activism

The future and how we envision and anticipate it has been the subject of scholarly attention for some time, especially from political theorists, scholars of human geography, and anthropologists. This article draws on some of this literature, but particularly the work of Franco ‘Bifo’ Berardi, the Italian Marxist theorist and activist, to explore the implications of two activist strategies that have recently received some attention from translation scholars: prefiguration and aspirational translation. It reflects on the different orientations to the future implied in these two strategies and suggests that their relative appeal is impacted by the rise of semiocapitalism in what Berardi refers to as ‘the century with no future’, and by varying experiences of activists located in different regions of the world. The work of translation and how translators orient themselves to the future, it is argued, can play an important role in arresting if not reversing the ongoing erosion of those possibilities still inscribed in the present despite semiocapitalism’s growing control over every area of human life.

We are currently the beneficiaries of the aspirations of our predecessors, who ardently pursued ideals such as safety, access to quality medical care, social justice, and an effective life. Significantly, and particularly pertinent to our discussion here, we have been granted the power of expression. In today's world, virtually anyone can articulate their views on a wide spectrum of social and political subjects. This fundamental right has been so comprehensively realized that even various unelected authorities have been compelled to devise alternative methods to suppress the freedom of speech. On a theoretical level, one might assume that everything is ideally aligned with the visions of our forebears. However, practical reality paints a more ambiguous picture. Some scholars have employed the somewhat disparaging term "slacktivism" to argue that the impact of online engagement in the public sphere may not be as transformative as initially anticipated. While individuals undoubtedly possess the means to voice their opinions, the question arises as to whether online activism has produced substantial change. In this scholarly inquiry, we undertake a critical examination of the efficacy of activism through social media channels and explore strategies for maximizing its potential.

Focusing on the intersection of translation and activism, the current study aimed to address the issue of publishers’ activist agency in the socio-political context of post-revolutionary Iran. In so doing, it mainly drew on Tymoczko’s (2010a) conceptualization of political and ideological agency and activism as engagement and her classification of its different forms. The data came from a body of publishers’ notes, written on Persian translations of six English books selected through criterion sampling from the works that apparently enjoyed a level of prestige among the international readers , and reflected the Other’s views on religious, philosophical, political, and socio-cultural issues, which considering the fundamental values of the Islamic Republic of Iran that the post-revolutionary State tries to keep, could make them a possible site of translational activism. The results showed that in their notes the publishers had encoded their engagement by using a combination of different forms of engagement, i.e., publicizing, witnessing, rousing, inspiring, and mobilizing; they also revealed their interest in introducing the unfamiliar territory of the foreign to the Persian-speaking readers, and in increasing their understanding of the Other’s culture. They emphasized the importance of tolerance, pluralism, openness, and mutual respect in cultural exchanges but introduced the source Islamic culture and its set of moral values as criteria for determining the validity of the Other’s presented ideas and beliefs and rejecting what did not meet such criteria.

Hope and hopelessness are reflections of an individual's consciousness and understanding of society and the way they interact with the social order, not a mere emotional understanding. The purpose of the present study is to investigate the problematic nature of hope and hopelessness to recognize the conditions that cause hopelessness and prevent the realization of youth's hope, their lived experiences, and the interpretations they make of their situation.Qualitative research and data were collected by the purposive sampling method, and semi-structured interviews were conducted with 26 youth from Tabriz city to gather data, which were then analyzed using thematic analysis techniques.The results indicate that the live experience of youth of hope and hopelessness is influenced by conditions such as living in the shadow of economic instability, living with political adversity, and the lack of subjectivity. The youth's strategy to avoid hopelessness and achieve hope is pragmatic-critical activism: individual activism, confrontational compromise, and migration. They seek to create and reconstruct possible alternatives and give meaning to their lives by adopting this activism according to the real and practical conditions of life and in opposition to structural constraints. Hope, and even for some, hopelessness, is seen as a feasibility for activism in confronting social, political, and economic inequalities and the unfair distribution of opportunities and life chances.Therefore, policymakers must expand opportunities for youth agency and reduce structural limitations, as well as develop strategies to strengthen and facilitate these conditions and encourage their participation in the process of social meaning-making.