Political Emancipation Research Articles

Why Do I Suffer? Making Emotions Critical to Institutional Work within Oppressive Institutions

What role do affective dynamics play in the reproduction and destabilization of oppressive institutions? Through a qualitative study of the emancipatory journeys of 14 abused Indian women benefiting from the support of a local organization aiming to disrupt institutionalized gendered violence, we found that apathy aggregates over time through the repetition of abuse, the suppression of grief and compassion towards their suffering, the prospect of shame and anger on the part of the familiar and powerful others, and the cultivation of false hope. Systemic power thus seems to operate through the social cultivation of both hopelessness in the powerless and a form of righteous indignation and affective numbness in the privileged, which all participate in normalizing violence against women. Our analysis, however, reveals that the seemingly vicious cycle of oppression, apathy and powerlessness can be disturbed by bottom-up affective intrusions, such as love and fear for one’s children, or the love and courage of a known stranger and familiar others. The organization played an important role in facilitating those mundane affective emancipatory politics, through which these women could regain their right to feel and struggle to develop more life-affirming realities for themselves and their children. In surfacing and unpacking those affective pathways to emancipation from institutionalized gendered violence, we contribute to both scholarship on critical institutional work to disrupt inequalities, which tend to neglect the efforts of the disenfranchised, as well as recent conceptualizations of the role of emotions in the maintenance of oppressive institutions, which has yet to recognize and explore the critical, destabilizing potential of affect in the operations of power.

Question 94: On Philosophy as Subversion, In Response to Dieter Misgeld

Dieter Misgeld: A Philosopher’s Journey from Hermeneutics to Emancipatory Politics, by Hossein Mesbahian and Trevor Norris (2017), is a book-length transcript of a set of wideranging and extensive conversations with Professor Emeritus Dieter Misgeld. These interviews were conducted in 2005, on the occasion of his retirement from teaching at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. The “journey” referenced in the title reflects the sharp distinction between philosophy and politics that appears to inform Misgeld’s views throughout the text. In response to Misgeld, I propose that, while his understanding of philosophy as apolitical or quietist arguably holds on a narrow definition of the term “philosophy,” this definition forecloses a more radical understanding of philosophy as critique. A deeper and broader conception of philosophy as “theory,” I submit, can and should be drawn from the work of first generation Frankfurt School theorists Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno. Properly conceived and undertaken, philosophy as critical theory can and does subvert political power, albeit not in ways that one might predict on the basis of the customary separation of theory and practice. I refer to numerous moments of the discussion to make this case so as to convey the breadth and richness of the book.

Emancipação política por meio de práticas comunicativas alternativas: Lélia Gonzalez no Jornal “Mulherio”

Este artigo analisa as possibilidades de emancipação política das mulheres negras, no começo da década de 1980, a partir da utilização de práticas comunicativas alternativas, nas quais elas tematizaram a própria condição. Para tanto, apresentamos uma análise de um recorte da atuação política da ativista mineira Lélia Gonzalez, sua coluna no jornal Mulherio (1981 - 1988). Nesse periódico ela era a única mulher negra a participar do conselho editorial e a assinar uma coluna. Como recurso metodológico, utilizamos a noção de discurso de Fairclough (1989) e concluímos que, ao se constituir sujeita política de palavra - tematizando às opressões interseccionadas que as mulheres negras sofrem -, Gonzalez promoveu um deslocamento nesse contexto para si e para os seus pares.

A importância política do Rio de Janeiro e de Buenos Aires a partir de 1808, no processo de independência do Brasil e da Argentina: questões gerais

O presente artigo é uma reflexão de parte da minha tese de doutorado e pretende abordar, de forma sucinta, a importância da província do Rio de Janeiro e do Cabildo de Buenos Aires para o processo de emancipação política do Brasil e Argentina, a partir do ano de 1808, fundamental para as transformações políticas na Iberoamérica. Nesse estudo, buscou-se traçar proximidades comparativas que destaquem como as referidas sociedades optaram e levaram a diferentes concepções políticas para seus processos de independência, monarquia e república, mas que ao fim, legitimaram a manutenção de suas respectivas elites sócio-políticas previamente existentes. O uso das fontes para o caso de Buenos Aires foi estabelecido a partir de trabalhos biográficos e manuais, sua discussão, interpretação e análise se segue a partir da reflexão e estudo sobre o tema em consonância a suas perspectivas iniciais.

Cenas de insurgência e figurações secundaristas:

Este artigo é uma reflexão sobre as potencialidades estéticas dos arranjos disposicionais queconstituem as cenas de insurgência do movimento secundarista, que ocupou as ruas e as escolasde São Paulo em 2015. A proposta é pensar sobre a fabulação estética do movimento nos protestosde rua, olhando para as criações dos próprios estudantes, por meio de performances, cartazes eintervenções. Essas reflexões partem do diálogo entre Foucault, Rancière e Deleuze sobre aformação do sujeito político nas resistências. O texto aposta em uma potencialidade da experiênciaestética para a emancipação política do sujeito, bem como a potência das criações que envolvem abricolagem e as urgências da resistência. Ele aponta ainda para a construção da cena insurgentepor meio dos arranjos disposicionais que ela provoca, atentando também para as vulnerabilidadesdos sujeitos envolvidos.

Imaginários anti-coloniais e pós-coloniais:

Partindo de uma reflexão teórica sobre o papel da imagem na consolidação das identidades em processos de luta pela independência, vou procurar realizar um exercício de contrastes entre o cinema anticolonial e o cinema pós-colonial na Guiné-Bissau. O cinema anticolonial surgiu no decorrer da luta armada contra o colonialismo português, tendo sido impulsionado pelo Movimento Tercer Cine e realizado exclusivamente por cineastas não guineenses. Já o cinema pós-colonial, naturalmente encetado por cineastas guineenses, é pautado pelas contradições de uma extrema dependência internacional, mas também pelas potencialidades geradas pela força e autonomia criativa das camadas mais jovens da população. Esta será uma reflexão sobre os conflitos ideológicos e simbólicos gerados pela produção de imagens em processos de luta política e de emancipação social.

The Emancipatory Politics of Anti-Racism

The police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on 25 May 2020, has sparked an unprecedented outpouring of protest, vigils, marches, and demonstrations in every state of the United St...

Grabbing the Sharp End of the Knife to Bring Liberation, Peace and Justice to South Africans: lessons from Ellen Kuzwayo and Phyllis Naidoo

abstract The tableware sparkles, the fresh flower arrangements are fragrant, soft, live jazz music tones permeate the air as the luncheon, which is of a world-class standard, gets underway. I am attending the celebration to mark the opening of new teaching venues at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, named after political stalwarts Ellen Kuzwayo and Phyllis Naidoo. Tributes are paid to these prototypical giantesses, who had worked as teachers during a part of their lives. My interest is piqued: Who were these political icons whose memory was being preserved in the buildings? What obstacles did they experience as women in the struggle for political emancipation? How might these insights inform our cultural identity as South African women in modern day society? In the present, pluralistic, patriarchal South African society, women encounter a multitude of challenges, including HIV and Aids, gender-based violence, unemployment, poverty, workplace gender discrimination and child abuse. However, women have broken the shackles of the past by resisting gender oppression and political injustices. Historically, women experienced exclusion within social and political spheres. For example, it took 31 years before women were permitted to join the African National Congress (ANC). Currently, the invisibility of women, compared to men in South African political history, is attributed in a large part to patriarchy. In order to address this vacuum, I use a feminist lens to look into the past to understand the herstorical accounts of these women, and locate the challenges and enablers which can serve to inform the empowerment of women today and in the future.

Crescenzo Del Monte, jodìo romano: A Jewish-Roman Poet and Linguist in Fascist Italy

Abstract The poetry and socio-linguistic scholarship of Crescenzo Del Monte (Rome, 1868-1935) represent an important contribution to the understanding and preservation of Giudaico-Romanesco, the dialect of the Jews of Rome. Del Monte's assertion that Giudaico-Romanesco represents the closest living descendent of the spoken language of Ancient Rome and the medieval Italian vernacular of Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio, came into irreconcilable conflict with the anti-Semitic, xenophobic, and dialectophobic policies of the regime as the Fascists took control of Italy and exercised ever stricter control over cultural production. Del Monte's work remains fundamental to an understanding of the culture and language of the Jews of Rome in the decades leading up to and following their political emancipation.

Pact with the People?

Pact with the People?

“A plantation can be a commons”: Re‐Earthing Sapelo Island through Abolition Ecology

AbstractThis paper is based on the 2018 Neil Smith Lecture presented at the University of St Andrews. It considers the plantation past/futures of Sapelo Island, Georgia, one of the Sea Islands forming an archipelago along the US Southeastern coast. I work through the abolitionist efforts of the Saltwater Geechee’s who have resided there since at least 1803 to better understand how we can mobilise an emancipatory politics of land and property and to produce commons that work to repair and heal the violence done through enslavement and ongoing displacement. I weave together a series of historical threads to better situate linked ideas of abolition democracy and abolition geography, and to extend the notion of abolition ecology as a strategic notion to connect Eurocentric based political ecologies with the emancipatory tradition of Black geographies.

Agrarian anarchism and authoritarian populism: towards a more (state-)critical ‘critical agrarian studies’

ABSTRACT This paper applies an anarchist lens to agrarian politics, seeking to expand and enhance inquiry in critical agrarian studies. Anarchism's relevance to agrarian processes is found in three general areas: (1) explicitly anarchist movements, both historical and contemporary; (2) theories that emerge from and shape these movements; and (3) implicit anarchism found in values, ethics, everyday practices, and in forms of social organization – or ‘anarchistic’ elements of human social life. Insights from anarchism are then applied to the problematique of the contemporary rise of ‘authoritarian populism’ and its relation to rural people and agrarian processes, focusing on the United States. Looking via an anarchist lens at this case foregrounds the state powers and logics that underpin authoritarian populist political projects but are created and reproduced by varying political actors; emphasizes the complex political identities of non-elite people, and the ways these can be directed towards either emancipatory or authoritarian directions based on resentments towards state power and identifications with grassroots, lived moral economies; and indicates the strategic need to prioritize ideological development among diverse peoples, in ways that provide for material needs and bolster lived moral economies. The paper concludes with implications for the theory and practice of emancipatory politics.

Diálogos públicos interseccionais

Localizada na região do Recôncavo da Bahia, a cidade da Cachoeira possui história singular nas relações de luta pela existência política e imaginária, desde a sua participação decisiva nas lutas pela emancipação política do Brasil à constante resistência da população negra que sobrevive às heranças da escravidão. Desde 2017, temos notado a emergência de graffitis que põem em circulação narrativas e imaginários associados ao reconhecimento das singularidades e potências da mulher, superação da opressão masculina, relações entre o corpo feminino e a natureza e entre o corpo da mulher e diversas ancestralidades ligadas à religiões afro-brasileiras, que também tem tomado as redes sociais digitais ampliando as possibilidades de significação, como é o caso do perfil asparedesdocahlfalam, no instagram. Aqui, buscaremos explorar a dimensão política-comunicativa das expressividades artísticas das práticas de escrita da cidade, relacionando com as condições de possibilidades de invenção, encontro e contextos históricos culturais.

A escolarização de jovens privados de liberdade no Centro Socioeducativo Santa Juliana

A preocupação basilar deste estudo é refletir sobre as práticas socioeducativas de jovens privados de liberdade, com destaque para a escolarização como meio de emancipação política dos sujeitos responsabilizados pelo cometimento de atos infracionais. Este artigo tem como objetivo analisar os espaços e as condições em que ocorre o processo formal de ensino-aprendizagem de adolescentes e jovens internados (provisórios e sentenciados) no Centro Socioeducativo Santa Juliana, localizado em Rio Branco, Capital do Estado do Acre, à luz dos parâmetros do Sistema Nacional do Atendimento Socioeducativo (SINASE) e legislações que tratam do tema de forma específica. Para alcançar os objetivos propostos utilizamos como recurso teórico-metodológico a pesquisa documental (análise pormenorizada de materiais já publicados na legislação brasileira e estadual), bibliográfica (análise de artigos e obras de autores renomados na área de educação e socioeducação) e empírica. O recorte temporal da coleta de dados possui como registro os meses de junho a agosto de 2016, por meio do acompanhamento da rotina institucional e da análise de dados fornecidos pela administração da Unidade socioeducativa que é realizada pelo Instituto Socioeducativo (ISE). A análise possibilitou aos pesquisadores concluírem que as condições estruturais e de superlotação impossibilitaram, no período analisado, a garantia de escolarização a todos os internos, contribuindo com a precarização do atendimento socioeducativo e o diagnóstico da violação de direitos fundamentais estabelecidos pelo Estatuto da Criança e do Adolescente.

Odrodzona brytyjskość postdewolucyjnej Walii. Reintegracja wewnętrzna Wielkiej Brytanii w warunkach Brexitu

Article describes Welsh authorities attempt to enhance their political position (achieved as a result of the devolution reform) as some sort of compensation for the Brexit negative impact on economic and social development of the region. The conception created by Carwyn Jones’ Government could not been presented as an alternative to focusing autonomous processes on gaining independence, because of Welsh people lack of interest of the latter solution. As an effect it has been completely ignored by the national authorities. Inability to implement the Scottish model of political emancipation (in the context of step-by-step exception of the European Union regional policy mechanisms in the United Kingdom) has become a factor stimulating real re-Britisation of Wales process

“Improbable Spectacles”: White Supremacy, Christian Hegemony, and the Dark Side of the Judenfrage

ABSTRACT This article works to clarify the dynamics of Jews, white supremacy, and Christian hegemony in the United States by addressing Karl Marx’s attention to the “free states of North America” in his infamous review essay “On the Jewish Question” (1844). Marx’s review discloses both the Christian form of subjectivity universalized by political emancipation and the racial whiteness upon which Jewish emancipation rested in settler-colonial territory. Together, these paths untraveled but implied by Marx demonstrate the complementarity of Jewishness and whiteness in the racial imagination of US democracy, dismantle assumptions that antisemitism and white supremacy are necessarily isomorphic, and suggest how Jewish inclusion as citizens in the democratic state signals the constitution of a Judeo-Christian subject.

A Socialist Compass for Aotearoa


 In this article, I argue that both tino rangatiratanga and socialism lie at the heart of emancipatory politics in Aotearoa New Zealand. For Māori, the economy has always been a dynamic site of interaction with the state and corporate bodies, and today the Māori economy is celebrated by some as a space where tino rangatiratanga can be realised. For the most part, though, the capitalist economy has been a site of exploitation for Māori. Given the inextricable relations between capitalism and colonialism, I present the case for Māori socialism as an emancipatory response to both. To do so, I employ Erik Olin Wright’s socialist compass, a conceptual tool that points to a variety of economic pathways towards socialism. But there is a major problem with Wright’s compass: it only has three points (state power, economic power, and social power). I extend Wright’s vision for socialism by completing the compass, adding to it a much needed fourth point: tino rangatiratanga. The resulting ‘Aotearoa socialist compass’ can be used to orient us towards Māori socialism—a socialist economy in which tino rangatiratanga is realised.

Opening the (Muslim) woman’s space—The Soviet politics of emancipation in the 1920s–1930s

The emancipation of the “woman of the East” constituted an important part of the Soviet cultural revolution campaign of the 1920s–1930s. This article has as its aim the exploration of the Soviet discourses and the practices of emancipation of the “woman of the East,” with a focus on the Muslim woman of the Volga-Ural region. I show that the Bolshevik attempts at transforming the everyday life of the “woman of the East,” in spite of their anti-colonial rhetoric, often followed the Russian imperial scripts and the logic of the civilizing mission. In contrast to Muslim modernism’s ideas on the compatibility of modernity with Islam, the Bolshevik secular and declaratively ungendered modernity aimed for the destruction of the separateness of male and female spaces and their conversion to the common space of the communist collectivity. However, the discourse on the special “backwardness” and “slave-like” situations of the Muslim woman contradicted these aspirations and led to her “Otherness” rather than emancipation and equality inside the Soviet system.

For emancipation: a Marxist critique of structure within critical realism

PurposeThe authors critique Modell's proposition that critical realism is useful in elucidating and creating possibilities for emancipation.Design/methodology/approachThe authors begin by outlining Modell's conception of enabling structures. If ‘activated’ by reflexive individuals, these are theorised to be a mechanism through which agents can begin to emancipate themselves. However, the authors argue that emancipation must be contextualised within the material realities of global capitalism, paying particular attention to the shape of inequality and the subjects of exploitation. In doing this, they draw on Marx to pose an alternative view of structure.FindingsIn offering a Marxist critique of critical realism, the authors show how capitalist superstructure and base work together to reinforce inequality. In doing this, they highlight the enduring importance of collective action as the engine of emancipation. It is for this reason that they advocate for an emancipatory politics, which is collectively informed outside of, and in conflict with, the logics of capitalism.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors argue that explicit discussions of capitalism and its structures must be at the centre of critical accounting research, especially when it pertains to emancipation.Originality/valueGiven the importance of the conceptual framing of critical accounting research, this article suggests that critical realism has much to offer. That said, the authors draw on Marx to raise a number of important questions about both the nature of structure and the identity of reflexive agents within critical realism. They do this to encourage further debate about the emancipatory possibilities of the critical accounting project and the ideas proposed by Modell (2020).

Il realismo della sorveglianza e le politiche dell’immaginazione: non c’è alternativa? Translated by Philip Di Salvo

This article engages with the interplay between data-driven surveillance and contemporary social imaginaries, using research based on the aftermath of the Snowden leaks. Drawing on Mark Fisher’s use of the term “realism” in relation to capitalist realism, I advance the argument here that public debate and response to the Snowden leaks indicate a similar ‘‘pervasive atmosphere” that comes to regulate thought and action, in which the active normalization of surveillance infrastructures limits the possibilities of even imagining alternatives – a condition I describe as “surveillance realism”. In so doing, the article posits a way to reveal the contingency and construction of our current digital environment, advancing a critique suitable for an emancipatory politics.
 Translated by Philip Di Salvo