The openMovements platform is aimed at the general public by providing critical and empirically based articles on social movements and new expressions of social and cultural transformations. It covers not only events and phenomena that that strike mainstream media headlines but also those that discreetly transform daily life and/or politics at the local and global scales. Drawing on the extensive network of scholars of the International Sociological Association and beyond, it provides perspectives from the South and from the North of the planet.

For a detailed account of openMovements and it’s mission, see the editorial entitled “openMovements: social movements, global outlooks and public sociologists” by Breno Bringel and Geoffrey Pleyers.

The openMovements Editors are:

Breno Bringel, Professor of Sociology at the Institute of Social and Political Studies at the State University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Geoffrey Pleyers, FNRS researcher and Professor of Sociology at the Université de Louvain, Belgium
Armine Ishkanian, Assistant Professor at the London School of Economics, UK.

openMovements was launched in 2015 by RC47 in collaboration with openDemocracy.net. During the first 18 months of its existence, openMovements published 105 articles. If you would like to contribute please follow our submission guidelines and send your article proposal to openmovements@iesp.uerj.br.

This initiative has three main aims. First, as social movement scholars, reclaiming the justice for our colleagues is a duty. We will diffuse information about repressions and threats on social scientists and social movement scholars in particular and will issue calls and statements to denounce repression. Secondly, this initiative will promote research able to provide a better understanding of the local, national and international forces and mechanisms that have produced a world in which social scientists have become targets of repression. Finally, being aware of the importance of collective actions and mobilizations, we hope this initiative contributes to a more active, efficient and visible mobilization of the academic community.

For now, we have three concrete suggestions to move forward:

1. We would like to organize panels and sessions on this topic during the conferences organized/co-organized by RC 47 and for the XIXI ISA World Congress of Sociology in Toronto;
2. We will dedicate a specific section on our website and the newsletter to this initiative;
3. Depending on the urgency of the case and the potential efficacy of our act we would publish statements and sign petitions in support of our colleagues. We plan to do this in collaboration with ISA committee on Human Rights.

This initiative can only be successful as a collective project. Therefore, we would like to invite you to send us any proposals you have in mind with regard to organization of panels and sessions. Moreover, we need your collaboration to be able to receive timely news on multiple forms of repression on academics you witness or are aware of in your surrounding e.g. your universities, cities and countries. Only in this way we could publicize the news in an effective way. We also would like to invite you to write short pieces of about 300-400 words for the newsletter. Eventually these panels, sessions and short articles could come together and make an interesting series for Open Movements. Finally, if you have any suggestions which could contribute to this initiative in any way, please let us know.

International Conference

9-10 February 2012

Bizkaia Aretoa UPV-EHU, Bilbao

You can find below a link to the conference website. In order to fill out the registration form you will need to use the following code: Bilbao. Mind that every participant (whether main author, co-author or auditor) needs to register for the conference and pay the corresponding fees.

http://www.amiando.com/XYMKXBT

Bilbao offers a wide range of lodging possibilities. A three-star hotel may cost between 50 and 70 euros, with breakfast (and sometimes wireless Internet connection) included. Some recommendable hotels are:

– Bilbao Jardines

– Barceló Hotel Nervión

– Petit Palace Arana Bilbao

– Best Western Bilbao Conde Duque

– Abando

– Ercilla and Hesperia Bilbao

There are, of course, more economical and expensive facilities. We have found the prices provided by the University’s Travel Agency to be higher than those available online. We thus advise participants to make their reservations individually, taking into consideration their possibilities and necessities.

The conference will take place at the Bizkaia Aretoa, a University building located on Avenida Abandoibarra 3, right by the Guggenheim Museum. Please, dial (+34) 94-601-8100 if you need help with directions. Below you can find a link to a Google map with the building’s location and available means of transportation.

http://g.co/maps/zkczr

See you in Bilbao!

www.newculturalfrontiers.org

Submission paper deadline: 31st January 2012

Please send your proposal to issue editors:

Daniele di Nunzio – d.dinunzio@ires.it

Emanuele Toscano – emanuele.toscano@uniroma1.it

Challenges for Democracy and Universal Rights in the Global Market Era

In the past decades, deep economic and social transformations had a major impact on work, redefining its role at individual and collective level. There have been major changes that produced opportunities for workers but, at the same time, new challenges to the affirmation of their dignity and rights.

Work has no longer the same central dimension in the society as it used to have in the industrial era – not much because of its lesser importance in the construction of individuals’ identities – but, as expression of subjectivity, is now articulated by individuals in every dimension of their existence. Even if it’s no longer the primary vector of collective identities, work can certainly not be conceived as secondary for the life of the individual. Work maintains a well-defined role in the construction of individual biographies, both considering the positive aspects for self-determination and assertion of the existence of subjectivity then, on the other hand, considering the negative aspects on personality, such as corrosion of one’s temper.

The innovation of technologies and processes, the development of the Internet, the increasing access to education, reflected not only on products but on the ways in which they are produced. The gradual growth of used knowledge in work has opened up the possibilities for emancipation of individuals foreshadowing new paradigms in which knowledge is seen as essential, enhancing the creativity and skills of individuals.

Nevertheless, we are nowadays witnessing to the emergence of new modes of exploitation, due to the accentuation of specific forms of domination increasingly pervasive that, on one hand, refer to practices of domination and, on the other hand, go straight to the discipline resulted in the internalization of subordination.

These modes of exploitation are accompanied by a variation of the insecurity that goes beyond the single dimension of work, to be extended to the existential dimension.

In general terms, the logic of market and profit seems to impose itself on the chance to achieve individual and universal rights, leading to a crisis of democracy and representation that accompanies the economic one.

In opposition to these dynamics, different forms of reaction emerge. In some cases the individual isolation is transformed into an extreme individualism, aimed primarily at obtaining personal benefits. In other cases the need for protection involves the strengthening of professional corporatism, local and of other kinds.

Both instrumental individualism and communitarianism hinder the definition of a collective strategy for the affirmation of fundamental and universal rights, enabling the affirmation of each individual, through their work opportunities (careers).

On the other hand, forms of processing, strength and pursuit of alternatives to local and international emerge, aiming at affirming the dignity of labour and universal rights.

The third issue of New Cultural Frontiers aims at discuss these issues, accepting both theoretical or empirical, contributions encouraging a multidisciplinary approach to the debate.

Défis pour la Démocratie et les Droits Universels à l’Ère du Marché Global

Au cours des dernières décennies, des transformations économiques et sociales profondes ont eu un impact majeur sur le travail, en redéfinissant son du rôle au niveau individuel et collectif. Nos sociétés ont connues de majeurs transformations qui ont crées des possibilités pour les travailleurs, en même temps que des nouveaux défis pour l’affirmation de leur dignité et droits.

Le travail n’a plus la même dimension clé dans la société, telle qu’elle avait autrefois à l’ère industrielle – pas en raison de sa plus faible importance en ce qui concèrne la construction identitaire des individus – mais comme l’expression de la subjectivité, est désormais articulé par des individus dans toutes les dimensions de leur existence. Même si elle n’est plus le vecteur principal des identités collectives, le travail ne peut certainement pas être conçu comme secondaire pour la vie de l’individu. Le travail maintient un rôle bien défini dans la construction des biographies individuelles, en considérant à la fois les aspects positifs pour l’autodétermination et à l’affirmation de l’existence de la subjectivité puis, d’autre part, en considérant les aspects négatifs sur la personnalité, tels que la corrosion de son humeur.

L’innovation des technologies et des procédés, le développement de l’Internet, l’augmentation de l’accès à l’éducation, a un effet non seulement sur les produits mais sur les façons dont ils sont produits. La croissance progressive des connaissances utilisées au travail a ouvert des possibilités pour l’émancipation des individus préfigurant de nouveaux paradigmes dans lesquelles la connaissance est considérée comme essentielle, améliorant la créativité et les compétences des individus.

Néanmoins, nous témoignons aujourd’hui l’émergence de nouveaux modes d’exploitation, en raison de l’accentuation des formes spécifiques de domination de plus en plus omniprésente qui, d’une part, font allusion aux  pratiques de domination et, d’autre part, vont directement à la discipline entraîné dans l’internalisation de la subordination.

Ces modes d’exploitation sont accompagnés d’une variation de l’insécurité qui dépasse la dimension unique de travail, pour être étendue à la dimension existentielle.

De manière générale, la logique du marché et du profit semble s’imposer sur la chance de réaliser les droits individuels et universels, en conduisant à une crise de la démocratie et de la représentation qui accompagnent la crise l’économique.

En opposition à ces dynamiques, les différentes formes de réaction émergent. Dans certains cas, l’isolement individuel se transforme en un individualisme extrême, visant principalement à obtenir des avantages sociaux. Dans d’autres cas, le besoin de protection implique le renforcement du corporatisme professionnel, locale et d’autres sortes.

L’individualisme, aussi bien que le communautarisme entravent la définition d’une stratégie collective pour l’affirmation des droits fondamentaux et universels, permettant l’affirmation de chaque individu, à travers leurs possibilités d’emploi (carrières).

D’autre part, les formes de traitement, de la force et de la recherche d’alternatives au niveau local et international émergent, visant à affirmer la dignité du travail et les droits universels. Le troisième numéro de New Cultural Frontiers vise à discuter ces questions, acceptant à la fois les approches théoriques et empiriques et en encourageant les approches multidisciplinaires pour alimenter le débat.

Democracia y derechos universales en la era del mercado global

En las ultimas décadas las profundas transformaciones económicas y sociales han impactado fuertemente sobre el mundo laboral, redefiniendo el papel tanto de los individuos como de la colectividad. Han sido numerosos los cambios que han supuesto oportunidades para los trabajadores, pero al mismo tiempo éstos han comportado nuevos desafíos para la afirmación de la dignidad y de los derechos.

El trabajo ya no tiene la misma dimensión central en la sociedad como la que tenia en la época industrial, no tanto en virtud de su menor importancia en la construcción de la identidad individual, sino en cuanto expresión de la subjetividad de los individuos que se articula hoy en cada una de las dimensiones de su existencia. Aun sin ser el vector primario de las identidades colectivas, el trabajo no puede seguramente definirse un campo secundario para la vida de las personas.

El trabajo conserva un papel fundamental y bien definido en la construcción de las biografías individuales, sea considerando los aspectos positivos para la auto-determinación de la existencia y la afirmación de la propia subjetividad que considerando los aspectos negativos sobre la personalidad, como la corrosión del carácter.

La innovación de las tecnologías y de los procesos, el desarrollo de internet, el aumento de las oportunidades de acceso a la instrucción se reflejan, no solo en los bienes producidos, sino también en las modalidades con las cuales se producen. El crecimiento gradual de los conocimientos utilizados en el trabajo ha abierto posibilidades de emancipación de los individuos prefigurando nuevos paradigmas en los cuales el saber esta considerado un elemento fundamental, valorizando la creatividad y las habilidades de las personas.

Sin embargo, se asiste hoy al surgir de nuevas tipologías de explotación debidos al acentuarse de especificas formas de dominio cada vez mas generalizadas, que de una parte nos remiten a practicas de dominación directa y de otro lado van hasta el disciplinamiento provocado por la interiorización de la subordinación. Estas tipologías van asociadas a una declinación de la precariedad che va mas allá de la dimensión laboral y que termina por declinarse frecuentemente en términos existenciales.

En general, la lógica del mercado y de los beneficios parece imponerse sobre la realización individual y sobre los derechos universales, lo que conduce a formas de crisis de la democracia y de la representación que acompañan a la crisis económica.

En oposición a estas dinámicas emergen diversas formas de reacción. En algunos casos el aislamiento individual se transforma en un individualismo exasperado, finalizado principalmente a obtener beneficios personales. En otros casos la necesidad de protección conlleva el fortalecimiento de corporativismos profesionales, territoriales o de otro tipo.

Sea el individualismo instrumental que el comunitarismo obstaculizan la definición de una estrategia colectiva de afirmación de los derechos fundamentales y universales, capaces de consentir la afirmación de cada individuo a través de la propia experiencia laboral.

Por otro lado, surgen formas de elaboración, resistencia y búsqueda de alternativas a nivel local e internacional, dirigidas a la afirmación de la dignidad del trabajo y de los derechos universales.

El tercer numero de New Cultural Frontiers invita a discutir de estos temas, acogiendo contribuciones de tipo teórico o empírico y en un óptica de estimulo del debate en un enfoque multidisciplinar.

A networking workshop for social movement researchers

28‐29 September 2011

Campus Haga, University of Gothenburg, Sweden

Gothenburg Centre of Globalization and Development (GCGD) and CSM

(download the program in .pdf)

Wednesday, 28 September 2011

Room “Husaren” (Campus Haga) and “House of Win‐Win” (Tredje Långgatan 13B)

12:00 Registration

13:00 Welcome — Christoph Haug, University of Gothenburg

13:15 Introduction of the workshop theme — Håkan Thörn, University of Gothenburg

13:30 Keynote lecture and discussion
“Alter‐Globalization and global movements: A Tourainian perspective” — Geoffrey Pleyers, University of Louvain

14:30 Coffee/tea break

15:00 Getting to know each other

18:00 Mingle at House of Win‐Win, Tredje Långgatan 13B

19:30 Dinner (also at Win‐Win)

Thursday, 29 September 2011

Stora Skansen (B336), Lilla Skansen (B340), Bastionen (B333) for the parallel sessions, and D205/206 for Lunch and the final plenary.

09:00 Parallel presentation sessions (see separate schedule for details)

10:45 Coffee/tea break

11:15 Parallel presentation sessions (see separate schedule for details)

13:00 Lunch

14:30 Keynote lecture and discussion
“How to study transnational social movements: A pluralist methodological perspective” — Donatella della Porta, European University Institute, Florence

15:30 Coffee/tea break

16:00 Reflections and concluding discussion — Chair: Åsa Wettergren, University of Gothenburg

17:00 End of workshop

NUI Maynooth, Aberdeen – Scotland

26^th November 2011

deadline 1^st October 2011

conference themes and details at http://sociology.nuim.ie or from theresa.okeefe@nuim.ie Centre for Politics, Power and Society, Dept. of Sociology, NUIM & “Critical Political Thought, Activism and Alternative Futures” research cluster

THEMES

We invite papers addressing one or more of the areas below, but we are also open to other research agendas which you feel deserve more attention. The conference is open to participants from any academic discipline as well as to researchers working within social movements, and welcomes papers relating to movements outside or beyond Ireland as well as those engaging with the Irish situation.

1) Politics, theory and method

What are the purposes of social movement research? How do theories and methods interact? What relationships (should) exist between researchers and movements?  What kinds of knowledge do social movements produce? What theories are generated and used by movement activists? Does movement research have anything useful to say to movements?

2) What are “social movements” anyway?

How can we understand “movement” not just as a type of semi-formal organising, but in ways that allow “social movements” to include micro-level resistance at one end or indeed revolution at the other? How do we relate understandings of social movements in the 19th or early 20th century as trying to create or transform states and institutions to contemporary assumptions about movements as accepting given structures? How can we say something useful about where the
boundaries of one movement end and another begin? How do societies change through collective action, and how can we know?

3) Critical cultural analysis

How do past struggles and inherited traditions shape social movements today? How can we integrate discourse, language and culture into the analysis of social movements? How are movements and their discourses gendered, classed and racialised? What is the importance of emotion and affect; trauma, stress and sustainability in shaping movement dynamics and outcomes? And how can social movement research transform cultural and literary studies which often ask these questions without
asking after the practicalities of organising, strategy and struggle?

4) Understanding social movements in Ireland

Do Irish movements really operate in a context like the US and UK, or should we be looking to movements in Mediterranean societies or Latin America for comparisons and concepts? What kind of “movement society” is Ireland in international comparison – peripheral, post-colonial, conservative? How does the role of (nationalist, Catholic, farmers’, labour) movements in creating the state enable and constrain contemporary movements? What does the Irish case tell us about movements more broadly and how can it help us understand movements elsewhere?

5) Social movements in the 2010s

How has the crisis shaped social movements – themes, actors, relationships between movements, with parties and the state? Will models of social partnership and mainstreaming survive austerity and coercion? What ‘new’ forms of mobilisation are evident – new technologies, new tactics, and new kinds of relationships between movement actors? How are global movements changing (e.g. transnational anti-capitalism; the Arab Spring; anti-austerity mobilisations; diasporic social movements)? Why has the movement response to the crisis in Ireland been so muted?

ABSTRACTS AND PAPERS

We invite abstracts (up to 250 words) on any of the themes above or addressing other themes in social movement studies which you feel deserve greater research. Abstracts should include a title, your email address and institutional affiliation if any (independent scholars and movement practitioners are welcome to submit). Please send abstracts to Theresa O’Keefe by October 1st 2011.

Papers (up to 10,000 words including bibliography) should be submitted by November 14th 2011. Papers which are submitted by the deadline will be included in a CD-ROM for all conference participants, as an immediate “state of the art” collection of who is doing what in Irish social movement studies. (This does not, of course, prevent you using reworked versions of the paper as the basis for articles, book chapters etc.)

Papers which are submitted in time will also be considered for inclusion in an edited volume with an academic publisher.

CONFERENCE INFORMATION

Detailed information will be made available in due course, but this will be a one-day (Saturday) conference at NUI Maynooth. The event is being organised on behalf of the Critical Political Thought, Activism and Alternative Futures research cluster at NUI Maynooth with an organising committee of Dr Theresa O’Keefe and Dr Laurence Cox (Dept.of Sociology, National University of Ireland Maynooth) and Dr Cristina Flesher Fominaya (Dept. of Sociology, University of Aberdeen).

ISA RC48 – Social Movements, Collective Action and Social Change

FROM SOCIAL TO POLITICS. NEW FORMS OF MOBILIZATION AND DEMOCRATIZATION

University of Bilbao – Spain

^9th – 10^th February 2012

Please send your call for papers (deadline 30^th November 2011) proposal to Conference Organisers:

Antimo Luigi Farro – antimoluigi.farro@uniroma1.it

Benjamin Tejerina – b.tejerina@ehu.es

OBJETIVES AND THEME

In the recent evolution of contemporary social movements three phases can be identified.

The first phase is marked both by the labour movement and the systemic importance attributed to the labour conflict in industrial society. A conflict interpreted by Emile Durkheim as a shortcoming of social integration, by Max Weber as a rational conflict by entrepreneurs and workers interests, and a central class struggle for society transformation by the view of Karl Marx.

The second phase of development of social movements takes on new social movements of the sixties and seventies of the XX century, such as students, women and environmentalists movements of post-industrial society. Actions whose sense and meaning are explained mainly by two new analytical perspectives: resource mobilization theory (McAdam and Tilly) that focuses on the study of rational attitudes of these actions and conflicts; and actionalist sociology, which aims to identify new central actors of the conflicts in the post-industrial society, as labour movement was in industrial society.

The third phase emerges in a world framed by the ascendancy of market, the prominent role of financial capital flows, communitarian closure and fundamentalism, and refers to movements of affirmation of human rights and democracy as alternatives to global domination and systemic conditioning of individual and groups.

The objective of this conference is to foster theoretical reflections and to present empirical evidences regarding some of the recent mobilizations that took place in the Mediterranean area and that have two very clearly distinguished threads. On the one hand, there are the mobilizations that reveal the need to open space to democracy by asking for political reforms and democratization processes in countries such as Tunez, Egypt, Morocco, Libya and Syria, among other. On the other hand, numerous discontent displays regarding the political management of economical crisis and the shrinking of the Welfare State in South Europe triggered mobilizations such as 15-M in Spain, “Indignez-vous” in France, Italy and Greece and other protests organized by young people and students in England and Belgium.

Bringing together different networks and orientations around social movements, expressed by the two ISA Research Committees 47 and 48, this conference offers the opportunity to debate around the changes and the meanings of social movements of the twenty-first century. In special, we are interested in analysing the antecedents, the influence of social and political conditions, the movement’s nature regarding organization, forms of protest, claims, causes, protagonists, role of social media and to spot the meaning of these relatively new forms of protest beyond the action repertoire.

ORGANIZATION

The general structure of the Conference has provided different ways for participation. One of them is the organization of academic sessions. Each thematic session will consist of the presentation of a guest lecturer for 20 minutes, four oral communications for 15 minutes each, and five communications presented in poster format.

The final constitution of these thematic sessions will be a posteriori, when all communications are received and the Scientific Committee has made the selection of oral communications and posters. All communications will have the same status for the issuance of participation certificates. A prerequisite for presenting a communication is to be properly enrolled in the Conference. Regarding a possible publication –still in consideration- of the full papers participants must adapt the texts to a model that will be sent later.

SUBMISSION OF PROPOSALS

The abstracts of communications should be sent to the organization of the Congress based on the following criteria:

• Length: Maximum 1000 words. It is considered that a minimum of 700 words is required to provide enough information to evaluate the proposal.

• Languages: Communications must be submitted only in English.

• Contents: All abstracts must have the following information:

a) Communication information.

– Title.

b) Author’s information.

– Surname, first name.

– Email address.

– Affiliation.

c) Work content.

– Kind of work: describe briefly if it is a theoretical reflection, an qualitative/quantitative empirical research, a case study or a comparative analysis;

–  3 key words;

– Description of the object and/or main subject of the work;

– Methodology;

– Main findings, conclusions and/or contributions;

– References; bibliography.

d) Other elements which are considered of interest: e.g. if the proposal is framed in a competitive research project or international research project.

PARALLEL ACTIVITIES

We are opening the possibility to organise a parallel exhibition of graphic material related to the congress. Formats admitted are:

–       Photos of manifestations: in case you have been involved or had the chance to observe these movements in person we would appreciate if you could share your materials, like photos, leaflets picked in locus, posters, etc.. Send us your links to Flickr, Facebook, or any other social network in which your photos are posted.

–       Videos of mobilizations that can be posted in Social Networks like Youtube, Vimeo, etc.;

–       Recordings of interviews, direct testimonies (in mp3, mp4) or posted in Social Media Platforms;

–       Interesting websites (webography related to these movements that can be consulted during the conference; like bloggs, movements websites, etc.).

If you have any other ideas relating contents for these parallel activities please feel free to contact us and we will evaluate the possibility of including them.