Pushing resistance theory in IR beyond ‘opposition’: The constructive resistance of the #MeToo movement in Japan

This article aims to specifically contribute to debates concerning dissent within the scholarship of International Relations (IR), through elaborating the constructive qualities of resistance. Composite and fruitful stories concerning resistance against power have flourished in studies of the ‘global’. Still, there has been a trend in IR to embrace resistance as a sense of opposition and it has been primarily described in terms of, ‘“counter”, “contradict”, “social change”, “reject”, “challenge”, ‘opposition”, “subversive”, and “damage and/or disrupt”’.1 This article adds to the literature on resistance's productive dimensions by drawing upon the case of the #MeToo campaign in Japan. The #MeToo movement in Japan should not only be viewed as a ‘non-cooperative’ form of resistance – that is, resistance that breaks norms, rules, laws, regulations and order, typically in public and in confrontative ways; rather, the #MeToo movement should be regarded as a ‘constructive’ form of resistance, which produced new resistance figures, movements, narratives as well as established new expressions of resistance. It may be perceived as a contagious form of resistance, which operated through reiterations, doublings, and re-experiences. The campaign provides a significant example of how discourses move transnationally through the force of repetition.

Silencing and Breaking the Silence: Resisting Patriarchy in Brajaki’s “Annapurna’s Feast” and Thakuri’s “War”

The aim of this paper is to analyse Manu Brajaki’s story “Annapurna’s Feast” and Maya Thakuri’s “War,” using the resistance theory. It explores the nature of resistance and its significance presented in the stories. The paper argues that both female protagonists of the stories resist injustice happened in their life due to their gendered identity as women, but the way they resist is different: one directly shows the courage and declares to fight against it whereas another silently inherits all the patriarchal value although her silence speaks out loud and gives agency to her voice. To elucidate this statement, Hollander and Rachel L. Einwohner’s concepts on resistance is used. Both stories depict the life of the housewives who are victimized due to existing patriarchal values. The female protagonist of Brajaki seems so resilient whereas Thakuri’s protagonist directly speaks out for the injustice. Both stories present the female protagonists’ silence and courage to speak out as their ways to resist and expose their difficulties to speak out.

The Theme of Resistance in Rabindranath Tagore’s Malini: A Humanistic Perspective

This paper explores the themes of resistance emerged in a Hindu kingdom after the pervasion of a new religion namely the Buddhism in Rabindranath Tagore’s play Malini. The primary conflict arises when princess Malini follows the Buddhism in the land of orthodox Hindus. Her conversion and the conflicts that it drives, thus, is the major issue of this paper that invites a systematic exploration with the perspective of resistance theory. The ground of resistance solidifies with the oppositional feelings, beliefs, and the milieu of rebellions. Thus, these inciting aspects are enough to give birth to the resistance. As a qualitative applied research, this paper draws on ideas and theories of resistance postulated by the scholars like Kasper Masse, Miguel Tamen, Jocelyn A. Hollander, and Rachel L. Einwohner to observe the revolt and resistance in the play. Malini and Kemankar stand as the representatives of their respective religious ideologies, and their struggles against the “power bloc” expose the nature of the resistance. This resistance remains as the harbinger to spread the voice of humanity throughout the world. Tagore's idea of universal humanism sustains if only the religious dogmatism and fanaticism stop to judge, discriminate, and lynch people. It is only the resistance to such dogmatism that gives birth to the voice of humanity when the rationality rules the world.

Barriers Analysis on Consumer Usage Intention of Freelance Marketplace in Indonesia

Past studies have shown that the informal sector, including freelancers, contributes significantly towards Indonesia’s rate of employment by providing economic opportunities to those who cannot be absorbed by the formal sectors. Seizing this opportunity, many businesses are tapping into providing freelancers a place to sell and market their services online, commonly known as freelance marketplace. Yet the penetration of these platforms is still low in Indonesia. While the supply is high, Indonesian consumers still have doubts to use these marketplaces as their go-to platform when searching for freelancers. Thus, this study aims to investigate factors that impede consumers intention to use freelance marketplace in Indonesia, based on the framework of Innovation Resistance Theory (IRT). The data was collected from 370 respondents through online questionnaires, analyzed using Smart PLS software, and interviews, deciphered using selective coding. The results suggest that usage barrier, value barrier, tradition barrier, and image barrier negatively influence consumers’ usage intention of freelance marketplace, all except for risk barrier. Additionally, social influence also has a significant effect on value barrier and image barrier. These findings can be useful to construct business strategies for online freelance service providers, by focusing to eliminate the critical barriers mentioned in this study.

Justifying Revolution

This work explores the patriot clergymen’s arguments for the legitimacy of political resistance to the British in the early stages of the American Revolution. It reconstructs the historical and theological background of the colonial clergymen, showing the continued impact that Stuart absolutism and Reformed resistance theory had on their political theology. As a corrective to previous scholarship, this work argues that the American clergymen’s rationale for political resistance in the eighteenth century developed in general continuity with a broad strand of Protestant thought in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The arguments of Jonathan Mayhew and John Witherspoon are highlighted, along with a wide range of Whig clergyman on both sides of the Atlantic. The agreement that many British clergymen had with their colonial counterparts challenges the view that the American Revolution emerged from distinctly American modes of thought.

Learning from Criticisms of Civil Resistance

In recent decades, civil resistance, also known as nonviolent action, has become more widely used among social movements and recognised by researchers. Alexei Anisin has usefully offered a critique of civil resistance theory and practice. His ideas are used as a basis for reflection and deeper understanding of both strengths and weaknesses of this approach. Inspired by Anisin’s questioning of the dataset used to compare nonviolent and violent anti-regime campaigns, we point to multiple neglected factors. Anisin contrasts quantitative nonviolence research unfavourably with medical and scientific research. Although Anisin’s image of science is idealised, it does point to the value of recognising the role of values in civil resistance research and in critiques of it.

Motståndets motstånd

This article focuses on how gendered power operates in the neoliberal welfare regime and the circumstances created for welfare professionals in Sweden to act politically. Based on interviews with key informants in two cases of collective resistance among midwives and social workers, attention is focused on the practices of power used by politicians and managers. Drawing on resistance theory and concepts developed through previous research on equality, the result shows how fear is created and used and how distance is upheld through different techniques of power, which serve to prevent both collective mobilization and avoid these issues of deteriorated working conditions and care being politicized in terms of inequality

Mastery of Cultural Capital, Social Class Segregation of High Schools and Winning at Sport

According to cultural capital theory, middle-class families cultivate their children’s cultural capital to promote their social mobility through success in school. We advance the explanatory power of the theory by measuring cultural capital in terms of mastery rather than participation or attendance using data on more than 12 thousand schools about their success in interscholastic athletics. We find that predominantly middle-class schools win more contests and by larger margins than economically integrated and predominantly working-class schools. The margins of victory become larger as the social class differences between the opposing schools grows. We also find evidence consistent with resistance theory because predominantly working class schools also experience success, albeit relatively modest. Our findings have implications for cultural capital theory, resistance theory, and our methods for studying them. By measuring mastery of cultural capital, we identify large social class differences among participants in cultural capital and a close alignment between middle-class culture and school culture.