networks of influence: a theoretical review and proposed approach to aids treatment activism
I submitted this paper to the journal Social Movement Studies (available through IngentaConnect) today. I can provide copies of the draft to anyone who is interested.
Abstract
The topic of AIDS activism cuts across disciplines, is complex, under-theorised and does not lend itself to neat theoretical explication. Furthermore, the story of the relationship between activism and the broad societal response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic is still emerging, is deeply contextual and its analysis requires rich empirical description. But since such a project is necessarily shaped by prior theoretical assumptions, this paper reviews a set of potential approaches for their explicatory potential and ability to inform an ethically engaged discussion. These approaches are broadly categorised as the sociology of political contention (most specifically social movement theory) and the political philosophy of civil society (including notions of global civil society). The focus is on the transnational dimension of activism, which has been especially critical in AIDS activism. I argue for a network approach to political contention and for a conception of transnational networks as ‘networks of influence’ that incorporate a wide range of actors, including (but not restricted to) the activists normally referred to in transnational advocacy networks. Such an approach is better able to account for the transnational dimension than traditional sociological approaches that exhibit a domestic and state-centric bias. Furthermore (following Keck and Sikkink), I propose a focus on transnational networks as formations that are capable of leveraging powerful actors, information flows and symbolic and accountability politics, but go beyond simplistic formulations such as the ‘boomerang pattern’. I conclude that only such an approach — and a willingness to be guided by the empirical and historical reality of AIDS activism — will allow us to make sense of the phenomenon.
presentation on transnational networks in south african aids activism
i gave a presentation on my research on transnational networks in aids activism at the scholar ship’s workshop on aids in south africa and india on friday. I attach a pdf of the presentation here: scholar-ship-seminar-29-02-2008.pdf.
shades of difference: mac maharaj and the struggle for south africa
This is a short review of Padraig O’Malley’s Shades of Difference that I did for the latest issue of Equal Treatment (the TAC’s magazine):
In his foreword to Shades of Difference, former President Nelson Mandela says “Mac put the struggle for the freedom of South Africa above everything in his life.” Whatever flaws Mac Maharaj may have, this is certainly true. For this reason, and because of the central role he played in it, a study of Maharaj’s life is also a study of the struggle. It is often argued that in order to build a better future it is necessary to come to terms with the past — particularly in a country with a history such as ours. Padraig O’Malley has produced a very important contribution to this task.
Mac Maharaj was imprisoned for thirteen years for his underground activities as a member of the SACP in the 1950s and early 1960s. After his arrest he was brutally tortured, but never betrayed his comrades. While being incarcerated on Robben Island, he became close to Mandela and Walter Sisulu, and smuggled Madiba’s autobiography out of prison. After his release, he went into exile and worked full time for the ANC, winning the trust also of OR Tambo (largely because he was one of the most able and resourceful leaders in the ANC). In the 1980s he led the ANC’s efforts to rebuild its underground organisation inside South Africa — often at great personal risk.
Shades of Difference has an unusual format. The first half of each chapter is introduced by O’Malley and the second half is in Maharaj’s own words (based on extensive interviews) — Mandela calls this “two brutal honesties clashing”. The introductions sketch the context of the events related by Maharaj, and provide an independent perspective. O’Malley’s sympathetic yet critical account does not spare Maharaj, other liberation leaders or the ANC itself from having their failings pointed out. For example, the almost exclusive reliance on a strategy of armed struggle in the 1970s and 80s resulted in very little progress until internal mobilisation not led by the ANC — the Soweto uprisings and later the United Democratic Front and Mass Democratic Movement — started to shake the apartheid regime’s hold on power.
Maharaj’s account, on the other hand, gives one a clear impression of the immense odds against which they were working, as well as of the tremendous personal sacrifices made by so many in the struggle. By honestly presenting the story of Mac Maharaj, Shades of Difference will do much to help us understand our history, and therefore also our present and future. This is a book that should be read by every South African.
negativity and critique in adorno and derrida
I presented a paper at the Philosophical Society of Southern Africa’s annual conference at the University of Pretoria under the above title. The abstract below and the paper attached.
Abstract
This paper argues that there is a tradition of philosophical critique which starts with Hegel’s dialectics and was developed, each time in a slightly different direction, by Marx, by the thinkers of the Frankfurt School and reaches its most compelling contemporary articulation in the work of Derrida—the primary exponent of poststructuralist philosophy. This tradition of critique turns on a certain negativity: operations of negation and the recognition of difference. It is argued that this approach represents an attempt at coming to terms with contingency. While it is true that negativity and negation provide the driving force of the Hegelian dialectic, difference is ultimately reduced to a mere internal moment of a greater and more original unity, and is thereby robbed of its originary significance. In Adorno’s philosophy, however, negativity is developed away from the totalising re-appropriation of non-identity with an ever greater emphasis on difference, in which the dialectical movement amplifies the dimension of negativity in a ‘negative dialectics’ rather than arresting it in reconciliation. In this sense, Derrida’s work can be read as a continuation and radicalisation of Adorno’s project, with différance as the notion that embodies this negativity most directly.
Full paper: Negativity and critique in Adorno and Derrida
presentation on networks in aids activism
I presented the Centre for Social Science Research’s weekly seminar yesterday. I looked at some of the theoretical considerations in the research i am currently conducting on aids activism. My presentation was entitled Local contexts and global networks in Aids treatment activism and is available here. It is very cryptic. I will post a draft paper shortly.
