Citizenship, Identity And Social Movements

Rousseau's Social Contract and a Theory for Global Citizenship

by Oscar de la Parra

I am Beginning to Understand by Carol P. Christ

by Feminism and Religion

Originally published on the Feminism and Religion project

Elizabeth Kelly Inglis died in 1927 at age 62 from complications of a stroke. Secondary causes were malnutrition and... more Elizabeth Kelly Inglis died in 1927 at age 62 from complications of a stroke. Secondary causes were malnutrition and exhaustion.

When I was a child, my father, though he was very close to his own parents and sister, spoke very little about his ancestors. I knew that both of his parents lost their fathers when they were small children. I was told that the Christs were German and the Inglises were Scottish and Irish. My grandmother Mary Inglis Christ was as Irish as the day is long. She prayed to the blessed Virgin and took me to church with her in the early mornings where she lit candles and whispered the rosary while fingering faceted lavender beads. She voted for Kennedy because he was Irish and Catholic—to the horror of my father and his father who had no use for the Democrats. My grandmother sometimes cried when she showed us photographs of her family, especially when she pointed to her sister Veronica, called Very. I sensed that my grandmother felt sad to have left her family in New York when she moved with her husband and children to California during the depression, but I was too young to understand fully. As far as I know, I never met any of the relatives from her side of the family, even when I moved to “back east.”

CALL FOR PAPERS: Journal Special Issue: Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies

by Karen Soldatic

CALL FOR PAPERS:
Journal Special Issue: Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies
more CALL FOR PAPERS:
Journal Special Issue: Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies

Disability and Colonialism: (dis)encounters and anxious intersectionalities

Guest Editors: Shaun Grech (Manchester Metropolitan University) & Karen Soldatic (University of New South Wales)

We are pleased to announce that we will be guest editing a special edition entitled Disability and Colonialism: (dis)encounters and anxious intersectionalities on behalf of the established refereed journal Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies.

The aim of this special issue is to position disability within the colonial (the real and imagined), through which to explore a range of (often anxious) intersectionalities as disability is theorised, constructed, and lived as a post/neocolonial condition. While postcolonial theory and associated fields (e.g. critical theory, cultural studies etc.) have engaged with race, gender and ethnicity in the exploration of themes of identity, representation, space, historicity and the neocolonial, they have almost wholly bypassed disabled people- paradoxically limited to the subjectification of the able-bodied, or rather disembodying colonialism. Westerncentric fields of study such as disability studies often remain detached from the global South, the histories, contexts and cultures of these specific geopolitical spaces, and how disability is ontologically constructed and lived through a history replete with signifiers of power and empire and that frame the global. While some have adopted colonialism as a metaphor for the experience of disability (see for example Shakespeare, 2000), of colonized bodies by the medical profession, the colonial encounter per se, its creation of and implications for the disabled subject, remains inadequately theorised. In turn, disability is persistently removed from history and any contemplation of the post or neocolonial and efforts (discursive or material) at decolonizing these spaces and those within.

The special issue aims to transcend disciplinary, epistemological, methodological, spatial and historical boundaries. Engaging indigenous, post/neocolonial, disability studies, critical theory, psychology, Latin American Cultural Studies, and a range of other perspectives and literatures, and prioritising voices from the global South, we invite authors to engage in critical debate around colonialism to explore a range of thematic concerns (not exclusively):

• Colonial representations and the construction of the disabled body and mind
• The violence and disablism of colonialism
• Intersections of race, ethnicity, culture, gender and disability
• Empire and the domestication of bodies: globalisation, economics and beyond
• Disabled identities, metaphors and language, and their roles in subjugation
• From the colonial to the post/neocolonial: disability and contemporary lineages of imperialism
• Social identities and visions of disability
• Colonial medicalisation: identifying, labelling and ‘treating’ the disabled body
• The Christianising mission, biblical renditions and the disabled subject
• Decolonizing epistemologies, practices and lives: renegotiating power and contemplating global justice

We encourage authors to engage work on Southern theory and movements and approaches prioritising and promoting Southern epistemologies and counter-hegemonic knowledges emerging from struggles for justice.

Those wishing to submit an article, please email your full manuscript to both Shaun Grech (S.Grech@mmu.ac.uk) and Karen Soldatic (ajks123@bigpond.com). Please insert ‘Submission for Disability and Colonialism Special Issue’ in the subject line. Manuscripts will be sent anonymously for double peer review, and comments and recommendations relayed to authors through the editors.

Articles should not exceed 8,000 words in length, and include a 300 word abstract. The journal style guide is available here: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/journal.asp?issn=1369-801X&linktype=44.

Manuscripts should be submitted by no later than: 1st January 2013

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trangender and Queer Movement in Poland

by Konrad Pedziwiatr

Pędziwiatr, K., Wojnicka, K. (2010). Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trangender and Queer Movement in Poland. Kraków: Tischner European University.

Paradoxical publicness: becoming-imperceptible with the Brazilian lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender movement

by Jan Simon Hutta

published in 'Rethinking the Public', Eds Nick Mahony, Janet Newman and Clive Barnett

'Are We Ourselves?': Notes Toward a Prehistory and History of Identity (1992, revisions 2002, 2003, 2006, 2012

by Ronald Helfrich, Jnr.

El semanario demócrata La Asociación (1856) y el surgimiento de una nueva ciudadanía en Santa Cruz de Tenerife

by Blanca Divassón Mendívil

Publicado en Yanes Mesa, Julio J. (coord.), Actas del I Congreso sobre la Historia del periodismo canario. El periodismo y la cohesión territorial del archipiélago, Parlamento de Canarias, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, 2010, pp. 248-265.

La construcción de la identidad política de pueblo durante la revolución democrática de 1868 en Tenerife

by Blanca Divassón Mendívil

Publicado en González Zalacain, Roberto (coord.), La historia en activo. Actas de las I Jornadas “Prebendado Pacheco” de investigación histórica, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Ayuntamiento de la Villa de Tegueste, 2007, pp. 143-154. [ISBN: 84-930723-4-6].

Expressions identitaires et mobilisations des premiers migrants arabes au Canada, à travers leurs journaux (1930-1950)[1]

by Houda Asal

Ultras call for retaliation as parliament blames fans and security for Port Said deaths

by James M. Dorsey

By James M. Dorsey

An Egyptian parliamentary inquiry into this month’s death of 74 soccer fans in the Suez... more By James M. Dorsey

An Egyptian parliamentary inquiry into this month’s death of 74 soccer fans in the Suez Canal city of Port Said has blamed fans and lax security for the worst incident in the country’s sports history. The inquiry’s preliminary report also suggests without going into detail that unidentified thugs were involved in the violence that erupted at the end of a match between Port Said’s Al Masri SC and crowned Cairo club Al Ahli SC.

The report is scheduled to be debated in parliament on Monday. It was drafted by a committee headed by Ashraf Thabet, the assembly’s first deputy speaker and a member of the Salafist Al-Nur Party, which is believed to enjoy backing from Saudi Arabia and advocates adherence to Islam in line with 7th century practices at the time of the Prophet Mohammed.

A controversial member of Al Nur, Salafist preacher Sheikh Abdel Moneim El-Shaha, was last week attempting to talk his way out of reports that he had condemned soccer as a sin and said that the 74 fans were killed because they had been watching a forbidden form of entertainment. Mr. El-Shaha charged that he had been misquoted.

The parliamentary report is unlikely to reduce tension between the fans or ultras – militant, well-organized, highly politicized, street battle-hardened soccer support groups modelled on similar organizations in Serbia and Italy – and Egypt’s ruling military and security forces. At least 16 people were killed in the wake of the Port Said incident in six days of fighting between security forces and youths seeking to storm the interior ministry in central Cairo.

The military last week said troops and tanks would ensure security in advance of a general strike last weekend called by activists and youth groups to demand the immediate return of the military to their barracks and the formation of a civilian government. The failure of the strike on the first anniversary of the toppling of President Hosni Mubarak after religious leaders called on Egyptians to ignore it signalled the increasing isolation of the ultras – the military’s most militant opposition – and other activists who led the protests that forced the Egyptian leader to resign after 30 years in office.

Ultras Ahlawy, the Al Ahli support group that lost scores in the Port Said incident, called in a statement on Facebook on the eve of the release of the parliamentary report for retaliation against those responsible for the death of their comrades. The statement also called for the cleansing of the interior ministry, under which the security forces, the focus of their animosity whom they accuse of engineering the fatal brawl, resort.

The interior ministry or dakhliya symbolizes for many ultras their battle for karama or dignity. Their dignity is vested in their ability to stand up to the dakhliya, particularly in the wake of Port Said; a sense that they no longer can be abused by security forces without recourse; and the fact that they no longer have to pay off policemen to stay out of trouble.

“This Wednesday will mark two weeks since the passing of some of Egypt’s finest youth. They died because they refused to live without dignity and screamed loud calling for freedom,” the Ultras Ahlawy statement said.

It demanded an investigation of what it alleged was the failure of the interior ministry and the security forces to ensure safety and security during the match in which Port Said defeated Al Ahli 3:1 as well as “the cleansing of the ministry of interior and a full reconstruction of its system.”

The ultras further demanded that authorities drop references to involvement of a “third” party in the incident, a reference to the military’s attempt to position the Port Said incident as part of a foreign conspiracy to destabilize post-revolt Egypt. The ultras said they would not “accept the outcome of an investigation that blamed an anonymous (group for an incident) that wasted the lives of the martyrs.” They demanded the immediate arrest of the culprits whom they said were known to authorities “so as not to put us in the position of taking the right (into our own hands).”

While the Ultras Ahlawy charge that security forces failed to intervene in the lethal attack on their members and accuse thugs hired by the government of instigating the incident they also appeared to agree with the parliamentary inquiry’s conclusion that television footage documents the involvement of Al Masri fans in the attack on them. Ultras Ahlawy believes it was targeted because of its key role alongside other ultras groups in the toppling of Mr. Mubarak and its opposition since then to military rule.

Leaders of the ultras suggested that the incident was intended to exploit waning public support for the ultras, which were revered for their fearlessness, years of confrontation with security forces in the stadiums, role in manning defending Tahrir Square during the anti-Mubarak protests last year and militant support of their clubs. Their militancy and contentious street politics is however increasingly out of step with the mood in a country that is protest weary, retains confidence in the military despite its brutality, is frustrated that its revolt has not produced immediate tangible economic fruits and yearns for a return to normalcy so that Egypt can recover economically.

Deputy Parliament Speaker Thabet said in parliament Sunday that the Port Said incident had been sparked in part by incitement on sports TV channels. Disclosing details of the inquiry, he charged that thugs and hard core soccer fans had taken "advantage of the tension surrounding the game to achieve some political gains," but gave no details. Mr. Thabet promised to release the names of the instigators a later stage. He said 12,000 tickets had been sold for the match but 18,000 spectators had been admitted to the stadium.

Mr. Thabet said fans were not inspected while entering the stands and there was a lack of order inside and outside the stadium. "Security facilitated, allowed and enabled this massacre," he said, adding that security forces ignored mounting tension in advance of the Al Masri-Al Ahli match. "Both ultras and thugs attacked Ahly fans and this is part of Ultras' culture," he said.

Mr. Thabet acknowledged that similar pitch invasions had occurred in Port Said in the past year. Like in stadiums elsewhere in Egypt, security was often lax and security forces where more interested in avoiding clashes with fans in a bid to shore up their tarnished image as the Mubarak regime’s henchmen than in ensuring security. The Port Said incident has sparked suspicion that more than just laxness was involved because stadium exits that were normally open had been locked and because security forces refused to intervene despite the fact that the brawl had turned lethal.

The parliamentary inquiry also took the Egyptian Football Association (EFA) to task for violating world governing body FIFA’s security standards that call for monitoring by a security official of the security and political situation before, during and after a match.

The charge cast a further shadow over FIFA president Sepp Blatter’s demand for the reinstitution of the EFA board that was last week dismissed by the government in the wake of the Port Said incident. Mr. Blatter’s charge that the dismissal constituted political interference rings hallow given that the board consists of Mubarak appointees who furthered the ousted president’s efforts to control and manipulate the game to his political benefit. It also rings hallow given the fact that despite a nominal 2013 FIFA deadline for a restructuring of Egyptian soccer FIFA essentially tolerated the fact that the vast majority of Egyptian premier league clubs fail to meet the soccer body’s criteria for league membership.

FIFA sources said the Mr. Blatter’s demand was part of a flawed communications strategy designed to position the FIFA president as a leader and defender of soccer in a bid to repair the reputational damage he suffered as a result of a series of scandals in the last year that have rocked the soccer body and tarnished its image and that of its president. One source described the strategy as dating from the 1930s.

The sources said FIFA’s announcement that it was donating $250,000 to the families of those who died in Port Said was part of Mr. Blatter’s strategy. They noted that it was being handled personally by the FIFA president rather than the soccer body’s emergency committee and doubted that there was a mechanism to distribute the funds. In a separate move, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) which is headed by a controversial Blatter ally, Issa Hatou, said it was donating $150,000.

In the first regional fallout of the Port Said incident, Tunisia’s interior ministry ordered that all league matches be played behind closed doors because of concern about deteriorating security. Le Presse sports editor Sami Akrimi said the decision stemmed from the failure of the Tunisian soccer body to work with fan groups to ensure security.

James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and the author of the blog, The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer.

Surveying through the Narratives of African Identity

by Mohamed Eno

with Omar A. Eno, In Jideofor Adibe (Ed.) Who Is an African?: Identity, Citizenship and the Making of the Africa-Nation (For citation: Eno, M. A. & Eno, O. A. "Surveying through the Narratives of African Identity" In Jideofor Adibe (Ed.) Who is an African?: Identity, Citizenship and the Making of the Africa-Nation. London: Adonis and Abbey Publishers Ltd. (pp 61-78)

El reencantamiento de la política como espacio de participación ciudadana (2011)

by Benjamin Arditi

en Martín Hopenhayn y Ana Sojo (comps.), Sentido de pertenencia en sociedades fragmentadas. América Latina desde una perspectiva global, Buenos Aires: Siglo XXI, pp. 55-84

Este escrito discute la participación, el sentido de pertenencia y el reencantamiento de la política. Tomo como eje la... more Este escrito discute la participación, el sentido de pertenencia y el reencantamiento de la política. Tomo como eje la propuesta de un nuevo pacto de cohesión social que elaboró la CEPAL para responder a problemas relacionados con la pobreza, la exclusión y la discriminación. Primero esbozo un marco analítico para pensar a la cohesión y la pertenencia. Veo a éstas como experiencias singulares cuyo sentido se juega en la interfase entre procesos de gobierno y procesos de disenso o subjetivación que buscan reconfigurar lo dado. Luego examino cinco ideas que están presentes en el PCS. Estas son: la apuesta normativa por la solidaridad, el papel del conflicto y la exclusión, las dimensiones “supra-” y “trans-nacional” de la política, los actores de la gobernanza y el carácter fundante de los pactos. En tercer lugar discuto una manera de entender la pertenencia examinando, por un lado, el valor y sentido del prefijo “re-” que precede y modifica la idea del encantamiento de la política y, por el otro, el desencanto y los procesos de subjetivación que dicho desencanto puede generar. El cuarto y último paso consiste en elaborar un diagnóstico de la política actual. Consiste en establecer que la política latinoamericana está en un momento de inflexión en el que se abren oportunidades para la experimentación y la innovación en materia de participación. El poder aprovecharlas depende de nuestra disposición para aceptar el desafío de ser audaces y reconocer que el post-liberalismo es una idea-fuerza cuyo momento ha llegado. Las formas de participación, canalización de demandas y rendición de cuentas que aparecen en este escenario post-liberal apuntan a un empoderamiento social que suplementa el empoderamiento electoral que heredamos de la tradición liberal. En esto radica su capacidad potencial para reencantar la política, renovando y desplazando sus parámetros habituales.

Les Antilles françaises ou les vestiges de l'Empire ? Les aléas d'une citoyenneté sociale outre-mer

by Silyane Larcher

En raison de leur histoire particulière (anciennes colonies d’esclavage, passées du statut de colonies à celui de... more En raison de leur histoire particulière (anciennes colonies d’esclavage, passées du statut de colonies à celui de département d’outre-mer), les Antilles françaises présentent aux observateurs une situation politique peu banale. Les idéaux républicains y ont laissé un héritage politique complexe qui influence les aspirations d’aujourd’hui. L’actualité récente doit être éclairée dans une perspective historique et politique.

Healthcare professionals' representations of 'patient and public involvement'and creation of 'public participant'identities: Implications for the development of inclusive …

by Alicia Renedo

CROSSING BORDERS: THE ART OF THE PASSPORT

by Harry Weeks

Published by CITSEE (Citizenship in Southeast Europe), December 2011.

In our contemporary globalised world in which a complex network of multinational corporations and nations maintains... more In our contemporary globalised world in which a complex network of multinational corporations and nations maintains hegemony, a new type of ‘Empire’ as Hardt and Negri would say, it may perhaps seem an anachronism that the 19th century construct of the nation state retains near exclusive and universal control over the flow of humans across the planet’s surface. The passport – issued, owned and controlled by the nation state – remains the primary means of identification of citizens and – barring certain exceptions – the sole means of crossing borders internationally. Its small and insignificant physical form belies the sheer weight of abstract meaning held within. Each stamp, each unintelligible alphanumeric string of characters, each photograph is simply a streamlined frontispiece for a wealth of issues buried beneath, such as citizenship, migration, sovereignty, nationalism, nationhood, belonging, identity, exclusion and inclusion.

Movimenti e soggetto nella sociologia di Alain Touraine - Andrea Villa -

by Andrea Villa

Andrea Villa, Movimenti e soggetto nella sociologia di Alain Touraine, Relazione presentata al XXIV Convegno nazionale della Società Italiana di Scienza Politica, Università IUAV, Venezia (2010). (Atti Convegno)

Obiettivo di questo paper è quello di proporre un’analisi sulle conseguenze teoriche connesse alla codificazione –... more Obiettivo di questo paper è quello di proporre un’analisi sulle conseguenze teoriche connesse alla codificazione – ovvero alla presenza/assenza – di concreti e produttivi rapporti conflittuali nel tessuto socio-culturale contemporaneo. Infatti, si ritiene che il beneficio di questa impostazione possa essere quello di consentire un’analisi approfondita circa la tenuta di alcune categorie concettuali tipiche dell’opera tourainiana, alla luce della centralità attribuita dallo stesso autore alla dimensione del soggetto personale – inteso, dal mio particolare punto di vista interpretativo, come dimensione dell’azione umana nella modernità e/o nella, contemporaneità – cercando di non trascurare la portata ed il significato di quella provocazione, rivolta (più che altro) alle cristallizzazioni del pensiero accademico, che noi ritroviamo spesso sotto il nome di «fine del sociale».

Redes ciudadanas, interacción transnacional y calidad de la democracia en México

by Ana Fernandez Zubieta

Blumberg y el vínculo representativo. Liderazgos de opinión en la democracia de audiencia

by sebastián mauro

Lobbying and marching: British Muslims and the State

by Yahya Birt

in Tahir Abbas (ed.) Muslim Britain: Communities under Pressure (London: Zed, 2005), 92-106.

Critical Exchange on Arizona and the Struggle for Locomotion: To live, love and work where ever you please

by Luis Fernandez

Politicians on both the left and the right typically see immigrant rights protests as a demand for U.S. citizenship.... more Politicians on both the left and the right typically see immigrant rights protests as a demand for U.S. citizenship. Our experience in the movement, however, suggests that undocumented people are demanding mobility before citizenship. The ability to move freely across borders is more important to them than is citizenship. Further, undocumented people belong to multiple political communities, and are demanding the right to participate in each. The idea of a citizenship that would give them the “right” to remain in one place does not resonate with them. “Home” is in multiple locations. The mobile nature of undocumented people, we argue, challenges the essential principles of the liberal state, particularly the concepts of sovereignty, territory, and citizenship.