The Alevi Diaspora – Its emergence as a political actor and its impact on the homeland

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 342-353
Author(s):  
Zeynep Arslan

Through comparative literature research and qualitative analysis, this article considers the development of Alevi identity and political agency among the diaspora living in a European democratic context. This affects the Alevi emergence as political actors in Turkey, where they have no official recognition as a distinct religious identity. New questions regarding their identity and their aspiration to be seen as a political actor confront this ethno-religious group defined by common historical trauma, displacement, massacre, and finally emigration.

2020 ◽  
pp. 115-129
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Maciejewska-Mieszkowska

Television as a political actor in the social assessment by Poles Television, treated as one of political actors, is subject to social evaluation in terms of its credibility and trust. In the case of Polish audiovisual media, many years of surveys in the field show that in the last few years there have been fundamental changes in the perception of television broadcasts by Poles. This tendency should be associated with the dynamic transformations of the Polish political scene and the shaping of political preferences of the public. This publication aims to show changes in the assessment of television, taking into account the attitude of Poles towards political reality and their preferences in the use of specific sources of information.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 95-147
Author(s):  
Rachael Diprose

This paper examines the empirical evidence on social cohesion and perceived horizontal inequalities in two neighbouring districts in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia. Despite having similar sized groups (religiously polarised, ethnically fragmented) and the opportunity to mobilise during the national political transition beginning in 1998, only one of the districts had serious violence. First, the evidence suggests that such violence was linked to perceived horizontal inequalities in terms of access to the state, particularly in terms of religious identity in the district affected by con?ict. In the same district, there was also evidence of weaker social cohesion: there were more pervasive negative stereotypes of other groups along religious lines, and the least inter-religious mixing in terms of everyday interaction and friendships. These attitudes and less frequent mixing were more likely, too, among the group that was initially marginalised from the state when power-sharing arrangements broke down. Meanwhile, in the district with less violence, there was more frequent inter-religious group mixing overall but particularly on the part of the group that did not dominate the state. That is, frequent inter-religious group mixing and the absence of negative attitudes on the part of this group towards others may have signalled that it was not a viable group to be mobilised for political gain. Instead, in this more peaceful district, ethnic identity was the more salient form of political capital, but demographically the district is ethnically fragmented. Inter-ethnic rather than religious mixing was less frequent in this district, but it was worst among the dominant political group along religious and ethnic lines. Yet, the negative attitudes and stronger in-group (rather than out-group) bonds between members of the dominant political group did not translate into violent con?ict because there were minimal challenges to their power during the transition. Finally, the evidence suggests that the associational membership of mixedethnic or religious organisations is less likely to explain violence prevention, given that membership of such organisations was greater in the con?ict-affected district. The evidence overall suggests that demographic divides are not always an indicator of political divides and the propensity for con?ict, but rather this is related to the politics of exclusion. Furthermore, it indicates that to some extent increased crossgroup contact can act as an indirect con?ict intervention mechanism.


Journalism ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 18 (10) ◽  
pp. 1346-1363 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jen Birks

This article examines the use of personal narratives in two tabloid newspaper campaigns against a controversial welfare reform popularly known as the ‘bedroom tax’. It aims first to evaluate whether the personal narratives operate as political testimony to challenge government accounts of welfare reform and dominant stereotypes of benefits claimants, and second to assess the potential for and limits to progressive advocacy in popular journalism. The study uses content analysis of 473 articles over the course of a year in the Daily Mirror and Sunday People newspapers, and qualitative analysis of a sub-set of 113 articles to analyse the extent to which the campaign articles extrapolated from the personal to the general, and the role of ‘victim–witnesses’ in articulating their own subjectivity and political agency. The analysis indicates that both newspapers allowed affected individuals to express their own subjectivity to challenge stereotypes, but it was civil society organisations and opinion columnists who most explicitly extrapolated from the personal to the political. Collectively organised benefits claimants were rarely quoted, and there was some evidence of ventriloquisation of the editorial voice in the political criticisms of victim–witnesses. However, a campaigning columnist in the Mirror more actively empowered some of those affected to speak directly to politicians. This indicates the value of campaigning journalism when it is truly engaged in solidarity with those affected, rather than instrumentalising victim–witnesses to further the newspapers’ campaign goals.


1970 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 307-326 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth R. Libbey

POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS IN DEMOCRATIC STATES HAVE USUALLY COME into existence as the manifestation of a principle of political philosophy or as the result of a compromise among forces with different aspirations for the polity. Often both factors have been involved. Certainly the consequences for political behaviour of introducing any particular structure have been of concern to its architects, but many of these consequences are unforeseeable and the actual impact of an institutional change or the character of a formal role may in time become quite different from that intended.For a political actor, such as an individual, an interest group or a party, formal structures are given attributes of the political environment. Along with the more diffuse qualities of the political culture, they constitute the framework within which political actors must compete for influence over public policy. This framework, both formal and informal, is uneven in its effects on the fortunes of the various political forces. It favours some approaches and some groups more and in different ways than it favours others. The British Labour Party, with its concentrated voting strength, is disadvantaged by the single-member district/plurality electoral system, while its counterpart in Germany is able to maximize its strength in a system of proportional representation.


Author(s):  
Francisco Panizza

This chapter discusses relations between populism, identity, and identification, defining populism as a mode of political identification that constructs and gives meaning to “the people” as a political actor. It critically adopts a discursive approach to populism represented, among others, by the works of Ernesto Laclau, as well as the socio-cultural approach of Pierre Ostiguy, in order to show how populist identities are created and how populist interventions shape politics differently in different political contexts. It argues that political identities are complex, relational, and incomplete, challenging binary classifications of political actors as either populists or not, and introducing the notion of populist interventions as a political appeal to be used alongside other political appeals. The notion of incomplete and permanently dislocated institutions is then used to show how populist interventions can be employed in highly institutionalized political settings to change the boundaries of what is sayable and hence doable in a given political order.


2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 130-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margit Feischmidt

AbstractAnalyzing the newly emerged Trianon cult, this article argues that the current wave of memory politics became the engine of new forms of nationalism in Hungary constituted by extremist and moderate right-wing civic and political actors. Following social anthropologists Gingrich and Banks, the term neonationalism will be applied and linked with the concept “mythomoteur” of John Armstrong and Anthony D. Smith, emphasizing the role of preexisting ethno-symbolic resources or mythomoteurs in the resurgence of nationalism. Special attention will be given to elites who play a major role in constructing new discourses of the nation and seek to control collective memories, taking their diverse intentions, agendas, and strategies specifically into consideration. This “view from above” will be complemented with a “view from below” by investigating the meanings that audiences give to and the uses they make of these memories. Thus, the analysis has three dimensions: it starts with the analysis of symbols, topics, and arguments applied by public Trianon discourses; it continues with the analysis of everyday perceptions, memory, and identity concerns; and finally ends with an anthropological interpretation of memory politics regarding a new form of nationalism arising in the context of propelling and mainstreaming populist right-wing politics. The main argument of this article is that although the Hungarian Trianon cult, identified as national mythomoteur, invokes a historical trauma, it rather speaks to current feelings of loss and disenfranchisement, offering symbolic compensation through the transference of historical glory, pride, and self-esteem within a mythological framework. This article is part of a larger effort to understand the cultural logic and social support of new forms of nationalism in Hungary propelled by the populist far right.


2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 196-208
Author(s):  
Maria Falina

This article examines the narratives of democracy in interwar Yugoslavia. It starts with the premise that the commitment to democracy in the immediate post-war period was deep and sincere as it was seen as an answer to domestic and international political challenges. The article focuses on how democracy was understood and narrated, and maintains that virtually every political actor engaged with the idea and/or practice of democracy, thereby making it a subject of an important debate. Thus, democracy was at the time as significant a concept and theme as was nationalism, which usually receives more attention in historical analysis. Such issues as national self-determination, the establishment of the state, and the symbolic place of Yugoslavia among well-established European nations impacted the way democracy was debated. At the same time, local political actors used claims to possess better expertise in democracy to back up specific ideological and national projects. Finally, socio-economic issues emerged in the later half of the period to complement the national considerations. A significant difference in the narratives of democracy as understood primarily in political terms and the narrative of democracy that emphasizes its social and economic dimension emerged towards the late 1930s.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-87
Author(s):  
Nila Noer Karisna

The mass media which has developed rapidly provides the opportunities for all circles in using and taking the advantage of media for specific purposes, especially for political actors. For example in JTV Jember, one of the media in Jember Regency which reports a local political actor in Jember or the Regent of Jember, positive news that is displayed on JTV Jember has an effect on society. So that the news about the Regent which is negative will not be published because of the collaboration between the Regent of Jember and the media JTV Jember.This study is qualitative with Cresswell's descriptive type of research using purposive subject selection method. The data collection techniques through observation, interviews and documentation. In analyzing the data, the writer uses data reduction, data presentation, and verification.The results of this study reveal that the hegemony carried out by the Regent of Jember towards media JTV Jember is integral or total hegemony because it spontaneously agrees to the provisions of the MOU with the Regent. Further, media JTV Jember does not have freely in reporting the news about the Regent that contains of conflict. In addition, the editorial policy of JTV Jember after being analyzed through text which contains of news representations of JTV Jember becomes a representative in conveying the informations about the Regent of Jember, the relationship between JTV Jember news about the Regent of Jember is motivated by MOU. therefor, the identity of JTV Jember becomes a medium which is known by FaidaTV. 


2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 106-117 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin Vandevoordt

In 2015, hundreds of new civil initiatives emerged to provide stopgap help to refugees arriving in Belgium. This article zooms out from this moment of solidarity and explores the broader socio-political conditions that allowed these initiatives to emerge and, in some cases, solidify into professional service-providers or powerful political actors. The article focuses on two case studies, one in Flanders and one in Brussels. In Flanders, the Hospitable Network brings together local civil initiatives which have drawn upon the networks and skills of senior citizens with considerable experience in civic associations, NGOs and social movements. While these initiatives have partly filled the gaps that were created by a series of neoliberal reforms in Flanders’ citizenship regime, the same neoliberal outlook has prevented these initiatives from being institutionalised. In Brussels, the Citizen Platform for the Support of Refugees has mobilised largely among the city’s super-diverse population. The Platform’s development has been shaped by Brussels’ continuing attractiveness to immigrants, as well as by the city’s complex governance structure, which has provided it with both material support and increasing opposition. As a result, the Platform has become a highly visible political actor offering partly professionalised support to refugees.


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