Alternative Voices Research Articles

Resistance from the Margins: ‘Untouchable’ Women’s Voices vis-à-vis the Gorkha Identity and the Gorkhaland Movement

Abstract One of the most conspicuous features of the Gorkhaland movement is the development of a strong sense of community that has subsumed many diverse voices within the dominant discourse of ethnicity. However, such ethno-nationalism is also problematic as it often results in the erasure of intersecting identity markers such as class, caste, and gender. In addition, the exclusive nature of the over-encompassing Nepali or Gorkha identity has led to harmful consequences for marginalized groups, particularly the lower castes. This paper thus brings to the fore alternative voices and perspectives, particularly those of women who come from the margins of caste society or who have been labelled as ideological adversaries. This paper further illustrates their unique experiences and perspectives, which are often ignored in mainstream discussions about the social reality of the Gorkhaland movement.

A Woman Warrior in Alternative Voices: Analysing English and French Translations of the Chinese Classic Mulan Ci ( “The Ballad of Mulan”)

ABSTRACT “The Ballad of Mulan” (Mulan Ci (<木蘭辭>)) is a widely recited folk poem in Chinese culture. It celebrates the filial piety and courage of the heroine, Mulan, who has joined the army on behalf of her father to defend her homeland. Not only is this story passed down across generations and familiar to the Chinese people, but it is also widely known globally by its various forms of adaptations and translations. This article investigates, from a perspective informed by feminist translation criticism, the representative English and French translations of the Chinese poem conducted by renowned translators. Based on the inadequate translations in presenting the woman warrior’s voice, the article argues that translation is a gendered activity where a translator’s gender cultural presuppositions play a significant role in the translation. It is found that the Western male translators have projected their stereotypical perceptions about the literary image of Chinese women in their interpretation of Mulan and adopted the position of speaking for the female protagonist by making up a faked female voice in their translations. Mulan’s subjectivity as a legendary woman has been reconstructed in the translations due to the absence of the translators’ gender sensitivity in rendering gender-related text.

Print Culture and The Spectacle 2.0

This paper describes creative printmaking practices that employ art as a platform for alternative voices that critique DeBord’s modern-day exploitation systems in the Society of the Spectacle1 (Debord, 1967). The specific art practices discussed aim to tempt mainstream participants caught within the Spectacle’s cycle to recognise, evaluate, and reconsider the impact these systems have on contemporary society. The creative industries have spent much time ‘on mute’ throughout the past two years. While navigating the ever-changing lockdowns and restrictions, art practitioners – whose role is often to bring people together physically – have been forced to operate in isolation from behind a keyboard. As visual practitioners, we must speak out in response to these COVID-related paradigm shifts with the most effective post-pandemic voice we can muster: our art practice. This paper suggests that a potent reaction to our impacted creative lives comes from understanding how the Spectacle’s mechanisms operate in a contemporary sense during this pandemic. At the same time, it discusses how art can be used to challenge the principles and ethics of a culture caught within the Spectacle. The paper also discusses historical and contemporary artists and art practices that utilise the same techniques, mediums, and frameworks employed by the Spectacle to expose the mechanisms of present-day Spectacle 2.0. These artists, who draw from print culture, utilise methodologies that successfully navigate the risks of becoming part of the ongoing cycle that the Spectacle perpetuates.

Reading the Graphic Narrative “The Taboo,” from the Anthology This Side, That Side: Restorying Partition: Graphic Narratives from Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, As a Microhistory of Partition

ABSTRACT Early historiography of the South-Asian Partition tended to emphasize on the high politics surrounding the struggles against British imperialism and the transfer of power, focusing on prominent leaders and politicians and their roles in achieving self-rule. The perspectives of the general populace and the effects of high politics on those on the periphery of society, have been elided. However, since the 1990s, alternative voices, documenting the human dimension of Partition and the histories of marginalized masses, previously excluded from official histories, have started to gain importance. This article analyses how the graphic narrative, “The Taboo,” by Malini Gupta and Dyuti Mittal, offers such an alternative history, presenting the experiences of the residents of a refugee camp (Cooper’s camp) who have not been rehabilitated to this date and thereby remained trapped as “historical residues” of the Partition. This article discusses how the narrative highlights the subjectivity and agency of the refugees, particularly, the refugee women, with lower caste and class backgrounds whose histories have remained undocumented in official records. It further examines “The Taboo” as a microhistory of Partition that presents the local history of the camp and foregrounds the agency of the protagonist Lily, as an unattached refugee woman.

The Blasphemous Divide: News Media Coverage of Politics and Religion in the Philippines

ABSTRACT The news media use the logic of us-versus-them divide in covering politics and religion, but this case alone is insufficient a precondition to label the media as populist. Rather, it is the extensive and unchallenged accounts of official sources including populist politicians that reinforce the pro-populist tendency of media. The article examines the way the news media outlets cover the rhetorical exchanges between the Rodrigo Duterte administration and the church especially the Catholic Church in the Philippines. Based on textual analysis of news articles, the narratives of politics and religion are presented: “hypocritical church” mainstreams the conflict-centered pronouncements of the political leader against the church, “political church” covers the anti-populist but also the nostalgic oratory of the Catholic Church, and “alternative voice” underscores the views of faith-based formations on the fringe of dominant media sources. The narratives of politics and religion matter to the contentious relationship between journalism and democracy as they characterize the capability of news media to amplify, interrogate, and defy populist politics.

Architectural Porosity: Reading The Change of Inhabitation in Urban Heritage Area

Architectural Porosity: Reading The Change of Inhabitation in Urban Heritage Area

Accounting and silence: The unspeakable, the unsaid, and the inaudible

AbstractThis paper studies accounting and silence. Building on studies of accounting talk and introducing theories of “silencing,” we highlight the role of accounting silences in the production of engaging organizational conversations. Through a qualitative case study, we identify three forms of silence—the unspeakable, the unsaid, and the inaudible—and their links to accounting. Silences create motivations to engage in further accounting talk, but they also deny certain groups a voice in those conversations. An impression of participation, openness, and transparency emerges despite unequal access and the silencing of certain groups. Accounting itself can be silenced to avoid uncomfortable topics, potential problems, and anxiety‐inducing uncertainties. This silencing may serve to preserve a useful ignorance, avoid being in the know, and build alluring narratives and engaging conversations. Accounting silences sustain such conversations by protecting them from alternative voices, unsettling knowledge, and narratives that are incompatible with the organization's preferred story.

Journalistic Professionalism in a Time of Paradoxes: Ntv Online and “Alternative Voice” in Bangladesh

ABSTRACT This article explores the specific work mechanisms journalists use to promote the ideology of good and independent journalism at the online news services of Ntv station in Bangladesh. Along with the journalistic scholarships on issues of heightened state surveillance on broadcast and online communications by the hybrid regime and its relation to broader questions of how dissidents and alternative voices struggle to gain visibility in the context of media freedom and democracy in Bangladesh, the theoretical framework of the political economy of communication and concepts of alternative voice are employed in this study. It scrutinizes the implications of state control measures upon journalistic praxis and examines how journalists at Ntv Online – a digital section of this television station, perceive the “alternative voice” to become the place for public deliberation. Built on field-based case study research and in-depth interviews with reporters and editors at Ntv Online, this study reveals that Ntv Online is materializing the concept of “alternative voice” by opening up access to media production. This is empowering those who are involved in news-making processes. At a professional level, this study aimed to contribute to the online news-making process while capturing the experiences of conflict and challenges journalists face.

Social Work Journals and the Disciplinary Production of Alternative Knowledge(s)

ABSTRACT Disciplinary knowledge is reflected, legitimated, and replicated in academic journals, social work knowledge reproducing mainly Western knowledge(s). Hence, there has been an increase in the calls for a stronger articulation and inclusion of critical alternatives. Using a critical social work lens, we explored whether and how social work journals reproduce alternative knowledges. We developed a novel global list of all 272 social work journals and invited journal editors to respond to a virtual, exploratory qualitative survey. Through our reflexive thematic analysis, we identified two core themes in the 31 responses – the journal editors’ attachment to dominant, white, western social work knowledge and values, and their rhetorical inclusion of alternative knowledges. Alternative knowledges were seldom constructed as subjugated voices, but rather as innovation, gaps, or international perspectives. Despite agreeing that social work journals should include of a variety of knowledges, few journals created intentional space for subordinated knowledges. A disciplining mechanism that excludes/minimizes the alternative voices, and invalidates their experience was used to avoid attention to marginalized and silenced perspectives. Such processes impoverish social work knowledge. To enrich social work knowledge, journal editors should act intentionally, collectively, and critically to identify critical alternative knowledges and facilitate their inclusion in the social work canon.

ALTERNATİVE VOİCES İN OTTOMAN RELİGİOUS CULTURE: BEKTAŞİ STORIES

In the field of cultural history, which scrutinizes the interactions between history, culture, and society, the numerous versions of storytelling are one of the specific subjects of interest. In this article, “Bektaşi stories” which were constantly narrated in the Ottoman religious culture and humorously indicate the divergences of Bektaşis with the widespread religious narrative, are set as the topic. In this regard, Bektaşi stories from different sources are compiled and explained, which are eccentric and can be named “alternative voices” that are heard by all. These stories could be regarded as peculiar representations of the Ottoman religious culture and Bektaşi, the main hero of the stories, is generally a versatile stereotype that represents the alternative voices of the religious culture. The Bektaşi stereotype speaks to certain figures of Ottoman society from several social degrees and the structure of the stories mirrors various characteristics of the Bektaşi stereotype as well as his authentic interpretations of events and facts. The Bektaşi is ultimately not a deist or an atheist, but his mindset differs from the widespread Muslim narrative in many senses. These stories which contain various elements for interpretation have been reproduced within the religious and cultural field and they could be survived to the present day. This article aims to articulate how the differences and alternative voices are quoted in a humorous way in Ottoman religious culture and how the stories of religious groups that have the potential to be seen outside of orthodoxy are conveyed delicately thanks to the tradition of storytelling.

Manifestation of academic rackets in management research through early career sessions at academic conferences

This article investigated elite maintenance in the field of management and how early career researchers are taught to behave to become part of the elite. We develop insights into how the elite reproduces itself through socializing subsequent generations of scholars into the norms and hegemonic practices of the elite. Through analysis of sessions for early career researchers at a major academic management conference held online in 2021, we investigated how the elite functions as a racket, instructing the next generations of scholars how to enhance their chances of entering this racket. Relying on role modeling and specific behavioral advice, the elite reproduces itself by laying out the basic rules for the next generations on how to behave as the elite. This includes overemphasizing how early career researchers can join the academic elite while neglecting the discussion of how we could improve the academic system itself. We discuss the implications of racket-like manifestation of academic disciplines, including the control of a rather small group of elite scholars over an entire field of scientific investigation through which alternative voices are suppressed.

La disputa por el barrio popular en el imaginario neoliberal de Argentina (2000-2015): el mito de la Villa y sus alternativas

Abstract: This article analyses the narratives around the slums in Argentina during the beginning of the XXI century. In this period, movies, books and other cultural objects thematized the most disadvantaged neighborhoods. Although very different in content and form, they concluded by segregating and dehumanizing the citizens of the slums. However, there were also alternative voices that disputed the hegemonic imaginary. For the first time in history, neighbors from the slums started to publish books and film movies. Not only did this production defy how culture is produced and circulated, but also seized the narratives around their own neighborhoods.

The Age of the Expert—COVID-19, Expertise, and Conflicts of Interest in Austrian Media Reporting

Background: Experts are a favorite source of information in the news media as they have the ability to provide balanced and authoritative comments on important issues. However, two factors cast doubt on the extent to which such experts can actually provide balanced information: conflicts of interest and areas of expertise. In this paper, we analyze the use of expert voices during the COVID pandemic in two Austrian broadsheet papers. Methods: We examine the use of reporting verbs employed to indicate the journalists’ stance towards the expert comments as well as the relationship of those comments to the experts’ fields of expertise and to any potential conflicts of interest. Results: Our analysis shows that the media uncritically reported experts that had considerable conflicts of interest, while others were permitted to comment on topics far outside their particular fields. Conclusions: In the absence of journalistic scrutiny, distance, and context, both of these practices are likely to have led audiences to take the experts’ comments at face value and therefore to have embraced unbalanced information that amplified official narratives, to the exclusion of alternative voices.

Mapping Europeanization in the Greek online public sphere: Assessing the Europeanizing dynamics of social media

For more than a decade, following the peak of the debt crisis, Greece has been facing multiple challenges. Amongthem, a pandemic (COVID-19) that brought the global and thus the Greek economy to a halt, an energy crisis that threatens to flatten entire social classes, a refugee crisis, and wider regional instability. All of these concurrent problems reflect crucial socio-economic transformations compounding the country’s unsustainable debt. Despite these adverse factors, in the present research the anti-European sentiments have almost entirely disappeared from the online public sphere. To examine the presence of Europe in the Greek online public discourse, a quantitative content analysis was conducted. The sample was based on 700 posts published on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube coming from mainstream media organisations’ accounts, individual users’ accounts, and public pages. According to the research findings, social media platforms function, to some extent, as alternative agenda setters, fostering the dissemination of topics, or the expression of viewpoints that are circumvented by the media organisations’ posts. Moreover, the online discussion regarding EU prospects and the European institutions’ policies are largely descriptive, devoid of any critical reflection or conflict. Therefore, Greece’s position in the EU looks like a one-dimensional issue, a feature that can be attributed to the fact that, in the Greek online public sphere, alternative voices and sources have a limited presence within the most viewed content of social media platforms.

(Re)positioning Indigenous games in HPE: turning to criticality

ABSTRACT In 2011, the Australian national curriculum called for the inclusion of Indigenous histories, cultures and perspectives/knowledges, prompting Health and Physical Education (HPE) teachers in schools and academics within higher education have experimented with and reported upon different purposes and ways of teaching Indigenous Games. However, Australian schools remain sites of epistemic injustice, where the privileging of Western knowledges marginalises alternative voices and knowledge systems, maintaining disciplinary terra nullius [terra nullius means ‘empty land’ – it was a legal fiction, overturned by the High Court of Australia in 1992, used by British settler-colonisers to justify the invasion of Australia. In this context, we mean that Physical Education in Australia still assumes erroneously that Western knowledges are the only available knowledges]. Worryingly, experimentation with Indigenous games, by predominantly white educators with minimal understanding of Indigenous histories and cultures, has resulted in confusion and apprehension over their purpose and place in the curriculum, leading toward either omission or cultural appropriation, rather than deep, critical engagement with Indigenous Knowledges. Centring on the publication and implementation of Yulunga: Traditional Indigenous Games [Edwards, K., & Meston, T. (2009). Yulunga: Traditional indigenous games. Ausport. http://www.ausport.gov.au/participating/indigenous/resources/games_and_activities/full_resource], we reappraise the Australian approach toward Indigenous games, suggesting this work has occurred over three distinct time periods or ‘waves’. Conceptualising this work with the heuristic of ‘three waves’ provides a useful contribution to the field, revealing a lack of substantive progress in including Indigenous knowledges and perspectives in HPE. We argue HPE educators and researchers are complicit in the marginalisation and/or omission of Indigenous knowledges and perspectives and must shift current practice toward a ‘fourth wave’ of implementing Indigenous games with criticality. We call for a revisiting of Martin Nakata’s [(2002). Indigenous knowledge and the cultural interface: Underlying issues at the intersection of knowledge and information systems. IFLA Journal, 28(5-6), 281–291. https://do.org/10.1177/034003520202800513; Nakata, M. (2007). The cultural interface. Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, 36, 1–7. Nakata, M. (2011). Pathways for Indigenous education in the Australian curriculum framework. The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, 40(1), 1–8. https://do.org/10.1375/ajie.40.1] theory of the Cultural Interface – a theory of critique of knowledge systems. Nakata [(2002). Indigenous knowledge and the cultural interface: Underlying issues at the intersection of knowledge and information systems. IFLA Journal, 28(5-6), 281–291. https://do.org/10.1177/034003520202800513] cautioned that Indigenous knowledges and perspectives cannot be simply dropped into contested knowledge domains. Now more than ever, knowledge of critical frameworks like Nakata’s are required to disrupt the entrenched white disciplinary praxis of Australian HPE.

Development Hegemonic Constructions and the Resistance with Alternative Voices

This paper examines a burgeoning anthropological literature on development and debates surrounding development discourse. Some of these raise question regarding the concept of development, arguing that it is a contentious domain. Reviewing major literature on the issue, I suggest, dominant paradigms of development oversimplify the notion as if it were homogeneous. I take post modern critiques of development as an example in order to examine the nature of deconstructing development discourse. I argue some writers oversimplify the notion of development by using dichotomies- developed/ underdeveloped. By critically examining knowledge in the developmental domain in anthropology, this paper presents some ethnographic examples which raises conceptual, and practical questions regarding the nature of neoliberal development. The main thrust of this paper, therefore, is to question whether neoliberal development can be forever marked or fixed, a question central to this paper.

DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES AND REVOLUTION IN AFRICA: COMPLEXITIES, AMBIVALENCES, AND CONTEXTUAL REALITIES

Introductory statement The rise of digital technologies has brought about significant changes in revolutionary projects across Africa. The impact of these technologies on social movements and activism is complex and multi-faceted. This panel examines the role of technology in shaping African revolutionary projects, such as the use of social media platforms for mobilisation and coordination, and the challenges around issues like manipulation and exploitation. It also delves into the diverse goals and aspirations that drive these movements, from seeking social justice to reorganising social orders. By discussing these topics, the panel aims to provide attendees with a comprehensive understanding of the relationship between technology and revolution in Africa and the different discourses that shape these movements. Relationship between the papers The first paper focuses on Kenya and examines the role of digital technologies, specifically social media, in promoting socio-political change and revolution. The author notes that Kenya has been regarded as one of the technological hubs in Africa, and the increased use of internet technologies has become part of the everyday life of most citizens, especially in urban areas. Social media has become essential for political participation in Kenya, particularly among marginalised communities such as the youth and women. The author highlights the dynamics of protests and socio-political issues that shape socio-political movements, emphasising the use of social media in politically led and grassroots-led protests. On the other hand, paper B looks at Nigeria and explores the forms of civic engagement and citizenship performance on Twitter spaces leading up to the country's 2023 national elections. The author uses the lens of digital citizenship to situate citizens as politically engaged subjects who gather and share information and make rights claims online, potentially altering the balance of power. The author acknowledges the need for contextual understanding when studying a country like Nigeria imbued with culture and diversity. The author also highlights how new media technologies facilitate African digital citizenship and the tacit and observable ways citizens experience their social and cultural context in digital environments that may be uniquely African. Paper C examines the presence of influencers and grievances among the "soro soke" generation during Nigeria's 2023 election cycle. The study aims to show the significance of influencers in the core networks of "soro soke" election tweeters and how their grievances are expressed through personalized statements of hopes, frustrations, and lifestyles that lead to collective action. Additionally, the author explores the response of leading presidential candidates to the #EndSARS movement, highlighting how the movement connected the "soro soke" generation with like-minded politicians and how resources were mobilized to support them. Paper D critiques the discourse of social media platforms driving political revolutions in Southern Africa. It rejects the technological determinism and solutionism approaches and favours theoretical toolkits such as social shaping of technologies, structuration theory and technological dramas. The paper explores digital technologies' complex roles in political struggles, acknowledging their potential for democratization, citizen participation and political voice, as well as negative impacts like digital surveillance, authoritarianism, disinformation campaigns, cyberbullying, and dark participation. It highlights the disruptive tendencies of hashtag movements in Southern Africa, examining digital technologies' positive and negative outcomes. This study contributes to understanding the relationship between digital technologies and political struggles in Southern Africa and challenges revolutionary technologies, actors, movements, and goals' rhetoric on social media. This paper examines how African youth and first-generation young African diasporas in the USA, UK, and France use social media to contest and reframe global media narratives about Africa and its people. It analyzes subversive online narratives that challenge settler colonialism legacies and global north media control. Social media provides a new frontier for disrupting media hegemonies and challenging stereotypes. The study concludes that social media facilitates protests and increases opportunities for youth engagement in collective action. African youth and diasporic communities use social media to challenge negative stereotypes and reframe global media narratives about Africa, redefining identities in the process. All 5 papers are related in that they all focus on the role of digital technologies in shaping political and social change. They explore how digital technologies are leveraged to challenge dominant narratives, amplify alternative voices, and mobilize collective action. The abstracts also share a critical perspective that seeks to move beyond deterministic and solutionist approaches to analyzing the relationship between society and technologies and instead highlight the complex and multifaceted ways in which digital technologies can enable or constrain political struggles. In addition, the abstracts focus on different geographic contexts, including Nigeria, Kenya, Southern Africa, and the diaspora in the USA, UK, and France, indicating the global reach of digital technologies in shaping political and social change. Overall, the abstracts highlight the potential of digital technologies as a tool for challenging dominant narratives and mobilizing collective action while also acknowledging the ambivalent and contested nature of their impact.

The search for enchantment in times of climate change: Religious or spiritual responses to climate crisis

AbstractPublic discourse and political climate policymaking are based on scientific reports and propose technological solutions to solve the crisis, primarily by changing fossil fuels to renewable energy. Rather than questioning growth and the overuse of natural resources—which has been at the core of green concern for decades—green growth is the motor in an economy that aims for continuous economic spin, driven by new technological innovations that will enable us to go on as before, simply by replacing energy sources. It is no surprise that in such a discourse, the alternative voices—such as religious or spiritual responses—are left out, but to go from that and conclude that no such voices exist would be to rush to conclusions. I suggest that if we want to search for enchantment in times of climate change, we must look elsewhere. Searching for these voices means leaving the discourse framed by scientific rationalistic measurements because we can find an enchanted alter‐tale beyond this disenchanted tale. In this article, I account for voices from my field and answer the question: What motivates people to turn to spirituality in times of climate change?

Decolonial social movements as translators: Converting prefigurative initiatives into political and legal change tools

Social movement scholars have been discussing the limits of prefigurative initiatives, based on the present enactment of desired futures, in promoting supportive institutional structures. However, research has yet to explore fully how prefigurative means can be meaningfully converted into structural ends. Our paper explores the role of decolonial social movements, centered on challenging institutional legacies of colonialism, and their translating processes into filling this gap. Through our decolonial analysis of the International Monsanto Tribunal, we show how prefigurative translation—that is, process through which alternative organizing principles are converted into proposals of enabling policies and laws—connected prefiguring principles to structuring efforts by bridging alternative voices and negating Monsanto’s damaging actions. As a result of bringing together actors’ sharing similar struggles and horizons and deconstructing current problematic structures, they helped translating their principles and practices into political and legal change tools. Our research contributes to the nascent perspective of decolonial social movements as translators by exploring the process through which they help to defend and promote alternatives from a position with, against, and beyond entrenched hostile structures, often a product of colonial heritage. Furthermore, we propose the prefigurative translation role of negating actions as essential to creating “concrete utopias” anchored on real-world struggles and deconstructing problematic translations. Finally, our analysis suggests that, in this process, the presence of “translation arbiters” is important in recognizing, connecting and balancing alternative organizing principles that are traditionally hidden or devalued.

YouTube vlogging and dissidence in Zimbabwe: Opportunities from authoritarian media policies

This article explores the use of YouTube in the increasing practice of vlogging in Zimbabwe. Vlogging counters authoritarian media policies that restrict the entry of new media players and democratic participation in existing traditional media. This dearth of public debate on traditional media has created a window of opportunities for social media as alternative voices through YouTube ‘televisions’. We consider this a metaphorical yearning for alternative television stations in the mainstream media-dominated context of Zimbabwe. Employing the theoretical concept of counterpublics, this article presents a thematic analysis from three selected YouTube channels: Bustop TV, Goldgator TV and TV 7. The findings reveal that although authoritarian media laws are a huge setback to freedom of expression, YouTube empowers non-professional journalists to challenge those who possess political power. The article establishes that authoritarian media laws are no longer as effective in stifling dissent. We argue new thinking towards a liberal trajectory is called upon.