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Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > Political activism
Loud and proud is an ethnographic study of grassroots activists in
the English Defence League (EDL). Setting the findings within
contemporary debates on race and racism, Islamophobia, social
movements and the far right, the author draws on interviews,
informal conversations and extensive observation at EDL events to
explore and explain the gap between the public image of the
movement as a violent Islamophobic and racist organisation and
individual activists' understanding of it as 'one big family'.
Presenting them neither as duped by a charismatic leader nor
working class anti-heroes, this book introduces EDL activists as
individuals with real lives whose diverse trajectories in and out
of activism are embedded in personal life stories. The book will be
of value to those researching or studying in the disciplines of
sociology, political science and anthropology as well as those with
an interest in contemporary political issues and the populist and
radical right. -- .
This is the powerful and moving life story of one of South Africa's
leading trade union activists, from her childhood in Sophiatown to
her first marriage and divorce, the dark days of her six months in
detention and her lasting contributions to labour organisation in
South Africa. Strikes have followed me all my life was first
published in 1989 by The women's press but was never available in
South Africa. Emma Mashinini's autobiography is an accessible,
engaging account of a self-effacing union organiser, gender-rights
activist and a phenomenal woman who has lived a difficult life and
endured many challenges: detention without trial for six months
(most of which were spent in solitary confinement); losing two
daughters and a son-in-law; health problems as a result of
detention; and constant abuse at the hands of apartheid's
enforcers. But Emma's story is one of courage. It is engaging, at
times sad (there is a heart-breaking moment in the text when she
forgets her daughter’s name while in solitary confinement), but
mostly it is an inspirational account of a selfless individual.
This edition includes a Foreword by Jay Naidoo that brings the
reader up to date with Emma’s life and opinions and the state of
the labour movement in South Africa as well as moving letters from
Mashinini's family that were written to her on her 80th birthday.
This is a classic South African memoir in the same vein as Ellen
Kuzwayo's call me woman, which recalls and preserves vital accounts
of South Africa's history.
In this groundbreaking work, leading scholars and experts set out
to explore the utility of the concept of affordance in the study
and understanding of terrorism and political violence.
Affordance is a concept used in a variety of fields, from
psychology to artificial intelligence, which refers to how the
quality of an environment or object allows an individual to perform
a specific action. This concept can represent an important element
in the process of choice involved in behavior, and is closely
related to situational analyses of criminal behavior. In this book,
the contributors set out to explore how this concept can be used to
study terrorism and, as a result, develop management strategies.
Essays discuss such topics as affordance in relation to
counterterrorism, technology, cyber-jihad, ideology, and political
ecologies.
By importing the concept of affordance and a new set of research to
the study of terrorism, the authors offer an innovative and
original work that challenges and adds to various aspects of
situational crime prevention and counterterrorism.
This groundbreaking work challenges modernist military science and
explores how a more open design epistemology is becoming an
attractive alternative to a military staff culture rooted in a
monistic scientific paradigm. The author offers fresh sociological
avenues to become more institutionally reflexive - to offer a
variety of design frames of reference, beyond those typified by
modern military doctrine. Modernist military knowledge has been
institutionalized to the point that blinds militaries to
alternative designs organizationally and in their interventions.
This book seeks to reconstruct strategy and operations in
"designing ways" and develops theories of action through
multifaceted contextualizations and recontextualizations of
situations, showing that Military Design does not have to rely on
set rational-analytic decision-making schemes, but on seeking
alternative meanings in- and on-action. The work offers an
alternative philosophy of practice that embraces the
unpredictability of tasks to be accomplished. Written by Colonel
Paparone (U.S. Army, Ret., PhD) with a special chapter by two
active duty officers, it will appeal to all in military and
security studies, including professionals and policymakers.
Marian Alexander Spencer was born in 1920 in the Ohio River town of
Gallipolis, Ohio, one year after the "Red Summer" of 1919 that saw
an upsurge in race riots and lynchings. Following the example of
her grandfather, an ex-slave and community leader, Marian joined
the NAACP at thirteen and grew up to achieve not only a number of
civic leadership firsts in her adopted home city of Cincinnati, but
a legacy of lasting civil rights victories. Of these, the best
known is the desegregation of Cincinnati's Coney Island amusement
park. She also fought to desegregate Cincinnati schools and to stop
the introduction of observers in black voting precincts in Ohio.
Her campaign to raise awareness of industrial toxic-waste practices
in minority neighborhoods was later adapted into national Superfund
legislation. In 2012, Marian's friend and colleague Dot Christenson
sat down with her to record her memories. The resulting biography
not only gives us the life story of remarkable leader but
encapsulates many of the twentieth century's greatest struggles and
advances. Spencer's story will prove inspirational and instructive
to citizens and students alike.
The international "Atheist Bus Campaign" generated news coverage
and controversy, and this volume is the first to systematically and
thoroughly explore and analyze each manifestation of that campaign.
It includes a chapter for each of the countries which enacted - or
attempted to enact - localized versions of the original United
Kingdom campaign which ran the slogan, "There's Probably No God.
Now Stop Worrying and Enjoy Your Life," prominently on public
buses. Its novel focus, using a singular micro-level event as a
prism for analysis, allows for cross-country comparison of legal
and social reactions to each campaign, as well as an understanding
of issues pertaining to the historical and contemporary status of
religion and the regulation of nonreligion in various national
settings.
Media, Ideology and Hegemony contains a range of topics that
provide readers with opportunities to think critically about the
new digital world. This includes work on old and new media, on the
corporate power structure in communication and information
technology, and on government use of media to control citizens.
Demonstrating that the new world of media is a hotly contested
terrain, the book also uncovers the contradictions inherent in the
system of digital power and documents how citizens are using media
and information technology to actively resist repressive power.
This collection of essays is grounded with a critical theoretical
foundation, and is informed by the importance of undertaking the
analysis in historical perspective. Contributors are: Alfonso M.
Rodriguez de Austria Gimenez de Aragon, Burton Lee Artz, Arthur Asa
Berger, Oliver Boyd-Barrett, Marco Briziarelli, Savas Coban,
Jeffrey Hoffmann, Junhao Hong, Robert Jensen, Douglas Kellner,
Thomas Klikauer, Peter Ludes, Tanner Mirrlees, Vincent Mosco,
Victor Pickard, Padmaja Shaw, Nick Stevenson, Gerald Sussman,
Minghua Xu.
Revolution as Restoration examines the journal Guocui xuebao
(1905-1911) to elucidate the momentous political and social changes
in early twentieth-century China. Rather than viewing the journal
as a collection of documents for studying a thinker (e.g., Zhang
Taiyan), a concept (e.g., national essence), or an intellectual
movement (e.g., cultural conservatism), this book focuses on the
global network of commerce and communication that allowed
independent publications to appear in the Chinese print market. As
such, this book offers a different perspective on the Chinese quest
for modernity. It shows that, from the start, the Chinese quest for
modernity was never completely orchestrated by the central
government, nor was it static and monolithic as the teleology of
revolution describes.
When Vladimir Putin became President of Russia in 2000, his first
priority was to reestablish the intelligence agencies' grip on the
country by portraying himself as a strongman protecting Russian
citizens from security threats. Despite condemnation by the United
Nations, the European Parliament, and European Union, the policy of
brutal "ethnic cleansing" in Chechnya continued. For Putin,
Islamist attacks on the United States of September 11, 2001, were a
welcome opportunity to rebrand the war against Chechen
independence, not as the crushing of a democracy, but as a
contribution to President George W. Bush's "War on Terror." In the
years that followed, Putin's regime covertly supported and
manipulated extremist factions in Chechnya and stage-managed
terrorist attacks on its own citizens to justify continuing
aggression. US and European condemnation of Russian atrocities in
Chechnya dwindled as Russia continued to portray Chechen
independence as an international terrorist threat. Chechnya's Prime
Minister-in-Exile Akhmed Zakaev, who had to escape Chechnya, faced
Russian calls for his extradition from the United Kingdom, which
instead granted him political asylum as Russia's increased its
oppressive operations.
Written from the perspective of a practising artist, this book
proposes that, against a groundswell of historians, museums and
commentators claiming to speak on behalf of art, it is artists
alone who may define what art really is. Jelinek contends that
while there are objects called 'art' in museums from deep into
human history and from around the globe - from Hans Sloane's
collection, which became the foundation of the British Museum, to
Alfred Barr's inclusion of 'primitive art' within the walls of
MoMA, the Museum of Modern Art - only those that have been made
with the knowledge and discipline of art should rightly be termed
as such. Policing the definition of art in this way is not to
entrench it as an elitist occupation, but in order to focus on its
liberal democratic potential. Between Discipline and a Hard Place
describes the value of art outside the current preoccupation with
economic considerations yet without resorting to a range of
stereotypical and ultimately instrumentalist political or social
goods, such as social inclusion or education. A wider argument is
also made for disciplinarity, as Jelinek discusses the great
potential as well as the pitfalls of interdisciplinary and
multidisciplinary working, particularly with the so-called
'creative' arts. A passionate treatise arguing for a new way of
understanding art that forefronts the role of the artist and the
importance of inclusion within both the concept of art and the art
world.
What threat does Al Qaeda pose to the United States as it continues
to evolve in the wake of the Arab Spring, and what are the group's
evolving strategies for growth and survival internationally? This
book provides answers. Ideal for both students of terrorism and
general readers wanting to better understand modern terrorism, this
book provides an in-depth look at Al Qaeda, including its origins,
evolution, doctrines, structure, and terrorist operations. The
authors examine Al Qaeda's operational transitions over the last
two decades, and consider these changes in terms of the impact of
the Internet, the viciousness of the violence employed, the
leverage of colonial past, and the subsequent international
implications. Particular attention is paid to Al Qaeda's changing
strategies for growth and survival across the Middle East and
Africa as well as the threats that it poses to the United States as
it continues to evolve in the wake of the Arab Spring. The work
addresses why Al Qaeda-now both a professional force and a network
of so-called "lone wolves"-must remain a primary focus of the
United States and other Western states while also recognizing that
the threat of terrorism goes beyond Al Qaeda. Analyzes the Al Qaeda
belief that violence is required to achieve its goals and the
common Al Qaeda perception that violence was used effectively by
the colonialists and the West, particularly the United States and
France Identifies the precursors to Al Qaeda organizations and how
al Qaeda became what it is today Examines Al Qaeda's business
associations and its ties to piracy and organized crime,
identifying the opportunities these ties create; as well as the
organization's use of emerging technology-especially the
Internet-to reach out to a younger, technology-savvy audience for
their message
"Negotiating Memories of Protest in Western Europe" explores the
transmission of memories of European protest movements in the late
1960s and 1970s. Focusing on the specific case of Italy, the book
examines the ways in which different memory agents negotiate
memories of violence against left-wing activists, perpetrated by
representatives of the state. It does so through a discussion of
commemorative rituals, memory sites and other forms of 'memory
work' performed by various social groups within the local setting
of Bologna, where a left-wing student and protester was shot dead
by police in 1977. By drawing on this fascinating case study,
Andrea Hajek lays bare the dynamic relation between official and
unofficial memories of conflict and and explores the challenges of
historical research into social movements.
If Charles Theveneau de Morande was a character in a novel, he
would be considered the ultimate anti-hero. He has variously been
described as 'the incarnation of an eighteenth-century rogue', 'a
minor prince among blackmailers', and 'a man so cunning that he
outwitted Figaro himself.' Morande (1741-1805) was notorious among
his contemporaries for successfully blackmailing Louis XV and his
mistress Madame Du Barry, and inspiring a veritable extortion
industry to develop in London. To historians he is even better
known as and archetypical 'Grub Street' hack and the author of the
Gazetier cuirasse. However, Morande's historical significance far
transcends his success as a blackmailer and scandalous pamphleteer.
For, having extorted the monarchy, he turned coat and during the
War of American Independence and throughout the 1780s was France's
leading political spy in London. In addition, he was a highly
successful police agent among his fellow exiles and one of the most
influential journalists of his time. Morande's life story is a tale
of intrigue, blackmail, espionage, duels, kidnap, murder, politics,
conspiracy and crime. At the same time, it offers a chance to
examine some of the most important issues of French history and
revolution.
Party-States and their Legacies in Post-Communist Transformation is
a unique investigation into the construction, operation,
self-destruction and transition of Hungarian politics from the
1960s to the mid- 1990s. It presents a rich picture which draws
upon an extraordinary body of data and provides not just simply a
retrospective theoretical analysis of the system, but details of
everyday life within the state apparatus. This remarkable book
includes extensive interviews with over four hundred key
individuals in the party, state and the economy from 1975 onwards.
In addition, Dr Csanadi draws upon other unique empirical research
including internal memos and secret state documents as well as a
full range of studies by East and West European scholars to reveal
the realities of the system as observed by those closest to it. She
not only considers the workings of the system during the communist
era, but also analyses the legacy it continues to exert on the
period of the transformation. As such the book contributes to our
understanding of the Hungarian transformation and sheds new light
on how party states worked throughout Eastern and Central Europe
during the communist era and what the consequences of their
self-similar features on the transformation are. In addition the
book offers comparisons with other formerly centrally planned
systems to reveal the structural differences in the distribution of
power in party states and the very different legacies they leave
for post-communist transformation. This comprehensive book will be
welcomed by researchers, academics and postgraduates interested in
the politics, economics, history and political science of Hungary
and other East and Central European countries in transition.
Following previous trends of suicide bombings and violence against
Western and local hostages, the 2005-2007 period saw a continuing
tide of terrorism. Mickolus catalogues these recent insurgencies
and technique, including airplane hijackings, letter bombs, food
tampering, and major assassinations. An extension of his other
other works, including terrorism dating back to 1980, this
comprehensive chronology also provides follow-up material to prior
incidents and enumerates their effects on current airport security
measures around the world. This volume expertly details key players
in each event, ranging from the terrorist whose violence created an
atmosphere of fear and anxiety, to their unknowing victims. This
work is divided into three sections: incidents, updates, and
bibliography. In the first two segments, both domestic and
international terrorist attacks are examined within security and
political contexts to shed light on how the events unfolded. The
extensive bibliographic data is also an invaluable resource for
scholars, international organizations, and students.
The February Revolution, Petrograd, 1917 is the most comprehensive
book on the epic uprising that toppled the tsarist monarchy and
ushered in the next stage of the Russian Revolution. Hasegawa
presents in detail the intense drama of the nine days of the
revolution, including the workers' strike, soldiers' revolt, the
scrambling of revolutionary party activists to control the
revolution, and the liberals' conspiracy to force Tsar Nicholas II
to abdicate. Based on his previous work, published in 1981, the
author has revised, enlarged, and reinterpreted the complexity of
the February Revolution, resulting in a major and timely
reassessment on the occasion of its centennial. See inside the
book.
Education and NGOs discusses the role of sectors outside the
mainstream in relation to improving access to education, with
particular focus on the underprivileged. International case study
examples offer insights into the work of non-governmental
organizations, which play a crucial role in UNESCO's global
Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) effort, by providing
alternative forms of education and improving educational access.
Including a discussion of the work of organizations such as Africa
Educational Trust, Kids Company, FIDAL Foundation and many others,
the volume explores the role of NGOs in the UK, the USA, India,
Nepal, the Gaza Strip, Ecuador, Philippines and South Africa. Each
chapter contains contemporary questions to encourage active
engagement with the material and an annotated list of suggested
reading to support further exploration.
A human rights lawyer travels to hot zones around the globe, before
and after the September 11 attacks, to document abuses committed by
warlords, terrorist groups, and government counterterrorism forces.
Whether reporting on al Qaeda safe houses, the mechanics of the
Pentagon's smartest bombs, his interviews with politicians and
ordinary civilians, or his own brush with death outside Kabul, John
Sifton wants to help us understand violence-what it is, and how we
think and speak about it. For the human rights community, the
global war on terror brought unprecedented challenges. Of special
concern were the secret detention centers operated by the CIA as it
expanded into a paramilitary force, and the harsh treatment of
prisoners throughout Iraq and Afghanistan. In drafting legal
memoranda that made domestic prosecution for these crimes
impossible, Sifton argues, the United States possessed not only the
detainees but the law itself. Sifton recounts his efforts to locate
secret prisons and reflects on the historical development of
sanctioned military or police violence-from hand-to-hand combat to
the use of drones-and the likelihood that technology will soon
enable completely automated killing. Sifton is equally concerned to
examine what people have meant by nonviolent social change, and he
asks whether pure nonviolence is ever possible. To invoke rights is
to invoke the force to uphold them, he reminds us. Ultimately,
advocates for human rights can only shame the world into better
behavior, and their work may involve advocating the very violence
they deplore.
Guy Standing's immensely influential 2011 book introduced the
Precariat as an emerging mass class, characterized by inequality
and insecurity. Standing outlined the increasingly global nature of
the Precariat as a social phenomenon, especially in the light of
the social unrest characterized by the Occupy movements. He
outlined the political risks they might pose, and at what might be
done to diminish inequality and allow such workers to find a more
stable labour identity.His concept and his conclusions have been
widely taken up by thinkers from Noam Chomsky to Zygmunt Bauman, by
political activists and by policy-makers. This new book takes the
debate a stage further-looking in more detail at the kind of
progressive politics that might form the vision of a Good Society
in which such inequality, and the instability it produces is
reduced. "A Precariat Charter "discusses how rights - political,
civil, social and economic - have been denied to the Precariat, and
at the importance of redefining our social contract around notions
of associational freedom, agency and the commons. The ecological
imperative is also discussed - something that was only hinted at in
Standing's original book but has been widely discussed in relation
to the Precariat by theorists and activists alike.
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