After Revolution: Mapping Gender and Cultural Politics in Neoliberal Nicaragua.; Reproducing Gender: Politics, Publics and Everyday Life after Socialism.

After Revolution: Mapping Gender and Cultural Politics in Neoliberal Nicaragua. Florence E. Babb. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2001. 304 pp.
Reproducing Gender: Politics, Publics and Everyday Life after Socialism. Susan Gal and Gail Kligman. eds. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000. 443 pp.     

From Moral Protest to Religious Politics: Ethical Demands and Beur Political Action in France

This paper traces the responses of Muslim youths ('Beurs') to their marginalisation in France. The Beur movement acquired national significance via the politicisation of moral protest in the early 1980s. In spite of early successes, the movement stumbled when the 'politics of austerity' adopted by the French state amplified a social crisis for which migrants became the scapegoats. The Beur movement, like other youth movements of the period, expressed a search for solidarity and a stress on ethical demands. Beurs' disenchantment when their civic elan ran out in the face of everyday difficulties led some to transfer their search for solidarity to the terrain of Islam. Islam, the paper argues, often appears to provide answers to the particular complex of politico-ethical demands for social justice and dignity that the Beur movement expressed. However, the Islamist re-conversion of some Beur militants is to be read as the result of a particular conjunction of multiple power relations which would integrate economic, social, cultural and gender dimensions. It is not necessarily indicative of a failure of the politics of moral protest to promote progressive transformational politics.     

Cultural Politics and China's Minorities

China's Minority Cultures. Colin Mackerras. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1995. 252 pp.
Cultural Encounters on China's Ethnic Frontiers. Stevan Harrell. ed. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1995. 379 pp.     

The Hawaiian Cultural Revolution: Some Political and Economic Considerations

Acculturation, culture fatigue, and cultural evolution have all been offered as explanations of the Hawaiian Cultural Revolution. All of these are concerned with cultural processes. The relevant historical and ethnographic data on this unique event are summarized here, and a different interpretation of them is offered. This interpretation is that the events that precipitated the so-called Cultural Revolution can also be regarded as political responses deliberately made by the legitimate government of Hawaii to alleviate a severe political and economic crisis.     

Public Protest and Popular Style: Resistance from the Right in Northern Ireland and South Boston

Popular political demonstrations often feature the use of theatrical and symbolic actions and artifacts. These are drawn from a repertoire that resembles and overlaps with festive public events. In this article I examine parades, murals, and other popular forms of public protest in Northern Ireland, where I have been conducting field research since 1991. I compare these to demonstrations of resistance in South Boston to school busing and the inclusion of gay and lesbian people in the St. Patrick's Day parade. Regardless of the political allegiances or intentions of the protesters, they tend to draw upon the same repertoire of images and actions for public display. This results in a genuinely popular style of protest. In the cases of political resistance from the Right, the use of popular styles of protest distinguishes the protesters along class lines from those whose rule they are supporting, [politicalprotest, Northern Ireland, street theater, resistance, public display events]