About the Book
The 20th Century was pre-eminently an age of revolutions - in Russia, China, Cuba and numerous other countries - that fundamentally transformed the nature of politics and social arrangements. As we enter a new century, has it got harder for revolutions to occur in a world of far-flung corporations and commodity chains, global cultural forms, instantaneous communication, and (with the collapse of the Soviet bloc) a new unipolar world?
In the current post-Cold War conjuncture, increasingly characterised by the contested phenomenon of globalization, the following questions arise:
* Is the era of revolution over?
* If so, why?
* And if not, what might the revolutions of the future look like?
In this volume, a number of eminent historians, sociologists and political scientists who have spent their lives studying revolutionary processes reflect on and debate these questions. The face of transformative politics in the future and the directions of social change rest in large measure on the answers.
The approach in this volume is both future-oriented and boldly speculative, as well as past- and present-oriented and analytic. A range of recent cases are taken up, from the intensely backward-looking movement of the Taliban in Afghanistan to the magical revolution in progress in Chiapas.
This volume constitutes a state of the art assessment of the conditioning factors shaping the incidence and forms of radical political change in the era of globalization. A unique feature is the inclusion of thematic discussions by the participants on the nature of globalization, political agency and upcoming visions of revolutionary futures.
Commendations
Challenged to reflect on the future of revolutions, John Foran‘s knowledgeable collaborators went beyond their assignments. None of them thinks that replicas of the French or Russian revolutions will appear in the foreseeable future. Without abandoning their knowledge of historical experience, nevertheless, the contributors thought about new forms of social transformation, other paths to human betterment, and modes of resistance to oppression that may be possible in the 21st century. Against the idea that globalization has rendered collective action on behalf of exploited people futile, The Future of Revolution sounds surprising notes of optimism - Charles Tilly, Joseph L. Buttenwieser Professor of Social Science, Columbia University
This book is a long fascinating conversation about whether revolution is still a relevant concept with which to analyze the contemporary world, and if so, under what conditions they might occur. It is a cogent, intelligent, urgent conversation, which will inform our analyses and our practice. - Immanuel Wallerstein, Yale University
Contents
1. Introduction to the Future of Revolutions - John Foran
PART I DEFINING THE TERMS OF REVOLUTION AND GLOBALIZATION
2. Finding the Revolutionary in the Revolution: Social Science Concepts and the Future of Revolution - Jeffery M. Paige
3. The Democratic Turn: New Ways of Understanding Revolution - Farideh Farhi
4. Parallaxes: Revolutions and ‘Revolution‘ in a Globalized Imaginary - Noel Parker
PART II RETHINKING REVOLUTIONS IN LIGHT OF GLOBALIZATION
5. The Renewal of Socialism and the Decline of Revolution - Jeff Goodwin
6. Will Democratization and Globalization Make Revolutions Obsolete? - Misagh Parsa
7. Zapata‘s White Horse and Che‘s Beret: Theses on the Future of Revolution - Eric Selbin
8. Between Market Democracies and Capitalist Globalization: Is There Any Prospect for Social Revolution in Latin America? - Carlos Vilas
9. Globalization, Violence and Revolutions: Nine Theses - Adolfo Gilly
First Thematic Discussion: The Political Economy and GeoPolitics of Globalization: What‘s Changed? What does it mean for the Future of Revolutions?
PART III LANGUAGES AND STRATEGIES OF THE FUTURE
10. The Demise of Bolshevism and the Rebirth of Zapatismo: Revolutionary Options in a Post-Soviet World - Christopher A. McAuley
11. Is the Future of Revolution Feminist? Rewriting ‘Gender and Revolutions‘ for a Globalizing World - Valentine Moghadam
12. Revolutionary Practices of Freedom at the Crossroads of Globalization: Participatory Democracy as a Possible Medium of Future Revolutionary Struggle - Abdollah Dashti
13. Globalization, Technopolitics, and Revolution - Douglas Kellner
Second Thematic Discussion: The Shaping of Revolutions by Culture and Agency and by Race, Class, and Gender
PART IV: FROM AFGHANISTAN TO THE ZAPATISTAS
14. Globalization and Popular Movements - John Walton
15. Marching with the Taliban or Dancing with the Zapatistas? Revolution after the Cold War - Karen Kampwirth
16. The Zapatista Rebellion in the Context of Globalization - Jane F. and George A. Collier
17. Overthrowing the Fathers: Prospects for Revolutionary Transformation in the Twenty-first Century Arab Gulf Monarchies - Mary Ann Tétreault
PART V: WILL THE FUTURE BE BETTER?
18. Magical Realism: How Might the Revolutions of the Future Have Better End (ing) s? - John Foran
Third Thematic Discussion: How Might the Revolutions of the Future Have Better Outcomes?
Afterword - Utopian Realism: The Challenge for ‘Revolution‘ in Our Times - Fred Halliday
About the Author
John Foran is Professor of Sociology at the University of California at Santa Barbara, California. Between July 2000 and July 2002 he is Visiting Professor of Sociology and Latin American Studies at Smith College, Northampton, USA. He is the Former Director of the Progam in Latin American and Iberian Studies at the University of California.
His fellowships and honours include an Award for Distinguished Contributions to Teaching (Pacific Sociological Association, 2000) and a Guggenheim Fellowship, 'The Origins of Third World Revolutions' (1999-2000).
His published works include Fragile Resistance: Social Transformation in Iran from 1500 to the Revolution (Westview Press, 1993) and two edited volumes, Theorizing Revolutions (Routledge, London, 1997) and A Century of Revolution: Social Movements in Iran (University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 1994)
