Political Practice Research Articles

Strengthening academia: embracing an open dialogue on fieldwork in the authoritarian states of Central Asia

ABSTRACT Students embarking on fieldwork across Eurasia, Africa and Latin America will encounter various political practices of regimes and conflicts involving varying levels of open violence. Although they leave their universities equipped with often stunning theoretical and methodological knowledge, surprisingly little attention is paid to practical preparation for uneasy situations. Fieldwork handbooks do exist, but they rarely offer positionality-sensitive guidelines and cannot provide ongoing mentoring during fieldwork or debriefing upon return. Drawing on previous scholarship initiatives and my experiences conducting field research in authoritarian Central Asia, I call for an open academic debate on fieldwork in challenging contexts and increased peer-to-peer solidarity at all academic levels. Addressing teaching professionals, advanced PhD students and anyone else involved in teaching and training newcomers in research and learning, I offer specific examples of what such a cooperation and support leading to a more resilient community may look like in everyday academic and research practice.

In the shadow of the tree: The diagrammatics of relatedness in genealogy, anthropology, and genetics as epistemic, cultural, and political practice.

The preferred tool for conceptualizing, determining, and claiming relations of kinship, ancestry, and descent among humans are diagrams. For this reason, and at the same time to avoid a reduction to biology as transported by terms such as kinship, ancestry, and descent, we introduce the expression diagrammatics of relatedness. We seek to understand the enormous influence that especially tree diagrams have had as a way to express and engage with human relatedness, but hold that this success can only be adequately understood by attending to what in fact are broader diagrammatic practices. These practices bring to light that diagrams of relatedness do not simply make visible natural connections, but create or deny relations in particular ways and for particular reasons. In this special section, contributors investigate diagrams of relatedness in genealogy, heredity, as well as biological and social anthropology. Conceiving of diagrams as techniques that transcend such binaries as 'thought and action' and 'image and text', we aim at an understanding of how they were constructed and how they functioned in particular epistemic, cultural, and political contexts.

GREEN INFORMALITIES AS SOCIALLY JUST ECOLOGICAL INFRASTRUCTURE: Enduring with Dignity at the Edges of Resilient Development in Dhaka

AbstractEcological infrastructure and urban agriculture are enacting a green resurgence in cities. In the global South, however, ecological infrastructure is often premised on erasing already existing informal agricultural practices (green informalities) and leads to the displacement of marginalized urban dwellers. How, then, can ecological infrastructure be calibrated with the specific realities of the global South's green informalities? What other socially just modalities of infrastructure can be learned from the vantage point of informal settlements? Past urban scholarship has documented the crucial role of urban agriculture in addressing food insecurity and poverty in the global South, yet the symbolic, collective and political dimensions of agricultural practices are absent from these accounts. Drawing from critical urban scholarship and feminist political ecology, and based on engaged research with a collective of urban farmers facing eviction, I argue that green informalities bring together dwellers and plants in an intimate entanglement in the everyday gendered politics of endurability and collective power‐building at the settlement level. The article illustrates that the informal economic and political practices that constitute these green informalities are crucial for understanding grassroots practices vis‐à‐vis urban environments. Recognizing the political and affective dimensions of green informalities can move urban studies and governance towards a situated appreciation of informal urban agriculture as socially just ecological infrastructure that centers justice and dweller agency.

To Remake the World: Frantz Fanon and Martin Luther King Jr. on Self-Emancipation

Martin Luther King Jr. and Frantz Fanon are often conceived as offering incompatible political strategies for liberation from the structures of white supremacy and colonization. While in 1958 King contended that the choice was not between “violence and nonviolence, but between nonviolence and nonexistence,” three years later Fanon would famously insist that “decolonization is always a violent event.” This essay refuses this apparent opposition by positioning King and Fanon as partners in a shared conversation, each grappling elements of a core dilemma: remaking the world requires new subjects not formed by domination, but these subjects must remake themselves while still enmeshed in them—must somehow act out of them. Reading with and against David Scott's (2004) conception of a “problem-space” shows how King and Fanon respond to the problem posed by the impossibility of a clean, emancipatory break with the past and present. Deploying Paul Gilroy's (1993) conception of antiphony, the essay stages a “call and response” that reveals not a romantic narrative of overcoming but a working-through of fragile, partial, and paradoxical political practices that yoke the self to a world-not-yet-made, cultivating nascent democratic publics who, as yet, lack a world in which they can survive.

Democracia representativa-una lectura interseccional

Objective: Analyze, from a critical and intersectional perspective, the organization, composition and legislative performance of a commission focused on women's sexual and reproductive rights, called the Parliamentary Front to Combat Abortion – Pró-Vida. Methodology: An intersectional reading was carried out regarding the constitution of the Parliamentary Front to Combat Abortion - "Pró-Vida", of the Legislative Assembly of the State of Goiás (ALEGO), and the sociodemographic profile of its members was outlined, discussed in light of social markers, gender, race/ethnicity, social class and religion and problematized about a topic that directly affects women's health and lives, abortion. Results and discussion: analysis of the results points to female underrepresentation, the prevalence of white people and the predominance of conservative ideology in customs and religion in the sociodemographic profile considered. In contrast, the literature, when discussing the social markers under investigation, portrays those who choose to have an abortion as black women, with low income and education, and who look to parties with a progressive bias to advocate for their causes. Conclusion: The traditional structure present in the Parliamentary Front investigated faces challenges in building a representative debate capable of reproducing in public policies the complex identities, needs and experiences of women at risk of miscarriage. In this argument, the construction of political practices and legislative approaches must primarily consider the complexities of identity and the intersections and oppressions that lead women to abortion in order to, ultimately, build an inclusive, equitable and representative democracy. Submission: 02/22/24| Review: 03/12/24| Approval: 04/24/24

The Main Theories of the Provision of Public Goods: History and Modernity

The article discusses the history and modern theories of public goods provision, which are a key aspect of the socio-economic system of states. Public goods, such as defense, free education, street lighting, and others, are distinguished by the fact that their consumption is available to all members of society at the same time and they do not compete with each other. It is determined that in the 19th century, with the emergence of new economic and social theories, new approaches to the provision of public goods emerged. Researchers such as Schaeffe and Pigou made a significant contribution to understanding the role of the state in this process by considering public goods in the context of the public and private sectors of the economy. It is noted that in the second half of the 19th century, as well as in the 20th century, new theories emerged that became important for understanding the production and distribution of public goods. The key attention is focused on the study of the history and modernity of theories of public goods provision, as well as their application in modern conditions. In general, the article highlights the significance of the historical development of the theory of public goods and its impact on modern economic and political practice, emphasizing the need for continuous development and adaptation of this theory to the changing conditions of society. A comparative analysis of the scientific literature of different conceptual views and approaches to the problem of public goods provision and their distribution is presented.

Democracy as Political Jihad: Evaluating Yusuf Qaradhawi's Vision and its Application in Indonesia

This article examines the influence of Western secular thought on Islamic civilization, focusing on its repercussions within the political domain. The dominance of secular politics, which often conflicts with Islamic values, poses a significant challenge to Islamic governance principles. In response to this ideological shift, Yusuf Qaradhawi has called for a political reformation grounded in Islamic teachings, framing this transformative effort as a form of jihad. To investigate this perspective, the study employs qualitative research methods, specifically library-based research, and document analysis. Primary data is sourced from Yusuf Qaradhawi's own writings, while secondary data includes a range of books, scholarly journals, bulletins, and encyclopedias pertinent to the topic. The analysis reveals that the core principles of democracy—such as the right of citizens to elect their leaders freely—are compatible with Islamic values. However, the study also identifies notable deviations from these democratic ideals in practice. In the context of Indonesia, where Islamic values have been incorporated into the democratic framework, discrepancies between theoretical principles and actual political practices remain significant. This paper not only highlights the alignment between Islamic principles and democratic values but also critically assesses the challenges and inconsistencies faced in their implementation.

Demokrasi Dalam Menciptakan Pemilu Bersih di Kecamatan Mungka Kabupaten Lima Puluh Kota

Elections are one of the pillars of democracy that enable the realization of the people's right to determine their own destiny in order to form a democratic government. Through the active participation of students, the election guard movement aims to prevent manipulation and fraud, as well as ensure that the votes of each voter are respected and counted correctly. By overseeing the implementation of general elections, the aim is to create a transparent, fair and accountable environment. As for data collection techniques through observation and interviews in an effort to create clean elections, the community in Mungka District may face several obstacles. One of them is the low level of education and political awareness in several regions. This can leave society vulnerable to manipulation and abuse by irresponsible parties. Therefore, voter education and outreach about the importance of clean elections need to be a priority. Apart from that, economic factors can also be an obstacle for society in creating clean elections. The practice of money politics and misuse of resources in campaigns often occurs in environments with high levels of poverty. Effective voter education about their rights, the electoral process, and the importance of fair participation can help reduce election abuses. Socialization of anti-corruption programs and transparency in elections is also important to encourage responsible participation from all parties.

Бразильский интегрализм: праворадикальная утопия в эпоху фашизма

The 20s-30s of the 20th century have gone down in history as "the time of fascism", which is quite true for European countries. A unique phenomenon for the countries of the "South" was the emergence of a mass fascist movement in Brazil - Integralism, which proposed a new model of state-hood and economic system based on nationalism, authoritari-anism, and corporatism common to all fascist movements. Meanwhile, this movement had a number of striking differ-ences from its European counterparts: multiculturalism, non-ethnic and non-racial nationalism, and anti-imperialism. Inte-gralism was Brazil's first truly mass nationwide political movement in its history, whose main difference was the regionalization of politics and the disunity of the elites of the different provinces of the country, thus presenting a model of integration and nationwide modernization of the country. This article analyzes the ideological, political and programmatic foundations of Integralism, its political aspirations and practices.

Residents’ thermal comfort in Swedish newly built homes: political aesthetics and atmospheric practices

This paper draws on a case study of newly constructed passive houses in Sweden and explores how architecture and the material influence everyday life. We suggest the new aesthetics as a potential theoretical tool for understanding user experiences of low-energy housing, an approach that considers how atmospheres are produced and consumed, by whom and by what means. We approach passive house designs as the materialisation of environmental sustainability, facilitating the fulfilment of long-term goals for energy efficiency and renewable materials. In our case study, apartment designs involving lofts, timber and extensive glazing sometimes conflicted with the passive house concept once the residents had settled in their homes. Some designs, for example lofts, failed to facilitate comfortable everyday life, while designs with renewable materials enhanced a homely atmosphere. We propose to acknowledge the labour that is required by the residents of these buildings to create thermal comfort at home.

Социальное государство как современный тип социально-политической организации общества

The article examines the ideological and theoretical foundations of the concept of a welfare state and the modern political practice of its functioning in developed countries. It is assumed that the main factor in the formation of a social state is the objective need to intensify the interaction of state and public institutions, due to the increasing complexity of the social structure of modern society. The first part of the work analyzes the theoretical origins and current state of research on the concept of the welfare state. The second part is devoted to the consideration of the most prominent practical projections of the welfare state, through the implementation of certain social policies in the developed countries. It is shown that the welfare state is a specific form of socio-political organization of society of modern civilization. Based on the results of the study, a conclusion is made about the objective nature of the process of expansion of the influence of state institutions on the life of modern society and the individual.

Understanding Voting Behavior Models: A Critical Review

<p class="TableParagraph"><em>This research aims to explore the impact of money politics on voting behavior, compliance and voter loyalty in Indonesia using literature study and desk research methods. Money politics, which involves providing material incentives to voters, has become a widespread and influential phenomenon in the electoral system in Indonesia. This study analyzes various literature and secondary data to understand how money politics influences voters' preferences, their level of compliance with candidates who provide incentives, and their loyalty to political parties or candidates.</em></p><p class="TableParagraph"><em>The research results show that money politics has a significant influence on voting behavior, where voters who receive incentives tend to choose candidates or parties that provide these incentives. However, this influence is often temporary and does not guarantee long-term loyalty. Voter loyalty to candidates who provide incentives is also influenced by economic motivations, and voter loyalty tends to weaken due to the practice of money politics, causing them to more easily change their support in the next election if there is a more profitable offer.</em></p><p class="TableParagraph"><em>To reduce the negative impact of money politics, this research recommends increasing political education, stricter law enforcement, and strengthening electoral institutions. A holistic approach involving the government, electoral institutions, civil society organizations and the wider community is needed to overcome this problem and strengthen democracy in Indonesia. This research provides in-depth insight into the phenomenon of money politics and offers recommendations for improving the quality of elections in Indonesia.</em></p><p class="TableParagraph"><strong><em>Keywords:</em></strong></p><p class="TableParagraph"><em>money politics, voting behavior, voter compliance, voter loyalty,</em></p>

Shadows of political corruption amidst the trend of declining democracy in Indonesia: Learning from the dynamics of 2024 Presidential Election

This conceptual article is based on primary and secondary data from various sources discussing the dynamics of Indonesian politics and democracy through the 2024 General Election. This article aims to identify various alleged political corruption practices as well as to evaluate the development of the quality of Indonesian democracy implied by the 2024 political process. Although allegations of political corruption are believed to be common among many groups, proving them legally and politically is not easy to do. This leaves a number of notes, especially regarding the nature of power and the trend of weakening the quality of democracy in the country. The 2024 General Election provided some valuable lessons that the aspects of neutrality and independence of state power should be of common concern to reorganize and increase the quality of the future Indonesian democracy.

The Tendency of Press Release Content of Makassar City Public Relations in Reporting Danny Pomanto Activities Outside His Position as Mayor

ABSTRACT Background: The Public Relations of the Makassar City Government not only conveys positive information about the programs and policies of the Makassar City Government, but also monitors and reports on Danny Pomanto's personal activities related to his candidacy for Governor of South Sulawesi in 2024. Purpose: This research aims to analyse the tendency of Makassar City Public Relations Press Release Content in reporting Danny Pomanto's activities outside his position as Mayor of Makassar. Method: The approach used is descriptive qualitative approach with content analysis method. The unit of analysis used in this research is the press release of the Public Relations (City Government) of Makassar City Government starting from the period February 2023 to September 2023. Data analysis uses the Krippendorff method with steps of unititisation, sampling, recording, analysis, inference and data reduction Results: The results showed that the content of press releases made by the Public Relations of Makassar City Government is not only conveying positive information about the programmes and policies of Makassar City Government to the public, but the PR also oversees and reports on Danny Pomanto's activities outside of his position as mayor, including releasing his personal activities as Chair of the Hasanuddin University Alumni Association (IKA) South Sulawesi when visiting several regions in South Sulawesi which have something to do with running as a candidate for Governor of South Sulawesi 2024. Conclusion: The implication of the findings of this research that needs to be underlined is that the public relations of Makassar City Government as a representative of government institutions / agencies should only report on the activities of institutions or leaders of institutions, not to become campaigners for individual leaders of institutions for political purposes. For this reason, public relations must be neutral and not be involved in practical politics, especially ahead of the South Sulawesi Governor election.

Human Autonomy at Risk? An Analysis of the Challenges from AI

Autonomy is a core value that is deeply entrenched in the moral, legal, and political practices of many societies. The development and deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) have raised new questions about AI’s impacts on human autonomy. However, systematic assessments of these impacts are still rare and often held on a case-by-case basis. In this article, I provide a conceptual framework that both ties together seemingly disjoint issues about human autonomy, as well as highlights differences between them. In the first part, I distinguish between distinct concerns that are currently addressed under the umbrella term ‘human autonomy’. In particular, I show how differentiating between autonomy-as-authenticity and autonomy-as-agency helps us to pinpoint separate challenges from AI deployment. Some of these challenges are already well-known (e.g. online manipulation or limitation of freedom), whereas others have received much less attention (e.g. adaptive preference formation). In the second part, I address the different roles AI systems can assume in the context of autonomy. In particular, I differentiate between AI systems taking on agential roles and AI systems being used as tools. I conclude that while there is no ‘silver bullet’ to address concerns about human autonomy, considering its various dimensions can help us to systematically address the associated risks.

Hegemony of Independent Campus Learning (Antonio Gramsci's Hegemony Study in the Indonesia Education System)

Freire once revealed how education could liberate with the essence of "free"; truly "free". The existence of opportunities, challenges and demands continues to grow, especially for outsider students whose numbers continue to increase from year to year and need to be reviewed by the government. Through the MBKM, the government as the highest political society holder becomes an agent capable of making elements within it to submit and obey any policy made. The objective of the research is to explore the MBKM program that is proposed as a way out of the educational problem that has long been considered not to be able to meet the needs of the post-graduate student industry and titles as a Bachelor's. The goal of the researchers is to critically uncover and analyze the intellectual agents in the education system that dominate the element of the College through the practice of MBKM. The research method uses qualitative descriptive methods by borrowing the concept of Gramsci that produces descriptive data in the form of written and oral words of people and observable behavior. The results of the research show that the MBKM is an extension of the political practice of the state that is playing its role of power. MBKM is a neo-liberalization of education because the role of the state is increasingly diminishing and replacing with the private role. Students are no longer expected to contribute to the self-development or intellectuality of the nation, but what is important is to serve the private.

Gendering and slow violence as mundane political practice in early childhood education

ABSTRACT For many years, researchers have attended to gender in early childhood education (ECE) from an equity perspective, framed initially by feminist and feminist poststructuralist theories. More recently, researchers have adopted feminist new materialism and feminist posthumanist perspectives to consider gender in ECE. Here we think with the concept of slow violence to contemplate how, in combination with extra-sectionality, gendering is a cumulative and an integral part of the mundane political practices occurring in ECE contexts, lurking in the everydayness of busy settings and ‘hidden in plain sight’. We show how the talk of educators forms an integral part of the practices occurring daily in ECE settings, and how the ways gender is discussed becomes one of the mundane political practices that are cumulative and part of slow violence. This article was prompted by nuances that emerged when probing data from interviews with Australian early childhood educators and by noticing differently, how gender can be constructed in the everyday talk and actions of educators.

Seachange Migration, Outer Metropolitan Suburbanisation, and Marginality: The Electoral Politics of the Central Coast of New South Wales, 1949–2001

Seachanging and the expansion of suburbia led to important changes in Australia's human geography during the second half of the twentieth century. However, the implications of domestic migration on electoral politics have received only limited study. The Central Coast of New South Wales was one place where these two patterns of movement converged and which came to be routinely identified in public debate as electorally marginal. In reviewing this discursive positioning across both federal and state politics over several decades, the article examines how the region's marginality was often linked to the social mix created by migration primarily from Sydney, among which retirees and long distance commuters received particular attention as cohorts of voters. The analysis then turns to electoral competition in what was thus seen as a contestable space. This spanned national, state, and local issues and the major parties sometimes pre‐selected candidates offering very distinct value propositions. Overall, the Central Coast's regional political discourse reflected wider understandings of voting realignment seen around Australia, including changing perspectives on class, but also highlights how migration created new, formative communities where marginality was viewed as an important part of local political identity and practice.

Coalitions of care: Strategies for expanding substantive urban citizenship in U.S cities during the COVID-19 pandemic

In this paper we investigate and analyze the elevation of localized practices of migrant belonging, social inclusion and refuge in U.S. cities during the COVID-19 pandemic using the lens of citizenship rights and evolution as proposed by T.H. Marshall. While Marshall's focus was national, we argue that this framework can be adjusted to analyze practices of substantive urban citizenship. Our study draws on interviews conducted during 2021 with local government officials as well as leaders of local immigrant-serving NGOs in 16 U.S. cities. We analyze the successes and failures of local governments as well as civil society organizations in treating migrants within their jurisdictions as ‘citizens’ who belong regardless of their legal status. We pay particular attention to the inter- and multiscalar practices of local, state, and national politics and policies in responding to the immediate needs of non-citizen migrants. The study concludes that Marshall's model has merit but the order he proposed is switched, so that social citizenship is prioritized. The study also emphasizes the importance of strengthening institutional coalitions, especially with migrant organizations in cities. These diverse and expanded partnerships underscore the expansion of citizenship-like practices in many jurisdictions for migrants during the pandemic.

Tracing Diplomatic Tutelage: (Post)colonial Pedagogies and the Training of African Diplomats

Abstract Throughout the twentieth century, colonies emerged from the so-called tutelage of European imperial powers to represent themselves as sovereign states. One consequence of this change was an expansion in overseas diplomatic training, aimed at inducting into international life the hundreds of diplomats required to staff new foreign services. This paper interrogates the pedagogical and (geo)political practice of tutelage—where guardianship and instruction are held in tension—in order to shine a critical spotlight on programs training African diplomats, hosted in Britain, France, and Switzerland, and later in Cameroon and Kenya. In exploring practices of tutelage both within the classroom and at the international scale, we bring to the fore hitherto overlooked relational and temporal dimensions of tutelage that provide new insights into enduring paternalistic power relations as well as possibilities for agency and resistance. We trace the legacies of colonialism within these training programs but are also attentive to the ways trainers problematized the generalizability of their knowledge and pedagogy, and how African diplomats-in-training resisted relations of tutelage. In dialogue with scholarship on socialization and international education, we develop an enhanced conceptualization of tutelage that provides analytical purchase on inter-scalar relationships in world politics during and beyond formal decolonization.