Against Old Europe

Against Old Europe
Author: Raphael Schlembach
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 168
Release: 2016-04-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1317183878

In the wake of the Iraq war, the term Old Europe was appropriated by politicians, civil society and social movement actors alike to rally in defence of supposedly social and civilized values against the perceived predatory forces of American finance. Against Old Europe sheds light on the social movement politics encapsulated in the protest slogan 'Fight Old Europe'. Within what is broadly labelled the global justice movement, it explores a particular, radical perspective that warns against the identification with European values by movements resisting neoliberalism. Exploring the work of key theorists critical of globalization, including Habermas, Negri, Holloway, Postone and de Benoist, the book examines critical theory approaches to alter-globalization, illustrated with concrete examples of movements within contemporary Europe. In so doing, it invites readers to explore the charges of nationalism, anti-Americanism and antisemitism brought against parts of the alter-globalization movement. Providing a new perspective on critiques of globalization, Against Old Europe will appeal to sociologists and social and political theorists studying social movements, anti-globalization activism and European politics and identity.

Against Old Europe Critical Theory and Alter-Globalisation Movements

Against Old Europe Critical Theory and Alter-Globalisation Movements
Author: Raphael Schlembach
Publisher: Lund Humphries Publishers
Total Pages: 168
Release: 2014-08-01
Genre: Anti-globalization movement
ISBN: 9781409453345

Exploring the work of key theorists critical of globalization, including Habermas, Negri, Holloway, Postone and de Benoist, this book examines critical theory approaches to alter-globalization, illustrated with concrete examples of movements within contemporary Europe. In so doing, it invites readers to explore the charges of nationalism, anti-Americanism and antisemitism brought against parts of the alter-globalization movement. Providing a new perspective on critiques of globalization, Against Old Europe will appeal to sociologists and social and political theorists studying social movements, anti-globalization activism and European politics and identity.

Alter-Globalization

Alter-Globalization
Author: Geoffrey Pleyers
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 290
Release: 2013-04-23
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0745655084

Contrary to the common view that globalization undermines social agency, ‘alter-globalization activists', that is, those who contest globalization in its neo-liberal form, have developed new ways to become actors in the global age. They propose alternatives to Washington Consensus policies, implement horizontal and participatory organization models and promote a nascent global public space. Rather than being anti-globalization, these activists have built a truly global movement that has gathered citizens, committed intellectuals, indigenous, farmers, dalits and NGOs against neoliberal policies in street demonstrations and Social Forums all over the world, from Bangalore to Seattle and from Porto Alegre to Nairobi. This book analyses this worldwide movement on the bases of extensive field research conducted since 1999. Alter-Globalization provides a comprehensive account of these critical global forces and their attempts to answer one of the major challenges of our time: How can citizens and civil society contribute to the building of a fairer, sustainable and more democratic co-existence of human beings in a global world?

Humour, subjectivity and world politics

Humour, subjectivity and world politics
Author: Alister Wedderburn
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Total Pages: 202
Release: 2021-08-17
Genre: Humor
ISBN: 1526150689

Questions about the ethical and political boundaries of comedy, satire, or irony have inspired widespread anxiety in recent years, as with the 2015 shootings at the offices of Charlie Hebdo in Paris, or the so called ‘locker-room banter’ that defined Donald Trump’s 2016 election campaign. What, then, can a turn to humour offer International Relations? Drawing on literature across International Relations, literary theory, cultural studies and sociology, Alister Wedderburn argues that humour plays an underappreciated role in the making and unmaking of political subjectivities. The book recovers a historical understanding of humour as a way of making a claim to political subjectivity in the face of its denial. This function, Wedderburn argues, is embodied by the ambiguous figure of the parasite, a stock character of Greek comic drama. The book interrogates three separate sites where political actors have used humour ‘parasitically’ in order to make political claims and demands. In so doing, it not only outlines humour’s political potential and limitations, but also demonstrates how everyday practices can draw from, feed into, interrupt, and potentially transform global-political relations. Representing the first monograph-length study on the politics of humour within International Relations, this book makes a timely contribution to debates about the politics of humour, subjectivity and everyday life.

Protest Camps in International Context

Protest Camps in International Context
Author: Gavin Brown
Publisher: Policy Press
Total Pages: 430
Release: 2017-03-29
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1447329430

From the squares of Spain to indigenous land in Canada, protest camps are a tactic used around the world. Since 2011 they have gained prominence in recent waves of contentious politics, deployed by movements with wide-ranging demands for social change. Through a series of international and interdisciplinary case studies from five continents, this topical collection is the first to focus on protest camps as unique organisational forms that transcend particular social movements’ contexts. Whether erected in a park in Istanbul or a street in Mexico City, the significance of political encampments rests in their position as distinctive spaces where people come together to imagine alternative worlds and articulate contentious politics, often in confrontation with the state. Written by a wide range of experts in the field the book offers a critical understanding of current protest events and will help better understanding of new global forms of democracy in action.

Rethinking Utopia

Rethinking Utopia
Author: David M. Bell
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 189
Release: 2017-01-20
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1317486714

Over five hundred years since it was named, utopia remains a vital concept for understanding and challenging the world(s) we inhabit, even in – or rather because of – the condition of ‘post-utopianism’ that supposedly permeates them. In Rethinking Utopia David M. Bell offers a diagnosis of the present through the lens of utopia and then, by rethinking the concept through engagement with utopian studies, a variety of ‘radical’ theories and the need for decolonizing praxis, shows how utopianism might work within, against and beyond that which exists in order to provide us with hope for a better future. He proposes paying a ‘subversive fidelity’ to utopia, in which its three constituent terms: ‘good’ (eu), ‘place’ (topos), and ‘no’ (ou) are rethought to assert the importance of immanent, affective relations. The volume engages with a variety of practices and forms to articulate such a utopianism, including popular education/critical pedagogy; musical improvisation; and utopian literature. The problems as well as the possibilities of this utopianism are explored, although the problems are often revealed to be possibilities, provided they are subject to material challenge. Rethinking Utopia offers a way of thinking about (and perhaps realising) utopia that helps overcome some of the binary oppositions structuring much thinking about the topic. It allows utopia to be thought in terms of place and process; affirmation and negation; and the real and the not-yet. It engages with the spatial and affective turns in the social sciences without ever uncritically being subsumed by them; and seeks to make connections to indigenous cosmologies. It is a cautious, careful, critical work punctuated by both pessimism and hope; and a refusal to accept the finality of this or any world.

Social Movements in Global Politics

Social Movements in Global Politics
Author: David West
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 386
Release: 2014-01-30
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0745671985

Social Movements in Global Politics is a timely new account of the unconventional, ‘extra-institutional’ activities of social movements. In the face of impending global crises and stubborn conflicts, a conventional view of politics risks leaving us confused and fatalistic, feeling powerless because we are unaware of all that can be achieved by political means. By contrast, a variety of recent social movements, ranging from those of women, gays and lesbians and anti-racists, to environmentalists, the Occupy movement and the Arab Spring, demonstrate the enormous potential of political action beyond the institutional sphere of politics. At the same time, religious fundamentalists, racial supremacists and ultra-nationalists make clear that movements are not necessarily progressive and are often at odds with one another. West highlights the many ways in which national and global institutions depend on a broader context of extra-institutional action or what is, in effect, the formative dimension of politics. He explores some of the major contributions of social movements: from the genealogy of liberal democratic nation-states, sixties’ radicalism and the ‘new social movements’ to the politics of sexuality, gender and identity, the politicization of nature and climate, and alter-globalization. The book also considers current theoretical approaches and sets out the basis for a critical theory of social movements. This is a fresh and original account of social movements in politics and will be essential reading for any students and scholars interested in the challenges and the unpredictable potential of political action.

Spycops

Spycops
Author: Raphael Schlembach
Publisher: Policy Press
Total Pages: 222
Release: 2024-04-23
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1447365364

In the first academic analysis of the ‘spycops’ scandal, the author draws on extensive fieldwork and his first-hand experience of police infiltration in this exploration of covert policing practices.

Protests as Events

Protests as Events
Author: Ian R Lamond
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 277
Release: 2014-11-05
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1783480785

Can activism be considered a leisure activity? Can the Occupy movement, local campaigns for change and lone acts of personal resistance be understood as events? Within the field of Events Management the content of events is generally analyzed within three categories—culture, sport or business. Such a typology can be helpful as a heuristic for interpretation and analysis within a commercial paradigm. However, this framework overlooks and depoliticizes a significant variety of events, those more accurately construed as protest. Protests as Events is the first book to explore activism as a leisure activity and protests as events; using a fresh interpretation of event to develop a new critical politics of events and leisure. Bringing together a range of cutting edge research from around the world, it explores a variety of protests through the lens of events studies and leisure in order to understand how the study of events management might be conceptualized in the protest space.

Movement Parties Against Austerity

Movement Parties Against Austerity
Author: Donatella della Porta
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 187
Release: 2017-04-21
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1509511490

The ascendance of austerity policies and the protests they have generated have had a deep impact on the shape of contemporary politics. The stunning electoral successes of SYRIZA in Greece, Podemos in Spain and the Movimento 5 Stelle (M5S) in Italy, alongside the quest for a more radical left in countries such as the UK and the US, bear witness to a new wave of parties that draws inspiration and strength from social movements. The rise of movement parties challenges simplistic expectations of a growing separation between institutional and contentious politics and the decline of the left. Their return demands attention as a way of understanding both contemporary socio-political dynamics and the fundamentals of political parties and representation. Bridging social movement and party politics studies, within a broad concern with democratic theories, this volume presents new empirical evidence and conceptual insight into these topical socio-political phenomena, within a cross-national comparative perspective.