Conceptualizing Legal Mobilization: How Should We Understand the Deployment of Legal Strategies?

2019 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 166-193 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emilio Lehoucq ◽  
Whitney K. Taylor

Social movements have increasingly incorporated legal strategies into their repertoires of contention. Yet, both sociolegal and social movement scholarship lack a systematic and theoretically coherent way to conceptualize legal mobilization. In fact, scholars disagree (sometimes in fundamental ways) about what constitutes legal mobilization, which has resulted in conceptual slippage around how the term is used. This article proposes a more self-conscious approach that will facilitate the aggregation of findings across studies. To do so, it sets forth a systematic conceptualization of legal mobilization and situates it within a typology of uses of the law. It also contextualizes the typology with respect to emerging literatures within social movement and sociolegal scholarship and proposes areas for further research that would benefit from a more rigorous conceptualization of legal mobilization.

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
María Angélica Peñas Defago ◽  
Violeta Cánaves

Abstract The case of El Salvador provides unique evidence of how solidarity is possible among different social movements in struggles over abortion law reform and its impact, even in contexts of extreme criminalization. The paper depicts a concrete example of how networks centered on abortion struggles can go beyond feminist movements and national borders, and shows the domestic impact of broadening the scope of the audience, the actors involved, and the spheres where abortion law discussions take place. The article focuses on the evolution of socio-legal mobilization regarding abortion in El Salvador over the last two decades. This evolution is presented through three moments: the first centers on the legal actions that feminist movements orchestrated in the mid-2000's around the Beatriz case. The second moment focuses on the most outstanding features of the “Las 17” campaign – a collaborative and international experience that entailed the submission of seventeen pardon petitions on behalf of women who had been convicted of homicide after having miscarriages. Finally, a third moment entails the socio-legal strategies embraced by feminist movements since 2018 within the framework of the campaign named “Las 17+”.


2015 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 18-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex Khasnabish ◽  
Max Haiven

In this article, we critically reflect on the production and measurement of ‘success’ and ‘failure’ both in social movements and social movement research. We do so by focusing on the Radical Imagination Project, an experiment in politically engaged, ethnographically grounded social movement research we have sustained in Halifax, Nova Scotia since 2010. We discuss our methodological strategy of ‘convocation,’ distinguishing it from other social movement research approaches, and reflect on the difficulties inherent in practicing these methods within the austere realities and pressures of the neoliberal university. We explore the ways in which the particular complexities of the fraught field and habitus of the would-be academic­activist might be critically assessed and best mobilized to assist in the reproduction of movements, without also unduly reproducing the neoliberal university or its architectures of privilege and power.


2009 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
pp. 43-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zeynep Gambetti

AbstractThis paper explores two examples of collective action, the Zapatista movement in Chiapas, Mexico, and the Kurdish movement in Turkey, by focusing on how these movements constructed two particular places, Diyarbakir and Chiapas, after the armed conflict subsided. My first aim is to show how this place-making has affected the discourses and practices of these movements. I argue that place-making is not only about locality or physical setting, but also about constructing a movement and a form of struggle in its own right. My second aim is to discuss the broad outlines of what may be called the “appropriation of space.” This refers not only to the spaces of visibility and solidarity opened up by a movement, but also to its chances of acquiring significance within local, national or global spaces of power. I look at how the Kurdish movement has had an impact on democracy in Turkey and compare it with the Zapatista movements local and transnational effects. I do so by relating physical and metaphorical notions of space to several concepts generated by social movement literature. As such, this study intends to contribute to spatial understandings of collective action. It is also likely to indicate various pitfalls and obstacles for emancipatory social movements in the present neoliberal era.


2016 ◽  
Vol 46 (184) ◽  
pp. 403-421 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henrik Sander

This article argues that social movement research must be renewed by a historical-materialist perspective to be able to understand the emergence and effects of the relatively new climate justice movement in Germany. The previous research on NGOs and social movements in climate politics is presented and the recent development of the climate justice movement in Germany is illustrated. In a final step two cases of climate movement campaigns are explained by means of the historical-materialist movement analysis proposed by the author.


2018 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 36
Author(s):  
Ahmad Sudi Pratikno ◽  
Dewi Nurmasita

Social movement is an effort to provide benefits to others. However, within the context of cultivating the character, research on social movement through socio-drama based on local wisdom is very limited. This study aims to examine the increasing character of nationalism through social movements in the form of socio-drama. Research subjects were elementary and secondary students residing in rural area. This research used qualitative and descriptive method. Data collection techniques were documentations, observations, and interviews. The results showed that the increased character of nationalism only arise when playing socio-drama only, they would return to the previous character. Cultivating the character values need a long time, so the change of character did not necessarily happen.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nurwan Nurwan ◽  
Ali Hadara ◽  
La Batia

ABSTRAK: Inti pokok masalah dalam penelitian ini meliputi latar belakang gerakan sosial masyarakat Kampung Labaluba Desa Kontumere Kecamatan Kabawo Kabupaten Muna, Faktor-faktor yang mendorong gerakan sosial masyarakat Kampung Labaluba Desa Kontumere Kecamatan Kabawo Kabupaten Muna, proses gerakan sosial masyarakat Kampung Labaluba Desa Kontumere Kecamatan Kabawo Kabupaten Muna dan akibat gerakan sosial masyarakat Labaluba Desa Kontumere Kecamatan Kabawo Kabupaten Muna? Latar belakang gerakan sosial masyarakat Kampung Labaluba yaitu keadaan kampungnya yang hanya terdiri dari beberapa kepala keluarga tiap kampung dan jarak yang jauh masing-masing kampung membuat keadaan masyarakatnya sulit untuk berkomnikasi dan tiap kampung hanya terdiri dari lima sampai dengan tujuh kepala keluarga saja. Kampung ini letaknya paling timur pulau Muna terbentang dari ujung kota Raha sekarang sampai kampung Wakuru yang saat ini. Kondisi ini juga yang menjadi salah satu faktor penyebab kampung ini kurang berkembang baik dibidang ekonomi, sosial politik, pendidikan maupun di bidang kebudayaan. Keadaan ini diperparah lagi dengan sifat dan karakter penduduknya yang masih sangat primitif. Faktor yang mendorong adanya gerakan sosial masyarakat Kampung Labaluba Desa Kontumere Kecamatan Kabawo Kabupaten Muna adalah adanya ketidaksesuaian antara keinginan pemerintah setempat dan masyarakat yang mendiami Kampung Labaluba pada waktu itu. Sedangkan proses gerakan sosial masyarakat Kampung Labaluba Desa Kontumere Kecamatan Kabawo Kabupaten Muna bermula ketika pemerintah seolah memaksakan kehendaknya kepada rakyat yang menyebabkan rakyat tidak setuju dengan kebijakan tersebut. Akibat yang ditimbulkan dari adanya gerakan sosial masyarakat Kampung Labaluba Desa Kontumere Kecamatan Kabawo Kabupaten Muna terbagi dua yaitu akibat positif dan akibat negatif.Kata Kunci: Gerakan Sosial, Factor dan Dampaknya ABSTRACT: The main issues in this study include the background of the social movement of Labaluba Village, Kontumere Village, Kabawo Sub-District, Muna District, Factors that encourage social movements of Labaluba Kampung Sub-village, Kontumere Village, Kabawo Sub-District, Muna District, the social movement process of Labaluba Village, Kontumere Village, Kabawo Sub-District Muna Regency and due to Labaluba community social movements Kontumere Village Kabawo District Muna Regency? The background of the Labaluba Kampung community social movement is that the condition of the village consists of only a few heads of households per village and the distance of each village makes it difficult for the community to communicate and each village only consists of five to seven households. This village is located east of the island of Muna stretching from the edge of the city of Raha now to the current village of Wakuru. This condition is also one of the factors causing the village to be less developed in the economic, social political, educational and cultural fields. This situation is made worse by the very primitive nature and character of the population. The factor that motivated the existence of the social movement of Labaluba Village in Kontumere Village, Kabawo Subdistrict, Muna Regency was the mismatch between the wishes of the local government and the people who inhabited Labaluba Village at that time. While the process of social movements in Labaluba Village, Kontumere Village, Kabawo District, Muna Regency began when the government seemed to impose its will on the people, causing the people to disagree with the policy. The consequences arising from the existence of social movements in Labaluba Village, Kontumere Village, Kabawo District, Muna Regency are divided into two, namely positive and negative effects. Keywords: Social Movements, Factors and their Impacts


Author(s):  
Donatella della Porta ◽  
Massimiliano Andretta ◽  
Tiago Fernandes ◽  
Eduardo Romanos ◽  
Markos Vogiatzoglou

Chapter 3 addresses the institutional legacy (that is, the set of formal and informal rules that regulate the exercise of power in a political regime) of the transition to democracy, particularly those institutional dimensions that are more relevant for social movements—what social movement studies have defined as political opportunities. After setting the theoretical framework by specifying the main qualities of democracy the research has addressed, the chapter covers the legal and constitutional provisions on civil (especially protest) rights, political rights (right to resistance, majoritarian versus consensual assets), and social rights as well as practices—particularly with regard to protest, citizens’ participation, protest policing, and concertation.


Author(s):  
Nicholas Owen

Other People’s Struggles is the first attempt in over forty years to explain the place of “conscience constituents” in social movements. Conscience constituents are people who participate in a movement but do not stand to benefit if it succeeds. Why do such people participate when they do not stand to benefit? Why are they sometimes present and sometimes absent in social movements? Why and when is their participation welcome to those who do stand to benefit, and why and when is it not? The work proposes an original theory to answer these questions, crossing discipline boundaries to draw on the findings of social psychology, philosophy, and normative political theory, in search of explanations of why people act altruistically and what it means to others when they do so. The theory is illustrated by examples from British history, including the antislavery movement, the women’s suffrage and liberation movements, labor and socialist movements, anticolonial movements, antipoverty movements, and movements for global justice. Other People’s Struggles also contributes to new debates concerning the rights and wrongs of “speaking for others.” Debates concerning the limits of solidarity—who can be an “ally” and on what terms—have become very topical in contemporary politics, especially in identity politics and in the new “populist” movements. The book provides a theoretical and empirical account of how these questions have been addressed in the past and how they might be framed today.


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