Activist Engagement Research Articles

Activism as education in and through the youth climate justice movement

AbstractYoung people worldwide are increasingly participating in a global movement for climate justice, yet to date, little research has examined how youth climate justice activists conceive of and experience activism as education. The present study used in‐depth, semi‐structured interviews with 16 US climate justice activists (aged 15–17) to address the research question: How do youth climate justice activists explain and experience the educative power of their activism? The results of reflective thematic analysis bring to light youths' dual roles as ‘learners of the movement’ and ‘climate justice educators’. As learners, youth described gaining awareness of climate justice directly from the movement, as well as learning a variety of skills (e.g., organising, communication, conflict resolution) through their activist engagement. Simultaneously, youth described their role as educators through a range of activities intended to raise awareness among adult and youth audiences, including educational workshops and trainings, school visits, teach‐ins, curriculum development, talk shows and interviews, creating digital resources, social media outreach and public protest (e.g., strikes, marches and demonstrations). Beyond spreading knowledge of climate in/justice, youth activists were also educators of action and social change processes—noting that learning about governmental institutions and political processes enabled them to exercise their democratic citizenship and equip and embolden other young people to do the same (e.g., via political advocacy trainings). The findings of the present study have implications for creating climate justice curricula that not only attend to the scientific and technological dimensions of the climate crisis, but also enable learners' justice‐driven action and democratic participation.

Implementing fertility care: Insights from a participatory workshop in The Gambia.

The Gambia, West Africa, has made recent progress on infertility, a component of sexual and reproductive health that is lagging behind others. Since 2016, there is favourable policy environment stemming from infertility research and partnership building with national stakeholders and local civil society organisations focussing on infertility. Here, we report outcomes from a participatory workshop on infertility policy implementation in The Gambia and provide insights on setting national priorities for fertility care in resource-limited settings. We conducted a participatory workshop involving 29 participants from Gambia's public and private health sectors. Using selected participatory group work tools, stakeholders identified and prioritised key activities within the framework of five pre-defined areas of action, including (i) creating guidelines/regulations; (ii) recording/reporting data; (iii) building public-private partnership; (iv) training health providers; and (v) raising awareness and health-seeking. 17 prioritised activities were proposed across the five action areas, according to short- medium- and long-term timeframes. Three were further prioritised from the overall pool, through group consensus. A Group Model Building activity helped to envision the complexity through elucidating links, loops, and connections between each activity and their expected outcomes. The participatory workshop identified actionable interventions for fertility care in The Gambia, with stakeholders setting a clear path ahead. Despite challenges, the continued engagement of Gambian policymakers, practitioners, researchers, and activists in efforts to move beyond policy creation to its implementation is essential. Improving fertility care in The Gambia and other LMICs is feasible with effective collaboration and financial support.

Digital Archives as Resisting Displacement

Abstract Amid wider concern about the emergence of vast data archives that document and instrumentalize everyday user activities for the purpose of marketing, research, and governance, this article turns to a series of creative and activist initiatives that preserve heterodox internet histories. Though a focus on three case studies—artistic engagements with GeoCities, traces left by Indymedia in contemporary activism, and emerging ethical frameworks for reusing social media data—the article examines the political and ethical significance of attempts to archive specific instances of participatory online cultures before these cultures disappear. Drawing from and advancing Jodi Dean's conception of displaced mediators, or entities that set in motion the forces that ultimately displace them, the article argues that the significance of these digital archives is in their capacity to resist linear, commercial logics of displacement that attempt to narrow user agency. Instead, the article argues, creative and activist engagements with digital archives generate questions about whether the infrastructures that govern everyday online interactions could be otherwise, through showing how they formerly have been otherwise.

Explaining the distinction between religious and political activism in Islamism: evidence from the Tunisian case

AbstractTunisia's Islamist movement Ennahda has announced a separation of political and religious work, apparently reinforcing a “post-Islamist” argument that Islamic parties have left behind religious mobilization. However, the boundary between religious and political fields is highly porous. We ask why the distinction between religious and political activism remains a point of ambiguity within Islamism. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 48 men and women who participated in the movement in the 1970s and 1980s in Tunis and Sousse, we develop a microlevel explanation of Islamist mobilization. We argue that religious and social Islamist activism is replete with political intent, which worked through three mechanisms: a counter-hegemonic ideology, an activist engagement in social transformation, and a formal organization. These findings add empirical insights to the case of Ennahda, provide leverage in explaining the politicization of Salafist movements, and underscore the legacy of asymmetric party capacities in shaping outcomes in a democratic transition.

“We, activists”, “They, the activists”: Exploring Activist Identity Among Youth Inside and Outside the Stereotype

ABSTRACT Identity is considered a key factor in activist engagement. In this study, we examined the self-representations of a group of young activists through the lens of the ego-ecological approach, which emphasizes the interplay of representations, attitudes, and beliefs (including stereotypes) that circulate both within groups and in the broader sociocultural environment in identity formation. 46 young activists from a variety of fields (e.g. environmental, feminist, LGBTQ+, human rights, community-based groups) completed an abbreviated version of the Multistage Investigator of Social Identity (MISI). As expected from the ego-ecological perspective, a positive image emerged when activists were referred to as the ingroup, whereas the portrait was more nuanced when activists were referred to as the internal outgroup. The overall self-representation, with the “dynamic subject” as the prototype, was much more complex and articulated than the most common activist stereotypes; some stereotypical traits populated the internal space of identity, but served different functions and introduced conflicting elements. The findings of this qualitative study support the heuristic value of the interactional perspective in activist identity research and help bridge the gap between personal identity processes and collective/social identity.

Nation branding as a tool to attract foreign direct investments: a case study of Qatar

Nation branding plays a critical role in attracting foreign businesses and, by extension, sustaining countries’ economic development and global competitiveness. Using Qatar as a lens for investigation, this research applied the single, embedded case study method. Purposive sampling with key decision makers in Qatar-based foreign companies representing diverse geographies and industries were used to understand the influence of nation branding on their investment location decision. The findings revealed five key thematic features of Qatar’s nation brand as an investment destination: socioeconomic prosperity, integrated global hub, activist engagement, collectivist culture, and high-end lifestyle. These brand characteristics were compared in relation to the Eclectic Paradigm’s locational advantage and the Anholt Ipsos NBI’s dimensions of exports, governance, culture/heritage, people, tourism, and investment/immigration. The dimensions exerted a strong effect on Qatar’s nation brand and varying levels of influence on FDI attraction. This research contributes to the nexus between nation branding and the FDI literature. Importantly, the results of the study provide useful guidance to government officials, policymakers, and public and private agencies involved in investment promotion. The findings will also prove relevant to foreign investors with regard to their international expansion and location choice.

When small acts are multiplied: Assessing everyday social justice behaviors

Using the Act Frequency Approach, we drew on majority White, U.S. samples to create a new measure of social justice behavior and examine its correlates. Although existing measures of social justice behavior focus on engagement in collective action, participants in Study 1 (n = 137) were encouraged to nominate and evaluate a broad set of acts relevant to their daily lives. The final 17-item Everyday Social Justice Behavior (ESJB) scale reflects a range of global and domain-specific actions rated as prototypical by both 53 undergraduate novices and 20 social justice experts in Study 2. Participants in studies 3 (n = 388) and 4 (n = 613) were then asked to rate how frequently they perform the items. As expected, women and sexual minorities, and those with left political orientation, engaged in more everyday social justice behavior. Moreover, those reporting more everyday social justice behavior also scored higher in structural attributions of social change, intersectional awareness, ratings of the importance of and confidence in taking action, openness to experience, extraversion, and empathy, while being lower in social dominance orientation, system justification, and the need for cognitive closure. In addition, those high in ESJB also reported more progressive activist engagement and intentions. Relations with activism were modest, suggesting social justice activism and ESJB are somewhat distinct forms of social justice behavior. This measure should be of broader use in similar (majority White) samples; the measure development process can also be used to assess such behaviors in other samples and contexts.

The urban political ecology of the commons or commoning as a socio-natural process: The case of the Peri-Urban Gardening group in Thessaloniki

This paper casts the foundations for the development of an urban political ecology of the commons, drawing on the case of a guerrilla gardening initiative in Thessaloniki, Greece. In doing so, it draws on the literature of urban political ecology and its ontological and epistemological underpinnings and argues for a reconceptualisation of urban commoning as a socio-natural, productive process. Understanding commoning as inherently socio-natural, the product of discursive and material practices, opens new horizons for both academic research and activist engagement in efforts to imagine and build alternative urban futures. The commoning practices of the Peri-Urban Gardening Group of Karatassou, in Thessaloniki, serve as a heuristic case study for the development of a holistic methodological framework that uncovers the equal significance of discursive and material commoning practices and processes.

“We Need to Wake Our World up”: Collegiate Athletes’ Communicative Constitution of Activism

This study examines National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I athletes’ experiences engaging in activism through the lens of the communicative constitution of organizations. Specifically, we investigated the modalities and approaches collegiate athletes employ in their activism. Findings indicate that collegiate athletes gravitate toward online and offline channels, and fiscal, ideological, and organizational activities as modalities for their activist efforts. We also uncovered that collegiate athletes’ inclination to call-in versus call-out is characterized by their willingness to engage with the recipients of their cause-related messages. This inquiry demonstrates the discursive and material nature of collegiate athlete activism, highlighting the call-in approach, and provides direction for athletes and athletic institutions in this time of heightened activist engagement.

Ecopoetry

Traditionally, elegy moves from loss to consolation by framing death within larger regenerative cycles of nature. But in the current time of ecological disruption, nature as regeneration is no longer available, and this absence hinders the process of mourning, not allowing consolation. In parallel, the large scale of the environmental crisis creates a sense of futility of action. Both the inability to overcome mourning and the lack of will to act for environmental change create a permanent state of grief that Juliana Spahr, Joshua Clover and Allison Cobb term West Melancholia. How can ecopoetry overcome the process of mourning for lost ecosystems and species, and instead contribute to action? I propose that in contemporary North-American ecopoetry, consolation is given by poetic research in language and activist engagement. Spahr’s "Gentle Now, Don’t Add to Heartache" (2011) and Misanthropocene: 24 Theses (2014), co-authored with Clover, tie grief to the failure of inherited models of representing nature and instead suggest consolation in ecopoetry as activist practice. Cobb’s After We All Died (2016) grounds consolation in a practice of starting from failure to researching language for modes of overcoming grief. I discuss these works to uncover the poets’ proposals of overcoming melancholia through exploration of language and engaged activist writing.

Grassroots scaling up: Navigating algorithmic scales in a technopolitical landscape

Abstract My theoretical aim in this article is to focus on an examination of processual enactments of scale in light of the technological affordances that are currently at the disposal of a significant majority of humans. I offer the terms algorithmic scales and algorithmic scalar affordances to describe one activist's engagement of practical theories of scale—her ‘algorithmic imagination’ (Bucher 2017)—which led her to design her audience in ways intended to algorithmically scale up, or amplify, her activities on Facebook—to enhance their spread numerically, rapidly, and translocally, making use of the algorithmically constructed communicative possibilities or affordances available to her on the site. (Social media, scale, algorithms, audience design, Facebook, activism, nation, politics)

Dilemmas of anthropological activism, solidarity, and human rights: Lessons from Haiti

AbstractBuilding on a growing anthropological engagement with and interrogation of the multiple forms and meanings of activism, this article—based on over 20 years of activist engagement and ethnographic interviews spanning 11 years—offers ethnographically grounded understandings of solidarity activism. The rich and at times messy (auto)ethnographic data suggest that contradictions inherent to liberal humanism can increase hierarchies and social distance between groups across national boundaries. Further, new social media technologies notwithstanding, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) remain hegemonic vehicles for this transnational exchange. The experience in Haiti, dubbed the “Republic of NGOs,” highlights contradictions within solidarity activism, generating a useful set of questions for other activist anthropologists and solidarity activists who work elsewhere. Moving beyond the discussion of what anthropology brings to activism, or the reverse, this article offers insights from ethnographic analyses of NGOs, or NGOgraphy, to critically understand and assess anthropological activism. Specifically, building off insights of “NGOing” as a verb, this article interrogates the (micro)politics, structures, and consequences of intervention. Further, international solidarity activism often operates on logics of projects and deliverables, and therefore NGOing can eclipse other “metrics,” disrupting and dividing local communities. Like NGOs, anthropologists function within a hierarchical transnational political economy and division of labor. [activist anthropology, Haiti, NGOs, solidarity, autoethnography]

Can the market identify prosperous activist engagements? Evidence from announcement and long-term buy-and-hold returns

We document a discrepancy between abnormal announcement returns (CAARs) and two-year buy-and-hold abnormal returns (BHARs) of activist engagements. Activist targets that earn the highest two-year BHARs yield, on average, only marginally higher CAARs than the other targets. This indicates that financial markets have difficulties to consistently distinguish between long-term top-performing engagements and other engagements at the announcement of an engagement. Even the best activists frequently suffer low or negative two-year BHARs. Long-term top-performing targets have significantly different firm characteristics than the other targets, which may help to increase the probability of selecting future top performing engagements. However, activists do not solely engage in such targets. We conclude that the long-term performance of target firms seems to be driven by a combination of target firm characteristics, investor skills, and potentially some luck, but provides only limited follow-on investment strategies for outside investors.

The construction of family memory through activist engagement: The case of relatives of the disappeared in Spain

Since the early 2000s, Spain has been shaken by mobilizations of “victims of Francoism,” promoting the memory of past violence. In this article, instead of apprehending such mobilizations as a sudden public display of private accounts, as is often stated, I contend that the “memory of Franco’s repression” is rather produced and constructed by the dynamics of mobilization. In order to demonstrate this, I analyze the process that led Spanish citizens to engage in defending the memory of the victims of Francoism, with a particular focus on the commitment of the relatives of the “disappeared.” While one might assume that these actors were the bearers of pre-existing family memory, they were content to disseminate in the public space on the occasion of their commitment; I argue quite the contrary: it is the experiences lived during the specific time of mobilization (social interactions, expert socializations, memorial activities) that have forged their status as relatives of the disappeared while profoundly reconfiguring their family memory.

Impact of public demands on the performance of hedge fund activist engagements

Hedge fund activists raise public demands around engagement announcements for a quarter of their engagements. I analyze the short- and long-term effects of public demands on the performance of target firms using an international dataset of 1670 activist engagements across 35 countries between 2008 and 2019. For the global sample, I estimate significantly higher announcement returns for engagements with public demands than for those without public demands. At the regional level, differences in announcement returns between such engagements are significant only in North America, and not in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. I find no evidence of a significant long-term outperformance of engagements with public demands in general and for engagements with successfully enforced public demands, compared to the remaining engagements for all regions. My findings indicate that activists have started to target firms with different characteristics than previously, which may help to explain the non-existent long-term outperformance of engagements with public demands.

TRANS FEMINISTIČKE KOALICIJE NA POSTJUGOSLOVENSKOM PROSTORU: KA FEMINISTIČKOJ RADIKALNOJ SOLIDARNOSTI

The conflict between trans-inclusive and trans-exclusionary radical feminists (TERFs) has recently erupted in the post-Yugoslav space, adding to the urgency of embracing trans-feminism. In order to forge the ground for such feminist orientation, this paper interweaves two theoretical reflections: the subject of feminism, and the historical lesbian experience of becoming ‘included’ with/in it. Beginning with the idea that, similarly to trans, it also took time and effort for lesbianity (see discussion on this concept in the article) to be recognised as a ‘legitimate’ subject of feminist emancipation, I extend Wittig’s negation of lesbian womanhood to trans women. With this in mind, I argue that feminist radical solidarity requires an open-ended, liminal conception of gender. I then draw upon nine interviews with seven cis-gender, one non-binary, and one genderqueer lesbian activist from the post-Yugoslav space to explore the ways in which they endeavoured to bring about feminist radical solidarity in their activist engagement. I conclude that solidarity, rather than normative inclusion that we, lesbians, fought for as feminists, should eventually be put at the service of trans-feminism. In this manner, trans-feminism can become an integral part of women studies, trans women can be recognised as subjects of feminism, and trans persons embraced as our political and personal allies. Keywords: feminism, lesbian activism, solidarity, TERF, post-Yugoslav space

Does the Advent of Federal Democracy and Madheshi Movement Significantly Successful to alter the Lives of Madheshi Dalit ? (A Study of Inaruwa Municipality, Sunsari District)

The Madheshi Dalits of Nepal fall below the national average for human development. They are also denied from basic human rights. In this article, researcher has examined the socio economic situation of Madheshi Dalits of eastern Tarai after Madesh movement and the country of Nepal attained Federal Democracy. The study is founded on a design for qualitative and quantitative research. It is conducted in Inarwa Municipality ward no 9 and sample of Dalit people, Dom, Khatwe, Paswan, Mushahar, and Chamar people is used. Interview schedule, observation, and case study methods have been used in the process of data collection. Data descriptively evaluated and has presented using basic statistical methods. The study has reached in conclusion that social and economic exclusion, inequality, and caste-based discrimination, illiteracy are equally significant contributors to the underdevelopment and poverty in the Madheshi Dalit community. The Madheshi caste-based Hindu hierarchical culture and prejudice are also significant among them. According to the study, the advent of federal democracy and Madhesh movement in Nepal did not significantly alter the lives of the Dalit community. Still prevalent are societal injustices like poverty, unemployment, discrimination, and violence. Increased in political engagement of Dalit activists have all had a significant impact on the study area's Dalit population. They know very little about Dalit's political rights and freedoms, as well as Dalit representation in local government. They have started to speak out about equal representation of man and women in local government and against many forms of social prejudice and violence both within and outside the group.

On Being the ‘Fat Person’: Possibilities and Pitfalls for Fat Activist Engagement in Academic Institutions

This article addresses the possibilities and pitfalls for fat activist engagement in academic institutions through the framework of the ‘fat person.’ Drawing from Emily Henderson’s (2019) ‘gender person’ in academia framework, we connect our own experiences as fat studies scholars, teachers, and activists with the experiences of other scholars in our field to construct a framework of understanding the role of the fat studies expert, or the ‘fat person,’ in the academy. The raw material for this article was written over the course of two extended online chat sessions between the authors, which took place during the summer of 2020. Our conversations were seeded by our prior histories as fat people and fat academics, and by our pre-existing collaborations: as supervisor and graduate student, co-researchers, and through teaching together in a fat studies course. Throughout this article we draw on scholars in our field who have explored their experiences as fat academics, fat researchers, fat students, and fat teachers. We argue that this framework is a useful step in furthering understanding of what it means to be positioned as the ‘fat person’ within an academic institution. We are embedded in the strength of our communal and embodied experiences, and at the same time, we are also aware of the potential ethical challenges of working from a place that is firmly grounded in community knowledge. Our hope is that other scholars, particularly fat studies scholars, will build from the framework we are suggesting here to further understandings of how the ‘fat person’ is constructed—and resisted—within the academy

Mapping and Cross-mapping the Hi:story of Performance Art in Switzerland through Collective Research for Deviant Understandings

The essay examines the project ‘revolving Hi:stories. Narrations of Performance Art in Switzerland’, a research endeavor consisting of an exhibition and a research conference in 2022. The goal of the project is to re-write the hi:story of Performance Art in Switzerland from its beginnings until today in a collective way. A crucial strategy for this oral history based research, is the participatory mapping process, where the recordings of oral history are also indexed in diagrammatic forms. First, the project “Revolving Hi:stories” is described and contextualized in the framework of recent discourses on curatorial and activist engagement by scholars like Maura Reilly or Marina Vishmidt. In a second step, the mapping and diagrammatic activities of the project based on Lepecki’s theory of choreopolitics and Elisabeth Bronfen’s concept of crossmapping are thoroughly analyzed. Finally, for the first time, a description of important groups and sites for the activist performance scene in Zurich is given, based on numerous interviews and the mapping sessions in 2021 - which the authors realized together with Chris Regn, Andrea Saemann, Clemens Fellmann and Tancredi Gusman.

Governing Through Ignorance: Swedish Authorities’ Treatment of Detained and Non-deported Migrants during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Tensions between migration enforcement and migrants’ health and rights have gained renewed urgency during the COVID-19 pandemic. This article critically analyses how the pandemic has affected detained and deportable people in Sweden. Building on an activist methodological approach and collaboration, based on a survey conducted inside Swedish detention centres during the pandemic and the authors’ research and activist engagement with migrants who are detained or legally stranded in Sweden, we argue that migration authorities’ inadequate measures to protect detained and deportable people during the pandemic is a case of governance through ignorance enabled by structural racism. The article traces how this ignorance operates on a structural, institutional and micro-level, enabling public disregard and political irresponsibility for the harmful effects of migration enforcement. A broader aim of the article is to challenge the structural, societal and epistemic ignorance of the conditions for detained and deportable persons and to contribute to political change.