Political Revolution Research Articles

Representational politics and gender in Mexico in the first half of the nineteenth century

ABSTRACT In Mexico, as in other Latin American countries, a political revolution began even before independence with the constitutional process of Cadiz. Citizenship and representation became important political concepts, but they were also hotly contested. The question of who should have the right to vote and who best represented the political will of the nation was constantly debated in a growing public sphere. These debates were gendered in several ways. First, despite the broad definition of citizenship, women were excluded from exercising the political rights that came with it. However, this did not mean that they were completely absent from politics. This participation led to public debates about gender roles. Second, representation as a new form of politics was not free from criticism, which was sometimes framed in gendered terms, such as when satirical publications questioned the masculinity of the deputies. This article will discuss the construction of gender roles in the public sphere in the context of representative politics and its institutions, especially national and state congresses.

Internationalist Islam and the Question of Palestine

Abstract Following the al-Qassam Brigade breach of the “Iron Wall” barrier, Muslim Americans participated in protest movements across the United States in support of Palestinian liberation. Many of the Muslim American youth involved in such spaces of have drawn on religion to advance the issue of Palestine in U.S. urban centers, such as Los Angeles. However, instead of invoking those iterations of American Islam emerging from West or South Asian communities, protestors have turned to Black Islam to forge an internationalist politics of solidarity. This essay examines events held in the aftermath of 10/7 in solidarity with Palestine at Islah, a predominantly Black American mosque located in South Central LA, to consider how Muslim Americans engage with Islam as an ethical and political site from which to launch critiques against Zionism and US imperialism. Specifically, it probes how Black Islam can be best understood as Internationalist or Third World Islam, which deems coalition-building with non-Muslims to advocate for the oppressed in the US and the Global South an Islamic virtue. Attending to invocations of Malcolm X, I document how Muslim Americans are increasingly looking to Black radicalisms by way of Islam to establish a revolutionary politics that links the dismantling of policing at home to decolonization abroad, most notably in Palestine.

Aspects of Radical Gay Liberation Theory in West Germany's Tuntenstreit, 1973–1975

ABSTRACTThis article examines in depth the theoretical positions of the Tuntenstreit – a major theoretical dispute within the radical West German gay liberation movement in the 1970s. By working through archival material as well as the dispute's fundamental texts, it renders visible its often‐neglected underlying theoretical motifs and, consequently, its idiosyncratic contribution to a ‘gay theory’. Subsequently, it shows how questions of publicity and appearance – exemplified in the figure of the Tunte – were integrated into the revolutionary politics of the movement. This critical examination seeks to inform understandings and genealogies of West German gay liberation and its theory production.

Strategic Competition and its implications for international security

ObjectivesThis article presents the results of research, which set out to clarify the concept of strategic competition and its practical consequences expressed in terms of threats to international security.Material and methodsLiterature analysis and criticism, non-participatory observation and case studies were used to solve the research problems.ResultsThe research process established that the essence of competition is the pursuit of power, security, wealth, influence and international status. Strategic competition is constantly intensifying, and their consequences are having a negative impact on global security. Revisionist powers and rogue regimes use corruption, predatory economic practices, propaganda, political subversion, proxy wars, threats of military force and nuclear blackmail to alter the existing international order.ConclusionsIt has been established that currently the main threat to global security is the Russian Federation.

The figures, profiles, border figures (figures-limites), and ‘pure schema’ of Foucault’s later lectures on cosmopolitanism

This article offers an affirmative reading of the Socratic and Cynical ‘figures’ in Foucault’s lecture series at the Collège de France, his last (if not final) word on the philosophical care of the self and cosmopolitanism. Foucault interprets ancient philosophy in a series of figures, all of whom are characterized by an affirmative care of self rather than by the hierarchical pastoral power relations he ascribes to Christian confessional politics. In an overlooked complication, Foucault introduces border figures ( figures-limites) that mark the limits of a classical figure (e.g. Diogenes the Cynic) and anticipates or recalls very different historical and philosophical configurations of truth, power, and self. This article describes Socrates and Cynics as figures and as border figures introducing new relations of subject, truth, and power. The article distinguishes the practices of the life-affirming figure of Socrates from ‘Platonism’ and uses the concept of the border figure to explore the practical range of commitments of Cynic cosmopolitans. The article then addresses recent and present-day radical cosmopolitans in terms of the figure of the cosmopolitan and the border figure of the defiant performance artist and militant political revolutionary. Not easily amenable to simple labels, Foucault’s cosmopolitanism could be described as zetetic, or searching and testing. As militant and radical, its radical commitment is to experimenting with different configurations of subject, truth, and power.

Revolutionizing basic education: challenges of federal education in Myanmar

Myanmar’s education system lags far behind in the world. Myanmar today has unqualified teachers, very few resources, and aging materials especially a centralized education system with inadequate infrastructure and unqualified teachers (Lwin, T., 2007). This affects accessibility for marginalized children such as children with disability and children living in conflict areas. The contents of school textbooks are also not culturally acceptable for ethnic minorities. The education system could not fulfill the wants and needs of society, especially the skills that are needed for work. The education reform was initiated under the NLD government from 2015 to 2020 and following the coup that happened on 1st February 2021, along with the political revolution and transition demanding federal democracy, the education sector reform that is relevant to federal democracy principles is accompanying. This research aimed to explore challenges in this process of implementation to formulate and state education policies that could reflect the needs and challenges faced by the implementers during federal education reform during and post-revolution in Myanmar. The methodology was qualitative by using focus group discussions with the (15) implementers (teachers) across states and regions of Myanmar and key informant interviews with (1) policymaker who are working in the education sector, (2) ethnic groups’ education policy makers and (1) basic education expert. The implementers and policymakers highlighted the challenges mainly on the budget and infrastructure support, curriculum, language (ethnic mother languages among diverse communities), human resources, and quality assurance while reforming the education sector in the federal democratic government.

“A Place of Refuge to Republicans and Royalists”: The French Revolution in British Dominica

Abstract During the French Revolution, thousands of revolutionaries and royalists fled the turmoil in French islands. Many went to nearby islands, from which they could observe events. Situated between Martinique and Guadeloupe, Dominica had a majority French population and a long history of connection with its French neighbors. This article uses the case of Dominica to explore the effects of the French Revolution on a non-French island in the Eastern Caribbean. From the start, its proximity to the French islands led to its entanglement in revolutionary politics. It was the first British island to receive refugees, and the influx of people of all racial, social, and political backgrounds into Dominica posed challenges for island officials. Officials had to determine on what terms to admit emigrants, whether they posed a threat to the colony, and how to feed and house them. They also worried about the influences of foreigners and revolutionary ideas on their own disaffected free and enslaved populations. This article argues that Dominica's location, heterogeneous population, and internal instability allowed it to become a node for regional migration and information networks that embroiled it in the turmoil that engulfed its neighbors and ultimately threatened British control of the island.

Revolutionaries, coercive institutions and the crisis of collaboration in interwar India

Earlier generations of historians interpreted revolutionary politics of the interwar period within a paradigm of failure, on the basis that it did not bring about an immediate shift in the colonial dominance in South Asia. Following the ‘revolutionary turn’ in South Asian history, scholars have suggested that revolutionary politics needs to be read for the ways in which it shifted mainstream nationalist strategies and influenced other outcomes, both intended and unintended. This article deepens this analysis, by considering an unexplored outcome of the revolutionary politics of the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA): its impact on Indians employed in British institutions, especially coercive institutions such as the police and prisons. These employees may not have resigned from their posts, and ultimately these coercive institutions remained coercive and violent at a macro level. However, based on the evidence presented here, it is clear there was a faintly discernible but important micropolitics emerging from within these institutions, which indicates that some exhibited admiration and sympathy for revolutionary prisoners, quietly and surreptitiously working to ameliorate systems of coercion and punishment, in the process undermining coercive institutions from within. Such a reading prompts a rethinking of paradigms of collaborators as colonial enablers, allowing us to see the withdrawal of cooperation with the colonial regime as a process, which becomes perceptible in the context of anticolonial movements in the late interwar period.

Epistemic silences, subversive politics: post-disaster economic assessments as technologies of persistent coloniality and route to an emancipatory climate justice agenda in the Caribbean

ABSTRACT Economic analyses of losses and damages or post-disaster needs assessments (PDNAs) are silent about the longstanding reparatory claims related to the legacies of African enslavement, colonial violence and indigenous dispossession that compound uneven racialized geographies in the Caribbean. This paper unpacks these so-called ‘objective’ valuations drawing attention to their (neo)liberal framings, technocratic underpinnings, and historical origins in the Caribbean plantation economy. Using case studies of catastrophic hurricanes Matthew (2016), Irma (2017) and Dorian (2019) in Haiti, Antigua and Barbuda, and The Bahamas respectively, the paper exposes critical tensions, knowledge hierarchies, and contradictions embedded within empirical assessments that justify and prioritize preferred policies of powerful international development, financial and governance institutions. PDNAs under-value and neglect important community and local knowledge, solidarity practices, cultural institutions, and relational ethics in the face of climate disasters in these Caribbean islands. Taking a Black geographies and political economy approach, the paper addresses the limitations and risks associated with PDNAs, deemed political tools or technologies of climate disaster that reinforce oppression. To advance an emancipatory climate justice agenda to enable more radical reparative measures and possibilities, the paper suggests that analyses and political strategy must be grounded in people's history, cultural, ethical, and communal governance practices.

The veil of resistance in Shaheen Bagh: Muslim women’s activism and the differential solidarity networks

ABSTRACT This paper seeks to comprehensively examine the complex dynamics surrounding the protests of Muslim women at Shaheen Bagh against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in India. It emphasizes the emergence of distinct forms of solidarity among this unassuming group of women and underscores the significance of their collective action in challenging prevailing narratives within South Asian feminist discourse. The paper posits the CAA protests as emblematic of the evolving interplay between digital platforms, grassroots activism, and scholarly dialogue in contemporary South Asia. Furthermore, the paper elucidates how the modalities of resistance in South Asian revolutionary politics diverge from the traditional binary framework of Gandhian Satyagraha and radical leftist revolutionary strategies. The protests which also interweaved Dalit Ambedkarite politics, digital hashtag movements, counter-ableist politics also exemplified the ways in which identity politics in South Asia could be reconfigured in terms of a differential paradigm. The paper explores how the protests at Shaheen Bagh exemplify a nuanced approach to resistance that transcends simplistic categorizations, thereby contributing to a reconfiguration of established paradigms in the region's political discourse. This analysis underscores the complex interplay between diverse ideological currents and grassroots mobilization, illuminating the evolving landscape of resistance within South Asia's socio-political context.

A INTEGRAÇÃO DE EDUCAÇÃO INCLUSIVA NA FORMAÇÃO DE PROFESSORES

The global movement for inclusive education is a social, cultural, pedagogical and political revolution, born in defense of the rights of all students, so that they can be together, sharing and learning without any discrimination. In this sense, it is worth highlighting that educational inclusion is a gradual, dynamic and constantly changing process. Paths full of challenges are being followed so that inclusive education becomes an effective reality, with teacher training standing out among these challenges. In this context, teacher training is a fundamental commitment of educational institutions, both public and private, to develop the skills and competencies necessary for teaching to be carried out successfully, with quality and efficiency. To this end, the research for this study was conducted based on a comprehensive survey of existing materials on the subject, including books, dissertations, theses, national articles and websites of government agencies and scientific databases available on the internet.

Thoreau’s civil disobedience from Concord, Massachusetts: global impact

Major wars or battles, political revolutions, scientific breakthroughs, or profound social changes often constitute substantial historical turning points. The nineteenth century was a period of intense struggle for America, wrestling with its identity and unity, the quest for emancipation, and conflicts with Mexico. Amid these turbulent times, an initially inconspicuous essay, “Civil Disobedience,” penned in 1849 by a then-unknown Henry David Thoreau, proved to be a turning point that eventually changed the world. The essay provided the framework for a conscience-driven protest, which, when applied on a mass scale, gave the world an effective and non-violent method of war. The power of the voice rooted in conscience and courage, an approach sans violence, inspired “successful” movements across cultures, countries, and time. The essay Civil Disobedience laid the foundation for a conscience-driven, non-violent struggle against injustices that changed the course of human history and remains the best hope for fighting injustices in the future. While less recognized in the annals of popular culture than the political machinations of Machiavelli or the strategic doctrines of Sun Tzu, Thoreau’s essay on civil disobedience has wielded a far more profound influence. In a world still riven by conflict and injustice, Thoreau’s 1849 essay offered the most impactful turning point in humanity’s struggle against injustice. It remains as compelling as ever, offering a blueprint for confronting tyranny not with arms but with the power of human conscience. It serves as a reminder that revolutionary changes sometimes begin with the quietest voice.

Digitalized Electoral Democracy, Subversive Politics, and Islam

Abstract Increasingly democracy is becoming digitalized through the use of information technologies in the conduct of elections and political campaigns. At the same time, politics is becoming more contentious, and even subversive, as democracy fuses with divisive social issues and identity politics. This article examines the issue of subversive politics in a variety of democracy settings. As the authors show, subversive politics is an issue that is affecting emerging and established democracies. Yet, the effect can be more severe in the former as democratic institutions are still developing. Notably, Muslim-majority countries face major challenges in making democracy work due to subversive politics and the political and ideological conflicts between different Muslim groups. As such, the article niches on the intersection of (digitalized) electoral democracy with subversive politics with a special focus on Indonesia as a Muslim-majority democracy. The authors argue that Indonesia stands as an in-between case in the continuum of subversive politics. They show this by explaining how democracy failed in some Muslim countries, became threatened in consolidated democracies, and survives in Indonesia. The combination of institutional quality and relative independence of religious organizations in politics has been crucial for the way Indonesia deals with subversive politics.

Revolution by other memes: on the playful subcultures of r/PoliticalCompassMemes

ABSTRACT Based on an analysis of 300k opening posts to the popular image-based discussion forum r/PoliticalCompassMemes, in this paper we offer an empirical analysis of how the ‘political compass’ meme template is used to playfully work out speculative political imaginaries that reconfigure existing ideologies into niche political subcultures. We observe various dynamics over time, including how participants self-identify with different ‘quadrants’ of the compass via meme characters and ‘flair’ metadata. To analyze these dynamics, we revisit a classic argument of the ‘Birmingham School’ of culture studies, concerning the latent relationship between revolutionary politics and youth subcultural styles. While finding value in the latter, we identify a fundamental shift in digital political subcultures from style as a proxy for politics to politics as a kind of style.

‘Soft Rebellion’: Flow art, critical play, and wellbeing in the city

This article discusses the intersections between flow art, critical play, and wellbeing in urban contexts in Finland. Flow art as an art form sits at the intersection of several movement-based creative disciplines, including contemporary circus, dance, and the underground electronic music scene. It is based on DIY in terms of making one's own props and choreographies and peer teaching/learning. The flow artists make use of several props familiar to the circus arts, including contact sticks, poi, hula hoops, diabolos, dragon staffs, and fans. The article explores how urban artistic take-overs can be understood as critical play, including the potential for political subversion and changing the meanings of urban spaces. Further, the article discusses how wellbeing is understood holistically, relationally, and interconnected to the concept of flow. The article is a result of ethnographic research conducted with flow art communities in 2021–2023.

The Unbearable Whiteness of John Brown: Theatrical Legacies and Performing Abolition

Abstract: John Brown is a figure so intensely contested as to embody diametrically opposed meanings according to the varied contexts in which his image has been activated. At times hailed as the man who started the US Civil War, Brown has been variously described as a righteous abolitionist, a religious zealot, a gifted orator, a formidable military strategist, a self-appointed white savior, and a madman. Today, Brown is conjured in the name of all manner of causes, from leftist gun clubs to collegiate sports, while his theatricalized image is activated in wildly disparate ways. The apparent singularity of Brown as a historical figure, together with his ready adoption and deployment across various arenas—from entertainment to revolutionary politics—presents a problem familiar to theatre and performance scholars, namely the space between the image or concept of a person (or a character) and their actual performance, in life or onstage. There is perhaps an obvious tension in the ways that John Brown is remembered and reperformed and for whom he is remembered and reperformed. Or, as Ted A. Smith points out in thinking with Brown: "An image, however iconic, is not an argument."

Paine's Yellow Fever": Opposition Politics and Pandemic Disease in the Early Republic

Abstract: This article examines the disruptive impact of Philadelphia's 1793 yellow fever outbreak on the Democratic-Republican societies that opposed the Washington administration. It demonstrates how the outbreak abruptly suspended the celebrations of the French Revolution as well as the organizing and publishing activities of the emerging opposition. People's energies were directed towards physical survival rather than political mobilization during the outbreak. Philadelphia's democratic movement lost some key leaders to the fever and it also lost momentum in building a Philadelphia-centered national opposition. After the outbreak, Democratic-Republicans regrouped, but the organizational energy had dissipated and circumstances had shifted. However, Federalists, who already had seen opposition as a diseased faction, mobilized the language of disease to denounce their political foes with a new intensity, as yellow fever became linked to transatlantic radicalism and political subversion amid the ongoing threat of yellow fever outbreaks in the 1790s and beyond.

Systems Lessons from the Panama Canal

AbstractThis paper addresses the building of the Panama Canal (particularly from 1870‐1914) and looks at lessons that modern day Systems Engineers can apply from this significant infrastructure project. There were great successes and failures during the attempts to build a canal. The Systems issues include the importance of understanding the environment, recognizing the need to think beyond the physical object ‐ Panama Canal project had significant health issues, need for infrastructure / “realization systems”, and even the need for a political revolution in Panama to enable it to be built. The importance of the organization building the system, and its leadership was also important.It is always instructive to look back at significant historical projects and learn the lessons (positive and negative). There is much to learn from a project and a system as big and important as the Panama Canal.

Movement split: how the structure of revolutionary coalitions shapes revolutionary outcomes

This article investigates the relationship between the coalitional structure of revolutionary movements and revolutionary outcomes. Noting the chimerical nature of revolutionary coalitions, it introduces readers to the concept of ‘movement split’: the moment in a revolutionary process when, once a regime is overthrown, the revolutionary coalition fractures into ‘radicals’, who seek further, social revolution; and ‘conservatives’ who are satisfied with a limited, political revolution. By means of a comparative historical analysis of the 1789 French Revolution and 2011 Egyptian Revolution, it analyses the role of coalition structure in determining revolutionary outcomes after movement split. In both cases, the distribution of mobilizing capacity between radicals and conservatives was the key factor determining whether each revolutionary movement came to pursue a ‘political’ or ‘social’ revolutionary’ program. Where conservatives retained control over mobilization, advancement of the revolutionary process ended once political revolution was achieved, while when radicals retained control, a process of social revolution was undertaken. Thus, when seeking to anticipate the trajectory of change an emergent revolutionary movement is liable to undertake, it is fruitful to examine whether it is radicals or conservatives who control its principal mobilizing structures.

Experimentation, privilege, and difference: The politics of do‐it‐yourself urbanism

AbstractThe Canterbury Earthquake Sequence of 2010–2012 was devastating for Christchurch, New Zealand, a city built on a floodplain. The sequence resulted in widespread damage across the central business district (CBD) and residential areas. Alongside, and in contrast to, orthodox planning responses by the New Zealand Government, playful, creative, and temporary projects emerged in vacant spaces. These were designed to bring back life and energy to the city centre, and such types of activity are referred to by scholars as do‐it‐yourself (DIY) urbanism. A primary critique of DIY urbanism in the literature relates to how it has the potential to contribute to gentrification, despite its amateurish appearance and mildly subversive politics. In Christchurch, a venue built from pallets—known as the Pallet Pavilion—was constructed by an organisation known as “Gap Filler” with the help of volunteers. Gap Filler emerged after the first earthquake, inserting creative projects to bring back life and energy to the damaged CBD. By examining the Pallet Pavilion, we show that, despite its potentially gentrifying effects, DIY urbanism interventions may open up a more inclusive politics of the city. Also, and paradoxically, in the case of the Pallet Pavilion, the exercise of privilege made this inclusive politics possible.