Digital Commons Network^™

Responsibility, Not Fantasy, Bernd Reiter

Government and International Affairs Faculty Publications

How can we overcome the hate-filled division of society into urban elites and opponents of globalisation? The author believes a unified European culture, let alone a world culture, cannot and should not be the solution. He argues that local culture is the only way out of the crisis, and that the political engagement it generates will provide the basis for a credible representative democracy.

Theory And Methodology Of Exploratory Social Science Research, Bernd Reiter

Government and International Affairs Faculty Publications

Confirmatory, deductive research cannot produce absolute truths, according Karl POPPER (2002). If we accept this premise, then it is worth giving inductive and explorative research another chance. Exploration can produce valid and insightful findings in the social sciences, if conducted in a transparent and self-reflexive way. It can also profit from applying dialectical thinking. This article proposes a rationale for exploration in the social sciences and it elaborates the criteria on which such research must stand.

Los Wintukua: Guardianes Del Mundo, Bernd Reiter

Government and International Affairs Faculty Publications

El pueblo Wintukua es uno de los cuatro pueblos que habitan en el territorio de la Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia. La Sierra Nevada alcanza una altura de 5,775 metros sobre el mar y se extiende hasta la orilla del mar Caribe. Los Wintukua cuentan con unas 50,000 personas y tienden a vivir en asentamientos compuestos por núcleos familiares, en fincas o haciendas rurales. Una minoría vive en aglomerados mayores – antes de todo en Nabusimake, la ciudad sagrada, que queda a unos 2,000 metros sobre el nivel del mar en el corazón de la Sierra. Junto con los …

Transparency And Accountability In The Management Of Oil Revenues In Ghana, Ransford E. Van Gyampo

Government and International Affairs Faculty Publications

This paper undertakes a five-year review of the management of oil revenues in Ghana since the commencement of oil production in 2010. Using reports from the Petroleum Transparency and Accountability Index, official records from key state agencies, and interviews with core individuals within the petroleum sector, the paper assesses the quality of transparency and accountability in the management of Ghana’s oil revenue. It argues that even though some progress has been made in the transparent and accountable use of oil revenues, more can be achieved if certain critical bills are passed and proactive interventions pursued without further delay on the …

Conceptualizing The State Of Movement-Based Counter-Power, Peter N. Funke

Government and International Affairs Faculty Publications

This essay presents a conceptual perspective on the dominant and novel logic informing today’s social movement-based counter-power. Drawing on Deleuze and Guattari’s image of the rhizome, this essay analytically accentuating the nature and workings as well as the challenges and shortcomings of contemporary movement-based counter-power.

This “Rhizomatic Movement Logic” has been emerging in conjunction with shifting dynamics of neoliberal capitalism as well as in conversation with older forms of left movement-based counter power. It thrives on multiplicity and thus lacks a dominant core or main axis and emphasizes radical participatory democracy and horizontal organizational forms, media and communication tools, multi-connectivity …

Small And Closed Vs. Large And Open: Some Lessons From Comparing Cuban To Colombian Agricultural Development, Bernd Reiter, Brandon S. Huson, Maria A. Gonzalez

Government and International Affairs Faculty Publications

Comparing the experiences of selected Latin America and the Caribbean countries and their trajectories over the past 15 years offers rich insights into the dynamics and causes for not meeting the 2015 MDGs. They also offer clues for post-MDG strategies. Central to achieving sustainable growth are government policies able to support small and medium- sized farms and peasants, as they are crucial for the achievement of several goals, centrally: to achieve food security; to provide a sound and stable rural environment able to resist external (financial) shocks; to secure healthy food; to secure local food; and to protect vibrant and …

Communication, Class And Concentric Media Practices: Developing A Contemporary Rubric, Todd Wolfson, Peter N. Funke

Government and International Affairs Faculty Publications

Understanding class as a process of self-making in relation to a particular, historical form of capitalism, in this article we argue that media and communication (from face-to-face and old mediums such as radio to internet-powered tools) must be conceptualized as an emerging structural dimension for class formation. Based on ethnographic fieldwork on the Media Mobilizing Project in Philadelphia, a community-based media and communications infrastructure and a network of organizations across the region, we develop a conceptual approach we call concentric practices, which provides us with a framework of how contemporary class formation is occurring through the use of media and …

Of Academic Embeddedness: Communities Of Choice And How To Make Sense Of Activism And Research Abroad, Bernd Reiter

Government and International Affairs Faculty Publications

Postmodernism has caught up with all of us in one way or another. We are all decentered to some degree. Advances in education and increased exposure to a globalized media have corroded traditions everywhere and challenged monistic worldviews and belief systems in the remotest corners of the globe. While we are becoming more and more aware of Others everywhere, we can rely less and less on those traditional values and guiding systems passed on to us from the past. Th e postmodern condition, as Jean-Francois Lyotard (1979) has argued, is one of uncertainty and of disconnection, as traditional bonds, both …

Ciudadanía Palenquera: La Epopeya De Un Pueblo Libre, Bernd Reiter

Government and International Affairs Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Building Rhizomatic Social Movements? Movement-Building Relays During The Current Epoch Of Contention, Peter N. Funke

Government and International Affairs Faculty Publications

This article investigates the movement building dynamics of contemporary social movement milieus (such as particular protests, social forums or occupations). It develops the concept of the “relay” to introduce four ideal-type movement building relays understood as distinct movement milieus: clustering relay, networking relay, organizing relay, and transforming relay. Each ideal-type captures different points on a continuum of increasing movement building and thus for generating commonalities, shared understandings and identities, mobilizations and strategies. Focusing on what I call the current “rhizomatic movement epoch,” which ranges from roughly the Zapatistas to the recent occupy-type protests, the relay framework can provide a larger …

Class In-Formation: The Intersection Of Old And New Media In Contemporary Urban Social Movements, Peter N. Funke, Todd Wolfson

Government and International Affairs Faculty Publications

This starts out by distinguishing between communication and communication mediums when examining social movement-powered formations of collective identity and collective action. We then focus on communication mediums to examine the different ways that old and new media are utilized in urban social movements under neoliberal capitalism. Based on shifts in the political economy and correspondingly in the contemporary composition of the working class, we focus on the Media Mobilizing Project in Philadelphia to argue that contemporary urban social movements and networks utilize a multi-media platform to further class-based politics. The respective use of old or new media depends on important …

Transferencias Condicionales Y Políticas De Acción Afirmativa En Latinoamérica: La Diferencia Que Políticas De Inclusión Pueden Hacer, Bernd Reiter, Paula A. Lezama

Government and International Affairs Faculty Publications

This article argues that social inclusion policies are economically efficient because social exclusion is too costly in terms of economic growth and social cohesion. To make this point, we analyze different social inclusion policies, particularly those practiced in Brazil and in Colombia. These are crucial because they highlight the racial dimension of exclusion and the corresponding economic contribution of Affirmative Action policies (AAs) to sustained economic growth and development. Central to social policies aiming at inclusion are educational policies because they render the highest economic medium and long-term return. To demonstrate this effect, we analyzeConditional Cash Transfers (CCTs), a Brazilian …

The Dialectics Of Citizenship: Exploring Privilege, Exclusion, And Racialization, Bernd Reiter

Government and International Affairs Faculty Publications

What does it mean to be a citizen? What impact does an active democracy have on its citizenry and why does it fail or succeed in fulfilling its promises? Most modern democracies seem unable to deliver the goods that citizens expect; many politicians seem to have given up on representing the wants and needs of those who elected them and are keener on representing themselves and their financial backers. What will it take to bring democracy back to its original promise of rule by the people? Bernd Reiter’s timely analysis reaches back to ancient Greece and the Roman Republic in …

The Epistemology And Methodology Of Exploratory Social Science Research: Crossing Popper With Marcuse, Bernd Reiter

Government and International Affairs Faculty Publications

This article seeks to propose a rationale for exploratory research in the social sciences. Inspired by the recent debates around qualitative methods (Gerring, 2001; George and Bennett, 2005; Brady and Collier, 2004; Mahoney and Rueschemeyer, 2003; Ragin, 2008; to name just a few), I seek to demonstrate that exploratory research also has a rightful place within the social sciences. In order to live up to its potential, exploratory research needs to be conducted in a transparent, honest, and selfreflexive way – and follow a set of guidelines that ensure its reliability. Exploratory research, if conducted in such a way, can …

Multiculturalism And Racialization In Latin America And The Caribbean, Bernd Reiter

Government and International Affairs Faculty Publications

This article, which is based on a keynote address, delivered for the 2nd International Congress of Caribbean Studies, held at the Universidad del Norte, Barranquilla, Colombia, in August of 2012, argues that Caribbean nations are in dire need to analyze and deconstruct the foundational myths upon which their national unities were constructed after achieving independence. This process is under way in such countries as Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia, but has not been carried out for most Caribbean nations, maybe with the exception of Cuba. Where such efforts have not been pursued vigorously, myths of racial harmony tend to prevail. These …

Multiculturalism And Racialization In Latin America And The Caribbean, Bernd Reiter

Government and International Affairs Faculty Publications

This article, which is based on a keynote address, delivered for the 2nd International Congress of Caribbean Studies, held at the Universidad del Norte, Barranquilla, Colombia, in August of 2012, argues that Caribbean nations are in dire need to analyze and deconstruct the foundational myths upon which their national unities were constructed after achieving independence. This process is under way in such countries as Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia, but has not been carried out for most Caribbean nations, maybe with the exception of Cuba. Where such efforts have not been pursued vigorously, myths of racial harmony tend to prevail. These …

Overcoming Coloniality: The Potential Of South-South Dialogue About Citizenship, Participatory Democracy, And Development Between Brazil And India, Bernd Reiter

Government and International Affairs Faculty Publications

This chapter argues that North-South dialogue is heavily influenced by the colonial past and burdened by extreme power inequalities. Former colonizing nations control many of the agendas of such dialogue, exposing it to the risks of paternalism, post-colonialism, and tutelage. As a result, coloniality is a condition difficult to escape in north-south dialogue. South-south dialogue, on the other hand, is less implicated by this burden, thus offering a platform for a potentially free - and freeing – critical interchange of ideas and empirical examples that reflect subaltern experiences and provide opportunities for mutual learning. One area where this dialogue is …

A Voice For The Voiceless, Bernd Reiter

Government and International Affairs Faculty Publications

The South African government uses culture and art as a way of achieving togetherness, mutual understanding and respect and as a means of overcoming the long and heavy legacy of colonialism and apartheid. In Brazil, music is commonly used to lure youth away from drugs and crime. Percussion, in particular, seems to offer the additional side-effect of channelling frustration and aggression into harmony. What else can culture do?

Learning From Brazil And India: The Difference That Inclusion Policies Can Make, Bernd Reiter

Government and International Affairs Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Suturing Working Class Subjectivities: Media Mobilizing Project And The Role Of Media Building A Class-Based Social Movement, Peter N. Funke, Chris Robe, Todd Wolfson

Government and International Affairs Faculty Publications

Due to the increasingly atomized, isolated nature of social life, as well as the apparent splintering of the working class under neoliberal capitalism, media serve a pivotal infrastructural function for generating the necessary commonality between the fractured sectors of the contemporary working class. This article ethnographically and textually examines how the media driven practices of the Philadelphia-based Media Mobilizing Project helps collectively suture fragmented groups of workers into a class formation that begins to resist and challenge the hegemony of neoliberal practices. As our detailed analysis of MMP’s 2007 to 2009 montage reels show, MMP videos serve the primary purpose …

Framing Non-Whites And Producing Second-Class Citizens In France And Portugal, Bernd Reiter

Government and International Affairs Faculty Publications

The quality of contemporary democracies hinges on the breadth and depth of the citizenship regimes on which democracy ultimately rests. This article argues that, to assess citizenship, two important dimensions are of crucial interest, namely to what extent formal citizens are able to live and practice substantive citizenship roles and, secondly, how access to citizenship rights is used by different societal groups in order to defend privilege. Having conducted a comparative case study of Portugal and France, I now argue that political elites are contributing to a framing of non-whites as foreigners and immigrants because it serves their purpose and …

The Global Social Forum Rhizome: A Theoretical Framework, Peter N. Funke

Government and International Affairs Faculty Publications

This work draws on Deleuze and Guattari's image of the ‘rhizome’ to develop a framework for mapping and understanding the global social forum process and its implications for the broader global left. The image of the rhizome is insightful for analytically accentuating the nature and workings, as well as the challenges and contemporary shortcomings, of the social forum process and more generally the broader global movement(s). Thriving on multiplicity and thus lacking a dominant core or main axis, the social forum-as-rhizome emphasizes the multi-connectivity and heterogeneity of this process, which has no central actor, issue, strategy, or ideology, beyond the …

Communications Networks, Movements And The Neoliberal City: The Media Mobilizing Project In Philadelphia, Dan Berger, Peter N. Funke, Todd Wolfson

Government and International Affairs Faculty Publications

Using the Philadelphia-based organization Media Mobilizing Project as a case study, this article argues for a more sophisticated understanding of social movement networks. We argue that the fragmentation of the neoliberal city has increased the saliency of networked-based organizing. Contrary to much of the existing scholarly literature, however, we argue that such networks combine horizontal and vertical forms of organization, as well as online and offline media. Networks are not purely horizontal, nor are new media necessarily the best or most natural apparatus for developing networked social movements. Instead, we argue, radio and video may be better suited to connecting …

Whiteness As Capital: Constructing Inclusion And Defending Privilege, Bernd Reiter

Government and International Affairs Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

A Genealogy Of Black Organizing In Brazil, Bernd Reiter

Government and International Affairs Faculty Publications

This article argues that the vast literature on “new social movements” misrepresents the historicity of identity-based organization in Latin America. Such organizing is indeed much older than the literature suggests. To prove this argument, I provide a genealogy of black, identity-based organizing in Brazil. This genealogy makes clear that black organizing started when Africans first arrived in Brazil. To explain the ebbs and flows of this organizing, the theoretical frameworks of Sidney Tarrow and Susan Epstein, who focus on political opportunities and changing repertoires, respectively, prove to be more useful.

Negotiating Democracy In Brazil: The Politics Of Exclusion, Bernd Reiter

Government and International Affairs Faculty Publications

Do societal inequalities limit the effectiveness of democratic regimes? And if so, why? And how? Addressing this question, Bernd Reiter focuses on the role of societal dynamics in undermining democracy in Brazil. Reiter explores the ways in which race, class, and gender in Brazil structure a society that is deeply divided between the included and the excluded—and where much of the population falls into the latter category. Tracing the mechanisms of the profound cultural resistance to genuine democratization that he finds dominant among the elite, his theoretically and empirically rich analysis offers an alternative way of understanding both the nature …

Social Movements, Hegemony, And New Forms Of Resistance, Harry E. Vanden

Government and International Affairs Faculty Publications

In Latin America, new social movements are vigorously and creatively engaging in grassroots organization and local and national mobilizations. Social movements in Bolivia, Brazil, and elsewhere have challenged the conduct of politics in their countries and the region. Their growth and militancy have generated whole new repertoires of action. Indeed, they raise the possibility of at least some form of "rule from below." They have left the traditional twentieth-century parties far behind to create a nonauthoritar ian, participatory political culture. Using existing political space to maximum effect, they are substantially strengthening participatory democratic practice and significantly altering political life. Less …

Continuidade E Mudança No Brasil: Os Legados Do Bacharelismo, João Batista De Castro Júnior, Bernd Reiter

Government and International Affairs Faculty Publications

In this article, we discuss some of the literature on the development of the Portuguese colonial legacy called "bacharelismo and seek to provide an answer to the question why clientelism and patronage are still such pervasive forces in Brazilian politics and indeed in broader society. By tracing back the ways how certain groups have conquered, maintained, and defended privilege vis-`a-vis popular sectors of Brazilian society and by following this process of defending inherited privilege all the way to contemporary times, we seek to support our main argument, which is that Brazilian society has never been sufficiently re-structured in order to …

Defendendo Privilégio: Os Limites Da Participação Popular Em Salvador, Bahia, Bernd Reiter

Government and International Affairs Faculty Publications

Este estudo enfoca as mudanças das relações Estadosociedade no estado da Bahia, e os fatores que condicionam uma participação democrática. A partir de trabalho de campo realizado durante várias viagens entre 2001 e 2006 à Salvador, BA, coletei dados sobre a qualidade da participação comunitária na gestão de escolas públicas, no processo de planejamento urbano (PDDU) e no orçamento participativo, iniciado em janeiro de 2005 naquela cidade.

Comparei três áreas de interação entre o governo local e a sociedade em geral, sociedade civil especificamente. Este artigo é enfocado nas duas últimas áreas da política, mas, em todos os casos observados, …

The Hermeneutic Foundations Of Qualitative Research, Bernd Reiter

Government and International Affairs Faculty Publications

This article is the result of reflection that emerged while conducting qualitative field research on nationalism and exclusion in Portugal. The problem I confronted was when to stop interviewing. Stated more precisely, I was seeking an answer to the question of when one has collected enough empirical data to support or reject one’s hypotheses. This initial problem led me to a rather old discussion on the difference between natural and human sciences that has characterized German academic life for many years–in fact, since the early 19th century–producing some more heated phases of academic dispute, known as the Positivismusstreit in the …