Political Emancipation Research Articles

Emancipatory Politics in a Time of Climate Crisis

Emancipatory Politics in a Time of Climate Crisis

Corrigendum to “Eco-social policies, capitalism and the horizon of emancipatory politics”

Corrigendum to “Eco-social policies, capitalism and the horizon of emancipatory politics”

Blumenberg and Habermas on Political Myths

Myths—symbolically dense narratives in wide cultural circulation that resist critical scrutiny—are often thought to be counterproductive to political discourse, but they are also ubiquitous in contemporary culture and society. Just two years apart, Jürgen Habermas and Hans Blumenberg developed contrasting visions of how we ought to respond to the myths in our society. By reconstructing their disagreement, this paper uncovers the distinctive challenge of balancing a commitment to political emancipation with the opacity of myths to critical reason. I argue for an alternative approach to myths than those in the theoretical mainstream, taking Blumenberg’s relatively neglected position as a starting point. Blumenberg invites us to pay closer attention to the cognitive needs that necessitate the generation of myths while simultaneously reminding us of our own creative agency to reinvent them.

"Da boca do povo na língua errada do povo, língua certa do povo"

For Antonio Candido and Afrânio Coutinho, artistic nationalism was a trademark of Brazilian letters, as it corresponded to the search for a national identity. At the linguistic level, Brazilian writers defended “the Brazilian language” as an element of political emancipation and cultural autonomy. This work aims to show, through excerpts from newspapers and literary supplements from the 20th century, how after Brazil's political independence in 1822, literature was used as an instrument to forge linguistic independence. These debates that lasted throughout the 19th century culminated in the Modern Art Week. Brazilian modernism changed the way we see and think about literature and language. In the 19th century, the invention of the “Brazilian language” became a flag, as the Portuguese norm became an obstacle to national affirmation. In the 1950s, in Brazilian and Portuguese literary supplements, such debates still found resonance.

Feminist Development Justice as Emancipatory Praxis

Abstract This article offers a comprehensive overview of feminist development justice, a transformative framework designed to reduce global inequalities that is being advanced by the Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law, and Development (APWLD). The piece aims to unsettle and expand mainstream development studies literature, which critical scholars argue remains plagued by Eurocentrism and ongoing colonial modes of knowledge production. Additionally, it advocates for more recognition and citation of the grassroots analysis and frontline praxis of progressive social movements in the Global South that are guided by emancipatory politics and feminist ethics. We begin with a synopsis of development studies’ lack of attention to the enduring consequences of race, colonial power, and imperialism, as well as highlight arguments being made about the radical potential yet qualified merit of knowledges generated by social movements. We then present readers with the concept of feminist development justice, the justice-based pillars on which the framework rests, and the political work of the APWLD. The article ends with a succinct conclusion on what is at stake vis-à-vis extractivism and the seemingly intractable “development” challenges at hand and how grassroots social movements can be rich sources to draw from regarding liberatory change and building better worlds.

Post-growth agrifood systems: Towards an emancipatory politics

Abstract A world without hunger demands a post-growth rewiring of the global agrifood system predicated on emancipatory politics that enables reform of actors and institutions outside agriculture. This is necessary to shift out of the prevalent growth-hegemonic framing of agriculture and its contributions to economic growth, where the structural injustice of hunger is rendered invisible. Recent International Relations (IR) scholarship highlights the institutional arrangements underpinning global agrifood problems. This paper uses critical IR theory to understand the structural mechanisms and relations of power through which the growth-hegemonic theorisation of agriculture is produced and reproduced, sustaining hunger within an exceedingly financialised agro-industrial complex. The structural power of knowledge shaping the interlocking structures of finance, production, and security is evident in the extremely high multilevel concentration in modern agrifood systems. This structural power evident in local decentralised agroecological systems and in transnational agrarian movements reflects post-growth principles of sufficiency, shared prosperity, care, ecological and social justice.Together, they are the counter-hegemonic voices, cooperative social systems, and class interests championed by post-growth politics.

When a House Explodes: Remarks on Emancipatory Politics in Times of Crises

When a House Explodes: Remarks on Emancipatory Politics in Times of Crises

When decolonization is hijacked

AbstractThis article asks how we should reconceptualize decolonization when it is hijacked by authoritarian/fascist forces. It focuses on the notorious Bhima Koregaon case in India in which 16 intellectuals/human rights defenders from across the country were imprisoned without trial as alleged terrorists. It shows how, on the one hand, decolonization is hijacked by the Hindu authoritarian regime and, on the other hand, colonial artifacts are resymbolized by the colonized to oppose oppression by native elites. It urges attention to the questions of who is mobilizing the language of decolonization and why. It argues that the most important anticolonial intellectuals may not use the language of decolonization and may not be in universities, but on the streets, with social movements, and in prison. It proposes that contemporary decolonization debates center processes of domination and oppression created by the state and global capital nexus, processes that are cultural, psychological, political, and economic. These processes are shown to entrench casteist/racist hierarchies, work through Indigenous elites, and create internal differentiation within marginalized communities, eschewing a unitary concept of indigenous ontology/cosmopolitics/worldviews. Calls for an emancipatory politics, such as that of decolonizing anthropology or the university, would be well placed to center these global processes and local nuances.

Political Emancipation of Agikuyu Women in Central Kenya and their Shift from Tribal to National Politics

Political Emancipation of Agikuyu Women in Central Kenya and their Shift from Tribal to National Politics

Eco-social policies, capitalism and the horizon of emancipatory politics

Eco-social policies, capitalism and the horizon of emancipatory politics

Introduction

This introduction aims to frame the texts it predates, to highlight their common theoretical and thematic concerns, and to set them against what we envision as a relevant common backdrop for the issues they raise. To this end, we begin from how insufficient acknowledgement of the current genocidal violence carried out against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank by Western feminism is symptomatic of its enmeshment with colonial rationales and imperialist violence. We question the extent of its liberating and emancipatory politics, reading them against the semiperipheral iterations of what Adam Tooze describes as the “polycrisis.” Focused on the gendered aspects of democratic backsliding - broadly understood as a weakening of faith in liberal democracy and the electoral invigoration of the far-right -, the articles included here trace cultural negotiations of gender justice, as it wanes or strengthens across the region. Variously located within broader networks of transnational transfers and global concerns, the articles included here complement relevant work conducted outside the bounds of academic writing. We gesture towards such feminist, anticolonial and antiracist movements which have emerged in Romania, specifically in the literary field, and to their contestation of the patriarchal and deeply unequal national cultural system.

The Happy Builders of New China

Abstract This paper offers an outline of the narratives and perceptions by Italian travellers about the life and social position of Chinese youth in the People’s Republic during the 1950s. Its goal is to explore how the image of Chinese youth under Socialism produced by transnational propaganda in the Socialist cosmopolis and circulating abroad intertwined with the factual observations and the personal assumptions of the Italian intellectuals on the revolutionary social transformation of China in that period. It argues that, although travellers were impressed by the apparent protagonism of the younger generation in the construction of Socialism in China in those years and read it as a symbol of new China, they also speculated on how the conditions of youth after the revolution had really implied a dramatic change in their social and cultural power and in their political emancipation.

De la République Démocratique du Congo voulue indépendante À la République Démocratique du Congo qui commémore ses fêtes d’indépendance

From the Democratic Republic of Congo Seeking Independence to the Democratic Republic of Congo which Commemorates Its Independence Celebrations. On June 30, 1960, the independence of the Belgian Congo, once personal possession for 23 years of the Belgian King Leopold II, was proclaimed as the “Republic of the Congo”. Emery-Patrice Lumumba (1925-1961) played a capital role in this emancipation which resulted in the consecration of Joseph Kasavubu as first President of the Republic of Congo and himself, Emery Patrice Lumumba, as Prime Minister. Congo has proclaimed its independence, but the new country remains plagued by violence and infighting. Belgian troops and peacekeepers from the United Nations intervene in the territory as a standoff begins between Kasavubu and Lumumba. On September 14, 1960, Colonel Joseph Désiré Mobutu led a first coup d’état which was followed by the arrest and assassination of Lumumba. The following years would be punctuated by rebellions and fighting interspersed with ceasefires in protest against the dictatorship established by the Mobutu regime after its second coup d’état, five years later, during a new political crisis. After thirty-two years of unchallenged reign, Mobutu was ousted from power by Mzee Laurent Désiré Kabila in May 1997 and since then, it has been difficult to speak of the real independence of the country, which became the Democratic Republic of Congo. Keywords: formal independence, real independence, Independence Day, Zaïre, Democratic Republic of Congo, colonization, decolonization, political emancipation, sovereignty.

Why the Brazilian Jewish Left Is Not Anti-Zionist

Abstract This paper explores the praxis of the Zionist Left in Brazil, particularly during the 2010s. It argues that the Zionist Left, which claims to be a progressive grouping that stands in solidarity with the oppressed people in Palestine and in Brazil, functions in fact as a colonial counterrevolutionary actor against radical-left emancipatory politics. Indeed, the Zionist Left functions as a gatekeeper, blocking sectors of the Jewish community and the Brazilian Left from joining the growing anti-Zionist decolonial movement in Brazil. This paper aims to show how various Zionist Left groups have historically worked with the Zionist elite and the Brazilian state to undermine anti-Zionist communist Jewish alternatives by resorting to fraudulent discourse and even force in order to build support for the Zionist settler-colonial project in Palestine. This paper utilises a Marxist, anti-Zionist and anti-colonial framework in order to provide a counter-hegemonic critique for an emancipatory praxis that rejects colonialism.

Public History and Emancipatory Politics in Transition: From the Anti-Apartheid Struggle to Democracy in South Africa

Abstract The expansion of public history in the context of the ‘decolonial turn’ has generated conversations about the potential productive and mutually constitutive relations between the two. While recognizing that there is no predetermined connection between public history and emancipatory politics, this paper focuses on the strand in public history associated with movements of anti-colonization and decolonialization. In particular contexts, the ideas and practices of public history can present as acts of resistance, of which there are numerous examples. The focus here is on South Africa where the emergence of people’s history (an early instantiation of public history) was closely associated with the anti-apartheid struggle, itself a late instance of decolonization. People’s history proliferated during the 1980s and was both separately and co-produced by progressive scholars at some universities and activists in the internal liberation movements. The paper examines the evolution of the articulation of public history and emancipatory politics, from the anti-apartheid struggle to the democratic era, with particular reference to universities. Whereas the latter were important sites for the expansion of public history until the early 2000s, the adoption by university managements of corporatist models has reinforced hierarchical relations between institutions of higher learning and outside publics, thus narrowing the scope for the practice of a public history that seeks to maintain and grow its connection to emancipatory politics and movements.

Civic integration and the negation of collective selfhood: A normative analysis through Paul Ricoeur’s notions of identity

ABSTRACT Requirements of immigrants to prove language skills, undertake knowledge tests, or complete courses of civic education, have become central in the process of attaining formal legal membership in the political community. However, while civic integration often is furthered as an emancipatory process and way to strengthen social cohesion, this article maintains that civic integration deviates from a notion of integration as the mutual transformation of migrant and receiving polity alike. Drawing on Paul Ricoeur’s discussion of ipse- and idem-identity, the article analyses the normative underpinnings of civic integration and argues that civic integration is conditioned on a community based in sameness rather than in an inclusive and reciprocal respect for diversity, meaning that civic integration will emerge as strikingly similar to the assimilationist practices it seeks to overcome. Thus, drawing on idem-identity, civic integration is seen to not only defeat its own goals of political emancipation of the migrant and the social cohesion of the community, but also to negate the very possibility of collective selfhood. By contrast, through exploring Ricoeur’s notion of identity as imbued with temporality, this article gestures towards how the normative standards of reflexivity, tolerance and mutuality ought to guide any idea of integration.

The Independence of Brazil and Its Historiography

Abstract This article reviews the main historiographical explanations for Brazil’s 1822 independence from Portugal while presenting a new interpretation of the country’s emancipation process. While previous interpretations emphasized the role of elites in the independence movement, new quantitative evidence sheds light on the profound impact of the Portuguese Empire’s fiscal turmoil, marked by excessive expenditures and inflation, which triggered generalized discontent in both Brazil and Portugal. Political unrest ensued, leading to demands for constitutional change and the end of absolutism. The differing effects of the fiscal crisis in Europe and South America ignited a unified call for reform. Political emancipation therefore occurred in a two-stage process: a liberal revolution followed by constitutional conflict, resulting in Brazil’s independence.

The Resilience of Caste through Yashica Dutt’s Coming Out as Dalit: A Memoir (2019)

India, the largest democracy in the world, has experienced important social advances since its independence in 1947, such as the abolition of untouchability, one of the oldest forms of social segregation and discrimination whose major victims have been the Dalits. The situation of Dalits has undergone a series of changes in the second half of the 20th century due to various phenomena, including the industrialisation of India, the influential social work of Dalit activists and thinkers such as B. R. Ambedkar, and the passing of legal provisions for Dalits’ social inclusion, political emancipation and protection of rights. All these factors, along with a relative democratisation of education, have prompted this historically oppressed group to build a voice.
 
 Since then, Dalit literature has progressively become a platform through which past and present injustices committed against this community are exposed. Lately, the impact that democracy has had on the lives of Dalits has been a questioned topic and Yashica Dutt’s Coming Out as Dalit: A Memoir (2019) is an interesting gateway to it. The author’s gender and geographical position and her particular experience with ‘Dalithood’ result in an unusual but necessary insight into Dalits’ state of affairs in contemporary India. Thus, using Dutt’s memoir as a lens, this paper aims to examine the conditions that led to the perpetuation of a learned helplessness among Dalits, the shortcomings of Sanskritisation as an escape strategy from casteist stigma and the implications of the reservation system set for India’s Depressed Castes.

Political Invisibility: Structural Realism and The Kahnawà:ke Mohawk Nation

This research critically examined the intersection of structural realism, normativity, and political invisibility, with a particular focus on its implications for peripheral actors in international relations (IR), exemplified by the Kahnawà:ke Mohawk Nation. Based on the assumption that structural realism governs Western foreign policy, the research investigated the possibility of political invisibility not as an indication of weakness but as a strategic method for political liberation. Through a theoretical analysis that contrasted the normative assumptions of structural realism with critical theory, a qualitative methodology, integrating a critical literature review and a case study analysis were employed in the research in order to dissect the dynamics of political invisibility and its potential as an emancipatory force. The results indicated that political invisibility, when utilised effectively, can function as a subversive instrument enabling marginalised actors such as the Kahnawà:ke Mohawk Nation to maneuver through and capitalise on the normative oversights of structural realism. This subversion challenges conventional IR perspectives by demonstrating how marginalised groups can assert agency and sovereignty despite systemic exclusion from central dialogues and decision-making processes. The scientific novelty of this study lay in its focused critique of structural realism through the lens of political invisibility and the politics of refusal, offering a unique perspective on the agency of peripheral actors in IR. Its practical significance emerges from the potential applications of these insights in fostering a more inclusive and equitable global political discourse, emphasising the strategic potential of invisibility for political mobilisation and emancipation. By positioning political invisibility as a catalyst for emancipatory politics, this research contributed to a broader discourse on power dynamics within IR, challenging established norms and suggesting a paradigm shift towards recognising and leveraging the political agency of marginalised actors.

Reimagining the municipal economy: The emancipatory politics of the people’s budget movement

Budgets are often thought of as boring, invoking the tedium of bookkeeping. The summer of 2020 suggested otherwise. As America’s plague of police brutality combined with the death-dealing blows of the COVID-19 pandemic and a wave of urban uprising gripped US cities, activists turned their organising attention to municipal budgeting. From Seattle to Atlanta, demands rang out for cities to #defund the police, rethink public safety and adopt budgets for the people. Since then, the people’s budget movement has grown in strength at the municipal level, including in Los Angeles, Chicago, Louisville, Jacksonville, Minneapolis and Nashville, among other cities. What should urban studies scholars make of these struggles and from the aspirations and visions that impel them? This paper uses a case study of the Nashville People’s Budget Coalition (NPBC) to examine how municipal budgeting processes and public financing have become new sites of theorisation, debate and political intervention. We demonstrate how the people’s budget movement offers a new calculus for municipal budgeting that radically reconceptualises the logics of value and care that underpin economic thought and public accounting practices. We conclude by considering avenues through which a scholarly agenda for economic democracy in solidarity with movement organisers could be expanded.