Activist Engagement Research Articles

Timescapes of activism: Trajectories, encounters and timings of Czech women’s NGOs

Despite ongoing feminist debates about the past, present and future of feminism, the multidimensionality of time in activist work has largely remained under-examined. This article develops the partial timeframes of trajectories, encounters and timings to explore the practices of women organizing in Czech NGOs after 1989. Empirically the study draws on individual and group interviews conducted with NGO activists in 2003/2004 and 2009/2010 as well as organizational websites. The article argues that a timescape perspective provides a useful heuristic lens for tracing trajectories of organizing shaped by different funding mechanisms; activist encounters that open up social and political alternatives of acting and being; and the effects of timing activist engagements with the lifetimes of activists. The conclusion reflects on the implications of an investigation through time for reconfiguring pervasive deficit accounts of NGO-based activism and its futures.

Critical thinking: seven definitions in search of a concept

The article reports a study that investigated ideas about critical thinking as held by academics working in three disciplines: history, philosophy and cultural studies. At least seven definitional strands were identified in the informants’ commentaries, namely critical thinking: (i) as judgement; (ii) as skepticism; (iii) as a simple originality; (iv) as sensitive readings; (v) as rationality; (vi) as an activist engagement with knowledge; and (vii) as self-reflexivity. This multiplicity of meanings is thought to have important implications for university teaching and learning. The design of the study and the conclusions drawn from it draw heavily on Wittgenstein's idea of meaning as use.

The changing nature of activist engagement within the Conservative Party: A review of Susan Scarrow’s task-orientated approach to party membership

Scarrow highlighted two questions concerning party members: The level of engagement required and the extent to which this occurred within formal party structures. She proposed a task – rather than a people-orientated interpretation. Her framework is applied here to the British Conservative Party. A qualitative research design was adopted, which focused on the views and behaviour of local activists. This permitted an understanding of how the party organisation actually functioned. The findings revealed notable deficiencies in activity levels, member skills, member attitudes towards performance improvement and local managerial capacity. This meant reduced fitness for purpose. Hence, a shrinking of activists’ responsibilities and a simplification of their role has occurred, thereby changing the nature of engagement, but equally modifying the nature of political voluntarism. Increasing emphasis is being placed upon developing networks of supporters, with the implication that there has been a movement towards the American model of party organisation, but with the continuation of membership parties in a looser form. As such, the findings also reveal how the party is managing its declining membership organisation. Overall, Scarrow’s task-orientated approach was found to be apposite for the purpose of measuring local activist engagement.

The costs of shareholder activism: Evidence from a sequential decision model

This paper provides benchmarks for monitoring costs and evaluates the net returns to shareholder activism. I model activism as a sequential decision process consisting of demand negotiations, board representation, and proxy contest and estimate the costs of each activism stage. A campaign ending in a proxy fight has average costs of $10.71 million. I find that the estimated monitoring costs reduce activist returns by more than two-thirds. The mean net activist return is close to zero but the top quartile of activists earns higher returns on their activist holdings than on their non-activist investments. The large-sample evidence presented in this paper aids in understanding the nature and evolution of activist engagements.

Examining the ‘demand’ side of the market for political activism

This article examines the ‘demand’ side of the market for political activism and analyses the extent to which grassroots activists of political parties and politically oriented civil society organizations (CSOs) resemble or differ. With data from several surveys of CSO and Green party activists in Spain we evaluate how much the pool of members from all these organizations are part of what can be identified as a single market of activists. After describing the socio-economic, political socialization and recruitment backgrounds, as well as the internal and external engagement of activists, we conclude that – while sharing some common features – activists of CSOs and Green parties are less alike than frequently assumed and that the analogy of a single market of political activism may be more misleading than helpful in our understanding of the challenges that parties face to counteract declining membership trends.

The Costs of Shareholder Activism: Evidence from a Sequential Decision Model

This paper provides benchmarks for monitoring costs and evaluates the net returns to shareholder activism. I model activism as a sequential decision process consisting of demand negotiations, board representation, and proxy contest and estimate the costs of each activism stage. A campaign ending in a proxy fight has average costs of $10.71 million. I find that the estimated monitoring costs reduce activist returns by more than two-thirds. The mean net activist return is close to zero but the top quartile of activists earns higher returns on their activist holdings than on their non-activist investments. The large-sample evidence presented in this paper aids in understanding the nature and evolution of activist engagements.

Queering the Public Sphere in Mexico and Brazil: Sexual Rights Movements in Emerging Democracies. By Rafael de la Dehesa. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2010. 320p. $84.95 cloth, $23.95 paper.

Rafael de la Dehesa has written an empirically rich and analytically nuanced book that explores the rise and development of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) activist engagements with the state in Brazil and Mexico. The two cases are ideal for comparative analysis: Movements in both countries emerged under semiauthoritarian regimes and operated as their countries transitioned to democracy, but the paths they took show striking differences, allowing de la Dehesa to argue forcefully for the importance of the local and the contingent as activists navigate the national and transnational fields in which they are embedded. As the concept of embeddedness warrants, even while pointing toward the importance of the particular and the agentic, de la Dehesa carefully shows as well how constrained, and enabled, activists were by the multiple fields in which they operated. Queering the Public Sphere in Mexico and Brazil, then, successfully charts an analytical course that recognizes the powerful but nontotalizing nature of institutions, economic forces, and discourses.

Pir Sultan Abdal: Encounters with Persona in Alevi Lyric Song

Pir Sultan Abdal:Encounters with Persona in Alevi Lyric Song Paul Koerbin (bio) Encounters in Text In his 1997 Nobel Prize lecture, Contra jogulatores obliquentes, Italian dramatist Dario Fo makes an oblique reference to a famous medieval Ottoman "jester." 1 The "jester" is not mentioned by name but rather in the context of the murder of 35 artists and writers in July 1993 when religious bigots set alight the Madımak Hotel in the eastern Turkish city of Sivas. 2 Those killed were there to participate in the Pir Sultan Abdal etkinlikleri (festivities). 3 The "jester" Fo refers to is the eponymous identity in whose memory the festival is held, the Alevi dervish, poet, rebel, and martyr Pir Sultan Abdal. Fo's reference to the Sivas massacre was a significant statement about this incident in an international forum; but it also demonstrates the misunderstanding of the persona of Pir Sultan Abdal when refracted through time, language, and the chasm that beckons when peering askance into the opaqueness of an esoteric culture. Pir Sultan Abdal's persona, as perceived and expressed by contemporary intellectuals and artists, was fundamental to the Sivas events, 4 but Fo's commendable reference gives no sense of this potent and complex persona. Indeed it even distorts and trivializes it. Pir Sultan Abdal dominates the Turkish Alevi-Bektaşi oral lyric tradition in his influence through text and persona and is counted as one of the seven great bards, the yedi ulu ozan, of Alevi-Bektaşi ritual tradition. 5 His deyiş, 6 along with those of Yunus Emre and Karacaoğlan, 7 are commonly regarded as the epitome of the genre and together form the most significant and influential canon of Turkish folk literature. While Yunus is the universal mystic, even humanist (Halman 1972) and Karacaoğlan the incorrigible wandering lover, Pir Sultan Abdal presents a complex persona encompassing the mystical expression of sixteenth-century 8 antinomianism together with a personal story of integrity and betrayal. This faceted persona has provided, in the texts attributed to him and identified as such by the self-naming device (mahlas), the substance for the production of interpretative works and discourse, especially in recent decades. The significance of the figure of Pir Sultan Abdal can be understood from the number of deyiş attributed to him and, perhaps more importantly, from the influence that both his lyrical works and his persona maintain over Alevi-Bektaşi ritual and, especially, social and political culture from his home and heartland in Anatolia to the Balkans and beyond to the modern Alevi disapora in Europe and elsewhere. No other poet has quite the reach or engenders the continued engagement of scholars, writers, musicians, and social and cultural activists as does Pir Sultan Abdal. This profile makes him a figure of interest and fascination. The persona of Pir Sultan Abdal might be understood as perceived through a prism: from one perspective there is a focused, iconic persona; from other perspectives we may view the refracted strands of illumination that serve to build that persona. Such strands encompass the legendary personal story of steadfastness, betrayal, and martydom; the elusive historical identity; the historic milieu from which he emerged (being the formative period for modern Alevi-ism); the transmission and development over time of a large body of deyiş and of a poetic identity through the use of the self-naming convention (mahlas); and the appropriation of the persona for the service of identity politics and artistic creativity in modern times. Pir Sultan Abdal emerged from the esoteric and guarded community of Alevi ritual and culture into a wider public scrutiny shortly after the establishment of the Turkish Republic in 1923. 9 Besim Atalay included a number of texts among the nefes 10 published in his 1924 book Bektaşilik ve edebiyat (Atalay 1991), the earliest work on Alevi-Bektaşi-s published in republican Turkey. In 1928 Mehmet Fuad Köprülü published a short "life" of Pir Sultan Abdal in Hayat mecmuası (Köprülü 1991), followed in 1929 by Sadettin Nüzhet's publication of the first substantial collection of poems (Ergun 1929). The fact that such a collection 11 could be put together...

The Rise of Islamic Feminism in Kuwait

The paper examines the emergence of Islamic Feminism in Kuwait, based on the writings and personal accounts of leading Islamist women activists. It begins with an analysis of the socio-political factors that led to the creation of Islamic groups in the 1980s. It then outlines the role of women in the growth of the Islamic movement and shows how the contradictions between women’s contributions to the Islamic cause and the secondary role they play within the Islamic organizations controlled by men were conducive to the rise of Islamic feminism in the 1990s. The paper also demonstrates how the involvement of islamist women in the struggle for suffrage forging a coalition with liberal women activists had played a decisive role in changing the position of islamist groups towards the enfranchisement of women. The last two sections of the paper look at the participation of islamist women activists in the re-definition of the dichotomy between the public and private spheres and at their involvement in the process of interpretation of Islamic sources, known as Ijtihâd. The paper concludes that the engagement of islamist women activists in the discourse of women’s rights can be powerful agent of change towards a more egalitarian society.

Narrativizing Science: The Ecocritical Imagination and Ecophobia

This essay argues that narrativizations of science are important to ecocriticism, because they increasingly imply a latent affective ethics of activist engagement. Increasingly, ecocriticism is coming to realize that it needs science; it needs the findings, the authority, the reach, and the materialist grounding of science. It also needs to theorize the blurring of boundaries between science and narrative, to examine how both biophilic and ecophobic matters determine our perceptions of and interactions with nature; how personal, local interests intersect with global environmental issues; and how seeing connections between global threats and individual lives can lead to broad changes in our behaviors.

Sharks in the Water: Battling an Activist Investor for Corporate Control (A)

In July 2006, Barracuda became the largest investor in Tarco International. In a meeting with management, Barracuda’s managing director advised that strong measures needed to be taken to improve operating performance. If management failed, Barracuda would force a sale of the company. In response, the board of Tarco hired FD, a leading financial communications consultancy specializing in strategic investor relations. The board asked FD to compile extensive research on the Tarco’s shareholder base, investor perception of the company and management performance, predictive voting on potential proxy proposals, and tactics used by Barracuda in previous activist engagements. Armed with this data, the board had to decide what steps to take, if any, to keep Barracuda at bay and ensure that Tarco retained the support of its investors.Also see CG20B Sharks in the Water: Battling an Activist Investor for Corporate Control (B).

Heritage Formulation in Overtly Politicized Environments: A Commentary

Archaeology undertaken in overtly politicized environments creates situations and data that archaeologists are not positioned to control either in the moment or in perpetuity. This commentary examines the five diverse, revealing case studies that appear Archaeologies 2.2 and 3.1 and identifies the underlying dynamics that can create both an ethical burden for archaeologists and potentially charged, even dangerous, situations for others. These include archaeological heritage management demands and failures; contrary heritage valuation; restriction of associations with potential heritage resources; balancing archaeological research goals against local economic, political and social aspirations; and the complex trans-border reality of archaeologically identified societies that complicates heritage deployment in modern contexts. Whether or not activist engagement or outcomes are part of our practice or intention, there is no such thing as a value-free archaeological outcome.

Taking Sustainability from Theory to Practice

Sustainable leadership and improvement are more than matters of mere endurance, of making things last. We define sustainable leadership, in line with the environmental field, in the following way: Sustainable leadership matters, spreads and lasts. It is a shared responsibility, that does not unduly deplete human or financial resources, and that cares for and avoids exerting negative damage on the surrounding educational and community environment. Sustainable leadership has an activist engagement with the forces that affect it, and builds an educational environment of organizational diversity that promotes cross-fertilization of good ideas and successful practices in communities of shared learning and development.
 This definition suggests seven principles of sustainable leadership:
 1. Sustainable leadership creates and preserves sustaining learning.2. Sustainable leadership secures success over time.3. Sustainable leadership sustains the leadership of others.4. Sustainable leadership addresses issues of social justice.5. Sustainable leadership develops rather than depletes human and material resources.6. Sustainable leadership develops environmental diversity and capacity.7. Sustainable leadership undertakes activist engagement with the environment

Facing the challenges: student antiracist activists counter backlash and stereotyping

Young activists share their experiences with the current climate of hostility toward school diversity initiatives, and toward young people in general. The author outlines a problematic lack of engagement of student activists in informing teacher education for social justice, particularly related to their undervalued role as active participants in ongoing coalitions. Excerpts from in-depth interviews with seven student participants in western Canadian schools offer new understandings on the potential of school-based activists to counter stereotypical portrayals of young people, to resist a conservative social and political climate, and to inform academic efforts around educational research and teacher education.

Forming Social Justice Projects: Student Activists Reflect on Coalition-Building

Student activists share their experiences with racism and more specifically, their attempts to form school diversity initiatives. The author outlines a problematic lack of engagement of student activists in the scholarly literature on social justice, particularly related to their undervalued role as leaders in school-based antiracist coalitions. Excerpts from in-depth interviews with seven student participants in western Canadian schools offer new understandings on the potential of school-based activists. They explain the challenges and successes in building and sustaining activist coalitions and in pursuing their social justice efforts beyond school. Their contributions represent new voices to join the ongoing conversation in educational research and community activism.

AAPS, African Political Science and Globalisation: Which Way Forward?

Revisiting the AAPS Vision: The Question of Relevance The Biennial Congress of AAPS has become, to put it figuratively, an impor tant rites of passage, whose celebration is always and necessarily an opportunity to pay tribute to the founding members of AAPS, particularly for their vision and for the solid foundation they laid for constitutional suc cession and accommodation, through the deliberate design of a regionally based organization and structure. This has not been without its weaknesses and imperfections but it has provided the constructive and progressive dura bility in which is captured the essential Pan-Africanist and Afrocentric mis sion and activist engagement which is called for by the inherent logic of their vision of AAPS.