Social Movements and Cultural Change

Andrew Jamison

Aalborg University

Based on:

Social Movements. A Cognitive Approach, by Ron Eyerman and Andrew Jamison (Polity and Penn State 1991)

Music and Social Movements, by Ron Eyerman and Andrew

Jamison (Cambridge University Press 1998)

The Making of Green Knowledge, by Andrew Jamison (Cambridge University Press 2001)

Hubris and Hybrids, by Mikael Hård and Andrew Jamison (Routledge 2005)

Social Movements as Knowledge Makers

movements seen as sites for collective learning

integrating theory and practice: ”cognitive praxis”

fostering hybrid forms of agency, or imagination

places where ”movement intellectuals” are formed

...and where culture and politics can sometimes meet

Dimensions of Cognitive Praxis

Cosmology, or episteme (theoretical knowledge) ideas, ontological and normative assumptions

Technology, or techne (practical knowledge) practices, forms of action and performance criteria

Organization, or phronesis (ethical knowledge) values, spaces for knowledge-making and mobilizaing traditions

The Hybrid Imagination

At a macro, or discursive level connecting ideas, integrating knowledge and action

At a micro, or personal level combining identities, and forms of practical activity

At a meso, or institutional level creating sites of collective, or organizational learning

The Making of Modern Science

From movements… to institutions

reform of religion reform of philosophy

visionary, utopian realistic, pragmatic

decentralized organization (central) academy

technical improvements scientific development

informal communication formal publication

The Hybrid Imagination 1

The ”Renaissance Men”: Leonardo and co.

Artists and engineers in combination

Connecting magic and to humanism

A focus on detail and precise observation

The invention of experimentation

Leonardo da Vinci:The artist-engineer

The Hybrid Imagination 2

Scholars and craftsmen in combination

e.g. Paracelsus, Tycho Brahe, Galileo

Inspired by Luther and ”Protestant Ethic”

Connected theory to observation

The invention of scientific ”method”

Tycho Brahe:The scholar-craftsman

mechanization

socialization

modernization scientification globalization

socialism anticolonialism

environmentalism

1800 1850 1950 20001900

Cultural and Social Movements,or where hybrids are fostered

Long Waves of Industrialization, or where hubris is generated

enlightenment romanticism

The First Wave

”the industrial revolution” (ca 1780-1830)

Iron, textile machines, and steam engines

Technologies of mechanization

The factory as an organizational innovation

Social and cultural movements:”machine-storming” and cooperation romantic art and literature, e.g. Frankenstein

The Industrial Revolution

A Hybrid Imagination: Samuel Morse (1791-1872)

• the scientist-artist who invented the telegraph (1832)

• made a machine that could communicate

• devised a new technical language, Morse code (1838)

A Hybrid Imagination: Henry David Thoreau (1817-62)

• a ”romantic” scientist, author of Walden

• one of the founders of environmentalism

• also wrote On the Duty of Civil Disobedience (1849)

The Second Wave

”the age of capital” (ca 1830-1880)

Railroads, telegraph, and steel

Technologies of socialization

The rise of the corporation (Carnegie, Krupp)

Social and cultural movements:populism, communism and social-democracy science fiction and arts and crafts

The Industrial Society

A Hybrid Imagination: Karl Marx (1818-1883)

Philosophy (Hegel) meets economics (Ricardo)

Positivism (Comte) meets socialism (Owen)

Idealism (Kant) meets materialism (Bentham)

science meets the industrial society

The philosopher-turned-economist

A Hybrid Imagination:

William Morris (1834-1896)

A romantic poet turned designer

Combined artistry and business

Mixed tradition and innovation

A utopian who was also practical

A major influence on…

Interior and industrial design

Architecture: Wright, Gehry, Utzon

Urban and regional planning

Socialist politics and culture

The ”education of desire”

The Third Wave

”the age of empire” (ca 1880-1930)

Electricity, automobiles, chemicals and airplanes

Technologies of modernization

Research becomes a business (Edison, DuPont)

Social and cultural movements:

anticolonialism and fascism

modernism and human ecology

The Wright brothers at Kitty Hawk

Henry Ford with his 10 millionth car

A Hybrid Imagination: The Bauhaus (1919-1933)

"art and technology – a new unity”

”Just as matter displaced becomes dirt, Reason misplaced becomes lunacy.”

A Hybrid Imagination:Mohandas Gandhi

The Western-trained lawyer who mobilized traditions in the struggle for independence

Paul Robeson (1898-1976)Singer, actor, political activist

Click to hear ”Water Boy”

The people is a myth, an abstraction.And what myth would you put in place of the people?And what abstraction would you exchange for this one?And when has creative man not toiled deep in myth?

from The People, Yes

Carl Sandburg (1878-1967)Poet and folk song collector

Woody Guthrie and Leadbelly:combining traditions in the popular front

Click to hear ”This Land is Your Land”

The Fourth Wave

the coming of technoscience (ca 1930-1980)

Atomic energy, genetics, and computers

Technologies of scientification

The rise of transnational corporations (IBM, Sony)

Social and cultural movements:

civil rights and ”ban the bomb”

environmentalism, feminism and postmodernism

The Modern Age

The Hybrid Imagination: Rachel Carson and environmentalism

”The road we have long been traveling is deceptively easy, a smooth superhighway om which we progress with great speed, but at its end lies disaster.”

”Woody’s Children”:The Folk Revival as a Social Movement

Click to hear Joan Baez singing ”All My Trials”

A Hybrid Imagination:Bob Dylan, 1941-

Click to hear ”Blowin’ in the Wind”

A New Wave or a New Age?

”the age of information” (från ca 1980)

Converging technologies (info-, bio-, cogno-, nano)

Technologies of the virtual

Global corporate empires (Microsoft, Nokia, Monsanto)

Social and cultural movements:

identity politics and ”open source”

ecological and global justice

The Age of Information

An Emerging Movement for Global Justice

outgrowth of anti-globalization protests

a ”movement of movements”, based on global networks

combining local engagement with global issues

contending conceptions of global justice

tensions with old and new social movements

Applying the Cognitive Approach

between the ”grand theory” of Negri and Hardt…

and the ”abstracted empiricism” of Sidney Tarrow et al

making spaces for collective knowledge making and learning

and for the mobilization of cultural traditions

by trying to put the hybrid imagination into action

A Movement Intellectual: Vandana Shiva

with Carlo Petrini at a slow food cafe

Vandana Shiva’s Cognitive Praxis

On the discursive, or cosmological level – ecofeminism, public accountability, ”earth democracy”

On the institutional, or organizational level - organic agriculture, seed banks, international campaigns

On the technical, or practical level – public speaking, advocacy research, counter-expertise

The Hybrid Imagination in Action

Click to hear ”Globalization Blues”

We need to change our waysAnd how we spend our days,Stop taking so much from the earthAnd learn what life is really worth. We've taken more than we shouldAnd we've done less than we could,We've taken chances with our fateOh, let us hope it's not too late. We need to change our mindsBefore the world unwinds,Learn of the patterns and the flows,From where life comes and where it goes. 

 

      We Need to Change Our WaysPlease sing along!

We need to change our schoolsAnd rearrange our tools,Teach our children how to shareAnd teach each other how to care.

We need to change our waysAnd how we spend our days,Stop taking so much from the earthAnd learn what life is really worth.