Feminism

The effects of «perestroika», concept of democratization and modernization of socialism and sys temic crisis in socio-economic and socio-political spheres of Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia was that of the late 70’s, but mostly from the mid 80’s of XX century these countries increased structural and organizational network of protest and non-conformism, which turned out to be a variation of the transition from dissent to opposition – first as a form of social and political protest and later as a form of political institution. However, the transition from dissent to opposition was not straight and unilateral, but carried out mostly in terms of protest social and political movements and organizations, which over time essentially and con- ceptually transformed into political opposition or set up bases for forming political opposition in the region. Accordingly, it significantly actualizes the problem of social and political protest movements and organiza- tions’ influence on the formation of political opposition in Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia (and later in the Czech Republic and Slovakia) as countries that were the basis of modern Visegrad Group. Therefore, the article discusses the features of occurrence and impact of protest social and political movements and organizations on the formation of political opposition and the collapse of the regimes of «real socialism» in the predecessors’ states of modern Visegrad Group – Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia – in the 70–80’s of XX century. It was proven that protest social and political movements and organizations in Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia, especially from the second half of the 70’s of XX century and by 1987–1990, were «agents» of anti-communism and anti-authoritarianism, primarily because they have been fighting against any manifestation and remnants of the communist regime. It’s also noteworthy that struggle between communist regimes and groups of political protest in the region happened in a quite similar way, as conflicting or competing parties/groups (the communist regime and anti-communist opposition) were interconnected in the fact that they could not solve the political crisis without help and influence of each other. The researcher also revealed that protest and public activity in Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia (and later in the Czech Republic and Slovakia) on the verge of 1989–1993 was and remains an important element of political culture and a catalyst of institutional policy, which is incorporated in the process of institutionalization of relations between power and opposition.

Since it was first published more than forty years ago, Sources of Japanese Tradition, Volume 2, has been considered the authoritative sourcebook for readers and scholars interested in Japan from the eighteenth century to the post-World War II period. Now greatly expanded to include the entire twentieth century, and beginning in 1600, Sources of Japanese Tradition presents writings by modern Japan's most important philosophers, religious figures, writers and political leaders. The volume also offers extensive introductory essays and commentary to assist in understanding the documents' historical settings and significance. Wonderfully varied in its selections, this eagerly anticipated expanded edition has revised many of the texts from the original edition and added a great many not included or translated before. New additions include documents on the postwar era, the importance of education in the process of modernization, and women's issues. Beginning with documents from the founding of the Tokugawa shogunate, the collection's essays, manifestos, religious tracts, political documents, and memoirs reflect major Japanese religious, philosophical, social and political movements. Subjects covered include the spread of neo-Confucian and Buddhist teachings, Japanese poetry and aesthetics, and the Meiji Restoration. Other documents reflect the major political trends and events of the period: the abolition of feudalism, agrarian reform, the emergence of poltical parties and liberalism, and the Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese Wars. The collection also includes Western and Japanese impressions of each other through Western religious missions and commercial and cultural exchanges. These selections underscore Japanese and Western apprehension of and fascination with each other. As Japan entered the twentieth century, new political and social movements -- Marxism, anarchism, socialism, nationalism, and feminism -- entered the national consciousness. Later readings in the collection look at the buildup to war with the United States, military defeat and American occupation. Documents from the postwar period echo Japan's struggle with its own history and its development as a capitalist democracy.

Bu çalışma, 60’lı yılların sonlarından itibaren yeni bir paradigma çerçevesinde değerlendirilmeye başlanan toplumsal hareketlerin siyasal bir harekete dönüşümünü örnek olaylar üzerinden incelemeyi amaçlamaktadır. Toplumsal hareketler literatüründeki genel kabullerden biri; eski ve yeni toplumsal hareketlerin siyasetle ilişkili olma bakımından birbirinden farklılık sergilediğidir. Eski toplumsal hareketlerin, siyasi bir partinin çatısı altında örgütlendiği, yeni toplumsal hareketlerin partiler üstü bir yapı sergilediği kabul edilir. Bu çalışma, yeni toplumsal hareketlerin siyasi motivasyonlarla bir araya gelmemesine rağmen siyasi bir harekete dönüşme potansiyeli olduğunu öne sürmektedir. Bu doğrultuda İspanya’da ortaya çıkan Indignados Hareketi ve Lübnan’da ortaya çıkan Beyrut Medineti Hareketi örnek olay olarak ele alınmıştır. Farklı coğrafyalarda ortaya çıkan ve yeni toplumsal hareketlerin siyasi bir harekete dönüşmesine örnek olan bu hareketlerin incelenmesi neticesinde; yeni toplumsal hareketlerin, ortaya çıkış motivasyonu yahut coğrafya fark etmeksizin siyasi bir harekete dönüşebileceği görülmüştür. Çalışma neticesinde elde edilen sonuçlardan bir diğeri de yeni toplumsal hareket neticesinde ortaya çıkmış olan siyasi hareketin başarı elde etmesinin bulunulan ülkenin siyasi ve toplumsal yapısına bağlı olmadığı olmuştur.

Towards cyberactivism 2.0? Understanding the use of social media and other information technologies for political activism and social movements

This article explores the relationship between social and political movements and art, tracing the ways in which art has been used to participate in the struggles of the day. The article examines the role of art in ancient civilizations, where art was used to express religious and cultural beliefs. It then examines the impact of Renaissance, Protestant Reformation, French Revolution, and the Romantic Movement on art, highlighting how artists used their work to comment on the political and social issues of their time. Moving into the 20th century, the article explores the rise of modernism and its relationship with social and political movements. The article also examines how contemporary social and political movements such as Black Lives Matter are shaping art today, with artists using their work to explore issues of gender inequality, sexual harassment, police brutality, and environmental sustainability. Data was sourced from books, journal articles as well as online sources. Data was qualitatively analyzed using art historian method to descriptively present the data. The article concluded by providing a comprehensive overview of the relationship between social and political movements and art and emphasizing the enduring power of art to shape and reflect the world in which we live.

One of the unusual features of the recent emergence of moderate Sunni Islamist political parties onto the formal political scene in the Arab world as a result of the Arab Awakening is that they nearly always emerge as elements in political dualities. Thus the party – a political movement – is wedded to a social movement and, sometimes, to a trade union as well. In addition, the social movement usually predates its parallel political movement. Furthermore, this structural duality seems to be confined to the Sunni world and often seems to be associated with the Muslim Brotherhood. The question then is precisely why this dual structure has been generalized within the political arena now colonized by moderate Sunni political Islam; is it a consequence of formal legal constraints upon such movements or does it respond to their internal dynamics? A further question raises the issue of why these dualities are not replicated within the Shi’a context or amongst secular political movements. And, finally, have they been paralleled amongst political movements arising from different religious traditions and what are the likely outcomes?

This chapter explains the rise and significance of various social reform movements in the United States from the early republic through the Civil War. It shows how the American political experiment, with its disestablished religion, gave life to a great experiment in Protestant Dissenting theology. Rather than a marginal, outsider movement—as in much of the rest of the Christian world—Protestant Dissent became the establishment in America. Antebellum America was defined by a relatively weak, decentralized state apparatus. It thus allowed space for many low-church, voluntary Protestants to organize in an effort to address a variety of social questions—chief among them the antislavery crusade, temperance, women’s rights, Sabbatarianism, urban relief, and public institutional reform. The ‘Benevolent Empire’ that championed these causes was by no means unified in politics and theology, but its efforts generally flowed from a belief that moral suasion might help build a more robustly ‘Christian’ America. In the end, moral suasion proved limited. Instead, social reformers became increasingly reliant on direct political strategies to achieve their ends. The greatest social reform accomplishment of the nineteenth century was the abolition of slavery, but it required a two-million-man army and expanded state power to reach that goal. Social reform movements would remain after the American Civil War, with much continuity over time. But the abolition of slavery through war and constitutional amendment provided a model going forward: social reform in America would be achieved not through moral suasion, but through political action.

From 1992 to 1996 there were considerable changes in the development of public, non-governmental activity in Russia. Economic reform, changes in the Russian government's foreign policy and the opening up of borders together provided more favourable conditions which facilitated this.

The Indian social reform movement in the nineteenth century, like the political reform movement, remained unorganized on an all-India basis until the 1880's. Local groups functioned throughout the country in many cases along similar lines, but without regular and specific knowledge of each other. Virtually the only effort for social reform well publicized throughout the country had been Vidyasagar's Widow Remarriage movement, which however was never nationally organized and which found local support only when a reformer felt inclined to press for it; the founder himself lost interest in the cause long before his death in 1891. Unlike the political reformers, the social reformers gave no evidence, so far as the present writer knows, of concern about the absence of a national organization to direct and stimulate their activities. If it had any strength, such an organization would, in fact, embarrass them into a unity of principles and methods for which, before 1880, they were quite unprepared.

Reviewed by: Upon the Altar of Work: The North-South Divide over Child Labor, 1850–1939 by Betsy Wood James Marten Upon the Altar of Work: The North-South Divide over Child Labor, 1850–1939. By Betsy Wood. University of Illinois Press, 2020. xiv + 243 pp. Cloth $110, paper $28, e-book $19.95. Work has always been a moral issue, even when we are unwilling to admit, recognize, or think about it on those terms. Children working has been one of the trigger points for debates over child welfare, capitalism, and culture since at least the rise of the factory system in the early nineteenth century. Historians of children and youth have long been interested in the nature of young people's work and especially in the campaigns in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century to regulate, limit, and even eradicate it. Betsy Wood offers an interpretation of the campaign to regulate child labor that makes at least two original contributions to the long and storied historiography: extending the chronology back to the 1850s and rooting the issue firmly in the long sectional conflict that not only caused the Civil War but also shaped (and continues to shape) American politics and social welfare reform movements. Just as the campaign against human bondage had often drawn its force from images of enslaved children, the post–Civil War debates over the nature of capitalism, government authority, and welfare reform often revolved around the role of children in the economy and the responsibility of society to children. It was relatively easy for reformers to find new targets to blame for child labor, but an issue that to reformers in the North seemed to be a no-brainer raised hackles in other parts of the country and among other interest groups. Wood organizes her book chronologically and thematically, as reformers altered approaches and shifted targets. They first sought state and then federal legislation; then a constitutional amendment ratified by only a tiny handful of states; then, again, federal legislation that finally led to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) in 1938. The perpetration of child labor also evolved, from the padrone system of recruiting cheap workers from Italy to the emergence of cotton mills in the southern Piedmont, recalcitrant capitalists, and increasingly conservative politicians. Although at times reform transcended sectional divisions, northern and southern activists were increasingly divided by attitudes about the necessity of work to the development of useful adults, the slippery slope of government regulation, and the importance of free enterprise in keeping the American economy strong. In these and other cases, child labor became [End Page 464] a surrogate for contentious larger issues. Wood effectively incorporates the ways in which abolitionist rhetoric blended into post–Civil War attacks on capitalism, on the waxing and waning of the Social Gospel idea, and on the ways in which patriotism and preparedness actually helped propel anti-child labor rhetoric after 1918. She also features rural and urban divisions, as throughout the decades covered by the book, the labor of farm children and youth was rarely addressed—except by opponents of child labor regulation, who used the specter of families not being able to control their own children's work as a kind of misinformation campaign, especially during the debate over ratifying the child labor amendment to the Constitution. Scholars from a number of fields will find uses for this fine book. Historians of the Civil War, Gilded Age, and Progressive eras in America will find familiar markers and personages framed in new and interesting ways. Historians of children and youth might find the core material more familiar, but they will also discover new approaches and chronologies. Wood's most useful contribution, in this reviewer's mind, is the connection made between the hyper-sectionalism caused by the issue of slavery to the post-emancipation campaigns against child labor that Wood convincingly argues became central to the new sectionalism that developed over the decades following the Civil War. Despite its brevity—the book runs about 210 pages, with nearly 30 percent of it taken up by footnotes that display the author's deep dive into primary and secondary sources—this is an ambitious...

Mother Ada Wright and the International Campaign to Free the Scottsboro Boys, 1931–1934

In this article we develop the notion of the technology-media-movements complex (TMMC) as a field-definition statement for ongoing inquiry into the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in social and political movements. We consider the definitions and boundaries of the TMMC, arguing particularly for a historically rooted conception of technological development that allows better integration of the different intellectual traditions that are currently focused on the same set of empirical phenomena. We then delineate two recurrent debates in the literature highlighting their contributions to emerging knowledge. The first debate concerns the divide between scholars who privilege media technologies, and see them as driving forces of movement dynamics, and those who privilege media practices over affordances. The second debate broadly opposes theorists who believe in the emancipatory potential of ICTs and those who highlight the ways they are used to repress social movements and grassroots mobilization. By mapping positions in these debates to the TMMC we identify and provide direction to three broad research areas which demand further consideration: (i) questions of power and agency in social movements; (ii) the relationships between, on the one hand, social movements and technology and media as politics (i.e. cyberpolitics and technopolitics), and on the other, the quotidian and ubiquitous use of digital tools in a digital age; and (iii) the significance of digital divides that cut across and beyond social movements, particularly in the way such divisions may overlay existing power relations in movements. In conclusion, we delineate six challenges for profitable further research on the TMMC.

<p><em>The rapid development of Internet and communication technologies raises the question of what role these media and communication interfaces play in social and political movements and development in individual countries. Although activities in cyberspace, including blogging, participation in social networks and other facilities provided by the Internet for its users are a new phenomenon, they have profound effects on social and political relations in the communities involved. In the information era, Internet is an important part of social movements in democratic societies and local communities. When the government blocks other ways to mobilization, Internet may bring like-minded people together and help them to find support for action. Internet has provided a new space for social movements and the effect of the virtual activities of the users on the actions and, often on the lack of social movements is of high importance.</em></p><p><em>Meanwhile, the Iranian women’s movement, like other social movements in contemporary Iran, realizes the impact and position of cyberspace and has made use of it. Many activists, for whom other ways for expressing their demands have been blocked, have entered this space and taken advantage of it for expressing their opinions and communicating information to other people. In fact, the dominant socio-political forces and the atmosphere of repression, and fear have led many Iranian women to use the virtual space to campaign for women’s empowerment and equal rights. They have realized that the Internet may inform the outside world of the movement’s goals and activities and facilitate maintaining contact with other members of the movement. In fact, the open space that provides a platform for sharing information and has given the chance to the Iranian women’s rights activists to perform their activities in a space with a decentralized structure where there is less pressure than there is in the real world. Campaigns formed following the cyberspace market boom indicate that cyberspace has indeed ushered in a new era in the history of the Iranian women’s movement. </em></p><em>The present study, covers the period from 2005 to 2017, provides an analysis of the role of the Internet in the activities of the women’s movement and explores the extent to which cyberspace has been assisting the women’s movement in achieving its objectives. By interviewing 50 active women inside Iran, the article investigates whether there has been successful interaction between cyberspace and the Iranian women’s social movement resulting from a dynamic adaptation between functions of social and political groups in the real world and the virtual world. It also examines how factors such as social participation, increasing awareness, changing beliefs, traditional views of women and social mobility have been affected by the application of the Internet, and whether cyberspace has been able to make women’s voices heard in Iran’s patriarchal society.</em>

Contemporary Russia appears to have a diverse and pluralistic social and political movement society. According to the Russian State Statistical Committee, there are 119 247 public associations registered with the Ministry of Justice as of January 1, 2010, with 5303 of them registered in 2009. Most of these associations are represented by 54 113 public organizations and 43 542 trade unions. The data also show a continuous growth of social movements, the number of which was 1808, with 117 emerging in 2009. In addition, the state statistics point out the existence of 746 national‐cultural associations, of which 96 came into existence in 2009. These ethnicity‐based groups reflect the complex multi‐ethnic composition of the Russian Federation. And finally, 253 branches of international NGOs operate in Russia, including human rights watch groups ( Russia in Figures 2010 ). These data indicate that Russian people actively exercise their constitutional rights on assembly, association, and peaceful joint actions. The Russian Constitution (particularly articles 29, 30, 31) and various federal laws (the Federal Law on Public Associations, the Federal Law on Countering Extremist Activities, the Federal Law on Political Parties, and the Federal Law on Assemblies, Meetings, Demonstrations, Processing, and Picketing) grant those rights and provide a legal framework for collective actions. The Federal Law on Public Associations defines social movements in terms of mass public associations that pursue jointly social, political, and other socially useful purposes, supported by the participants of the movements. According to the Law on Public Associations, social movements must have: (a) a governing body in the form of congress, conference, or general meeting; and (b) a permanent governing elected body which, in the case of state registration, shall exercise the rights of a legal entity on behalf of the social movement. The public organization represents the membership‐based voluntary association, established on the basis of joint action to protect the common interests and achieve the statutory goals of the associated people. The law requires a formal registration of the social movement with the Ministry of Justice in order for it to pursue its activities legally. The authorities may ban social movements for extremist activities and for fueling ethnic and racial hostilities. Also, the law requires the permission of local authorities to be gained in order to engage in collective action in public places.

The last decades saw a growing interest in the ties between emotions and politics, but while governments’ attempts to impose different emotional styles were thoroughly documented, social movements’ responses to such attempts have so far been underexplored. This study aims to fill this gap by focusing on a political struggle over citizen’s emotions. The article concentrates on a struggle following the attempt of Israeli Parliament Members to shape the emotional responses of Israeli citizens to the Palestinian seminal disaster—The Nakba—by legislatively prohibiting public expressions of mourning and grief with its regard. Based on participant observation, this study follows a group of Israeli political activists—”Psychoactive”—in their struggle against the bill. As a political movement that consists of mental health experts, Psychoactive is shown to use its members’ professional means in order to oppose the bill and warn against the emotional style it seeks to dictate, and to simultaneously disseminate an oppositional emotional style that focuses on emotionally processing the Palestinian disaster. This emotional style is shown to have effects on the ways people feel about their history, their nationality and even their close family, and to paradoxically offer political empowerment to Palestinians by pathologizing their historical disaster. Thus, this article sees emotions as an active and highly contested political battleground, where emotional boundaries are actively drawn and redrawn by politicians and political movements.