Publications by Fellows: Iqra Anugrah, Lisa Zanotti, Shafi Md Mostofa
We are proud to share some recent academic publications by our fellows.
Iqra Anugrah: Rural Social Movements and Popular Struggles under Jokowi’s Presidency
A study in the journal International Quarterly for Asian Studies by our Global Forum fellow Iqra Anugrah looks at rural social movements in Indonesia.
The article was published in a special issue on the politics of marginalization under Indonesia’s outgoing president, Joko Widodo.
According to the abstract, the victory of Joko Widodo in the 2014 presidential election and the early phase of his first-term presidency brought some hope to Indonesian rural social movements. However, the structural constraints under oligarchic politics, the elite jockeying surrounding Jokowi, and the president’s lack of willingness to support an agrarian justice agenda rendered the movements’ strategy of intervention by state institutions and policies ineffective. This tension persuaded some sections of rural communities and activists to pursue a more contestational approach in advocating their rights, especially during Jokowi’s second term (2019–2024). This article examines the prevalence of the logic of concessionary capitalism in Jokowi’s rural policies, its devastating impacts on rural communities and the creative, sometimes impromptu, responses of rural social movements to dispossession and marginalisation. It also analyses the limits and gains made by the movements’ actors and provides an overall assessment of state-rural social movement relations under Jokowi’s presidency and the Covid-19 pandemic.
Read the article here.
*****
Lisa Zanotti: The Latin American Populist Radical Right in Comparative Perspective
In a chapter of the new volume The Recasting of the Latin American Right (Cambridge UP, 2024), our Global Forum Fellow Lisa Zanotti looks at the populist radical right in Latin America.
The volume was edited by André Borges (Universidade de Brasíalia), Ryan Lloyd and Gabriel Vommaro (Universidad de San Martin/CONICET). The chapter by Lisa Zanotti is entitled “The Latin American Populist Radical Right in Comparative Perspective.”
According to the abstract, the aim of the chapter is to provide an understanding of the structural constraints and opportunities for the populist radical right (PRR) in Latin America. Unlike Western Europe, material values are still of vital importance in many Latin American countries because of high levels of inequality in the region. This represents a major constraint for the emergence of the PRR, and only some parties have been able to overcome it. The author argues that the growth of the PRR relies on three factors: the appeal of the PRR’s hardline discourses, the mobilization of voters dissatisfied with sexual and reproductive rights and secularization, and a crisis of representation among the traditional parties, who are painted by PRR leaders as a corrupt elite.
Access the chapter here.
Find out more about the volume here.
****
Shafi Md Mostofa: Electoral Failure of Political Islam: The Case of Jamaat-E-Islami in Bangladesh
A new paper by our Global Forum Fellow Shafi Md Mostofa on Islamist political party Jamaat-e-Islami of Bangladesh has just been published in the journal South Asia Research.
According to the abstract, this article investigates why the Jamaat-e-Islami of Bangladesh (JIB), the largest Islamist political party in South Asia, has been failing to achieve electoral success since 1991, despite their strong Islamist ideology. In fact, the party’s vote share has decreased from its highest point in 1991 to its lowest in 2008. The article, drafted before the recent dramatic political events in Bangladesh, argues that while JIB remains active, the scope for its success in electoral politics in Bangladesh remains questionable. The initial analysis proposes that the syncretic culture of Bangladesh, endorsed by moderate Sufis and the major political parties, together with JIB’s proto-religious objections to Bangladesh’s independence and their opposition to the state’s neoliberal direction, partly explains JIB’s lack of success in presenting a narrative that resonates with the voting public. The article also highlights the mistrust of the media, civil society and political elites towards JIB and identifies competition from other Islamist groups in the electoral arena. Recent developments in Bangladesh, though, raise questions to what extent any form of ‘Islamised’ political messages is actually a dominant matter of concern for elections in Bangladesh.
Read the article here.
