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- Convenors:
-
Stine Krøijer
(Copenhagen University)
Raul Acosta Garcia (Goethe Universität Frankfurt am Main)
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- Format:
- Panels
- Location:
- SO-F389
- Sessions:
- Thursday 16 August, -
Time zone: Europe/Stockholm
Short Abstract:
Contemporary activism relies on the physical movement of people establishing forms of collaboration for political projects. This panel invites ethnographic descriptions of the multifaceted encounters, pollinations and discordances between local activist projects and visiting or mobile activists.
Long Abstract:
Where previous work on activism has highlighted its networked quality (Juris 2015; Maeckelbergh 2009; Acosta 2009) and the circulation of forms of action in international activist networks (Krøijer 2015), in this panel we wish to zoom in on the itinerant quality of contemporary political activism: the forms of collaboration and discordances itinerancy produces. Social movements and activists working on the fringes of institutional politics are involved in longstanding efforts to make a difference in their local social worlds while facing up to structural forces underlying the policies and practices of states and international institutions. These local struggles often involve overlooked forms of transnational mobility, such as travels to partake in each other's struggles, 'summit hopping' and summer rendezvous. This panel invites papers that provide ethnographic descriptions of the multifaceted encounters between local activist projects and visiting or mobile activists, as well as efforts to establish interim spaces of political activism, for example with a view to engage in protest events, express solidarity, exchange knowledge or providing resources and ideas. We are particularly interested in papers analyzing the collaborations and discordances that might emerge when groups meet, including questioning of 'foreign' ideas and practices, accusations of neo-colonialism, strategies to counter movement or impede distortions of existing power balances. We seek to go beyond simplifications of foreign activists as 'colonizer' or 'violent travelling vandals' by considering the purchase of concepts such as exchange, collaboration, friction and cross-pollination for understanding the dynamics through which mobility shape activism in specific localities.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Thursday 16 August, 2018, -Paper short abstract:
Drawing on research in the exilic space of Exarcheia in Athens this ethnography examines the dynamics between volountourists,transnational solidarity activists,anarchists and refugees that create international solidarity and political radicalisation through the negotiation of friction.
Paper long abstract:
This exploratory ethnography examines the dynamics of international solidarity between volountourists, transnational solidarity activists, anarchists and refugees as a form of justice tourism (Higgins-Desboilles 2008). It gathers data in four social centres and squats in Athens, Greece through participant observation and semi- structured interviews and primary data from anarchist publications. The paper then utilizes grounded theory to demonstrate that solidarity in praxis is the negotiation of friction (Tsing 2005).
The meeting of everyday needs such as housing and food is linked to agitation for 'revolution', and lay concepts of 'holidarity'. 'soul kitchens' and 'skipping' offer opportunities for collaboration and discordance and at times, in an arena fraught with identity politics, the status of individual's is challenged. Local activists closed resistance strategies such as the secretive Exarcheia security force are also examined. The informal experiential learning in the exilic space of the neighbourhood of Exarcheia catalyses a transformative radicalization towards the left in political views and a performative social justice with wide ranging future potential.
Paper short abstract:
This paper argue that is precisely the modernization of the self which is a key factor in the decision-making process as to whether one should engage voluntarily in refugee protection during 'the refugee crisis' in Serbia.
Paper long abstract:
In the existing literature, the phenomenon of volunteers in refugee protection is often approached from the perspective of an emerging new horizontal solidarity movement with a stabilizing structure, collectively determined goals and mechanisms of political influence. This line of consideration invites us to ask what the differences between old and new forms of activism are. Although researchers of pro-migrant initiatives have noticed the shift from centralized, hierarchically structured old type of organization to a new decentralized organization which is built on significant heterogeneity in terms of ideas and values, they seem to underestimate the self-orientation of these movements. I argue that it is precisely the modernization of the self which is a key factor in the decision-making process as to whether one should engage voluntarily during 'the refugee crisis'. This impacts the personal motivations of volunteers, the way they organize themselves as well as the durability of their actions.
In the light of these considerations, the key questions in my text are: (1) What motivates volunteers from the global North to travel to Serbia? (2) What are the personal, political and/ or moral interests behind their decisions? (3) How do they understand their role there, and how does this understanding evolve in the field?
This paper is based on interviews conducted with migrants and volunteers/activists, combined and participant action research in transit camps at two border crossings: Presevo and Horgosh/Kelebija in Serbia in 2016.
Paper short abstract:
This paper discusses former incarcerated women activists in the prison abolition movement in the U.S. By giving precedence to transregional mobility and diversity among activists it highlights how movement networks are shaped amidst the dynamic friction and concordance in the contemporary movement.
Paper long abstract:
For decades, U.S. governments have prioritized public security. Although the prison population has begun to stabilize, the U.S. maintains its distinction as the world leader in its use of incarceration. Crime and punishment are high on the political agenda in many countries and politicians of all persuasions discuss harsher sentences for those labelled criminals. This paper, however, aims to give some insights of the role of a social movement that fundamentally challenges these ideas and currently is gaining momentum across the U.S. The prison abolition movement involves a large number of groups and networks, including senior activists in the Black Panthers of the 1960s and 1970s, youths identifying as Black Americans, and young Latin Americans and white youths. The movement is partly run by formerly incarcerated women activists, and the paper describes ethnographically the annual four-day conference Beyond Bars at Columbia University in 2017 and also in 2018, with scholars and hundreds of formerly incarcerated activists from across the country. Activists in different states (such as New York, Louisiana and California) are situated in contexts with diverse laws and views on criminality and gun possession. They belong to diverse social movement histories - radical or reformist - depending on region, as well as to different generations. Their views on society, the state and violence have thus to be negotiated. This paper gives precedence to transregional mobility among activists, and highlights how movement networks are shaped amidst the dynamic friction and concordance in the contemporary prison abolition movement.
Paper short abstract:
This paper deals with Caribbean activism for slavery reparations focusing on transnational mobility and discourses of Jamaican leaders. It focuses on how they link the internal Jamaican situation to global responsibility by addressing policies of governments and international institutions.
Paper long abstract:
This paper deals with Caribbean activism for slavery reparations focusing on transnational mobility and discourses of Jamaican leaders. Claims for reparation for the long-term damages caused by the enslavement of Africans within the transatlantic trade and by centuries of plantation slavery in the Americas have a long traceable history. They became globally more visible and strong after the UN declaration of Durban 2001 that condemned slavery as a crime against humanity and by the current agenda of CARICOM Reparations Commission that appeals to European governments to take responsibility for historical injustices and to engage in measures of reparations. The paper analyzes the pivotal role of Jamaican activism within the Caribbean and even global struggle. Based on empirical research and interviews with the members of the Jamaican National Council on Reparation it traces their trajectories, local and transnational networks, campaigns and arguments in favor of reparations. The paper focuses on transnational mobility as integral part of local activism that links the internal situation in Jamaica to global political responsibilities and addresses respective policies of Jamaican and British governments as well as international institutions. The paper finally emphasizes how the reparations agenda urges local and global audiences and stakeholders to initiate public debates about the re-negotiation of the history of slavery in relation to present (in)justice - not only as a regional prospect for the Caribbean, but as a entangled history between the Caribbean and Europe.
Paper short abstract:
Activists promoting urban cycling in Latin America have in recent years used multifaceted encounters to share knowledge, ideas, and resources, in order to strengthen their own local struggles. This paper explores the role of the World Bicycle Forum and similar meetings for local efforts in Mexico.
Paper long abstract:
Urban cycling advocates in Latin America have sought to position their efforts according to the local context of each city and region they are active in. The networks they have formed across the region have nevertheless helped all groups learn from each other and share ideas, resources, and knowledge. The visibility of each specific ‘movement’ within different cities responds to their own specific power balances, media landscapes, and political cultures, at local, regional, and national levels. Behind the scenes, however, complex networks linking activist groups, advocacy organizations, NGOs, international foundations, aid agencies, and governments, consultancy firms, and professional service providers, are at work. Some activists have taken part to different degrees in several struggles which are quite distant from each other, sometimes across national borders. The resulting encounters have provided a circulation of tangible and intangible goods that help vernacular advocacy efforts. In particular, this paper analyses the role of the World Bicycle Forum for cycling promotion in Guadalajara and Mexico City. The structural processes that plague numerous cities across the globe frame similar measures that in turn are promoted by international institutions like the World Bank or private foundations. Government backed infrastructure and regulatory projects do not work if they lack a harmonization with societal needs and aspirations. Those activists who visit each other and learn from different contexts appear to more easily identify the particular pulse of a city. Foreign experiences serve therefore as useful mirrors for local struggles.