Search

Despite their global popularity and relevance to Communication for Development (C4D), TED talks have not yet been systematically examined from the vantage point of C4D. We offer the first theoretical and empirical investigation of both the content and structure of talks on international development by leveraging definitions of C4D as well as literature on mediatization, rituals in international relations, and online activism. Our analysis suggests that TED talks succeed in disseminating ideas and sparking public interest. At the same time, they reflect institutionalized, corporatized modes of mass communication rooted in elitist discourses and practices. Contrary to popular perceptions, we therefore conclude that while TED talks are an effective vehicle for information dissemination, they are an unlikely catalyst for social change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this research, I examine emerging patterns and dynamics of democratization movement waves in the global South from 1918 to 2009. The core canon in social movement theory has been based on case studies of movements occurring primarily in the United States and Western Europe. Most social movement theory has also been generated from case-oriented researches of shorter-term movement organization activity in Western democracies. Likewise, most of studies in comparative democratization have been focused on variable-oriented research to examine a liner correlationship between the achievement of formal democracy and other variables as neglecting geopolitical and historical context. For better understanding of the democratization process in the global South, this research challenges the conventional assumption that democratization movement trajectories are limited to phases of emergence, expansion and decline, and suggests a longitudinal and large-scale analysis under differing economic and political conditions in the global South. Rather, the research shows how periods of contention may be just the one wave in a larger sea of long-term resistance. Recasting social movement studies in the world-historical framework, the research creates a new database on worldwide democratization protest to show how local democratization movements have been related to world-scale currents since the early twentieth century. For the overall mapping the world-historical pattern of democratization movements, this research uses a newspaper source, the New York Times from 1918 to 2009. This world-historical event database permits single protests located in different countries/regions to be both linked to each other and situated within a world-scale layer of governance structure and political process. In the initial observations, there are found that key movement clusters of the period in the global South are the year during the great resistance for democratization in 1937-41, 1945-51, 1956-60, 1973-75, 1978-92, and 2003-06. The results show to concentrate on charting temporal and spatial diffusion of democratization movements across a large set of countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on a study that suggests ways for both national context and catalyst in understanding online activism. It states that context relates to the nature of issues and there are variation in the context of the online engagement within countries. It further discusses the use of online mobilization by the British activists and role of Internet in health issue campaigns in Russia.

Using E. E. Schattschneider's (1975) model of conflict socialization, this study conceptualizes rumor communities, instead of the more typical rumor chains, engaged in a form of social and political activism similar to that of interest groups. It examines online user-generated commentary from the "vaccines cause autism" rumor community, a grassroots group that resists government-mandated vaccine requirements. Community members limit the scope of conflict by asserting authority to speak publicly and rejecting contributors with countering opinions as irrelevant. They sustain their threatened community by denying scientific evidence and demanding unattainable levels of scientific proof, and they socialize conflict by recruiting bystanders to enter the fray using appeals to wider social values. Understanding rumors as persuasive appeals that are socially constructed and maintained helps explain the survival of rumors and has implications for official debunking efforts. Schattschneider's theory effectively models the behaviors of non-institutionalized groups but requires adaptation to the modern political communication environment and post-Reagan beliefs about government. Asserting the authority to speak publicly and maintaining group viability are necessary precursors to socializing conflict for grassroots interest groups. When citizens have been taught government is the problem rather than the solution, socializing political conflict may not be synonymous with federalizing it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Do electoral malpractices strengthen public pressures for reform? The study develops an agenda-setting model postulating that where flawed elections fail to meet international standards of electoral integrity, this colors public perceptions of electoral malpractices, undermines feelings of political legitimacy, dampens voter turnout, and encourages protest politics. To support these claims, Part I sets out the theoretical framework and core propositions. Part II outlines the research design, data, and indices. Data is drawn from a new battery of survey evidence measuring perceptions of electoral integrity and malpractices, included for the first time in the 6th wave of the World Values Survey 2010-2012 (WVS). The results in Part III confirm that public perceptions of electoral integrity closely reflect independent assessments of the quality of elections in the countries under comparison. Moreover, lack of confidence in elections undermines feelings of political legitimacy and encourages protest activism. The conclusion in Part IV theorizes that this process strengthens the likelihood that elites will respond to popular pressures, although the outcome may be democratic concessions, or state repression, or regime transitions, depending upon the type of regime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the political conditions under which social movement coalitions (SMC) prevail. SMCs are intra-movement coalitions comprised exclusively of organizations from a single movement, or inter-movement coalitions with member organizations. Several features of the resultant organization are noteworthy.

The article focuses on Aboriginal rights within existing democratic states. Topics discussed include the rights of Aboriginal peoples, deliberative democracy, and property rights of Aboriginal peoples. Also mentioned are political strategies that could be adopted by Aboriginal peoples, Aboriginal rights and rights of land ownership in Canada, and social changes pursued by non-Aboriginal people.

Human rights-based approaches (HRBAs) promise greater alignment of development efforts with universal norms as well as a focus on the root causes of poverty. While HRBAs have been widely adopted across the development sector, there is little systematic evidence about the actual impact of this strategic shift. Evaluating the effectiveness of HRBAs is challenging because various non-governmental and other organizations have developed very different understandings of how to apply a rights-based framework in the development context. This essay takes one small step towards the rigorous evaluation of HRBAs by offering a comprehensive review of rights-based programming implemented by Plan International, a child-centered organization. It shows that Plan's adoption of HRBA-inspired strategies has transformed its interactions with local communities and added an explicit focus on the state as the primary duty bearer. There is evidence for a systematic increase in individual rights awareness, greater ownership exercised by community organizations, and the application of evidence-based advocacy aimed at scaling up proven program activities. But Plan's peculiar brand of HRBA neglects collaboration with domestic social movements and civil society, largely avoids a more confrontational approach towards the state, and has yet to produce evidence for regular successful rights claims by disadvantaged communities against governmental representatives at local, regional, or national levels. The study also reveals a limited ability of Plan to address disparities and discrimination within local communities as well as a need to define clearly the organization's own accountability and duties deriving from its presence in local communities across more than fifty developing nations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite censorship, Chinese bloggers routinely uncover corruption, help solve social problems, and even pressure state officials to change foreign policy. The power of online opinion is undisputed in individual cases, but the overall effect of blog discourse on the Chinese polity is unclear. Do blogs act as a social "safety valve" forestalling systemic change by allowing troublemakers to vent their frustrations, or do they resemble a "pressure cooker," inspiring action offline by groups of like-minded activists? Using a large-scale content analysis and small-scale case studies, I argue that blogs can serve as a "safety valve" on issues where newspapers and the mainstream media set the agenda, and a "pressure cooker" on issues where bloggers get ahead of journalists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses issues described in the book "Envisioning Real Utopias," by Erik Olin Wright. It is noted that Wright discusses available contours of radical social change in the 21st century and ways to build systemic alternative to capitalism. It is noted that purpose of the book of Wright is to realize a democratic alternative to capitalism.

The article discusses the study on the factors that influence choices of voters in the political party politics in Indonesia. It states that regional and ethnic difference have significant impact on the voting behavior of voters. It notes that the social changes in the country caused by rapid economic development are less important on voting behavior than traditional and historical factors. It mentions that structure of political cleavage can change with social changes and strategic actions.

The article explores whether social movements can resolve the political party system crisis in the U.S. The author tackles the possibility that the crisis might be resolved by non-electoral means, such as the Occupy protests and increased labor militancy. Also discussed is the use of social media to study the Occupy movement.

The article examines how the American Christian Right (ACR) social group translate the language and concepts of human rights into a vernacular. It mentions that the process done by the group in creating a vernacular right language reflects the process described by rights scholars. It notes the process of rights-internalization employed by most groups. It also emphasizes the limitation of rights as sources of socio-cultural change.

Are campaigns for different offices isolated events, or do candidates observe and learn from each other? For example, when choosing which issues to emphasize, do candidates focus solely on their own strengths and their constituents' desires, or do they emulate one another? The answers to these and other related questions have important implications for the genesis of the national policy agenda. To address these questions, we study the diffusion of issues across gubernatorial and senatorial campaigns in the general election of 2002. We find that candidates do learn, emulating other successful candidates, and that candidates learn more from copartisans and from those whose constituencies are ideologically similar. Moreover, we show that experimentation with new issues begins with risk-taking newcomers, followed by successful issues eventually spreading to the campaigns of entrenched incumbents. These results suggest that the national policy agenda is built from the bottom up, with new ideas attracting institutional support based on their proven electoral success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article looks into the discursive terrain of resource conflict in Ecuador. The author provides an overview of the discursive landscape in the nation with details on the antagonistic and dialogic interaction between official claims and the critical discourses of variety of distinct but overlapping social movements. She also tackles increasingly tense conflict between movements and the state and the reclassification of the state activities brought by the social movement organizations.

The article assesses the potential role of Turkey in assisting or diffusing democracy in its neighborhood. The author describes the domestic political changes that have helped create a capacity for the diffusion of democratic values and entrepreneurship in the country. He looks into the reasons that have brought about the changes in the nation. Also addressed is the issue of impact of the country in terms of democracy support in its neighborhood through three channels of diffusion.

The article discusses research studies on the changes in the international system and military policy in the U.S. Topics discussed include the resistance to change by the Army, political discourse shifts, and transformations of language and culture. Also provided are findings on the Weinberger-Powell paradigm and the discursive themes that influenced military reform in the 1990s.

We use original survey data and administrative data from post-war Liberia to test a theory of the micro-level impacts of peacekeeping. The theory proposes that through the creation of local security bubbles and also through direct assistance, peacekeeping deployments contribute to economic and social revitalization that may contribute to more durable peace. This theory guides the design of current United Nations peacekeeping operations, and has been proposed as one of the explanations for peacekeeping's well-documented association with more durable peace. We identify local impacts of deployment bases by exploiting the fact that peacekeepers had limited information when selecting base localities, using coarsened exact matching to identify sets of communities that should have been equally likely to receive bases, and then using regression to clean up residual imbalances. Our evidence paint a complex picture that deviates substantially from the theory. We do not find evidence for local security bubbles around deployment base areas, and we do not find that deployments were substantial contributors to local social infrastructure. In addition, we find a negative relationship between deployment basing locations and NGO contributions to social infrastructure. Nonetheless, we find that deployments do seem to stimulate local markets, leading to better employment possibilities and substantially higher incomes. The result is something of a puzzle, suggesting that more work needs to be done on other types of direct assistance by peacekeeping contingents-e.g. the impact of mission procurement and routine spending by those associated with the mission. Also, the findings with respect to NGO activities suggest that this is an important factor that past case studies and cross-national studies have not taken into account sufficiently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Activists try to use high profile trials to promote their policy agendas, occasionally succeeding in promoting policy reforms. There are many high profile trials but few successful reform efforts. If the drama and spotlight of a high profile trial creates an opportunity for activists pressing a cause, it is one that is only occasionally exploited successfully. Here our goal is to understand why activists are sometimes successful in using a high profile trial to promote a policy agenda, believing this investigation will shed light on the policy process in general, agenda setting in particular, and the dynamics of activism in the United States. We begin by reviewing relevant literature on agenda setting and social problem construction, conceptualizing high profile trials as "critical events" that offer activists a chance to advance their agendas. We next outline the case of the feminist movement against sexual violence as a particularly useful example of activists trying to use trials for their own political purposes. Using events data from the New York Times and secondary treatments of thirteen high profile sex crimes trials from 1970-1997, we examine the factors that help or hinder activists' efforts to use the public attention of a trial to forward their cause. We will see that both the nature of the particular case and the political context surrounding it affect the likelihood that a movement gains control of its meaning and secures policy reform. We conclude with a discussion of what this analysis says about activists and the policy process, calling for more research on the world outside a high profile trial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the 1841 essay "Self-Reliance" Ralph Waldo Emerson presupposed a democratic society of free and equal individuals - an idealized America with a veil drawn over racial slavery. As his own commitment to the antislavery cause deepened over time Emerson sought to reconcile his ideal of self-reliance with organized political action necessary to fight slavery. Recent scholarship has corrected the previously dominant image of Emerson as detached from politics and indifferent to abolitionism. But even as he participated in it, Emerson saw antislavery activism as a distraction from his own proper work of freeing "imprisoned spirits, imprisoned thoughts, far back in the brain of man." Abolitionists, with their single-minded pursuit of a cause, seemed to Emerson to have only a "platform existence, and no personality." Emerson's philosophy of Self-Reliance privileged individual over collective action, and personal experience over concern for distant evils. Emerson was most successful in synthesizing self-reliance with abolitionism when he urged resistance to the Fugitive Slave Law: individuals who resisted the law displayed self-reliance of the kind Emerson celebrated. He also admired the self-reliance of individual fugitive slaves, despite his doubts about the capacities of the black race in general and his ranking Anglo-Saxons over other races and peoples. Beyond resistance to the Fugitive Slave Law, Emerson's philosophy of Self-Reliance provided less clear guidance for fighting slavery, and Emerson himself vibrated among several contradictory strategies. His support for peaceful, compensated emancipation within an intact Union was irreconcilable with his support for the violent measures of John Brown, whom he celebrated as the model of American self-reliance. In the 1860 essay "Fate" Emerson reformulates the ideal of self-reliance in a way that reflects the escalating sectional crisis: only through cold-eyed recognition of necessity, he argues, can one preserve a measure of self-reliance in a world that frustrates our will. This reformulation of self-reliance is more suited to human beings living through an inescapable political crisis, and in that respect an advance over the 1841 version. But it depends for its success on clearer comprehension of political causality than Emerson ever achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the process of social change in Japan. It is noted that both the significance of international pressure in creating new approaches and the limits of symbolic response demonstrates the experience with regard to internationalization of gender equality issues. It is stated that Japan has the highest gender wage gap in the developed world despite women's high levels of education and experience.

The article focuses on the institutionalization of the female presence in the state structure. It is noted that for the advancement of the women's cause around the democratic world, the institutionalization of the female presence in the state structure matters a great deal. It is mentioned that overcoming a negative view of the state, which equated it to a quintessential patriarchal power structure is one of the key achievements of the "state feminism" phenomenon.

The article focuses on cause lawyers that take on difficult and unremunerative cases for bringing social change. It states the legal strategy of cause lawyers in same-sex marriage litigation. It further discusses role of cause lawyers in democratic society, conservative cause lawyers and conservative Christian cause lawyers and their goals.

The article examines the important role played by a rule-governed social practice in the shift in the primary rules governing state behaviour during the social construction of great power management from 1815 to 1822. The practice of institutional politics is discussed in conceptual terms. The significant primary and secondary rules of institutional politics are analyzed. The relationship between institutional politics and social change is also discussed.

The article discusses the relationship between the party system and social change in life in the U.S. It looks at the development of ideologically polarized parties that are contrary to the historic American experience. The implications of the new party system on the outlook for U.S. democracy in the 21st century are also mentioned. The association of electoral realignment with political party change is noted.

The article focuses on legislative strategies for marriage equality as alternatives to litigation. Lessons from the quest for same-sex marriage in New York State are examined to understand the challenges inherent in legislative strategies. It was noted that legislative struggles for social change in favor of a small minority necessarily must involve large coalitions of sympathizers from the greater population.

The article presents a study which assessed informal institutional change and the measurement methods used in ascertaining that change. It focuses on the change of the informal institution of corruption in Romania from 1997 through 2006. The study discusses the conceptualization and operationalization of informal institutions, the sources, mechanisms and typology of informal institutions.

A broad range of indicators suggest that China has become much more globally active in recent years. Existing research has indentified a number of economic and strategic motivations behind China's increased diplomatic and economic activism. Yet there have been no efforts to systematically test the relative importance of different drivers of China's diplomatic priorities. What factors lead China to focus attention on relations with one country instead of another? Are economic or geostrategic factors more important, and are Chinese priorities changing over time? We argue that Chinese leadership travel abroad offers a useful, if imperfect, indicator of China's diplomatic priorities. Using a unique, newly compiled dataset, we analyze quantitatively the correlates of travel abroad by top Chinese leaders from 1998 to 2006. We find that geo-strategic factors appear to have been the primary drivers of travel decisions early on (while Jiang Zemin was president), but that economic factors appear paramount later (under the presidency of Hu Jintao). ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modernization theory argues that industrialization and socio-economic development lead to significant cultural changes. A key mechanisms identified by this theory is that socio-economic development contributes to the diversification of human interactions. A tractable way to explore the effects of information diversity is to focus on how electoral institutions influence individual preferences. Electoral institutions meaningfully affect the number and breadth of political perspectives to which citizens have access and we should therefore expect them to affect information optimality, and consequently, they should affect public preferences. I use data from the World Values Survey to demonstrate that citizens in parliamentary, proportional representation systems tend to hold preferences that are more cosmopolitan than those of citizens in more majoritarian systems. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Courts, Social Change and Same-Sex MarriageJennifer RaymondUniversity of Massachusetts, BostonJohn W. McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies100 Morrissey Boulevard Boston, MA 02125617-287-3964Jennifer.Raymond@umb.edu In November 2003, the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled that there was no valid reason for the state of Massachusetts to prohibit same-sex couples from receiving marriage licenses. This ruling, known as Goodridge v. Department of Public Health, legalized same-sex marriage and incited activism on both sides of the issue. The legalization of marriage offers same-sex couples economic benefits such as dependent tax deductions and access to government benefits, and also family rights such as access to divorce and guardianship laws. Equally important, it allows Lesbians, Gay Men, and Bisexual, (LGB) individuals the opportunity to participate in a fundamental social institution around which social relations and legal and economic contracts are structured.This study seeks to understand the impact of the Massachusetts Supreme Court decision in Goodridge on the attitudes and experiences of Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual individuals in the greater Boston area. More specifically, it will explore in what ways, if any, the courts decision and the legalization of same-sex marriage contributed to a legal consciousness among LGB individuals by addressing the following three questions. First, how did the legalization of same-sex marriage impact attitudes towards marriage among greater Boston's LGB community? Second, in what ways did the legalization of same-sex marriage impact feelings of social acceptance and belonging? Third, to what extent did the legalization of same-sex marriage impact patterns of political participation among greater Boston's LGB population? Drawing on literature from legal consciousness and the courts and social change, this research examines the cultural impacts of the Goodridge decision within the larger context in which LGB individuals live. Through the use of surveys and in-depth interviewing data, was collected on the experiences and attitudes of LGB individuals in greater Boston regarding same-sex marriage. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At different periods of the twentieth century Harold Laski and John Rawls offered innovative contributions to political philosophy. Each argued that reasonable people would choose the enhancement and entrenchment of liberty and equality in society. However, unlike Rawls who asked readers to imagine the hypothetical original position in which to choose principles of justice behind a veil of ignorance, Laski argued that citizens should ultimately disobey a state if they genuinely believed that it failed to serve its purpose. Laski asked people to consider the function of the state in terms of rights which evolve as society develops the capability to meet demands. In his later work Rawls restricted justice as fairness to the political domain. Especially in his early work, Laski similarly insisted that the state should not encroach on associations in matters not of universal concern. Laski later adopted a broadly Marxist position, becoming convinced that the state was dominated by vested interests upholding inequality and the unfreedom of the many. Rawls's philosophy is more coherent and comprehensive than that of Laski. Nevertheless, Laski is stronger on the requirements of transition to the desired society and, especially in his later work, on the obstacles to such a transition. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Familes are at the center of a number of important,contentious public debates in the United States. The ideas that a significant link exists between the state of families and the state of the natian, and that strong, healthy families undergird a strong nation, are animating a number of social movements as well as governmental efforts to strengthen families. A common premise of all these efforts is that the weakening of families both reflects and leads to moral and civic decline and imposes significant costs on' society. Diagnoses of America's moral and civic health warn that, although families historically have played a prominent role as "seedbeds of civic virtue" and generators of "social capital," their current condition hampers them in doing so. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a formal and systematic study of enjoyment in politics based on the views of political scientist Slavoj Zizek who said that "all politics relies upon, and even manipulates, a certain economy of enjoyment. It contends that the concept of enjoyment in political science can be an important category. As a category it can help in the understanding of the intensification of global corporate capital and the generation of new forms of guilt and anxiety.

Whether globalization will result in improvement or deterioration in protection of human rights is not a matter that can be observed in the short term. Globalization is, in effect, the second ‘great transformation’ (Polanyi) spreading capitalism over the entire world. In consequence, many of its short-term effects will be negative. Nevertheless, its medium and long-term effects may well be positive, as it impels social changes that will result in greater moves to democracy, economic redistribution, the rule of law, and promotion of civil and political rights. Capitalism is a necessary, though hardly sufficient condition for democracy: democracy is the best, though not the inevitable, political system to protect human rights. This does not mean that the non-Western world will follow the exact same path to protection of human rights that the Western world followed. The West had a singular advantage: it was not expected to protect human rights during its own era of economic expansion. Thus, the West was able to practice slavery, expel surplus populations, and colonize other parts of the world. Genocide and ethnic cleaning were permissible state activities. The non-Western world does not enjoy the advantage of human rights lawlessness. It does, however, enjoy other advantages occasioned by the presence of human rights. There is a global communications network and a global pro-human rights social movement. There is also the movement to global governance. Finally, and paradoxically, there is the global social movement against globalization, which forces some reflection upon its deleterious consequences. Thus, the non-Western world benefits from geographical and chronological human rights ‘leapfrogging’. This, along with the social changes that global capitalism and industrialism may impel, may mean that the medium and long-term consequences of globalization are positive for human rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At least since the bursting of the "South Sea Bubble" in 1720, economic crises have periodically compelled advanced commercial societies to reconsider their fundamental way of life. Have the emancipation of the pursuit of wealth, and of the consumption of luxury goods, proven beneficial overall? We will consider, in particular, the prevailing Enlightenment view that commercialization-for all its moral, social, and economic drawbacks-would make individuals and societies more gentle, soft, mild, peaceable, and tolerant. Among the most distinguished advocates of this "doux commerce" theory were Bernard Mandeville, Voltaire, Montesquieu, and David Hume; opponents of comparable stature included Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Adam Ferguson. The debates surrounding doux commerce are multi-faceted, linking the rise of commerce to many other social changes often associated with modernization. For our purposes here, we will bracket many important Enlightenment claims regarding softening, including the prominent claim that wars would be less frequent. Instead, we will focus on a central set of claims regarding the softening of private mores-namely, that increasing commerce would generate habits and mindsets that are more prudent, this-worldly, unprejudiced, and focused on mutual utility. We will first develop these arguments thematically, and then consider the prominent criticism of them leveled by Rousseau. In concluding we will find some common ground, and consider empirical evidence that the everyday lives of most commercialized people have in fact become gentler, in the sense of less prone to murder. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies of sexualities and politics that use intersectionality as a framework for analysis widely assume that visible and invisible characteristics of categorical variables intersect as such to explain social outcomes. Empirically, however, categories intersect but not always as such as in the discourse over the colonial origin of homosexuality in Africa. That is, while colonialism and homosexuality may intersect as distinctive discursive categories in what I call, "colonial blackmail," to oppose the gay rights movement in Africa, the outcome of their intersection is etymological fallacy because it is empty. This emptiness, I argue, is paradoxical and counterintuitive in at least two ways. First the outcome empty is paradoxical because it unintentionally and necessarily defeats the purpose of the strategic use of colonial blackmail as the baseline for wholesale resistance against domestic queer activism in Africa. Second this outcome is counterintuitive because it does not sufficiently suggest that homophobia alone is what hides behind this emptiness. In contentious politics, categories hailed at intersection do not always tell the story of themselves or of their opposites. Using set theory logic, qualitative and matrix analysis methods I analyze aspects of necessity and sufficiency sustaining the colonial blackmail intersecting with gay rights activism in Cameroon. Making sense of contentious politics in paradoxical intersection highlights cognitive and strategic priorities for activists and methodological challenges for scholars interested in the study of sexuality and politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]