Power, politics and everyday life: the local rationalities of social movement milieux

Everyday language readily identifies social movement activity - campaigning, protesting, holding meetings, issuing statements - as "politics"; perhaps not in the sense of parties and parliaments, but politics none the less. Much academic literature shares this view of social movements as "politics by other means", from resource mobilisation and political opportunity structure approaches to analyses of social movements as expressions of economic interests (for an overview, see Diani 1992a). It is interesting, then, that precisely in continental Europe, where contemporary social movements have arguably made the greatest impact on the party system and engaged in the sharpest confrontations with the state, theorists have tended more and more to stress the cultural aspects of social movements. One theme sees movements as rooted in specific sociocultural milieux: largescale, ñlifestyleî responses to structured experience of inequality, with differing issues and priorities (Vester et al. 1993, Hradil 1987); and local ñmovement milieuxî within these, and the shifts in class habiti that can be identified between generations here (MÙller 1990). Another approach identifies a shared culture as a structural element of social movement activity: as an identity enabling the networks between organisations, groups and individuals that make up a movement (Diani 1992a, 1992b); or as ñcognitive praxisî combining worldview, issue-specific knowledge and modes of organisation (Eyerman and Jamison 1991). Thirdly, social movements can be analysed as cultural challenges: movements may struggle to control the cultural definition of ñhistoricityî, societal self-production (Touraine 1981, 1 1985); their structural form may itself be a symbolic message to the wider society (Melucci 1985, 1989, 1992); or there may be a division between ñpoliticalî and ñculturalî movement strategies (Raschke 1985). The "social movements" problematic could then be restated with an emphasis on the culture of movement milieux as the source of mobilisation, of the internal culture of movement activity, and of wider challenges to the social order. The need is then to locate particular forms of engagement with power and the political within particular sociocultural formations. One possible response is the critical theory analysis of movements as defending the communicative rationality of the lifeworld against colonisation by capitalist and state rationalities (Habermas 1984, 1987). Yet while particular, "decommodified" lifeworlds are identified as crucial (Offe 1985), it is a long way from a universal communicative rationality to the specific cultural logics of contemporary lifeworlds. If instrumental rationalisation had specific roots in Calvinist soteriology, so communicative rationalisation must have particular beginnings. A partial remedy is Eder's (1985, 1993) analysis of contemporary movements as expressing the habitus of the petite bourgeoisie and its struggle to impose its cultural definitions; yet this habitus is ascribed rather than examined, read off from the structural position of the class – and unsurprisingly contradicted by the Hannover project’s findings of significant transformations in class habitus within movement milieux (MÙller 1990, Vester et al. 1993). Both critical theory and Eder's approach offer to relate movement activities to movement milieux, but both fail to take account of the cultural specificity of the latter. The issue is then how to theorise, and research, such specificity

Deep Eutectic Solvents Based on N-Methylacetamide and a Lithium Salt as Electrolytes at Elevated Temperature for Activated Carbon-Based Supercapacitors

International audienceThis study describes the utilization of deep eutectic solvents (DESs) based on the mixture of the N-methylacetamide (MAc) with a lithium salt (LiX, with X = bis[(trifluoromethyl)sulfonyl]imide, TFSI; hexafluorophosphate, PF6; or nitrate, NO3) as electrolytes for carbon-based supercapacitors at 80 °C. The investigated DESs were formulated by mixing a LiX with the MAc (at xLi = 0.25). All DESs show the typical eutectic characteristic with eutectic points localized in the temperature range from −85 to −52 °C. Using thermal properties measured by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), solid–liquid equilibrium phase diagrams of investigated LiX–MAc mixtures were then depicted and also compared with those predicted by using the COSMOThermX software. However, the transport properties of selected DESs (such as the conductivity (σ) and the fluidity (η–1)) are not very interesting at ambient temperature, while by increasing the temperature up to 80 °C, these properties become more favorable for electrochemical applications, as shown by the calculated Walden products: w = ση–1 (mS cm–1 Pa–1 s–1) (7 < w < 16 at 25 °C and 513 < w < 649 at 80 °C). This “superionicity” behavior of selected DESs used as electrolytes explains their good cycling ability, which was determined herein by cyclic voltammetry and galvanostic charge–discharge methods, with high capacities up to 380 F g–1 at elevated voltage and temperature, i.e., ΔE = 2.8 V and 80 °C for the LiTFSI–MAc mixture at xLi = 0.25, for example. The electrochemical resistances ESR (equivalent series resistance) and EDR (equivalent diffusion resistance) evaluated using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) measurements clearly demonstrate that according to the nature of anion, the mechanism of ions adsorption can be described by pure double-layer adsorption at the specific surface or by the insertion of desolvated ions into the ultramicropores of the activated carbon material. The insertion of lithium ions is observed by the presence of two reversible peaks in the CVs when the operating voltage exceeds 2 V. Finally, the efficiency and capacitance of symmetric AC/AC systems were then evaluated to show the imbalance carbon electrodes caused by important lithium insertion at the negative and by the saturation of the positive by anions, both mechanisms prevent in fact the system to be operational. Considering the promising properties, especially their cost, hazard, and risks of these DESs series, their introduction as safer electrolytes could represent an important challenge for the realization of environmentally friendly EDLCs operating at high temperature

Leipziger Zustände: chronik.LE, Dokumentation rassistischer, faschistischer und diskriminierender Ereignisse in und um Leipzig

International audienceThe present work reports a comparative study on the performances of two bis[(trifluoromethyl)sulfonyl]imide-based protic (PIL) and aprotic (AIL) ionic liquids, namely, trimethyl-ammonium bis[(trifluoromethyl)sulfonyl]imide ([HN111][TFSI], PIL) and trimethyl-sulfonium bis[(trifluoromethyl)sulfonyl]imide ([S111][TFSI], AIL), as mixtures with three molecular solvents: gamma butyrolactone (γ-BL), propylene carbonate (PC), and acetonitrile (ACN) as electrolytes for supercapacitor applications. After an analysis of their transport properties as a function of temperature, cyclic voltammetry (CV), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), and galvanostatic charge–discharge measurements were conducted at 25 and −30 °C to investigate the performance of these mixtures as electrolytes for supercapacitors using activated carbon as the electrode material. Surprisingly, for each solvent investigated, no significant differences were observed between the electrolytes based on the PIL and AIL in their electrochemical performance due to the presence or the absence of the labile proton. Furthermore, good specific capacitances were observed in the case of γ-BL-based electrolytes even at low temperature. Capacitances up to 131 and 80 F·g–1 are observed for the case of the [S111][TFSI] + γ-BL mixture at 25 and −30 °C, respectively. This latter result is very promising particularly for the formulation of new environmentally friendly electrolytes within energy storage systems even at low temperatures