Movement Leaders Research Articles

Afterword

On one hand, the excess marked by grace is unquantifiable, challenging the order of the world and opening to the new. On the other hand, grace and its promise are used by the powers that be to naturalise themselves and manage dissent. Black American discourse around racism illustrates this tension, with elected leaders like Barack Obama using grace in the service of power, social movement leaders suspicious of performances tied to grace, and scholars navigating our instinct to be critical and our instinct to use critique as its own form of grace. Meditating on these questions opens lines of inquiry where theology and anthropology connect, including around the aesthetics of grace, the morality of grace, the relationship between trauma and grace, and the authorship of grace.

Growing Up Indio during the Mexican Miracle: Childhood, Race and the Politics of Memory

AbstractThis article explores the childhood of a Mexican Indigenous activist, Raúl Javier Gatica Bautista, who was born in 1963 in the Oaxacan market town of Tlaxiaco. Growing up in poor circumstances, Gatica would become a leader in the social movements that between the 1980s and early 2000s pushed Mexico toward gradual democratic reform. The article seeks to describe what it was like to grow up poor and Indigenous at a time (later dubbed the Mexican Miracle) of impressive social and economic advances. Paying special attention to the experience of racial abuse, the article also asks how Gatica's childhood came to inform his political militancy. While other historians have linked the phenomenon of political radicalism in twentieth-century Latin America to particular social conditions, or to the influence and adaptation of global ideologies, this article seeks the origins of Gatica's radicalism in the experience of a racialised childhood.

Perceptions in Uhuru-Raila 9th March, 2018 Handshake Discourse in Kenya’s Print Media

In Kenya, the handshake between President Uhuru Kenyatta and Orange Democratic Movement (henceforth referred to as ODM) leader, Raila Odinga, on 9th March, 2018 elicited diverse discourse on the phenomenon. The print media was replete with the discourse on the Uhuru-Raila handshake. This particular handshake ostensibly surpassed the traditional social purview of handshakes as polite greetings. Its conceptualization by Kenyans definitely eluded the precinct of handshakes as greeting occurrences hence the extensive discourse on it. The purpose of the paper was to evaluate the effect of the handshake on the perception of Kenyans by undertaking an analysis of the handshake discourse in Kenya’s print media. The study was guided by Systemic Functional Grammar theory by Halliday (1975). The study adopted analytical research design and data was qualitatively analysed as per the tenets of the aforementioned theory. The study concluded that the Uhuru-Raila handshake had significant influence on the perception of Kenyans on socio-economic and political issues in the country.

Playing on a moving pitch: foregrounding the impact of sociocultural contexts on social movements and brands

ABSTRACT The actions of brands, consumers, and social movements are inextricably linked to the sociocultural context. However, researchers have often under-theorised the impact of sociocultural contexts on market actors. Following a systematic literature review and a longitudinal case study of the 2014 FIFA World Cup based on interviews with social movement leaders and archival data from traditional media and social media, we argue that sociocultural contexts are not always stable and may shape (i.e. provide social norms and ideologies for) and anchor (i.e. offer mobilisable resources for) the actions of social movements and brands. We establish the notions of Convergent Sociocultural Shaping and Convergent Sociocultural Anchoring – and their antitheses – to illustrate different scenarios in connection to the impact of sociocultural contexts on activism and brands.

Креативность и кризис – новые ресурсы коммерческой организации в условиях цифровой трансформации

In difficult, unpredictable, crisis conditions, organizations are forced to look for new approaches to maintain their competitiveness in the market.The main goal of scientific work is to analyze approaches to transforming the management style of a modern organization. The author notes that creativity and crisis become the powerful resources for changing the company in the context of digital transformation. The article substantiates theoretical provisions on the problem of creativity as a scientific category, developed practical recommendations for organizing the creative process, creating a productive creative environment, using the potential of individual and team creativity, determined the parameters and conditions for cooperation between corporations and the creative class in the person of free agents, leaders of movements and communities. The need to transform the models of organization management in a crisis using the possibilities of creativity as a new resource of the organization is justified.

Dalit Movement in Karnataka: Current Challenges and Intersectional Aspects

This paper, based on the findings of a research project, draws on secondary literature along with field interviews in order to discuss challenges for and intersectional aspects of the Dalit movement in contemporary Karnataka. Dalit movement in contemporary Karnataka is characterized by increasing internal heterogeneity, complexity, and intersectionality. On the one hand, Dalit movement has to face up the challenge of reorganizing itself by overcoming the internal conflicts and contradictions. The issues of the left and the right or Madigas and Holeyas, shifting with regional specificities, has divided Dalit politics. This division is sharper on the issue of reservation. There has been a consolidation of the sub-caste identity within the larger Dalit politics. Also, Dalit politics is internally split with mushrooming of different Dalit Sangharsh Samiti (DSS). On the other hand, women’s participation in Dalit movement of the state is very discouraging. This also is one of the reasons for weakening of the Dalit movement. The movement leadership is increasingly realizing that it has been unable to address the intersectionality between caste and gender. Based on the new realization, the movement has progressively shifted its focus from difference to radical interrelatedness.

May no one say "I will never drink of this water": agricultural production and water pollution in western Santa Catarina State, Brazil

Humans cannot live without water. Whether to quench one's thirst or to supply the foods that humans need, water is always indispensable. Water is present in everything we need to reproduce. From this perspective, the article aims to outline the current state of production and use of water in rural areas in western Santa Catarina State, Brazil, from the perspective of family farmers and leaders of various rural organizations and social movements. We interviewed 30 family farmers from six communities in different micro regions of western Santa Catarina, as well as 20 leaders of social and family farming organizations in the region. The findings included the intense process of contamination of water sources with agricultural pesticides, silting of rivers and creeks, recovery of water production on hillside areas, exponential growth in the use of water from artesian wells to supply farm properties, and microclimatic changes around hydroelectric reservoirs. The study concludes that family farmers have a historical and cultural concern with the availability of water. Still, market demands for crop and livestock produce and the interests of companies that supply pesticides determine the degree of care for water and its preservation. The culture and history of family farming in this region is an ally for Brazilian society that must be protected from dominant agribusiness groups to provide positive responses for preserving water as a precious good and to continue to supply healthier foods.

Sudan after Omar al-Bashir: A territory of instability

Sudan has a long history of civil wars and conflicts, much of which occurred during the 30-year (1989-2019) rule of Omar al-Bashir. The crisis in the Arab world, which came to be known as the “Arab Spring” and manifested itself in the early 2010s in major political upheavals in North Africa, did not spare Sudan, which has experienced several waves of popular protests over the past decade. The political situation in this country has noticeably worsened due to the loss of most of the oil fields as a result of the division of Sudan in 2011 into two states - the Republic of Sudan (RS) and the Republic of South Sudan (RSS). While mutinies by soldiers and officers were a common occurrence in the RS, it was the mass protests in late 2018 and early 2019, organized by the civil opposition and dubbed the “December Revolution” that provoked the military coup in 2019, which resulted in the overthrow of the long-lived president. However, the establishment of a transitional military-civilian government did not resolve the numerous contradictions in Sudanese society - between the army and civil society, individual security agencies, the ruling coalition and the leaders of the rebel movements, with whom a peace agreement was signed. Political instability was exacerbated by economic problems associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, and on October 25, 2021, another military coup took place, which, however, was not accompanied by regime transformation or significant changes in the composition of the ruling group, but allowed the military to extend the transition period and delay the transfer of supreme power in Sudan to civilians. Meanwhile, the intensity of military and political contacts between the Russian Federation and Sudan created a solid foundation for the expansion of bilateral relations, which continued to develop after the ouster of Omar al-Bashir.

Н. В. Чайковский и А. И. Деникин: диалог, сотрудничество и противоречия лидеров антибольшевистского движения в годы Гражданской войны в России. По страницам документов российских и зарубежных архивов

The article presents the activities of the anti-Bolshevik movement leaders, N.V. Tchaikovsky in the North and General A.I. Denikin in the South of Russia in the days of the Civil War. The object and aim of the research is to analyze their relations, dialogue, collaboration, and contradicting views on state building, interrelations of civil and military powers, relations with the foreign allies by studying archival documents. Most of the studied documents are from documentary collections of the former Russian Historical Archive Abroad in Prague transferred in 1946 to Moscow and now mostly stored in the State Archive of the Russian Federation: personal provenance fonds of N. V. Tchaikovsky and A. I. Denikin, documentary collection of the “Society of Northerners.” The article analyzes a long letter written by Tchaikovsky and addressed to Denikin (April 1919), where he assesses organization of power in the Northern Region, relations of the military, including foreign allies and Commander-in-Chief of the Entente forces, with the government of the Northern Region. It presents documents on Tchaikovsky’s views on the political process in South Russia at the time when he was a member of the Russian Political Delegation of the Russian Political Conference in Paris; on relations of the White movement with nationalities. The article highlights Tchaikovsky’s meeting with the Polish leader Josef Pilsudski in an attempt to organize a military alliance of Denikin’s forces with Poland. It assesses Tchaikovsky’s participation in the South Russian Government in 1920 and his relations with General Denikin at the same period. Tchaikovsky sought to implement a “middle” course, balancing the “left” and the “right” fractions, civil and military powers; to demonstrate democratic nature of the Government; and to gain support of a considerable part of the population, while General Denikin was in favor of military dictatorship. Neither approach brought success to the anti-Bolshevik movement in the Civil War. However, identifying and introducing into scientific use documents of these two leaders of the anti-Bolshevik movement is important for proper understanding of its history.

ПРОСОПОГРАФИЧЕСКИЙ ПОДХОД В УКРАИНИСТИКЕ (КОНФЕРЕНЦИЯ "БЕЛОРУССИЯ И УКРАИНА: ЛЮДИ И ИДЕИ", ИНСТИТУТ СЛАВЯНОВЕДЕНИЯ РАН, 19 ОКТЯБРЯ 2021)

On October 19, 2021, the Institute of Slavic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences held an International Scientific Conference “Belarus and Ukraine. People and Concepts”, arranged by the Eastern Slavs Department employees. The main purpose of the conference was to introduce and discuss the prosopographic research results in the field of Ukrainian and Belarusian history. During the conference, it was scheduled to cover the issues of creation of national movement leaders’ collective portraits, as well as carriers of the national concept against the imperial history background. It was also expected to discuss issues related to the studying of national historical aspects of religions, family history, and women’s history. The conference, which was held in combined format (face-to-face and by Zoom), was attended by specialists in Ukrainian and Belarusian Studies from Moscow, Minsk, Grodno, Warsaw, Prague. The Russian scientific community was represented by the members of the Institute of Slavic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Russian History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russian State University for the Humanities The conference became a debut in the field of prosopography for the Institute of post-Soviet and Interregional Studies, which presented a study of UkrainianFinnish relations in the early twentieth century.

신해혁명과 한국 - 한인 지사 金秉萬의 河南에서의 활동을 중심으로 -

This article closely tracks the activities of Kim Byung-man (金秉萬, 1872-1932), a Korean independence activist who fled to Henan(河南) province of China in November 1909, just before Korea became a Japanese colony. Having insisted on the restoration of the Joseon Dynasty and the implementation of the constitutional monarchy, he turned into a republican immediately after the exile through active exchanges with local Chinese revolutionary leaders such as Yang Yuanmao(楊源懋), and Liu Jixun(劉積勛). He also interacted with the revolutionary movement leaders in Henan and Shandong(山東) provinces, and responded to theirs requests for support in cooperation with Cho Seonghwan(曺成煥), who were active in Beijing at that time. Kim Byung-man’s thought and activities show the influences of the Xinhai Revolution on Korea, as well as the Koreans’ widespread support for the revolutionary movements not only in the principal centers of the revolution like Guangdong(廣東), Shanghai(上海), or Nanjing(南京), but also in other parts of China. In this sense, the Xinhai Revolution was not just a republican revolution of a particular country China, but a republican revolution of all of East Asia.

Surviving the Strain of Youth Organizing: Youth and Organizational Responses

Youth of Color in the United States are often leaders in movements for social justice. Evidence suggests that organizing has a positive macro-therapeutic effect on the mental health of young organizers; however, they can also experience strain and become targets of the very systems they are trying to change. In a community-based participatory action research study, three organizations that train youth of Color in organizing in Brooklyn, New York City held focus groups with youth and adult staff. The focus groups examined the strains experienced by youth organizers and the strategies adult partners use to prepare organizers to maintain hope and well-being. Findings suggest four key emergent strategies: (a) provide an emotional homespace to process the rub between worlds, (b) actively shape the long view on systems change, (c) increase self-care skills and emotional preparation for organizing, and (d) promote healing by building leader(full) communities.

Mock meat, masculinity, and redemption narratives: vegan men’s negotiations and performances of gender and eating

ABSTRACT Veganism’s visibility has soared in recent years. Contemporary veganism has built a trident approach of outreach that emphasises health benefits, ethical concerns about animals, and environmentally sustainable consumption. With this growth, there have been opportunities for influencer-activists to profit from positioning themselves as movement leaders. This is often connected with thin, white, wealthy women and the wellness industry, but there is also a changing ‘meatless masculinity’ within vegan influencer-activist spaces. Hegemonic ideals of masculinity around physical strength and virility are being hyper-individualised to ‘sell’ veganism through embodied and cultural performances of ‘redemption narratives’ by vegan influencer-activist men. However, in interviews with vegan men in Britain, their relation to these meatless masculinities was found to be in tension with hegemonic masculinity. Interviewees instead related their veganism to an ungoverning of masculine bodily ideals. Veganism was revealed in the interviews as entangled with men representing themselves as part of a progressive masculinity that engages with feminist ideas, even if they are sometimes misunderstood. In this paper, I explore the prevalence and purpose of these masculinity narratives online through social media examples, before exploring a contradictory growth in the re-thinking and rejection of hegemonic masculinity within the vegan constituency through interviews. I conclude that while vegan masculinities offer the potential for men to be a little less governed by gendered norms there remains a need for vegans to more fully embrace a feminist and intersectional veganism that is not dominated by whiteness and masculinist ideals.

North America needs Youth, Peace and Security: young people shifting tides for positive peace

The United Nations' Youth, Peace and Security (YPS) agenda ensures and demands the protection and recognition of young people's roles in peace and security. This article focuses on why domestic YPS implementation is needed with the rise of social justice activism by young people in North America.
 
 The rise of youth activism and youth leadership in social justice movements has given a space for the global political agenda to challenge traditional approaches to "peace and security" frameworks. This includes challenging pre-conceived notions of YPS - and its policy frameworks - as a 'foreign' agenda by North American and other Western countries. We argue that this global shift in youth social justice activism demonstrates the need for critical domestic implementation and policy priorities for the YPS agenda within traditional donor- or Western- States, using Canada and the United States as case studies.

Opinion leadership in a leaderless movement: discussion of the anti-extradition bill movement in the ‘LIHKG’ web forum

ABSTRACT Contemporary networked social movements are often described as leaderless. However, social influence is inevitably unevenly distributed across participants, so informal and diffused leaders do exist. This study contends that analysis of informal and diffused leadership in networked social movements should examine whether such leadership is stable and what factors might explain who can take on a leadership role. Starting from these premises, this study investigates discussions of the Anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill Movement in Hong Kong on the online forum LIHKG. Analyzing millions of movement-related and non-movement-related comments revealed that influence was highly unevenly distributed and that opinion leadership was more unstable in movement-related discussions. Opinion leadership was related to personal characteristics and communication activities, but sometimes in ways that were specific to movement-related discussions. Moreover, opinion leadership tended to stabilize over time. The findings provide insights into the characteristics of informal and diffused leadership in networked social movements.

Beyond the “republican family”: intergenerational memory, biography, and politics in Ireland since 1969

ABSTRACT Signalling the longevity of their struggle, Irish republicans active since 1969 frequently highlight family connections among previous generations of militant activists. First, this article interrogates how activists without republican lineage narrate their mobilisation and position themselves within the movement. Republicans without familial access to the movement, it is argued, frame their own commitment as uniquely independent, intense, and reflective. The article’s second section examines the contentious, metaphorical formulation of “family” within Irish republicanism since the peace process of the 1990s. To maintain internal unity amid strategic reorientation, the Provisional movement leadership invoked a “republican family” within which misgivings and dissent could be contained and overcome. Conversely, Sinn Féin’s republican critics rejected the Provisionals’ attempts to delimit the “family.” Simultaneously, senior Sinn Féin representatives strategically warned the London and Dublin governments of the volatility of the “family”: sustaining the peace process, they claimed, required state actors to accommodate an enduringly truculent republican rank-and-file. Drawing upon republican oral histories and written autobiography, this article elucidates how republican families – both literal and metaphorical – have alternately cohered and stabilised the movement. It illuminates a continual contest for intergenerational political legitimacy, and for the right to determine the principles and programme of the republican “family.”

Community-Driven Curating in Per(Sister): Incarcerated Women of Louisiana

The exhibition Per(Sister): Incarcerated Women of Louisiana (2019) developed community-driven and co-productive curatorial practices through a partnership with directly impacted stakeholders. This article presents three characteristics that made the partnership between the Newcomb Art Museum and consultants from a community of formerly incarcerated women and activists in New Orleans a success: an understanding of the politics of both the issue and the site, a sharing and collective building of power, and a polyvocal exhibition format. Within the context of the role of curating in struggles for social justice, this article outlines the importance of working with external actors, such as movement leaders and activists, to ensure accountability, equity and reciprocity in exhibitions that address social issues.

Os efeitos dos movimentos rurais e das oportunidades políticas na construção do programa de compras governamentais do Rio Grande do Norte

The article examines the role of the political influence of social movements in the elaboration and approval of the State Program for Government Procurement of Family Farming and Solidarity Economy (PECAFES) in Rio Grande do Norte. For this purpose, a dialogue is established with the literature on the impact of the actions of social movements on public policies. The initial hypothesis was that social movements took advantage of the political opportunity of the 2018 elections in RN to propose a policy of access to institutional markets. The question, therefore, became, how was it possible for this policy to enter the government agenda and have unanimous approval in the legislative assembly? The methodology adopted is essentially qualitative. Interviews were carried out with the main leaders of the rural movements and with government representatives, in addition to analysing the speeches and narratives of the actors in public hearings and in newspapers and magazines, together with other relevant documents. The results show that three factors were essential for the social movements to be able to promote this policy: these movements’ history of organization in the state, guaranteeing a well-defined proactive agenda; the window of political opportunity created by a government open to social movements; and, finally, the non-identification of veto points to the program in the Legislative Assembly.

Review: Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality for All, by Martha S. Jones

Review: <i>Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality for All</i>, by Martha S. Jones

#fighteverycrisis: Pandemic Shifts in Fridays for Future’s Protest Communication Frames

ABSTRACT This qualitative social media framing analysis captures the discursive engagement with COVID-19 in Fridays for Future’s (FFF) digital protest communication on Facebook. In offering comparative insights from 457 posts across 29 public pages from FFF collectives in the European Union, this study offers the first analysis of social movement frames employed by FFF during the pandemic. By coding all Corona-related messages across collectives, we chart three framing processes: adaptation (compliance, solidarity), reframing (reclaiming the crisis, nexus between climate and health), and mobilization (sustained involvement, digital protest alternatives). We discuss our findings alongside social movement framing theory, including frame bridging and scope enlargement to accommodate the pandemic topicality into FFF’s environmental master frame, and frame development by FFF movement leaders. This study thus provides key insights into discursive shifts in social movements brought on by external crises that threaten to marginalize the cause and demobilize adherents.