Anthropology of political participation

Who speaks here? Formality and the politics of gender in Mendi , Highland Papua New Guinea

by Rena Lederman

Activism in the times of Impasse

by Larisa Kurtovic

Kurtovic, Larisa. 2012. Activism in the Times of Impasse. APLA Section News. Anthropology News 53: 5. p 28.

El altermundialismo en México

by Geoffrey Pleyers

“Actores del altermundialismo en México”, In: “Movimientos sociales en México al inicio del siglo XXI”, Bizberg I. & Zapata F. eds., El Colegio de México, Mexico, 2010.

Sobre el mismo tema:
more Sobre el mismo tema:
http://uclouvain.academia.edu/GeoffreyPleyers/Books/347185/Alter-globalization._Becoming_Actors_in_the_global_age

Freedom of expression, hate speech, and models of personhood in Hungarian political discourse

by David Boromisza-Habashi

Boromisza-Habashi, D. (2007). Freedom of expression, hate speech, and models of personhood in Hungarian political discourse. Communication Law Review, 7, 54-74.

In this ethnography of communication study I will explore how the cultural concepts “freedom of expression/opinion”... more In this ethnography of communication study I will explore how the cultural concepts “freedom of expression/opinion” (véleménynyilvánítás szabadsága) and “hate speech” (gyűlöletbeszéd) function in a specific cultural discursive system, Hungarian political discourse. I will accomplish this goal through the analysis of situated interaction at a series of parliamentary committee meetings. The ethnographic data under consideration consists of instances in which members of the Hungarian Parliament discussed the implications of a bill proposing changes to the criminal code regarding hate speech. I will show that the freedom of expression as a cultural concept is inextricably linked with the concept of “the violation of human dignity” in situated political discourse. This linkage, however, becomes the site of conflict as it is interpreted in competing ways by those who see human dignity as the possession of persons-as-individuals and those who assign it to persons-as-members-of-communities. These models of personhood give rise to conflicting communal norms, and the norms animate conflicting proposals for sanctioning hate speech. My analysis joins a small but increasing body of field-level studies of the freedom of expression that approach the concept of free expression as a cultural construct.

Localizing the Global Revolution: The "Occupy Movement" on the Ground

by Jacob Rabas

A short participant observation piece on the Occupy Wall Street protests in Montreal, Canada (Occupy Montreal). ... more A short participant observation piece on the Occupy Wall Street protests in Montreal, Canada (Occupy Montreal).  While the protests are global in scope and ambition, they are driven by the local concerns of the cities they are embedded in.  This movement is new and the scholarly literature on it is sparse.  I intend to expand on this framework in future while adding to our knowledge in the present. 

Intermédiations stratégiques: l'engagement de militantes associatives locales dans la campagne pour les législatives marocaines de 2007

by Yasmine Berriane

In Lamia Zaki (dir.), Terrains de campagne : Les législatives de septembre 2007 au Maroc, Paris : Karthala/IRMC, 2009, p.161-191

Les campagnes électorales apparaissent comme des sites d’observation privilégiés pour repérer et analyser les... more Les campagnes électorales apparaissent comme des sites d’observation privilégiés pour repérer et analyser les négociations et les réajustements que mettent en œuvre les acteurs associatifs par rapport au champ politique. Ces transactions ne sont pas forcément facteurs de «démocratisation », mais permettent de nuancer la thèse de la toute-puissance des pouvoirs centraux en montrant que le pouvoir, même autoritaire, ne peut imposer totalement et de manière univoque son autorité. Ainsi, en portant mon attention sur la participation d’acteurs associatifs à la campagne électorale de 2007 au Maroc, je souhaite m’éloigner du prisme de la simple instrumentalisation de ces derniers (par les pouvoirs publics, par les partis, par les candidats, etc.) et mettre plutôt en question les logiques de leurs positionnements et l’existence d’une autonomie locale dans un contexte de «libéralisation politique » largement contrôlée et orchestrée par le pouvoir central. J’aborde ces questions à travers l’exemple de dirigeantes associatives, actives dans des quartiers périphériques et populaires de la ville de Casablanca.

antropologia del estado

by Felipe Hevia

Uso político de programas sociales y nuevos intermediarios institucionales:el Programa Progresa/Oportunidadesen el sur de Veracruz

by Felipe Hevia

La literatura sobre clientelismo político en México confrma que la utilización de programas socialescon fnes... more La literatura sobre clientelismo político en México confrma que la utilización de programas socialescon fnes electorales tiene una larga tradición. Una vía para estudiar las formas de uso político en elPrograma Progresa/Oportunidades es comprender la interacción entre los benefciarios y el Pro-grama. A lo largo del artículo se sostiene que esta interacción se basa en la emergencia de nuevosintermediarios, quienes han suplantado a los tradicionales. Esto es posible debido a que su ubicaciónles permite intercambiar recursos e información clave entre actores locales y extralocales, generarcapital político y mejorar sus posiciones al interior de las estructuras de poder locales
(The literature on political clientelism in Mexico confrms that the utilization of social programswith electoral purposes has a long tradition. One way to study the forms of political use in theProgresa/Oportunidades Program is to understand the interaction between the benefciaries andthe Program. Throughout the paper argues that this interaction is based on the emergence of newintermediaries, who have replaced traditional rural intermediaries. This is possible because of theirlocation enabling them to share resources and information among key local and extralocal actors,generate political capital and improve their positions within the local power structures)

Participación ciudadana institucionalizada y organizaciones civiles en Brasil: articulaciones horizontales y verticales en la política de asistencia social

by Felipe Hevia

Este artículo se concentra en el impacto de los dispositivos institucionales de participación en las articulaciones... more Este artículo se concentra en el impacto de los dispositivos institucionales de participación en las articulaciones entre diversas organizaciones sociales y civiles en Brasil. Tomando el caso de la asistencia social, se argumenta que diversos mecanismos de participación ciudadana institucionalizada, tales como las conferencias y los consejos gestores, impactan positivamente en la generación de una red sectorial “vertical”, donde puede controlarse la política pública desde la federación hasta las localidades, pasando por estados y municipios, y de una red territorial “horizontal”, donde se activan diversas temáticas sectoriales en un mismo territorio. Esta doble articulación permite mayor densidad asociativa, que las redes territoriales tengan mejor conocimiento sobre las políticas sectoriales implementadas en sus ciudades y que las redes sectoriales puedan, además de participar en todos los eslabones de la cadena de la ejecución de la política, conocer sus impactos nacionales y locales.
(This article examines the impact of participatory institutional arrangements between different social and civil organizations
in Brazil. Taking the field of social assistance as a case study, the article argues that various institutionalized mechanisms for
citizen participation, such as conferences and management councils, promote the development of a “vertical” sectoral network, through which public policies can be controlled from the federal to the local level, and a “horizontal” territorial network, in which various sectoral issues are activated within the same territory. This dual articulation promotes greater associative density: the territorial networks have better knowledge of the specific policies implemented in their cities; and the sectoral networks, besides participating in all stages of policy implementation, can understand their impact at the national and local level).

RELACIONES SOCIEDAD-ESTADO, PARTICIPACIÓN CIUDADANA Y CLIENTELISMO POLÍTICO EN PROGRAMAS CONTRA LA POBREZA. EL CASO DE BOLSA FAMILIA EN BRASIL

by Felipe Hevia

Las relaciones entre los pobres y el gobierno que genera la implementación del programa Bolsa Familia pueden resumirse... more Las relaciones entre los pobres y el gobierno que genera la implementación del programa Bolsa Familia pueden resumirse en dos dimensiones: 1) se privilegian «relaciones directas
» sin intermediación de acción colectiva y 2) también «relaciones lejanas» en términos del tipo de interacción y comunicación entre las autoridades y los beneficiarios. Si bien existen instancias formales de control social, la operación del programa hace que la intermediación sea mínima, altamente
institucional y que las organizaciones civiles tengan poco espacio para actuar representando a los beneficiarios. Estas relaciones generan bajos niveles de compra y coacción del voto, pero crean también efectos no intencionales como son el desconocimiento de la operación del programa, dificultad para defenderse de manera colectiva de abusos de poder, así como obstáculos para generar ciudadanía activa.
(Relations between poor people and the government that creates the Programa Bolsa Familia at Brazil may be summarized in two dimensions: 1) favor direct relationships without the intervention of collective action and 2) are distant relations in terms of type of interaction and communication between the authorities and beneficiaries. While there are instances of formal social control, operation of the program makes minimal intermediation and highly institutional and civic organizations have little room to act and to represent the beneficiaries of Bolsa Familia in institutionalized interfaces. Direct links generate positive effect low levels of political patronage vote buying
and coercion, but also generate unintended effects such as the lack of program operation, difficulty to defend themselves collectively by irregularities and create an active citizenry.)

Organizing spaces: Meeting arenas as a social movement infrastructure between organization, network, and institution

by Christoph Haug

Paper presented at the 27th EGOS Colloquium held 7-9 July 2011 in Gothenburg (Sub-theme 30: "Organizations of organizations; Convenors: Nils Brunsson, Hervé Dumez, Dieter Kerwer).
[This is a substantially revised version of an earlier paper which can be found here: http://gu-se.academia.edu/ChristophHaug/Talks/19430/Organizing_Spaces_Meetings_as_Social_Movement_Infrastructure]

This paper starts from two basic observations. (1) Despite repeated lament about the lack of knowledge about internal... more This paper starts from two basic observations. (1) Despite repeated lament about the lack of knowledge about internal decision-making processes in social movements, these are still today black-box processes. (2) Despite the fact that any ethnographic field work in social movement activities involves attending numerous meetings, meetings rarely figure as a prominent category in studies of social movements.
The paper argues that both phenomena are due to a lack of an unambiguous conceptual framework that is capable of grasping the peculiarities of internal social movement structures, and the sets out to provide such a framework in two steps. First, it introduces the concept of meeting arena, as the structure-side of meetings and specifies mesomobilization arenas as the place where movement level coordination takes place. These meeting arenas thus constitute an important infrastructure in mobilizing processes. Second, the paper explores how meeting arenas are a source of order in social movements and finds that their structure is threefold: meetings are consciously organized, institutionalized over time, and interconnected through personal contacts. Meeting arenas hence combine and intertwine elements of organization, institutions, and networks, forming a social movement infrastructure that cannot be adequately understood in terms of either one of these forms of order alone.