Social Science Forum 82 (XXXII)
Editorial into the thematic bloc
Mojca Pajnik, Simona Zavratnik
ABSTRACT Pričujoča številka Družboslovnih razprav (DR) se z različnih gledišč ukvarja z analizami vstaj v Sloveniji v obdobju 2012—2013, ki so s pričetkom v Mariboru jeseni 2012 ob množični udeležbi potekale v številnih mestih po Sloveniji, združevale pa so protestnice in protestnike, ki so izražali nezadovoljstvo z lokalnimi in nacionalnimi oblastmi ter koruptivnostjo političnih in gospodarskih elit, odgovornih za slabo stanje in odnose v državi ter širše. Najbolj množični protesti v Sloveniji po letu 1991 so v lokalnih slovenskih prostorih na ulicah združili izjemno raznolikost vstajniških skupin, iniciativ, gibanj, posameznic in posameznikov v mnoštvo glasov, ki je odločno odgovorilo na globalno krizo neoliberalizma, predvsem na vsiljene varčevalne ukrepe in splošno krizo predstavniškega političnega sistema.
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From ‘Let’s throw them out’ to Silenced Streets: A Discussion on Criminalisation of the Uprisings and the Shift towards A Society of Control
Simona Zavratnik, Iztok Šori
ABSTRACT: In the article, the case of the uprising movement in Slovenia (2012–2013) is used to examine the processes and triggers of the emergence, culmination and ending of protest cycles, whereby special emphasis is placed on their local-global specifics and the strategies of delegitimisation of protests and passivation of masses of angry people. The analysis is based on interviews and focus groups with representatives of the majority of the uprising groups in Slovenia. The research findings show that the uprisings in Slovenia represent a watershed moment in the transition to an increasingly pronounced control state as reflected in the criminalisation of the protests and the wider context of everyday life, sliding towards a police state and modified regulations for ‘organising’ protests.
KEY WORDS: uprisings, repression, criminalisation, social movements, neoliberal policies,Maribor, Ljubljana
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The Dynamic and spirit of uprisings – classification and differences of various protest groups in Slovenia
Marko Ribać
ABSTRACT: The author argues that in relation to the mass protests or uprisings in Slovenia in 2012 and 2013 one cannot speak of a unified and homogenous civil society or a social movement. The qualitative methodology of in-depth interviews and focus groups used in his research process enables him to observe the largest conflicts, antagonisms and the diversity of relations existing between them. The article thus identifies and classifies the various groups actively participating in the uprisings, while also defining the differences among those groups. Protest fractions, initiatives and movements are classified in three different classes: two groups are conceptualised via Clauss Offe’s theory on New Social Movements while the third group is classified by relying on the theory of antisystemic movements elaborated by the authors of world-system theory.
KEY WORDS: uprisings, New Social Movements, antisystemic movements, conflict, anarchist methods of organising
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Emancipatory potential of the movements engaged in the 2012–2013 uprisings in Slovenia
Lana Zdravković
ABSTRACT: The text rethinks the emancipatory potential of the movements engaged in the uprisings during 2012–2013, the most powerful in the history of the independent Slovenia. Regardless of their organisational form, time of occurrence or number of members, what is in focus is their understanding of politics and the potential to establish strategies for political operation. The author derives from the fundamental axiom that serious consideration of politics necessarily involves consideration of the basic radical equality among people that is emancipatory politics. The analysis is based on interviews with 19 movements that were active during the uprisings and shows some tensions between those who were active are within the paradigm of ‘the possible’, where politics is understood as a rule, and those in the field of ‘the impossible’ that is inventing spaces for politics based on radical equality beyond the struggle for power.
KEY WORDS: emancipation, uprisings, political organisation, political operation, possibility of the impossible, an arche
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Networking of social movements and the (im)possibility of emancipatory communication
Peter Sekloča, Mojca Pajnik
ABSTRACT: The authors present various forms of social movements and discuss common points on which the movements have built their positions towards the authorities and the media, and raise the question of how a supposedly democratic network structure of movements can build a coalition to face the dominant power (of the authorities and the media). The possibility of maintaining the heterogeneity of positions and identities is thematised through the distinction between “collective” and “connecting action”, as conceptualised by the modern theory of digital citizenship as activism, the foundation of which represents a network society. In the foreground is the verification of the thesis that some specifics of the connecting action, which are formed at the intersection of communication and organisational practices, strengthen the emancipation of movements and their potential to create new policies and new ways of parallel exchange.
KEY WORDS: social movements, network politics, rhizomatics, digital media, uprising in Slovenia 2012–2013
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International Historical Sociology of capitalist modernity: Methodological internalism and eurocentrism in “Political Marxism”
Tibor Rutar
ABSTRACT: The project of International Historical Sociology – a synthesis of Historical Sociology and International Relations – which has been in accelerated development for the past two decades, emerged out of a double analytical impasse: that of sociological reductionism (“methodological internalism”) and international reductionism (“methodological externaism”), and that of Eurocentrism. The article evaluates the broader benefits and pitfalls of this project by critically examining some of the key theoretical and empirical theses in the recent literature; special attention is given to the praised and exemplifying work
How the West Came to Rule. We show that the paradigm of “Political Marxism” avoids methodological internalism and Eurocentrism in theorising the emergence and spread of capitalist modernity, while the acclaimed alternative paradigm of “Uneven and Combined Development” does not introduce new explanatory insights to this theorisation and is, in some respects, even less satisfactory.
KEY WORDS: Historical Sociology; International Relations; Political Marxism; Uneven and Combined Development; Capitalist Modernity
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A Touchy Subject: The Tactile Metaphor Of Touch
Mirt Komel
ABSTRACT: The article proposes an interpretation of metaphors and metaphoric discourse through the perspective of touch. The article first deals with metaphors of touch in the history of western philosophy (especially traditional metaphysics from Plato to Hegel) in order to produce an operative category of touch that will allow, in the second step, to grasp the tactile quality of the metaphors. If metaphors are usually (rhetorics, politics, literature) regarded as a specific form of language able to not only touch the subject matter in the most suitable way but also touch on the target subject (listener/reader), then it is precisely because there is a certain haptic quality involved in language itself, discernible especially in the discourse of those who know how to best exploit metaphors in their endeavours.
KEY WORDS: Touch, Tactility, Metaphor, Linguistics, Philosophy