Taking Tilly south: durable inequalities, democratic contestation, and citizenship in the Southern Metropolis

Drawing on Charles Tilly’s work on inequality, democracy and cities, we explore the local level dynamics of democratization across urban settings in India, South Africa, and Brazil. In all three cases, democratic institutions are consolidated, but there is tremendous variation in the quality of the democratic relationship between cities and their citizens. We follow Tilly’s focus on citizenship as the key element in democratization and argue that explaining variance across our three cases calls for analyzing patterns of inequality through the kind of relational lens used by Tilly and recognizing that patterns of contestation are shaped by shifting political relationships between the nation and the city. We conclude that Tilly’s theoretical frame is nicely sustained by the comparative analysis of cases very different from those that stimulated his original formulations.     

Mapping the global football field: a sociological model of transnational forces within the world game

This paper provides a sociological model of the key transnational political and economic forces that are shaping the 'global football field'. The model draws upon, and significantly extends, the theory of the 'global field' developed previously by Robertson. The model features four quadrants, each of which contains a dominant operating principle, an 'elemental reference point', and an 'elemental theme'. The quadrants contain, first, neo-liberalism, associated with the individual and elite football clubs; second, neo-mercantilism, associated with nation-states and national football systems; third, international relations, associated with international governing bodies; and fourth, global civil society, associated with diverse institutions that pursue human development and/or social justice. We examine some of the interactions and tensions between the major institutional and ideological forces across the four quadrants. We conclude by examining how the weakest quadrant, featuring global civil society, may gain greater prominence within football. In broad terms, we argue that our four-fold model may be utilized to map and to examine other substantive research fields with reference to globalization.     

Between universalism and particularism: the historical bases of Muslim communal,national, and global identities

In recent decades there has been an extraordinary flourishing of transnational and global Islamic movements. Most of these are religious reform and missionary movements; some are political networks working to form Islamic states. Yet on closer examination we find that universalistic Islamic movements are almost always embedded in national state and parochial settings. Muslim, and national, ethnic, tribal and local identities blend together. This blending of universalistic and particularistic affiliations has deep‐rooted precedents in Islamic history. The original Muslim community of Medina represented a monotheistic vision encadred in a community of clans. The universal empire of the Caliphate gave rise to schools, brotherhoods, and sectarian communities. Sufi reform teachings of the late seventeenth to the twentieth century defined Islamo‐tribal movements. In the twentieth century universalistic Islamic reformism inspired nationalism and anti‐colonialism. The paper concludes with some comments on the mechanisms by which historical and cultural precedents are carried into modern times.     

Heavy metal in Turkey: Tracking the tensions of democratization in the 1990s

Music, as a form of public discourse, invariably becomes a social science field that is considered more in the postmodern era when the boundaries are blurred. This study examines the political and cultural links between the emergence of the heavy metal genre and Turkish democracy. There are correlations between the prevalence of heavy metal in Turkey and the country's social and political transition in the 1990s and the search for a new path. The main argument here is that, among the country's tense democratization efforts and social problems, the heavy metal genre also indirectly carries the distinct traces of a different political search for the youth of the 1990s, although not directly. Democratic politics is a process established by daily life with the direct influence of societal interactions, and Turkish politics, and cultural life, in this case, heavy metal, include important notions in this remarkable manner. The main point symbolized by metal music in Turkey was its lyrical and artistic ability to express different points of view loudly enough against the uniform religious and nationalist culture that could be offensive, while other mainstream ranges such as pop and arabesque music didn't mind this issue.     

The medicalization of Nonhuman Animal rights: frame contestation and the exploitation of disability

Nonhuman Animal rights activists are sometimes dismissed as ‘crazy’ or irrational by countermovements seeking to protect status quo social structures. Social movements themselves often utilize disability narratives in their claims-making as well. In this article, we argue that Nonhuman Animal exploitation and Nonhuman Animal rights activism are sometimes medicalized in frame disputes. The contestation over mental ability ultimately exploits humans with disabilities. The medicalization of Nonhuman Animal rights activism diminishes activists’ social justice claims, but the movement’s medicalization of Nonhuman Animal use unfairly otherizes its target population and treats disability identity as a pejorative. Utilizing a content analysis of major newspapers and anti-speciesist activist blogs published between 2009 and 2013, it is argued that disability has been incorporated into the tactical repertoires of the Nonhuman Animal rights movement and countermovements, becoming a site of frame contestation. The findings could have implications for a number of other social movements that also negatively utilize disability narratives.     

The practice of alley gating in contemporary Jakarta: Visualizing the cross-class proliferation and territorial contestation

This paper provides empirical data on the community-based security practice of installing alley gates in Jakarta. Studies of gated communities in Indonesia have associated gating with the latent class conflict. Drawing on both qualitative and quantitative surveys of alley gate adoption, this paper shows that alley gating is a cross-class phenomenon. Moreover, the level of community's vigilance, that is, the degree of social capital in term of local security activities is presented as an alternative variable that can accommodate both the cross-class proliferation of gating and the local trajectory of gating.     

Anthropological versus sociological approaches to the study of soccer hooliganism: some critical notes

It is argued that the anthropological approach, as used by Armstrong and Harris, has not generated any breakthrough in the study of soccer hooliganism. In particular, it is suggested that their use of a commonsense rather than a sociological concept of violence vitiates their analysis in several ways, contributing above all to substantial inconsistencies between some of their own empirical data and their general conclusions concerning levels of soccer-related violence. It is also contended that their critique of the ‘figurational’ or ‘process-sociological’ approach followed by the Leicester researchers is based on a confused misrepresentation of that approach. Specifically it is argued (i) that Armstrong and Harris fail to recognize the wide range of methods, including extensive participant observation, used by the Leicester group, (ii) that their attempt to cast doubt on the Leicester group's contention that the core football hooligans come predominantly from the ‘rougher’ sections of the working class is based on nothing more than a priori speculation. In this connection, Armstrong and Harris themselves provide no reliable data on the social class of soccer hooligans in Sheffield, and they seem unaware of the fact that several different sources of data appear to confirm the finding of the Leicester group, (iii) they have misunderstood both the terminology and the reasoning of the Leicester group concerning the ‘rougher’ sections of the working class and their relationship to football hooliganism.     

Drugs,the state and global change: A contemporary European perspective

Abstract

This article examines the issue of illicit drug control across three broad levels of analysis. On one level, it examines the nature of the response to a ‘global phenomenon’ and its impact on national sovereignty. On a second level, it considers emergent state forms and practices and their relationship to global changes; and, thirdly, it grounds the analysis temporally and empirically in the contemporary European Union (focusing on the issues raised in relation to an emergent European Police Office, better known as Europol). The complex, evolving and essentially fragmented character of state power is placed in the context of the classic state functions of authority and control. This is set against the growing transnational role of expert knowledge in policy‐making, and concludes with an assessment of the political implications that can be drawn from analysis of this complex set of factors.     

Eurocentrism,state-centrism and sexual self-determination in the construction of a global democratic organization

ABSTRACT

Based on conversations with and publications of Samir Amin, the article explores connections between his ideas on global political strategy and sexual self-determination. One of the questions is about struggles related to homosexuality in Africa. To what extent did he believe that some of the demands for sexual self-determination, including certain forms of feminism and LGBT rights, were so overly embedded in Eurocentrism that they were not fully suitable for popular struggles in many parts of the Global South? The question is framed in the context of state-centric conceptions of the political. Even if some of the analysis includes a critical tone toward his strategical options, it also highlights the continuing importance of Samir Amin as a point of reference for future struggles to create transnational and global instruments for democratic transformations.     

From nation-state to global society: the changing paradigm of contemporary sociology

This paper discusses the strong criticism by Elias against the nation-state paradigm in sociology. Elias pointed his attention on sociologists of the twentieth century but particularly criticizes the analytical model of Parsons (AGIL), which seems to him an abstract combinatory of variables (pattern variables) without any references in social contexts. The sociology in the twentieth century is an apologetic of nation-state and, in Parsons, of the hegemonic role of the United States in the world. In fact, during the twentieth century many authors (historians and sociologists) tried to overcome the nation-state paradigm in the social sciences. The author of the paper analyses the contribution of Toynbee, Braudel, C. Schmitt, Huntington, Wallerstein and Hard–Negri. These attempts are based on different unit analysis: the civilization and its clash in the case of Toynbee and Huntington, the world economy in the case of Braudel and Wallerstein, and power in the case of C. Schmitt and Negri–Hardt. The author appreciates these attempts but his conclusion is that the concept of global society can better serve as unit analysis for a construction of a new paradigm in the social sciences.     

The student movement in Turkey: a case study of the relationship between (re)politicization and democratization

One particularly striking aspect of the global waves of social movements is the increasing politicization of youth, including students. Taking this as its starting point, this article discusses what the politicization of youth could mean for democracy and democratization in Turkey. This is important because, especially since 2011, Turkish politics has been dominated by debates concerning authoritarianization. Focusing on the largest student organization in Turkey, the Student Collectives (SC), this article shows that the relationship between politicization and democratization is more complicated than at first sight. Some aspects of the student movement in Turkey suggest it is an important moment of democratization in Turkey while other aspects arouse scepticism. Three crucial indicators of a movement’s democratic potential are whether it attends to deciphering the existing constellation of power relations, reflects on the possibility of installing a counter-hegemony and gives importance to collective identities. However, the SC’s potential democratic contribution is weakened by its conceptualization of democratic struggle in terms of antagonism rather than agonism through ‘moralizing’ politics. Moreover, its reluctance to engage with institutions of representative democracy further complicates the matter. The main contribution of this study is its discussion of various forms of politicization and their possible effects on democratization; and to give some clues to the activists of different social movements that can be helpful in their self-reflection.     

Eating heritage: caste,colonialism, and the contestation of adivasi creativity

ABSTRACT

This paper uses a multiple colonialisms approach to study cultural production in India and argue that coloniality is not a casteless structure of violence. In discursive and planning rhetoric, ‘creativity is in India’s DNA.’ This discourse incites the poor to harness and develop their tangible and intangible cultural heritage in order to feed themselves. Foregrounding anti-caste, Dalit scholarship in conversation with extant formulations of decolonial aesthetics focuses urgent attention on the fact that caste domination and violence structure inter-state political systems of development planning and post/colonial state discourses of heritage that claim to feed the caste-oppressed poor with their own creativity. This article attends to the political histories and critiques of Indigenous Chhara performance artists because their expressive cultures foreground anti-caste struggles against simultaneous state erasure and capture of Indigenous creativity. Against planning’s compensatory solution of eating heritage, anti-caste scholarship and the creative politics of Budhan Theatre refute the apparent castelessness of what counts as creativity and heritage, demonstrating that optimistic global creative economy discourses actually rely upon caste and colonial histories to entrench caste-based definitions of heritage within international and national development regimes. Budhan Theatre’s decolonizing cultural production avoids the mistakes of postcolonial scholarship and its erasure of caste histories. They prompt a multiple colonialisms approach which refuses labels of postcolonial or settler colonial states to privilege instead attention to the actually existing contemporary ways in which caste violence structures inter-state systems of violence, policies, and discourses.     

Oligopolistic suppliers,symbiotic value chains and workers' bargaining power: labour contestation in South China at an ascendant global footwear firm

In this article, I analyse changes in the power relationship between lead firms, manufacturers and workers by examining a strike that took place in South China in 2014 among workers at the Taiwanese footwear giant, Yue Yuen. In the process, I demonstrate that there is a link between increased labour costs, capital consolidation and greater value capture at the bottom of the global supply chain. I argue that footwear value chains are seeing a falling level of monopsony power and the emergence of enormous oligopolistic suppliers, which are transforming the power imbalances of global supply chains towards a more mutually dependent ‘buyer–producer symbiosis’. The Yue Yuen strike shows a maturing industrial working class, facing pressures on social reproduction in China, adapting its bargaining strategies vis‐à‐vis the developmental state. Influxes of profit raise the ceiling for what can be demanded of employers, stimulating those same employers to pursue more aggressive means of holding onto their profits. The example of the Yue Yuen strike is an indicator of what are fundamental changes in the production process, dynamics within the value chain, and power and agency of workers in labour‐intensive production. The strike demonstrates that consolidation is playing a decisive role in shaping the power relationship between domestic manufacturers and transnational brands, which, in turn, is directly affecting the bargaining power of workers.     

Therapeutic politics: critique and contestation in the post-political conjuncture

ABSTRACT

This article addresses forms of political engagement in the therapeutic field. Drawing on ethnographic research on popular psychology self-help, alternative and complementary health practices and new spiritualities, the paper takes issue with the dominant interpretation of the therapeutic as a depoliticizing force. Although this interpretation captures important facets of the phenomenon, the paper suggests that something more complex is afoot. It argues that therapeutic practices may also animate political contestation and critique, and challenge the prevailing grammar of political conflict. It substantiates this argument by identifying two modalities of politics in the therapeutic field: collective mobilization through a political party, and therapeutic practices as a form of lifestyle politics. It goes on to suggest that, together, these modalities constitute a subaltern counterpublic politicizing the political economy of health and the erosion of democratic governance. The paper concludes by suggesting that analysis of the therapeutic field may shed light on the shifting logics of political contestation at the contemporary political conjuncture.     

Anticolonial thought,the sociological imagination,and social science: A reply to critics

Sociology was born in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as a project in, of, and for empire. This essay excavates a tradition of social thought that grew alongside metropolitan sociology but has been marginalized by it: anticolonial thought. Emerging from anticolonial movements, writers and thinkers, anticolonial thought in 19th and 20th centuries emerged from a variety of thinkers (from indigenous activists in the Americas to educated elites in the American, Francophone and British colonies). I argue that this body of thought offers distinct visions of society, social relations, and social structure, along with generative analytic approaches to the social self, social solidarity and global relations—among other themes. Anticolonial thought offers the basis for an alternative canon and corpus of sociological thinking to which we might turn as we seek to revitalize and decolonize sociology.     

Networks,firms and upgrading within the blue‐jeans industry: evidence from Turkey

Abstract Since the late 1980s, industry characteristics, country‐specific contingencies and international conditions have come together and turned Turkey into a major exporter of jeans. It now has a 6.5 per cent share of the world's market. In this article, I explore this transformation and point out that it has created, especially in the 1990s, significant upgrading opportunities for Turkish firms. A large number of Turkish manufacturing firms are now full‐package contractors for a diversified list of brand‐name jeans. Some of these manufacturers are also experimenting with functional upgrading by developing their own brands and selling them abroad. Local firms, despite their subordinate position in the value chain, can go beyond low value‐added manufacturing and encroach on the core competencies of lead firms.