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Among the different dynamics, flows and ways of urban expression around the world, Latin-American social movements maintain both a common character and differentiating features. The aim of this paper is seek into the different ways that social and urban manifestation occurs and how it is connected with social discontent, using the city of Guadalajara, Mexico as case study. The premise is that, urban contemporary social movements scrutinize, contrast and confront governmental political actions more and more through new forms of expression. By using different resources (symbols and urban spaces), these movements transform and adjust the logic of its action to establish links with other groups and to permanently change the urban landscape. They reach virtuality through this mode of social mobilization; from where they define the limits of its opposition. The paper aim is to show the symbols of the social protest, how they remain and their performance of a watchdog role, from which they examine the space and pursuing social and communitarian interests to advance a new social order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Zimbabwean civic organizations and social movements have faced profound strategic dilemmas in their efforts to contribute to transformative change and peace in Zimbabwe. While major civic strategic actions over the last decade have contributed to significant social, political and economic change, they have at times also fuelled the very polarizing processes that have severely undermined peace and stability. This paper discusses the research methods used to assess the outcomes of three strategic actions taken by two pivotal social movement organizations in Zimbabwe, and secondly, the contributions of their actions for transformative change and peace. It reflects on the broad findings the analysis produced, and the challenges and benefits such methods have for evaluating outcomes and impacts of social movements working to bring national level change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, governance has become a central concept in neoinstitutional economic development literature and in the associated shift by international financial institutions (IFIs) to "development as governance" (use of state authority to facilitate effective economic development) through the Comprehensive Development Framework. By considering neoclassical economics to be a spectacle, the "birth-to-presence of a form of being that pre-exists" and yet requires experts to bring it to fruition, I open analysis to considerations of governance as "more or less calculated forms of rule," including governance in business as management of risk within defined thresholds ("business is the art of taking risks"), and realities that governance under actually existing capitalism often involves instability and barely controlled violence. I use the case of the Chad-Cameroon Petroleum Development Project (CCPDP) to suggest the limited relevance of neoclassical economic "development as governance" by examining alternative narratives regarding the CCPDP. I present the depoliticized neoclassical economic narrative followed by a politically charged set of contesting narratives by World Bank official Robert Calderisi and opposition social movements. In a final narrative I ask why the project failed so rapidly and yet petroleum continues to flow. I suggest that the CCPDP was a hyperdocumented project of hyper-restricted scope, designed to relieve opposition social movement pressure and thus to facilitate development of an oil pipeline meant to ultimately control petroleum throughout the Chad Basin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The World Social Forum (WSF) is a transnational coalition that brings together social movements, NGOs, transnational networks and social associations with the purpose of seeking out alternatives to hegemonic globalization processes. Given the diversity of participants, there are a large number of positions and proposals that are often similar, but at times divergent. Since 2001, when the first version of the WSF was held in Porto Alegre, Brazil, this has become an important object of study from different disciplines in the social sciences. The majority of the existing literature has focused on the WSF's organizational structure, financial sources and its implications for global governance. However, it is unclear who the people involved in the WSF are and where They come from, both in geographic and ideological terms. The major objective of this paper is to map the movements and organizations at the WSF. With this goal in mind, the paper identifies the main actors, grievances and goals of these groups and the consequences of the actions within the Forum between 2001 and 2008. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the recurrent criticisms of the project of cosmopolitan democracy has been that it has not examined the political, economic and social agents that might have an interest in pursuing this programme. This criticism is addressed directly in this paper. It shows that there are a variety of paths that, in their own right, could lead to more democratic global governance, and that there are a diversity of political, economic and social agents that have an interest in the pursuit of these. Cosmopolitan democracy is an open-ended project that aims to increase the accountability, transparency and legitimacy of global governance, and the battery of agents and initiatives outlined highlight the direction and politics required to make it possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper intends to analyze the relevant role which is played by Brazilian external politics in the promotion of the recent South American integration model. It is assumed that different actors beside of the State are players mutually influenced by each other in this on going process of integration. However, since it is not an homogeneous process, one finds different degrees of institutional development and social participation which affect the actors in various ways. It will be stated that governments and social players are considerably ahead in the dynamic of integration, while institutions are far from following their aspirations. This feature may be ovserved mainly in the South Common Market - the Mercosul-, but it already is posed as an obstacle to the full development of the most recent institutions such as the Union of the South Nations - Unasul- and its Councils (Defense, Anti-drugs, etc). Another aspect which will be stressed in this paper is the vulnerability of the South integration in terms of its dependence upon favorable elections results. This dependence also affects the regional developmental role and its mode of insertion within the global system. In sum, internal political options, mainly in Brazil, are capable of define and redefine the regional autonomous path of development within the global process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is divided into 04 parts: the first one presents empirical data and indicators on education and poverty in South America. Secondly, discusses the social movements and their in the region. Thirdly, the process of Mercosur institutionalization, the assessment of the new political geography of the region since 2003 and also the difficulties of implementing the social agenda of Mercosur, and finally, some conclusions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study questions the conclusions of much of the literature on Iran's influence in Latin America that geographic distance and cultural differences limit its effects. It argues that just as Marxism attached itself to Catholicism in the creation of Liberation Theology, so it attached itself to Islam in the creation of Political Islam. In both cases, powerful authoritarian states created a class of university-educated youth and turned the state bureaucracy into a national employment agency to absorb them. In both Latin America and the Middle East this project was unsustainable and some of the educated unemployed channeled their frustrations into creating ideologically driven subversive groups. In the Cold War many of these were Marxist groups but in both regions, a large organizational infrastructure of religious resistance groups were also created. In Latin America Liberation Theology priests who aimed to help Indigenous peoples reclaim land that had been "usurped" by non-Indians since the times of the conquest led these groups. In the Middle East some of the main resistance movements were created to oppose Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories but also southern Lebanon. The paper outlines the cultural influences that facilitate the creation of an Anti-Imperialist front in Latin America that combines the "revolutionary democratic" movements of the countries in the Cuba-Venezuala axis and the radical Islamist movements of the Middle East. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to present some aspects of the theoretical debate about the political action of social movements beyond the national borders in order to demonstrate that they reflect a challenge to some assumptions of the IR discipline. To what extent transnational articulations of social movements impose questions on the modern international system based on the sovereign nation-state? On one hand, some actions beyond borders remains based on the national bond, and this movement beyond borders is related to the mobilization of international structures of political opportunity that have emerged within international organizations, conferences and summits in recent decades. On the other hand, another kind of articulations may occur based on identity bonds other than the nation, challenging the established (spatial, political, epistemological) borders. This paper intends to bring a brief review of the literature about the transnational dimension of social movements' action, as part of an ongoing research about the participation of civil society actors in mechanism of regional integration processes in South America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Gender regime" is used here to describe the interlocking political, economic and cultural conditions that differentially regulate the lives of men and women. Two important measures of gender inequality -- the World Economic Forum's GGI and the UNDP's gender-sensitive development indices (GDI, GEM, and the brand-new Gender Inequality Index, GII) -- aid in assessing the changes taking place in postcommunist Central and Eastern Europe. Combining aggregate indices on gender inequality with the case study of Hungarian women's activism allows us to investigate why and under which socio-economic conditions movements have elected to pursue certain themes of mobilization. This paper places the dynamic foci of activism in Hungarian women's social movements in the context of regional trends. Applying the concept of gender regime to a case study, we analyze how the waves of Hungarian women's social movements have developed in the past twenty years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this information-oriented society, there are new political participations such as electronic polls and political party activities through Internet unlike past. People could express their opinions and thoughts freely in cyber space with rapid growth of Internet penetration and spread. So, they can state their views and make their heard in various parts; politics, economy, society and culture. These kinds of activism have been increasing more and more since starting 21st century. Moreover, it affects not only domestic matters, but also international matters. This study focuses on political participation in cyber space, specifically, cyber protest. It is sometimes overactive or damages counterpart seriously. Is it another form of civil society?s reaction or is it just irrational and thoughtless activities based on anonymity and freedom in cyber space?. To solve this question, first, I research the relations among civil society, social movement and democratic consolidation. Then, I apply the theories in cyber space. Doing this work, I examine the character of cyber space, distinct features of individual, group and civil society and their collective action. After that, I try to analyze if the collective action in cyber space could be a social movement and is helpful to the development of E-democracy as an alternative of representational democracy by exemplifying the case of Korea?s cyber protest toward Japan from 2001 to 2010. Finally, I insist that erstwhile cyber protest doesn?t enough to say a new form of social movements yet, despite of its contribution to the ways and transition beyond offline collective action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why in some cases do we observe an increase in ethnic violence following a democratic transition, while in others violence dissipates? We argue that a crucial intervening variable that is often ignored in ethnic conflict studies is the nature and number of organizations that purport to represent an ethnic group. Following Brubaker (2004), we question the notion that ethnic groups are unitary actors with homogenous preferences. In most cases, loyalties among politically relevant minority ethnic groups are divided between moderate and extremist organizations. Democratization and concurrent institutional changes can significantly alter the previous configuration of organizations, which affects the level of competition between organizations for group support. Through an analysis of six cases, we demonstrate that, on average, competition is associated with higher levels of ethnic violence while cooperative or dominant organizations have tended to reduce violence in the aftermath of democratization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why do parliamentarians engage in extra-parliamentary social movements? Under what conditions do legislators take to the streets to demand a change in policy? This paper examines social movements in Thailand, all supported by Members of the Parliament (MPs), between the years 1973 and 2010. I argue that MPs pursue street politics as a strategy to enhance their own bargaining leverage vis-a-vis their legislative counterparts. Whether or not MPs engage in contentious politics depends upon three important factors: a) MPs' degree of agenda setting power within the legislature, b) the cost of mobilizing political support and c) the expected payoff of policy outcome. The case of Thailand will demonstrate that parliamentarians resort to street politics when the benefits (policy payoff) are greater than costs (mobilization and agenda powers). Lessons from the Thai case may challenge existing literature on social movements, which presupposes the bottom-up process, by suggesting that, in fact, the elite-mass relationship as related to movements are reverse. Furthermore, the Thai movements can provide valuable lessons as to the challenges of newly democratizing states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rise of religious violence in recent decades, a great amount of scholarly attention has focused on determining what role (if any) religion plays in these conflicts. Some argue that the nature of either religion in general, or specific religions—like Islam—causes this violence; others believe it is a result of strategic calculations, and religion plays an epiphenomenal role. Neither of these approaches, however, is sufficient, as both overlook the mechanisms through which religion influences violence. Drawing on work involving framing and rhetoric in political actions, the paper presents a theory of rhetorical outbidding. Groups engaged in political violence do not just conduct attacks to gain public support, they compete for the rhetorical resources to generate such support. Religious militants, accordingly, attempt to advance a frame that defines the conflict as a religious one, conducting attacks to both demonstrate the veracity of this frame and their devotion to their religious beliefs. Thus, the "cosmic war" of religious violence is constructed through the efforts of religious militants. The paper will test this theory through analysis of the rhetoric of the al-Qaeda network and the effects the group's rhetorical appeals have had on the actions of al-Qaeda-linked religious militants. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why do some refugee groups engage in violent politically-directed activity while others do not? For example, refugee camps can serve as a base, haven or supply source for militants fighting against a government in the country of origin (CoO); refugees ca ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores theories of power, resistance and protest and how they apply to Argentine domestic policies. In contemporary Argentina, as in much of Latin America, politics and the negotiation of politics are often found in the streets. In recent y ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social movements challenging autocratic regimes or powerful institutions must often deal with the prospects of repression and intimidation aimed at arresting popular resistance and chilling the prospects of future dissent. Repressive measures can successfully raise the cost of movement participation and thus undermine challenges, but paradoxically, they can also enhance mobilization. A number of scholars have undertaken to better understand the circumstances or opportunity structures in which repression is effective or ineffective. Inspired by work in cultural pragmatics and performance studies, however, we assert that the artful application of methods and tactics can raise the likelihood that repression will trigger further mobilization and discredit authoritarian regimes and institutions. Much depends on the ability of social movement leadership to choreograph actions and harness deeply meaningful popular narratives that help ensure that repression will be widely interpreted as unjust and reprehensible. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paradoxically, the political success of human rights is often considered its philosophical failing. In US interventions, International NGOs and indigenous movements, human rights find a place in diverse political spaces, while being applied to disparate g ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

-- ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Video advocacy incorporates the tools of modern moving image media into campaigns for change in policy, practice or behavior. WITNESS (www.witness.org) has been one of the pioneers in this field - working with local human rights groups in over seventy countries to use video and online technologies to open the eyes of the world to human rights violations. The paper reflects on the lessons WITNESS has learned partnering to create advocacy impact around visual evidence, testimony and stories, and using 'smart narrowcasting' of video to target domestic and international institutions including governments and decision-makers, UN and regional commissions, the media, an internet-based global public and others. It considers how Web 2.0 functionality and the advent of pervasive video capture devices and distribution options influence the capability and capacity to use video in advocacy, and expand the field of potential participants in documentation and activism. It goes on to consider the broader implications of what has been described as the emerging 'participatory panopticon' where everyone is watching everyone else, and considers in this light a new project, the Hub (hub.witness.org), at WITNESS - an online participatory media channel for sharing, watching and action on human rights media. The paper also addresses emerging issues related to human dignity and informed consent raised by new forms of remixing and reappropriation, as well as broader participation in image-making, and consider the normative responses that it may be appropriate to foster. Finally, it consider what modes of organized advocacy and action will be effective in a world of ubiquitous video production and distribution, considering the possibilities of a renewed form of targeted advocacy as well as the opportunities of distributed and collaborative production and distribution to create a new network-centered video advocacy that will draw on an increasingly broad range of participants, not just passive viewers. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the cases of the war in Kosovo, Serbia from 1989-1999, and riots in Gujarat, India, in 2002, this study examines the link between predatory identities and predatory policies. By combining elite theories with social movement ideas, this study demons ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper will document the international context within which the United States homophile movement developed. From the beginning of the movement in the early 1950s, homosexual activists looked beyond the borders of their own countries. American homophil ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the theoretical frameworks often used to examine the choice for movements to become political parties as one among a range of available tactics available to activst groups. It explores the shift toward political party formation in two Palestinan movements and examines the limitation of existing frameworks for looking at the Palestinian examples. The cases highlight several gaps in the existing literature, which is based on Western political parties in established democracies. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the phenomenon of popular nonviolent resistance in the West Bank during and after the second intifada. The primary research question asks, to what extent does a space exist for the (re)emergence of a popular nonviolent movement in the ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The world has witnessed vibrant political movements toward regional institutionalization. However, not every effort achieves the same level of regional institutionalization. What can explain this uneven pattern? In order to answer this question, I present the unified multivariate statistical model, which includes the realism's explanatory variables such as intraregional power concentration and alliance commitment, the liberalism's explanatory variables such as intraregional trade and democracy, and the constructivism's explanatory variables such as decolonization, cultural similarity, institutional similarity, and intraregional conflict. In order to ensure that any finding linking the explanatory variables to regional institutionalization is not a result of omitted variable bias, several control variables are added: the international political factors such as the Cold War and American hegemony, the regional factors such as contiguity, capital-to-capital distance, the number of members, and path dependence, the domestic political factors such as domestic political constraint, regime durability, and civil war, and the economic factors such as population size, economic size, and economic growth. Empirical findings show that intraregional power concentration, intraregional alliance commitment, intraregional trade, cultural and institutional similarities, path dependence, civil war, and economic growth's signs correspond to my hypotheses across alternative model specifications. In addition, almost all of them are statistically significant. However, other variables are incredible in that their signs and statistical significance are very whimsical. As a result, this paper concludes that translating IR theories into the regional setting can contribute to extending their empirical domain. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The construct, “political opportunity structure,” borrowed from social movement theory, is now applied analytically to less peaceful forms of political contention (e.g., clandestine operations, civil wars, state repression, coups d’état). Particular form ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article concerns the rise of the new social movements in South America since the early 90's and their impact on the politics of the region. The "bolivian indigenous movement" is the case study in question. I argue that this actor is fundamental for un ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the reasons that environmentalism is portrayed as a sentimental sensibility subscribed to by tree-huggers and extremists is environmentalism longstanding love of and respect for nature. These days, the idea of nature has come under attack. Empiri ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Learning from the past to shape a better future usually involves scanning history for instructive patterns or successful policies that can be transferred into the present. In this paper, I discuss a social movement that took a different ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is an open question as to how the ‘global civil society’ of international NGOs will engage the closest thing to a global polity, multilateral institutions. For some NGOs, multilateral institutions represent an opportunity to promote their goals directl ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human rights have both a legal and a social dimension, connected to their grounding in both law and morality. They are used in legal regulatory systems and in social movements, but in very different and sometimes incompatible ways. Through a comparativ ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given that the EU indirectly affects its member states' social policy, there is a long-standing debate about the direct causal effect of the EU on its member states regarding non-economic matters. This paper analyzes how the governments of new postcommunist Central and Eastern European EU members and candidates reacted to pressures from the European Commission, while acknowledging that the broader context of various other global, regional, and domestic actors also affects the establishment of new laws and norms related to domestic violence. The EU's influence is controversial and manifold in the postcommunist Central and East European context: while it has rhetorically endorsed gender equality, it has only recently and selectively started to pressure members and candidates into implementing changes and monitor progress. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

European citizenship is marked by a tension: between a citizenship that is derivative of the nation-state, and a citizenship that is defined by free movement. Taking the tension between nationality and free movement as symptomatic of a more deep-rooted contradiction between integration and mobility, this article reads mobility both as a social practice and as a political act. In so doing, it develops an account of European citizenship that focuses on the acts through which it is created. Specifically, it shows how mobile sex workers create European citizenship through the spatial and institutional mobilization of mobility. By developing an alternative account of European citizenship through a political sociology of mobility, the article challenges territorial or culturalist approaches, which render the acts of mobile political actors invisible. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why is it so hard to get an answer to the question, What is “the” feminist perspective on the War in Iraq? In this paper, I argue that feminist normative perspectives, often misunderstood as specific political commitments to certain forms of social change, are in fact better understood in scholarly research, not as political but as methodological commitments. Feminism like realism and other perspectives on international relations is theoretically and empirically diverse. Despite this diversity, feminist scholars share a set of normative commitments that they realizes through a broadly shared research ethic. Consequently, while the feminist answer to the opening question may be more varied than say “the” realist perspective on the same topic, most feminists share a commitment to certain epistemological premises, including the premise that we should be suspicious of any claims that characterize anything as normatively laden as epistemology to be “shared.” I argue that this irony is one of the features of feminist inquiry in the field of international relations as in other fields of political and social science that keeps it internally dynamic and able continually to adapt its perspective to the phenomena under examination. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transnational spaces are intensively employed by feminist movements (Moghadam, 2000), environmental activists (Wapner, 1995) and human rights advocates (Sikkink, 1993). This paper focuses on transnational networks and their impact on local social movements, government policy and stateâ€"society relations in Turkey. Three cases will be examined in order to outline the emergence, development and the extensity, intensity, pattern and impact of the ties between the different nodes of advocacy networks. The first case is that of Bergama which entails a struggle to prevent an Australian gold-mining company from using the cyanide leaching method for gold recovery. The anti-cyanide network around the Bergama movement was active for over a decade. Second case is the anti-nuclear network, which was formed against the plans to build a nuclear power plant in Turkey. The third case is that of the controversy around the construction of the Ilisu Dam in the southeast of Turkey and the transnational advocacy network that was formed in order to pressure international and national actors. The main argument is that environmentalism supported by transnational networks has provided a significant push for generating public debate and challenging the heavy-handed and centralized decision-making of the state.Moghadam, V. M. (2000), ‘Transnational Feminist Networks: Collective Action in an Era of Globalisation’, in Saïd Amir Arjomad (ed.) International Sociology, Vol. 15(1), pp. 57-85. Sikkink, K. (1993), ‘Human Rights, Principled Issue-Networks and Sovereignty in Latin America’ International Organization.Wapner, P. (1995), ‘Politics Beyond the State. Environmental Activism and World Civic Politics’ World Politics. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transnational social movement studies have long neglected the way activists from the South, and particularly from Africa, have participated in World Social Forum processes. Alterglobal activists have also been accused of neglecting or dominating southern voices. The organization of the WSF in Nairobi was seen as an opportunity to make African voices heard. This examines how Africans activists participated in Nairobi, and the complex relationship they have to northern, and other southern (such as Asia and Latin America) activists. The African alterglobal movement is seen as a space of tensions (i.e between South Africans and the rest of the continent, between French and English speaking Africa, or between NGOs and more radical organisations) also reflected in national mobilisations. Our team of 23 French and 12 Kenyan scholars made collective ethnographic observations in a hundred workshops, and conducted 150 biographical interviews of African activists in order to examine how Africa was referred to in the WSF, how activists financed their trip to Nairobi, and how afrocentric, anti-imperialist and anticolonial arguments have been used. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Though most social movements form in order to press for significant social change, unequivocal policy success is rare and difficult to achieve. Instead, movements may win incremental victories--increased public attention or media coverage, Congressional hearings, judicial rulings in lower courts--that stop short of the movement's ultimate goals. Drawing on data collected from different anti-death penalty organizations around the United States, this paper investigates how such partial success affects the subsequent level of support and resource endowments of movement organizations. In so doing, this paper contributes to a larger body of work that studies movement outcomes, while reorienting the focus to how movements react to lesser gains. Ultimately, I argue, the impact of small victories is curvilinear: movements initially benefit from incremental advances both in terms of support and income levels. However, continued success produces an eventual tipping point where gains actually contribute to sharp declines in support and resources. Overall, small gains or setbacks in formal institutional arenas--legislatures and courts--have more of an impact than more informal changes in behavior, attitudes, and practices. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]