Category: Theoretical papers

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Debates Discussion

Commenting on “Revolutionary Immanence?”

by Aram Ziai The article is a highly interesting piece which demonstrates the author‘s familiarity with the theoretical debate about anti-capitalist revolutions as well as with current oppositional social movements. However, coming from a different theoretical tradition than the author I found its argument sometimes hard to follow and was not quite convinced by a number of theoretical claims – also in the light of its own analysis of social movements. If […]

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Debates Theoretical papers

Revolutionary immanence? Exploring the political idea of social movements

by Soumitra Ghoshs Introduction: theories of movements, but where is the praxis? Murray Bookchin once commented that the tragedy of Marxism was that it had become a subject of cloistered academic seminars and not living movements (Bookchin 2015). Today’s anti-capitalist mobilisations do not call themselves Marxists, he observed. The recorded experiences of the various square movements, insurrections and revolutions of recent years tend to bear this out. Precious few important theoretical works […]

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Theoretical papers

Can social movements democratise democracy?

Lessons from the Yellow Vests movement in France by Maxime Combes “Extraordinary events are beyond the scope of ordinary explanations” Edgard Morin “Democracy is not about Saturday afternoons”, French president Emmanuel Macron said, speaking about the Yellow Vests movement (YVM) that have been protesting every Saturday afternoon since November 17, 2018. Such a statement aimed to close the door to any new political, economic or social measures in response to the Yellow […]

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Current movements Theoretical papers

“For the democratic production of democratic societies” – Lessons from the transition from social-movement-driven to state-legislated consultations on extractive projects in Peru

by Raphael Hoetmer Over the last two decades, various consultation practices regarding extractive activities have emerged and been implemented throughout Latin America. Some practices adopt a completely autonomous and communitarian approach, some are based on alliances between civil society and local government, while others are also increasingly centred around national governments in connection with new legislation as per international standards on indigenous peoples’ rights. These consultation practices come from two related sources. […]

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Debates Discussion

Soumitra Ghosh’s “Revolutionary Immanence? Exploring the Political Idea of Social Movements”

by Larry Lohman Soumitra asks: What creates the oppositional “non-state non-capital” knowledge “that makes movements both necessary and possible” (p. 2)? And that ensures that they have “political continuity” rather than being mere “singularities fixed in time and space” (p. 2)? In part, Soumitra’s answers are negative. Transformational social movements are not built just by participating in fixed organizations, spectacular events or, for that matter, purely reactive exercises in un-organizational horizontality (p. […]

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Debates Theoretical papers

New Political Horizons: Beyond The “Democratic” Nation-State

by Gustavo Esteva In these pages, I explain why it is not possible to eliminate the despotic nature of the “democratic” nation-state. Recognizing its limits opens up the exploration of many options for the people to rule themselves. Democratic despotism Small groups of people have ruled themselves, freely formulating the norms of their ways of living and dying in their localized settings. This democratic idea has been in fact used as a […]

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Debates Discussion

On reading Esteva’s ‘Beyond the Democratic Nation-State’

by Arie Salleh Sydney January 10th, 2020. Gustavo Esteva writes with the sincerity and simplicity of one deeply experienced in the politics of everyday life. He rarely calls on academic terms, unless there is good reason. So his essay opens by tracing the idea of democracy from Ancient Greece, through the Treaty of Westphalia, French Revolution, and on to the US Constitution. At every turn, he shows the practice of democracy has […]