The rural arena: The diversity of protest in rural England

In the past 15–20 years, the rural areas of England have been used by a wide diversity of groups as the stage for their protest activities. Some have argued that this is due the rise of a rural social movement; this paper contends that rural areas have become both available and advantageous as the locale of protest through a range of interlocking factors. Firstly, that the rise of the network society has repositioned the societal importance of rural areas. Secondly, that the governance of rural areas has changed, allowing the social stake of rurality to be more widely contested. Thirdly, that opportunities to protest have shifted in favour of rural spaces, in terms of technology and policing. Through a discussion of recent changes in rural England and three case studies, The Land is Ours, Farmers for Action and the Organic Food and Farming Movement, this paper examines these changes and what they mean for the future of rural England.     

Actions,habits and forms of life

After a survey on the work of prominent philosophers within the Western tradition, it can be noticed a tendency to view habits as automatic, unfree and unconscious behaviour. In this context, this article attempts to show that habits are actually much closer to the characteristics that are otherwise attributed to actions. That is, following the dialectical approach of Sartre, I develop arguments to support that habits are conscious actions carried out with a sense of identification towards the form of life that actions, in turn, project as a whole; in this way, each form of life requires a set of habits that the agent performs freely and rationally, understanding the latter as the dialectical procedure by which the act itself brings about a totalizing identity. This vision implies that habits are interrelated and codependent within a network of social behavior, so they cannot be discarded without discarding the form of life to which they belong. That is, a change of habit requires a change in the totality of which it is a part. But that change can only occur if social agents become aware that their habits are a product of their free acceptance and not of necessity. In the article, this latter is paradigmatically exemplified by neoliberal capitalism as a form of life.     

刑事附带民事诉讼的二审程序

刑事附带民事诉讼二审程序提起的主体具有广泛性 ;提起的期限一般应依刑事诉讼法确定 ;二审程序可以划分为民事型、刑事型和混合型三种类型。二审的审理期限依刑事诉讼法确定 ;二审的审查范围不受上诉或抗诉的限制 ,实行全面审查 ;针对上诉或抗诉的不同情况 ,二审法院可以作出三种处理方式     

“三个代表”思想是青年一代成长进步的行动指南

江总书记的“三个代表”思想是对马克思主义建党学说的继承和发展 ,是我们做好一切工作的指导思想。青年一代要紧密团结在党的旗帜下 ,以“三个代表”思想作为自己成长进步的行动指南 ,积极投身于改革开放和现代化建设的伟大实践中去 ,为中华民族的伟大复兴作出贡献     

附带民事诉讼中精神损害赔偿问题研究

在单纯的民事诉讼中,公民或法人的精神受到损害可以要求赔偿损失,这已不成为问题,但我国现行刑事诉讼法将附带民事诉讼的赔偿范围仅仅局限于物质损失,而没有提及精神损失。本文作者指出,在附带民事诉讼中确立精神损害赔偿不仅是司法实践的需要,而且是协调不同部门法冲突的需要;不仅符合刑事附带民事诉讼制度的本意,而且有利于保护被害人的合法权益。当然附带民事诉讼中的精神损害赔偿必须具备相应的条件,还要受到一定范围的限制,同时要遵循精神损害赔偿的原则。     

在WTO框架下构建我国农业国内支持的法律保障体系

WTO的<农产品协议>是规范农产品多边贸易体制的重要规则之一.该协议中的国内支持规则不仅要求各成员国的农业政策具有一定的透明度而且限定着各成员国对国内农业支持的程度和范围.长期以来,我国对农业的支持力度不够,农业支持政策随意性也较大,这必将妨碍着我国农产品进出口贸易的健康发展.所以我们应遵循WTO的<农产品协议>,建立我国农业国内支持的法律保障体系.在加强农业基础地位,保护农业生产经营主体的合法权益,促进我国农业安全、持续发展等方面建立一系列的法律规范.     

Players and arenas: strategic interactionism in social movements studies

This ‘Authors Meet Critics’ symposium focuses on two books edited by Jan Willem Duyvendak and James M. Jasper, Players and Arenas: The Interactive Dynamics of Protest and Breaking Down the State: Protestors Engaged. Both books make bold attempts to develop and apply a strategic interactionist perspective in social movement studies by focusing on the interplay of micro and macro processes and decision-making in a range of protest movements. Critical interventions from Aidan McGarry, Robert J. Davidson and Guya Accornero raise a number of questions relating to the core arguments of the books, the key findings and the conceptual advances. Duyvendak and Jasper then address these challenges by drawing attention more acutely to the role of agency in social movements and highlighting significant critiques of the current state of the art in social movement scholarship.     

Troubling stories of the end of occupy: Feminist narratives of betrayal at occupy Glasgow

This article offers a feminist take on the question of why Occupy camps closed down, in the form of a narrative analysis of interviews from participants in Occupy Glasgow. In response to the emergence of an activist discourse emphasising the role of external forces in camp closure and the existence of a longer-term legacy in terms of individual and community politicisation, I build here on feminist interventions that point instead to serious internal problems within the camps and thus to a more limited legacy. Interrogating the plotting, characterisation and denouement of interviewee narratives, I show that feminist participants in Occupy Glasgow characterise the trajectory of the camp as a tragedy, attribute responsibility for the camp’s demise to co-campers and sometimes to themselves, and present the outcome of Occupy Glasgow as limited, and in some cases even traumatic. This raises serious questions about the culmination and outcomes of Occupy in Glasgow and more generally, and indicates the extent of the hard work remaining if future mobilisation against neoliberal austerity is to be more inclusive and sustainable. The article closes by considering the theoretical implications for the wider question of why movements come to an end.     

Academic opportunity structures and the creation of campus activism

Past research points to elite, liberal and/or wealthy universities and colleges as the most likely sites of campus activism. In addition, periods of high social movement mobilization in society in general are given credit in spurring student activists. In contrast, this study examines how a feminist activist subculture is created on a conservative campus at a time of subdued societal activism. I draw on a four-year ethnography of a U.S.-based, feminist-oriented student organization to conceptualize how universities facilitate student groups through an ‘academic opportunity structure,’ and in the process promote the development of an activist subculture. In doing so, I argue that universities, like the political and cultural environment, can be open or closed to campus activism. When there is a favourable environment, universities require the creation of formalized organizations, centralized leadership, and an institutional history. In response to meeting these requirements, universities then provide necessary resources to student groups and facilitate activism. These academic opportunity structures then foster activist subcultures that allow student groups to continue over time with the potential to influence the larger university culture.     

Going Green: Environmental Protest,Policy, and CO2 Emissions in U.S. States, 1990–2007

A major goal of the environmental movement is to conserve or improve the natural environment, but evidence showing that environmental mobilization produces positive environmental outcomes is mixed. This article addresses a fundamental question about the relative impact of pro‐environmental mobilization and the scope of an environmental policy regime on the natural environment. Using panel data at the state level from 1990 through 2007, we explore how environmental protest and environmental policies independently (or jointly) reduce CO₂ emissions in U.S. states. We find that the level of emissions in a state declines in states with increases in pro‐environmental protest, net of the effects of the range of environmental policies enacted, gasoline taxes, liberal attitudes, reliance on the fossil fuel industry, number of registered lobbyist organizations, gross state product, and population size.