Abstract
The results of the recent national elections in the United States follow on a general trend among industrial nations which functioned under a broadly defined liberal democratic political economy. Rising right-wing populist movements throughout Europe and North America resulted in the defeat of incumbent political parties in power and demonstrated that there is a broad discontent with the consequences of neoliberalism and austerity. Whether it was the rise of Le Pen in France, the repudiation of the Torries in the United Kingdom, the breakup of the red-green-yellow alliance and the rise of the AfD in Germany after a no confidence vote for Scholz dissolved the government, or the ascent of Trump and a more right-wing GOP in the United States (and the anticipated fall of Trudeau and the Liberal Party in Canada), there is a clear signal that most people no longer can tolerate politics that does not address their core concerns about extreme income inequality, the decline of good working-class jobs, and as added dimension, their unease with the shifting nature of society due to immigration and greater ethnic and racial diversity. By any measure, this period would seem to end the politics of enlightenment and the rights of individuals versus the state and herald a more authoritarian slant to heretofore liberal democracies. As a result, the next several years will pose challenges to maintaining more egalitarian political movements.
With some foresight anticipating these shifts, Critical Sociology held a conference at McGill University in August 2024, where 70 scholars presented 51 papers around the theme of Emancipatory Politics in the Times of Crises. The current issue of the journal presents five of the plenary presentations from that conference, setting the tone of the papers presented at the conference, and providing an overview of the issues facing the next 4 years and beyond. The speakers were asked to speculate on the role of critical scholarship as we go forward to address the existential challenges of reactionary politics and climate change. They range over questions about what causes these crises, how to understand and theorize solutions to the crises, proposes political responses to crises, and offer alternative models of social engagement with the goal of creating emancipatory and equitable social outcomes.
At present, the world is a more dangerous place. The Israeli government has persisted in what most refer to as a genocidal assault on Gaza, embarking on military actions in Lebanon (with continued airstrikes even as they announce a cease-fire agreement), and now have inserted themselves in Syria by occupying the Golan Heights and bombing the border region (as ever, claiming ‘self-defense’ with a goal of degrading ‘terrorist’ capabilities). The sudden fall of the Assad regime in Syria brings with it another unstable leadership trying to manage a loose alliance of different opposition factions. Russia continues to intensify its war of aggression in the Ukraine (embolden by Trump’s election), though it can be argued that one of the consequences of that war was Russia’s inability to protect the Assad regime in Syria. The civil wars in Myanmar, the Sudan, and in Ethiopia and Eritrea have created major disasters as famine and disease follow the mass displacement of its citizens. Ongoing military conflicts in Yemen, insurgencies in Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Mali, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Mozambique, Chad, Niger, and other smaller insurgencies in Africa point to a turbulent continent going forward. Finally, political unrest and conflict in places like Iraq, Columbia, Mexico, and Haiti add to the general picture of political and military struggles throughout the world. 1 This begs the larger question—are these ongoing legacies of a post-colonial world engaged in various forms of struggle or do these situations herald a new era of revolutionary struggles to alter the political and economic realities on the ground? This issue offers Part I of an exploration into changes in the study of revolution, arguing that the discipline is entering a fifth stage of theorizing about a world undergoing significant transformations. As they state in this first part, ‘(n)ot only did the 21st century bring many revolutions, but these revolutions themselves turned out to be different from the revolutions of the 20th century’. Parts II and III are available online and will appear in forthcoming print issues of the journal.
The remainder of this issue of Critical Sociology includes a collection of articles that consider the nature of capitalism, the changes in video game platforms, understanding how politics and policies in Florida highlight a trend toward a efforts at undoing progressive policy changes, and considers migration in Korea and sexual identity in Turkey. The issue concludes with a series of review essays reflecting on research scholarship.