(PSM3d) Political Sociology and Social Movements IV: Politics - Language, Discourse and Culture

This panel presents critical analyses of various aspects of politics by interrogating its multilayered and complex effects on language, discourse, and culture. The papers examine interesting empirical cases from different socio-cultural and political contexts – Cuba, Canada, and Iran. They present nuanced analyses of politics involving issues such as the challenges urban artists face to occupy public spaces, language politics especially the strategies of anti-bilingualism movement to occupy public spaces and gain access to political power, and the representation of public and private spaces in cinema before and after the Iranian revolution. Tags: Politics, Social Movements

Organizers: Marie-Lise Drapeau-Bisson, Carleton University, Omar Faruque, University of New Brunswick Fredericton; Chair: Charlotte Gaudreau-Majeau, McGill University

Presentations

Niloofar Moazzami, Université du Québec à Montréal

Les défis d'occupation d'espace public par les artistes urbains

Cette communication se base sur une recherche de rôle mobilisateur de l’art urbain dans la société cubaine. Elle partage une partie du résultat d’un séjour de recherche pour le terrain de plusieurs mois sur cette thématique dans une société en changement incessant et sous les diverses oppressions : interne (autorité oppressive) et externe (oppression coloniale). D’une part, l’intolérance de gouvernement cubain concernant les critiques, d’autre part, l’oppression internationale par les sanctions (particulièrement les sanctions américaines) qui affectent radicalement l’économie et la vie sociale des Cubains. Je me concentre particulièrement sur le défi des artistes visuels urbains dans l’espace public dans une société, en proie à une logique de survie, pour comprendre les formes d’expression, pour enregistrer les échelles multiples de réalité urbaine. La question suivante s’impose à cet égard : sous quelle circonstance les peintres urbains dans le processus d’occupation de l’espace public, créent-ils les réseaux et les images dont les messages sont transmis et reconnus par le public ? Dans cette communication, en me basant sur mes observations, mes entretiens et mon journal à bord, je montrerai comment à travers lart on engage le public dans une discussion dans l’espace public assez contrôlé par l’autorité, et comment les artistes à traves l’occupation de cet espace incluent le public dans la discussion critique. J’argumenterai que c’est le défi d’une partie du peuple cubain pour s’assurer d’un avenir prometteur commun.

Joannie Jean, Université d'Ottawa; Michelle Landry, Université de Moncton

Anti-bilingualism movement: the People's Alliance Party's Strategic Choices for Occupying Public Space

Language politics in Canada are more often analysed in a language policy or rights lens. This paper is part of a research program designed to advance our understanding of language issues from a social movement perspective. The aim is to shed light on the strategies of the anti-bilingualism movement to occupy public space and gain access to the polity. The analysis presented will focus on the Peoples Alliance political party in the year leading up to the 2018 elections. In some cases, such as this one, we can consider political parties as social movement organizations because they are formed to defend a cause, or the cause is assimilated to an existing party (Kriesi, 2014). The Peoples Alliance Party, founded in 2010 around the issue of a possible sale of NB Power to Hydro Québec, has readily embraced the cause of activists who want to redefine New Brunswicks language regime, gradually making the language question one of the partys main issues (Chouinard and Gordon, 2021). This third party elected three MLAs in the 2018 election and two in the 2020 election by focusing its election campaigns on issues that seek to limit the language rights of Francophones and the linguistic duality of certain public services (e.g. school buses, health networks). Social movement parties such as the Peoples Alliance dont exactly have the same conditions of access to the public space as social movements, which are largely subject to the mainstream medias treatment of social issues (Granjon, 2000). As a third party with elected MPs, journalists pay them a certain amount of attention in the treatment of the provinces political issues, but our analysis shows that the Peoples Alliance has strategically chosen to occupy the public arena in a different way. Indeed, by analyzing the Peoples Alliance occupation of media space, this study shows how this political party mainly uses social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and its official website, and alternative media such as Voice of the Province and The Dennis Report. This counterpart to the anti-bilingualism movement denounces and criticizes the dominant media (see Granjon, 2020), perceived by its leaders as ideological apparatuses for the domination of citizens.These strategic choices make it possible to further underpin its positioning and establish a grandstanding morale, as understood by Tosi and Warmke (2020).

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Mouvement antibilinguisme : les choix stratégiques d'occupation de l'espace public du parti People's Alliance

Pouya Morshedi, Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador

Revolution, Home, and Privacy: A Study on the Cinematic Narrative of Home and Privacy ‎Before and After the 1979 Revolution in Iran

This research compares the changes in the representation of public and private spaces in Iranian cinema before and after the revolution. The inseparability of social and spatial processes is key in discussing the relationship between home, privacy, and revolution. The reciprocal relationship between cinema, society, and the state can demonstrate how changes in society and state are manifested. The field of cinema, with all its actors (directors, actors, staff, producers, etc.), is influenced by the changes in society and state. By introducing a model that illustrates the relationship between cinema, society, and the state, I discuss how the representation of public and private spaces in relation to home has changed due to the 1979 revolution in Iran. The emergence of Islamic codes of modesty as law and restrictions in showing private spaces, intimacy, and images of women and their interactions with men impacted the representation of spaces (public and private) in post-revolution cinema. To explore these changes, I conducted an ethnographic content analysis of 30 pre-revolution and 30 post-revolution Iranian films produced in Iran between 1969 and 1999. In this comparison, I focus on four topics in relation to home, public, and private space. First, I discuss the borders between public and private space and the materialistic and non-materialistic aspects of the borders. Then, I discuss the process of entering a home and interactions related to this process. The extension of the public space to the private space (specifically home) is the next topic that I discuss, and then, I illustrate how the representation of intimacy in both private and public spaces changed by the occurrence of the 1979 revolution.