political Protest

A wide range of Arabic language variation in form, code choice and orthographic script was wielded by Lebanese political protestors in their graffiti and political placards in Beirut in 2015. That summer, civil protests spilled out into the streets to critique the government inaction over waste management and overall corruption. I will focus on four tactics that highlight a trend towards linguistic transgression and strategic recontextualization of Arabic discourse in these protests: reworking of state iconography; inscribing irreverent spoken dialect in written form; incorporation of hashtag (#) participant and interpretive frameworks ; and the recontextualization of traditional calligraphic forms in new contexts. This paper explores the intertextuality of protest signage and consider the ways in which the transgression of traditional linguistic boundaries might inform understandings of the social dynamics of contemporary politics in Lebanon.

This article presents a comprehensive analysis of popular resistance to dam building in the Narmada Valley, India. Like Indian dam projects more generally, the Narmada projects are characterized by a distributional bias in favor of India's “dominant proprietary classes” and, it is argued, must be understood in terms of the political economy of postcolonial capitalism in India. The article then traces the emergence of popular resistance to dispossession in the form of “militant particularisms” struggling for resettlement and rehabilitation in the dam-affected communities in the riparian state, the transition toward a pan-state antidam campaign—the Narmada Bachao Andolan—embedded in a multiscalar infrastructure of contention, and, finally, the embedding of this struggle in a wider social movement project for alternative development. In conclusion, the author reflects on the strategic lessons that can be drawn from the trajectory of popular resistance to dispossession in the Narmada Valley.

Challenging Authoritarianism in Southeast Asia is one of the first substantial comparative studies of contemporary Indonesia and Malaysia, homes to the world's largest Muslim population. Following the collapse of New Order rule in Indonesia in 1998, this book provides an in-depth examination of anti-authoritarian forces in contemporary Indonesia and Malaysia, assessing their problems and prospects. The authors discuss the roles played by women, public intellectuals, arts workers, industrial workers as well as environmental and Islamic activists. They explore how different forms of authoritarianism in the two countries affect the prospects of democratization, and examine the impact and legacy of the diverse social and political protests in Indonesia and Malaysia in the late 1990s.

Focusing on recent debates over the ways in which subaltern groups engage with the state in India, the article proposes that it is imperative to historicise our conceptions of subaltern politics in India. More specifically, the argument is made that it is imperative to recognise that subaltern appropriations of the institutions and discourses of the state have a longer historical lineage than what is often proposed in critical work on popular resistance in rural India. The article presents a detailed analysis of Adivasi rebellions in colonial western India and argues that these took the form of a contentious negotiation of the incorporation of tribal communities into an emergent “colonial state space.” The conclusion presents a sketch of a Gramscian approach to the study of how subaltern politics proceeds in and through determinate state–society relations.

This introductory chapter provides an overview of the issues, literature, and theoretical frameworks concerning growing privatization, neoliberalization, and austerity politics that have contributed the shrinking public sphere in the contemporary society and have given rise to a planetary circuit of urban resistance across different cultural, geographical and political contexts. It further examine the commonalities and specificities of the recent resistance movements, and the role of public space, which together also set the context for the thematic organization of the book and the agenda for ongoing research on public space, urban resistance, and democratic practices.

This comparative article aims to understand the patterns underlying the political behavior of young German and Swedish long-term unemployed individuals. Based on almost 40 qualitative interviews, the analysis follows a grounded theory approach and shows that “unemployment” is not an objective reality that imposes uniform living conditions. Social and political activities diverge considerably, even though our respondents experience similar pressures and sanctions by public opinion, political parties, public administrations, relatives and/or acquaintances. The consequences of unemployment depend on individual mind-sets, support networks and coping strategies. This study identifies informal networks of social relations as one main factor influencing unemployed young peoples’ political behavior. Three types of political involvement are shaped by the routines and norms reproduced within their web of social relations in everyday life: evasion, civic minimalism and reluctant activism. The ...

In the summer of 2013, a local environmental protest in Istanbul turned into high levels of protest mobilization throughout Turkey. Although some grievance against the government was already in place among the opposition, high level of protest mobilization was unexpected. This case study researches the reasons of why a local protest turns into high level of protest mobilization, and argues that decreasing political opportunity structure led to high level of protest mobilization followed by the government’s choice of collective memory as a counter strategy; ‘coup attempt propaganda’ which is surprisingly welcomed by some opposition parties. While analyzing the gradual decrease of political opportunities, in this study, protest event analysis is made to see the sequence of events in detail. Two mainstream newspapers were reviewed systematically to analyze the protest actions from the beginning of the events 28.05.2013 until 16.11.2013 and 583 protest events were recorded. To support main argument, I used two researches, '#direngeziparki' survey of Bilgi University and 'Gezi Report' of KONDA research center, to analyze how decreasing political opportunity structure affected protesters, how society perceived the protests, and to what extent the government propaganda was effective.

The phenomenon of protests, currently on the rise in worldwide democracies, is made known to citizens mainly through representations in the media. This article, responding to the need for a broader view of protest media coverage in an international context, examines the ways the 2014 Hong Kong (HK) protests were covered by the online versions of two highly influential and appealing newspapers, belonging to contrasting media systems: The Guardian and China Daily. By revising a typology of previously used frames and inventing new ones, this study conducts a quantitative content analysis of news articles with the view to (a) highlight similarities and differences in the media coverage of protests within the above-mentioned media systems, (b) find out whether the media coverage of such events with political ramifications is affected by the geopolitical interests of the countries. Based on our analysis, this study suggests the need for revising the protest paradigm as important factors—t...

This comparative article aims to understand the patterns underlying the political behavior of young German and Swedish long-term unemployed individuals. Based on almost 40 qualitative interviews, the analysis follows a grounded theory approach and shows that " unemployment " is not an objective reality that imposes uniform living conditions. Social and political activities diverge considerably, even though our respondents experience similar pressures and sanctions by public opinion, political parties, public administrations, relatives and/or acquaintances. The consequences of unemployment depend on individual mind-sets, support networks and coping strategies. This study identifies informal networks of social relations as one main factor influencing unemployed young peoples' political behavior. Three types of political involvement are shaped by the routines and norms reproduced within their web of social relations in everyday life: evasion, civic minimalism and reluctant activism. The similarities between the Ger-man and the Swedish respondents overshadowed the national differences.

Garland, C. (2014) ‘As Barriers Fall, Contingency Becomes Possibility: Protest Resisting and Escaping Containment and Categorization’, Part II Identity, Embodiment and Categorisation in Eds. Lamond, I. and Spracklen, K. 'Protests as Events: Politics, Activism and Leisure (London: Rowman & Littlefield International) Hardback ISBN/9781783480760 Paperback ISBN/978-1-78348-077-7 eBook ISBN/978-1-78348-078-4 

https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781783480760

The hanging or burning of effigies as an expression of dissent is a well-established genre of playful political protest. It is enacted in a variety of ways, accessing the conventions of various traditional rituals and social practices, and can function either as a progressive force demanding change, or repressively in seeking to enforce the existing order. Building on a close reading of media images of effigy protests from over the world, I relate the employed strategies of reversal and debasement and the grotesque aesthetics of these dummies to Bakhtin’s concept of the carnivalesque. I trace the different kinds of laughter that emerge during the effigy protests and explore the complicated relationship between laughter and violence inherent in these performed images of violent death.

La manifestación política es el paradigma de un repertorio de acción colectiva que surgió en algunos países europeos durante el siglo XIX, para universalizarse luego como un componente importante del imaginario político moderno, individualizante y desterritorializado. Eso no impide que, en su realización concreta, las manifestaciones se carguen de contenidos culturales específicos y locales. En este trabajo, las marchas en la ciudad de México serán tomadas como ventana etnográfica para reflexionar sobre las direcciones actuales de redefinición de la esfera pública y conceptos conexos (como "bien común" o "cultura cívica"), tal y como se plasman en el acto de protestar.

Political protest marches are the paradigm of a repertoire of collective action that emerged in some European countries during the XIX century, and which spread thoughout the world afterwards as an important component of modern, individualizing and de-territorialized political imagination. This does not mean that marches, in their concrete manifestation, are not invested with specific and local cultural contents. In this paper, protests in Mexico City will be used as an ethnographic window in order to reflect on the ongoing redefinition of the public sphere and related concepts (like "general well-being" or "civic culture"), as expressed in the act of protesting.

Public Pulse VIII brief provides a concise overview of key indicators and results which show a significant decrease in people’s satisfaction with the work of Kosovo’s key executive, legislative, and judicial institutions. It covers the period from April to November 2014 and follows the tradition of previous reports by examining the evolving situation in Kosovo in the areas of political, economic, security, development issues, as well as, Perceived Paramount Problems, perceptions on religious radicalism, opinions on political stalemate and Kosovans voting behaviour.

The project is co-funded by USAID and UNDP. The results are based on statistical analysis of Public Pulse opinion poll conducted during the end of October and beginning of November that surveyed 1,306 citizens of Kosovo.

Because of its voting trends, Lega Nord represents an engaging research topic. This work aims both at investigating the reasons of the rise and crisis of this party, and at pointing out the role political protest is playing on the Italian scene, also given the recent achievements of the MoVimento 5 Stelle. More specifically, it addresses the following questions: Which are the conditions behind the party past successes and current failures? Why does the party seem now to go through hard times? Which conditions or factors may explain such a change?
Theoretically, this analysis draws from the wide literature on the Lega Nord, and it seeks to verify
the hypothesis according to which the relation between the organizational structure and the external
environment represents both the weak, and the strong point of the party. Indeed, the way the party comes out on top; the resources it uses; the model of organization it chooses; its ability to take the political opportunities, as well as to react and adapt to their change; constitute an ongoing challenge for the party. A challenge harder than the electoral competition, and far more apt to gauge the party solidity.
The concept of «party organizational change» will play a pivotal role in this analysis. Through a systemic perspective focusing on links between the party and the external environment, this work aims both at broadening our knowledge of the Lega Nord, and at deepening our understanding of political parties tout court. By throwing light on the major historical events from 1994 – end of the Italian “First Republic” – to the present, this work raises some broader questions, such as: Are there still cleavages in the Italian party system? If so, which? Which are the main issues currently on the parties’ agenda?
Acknowledging that the political situation is evolving, and that it is thus impossible to completely answer to the above questions, this work represents an attempt to be alert – and reactive - to the processes influencing the current political order.