Exu is not Satan – the dialogics of memory and resistance among Afro-Brazilians

ABSTRACT

In 2000s Brazil, an unprecedented number of Brazilian afrodescendentes (Afro-Descendants) have been mobilizing to secure rights and resources for the Brazilian black population. From carnival parading in ‘cultural’ groups to electoral campaigning, from consciousness-raising education to antiracist community outreach, black activists have been aggressively taking a critical stance toward the discursive fabric of Brazilian race relations and national identity. Placing examples of their discursive struggles over Afro-Brazilian history and culture under the lens of intertextual and heteroglossic relations, I illustrate black activists’ efforts to dispute what they see as misconceptions about black people and blackness that have found their way into the dominant narrative conceptions of Brazilian society. In doing so, I argue, they are accomplishing something of broader social significance: They are revising not only the history and collective memory of race relations in Brazil but blackness itself.     

Deconstructing invisibility: race and politics of visual culture in Brazil

Abstract

This paper aims to discuss race relations and power-building in Brazil. It is well known that the Iberian colonizers developed special ways of imposing their supremacy, dissimulating the skin color standards to provoke some type of beliefs about shade stratification among African descendents, indigenous and mixed-race people. For the first time in South America there are deconstructive projects of that colonial paradigm still alive and strongly embedded in the media landscape. However, new identity politics and attitudes have been emerging amidst this old social cognition. This paper will discuss some speculative thoughts and power-building scenarios on new representations and struggles derived from these lived forms that are emerging in the new racial formations in Latin America. The question is: what will nation-building in the midst of this changing imagery be like? This paper proposes that a civic pedagogy is the only answer to rendering this phenomenon visible.     

The oppression/emancipation nexus in ongoing power struggles: Village—Power dynamics in Western Nepal 1

Abstract

How can we gain a more nuanced understanding of power struggles than is assumed under the ‘power as domination’ perception that attributes power to dominant actors who exercise control over others, and thus dichotomises domination and emancipation? This article addresses this question by exploring the power dynamics underlying ‘participatory’ public works in a village in western Nepal. Drawing on an alternative analytical framework that brings together Giddens' ‘structuration’ perspective and the Foucauldian notion of power, the case study illustrates that dominance and resistance are interwoven in day-to-day social interactions, and that the existing social order is continually being readjusted. The article concludes by discussing this study's implications for proponents of empowerment, namely the need to ascertain the emancipatory potentials that are immanent in daily power contestation, and then to develop strategies that compensate for the limitations of everyday struggles.     

The origins and politics,campaigns and demands by the international fisher peoples’ movement: an Indigenous perspective

Abstract

This reflective contribution discusses the intersection of Indigenous and Small Scale Fisheries’ (SSF) issues, and how the international SSF movement has a critical role in the broader struggle for the convergence of social justice regarding the environment, food and lifeways. I explore some of the political tensions around Indigenous and SSF struggles against global neoliberalisation of land and water resources, some of the successes and challenges of the international SSF movement, and future considerations for academic/activist ‘decolonising’ work.     

Yassir Arafat

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Yours for the Union: class and community struggles in South Africa. by Baruch Hirson, London: Zed. 1989. 230pp     

“The Rain Grows Plants,the Thunder Does Not”: Refugee Mothers’ Narratives on Child Abuse and Neglect

Abstract

Child abuse and neglect are regarded as a public health problem in the United States and around the world. While refugee families experience extreme parenting stress as they resettle, little attention is placed upon how refugee women themselves view child abuse and neglect. The primary objective of this qualitative exploratory research project was to document, through interviews, the compelling narratives of 17 refugee women regarding child abuse and neglect. We discuss the unique struggles faced by refugee families while parenting their children as they resettle in the United States. Recommendations are provided for professionals working with children and refugee families.     

The state as a political practice: Pakistan’s postcolonial state beyond dictatorship and Islam

Abstract

The emphasis since the 1990s in the neoliberal paradigm on the non-interventionist state, and the theoretical disinterest in the state by critical scholarship, has negatively affected the prospects for political and social change. The fragmented and dispersed social movements analysed by critical scholars have proven insufficiently counter-hegemonic. All this invites us to reconsider the postcolonial state at a new theoretical level to guide better choices for political practice. This article analyses the prevalent academic literature on the postcolonial Pakistani state. In these analyses, an omnipresent and omnipotent military state decides the fate of democracy, now and again replacing politicians at the helm and also promoting Islam. Political practice remains confined to inter-elite struggles for the restoration of democracy, whereas imperialist hegemony and the role of marginalised classes as reservoirs of counter-hegemony are largely missing. This article critically builds on the legacy of the renowned Pakistani scholar Hamza Alavi to show, historically and empirically, how imperialist powers (from the United States to China) have used the military as a seat of power to bring the local elite under their hegemony. A political theoretical practice and the building of a counter-hegemony which goes beyond and beneath inter-elite struggles is much needed.     

Competing Norms and Strategic Visions: A Critical Appraisal of V4 Security Potential

Abstract

Despite shared historical experience and cultural proximity, the Visegrad group (V4) struggles to institutionalise its cooperation through stable mechanisms ensuring internal cohesion and external credibility. This is especially evident in the field of security and defence, which requires a shared strategic vision, in particular, common norms regarding the legitimate use of military force. While in the 1990s the four countries exhibited solidarity and unity in their collective ambition under the narrative of the ‘Return to Europe’, their general perception of security threats and strategic culture prevents deeper integration into a security community.     

The Anthropology of Extraction: Critical Perspectives on the Resource Curse

Abstract

Attempts to address the resource curse remain focussed on revenue management, seeking technical solutions to political problems over examinations of relations of power. In this paper, we provide a review of the contribution anthropological research has made over the past decade to understanding the dynamic interplay of social relations, economic interests and struggles over power at stake in the political economy of extraction. In doing so, we show how the constellation of subaltern and elite agency at work within processes of resource extraction is vital in order to confront the complexities, incompatibilities, and inequities in the exploitation of mineral resources.     

North Korean leadership: Kim Jong Il's balancing act in the ruling circle

The unexpected durability of North Korea, the world's last unreformed Stalinist polity, is attributable to Kim Jong Il's prudent balancing act between political forces. His balancing act, which is embodied in inclusive politics, honour-power sharing arrangements, and divide-and-rule tactics, has turned out to be effective in clearing away potential cleavages built into the ruling circle and thus in concluding the prolonged succession plan. As long as the balancing act continues to work, the dynasty, albeit defective, could survive in adversity for a longer period than expected. However, once the delicate balance artificially designed by Kim Jong Il is broken down for any reason, Pyongyang's power circle will slip into a centrifugal spiral, followed by internecine power struggles and the collapse of the regime.     

A Selected Bibliography on Occupied Beijing, 1937-1945

Abstract

This article examines the anti-French campaign triggered by the Laoxikai incident — a dispute in 1916–17 over lands bordering the French concession in Tianjin. The incident was a focal point for competing narratives of the nation, each drawing on traditions and inspirations that implied divergent futures for China. Constitutional monarchism, true monarchism, republicanism, and Christianity all played into the power struggles of the 1910s. This article also addresses the role of violent coercion in the incident, in which nationalism began to legitimate “punishment” of Chinese who continued working with the French. The nationalists felt shame on behalf of their nation, and through public humiliation they forced Chinese who appeared indifferent to the nation to share in the national shame. This development accelerated a trend of nationalistic violence and the discourse of “national humiliation”.     

The armed struggle and underground intelligence: An overview

This comparative analysis of the dynamics of underground, revolutionary intelligence is based on a generation of analytical association with recent and continuing armed struggles. It is a first effort to depict the unconventional nature of intelligence in an illicit and covert world that is not merely the mirror image of orthodox practice. It is mainly a discussion of strategic and tactical aspects, their structure, focus, and role, as well as special factors such as counterintelligence and heresy, prisoners and foreign contacts. Underground, these are in great part shaped by the aspirations and ideals of the rebels as well as by the special conditions that assure inefficiency in return for cover. The article is, then, a preliminary, general analysis of a largely neglected aspect of unconventional conflict.     

State transformation and cross-border regionalism in Indonesia’s periphery: contesting the centre

Abstract

This article examines how the decentralisation and fragmentation of the Indonesian state and resultant central–local dynamics affect cross-border regionalism in Indonesia’s periphery. It argues that cross-border regionalism projects are best understood as sites for scalar contestation over regulatory control between central and local government. Moreover, scalar contestation around cross-border regional projects is characterised by the struggles to control relationships with transnational capital between elites operating at different tiers of the state. When elites at different scales have conflicting interests and strategies, this can cause policy incoherence, inhibiting the development of cross-border regionalism. Conversely, when they align, and intersect with the interests of transnational business, cross-border regionalism can succeed. To illustrate the argument, this article utilises the comparative case studies of the Batam free trade zone and West Kalimantan–Sarawak cross-border cooperation.     

‘I wanted a Communist philosophy,but I wanted us to have a chance to organize our people’: the diasporic radicalism of Queen Mother Audley Moore and the origins of black power

Abstract

This article charts the extraordinary life and legacy of ‘Queen Mother’ Audley Moore (1898–1997). She was one of the most revered figures in twentieth-century black nationalism, Pan-Africanism, and Communism. A life-long Garveyite and a leading personality in the World War II-era Harlem Communist Party, she understood black women across the diaspora as the vanguard in struggles for self-determination. She broke from the Communist Party in 1950, reinventing herself into an ardent black nationalist. Creatively formulating an idiosyncratic politics combining Garveyism, Marxism, Third Worldism, and feminism, she was central in forging 1960s-era Black Power and the modern reparations movement. Recovering her life reveals the underappreciated importance of black women in building radical, diasporic movements, the legacy of Garveyism and Communism in framing Black Power, and the contours in twentieth-century black radicalism, black internationalism, and black women's activism.     

Denial and Distancing in Discourses of Development: shadow of the ‘Third World’ in New Zealand

Abstract

Anxieties about development in New Zealand show up in a deep-rooted fear of the ‘Third World’ in the country. We examine how the term ‘Third World’ is deployed in media discourses in economic, social and environmental contexts and how this deployment results in a ‘discursive distancing’ from anything associated with the ‘Third World’. Such distancing demonstrates a fragile national identity that struggles with the contradictions between the nation's desire to be part of the ‘First World’ of global capitalism and the growing disparities in health and wealth within it. The shadow of the ‘Third World’ prevents New Zealand from confronting the realities of its own inequities, which in turn comes in the way of a sound development agenda.     

Refugees,idps and Citizenship Rights: the perils of humanitarianism in the African Great Lakes region

Persistent civil warfare has created a crisis of protection for vulnerable refugees/returnees and internally displaced people ( idps ) in the African Great Lakes region. This is in the context of increasing state hostility towards refugees, intensified inter-group competition among citizens, and rising xenophobia towards African ‘foreigners’. Humanitarian solutions are often de-contextualised from struggles over entitlements, citizenship and exclusionary practices based on social hierarchies, ethnicity and indigeneity. Hence, they tend to contribute to rather than alleviate the marginality experienced by the displaced. This article argues for further exploration of the processes of identity construction that accompany displacement and humanitarianism and their problematic relationship with sovereignty and citizenship. It suggests that transcending marginality requires greater emphasis on political agency within refugee and idp communities—for their voices to be part of negotiations and conversations on repatriation and integration—in order for them to rejoin the political community.     

Susi Versus the rest: the political economy of the fisheries industry in Indonesia during Jokowi’s first term

ABSTRACT

Indonesian Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister, Susi Pudjiastuti, has become a political superstar on the back of the media attention gained with her tough stance in fighting illegal fishing since 2014. But, beyond the headlines, little is known of the political struggles unleashed by her approach, on how her policies have affected the political economy of the industry, and on whether her reforms are sustainable. Drawing on over 30 in-depth interviews, this article fills the gap. The picture that emerges is complex and fluid: the minister has made progress in limiting the reach of the foreign-led fisheries mafia, but achieved limited success in convincing Indonesians to invest in the industry or in building a constituency to support her drive. Through the lens of the political economy of the fisheries, this article also offers a window into how politics is contested in increasingly ‘populist’ Indonesia.     

The Moroccan system of labour institutions: a class-based perspective

Abstract

The relevance of workers’ mobilisations in the 2011 Arab uprisings and – more recently – in the Algerian movement for democracy and social justice has encouraged a renewed interest in labour–state relations in the region. This article presents a class-based perspective on labour institutions, taking Morocco as a case study. In contrast to institution-based approaches, this research argues that it is problematic to treat the trade unions as analytical proxies for the working class, because this heuristic move conceals how class struggles – from below and from above – can transcend and transform labour institutions. The article proposes a framework to study labour–state relations, highlighting the relative autonomy of union officials from workers and vice versa. In this way, it shows how, in the neoliberal phase, the Moroccan state increased inducements to the unions while decreasing those to the workers and maintaining significant constraints on workplace organising. To use a simplified formulation, the regime included the unions to exclude the workers. In such a context of low union representativeness, the dangers of reducing the working class to the trade unions emerge clearly.     

The Uses and Abuses of History: Genocide and the Making of the Karabakh Conflict

Abstract

Did the 1915 genocide of the Ottoman Armenians play a role in the genesis of the Karabakh war? In the early phase of the conflict, many Armenian activists and politicians drew parallels between the evolving struggles of the present and the traumatic events of 1915. This essay explores the ways in which Armenia, Azerbaijan and Turkey have referred to the events of 1915 to formulate their policies towards the conflict. The essay argues that the largely suppressed past trauma was present in the mass psychology of the conflicting parties, although in radically different ways, and that it shaped developing events. After depoliticising genocide commemorations in the early years of its independence, Armenia has recently witnessed an increase in references to the genocide in political discourse. The same also applies, somewhat paradoxically, to Azerbaijan, which has developed its own state-sponsored discourse of genocide, vehemently denying that the genocide took place while portraying Azerbaijan as a victim of genocide itself. This exchange of roles clearly needs further explanation.     

Victims,Villains, or Geopolitical Tools? Representations of Donbas Displacement in Ukrainian and Russian Government Media

Abstract

This essay examines how the Ukrainian and Russian government-owned newspapers, Uriadovyi Kurier and Rossiiskaya Gazeta, represent people displaced by the war in Donbas, analysing the political goals revealed by these publications’ attitudes towards the displaced. While the Ukrainian publication delimits the nation by distinguishing ‘real’ internally displaced people (IDPs) deserving help and ‘fake’ IDPs guilty of siphoning Ukrainian taxpayers’ money to rebel-held areas, the Russian paper foregrounds the Russian state's competence in managing displacement while silencing the displaced themselves.