Political Repression Research Articles

Rainfall shocks and state repression: How rainfall shocks incentivize governments to commit human rights abuses

Rainfall shocks and state repression: How rainfall shocks incentivize governments to commit human rights abuses

Exploring health inequities through the actor‐network theory lens

AbstractSocial theory plays an important role in the nursing discipline and nursing inquiry as it helps conceptually embed nursing in the larger picture of the social world. For example, a broad category of critical theory provides a unique lens for uncovering social conditions of inequity and oppression. Among the sociological theories, actor‐network theory (ANT) is an approach to research and analysis that has recently gained interest among nurse philosophers and researchers. Studies guided by ANT seek to understand phenomena of interest as constituted within the relationships between human and nonhuman actors to understand how care practices are co‐created/enacted and how they can be made more humane. In this paper, we describe the benefits of ANT for examining healthcare access for incarcerated individuals with life‐limiting illnesses accessing palliative care and for people using illicit drugs. We argue that attention to the materiality of care practices can contribute to efforts of advancing health equity for these groups.

A son of Souffles ? Abdellah Taïa and the poetics of illiteracy in Vivre à ta lumière

In 1966, ten years after Morocco gained independence from French colonial rule, a group of decolonial writers founded the journal Souffles (1966–1972). Its mission was to deconstruct the suffocating binaries, concepts, and essentialisms that trapped Morocco in an enduring French cultural imperialism or hermetic cultural atavism. In this article, I draw a critical genealogy between leading Moroccan anti-imperial thinkers including Abdellatif Laâbi, Abdelkébir Khatibi, Mohammed Khaïr-Eddine, and Abdellah Taïa’s latest novel Vivre à ta lumière (2022). Just as the Souffles generation exposed the politics of illiteracy that had cemented the conditions of oppression during the Protectorate and its violent aftermath under the reign of Hassan II, so I argue that Taïa inhabits his mother’s illiterate tongue in the novel as a decolonial language that refuses to make itself legible to monologic forms of European, or Moroccan neocolonial, intellectualism. Attentive to the metatextual tropes of language, words, letters, scripts, and even envelopes as spaces in which Taïa reworks hegemonic colonial and absolutist narratives, I explore the poetic potential of illiteracy not as a cultural lack, relegated to silence in Morocco’s post-independence struggle for national sovereignty, but as a potent instrument of postcolonial literary critique.

Enacting Social Justice: Exploring Applied Theatre’s Influence on Anti-Oppressive Social Work

As a profession committed to social change, social workers must engage in practices that encourage clients and communities to reflect on oppressive conditions to later envision and create new equitable and inclusive possibilities. Applied theatre, such as theatre of the oppressed, is an interactive theatrical approach that engages in ‘world-building’ across space, time, issues, and emotions. The embodied nature of applied theatre allows social workers, clients, and communities to imagine, dream, and practise new possibilities for social change. This paper offers a review of existing literature on applied theatre and theatre of the oppressed that promotes social justice and liberation in social work education and practice in the United States and globally.

Discursos periodísticos de la represión estatal en Colombia y México, 1968-1982. Un estudio comparativo

This article analyzes the role of the political press in the construction of public opinion during the processes of state repression in Mexico and Colombia between 1968 and 1982. Its objective is to analyze the types of discourses through which the major political press influenced the way in which readers interpreted the dynamics of state repression in both countries. A historical-comparative analysis of two cases is carried out to review the journalistic positions of the primary sources, in this case, the newspapers Excélsior, El Sol de México, El Informador, El Tiempo, El Siglo, El Espectador and La República. The results reveal that the press promoted seven main discourses on state repression: 1) youth and university co-optation, 2) public order violated, 3) subversion and terrorism, 4) institutions, security and the state, 5) the external enemy, 6) human rights as a violation of national sovereignty and 7) the press as a guarantor of public opinion. These discourses positioned newspapers as actors in the political contest and in the construction of public opinion in the context of recent history.

Palestine and the Ends of Theory

This article argues that over the past decade-and-a-half, amidst the resurgence of US/EU solidarity with Palestine, several anti-Zionist analyses have emerged that sidestep national liberation, regional politics, or imperialism. It connects that terrain to the rise of a new, and partially anti-systemic, political Islam that gained strength with the fall of the USSR and the contradictions arising within US-led imperialism. The article links this phenomenon to post-Cold War imperialist counterinsurgency and accumulation strategies, and the chasm separating EU-US anti-Zionism from the Palestinian national movement. It discusses political repression and the professionalization of Arab regional studies and ‘the Left,’ with pressures to create a Palestinian narrative speaking to an alleged mainstream and thus making Palestinian rights fit within a world-system and its geoculture that have no place for them. It analyzes those theories that helped forge an anti-Zionism hostile to Israel that ignores, mischaracterizes, or rejects the concrete forces resisting Israel and the US. The article calls for a more catholic theoretical practice that is open to the liberation agenda and its historical agents.

Resilient non-radicalisers: beating the odds through non-radicalisation despite significant suffering

ABSTRACT This study explores how and why some individuals are resilient to radicalisation by focusing on individuals who were labelled “terrorists” for their alleged involvement or support for an attempted coup that took place in Turkey on 15 July 2016, yet who have shown no sign of violent radicalisation since. Drawing from 15 interviews, it assesses both the potential radicalisation risk factors that the participants display, such as political persecution, imprisonment, torture, social pressure and forced migration. Then, it explores participants’ explanation for why they have not become radicalised, including the role of the Hizmet doctrine, their religious adherence, individual personality traits and resources (e.g. social capital) through a socioecological framework. While terrorism studies have focused extensively on pathways towards radicalisation and countering radicalisation, this study contributes to a small body of research to explore the notion of “non-radicalisation”, informing the literature on resilience and protective factors towards larger populations.

Deprivation of citizenship and creation of statelessness: case study of Belarus

This research paper explores the use of citizenship deprivation and trials in absentia as tools of political repression, with a particular focus on Belarus. In Belarus, an amendment to the citizenship law was passed on July 11, 2023 allowing the Belarusian president to revoke Belarusian citizenship of those abroad, even if it would render them stateless. This new amendment would also allow for trials to be conducted in absentia, with a possible sentence being citizenship deprivation. The paper also delves into the bureaucratic tactics used by the Belarusian government to exacerbate statelessness. These include the closure of consulates abroad and the requirement for citizens to be physically present in Belarus to renew their passports, making it nearly impossible for those in exile to maintain their citizenship. This leaves those in exile with minimal, if any, legal protections and access to basic rights. Additionally, the research looks at the role of international relations in exacerbating the arbitrary use of these practices, particularly in the context of the war in Ukraine. This conflict has intensified political repression in Belarus and prompted neighbouring countries, such as Lithuania and Poland, to introduce humanitarian visas to protect Belarusians who fled the country. By analyzing these developments, the paper highlights the devastating effects of the powers of citizenship deprivation, including the creation of stateless individuals through both legal and administrative means, and emphasizes the need for a coordinated international response to safeguard citizenship rights in these instances.

Students Want to Build Anti-racist Praxis: How to Support Them in the Classroom with Grassroots Organizers

While university institutions have been legally codified as sites of free expression and academic autonomy, university administrations consistently repress student-led campus rebellion and activism against racism. With the resurgence of intersectional and transnational anti-racist and anti-war student activism across college campuses, how can sociology educators pedagogically invest in students’ desires to build anti-racist praxes within and beyond the university? Informed by experiences with mutually constructive grassroots spaces and undergraduate courses, I argue that educators of race, including but not limited to sociologists, must engage with grassroots and community organizers (especially organizers who are racially minoritized and queer, femme, and/or gender non-normative) and incorporate their learning tools for popular and political education. First, I use the example of “community agreements” to show how educators can incorporate political and popular education tools into their race courses to help their students build their anti-racist toolkits. Second, I discuss two examples of how educators can collaborate directly with working class and racially minoritized grassroots organizers and invite them into the classroom. I end with a call to support community-centered learning spaces beyond the university classroom, as it can strengthen anti-racist pedagogy. Despite academic and state repression, I highlight the long-held tradition and responsibility of educators to support their students’ anti-racist critiques and action. Continuing June Jordan’s anti-racist pedagogical legacy (along with others alike), the university can only survive through co-learning and co-building with students and grassroots organizers, especially racially minoritized ones.

Humanist Anecdotes in Hard Times: F. C. Weiskopf and Lenka Reinerová

This article examines humanist anecdotes about the turbulent times of the mid-twentieth century by F. C. Weiskopf and Lenka Reinerová. It provides a comparative reading of Weiskopf’s Elend und Größe unserer Tage. Anekdoten 1933–1947 (1950) and Reinerová’s “Tragischer Irrtum und richtige Diagnose” (published in Mandelduft, 1998). The anecdotal form of these texts harks back to the popular Enlightenment (Volksaufklärung) anecdotes of Heinrich von Kleist and Johann Peter Hebel, published in 1810–1811 during the Napoleonic Wars. The anecdote as a literary form is particularly well suited to the representation of wartime and political repression. While Weiskopf’s anecdotes explore cruelty and heroism under the Nazi dictatorship, Reinerová’s autobiographical text juxtaposes crisis points in her own life—her time as a political prisoner in France in 1939 and in Czechoslovakia in 1952–1953; her return to Prague as her family’s sole survivor; and her periodic cancer treatment from 1948 onwards. Reinerová describes how the kindness of ordinary people, and her own optimism and resilience, helped her through the worst times. Her lived experience gives her authority as a storyteller in Walter Benjamin’s sense. Both authors contrast human extremes—the good and the bad—yet both remain optimistic about the human capacity for good.

Адаптационный фактор выживаемости растений при применении сапропелевых отложений

This work presents the results of experimental tests of the presented samples and associated variable combinations of soil mixtures. The purpose of the study was to determine the possibility of using sapropel deposits of the Volga-Akhtuba floodplain as an element that increases growth characteristics and affects plant immunity. We selected the soil environment of the dry-steppe zone of light chestnut soils, the fertile potential of which is at low levels, but have the ability to respond easily and qualitatively to the introduction of reclamation components when creating favorable conditions. The research is aimed at stabilizing soil components through the use of sapropel deposits of the Volga-Akhtuba floodplain. According to the formation features, these deposits are distinguished from the entire zonality of the Lower Volga region, since The natural-territorial complex of the Volga-Akhtuba floodplain is an independent object and has a distinctive agrocenosis from the belonging zonality. The experimental studies carried out revealed certain plant parameters that were affected by certain components of the prepared soil samples. The use of sapropel deposits of the Volga-Akhtuba floodplain in combination with light chestnut type soil showed the best research results (factor 1 and factor 2). In conditions of habitat oppression due to artificial infection of Fusarium avenaceum Fa- 1, meadow Bluegrass plants, namely the option with the introduction of the proposed sapropel deposits (AED), shows the best result. The survival rate of plants in this variant was 99%, whereas in the control it was 37%. The conducted research is updated, as it contributes to the search for methods of combating pathogenic organisms at the expense of the natural resource potential of the planet.

«Խրուշչովյան հալոցքը» և այլախոհության առաջացումը ԽՍՀՄ-ում 1950-60-ական թթ. / "The Khrushchev Thaw" and the Emergence of Dissent in the USSR during the 1950s-1960s

This article explores the internal socio-political developments within the USSR following Stalin's demise, famously termed as the "Khrushchev Thaw." During Khrushchev's tenure, a new political trajectory emerged, coinciding with the appearance of dissident voices across the Soviet Union, increasing notably within its various republics. To achieve this objective, the study incorporates a review of the years preceding Khrushchev's leadership, the backdrop of the Cold War tensions between the USSR and the Western bloc, and pivotal moments such as Khrushchev's address at the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The analysis concludes that Khrushchev's denunciation of the "cult of personality" at the 20th Congress, coupled with escalating Cold War hostilities and the diminishing influence of Communist ideology, catalyzed conditions conducive to dissent. This dissent rapidly gained momentum across the Soviet republics, evolving into organized movements by the 1960s, representing diverse ideological orientations. Despite relentless and severe state repression, dissent persisted until the eventual dissolution of the Soviet Union.

Exposing State Repression: Digital Discursive Contention by Chinese Protestors

Exposing State Repression: Digital Discursive Contention by Chinese Protestors

Rege Ribaldum: Participatory Punishment in the Pursuit of Urban Justice in Late Medieval Southern France

Abstract Utilizing the lens of popular control to assess criminal sentences highlights the significance of effective public agency in the later Middle Ages, instead of political oppression, especially in the urban realm. The people who inhabited cities played a participatory role in setting the parameters involved in the spectacles of judicial chastisement by accepting or rejecting what unfolded before them. And this became a way in which neighbors surveilled and corrected both the residents who lived in their midst, and the agents of authority expected to orchestrate restitution through performative executions. This article unpacks jurisdictional disputes from the city of Toulouse, in order to analyze the notion of accountability among the inhabitants and of citizens over judicial officers, especially in crimes involving contested sexuality. In 1332, for example, a customary punishment known as a rege ribaldum (where authorities forced a criminal to run the streets of the town) spiraled out of control at the hands of one of the spectators, resulting in a gruesome disfigurement. Rather than dismiss this event as senseless mob violence, concepts of popular control shed light on the cooperative element of the officers and their people as it informed the distribution of punishment, rooted in principles that were sometimes congruent, and sometimes not.

EMPOWERING EDUCATION: INTEGRATING CRITICAL PEDAGOGY INTO TRANSFORMATIVE TEACHING STRATEGIES

The objective of this study is to explore the implications and effectiveness of critical pedagogy in fostering social justice and empowering students in educational settings. This research adopts a qualitative approach, employing literature review to examine the implementation and outcomes of critical pedagogy in various educational contexts The study findings reveal that critical pedagogy serves as a powerful tool for challenging societal norms, empowering marginalized individuals, and promoting social justice within educational settings. Through student-centered learning, collaborative problem-solving, and the development of 21st-century skills, critical pedagogy equips students with the tools and mindset necessary to critically evaluate their surroundings and take action to address oppressive conditions in society. Furthermore, the research highlights the pivotal role of teachers in facilitating critical inquiry, fostering dialogue, and promoting social justice within the classroom. By engaging in self-reflection and transformative practice, educators can create inclusive learning environments that empower students to become active agents in their education and advocates for positive change in society. he contribution of the results of this research to the development of the scientific field lies in providing insights into the practical application of critical pedagogy in classrooms, highlighting its capacity to equip students with critical thinking skills and a sense of agency to address oppressive conditions, thereby advancing the discourse on transformative education practices and social justice within educational contexts.

KIEŚLOWSKI’S ARTISTIC REBELLION IN CAMERA BUFF (1979): REFLECTIONS ON THE MORAL ANXIETY CINEMA

This study focuses on Krzysztof Kieślowski’s socio-political commentary and artistic expression in Camera Buff (Amator, 1979). The reason for mapping Kieślowski’s political stance stems from his deep engagement with subtle and profound cinematic expression within the Cinema of Moral Anxiety, where directors skillfully forged artistic avenues as a counter to the dominant narrative and censorship imposed by the socialist realist doctrine. This creative defiance birthed not only a novel approach to filmmaking but also a distinct mode of political assertion in a restrictive environment. Directors within this movement stand as exemplars of conscious opposition to state intervention, fostering unique artistic practices in defiance of oppressive systems. Amidst a political climate marked by censorship and stringent controls, the emergence of the Cinema of Moral Anxiety holds significant political and artistic weight. Within Cinema of Moral Anxiety movement Kieślowski’s Camera Buff reflects his resistance to the dominant political order and its censorship mechanisms. To analyze the distinctive features of Kieślowski’s political cinematic expression and the ways through which he dismantles the system in Camera Buff, this study proceeds in two steps. First, it examines how socialist realism is juxtaposed with the ethos of the Cinema of Moral Anxiety. Second, it examines how Kieślowski employs self-reflexivity and metaphor to reflect the themes of the Cinema of Moral Anxiety in Camera Buff. In both steps, metaphor and self-reflexivity are underlined as potent forms of political stance and expression. This essay concludes by demonstrating how Camera Buff embodies the principles of Moral Anxiety Cinema, offering a critique of societal norms and political oppression through self-reflexive storytelling.

Blood gambit: how autocratizing populists fuel ethnic conflict to reverse election setbacks – evidence from Turkey and Israel

ABSTRACT Through a comparative study of Turkey and Israel, this article highlights a specific strategy that autocratizing populist incumbents in ethnically divided societies utilize when they face election setbacks. A “blood gambit” entails fomenting violent conflict to keep the opposition divided along identitarian cleavages, while creating a rally-around-the-flag effect to help the incumbent win a renewed election. After failing to secure a parliamentary majority in June 2015, Erdoğan ended the Kurdish peace process and engineered repeat elections amidst heightened nationalist fervour and renewed conflict with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). These elections gave the Justice and Development Party (AKP) a majority and marked the beginning of its alliance with the ultranationalists. Following Israel’s March 2021 elections, Netanyahu increased state repression of Palestinians, which triggered interethnic violence and renewed confrontation with Hamas. The violence threw a wrench into coalition-building efforts between ideologically and ethnically diverse opposition parties. The comparison of Israel and Turkey as two countries with different majority religions, ethnic compositions and socioeconomic levels shows that “blood gambit” is not a parochial strategy. Our analysis also demonstrates that the outcomes of these strategies are shaped by differing institutional and political contexts, in particular, the extent of executive aggrandizement and the level of party fragmentation.

Success Story or Traumatic Experience? An Attempt to Integrate Trauma Theory with Oral History Research for the Interpretation of First-Person Stories

This article focuses on the following issues: (1) how a narrator describes life under political repression in a retrospective first-person story; (2) the extent to which such a story can be analysed from the perspective of trauma theory; (3) what the use of trauma theory in combination with the methods of folk narrative and oral history research can offer for a more diverse interpretation of such a story. The story selected for observation was written in 2001, focusing on events in Soviet Estonia (1940–1941, 1944–1991). At the time of telling this story, the Soviet era was publicly interpreted as a period of interruption of Estonian cultural and political continuity. Social scientists observed the Soviet period from the perspective of cultural trauma. In this way, the narrator presented complex past events in a framework that points to the restoration of historical justice. Although this story represents a positive attitude towards historical and cultural developments in Estonia, the analysis of this story indicates that traces of trauma can be found at the levels of the story that reflect the formation of the narrator’s identity.

From the Closet to the Center

The Amy Morris Homans Cotillion and Pre-Cotillion created unique and liberatory spaces for many lesbian and allied women attending the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (AAHPERD) convention between 1982 and 2014. In this article, we draw on feminist and queer theories to consider the multiple meanings embedded in Cotillion goers’ lived experiences. Memories of planning and participating in these events linger for attendees decades later. The impact of attending ranged from lighthearted appreciation to profound gratitude. The Cotillion events disrupted the oppressive status quo at the AAHPERD convention and within kinesiology in favor of community building, joy, and the celebration of lesbian identities. We explore the disruption of heteropatriarchal norms and the creation of alternative community spaces to learn better from the past and to help create liberatory futures for practitioners and scholars in kinesiology.

Argentine exiles in Spain: Translation as a practice of solidarity

s part of its solidarity activities with Chilean, Uruguayan, and Argentine exiles in Catalonia, the NGO Agermanament led by Father Josep Ribera and the Lliga dels Drets dels Pobles published a register of exiles organized according to their professional activity in the magazine Agermanamentin 1979. The categories included in the list were “visual artists, doctors/psychologists, psychoanalysts and psychiatrists, musicians, actors and singers, publicists, jurists, architects, and photographers”. Translatorswere not included in the list, even thoughtheirprofessional status had been recognized by the UNESCO in 1976 and thousands of Latin American exiles who had fled dictatorships and arrived in Spain without refugee status were working as translators. Due to the toll on the publishing sector, heavily damaged by political and cultural repression, numerous exiled Latin American intellectuals and writers entered the Catalan publishing industryas translators, proofreaders, and editors. Thisarticle aims to shed light on the quantitative and qualitative importance of translation as a practice of solidarity within the publishing sector during the Spanish transition to democracy. I want to show that members of the Latin American diaspora contributed to the constitution of a transnational publishing space, which was possible thanks to the solidarity of local publishers and exiles who created a labor network through the commission of translations.