The International Conference on Penal Abolition by claire delisle
Utilizing intersubjective collaborative participant-action data collected on the organization of ... more Utilizing intersubjective collaborative participant-action data collected on the organization of an international penal abolition conference, this chapter presents the challenges and successes in striving to attain horizontal leadership dynamics on the part of the organizing committee of the 15th edition of the International Conference on Penal Abolition (ICOPA) in 2014. The theoretical and practical foci mobilized for this study are anti-oppression and decolonization approaches both of which were chosen for their potential in developing strategies to counter unearned privilege deriving from assumptions and practices that are steeped in Eurocentric colonization. In particular, we focus on status and privilege and the corresponding zero-sum and non zero-sum resources that can promote or inhibit non-hierarchical organizing among a group that is composed of professors, students, and community members, and that includes individuals who are survivors of state or social harm. Capturing the elusive nature of oppression and privilege provides an opportunity to heighten awareness around unearned privilege and some of the resulting inequities that manifest in radical organizing. By analyzing the experience of the ICOPA 15 organizing committee, we are able to present ways of addressing such inequities due to oppression and privilege in their intersectional dimensions, including openly discussing leadership processes, practicing reflexivity during or after meetings, and developing mindfulness particularly as it relates to oppression and privilege dynamics. Anti-oppression and decolonization training stand to make a mark on the nature of social dynamics in any group, and is a promising way to deepen our thinking and knowledge on leadership practices.
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Drawing on debates observed at the fifteenth edition of the International Conference on Penal Abo... more Drawing on debates observed at the fifteenth edition of the International Conference on Penal Abolition (ICOPA) that took place on Algonquin Territory at the University of Ottawa in June 2014, reflections by ICOPA 15 organizing committee and research group members, and interviews with international conference participants, this qualitative study explores four recurring themes debated within this entity: allyship between reformers and abolitionists; the extent of race analysis in abolitionist conceptualization and strategy, as well as oppressed and privileged positions within ICOPA; the power equilibrium among survivors of state or social harm, activists and academics; and deliberative vitality and decision-making within the organization. The exploration of ICOPA as a loose-knit initiative serves to elicit debate about the challenges of collective praxis in the face of co-optation, multiple oppressions, and unequal power structures shaping radical organizing and contemporary life more broadly.
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Thesis Chapters by claire delisle
The Irish peace process is heralded as a success among insurgencies that attempt transitions towa... more The Irish peace process is heralded as a success among insurgencies that attempt transitions toward peaceful resolution of conflict. After thirty years of armed struggle, pitting Irish republicans against their loyalist counterparts and the British State, the North of Ireland has a reconfigured political landscape with a consociational governing body where power is shared among several parties that hold divergent political objectives. The Irish Republican Movement, whose main components are the Provisional Irish Republican Army, a covert guerilla armed organization, and Sinn Fein, the political party of Irish republicans, initiated peace that led to all-inclusive talks in the 1990s and that culminated in the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in April 1998, setting out the parameters for a non-violent way forward.
Given the traditional intransigence of the IRA to consider any route other than armed conflict, how did the leadership of the Irish Republican Movement secure the support of a majority of republicans for a peace initiative that has held now for more fifteen years? This dissertation explores the dynamics of leadership in this group, and in particular, focuses on the prisoner resistance waged by its incarcerated activists and volunteers. It is the contention here, that various prisoner resistance tactics enabled a wide-ranging group of captives to develop the skill set necessary to persuade their community to back the peace initiative, engage in electoral politics, and mobilize their supporters to invest in attaining a united Ireland by peaceful negotiations, and put down their arms in a permanent and unequivocal manner. Such tactics as organizing IRA structures in prison, mounting campaigns, operationalizing escapes, and republican-driven education while in captivity, formed educated and astute republican men and women, capable of setting an alternative course for the republican struggle to achieve their goal of ridding Ireland of the British presence.
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Papers by claire delisle
Breaking the Zero-Sum Game, 2017
Utilizing intersubjective collaborative participant-action data collected on the organization of ... more Utilizing intersubjective collaborative participant-action data collected on the organization of an international penal abolition conference, this chapter presents the challenges and successes in striving to attain horizontal leadership dynamics on the part of the organizing committee of the 15th edition of the International Conference on Penal Abolition (ICOPA) in 2014. The theoretical and practical foci mobilized for this study are anti-oppression and decolonization approaches both of which were chosen for their potential in developing strategies to counter unearned privilege deriving from assumptions and practices that are steeped in Eurocentric colonization. In particular, we focus on status and privilege and the corresponding zero-sum and non zero-sum resources that can promote or inhibit non-hierarchical organizing among a group that is composed of professors, students, and community members, and that includes individuals who are survivors of state or social harm. Capturing the elusive nature of oppression and privilege provides an opportunity to heighten awareness around unearned privilege and some of the resulting inequities that manifest in radical organizing. By analyzing the experience of the ICOPA 15 organizing committee, we are able to present ways of addressing such inequities due to oppression and privilege in their intersectional dimensions, including openly discussing leadership processes, practicing reflexivity during or after meetings, and developing mindfulness particularly as it relates to oppression and privilege dynamics. Anti-oppression and decolonization training stand to make a mark on the nature of social dynamics in any group, and is a promising way to deepen our thinking and knowledge on leadership practices.
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The mass incarceration of Republicans in the North of Ireland was a policy decision that would ha... more The mass incarceration of Republicans in the North of Ireland was a policy decision that would have far-reaching consequences for the Republican Movement, the conflict and the peace process in Ireland. Addressing the Irish political prison experience serves as a contribution toward expanding discussion of prison resistance in general, and its impact on social movements and state policy. More specifically, this thesis traces the evolution in political thinking and resistance among the captives in three distinct periods of incarceration at Long Kesh, in order to show how their time in prison influenced the nature and quality of leadership in the Republican Movement. In so doing, it reveals how the trust born of solidarity and unity of action among prisoners enhanced leadership in the Movement by making it more diffuse. In the lead-up to the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, it also reveals the extent to which the prisoners assisted the Adams-McGuinness leadership in persuading the...
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Page 1. Leadership and the Prison Experience: The Irish Republican Movement, 1971 t0 the Present ... more Page 1. Leadership and the Prison Experience: The Irish Republican Movement, 1971 t0 the Present Claire Delisle A thesis in the Special Individualized Program Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree ...
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Champ pénal, 2015
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The Canadian Journal of Irish Studies, 2002
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The International Conference on Penal Abolition by claire delisle
Thesis Chapters by claire delisle
Given the traditional intransigence of the IRA to consider any route other than armed conflict, how did the leadership of the Irish Republican Movement secure the support of a majority of republicans for a peace initiative that has held now for more fifteen years? This dissertation explores the dynamics of leadership in this group, and in particular, focuses on the prisoner resistance waged by its incarcerated activists and volunteers. It is the contention here, that various prisoner resistance tactics enabled a wide-ranging group of captives to develop the skill set necessary to persuade their community to back the peace initiative, engage in electoral politics, and mobilize their supporters to invest in attaining a united Ireland by peaceful negotiations, and put down their arms in a permanent and unequivocal manner. Such tactics as organizing IRA structures in prison, mounting campaigns, operationalizing escapes, and republican-driven education while in captivity, formed educated and astute republican men and women, capable of setting an alternative course for the republican struggle to achieve their goal of ridding Ireland of the British presence.
Papers by claire delisle
Given the traditional intransigence of the IRA to consider any route other than armed conflict, how did the leadership of the Irish Republican Movement secure the support of a majority of republicans for a peace initiative that has held now for more fifteen years? This dissertation explores the dynamics of leadership in this group, and in particular, focuses on the prisoner resistance waged by its incarcerated activists and volunteers. It is the contention here, that various prisoner resistance tactics enabled a wide-ranging group of captives to develop the skill set necessary to persuade their community to back the peace initiative, engage in electoral politics, and mobilize their supporters to invest in attaining a united Ireland by peaceful negotiations, and put down their arms in a permanent and unequivocal manner. Such tactics as organizing IRA structures in prison, mounting campaigns, operationalizing escapes, and republican-driven education while in captivity, formed educated and astute republican men and women, capable of setting an alternative course for the republican struggle to achieve their goal of ridding Ireland of the British presence.