Huddle Up! Exploring domestic coalition formation dynamics in the differentiated politicization of TTIP

The politicization of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) has manifested itself to different extents across EU Member States. In some countries, conflicting interpretations about the deal were highly visible in public and political debates, while in others there was hardly any awareness. To further understand this phenomenon, trade scholars have to date not yet deepened nor leveraged the insights of the ‘differentiated politicization’ and social movement literature, which both point to coalition formation as an important trigger of politicization processes. This article contributes to our understanding of variation in politicization across EU Member States, by exploring coalition formation dynamics in differentiated politicization processes, in order to identify the factors facilitating successful domestic coalition formation. Through an exploratory case study design, I focus on three countries that exemplify high, middle, and low politicization cases: Germany, Belgium, and Ireland. By relying on the testimonies of campaigners active during the TTIP episode, I identify three elements that facilitated the formation of a diverse domestic coalition, which subsequently played an important role in pushing for a broad-based debate about the implications of TTIP: (i) an expert ‘mesomobilization’ link with a transnational advocacy network, (ii) the prior availability of domestic alliances, and (iii) an inclusive framing approach in order to establish a diverse coalition. The findings also underline the importance of timing in the unfolding of (successful) politicization processes

Paradigm Shift: From Ownership Issues to Political Mediatization

The political economy approach that focuses primarily on ownership issues has reached a saturation point and, at the same time, has some limitations. It could not explain the shift that occurred in the democratization process in Indonesia regarding the use of social media in Indonesia. Therefore, this paper offers a political mediatization paradigm in the relationship between media and democracy in the 2019 Presidential Election and the democratic trend in the 1955–2019 elections. This research suggests a map of media usage and the tendency of democracy in Indonesia’s 1955 - 2019 General Election and four quadrants of media and political mediatization with two main axes. The first axis has two poles: the media that promote democracy and the media that undermine democracy, and the second axis with the poles of politicizing media and political mediatization. The first quadrant is media that promotes democracy, and there is the mediatization of politics. The second quadrant is media that promotes democracy, and political media is politicized. The third quadrant is the mediatization of politics and media that undermines democracy. The last quadrant shows the politicization of media and media that undermine democracy

The instabilities of expertise: remaking knowledge, power and politics in unsettled times

In this article, we explore the implications of contemporary populist challenges to established forms of expertise in the UK, USA and elsewhere. Drawing on a Foucauldian conception of knowledge and power as always articulated, we argue for a conjunctural approach to understanding the ways in which formations of expertise become stabilized and de-stabilized, vulnerable to challenge and contestation. We trace the role of economic expertise in defining the limits of political and policy “realism” before and after the crash of 2007–8. We then consider the rise of nationalist-populist political mobilizations which challenged existing “expertise” in the name of popular wisdom. In the context of de-stabilized forms of expertise, we ask about emergent attempts at reconfiguring knowledge, power and politics in different ways

Activism and Community Medicine

Dr. Hughes traces the growth of student activism and its implications for medicine, especially in relation to the development of the specialty of community medicine

Time, Politics and Homelessness in Contemporary Japan

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

An Impossible object? Ecological Democracy after the Anthropocene

El paper se pregunta en qué medida la democracia -o sea, una democracia ecológica- puede ocuparse del Antropoceno, la nueva era geológica que describe una masiva penetración humana en los sistemas naturales.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Andalucía Tec

Politicizing Precarity, Producing Visual Dialogues on Migration: Transnational Public Spaces in Social Movements

En un período caracterizado por la débil aceptación pública sobre la integración europea, el propósito de este artículo es analizar imágenes creadas por los activistas transnacionales que buscan politizar la cuestión social y la subjetividad de los migrantes en la Unión Europea (UE) Exploraré el contenido de los carteles e imágenes producidos por los activistas de los movimientos sociales para sus acciones europeas de protesta locales y conjuntas, y compartidas en blogs y páginas web. Sospecho que la poco explorada dimensión visual de los espacios públicos transnacionales emergentes creada por los activistas ofrece un prometedor campo de análisis. Mi intención es dar un ejemplo empírico de cómo podemos estudiar el potencial de los "diálogos visuales" en los espacios públicos transnacionales creados dentro de los movimientos sociales. Un caso interesante para el análisis visual es la red popular de los grupos activistas locales que crearon un común "Día euro en mayo" contra la precariedad y que movilizaron marchas de protesta por todo Europa. Primero discutiré la importancia de los "diálogos visuales" en tales protestas desde la perspectiva de teorías discursivas de democracia y de estudios de movimientos sociales. Luego discuto el compartir las imágenes visuales de los activistas transnacionales como una práctica cultural potencialmente innovadora que tuvo como objetivo politizar y reinterpretar los imaginarios oficiales de ciudadanía, la flexibilidad del trabajo y la libre movilidad en Europa. También discuto los límites de los "diálogos visuales" transnacionales emergentes planteados por las culturas visuales de lugares específicos. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs1002308Dieser Artikel befasst sich mit transnationaler Aktivist/innen, die soziale Prekarisierung, Handlungsmöglichkeiten und Subjektivität von Migrant/innen in der Europäischen Union (EU) kritisch sichtbar machen wollen. Meine Analyse interessiert sich für den Inhalt von Postern und visuellen Bildern, die Aktivist/innen für ihre lokalen und europäischen Protestaktionen ins Netz stellen und über gemeinsame Blogs oder auf Treffen austauschen. Ich vermute, dass die kaum erforschte visuelle Dimension transnationaler Öffentlichkeit in sozialen Bewegungen ein wichtiges Feld soziologischer Analyse politischer Prozesse darstellt. Mein Artikel untersucht, wie wir Möglichkeiten visueller Dialoge in transnationalen Öffentlichkeiten erforschen können, und was sie uns aus der Perspektive diskursiver Demokratietheorien sagen. Meine empirische Fallstudie beschäftigt sich mit "EuroMayday", einem zunächst lokalen, später transnationalen und beachtlich herangewachsenen Netzwerk für kritischen Protest und Paraden zur Prekarisierung in mehreren europäischen Ländern. Zunächst werde ich die Möglichkeit und die kommunikativen Facetten visueller Dialoge im translokalen EuroMayday-Netzwerk betrachten. Anschließend diskutiere ich die soziale Praxis des Teilens einzelner visueller Bilder über gemeinsame europäische Blogs und Kommunikationsmedien von Mayday-Gruppen in Italien und Deutschland. Abschließend zeige ich einige der kulturellen Bedingungen, die einen Austausch visueller Bilder zu einer möglicherweise innovativen politischen Praxis der transnationalen Kommunikation von Migrant/innen und Bürger/innen machen. Ich frage, ob visuelle Bilder eine Politisierung und kritische Umdeutung offizieller Visionen zu europäischer Bürgerschaft, flexibler Arbeit und des Rechts auf Reisefreiheit vordenken. Auch die politischen Grenzen potenziell transnationaler und doch lokal-kulturell kodierter Öffentlichkeitsräume in Bewegungen bringe ich zur Sprache. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs1002308In a period characterized by weak public consent over European integration, the purpose of this article is to analyze images created by transnational activists who aim to politicize the social question and migrants' subjectivity in the European Union (EU). I will explore the content of posters and images produced by social movement activists for their local and joint European protest actions, and shared on blogs and homepages. I suspect that the underexplored visual dimension of emerging transnational public spaces created by activists offers a promising field of analysis. My aim is to give an empirical example of how we can study potential "visual dialogues" in transnational public spaces created within social movements. An interesting case for visual analysis is the grassroots network of local activist groups that created a joint "EuroMayday" against precarity and which mobilized protest parades across Europe. I will first discuss the relevance of "visual dialogues" in the EuroMayday protests from the perspective of discursive theories of democracy and social movements studies. Then I discuss activists' transnational sharing of visual images as a potentially innovative cultural practice aimed at politicizing and re-interpreting official imaginaries of citizenship, labor flexibility and free mobility in Europe. I also discuss the limits on emerging transnational "visual dialogues" posed by place-specific visual cultures. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs100230

All-ages Movement Project - Project Report

The All-ages Movement Project (AMP) is aiming to find and better understand youth-run cultural organizations focused on music in the United States. For four months, AMP has been exploring these organizations' social and political significance and the idea of enhancing their impact through a national network. AMP has designed a database that now houses the names of over 300 organizations that embody a combination of the following things: youth empowerment componentpopular music focusparticipatory structureproduce music related cultural products The names in AMP's database are turning into profiles and starting to tell a story about how this youthful and eclectic army of organizations is making change in the US in three areas of interest: meaningful cultural products, political impact, and alternative leadership opportunities.AMP looked at metrics in each of these areas to decipher if in fact this group of organizations is playing a role in creating the next generation of leaders through providing the environment and experiences that promote a culture of social change

The Necessity and Importance of Incorporating Media and Information Literacy into Holistic Metaliteracy

Digitalization and the emergence of the Internet have resulted in escalating access to information and communication. Given the circumstances that soaring access to information amounts to the intensification of misinformation and disinformation, a set of critical skills to navigate and critically assess the information is necessary. This paper outlines the significance of these skills, and provides a perspective on metaliteracy as a supplement to media and information literacy, and argues that the ability to conceptualize, access, comprehend, analyze, and use information is crucial in achieving inclusive, pluralistic, and participatory knowledge societies

Moving from Inaction to Action: Challenging Homo- and Transphobia in Middle School English Language Arts

What happens when teachers have opportunities to engage in LGBTQ-affirming practices but choose not to? In the following paper, the authors present a vignette from a middle school context and consider ways to challenge silences to support LGBTQ students in middle school English classrooms. The authors provide discussion and resources to help teachers engage in LGBTQ affirming practices with middle school students