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This article discusses the artwork of Azadeh Akhlaghi, a visual artist from Iran. Akhlaghi's series, titled "By an Eye-Witness," explores the documentation of past deaths in Iran's history, focusing on violent and traumatic events. The artist stages scenes depicting the deaths of poets, journalists, students, intellectuals, and political activists, imagining how these events would have been captured if mobile phone cameras had existed at the time. Akhlaghi's work challenges the official version of national history and invites viewers to consider the impact of photography on our understanding of historical events. [Extracted from the article]

This document is an editorial that pays tribute to the late Samir Amin, a prominent African scholar and activist. Amin was known for his Marxist perspective and his critique of capitalism and Eurocentrism. He advocated for delinking from capitalism and imperialism as a means of achieving inclusive development. The editorial highlights Amin's contributions to various fields, including development economics, political economy, and decolonization in Africa. It also introduces a special issue dedicated to Amin's legacy, which includes papers on topics such as Africa's socio-economic development, alternative development theories, and decolonization. The editorial emphasizes the continued relevance of Amin's ideas for Africa's development and the importance of implementing his recommendations. [Extracted from the article]

The forceful removal of Robert Mugabe in 2017 brought about high expectations of political transformation and debates on civil society's role in Mugabe's downfall. This paper examines civil society's role in the removal of Mugabe and the continuities and changes brought by the Emerson Mnangagwa regime. The paper contributes to studies that convincingly show that the Mnangagwa regime has failed to bring fundamental change to the 'new dispensation.' However, these studies do not capture civil society's role in Mugabe's downfall, its expectations of life after Mugabe, and people's lived experiences in the new dispensation. This paper locates this gap in the methodology employed by studies on the transition from Mugabe to Mnangagwa – these studies mostly analyzed policy documents, published literature, and newspapers. This methodology did not capture the voices of grassroots activists and organizations. Therefore, this paper used in-depth interviews to capture civil society's role in the downfall of Mugabe, its expectations of the new dispensation, and its lived experiences in the new dispensation. The paper argues that civil society played a sanitizing role in the ZANU-PF factional battles and the new dispensation that was an embodiment of hope has turned out to be an unanticipated horror since the expectations that the masses had have not been met. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brand activism has become a popular term for describing how brands are becoming involved with controversial sociopolitical issues. The activist brand is thus characterised by its engagement with controversy and understood in and through macro-level cultural oppositions which it continuously orbits and positions itself against. The purpose of this paper is to contribute with a conceptual gaze at the activist brand's inherent controversy that enables an understanding of the online micro-level dynamics and processes that transform the online activist brand. Drawing on a narrative approach, the paper develops an ante- and counternarrative framework to explain how these complex micro-level dynamics and processes of resistance transform the brand. The framework allows us to approach the activist brand as the result of a complex network of antenarratives and counternarratives, which the brand flows in and out of, retells, supports, and resists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Arab Spring was a period of intense activism demanding democracy and freedom that swept across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. While previous research has focused on the role of diaspora communities in the uprisings and the strategies employed by regimes to suppress them, it has primarily centered on countries that experienced large-scale revolutions and endured severe consequences. Consequently, the current literature has failed to explore the situation of Arab Gulf dissidents living in exile, instead focusing on a few isolated incidents. This paper examines the transnational repression (TR) campaign of the Arab Gulf states (AGSs). Drawing on the literature about the long arm of authoritarianism and TR, this paper explores the various TR methods employed by the AGSs to silence activists living abroad. The paper finds that the nature of TR in the Arab Gulf region is unique when compared with other MENA countries. The TR campaign of AGSs is alarmingly expanding, using various mechanisms and resources, making the region one of the world's leading perpetrators. The methods employed by the AGSs include travel bans as part of their coercion by proxy, digital transnational repression, and the use of multilateral organizations as tools of repression. Additionally, this paper highlights the AGSs' support of other countries' TR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Should climate activists be optimistic or pessimistic about the climate crisis and their efforts to confront it? This paper analyses common narratives in the climate movement through the lens of the philosophical traditions of optimism and pessimism, arguing for three points. Firstly, most dominant narratives within the climate movement resemble philosophical optimism through their commitment to political progress and inherent value of climate action. Secondly, optimistic narratives within the climate movement should be rejected, as climate optimism places an overwhelming mental burden on climate activists and drives the climate movement towards bad responses to the inefficacy problem. Finally, the paper sketches pessimism as a better framework that can act as a moral source for climate activists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the relationship between characterization frames and argumentation in activists' discourse about the public controversy surrounding fashion sustainability. While previous studies proposing an argumentative approach to frames have acknowledged that frames are related to underlying implicit premises, how frames select certain implicit premises still needs to be systematically explained. Therefore, drawing on a theoretical framework combining Pragma dialectics (van Eemeren 2010) with the Argumentum Model of Topics an empirical analysis of a social media corpus has been performed in order to examine the connection between characterization frames and underlying implicit premises. This paper offers both a methodological and a theoretical contribution. From a methodological point of view, it offers linguistic-discursive tools for the analysis of characterization frames. From a theoretical perspective, it shows how characterization frames contribute to construct endoxa, i.e. underlying implicit premises, through argumentative patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to take stock of current knowledge on chief executive officers (CEOs) speaking out on societal issues and to position the phenomenon with and against the relevant literature on CEO communication. Ultimately, the paper seeks to arrive at a better conceptual understanding of CEO advocates and activists from a communication science perspective. Design/methodology/approach: This paper is conceptual and considers findings from the literature on personalization, reputation, issues and topic management. Findings: The paper reflects media, receptive and strategic implications for CEO advocates and activists and derives four workable propositions. It lays the foundation for treating CEO advocacy and activism as a form of strategic topic management that harnesses personalization to address a new set of stakeholder demands. Practical implications: The insights gained from this paper may help researchers and practitioners understand when CEOs should speak up, what to communicate and how. The human element behind this kind of communication echoes new expectations, demands and values from stakeholders, shareholders and society at large. Social implications: Understanding the specific interdependencies between personalization, reputation, issues and topic management underlying CEO advocacy and activism can help to improve a CEO's relationship with stakeholders and guide the public discourse to actively bring about positive societal change. Originality/value: The paper fills a gap by providing an understanding of advocate and activist CEOs from a communication science perspective. The insights from this paper can be used as a starting point for further research on this subject. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Narrative theory in translation studies has been mostly used to examine how translators mediate and refract meaning as they contribute to circulating political agendas across contexts and audiences. Building on this heritage but extending narrative theory beyond cross-language analysis, this paper proposes an ethnonarrative methodology to enquire and write about contemporary activist networks. It provides an epistemological-theoretical framework to explore identity, action and space in prefigurative transnational social movements, and a set of narrative methods and analytical techniques to conduct an ethnography of communication. Drawing on my on-site and online ethnography of Babels, the international network of volunteer interpreters, the paper first discusses the ethical and political questions raised by my practice in, and by my writing about Babels, in the interdisciplinary context of social movement studies and interpreting studies in the first decade of the 21st century. It then exposes the ethnonarrative methodology developed in this context and illustrates its use through a detailed narrative account of how Babels constructed and negotiated its financial structure in and out of Babels.org. Finally, it discusses the extension of the methodology beyond 2.0 (so called participatory) web, as activist networks increasingly communicate through social media and videoconferencing platforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Framing of the research. Many brands have started acting as political activists, taking public actions in favor of or against contentious issues such as immigration, police brutality, abortion, LGBTQIA + rights, or racism. Brand activism appears to be a strong paradigm change such that brand management is becoming a hot topic among scholars and companies. Purpose of the paper. Authenticity is the key variable of the activist strategy; however, its characteristic elements remain unknown. Thus, this study analyses consumers' perceptions of Ben & Jerry's-an historical activist brand-to understand, first, whether it is perceived as authentic; and second, to identify possible factors contributing to authentic brand activism. Methodology. Data was collected from the American Instagram profile of Ben & Jerry's. All comments were manually checked and analyzed using Infranodus. We performed text network analysis and topic modeling to gain insights from the collected text corpus as well as a users' sentiment analysis. Based on the obtained positive consumer perceptions, we then examined the official Ben & Jerry's website, attempting to detect constitutive elements of its authenticity. Results. Some exciting word clusters emerging from topic modeling reveal that activism is a critical element of Ben & Jerry's consumers' evaluation, becoming a topic of discussion at the same level as the brand's products. Additionally, sentiment analysis contributes important insights, confirming the crucial relevance of authenticity in brand activism strategies. Potential constitutive elements of the authenticity of Ben & Jerry's emerged from the in-depth analysis of consumer perceptions crossed with the examination of Ben & Jerry's official website. Research limitations. The study employed user comments on posts, which are declarations, not actions. This analysis was also restricted to the United States and only considered a three-year period. Managerial Implications. This research offers significant insights for practitioners who look to implement activist strategies. First, although it is challenging and uncommon to develop authenticity, we confirm its crucial role in brand activism. Second, it is essential to grasp consumers' perceptions to understand how they could react to a company's activist stances. Additionally, this study reveals potential constitutive elements of authenticity in brand activism, which can be further explored in future research and applied by companies looking to enter the political arena. Originality of the paper. This paper provides the groundwork for an in-depth identification of constitutive elements of authenticity in activist strategy. By examining a well-known activist brand and following positive consumer sentiments, we identified crucial and peculiar elements that could help to build authentic brand activism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the pedagogic device is viewed as a crucial element within the sociology of education, little research explores its historical development. This paper explores some iterations of the pedagogic device over the last 40 years, focusing on its origins in South America. By exploring Bernstein's ideas of the pedagogic device and pedagogic rights alongside Freire's understanding of activism, this paper demonstrates a dual purpose for the pedagogic device – of and for transmission and interruption. The theoretical proposition of this paper was informed by empirical work co-produced with 26 teacher activists working in Chilean compulsory schooling. The findings from the broader project show that teacher activism is not external to the pedagogic device but a cornerstone to it. By demonstrating the potential of the pedagogic device for interruption and transformation in Chilean schooling, we provide a retrospective account of the Southern influences on its development, revealing the importance of the Global South in shaping one of Bernstein's enduring ideas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is a summary of a conference organized by ISSEI and the Berlin Center for Intellectual Diaspora that took place in Berlin in July 2023. The conference focused on the crisis of democratic institutions in Europe and the search for solutions. The article includes seven articles based on papers presented at the conference, covering topics such as the role of intellectuals in public debates, the history of Zionism, the life of Czechoslovak public intellectual Antonín J. Liehm, the disappointment with European integration in Romania, transcultural theater productions, the capacity of human brains to absorb information, and the history of Western liberalism. The article concludes by emphasizing the importance of good public debate. [Extracted from the article]

Drawing on and contextualizing the papers of Alexander Wilson (1953-1993), a Toronto-based writer, activist, and horticulturalist, this article explores the reciprocal relationship between Wilson's intellectual and political work. It focuses on Wilson's involvement with The Body Politic during the late 1970s and early 1980s, and highlights Wilson's role in interviewing Michel Foucault in Toronto in 1982. Encompassing feminism, socialism, and environmentalism as part of a critique of narrow notions of 'gay' identity and aesthetics, Wilson's project, it is suggested, prefigured the emergence of queer politics. At the same time, Wilson enacted a queer parrhesia in keeping with Foucault's Toronto lectures on "speaking the truth about oneself." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how practices of counter-terrorism (CT) have been perceived by legally-operating groups labelled 'extremist'. Taking the cases of Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain (HTB) and Hizb ut-Tahrir Scandinavia (HTS), the paper explores how two branches of the same Islamic activist organisation have experienced CT through interviews with party members and activists. Using existing models of repression, the paper maps how counter-terrorism is perceived by activist groups, revealing new information on Hizb ut-Tahrir and providing a framework for understanding the interaction of security with groups problematised as 'extremist' within a widening 'securitised lens'. The paper finds that, whilst there are similarities in how CT has been articulated in Britain and Denmark, it has impacted on HTB and HTS differently, creating different strategies of response. In tracking these, we highlight the prominent role played by civil society actors in the UK in creating a hostile environment for Islamic activist groups. By using mechanistic models of repression, we conceptualise the impact of counter-terrorism and newer patterns of countering violent extremism (CVE) on contentious activist organisations at a moment when the so-called 'risk' of extremism is increasingly being conceptualised and responded to throughout Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

U.S. professional athletes increasingly have engaged in athlete activism. Such actions have elicited a wide range of responses from sport fans, calling into question whether an athlete's activism can impact their brand image. This research explored whether attitudes toward athlete activism, activism message, activism communication style, or fan identification level affect an activist athlete's brand image. This research utilized a 2 × 2 experimental design of activism type (safe vs. risky) and activism effort (high vs. low). A focus group determined both activism effort and activism type. Activism type did not significantly affect fans' perception of athlete brand image, but perceived athlete attractiveness decreased when the athlete engaged in risky activism. Individuals' attitudes toward athlete activism significantly influenced their perception of an activist athlete's brand image. This paper fulfills an identified need to understand the effects of athlete activism on the athlete's own brand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Earth is currently undergoing a sixth global‐scale ecological crisis. The most recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report of 2021 highlighted a need to curb global heating at 1.5 degrees above the pre‐industrial baseline, and outlined a range of likely impacts of climate change on global societies should no action be taken, particularly in relation to reducing greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050. Despite this need, policy‐based action at a nation state level is lacking, with talks at COP25 failing to reach necessary agreements. In response to this, and as we approach COP26, a significant global youth movement has been activated, with children and young people taking it upon themselves to highlight a need for climate and environmental action, calling for others to follow. This paper follows the emotional journey of one of its co‐authors, 11‐year‐old environmental activist, Lucie. Through the innovative approach of co‐production with Lucie, in this paper we detail the role of emotion in one youth activist's journey. From her initial reactions watching BBC's Blue Planet II, to the multifaceted highs and lows that have followed as she strives for change, we illuminate the emotional implications such experiences may have on children and young people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since people began interacting in computer-mediated spaces, there has been a need to block or silence abusive users. In 2014, Gamergate--a purported campaign for "ethics in game journalism," which often seemed a misogynist protest against women in computer gaming-- brought the issue of online harassment to popular attention and inspired a wave of tools and techniques to mitigate online abuse. Yet, it remains a serious problem. Individuals, particularly activists and political dissidents, can face intense harassment on platforms like X (formerly Twitter), designed to silence their speech. This paper proposes a method to block likely abusers on X, using Kashmiri dissidents and Hindutva (Hindu nationalist) harassers as a case study. We first interviewed six Kashmiri dissidents who use social media for their activism to better understand their unique online experiences. Then, using a combination of text analysis and social network analysis, based on a sampling of accounts provided by the interviewees, we developed a novel filtering method. Our tests indicate that the model is 97% effective at identifying accounts that were previously blocked for harassment. This model could be useful for screening interactions on X, and preemptively filtering any it identifies as potential harassment. While it may no longer be appropriate for protecting Kashmiri users--many of whom have fled social media platforms--this model could be used in other minority communities and on other social media platforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on a Foucauldian theorisation and an in-depth study with eight disabled student activists in England, this paper explores how persistent marginalisation and ableism in higher education has triggered a wave of activism among disabled students, who, just before the advent of the pandemic, had organised a structured movement, Disabled Students UK. We employ Foucault's ideas of the care of the self and others to discuss the formation of disabled students as activist subjects fighting discrimination in English higher education, in a moment in which the intersection between inclusive policies and austerity measures exposed the ableism rooted in academic practices. This paper promotes discussion on the nurturing relationship that exists between the individual and the community in constituting disability activism and disabled activists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"African Activists in a Decolonizing World: The Making of an Anticolonial Culture, 1952-1966" by Ismay Milford explores the consolidation of anticolonial thought and action in the post-war period, focusing on activists from four British colonies. The book analyzes various paper objects, such as pamphlets and party newspapers, produced by anti-colonial liberation movements. It also examines the transnational nature of activism, spanning Africa, Asia, and Europe, with a particular focus on East and Central Africa. While the book primarily focuses on paperwork, it provides insights into the broader decolonization movement and the international dimensions of anti-colonialism. [Extracted from the article]

This article examines the understanding of collectivism and sisterhood among Oraon tribal women in the Netarhat Field Firing Range movement. Further, this study discusses tribal women's consciousness of repressive operations of the state and of their experiences of triple oppression as a tribal group, as women, and as activists. Tribal women's goals, however, are much more than women's liberation; they demand tribal autonomy and the right to forest resources so that tribal people can live peacefully in their regions. This study also looks at how a group of women shared their gender-based grievances as well as their everyday struggle under militarized control of their villages. Often, women's groups are at the forefront of rallies and marches, mobilizing the villagers and attending village meetings, but the male-dominated society rarely views women's revolutionary accomplishments as an effort of sisterhood. The state government agreed to the tribal demand not to re-notify the Netarhat Field Firing Range Project, not only because of the efforts of the men of the society but also due to women's willpower, solidarity, and bravery within the movement. Using the narrative approach, this research aims to explore tribal women's lived experiences and everyday struggle during the Netarhat field firing range project with reference to fieldwork conducted in the villages of Mahuadanr, Banari, Navatoli, and Sakhuapani where tribal women activists played a key role. Until now, tribal women's lived experiences, narratives, and consciousness during the different contemporary movements of Jharkhand have been ignored by most scholars. Studying this site is very relevant to understanding tribal women's questions, issues, and feminist standpoints. The fieldwork for this paper was conducted as part of the author's PhD research in Chotanagpur and the Kolhan regions of Jharkhand state, India. The study found that the Netarhat Field Firing Range movement was based on truth claims and followed the Gandhian ideology of non-violence to achieve rights. Further, this paper explores the sisterhood and solidarity amongst tribal women activists, and how non-tribal activists helped strengthen the tribal movements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

European governments have become more active in economic affairs since the great financial crisis of 2008; the Covid-19 epidemic and Russia's war in Ukraine have triggered a variety of government interventions. What is less obvious is the increased non-customary state activism in the form of 'patriotic economic policy' in EU periphery, particularly in Hungary, in and out of crisis times. The successive Hungarian governments under PMV. Orbán have systematically eroded checks and balances in order to enlarge their room of manoeuvre while practicing a self-styled illiberal, pro-sovereignty policy. The paper revisits the earlier development phases of the Hungarian transformation, trying to identify antecedents to the later Hungarian backsliding in market competition and liberal democratic order. Aspects of state capacity, size and composition of the state sector, and key policy directions are investigated in order to make sense of the differing transformation paths in Europe's eastern periphery with a focus on Hungary, a onetime space setter in the transition process. Populism seems to be a misnomer for Orbanism which might be better understood as "cronyism with a cause": government budgetary measures are self-serving but they also attempt at rebuilding the state. The paper concludes with an overview of possibly outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper critically explores how women anti-mining activists conceptualize development, in the context of living with and resisting large-scale resource extraction in Cajamarca, Peru. I contend that participatory photography provides an opportunity to contest hegemonic development narratives and the notions of 'lack', 'poverty' and 'progress' that are bound up with such narratives, enabling participants to simultaneously evoke both hoped-for alternative futures and nostalgic renditions of a threatened present. Moving beyond an explicit and immediate focus on the socially and environmentally destructive nature of large-scale mining, I explore how the women instead document productive Andean livelihoods and everyday ways of life, capturing the ways in which hoped-for futures are enacted in the present. The women activists articulate their resistance through photography, identifying and celebrating practices of hope in their everyday lives and communities and providing an emotive counter-narrative to extractive-led neoliberal development discourses. The paper reveals that participatory photography approaches generate critical insight into the emotion-suffused ways in which development is understood by grassroots activists in contexts of extractivism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Terms such as "woke," "social justice," "cancel culture," "identity politics," "politically correct," "critical race theory," and "DEI" have been increasingly misused by political parties in recent years. This paper will identify and explain how the Hebrew Bible addresses social justice, compassion, inclusion, the indigent, and many other terms, currently fueling divisiveness. The authors assert that the ancient prophets - the true social justice warriors - would be alarmed by such discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A writer much ahead of her time, Pearl S Buck spent her childhood and early years of youth in China, and her writings about the East helped it in developing cultural ties with the West. Buck dealt with many multicultural issues, including race, immigration, women, and minority rights. She was a political activist who had a deep insight and understanding of world politics particularly American politics, and very well gauged the need to bring about a radical change in the global political scenario. Her works explicitly deal with these issues, which, in the 1990s and beyond, became focal points around which the philosophical discourse on multiculturalism was constructed. She believed in "cultural competence"--"the ability of a person to effectively interact, work, and develop meaningful relationships with people of various cultural backgrounds." This paper presents a multicultural reading of Buck's oeuvre and her work as a cultural and social activist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the face of current turbulent times including climate emergencies, species extinction, the erosion of democracy and the rise of authoritarianism—in short, a suffering world—the authors of this paper propose that education needs to be centrally an activist effort dedicated to healing and repairing the increasingly wounded and damaged world. To this end, this paper explores Buddhism as an educational program that centralizes a healing curriculum based on the understanding that healing comes from waking up from the delusion of possessive individualism (ego-selves) that gives rise to neoliberal capitalist societies. This delusion is the existential home of suffering. Waking up requires the disciplined effort of seeing through and past individualism to the workings of mutual causality within a universe of interconnection (Interbeing), such as ours. The mindfulness (sati) practice that the historical Buddha taught is such a form of mental discipline. Through the agentic cultivation of sati and subsequent remembrance of our inherent Interbeing, we can rediscover and rekindle the inherently enlightened mind of bodhicitta. This paper explores various psychological, sociocultural, ideological, and relational conditionings that act as barriers to seriously practicing mindfulness, including the currently popular conceptions of mindfulness in North America. While acknowledging that successful practice takes setting up the right conditions, our paper also delves into helpful and supportive conditions for mindfulness practice for activists, namely, ethical motivation and contemplative/healing emotions such as the Four Immeasurables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay argues that we should understand Margaret Cavendish and Lucy Hutchinson as secretaries in the practically activist humanist tradition. Both women served as keepers of (family and political) secrets, and as readers, writers, and record keepers of papers. Hutchinson calls herself 'the faithful depository' of her husband's 'secrets', and alludes to her facility with his signature, or 'character', throughout the Memoirs. In many ways, the Memoirs themselves are a vindication of his belief in her capacities. Margaret Cavendish similarly presents herself as her husband's secretary, including in her 'Life of William Cavendish' not only a robust and notably politic account of her husband's expenditures on behalf of the monarchy – 'a Computation of My Lord's Losses' – but also a record of 'some Essayes and Discourses of My Lords, together with some Notes and Remarques of mine own'. In doing so, Cavendish remarshalls the consiliary wisdom of William Cavendish's own advice to princes as ballast for his continued political relevance and for her own secretarial and advisory competency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper tests theoretical tools developed to frame social construction, historicization, and speech-action as performance on IV Castellanos's social sculpture Homage to an Activist Tripod. How can one say that a temporary, collective, non-representation yet intentional collective performance matters to and as 'world history'? What constructive agencies do different theoretical frameworks provide performance-as-art and other Othered and otherwise 'non-productive' world-building practices? Written from the perspective of a participant in the performance, which paid homage to water and land protectors, the structure of this paper builds analogies between theorization and task-based performance, between theoretical spaces and political action, demanding structural integrity and ethical coherence within and between constructivities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the adoption of ILO Convention No. 169 in 1989, the right to Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) has become a staple legal tool in the strategies of indigenous rights advocates. During these decades, scholars have provided reasons for both skepticism and optimism about the capacity of FPIC to advance indigenous interests. This Article makes a brief review of this literature, revealing that the academic discussion on FPIC has overemphasized its "protective function." Up to this day, both critical and optimistic scholars have conceived of FPIC as a shield that indigenous communities use to block, delay, or mitigate the impacts of projects driven by external non-indigenous actors. This Paper argues that this perspective has overlooked the possibility of using FPIC as a legal strategy to promote indigenousdriven projects. Grounded in the experience of San Francisco Pich' ataro, a Purh'epecha community in Mexico, the paper introduces a case study that highlights the "proactive function" of FPIC. After enduring years of marginalization, this community deployed their right to FPIC as a de facto right to "consult themselves" about how they wanted the State to realize the budgetary aspects of their right to indigenous self-determination. In doing so, they managed to extract financial resources from the State and buttress their own project for self-governance. The Paper concludes with an invitation for scholars and activists to look beyond the protective function of FPIC and to explore how its proactive potential could further the more ambitious aspirations of indigenous peoples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is an autoethnographic account of the "racialized activist body" in the White academy and in tandem the bio‐politics and bio‐ethics of its right to be an affective body or to possess its senses against the trauma of anti‐racist struggles in higher education institutions. The paper argues that in the postrace university, the "activist body" birthed through trauma becomes a conduit for the pain of others enacting it as a site for the deposition and transmutation of trauma in the quest for racial and social justice. It employs Bracha Ettinger's notion of "matrixial borderspace" to examine the interplay of social relations between of the activist body and other traumatized subjects in the provision of care as an activist. Two narratives unfold in the paper fusing the articulations of the main text with the paratext to unleash the tumultuous psyche of the activist and her journey of voicing resistance in her anti‐racist struggles. In the process, the activist body emerges as a "diseased site," overloaded with the trauma of others, yet numbed in its inability to reconnect with its own corporeality and professional identity in its interface with White governmentality. The paper asserts that anti‐racist struggles reassemble the activist body, tightly welding it with exhaustion which manifests in the pervasiveness of racial battle fatigue in the ivory tower. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last decade, there has been an expansion of scholarly and activist engagement with the commons. This interest corresponds to a growing quest for alternatives to capitalism in view of ongoing socio- ecological crises. As neoliberal capitalism intensifies enclosure of the commons, local actions to reclaim old commons and invent new ones to counter these processes are also on the rise. However, there are diverse conceptions of the commons, and pitfalls in their reproduction and in mobilizing this vocabulary in the dominant neoliberal individualistic culture. Our understanding remains limited about how spaces for commons and commoning practices can be expanded, as well as about specific practices, relations and imaginaries that support commons and subjectivities of being-in-common. This Special Issue on the "Commons, Commoning and Co-becomings" seeks to deepen our understanding of 'actually-existing' and 'more-than- human' commons in the world, and how ways of relating to them open up possibilities of responding to current socioenvironmental challenges and generating beyond-capitalist ways of life. Exploring commoning experiences in diverse settings, the papers assembled in this Special Issue illustrate the role that commons and commoning practices play in reconfiguring human-nature relations. Thinking with these papers, we draw attention to three interrelated areas: relational aspects of the work of commoning (practices, labor, care) in transforming our world and being transformed by it; the role of commons and commoning practices in generating subjectivities of being-in-common; and difference and divergences (or, un-commoning) that persist and emerge in commoning processes. We offer these themes as directions to better understand and enact the potential of commons and commoning for worlding—crafting, (re)producing—of a pluriverse of post-capitalist worlds and life in- common. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People have fought against racism for as long as it has existed and yet it persists in diverse and materially impactful ways. The primary challenge to eradicating racism is likely the power of white privilege. This paper argues that another important obstacle to progress has been the lack of a clear definition of antiracism that movement activists and scholars can collaboratively use to ensure that antiracist scholarship and efforts meet the full measure of the term's intention. While academia has struggled to converge on a definition, "lay race theorists" and movement activists—Black women in particular, have been participating in discourse online and through other venues where consensus appears to be developing around a definition. This article attempts to summarize activist discourse in defining antiracism as "the commitment to eradicate racism in all its forms" and individual antiracism as "the commitment to eradicate racism in all its forms, by (1) building an understanding of racism and (2) taking action to eliminate racism "within oneself, in other people, in institutions, and through actions outside of institutions," noting that "antiracism is an ongoing practice and commitment that must be accountable to antiracist Black people, Indigenous people, and other People of Color and consider intersectional systems of oppression." While research on the public conversation benefits from its easy access and limited additional burdens on movement activists, future research should test these definitions with movement activists to ensure that definitions and metrics are as relevant to the antiracist movement as possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The populist radical right-wing Swiss People's Party (SVP / UDC) has been largely known for its xenophobic discourses and its political agenda restricting immigration through popular initiatives such as the vote against minarets (2009), the deportation of "criminal foreigners" (2010) and the initiative against "mass immigration" (2014). This paper shows how SVP/UDC activists, who themselves or whose parents had migrated to Switzerland, understand their political engagement and contribution. This sheds light on their desire to become part of a "deserving minority" and on their use of boundary-making strategies to demarcate their positions from others they label as "undeserving migrants". Their political engagement needs to be understood as part of a broader quest for belonging to the Swiss national community. By showing that migration-related experiences inform the political involvement of activists at the Swiss People's Party, this paper questions widely spread assumptions on contradictory or counterintuitive political commitments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the role of conflict in challenging dominant, heteropatriarchal structures of urban development and infrastructure governance through the case of Reidi Road in Tallinn, Estonia. Applying a critical gender lens informed by post-socialist and post-colonial discourses, the study examines the formation of the Reidi Road project through shifting political economic regimes and modes of spatial restructuring along with its contestation by an activist network led by women who encounter and negotiate gender-based identities and politics in a context where feminism is stigmatized by historical associations with coloniality. The paper analyses the situated and relational experiences, concerns, and contentions of the women activists with respect to car-centric mobility infrastructures and built environments and their efforts to shift public decision-making. Partly undertaken as a reflective practice by the women activist leaders, the paper concludes with takeaways for continued struggles and gains toward more inclusive and equitable urban futures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I analysed the events of 7th August 2020 in Warsaw, when 48 people were detained by the Polish police who brutally raided solidarity demonstration with non-binary activist Margot Szutowicz. The aim of the paper is to explore queer activism in Poland on microsociological level using Gabriel Tarde imitation theory. I tried to show how individual experience of resistance gave rise to new, innovative forms of activism which became a social phenomenon. In my research, I used in-depth interviews with some of detainees and over 180 diaries/memoirs of Polish LGBTQIA people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The International Journal of Disability and Social Justice is a timely intervention into the interdisciplinary field of Disability Studies. Any new initiative, especially in a pre-existing and maturing field of inquiry, should encourage us all to think critically and reflexively about the key questions and issues that we should be grappling with today. This paper offers an inevitably partial take on some of the key concerns that we think scholars, activists and artists of Disability Studies should be engaging with. Everything we do these days takes place in the shadows cast by the global pandemic. While it is important to acknowledge the centrality of COVID-19 - and the threat this poses to the mind-bodies, politics and everyday realities of disabled people - we want to foreground some preoccupations, ideas and debates emerging from within the field of Disability Studies that will have resonance beyond the pandemic. We will begin the paper by offering a perspective on the contemporary nature and state of Disability Studies; suggesting that many of us are Critical Disability Studies thinkers now. Next, in order to narrow the focus of the discussion in this brief paper, we choose one emergent and popular theoretical orientation - posthuman Disability Studies. Then, we introduce and elaborate on four broad concerns that we think we should engage with; desire, alliances, non/humans and their implications for conceptualising social justice. Throughout the paper we will work through some of the power dynamics, questions of accountability and requirements for a generosity of engagement that these concerns provoke. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores South African experiences in using formal credentials in worker education. In specific, it analyses the value and use of the outcomes-based, unit standards-based qualifications registered on the South African national qualifications framework for "trade union practice." Creating formal qualifications for worker education programmes was hotly debated for many years in the labour movement. The paper finds little evidence of positive achievement of the creation of a formal qualification route for trade unionists. The main stated reason for the introduction of the formal qualification route was to support the educational and labour market mobility of union activists. There is no evidence of this to date, and the paper argues that the design of the qualification makes it unlikely to become a possibility. The existence of the qualification has facilitated funding for worker education, but a greater success would have been to convince public bodies to fund worker education according to its intrinsic logic. The paper also finds that to date the negative consequences that many unionists predicted in these debates have not arisen. However, this seems to be in spite of and not because of the qualification model and may be attributable to the strength of the single provider of the qualification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on how immigrant activists interact with the host state in socio-political spheres where they exercise their citizenship. Located in Taiwan's New Southbound Policy (NSP), this paper adopts the concept of 'act of citizenship' to analyse Vietnamese activists' interactions with the NSP. This paper finds that the NSP appropriated immigrant women's motherhood and family relationships in order to boost tourism and facilitate Southeast Asian language acquisition in the short term and to enhance Taiwan's relationship with Southeast Asia in the long run. In response, immigrant activists utilised the NSP to build their own capacity and to realise their acts of empowerment, compassion and contestation in the family and public domains. They not only improved individuals' wellbeing but also made the Taiwanese state accountable for gender bias and inequality. These findings offer a much needed gender perspective into immigrant activists' dialectical relationship with the migration state of Taiwan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Roughly one-quarter of the world's people and Internet users live under governments that engage in heavy censorship. A large portion live behind "The Great Firewall" of China, which places strategic importance on Internet control. The Internet can serve counterhegemonic purposes, as numerous groups in civil society use it to connect isolated populations, unite women's movements, and enable human rights and political minority activists. However, China sees Internet censorship as crucial for national security and social stability. Through legal research, translating Chinese sources, and drawing on personal experiences in China, this paper argues that Chinese domestic censorship poses an international threat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers how many of the Communist refugees — German, Austrian and German-speaking Czechs — who were in exile in Britain during the Second World War, followed the dictates of the Party and returned home after the war to help rebuild their war-torn countries physically, politically, economically and socially. While the British authorities permitted the Czechs, as 'friendly aliens', to leave without too much delay, obstacles were put in the way of the German and Austrian refugees who frequently could not leave Britain until late 1946 or thereafter. The paper examines the relations between frustrated refugees and British officialdom as well as the reception the refugees received from their compatriots on their eventual 'homecoming'. Generally speaking, the returning Communists did not fare well. In Austria, the returnees, many of whom were of course Jewish, were met with continuing antisemitism as well as anti-communism; in Czechoslovakia, as the Cold War set in, some were arrested while others fled once again; and in the GDR, the preferred destination of the returning German Communists, the label of 'Westemigrant' could prove a considerable handicap. All in all, despite the initial idealism, the common experience was one of disillusion and disappointment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I unpack how youth organizers became politicized activists through their engagement in the prefigurative practices of the fair trade movement. Prefiguration refers to the practices of a movement that are embedded in and reproduce their shared political visions; prefigurative politics allows social movement groups to embody their politics through their interactional practices, their tactical repertoires, and their outwardly oriented campaigns. As novices within United Students for Fair Trade (USFT), through their immersion in the organization's community of practice and their increasing participation in the prefigurative practices of the community, participants came to identify as and be identified as activists, shift their worldviews, and adopt new political philosophies. This paper examines the activist practices that supported legitimate peripheral participation, including group agreements, keeping stack, and antioppression interventions. The article concludes with a discussion of the ways that prefigurative politics enabled particular activist identities and philosophies and encourages further investigation into political identity development as a learning phenomenon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues for the need to better understand the role of mothers and schooling in shaping modern conservative cultural politics. Arguing that 1970s–1980s was a critical period for anti-progressive politics surrounding schooling, the paper examines the activism of Australian Christian morals campaigner Rona Joyner. Joyner's successful provocation of a 1978 governmental ban on social science curriculum materials was a signal event in an international Anglophone reaction against what she and others theorised as dangerously permissive forces in public culture. Pitting 'Christian' parental authority against 'humanist' state overreach in relation to the upbringing of children, Joyner created a detailed vision of the cultural-moral corruption of schools and other social institutions. This paper demonstrates how Joyner represented her labour as a project of both public motherhood and grassroots community activism, and how activist women like Joyner were foundational to the growth of a new contemporary grassroots conservatism expressed as a popular politics of 'the people' against the state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intelligence scholars routinely portray intelligence oversight as a means of restraining intelligence activities, particularly covert operations. The consensus overlooks situations where oversight can instead channel popular passions. This paper documents how Reagan era activists recruited legislators to the Afghan resistance cause. Their legislative-civic alliance demanded the CIA launch more aggressive operations in Afghanistan, sidelining established oversight committees. The resulting covert action campaign risked Soviet escalation, eliminated plausible deniability, and gave advanced U.S. technology to potential terrorists. This episode highlights how well-organized lobbyists may affect the intelligence agenda and challenges assumptions that wider engagement in oversight will always restrain intelligence agencies' overreach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In two different occasions in the twentieth century John Dewey and Maxine Greene stressed the point that educators should attend to 'what the known demands of us'. Following this dictum, from a critical perspective and with a constructive pedagogical spirit, in this paper we portray a new paradigm for values education that addresses the major challenges to the sustainable futures of young people in the third decade of the twenty first century as well as proposing transformative and empowering educational strategies. Employing the terminology of sustainability in its wider sense, we begin with a widely acknowledged diagnosis of the five major global risks – interconnected and interdependent – that endanger the sustainable future of humanity and nature: environmental, political, social, health, and cultural. We then move to suggest a constructive solution, proposing three conceptual pillars for repairing the world and laying foundation for a thriving sustainable future: (a) Ecohumanism as the paradigm for values education – merging the humanist concern for human dignity, social justice and democracy with the ecological concern for climate stability, biodiversity and environmental sustainability; (b) education of democratic personality and for democratic culture that is holistic and transformative; and (c) a threefold notion of activist pedagogy that addresses the element of cultivating personal agency, empowering political literacy and agency, and engaging students in experiential, holistic, and active teaching-learning experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]