Heather Watkins | Nottingham Trent University (original) (raw)

Papers by Heather Watkins

(Society of Latin American Studies) Annual Conference, Winchester, 22-23 March 2018, 2018

Conventional paradigms of comparative politics and uneven development tend to focus on distinctio... more Conventional paradigms of comparative politics and uneven development tend to focus on distinctions between core and periphery countries, and take a highly Eurocentric approach to the analysis of political and economic development, suggesting that where the global North leads, the South follows. However, in the case of neoliberalism, and specifically in the case of the “Chilean Experiment”, this paradigm is reversed. The extent to which neoliberalism constitutes a coherent and consistent ideology, or merely a contingent and contextual set of broadly related policies, remains a source of contention. However, a comparative analysis of the political discourse of neoliberal transition in Chile and Britain is revealing of the way that Chile embodied key processes of economic and social restructuring which later became common to the global North. In particular, a comparison of the role of the mass media in constructing narratives that delegitimize socialism and foster consent to radical change is instructive of the way that, even under the coercive and authoritarian conditions of the Chilean coup, the support of at least parts of civil society, and an illusion of national consensus, were essential to legitimise neoliberalism. Drawing on a Gramscian analysis of the ideological effects of the media developed by Stuart Hall, and comparing coverage of the ‘Winter of Discontent’ in the UK (1978-79) with the truck drivers’ strikes in Chile (1973), we argue that the Chilean example demonstrates that neoliberal transformation rests on a re-narrativisation of history and political society which gives the mass media a particular power, and challenges the idea of the Winter of Discontent as a foundational moment of mediated neoliberalism.

Society of Latin American Studies Annual Conference, Winchester, 22-23 March , 2018

This article describes and evaluates the application of a research methodology based on political... more This article describes and evaluates the application of a research methodology based on political ethnography to a PhD project on the politics of community participation in the UK, specifically in the East Midlands, in areas of inner city and post-coalfield reconstruction. It sets out the challenges of connecting political theory to political practice. It then recounts the adoption of political ethnography by a group of researchers at the University of Nottingham as a way of bridging that gap, while incorporating into our work an awareness of the subjectivity of the researcher, and the dynamics of knowledge construction. The subsequent application of the methodology to this project is then described. It is argued that political ethnography allowed the drawing of continuities between a Gramscian theoretical framework, and Bourdieu’s methodological focus on the way that social institutions reproduce relationships of power. Gramsci, however, allows greater space for agency and the impo...

Journal of Political Ideologies

Background: Food-assisted maternal and child health and nutrition (FA-MCHN) programs may foster c... more Background: Food-assisted maternal and child health and nutrition (FA-MCHN) programs may foster child growth during the first 1000 d (pregnancy and the first 2 y of a child's life), but evidence is scant. Objective: We evaluated the impact of an FA-MCHN program, PROCOMIDA, on linear growth (stunting [length-forage z score (LAZ) <-2] and length-forage difference [LAD]) among children aged 1-24 mo. PROCOMIDA was implemented in Guatemala by Mercy Corps and was available to beneficiaries throughout the first 1000 d. Methods: We used a longitudinal, cluster-randomized controlled trial with groups varying in family ration sizes [full (FFR), reduced (RFR), and none (NFR)] and individual ration types provided to mothers (pregnancy to 6 mo postpartum) and children (6-24 mo of age) [corn-soy blend (CSB), lipid-based nutrient supplement (LNS), micronutrient powder (MNP)]: 1) FFR + CSB (n = 576); 2) RFR + CSB (n = 575); 3) NFR + CSB (n = 542); 4) FFR + LNS (n = 550); 5) FFR + MNP (n = 587); 6) control (n = 574). Program impacts compared with control, and differential impacts between groups varying family ration size or individual ration type, were assessed through the use of linear mixed-effects models and post hoc simple effect tests (significant if P < 0.05). Results: PROCOMIDA significantly reduced stunting at age 1 mo in FFR + CSB, RFR + CSB, and FFR + MNP groups compared with control [5.05, 4.06, and 3.82 percentage points (pp), respectively]. Stunting impact increased by age 24 mo in FFR + CSB and FFR + MNP relative to control (impact = 11.1 and 6.5 pp at age 24 mo, respectively). For CSB recipients, the FFR compared with RFR or NFR significantly reduced stunting (6.47-9.68 pp). CSB reduced stunting significantly more than LNS at age 24 mo (8.12 pp). Conclusions: FA-MCHN programs can reduce stunting during the first 1000 d, even in relatively energy/food-secure populations. Large family rations with individual rations of CSB or MNP were most effective. The widening of impact as children age highlights the importance of intervening throughout the full first 1000 d. This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT01072279.

Urban Studies

Journal of Studies in International Education

As an approach to the internationalization of higher education, Internationalization at Home (IaH... more As an approach to the internationalization of higher education, Internationalization at Home (IaH) looks beyond the mobility of a minority of students, emphasizing instead the delivery to all students of an internationally focused curriculum and the embedding of intercultural communication. This can be expanded to include extracurricular activities and building relationships with local cultural and ethnic community groups. The MA in international development at Nottingham Trent University, United Kingdom, has implemented this approach, looking beyond both mobility and curriculum to apply IaH directly to student employability, embracing intercultural competence as a key professional skill. This article explores the efficacy of this combination in the MA’s professional development pathway, which requires students to complete a placement, which demonstrates international and intercultural engagement, usually undertaken “at home,” and to critically reflect not just on their professional...

Librarian Career Development, 1998

Memory Studies, Feb 8, 2022

In the forty years since Chile and the UK became the crucibles of neoliberalization, working clas... more In the forty years since Chile and the UK became the crucibles of neoliberalization, working class agency has been transformed, its institutions systematically dismantled, and its politics, after the continuity neoliberalism of both the UK Blair government and the Chilean Concertaçion, in a crisis of legitimacy. In the process, memories of struggle have been captured within narratives of ‘capitalist realism’ (Fisher) – the present, past and future collapsed into Walter Benjamin’s ‘empty homogenous time’.
This paper explores ways in which two traumatic moments of working-class struggle have been narrativized by the media in the service of this “presentism”: the 1973 coup in Chile, and the 1984-85 Miners’ Strike in the UK. We argue that the use of “living history” or bottom-up approaches to memory provides an urgently needed recovery of disruptive narratives of class identity, and offers a way of reclaiming alternative futures from the grip of reductive economic nationalism.

Journal of Political Ideologies, 2019

The term neoliberalism became associated with processes of economic and social restructuring in v... more The term neoliberalism became associated with processes of economic and social restructuring in various parts of the world during the latter years of the twentieth century. While the importance of these processes is undisputed, the extent to which neoliberalism constitutes a coherent and consistent ideology, or merely a contingent and contextual set of broadly related policies, remains a source of contention. In this article, we explore this question through a comparative analysis of the political discourse of neoliberal transition in Britain and Chile. Drawing on the model of historical comparison developed by Antonio Gramsci, we argue that these two countries represent paradigm cases of the constitutional and authoritarian routes to neoliberalism. However, by focusing on the discourses of national renewal in the speeches and writings of Margaret Thatcher and Augusto Pinochet, we argue that both cases rest on a particular articulation of the themes of coercion and consent. As such, we suggest that while each paradigm articulates these themes in distinct ways, it is the relationship between the two that is essential to the political ideology of neoliberalism, as the coercive construction of consensus in Chile and the consensual construction of coercion in Britain.

Journal of Studies in International Education , 2018

As an approach to the internationalisation of higher education, Internationalisation at Home (IaH... more As an approach to the internationalisation of higher education, Internationalisation at Home (IaH) looks beyond the mobility of a minority of students, emphasizing instead the delivery to all students of an internationally-focussed curriculum, and the embedding of intercultural communication. This can be expanded to include extra-curricular activities and building relationships with local cultural and ethnic community groups. The MA in International Development at Nottingham Trent University UK has implemented this approach, looking beyond both mobility and curriculum to apply IaH directly to student employability, embracing intercultural competence as a key professional skill. This paper explores the efficacy of this combination in the MA’s Professional Development Pathway, which requires students to complete a placement which demonstrates international and intercultural engagement, usually undertaken “at home”, and to critically reflect not just on their professional skills, but on their ability to engage in the ethical practice which is a key element of IaH.

Blogpost for Urban Studies.

Urban Studies, 2017

This paper explores the ambivalent nature of community organisation as a response to a ‘crisis of... more This paper explores the ambivalent nature of community organisation as a response to a ‘crisis of authority’ in post-industrial areas subject to urban regeneration. In the discourse of the Third Way, activism has been increasingly discursively framed as ‘participation’, legitimising a shift in welfare provision from the state onto civil society and a proliferation of private actors. As part of the process, existing local solidarities based on long-term shared interests and histories of conflict with the parts of the state, have been transformed (in theory) into social networks, forms of short-term instrumental co-operation based on consensus. Community activists are brought into contact with what Rose (after Foucault) describes as the ‘technologies’ of power which are deployed to produce governable subjects, co-opting and dividing them from their base communities. However, local participation also provides our most immediate experience of political economy, what Gramsci identifies as a sometimes fierce sense of difference, and the practical, historically acquired local knowledge, or ‘good sense’ which can form the basis of a challenge to hegemonic thinking. Engaging empirically with local organisers in the East Midlands, I conclude that the potential of this as a source of contestation depends on two dimensions of practice: (1) the development by activists of a critical understanding of how to foster or maintain long-term collective interests, identity and practices within their communities and (2) maintaining a clear sense of separation from the state which allows power to be confronted.

Enquire, Sep 23, 2013

This article describes and evaluates the application of a research methodology based on political... more This article describes and evaluates the application of a research methodology based on political ethnography to a PhD project on the politics of community participation in the UK, specifically in the East Midlands, in areas of inner city and post -coalfield reconstruction. It sets out the challenges of connecting political theory to political practice. It then recounts the adoption of political ethnography by a group of researchers at the University of Nottingham as a way of bridging that gap, while incorporating into our work an awareness of the subjectivity of the researcher, and the dynamics of knowledge construction. The subsequent application of the methodology to this project is then described. It is argued that political ethnography allowed the drawing of continuities between a Gramscian theoretical framework, and Bourdieu's methodological focus on the way that social institutions reproduce relationships of power. Gramsci, however, allows greater space for agency and the importance of local forms of knowledge, and alternative narratives and values, theorised as "good sense," a resource which is best identified and accessed through a political and ethnographic framework.

Teaching for Integrative Learning: Innovations in University practice, vol 4. , 2010

This is the fourth volume in the Centre for Integrative Learning (CIL) case studies series that h... more This is the fourth volume in the Centre for Integrative Learning (CIL) case studies series that has presented a selection of findings from the eighty-plus practitioner projects undertaken since 2005. In order to capture the full range of current project activity, this volume, prepared in May 2010 as the CIL comes to the end of its funding, includes case studies from some projects that are ongoing as well as from those that have already been completed.

Conference Presentations by Heather Watkins

Historical Materialism20th Annual Conference: the cost of life: oppression, exploitation and struggle in the time of monsters, 2023

Fifty years ago, the military coup led by General Augusto Pinochet (1973) reorganised Chilean soc... more Fifty years ago, the military coup led by General Augusto Pinochet (1973) reorganised Chilean society within the neoliberal framework, reframed its institutions and systematically dismantled any evidence of collective solidarity and agency among the working class. The UK followed Chile six years later when Margaret Thatcher brought neoliberalism to British shores after the democratic elections (1979). Since then, Chile and the UK have been paradigmatic cases of neoliberal transformations by coercion (Chile) and by consent (the UK) (Mansell, Watkins and Urbina 2019).
This paper aims to reflect on the ways in which two traumatic moments of working-class struggle have more recently been narrativized by the media , looking at how the death of its key actors (Pinochet in 2006 and Thatcher in 2013 ) allowed shifting the process of memory to stress the neoliberal narrative of transformations as a pivotal moment of modernization and national renewal, as the living history is fading away. This paper continues previous work done by the authors (Watkins and Urbina 2022), where it was argued the need for a bottom-up approach to memory to counteract institutionalised approaches, stressing how the narratives of ‘capital realism’ (Fisher) have prevailed as the way forward for both countries without the inclusion of working-class struggles, whose narratives have been turned into largely forgotten memories.
Recent events such as Brexit in the UK and the rise of the hard- right in Chile despite Gabriel Boric’s presidency, have romanticised the Pinochet regime and Thatcher administration as historical conjunctions that led to a positive transformation and turning point that allowed both countries to become economic exceptions in their own rights. Therefore, this paper will argue that context and media narratives have actively participated in the construction of memories, stressing the absence of class discourses.

PSA (Political Studies Association) Conference, 2019

The Chilean Solidarity Campaign of the 1970s-80s, celebrated in the 2018 documentary Nae Pasaran,... more The Chilean Solidarity Campaign of the 1970s-80s, celebrated in the 2018 documentary Nae Pasaran, might be considered to be one of the high watermarks of UK working class internationalism. Seen as an exemplar of social movement unionism (Waterman, 2008), the CSC was able to operate at both political-emotional (demos and protests) and organisational levels (lobbying government, running its own media), constructing a ‘broad front’ approach which embraced different Left factions, refugee groups, human rights organisations, church groups, and cultural and academic sectors.
This paper considers the political relevance of reviving memories of this campaign now. In 2018, working class agency appears transformed, with decades of global neoliberal restructuring creating a ‘solidarity crisis’ of deep material inequalities between the formal labour force and a vastly expanded precariat. Working class institutions have been systematically dismantled (trade unions, libraries, the NHS), or subjected to the exclusive logics of capitalism (football, popular music), while most Social Democratic parties are in a crisis of legitimacy. What is left is an account of a ‘new’ working class which is fragmented, socially immobile, has high levels of democratic abstention, and is primarily driven by a desire for ‘national identity based law-making’ (Ainsley, 2018).
The renewed interest in the CSC is presented here as more than nostalgia for a pre-neoliberal Left, but rather a pressing recovery of historical memory in the face of neoliberal ‘presentism’ – Benjamin’s ‘empty homogenous time’. We explore this in Chile as an institutionalisation of memory as a condition of democratisation, and in the UK as a discursive depoliticization of class struggles, leaving only ‘heritage’. Expanding precarity, particularly among the young, is forcing a ‘new’ working-class to relearn the political-emotional and organisational lessons of the past, and engage in material struggles on a range of new terrains, in both Chile and the UK. The CSC thus provides a timely reminder that effective struggle combines material actions with the articulation of powerful narratives of internationally-shared identity and experience, thus addressing the heart of the current ‘solidarity crisis’ – its reductive economic nationalism.

BISA (British International Studies Association) 42nd Annual Conference, Brighton, 14-16 June 2017.

As an approach to the internationalisation of higher education, Internationalisation at Home (IaH... more As an approach to the internationalisation of higher education, Internationalisation at Home (IaH) looks beyond the mobility of a minority of students, emphasizing instead the delivery to all students of an internationally-focussed curriculum, and the embedding of intercultural communication. This can be expanded to include extra-curricular activities and building relationships with local cultural and ethnic community groups. The MA in International Development at Nottingham Trent University UK has implemented this approach, looking beyond both mobility and curriculum to apply IaH directly to student employability, embracing intercultural competence as a key professional skill. This paper explores the efficacy of this combination in the MA’s Professional Development Pathway, which requires students to complete a placement which demonstrates awareness of international and intercultural issues, usually undertaken “at home”, and to critically reflect not just on their professional skills, but on their ability to engage in the ethical practice which is central to IaH.

Re-energizing Ideology Studies: the Maturing of a Discipline, University of Nottingham, 27-28 November 2015.

This paper takes the cases of Britain and Chile as ideal type studies of twentieth century neolib... more This paper takes the cases of Britain and Chile as ideal type studies of twentieth century neoliberal social and economic re-structuring to answer the question: what are the common discourses of this transition in its constitutional and authoritarian variants? The paper thus applies Antonio Gramsci’s theorisation of hegemonic and passive revolutionary processes in order to explore the key logics of the neoliberal project in contrasting political contexts. To achieve this, the paper will follow Norman Fairclough (2002) in focusing on the discursive nature of the transition to "new capitalism", in order to develop a comparative analysis of the discourse of Thatcherism and Pinochetism with particular reference to the idea of national renewal. The research looks at public speeches and media interviews in both cases, in order to argue that the rhetoric of a restoration of order is developed in defence of a historic national identity lost amidst the chaos and disunity of socialist politics. Despite the different forms and conditions in which these neoliberal transitions occurred in Britain and Chile, the paper will argue that in both cases this serves as a foundational source of legitimisation for the restoration of traditional economic hierarchies and inequalities.

ECPR General Conference 2014, University of Glasgow, 3-6 September 2014.

Citizen movements and community organizations, both at neighbourhood and city level, are embraced... more Citizen movements and community organizations, both at neighbourhood and city level, are embraced by all Parties as representing a revival of citizenship. However, they are now operating in an increasingly politicized context created by a narrative of austerity, in which “citizenship” as a concept, and forms of local agency, are drawn into the service of dominant ideas and practices - in this case being framed as part of a post-antagonistic politics and state-market synergy. This paper uses case studies from post-industrial communities around Nottingham to argue from a Gramscian perspective that the outcome of this process is not determined. Ongoing conflicts with state and market over local power leave space for oppositional forms of politics. However, the ability of these organizations to contest hegemonic politics rests on building internal coherence based on collective experience of political economy, and which marks them out as different from both state and market.

Interrogating Urban Crisis: Governance, Contestation and Critique, De Montfort University, 9-11 September 2013.

(Society of Latin American Studies) Annual Conference, Winchester, 22-23 March 2018, 2018

Society of Latin American Studies Annual Conference, Winchester, 22-23 March , 2018

Journal of Political Ideologies

Urban Studies

Journal of Studies in International Education

Librarian Career Development, 1998

Memory Studies, Feb 8, 2022

Journal of Political Ideologies, 2019

Journal of Studies in International Education , 2018

Blogpost for Urban Studies.

Urban Studies, 2017

Enquire, Sep 23, 2013

This article describes and evaluates the application of a research methodology based on political... more This article describes and evaluates the application of a research methodology based on political ethnography to a PhD project on the politics of community participation in the UK, specifically in the East Midlands, in areas of inner city and post -coalfield reconstruction. It sets out the challenges of connecting political theory to political practice. It then recounts the adoption of political ethnography by a group of researchers at the University of Nottingham as a way of bridging that gap, while incorporating into our work an awareness of the subjectivity of the researcher, and the dynamics of knowledge construction. The subsequent application of the methodology to this project is then described. It is argued that political ethnography allowed the drawing of continuities between a Gramscian theoretical framework, and Bourdieu's methodological focus on the way that social institutions reproduce relationships of power. Gramsci, however, allows greater space for agency and the importance of local forms of knowledge, and alternative narratives and values, theorised as "good sense," a resource which is best identified and accessed through a political and ethnographic framework.

Teaching for Integrative Learning: Innovations in University practice, vol 4. , 2010

Historical Materialism20th Annual Conference: the cost of life: oppression, exploitation and struggle in the time of monsters, 2023

PSA (Political Studies Association) Conference, 2019

BISA (British International Studies Association) 42nd Annual Conference, Brighton, 14-16 June 2017.

As an approach to the internationalisation of higher education, Internationalisation at Home (IaH... more As an approach to the internationalisation of higher education, Internationalisation at Home (IaH) looks beyond the mobility of a minority of students, emphasizing instead the delivery to all students of an internationally-focussed curriculum, and the embedding of intercultural communication. This can be expanded to include extra-curricular activities and building relationships with local cultural and ethnic community groups. The MA in International Development at Nottingham Trent University UK has implemented this approach, looking beyond both mobility and curriculum to apply IaH directly to student employability, embracing intercultural competence as a key professional skill. This paper explores the efficacy of this combination in the MA’s Professional Development Pathway, which requires students to complete a placement which demonstrates awareness of international and intercultural issues, usually undertaken “at home”, and to critically reflect not just on their professional skills, but on their ability to engage in the ethical practice which is central to IaH.

Re-energizing Ideology Studies: the Maturing of a Discipline, University of Nottingham, 27-28 November 2015.

ECPR General Conference 2014, University of Glasgow, 3-6 September 2014.

Interrogating Urban Crisis: Governance, Contestation and Critique, De Montfort University, 9-11 September 2013.

Rowman & Littlefield International, 2021

This book explores the politics of localism, drawing on the work of groups in three communities i... more This book explores the politics of localism, drawing on the work of groups in three communities in post-industrial Nottinghamshire. “Third Way” politics gave a high priority to local participation, seen as a way of rebuilding social networks, and shifting welfare provision from the state onto civil society. However, under increasingly difficult conditions of austerity, significant contradictions emerge between the aims of entrenching new markets for service provision, and reviving communities and democratic participation. Exploring in depth community organisers’ understandings of political economy and its local effects, and the governance practices which set the frameworks for fiercely independent community groups, the book outlines the forms of politics which emerge. This includes a challenge to the dominant thinking of the ‘neoliberal consensus’, but also frustration and a sense of political communal loss which has left these communities alienated from both national politics and the often-unattainable benefits of global mobility – an alienation which makes the Brexit vote of 2016 explicable as the disruptive outcome of a slow-burning political crisis of long duration.