Paper short abstract:

The intention is to investigate the processes of giving meaning to the situation of "to participate of a social movement", specifically at the homeless movement, in São Paulo city, Brazil. The meanings, we noticed, are constructed in narratives.

Paper long abstract:

Our intention in this research is to investigate the processes of giving meaning to the situation of "to participate of a social movement". We chose the homeless movement in São Paulo city, Brazil, and have noticed links and stress between i) the urgency of material demand and ii) the production of sense of being in the world. We have participated of manifestations at the streets, interviewed militants and also attended meetings of an specific organization of the movement (so-called MMC, portuguese acronym for movement of the homeless of downtown). Finally, we applied a survey at the 11th State Meeting of Popular Housing, in São Paulo, May 2009. As research results we present discussions whose main issues are: the profile of the militant of the homeless movement in São Paulo; the strategies and forms of action they adopt and discuss; and the narratives and elements that are mobilized to give sense to the participation. One of the most challenge of the social movement is how to articulate past, present and future in order to create intelligible narratives (full of meaning). The major conclusion is a methodological and analytical contribution: that we must attempt to the relations that the social movement (as a reserch object) establishes and reconfigurates with surrounding elements. We can even go beyond that and assume the social movement itself as a relational object, and for that we must recognize its contingencies and definitions as situational, albeit within an ethical-political spectrum.

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Paper short abstract:

Dans sa lutte pour la reconnaissance des populations rurales pauvres, le Mouvement social des Sans Terre du Brésil (MST) a recours à des revendications mémorielles qu’il actualise à travers des représentations artistiques afin de créer un sentiment d’appartenance entre ses différents membres.

Paper long abstract:

Engagé à ses débuts pour la réalisation de la Réforme Agraire, le Mouvement social des Travailleurs Ruraux Sans Terre du Brésil (MST) a progressivement élargi ses objectifs politiques pour revendiquer aujourd'hui une reconnaissance sociale en faveur des populations rurales. Pour donner plus d'ampleur à sa lutte et obtenir cette reconnaissance, le MST revendique l'héritage d'un grand nombre de leaders de luttes ayant marqué l'histoire brésilienne : leader d'esclaves marrons, chef indien, chef de bandits d'honneurs…font ainsi partie des références de l'histoire du MST. Véritable « histoire des autres », celle-ci regroupe des luttes correspondant à des mouvements de résistances face aux colons portugais, puis aux élites brésiliennes. Afin de concrétiser cette histoire et la rappeler à ses membres, le MST donne fréquemment les noms de ces leaders aux noms des communautés de la Réforme Agraire pour en faire une référence pour les habitants de ces communautés. Actualisée dans des slogans ou mise en scène dans des pratiques artistiques cette histoire s'articule avec des références de personnes mortes dans la lutte et directement liées avec les populations rurales. Cette histoire « en train de se faire » autour d'un but commun permet de créer un sentiment d'appartenance entre les différents membres du MST - paysans ou non - et d'impliquer une population subalterne dans une lutte à dimension historique.

Paper short abstract:

The present paper discusses the constructive role funerals play in South African political struggles for land restitution. Our work is based on ethnographic research in Kwazulu-Natal among Landless Peoples Movement activists whose major aim is to reach their land back: a land from where they were evicted but where their ancestors remain deeply grounded. In their struggle to bury their relatives in farms that belong to white farmers, LPM´s activists settle a political claim and at the same time challenge our modernist concept of history for which the past is unreachable. The active presence of their ancestors in their actual lives continually reshapes their attachment to the land and therefore their projects for the future.

Paper long abstract:

In Kwazulu-Natal, as in many other parts of South Africa, different social movements settle their claims in order to challenge inequality. Many make their claims having ¨places¨ as political targets. Land in rural and urban areas is a main issue of dispute, since spatial segregation was the fundamental base for apartheid and former regimes of racial discrimination. Nowadays, while waiting for a slow restitution process, LPM activists in KZN wave many flags: the most important is the right to bury their relatives in farms from where they were former evicted. Usually LPM members have to settle judicial claims when farm owners don't allow them to bury their deceased relatives in old burial sites where their ancestors stay. A funeral becomes a political battle. Although considered successful if finally performed in the envisioned farm, in many occasions the judges deliberate against the plea and the burial must be performed in other place. In a context marked by rampant death having the land back means not only your own piece of ground but a different way to guarantee a futureexistence to any beloved person who passes away. In the present paper we analyze some rituals we have attended in order to discuss the anthropological implication of both ancestor´s presence as active subjects in the contemporary world and land as a plastic ground for human experience. Along with LPM members theories on historical transformation we aim to discuss a persistent modernist vision of history as a lineal succession of events.

Paper short abstract:

Orange Alternative - the quintessence of "Socialist Surrealism" and connection of life and art - is a unique example of how a movement can socially and politically shape people and places. Its phenomenon can be seen as one of the world's influential currents in the history of civic disobedience.

Paper long abstract:

Orange Alternative is an artistic underground movement connected with the history of struggle against communism, which was started in 1981 in Poland by Waldemar Fydrych, the charismatic leader of the movement. According to some features of the Dutch Provos movement of the late 1960's and strongly influenced by surrealism, Orange Alternative painted absurd graffiti dwarfs on city walls, which became its symbol and was one of most picturesque element of Polish opposition. The movement particularly active in the period 1985-1989 was the purest expression of "Socialist Surrealism", directly challenging the state on the streets. It combined playfulness with a ruthlessly tongue-in-cheek approach that consistently wrong-footed the authorities, such as in 1988, on the anniversary of the Russian Revolution, when 4000 people marched through Warsaw chanting "We love Lenin". After the demise of the communism, Orange Alternative did not die, just changed the targets. The movement was reactivated in 2001 in the happening "General Meeting of the Dwarves" and stands now against the gray background of the globalised capitalism omnipresent in social and political spheres around the world. Since then Orange Alternative became a transnational movement being also active outside of Poland, e.g. in France, Germany or by supporting the Orange Revolution in Ukraine in 2004. Today, considering three decades, Orange Alternative can be judged as one of the unique examples of peaceful opposition and an independent artistic movement. The presented paper is based on a master thesis and concerns a combination of discourse and ethnographic field analysis including biographic interviews.

Paper short abstract:

So called ‘citizen cafés’ in Warsaw were a catalyst in bringing together certain actors and developing a prevalent social movement. Their growing relevance made city authorities change their strategy for greater participation. Their example shows the role of space in emerging social movements.

Paper long abstract:

The first so called 'citizen café' was opened in 2005 in a non-central district of Warsaw. Its original aim was to promote independent culture and 'to provide a space for social and cultural interactions'. Soon the place became political: both through its non-exclusiveness and through an initial conflict with the other tenants. Instead of escalating the conflict, the founders of the café started to engage in the politics of the district. The café offered a space for meetings with local authorities, intellectual and political events. It turned into an informal centre of local NGOs. Their growing relevance made city authorities change their strategy for greater participation. The founder of the cafe together with numerous activists were invited to the advisory board of the City Hall and were able to influence official city politics without losing their independence. The symbol of break with former city politics was the announcement of a contest for an independent cultural centre in one of the most attractive commercial spaces of the city. During this time similar cafés started to emerge in Warsaw. Today there exist over a dozen 'citizen cafes' in which most relevant grassroots political and cultural initiatives are taking place. In my paper, presenting the results of research conducted by students in my seminar, I will show that 'citizen cafés' in Warsaw were a catalyst in bringing together certain actors and developing a prevalent social movement and try to develop a broader reflection on the role of spatial structures in social movements.

Paper short abstract:

The genital autonomy movement gained visibility by disrupting authorities and cultural codes. It has a strong local emphasis with grassroots mobilizations, consciousness-raising groups, and online networking. Visual representation has allowed for an increase in the autonomy movement.

Paper long abstract:

The genital autonomy movement has gained visibility by disrupting the cultural codes and the authorities of religion and medicine. The movement blossomed from a cluster of independent advocacy groups into a larger umbrella movement that advocates for the recognition of body autonomy. The movement serves as an institutionalized and unified collective challenge to "circumcisionism." Circumcisionism can be defined as the discourses that are deeply embedded within mainstream ideologies that help shape our understandings of sex, health, and reproduction. Genital autonomy encompasses diversity on grounds of social location, political, and religious ideologies. The movement has a strong local emphasis with grassroots mobilizations including local centers and organization chapters, consciousness-raising groups, demonstrations and events, and online networking. Visual representation has brought about an increase in the genital autonomy movement via documentary, film and television, depictions of public events, as well as the circumcision procedures. By questioning circumcisionism genital autonomy has received validation as a legitimate movement for the protection of both females and males. The legitimacy to protect male genitalia has largely remained silenced and overlooked. However, the movement has escalated to include recognition of male circumcision as well as female circumcision as another facet of genital autonomy. An international movement has helped change the lives of its participants and community members by creating a space of genital rights and building dynamic relationships across nations. This paper provides an account of the author's participation in the genital autonomy movement, as it has rendered consciousness and belonging by extending contributions at the grassroots, academic, and organizational levels. Elements of participation include: an application of theory to action as praxis in academia and engaging in internships, creation of local organization chapters, and development of online networking sites.

Paper short abstract:

The capacity of conspiracy theories is particularly interesting in the light of political mobilisation of voters and their emotions within public space. The crucial efficiency of this phenomenon will be presented through an example of activism of several influential right-wing oriented political parties and NGOs in contemporary Serbia.

Paper long abstract:

Conspiracy theories represent a universal phenomenon that is based on synthesized and compound cognitions (very often wrong ones) that form particular belief system. In private as well as in public domain, conspiracy theories embody cognitive apparatus which enables individuals and groups to acquire "knowledge" and explanations about those levels of reality that usually seem to be exclusive, covered and controlled by alleged power centres. Therefore, the aim of this paper is the analysis of conspiracy theories which, according to specific and different social-political circumstances and social context in general, exist as alternative regimes of truth or/and the resource of political legitimacy.

Particular attention here will be focused on those conspiracy theories that might serve as one of the main strongholds of political ideology and legitimacy of ruling or oppositional parties that, thanks to attractiveness of such theories, try to influence emotions and orientation of voters. According to this, the paper analyses connection between conspiracy theories and discourse of hard euroscepticizm in contemporary Serbia, namely its instrumentalization by political parties gathered around nationalist coalition and right-wing oriented NGOs, with the aim to proselytize trust for ides and programs they propagate. Therefore, I will try to present function of conspiracy theories, within political agenda of mentioned actors, in shaping negative emotions and mistrust towards the European Union. In another words, conspiracy theories will be analyzed as means for political mobilization of voters and sympathizers in the process of straightening euroscepticism in Serbia.

Paper short abstract:

Kashmir is known as the core of Indopakistani dispute: through an ethnographic analysis on the teenagers institutional practice of stonepelting against army, related imaginary and representations is possible to understand how conflicting transnational political powers interpenetrate moral economies.

Paper long abstract:

Kashmir is well known as the core issue indopakistani dispute: we should consider it a territorial conflict as well as a dispute over cultural, historical, political landscapes, mostly linked to 1947 Partition and intimate "communal" nature of areal politics. After 20 year of ISI sponsored Islamist militancy, the separatist organizations, basically linked to Pakistani belonging narratives, have promoted a non violent protest strategy. At the same time their local power assumed governamental features, deeply rooted in the local population resentment against indian army human rights violations. Among informally imposed strikes calendars and military curfew youth stonepelting (kanjang in kashmiri language) against army has emerged as an institution where moral economy, multiple political identities and paradoxical overlapping powers are staged in a social interactive drama. Stonepelting has become a microphysical/metaforical coagulate of a broader geopolitical landscape, where teenagers-soldiers violent interaction involves a semiotic-normative intimacy which enables an ephemeral space signification. Kanjang shouldn't be conceived as a mere local effect of geopolitical power configuration as it has recently became a core subject among conflicting media and political discourses which are trying to develop encapsulating representations of this social phenomena. This hegemonization of stonepelting resulted in a diacronic reversal of the relation between practice and imaginary: if two years ago kanjang "fashion" was lead by a imaginary mobilization, mainly media comparison with Palestinian issue, now local stone pelting has irrupted in the translocal macroevents landscape, the practice of violence has became a part of ethnonationalist iconography and is now the spring in the political imaginary mobilization process.

Paper short abstract:

Why would people be politically active in and for a place that is not their own? This paper analyzes narratives from international solidarity activists in the West Bank to explore processes by which meaningful places and subjects are co-produced through multi-sited social movements.

Paper long abstract:

Ethnographies of social movements are increasingly focused on the interplay of meaning and place. But, what does it mean to be politically active in and for a place that is not your own? How do social movements craft meaningful actions and selves when their work is "out of place"? Drawing on ethnographic research conducted in 2008 and 2009 with international solidarity activists working in the Palestinian territory of the West Bank, this paper investigates processes in which meaning, belonging, and subjectivity are built by engaging with the non-local. Solidarity activism (or witnessing) is premised upon the idea that in areas of conflict the presence of foreign nationals - and specifically westerners - can uniquely reduce or deter violence, and will, as well, draw international media and political attention to human rights violations that occur. While articulations of solidarity activism provided by organizations emphasize the importance of being present in the West Bank, this paper contends that activists do not construct the West Bank as the site of their legitimate political and physical engagement. Rather, through their engagement with the place of the West Bank, activists re-construct their home cities and countries as sites of their own meaningful political engagement. Building from the work of Escobar and other social movement scholars, this paper asks how meaning and subjectivity are produced through the experience of multiple places. In addition, it explores how this might help us understand changing political subjectivities and the possibilities for solidarity provided by international social movements.