Frontiers of Growth: Europe’s Struggle for Resilience, Sustainability and Social Justice

Reviewed by: American Prophets: Seven Religious Radicals and their Struggle for Social and Political Justice by Albert J. Raboteau Casey Bohlen Albert J. Raboteau, American Prophets: Seven Religious Radicals and their Struggle for Social and Political Justice (Princeton: Princeton University Press 2016) In American Prophets, historian Albert J. Raboteau provides concise, lucid biographical sketches of seven religious radicals, each of whom contributed to movements for social justice in the 20th-century United States. His subjects include intellectuals and activists from a diverse set of faith traditions, including the familiar faces of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Dorothy Day, and Fannie Lou Hamer, as well as the less well-known Jewish theologian Abraham Heschel, heterodox iconoclast A.J. Muste, Black Protestant intellectual Howard Thurman, and Catholic monk Thomas Merton. Although these individuals hailed from disparate theological backgrounds, Raboteau argues that they were united by a shared religious commitment to social justice, defined by moral solidarity with the socially marginalized and faith in the redemptive power of nonviolent direct action. For readers who are unfamiliar with the history of the mid-century [End Page 339] religious left, this book offers a readable and illustrative introduction to the field, told through the lives of some of its most influential participants. Raboteau's central argument is that members of the religious left have served as a prophetic voice in 20th-century United States politics, blending civic and theological language to develop effective moral arguments against injustice and inspire grassroots movements for social change. Their political vision was defined by what Raboteau dubs "divine pathos" – meaning a heightened sense of compassion for the least among us, derived from a religious belief in the divine dignity of each individual, the spiritual unity of humanity, and categorical opposition to systems rooted in violence and coercion. Inspired by this divine pathos, religious radicals played pivotal roles in a wide variety of social justice movements across the course of the century, ranging from the long civil rights movement to radical labour organizing to anti-war resistance. They mounted campaigns rooted in nonviolent direct action, drew on religious networks to organize activists at the grassroots, and delivered soaring political speeches redolent with religious imagery, appealing to the consciences of their fellow citizens through both word and deed. These appeals were often successful, most notably in the case of the Southern freedom struggle, which unsurprisingly takes centre stage here. But of equal importance, Raboteau argues, they passed their sense of divine pathos on to their audiences, engendering new moral awakenings and sustaining the religious left across generations in a manner that other branches of the United States left have notably failed to do. This combination of interpersonal encounters, flexible moral language, and effective protest tactics have made religious radicals capable of adapting their relatively consistent set of principles and strategies to a diverse set of causes. In doing so, they have had an outsized impact on United States politics over the course of the century. Raboteau delivers this argument episodically, organizing American Prophets into seven independent chapters, each devoted to one of his subjects' intellectual biography and history of social engagement. The book is already succinct, clocking in at just under two-hundred pages, but because each chapter can stand alone, educators might consider exploring Raboteau's overarching argument by assigning excerpts on just one or two of his subjects. His chapter on Thomas Merton is a prime candidate for such treatment. Merton was a Trappist monk whose early writings called on readers to seek God by withdrawing from the world, but who reemerged as a preeminent social critic and political advocate in the 1960s. Raboteau's discussion of him is rife with meaty block quotes, which articulate Merton's seemingly-paradoxical fusion of contemplative life and worldly engagement, his analysis of the relationship between systems of social violence and personal alienation, and his deep skepticism of the ability of white liberals and civil rights legislation to unravel the tangled knots of racial inequality in America. His writing is rich and provocative, and his thinking on race relations feels especially prescient today, marking Merton as one of the most intellectually challenging voices in this collection. Also noteworthy are...

Disability activism, together with social, gender, and racial justice struggles, has gained increased visibility in both civil society and academia. As a translation scholar and as the mother of an 11-year-old boy with Down syndrome engaged in promoting social justice, I strive to challenge the predominant representations of persons with disabilities that prevent them from exercising their human rights. This article proposes to build on the interdisciplinary intersections between feminist disability studies and critical translation studies, including audiovisual translation and media accessibility. It does so with a view to accounting for and contributing to inclusive practices in the translation of disability; it does so also to challenge ableist re-translation in a world where much remains to be done to protect the human rights of people with disabilities. The article analyses the political translation of disability in a video campaign carried out by the National Coordination of Associations of Persons with Down Syndrome (CoorDown). Released on the 2021 World Down Syndrome Day, the video titled Dear Future Mom is a collective response to an expectant mother of a child with Down syndrome who wrote to Coordown to share her uncertainties and fears following the diagnosis of Down syndrome. Including multiple languages and featuring children with Down syndrome as the main protagonists, Dear Future Mom creates a translational political space where the binary oppositions between non-disabled and disabled people are subverted. The video performs a political translation of the “original” textual body of children and young adults with disabilities that frames disability as compatible with a fulfilled life. The social model of disability that informs this political translation is challenged by the social and legal controversies surrounding the reception of the video. In criticizing the medical model of disability and its conflation of “defective bodies” with defective lives, this article alerts readers to the human rights consequences of this model for persons with disabilities and calls for alternative political translations that align themselves with disability activism and social justice struggles.

ABSTRACTThis paper turns to the work of the Portuguese sociologist Boaventura de Sousa Santos and explores how a set of concepts he developed over the years may constitute valuable tools in the task of decolonising and pluriversalising Human Rights Education (HRE). Informed by decolonial theory, Santos highlights that the struggle for global social justice is inseparable from the struggle for cognitive justice, namely, the recognition of epistemic diversity. This paper makes a contribution to the efforts that view the pluriversalisation of HRE as inextricable parts of the wider task of decolonising knowledge and education and struggling for social justice.

This Special Issue aims to inquire how two contradictory developments – the sustained struggle for human rights and social justice in the Arab world since 2011 and the EU’s pragmatist turn that has followed it – interact by examining the changing relationship between local needs and expectations on one hand and EU policies and practices on the other. It does so by systematically exploring the viewpoints of civil society stakeholders about the EU’s presence and practices in the Mediterranean, both at the local level (specifically in Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, Tunisia) and at the EU level, through more than hundred in-depth interviews. This article provides a critical review of the literature on Euro-Mediterranean relations by drawing on a selected number of critical academic studies which have emerged in the post-Arab uprising, as well as by providing an overview of the grey literature by civil society networks in Europe and the Southern Mediterranean, often not taken into account in research on Mediterranean relations. This will allow us to see what has been neglected in the literature and what we can build on in this Special Issue from a decentring perspective. It then outlines the conceptual framework and methodology of this Special Issue and concludes with an overview of the case studies/contributions.

Post-apartheid South Africa is ravaged by crises of extreme unemployment, poverty, and inequality. While the majority who were politically excluded by apartheid can now choose their government through democratic elections, social and economic justice continues to elude them. Neoliberal policies which seek to reduce state expenditure on social services and promote state policies that protect the interests of big businesses at the expense of working-class and poor communities, along with corruption and abuse of power, are the primary causes of poverty and unemployment. However, what is missing in the assessments of social justice since the pre-1994 democratic era is the recognition that social justice organisations have not simply disappeared, but have actually remained involved in social justice struggles. Based on information from in-depth interviews and internet sources, this article records some of the partial victories scored through these struggles, albeit in the context of generalised pauperisation of working-class and poor communities. These partial victories in the era of defeats show that these organisations, although weakened, have not given up the struggle for social justice.

This chapter gives readers not only a sense of what Critical race theory (CRT) is but of what / how struggles for education equity and social justice can form the basis of critical race praxis. It demonstrates what the field of education has to offer to the discourse on race and the law. The chapter provides readers with an overview of CRT and its importance to educational research, policy, and practice. It shows how the CRT lens is useful in analyzing Chicana and Chicano students’ struggles for equity and social justice in the classroom and at the state and national levels as legislation assaults their identity, national origin, and culture. The chapter links critical race theory with gender and class analysis through examining how Latina mothers in North Carolina create spaces for reclaiming dignity amidst the framing of their families as deficient.

Journal Article César Chávez, the Catholic Bishops, and the Farmworkers' Struggle for Social Justice Get access César Chávez, the Catholic Bishops, and the Farmworkers' Struggle for Social Justice. By Prouty Marco G.. (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2006. xiii + 185 pp. Illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. $40.00.) Abraham Hoffman Abraham Hoffman Los Angeles Valley College Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Western Historical Quarterly, Volume 38, Issue 4, Winter 2007, Pages 528–529, https://doi.org/10.2307/25443629 Published: 01 November 2007

Finally, this chapter revisits the theoretical contributions of this book in relation to the unfinished project of renewing and reimagining a critical and pluriversal HRE. We argue that engaging in this project is an unfinished and ongoing endeavour of highlighting that the struggle for global social justice is inseparable from the struggle for enriching HRE policies and practices around the world. Our theorisation in this book, then, makes a modest contribution to the efforts that view the pluriversalisation of HRE as inextricable parts of the wider task of decolonising knowledge and education and struggling for social justice.

Tawhai provides a thorough and much needed examination of the notions of Indigenous peoples and indigeneity as expressed through international instruments such as the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The chapter critically explores the tensions these notions cause for considerations of citizenship and social justice, particularly within the contexts of indigenous-colonizer/settler relations, and examines the implications for citizenship and social justice education. The chapter locates Indigenous peoples’ struggles for social justice as arising from experiences of oppression, discrimination, and displacement of lands and of our political power. While states have, to an extent, engaged in addressing Indigenous peoples’ grievances as to the material outcomes of this displacement for our lived citizenship, there is a reluctance to address Indigenous communities as ‘peoples’ with rights to self-determination and political authority. Recognizing that the preparation of citizens to engage, debate and progress such reconciliation presents particular challenges for citizenship and social justice educators; this chapter offers some considerations in this regard – in particular, for curricula and pedagogy.

The late Bishop Alexander Muge of the Anglican Church of Kenya, Diocese of Eldoret, made a remarkable contribution to the struggle for social justice in Kenya in the post-colonial era. However, his contribution to the struggle for social justice in Kenya has not been scholarly studied, hence the need for the present study. The purpose of the study was to establish the extent of Muge’s contribution to the making of Kenya’s trends in social justice. The objective of the article was to evaluate Rt. Rev. Alexander Kipsang’ Muge’s efforts towards empowering Kenyan society socially and economically. Liberation theology, as understood and used by theologians in Latin America in the early 1900s, was applied to the exploration of Muge’s struggle for social justice and the economic empowerment of Kenyan society. Knowledge of Muge’s contribution to the making of Kenya’s history as well as being one of the architects of the struggle for democracy in Kenya, underlie the significance and justification of the study. Data was collected from both primary and secondary sources. Archival and oral sources were significant in generating data. Purposive sampling, especially the snowball technique was used to identify interviewees. Analysis and interpretation of data employed a quantitative historical method. The findings of the study fill a knowledge gap about Rt. Rev. Bishop Alexander Kipsang’ Muge’s contribution to the cause of justice and socio-economic empowerment of the post-colonial Kenyan society.

Teaching for social justice means understanding students and advocating for them. These dispositions are especially critical for those who teach in urban communities where low-resourced schools and deficit perspectives toward students prevail. While many teacher education programs claim to prepare teachers for social justice (Zeichner in Teacher education and the struggle for social justice. Routledge, New York, 2009), it remains unclear how program graduates actually think and act according to social justice principles. This study focuses on the dispositions of three, early-career teachers in relation to Cochran-Smith’s (The international handbook of educational change. Springer, New York, 2010) theory of social justice in education, and some of the background and contextual factors that shaped their ability to enact social justice teaching practices. Case studies, largely based on teachers’ written narratives, reveal differences in their orientations toward: (1) caregivers, (2) students’ knowledge traditions, and (3) their ability to raise students’ critical consciousness. The two teachers who were most evolved in their demonstrations of social justice teaching grew up in families where service to others was highly valued. The study also demonstrates how two of the teachers managed in school contexts where scripted teaching and high stakes testing were enforced, and how these conditions factored into one teacher’s departure from her position. Findings from this study indicate how teacher education and professional development programs can be strengthened to develop and support teachers’ social justice orientations.

The Firebrand and the First Lady: Portrait of a Friendship-Pauli Murray, Eleanor Roosevelt, and the Struggle for Social Justice. By Patricia Bell-Scott. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2016. xix + 454 pp. $30.00 (cloth).When the dominant culture the United States becomes truly conscious and appreciative of significant contributions to the common life by individuals from marginalized groups, it seeks, arguably, to claim these individuals for itself, for its own institutions and processes. The transformative ministry of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., nonviolent advocacy for the civil rights of African Americans and the poor, for example, has become for the mainstream a national holiday. This past spring, two women-one of them African American-were similarly incorporated. The U.S. Treasury revealed that Eleanor Roosevelt, who broke many gender barriers her lifelong work for human rights, will be featured on the back of a redesigned five dollar bill, and Yale University announced that a new residential college will be named for Pauli Murray, an alumna of the Law School, as well as a writer and civil rights activist who, 1977, became the first African American woman to be ordained a priest the Episcopal Church. Such claiming by the dominant culture is not inherently wrong and can express authentic respect. Yet it also elucidates the power of Patricia Bell-Scott s new book about the friendship of these two women. Although the book honors their importance to the history of American social justice, and therefore needs to be widely read, its purpose is foremost to show their claim on one another.In 1952, after a visit by Murray and her two aunts to the Roosevelt home Hyde Park, New York, Murray expressed to Roosevelt, a thankyou note, that in our spiritual way, we consider you a member of the family (p. 210). Drawing from such correspondence over nearly a quarter-century, as well as diaries, interviews, memoirs, biographies, and other sources, BellScott tells exquisite detail the story of how the relationship between the two women grew into such intimacy. The narrative begins and ends with the firebrand, a term of affection Roosevelt once used for Murray an Ebony magazine article, and is structured around major stages of Murrays personal history, all the while documenting how the lives, advocacy, and sociopolitical views of the two women interwove with and influenced one another.The book will be of interest, of course, to students of U.S. history, especially those who view history not just as the progression of national events, but also as the are of individual lives and interrelationships. It also will appeal to anyone seeking to learn more about the civil rights movements the mid-twentieth century. The friendship of Murray and Roosevelt had early roots their shared hope for anti-lynching legislation and concern for poor sharecroppers, and took hold during their advocacy for Odell Waller, an African American sharecropper whose conviction 1940 by an all-white jury of murdering a white landowner raised national awareness regarding the injustice of poll taxes and their effect on jury lists. …

Embodiment, Elimination, and the Role of Toilets in Struggles for Social Justice Judith Plaskow …at the end of the row one free toilet: oozes from under its crooked door,: while a row of weary women carrying packages and babies: wait and wait and wait to do: what only the dead find unnecessary. Marge Piercy, “To the Pay Toilet” Revaluing the body, and especially the female body, has been central to the feminist project. One need only think of the significance and success of Our Bodies Ourselves and its sequels to appreciate the extent to which reclaiming women’s colonized body space has played a vital role in feminist theory and activism. In religious studies, feminists have written extensively about disparagement of the body and sexuality and identification of women with the body in Western thought. From Rosemary Radford Ruether’s explorations of dualism in classical and Christian culture written in the early 1970s to Margaret Farley’s Just Love published in 2006, historians, ethicists, theologians, and others have both critiqued influential canonical texts and attempted to formulate alternative, appreciative, and non‐dualistic understandings of sexuality and human embodiment. It is interesting, therefore, that in forty years of feminist theorizing about the body, elimination as a fundamental aspect of body experience has been largely ignored. Foucault may be right that for the last three centuries, “sex has become something to say, and to say exhaustively,” but excretion seems to be consigned to the shadows.1 In the words of Norman O. Brown, “Repression weighs more heavily on anality than genitality.”2 In this essay, I seek to remedy the neglect of elimination by outlining a new project on embodiment, elimination, and the role of toilets in struggles for social justice. The project has two strands that are deeply interconnected. The first looks at the ways in which access to toilets is a prerequisite for full public participation and citizenship. The distribution, quality, and structure of public toilets are both symbols and concrete representations of a larger system of social hierarchies. Almost all the social justice movements of the last century in the United States have included struggles for adequate toilet facilities as an at least implicit part of their agendas: the civil rights movement, feminism, disability rights, and rights for transgender persons. In addition, an absence of toilets is a major problem for homeless persons and is a pressing health issue in the two‐thirds world. How does looking at toilets help us to map power relations in our society and globally? What local battles have been fought over toilet equity? The second strand of the project involves reflecting on elimination as an aspect of human embodiment. Why the relative silence around this issue even among scholars who have written extensively about the body? What does our need for excretion say about us as embodied persons? How have attitudes and practices around excretion changed over time? What would it mean for feminists to reclaim excretion in the way we have reclaimed sexuality? What would sanitary facilities look like in a world in which people were both comfortable with this aspect of embodiment and committed to enabling a maximum number of persons to participate fully in public life? The topic of toilets is intriguing partly because it provides a vehicle for exploring many intersecting issues: bathroom design and distribution can perpetuate a wide range of social inequalities, and bathroom activism has the potential to bring together very diverse interest groups.3 In this paper, I will focus on some feminist issues surrounding bathrooms in the Western cultural context as an instance of the broader problem of toilets and social justice. Sometimes the absence of women’s lavatories so clearly reflects the exclusion of women from public power and public space that it leaves one almost dumbfounded. There was no restroom for women senators near the Senate floor, for example, until 1992, when the number of women in the Senate went from two to seven. Before then, Barbara Mikulski and Nancy Kassebaum either had to go up a floor to their offices or use the public restrooms downstairs. Women in the House of Representatives have a posh restroom. Unlike the men’s room...

Based on interviews with legal practitioners working with or within anti-racist social justice movements in Sweden, we explore some dilemmas and paradoxes that appear when social movements pursue struggles for anti-racist social justice through the legal arena. How do the interviewees understand and critically relate to legal practices in contemporary anti-racist social justice struggles? What are the conditions of engagement of these organisations in the legal arena and how do they impact social justice struggles in Sweden? What are the stakes in the legal practices of these movements? Rather than a strategically chosen tool for social justice, legal practice could be understood as a kind of self-defence, as resorting to law is often a response to an unjust legal system, oppressive treatment by the state or disadvantage and deprivation. The interviewees’ reflections on their legal practices are informed by a fundamental ambivalence between the ideological commitment in the critique of law and their position from which it is impossible to ignore the legal arena. Instead of taking a clear stance for or against the law as a tool for social justice struggles, we have attempted to understand what are the methods and the effects of legal practice that grow from this ambivalence. The accounts of our interviewees indicate that both practical strategies and ways of accounting for these aim at subverting and challenging the law while at the same time using it. Throughout the analysis we have conceptualised these strategies as decentring, re-politicising and redistribution.

African Americans in Cincinnati have played a vital role in the history of the “Queen City.” Struggles for racial equality, social justice, and economic opportunities have taken place in the city’s streets, homes, churches, schools, governments, and workplaces, and these efforts been woven into every fabric of Cincinnati’s rich historical tapestry. However, until recently, the role of African Americans in the region’s history remained largely neglected by most scholars and writers. Without question, African Americans in Cincinnati have played a vital role in the history of the Queen City.” Their struggles for racial equality, social justice, and economic opportunities have taken place and continue to take place in the city’s streets, homes, churches, schools, governments and workplaces. The trials and tribulations started a few years after Ohio became a state in 1802 with the enactment of the Black Laws (Codes) and the subsequent decades of urban violence, open discrimination, and legal segregation, continued into well into the 1950s. However, during these decades, despite the oppressive social climate, African American Cincinnatians made great strides in the fields of education, politics, and business. But the struggles continue today in areas such as police and community relations, access to quality public education, and urban renewal (gentrification).