Movement Leaders Research Articles

Validation of Real-Time Kinematic (RTK) Devices on Sheep to Detect Grazing Movement Leaders and Social Networks in Merino Ewes.

Understanding social behaviour in livestock groups requires accurate geo-spatial localisation data over time which is difficult to obtain in the field. Automated on-animal devices may provide a solution. This study introduced an Real-Time-Kinematic Global Navigation Satellite System (RTK-GNSS) localisation device (RTK rover) based on an RTK module manufactured by the company u-blox (Thalwil, Switzerland) that was assembled in a box and harnessed to sheep backs. Testing with 7 sheep across 4 days confirmed RTK rover tracking of sheep movement continuously with accuracy of approximately 20 cm. Individual sheep geo-spatial data were used to observe the sheep that first moved during a grazing period (movement leaders) in the one-hectare test paddock as well as construct social networks. Analysis of the optimum location update rate, with a threshold distance of 20 cm or 30 cm, showed that location sampling at a rate of 1 sample per second for 1 min followed by no samples for 4 min or 9 min, detected social networks as accurately as continuous location measurements at 1 sample every 5 s. The RTK rover acquired precise data on social networks in one sheep flock in an outdoor field environment with sampling strategies identified to extend battery life.

Dalit/black solidarity: Comrades in the struggle for racial/caste justice

ABSTRACT India’s struggle for caste justice has been likened by many to the struggle for racial justice in the United States. Small wonder then, that the activists who spearheaded the movement for caste justice were inspired by the most famous of the activists in the United States, the Black Panthers of the Black Power Movement of the 1960s and 70s. One of my most memorable encounters from my newsroom days in India in the early 1990s was with Namdeo Dhasal, one of the Dalit activists who had founded the Dalit Panthers movement. This essay draws on that experience, as also some others with the Dalit movement and Dalit leaders in India and links their struggle for social justice with that of African Americans, from the Harlem Renaissance era to the present.

“We Are MAS 2.0”

Flanked by social movement leaders, Luis Arce Catacora stepped forward to claim victory in Bolivia’s presidential race well past midnight on election day. “We have recovered democracy, and we have ...

“Take a Moment to Ask Yourself, If This Is How We Fall Apart?” Practices for Mutually Reinforced Resilience in the Time of Reckoning More Lessons from The Manual for Liberating Survival

ABSTRACT Centering the carework of dismantling technologies of oppression which aim to silence, exploit, and execute us – oftentimes to a point where repair is impossible – Syedullah and Leiner present lessons and activities from their co-created popular education curriculum, “The Manual for Liberating Survival,” a movement leadership training for revolutionary organizing designed to connect abolitionist activists and academics. This article draws lessons from the Manual that focus on healing justice and abolitionist protocols for decarcerating care within movements for social justice. The paper traces not only the transgenerational effects of anti-Black violence, community separation, and racial trauma but also the protocols of repair and resistance Black gender-non-conforming, queer, and trans women are seeding within movement space.

The Myth of the Asturian Radical Miner during the Decarbonisation

The world economy, in the 20th century, went through several energy transitions from charcoal to natural gas, and currently there is a transition to a low-carbon future. The international community is actively promoting the idea of decarbonization, which implies a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions. Although the current level of technology development does not allow abandoning the use of traditional energy sources, a general Western European tendency has already emerged to gradually abandon coal energy, driving the coal industry into another deep crisis. Coal mining is at the heart of the economic and social development of Asturias, and the miners' labor movement was the main social and political pillar of the region throughout the 20th century. Industrial disputes with mining companies and the government, high-profile miners' strikes and radicalism as an important component of the professional identity of miners around the world throughout the 20th century, have created the mythological image of the radical miner. This is the most militant segment of the labor movement, and the influence of the miners' trade unions has turned miners into leaders of leftist movements in many countries. The difficult and dangerous nature of work in an unfavorable environment connects the world history of coal mining with the trade union organizations of miners, the development of mining culture, which at the present time is already considered as an intangible heritage, and since the last third of the 20th century, with the corporate social responsibility of mining companies. Using the method of media analysis, a study of the current situation in the coal industry of Asturias and the vitality of the myth about the radical miner was carried out. Undoubtedly, decarbonization complicates the situation in the coal industry, but the task of the trade unions is precisely to minimize risks for people, to increase the possibility of maintaining wages, retraining, and finding new jobs. Drawing the attention of the state to these problems can help prevent social explosions and harmonize relations in society. But in modern conditions, miners, whose future is ambiguous, no longer possess that mythologized vital force, as it was in the 20th century, but rather depend on the efficiency of communications of the state, mining companies and trade unions.

РАЗРАБОТКА ВОЕННО-ПОЛИТИЧЕСКИМИ ЛИДЕРАМИ БЕЛОГО ДВИЖЕНИЯ КОНЦЕПТУАЛЬНЫХ ОСНОВ ВОСПИТАНИЯ ОФИЦЕРСТВА В ДУХЕ ЛЮБВИ К РОДИНЕ

The author uses the methods of historical study to consider the specifics of the approach of the White movement leaders to educating their officers in the spirit of love for the Motherland during the civil war in Russia in the beginning of the XX century. On the base of the analysis of historical sources, the author traces the continuity of the ideological base of the White movement from the military-patriotic education of tsarist Russia, but also distinguishes its subjective and objective features.

Universidade da vida, ação racional e comunicativa de um líder de movimento social

O objetivo primordial deste artigo é a compreensão das ações sociais desempenhadas por Lourival Soares da Silva, que se destacou por uma vida dedicada à militância nos movimentos dos trabalhadores rurais, atuando há vários anos como presidente da Associação do Assentamento Rio das Pedras, em Uberlândia. Para compreender e analisar suas ações, foi utilizada uma abordagem qualitativa, observacional e também entrevistas semiestruturadas, na perspectiva metodológica da história oral. O referencial teórico consistiu numa combinação da sociologia compreensiva de Max Weber, que tem como fundamento a compreensão da conduta humana dotada de sentido, mais especificamente a ação racional em relação a valores, com a teoria da ação comunicativa de Jürgen Habermas, centrada nas ações orientadas pelos acordos intersubjetivos que se revelam na linguagem e na comunicação. Conclui-se que os significados vinculados às ações sociais executadas pelo líder de movimento social sintetizam-se nas categorias baseadas nos valores igualdade, justiça, direito ao trabalho, diálogo, democracia e ação social coletiva. Além disso, esses padrões éticos e emancipatórios não se resumem ao seu aspecto finalístico, ou em seus resultados, mas, sobretudo no valor de um proceder cotidiano que está muito presente no imaginário dos movimentos sociais.
 Palavras-chave: movimentos sociais, ação social orientada a valores, ação comunicativa, educação extra escolar, liderança.
 
 University of life, rational and communicative action of a social movement leader
 ABSTRACT. This article has as objective the understanding of the social actions performed by Lourival Soares da Silva, who stood out for a life dedicated to activism in the movements of rural workers acting for several years as president of the Rio das Pedras Settlement Association, in Uberlândia. To understand and analyze their actions, a qualitative, observational approach was used and also through semi-structured interviews, in the methodological perspective of oral history. The theoretical framework consisted of a combination of Max Weber's comprehensive sociology, which is based on the understanding of human conduct endowed with meaning, more specifically the rational action in relation to values, with Jürgen Habermas' theory of communicative action, centered on oriented actions by the intersubjective agreements that are revealed in language and communication. It is concluded that the meanings linked to the social actions carried out by the social movement leader are summarized in categories based on the values ​​of equality, justice, right to work, dialogue, democracy and collective social action. These ethical and emancipatory standards are not limited to their finalistic aspect, or their results, but above all in the value of a daily course that is very present in the imagination of social movements.
 Keywords: social movements, social action oriented to values, communicative action, extra-school education, leadership.
 
 Trayectoria de vida, acción racional y comunicativa de un líder de movimiento social
 RESUMEN. Este artículo tiene como objectivo la comprensión de las acciones sociales realizadas por Lourival Soares da Silva, quien se destacó por una vida dedicada a los movimientos de trabajadores rurales, actuando durante varios años como presidente de la Asociación de lo Asentamiento Rio das Pedras, en Uberlândia. Para comprender sus acciones, se utilizó un enfoque cualitativo, observacional y de entrevistas semiestructuradas, con base en la historia oral. El marco teórico consistió en una combinación de la sociología integral de Max Weber, que se basa en la comprensión de la conducta humana dotada de significado, más específicamente la acción racional en relación con los valores, con la teoría de la acción comunicativa de Jürgen Habermas, centrada en acciones orientadas por los acuerdos intersubjetivos que se revelan en el lenguaje y la comunicación. Los significados vinculados a las acciones sociales llevadas a cabo por el líder del movimiento social se resumen en categorías basadas en los valores de igualdad, justicia, derecho al trabajo, diálogo, democracia y acción social colectiva. Estos estándares emancipatorios no se limitan su aspecto finalista o sus resultados, mas sobre todo en el valor de un curso diario que está muy presente en la imaginación de los movimientos sociales.
 Palabras clave: movimientos sociales, acción social orientada a valores, acción comunicativa, educación extra escolar, liderazgo.

Public Opinion Leaders as a Means Of Representing the Image of the Republic of Mordovia

Introduction. The social function of a public opinion leader is to draw public attention to the most important issues of public life, participate in public discussions, explain and influence public opinion. Political communication is implemented in two dimensions – pragmatic and symbolic, which have very close relationships. The symbolic dimension develops and promotes ideas about society that create, maintain, or destroy political identity. For external target groups of image-making (political and business elites, decision-makers at the federal level, investors, highly qualified migrants, partially residents of other regions), significant repeaters of information about the region are representatives of state authorities and management, leaders of political parties and socio-political movements, bright representatives of the political opposition, etc. Materials and Methods. The research methodology was based on the method of cognitive mapping, which allowed analyzing and visualizing information transmitted by public opinion leaders about the regional space, determining the specifics of the perception of the Republic in the external power environment, and a historical and evolutionary approach that made it possible to trace the evolution of content. Time period of the study: 2012–2019. The study traced a series of judgments, stable expressions used by political and public figures about Mordovia, its potential, development prospects, and its leadership. Results and Discussion. Public opinion leaders (political and business elite, party figures, opposition, etc.) are significant repeaters of information about the region. Political communication is implemented in two main dimensions – pragmatic and symbolic, where the latter involves not rational understanding, but the suggestion of stable meanings. Symbolic politics has always been used by the authorities, especially in times of crisis, so the opinions conveyed by person-images become the basis of symbolic capital that promotes ideas about society (territory), creates, supports or destroys political identity. The external image of the Republic of Mordovia, which is formed on the basis of broadcast opinions, is contradictory. During the study period, we can note some evolution of the image of the Republic, broadcast by the leaders of public opinion. Attention to the region is noticeably increasing due to significant events of various scales. The high authority of the former leadership and loyal “electoral behavior” of the region contributed to the creation and broadcast of a positive image from the federal government and was a reason for criticism from opposition leaders. The celebration of the Millennium of unity of the Mordovian people with the peoples of the Russian state in 2012 was perceived positively by the majority of public opinion leaders and was actively broadcast in the media. The inclusion of Saransk among the host cities of the world football championship was received ambiguously: from a positive assessment to skeptical doubts about the correctness of such a choice. The legacy of the championship was not only the modernized infrastructure, but also the aggravated socio-economic problems of the region, which could not but affect its external image. Discussion and Conclusions. Thus, the positive image of the “territory of innovation”, “dynamically developing region with high-quality agricultural products” and “region of spiritual revival” coexists with the image of the territory of “total falsification”. The nature of the broadcast opinions is closely related to the peculiarities of the political situation and the official/oppositional position of the leader of public opinion in the discourse space.

The Analyses of the Idelogy and History of National Outlook Movement in Turkey

This article examines and analyzes the history of the formation and development of the National Outlook Movement in Turkey, its ideology and social base and the main driving forces, as well as the main political parties and their activities. The article also analyzes the historical circumstances that influenced the formation and development of the movement, including the role of the movement's leader, prominent scientist and researcher, professor Najmeddin Erbakan, as well as the reasons for his entry into the political arena and its consequences. The role of N. Erbakan in the political life of Turkey was investigated and tried to be evaluated. It was noted that, the main ideology of the National Outlook parties is a free market economy without interest, the strengthening of production, the establishment of a just society in which basic human rights are protected, and so on.The first openly political Islamist political party in Turkish history was the National Order Party, formed on January 30, 1970. However, the party did not last long and was closed in 1971 by a decision of the Constitutional Court. Instead, party representatives formed the National Salvation Party in October 1972. This party, like all other political parties in Turkey, was closed after the 1980 coup. However, it became a partner of the government for the first time, and one of the most important decisions of this government was send of Turkish forces to Cyprus.With the permission of the National Security Council, the Welfare Party (WP) was formed in 1983 under the leadership of Ahmet Tekdal, representing the same direction. After the lifting of political bans, N. Erbakan was re-elected party leader. The 1990s marked a new stage in the development of the National Outlook movement. The Welfare Party's reputation began to rise. In the 1995 elections, the party won 21 percent of the vote. In 1996, N. Erbakan formed a coalition government with the True Path Party, led by Tansu Chiller. This government resigned as a result of the February 28 process, and the party was dissolved. The members of the party formed the Virtue Party. Disagreements between innovative and conservative groups within the party led to the formation of two political parties, the Justice and Development Party and the Felicity Party, after the party was dissolved in 2001.

The role of social movements in the ‘second incorporation’ of popular sectors in Bolivia and Argentina

Latin American ‘Pink Tide’ has been functionally interpreted as a ‘second wave of incorporation’ of the popular sectors in the polity domain after their ‘disincorporation’ and/or exclusion by authoritarian regimes and/or neoliberal reforms. This contribution proposes a comparative analysis of the roles played by social movements in Bolivian and Argentinean “second incorporations”, by relying on fifty in-depth interviews with partisan and movement leaders in both countries, in order to assess the different characteristics and consequences of the processes of “second incorporation” in the two countries. The paper argues that the extent to which such actors provide an encompassing representation of ‘excluded sectors’ is key to understand how different forms of political incorporation shaped different ‘social blocs’ either supporting or contrasting progressive political projects in power, and eventually created the conditions, in the medium term, for the electoral rise of right-wing opponents.

Land Back: A meta narrative to help indigenous people show up as movement leaders

Present political climate and an increase in visibility and voice for Indigenous people are being leveraged to attract attention to dire social, environmental, and political issues. However, we need a more unified, organized, and coordinated policy platform, strategy, and public response. NDN Collective, an all Indigenous-led and staffed organization devoted to building Indigenous self-determination and power across Turtle Island, provides cohesion through a strong meta narrative of its Land Back campaign and an ecosystem of resources for Native Nations and peoples built around its three pillars: Defend, Develop, and Decolonize. This article shares a brief history of colonization and the lasting impacts of the American Indian Movement of the 1960s and what is needed from Indigenous leadership today. In recognizing that the collective liberation of Indigenous people is bound together with those of other Black and brown relatives, this article also explores our shared history with Black Americans and the success of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Review

Review

INVENTING URBANITY: URBAN MOVEMENTS IN POLAND

The article discusses the process of formation and transformation of urban movements in Poland. Conclusions are based on the data collected during the research project “Urban Social Movements in Poland” supported by the National Science Centre. For the requirements of the project was adopted a method of qualitative research using the techniques of in-depth narrative interviews, participant observations and secondary data analysis. The author conducted 30 in-depth interviews with leaders of urban movements from sixteen cities. The article describes the process of structuralization and the creation of the identity of the Polish urban movement and their role on the local political stage, stressing, in particular, their significant role as creators of a new discourse in Polish cities.

Insurgent Aztlán: The Liberating Power of Cultural Resistance

This is a book review of Insurgent Aztlán: The Liberating Power of Cultural Resistance, written by Ernesto Todd Mireles and published in 2020 by Somos en escrito Literary Foundation Press in Berkeley, California. As the subtitle indicates, this book is about the liberating power of cultural resistance, and in this case the subjects of cultural resistance are Mexican Americans in the South West of the United States of America (USA) who identify themselves as Xicanos. The author, who is a Xicano scholar and organizer, reconstructs the relationship between social and political insurgent theory and Xicano literature, films and myths. Based on decades of organizing experience and a scholarly review of the writings of recognized observers and leaders of national liberation movements, the author provides a remarkable work of scholarship that incorporates not only the essence of earlier resistance writing but also provides a new paradigm of liberation for the particular situation of Mexican Americans in the USA.

Solidarity and Implications of a Leaderless Movement in Hong Kong

In 2019, what began in Hong Kong as a series of rallies against a proposal to permit extraditions to mainland China grew into a raft of anti-authoritarian protests and challenges to Beijing’s grip on the city. Given the gravest political crisis confronting Hong Kong in decades, this research investigates why the protests have lacked centralized leaders and why the solidarity among the peaceful and militant protesters has been immense. This article also examines the strengths and limitations of this leaderless movement with different case studies. The authors argue that serious threats to the commonly cherished values in Hong Kong, amid the absence of stable and legitimate leaders in its democracy movement, underpinned the formation of a multitude of decentralized decision-making platforms that orchestrated the protests in 2019. Those platforms involved both well-known movement leaders organizing conventional peaceful protests and anonymous activists crafting a diversity of tactics in ingenious ways, ranging from economic boycotts, human chains around the city, artistic protests via Lennon Walls, to the occupying of the international airport. The decentralized decision-making platforms, while having generated a boon to the movement with their beneficial tactical division of labor, also produced risks to the campaign. The risks include the lack of legitimate representatives for conflict-deescalating negotiations, rise in legitimacy-sapping violence, and susceptibility to underestimating the risks of various tactics stemming from a dearth of thorough political communication among anonymous participants who had different goals and degrees of risk tolerance. In short, Hong Kong’s anti-extradition movement in 2019 sheds light on the basis of leaderless movements, and on both the strengths and risks of such movements.

Prioritizing Black Self-Determination: The Last Strident Voice of Twentieth-Century Black Nationalism

Black self-determination, like the movement for civil rights, has long been a struggle on both the national and international stage. From the Black consciousness campaign of South Africa to the Black Power crusades of the United States and Caribbean, and the recent global affirmations of Black Lives Matter, Black nationalist ideology and desires for equity and independence seem ever more significant. While marginal characteristics of Black nationalism clearly persist in the calls for justice and equality, only one voice of twentieth-century Black nationalism remains committed to the full dimensions of the Black nationalist agenda. This essay documents the one leader and movement that has remained committed to a Black nationalist platform as a response to persistent white supremacy. The author reflects on the valuable contributions of twentieth-century Black nationalism and what form, if any, Black nationalism will take when this last Black nationalist movement leader is gone.

Radicalism in Mass Movements: Asymmetric Information and Endogenous Leadership

Asymmetric information and diverse preferences for reform create an agency problem between opposition leaders and citizens. Dissatisfied citizens are unsure of how bad the current situation is but infer this information from the scale of the leader’s reform proposal. Because radical leaders have an incentive to exaggerate and mislead, to command credibility, they must paradoxically radicalize the proposal further as a way of signaling the necessity of change. Radicalism motivated by signaling is costly, as it reduces a movement’s chances of success. This mechanism also contributes to leadership radicalization when the leaders of movements arise as a compromise among diverse interests.

Social Media as a Tool of Socio-Political Destabilisation of Society: Lessons, Trends, Prospects

The article analyses the stages of information confrontation in social networks aimed at transforming protest activity from a virtual space into real life in the form of street actions and practical actions to change the current socio-political situation. The author considers one of the critical threats of social media to the socio-political stability of society the attempts of using them to influence changes in the collective psychology, motivation and behaviour of citizens. The author gives examples of the IT industry and government agencies of the United States, whose cooperation provides the United States with unprecedented opportunities to influence the global information space and analyses the experience and methodology of political mobilisation of the masses in social networks during the events of the Facebook revolution in Egypt 2010–2011. Based on the understanding of the real experience, the author identifies the stages and methods of reformatting virtual protest activity in the real one, as well as identifies the biographical features of the leaders of online protest movements and proposes measures to counteract the information threats of social media. According to the author, one of the most effective mechanisms to counter the threats of social media is the implementation of a comprehensive state identity policy focused on maintaining and developing the existing pivot points of the consensus collective national identity of the society.

Between militants and “mafia”: Interrupting dispossession in rural Pakistan

In 2000, one of Pakistan’s largest social movements began: a tenant struggle for land rights on the country’s military farms. Though the military tried to subdue the movement, it eventually succeeded insofar as many tenants stopped paying rent. As a result, villagers experienced a generalized (albeit uneven) prosperity. Certain movement leaders, in particular, became especially wealthy, relocating from their mud houses to big bungalows, replacing their motorbikes with SUVs, and transitioning from tenant farming to lucrative businesses in nearby cities. They also started moving around with armed security, allying with urban elites, and entering Pakistan’s major political parties. Rumors also began spreading that some leaders were using violence or intimidation to accumulate this political-economic power. In the movement’s afterlife, ordinary villagers began to wonder: were their leaders still committed to militantly pursuing villagers’ collective interests? Or were they now using the movement for their own private, even criminal, ambitions?

Born in Cuba, Made in the Americas

Born in Cuba, Made in the Americas