Arena Of Contestation Research Articles

Global Commons as an Emerging Arena of Contestation of Global Governance Structures and Norms

Abstract The legal framework governing global commons still remains largely unexplored and consequently unregulated, opening the possibility of innovations to resolve transnational global problems. This results in building a dialogue between multiple stakeholders including international organisations, civil society, and emerging powers, resulting in shaping of the modern international law. With China’s growth in global commons domain, on account of reorientation in its foreign policy and increased engagement with international law, it is essential to understand in totality its contribution towards formulation and implementation of public policies at the national, international, and transnational levels. In this backdrop, the article attempts to understand how China influences development of regulatory frameworks governing the internet, space activities, and climate change. Focusing on China’s role as a ‘norm-taker’, ‘norm-maker’ or ‘norm-shaker’ of global governance, the article seeks to analyse its engagement in enhancing or impeding the preservation and fair allocation of resources.

Membangun Identitas Inklusif - Krisis Identitas Dalam Lensa Kajian Poskolonialisme

Multidimentional crisis which became more visible in the Covid-19 pademic era, actually rooted in the crisis of identity of Indonesia. It occurs, especially when identitys is considered as essential caracters or inherent features of this nation, inherited from the previous generation. The understanding of such kind of identity causes defensive, exclusive attitudes at the level of individual, communal, or even as a nation. In this perspective life is simply considered as an arena of contestation and will end up in the subordination of the others. By utilizing the lens of Postcolonial Theory, I axhibit the roots of that crisis of identity, and also propose a new perspective, which is comprehending identity as a production or a continuous process in a making. This new understanding of identity, I believe, will enable Indonesia to cope with the crisis, and to find ethical foundations in preserving and cultivating their life inclusively.

Law and Religion: Reimagining the Entanglement of Two Universals

In the last few decades, the study of law and religion has undergone considerable reconstruction. Less and less constrained by modern statist construals of rights talk or tied to confessional contexts, the comparative study of the intersection of law and religion by anthropologists, historians, sociologists, and religious studies scholars is undergoing a real renaissance. Exciting new work explores the entanglement of legal and religious ideas, institutions, and material objects across the entire space and time of human history. This article models an engagement between the academic study of religion and sociolegal scholarship by introducing scholars in both fields to contemporary debates in the study of law and religion. These debates examine how and when state law persists as a meaningful arena of contestation; the role of indigenous elites and arrangements of legal pluralism in colonial contexts; and new approaches to economy, race, and sovereignty and citizenship. By mobilizing an understanding of law that does not take for granted the state's alleged monopoly on generating and regulating legal normativity, the article argues that holding law and religion in abeyance as normative traditions invites a far more expansive imaging of these universals in their singularity, in their copresence, and as overlapping domains.

Picturing the Square, Streets, and Denizens of Early Modern Istanbul: Practices of Urban Space and Shifts in Visuality

Abstract Exploring intersections of spaces, practices, and representations of urbanity and the city in late sixteenth-century Istanbul, this paper traces the emergence of a new set of themes centered on the main public square, the streets, and the denizens of the Ottoman capital in illustrated court histories. It considers new visual imaginings of city and urbanity in view of three issues that resonate with the history of early modern Istanbul: modalities and the lexicon of vision as they took shape parallel to changing spatial practices; the making of a new urban public, and polyphonic forms of representation concomitant to the emergence of new publicities; the conflicted political environment that turned the city’s public spaces into arenas of contestation in the later decades of the 1500s. To this end, the article focuses on narrative paintings and texts of a set of manuscripts created between the late 1580s and the turn of the seventeenth century, and with particular attention to the Sūrnāme-i Humāyūn (Book of Festivities, 1588), explores the notions and connections that shaped them.

Race, politics and constitution-making in the negotiations leading to Eswatini’s independence (formerly Swaziland) 1960–1968

ABSTRACT The race question in politics and constitution-making in the lead up to Eswatini’s independence is an important but underexplored field in Eswatini’s historiography. This article argues that race was a core arena of contestation around which the various stakeholders involved in politics and constitution-making gravitated. King Sobhuza II considered whites and South Africa as the pivot of Eswatini’s economy and therefore advocated special political rights and privileges for whites which were disproportionate to their minority population. The progressive political parties of the day espoused a political position that was opposed to the stances of the white community and apartheid South Africa. The irreconcilable positions between the progressives and the monarchists stalled Eswatini’s constitutional developments. Whites and South Africa supported Sobhuza, their ally, to win the 1964 elections. Later, the alliance between whites and monarchists became more distant, after Sobhuza’s abandonment of his earlier overtly pro-white policies to ensure the support of the black electorate. Debates preceding Eswatini’s independence were hotly contested in parliament along racial lines and interests. This did not, however, ultimately compromise white economic interests and dominance.

DINAMIKA KONTESTASI LEMBAGA ZAKAT DI KOTA MAKASSAR (STUDI DI BAZNAS DAN LAZNAS WAHDAH)

The presence of many zakat institutions in managing zakat, infaq and sadaqah nowadays is a fascinating thing. The zakat institution officially owned by the government of Makassar City which has succeeded in becoming a channel for distributing zakat especially ASN. However the presence of the other zakat institutions seemed to be an arena of contestation to win muzakki, which one of that was LAZNAS Wahdah Makassar, in which relying on the strength of their cadre networking. This research is qualitative field research with descriptive-analysis method. The conclusion of the research about the contestation dynamics of zakat institutions in Makassar City (Studied at BAZNAS and LAZNAS Makassar City, is namely (1) the dynamics of the miscoordination contestation especially BAZNAS vs LAZNAS and (2) the dynamics of reconciliation contestation especially LAZNAS vs. LAZNAS. In this study also revealed the factors that encourage muzakki in distributing zakat, namely: (1) Structural Factors and (2) Cadre Networking Factors. In addition, the efforts to avoid potential conflicts of contestation in zakat institution can be accomplished in 3 ways (1)zoning of the performance of zakat institution (2) develops the program Strategy Plan, and (3) Internal Improvement of zakat institutions

“Political Reposition of Authority in South Nias DPRD Members in 2014 Election (A Study on Social Construction of Peter L. Berger)”

The establishment of South Nias Regency is of course accompanied by the formation of new legislative and executive institutions to run the government. The formation of these institutions provided an opportunity for the emergence of local Nias Selatan Elits to take up positions as legislators and regional heads. Reflecting from the above view, this research is a case study that focuses on developing in-depth descriptions and explanations of the meaning of the position of legislative members in South Nias in 2014. specifically the perspective of Peter L Berger's social construction. reality of the meaning of office is in the view of members of the South Nias DPRD, namely as a mandate, arena of contestation, and aspects of interests. The factors underlying the interest of South Nias DPRD members towards positions were formed in two spheres, namely the individual domain and the community domain. In the individual domain, their interest in the position is motivated by four factors, namely internal motivation, external motivation, skills, and goals. While in the community domain there are three factors, namely the previous orientation, current orientation, and future orientation.

Sokağın, Meydanın, Şehirlilerin Resmi: On Altıncı Yüzyıl Sonu İstanbul unda Mekân Pratikleri ve Görselliğin Dönüşümü

Exploring intersections of spaces, practices, and representations of urbanity and the city in late sixteenth-century Istanbul, this paper traces the emergence of the main public square and the streets of the Ottoman capital as the main site for a set of new themes in illustrated court histories and chronicles. It focuses particularly on the illustrated copy of Intizami’s Surnâme (1588) along with other texts and images, including a city view from these years. The paper considers new visual imaginings of city and urbanity in light of three issues that resonate with the history of early modern Istanbul: the modalities and the lexicon of vision as they took shape parallel to the changing spatial practices; the emergence of polyphonic forms of representation and new publicities concomitant to the emergence of a new urban public; and the pictorial and textual reflections of the conflicted political environment that turned the city’s public spaces into arenas of contestation and conflict.

Libraries as Contestation Arena of the Stakeholders to Achieve Their Goals

The management of university libraries in Indonesia has been intervened from foreign institutions through a donation of library materials which seem for the benefit of the academic community, but it is for the benefit of the donors. Academicians, especially the young generation, are a target of donation whether as the readers of books donated to the University or as the audience of programs or activities funded by donor agencies. Based on the background, it is found how the library becomes an arena for the contestation of various interests through some “corners” build inside the University Libraries. Using the concepts introduced by Pierre Bourdieu such as arena and capitals. Supported by Vincent Mosco’s theory of political economy of communication as the tools of analysis, this research reveals how the agents involved in the management of the “Corner” use the library as an "arena" to achieve their benefits. The data obtained were grouped based on the sub-theme of types capital, commodification, specialization and structuration Using phenomenological approach, it is found that Corners in the university Libraries are used as an arena of contestation of agents involved in governance to foster capital. Contestation in this study illustrates the phenomenon of actors involved in the management of Corner into the dominant-subordinate relationship.

How we got here? Transition failures, their causes and the populist interest in the constitution

How is it possible, that after the exhilarating start of democratic transitions in the late 1980s and 1990s, today authoritarian–populist options seem to be emerging in many new, as well as old democracies? Why does populism, that in most of its historical varieties has been anti-institutional and anti-procedural, turn to constitution making and constitutional rhetorics as one of its main arenas of contestation? The answers to these questions are related. In the following, in the form of six theses, I start with what I mean by ‘populism’. Next, I wish to point to the two deficits of liberal democracy that provides the context for the rise of populist politics. These deficits according to me have been intensified in many of the new democracies. I continue by stressing populisms own deficits as the reason for turning to the constituent power. I end with a consideration of what liberal democrats can do to address the causes of the populist temptation.

The contestation of social memory in the new media: A case study of the 1965 killings in Indonesia

While today’s Indonesian democratic government remains committed to the New Order orthodoxy about the mass killings of 1965, new counter-narratives challenging official history are emerging in the new media. Applying mixed-methods and multi-sited ethnography, this study aims to extend our collaborative understanding of the most recent developments in this situation by identifying multiple online interpersonal stories, deliberations, and debates related to the case as well as offline field studies in Java and Bali. Practically and theoretically, we ask how the tragedy of the 1965 killings is contested in the new media and how social memory plays out in this contestation. The study finds that new media potentially act as emancipatory sites channeling and liberating the voices of those that the nation has stigmatized as ‘objectively guilty’. We argue that the arena of contestation is threefold: individual, public vs. state narrative, and theoretical. As such, the transborder space of the new media strongly mediates corrective new voices to fill missing gaps in the convoluted history of this central event of modern Indonesian history.

Levelling up the collaborative forest management in Indonesia: a review

Forestry-related conflict in Indonesia urgently requires a solution, and regional authority has failed to protect forest areas. This failure rooted on the unequal power relations and the discourse applied in governing the forest area. "Collaboration" only exists superficially. The ongoing narration shows that the management of forest resources became the arena of contestation, not for collaboration. Bureaucracy rises with policy and legal narration, private corporations rise with growth and welfare narration, and communities rise with resistance and exclusion narration. The respective narration is diametrically negating and compete to dominate each other, resulting the practice of "legal not legitimate" and "illegal but authentic" on the other side. Starting with that issue, the concept of Collaborative Management’s effectiveness should be levelled up through devolution based on local-users in a polycentric system. These three steps of the policy development are: 1) the formulation of collective narration based on knowledge and local multi-stakeholders discourse; 2) the creation of local actor web as authentic resource users, and 3) institutionalisation of forest resources management and the local resource mobilisation.

URBAN CULTURAL OMNIVORES, UPSCALING ETHNIC FOOD AND CULINARY REPRODUCTION IN MARCO AND SUNTIANG

Culinary practices have always been considered as social and cultural activities signifying ideas of continuity and transformation regarding one‟s culture and identity. As migration happens, people move from their hometown and recreate familiar food and flavors in their new home. Therefore, the study of culinary practices will reveal the dynamics of constant negotiation between having to trace back the familiar taste, for example by using inherited recipes, with the necessity to innovate and reproduce meals from their hometown with new ingredients and materials found in the new place. Furthermore, in an urban setting that has been heavily influenced with a variety of culinary practices from other locales in Indonesia or from other countries, culinary practices in Jakarta could no longer be analyzed as merely everyday activities as they have become an arena of contestation and negotiation. This research discusses how two up-scale restaurants, Suntiang (a Padangnese-Japanese fusion restaurant) and Marco (a self-proclaimed Padang peranakan restaurant), re-inscribe Padangnese cuisines and make new meanings on „old‟ traditional delicacies.

From Above and Below: Surveillance, Religion, and Claim-Making at Jerusalem’s Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif

This article explores the development and negotiation of colonial surveillance practices and technologies at religious sites. In this article I posit that colonial surveillance at religious sites is different—that, unlike in other colonial spaces, the particularities of holy sites as arenas of contestation can enlarge the scope of worshippers’ negotiation of state surveillance technologies and practices, while enabling new modes of claim-making of rights and resources articulated through surveillance. I draw on the case study of Haram-al-Sharif/Temple Mount, a site in occupied East Jerusalem holy to both Muslim and Jewish worshippers, to explore how different surveillance policies and practices are articulated and contested at religious sites in a (settler) colonial setting. I examine three facets of surveillance employed at this holy site: Israeli digital surveillance, Palestinian grassroots sousveillance, and internationally prescribed adjudicating surveillance. Through an examination of these different facets, this article investigates how particular religious, national, and citizenship claims emerge when surveillance is leveraged in order to balance, mitigate, or resolve conflicts.

Where is My Name? – Contemporary Funeral Posters as an Arena of Contestation and (Re)negotiation of Chiefly Relations Among the Ewe of Ghana and Togo

Abstract:In Ghana and other regions of West Africa a funeral poster is an important part of funerary ritual. Examining two funeral posters – one about omission and the other about inclusion of names – printed to commemorate two chiefs in two Ewe communities in Ghana and Togo, this article shows funeral posters as arenas of contestation, negotiation, affirmation, and elaboration of beliefs and conflicting views. The article argues that funeral posters are written with a local audience in mind, which means that they are a very useful source for historical enquiry about how people address the subjects of kinship and relationships among chiefs.

Derby of a ‘difficult’ history: the Poland-Russia match at Euro 2012

Throughout history, Eastern Europe has been an arena of contestation between Poland and Russia in terms of which state holds the most geopolitical influence over the region. Yet the spawned rivalry has not always been fought with bullets and guns, but rather with a round ball and two opposite-end goal posts in the post-Second World War era. The 2012 European Football Championship provided another memorable instalment for both the continental competition and for a showdown between both giants. But the battle did not take place on the pitch this time; the match was overshadowed by the premeditated ambush of Russian fans by Polish football hooligans. Symbols of a strained past and national pride between both sides were clearly visible in the streets and inside the stadium that day. Using studies on the phenomenon of football hooliganism, interest pieces on past Polish–Russian football matches, and media reports, this essay will seek to show how history and international relations permeate sectors of society aside from the political arena, such as competitive football.

Touristic disaster: Spectacle and recovery in Post-Katrina New Orleans

This paper develops the concept touristic disaster asa heuristic device to examine the conflictual and contradictory aspects of showcasing disaster-devastated neighborhoods as tourist attractions. Touristic disaster refers to the application of tourism modes of staging, visualization, and discourse to reenchant the money making deterrents (stigma) of “destruction” and “ruin” and re-signify disaster to indicate “recovery” and “rebirth.” This paper uses empirical examples from New Orleans to examine the transition from “disaster tourism” to “recovery tourism” in tourism framings of post-Katrina rebuilding. The concept of touristic disaster views disaster-devastated neighborhoods as sites and arenas of contestation in which opposing groups and interests battle to control representations of urban space. The paper illustrates the motivations, processes, and paradoxical impacts of the commodification and global representation of “disaster” and “recovery” and provides insights into the ways in which people can use spectacle to contest marginalization.

Barcelona with the Eyes of the Other in Si nos dejan (Ana Torres, 2004)

The documentary Si nos dejan (2004) by Argentinian filmmaker Ana Torres is an exploration of the subject of immigration in Barcelona. By applying the theories of Jacques Rancière and Michel de Certeau, I analyse how Torres has created a forceful film originating from her need to express what she felt had been neglected ‘by acts of rule’. In this way, she is empowered to express her viewpoint and, in the words of Thomas Mathien ‘have the effect of shifting the way in which the social is perceived’. Thus, Torres’ documentary functions both as an arena of contestation and as a scene of dissensus thanks to the use of a dynamic political narrative discourse, strengthened by the director’s use of cinematic techniques. I will argue that Torres’ own position as an immigrant, together with the formal cinematic techniques she uses, enables her to create a documentary which functions as a political argumentation—a way of allowing her to give a voice to and thereby empowering the various migrant characters in the film.

People’s Movement in Odisha: An Assessment

Development process in Odisha (before 2011 Orissa) may have led to progress but has also resulted in large-scale dispossession of land, homesteads, forests and also denial of livelihood and human rights. In Odisha as the requirements of development increase, the arena of contestation between the state/corporate entities and the people has correspondingly multiplied because the paradigm of contemporary model of growth is not sustainable and leads to irreparable ecological/environmental costs. It has engendered many people’s movements. Struggles in rural Odisha have increasingly focused on proactively stopping of projects, mining, forcible land, forest and water acquisition fallouts from government/corporate sector. Contemporaneously, such people’s movements are happening in Kashipur, Kalinga Nagar, Jagatsinghpur, Lanjigarh, etc. They have not gained much success in achieving their objectives. However, the people’s movement of Baliapal in Odisha is acknowledged as a success. It stopped the central and state governments from bulldozing resistance to set up a National Missile Testing Range in an agriculturally rich area in the mid-1980s by displacing some lakhs of people of their land, homesteads, agricultural production, forests and entitlements. A sustained struggle for 12 years against the state by using Gandhian methods of peaceful civil disobedience movement ultimately won and the government was forced to abandon its project. As uneven growth strategies sharpen, the threats to people’s human rights, natural resources, ecology and subsistence are deepening. Peaceful and non-violent protest movements like Baliapal may be emulated in the years ahead.

Grassroots Environmental Activism in an Authoritarian Context: The Trees Movement in Vietnam

There are increasing signs that the space for civil society actions is slowly opening up in Vietnam. The existing studies have linked the changes in civil society action to the changing dynamics of state–society relations in one-party-ruled Vietnam. Yet, the majority of this literature has focused on the activities of NGOs. This article fills this gap by highlighting a high-profile case of civil society activism that is not centred on NGO actions. The Trees Movement is a broad-based citizen-led movement established to protest against Hanoi government’s arbitrary decision to cut down thousands of large old trees lining the city’s streets. I use this case study to argue that citizen-led activism, an emerging form of civic engagement, is likely to play a critical role in effecting change and (re)shaping state-society relations in Vietnam. This form of activism, if sustained, will encourage a move toward more deliberative and accountable politics in the same country in the long run. I also argue that environmental activism has opened up a new arena of contestation for civil society activism in Vietnam.