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Against the Current: Social Pathways and the Pursuit of Enduring Change

Cooper, Davina (2001) Against the Current: Social Pathways and the Pursuit of Enduring Change. Feminist Legal Studies, 9 (2). pp. 119-148. ISSN 0966-3622. (doi:10.1023/A:1016728804359) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:1745)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided.
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http://www.springerlink.com/content/r3l04147550377...

Abstract

Radical innovations and practices frequentlyfind themselves in an inhospitable environment,struggling against the gravitational force ofdominant norms, practices and relations. Thispaper explores the problems radical changeconfronts in its attempts to become sustainable.Against the postmodern valorisation of thetransient and ephemeral, the paper argues forthe importance of routinisation and repetitionin the process of creating and sustainingchange. A metaphor of social pathways isdeveloped to explore how new routines arecreated through de jure (governance) andde facto (usage) means. The paper arguesthat, in contrast to governance, the emergentdurability generated by usage enables routinesto outlive their conditions of existence.At the same time, routines at odds with theirsocial and institutional environment tend overtime to disappear. The second half of the paperdraws on four British attempts to introduce newpathways: lesbian and gay local governmentinitiatives, Conservative education reforms,Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp and LocalExchange Trading Systems (LETS). Through theseexamples, the paper reflects on attempts tocreate more conducive environments, and some ofthe difficulties this generates.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1023/A:1016728804359
Uncontrolled keywords: Bourdieu - de Certeau - local government - pathways - practices - prefigurative - social change - social environment - Utopian communities
Subjects: K Law
Divisions: Divisions > Division for the Study of Law, Society and Social Justice > Kent Law School
Depositing User: A. Davies
Date Deposited: 19 Dec 2007 19:12 UTC
Last Modified: 16 Nov 2021 09:40 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/1745 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

Cooper, Davina.

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