“I’m not male,not white,want to start there?”: Olivia Chow and Identity Work in Toronto’s 2014 Mayoral Election

ABSTRACT

This article uses sociological theories of identity work to extend the research on political leadership. Focusing on Toronto mayoral candidate Olivia Chow—a high-profile progressive politician, an instant frontrunner, and a stark contrast to Mayor Rob Ford’s populist conservative agenda—this article argues that Chow was required to negotiate and mobilize identity in ways that were different from her white male opponents. Based on an intersectional analysis of participant observation in twenty mayoral debates, this article offers three concepts that illuminate forms of identity work on the campaign trail: dispositional requirements, ideological alignment, and political compensatory labour. This article illustrates that the racist and sexist terrain of politics requires a complex set of decisions and actions on the part of marginalized candidates.     

Stepping outside normative neoliberal discourse: youth and disability meet – the case of Jody McIntyre

In May 2010, amidst the ‘global financial crisis’ a Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition government succeeded a 12-year reign of New Labour in the United Kingdom, and ushered in massive welfare cuts. Although New Labour tabled major welfare and disability benefit reform, they arguably did not activate the harshest of these. This paper focuses on the backlash of youth and disability in the form of demonstrations; two groups that are being hit hard by the political shift to work-first welfare in an era of employment scarcity. The case of young disabled activist Jody McIntyre is used to explore parallels and divergences in neoliberal and ‘populist’ discourses of ‘risky’, ‘troubling’ youth and disability.     

The Policy Outputs and Conflicts of Large Communities from an Interorganizational Viewpoint

Abstract

An interorganizational framework is employed to merge elitist, pluralist, and dialectic perspectives on the community in this pilot study of 36 large United States cities.

An interorganizational framework is employed to merge elitist, pluralist, and dialectic perspectives on the community in this pilot study of 36 large United States cities.

Where organizations fail to abound, power may be wielded by an organized elite over an unorganized mass, thereby creating the conditions of polarized conflict, undampened by the crosscutting and issue-specific lines of coalition and conflict existing in organizationally richer environments. The indicators of community decentralization did indeed have independent effects upon the absence of conflict, measured by flouridation of the municipal water supply.

Decision by coalition lends special significance to linkage-providing organizations, such as large-scale and diversified municipal government. The idea of organizations with plural interests and values suggests that centralized governments either are weak or exist in organizationally barren communities; neither alternative is conducive to collective community action. The finding follows that seven different community outposts, each one requiring interorganizational cooperation, were positively affected by the scale and diversification of municipal government and/or by its decentralization.

All of this suggests that various small conflicts serve to prevent large ones in the multiorganizational setting and that the power of organizations, even government agencies, depends upon their capacity for coalition-formation, whatever the degree of their political autonomy.     

Using the Web to Teach Power Analysis

Abstract

Traditionally community organizers have used newspaper accounts of community or legislative coalition building and government records on campaign donations and business start-ups to examine the inter-relationships among interest groups, corporations, and political decision-makers. However, the prevalence of much of this data on the Internet makes some of these traditional methods obsolete. In this paper, the author describes how much of this research can be conducted on the World Wide Web.     

Echoes of the present?: The politics and policy of child support 1945–70

SUMMARY. Child poverty has been an emotive and political issue for many years. This article sets out to look at the concepts of poverty—both absolute and relative. It then analyses government and political party attitudes to poverty from 1945–70, concluding that little has been achieved, particularly for the poorer and larger. families. In drawing out lessons for the present day, the paper argues that assumptions about the causes of poverty and ways of tackling it need to be questioned before progress can be made. This article is based on material contained in Michael McCarthy's 1986 book Campaigning for the Poor: CPAG and the Politics of Welfare. It appears here by permission of the publishers, Croom Helm.     

Supporting public financial management in conflict‐affected situations: Adapting to change in the Occupied Palestinian Territories

This article traces the introduction of public financial management (PFM) processes and systems in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs) since they came under the control of the Palestinian Authority (PA). A number of factors combined make for an extremely challenging context for external actors to catalyse change: non‐existent formal central government functions at the time the PA was established, major restrictions in the movement of goods and people, ill‐designed donor budget support and a very asymmetric distribution of power that favours the status quo. An unelected government, donor‐dependency and a suffocating and chronic (yet low‐level) conflict are increasingly de‐incentivizing long‐term institutional reform. Such a complex problem requires multi‐faceted solutions. This article describes a dual delivery model adopted by the Palestinian Governance Facility (PGF) encompassing adaptive interventions that support longer‐term PFM improvements combined with the introduction of a selective workstream targeting service delivery. This focuses on the management of external medical referrals, which emerged as a political problem. A flexible development assistance delivery model can allow reform areas not anticipated at project design to be tackled as they emerge on the political agenda and open the space for political capital. A constant examination of contextual issues and re‐programming of project activities are offering lessons from which to learn and adapt. The ideal coalition involves flexible, aligned donors and relevant “institutional entrepreneurs” from within local organizations, with direct access to politicians. If high‐level government buy‐in falters, a coalition of technocrats may help construct and broker problems from which to gain political access.     

Achieving pay equity: Strategic mobilization for substantive equality in Aotearoa New Zealand

In an unprecedented move the New Zealand Government in 2017 announced a $2 billion pay equity settlement for 55,000 healthcare workers in aged and disability residential care and home and community support services. The settlement reversed the Government's previous austerity stance that pay equity for carers was too expensive, and that pay parity in the sector was out of the question. The political concession followed five years of intensive equal pay feminist activism. While pay equity settlements overseas have generally used either legal opportunity structures or government intervention, this article argues it was the combination of complementary and intersecting elements of mobilization that led to the negotiated settlement. These elements include a statutory human rights inquiry; legal opportunity; civil society coalition building; increased women's voice; and a government‐led negotiated settlement. The novel theoretical contribution of this article is its empirical support for the concept of substantive equality.     

Ethnic Community and Ethnic Boundaries in a “Sauce‐Scented Neighborhood”1

This article investigates the problem of ethnic boundary making in a changing context. Our case is Boston’s North End, a historically Italian neighborhood undergoing changes to its social and physical environment, making the ethnic definition of neighborhood identity and belonging more difficult though not less salient. Consequently, participants in the workings of the neighborhood—residents, business owners, politicians—face challenges of both boundary placement (who is Italian and who is not?), as well as cultural content (what does it mean to be “Italian”?). Rather than viewing Italian ethnicity as simply weakening over time, we argue that the North End shows ethnicity is in a stage of category divergence, where the still‐dominant ethnic identity is juxtaposed not against another ethnic out‐group, but at various times against boundaries of class and race, commercial and community values, even city political boundaries. Drawing on ethnographic research and in‐depth interviews, we describe three group identity frames that illustrate these processes and reveal how Italian ethnicity continues to animate discourse and action in the neighborhood.     

Labor‐Environmental Coalition Formation: Framing and the Right to Know1

This article examines the formation of a cross‐movement coalition between elements of the labor and environmental movements in New Jersey. We explain the successful formation and initial political campaign of the New Jersey Work Environment Council with an expansion of the theoretical perspective of frame analysis. We propose a model of a coalition collective action frame that offers several important insights into the active role coalition actors play in the construction of a common frame uniting union and environmental activists. Using qualitative data gathered from interviews, observations, and document analyses of two major campaigns, we argue that the coalition frame allowed new political opportunities to be created, leading to the establishment of the most sweeping right‐to‐know laws in the United States. We conclude the discussion of coalition framing by examining political constraints on the framing possibilities of coalitions, specifically by exploring how the discursive shift from the right to know to the right to act failed to expand the influence of the cross‐movement coalition as originally expected by its members.     

Diverging patterns of interaction around news on social media: insularity and partisanship during the 2018 Italian election campaign

ABSTRACT

The paper considers how social media ecologies are affecting partisan engagement around political news and online attention economies by investigating the case of the 2018 Italian general election. By analyzing Twitter and Facebook interactions around political news in the lead-up to the election, we shed light on levels of insularity characterizing sources preferred by different partisan communities and investigate how specific patterns of active attention emerge around different sources and around stories proposing different framing of specific political actors. Our findings indicate that, on Twitter, sources mainly shared by supporters of populist parties (the Five Star Movement and the League) are characterized by higher levels of insularity compared to those shared by supporters of other parties. We also find that, on Facebook, news items published by highly insular sources receive a higher number of shares per comment. Finally, our analyses show that news presenting a positive framing of the Five Star Movement – the unique ‘cyber party’ in the system – receives a higher number of shares per comment compared to items presenting the Movement in a negative light, while the opposite is true for stories on all other political parties.     

The World Social Forum between politics and NGOs

ABSTRACT

The WSF was established as a forum that gathered movements opposing a certain political ideology, neoliberalism, but it has refrained from openly supporting a political ideology. The WSF has empowered more radical leftish movements and thus played a role in the separation of these movements from more conventional left-wing parties that have embraced neoliberal capitalism as an undefeatable reality. Right-wing politicians have capitalized on this separation by promoting a populist rejection of capitalist elites. WSF itself has profiled itself as a forum of social movements rather than a forum of socialist movements. The article analyses to what extent the hegemonic role of NGOs in the WSF is at the roots of this apolitical positioning and to what extend rightsholder movements might have benefited from a more explicit embracement of a coherent socialist political alternative rather than the diversity that WSF has fostered as one of its central principles.     

'Pitbulls' and Populist Politicians: Sarah Palin,Pauline Hanson and the Use of Gendered Nostalgia in Electoral Campaigns

Abstract

Sarah Palin and Pauline Hanson were charismatic and populist politicians, whose home states of Alaska and Queensland became central to their political narrative. Both women gained political influence at times of intense debate regarding their respective countries' national identities. Voters perceived the states to be locales that evoked antiestablishment authenticity, and which echoed the historical dynamism of frontier society. The women used this association to consolidate their call for social renewal that would return politics to sections of the citizenry who felt themselves to be marginalized. The women's authority was augmented by gendered stereotypes that directed attention to their apparent vulnerability and honesty in attempting public service. Although their messages were calibrated differently, Palin and Hanson both demanded moral and political renewal, and generated intense support through their sexualized rhetoric of economic security and social nostalgia.     

The Organic Crisis of the British State: Putting Brexit in its Place

The Brexit vote was a singular event that is one symptom of a continuing organic crisis of the British state and society and a stimulus for further struggles over the future of the United Kingdom and its place in Europe and the wider world. This crisis previously enabled the rise of Thatcherism as a neoliberal and neoconservative project (with New Labour as its left wing) with an authoritarian populist appeal and authoritarian statist tendencies that persisted under the Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition (2010–2015). The 2015 election of a Conservative Government, which aimed to revive the Thatcherite project and entrench austerity, was the immediate context for the tragi-comedy of errors played out in the referendum. The ensuing politics and policy issues could promote the disintegration of the UK and, perhaps, the EU without delivering greater political sovereignty or a more secure and non-balkanized place for British economic space in the world market.     

Governmentality of adulthood: a critical discourse analysis of the 2014 Special Educational Needs and Disability Code of Practice

Produced and published by the coalition government, the publication of the 2014 Special Educational Needs and Disability Code of Practice: 0–25 years (2014 SENCoP) sets out to overhaul the management of special educational needs (SEN) provision across England and Wales. This paper employs a critical discourse analysis (CDA) of the 2014 SENCoP to reveal the ideologies and aims that this policy is built upon. Following a Foucauldian framework of governmentality, this article focuses upon the way in which ‘a successful transition to adulthood’ is constructed within the policy, particularly in relation to the wider Conservative narrative of a ‘Big Society.’ Developing this analysis, the article draws upon the current political landscape of a Conservative government and the shift towards the creation of a ‘shared society’ in attempt to locate ‘adulthood’ within its wider political, economic, and cultural context. This analysis reveals the neoliberal values underpinning the 2014 SENCoP, whereby educational support is reduced to the practice of shaping and sculpting the future generation of citizens. By deconstructing notions of employment, independence, participation, and health, this article reveals the 2014 SENCoP as a tool of government, written to the demands of the economy rather than the unique needs, aspirations, and ambitions of children and young people labelled with SEN.     

Populist things. A study on the materiality of political ideas

Is there such thing as a populist thing? This article tries to answer this question by comparing two iconic populist objects: the Make America Great Again (MAGA) cap and the yellow vest. Despite their centrality to populist politics, there is remarkably little systematic examination of these objects' populist affordances, let alone a comparative study. We propose to address this lacuna by performing a pragmatic analysis of each object's role in the populist politics of the United States and France, respectively. Our comparison uncovers two findings, which, in turn, help us answer our research question. First, our study of the MAGA cap reveals how nationalism and populism can be combined into a powerful political message. Second, the yellow vest exemplifies how populism functions on its own that is, as a way of doing politics that is centred on feelings of resentment. Either in conjunction with other political phenomena (e.g., nationalism) or by itself, populism emerges from our analysis as a logic of action that involves both linguistic claims and physical objects. Things, in this reading, are surprisingly central to how populism operates.     

LGBTQ + community organizations under neoliberalism in Ontario,Canada: Contradictions and disconnects

Abstract

This study examines the impact of neoliberal policy—which introduces competition for funding and pressure to professionalize and bureaucratize—on the working conditions and precarity of a purposive sample of southern Ontario (Canada) organizations dealing with LGBTQ?+?health. Findings from semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 20 community-based organization stakeholders and government bureaucrats confirmed that neoliberal policy pressures these organizations to professionalize and bureaucratize, while restricting political advocacy. Queer Liberation Theory’s three central tenets of anti-assimilationism, solidarity across movements, and the political economy of queer health are used to understand the situation and possible futures for third-sector organizations within the LGBTQ?+?movement.     

Agenda control in coalition formation

Theoretical models of government formation in political science usually assume that the head of state is non-strategic. In this paper, we analyze the power of an agenda setter who chooses the order in which players are recognized to form coalitions in simple games. We characterize those sets of players which can be imposed in the equilibrium coalition and show that the only decisive structures where the agenda setter can impose the presence of any minimal winning coalition are apex games, where a large player forms a winning coalition with any of the small players. Keywords: Government Formation, Agenda Control, Coalitional Bargaining, Finite Bargaining Rules. Received: 26 January 2001/Accepted: 31 July 2001     

Partisan Political Identification among White Ethnic Groups: An Historical Analysis

Abstract

This article presents evidence and argument dealing with partisan political identification among white ethnic groups. Recently, numerous political commentators and analysts have argued that the ethnic-labor component of the New Deal coalition is in the midst of collapse and decay, and that white ethnics are re-aligning with the Republican Party. Through an analysis of public opinion data gathered between 1936 and 1974, the partisan re-alignment theory is critically examined. The data show little or no support for the idea that Catholic and Jewish ethnics are identifying more closely with the Republican Party. Data show that degree of identification with the Democrats is nearly the same in 1974 as it was in 1936.     

Women’s Political Firsts and Symbolic Representation

ABSTRACT

The extent to which politics is still a “man’s game” is made evident every time a top political office has a female holder for the first time. These incredibly revealing moments may give a new social meaning to women in politics—women’s political presence—and women and politics—gendered social constructions about women’s capacity to rule. This article explores the types of gendered mediation underpinning the representation of first-ever women serving in historically male-dominated political offices in Spain. It shows that gender media frames are pervasive, which may lead to an effective annihilation of women’s symbolic representation.     

Forging a diagonal instrument for the global left: the vessel

ABSTRACT

This article takes up Samir Amin’s challenge to rethink the issue of global political organization by proposing the building of a diagonal political organization for the Global Left that would link local, national and world regional and global networks and prefigurational communities to coordinate contention for power in the world-system during the next few decades of the 21st century. The World Social Forum (WSF) process needs to be reinvented for the current period of rising neo-fascist and populist reactionary nationalism and to foster the emergence of a capable instrument that can confront and contend with the global power structure of world capitalism and aid local and national struggles. This will involve overcoming the fragmentation of progressive movements that have been an outcome of the rise of possessive individualism, the precariat, and social media. We propose a holistic approach to organizing a vessel for the global left based on struggles for climate justice, human rights, anti-racism, queer rights, feminism, sharing networks, peace alliances, taking back the city, progressive nationalism and confronting and defeating neo-fascism and new forms of conservative populism.