Challenging hydropower development in Myanmar (Burma): cross-border activism under a regime in transition

Abstract

Although general elections in Myanmar (Burma) in November 2010 have transformed the political landscape, many of the characters remain the same. While there is evidence of incremental domestic political openings many of the political constraints that existed during military rule remain in force. As a consequence of decades of military authoritarian governance and civil conflict, it is Myanmar's contested ethnic borderlands that have been the important locales for the development of environmental movements, despite increased recent domestic activity. This article analyses a case study of the largely cross-border campaign against hydropower dams on the Salween River in Myanmar and finds that through the suppression of opposition and dissent at home the regime has stimulated the creation of an ‘activist diaspora’, a dynamic transnational community of expatriates who engage in environmental activism beyond the reach of the regime. Due to their relative freedom on the border and in Thailand this community has developed expertise and international networks that have proved crucial in communicating the social and environmental impacts of hydropower development in Myanmar to the international community. Through increased cooperation with an expanding domestic civil society this established activist community is stimulating improved environmental governance of hydropower development and simultaneously assisting in the creation of a more open and democratic Myanmar.     

Immigrant protest: an introduction

The last decade has witnessed an explosion of ‘immigrant protests’, political mobilizations by irregular migrants and pro-migrant activists. This special issue on ‘immigrant protest’ has emerged in response to this rise in the visibility of immigrant protests, and its central aim is to contribute to the growing body of scholarship on migrant resistance movements and to consider the implications of these struggles for critical understandings of citizenship. This introduction maps out some of the central issues and themes emerging from the contributions to this issue, exploring the tensions between integrationist and autonomous approaches and theories of migrant activism and resistance and between migrant and activist strategies of invisibility and visibility. By bringing immigrant protests to the heart of debates about citizenship, we hope to further extend discussions about the limits and the possibilities of citizenship as the material and conceptual horizon of critical social analysis and political participation and practice today.     

Spinoza Now

Abstract

This discussion of Infinitely Demanding explores the terms of the paradox with which Critchley is centrally concerned: how an ethico-politics can at once begin in disappointment and yet allow for engagement, the infinite renewal of commitment and optimism. Placing this in critical relation to the paradox Rorty meets with his account of the "private ironist and public liberal" in Contingency, Irony, Solidarity, I argue that Critchley's ethico-politics invokes the possibility of a non-ironical categorical imperative, at the meeting point of finitude and the infinite and at the heart of what is also a political space of intersubjectivity. I examine the logic of humour and of commitment within the Kantian frame thus suggested, arguing for their relevance to certain aspects of anarcho-activism, but also for their limitations in desperate circumstances, posing the risk that Critchley's preferred politics falls back into liberal complacency.     

Collective Action and Citizen Responses to Global Warming

This paper expands the relevance of the collective interest model of mass political action to explain collective-action behavior in the context of global warming and climate change. The analysis is an attempt to answer Ostrom’s call for a behavioral model of collective action that can be generalized beyond political protest to other collective-action problems. We elaborate, specify, and empirically test a collective interest model approach to citizen policy support, environmental political participation, and environmental behavior related to the issue of global warming. Key elements of the collective interest model—perceived risk, personal efficacy, and environmental values—are found to be directly, and positively, related to support of government policies and personal behaviors that affect global warming. We also discuss the links between the collective interest model and other important approaches to political behavior.

司法能动的语义比较分析

司法能动在中西不同的政治文化背景和宪政体制下具有不同的含义。美国的司法能动主义,是一种开放性的司法哲学,法官热衷于解释宪法、打破规则和在法律之外司法能动;中国的司法能动则是一种奉行严格规则主义的法律之内的能动。     

以提高参政议政能力为抓手,加强高校民主党派基层组织建设

党的十八大报告首次提出并系统论述了健全社会主义协商民主制度,彰显了中共中央顺应民心,坚定不移地推进政治体制改革的决心和信心,同时也对民主党派的自身建设提出了更高的要求和期望。本文提出了参政议政能力建设是参政党履行职能、发挥作用的内在要求,也是基层组织建设的目标这个观点;分析了目前福建省高校民主党派基层组织的队伍状况和工作状态,并以此提出以提高参政议政能力为抓手,着眼于加强思想政治建设、加强参政议政队伍建设、建立制度加强管理、在发挥优势和作用中提高参政议政能力、增强高校各级中共党组织支持民主党派基层组织自身建设的政治责任等方面,加强高校民主党派基层组织建设。     

自媒体时代下服务型司法的反思

自2009年最高人民法院首次提出“能动司法”理念以来,全国司法系统中掀起了以“为大局服务,为人民司法”为主题,开展创新服务型司法工作的热潮.面对“人人是媒体,个个是记者”的自媒体时代,司法机关在服务型司法理念的指导下陆续开通“司法微博”作为其又一司法服务创新项目.然而自司法微博开通以来,微博内容中所涉及的各种问题呈现出偏离服务型司法主题的现象,为使司法机构在网络媒体中找准自身角色并且更加高效地开展司法工作,对自媒体时代下服务型司法的反思显得尤为必要.     

司法语言运用的能动边界探析——以农村法庭法官司法语言运用为视角

司法能动是中国大法治环境下积极倡导的司法理念,这一理念契合了农村基层人民法官处理农村案件时积极引导案件当事人参与诉讼的现状。语言是法律诉讼的媒介,司法语言承载着司法公正,司法语言运用是司法实践中很重要的部分。基层法官与当事人沟通时,要掌握语言的深浅,避免与法律相违背的语言缺陷。农村案件当事人需要法官给予更为直白的诉讼指导。     

法治反对解释的原则

反对解释是法治初级阶段的一个重要原则.这一原则要求法官奉行司法克制主义,对明确的法律条文必须无条件遵守,在解释中不能附加法官个人的意思.反对解释不是说不要解释,而是说不能过度解释,法官只能行使有限的创造权力,对法律文本已明确的含义,法官的解释就是认同.在我国,由于长期以来一直批判法家的严苛,主张判决中天理、人情与法律的和谐相处,结果使得法律文本被置于不重要的地位.严格执法实际上没有成为我们的执法理念,法律被任意解释、曲解的现象大量发生.严格法制是我们不能逾越的阶段,反对解释的原则应是司法活动的重要原则.     

Forced to pass and other sins against authenticity

This essay examines U.S.-based lesbian and gay activism from the turn of 1980 with a focus on tensions between models of activism based in unapologetic demands for visibility versus concerns about the contradictions presented by the recognition of lesbian and gay identities within a punitive political order. The author crafts this historical narrative alongside and through readings of Gus Van Sant's 2008 film Milk and Lizzie Borden's 1983 film Born in Flames. The essay analyzes how Milk showcases the politics of gay liberalism at its most militant, while Born in Flames highlights a variety of radical feminist activisms. The essay also looks at how the styles of each film bring into focus some of the ways in which liberal and radical lesbian and gay movements of the period limited their engagement with race and racism. The essay then considers how both films thematize the uses of communicative media in the production of social movements. It concludes by asking how these films might provide an opportunity to think about activist history today.