Spaces Of Action Research Articles

Spaces of Labor Activism, Mexican-American Women and the Farm Worker Movement in South Texas Since 1966

This paper studies the farm worker unionization experience and the historical development of Mexican-American women's activism in South Texas to elaborate more precisely the relationship among socio-spatial practices, political activism and labor's geography. Drawing upon archival documents and interviews, the paper describes how Mexican-American farm workers used public space for political activity; however, radical unionization efforts also domesticized other spaces for women's activities. The paper chronicles how Mexican-American women in South Texas transformed the farm worker center from a “domesticated space” into one of empowerment. In short, women in the union made the farm worker center into a space that challenged both the class-based structure of larger South Texas society and masculinist practices within the larger farm worker movement. The analysis advances the imperative to better understand how workers “make space” to ensure their own survival. The paper advances the study of labor geography by arguing that working class mobilization reconstitutes dynamic social geographies within laboring communities themselves. In arguing this point, the paper illustrates the limitations of activism based solely on the use of public space and argues for more attention to the significance of other socio-political spaces for labor mobilization.

The State and the City: 1988 and the Transformation of Rangoon

modern Southeast and East Asia, cities are most often initial point of impact between forces of state and society. Rangoon (Yangon) , capital of Union of Burma (Myanmar) and its largest city, is a place with many coexisting and conflicting identities. As such, it offers a subject of study with rich opportunities for understanding interaction between military regime and Burmese society in period since State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) junta seized power in September 1988. Although in terms of design modern city (especially Central Business District and townships lying between it and Inya Lake) was creation of British colonial rule, it was not simply a colonial metropolis, like Jakarta (Batavia), Manila or Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). Rather, Shwe Dagon Pagoda, where relics of Historical Buddha and three earlier Buddhas are said to be interred, gives city status as a ritual and devotional centre, a place with cosmological as well as political, administrative and economic significance. Rangoon was also site of independence movements during British colonial period that vested it with a tradition of revolutionary nationalism, a durable legacy that post-1988 military regime has found difficult to neutralize. The massive popular demonstrations of 1988, which caused collapse of Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP) regime of General Ne Win, came exactly half a century after demonstrations of 1938-39 against British, led by students, nationalist Thakin Party, and politicized workers (the so-called 1300 Revolution, since that was Burmese Era year in which movement took place). During both periods, Shwe Dagon functioned not only as a Buddhist holy site, but also as a public space for political activism. University students established strike centres around Shwe Dagon during colonial period. Aung San Suu Kyi, independence leader Aung San's daughter, made an important speech on west slope of pagoda hill on 26 August 1988, in which she described upheavals of that year as the second struggle for national independence.1

Transnational Publics: New Spaces of Social Movement Activism and the Problem of Global Long-Sightedness

The article proposes the concept of transnational publics as a way of overcoming problems of global long-sightedness and stimulating sociological research able to operate on various spatial levels. By contrast, the concept of global civil society is so inclusive as to be almost analytically useless; it gives the mistaken impression that social action is becoming detached from the local and the national. It is theoretically flawed to speak of a global civil society in absence of a global state. To overcome this global long-sightedness we should speak of a plurality of transnational publics rather than a single global civil society. This forces us to identify the social spaces that individuals and social movements construct. We discover two things: transnational publics are not detached from physical space, but imply a transformation of space, combining the local, the national and the transnational in a new way; second, transnational publics are mediated, but also rooted in real people and places.

Building an Electronic Repertoire of Contention

This short paper examines the way in which the electronic repertoire of contention for online social movements is being built, and the means by which it will continue to evolve. Drawing on the work of Tilly and Tarrow, a number of possible explanations are examined for innovation within the online activist space, and for the diffusion of that innovation. Analysis suggests that several of the current approaches to understanding repertoire innovation are useful in describing the developing online repertoire. A hybrid model is proposed, integrating several of these approaches to provide a holistic description of electronic repertoire innovation and diffusion.

The Poetics of Politics: "Theirs" and "Ours"

Events of political communication define issues and create spaces of action that position people with respect to them. How? Political talk is not effective in these ways just because it describes the world--as it is or as it might be. In various ways, effective talk in political events forms a diagrammatic microcosm of its targeted field of action, linking events of political process in which it thrives with varying degrees of compelling effectiveness. Political talk of the "factional" politics of Indo-Fijians draws on principles we can see--and discerning participants can hear!--as well in our own agonistic electoral politics of recognition.

Rights of Foreign Domestic Workers — Emergence of Transnational and Transregional Solidarity?

This paper explores the notion of an emerging transnational or transregional labor solidarity of foreign workers across the Southeast and East Asian region as well as Europe by investigating migration as an instrument of political transformation through the concept of transnationalism. The issue of solidarity is analyzed through the lens of non-governmental activism as represented by trade union and NGOs, two types of organizations with different strengths and weaknesses. The political organization of migrant is rendered difficult because of the nature of their jobs, organizational ‘culture'or tradition, and political space for activism. Among migrant workers, the challenge is greatest for foreign domestic workers, who have been described as particularly “unorganizable.” Reflecting the cross-border nature of labor migration, political action to address abusive and discriminatory treatment is also becoming increasingly transnational. Thus far, transnational advocacy networks have been mainly intraregional with little or no engagement by trade unions. But some linkages have begun to be formed across regions, such as between Asia and Europe, and there are signs of trade unions getting more involved. In this sense, feminized migration from below has begun to contribute to ‘democratization’ from below.

Video Game Internal Turfs and Turfs of Play

Video Game Internal Turfs and Turfs of Play

Transforming Schools of Social Work into Spaces of Social Action: A Critical Exploration of Project Interaction, the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Two-Spirit Initiative of McGill University's School of Social Work

This article examines the question of how universities can be encouraged to address the mental health concerns of GLBT-SQ people and communities from a perspective of solidarity. In so doing, the authors take a case study approach, using Project Interaction: The Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Two-Spirit Initiative of McGill University's School of Social Work, to critically reflect upon the challenges arising from the development of an alternative organization within academia. The purpose of this reflection is to highlight how normal operations at work on university campuses, and within health and allied health curriculum, can be disrupted with the goal of providing momentum for the creation of affirmative space, the advancement of educational initiatives, and the building of opportunities for social change.

Common ground or mutual exclusion?: women's movements and international relations

* 1 Introduction: Common Ground or Mutual Exclusion? Women's Movements in International Relations - Marianne Braig, Sonja Wolte * Part 1: Feminist political and theoretical practice - Between subversive transformation and appendix to patriarchal structures * 2. Women in International Relations: What Impact on the Discipline? - Marysia Zalewski * 3. Impact of the Global Women's Movement on International Relations - Has it Happened? What Has Happened? - Nighat Said Khan * 4. Accommodation or Transformation? Women's Movements and International Relations -Some remarks on Marysia Zalewski's and Nighat Said Khan's Contributions - Christa Wichterich * Part 2. Developing the Mainstream or Mainstreaming Women into Development? * 5. Mainstreaming Gender - a Critical Revision - Claudia v. Braunmuhl * 6. Reclaiming the Empowerment Discourse: A Challenge to Feminists - Carolyn Medel-Anonuevo * 7. Women's Interest in Social Policy - Rhetorics and Realities of Social Investment Funds - Renate Rott * Part 3. Instrumental silence? Women and Gender in conflict management theory and practice * 8. Engendering the Field of Conflict Management? Why Gender Does Not Matter! Thoughts from a Theoretical Perspective - Cordula Reimann * 9. Making a Difference? The Inclusion of Gender into Institutional Conflict Management Policies - Donna Pankhurst * 10. War in Empty Rooms and the Sudanese Women's Union - Fatima Ahmed Ibrahim * Part 4. Women's Human Rights - New Spaces for Women's Activism? * 11. Global Women's Politics: Towards the Globalizing of Women's Human Rights? - Uta Ruppert. * 12. Economic and Social Rights of Women - A West African Perspective - Akua Kuenyehia * 13. Claiming Rights and Contesting Spaces: Women's Movements and the International Women's Human Rights Discourse in Africa - Sonja Wolte * Part 5. Feminist Intrusions into the Discipline of International Relations ? - Perspectives from the Mainstream * 14. Difference and Dialogue in Development - Lothar Brock * 15. Feminism and Mainstream International Relations Theory - Harald Muller * 16. Feminism, Human Rights, and International Relations - Gert Krell

Ordres socio-économiques et polarisation de la recherche dans l'agriculture : pour une critique des rapports science/société

What if farming were the exemplar of a knowledge-based society? Due to their many, ambivalent effects, research and innovation in agronomy lie at the center of trends now shaping the world of agriculture. To present this history, the types of pairing are examined between, on the one hand, processes for producing scientific knowledge and techniques and, on the other, contingent forms for organizing collective action. For this purpose, the notion of a “socioeconomic order” is introduced to account for the multiplication of collective spaces of action based on specific systems of norms and cooperation. Studying these pairings brings to light three “models of polarization of research” in France (the Colbertist model, academic polarization, and fragmented polarization), which have changed over the past fifty years. Accordingly, agriculture's recent history is interpreted as the joint transformation of socioeconomic orders and these modes of polarization. – Special issue on Agriculture and food.

Spaces of protest: gendered migration, social networks, and labor activism in West Java, Indonesia

Abstract This article examines the gender geography of labor activism through a comparative investigation of two communities in West Java, Indonesia. Based on in-depth interviews and a survey of workers carried out in 1995, 1998, and 2000 in the two sites, it explores the place-specific meanings attached to migrants’ social networks and gender relations, and their roles in mediating the gendered patterns of labor protest in the two villages. Previous analyses of labor protest in Indonesia have occluded scales and processes that are critical to understanding how gender dynamics are linked to the geography of protest. By contrast, attention to the gender- and place-based contexts of women’s activism illustrates the complex interactions between migrants’ local interpretations of gender norms, social network relations, household roles, state gender ideology, and global neo-liberal restructuring. Through examining these interactions, gender is conceptualized as ontologically inseparable from the production of specific activist spaces, rethinking the uni-directional spatial logic and deterministic views of gender and place put forth in theories of the New International Division of Labor.

Aide d'urgence et notions locales d'équité: Analyse d'un programme d'aide nutritionnelle comme une interface sociale

ABSTRACT In order to better understand the dynamics involved in emergency food aid programs, this paper analyzes the case of Kinshasa (1992–1995). The interaction between local health personnel engaged in the programme and the—potential, legitimate, and unintended—beneficiaries of the aid is central to this paper. The classical concepts of moral hazard and adverse selection, often cited in the current literature on target poverty programs, only partly capture the reality of the situation on the ground. An intervention such as a food aid program should be judged on its capacity to open up spaces of action and negotiation to actors who traditionally occupy only marginal places in them.

Gender Geographies of Activism: Motherhood, Migration, and Labour Protest in West Java, Indonesia

This article contributes to the literature on the geography of unionism through an examination of the processes shaping women's labour activism in Indonesia. Based on in-depth interviews and survey data, the study is a comparative investigation of two villages in West Java. The research investigates both the factors that women factory workers consider when deciding whether to participate in labour protests, as well as the gender-specific pressures on women to refrain from participating in labour activism in the two villages. The study explores the ways in which ideologies of motherhood and femininity operate differently in the two communities and within groups of women with different migration and marital statuses. In sum, the article contends that in order to develop a more complete analysis of the geographies of labour activism, research must take seriously the specificity of community-scale negotiations over gender norms and expectations, and address women's active roles in the on-going production of gender relations and spaces of activism.

Guest Editor's Introduction: Historians and Histories of the Horn of Africa: Toward a Comparative View

Guest Editor's Introduction:Historians and Histories of the Horn of Africa: Toward a Comparative View Federica Guazzini For we can get some idea of a whole from a part, but never knowledge or exact opinion. Special histories therefore contribute very little to the knowledge of the whole and conviction of its truth. It is only indeed by study of the interconnection of all the particulars, their resemblances and differences, that we are enabled at least to make a general survey, and thus derive both benefit and pleasure from history. Polybius, The Histories Although much has been written on the history and culture of the Horn of Africa, one of the most contentious, controversial, and important questions regarding the contemporary history of Africa still remains: what is the matter with the Horn? Examining cutting-edge issues in the ongoing redrawing of the political map of the Horn of Africa, the organizing committee of the international conference titled "The Horn of Africa between History, Law, and Politics" set as its goal the presentation of a rich and stimulating range of papers exploring the historical and contemporary meanings of the major changes the region has undergone. The articles in the present issue of Northeast African Studies are derived from papers presented at this conference. [End Page 1] The primary objective of the organizing committee was to examine the Horn of Africa's postindependence struggle to build transparent, accountable, and participatory governance structures, in order to predict scenarios of conflict resolution, new bases of cooperation, and modes and models of reconstruction of the legal and juridical systems in the region. Indeed, as Bereket Habte Selassie aptly underlined, the conference was "a bold and imaginative exercise in optimism" or, at least, a challenge to participants to adopt an international comparative perspective, which is of interest above all for its discussion of the major changes that have taken place since the imposition of European colonial rule on the Horn. Both African-born scholars and other experts were encouraged to attend the conference. The audience took an active part, and indeed the number of international scholars from different fields within the humanities and social sciences who participated in panel discussions reflects the lively interest resulting from the broad guidelines provided for the conference. Unfortunately, it has not been possible to publish in the present volume all the papers that were discussed. This edited collection confirms the insights of both mature and younger scholars, successfully demonstrating that the peoples of the Horn are much more complexly embedded in, and reflective of, interacting social and political processes than was understood by previous generations of scholars. Whereas historians and ethnologists of past decades tended to address each people separately, the panelists highlight the important interrelationships between groups. Each author tackles this interpretative challenge, providing different approaches, with thematic essays that strike a successful balance between political and social history. The Horn of Africa is thus increasingly treated as a cohesive area of study. The historical and social links between most of its constituent countries have always been strong. In part, this has been because of its colonial past, with Eritrea and Somalia among the Italian colonial possessions, Djibouti under French control, and Somaliland administered by Great Britain. Moreover, today these countries share a common destiny, in which the emerging political contours do not arouse much hope for the enhancement of international cooperation for peace and prosperity, for the rule of law and justice, for the gaining of support for [End Page 2] poverty alleviation. Thus, stabilizing the assessment of the past becomes a critical first step in reversing these expectations. The reader of this collection can particularly appreciate the collaboration of colleagues in their efforts to deal with political, anthropological, social, and legal questions, and in the fresh look they take at the way peoples, symbols, and ideas straddle the various regions of the Horn and at the clashes between these things in these regions. Common research questions raised during the conference focused on the institutional and cognitive structures resulting from such interactions. Among the topics included were the historical and current processes of construction of spaces of action and communication, as well as the processes of conflict and...

Women Workers and the Promise of Ethical Trade in the Globalised Garment Industry: A Serious Beginning?

The paper gives an overview of the recent development within the Ethical Trade Initiative (ETI), especially the development of corporate codes of conduct, and considers the prospects they offer for improving labour conditions for workers in the international garments industry. It argues that two specific features of the industry—competitive production systems based on international subcontracting and the use of predominantly female production workers—are likely to undermine the effective development of a codes‐based strategy. Nevertheless, the labour rights agenda at the centre of ETI does provide a space for labour activists, whether operating in or out of formal union structures, to build campaigns and connections around global production networks.

Networks of engagement: electronic communication and grassroots environmental activism in kaliningrad

This paper contributes to a discussion on networks as political spaces by examining the work of an environmental activist group in Kaliningrad, Russia. Drawing from geographic work on communication and from literature on organizational structure and communication technology provides a useful means of understanding and conceptualizing computer networks from a social science perspective. The case study of grassroots activism illustrates how computer‐based communication may support a unique space of political activity. Electronic mail (e‐mail) communication can be a channel through which activists may overcome the constraints of location as an information container in order to create spaces of interaction and action appropriate to their political agenda. This case study is an example where organization members use e‐mail communication to connect their activities, information sources and collaborative partners at different scales to create a viable space for environmental activism and information distribution within a shifting political context.

Icons and Militants: Mothering in the Danger Zone

L'A. etudie la situation des femmes et plus particulierement des meres dans les zones de conflit. Elle s'efforce de comprendre la nature du lien entre maternite, nationalisme et conflit. Elle analyse le role du sexe dans les situations de guerre, la vie dans les regions situees sur la zone de front au Liban et la signification et les pratiques en matiere de maternite chez les femmes palestiniennes. Elle retrace les grandes etapes du conflit qui a ensanglante le Liban entre 1968 et 1982 ; evoque la situation des femmes au cours de «la guerre des pierres», l'intifada et souligne que celles-ci sont presentees d'une maniere symbolique, «iconique» au sein des discours politiques palestiniens. Elle s'interroge quant au statut social des meres, quant a la signification de leur appartenance sociale dans le cadre de ces discours

Publicity, Privacy, and Women's Political Action

Interpretations of women's activism depend on the ways in which analysts conceptualize the relations between privacy, publicity, and politics, in this paper the relationship between women's standing in the public sphere and their activism is problematized. Women's activism is shaped by strategic, and sometimes opportunistic, choices to locate their activism either in public or in private spaces. These choices point to the importance of reconceptualizing publicity and privacy in ways that separate the content of actions from the spaces in which action is taken. Such a distinction creates the possibility of taking private actions into public spaces and of taking public actions in private spaces. When the content of action is separated from the spaces of action, women's activism is evaluated in terms of the efficacy of various actions in either public or private spaces, rather than in terms of women's presumed lack of access to the public sphere.

Money, the Mountain, and State Power in a Naxi Village

This a study of daily life in Yulong, a Naxi village, and the nearby market town of Lijiang in northern Yunnan Province.' It is also a response to recent calls to put time and space at the center of social analysis (Giddens, 1984; Harvey, 1989). It concentrates on space, taking its production and manipulation in Lijiang county as fundamental to the daily experience of such varied phenomena as money, reciprocity, the power of the state, and the news of rebellion. Social analysts who understand it as more than merely the environment of social action have generally followed one of two approaches to space. One approach identifies conceptual orders, cosmologies or ideologies embodied in space. Anthropologists often attempt to demonstrate that conceptual orders are built on skeletons of spatial metaphors and that these metaphors are embedded in the spaces of ritual action or daily life. For instance, basic attributes of the cosmos are represented in the architecture of shrines or churches (Middleton, 1960; Gossen, 1972), the structure of houses (Cunningham, 1972; McKhann, 1989), or the topography of mountains (Nash, 1979). The body is understood in terms of analogies to houses (Daniel, 1984) or