Critical Sociology and Social History

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Where have the rebels gone? Interview with Eric Hobsbawm

Fifty years after his pioneering books on rebellion and social banditry, Eric Hobsbawm explains why he always paid close attention to “uncommon people” and popular forms of revolt, and analyses how globalization has triggered off new political mobilizations

New times, new politics: history and memory during the final years of the CPGB

This article examines the relationship between collective memory, historical interpretation and political identity. It focuses on the dissolution of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) as constructed through collective narrative memory, and on Marxist interpretations of history. The divisions within the party and the wider Marxist community, stretching from 1956 until 1991, were often framed around questions of historical interpretation. The events of 1989–1991 created an historical and mnemonic crisis for CPGB members who struggled to reconcile their past identities with their present situation. Unlike the outward-facing revisionism of other political parties, this was an intensely personal affair. The solution for many was to emphasise the need to find new ways to progress socialist aims, without relying on a discredited grand narrative. In contrast, other Communist parties, such as the Communist Party of Britain, which had been established (or ‘re-established’) in 1988, fared rather better. By adhering to the international party line of renewal and continued struggle, the party was able to hold its narrative together, condemning the excesses of totalitarian regimes, while reaffirming the need for international class struggle

Juventude e consumo cultural: um estudo de caso, no departamento de Meta, na Colômbia

El presente documento tiene como objetivo principal analizar críticamente las formas de significación y resignificación de la identidad en jóvenes pertenecientes al área urbana de la ciudad de Villavicencio (Colombia) frente a su consumo cultural, mediático y tecnológico. Es una acercamiento a la oferta cultural para el mundo juvenil que debe ser repensada seriamente, pues en voces de los propios jóvenes no existe una suficiencia en términos de actividades que satisfagan sus expectativas.This paper’s main objective is to critically analyze the forms of meaning and redefinitions of identity in young people from the urban area of the city of Villavicencio (Colombia) against their cultural, media and consumer technology, which involves diagnosing the preferences regarding with cultural, media and technology for young people located in this area in the city of Villavicencio, Colombia.O objectivo principal deste trabalho é analisar criticamente as formas de significado e redefinições de identidade em jovens da área urbana da cidade de Villavicencio (Colômbia) contra seus culturais, mídia e tecnologia de consumo, que envolve preferências diagnosticar a respeito com cultural, mídia e tecnologia para jovens localizadas nesta área na cidade de Villavicencio, o consumo Colômbia

Electoral surveys influence on the voting processes: a cellular automata model

Nowadays, in societies threatened by atomization, selfishness, short-term thinking, and alienation from political life, there is a renewed debate about classical questions concerning the quality of democratic decision-making. In this work a cellular automata (CA) model for the dynamics of free elections based on the social impact theory is proposed. By using computer simulations, power law distributions for the size of electoral clusters and decision time have been obtained. The major role of broadcasted electoral surveys in guiding opinion formation and stabilizing the ``{\it status quo}'' was demonstrated. Furthermore, it was shown that in societies where these surveys are manipulated within the universally accepted statistical error bars, even a majoritary opposition could be hindered from reaching the power through the electoral path.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figure

Historicising intervention: Strategy and synchronicity in British intervention 1815-50

Copyright @ 2013 British International Studies Association.This article identifies three key themes in British intervention for purposes of liberal reordering in the period 1815–50, namely the ‘opening-up’ of new market spaces (discussed in relation to Uruguay/the Argentine Confederation in the 1840s), a cosmopolitan humanitarianism evident in the campaign for the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade that ran throughout this period, and the political-ideological contest between constitutionalist and absolutist forces and represented here by intervention in the Iberian Peninsula in the late 1820s to1830s. In developing a strategic perspective upon military/naval intervention the analysis shows its utility to have been subordinate to more fundamental sociopolitical, cultural, and institutional determinants. With regard to understanding the outcomes of specific intervention the analysis shows the importance of systematically evaluating developments in the domestic political environments of both intervening and target state as well as the military campaign itself and the need for sufficient general alignment or synchronisation in the timeline of developments in each of these three domains. This model helps to explain that whilst liberal interventions are not necessarily bound to fail, they frequently prove more difficult, complex, and protracted than the interveners expect

Secret origins of the state: the structural basis of raison d'état

The Italian city-state system occupies a special place in the canon of orthodox international relations. For, as Martin Wight says, ‘it was among the Italian powers that feudal relationships first disappeared and the efficient, self-sufficient secular state was evolved, and the Italian powers invented the diplomatic system’. And of course this was not all they invented. In addition to the earliest modern discourse of Realpolitik (‘Machiavelli’, Carr tells us, ‘is the first important political realist’), it is in the Italian city-states that we find the first routine use of double-entry book-keeping, of publicly traded state debt, of marine insurance, of sophisticated instruments of credit (such as the bill of exchange), of commercial and banking firms coordinating branch activity across the continent, and so on. Here, too, the citizen militias gave way earliest to the mercenary armies that would later characterize European Absolutism; and within the town walls, a population given over increasingly to commerce and manufacture elaborated new forms of urban class conflict

Scottish theme towns: have new identities enhanced development?

Three small towns in southwest Scotland have recently been branded as distinct theme towns, based on books, artists and food. This is an attempt to make them more attractive to visitors and thereby improve their economy. The objective of this research is to establish whether the new identities possessed by the towns have enhanced their development. It is argued, using data reviewing the past decade, that they have all developed, albeit at different rates, in terms of the economy and culture. Moreover, it is maintained that social capital has been enhanced and is a factor whose importance has been under-appreciated by planners and observers of this type of process. The relevance of the new identity to the pre-branding identity is also seen as a factor in successful development and ideas of authenticity and heritage are brought to bear on the relationship

The Urban Political Ecology of Post-industrial Scottish Towns: Examining Greengairs and Ravenscraig

Urban ecological politics is shaped by both moments of concerted action and more silent perceptions and responses. Instead of only being evident in situations of organised protest, the politics of urban ecology is also manifested, in material and symbolic terms, in the daily life of the residents. The fragmentation of urban political ecology turns out to be an important element in the affirmation of post-political forms of urban governance. Those issues were the object of fieldwork research carried out in Greengairs and Ravenscraig, two towns in North Lanarkshire, near Glasgow, with the goal of unravelling the understanding and the coping mechanisms of environmentally deprived residents. The towns are permeated by a widespread, often dissimulated, political ecology that is nonetheless always present. Empirical results demonstrate that a more comprehensive handling of the political ecology of the urban is crucial in order to halt the sources of marginalisation and ecological degradation