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Fossil fuel companies hold enormous political, economic, and knowledge production power. Recently, industry operators have pivoted from pushing climate denialism to campaigns aimed at individualizing responsibility for climate crisis. In this paper, we focus on one related outcome of such efforts – people's experiences of complicity – here in the context of unconventional oil and gas (UOG) production. We ask: How do mobilized activists experience fossil fuel scapegoating, and what does it mean for their goals as they organize against UOG production? We show that even activists fighting UOG production feel complicit in fossil fuel production, and these feelings of complicity diminish their demands for UOG accountability. We argue that these outcomes have been especially pernicious in cultural contexts like that of the United States, where neoliberal ideologies are normalized, centering personal responsibility, individualization, and identification as consumers rather than citizens. We marshal an extensive qualitative dataset and advance a theory of complicity as a way to understand: a) how social movements intersect with neoliberalized patterns of life; b) how experiences of complicity affect activism; and c) how this may contribute to fossil fuel firms' goals of undercutting organizing. We end by examining how a sub-set of activists works to dismantle this complicity narrative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, coalitions of activists, artists, scholars, and community members have created archives composed of material related to social movements past and present with increasing frequency. These grassroots archives raise questions about the potential role of archives as generative spaces for democratizing history. This article explores this potential and the attendant challenges through a case study on an effort to preserve the memory of activism in São Paulo's urban peripheries during Brazil's civil-military dictatorship (1964–85)—an effort in which the author took part amid the rise of the far-right president and former dictatorship supporter Jair Bolsonaro. The postdictatorship culture of censorship and an ever-changing city relentlessly militated against the permanence of memory, not least through the destruction of physical archives and reference points in the urban landscape. The effort to organize and digitize precarious materials unfolded amid a larger campaign by activists to create an archive as part of a new university in the periphery. In this article, the author reflects on his experience working with communities through grassroots archiving to preserve at-risk historical sources, enhance local capacity, and broaden the practice of history beyond the academy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last twenty years, the international relations literature has sought to understand the conditions in which peacekeeping operations (PKOs) occur and the efficacy of their presence. Much work has focused on PKOs' relationship to civilians in civil conflict, but less is understood about the influences on peacekeeping missions' quality. If PKOs commit human rights abuses, how might other actors deter exploitive PKO behavior in the domestic context? We argue international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs) provide a monitoring and socializing effect on PKOs. Using the Peacekeeper Attributes (PKAT) and Transnational Social Movements (TSMO) datasets, we analyze peacekeeping missions from 2007 to 2013. Through zero-inflated negative binomial regression, we found that the presence of general INGOs decreases rates of misconduct, and human rights INGOs decrease rates of misconduct. However, we find that the presence of women's rights-focused INGOs does not decrease rates of sexual misconduct among PKO troops. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"The Future of Decline: Anglo-American Culture at Its Limits" by Jed Esty and "The Long 2020" edited by Richard Grusin and Maureen Ryan are two books that explore the concept of decline in the United States. These books challenge the nostalgic longing for stability and greatness in the US and argue that decline can be an opportunity for social change and renewal. They also examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the US, revealing the vulnerabilities and inequalities in society. The article emphasizes the importance of studying cultural narratives and formations in understanding and navigating decline, and calls for a reimagining of freedom and politics. It also discusses the decline of the US as an empire and the potential for new visions of freedom and belonging. The text highlights the need to consider both subjective experience and objective structures in analyzing the past and envisioning the future. [Extracted from the article]

Mental health advocacy and activism have been highlighted as important in the effort towards creating environments for better mental health. However, relevant research in low- and middle-income country settings remains limited and lacks critical exploration. We seek to contribute to filling this gap by exploring driving factors behind mental health advocacy and activism efforts in low- and middle-income country settings. This review uses a critically informed thematic analysis employing conceptual frameworks of productive power to analyse peer-reviewed articles on mental health advocacy or activism over the last 20 years. We suggest that the current body of research is marred by superficial explorations of activism and advocacy, partly due to a lack of cohesion around definitions. Based on our findings, we suggest a conceptual framework to guide deeper explorations of mental health advocacy and activism. This framework identifies 'legitimacy', 'context' and 'timing' as the main dimensions to consider in understanding activism and advocacy efforts. The fact that they remain misunderstood and underappreciated creates missed opportunities for meaningful inclusion of lived experience in policy decisions and limits our understanding of how communities envision and enact change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context-sensitive expressions appear ill suited to the purpose of sharing content across contexts. Yet we regularly use them to that end (in regulations, textbooks, memos, guidelines, laws, minutes, etc.). This paper describes the utility of the concept of a metacontext for understanding cross-contextual content-sharing with context-sensitive expressions. A metacontext is the context of a group of contexts: an infrastructure that can channel non-linguistic incentives on content ascription so as to homogenize the content ascribed to context-sensitive expressions in each context in the group. Documents composed of context-sensitive expressions can share content across contexts when supported by an appropriate metacontext. The bible has its church, the textbook its education system, the form its bureaucracy, and the manifesto its social movement. Some metacontexts support cross-contextual content-sharing. Some don't. A promising research programme (one with practical importance) would take metacontexts as its unit of analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article offers a comparative-historical perspective on the moral economy of land. We reconstruct the moral economy of the popular land reform movement that opposed the illegitimate income streams of rentiers and speculators in the early 20th century, tracing the movement's legacy through a long-run analysis of political party platforms since 1880 in the USA, the UK, Germany and Sweden. We find that the land reformers' conceptualization of land as a moral good was a key topic in early 20th-century party politics. Parties across the political spectrum called for wide-ranging interventions in unregulated land markets. But despite the movement's relative success, the new ideal of the ownership society soon gained ground as an alternative to the more radical politics of land decommodification. We find growing multipartisan support for small property owners over time, culminating in the rise of a new moral conceptualization of land as capital. With the recent comeback of the land question, both rural and urban, we conclude that an understanding of historical land reform debates should inform future research toward a much-needed sociology of land. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To what extent does local LGBT+ activism have impacts beyond its immediate surroundings? We offer a theoretical framework emphasizing how a combination of local movement visibility and LGBT+ cultural receptivity can account for disseminating influences of LGBT+ activism. We illustrate our framework in part through an analysis of the potential diffusion of LGBT+ support in Bosnia in the aftermath of the country's first-ever Pride. Our model explains why the 2019 Sarajevo Pride increased LGBT+ support locally but had no immediate effects on attitudes in greater Bosnia. It also explains why LGBT+ support has since expanded beyond the capital to Bosnia's surrounding regions in a follow-up 2021 study. Even when local LGBT+ visibility is low or nonexistent, underlying cultural receptivity can be conducive to the gradual diffusion of LGBT+ support. Moreover, the challenging circumstances of the pandemic did not undermine the expansion of LGBT+ tolerance across Bosnia. Our findings illustrate the persistent power as well as limitations of LGBT+ activism to usher in downstream cultural change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the place of Welsh history within higher education, particularly in the context of British history modules. The author, a Senior Lecturer in Modern Welsh History at Cardiff University, highlights the challenges and importance of incorporating Welsh history into primarily British history modules. They emphasize the entangled nature of social life and cultures between Wales and England, while also acknowledging the distinctiveness of Welsh history. The article also explores how students respond to Welsh history modules and the value of local library and archival connections for research. Overall, the author argues for a four nations approach to teaching British history that recognizes the complexity of national identity and the importance of diverse perspectives. [Extracted from the article]

The article "Telling Stories about Post-war Britain: Popular Individualism and the 'Crisis' of the 1970s" by Emily Robinson, Camilla Schofield, Florence Sutcliffe-Braithwaite, and Natalie Thomlinson explores the concept of popular individualism in post-war Britain. The authors argue that the 1970s witnessed a growing demand for personal autonomy and self-determination, which was not solely a result of Thatcherism but also a cause of it. They highlight various progressive responses to this individualism, such as the Women's Liberation Movement and the Institute for Workers Control. The article also discusses the impact of popular individualism on the Labour left, particularly in relation to campaigns for constitutional reform and mandatory reselection of MPs. Overall, the article challenges the dominant narrative of Thatcherism and emphasizes the existence of multiple political possibilities in post-war Britain. [Extracted from the article]

This article analyzes Women Wage Peace (WWP), an Israeli grassroots peace movement, as a case study of intersectionality in women's movements. Using an ethnographic model based on semi-structured interviews with previous and current movement members, I investigate the dilemmas and strategies of WWP in its pursuit of a diverse membership base, a goal considered unique in Israeli peace discourse. This study contributes to understanding intersectional theory and practice, explaining why such an approach is not (always) effective in women's movements despite the best intentions. Examining WWP through the lens of peripherality and privilege highlights the movement's hierarchical power structure, identifying the places where intersectional awareness does not translate into political practice. By providing examples of the challenges of intersectionality in women's movements, these findings offer a response to the need for more nuanced analysis in current feminist and social movement research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do ethnically/racially minoritized citizens feel represented by increasingly diverse parliaments? We approach this question intersectionally and study how ethnically/racially minoritized citizens (i) constitute and politicize self-identifications and interests, (ii) assess political representation, and (iii) discuss who represents them. We draw on twelve focus groups with Turkish, Moroccan, and Surinamese-Dutch citizens (N  = 65), and find that citizens' political self-identifications, rather than predefined group labels, are key to understanding assessments of representation. Citizens prefer politicians who act on their substantive concerns but feel that mainstream parties sometimes fail to do so. Parties led by ethnically/racially minoritized politicians and social movements fill this void by contesting the status quo. An intersectional perspective reveals that symbolic representation by descriptive representatives specifically matters for young women of color who lack role models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Brazilian military-corporate dictatorship faced the resistance and mobilization of several marginalized groups. In this article, we reconstruct the subaltern memories of Black and poor women from the outskirts of São Paulo who participated in Christian Base Communities and the Cost-of-Living Movement, and we show how their mobilization was supported by social movements across the country. Despite their dimension and impact, a report by the Brazilian National Truth Commission fails to recognize their role in the country's democratic transition and the violence suffered by marginalized groups. These memories support a reflection on the myth of 'racial democracy' in Brazil as a general denial of racial violence throughout the country's history, which leaves intact its structures of injustice. We argue that the reconstruction of subaltern memories can have a significant impact on transitional justice and recover their critical role in democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In contrast to traditional top-down perspectives, this article aims to shed alternative light on the prospects for change in global order through evaluating how perspectives offered among social movements located in the Global South consider how change can take place beyond established approaches. With reference to perspectives offered among the Global Tapestry of Alternatives, the article elucidates a model of global political change that transcends reformist and revolutionary dynamics, and which bypasses dominant state and intergovernmental institutions. The analysis highlights the ontological divide between these approaches and reformist and revolutionary perspectives, given their pluriversality drawing on concepts that to date have received inadequate attention in the study of international relations. The article further considers how these approaches—given their deep roots in long-established communitarian practices and their pluriversality—may be addressing today's crisis of global order from the bottom-up in ways that may avoid limitations of previous change agendas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars have argued that anti-racialist ideologies – which deem racial categorization dangerous and racist – are an obstacle to antiracism, because they make race and its effects invisible, and obscure institutional and structural racism. This paper reexamines this argument empirically, by analyzing how activists resist "racial ignorance" and produce knowledge about race in anti-racialist contexts. Drawing on race scholarship, social movement theory, and sociology of knowledge, I ask: How do social movements produce knowledge about the role of race in policing in France? What are the implications of different epistemic practices for activists' racial conceptualizations and political practice? The article is based on an ethnography of three mobilizations contesting policing in France. The comparative methodology reveals that epistemic practices play a role in shaping how mobilizations reach a shared understanding of race and racism. Specifically, how knowledge projects determine racial difference, the methodologies used to capture racial inequality/oppression, and the level of analysis, all matter for the understanding of racism that activists are able to substantiate. Mobilization's epistemic approaches provide some activists with additional resources to promote their preferred racial conceptualizations and can produce the evidence needed to change the mobilization's dominant discourse, from individualistic to structural and systemic conceptualizations of racism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite evident and oft-cited disparities in the policing of right-wing extremists and more progressive social movements, we understand much less about how such distinctions emerge and unfold as the police prepare for, and act within, protest events. How does the racial and political orientation of social movements affect how they are policed? What are the processes through which such effects are realized? In contrast with most existing studies of protest policing, which emphasize how the actions of authorities are conditioned by the degree of threat associated with, for example, the size or capacity for violence of a given protest target, the analysis here of a cluster of cases associated with the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, recognizes the constructed nature of protest threats and highlights how those assumptions inform and interact with police planning and action. Findings emphasize how the degree of alignment between police and protesters shapes policing agents' preparations for, and operational considerations within, protest events. This alignment provides a basis for asymmetric communication, differential assessment, and—ultimately—distinct treatment of different protest targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the teaching of twentieth-century British history to French undergraduates. It highlights the efforts made by French teachers and scholars to "decenter" their focus and move away from an overly Anglo-centric approach. This includes exploring the complexities of inter-national relations within the UK, as well as addressing racial, class, and gender dynamics both within and outside the country. The article also mentions the challenges faced in balancing different perspectives and topics, as well as the need for a diverse range of primary sources. Overall, the French teaching field has shown adaptability and responsiveness to current research shifts. [Extracted from the article]

This article discusses the impact of the Fukushima disaster on the Japanese anti-nuclear movement. The disaster, which occurred in 2011, resulted in the deaths of over 20,000 people and forced the evacuation of more than 140,000 residents due to radioactive contamination. The article highlights the ongoing struggle to handle tritium-contaminated cooling water at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, with Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) arguing that it is running out of space to store the water. The article also explores the response to the disaster both domestically and internationally, with some countries adopting phase outs or moratoriums on nuclear power while others continue to push for its use. The article recommends a book by Beata Bochorodycz that provides a comprehensive analysis of the anti-nuclear movement in Japan, drawing on a mixed-methods approach and extensive fieldwork. The book examines the origins and functioning of the movement, as well as the tools used by both the government and the movement in contentious politics. It also explores the impact of the movement on government policies and the development of new mobilization mechanisms. The article concludes by praising the book for its contribution to our understanding of social movements in the twenty-first century and recommends it for students studying contentious politics, energy security, and qualitative analysis. [Extracted from the article]