Neo-imperialism in solidarity organizations’ public discourses: collective action frames, resources and audiences

While neo-imperialism is becoming increasingly discussed within academia and by public intellectuals this paper hypothesizes that due to resource needs of social movement organizations, neo-imperialism is not be a major diagnostic frame used by international solidarity organizations in the Global North. We tested this hypothesis by examining diagnostic collective action frames used online by 30 organizations across three solidarity movement issues: climate justice, refugee solidarity, and debt relief. While the frame was infrequently used across the organizations, results reveal that those organizations that did utilize the frame with some regularity had constituencies that have suffered from historical forms of imperialism. A qualitative analysis was used to locate the contexts in which the frame was used and the prominence these uses had within the organizations’ public broadcasting

Media exposure of novel protests: domestic femininity in news coverage of the Great Railway Adventure protests

Social Movements often incorporate masculinity into protest events as a means of achieving media attention. This attention is then used to mobilize, increase membership, and generate social and political outcomes. This article explores the media attention potential of novel social movement actions that deal with ‘domestically feminine’ elements of protest. This article examines the case of the Great Railway Adventure, a series of protests in England organized by the Craftivist Collective and Climate Rush incorporating feminine dress, craftwork, and food. It analyzes the success of these elements in generating media attention and the role the elements play in news media’s framing of the protests. By employing a qualitative content analysis of newspaper articles, I found that the elements were able to achieve limited levels of media attention through novelty and situational irony when combined with more standard elements of direct action campaigning. These elements also shaped the content of many but not all of the news articles

Social Representations of Protest and Police after the Genoa G8 Summit: A Qualitative Analysis of Activist Accounts of Events

The Genoa G8 Summit was marred by violence and conflicts between police and activists. Afterwards, these different groups constructed clashing discourses about the events. In turn, these discourses sustained different types of social representations about the nature of the conflict. Earlier analyses of hegemonic social representation examining the Italian press suggested that non-violent activists were subject to processes of delegitimisation and that they were identified with black bloc activists (Cristante, 2003; Juris, 2005; Zamperini & Botticini, 2006). Conversely, in this study we analyze activists\u2019 accounts of the protest and of the violent police repression. We examine a collection of published texts (N= 223) posted on a \u201ccyber-wall\u201d online as part of a collaborative project from three Italian media outlets: Il Manifesto, Radio Popolare, Carta. These texts represent a form of \u201ccounter-narrative\u201d produced by a stigmatized group to contest the dominant discourse, creating a tripartite of relations between non-violent activists, police and the black bloc . The analysis of these texts shows that activists represent the protest as a battle between two groups. Activists describe police as coercive, incompetent, and as the enemy. While the black bloc was perceived to have damaged the protest they were not depicted as the enemy. Cognitive, emotive and behavioral factors associated with these representations are highlighted and discussed, together with the implications for future intergroup relations between activists and the police

Advances in social movement theory since the global financial crisis

The social movement literature in Western Europe and North America has oriented much of its theoretical work towards micro-, meso-, and macro-level examinations of its subject of study but has rarely integrated these levels of analysis. This review article broadly documents the leading theoretical perspectives on social movements, while highlighting the contributions made in recent years with regard to the wave of protests across the globe – typified by the Occupy Movement and the ‘Arab Spring’ – and grievances that are relatively novel in qualitative or quantitative form such as austerity, precarity, and a sense of democratic deficiency. While these novel social processes have invigorated the specialized arena of ‘social movement studies’ and generated a resurgence of work on social movements beyond the field, this article argues for the need to interconnect levels of analysis in order to develop a more insightful account of contemporary contentious politics

The impacts of environmental movements

The impacts of environmental movements (EMs) are indirect and mediated outcomes of efforts by actors ranging from environmental NGOs to grass-roots activists to influence environmental policies and practices of governments and corporations, usually by mobilizing public opinion. With fewer resources than industry groups, EMs’ impacts are dependent on mass media coverage, the fluctuating salience of environmental issues, and political opportunities. EMs influence policy by deploying scientific knowledge, more successfully where they have special expertise. In international negotiations, EMs have acted as brokers between North and South to influence global environmental policies. In authoritarian states, EMs have enlarged scope for civil society and democratic participation

A survey of physicians knowledge regarding awareness of maternal alcohol use and the diagnosis of FAS.

BACKGROUND: Alcohol is the most widely used drug in the world that is a human teratogen whose use among women of childbearing age has been steadily increasing. It is also probable that Fetal Alcohol Syndrome is under diagnosed by physicians. The objectives of this study were twofold: 1) to evaluate the experience, knowledge and confidence of family physicians with respect to the diagnosis of FAS and 2) to evaluate physicians awareness of maternal drinking patterns. METHODS AND PARTICIPANTS: A multiple choice anonymous questionnaire was sent to a randomly selected group of family physicians in the Metropolitan Toronto area. RESULTS: There was a 73% (75/103) total response rate; Overall, 6/75 (8%) of family physicians reported that they had actually diagnosed a child with FAS. 17.9% had suspicions but did not make a diagnosis and 12.7% reported making a referral to confirm the diagnosis. Physician rated confidence in the ability to diagnosis FAS was low, with 49% feeling they had very little confidence. 75% reported counselling pregnant women and 60.8% reported counselling childbearing women in general on the use of alcohol. When asked what screening test they used to detect the use of alcohol, 75% described frequency/quantity. Not a single respondent identified using the current accepted screening method for alcohol use (TWEAK) which is recommended by The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. CONCLUSIONS: Family physicians do not feel confident about diagnosing FAS. None of the physicians were aware of the current screening methods to accurately gage alcohol use in pregnant and childbearing wome

Measuring cerebral atrophy and white matter hyperintensity burden to predict the rate of cognitive decline in Alzheimer disease

Objective: To determine if baseline measurements of cerebral atrophy and severity of white matter hyperintensity (WMH) predict the rate of future cognitive decline in patients with Alzheimer disease (AD). Design: Data were drawn from the Predictors Study, a longitudinal study that enrolls patients with mild AD and reassesses them every 6 months with use of the Columbia modified Mini-Mental State (mMMS) examination (score range, 0-57). Magnetic resonance images were analyzed to determine the severity of WMH, using the Scheltens scale, and the degree of atrophy, using the bicaudate ratio. Generalized estimating equations were used to determine whether severity of baseline magnetic resonance image measurements and their interaction predicted the rate of mMMS score decline at subsequent visits. Setting: Three university-based AD centers in the United States. Participants: At baseline, 84 patients with AD from the Predictors Study received structural magnetic resonance imaging and were selected for analysis. They had a mean of 6 follow-up evaluations. Main Outcome Measure: The mMMS score. Results: Generalized estimating equation models demonstrated that the degree of baseline atrophy (β = −0.316; P = .04), the severity of WMH (β = −0.173; P = .03), and their interaction (β = −6.061; P = .02) predicted the rate of decline in mMMS scores. Conclusions: Both degree of cerebral atrophy and severity of WMH are associated with the rapidity of cognitive decline in AD. Atrophy and WMH may have a synergistic effect on future decline in AD, such that patients with a high degree of both have a particularly precipitous cognitive course. These findings lend further support to the hypothesis that cerebrovascular pathological abnormalities contribute to the clinical syndrome of AD

Dynamic interactions in contentious episodes: social movements, industry, and political parties in the contention over Heathrow’s third runway

While the literature on dynamics of contention has proliferated, its focus on movement onset, mobilisation, and outcomes could be used to understand interactions between actors during episodes of contention. While the authors of Dynamics of Contention acknowledge the importance of these interactions, more insight is needed into what shapes these relations and how they change over time. Here, an attempt is made to test the dynamic model as it pertains to interactions, utilising the case of the proposed third runway at Heathrow airport, which included a variety of environmental campaigners, powerful corporations, political actors and parties, and a countermovement. The campaign is broken down into phases that represent the predominant interactions between actors, and the process of phase changes is explained using a process-tracing approach. The findings highlight the importance of cognitive mechanisms over objective factors. However, explanations offered by more static models retain some explanatory power and therefore should not be discarded altogether

3D-Printed Low-Profile Single-Substrate Multi-Metal Layer Antennas and Array With Bandwidth Enhancement

This paper presents a few single-substrate multi-metal layer antennas using additively manufactured electronics (AME) solution based on piezoelectric additive fabrication. By vertically stacking metal layers in a 3D printed single substrate, the designed antenna prototype exhibits the advantages of wide bandwidth and ultra-low profile. For proof-of-concept, multi-layer linear polarization (LP) patch antenna elements and 2×2 LP antenna arrays are designed, fabricated, and measured. It verifies that the feeding network can be integrated into the same substrate of the antenna array element without increasing the size and profile of the array. Compared with the traditional single-layer LP patch antenna, the proposed LP patch antenna can improve the impedance bandwidth from 5.9% to 10.6% (three layers) and 83% (seven layers), respectively. All these designs can be fabricated in a single substrate with a thickness of 1.5 mm ( 0.031 λg ), which is an ideal solution for the applications where ultra-low profile and wideband patch antenna are expected. Finally, circular polarization (CP) patch antenna elements and 2×2 CP antenna arrays are fabricated and measured. Good agreements between the simulated and the measured results verify that wider impedance bandwidth and broader frequency range of under 3-dB axial ratio can be obtained by vertically stacking metal layers. The antennas are designed at sub-6GHz, which have great potentials for 5G consumer mobile electronics

Revisiting Edward Said’s Representations of the Intellectual: A Roundtable for Perspectives on Academic Activism

In this roundtable discussion, we revisit Edward Said’s Representations of the Intellectual (1993) as a departure for examining how and where academic activism can take place. This is situated both within and apart from existing public struggles, including #BlackLivesMatter (BLM) and other current movements. Academic activism will be explored as an intellectual project that may at times problematise notions of the public, the intellectual, and the activist. We will examine how academic activism contributes to activist projects, while also interrogating how “public” representational claims are made. This includes important questions: who is responsible for publics that are not yet constituted as such? What voices are not yet heard, seen, or understood? And what is the role of academic activists in relation to these? This in turn raises ethical questions of how to represent and be accountable to the disadvantaged and/or subaltern. In addressing these issues, the roundtable will explore activism both inside and outside the classroom, offering various figurations of academic activism. The discussion will draw on the participants’ experiences of university teaching and popular education within local contexts, as members of staff at Birmingham City University in the UK