African peasants and revolution

The last thirteen years have seen important peasant uprisings in Angola, Guiné and Mozambique, conflicts which must be judged to some extent within the context of traditional colonial wars. Although the influence of events in neighbouring countries and urban notions of freedom and nationalism is undeniable, it is argued that these struggles reveal the rising trend of ‘modern’ resistance and its final dependence on mass participation by local communities conscious of their particular oppressions and fighting together to overcome them. The role of such revolutionary movements as the MPLA has been to organise and guide rebellions which would have occurred spontaneously if less successfully without them.     

Gramsci,the peasantry and popular culture

Antonio Gramsci adopted a developmentalist position after becoming a marxist. He thus departed from earlier Italian positions in foreseeing a society in which peasants — understood as a structure of petty property and its dependants ‐ would eventually though not immediately be peasants no more after the introduction of modern methods of cultivation. After the success of fascism in 1922 he began to reconsider his assumption that the peasantry were destined to disappear in a new mode of production, which would replace the backward dual economy of Italy. If the peasantry were not always in secular decline before the onward march of capitalism, but could, as in Italy, increase in numbers and political strength even under capitalism, then this called for a reassessment of their social and political role in a marxism which was not simply developmental in the old sense. In the 1930s in particular, Gramsci therefore started to develop strategies for change which assumed that: (1) the peasantry would remain in the foreseeable future as a significant political force; (2) their ethos and values would therefore have to be incorporated in any marxist theory of transition and socialism, and (3) developmentalism or modernisation would have to be re‐examined as a core part of marxist strategy.     

Social capital and labor politics in Japan: Cooperation or cooptation?

Policy Sciences - Social capital, derived from voluntary cooperative relationships and memberships, is thought to enhance a group's capacity to attain a common good. Japan enjoys plentiful...     

Why Theater? Sociological Reflections on Art and Freedom, and the Politics of Small Things

In this paper using reflections on a dramatic moment in the life of the author’s ethnographic study of theater in Poland as a starting point, the relationship between art and politics is analyzed. The relationship between two central propositions is explored, leading to a conclusion: (1) Cultural freedom is a definitive characteristic of modern social life and (2) the freedom constituted by culture as the arts and sciences opens up public space for alternative social and political practices, and thus: cultural freedom is a base for political freedom. Applying these propositions to a study of theater in Poland, it is shown that art constitutes cultural freedom through its relative autonomy, and the politics of small things results. Societies are transformed.     

A Comment on Stephen Page's "What's New about the New Public Management"

The authors observe that the attacks on the new public management often show a lack of familiarity with its theoretical base, ignore that it is a recognized management tool, and imagine dramaturgy when none exists.