Grassroots Movements

In a collective action to reclaim the label of the Eastern Queendom—a legendary matriarchal kingdom—the villagers in Suopo township, Danba county, Sichuan take advantage of the media and a newly founded tourism association to press their claims by highlighting their political marginality in Danba and condemning the local state for its favoritism and partisanship. In consequence, a struggle over the “ownership” of the queendom has both manifested and generated the reconfiguration of grassroots politics on this part of the Sino-Tibetan border: exacerbated society-state relations, diversified societal and state sectors, and enhanced political participation of both elites and villagers. The locals are simultaneously engaged in an identity politics to define their manifold identities along the lines of Chinese citizenship, inter-ethnic and intra-ethnic sameness and differences, regional/local ties, professional/peasant status, marginality/majority perceptions, and (other) political stances such as loyalty to the party-state.

As we move towards the Post-2015 world, the way companies do business and how to be profitable is changing and evolving. If we look specifically at the influence of culture on these ideas, a growing trend has been emerging among areas of socioeconomic development and its relation to cultural heritage and value systems. Specifically through Public-Private Partnerships, what this paper will discuss is the growing necessity and advantages of sustainability practice in the emerging economies of the world, the vital role of the private sector in this process, and also the need for businesses to work alongside existing organizations that already promote social change and community welfare. By examining specific case studies from NGO to for-profit companies, the study aims to illustrate the underlying connection and potential of cultural and social factors of communities as they strive for inclusive,
grassroots growth. The missing piece lies in access to proper assessment tools to produce numbers illustrating the economic impact of areas like cultural heritage, community involvement, and the creative economy. The research carried out evaluated existing methods of analysis, identified where gaps exists, and presented possible solutions for future research, through means of collected primary and secondary data. While the overall outcome of the research did not produce the
concrete results desired at the initial start of the study, the potential for future continued research has already been solidified with partners and institutions.

Dudley Cocke, Artistic Director of Roadside Theater, reviews a new collection of writing by grassroots American theater pioneer Robert E. Gard, with additional contributions by Maryo Gard Ewell, Robert L. Lynch, and Michael Winslaw; edited by Maryo Gard Ewell with Clayton Lord and Elizabeth Sweeney

In responding to conversations on engaged infrastructure,
racial and reparative justice, and transformational WPA
leadership, I call for more writing teachers and writing
programs to take up grantwriting as a way to create much
needed infrastructure for small, struggling grassroots
nonprofits (NPOs). I detail G.I.V.E. (Grantwriting in
Valued Environments), a community writing project at
Towson University in the Baltimore metro area, where
students are a primary, if not the main, source of
research, grantwriting, and grants tracking for partner
organizations via classwork, paid internships, and part-time employment. I problematize and locate this work
within the nonprofit industrial complex and discuss the
structure and functioning of grassroots organizations and
how their particular milieu lends itself to projects like
G.I.V.E. The project views equity as way to “return stolen
resources” (Marcus and Munoz 2018), acknowledges the
legacies of injustice in our communities, places students
of color in leadership roles, and prioritizes work with
under-resourced organizations that are led by folks from
the community itself.

Paper accepted for #aagDC American Association of Geographers Annual Meeting 2019 in Washington DC.

To cite this paper:
Calzada, I. (2018), Accepted paper ‘Is Barcelona establishing a sustainable paradigm in Europe by grassroots-led smart urban experimentation through the ‘data commons’ policy?’ in the session ‘Smart urban experimentation: Re-shaping urban knowledge politics & decision-making?’ in the American Association of Geographers Annual Meeting 2019. Retrieved from https://aag.secure-abstracts.com/AAG%20Annual%20Meeting%202019/abstracts-gallery/18071 (Accessed on October 19, 2018).

Jennifer Goett's ethnography examines the race and gender politics of activism for autonomous rights in an Afrodescedant Creole community in Nicaragua. Weaving together fifteen years of research, Black Autonomy follows this community-based movement from its inception in the late 1990s to its realization as an autonomous territory in 2009 and beyond. Goett argues that despite significant gains in multicultural recognition, Afro-Nicaraguan Creoles continue to grapple with the day-to-day violence of capitalist intensification, racialized policing, and drug war militarization in their territories. Activists have responded by adopting a politics of autonomy based on race pride, territoriality, self-determination, and self-defense. Black Autonomy shows how this political radicalism is rooted in African diasporic identification and gendered cultural practices that women and men use to assert control over their bodies, labor, and spaces in an atmosphere of violence.

This chapter serves as a basic introduction to environmental justice. It begins by giving some historical background to the emergence of the term “environmental justice”. It then moves on to explain environmental justice as a movement concerned with the disproportionate burdening of communities of colour with environmental ills. This history is grounded in the lived experiences and realities of the communities experiencing environmental injustice, and as such examines various forms of resistance enacted by those communities to realize environmental justice. Finally, this chapter examines the ways in which making space for diverse and rich environmental histories, heritages, and identities is a crucial aspect of moving our global community toward the realization of environmental justice for all.

Last year, independent and secular segments of civil society ran against the established traditional political parties in Lebanon’s parliamentary elections. While their campaign elicited much hope, the results were disappointing. Why did they fail in breaking through and what lessons can be drawn from the campaign?

These reviews were rejected by the Berkeley Non-Profit Radical Newspaper Slingshot. The first co-legitimized the research of Gilens and Page's work determining the US Government is an oligarchy. The second was Robert Ogman's work supporting post-occupational grassroots struggle. Whatever Slingshot's collective reasoning might be, they seem unready to cross the threshold of serious academic critique, even when it would otherwise fit to their questionable rhetorical standards, albeit at times congruous with my own.

In recent years, Israel has witnessed a wave of heightened nationalism. Although nationalism is not new at all in this part of the world—quite the contrary—Israel's acting Prime Minister Netanyahu and his government are today part of an international alliance of leaders (including Donald Trump, Jair Bolsonaro, Viktor Orbán, and Narendra Modi) promoting neo-nationalism and right-wing populism. Notwithstanding the significant global aspects of neo-nationalism, as described by de Souza (2020), Koch and Vora (2020) and Yiftachel & Rokem, (n.d.), this commentary focuses on nationalism's localized manifestations in Jerusalem/al-Quds, highlighting the way local dynamics complicate and subvert nationalism's powerful influence.

Fidel Castro developed an idea of democracy as a legitimate alternative to american democracy. at the dawn of the Cuban revolution Castro was careful enough to avoid marxist concepts in his speeches, but after the bay of Pigs invasion in 1961 Castro embraced socialism as the ideology of the revolution. then the concept of dictatorship of the proletariat became the core of Castro's idea of democracy. In this context, the opposition between democracy and dictatorship disappeared. the dictatorship of the proletariat became working class democracy. thus, according to Castro, the political participation of Cuban masses in the revolutionary process gave the Cuban project an inescapable democratic character. In 1976 the revolutionary government reinforced the socialist character of the Cuban state through the promulgation of a new constitution. through this constitution the Cuban state embraced formal elections. Paradoxically, after embracing formal elections in 1976, the revolution lost popular power from below and actually became less democratic.

This report is about the ethics and transparency of corporate political organising. Its case study is Airbnb, one of the biggest companies in the ‘platform’ economy, who resources, mobilises and coordinates its landlords as political advocates to lobby for its preferred forms of regulation. Since 2008, numbers of short-term lettings, many of which might otherwise house permanent residents, have expanded dramatically. The associated problems, around housing shortages, tourism, taxation and urban conviviality, have led to social movement opposition and local attempts to regulate.

Airbnb’s use of grassroots lobbying, where businesses influence democratic institutions by creating and coordinating apparently independent social movements to act on their behalf, has been key in their response. Airbnb presents carefully curated and intensively coordinated groups of landlords with a single room or property as ‘people power’: independent grassroots groups who share its policy preferences. This offers the company legitimacy and additional political influence to protect a business model that is increasingly dominated by professional accommodation providers.

This hand-illustrated access-centred zine questions the absence of critical disability perspectives in the critique of neoliberal individualism. Building on academic literature as well as grassroots social justice organising, it argues that the very idea of individualism is an illusion. Specifically, an illusion made visible by foregrounding the lived experiences of disabled people, where interdependence is always already a foundational aspect of life. It maintains that the perspectives of disability-aligned writers and activists provide vital contributions to broader critiques of the neoliberal capitalist system. Comparing these perspectives to academic discourses, it demonstrates how interventions in both scholarship and wider movement building are necessary for imagining intersectional liberated futures beyond neoliberal individualism. By introducing discourses of disability justice, care webs, access intimacy and the complexities of debility, this zine provides an accessible starting point for exploring the potential of radical crip perspectives in bringing about sociopolitical and economic change.

This zine was originally produced for my undergraduate dissertation in BA International Relations at SOAS, University of London. It was created under the supervision of Dr Rahul Rao and was awarded a 90/100.

At a time of globally intensifying yet highly unequally felt crises, an
overwhelming majority of formal governmental bodies continues to
adhere to institutional frameworks in which social justice and ecological
integrity are no more than secondary objectives. Committed primarily
to market integrity and economic growth, key top-down
governance arrangements appear out of sync with the immediate
needs of the majority of populations and ecosystems. The continued
deterioration of the latter, meanwhile, further exacerbates the deepening
socio-economic inequalities both within and across the Global
North and South.
This disregard of social and environmental well-being is met with
a broad range of responses from civil society. Well-publicized reactions
over recent years, such as Pegida in Germany or Golden Dawn
in Greece, have grown from the breeding ground of identitarian narratives
infused with reductionism and misinformation. This begets different
shades of xenophobia and seclusion. The civil society activism
we are interested in here, however, foremost includes a variety of
emancipatory movements working towards and through socially, economically,
and environmentally just relations. These include protest
movements, environmental associations, community groups, foundations,
cooperatives, eco-social entrepreneurs, NGOs, journalists,
action-oriented researchers, and many others. The movements, organizations,
and projects underlying community activism are the focus
of this special issue and are implied when we speak about “community
initiatives.” Scholars contributing to the special issue thus use a
range of descriptors like community activism, civic engagement, and
transformative action to discuss these different expressions of emancipatory
bottom-up agency, and grassroots movements, community
initiatives, transformative initiatives, and grassroots organizations to
refer to their organizational manifestations.

"La autora realiza con estas páginas un aporte fundamental al debate sobre las condiciones en las que se practica y se usa la comunicación por parte de organizaciones que se apartan de la lógica industrial propia de las grandes empresas de medios y del Estado. Las tensiones y la relativa autonomía de los medios alternativos y comunitarios respecto de la institucionalidad estatal por un lado, y de las lógicas mercantiles por el otro, configuran un nudo problemático que es al mismo tiempo teórico y empírico y que, además, define los contornos políticos de las diversas experiencias de este sector.
Sin el sector de medios comunitarios y alternativos es imposible comprender la evolución del sistema de comunicación en el país y los conflictos, disputas y regulaciones que éste tuvo en las últimas décadas. Por lo tanto, sin la sistematización lograda en este libro el panorama de la comunicación en la Argentina resulta inconcluso. (...)
El texto de Natalia Vinelli es al mismo tiempo reflexivo y crítico, pero el lugar de la enunciadora no es neutral ni pretende asepsia alguna: al contrario, desde sus primeras líneas el libro reconoce una trayectoria política y social de compromiso constante con las tradiciones políticas y comunicacionales abordadas. Sin embargo, lejos de la apología que suele signar el abordaje de temáticas afines por parte cierta literatura de divulgación, Natalia Vinelli enhebra un estudio que abraza la reflexión y, al hacerlo, no escamotea la crítica. Esta crítica, que es también autocrítica por la posición que asume la autora, representa una contribución que por su seriedad, consistencia, capacidad analítica, profundidad intelectual y vocación crítica es notablemente superadora del panegírico zalamero que es regla en numerosos escritos sobre la democratización de la comunicación en la Argentina." (Del prólogo de Martín Becerra)

En Suisse, comme dans d'autres pays d'Europe occidentale, des associations musulmanes s'organisent pour fournir des prestations à vocation sociale et caritative. Ce phénomène interroge d'abord les évolutions d'un militantisme musulman propre aux sociétés occidentales durant ces dernières décennies. De plus en plus souvent, des mosquées, centres islamiques et collectifs musulmans s'engagent dans les domaines caritatifs et éducatifs, en proposant des services sociaux non seulement aux membres de leurs communautés, mais aussi à des non-musulmans. Quelles sont les causes et raisons d'être de cette action sociale musulmane ? Au-delà d'un militantisme communautaire musulman de plus en plus dense et visible, les mutations des sociétés contemporaines et du champ de l'action sociale participent à l'émergence de ces nouveaux acteurs caritatifs qui jouent sur des références identitaires, culturelles ou religieuses particulières. Plus globalement, l'affaissement de l'Etat-social propre au néolibéralisme questionne la place des acteurs privés de l'action sociale, leurs fonctions et leurs relations vis-à-vis des institutions étatiques. Dans ce contexte, quelles sont les rôles et les spécificités de l'action sociale musulmane ? Comment les associations engagées dans ce champ se positionnent-elles vis-à-vis de la société, de l'Etat et des communautés musulmanes ? Quels sont les objectifs de cet engagement ? Vise-t-il le bien commun de la société dans sa globalité, ou au contraire les intérêts de groupes communautaires restreints ? En d'autres termes, bénéficie-t-il aux musulmans uniquement, ou contribue-t-il à l'intérêt général ? Une étude empirique qualitative de trois expressions d'action sociale musulmane en Suisse, complétée par des recherches en France et en Grande-Bretagne, explore ces enjeux dans une perspective interdisciplinaire mêlant la sociologie, le travail social, les sciences politiques et les études religieuses, en faisant ressortir trois niveaux d'analyse. Premièrement, la place de l'action sociale musulmane dans la société européenne est questionnée, principalement à travers ses objectifs et ses interactions avec les institutions. Dans ce cadre, l'orientation identitaire et confessionnelle de cette action sociale est étudiée dans le contexte d'une société plurielle, en mettant en évidence les tensions entre ses discours d'impartialité et ses logiques communautaires. Deuxièmement, les liens entre ces associations musulmanes et les mouvements idéologiques de l'islam transnational seront questionnés, ce qui impliquera notamment de traiter la question de l'islamisme et d'une instrumentalisation supposée de l'action sociale à des fins prosélytes et politiques. Troisièmement, le développement de l'action sociale en Europe servira de base de réflexion sur les conditions de l'institutionnalisation de l'islam en Europe et l'essor d'une pensée religieuse contextualisée, qui se veut fondatrice d'un islam autochtone et local.

This essay interprets feminist and lesbian street actions, street art and graffiti in Ljubljana (Slovenia) as sporadic, anonymous, fleeting, and illegal interventions in the institutionalized sphere of feminist knowledge (re)production and the dominant cultural order. Selected graffiti, street art and street actions of the last fifteen years are paralleled with relevant political events and the written herstory of feminist and lesbian initiatives of the same period. The essay argues that these forms of grassroots activism, understood as one of the communication tools available to young and progressive feminists and lesbians, offer them public visibility and the possibility of creating and intermediating their own knowledge, values, and herstory – in short, an oppositional imagined community.

The first (2008) version of the essay is online: https://amnis.revues.org/545

The revised and updated version, entitled "Streetwise Politics: Feminist and Lesbian Grassroots Activism in Ljubljana" is attached below. It was published in: Elke Zobl, Ricarda Drüeke (eds.): Feminist Media: Participatory Spaces, Networks and Cultural Citizenship, transcript, Bielefeld, 2012, pp. 123-135.

More about the book at: http://www.transcript-verlag.de/978-3-8376-2157-0/feminist-media

Across Europe, hundreds of thousands of volunteers have brought food, clothes, medicines , and numerous others forms of support to newly arrived refugees. While humanitarian action has always been subversive, I argue that the recent wave of civil actions has pushed its subversive effects one step further. Whereas more modest forms of humanitarian action tend to misrecognise recipients' social and political subjectivities, their more subversive counterparts can be better understood as enacting a particularis-tic form of solidarity that emphasises precisely those subjectivities. To explore the potential for political innovation in these civil initiatives, I argue that it can be useful to do so through the lens of "subversive humanitarianism". More concretely, I suggest the following seven dimensions with which the subversive character of any humanitarian action can be compared across time and space: acts of civil disobedience; the reconsti-tution of social subjects; contending symbolic spaces; the creation of social spaces and personal bonds; assuming equality; putting minds into motion; and the transformation of individuals' life-worlds. I support the argument by drawing upon the recent wave of empirical studies on civil initiatives across the continent as well as my own ethnograph-ic data on the Brussels-based Plateforme Citoyenne de Soutien aux Réfugiés.

This qualitative study focused on educators who participated in grassroots social justice groups to explore the role teacher activism can play in the struggle for educational justice. Findings show teacher activists made three overarching commitments: to reconcile their vision for justice with the realities of injustice around them; to work within their classrooms to create liberatory space; and to work collectively against oppression as activists. To enact these commitments, they engaged in particular practices common across the teachers despite their years in the classroom or their geographic location.
A framework of teacher activism is revealed through the commitments and practices of the teacher activists, which can help support other teachers who are interested in working toward equity and justice in their classrooms and in the streets.

V létě roku 1956 přijeli do tehdejšího Československa první Vietnamci. Byly to děti. Sto dětí potomků rodičů, jež se zasloužili o nezávislost a sjednocení Vietnamu. Měly se zde vzdělávat, a poté vrátit do vlasti a pomoci k rozvoji válkou zničené země. Po nich přijeli desetitisíce dalších Vietnamců, ale až do převratu v roce 1989 žádný z nich už nebyl dítě. Přicházeli pouze dospělí, z jedné rodiny vždy pouze jeden člověk, ve věku mezi 17 až maximálně 30 let, výlučně ekonomicky aktivní a na dobu předem určenou. Shora řízenou migraci socialistického období vystřídala od začátku 90. let 20. století spontánní, a co do věku, genderu, vzdělání nebo politického původu migrantů daleko rozmanitější migrace. První pionýry migranty, kteří zůstali i po ukončení smluv mezi ČSSR a VSR, velmi brzy následovali další příbuzní. Partneři, sourozenci, bratranci a sestřenice, a také stále častěji i jejich děti. O těchto dětech, kterým je dnes mezi 25 a 30 lety, většinou mají po studiích, jsou již na svých rodičích ekonomicky nezávislé, nebo jsou už dokonce sami rodiči, je tento příspěvek. V textu představujeme rozvoj „nové spolkové činnosti“ mladých Vietnamců vyrůstajících a žijících v Česku, nebo také Čechovietnamců. V uvozovkách proto, protože se nejedná o spolky v plném slova smyslu. Většina těchto aktivit jsou teprve ve svém zárodku, prozatím spíše roztříštěné a většina je realizovaná spíše na neformálním, dobrovolnickém základu. „Nové“ proto, protože většina z nich probíhá více méně nezávisle na již existujících a etablovaných spolcích, které založili ti, kteří do Česka přišli ještě před rokem 1989. Zajímá nás, nejenom jak a proč se mladí Čechovietnamci sdružují, ale pozornost věnujeme i pozadí dětství a dospívání tzv. 1,5 a druhé generace Vietnamců.

This paper introduces the special issue and explains the diversity as well as common features of mobilization practices present in cities around the world. The paper starts with presenting the specificity and history of urban movements worldwide, as well as the development of ‘right to the city’ frame. Drawing on the existing literature, it focuses on presenting different forms of urban activism and interpretations of ‘right to the city’ slogan. This paper strives to fuse the framework of social movements as networks (Diani, in: Diani, McAdam (eds) Social movements and networks, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 299–318, 2003) of challengers (Gamson in The strategy of social protest, Wadsworth Publishing, Belmont, 1990) with the concepts of diffusion and translation of ideas, borrowed from Finnemore and Sikkink (Int Org 52(4):887–917, 1998). It also illustrates the application of the theoretical concepts of incumbents and challengers (Gamson 1990), organizational platform and norm life cycle (Finnemore and Sikkink 1998) as well as the development on movement networks within and between localities (Diani in The cement of civil society: studying networks in localities, Cambridge University Press, New York, 2015). The theoretical model helps to explain the rapid global spread of the notion of the ‘right to the city.’ The paper concludes with a discussion of the urban context, both ‘glocal’ and global, as an arena of social mobilization around different aspects of the ‘right to the city.’

Gegenstand der Studie sind intentionale Gemeinschaften mit besonderer sozialökologischer Prägung. Sie begreift Ökodörfer und andere sozialökologische Gemeinschaften in ihrer Rolle als Lebensstil-Avantgarden und als Pioniere nachhaltiger Entwicklung. Sie untersucht sowohl das Nachhaltigkeits- als auch das Innovationspotential solcher Gemeinschaften. Ihre Absicht ist es sowohl das Phänomen der sozialökologischen Gemeinschaften zu beschreiben als auch auszuloten, wo solche Gemeinschaften unter dem Gesichtspunkt der Nachhaltigkeit die moderne Gesellschaft bereichern und zur Verbreitung ökologisch und sozial nachhaltiger Innovationen beitragen können.

Kapitel 1 führt in die Problematik ein und gibt einen kurzen Überblick über die Geschichte der Ökodorf- und Gemeinschaftsbewegung - nicht nur, aber vor allem der deutschen.
Kapitel 2 trägt anhand internationaler Forschungsergebnisse zusammen, inwieweit Gemeinschaften ihrem Anspruch gerecht werden, ökologisch und sozial orientiert zu sein. Durch eine quantitative Analyse von 129 Gemeinschaften aus dem deutschsprachigen Raum werden Alter, Geschlechterzusammensetzung, Konsumgewohnheiten, bevorzugte Wirtschaftsformen und
Tätigkeitsschwerpunkte analysiert. Eine Typeneinteilung erlaubt es dabei unterschiedliche Projektarten anhand ihrer weltanschaulichen Ausrichtung zu unterscheiden und zu analysieren, wie sich diese auf die Charakteristika der Gemeinschaften auswirkt.
Kapitel 3 gibt einen Überblick über wichtige Funktionseigenheiten solcher Projekte unter dem Gesichtspunkt der vielfältigen sozialen, kulturellen und technologischen Neuerungen, die Gemeinschaften anwenden. Der Schwerpunkt liegt auf dabei Praktiken und Kulturtechniken.
Kapitel 4 bespricht die gesellschaftliche Ausstrahlungskraft und Wirksamkeit sowohl der Gemeinschaften als ganzheitliche Entitäten insgesamt als auch von einer ihrer zentralen Praktiken, dem gemeinschaftlichen Wohnen. (Letzteres wird als bereits erfolgtes Mainstreaming des Gemeinschaftsansatzes verstanden.) Das Kapitel zeigt auch Grenzen und Beschränkungen des modernen Gemeinschaftsansatzes auf und stellt dar, für welche Bevölkerungsgruppen gemeinschaftliches Leben, Arbeiten und Wohnen vermutlich kein wirksames Lebensstilmodell darstellen. Zudem werden Gefahren und Risiken einiger Eigenheiten der modernen Gemeinschaftsbewegung, wie sie sich als Gegenkultur am Ende des 20 Jahrhunderts entwickelt hat, besprochen.
Kapitel 5 gibt Empfehlungen an Akteure der Politik, Verwaltung und des Sozialwesens, wenn diese die vielfältigen Chancen und Vorteile, die solche Gemeinschaften als auch das gemeinschaftliche Wohnen im Allgemeinen bieten, für die Etablierung nachhaltiger Lebensstile nutzen möchten.

Die Studie ist im Rahmen eines Forschungs- und Dialogprojektes entstanden, dass European Business Council for Sustainable Energy
(e5) in Kooperation mit dem Global Ecovillage Network of Europe 2013 und 2014 durchgeführt hat. Das Projekt wurde durch das deutsche Umweltbundesamt und das Bundesministerium für Umwelt, Naturschutz, Bau und Reaktorsicherheit gefördert. Im Zentrum standen dabei Ökodörfer und vergleichbare innovative, gemeingüterbasierte Ansätze.

Alternative media is a term that signifies a range of media forms and practices , from radical critical media to independent media, and from grassroots autonomous media to community, citizen and participatory media. This paper critically analyzes the political content and organizational practices of different alternative media types to reveal the ideologies and conceptions of power embedded in specific conceptions of alternative media. Considering several competing conceptions of alternative media theory, including subcul-ture studies (Hebdige 1979), community media for social change (Rodríguez 2011), critical communication studies (Fuchs 2010), and radical media (Downing 2001), four distinct categories emerge: DIY media influenced by individualist ideologies and subcultural belonging; citizen media theorized by third-world Marxism and engaged in local community organizing; critical media influenced by the Frankfurt School of critical theory and focused on global anti-capitalist content; and autonomous media influenced by social anarchism and rooted in global anti-authoritarian social movements. This synthesized taxonomy provides an important mapping of key similarities and differences among the diverse political projects, theories, practices and ideologies of alternative media, allowing for a more comprehensive and nuanced

Industrial ecology tools have a role in informing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. However, a more socially meaningful industrial ecology would have a stronger impact. Identifying the most feasible options calls for multidimensional systems perspectives. This research provides insights into opportunities and challenges to reconcile lifestyles, human needs and planetary well-being. This work assesses multiple environmental and social indicators to analyze synergies, trade-offs and lock-ins within the human-economy-nature triad. It views fundamental human needs and lifestyles at the center of socioeconomic metabolism.

Open access to high resolution file: http://hdl.handle.net/11610/20455
[ENGLISH ABSTRACT]
The challenge of social engagement is not only about the outward impact that museums institutionally exert, nor simply about sustaining selective affiliations; more, it pertains to the external pressures museums accede to, as a multitude of collective organizations around the latter sprouts various antagonisms, both against it (directly or obliquely) and among each other.
Thus, the thesis “Museums, Diversity & Social Needs: Contemporary exhibiting practices & social struggles” is a comparative study (documentation, analysis and correlation) of diverse types of exhibitions planned by cultural institutions, humanitarian NGOs and social movements, aiming at elucidating and theorizing whether, and how, contemporary exhibitions reproduce and nurture social conflicts. Is “collaboration” in exhibition-making unconfined and/ or unconditional?
The research material was solicited via a) field research (participatory observation) and b) web research (at official archives, etc.). More than 300 exhibitions feature in the feasibility sample, 45 of which were examined on-site (32 in Greece, 13 abroad), while the rest were trawled through catalogs, press releases, floor plans, photographic installation views, etc. (192 in Greece, 79 abroad). The cases were grouped according to their locale (e.g. permanent or interim space), content (themes, concepts, structures, etc.) and types of exhibitors, and then they were probed with the method of content analysis.
Results (regarding the limitations on collaborating between different categories of exhibitors, the pressures on central venues and the disputes of narratives) confirm that, exhibition conflicts are structured in a grid with other conflicts (museum-related as well as wider social), promoting antagonistic orientations of mass action for social change (civic society vs. social movements, absorption vs. scattering, confinement vs. exclusion, empowered specialized trailblazers vs. folk pioneers, etc.).
Text is structured in 10 parts (introduction, 8 main chapters and annex). Chapter 2 describes the research methodology. Chapter 3 offers a critical discussion of the concerns of contemporary theories. Chapter 4 examines internationally the relationship between exhibition practices and social discrimination practices and social struggles. The 5th and 6th chapters deal with prevailing exhibition practices in Greece focusing, respectively, on the issues of 'sensitive' political/ social history and the practice of social solidarity, while the 7th discusses in particular the exhibiting practices of the main actors of social struggles in Greece. The 8th describes exhibitions at contemporary political festivals. Chapter 9 summarizes the conclusions.
The doctorate was materialized with a scholarship by the State Scholarships Foundation (IKY).

[GREEK ABSTRACT]
H πρόκληση της κοινωνικής παρεμβατικότητας δεν αφορά μόνο στον εξωτερικό αντίκτυπο που ασκούν τα μουσεία θεσμικά, ούτε απλά στην διατήρηση επιλεκτικών συμπράξεων, μα περισσότερο αφορά στις πιέσεις που δέχονται από έξω προς τα μέσα, καθώς πλήθος συλλογικών φορέων γύρω από το μουσείο αναπτύσσει διάφορους ανταγωνισμούς, προς το ίδιο (ευθέως ή πλαγίως), αλλά και αναμεταξύ τους.
Έτσι, στη διατριβή «Μουσεία, ετερότητα & κοινωνικές ανάγκες: Σύγχρονες εκθεσιακές πρακτικές & κοινωνικοί αγώνες» μελετήθηκαν συγκριτικά (καταγράφηκαν, αναλύθηκαν και συσχετίστηκαν) διάφοροι τύποι εκθέσεων που οργανώνουν πολιτιστικοί φορείς, ανθρωπιστικές ΜΚΟ και κοινωνικά κινήματα, με σκοπό να διαλευκανθεί και να θεωρητικοποιηθεί αν, και πώς, στις σύγχρονες εκθέσεις αναπαράγονται και καλλιεργούνται οι κοινωνικές συγκρούσεις. Η «συνεργασία» στην εκθεσιακή πράξη είναι «άνευ ορίων» και «άνευ όρων»;
Το ερευνητικό υλικό συγκεντρώθηκε α) επιτόπια, με συμμετοχική παρατήρηση και β) από (επίσημα) αρχεία, δημοσιοποιημένα στον παγκόσμιο ιστό. Περισσότερες από 300 εξεταζόμενες εκθέσεις συμπεριλήφθηκαν στο δείγμα σκοπιμότητας, εκ των οποίων οι 45 εκθέσεις (13 στο εξωτερικό, 32 στην Ελλάδα) τεκμηριώθηκαν επιτόπια, ενώ οι υπόλοιπες μέσα από καταλόγους, δελτία τύπου, φωτογραφικές όψεις, κτλ. (79 εκθέσεις στο εξωτερικό, 192 εγχώριες). Οι περιπτώσεις παραμετροποιήθηκαν ως προς τον εκθεσιακό χώρο (μόνιμο/ προσωρινό, ειδικό/μη ειδικό, κ.ο.κ.), το περιεχόμενο (θέματα, φόρμα) και τους τύπους εκθετών (όπως προαναφέρθηκαν) και οι ομαδοποιήσεις τους εξετάστηκαν με τη μέθοδο της ανάλυσης περιεχομένου.
Τα ευρήματα της έρευνας (για τα όρια  στις συνεργασίες μεταξύ των φορέων-εκθεσιακών παραγωγών, τις πιέσεις που ασκούνται στα εκθεσιακά «κέντρα» και τη διένεξη των αφηγήσεων), επιβεβαίωσαν ότι, οι εκθεσιακές αντιπαραθέσεις δομούνται σε πλέγμα με άλλες (μουσειακές κι ευρύτερες κοινωνικές), προάγοντας ανταγωνιστικούς προσανατολισμούς της μαζικής δράσης για την κοινωνική αλλαγή (της κοινωνίας των πολιτών και των κινημάτων, της εσωτερίκευσης και της διάχυσης, του εγκλεισμού και του αποκλεισμού, της χειραφετημένης εξειδίκευσης και της λαϊκής πρωτοπορίας, κτλ.).
Η συγγραφική μελέτη διαρθρώνεται σε 10 μέρη (εισαγωγή, 8 κύρια κεφάλαια και παράρτημα). Στο 2ο κεφάλαιο περιγράφεται η μεθοδολογία της έρευνας. Στο 3ο γίνεται μια κριτική διαπραγμάτευση των προβληματισμών των σύγχρονων θεωρήσεων. Στο 4ο εξετάζεται η διεθνής εικόνα της σχέσης των εκθεσιακών πρακτικών με τις πρακτικές των κοινωνικών διακρίσεων και τις πρακτικές των κοινωνικών αγώνων. Το 5ο και 6ο κεφάλαιο αφορούν στις εγχώριες επικρατούσες εκθεσιακές πρακτικές γύρω από, αντίστοιχα, την «ευαίσθητη» πολιτική/ κοινωνική ιστορία και την πρακτική της κοινωνικής αλληλεγγύης, ενώ το 7ο εστιάζει στις εκθεσιακές πρακτικές των κύριων δραστών των κοινωνικών αγώνων στην Ελλάδα. Στο 8ο περιγράφονται οι εκθέσεις σε σύγχρονα πολιτικά φεστιβάλ. Στο 9ο  κεφάλαιο συνοψίζονται τα συμπεράσματα.
Η διατριβή εκπονήθηκε με υποτροφία του ΙΚΥ.

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Archie Sibeko is a South African who was a trade unionist, activist, and politician in Cape Town from 1953-63 when he went into exile. I am honoured to have worked with him to edit, produce and publish this collection of short biographies of his comrades who made invaluable contributions at grassroots level to political and labour struggles. Archie’s Roll of Honour recognises their contributions and provides a valuable record for historians and their families.