[URBANTH-L] SFAA 2009: "The Possibilities of Doing Good, Social Movements in an age of Neoliberalism"

Ronald Hector A. Villanueva hecky at email.arizona.edu
Tue Oct 7 16:47:12 EDT 2008


  *  

  Hi.  Apologies for the mass email, but I thought some in the listserves might
be interested in this panel session.

  We now have 4 proposed papers with diverse geographical coverage and one
discussant, Emerita Prof. Joan Mencher who was gracious enough to help.  I'm
willing to organize a two-part session so if there are others there willing to
share their success stories, please consider submitting an abstract/paper.

Best regards.

Hecky

  -----------------------

  "The Possibilities of Doing Good, Social Movements in an age of
Neoliberalism" 

Conference Theme: Global Challenge, Local Action: Ethical Engagement,
Partnerships, and Practice Society for Applied Anthropology / Political Ecology
Society (PESO), Co-sponsor.   

  69th Annual Meeting - March 17 - 21, 2009 - Santa  Fe, New Mexico

  Proposed Panel Session:"The Possibilities of Doing Good, Social Movements in
an age of Neoliberalism" 

  Social changes per political scientist Karol Soltan (1996) are large scale,
require revolution or extensive institutional reform, and have pervasive and
long term societal consequences.  Several social movements worldwide, working
with the bottom of the pyramid or the poorest of the poor, claim success in
social change.  Some social movements are spurring social change by inspiring
change, and addressing poverty via massive mobilization of people, resources,
technology, and skills, and developing strong community relationships. Many
have replicated and are "scalable" globally.  What are the anthropological
perspectives on the successes, weaknesses, opportunities, threats, best
practices, inherent challenges, and "new' empowerment models?

  Interested participants should send a 100 word abstract to Hecky Villanueva
at hecky at email.arizona.edu[1] or livingplanet2001 at yahoo.com[2] by
October 7th.  You will then have to register at
http://www.sfaa.net/sfaa2009.html[3]

  Long version: 

The Possibilities of Doing Good, Social Movements in an age of Neoliberalism  

  Social changes according to the political scientist Karol Soltan are large
scale, require either revolution or extensive institutional reform, have
consequences that are pervasive in society, and have long term effects.  A
number of social movements worldwide, working with the bottom of the pyramid
and/or the poorest of the poor, claim success in forging social change.  By
inspiring change, responding to poverty via massive mobilization of people and
resources, forging partnerships and leveraging  money, technology, and skills,
and developing strong community relationships; these social movements are
spurring change in the welfare, housing, environment, livelihood, social
justice sectors, among others.  Many of these have been replicated elsewhere
and are "scalable" globally.  What are the anthropological perspectives in
these latest iterations of social movements? What are the common threads in the
successes, problems, threats, and opportunities?  What are the anthropological
lessons here?  How are relationships established, maintained, and strengthened?
How is empowerment and capacity building initiated and maintained?  How are
cultural differences helping or undermining activities?  We are intent at
looking at best practices, inherent challenges, new models of development and
empowerment. 

  If you are studying or part of a "successful" social movement that is
transnational in nature or is present in numerous areas in one country, please
share your story. 

-- 
Hecky Villanueva
PhD Candidate
Department of Anthropology
U. of Arizona



Links:
------
[1] mailto:hecky at email.arizona.edu
[2] mailto:livingplanet2001 at yahoo.com
[3] ../services/go.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sfaa.net%2Fsfaa2009.html


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