scholarly journals From Mindbombs to Firebombs: The Narrative Strategies of Radical Environmental Activism Documentaries

Res Rhetorica ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 22-37
Author(s):  
Alexa Weik von Mossner
Keyword(s):  
Direct Action ◽  
Communication Strategies ◽  
The United States ◽  
Documentary Films ◽  
Narrative Strategies ◽  
Environmental Groups ◽  
History Of ◽  
Earth Liberation Front ◽  
Radical Environmentalism ◽  
Tree Falls

The article examines the narrative strategies of two documentary films that give insight into the direct-action campaigns of two radical environmental groups; Jerry Rothwell’s How to Change the World (2015) recounts the birth of Greenpeace and its development of “mindbomb” communication strategies. Marshall Curry’s If a Tree Falls (2011) chronicles the rise and fall of the Earth Liberation Front and its tactics of ecotage. Situating both films in the larger history of radical environmentalism in the United States, the article explores the affective side of their rhetoric on two levels: on the level of the activists’ own communication strategies and on the level of the films made about these activists and their strategies. It argues that making a documentary film about radical environmentalist groups raises moral questions for the filmmaker and that, each in his way, Rothwell and Curry have both made films that straddle the line between ostensible objectivity and sympathetic advocacy for the individuals they portray.

Youth-Based Gender, Sexuality, and Race Equity Work in Secondary Schools

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Megan S. Paceley
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Secondary Schools ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Direct Action ◽  
The United States ◽  
Gender And Sexuality ◽  
Research Education ◽  
School Based ◽  
History Of ◽  
Rich History

Youth have a rich history of engaging in activism and organizing within schools to promote equity based on gender, sexuality, and race. Youth equity work in secondary schools includes myriad activities: developing student-led clubs, such as gay-straight alliances (GSAs, also known as gender and sexuality alliances); advocating for inclusive policies, practices, and curriculum; engaging in direct action, such as protests; and developing individual and shared critical consciousness. Situated in the United States, Canada, and other countries, GSAs are a common way that youth have organized to promote equity and justice for youth with marginalized sexualities and genders; they have, however, been critiqued for their lack of inclusion of racially or ethnically marginalized students or attention to intersecting forms of oppression. Opportunities exist within research, education, and practice to understand and address the heterogeneity and intersectionality of GSA groups and members, examine and understand other forms of school-based activism from an intersectional perspective, and recognize and examine school-based equity work within the broader cultural, social, and political contexts that involve families and communities. Youth, teachers, and social workers engaged in equity work in schools must attend to intersectionality and center the needs of the most marginalized within their work.

scholarly journals The Australian Movement against Uranium Mining: Its Rationale and Evolution

2014 ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marty Branagan
Keyword(s):  
Participant Observation ◽  
Direct Action ◽  
South Australia ◽  
Uranium Mining ◽  
Northern Territory ◽  
Uranium Mine ◽  
Environmental Groups ◽  
History Of ◽  
Subjective Element ◽  
Fukushima Daiichi

This paper begins with a brief historical overview of the Australian movement against uranium mining, before focussing on two major campaigns: Roxby and Jabiluka. It describes the reasons the activists gave at the time for their blockades of the Roxby Downs uranium mine in South Australia in 1983 and 1984. These reasons – such as perceptions that the industry is unsafe - have changed little over time and were the basis for the campaign against the proposed Jabiluka mine in the Northern Territory in 1998. They continue to be cited by environmental groups and Aboriginal Traditional Owners to this day as new situations arise, such as the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident.The paper then describes how the movement evolved between the Roxby and Jabiluka blockades, with changes to the movement’s philosophy, strategy, tactics and internal dynamics. This analysis includes a comparison between two anti-nuclear bike rides, one a year after the 1984 Roxby blockade and involving some of the same activists, and another at the time of the Jabiluka blockade. This author was present at all these events, and provides an emic (insider) perspective within a longitudinal participant-observation methodology. Although this perspective obviously has a subjective element, the paper fills a gap in that there is little written history of these blockades (particularly Roxby) and more generally of Australian resistance to uranium mining, let alone the aspects of nonviolence and movement evolution. It is an introductory history of these campaigns, examining the direct action components, the practicalities of nonviolent campaigning, and the evolution of Australian anti-uranium activism.

Moving Politics: Emotion and ACT UP's Fight Against AIDS. By Deborah B. Gould. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2009. 536p. $65.00 cloth, $23.00 paper.

2011 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 397-398 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rafael de la Dehesa
Keyword(s):  
Military Service ◽  
Direct Action ◽  
The United States ◽  
Aids Epidemic ◽  
Aids Activism ◽  
Bisexual And Transgender ◽  
History Of ◽  
Act Up ◽  
Reagan Era ◽  
The University

Deborah Gould's volume is a beautifully written account of direct-action AIDS activism in the United States from its emergence in the mid-1980s through its decline in the early 1990s. The story of ACT UP, the central focus of the work, illuminates the complex history of both the AIDS epidemic and the political dynamics of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) communities at a key moment of transition. Founded during the conservative backlash of the Reagan era and active through the conservative turn in LGBT politics of the early Clinton years (with the prioritization of questions like military service), the group's confrontational tactics, radical discourse, and political successes prove something of an anomaly. Explaining this anomaly is Gould's central concern, and in doing so, she offers a compelling argument for the importance of addressing affect and emotion in the study of social movements, providing a carefully nuanced conceptual framework to do so.

Documentary subversions and migrant agency: Towards an alternative audio-visual portrait of immigrant communities in the United States

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 197-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nieves Limón Serrano ◽  
Tamara Moya Jorge
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Documentary Films ◽  
Immigrant Communities ◽  
Mass Migration ◽  
Non Fiction ◽  
The Social ◽  
Diverse Communities ◽  
History Of

The movement of people across different countries has been a constant in the history of human civilization. This has been attested to by the so-called ‘mobility turn’ in the social sciences. One of the most important recent instances of such a movement has been the mass migration of diverse communities to the United States. This migratory transit has been portrayed in numerous ways in different media. Among these, documentary films have played a crucial role in their approach to these migrant flows. In both, traditional forms and new web platforms, we find multiple examples of non-fiction that focus on portraying these communities. This article focuses on one of these platforms: Immigrant Nation Media. By highlighting the resistance practices the platform offers, this analysis focuses on its collaborative and educational dimensions, as well as its dedication to migrant empowerment.

‘Undercurrent Affairs’: Radical Environmentalism and Alternative News

1998 ◽  
Vol 30 (7) ◽  
pp. 1197-1217 ◽  
Author(s):  
J Holloway
Keyword(s):  
Direct Action ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Print Form ◽  
Production And Consumption ◽  
Local Space ◽  
History Of ◽  
Radical History ◽  
Radical Environmentalism ◽  
Environmental News

This paper is set in the context of the increased prevalence of environmental direct action in the United Kingdom. After delimiting ‘radical’ enviromentalism, and briefly describing the impetus for this turn to direct action, I focus on the radical environmental movement's use of different media. Thus parallel to the increase in direct action has been the emergence of a variety of radical environmental news texts (in both video and print form). These texts carry different representations and cultural–political mappings of the rural and rurality. Three themes of such a depiction are described: the rural as ‘nature's refuge’, as a local space but potentially global in its consequence, and a space of a radical history of Englishness. In the second half of the paper I draw insight from actor–network theory to argue for a relational–materialist approach to the production and consumption of these texts. By taking this approach I describe a ‘moment’ wherein it becomes difficult and problematic to separate these two processes. The notion of chains of production–consumption is suggested in order to overcome this difficulty.

scholarly journals Blue-Green Coalitions: Constraints and Possibilities in the Post 9-11 Political Environment

2004 ◽  
pp. 91-116 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth A. Gould ◽  
Tammy L. Lewis ◽  
J. Timmons Roberts
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Climate Justice ◽  
Coalition Building ◽  
Political Environment ◽  
Environmental Groups ◽  
Political Climate ◽  
Critical Issues ◽  
History Of

Workers and environmentalists in the United States have often found themselves on opposite sides of critical issues. Yet at the WTO meeting in Seattle in November 1999, they came together in a historic protest many see as a watershed in the formation of a new blue-green “Seattle Coalition.” However the two camps are again in con?ict over substantive issues, and in the changed political climate of post 9-11, the question arises of the coalition’s durability. The paper ?rst brie? y reviews the history of labor-environment interactions in the United States. It then examines a series of problems and potential areas of promise for the movements: di?culties of coalition-building, expectations of reciprocation, local vs. national connections, and the question of di?ering class cultures and interests. Finally, three areas of potential research and action are suggested: new roles for the mainstream environmental groups, just transition alliances and climate justice alliances. We propose that the environmen-tal justice and environmental health wings of the green movement are more suited to making long-term coalitions with labor than are habitat-oriented green groups.

Special Considerations for Evaluation and Treatment of Spanish-Speaking Patients with Cleft Palate

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (5) ◽  
pp. 41-49
Author(s):  
Ellen Moore
Keyword(s):  
Cleft Palate ◽  
The United States ◽  
Culturally Competent ◽  
Speech Language Pathology ◽  
Spanish Speaking ◽  
Appropriate Treatment ◽  
Oral Pressure ◽  
Language Pathology ◽  
History Of ◽  
Spanish Speaking Population

As the Spanish-speaking population in the United States continues to grow, there is increasing need for culturally competent and linguistically appropriate treatment across the field of speech-language pathology. This paper reviews information relevant to the evaluation and treatment of Spanish-speaking and Spanish-English bilingual children with a history of cleft palate. The phonetics and phonology of Spanish are reviewed and contrasted with English, with a focus on oral pressure consonants. Cultural factors and bilingualism are discussed briefly. Finally, practical strategies for evaluation and treatment are presented. Information is presented for monolingual and bilingual speech-language pathologists, both in the community and on cleft palate teams.

State-by-State Use of AMA Guides

2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (5) ◽  
pp. 3-7, 16
Keyword(s):  
Expert Testimony ◽  
Narrow Range ◽  
The United States ◽  
Workers Compensation ◽  
Federal Employees ◽  
Permanent Disability ◽  
Sixth Edition ◽  
History Of ◽  
Canadian Provinces

Abstract This article presents a history of the origins and development of the AMA Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment (AMA Guides), from the publication of an article titled “A Guide to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment of the Extremities and Back” (1958) until a compendium of thirteen guides was published in book form in 1971. The most recent, sixth edition, appeared in 2008. Over time, the AMA Guides has been widely used by US states for workers’ compensation and also by the Federal Employees Compensation Act, the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act, as well as by Canadian provinces and other jurisdictions around the world. In the United States, almost twenty states have developed some form of their own impairment rating system, but some have a narrow range and scope and advise evaluators to consult the AMA Guides for a final determination of permanent disability. An evaluator's impairment evaluation report should clearly document the rater's review of prior medical and treatment records, clinical evaluation, analysis of the findings, and a discussion of how the final impairment rating was calculated. The resulting report is the rating physician's expert testimony to help adjudicate the claim. A table shows the edition of the AMA Guides used in each state and the enabling statute/code, with comments.

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