Intellectuals and their problems

Focaal ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 (84) ◽  
pp. 111-114
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Ferry
Keyword(s):  
Political Mobilization ◽  
Time And Space ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Motivation To Give ◽  
Comprehensive Discussion ◽  
Activist Scholarship

This statement frames Gavin Smith’s thoughtful, complex text Intellectuals and (Counter-) Politics: Essays in Historical Realism. Indeed, you could call the book a manual for the forming of a problem from this kind of perspective and with this motivation. To give a comprehensive discussion of how this might happen, Smith brings in a whole range of questions: What is an intellectual? How do intellectuals reach audiences? How are counter-politics situated within time and space, and how should they be studied? By including the domains of intellectuals, political actors, publics, and the constraining tendencies of structure—of “capital’s fierce demands”—in his analysis, while always recognizing the porous and fluctuating boundaries between these domains, Smith (2014: 11) frames the question of activist scholarship and the ongoing historicity of politics in a way that attempts to grasp their changing, tangled, and slippery nature. The result is an immensely rich book that provides a nudge along the path to a complex account of arrangements of capital and political mobilization that it reveals.

Afterword

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessandro Monsutti
Keyword(s):  
Political Mobilization ◽  
Time And Space ◽  
Circulation Of Knowledge ◽  
Past Injustices ◽  
Main Language

Building on the case of the Hazaras, this afterword addresses some transversal themes to the whole edited volume. Articulated around the evocation of past injustices and protests against exploitation, Shiism has been the main language of political mobilization among the Hazaras in the last decades. It has been both a tool of resistance against central power in Kabul and of domination within Hazarajat. This process is only one example showing how multiple has been Islam across time and space. Sufism, state-sponsored Shari‘a courts, transnational circulation of knowledge and networks of activists, women’s religiosity are all facets of how Islam has been experienced in Afghanistan. Islam has been a mean to legitimize central power but also a vector of rebellion; it may have been a unifying factor but has also been used to create boundaries between groups.

Trolls and Hacktivists

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica L. Beyer
Keyword(s):  
Collective Action ◽  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Online Communities ◽  
Online Community ◽  
Community Mobilization ◽  
Political Mobilization ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
History Of ◽  
Us Presidential Election

Online communities have long been the sites of political mobilization. Work on these communities in relation to politics sits at the intersection of the study of social movements broadly as well as hacktivism specifically; anthropological and cultural studies of online culture, including trolling; and work focused on the affordances of social platforms. Drawing on four linked cases of online community mobilization—4chan and trolling culture, Anonymous, Gamergate, and the 2016 US presidential election—the author discusses this varied theory and its ability to contribute to the understanding of online communities as a political and social phenomenon. The author illustrates that there are distinct repertoires of contention that emerged from 4chan prior to 2008 that subsequent movements refined and adapted. The author argues that 4chan’s affordances created a cultural identity that was durable, with shared discourse, affirmation of group values, and a history of collective action that served as a base for mobilization. These modes of collective action, including organized harassment, have since been adopted by a range of political actors. Future research should address questions of movement durability, emergence, and the interplay between internet affordances and offline contexts.

Women and the Politics of the Spanish Popular Front: Political Mobilization or Social Revolution?

1986 ◽  
Vol 30 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Martha A. Ackelsberg
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Social Control ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Political Mobilization ◽  
Popular Front ◽  
The Political ◽  
Social Revolution ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
The Revolution

Moments of massive social change, almost by definition, open new social and political arenas to individuals and groups previously prevented from participating in them. Whether because of the sense of possibility that revolutionary moments tend to offer, the collapse of existing mechanisms of social control, or the effects of broad-based mobilization, those previously subordinated often use such moments to take their places on the historical stage. Women, in particular, frequently appear as political actors in such contexts. But just as surely as revolutions tend to open opportunities for participation in the political and social life of a community, the consolidation of power often tends to narrow them, once again—albeit with a new “cast” of political actors. And, if women have tended to benefit from revolutionary moments, they have also suffered the consequences of consolidation: no matter what the ostensible goals of the revolution, as the exercise of power is “regularized,” opportunities for women contract.

scholarly journals ‘They are just children!’ The Symbol of Childhood in Political Mobilization of Modern Russia

2021 ◽  
pp. 188-197
Author(s):  
Tat'yana Ryabova ◽  
Lyudmila Kleschenko
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Political Rhetoric ◽  
Political Mobilization ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Media ◽  
The One

The first part of the paper describes the theoretical aspects of the issues regarding the politicization of childhood. The authors demonstrate that the representation of childhood in political rhetoric, on the one hand, reflects the ideas about it existing in society, and on the other hand, is its significant forming factor. The second part provides the analysis of the symbol of childhood along with the media coverage of 2017—2019 protest movement in Russia. The third part provides for the study of public opinion on the participation of minors in politics and the use of the symbol of childhood by political actors, based on interviews conducted by the authors. The authors conclude that according to the public opinion there is a need for minors to participate in political life. At the same time, in the course of using the image of childhood by political actors, the majority of informants is aware of its manipulative nature.

Territorial Cleavages and Constitutional Transitions

2019 ◽  
pp. 374-428
Author(s):  
George Anderson ◽  
Sujit Choudhry
Keyword(s):  
Agenda Setting ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Political Mobilization ◽  
The Political ◽  
Relative Power ◽  
Constitutional Design ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Three Stages ◽  
Design Options ◽  
Constitution Making

This chapter explores how patterns of territorial political mobilization influence the processes of Constitution-making and the choices of constitutional design, focusing on seventeen countries that differ significantly in the structure of their politically salient territorial cleavages. The seventeen cases present relatively recent examples of constitutional transitions. The chapter first examines what it calls “constitutional moments” and three contextual variables that shape their structure and dynamics: the political geometry of territorial cleavages, the means to pursue claims for territorial accommodation, and the relative power positions of political actors. The chapter then considers the context and dynamics of constitutional moments, three stages of Constitution-making processes (agenda setting, deliberation, ratification), and three major constitutional design options to respond to claims for territorial accommodation (symmetrical federalism or devolution with a majoritarian central government, highly devolved federalism with a consociational central government, special autonomy for small territories, and a majoritarian central government).

scholarly journals ‘We the People’: Demarcating the Demos in Populist Mobilization—The Case of the Italian Lega

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 351
Author(s):  
Oliver Schmidtke
Keyword(s):  
Identity Politics ◽  
National Level ◽  
Political Mobilization ◽  
Political Campaigns ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
The People ◽  
Political Narrative ◽  
Actual Meaning ◽  
Interpretative Approach

This article is a theoretically guided and empirically based analysis of how populist movements invoke the notion of the ‘people’ as a cornerstone of their political mobilization. While the confrontation between the virtuous ‘people’ and the unresponsive elites speaks to how populism challenges established political actors and institutions, the actual meaning of who the ‘people’ are and what they represent is shifting and often driven by strategic considerations. Analytically the article investigates the distinct ways in which nationalism and populism conceptualize and politically mobilize the notion of the ‘people’. Empirically it focuses on the Italian League and engages in a discourse analysis of its political campaigns over the past 30 years. Based on this textual analysis of political campaigns, the article sheds light on how the reference to the ‘people’ has been employed as this political actor has transformed from a regionalist party advocating for autonomy in Northern Italy to one taking up the role of a populist-nationalist party at the national level. This case study allows the author to make a generalizable hypothesis about the nature of identity politics promoted by populist actors and the way in which the invocation of the ‘people’ and their alleged enemies is a pivotal political narrative that opens and restricts opportunities for political mobilization. This interpretative approach also allows for a more concise conceptual understanding of the affinity that right-wing populists demonstrate toward nativist ideologies.

Women and the Politics of the Spanish Popular Front: Political Mobilization or Social Revolution?

1986 ◽  
Vol 30 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Martha A. Ackelsberg
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Social Control ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Political Mobilization ◽  
Popular Front ◽  
The Political ◽  
Social Revolution ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
The Revolution

Moments of massive social change, almost by definition, open new social and political arenas to individuals and groups previously prevented from participating in them. Whether because of the sense of possibility that revolutionary moments tend to offer, the collapse of existing mechanisms of social control, or the effects of broad-based mobilization, those previously subordinated often use such moments to take their places on the historical stage. Women, in particular, frequently appear as political actors in such contexts. But just as surely as revolutions tend to open opportunities for participation in the political and social life of a community, the consolidation of power often tends to narrow them, once again—albeit with a new “cast” of political actors. And, if women have tended to benefit from revolutionary moments, they have also suffered the consequences of consolidation: no matter what the ostensible goals of the revolution, as the exercise of power is “regularized,” opportunities for women contract.

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