Civil Society – Page 7 – Public Intelligence Blog

Jennifer Earl and Katrina Kimport

5.0 out of 5.0 Stars Paradigm-challenging

By Bruce B on September 19, 2011

Earl & Kimport take on what I like to think of as the silent debate between scholars of digital media and collective action on the one hand, and many traditional experts on social movements, protest, interest groups, and political mobilization on the other. The traditional view encompasses the concession that collective action can happen quickly now because of digital media; but that view has been, frankly, rather skeptical that anything important is happening. Or at least that digital media are really central to those visibly important developments that do occur in the present era.

Earl & Kimport throw down a serious challenge, by arguing that there is more going on than decreased costs and speed in the world of protest and social movements: resource accumulation is not a pre-requisite, organization-building is not necessary, co-presence is not necessary, and neither is a strongly shared collective identity. They are interested in what this means theoretically.

A key part of their argument is that digital media make costs a variable, whereas costs were previously understood as a fixed requirement of social movements. When costs are variable, then so are things that depend on costs, such as organization.

Continue reading “Review (Guest): Digitally Enabled Social Change – Activism in the Internet Age”

2014/01/18

Review (Guest): Creating the National Security State: A History of the Law That Transformed America

5 Star, Civil Society, Congress (Failure, Reform), Crime (Corporate), Crime (Government), Culture, Research, Diplomacy, Empire, Sorrows, Hubris, Blowback, Executive (Partisan Failure, Reform), Force Structure (Military), Impeachment & Treason, Intelligence (Government/Secret), Justice (Failure, Reform), Military & Pentagon Power, Misinformation & Propaganda, Politics, Power (Pathologies & Utilization), Public Administration, True Cost & Toxicity

Douglas Stuart

5.0 out of 5 stars From National Interests to National Security April 24, 2011

ByKenneth J. Dillon

Many observers recognize that the U.S. Government has for decades placed too much emphasis on military might to the detriment of other interests. This book provides a sobering explanation of how such a skewed approach emerged. Stuart is an historian at Dickinson College and also adjunct professor at the U.S. Army War College. He shows how the 150-year tradition of peacetime pursuit of national interests headed by the State Department gave way to the “Pearl Harbor System” of viewing the world through the perspective of potential threats to national security.

Continue reading “Review (Guest): Creating the National Security State: A History of the Law That Transformed America”

2014/01/182014/01/18

Worth a Look: Reforming Intelligence Obstacles to Democratic Control and Effectiveness

5 Star, Civil Society, Intelligence (Government/Secret), Politics, Worth A Look

Thomas Bruneau and Steven Boraz (eds.)

These days, it's rare to pick up a newspaper and not see a story related to intelligence. From the investigations of the 9/11 commission, to accusations of illegal wiretapping, to debates on whether it's acceptable to torture prisoners for information, intelligence—both accurate and not—is driving domestic and foreign policy. And yet, in part because of its inherently secretive nature, intelligence has received very little scholarly study. Into this void comes Reforming Intelligence, a timely collection of case studies written by intelligence experts, and sponsored by the Center for Civil-Military Relations (CCMR) at the Naval Postgraduate School, that collectively outline the best practices for intelligence services in the United States and other democratic states.

Continue reading “Worth a Look: Reforming Intelligence Obstacles to Democratic Control and Effectiveness”

2014/01/122014/01/12

Review: Inequality, Grievances, and Civil War

5 Star, Asymmetric, Cyber, Hacking, Odd War, Civil Society, Complexity & Catastrophe, Consciousness & Social IQ, Culture, Research, Insurgency & Revolution, Nature, Diet, Memetics, Design, Peace, Poverty, & Middle Class, Voices Lost (Indigenous, Gender, Poor, Marginalized)

Lars-Erik Cederman, Kristian Skrede Gleditsch, Halvard Buhaug

5.0 out of 5 stars FINALLY – a modern version of the causes of revolution literature from the 1970's, January 12, 2014

I am absolutely delighted to see this book published, and to also see it win awards. In the 1970's there was a strong political science literature on the causes of revolution (see a few examples below) as well as on governance alternatives intended to achieve dignity and equality such that revolutions do not occur. A few examples:

Harry Eckstein, Internal War: Problems and Approaches
Ted Gurr, Why Men Rebel: Fortieth Anniversary Edition
Chalmers Johnson, Revolution and the Social System

The book earns five stars but could reasonably be reduced to four stars for failing to have a holistic analytic model and any substantive reference to true cost economics.

Continue reading “Review: Inequality, Grievances, and Civil War”

2014/01/062014/01/06

Berto Jongman: Howard Clark (RIP) Memorial Post of Key Works on Non-Violent Conflict

5 Star, Civil Society, Cultural Intelligence, Peace Intelligence, Peace, Poverty, & Middle Class

In Commemoration of Howard Clark's Work with ICNC

On November 29, 2013 colleagues from the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict (ICNC) learnt about Howard Clark’s passing.

He left us much too early and too suddenly. And we lost not only a close, dear friend that could cheer and energize people around him but also an effective collaborator and a scholar-practitioner with a deep knowledge about and a sophisticated understanding of the field of nonviolent conflict.

. . . . . . .

He worked unwaveringly and patiently with me and other authors to bring to fruition the work that people can now enjoy reading: Recovering Nonviolent History. Civil Resistance in Liberation Struggles published this year.

Learn more — many videos and links.

2014/01/062014/01/06

Worth a Look: Muslims and ICT

5 Star, Civil Society, Information Society, Worth A Look

Berto Jongman recommends….

Forthcoming (2014) According to some global estimates, one in ten internet users is a Muslim. This volume offers an ethnography of ICT in Muslim communities. The contributors to this volume also demonstrate a new kind of moderation with regard to more sweeping and avant-gardistic claims, which have characterized the study of ICT previously. This moderation has been combined with a keen attention to the empirical material but also deliberations on new quantitative and qualitative approaches to ICT, Muslims and Islam, for instance the digital challenges and changes wrought on the Qur’an, Islam’s sacred scripture. As such this volume will also be relevant for people interested in the study of ICT and the blooming field of digital humanities.

Available now (2011). “Muslims and the New Medias” explores how the introduction of the latest information and communication technologies are mirroring changes and developments within society, as well as the Middle East's relationship to the West. Examining how reformist and conservative Muslim ‘ulama' have discussed the printing press, photography, the broadcasting media (radio and television), the cinema, the telephone and the Internet, case studies provide a contextual background to the historical, social and cultural situations that have influenced theological discussions; focusing on how the ‘ulama' have debated the ‘usefulness' or ‘dangers' of the information and communication media. By including both historical and contemporary examples, this book exposes historical trajectories as well as different (and often contested) positions in the Islamic debate about the new media.

2014/01/052014/01/05

Review: Occupy: Reflections on Class War, Rebellion and Solidarity

5 Star, America (Founders, Current Situation), Capitalism (Good & Bad), Civil Society, Consciousness & Social IQ, Culture, Research, Democracy, Misinformation & Propaganda, Power (Pathologies & Utilization), Voices Lost (Indigenous, Gender, Poor, Marginalized)

Noam Chomsky

5.0 out of 5 stars Explosive Opening, Less Satisfying Conclusion, January 5, 2014

The book explodes on page one: no bankers arrested — none, zip, nada, rein — 7,762 Occupiers arrested from the first 80 in NYC on 24 September 2001 to the two arrested in SF on 15 June 2013. Talk about GRIFTOPIA — the police work for the thieves and arrest the owners!

There are a number of key insights within this book, and I strongly recommend it to anyone who wishes to pulse the state of the union — Chomsky, who eulogizes Howard Zinn throughout, brackets our current situation with two trenchant observations early on:

Continue reading “Review: Occupy: Reflections on Class War, Rebellion and Solidarity”