Religious movements, new and old

Ireland's new religious movements, the first academic overview of the range of new religion in Ireland, has just been published. As opposed to the received wisdom that everyone in Ireland has been born either Catholic or Protestant for centuries, the book shows among other things the growing significance of the rejection of religion (and "lukewarm religion"), the long history of alternative religions in Ireland, the importance of feminism and woman-centre religious movements, the complexities of migrant religion and Ireland's role as a global "Celtic" homeland.
Co-edited by Olivia Cosgrove, Laurence Cox, Carmen Kuhling and Peter Mulholland. Available from Cambridge Scholars at £50 sterling, which is pretty steep but libraries can buy in copies if asked. Full details here.

While the rest of Ireland was competing in building denominational churches (and collaborating in converting the "heathen" under the auspices of the British empire...), a number of Irish people travelled to Asia and joined anti-colonial movements both religious and political. One of the most interesting of these was a Dublin-born ex-hobo turned Buddhist monk (and scourge of Christian missionaries), U Dhammaloka (?1856 - ?1914). UCC is celebrating the centenary of his trial for sedition; full details and a ten-minute video are online here. This is also the Irish launch of a special issue of Contemporary Buddhism on the subject.

For a new Europe: university struggles against austerity

See here for details of a meeting in Paris next month for people involved in university struggles across Europe.

Interface 2/2: movements making media

Interface: a journal for and about social movements has just published issue 2/2, on the theme "Voices of dissent: activists' engagements in the creation of alternative, autonomous, radical and independent media". It can be found here and in a few days will migrate to this address.

Social movements under another name

More details here about new research on a working-class Dubliner who hoboed his way across America and became a key figure in the Asian Buddhist revival that heralded the birth of anti-colonial nationalism in a string of countries. A very different way of thinking about social movements.

Conference presentations

Some of the conference presentations are now available online in a "raw and unedited" form, as follows:

Laurence Cox: Why do movements want to know things, and how do they go about it? (DOC)

Benoit Dutilleul: Deploying actor-network theory to conceptualise movements' dynamics (DOC)

Thomas Kador: Archaeology as action research (PDF)

Aisling Murtagh: Breaking cycles of movement dilution: the case of food (PDF)

Heather Watkins: contribution to "What role for subjectivities and 'politica afectiva' in the theory and practice of social justice?" (DOC)
You will need to "click through" the first screen that comes up.

Learning from each other's struggles: rates, food, childcare

For personal reasons a speaker has withdrawn, making it possible to offer lower rates. These are now €20 or €10 per day for unwaged, €30 and €15 for waged. These costs include food, childcare and administrative expenses.

If you need childcare, please email as soon as possible. There is limited availability for these places.

"Learning from each other's struggles" provisional programme

Learning from each other's struggles:

Social movements / activist / militant research workshop

Dublin / Maynooth, June 18th - 20th


Social movements like community development, anti-capitalism, the women's movement, union organising, majority world solidarity, GLBT activism, anarchism and socialism, community education and community arts, migrant rights and anti-racism all produce knowledge for change.

Sometimes this knowledge is a radical understanding of how the status quo works and how it can be changed; sometimes it is expert knowledge of a particular issue that can be used in media and legal battles; sometimes it is research on movements themselves that can be used to get better at what we do; sometimes it is popular education work and radical teaching.

This weekend workshop is for people researching social movements, activist researchers, adult and community educators and movement organisers thinking about the next step in a period of crisis. It is not a place for delivering conventional academic papers, but rather a workshop space for sharing skills, learning from each other's struggles and developing our practice. The workshop is a joint initiative of the participatory action research programme in social movements at NUIM Sociology and the Political Ethnography group at the Centre for the Study of Social and Global Justice, Nottingham.

With apologies for the delay, here is a provisional programme for this event. Further details and updates will be posted here; you can find travel details etc. on the right-hand toolbar. You can book online or register on the day.

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Friday 18th
Seomra Spraoi, Belvedere Court, off Gardiner Street, Dublin 1
(Map on http://www.seomraspraoi.org:8080/Plone/copy_of_contact-us)

7.30 ­ - 10.00: Introduction to weekend and activist film night hosted by Barra Hamilton.

Provisional showings:
- One less car (2010, 15 mins)
- Mandate: waking up, taking action (2010, 5 mins)
- Torture is us (2008, 15 mins)
- Beyond the classroom: the communities - Tallaght (2010, 10 mins)
- 8 things to remember (2009, 12 mins)
- War on the poor: budget day in Ireland (2009, 5 mins)
- Choice Ireland protest at WRC (2009, 2 mins)
- Hundreds march to legalise cannabis (2010, 3 mins)
- Wallets full of blood: zombie banker blues (2009, 20 mins)
- Looking left: banshee (2010, 30 mins)
- Ifyoulikeitthenyoushouldbeabletoputaringonit (2010, 15 mins)
- End the siege of Gaza (2010, 16 mins)
- MUTO: a wall-painted animation (7 mins)
- COMBO: animated murals (8 mins)
- David Camerwrong: new vision for Britain (2010, 3 mins)

More details in a separate post.

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Saturday 19th (morning and afternoon)
Auxilia Building, north campus, National University of Ireland Maynooth
(Travel details and maps at http://www.nuim.ie/location/):

9.30 - 10.00: Registration

10.00 - ­ 11.00: Energy, power and politics:

Amanda Slevin (Donegal MAOR / UCD Sociology), Hegemony and hydrocarbons

Hilary Darcy (Seomra Spraoi Better Questions / NUIM Sociology), Consent to coercion: policing protest in the Republic of Ireland

OR

Theorising social movements:

Benoit Dutilleul (University of the West of England), Deploying actor-network theory to conceptualise movements' dynamics

Aisling Murtagh (UCC), Breaking cycles of movement dilution: the case of food

11.00 ­ 11.30: Break

11.30 ­ 1.00: Workplace organising as militant / action research

Ziggy (Kolinko collective), Organising call-centre workers as militant research

1.00 ­ - 2.00: Lunch

2.00 ­ - 3.30: Social movements and strategy: law as battleground

Jenny Boylan (NUI Galway), Grassroots activism and the development of abortion law in the Republic of Ireland

Deborah Magill (Transitional Justice Institute, University of Ulster), Social movements' use of litigation

OR

Art and archaeology as action research

Thomas Kador (UCD Archaeology), Archaeology as action research

Martina Carroll (ARCAMosaic / UCD Psychology), Community art, action research and anti-racism

3.30 ­ - 4.00: Break

4.00 ­ - 6.00: Practicing political ethnography

Nottingham Political Ethnography Group, What role for subjectivities and "politica afectiva" in the theory and practice of social justice?
(Deirdre Duffy, Jennifer Martinez, Jon Mansell, Sara Motta, Maria Urbina, Heather Watkins)

Saturday night
Seomra Spraoi, Dublin

7.30 ­ - 10.00: Activist film night

Provisional showing:

A place in the city (Abahlali baseMjondolo poor people's movement in South Africa)

Exodus: movement of Jah people (radical squatting / youth movement in Luton)

Porto Marghera: the last firebrands (Italian autonomism)

More details in a separate post.


Sunday 20th (morning and afternoon)

Auxilia Building, north campus, National University of Ireland Maynooth

10.30 - 12.30: Social movements making media

Mimi Doran (UCD Social Justice), Media literacy and social activism: using mainstream and new media as a site for social movements

Yuvi Basanth (RootsReelFilms), Activist documentary making

Barra Hamilton (Dublin Community TV), Activists and the media

12.30 - 1.30: Lunch

1.30 - 3.00: Who owns social movements?

David Landy (Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Committee / TCD Sociology), Solidarity, splits and panic stations: reflections on an interesting year for the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Committee

Francisco Arqueros (NUIM Anthropology), The politics of migrant worker organising

- OR –

Personal, political, praxis: participatory action research and movements

Jean Bridgeman (Women of Insight / NUIM Sociology), Notes from a journal: methods and strengths in action research

Asia Rutkowska (NUIM Sociology), Ethics and politics in participatory action research

3.00 - 3.15: Break

3.15 - 5.00: Social movements and knowledge: who owns the intellectual means of production?

Andre Pusey and Elsa Noterman (Really Open University / Leeds Geography / Activism and Social Change MA), Developing the Really Open University: problems and experiences

Laurence Cox (NUIM Sociology), Why do movements want to know things, and how do they go about it?