The Fiesta of the Word: The Zapatista Uprising and Radical Democracy in Mexico

Nash, June

doi:10.1525/aa.1997.99.2.261

Cited by 50 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 10 publications

(1 reference statement)

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“…Excluded from PRI-dominated institutions, indigenous communities in Chiapas organized within the highly fragmented society against the political elite and large landowners to preserve their ethnic identity independent of mestizo paternalism. This process demonstrated the enormous trust and loyalties produced in horizontal associations (Fox 199: 1097, Nash 1997, Skoufias et al 2010). …”

Section: Cso Identity -Enlace Civilmentioning

confidence: 99%

Human Rights Activism and the (De-)securitization of the ‘Other’

Georgi¹

2016

IAPSS Politikon

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The article contributes to the scholarly debate through casting light on the (de-)securitizing character of human rights invocations by civil society organizations (CSOs) in ethno-political conflicts. The securitization concept is an innovative tool for understanding the effects of human rights activism on inter-group relationships: A securitizing move asserts an existential threat to a reference object and demands all necessary means to prevent it. Securitization reinforces the hostile 'self'-'other' conflict divide and, thus, contributes to violent escalation. Reversing securitization necessitates de-securitizing communication challenging the portrayal of the 'other' as a threat. Asking under which conditions human rights CSOs issue a securitizing or desecuritizing move, puts the interface between contextual factors, organizational behavior, and political opportunity structure at the center of interest. The empirical part examines two human rights organizations in the Zapatista conflict, highlighting the influence of the social capital from which the CSOs emerge and the applied discursive strategies.

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Section: Cso Identity -Enlace Civilmentioning

confidence: 99%

Human Rights Activism and the (De-)securitization of the ‘Other’

Georgi¹

2016

IAPSS Politikon

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“…While these movements are by no means uniform, there are several key traits that link the Zapatista uprising in Mexico to the alterglobalisation movement and Occupy. Chief among them are mobilisation against neoliberalism and corporate power, a disinterest in seizing control of the state, a preference for direct democracy and prefigurative politics over representation, and horizontal, network-based organisational structures (Albro 2006;Barmeyer 2009;Garces 2013;Graeber 2002Graeber , 2004Graeber , 2013Graeber , 2013Hickel 2012;Juris 2012;Juris and Khasnabish 2013;Khasnabish 2004;Maeckelbergh 2012;Nash 1997;Razsa and Kurnik 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Utopian disjunctures: Popular democracy and the communal state in urban Venezuela

Wilde

2017

Critique of Anthropology

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This article examines the Venezuelan government's efforts to establish a "communal state" through the eyes of working-class chavista activists in the city of Valencia. It argues that the attempt to incorporate grassroots community organisations into a state-managed model of popular democracy produces a series of "utopian disjunctures" for the actors involved. These disjunctures, the article contends, stem from conflicting political temporalities within the chavista project, as long-term aspirations of radical democracy clash with more short-term demands to obtain state resources and consolidate the government's power. The case highlights the tensions generated by efforts to reconcile radical democratic experiments with left-nationalist electoral politics.

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“…By illustrating the wide range of human political experiences through the ethnographic literature, anthropology has oft en acted as a tool for denying both the universality and the stability of political and social organizations. Th is is particularly true for those anthropologists who are engaged in social movements and think that their expertise can serve grassroots mobilizations, as in the case of Marc Edelman's (1999) and Sian Lazar's (2008) ethnographies of Latin American social movements, June Nash's (2004) support of the Zapatistas, and many anthropologists now blending political involvement and academic research, like David Graeber (2002), Marianne Maeckelbergh (2009), John Postill (2014, and Maple Razsa (2013), direc-tor of the ethnographic fi lm Bastards of Utopia (2010), all off ering the general public empathic portrayals of emerging social movements. A critical anthropological perspective may also have a less explicit practical commitment but nevertheless aim at engaging its ethnographic research and theoretical considerations in a broader discussion with critical political thinking.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Aspiring to alterpolitics

Ciavolella¹,

Boni²

2015

Focaal

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This theme section inquires into the contribution of political anthropology to radical theories, social imagination, and practices underlying political “alternatives”, which we propose to call “alterpolitics”. The issue of an alternative to contemporary powers in globalization is a central topic in social movements and radical debates. This sense of possibility for political alternatives is associated with the desertion of the belief in “the end of history”: the current economic crisis and the decline of Western hegemony presumably announce a radical transformation of the neoliberal world, opening space to alternatives. Actually, the reconfiguration of twentieth-century capitalism is associated with a growing mistrust of political institutions, the crisis being “organic”, in the Gramscian sense (Gramsci 1975). Recent social movements and insurrections around the world—from the “colored revolutions” in Central Asia to the Spanish indignados, the US Occupy movement, the Arab Spring, uprisings in Bosnia—have raised the issue of alternatives as a reaction to the incapacity of capitalist political institutions—from electoral democracy to dictatorships—to deal with people’s problems and meet their aspirations for emancipation and a better future.

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The Fiesta of the Word: The Zapatista Uprising and Radical Democracy in Mexico

Cited by 50 publications

References 10 publications

Human Rights Activism and the (De-)securitization of the ‘Other’

Human Rights Activism and the (De-)securitization of the ‘Other’

Utopian disjunctures: Popular democracy and the communal state in urban Venezuela

Aspiring to alterpolitics

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