israeli state, through the Nakba and to the present day. Set in this historical context, the book draws upon personal conversations and living history in order to focus on the contemporary movement in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. By analysing this under-emphasised dimension of the Palestinian struggle, the authors argue that today, the popular resistance movement, especially in the West Bank, is the most significant form of struggle against the ongoing occupation. They also address the international dimensions of the struggle, focusing in particular on the BDS campaign, the role of Israeli and international solidarity activists, and the changing forms of engagement developed by international agencies seeking to work on the roots of the conflict.
This book provides unique and detailed perspectives on different aspects of dissent, protest and disputes and how these have, in turn, continued to pose challenges in Africa. The contributors argue that, dissent, protest and most forms of disputes in Africa are the result of daily challenges that its people have faced and continue to encounter to this day. These challenges include, amongst others, demands for transparency, good governance and accountability; waves of instability that have created insecurity in most parts of the continent, an unsustainable level of youth unemployment, rapid population growth, a continent-wide healthcare and poverty crises and numerous environmental challenges. The chapters elevate the debates on dissent, protest and disputes/conflict in Africa by adding new ideas and introducing new and useful interpretations. The book's strength lies in the contributors' ability to conflate colonial and postcolonial tendencies to show how challenges of the past are not so different from those of today, while also presenting important historical issues from various scholarly perspectives. Dissent, Protest and Dispute in Africa will be of interest for students and scholars of African history, politics, and culture as well as those interested in social movements and civil society.
The Umbrella Movement in Hong Kong caught the world's attention and imagination at the end of 2014. The 79-day occupation campaign took on some of the characteristics of the recent wave of large-scale protest movements around the world, including the prominent roles played by the media - both conventional and digital - in the mobilization and communication processes of the movement. This edited volume, Media, Mobilization and the Umbrella Movement, brings together nine contributions which examine various aspects of the media-movement nexus, including the power of televised images to mobilize people, the role of social media in the insurgent public sphere, young activists' social media strategies, media influence on citizens' understanding of civil disobedience, the government's response to digital media tactics, public discourses about the rule of law, and local and foreign media coverage of the movement. We believe that this high-quality collection can not only enhance our understanding of the Umbrella Movement, but also facilitate and trigger more research and dialogue comparing the Umbrella Movement with other similar protest movements around the world. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Chinese Journal of Communication.
This is the story of the historic 21 week equal pay strike at Trico-Folberth in Brentford, West London, in 1976. TRICO - A Victory to Remember is indispensable to understanding how the 1970s marked a turning point in making women's rights a central focus for the labour movement, casting aside the minor role women were allocated in the mainstream. No longer could women's rights be given mere lip service. The strike was trail-blazing in many ways. It was the first time American-style picket-busting convoys of lorries and scab labour had been used against strikers who were mainly women. The employer, Trico, relied on legal loopholes in the new Equal Pay Act in presenting the case to a tribunal, which was boycotted by the strikers' trade union, the AUEW. However, despite the tribunal ruling in favour of the employer, the union nevertheless successfully negotiated equal pay. This achievement was unique, and led towards the Equal Pay Act being amended in 1983. The story of the strike, illustrated with stunning archive photos mostly unseen for over forty years, charts the women's campaign from its beginnings to their final victory, including anecdotes from some of those involved. There is a brief history of the struggle for equal pay in Britain, and a chapter on the relevance of the Trico dispute to today's society. Author Sally Groves worked at Trico from 1975 - 1980 on assembly and then as a trainee tool setter. She was one of the women on strike in 1976, and became the Trico AUEW Strike Committee's Publicity Officer. This book will inspire women everywhere; trade unionists and anyone suffering as a result of the gig economy. It will be of particular interest to those studying and researching issues of women's equality.
Why do some individuals participate in risky, anti-regime resistance whereas others abstain? The Revolution Within answers this question through an in-depth study of unarmed resistance against Israeli rule in the Palestinian Territories over more than a decade. Despite having strong anti-regime sentiment, Palestinians initially lacked the internal organizational strength often seen as necessary for protest. This book provides a foundation for understanding participation and mobilization under these difficult conditions. It argues that, under these conditions, integration into state institutions - schools, prisons and courts - paradoxically makes individuals more likely to resist against the state. Diverse evidence drawn from field research - including the first, large-scale survey of participants and non-participants in Palestinian resistance, Arabic language interviews, and archival sources - supports the argument. The book's findings explain how anti-regime resistance can occur even without the strong civil society organizations often regarded as necessary for protest and, thus, suggest new avenues for supporting civil resistance movements.
While most western democracies have renounced the death penalty, capital punishment enjoys vast and growing support in the United States. A significant and vocal minority, however, continues to oppose it. Against Capital Punishment is the first full account of anti-death penalty activism in America during the years since the ten-year moratorium on executions ended. Building on in-depth interviews with movement leaders and the records of key abolitionist organizations, this work traces the struggle against the pro-death penalty backlash that has steadily gained momentum since the 1970s. It reviews the conservative turn in the courts which, over the last two decades, has forced death penalty opponents to rely less on the litigation strategies that once served them well. It describes their efforts to mount a broad-based educational and political assault on what they see as the most cruel, racist, ineffective, and expensive manifestation of a criminal justice system gone wrong. Despite the efforts of death-penalty opponents, executions in the United States are on the increase. Against Capital Punishment diagnoses the reasons for the failure to mobilize widespread opposition to executions, and assesses the prospects for opposition to capital punishment in the future of the United States.
In 2011, the world watched as dictators across the Arab world were toppled from power. In Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Syria, and Iraq, ordinary Arab citizens mobilized across the region during the Arab Spring to reinvent the autocratic Arab world into one characterized by democracy, dignity, socioeconomic justice, and inviolable human rights. This unique comparative analysis of countries before, during and after the Arab Spring seeks to explain the divergent outcomes, disappointing and even harrowing results of efforts to overcome democratic consolidation challenges, from the tentative democracy in Tunisia to the emergence of the Islamic State, and civil war and authoritarian retrenchment everywhere else. Tracing the period of the Arab Spring from its background in long-term challenges to autocratic regimes, to the mass uprisings, authoritarian breakdown, and the future projections and requirements for a democratizing conclusion, Stephen J. King establishes a broad but focused history which refines the leading theory of democratization in comparative politics, and realigns the narrative of Arab Spring history by bringing its differing results to the fore.
This book traces the varied development of the far right in Britain from the formation of the National Front in 1967 to the present day. Experts draw on a range of disciplinary and methodological perspectives to provide a rich and detailed account of the evolution of the various strands of the contemporary far right over the course of the last fifty years. The book examines a broad range of subjects, including Holocaust denial, neo-Nazi groupuscularity, transnational activities, ideology, cultural engagement, homosexuality, gender and activist mobilisation. It also includes a detailed literature review. This book is essential reading for students of fascism, racism and contemporary British cultural and political history.
Since the 1940s, Marxist thought has blossomed in Nigeria. The history of 'Naija Marxism' is also that of the country's labour movement, its feminist movement, its social thought and political economy. It has been the mainstay of party politics in the case of illegal Marxist party formations and legal anti-feudalist forces and in the NGO sector. Long gone are the days when Marxism meant imported pamphlets and a disconnected ideology. Drawn from years of research in Nigeria and elsewhere, Naija Marxisms breaks new ground in tracing the historical trajectories that leftist movements underwent since the 1940s, whilst arguing that Marxism is alive and well in Nigeria. The book brings together Nigeria's pre-eminent radical thinkers, from Usman Tar and Edwin Madunagu, who are currently espousing a Marxian political economy and providing a class-based approach in the country's mainstream media channels, to the international reach of key Nigerian Marxists, such as Mokwugo Okoye, Ikenna Nzimiro and Eskor Toyo.
This book is about the global crisis and the right to resistance, about neoliberal biopolitics and direct democracy, about the responsibility of intellectuals and the poetry of the multitude. Using Greece as an example, Douzinas argues that the persistent sequence of protests, uprisings and revolutions has radically changed the political landscape. This new politics is the latest example of the drive to resist, a persevering characteristic of the human spirit. The EU and the IMF used Greece as a guinea pig to test the conditions of social reconstruction in times of crisis. But the manifold resistances turned the object of experimentation into a political subject and overturned the plans of elites. The idea and limits of democracy are redefined in the place of their birth.
Spain has become a remarkable democratic laboratory in which millions of citizens are experimenting with new forms of political expression. This book examines the dynamics of this political laboratory, showing that the upheavals it is experiencing are likely in the near future to affect democracies elsewhere in the world. Examining the new means of participation that were established in fields where digital communication tools enabled the launch of novel dynamics of political action, the reader will gain access to a comprehensive analysis of the reshaping and mutation process that has affected fields such as activism, political parties and political participation. Using a case study of the Spain between 2011 and 2015, the book focuses on the changes that have taken place in politics and communication in Spain, paying particular attention to the 15M movement and its disruptive, innovative strength in all matters related to politics and communication. The chapters cover political repertoires and the hybridization of horizontal and vertical political logics; the appearance of new political parties; the establishment of monitoring mechanisms as an essential means of political expression and participation; and the subversion of rationality across media as a product of the communication strategies implemented by online political activism. Showing that Spain is not just at the forefront of democratic innovation, but that it is a political laboratory in which trials are taking place that tell us much about the future of democracy everywhere, this book will be of great use to scholars of political theory, democracy and philosophy.
In Unearthing Conflict Fabiana Li analyzes the aggressive expansion and modernization of mining in Peru since the 1990s to tease out the dynamics of mining-based protests. Issues of water scarcity and pollution, the loss of farmland, and the degradation of sacred land are especially contentious. She traces the emergence of the conflicts by discussing the smelter-town of La Oroya-where people have lived with toxic emissions for almost a century-before focusing her analysis on the relatively new Yanacocha gold mega-mine. Debates about what kinds of knowledge count as legitimate, Li argues, lie at the core of activist and corporate mining campaigns. Li pushes against the concept of "equivalence"-or methods with which to quantify and compare things such as pollution-to explain how opposing groups interpret environmental regulations, assess a project's potential impacts, and negotiate monetary compensation for damages. This politics of equivalence is central to these mining controversies, and Li uncovers the mechanisms through which competing parties create knowledge, assign value, arrive at contrasting definitions of pollution, and construct the Peruvian mountains as spaces under constant negotiation.
Information and communication technologies have transformed the dynamics of contention in contemporary society. Social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, and devices such as smartphones have increasingly played a central role in facilitating and mobilizing social movements throughout different parts of the world. Concurrently, the same technologies have been taken up by public authorities (including security agencies and the police) and have been used as surveillance tools to monitor and suppress the activities of certain demonstrators. This book explores the complex and contradictory relationships between communication and information technologies and social movements by drawing on different case studies from around the world. The contributions analyse how new communication and information technologies impact the way protests are carried out and controlled in the current information age. The authors focus on recent events that date from the Arab Spring onwards and pose questions regarding the future of protests, surveillance and digital landscapes.
In Unearthing Conflict Fabiana Li analyzes the aggressive expansion and modernization of mining in Peru since the 1990s to tease out the dynamics of mining-based protests. Issues of water scarcity and pollution, the loss of farmland, and the degradation of sacred land are especially contentious. She traces the emergence of the conflicts by discussing the smelter-town of La Oroya-where people have lived with toxic emissions for almost a century-before focusing her analysis on the relatively new Yanacocha gold mega-mine. Debates about what kinds of knowledge count as legitimate, Li argues, lie at the core of activist and corporate mining campaigns. Li pushes against the concept of "equivalence"-or methods with which to quantify and compare things such as pollution-to explain how opposing groups interpret environmental regulations, assess a project's potential impacts, and negotiate monetary compensation for damages. This politics of equivalence is central to these mining controversies, and Li uncovers the mechanisms through which competing parties create knowledge, assign value, arrive at contrasting definitions of pollution, and construct the Peruvian mountains as spaces under constant negotiation. |
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