Search results for "Social Movement"

The otherness of social work under neoliberal governance

2013

This special issue examines the topic of ‘understanding the Other’ from a very different perspective of ‘Otherness’, which advocates that the own Otherness of social work be reflected on as well. In the contexts of many current societies, social work itself increasingly appears as a strange element – an exceptional idea – as ‘the Other’. Moreover, a question raises over whether social work itself is understandable to those who are outside of it. In this paper, social work is distinguished at three institutional levels: as a science, as a profession and as an ideology or social movement. The paper aims at analysing how social work itself is put into the position of ‘the Other’ in the current…

Dal 15M al 24M: il maggio spagnolo da Democracia Real Ya (DRY) a Podemos

2015

Gli elementi che indignarono gli aderenti al movimento del 15M erano connessi alla politica dettata dall’austerity, alla disoccupazione record, alla precarizzazione dei giovani con l’incremento dei contratti a termine, alle misure di ristrutturazione e riduzione dello Stato sociale, attuate allora dal Governo Zapatero su pressione di BCE e FMI, e appoggiate dal Partito Popolare. Un forte sdegno investiva inoltre una classe politica percepita come altamente corrotta in un Paese in crisi (nel 2009 – c’erano stati ben 730 processi pendenti a carico di amministratori pubblici, con il primato del PSOE con 264 casi di corruzione aperti, seguito dai 200 casi del PP). Già nel giugno 2011 si assiste…

Las organizaciones solidarias un análisis de su naturaleza y significado a la luz del caso valenciano

2018

Las organizaciones de voluntariado están recibiendo una creciente atención por parte de los analistas de la acción colectiva. Para unos, en su fulgurante auge reciente, se manifiesta la estrategia privatizadora del Estado de Bienestar; para otros, son expresión de un nuevo movimiento social. En este artículo los autores utilizan la amplia evidencia reunida en el caso valenciano, mediante distintas estrategias de exploración (entrevistas abiertas, encuestas, análisis de casos), para someter a examen dichas tesis. El resultado obtenido muestra más bien la heterogeneidad, disparidad y diversidad de organizaciones existentes, su reducido tamaño de recursos y su exigua articulación interna. Los …

La politisation de l'ordinaire : Enjeux et limites de la mobilisation numérique

2015

This article examines the politicization processes of ordinary digital practices as well as its role in the constitution of new protester groups. Its interest is also represented by the construction of an original theoretical framework aiming to underline the complementarity between different theoretical perspectives. By encouraging a connection between the sociology of social movements, the critical Theory and the studies of “information practices”, the author elaborates a new approach to mobilisation focused on the emergence of a more and more citizen's engaged position with regard to the “information world” and not only based on militant uses of the media. While claiming a critical appro…

Contemporary performance art by Helena Walsh: embodiment as empowerment in an Irish context

2016

Ever since the 1970s, performance artists have used their bodies as a means to question the patriarchal control of women. In Ireland, where the body is at the center of debates over contraception, abortion and divorce, feminist performance art has proved particularly pertinent to substitute the real experiential body to the allegorical or fetishized female body. Through her performances, Helena Walsh incites the viewers to respond to the effect of ideology on the physical body. Embodiment, impersonation and incorporation make the body explicit and reopen historical wounds.

Radical Experiences of Portuguese Social Workers in the Vanguard of the 1974 Revolution

2019

This article focuses on the contribution of social workers to the Portuguese democratic transition in the 1970s. Their involvement in urban social mobilizations and in the cooperative movement will offer a perspective on the participation of social workers alongside the Revolutionary process and how they, through engaging with social mobilization, grass-roots initiatives and socio-political activism deployed practices consistent with radical social work frames. It is argued that the Revolution provided the structural conditions for social workers to engage with radical practice and that their intervention constituted a form of agency for socio-political transformation while influencing prof…

Demanding dialogue : political struggle in the 21st century Hong Kong

2004

Sustainable Food vs. Unsustainable Politics in the City of Palermo: The Case of an Organic Farmers' Market

2011

The island of Sicily, Italy, and its main city, Palermo, appear an ideal scenario for sustainable food provisioning: the former being the first region in Italy for organically cultivated land, the latter Italy's fifth largest city. This article explores ideals and practices of sustainable urban food systems through an example of environmental consumer activism in Palermo. It does this by narrating the story of an organic farmers' market created by citizens and producers. The article reflects critically on understandings of food-related ‘sustainability’ held by the actors involved, showing the difficulties of operationalizing the concept for qualitative, socio-cultural research. It also high…

Mapping the World’s Largest Democracy (1947–2017)

2018

After seven decades as an independent democratic nation, India’s social landscape remains marred by persistent contradictions and inequalities. As the country moves from celebrating 70 years of independence towards its seventeenth general election in 2019, this article sets out to survey what democracy has done to India over the past 70 years. How was Indian democracy established and how has it evolved? Why do people vote, and who do they vote for? How does Indian democracy function beyond elections, and to what extent has democracy delivered in terms of social development and the economic and political integration of marginalized groups? These are the key questions that we address in this …

The Origins of Social Ventures

2021

This chapter addresses the social venture as a form of organization that has a role in the current society. In an economy based on markets, the intervention of multiple actors by itself—like governments, social movements, charity, and social ventures—cannot ensure the mechanisms necessary to the proper working of the system. In this way, markets present a set of failures and externalities that government action tries to solve. However, government action is limited due to a set of circumstances. Social movements and charity emerge to overcome the government’s limitations. Social entrepreneurship, as the last organization analyzed in this chapter, arises when social movements and charities fa…