Social Change, revolution, and evolution Research Papers

A research paper about how rap can provoke changes in a society and inspire youth to make a difference. Starting with the history of rap, it is a method tackling social injustice in its many cases such as racism, poverty and sexism.

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- Social Change, Poverty, Racism, Art and Climate Change

This paper attempts a general assessment of the contributions included in this volume. We examine three main kinds of problems related to the research on social inequality in Iberian Late Prehistory. These are theoretical, empirical and interpretative. Among the first, we comment upon the very definition of social inequality, the taxonomical categories employed in social evolution, as well as the main factors causing inequality, with special attention to labour force mobilisation. Among the second, we highlight some weaknesses of the Iberian archaeological record for the investigation of the subject matter, such as the limitations of the absolute chronology or the settlement record. Finally, we discuss the propositions that have been put forward to understand the forms that social inequality took among Neolithic, Copper and Bronze Age communities, concluding that Iberian archaeologists would much benefit from a comparative perspective.

- by Leonardo García Sanjuán and +1
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- History, Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology, Anthropology

Maoism refers to an ensemble of revolutionary ideas and practices inspired by the life and work of the Chinese political leader and philosopher Mao Tse-tung (1893Tse-tung ( -1976. Broadly, these ideas and practices seek to deploy militant, even violent methods to install a new radical democratic regime that is committed to the collective pursuit of dignity, freedom, and equality.

- by Uday Chandra
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- Critical Theory, History, Cultural History, Cultural Studies

A collection of essays, 1987-2007.

- by Larry Richards
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- Cybernetics, Time Studies, Technology and Society, Participatory Democracy
- by John Clark
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- Social Theory, Philosophy, Political Philosophy, Humanities

ŞEYH BEDREDDİN HAREKETİNİN MANİFESTOSU OLARAK "VARİDAT" BARIŞ ÇOBAN Toplumsal hareketlerin altyapısını oluşturan düşünsel temelleri vardır, hareketin yönünü belirleyen bir ideolojiye sahip olmayan toplumsal hareketten sözedilemez. Toplumsal hareketler varolan koşullarla ilgili sıkıntılarını, acılarını, geleceğe yönelik daha iyi bir yaşam istemlerini bu ideoloji dolayımıyla ifade ederler. Toplumsal bir hareketin ardında farklı biçimlerde ve yetkinlikte örgülenmiş de olsa bir örgüt vardır. Bu örgüt toplumun istemlerini, düşlerini ortaklaştırarak biraraya gelmesini sağlar, topluma kendini ifade edeceği bir dil ve dünyayı dönüştürmek için ortak hareket etme gücü verir. Örgütler halk hareketine önderlik edebilecek yeteneğe erişmiş, düşünsel birikimi olan bir grubun öncülüğünde varolabilirler: "Toplumsal heyecan ve sıkıntı biçimindeki şeyi eylem halinde örgütleyebilmek için ideolojik bir çerçeve, bir dil, sloganlar, toplumun olağanda görülmeyen entelektüel işbirliği gerekir." 1 Toplum bu entelektüel işbirliği olmadan tarihsel belirleyicilikte olabilecek toplumsal eylemlere, hareketlere girişemez. Toplumsal hareketlerin düşünsel altyapısını oluşturan entelektüeller, manifestolarıyla öncelikle eşitsizlik üzerine kurulu olan dünyanın değişmesi gerektiğini ve nasıl değişeceğini anlatırlar ve bu anlatı toplumsal hareketin haritası olur, örgütlenmenin omurgasını oluşturur. 1 F. Braudel, Maddi Uygarlık: Mübadele Oyunları. İmge. Ankara. 2004. S.451.

- by barış çoban
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- Critical Theory, History, Sociology, Social Movements

Kropotkin's commitment to a concept of evolution has often been viewed as a problematic aspect of his political thought, and the adoption of the evolutionary metaphor has led to the marginalisation of his historical works. Mainstream readings suggest that he adhered to a fatalist position, seeing anarchism as an inevitable future state, revealed by a careful reading of the historical record. It is argued here that Kropotkin's use of evolution is more subtle. A closer analysis of his historical writing reveals that he did not adopt a straightforward notion of progression, and that reaction played a central role in his analysis of history. Thus, for Kropotkin, anarchism was not the inevitable culmination of the historical process, and active revolutionary activity remained essential. Moreover, Kropotkin did not see anarchism as representing an end to history. As a potential mode of future organisation Kropotkin's image of anarchism enshrined a principle of flux, concomitant with an anarchist emphasis on maximising freedom. Far from conflicting with his anarchist politics, Kropotkin's approach to history reflects its central principles.

- by Matthew S. Adams
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- History, European History, Modern History, Intellectual History
- by Christian Garland
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- Critical Theory, Sociology, Collective Behavior, Political Sociology

The study focuses on the republican murals painted on the walls of two cities, Belfast and Derry, in May 2009. The idea for the study was born during a trip to Northern Ireland during which I had the opportunity to observe the murals and to talk with some of the authors and with persons who had actually experienced
the events represented in the murals.
The nationalist murals have been studied by the author under different perspectives: language, iconography, political symbolism and social environment. Murals are, for sure, the community’s reaction to the British political and violent domination on Northern Ireland and they become instruments of rebellion representing
a collective request for freedom and independence. But they also represent a more complex phenomenon as they embody values and perspectives of the entire nationalist community in Northern Ireland. The study analyses the murals both as single artworks and as a collective phenomenon.A strong focus is given at all the political and social themes represented in the murals and at the different linguistic and iconographic styles of communication
as well as how different themes and styles combine. The nationalist murals are also examined under an artistic perspective with a special focus on the figure of the “artista armato”, the artist as a warrior that uses art as an instrument for communicating higher, collective (moral, social, religious, political) values. This
perspective brings the author to draw and analyse a parallel between the phenomenon of nationalist murals and Futurist art: a comparison based on the themes represented in the artworks, on the placing of the art pieces and on the social role of the artists.
If words, pictures and colours used in the nationalist murals become, as analysed in the study, the voice of the Catholic community in Northern Ireland, a voice not so often listened in the EU, it becomes crucial to understand what the artists
want to communicate, why and how. This study aims also to open up to a new research perspective based on a multidisciplinary approach through the integrated use of semiotics and semantics in ethnography in order to offer a more complete and holistic interpretation of the phenomenon of the Northern Irish republican
murals.

- by Nicola Guerra
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- Northern Ireland Literature, Discourse Analysis, Semiotics, Semiotics

Contemporary geographical thought is constrained by a political economic imagination rooted in binarism, which is exemplified in debates surrounding neoliberalism. Neoliberal proponents call for decentralization and increased capital flows, while Marxists respond by pairing centralization with capitalism’s abrogation. The latter view considers hierarchy necessary, a position that promotes authority and regards horizontal politics as propitious to neoliberalism. Anarchism’s coupling of decentralization with anti-capitalism is dismissed because Marxism cannot accommodate the processuality of prefigurative politics. Marxism demands a revolution with a masterplan, considering horizontality a future objective. Such a temporality ignores the insurrectionary possibilities of the present and implies a politics of waiting. The spatial implications of centralized hierarchy are also questionable, employing a vertical ontology, wherein horizontal organization is deemed inappropriate when ‘jumping scales’. Yet scale represents both a theoretical dis-traction from grounded everyday particularities and a ‘master-signifier’ by providing a point de capiton, or anchoring point, that rests on the exclusion of unconsciousness–the knowledge that is not known¬. Thus the point de capiton is the (Archimedean) point at which an essentialist illusion of fixed meaning is created, as scale is unconscious of geography’s ‘hidden enfolded immensities’. The discourse of scale accordingly dismisses the openness of rhizomic politics by predetermining the political as an arborescent register. Yet the inevitable terra incognita that scalar hierarchies produce becomes a powerful resource for the oppressed, which is why anarchist direct action often proceeds outside of authority’s view. A flat ontology has significant resonance with anarchism, imparting that politics should operate horizontally rather than vertically. This ontological shift suggests that we need not wait for the emergence of a ‘greater’ class-consciousness, as one can immediately disengage capitalism by reorienting economic landscapes in alternative ways. Consequently, a human geography without hierarchy gains significant traction when we reject scale and embrace an anarchist flat ontology.

- by Simon Springer
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- Critical Theory, Discourse Analysis, Semiotics, History
- by Chris Lovell
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- Evolutionary Archaeology, Cultural Essentialism, Essentialism, Cultural Evolution

Kuhn wanted to install a new research agenda in philosophy of science. I argue that the tools are now available to better articulate his paradigm and let it guide philosophical research instead of itself remaining the object of... more

- by Rogier De Langhe
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- Philosophy of Science, Complex Systems Science, Complexity Theory, Bibliometrics

Distribution électronique Cairn.info pour Presses de Sciences Po.

- by Thomas Nail
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- Creative Writing, Critical Theory, History, Cultural History
- by John Clark
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- Social Movements, Social Theory, Philosophy, Applied Philosophy

The recent revival of interest in Marxism within and beyond the academy has led to various proposals for contemporary reconstructions of historical materialism. This article proposes that the work of Antonio Gramsci could provide the basis for an historical materialist interdisciplinary research programme today that is capable of engaging productively in dialogue with other traditions of thought, while respecting their (and its own) differences. The article focuses in particular on Gramsci's development of the concept of "passive revolution," arguing that his integration of elements from Marx's Theses on Feuerbach permits him both to break with various "determinist" deformations of Marx's thought while at the same time insisting upon the integrity of Marxist theory, as a tradition of thought capable of renewal through self-criticism. It proposes that Gramsci's thought offers resources for an explanatory historical narrative of modernity focused upon the political moment as the dialectical unity of "structure" and "agency".

- by Peter D. Thomas
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- Political Sociology, Social Theory, Political Philosophy, Ethics

Within a critical globalization theory framework, this article analyses the military dimension of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America–Peoples’ Trade Agreement (ALBA-TCP) and its agenda of ‘peacekeeping’ and ‘humanitarian intervention’ in Haiti. Since its launch in 2004, the ALBA-TCP has established itself as an increasingly institutionalized, multidimensional, and pluriscalar counter-hegemonic Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) regionalism and globalization project. Integral to the pursued transformation of world order is the launching of a counter-hegemonic military agenda. Grounded in the Bolivarian philosophy of regional union, the article explores the ALBA-TCP collective defence policies, institutionalized in the Permanent Committee of Sovereignty and Defence, and the ALBA-TCP-Haiti cooperation before and after the earthquake of January 2010. By interrogating the nature of the military alliance and its humanitarian agenda, I propose that the ALBA-TCP’s revolutionary approach to internationalism, peacekeeping, and intervention may be understood as employing an ‘enlarged conception’ of humanitarianism that means neither militarized humanitarianism nor humanitarian assistance as isolated, short-term technical disaster relief, but as long-term emancipatory structural transformation. Military alliance, however, is necessary to defend the project against imperialist aggression.

- by Thomas Muhr (PhD)
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- International Relations, Multiculturalism, Development Studies, Globalization
- by Christian Garland
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- Critical Theory, European History, Modern History, Intellectual History

Chi fotocopia un libro lo uccide lentamente. Priva l'autore e l'editore di un legittimo guadagno, che può essere recuperato solo aumentando il presso di vendita. Il libro, in quanto patrimonio di una memoria storica e di una culutra sempre viva, non può e non deve morire. È vietata la riproduzione, anche parziale, con qualsiasi mezzo effetuata, compresa la fotocopia, anche ad uso interno o didattico. Fotocopie per uso personale del lettore possono essere effettuate nei limiti del 15% di ciascun volume dietro pagamento alla SIAE del compenso previsto dall'art. 68, comma 4, della legge 22 aprile 1941, n. 633. «ogni teoria della società deve avere l'ambizione di spiegare come funziona una società e attraverso cosa si riproduce» JURGEN HABERMAS, Intervista con Hans Peter Krüger PRESENTAZIONE Jürgen Habermas ha dedicato più di trent'anni dei suoi studi alle scienze sociali al fine di definire, attraverso la ricostruzione delle tradizioni di pensiero in esse presenti, un quadro teorico di riferimento che orienti i programmi della ricerca storico-sociale. Al pari dei grandi classici del pensiero sociologico, egli ha cercato di affrontare i "problemi della società nel suo insieme" esplicitando gli assunti, i metodi e gli obiettivi della teoria sociale come presupposto indispensabile per un'indagine che ampli i confini disciplinari della sociologia, da un lato, alla riflessione filosofica, dall'altro alla ricerca storiografica.

This volume is the product of a one day session organised within the IVth Congresso de Arqueología Peninsular, held in Faro (Portugal) between 14th-19th September 2004. The aim of this session was to discuss the subject matter of prehistoric social inequality, a topic that had never before been examined in an Iberian archaeology conference. The time span covered by this book is Late Prehistory, between the second half of the 6th and the beginning of the 1st millennia cal BC (Neolithic, Copper Age and Bronze Age). From a thematic viewpoint, this volume discusses a wide series of issues, including theory (like for example, applicability of social evolution taxonomies, centre-periphery relationships, or the sets of factors causing inequalities), empirical evidence (critical assessment of the validity of systems of empirical indicators, testing of hypothesis, quality of the available data), as well as interpretation (comparative inter-regional and diachronic analyses of the economic, social and ideological process involved in social inequality).

- by Pedro Díaz-del-Río and +1
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- Collective Behavior, Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology, Anthropology

Marx's conception of social revolution is an integral part of his historical materialist theoretical framework. Accordingly, in his major works he consistently depicts the class struggle as the manifestation of underlying contradictions between the forces and relations of production, and denies that social revolution can successfully be achieved without the requisite development of the material preconditions. The proletariat, far from appearing as a self-conscious revolutionary subject, is often presented as the object whose destiny is determined by conflicting forces which move inexorably toward a resolution, without requiring the kind of reflective, historically developed knowledge, embodied in a self-conscious social movement, that Bakunin (at least in his better moments) saw as essential.

- by John Clark
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- Critical Theory, Social Change, Social Movements, Social Theory

Humanity is Nature becoming self-conscious." -Elisée Reclus In its deepest and most authentic sense, a social ecology is the awakening earth community reflecting on itself, uncovering its history, exploring its present predicament, and... more

- by John Clark
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- Critical Theory, Social Change, Social Movements, Social Theory
- by Ahmed Salah-Eldin
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- Social Movements, Social Theory, Geography, Political Geography and Geopolitics

The protests on Tahrir Square in Cairo have come to symbolize the Arab uprisings of 2011. They have proven that Arab political life is more complex than the false choice between authoritarian rule or Islamist oppositions. The popular uprisings witnessed the emergence of “the Arab peoples” as political actors, able to topple entrenched authoritarian leaders, challenging repressive regimes and their brutal security apparatuses. In our contribution we want to analyze the political dynamics of these uprisings beyond the salient immediacy of the revolutionary events, by taking, as our guide, Rosa Luxemburg’s pamphlet The Mass Strike (2005 [1906], London: Bookmarks). An interesting theoretical contribution to the study of revolution, Luxemburg’s book provides us with tools to introduce a historical and political reading of the Arab Spring. Based on fieldwork and thorough knowledge of the region, we draw from evidence from the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions and the more gradual forms of political change in Morocco. Re-reading the revolutionary events in Tunisia, Egypt and Morocco through the lens of The Mass Strike offers activists on the ground insights into the dialectic between local and national struggles, economic and political demands, strike actions and revolution. The workers protests in Tunisia and Egypt during the last decade can be grasped as anticipations of the mass strike during the revolution; the specific mode in which workers participate as a class in the revolutionary process. This perspective enables an understanding of the current economic conflicts as logical forms of continuity of the revolution. The economic and the political, the local and the national (and one may add the global), are indissoluble yet separate elements of the same process, and the challenge for revolutionary actors in Tunisia and Egypt lies in the connection, organization and fusion of these dispersed moments and spaces of struggle into a politicized whole. Conversely, an understanding of the reciprocity between revolutionary change and the mass strike allows activists inMorocco to recognize the workers’movement as a potentially powerful actor of change, and trade unionists to incorporate the political in their economic mobilizations.

- by Koen Bogaert and +2
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- Critical Theory, History, Political Sociology, Social Change

This article proposes a new explanation of the positive correlation between democracy and terrorism detected in many previous studies. It is shown that this might be accounted for by the fact that factional democracies are subjected to more terrorist attacks than the other political regimes. A positive relationship between the democratic regime and the level of terrorist activity can be obtained due to the inclusion of factional democracies in the sample of democratic states. If factional democracies are excluded from the sample, the relationship between the level of terrorist activity and the democratic regime is negative. The analysis allows to maintain that factional democracy is a rather powerful factor of a high level of terrorist activity, while nonfactional democracy turns out to be rather a statistically significant predictor of a relatively low intensity of terrorist attacks.

This paper maps a coevolutionary research agenda for ecological economics. At an epistemological level coevolution offers a powerful logic for transcending environmental and social determinisms and developing a cross-disciplinary approach in the study of socio-ecological systems. We identify four consistent stories emerging out of coevolutionary studies in ecological economics, concerning: environmental degradation and development failure in peripheral regions; the lock-in of unsustainable production–consumption patterns; the vicious cycle between human efforts to control undesirable microorganisms and the evolution of these organisms; and the adaptive advantages of other-regarding, cooperative behaviors and institutions. We identify challenges in the conceptualization of coevolutionary relationships in relation to: the interaction between different hierarchical levels of evolution; the role of space and social power; uneven rates of change and crises. We conclude with the political implications of a coevolutionary perspective based on the premises of pragmatism.

How did the French Revolution change ordinary lives? "Bureaucrats and Bourgeois Society" asks this question in relation to office clerks working in Parisian administrations. Under new masters, these clerks faced radical changes to work practices as reforming politicians looked to implement new 'administrative science'. Many also faced the loss of family inheritances, as positions no longer passed down from father to son. Clerks were now expected to make their career as individuals. In practice, this meant increased job insecurity. Administrators lived under the threat of regular cuts in pay and of personnel. In this situation, some believed that the way to get ahead was by playing office politics. In the early nineteenth century, however, clerks mitigated their situation by modifying occupational practices. Inside the offices, they settled new modes of judging individual merit. Outside, they accumulated other forms of individual credit, in the process helping to define nineteenth-century bourgeois social capital, ideals of emulation, honor, and masculinity. Job insecurity, however, continued to set 'bureaucrats' apart from the bourgeoisie and their social identity came under question during the July Monarchy and 1848 Revolution.

- by Ralph Kingston
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- Intellectual History, Cultural History, French History, Sociology of Work
- by John Clark
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- Social Change, Social Theory, Geography, Human Geography

Published in DSA's "Socialist Forum."

- by Christopher Wright
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- Marxism, Anarchism, Social movements and revolution, Historical Materialism
- by John Clark
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- Buddhism, Sociology, Political Sociology, Social Change
- by Seth Abrutyn
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- Entrepreneurship, Religion, Collective Behavior, Social Change

Arendt says: “…Insofar as power always comes from men acting together, ‘acting in concert (Burke); isolated men are powerless by definition.”
It is precisely this notion that isolated men are powerless by definition that I want to challenge in this paper. While Arendt believes that “miracles” happen, such as the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, she absolutely excludes the possibility of considering actions of single individuals as actions having any political capacity. If we take Arendt’s view that isolated men are powerless, then we could say such a view is very pessimistic and that the actual historical existence of totalitarian states should have been considered as the end of the political world and as the end of humanity indefinitely. However, today we know that this was not the case. Hence, the capacity for actions and actions themselves were not eliminated but were different from what Arendt believes to be an action in the context of the political.

- by Mykolas Gudelis
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- Participatory Action Research, Violence, Totalitarianism, Arendt

In 1977, I published a paper entitled "Beyond Planning: Controllability vs. Predictability" which challenged the so-called "rational planning paradigm" so dominant in the decision and management sciences. The paper argued that, as an approach to social design in the highly turbulent environments in which we find ourselves today, this paradigm can create more (and worse) problems than it solves. This paradigm approaches design as a process of specifying the desired ends (in practice, usually referred to as goals or objectives) and then selecting the best means to achieve them. The assumptions of this approach include: (1) that value is associated only with the ends, not the means; (2) that preferences exhibit transitivity (if A>B and B>C, then A>C) and that these preferences adequately capture the values from which they are derived; (3) that a complete set of alternative means and associated outcomes is known and specified; (4) that relationships between means and ends, and among means and ends, are lineal cause and effect in nature (and, in practice, usually binary); (5) that any uncertainty in outcomes can be adequately modelled with probability concepts; and (6) that any conflicts over desirability or possibility among those participating in the process can be resolved by resorting to the point of view of the ideally rational decision maker (hence, the "rational planning paradigm" takes the point of view of an individual decision maker and assumes that group processes can be reduced to this point of view). This paper, modifying and extending the ideas of the 1977 paper, challenges all of these assumptions.

A Indiana University East (USA) <laudrich@indiana.edu> Purpose: This paper intends to connect ideas from the radical constructivist approach to cognition and learning to ideas from the constraint-theoretic approach to social policy formulation. It then extends these ideas to a dialogic approach to social transformation and design. Method: After demonstrating a correspondence between von Glasersfeld's fit/ match distinction and my constraint-oriented/goal-oriented distinction with respect to policy formulation, the paper evaluates the basic assumptions of radical constructivism and builds from them a framework for thinking and talking about a desirable society and ways to participate in its realization. Findings: The ideas of von Glasersfeld's radical constructivism contribute significantly to the development of a conceptual base for applied research on social activism by raising new questions and stimulating new thinking. Practical implications: Social activism in everyday affairs can be a way of living in the "world." Conclusion: The work and thought of Ernst von Glasersfeld opens a path toward a rich array of concepts and ideas with the potential to inform efforts in a wide variety of human endeavors.

"Social Sustainability — Values, Decision-Making and Policy Formulation” describes in simple language how the values of social sustainability can be used by social activists who are concerned about social justice, social equity, what is... more

- by Cosmo Rana-Iozzi
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- Industrial And Labor Relations, History, Modern History, Economic History

Over the past generation of radical social theory, we have heard a great deal more about the "microphysics of power" than we have about the microecology of community. The popularity of the former approach is, I think, less a reflection of the inherent superiority of post-structuralist concepts than a symptom of the defensive nature of oppositional culture in our time. A heavy focus on the "physics" of the system of power, and the depiction of social action in terms of various "strategies" and "tactics" shaped largely in reaction to this system betrays a certain capitulation to a dominant mechanistic, objectifying system. There has been a widespread assumptionnot only among post-modernist theorists but also among political activists-that the historical destiny of opposition is essentially a future of permanent struggle against the system of power. (I think I must have a dozen friends who sign messages "in struggle" for every one who concludes on a note of optimism, not to mention revolutionary hope.) For so many, the highest aspirations of oppositional culture seem to lie in small tactical gains within a fundamentally immovable system and in the forms of enjoyment and creativity possible through struggles within that vast labyrinth of power.

- by John Clark
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- Critical Theory, Social Change, Social Movements, Social Theory

The current political landscape seems rife with partisanship and toxic rhetoric. Although this is certainly nothing new, there has been an increase in rhetoric that suggests that citizens take up arms against the government. In the wake of the shooting at a political rally held by Representative Gabrielle Giffords, the media began asking whether violent rhetoric could lead to violent acts and politicians began to call for greater civility in political discourse. This essay examines the rhetoric of Sarah Palin and Sharron Angle to explore the rhetorical implications of a worldview that deeply distrusts the government and considers armed insurrection as an appropriate corrective to a government run amok

Departing from systems theory, Marc Amstutz has developed a refined theory of world law. In the course of developing this theory he has, however, reformulated or changed the status of a number of central system theoretical concepts, including the concepts of (co-)evolution, interpenetration and function. At first glance, these changes appear to be relatively inconsequential but at second glance they amount to a radical reformulation of systems theory because the focus is systematically shifted away from system internal processes and towards inter-systemic processes. Although Amstutz departs from a legal perspective, his theory is in fact projecting a mirror image of the wider society. Amstutz has, in other words, not just developed a theory of world law, but rather a central contribution to a novel inter-systemic theory of society as such.

- by Poul F. Kjaer
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- Sociology, Collective Behavior, Political Sociology, Law

Social Change, revolution, and evolution Research Papers (original) (raw)