Xi Chen explores the question of why there has been a dramatic rise in and routinization of social protests in China since the early 1990s. Drawing on case studies, in-depth interviews and a unique ...data set of about 1,000 government records of collective petitions, this book examines how the political structure in Reform China has encouraged Chinese farmers, workers, pensioners, disabled people and demobilized soldiers to pursue their interests and claim their rights by staging collective protests. Chen suggests that routinized contentious bargaining between the government and ordinary people has remedied the weaknesses of the Chinese political system and contributed to the regime's resilience. Social Protest and Contentious Authoritarianism in China challenges the conventional wisdom that authoritarian regimes always repress popular collective protest and that popular collective action tends to destabilize authoritarian regimes.
The narrative of peasant unrest in Russia during 1905–1906 combines a chronology of incidents drawn from official documents, with close analysis of the villages associated with the disorders based ...upon detailed census materials compiled by local specialists. The analysis concentrates on a single province: Kursk Oblast, bordering the now independent Ukraine. In place of the general surveys of the revolution that dominate the literature, Miller focuses on local events and the rural populations that participated in them.
This is one of the first single-author comparisons of different South Asian states around the theme of religious conflict. Based on new research and syntheses of the literature on 'communalism', it ...argues that religious conflict in this region in the modern period was never simply based on sectarian or theological differences or the clash of civilizations. Instead, the book proposes that the connection between religious radicalism and everyday violence relates to the actual (and perceived) weaknesses of political and state structures. For some, religious and ethnic mobilisation has provided a means of protest, where representative institutions failed. For others, it became a method of dealing with an uncertain political and economic future. For many it has no concrete or deliberate function, but has effectively upheld social stability, paternalism and local power, in the face of globalisation and the growing aspirations of the region's most underprivileged citizens.
Public opinion in the United States contains a paradox. The American public is symbolically conservative: it cherishes the symbols of conservatism and is more likely to identify as conservative than ...as liberal. Yet at the same time, it is operationally liberal, wanting government to do and spend more to solve a variety of social problems. This book focuses on understanding this contradiction. It argues that both facets of public opinion are real and lasting, not artifacts of the survey context or isolated to particular points in time. By exploring the ideological attitudes of the American public as a whole, and the seemingly conflicted choices of individual citizens, it explains the foundations of this paradox. The keys to understanding this large-scale contradiction, and to thinking about its consequences, are found in Americans' attitudes with respect to religion and culture and in the frames in which elite actors describe policy issues.
The Climate of Rebellion in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire explores the serious and far-reaching impacts of Little Ice Age climate fluctuations in Ottoman lands. This study demonstrates how imperial ...systems of provisioning and settlement that defined Ottoman power in the 1500s came unraveled in the face of ecological pressures and extreme cold and drought, leading to the outbreak of the destructive Celali Rebellion (1595–1610). This rebellion marked a turning point in Ottoman fortunes, as a combination of ongoing Little Ice Age climate events, nomad incursions and rural disorder postponed Ottoman recovery over the following century, with enduring impacts on the region's population, land use and economy.
Guatemala's thirty-six-year civil war culminated in peace accords in 1996, but the postwar transition has been marked by continued violence, including lynchings and the rise of gangs, as well as ...massive wage-labor exodus to the United States. For the Mam Maya municipality of Todos Santos Cuchumatán, inhabited by a predominantly indigenous peasant population, the aftermath of war and genocide resonates with a long-standing tension between state techniques of governance and ancient community-level power structures that incorporated concepts of kinship, gender, and generation. Showing the ways in which these complex histories are interlinked with wartime and enduring family/class conflicts,Maya after Warprovides a nuanced account of a unique transitional postwar situation, including the complex influence of neoliberal intervention.
Drawing on ethnographic field research over a twenty-year period, Jennifer L. Burrell explores the after-war period in a locale where community struggles span culture, identity, and history. Investigating a range of tensions from the local to the international, Burrell employs unique methodologies, including mapmaking, history workshops, and an informal translation of a historic ethnography, to analyze the role of conflict in animating what matters to Todosanteros in their everyday lives and how the residents negotiate power. Examining the community-based divisions alongside national postwar contexts,Maya after Warconsiders the aura of hope that surrounded the signing of the peace accords, and the subsequent doubt and waiting that have fueled unrest, encompassing generational conflicts. This study is a rich analysis of the multifaceted forces at work in the quest for peace, in Guatemala and beyond.
Neoliberal economics have emerged in the post-Cold War era as the predominant ideological tenet applied to the development of countries in the global south. For much of the global south, however, the ...promise that markets will bring increased standards of living and emancipation from tyranny has been an empty one. Instead, neoliberalisation has increased the gap between rich and poor and unleashed a firestorm of social ills.
This book deals with the post-conflict geographies of violence and neoliberalisation in Cambodia. Applying a geographical analysis to contemporary Cambodian politics, the author employs notions of neoliberalism, public space, and radical democracy as the most substantive components of its theoretical edifice. He argues that the promotion of unfettered marketisation is the foremost causal factor in the country’s inability to consolidate democracy following a United Nations sponsored transition. The book demonstrates Cambodian perspectives on the role of public space in Cambodia's process of democratic development and explains the implications of violence and its relationship with neoliberalism.
Taking into account the transition from war to peace, authoritarianism to democracy, and command economy to a free market, this book offers a critical appraisal of the political economy in Cambodia.
1. Introduction: Setting the Stage for Neoliberalisation 2. Caught in the Headlights of Culture and Neoliberalism: Public Space as a Vision for Democracy and Development from Below in the Global South 3. From Genocide to Elections to Coup d’État: Public Space in Cambodia’s Transitional Political Economy 4. Cambodia’s Battle for Public Space: The Neoliberal Doctrine or Order versus the Democratic Expression of the People’s Will 5. Conclusion: Sowing the Seeds of a New Revolution?
Simon Springer is Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography at the National University of Singapore. His ongoing research focuses on the intersections between neoliberalism and violence.
Keaton provides the most in-depth analysis of the predicament of
French Arabs and Africans living in the suburbs of Paris... One can read the book
through the lens of such great African American ...writers and activists as Richard
Wright, James Baldwin, and Malcolm X... It contains an implicit warning to you,
France, not to repeat the American racism in your country. -- from the
foreword by Manthia Diawara Muslim girls growing up in the
outer-cities of Paris are portrayed many ways in popular discourse -- as oppressed,
submissive, foreign, kids from the projects, even as veil-wearing
menaces to France's national identity -- but rarely are they perceived simply as
what they say they are: French. Amid widespread perceptions of heightened urban
violence attributed to Muslims and highly publicized struggles over whether Muslim
students should be allowed to wear headscarves to school, Muslim girls often appear
to be the quintessential other. In this vivid, evocative study, Trica
Danielle Keaton draws on ethnographic research in schools, housing projects, and
other settings among Muslim teenagers of North and West African origin. She finds
contradictions between the ideal of universalism and the lived reality of ethnic
distinction and racialized discrimination. The author's own experiences as an
African American woman and non-Muslim are key parts of her analysis. Keaton makes a
powerful statement about identity, race, and educational politics in contemporary
France.
Much of the debate over the security implications of climate change revolves around whether changing weather patterns will lead to future conflict. This article addresses whether deviations from ...normal rainfall patterns affect the propensity for individuals and groups to engage in disruptive activities such as demonstrations, riots, strikes, communal conflict, and anti-government violence. In contrast to much of the environmental security literature, it uses a much broader definition of conflict that includes, but is not limited to, organized rebellion. Using a new database of over 6,000 instances of social conflict over 20 years — the Social Conflict in Africa Database (SCAD) — it examines the effect of deviations from normal rainfall patterns on various types of conflict. The results indicate that rainfall variability has a significant effect on both large-scale and smaller-scale instances of political conflict. Rainfall correlates with civil war and insurgency, although wetter years are more likely to suffer from violent events. Extreme deviations in rainfall — particularly dry and wet years — are associated positively with all types of political conflict, though the relationship is strongest with respect to violent events, which are more responsive to abundant than scarce rainfall. By looking at a broader spectrum of social conflict, rather than limiting the analysis to civil war, we demonstrate a robust relationship between environmental shocks and unrest.
The paper investigates the essence of social conflict through the lens of social philosophy. In this regard, the authors outlined the main approaches to the study of this phenomenon. Traditional and ...contemporary views on the essence of social conflict were distinguished. The purpose of the study was to describe approaches to the study of the essence of social conflicts, typologies formed on their basis, and the dynamics of social conflicts that determine the self-development of a social system. A conceptual analysis of methodological approaches and the elements of a comparative analysis were employed as a methodological tool for studying social conflict. The research tasks triggered the search for answers to outstanding questions. As a result, the essence of social conflict was determined through the lens of social philosophy by identifying and comparing the main scientific approaches. A typology of social conflicts was compiled, and a universal structure and dynamics of the development was determined. The conceptual analysis revealed the complex systemic nature of the social conflict, which requires further methodological research.
