Quest For Autonomy Research Articles

The People and the Word: Reading Native Nonfiction (review)

Reviewed by: The People and the Word: Reading Native Nonfiction Jennie MacDonald Robert Warrior . The People and the Word: Reading Native Nonfiction. Indigenous Americas Series. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2005. xxxi + 244 pp. Appendix, notes, bibliography, index. Cloth, $60.00; paper, $20.00. "My overarching concern," writes Robert Warrior, "is working out how doing the work of the critic and intellectual can contribute to improving the intellectual health of Native America, its people, and its communities" (xiv). In The People and the Word: Reading Native Nonfiction, the work of the critic and the intellectual is self-reflective and metatextual. Warrior not only enacts such work himself through his provocative discussion but also does so by engaging four pivotal moments in history and individuals or groups whom he treats as critics and intellectuals of their own times. Through close reading and various trajectories of interpretation, he makes his case "that the history of Native writing constitutes an intellectual tradition, a tradition that can and should inform the contemporary work of Native intellectuals" (xiii). For Warrior, the relationship of Native people and language is a form of documentation in which creation, experience, and re-experience through reflection and reiteration impact an understanding of history, resistance, and rhetorical development. Key to Warrior's project is the act of criticism as performance. Given that his aim is to reach inside the written word and pull out meaning that will benefit the tangible world, Warrior employs what for literary critics must seem a radical method. He invokes the concept of synchronicity as an investigatory tool to understand the context surrounding the production of nonfiction, proposing, "The idea of synchronicity is crucial. It helps build the case that a great many of the dynamics of Native intellectual production remain constant across the arc of [End Page 333] history" (6). As one example, Warrior employs synchronicity to contextualize the work and curiously undocumented later life and death in New York City, far from his Pequot home, of William Apess, author of five works of nonfiction produced between the years 1829 and 1835. Warrior's elegiac reflection positions Apess as "an exemplar of the best the Native tradition has to offer" (4). He suggests the centrality of Apess to the new generation of Native scholarship by challenging modern scholars to aspire to Apess's capacity for critical perception informed by firsthand observation and dedication to Native people (for Apess, the Mashpees in their quest for autonomy), objectivity, and morality, as well as the fortitude to publish his views in a potentially hostile environment with little support. Warrior's interest in deriving the particulars of people's lives from their documented perspectives has wider implications for the sharing of knowledge, particularly in its representation in language committed to asserting their place in the world, in language dedicated to creating and affirming public representation. The idea of community and intertribal use of language becomes important in Warrior's consideration of the Osage Constitution of 1881, with its form and language adapted from the Cherokee constitutions of 1827 and 1839. Not only is the Osage Constitution interesting in its composition and adoption by a group rather than an individual, but it also involves the use of an external model composed by another tribe and even traces back to the U.S. Constitution, although Warrior doubts that any of the signers had read that document. Nevertheless, the drafters of the Osage Constitution became participants in a tradition of group organization and assertion that employed documentation and codification as a method of legitimizing and announcing their claim to self-governance. Perhaps Warrior's most impassioned plea for understanding the role of language in contemporary Native scholarship appears in his consideration of a history of Native education that he examines through firsthand boarding school accounts. Interestingly, he views these documents not only as reflections on the past but also as pointers to the future; in fact, they occupy a space between past and future. It is the idea of spaces as energizing centers that drives and even validates Warrior's belief in the power of synchronicity, "as an imaginative tool" (6) exploring and explaining historical events and rhetorical responses to them that represent...

The Kurdish Quest for Autonomy and Iraq's Statehood

This study examines the Kurdish historic aspiration for self-rule and the opportunities presented by the collapse of the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein in 2003. In addressing these issues, the primary objectives are to identify the challenges facing the Iraqi Kurds' quest for self-rule, the problems created by the Kurdish quest for ethnicity-based federalism, and the ramifications of the impending Iraqi federalism for the future of Iraq as a country.

Economic globalization, politico‐cultural identity and university autonomy: the struggle of Tsinghua University in China

A great deal of research has addressed the tension between economic globalization and local cultural identity, and the tension between convergence in global policy objectives and divergence in local practices, but research has not explored the impact of the complex interactions between these tensions on an individual university, especially in relation to university autonomy. This paper attempts to bridge this gap. Based on a case study of Tsinghua University in China, this paper explores the university's role in three interrelated processes: the incorporation of international experience into higher education, in order to respond to economic globalization; the reinforcement of political education, as a means of preserving the state‐prescribed cultural identity; and the quest for autonomy, to facilitate the university's move towards world‐class status. Tensions raised by the interaction of these processes will also be discussed. This paper concludes by applying the concept of ‘glocalization’—i.e., ‘thinking and acting both globally and locally’—as a means of understanding the complex interrelations of global, national, and local factors that inform the translation of global imperatives into local realities in the context of Tsinghua.

Historia general de Panamá

Historia general de Panamá

Transforming River Basin Management in South Africa

This paper analyzes the transformation of river basin management in South Africa by focusing on the political processes involved in the creation of new water management bodies and irrigation infrastructure in the Lower Komati sub-basin. Institutional reform is described and analyzed in terms of the collaboration theory of Gray (1985). Attention is paid to the absence of mutual collaboration in the water domain through the analysis of three phases that are characteristic of collaborative management: problem setting, direction setting, and structuring. The perceptions and strategies of stakeholders in the change process are informed by the skewed access to land and water, the protracted struggle for redress of historical inequities, the quest for autonomy in water management by commercial farmers, and large political power differentials. This has resulted in differential access to decision making and political influence and in the materialization of these skewed relations in water control technology. The reluctance of stakeholders to explicitly recognize their interdependence and the role of the state as the convener of the change process has hampered the emergence of a shared appreciation of the problems in the water domain. Despite efforts by government to move towards equitable and inclusive water management, little redress of past inequities has taken place, and the majority of small farmers are uninformed and excluded from the change process. This suggests that the proposed Catchment Management Agency will not be representative nor attain equitable water management unless a well-conceived redistribution of water entitlements and land rights is carried out as part of an encompassing program to strengthen political democracy.

Resurgent voices in Latin America: indigenous peoples, political mobilization, and religious change

Voices in Latin America explores the critical role of religious beliefs and practices played by indigenous organizations in their struggle to redeem their rights and place in the nations of Latin America in which they are encompassed. important contribution to indigenous studies should be required reading for students concerned with new directions in Latin America.-June Nash, author of Mayan Visions: The Quest for Autonomy in an Age of Globalization. Voices in Latin America offers a rich, multi-faceted, and innovative approach to the roles religion plays in the emergence and political mobilization of indigenous identities.-Manuel Vasquez, coauthor of Globalizing the Sacred: Religion across the Americas This important collection brings fresh data and challenging insights to the analysis of religion and political mobilization among indigenous peoples in Latin America.-Daniel H. Levine, University of Michigan This is a rich volume. The essays are clearly written ...Steigenga's concluding chapter serves as a excellent summing-up essay. -The Journal of Latin American Anthropolgy After more than 500 years of marginalization, Latin America's forty million Indians have recently made major strides in gaining political recognition and civil rights. In this book, social scientists explore the important role of religion in indigenous activism, showing the ways that religion has strengthened indigenous identity and contributed to the struggle for indigenous rights in the region. Drawing on case studies from Bolivia, Peru, Guatemala, Ecuador, Paraguay, and Mexico, the contributors explore four key questions. How have traditional religions interacted with Christianity to produce new practices and beliefs? What resources, motivations, and ideological legitimacies do religious institutions provide for indigenous social movements? How effective are these movements in achieving their goals? Finally, as new religious groups continue to compete for adherents in the region, how will individuals' religious choices affect political outcomes? Resurgent Voices in Latin America offers new insight into the dynamics of indigenous social movements and into the complex and changing world of Latin American religions. The essays show that religious beliefs, practices, and institutions have both affected and been affected by political activism. Edward L. Cleary is a professor of political science and director of Latin American studies at Providence College. His most recent books include The Struggle for Human Rights in Latin America and Power, Politics, and Pentecostals in Latin America. Timothy J. Steigenga is an associate professor of political science at the Wilkes Honors College of Florida Atlantic University and author of The Politics of the Spirit: The Political Implications of Pentecostalized Religion in Costa Rica and Guatemala.

Colonial Corporatism in the French Mandated States: Labor, Capital, the Mandatory Power, and the 1935 Syrian Law of Associations

The “social question” in Syria during the French Mandate (1920-1946) was by and large subordinated to the “national question”. However, one stratum of Syrian society, the artisanal-laboring segment, did press for recognition of its rights during the 1920s and 1930s. Artisans and factory workers began to organize themselves and to agitate for amelioration of their situation. Labor militancy peaked in the early 1930s with a series of strikes, coinciding with a major political and economic crisis in the Levant states that threatened to disrupt social order and challenged the maintenance of French authority. In consequence the Mandatory Power attempted to channel artisanal/working class grievances through officially controlled “professional associations”. The Mandatory’s efforts were only a partial success. Although Syrian elites largely accepted the corporatist bargain offered by the French, artisans and workers continued their quest for autonomy. In analyzing the motivations, impact, and legacy of Mandatory social legislation, it is suggested that a model of “colonial corporatism” is a useful way to approach this and similar situations.

June C. Nash, Mayan Visions: The Quest for Autonomy in an Age of Globalization (New York and London: Routledge, 2001), pp. xxiv+303, £15.99, pb.

June C. Nash, <i>Mayan Visions: The Quest for Autonomy in an Age of Globalization</i> (New York and London: Routledge, 2001), pp. xxiv+303, £15.99, pb.

Maya Visions: The Quest for Autonomy in an Age of Globalization

Maya Visions: The Quest for Autonomy in an Age of Globalization. June C. Nash. New York: Routledge, 2001. 303 pp.

Mayan visions from within and beyond

Goodman, Felicitas D. 2001. Maya apocalypse. Seventeen years with the women of a Yucatan village. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. xx + 544 pp. $59.95. ISBN: 0 253 33908 1. Hervik, Peter. 2003. Mayan people within and beyond boundaries. Social categories and lived identity in Yucatan . New York and London: Routledge. xxxi + 214 pp. Pb.: £18.99. ISBN: 0 415 9426 7. Nash, June C. 2001. Mayan visions. The quest for autonomy in an age of globalisation . New York and London: Routledge. xix + 303 pp. Pb.: £15.99. ISBN: 0 415 92861 3. More than half a century after Robert Redfield first used his rural–urban continuum to explain cultural change in Mexico, Mayan scholars now contend with subtly different and equally paradoxical scales: the individual and collective, agency and constraint, continuity and change, participant and observer, and, of course, the local and global. We live in a world where information, identities, beliefs, cognition, social relations, economies and politics are no longer isolated phenomena but rather linked to the global network that connects us all. Yet, on the other hand, we live and have collective beliefs, social concerns, ideas of self and intimacies that appear and feel more local than global. June C. Nash, Felicitas D. Goodman and Peter Hervik deal with the paradoxes of our contemporary world by utilising distinct styles, theories, methods, individuals and means of analysis in their representations of the lives and struggles of the Mayan people of Mexico.

Beyond Social Democracy? Takis Fotopoulos' Vision of an Inclusive Democracy as a New Liberatory Project

Abstract Towards an Inclusive Democracy, it is argued, offers a powerful new interpretation of the history and destructive dynamics of the market and provides an inspiring new vision of the future in place of both neo-liberalism and existing forms of socialism. It is shown how this work synthesizes and develops Karl Polanyi's characterization of the relationship between society and the market and Cornelius Castoriadis' philosophy of autonomy. A central component of Fotopoulos' argument is that social democracy can provide no answer to neo-liberalism, so the only viable alternative to neo-liberalism is the form of inclusive democracy he elaborates. Reviewing Castoriadis' concept of autonomy, it is argued that while Fotopoulos is certainly correct given the present deformed nature of social democracy, there is no reason to exclude social democracy as such from what Fotopoulos calls the tradition of autonomy. It is suggested that if the working class movement could free itself from the capitalist imaginary and return to its quest for autonomy, a synthesis of a radically reformed social democracy and inclusive democracy could greatly improve the prospects of each to successfully challenge not only neo-liberalism, but also the emerging liberal fascism of USA, Britain and Australia.

Total health promotion: mental health, rational fields and the quest for autonomy.

Total health promotion: mental health, rational fields and the quest for autonomy.

Book Review: Total health promotion. Mental health, rational fields and quest for autonomy

Book Review: Total health promotion. Mental health, rational fields and quest for autonomy

Book Review: The Chinese Overseas: From Earthbound China to the Quest for Autonomy

Book Review: The Chinese Overseas: From Earthbound China to the Quest for Autonomy

Globalism, Localism and Neo-Zapatism

ERLACS – European Review of Latin American and Caribbean Studies is an Open Access, scientific journal. It publishes peer-reviewed articles in English and Spanish. Contributions reflect substantial empirical research and/or are theoretically innovative with respect to major debates within social science research (understood in the broadest sense, including history and economics) on Latin America and the Caribbean. In addition to research articles, ERLACS includes 'Explorations' (a section in which new themes are presented and new debates are stimulated), review essays, book reviews, and film reviews. Articles are published online soon after they have been accepted.Sign up for our newsletter and read our latest issue!Special Collections:Heritage, protests and coloniality in contemporary Latin AmericaViolent configurations of power in MexicoVenezuela's crisis from global perspectivesElite and popular responses to a left in crisisMega-projects, contentious action, and policy change in Latin America ERLACS – Revista Europea de Estudios Latinoamericanos y del Caribe es una revista científica de Acceso Abierto. Difunde artículos bajo la revisión de pares en inglés y español. Las contribuciones reflejan la investigación empírica sustancial y/o son teóricamente innovadoras con respecto a los grandes debates dentro de la investigación social (en el sentido más amplio, incluyendo la historia y la economía) en América Latina y el Caribe. Además de los artículos de investigación, ERLACS incluye 'Exploraciones' (una sección en la que se presentan los nuevos temas con el fin de estimular nuevos debates), ensayos de reseña, reseñas de libros, y críticas de cine. Los artículos se publican en línea poco después de haber sido aceptados.¡Suscríbase a nuestro boletín de noticias y lea nuestro último número!Números especiales: Heritage, protests and coloniality in contemporary Latin AmericaViolent configurations of power in MexicoVenezuela's crisis from global perspectivesElite and popular responses to a left in crisisMega-projects, contentious action, and policy change in Latin America

June C. Nash. Mayan Visions: The Quest for Autonomy in an Age of Globalization. New York: Routledge, 2001.

Prior to anti-globalization demonstrations in places like Seattle and Prague, the Ejercito Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (Zapatista Army for National Liberation, EZLN), better known as the Zapatistas, became a leader in the struggle against neoliberal economic policies and a model for peaceful change in the twenty-first-century. June Nash's erudite book Mayan Visions: The Quest for Autonomy in an Age of Globalization provides a local ethnographic analysis of the “fissuring and fusing” of the Zapatistas in the context of national and international influences. For example, female Zapatistas, who comprise 40 percent of the EZLN, are not only fighting for national and international autonomy but also for female representation and power in their local patriarchal indigenous communities. These women do not see indigenous rights and women's rights as mutually exclusive; they strive to change the world more radically than most of their male counterparts and in so doing they display how revolutionary movements can simultaneously be agents of change and subjects of reform. Nash adeptly argues that “indigenous peoples will become the chief protagonists of change in the coming millennium” (26) partly because they articulate a plausible alternative to neoliberalism (based on the right of self-determination, moral authority as a means to power, collective strategies for survival, and multiethnic and nonhierarchical worldviews). In fact, the Zapatistas are already changing the face of civil society in Mexico, and their savvy communication skills (led by Subcomandante Marcos) buttresses and protects their organization by attracting those outside the country to their goals and techniques.

Mayan Visions: The Quest for Autonomy in an Age of Globalization.

Mayan Visions: The Quest for Autonomy in an Age of Globalization. June C. Nash. New York: Routledge, 2001 xi. 303 pp., maps, photographs, notes, references, index.

African Philosophy and the Quest for Autonomy: A Philosophical Investigation by Leonhard Praeg

African Philosophy and the Quest for Autonomy: A Philosophical Investigation by Leonhard Praeg

Motivations for the San Fernando Valley Secession Movement: The Political Dynamics of Secession

I argue that the motivation for the San Fernando Valley secession movement can be explained as a desire for local control based on democratic ideals, but I emphasize that the movement is also motivated in part by the tangible benefits that accompany such autonomy. After a brief look at possible economic and racial motivations behind the secession movement, I look for a political divide between the city and the Valley, based on literature that has found political divisions between urban and suburban areas. Evidence of a political divide is mixed, but does indicate that the Valley lacks representation in comparison to the rest of the city. Valley residents may also fear increasing minority political power, which could erode the dominance of Valley whites at the polls. There is also evidence that those who favor secession are most dissatisfied with representation and most concerned with getting their fair share of services from the city, indicating a strong desire for more local control. Images of a smaller, more democratic government, and a more engaged local civic community are prime motivations in the Valley’s quest for autonomy, though the possibility of reduced taxes, land use control, and increased political power do offer secessionists clear substantive benefits in addition to more democratic goals.

Book Reviews

Books reviewedJohn McGarry (ed.), Northern Ireland and the Divided World: the Northern Ireland Conflict and the Good Friday Agreement in Comparative PerspectiveBrendan O’Leary, I. S. Lustick and T. Callaghy (eds.), Right–sizing the State: the Politics of Moving BordersVictor Roudometof, Nationalism, Globalization, and Orthodoxy: the Social Origins of Ethnic Conflict in the BalkansWill Kymlicka, Politics in the Vernacular: Nationalism, Multiculturalism, and CitizenshipDavid Miller and Sohail H. Hashmi (eds.), Boundaries and Justice: Diverse Ethical PerspectivesAlexandra Barahona de Brito, Carmen Gonzalez–Enriquez and Paloma Aguilar (eds.), The Politics of Memory: Transitional Justice in Democratizing SocietiesShalva Weil (ed.), Roots and Routes: Ethnicity and Migration in Global PerspectiveMontserrat Guibernau and John Hutchinson (eds.), Understanding NationalismErnest B. Haas, Nationalism, Liberalism and Progress. Volume II: The Dismal Fate of New NationsMargaret Moore, The Ethics of NationalismDavid Theo Goldberg and John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic StudiesSita Ranchod–Nillson and Mary Ann Tétreault (eds.), Women, States and Nationalism: At Home in the Nation?Robert Shannan Peckham, National History, Natural States: Nationalism and the Politics of Place in GreeceNicholas Doumanis, Italy: Inventing the NationKenneth McRoberts, Catalonia: Nation Building Without a StateJan–Werner Müller, Another Country: German Intellectuals, Unification and National IdentityBill Niven, Facing the Nazi Past: United Germany and the Legacy of the Third ReichDavid McCrone, Understanding Scotland: the Sociology of a Stateless Nation (2nd edn).Igor Zevelev, Russia and its New DiasporasParimal Ghosh, Brave Men of the Hills: Resistance and Rebellion in Burma, 1825–1932Angelene Naw, Aung San and the Struggle for Burmese IndependenceGreg Robinson, By Order of the President: FDR and the Internment of Japanese AmericansJune C. Nash, Mayan Visions: the Quest for Autonomy in an Age of Globalization