“Land is Our Mother”: Alternative Meanings of Development in Subaltern Organizing

Abstract

Land grab has emerged as an increasingly key component of neoliberal frames of development, resulting in large-scale displacement of rural populations. The discourses of farming communities living on lands threatened by these neoliberal reforms reflect an alternative rationality around land, and critique the dominant understanding of development by foregrounding local cultural meanings. Based on a culture-centered engagement with a subaltern movement opposing land grab in Singur, India, this research informs participatory development communication and offers alternative meanings of development.     

From Wall Street to Wellington: Protests in an Era of Digital Ubiquity

The Occupy movement is said to represent a new generation of post-Seattle protests, driven by social networking, and breaking from organizing practices in previous eras. This study analyzes the Occupy Wellington protest to shed light on the role of protests in an era of digital media ubiquity. Based on the participant observation as well as 76 brief interviews, the study explores how activists used digital media, and examines the broader institutional logics that shaped organizing dynamics at the protest. The analysis discusses digital media saturation and the multiple institutional logics that activists drew from in their organizing, including collective action, connective action, aggregation, and networking. We argue that digital ubiquity marks the onset of a profound hybridity rather than an abrupt change in activist organizing practices.