E Townsend-Bell
Biographic Data
| ID | 44182 |
|---|---|
| NAME | E Townsend-Bell |
| GIVEN NAMES | E |
| FAMILY NAME | Townsend-Bell |
| SIGNATURE | TOWNSEND-BELL E |
| AFFILIATIONS | Oklahoma State University Oklahoma City |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-9164-4260 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 12 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 69 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 12 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2009 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Backlash Blues
This study references 1,211 articles that mention “backlash” in sixteen political science journals to investigate how the term is understood and used in political science. We find that while backlash is frequently invoked to describe fast and reactionary force, who is impacted by backlash and how is often left unspecified. To address this gap, we suggest a distinction between two major dimensions of backlash. The first is embodied backlash, a tre…
‘We entered as blacks and we left as Afro-descendants’
The path to successful passage of affirmative action legislation is quite narrow in Latin America, and has been especially challenging for black populations that cannot make territorial or exclusive cultural claims. Yet Uruguay, like Brazil, bucked these trends, coming to the position that racism is a problem about which something should be done. The passage of race-specific, national affirmative action legislation was the determined remedy, the …
Breaking hegemony
In 2012 and 2013, Uruguay decriminalised abortion, legalised equal marriage and decriminalised the usage and self-cultivation of marijuana. Uruguayan social movements produced a wide-ranging, multi-issue coalition that mobilised around all of these bills as a package, in which they agreed to a specific sequence on the prioritisation of bills. The bridge actors that constituted the coalition operated within a framework grounded in combating the in…
Backlash as the Moment of Revelation
What is backlash, and how might it vary? I view misogyny and backlash as operating on a continuum. Misogyny and backlash are both organized around power that is structured through hierarchy. Backlash is concerned with impeding the exchange of power from those who “should” have it (i.e., the “natural” power holders at the top of the hierarchy) to those who “should not” (i.e., the remaining groups below). Following this, backlash is the moment of r…
Uruguay 2018
Uruguay faced significant headwinds in 2018. The Frente Amplio is confronting a slowing economy, and its most challenging election yet. Overall, economic growth is positive, but reduced from the previous year; inflation, unemployment, and the deficit are above target rates. After the loss of a deputy in 2016, the Frente returned to a strong legislative efficiency rate in 2018. However, the party remains vexed by President Tabaré Vázquez's ever lo…
Women in their complexity
Mazur, McBride, and Hoard’s “Comparative Strength of Women’s Movements Over Time” (2015) is the product of extensive data collection, and intensive work with that data, and social movement and wome
Whitening via Erasure
The Costa Rican national imaginary is predicated on a notion of whiteness and homogeneity as defining of the nation. As such, no recasting or expansion of the myth of whiteness can explain an indigenous presence in the nation, for a story predicated on such a foundational myth is fundamentally at odds with the prior existence of a non-white population. This paper asks how the national imaginary of whiteness develops in such a context. I focus on …
Ambivalent Intersectionality
Debates about whether states can act intersectionally have resulted in mostly negative responses (Kantola and Nousiainen 2009; Koldinská 2009; Lombardo and Verloo 2009; Skjeie and Langvasbråten 2009; Squires 2008). Notably, most of the theorizing on this concern is situated within a European context in which scholars are grappling simultaneously with the questions of whether states can act intersectionally, and what intersectionality itself means…
Sex, Gender, and Civil Society
This article discusses the way that gender forms civil society, particularly in the context of Latin America and the United States. It begins with a study of the history and development of the definition of civil society and its implications for women and gender. The next section discusses women’s historical and modern presence in civil society and considers whether civil society operates practically and conceptually as an autonomous sphere. The …
Writing the Way to Feminism
Recent works indicate that minority feminist organizing was much more widespread, and began much earlier, than the traditional historiographies have credited, yet these new developments have not overturned an understanding of the 1980s as the decade of multiracial feminist organizing. If sustained and multifaceted minority feminist activism was occurring in the late 1960s and through the 1970s, is a characterization of the 1980s as the era of mul…
What is Relevance? Defining Intersectional Praxis in Uruguay
This article examines intersectional praxis via a focus on what constitutes relevant axes of difference. The author argues that a discussion of relevance should focus on two important issues: (1) which categories are of analytic importance and (2) those categories that activists consider relevant. This approach allows for activist debates over the most important social divisions in society while establishing some minimal number of axes that must …
Being True and Being You
Fieldwork advice has increased and improved over the years. Yet, the bulk of political science fieldwork advice is general; it assumes that the subject to whom advice is given is simply a political scientist—in training, perhaps—with no other salient identities that might intercede (but see Mazzei and O'Brien 2005 and the PS 2006 fieldwork symposium, The Methodologies of Field Research in the Middle East, for recent exceptions). Of course in real…
What is Relevance? Defining Intersectional Praxis in Uruguay
This article examines intersectional praxis via a focus on what constitutes relevant axes of difference. The author argues that a discussion of relevance should focus on two important issues: (1) which categories are of analytic importance and (2) those categories that activists consider relevant. This approach allows for activist debates over the most important social divisions in society while establishing some minimal number of axes that must …
Backlash as the Moment of Revelation
What is backlash, and how might it vary? I view misogyny and backlash as operating on a continuum. Misogyny and backlash are both organized around power that is structured through hierarchy. Backlash is concerned with impeding the exchange of power from those who “should” have it (i.e., the “natural” power holders at the top of the hierarchy) to those who “should not” (i.e., the remaining groups below). Following this, backlash is the moment of r…
Being True and Being You
Fieldwork advice has increased and improved over the years. Yet, the bulk of political science fieldwork advice is general; it assumes that the subject to whom advice is given is simply a political scientist—in training, perhaps—with no other salient identities that might intercede (but see Mazzei and O'Brien 2005 and the PS 2006 fieldwork symposium, The Methodologies of Field Research in the Middle East, for recent exceptions). Of course in real…
Breaking hegemony
In 2012 and 2013, Uruguay decriminalised abortion, legalised equal marriage and decriminalised the usage and self-cultivation of marijuana. Uruguayan social movements produced a wide-ranging, multi-issue coalition that mobilised around all of these bills as a package, in which they agreed to a specific sequence on the prioritisation of bills. The bridge actors that constituted the coalition operated within a framework grounded in combating the in…
Whitening via Erasure
The Costa Rican national imaginary is predicated on a notion of whiteness and homogeneity as defining of the nation. As such, no recasting or expansion of the myth of whiteness can explain an indigenous presence in the nation, for a story predicated on such a foundational myth is fundamentally at odds with the prior existence of a non-white population. This paper asks how the national imaginary of whiteness develops in such a context. I focus on …
Ambivalent Intersectionality
Debates about whether states can act intersectionally have resulted in mostly negative responses (Kantola and Nousiainen 2009; Koldinská 2009; Lombardo and Verloo 2009; Skjeie and Langvasbråten 2009; Squires 2008). Notably, most of the theorizing on this concern is situated within a European context in which scholars are grappling simultaneously with the questions of whether states can act intersectionally, and what intersectionality itself means…
Writing the Way to Feminism
Recent works indicate that minority feminist organizing was much more widespread, and began much earlier, than the traditional historiographies have credited, yet these new developments have not overturned an understanding of the 1980s as the decade of multiracial feminist organizing. If sustained and multifaceted minority feminist activism was occurring in the late 1960s and through the 1970s, is a characterization of the 1980s as the era of mul…
Uruguay 2018
Uruguay faced significant headwinds in 2018. The Frente Amplio is confronting a slowing economy, and its most challenging election yet. Overall, economic growth is positive, but reduced from the previous year; inflation, unemployment, and the deficit are above target rates. After the loss of a deputy in 2016, the Frente returned to a strong legislative efficiency rate in 2018. However, the party remains vexed by President Tabaré Vázquez's ever lo…
Women in their complexity
Mazur, McBride, and Hoard’s “Comparative Strength of Women’s Movements Over Time” (2015) is the product of extensive data collection, and intensive work with that data, and social movement and wome
Being True and Being You
Fieldwork advice has increased and improved over the years. Yet, the bulk of political science fieldwork advice is general; it assumes that the subject to whom advice is given is simply a political scientist—in training, perhaps—with no other salient identities that might intercede (but see Mazzei and O'Brien 2005 and the PS 2006 fieldwork symposium, The Methodologies of Field Research in the Middle East, for recent exceptions). Of course in real…
What is Relevance? Defining Intersectional Praxis in Uruguay
This article examines intersectional praxis via a focus on what constitutes relevant axes of difference. The author argues that a discussion of relevance should focus on two important issues: (1) which categories are of analytic importance and (2) those categories that activists consider relevant. This approach allows for activist debates over the most important social divisions in society while establishing some minimal number of axes that must …
Writing the Way to Feminism
Recent works indicate that minority feminist organizing was much more widespread, and began much earlier, than the traditional historiographies have credited, yet these new developments have not overturned an understanding of the 1980s as the decade of multiracial feminist organizing. If sustained and multifaceted minority feminist activism was occurring in the late 1960s and through the 1970s, is a characterization of the 1980s as the era of mul…
Sex, Gender, and Civil Society
This article discusses the way that gender forms civil society, particularly in the context of Latin America and the United States. It begins with a study of the history and development of the definition of civil society and its implications for women and gender. The next section discusses women’s historical and modern presence in civil society and considers whether civil society operates practically and conceptually as an autonomous sphere. The …
Whitening via Erasure
The Costa Rican national imaginary is predicated on a notion of whiteness and homogeneity as defining of the nation. As such, no recasting or expansion of the myth of whiteness can explain an indigenous presence in the nation, for a story predicated on such a foundational myth is fundamentally at odds with the prior existence of a non-white population. This paper asks how the national imaginary of whiteness develops in such a context. I focus on …
Ambivalent Intersectionality
Debates about whether states can act intersectionally have resulted in mostly negative responses (Kantola and Nousiainen 2009; Koldinská 2009; Lombardo and Verloo 2009; Skjeie and Langvasbråten 2009; Squires 2008). Notably, most of the theorizing on this concern is situated within a European context in which scholars are grappling simultaneously with the questions of whether states can act intersectionally, and what intersectionality itself means…
Women in their complexity
Mazur, McBride, and Hoard’s “Comparative Strength of Women’s Movements Over Time” (2015) is the product of extensive data collection, and intensive work with that data, and social movement and wome
Uruguay 2018
Uruguay faced significant headwinds in 2018. The Frente Amplio is confronting a slowing economy, and its most challenging election yet. Overall, economic growth is positive, but reduced from the previous year; inflation, unemployment, and the deficit are above target rates. After the loss of a deputy in 2016, the Frente returned to a strong legislative efficiency rate in 2018. However, the party remains vexed by President Tabaré Vázquez's ever lo…
Backlash as the Moment of Revelation
What is backlash, and how might it vary? I view misogyny and backlash as operating on a continuum. Misogyny and backlash are both organized around power that is structured through hierarchy. Backlash is concerned with impeding the exchange of power from those who “should” have it (i.e., the “natural” power holders at the top of the hierarchy) to those who “should not” (i.e., the remaining groups below). Following this, backlash is the moment of r…
‘We entered as blacks and we left as Afro-descendants’
The path to successful passage of affirmative action legislation is quite narrow in Latin America, and has been especially challenging for black populations that cannot make territorial or exclusive cultural claims. Yet Uruguay, like Brazil, bucked these trends, coming to the position that racism is a problem about which something should be done. The passage of race-specific, national affirmative action legislation was the determined remedy, the …
Breaking hegemony
In 2012 and 2013, Uruguay decriminalised abortion, legalised equal marriage and decriminalised the usage and self-cultivation of marijuana. Uruguayan social movements produced a wide-ranging, multi-issue coalition that mobilised around all of these bills as a package, in which they agreed to a specific sequence on the prioritisation of bills. The bridge actors that constituted the coalition operated within a framework grounded in combating the in…
Backlash Blues
This study references 1,211 articles that mention “backlash” in sixteen political science journals to investigate how the term is understood and used in political science. We find that while backlash is frequently invoked to describe fast and reactionary force, who is impacted by backlash and how is often left unspecified. To address this gap, we suggest a distinction between two major dimensions of backlash. The first is embodied backlash, a tre…
Political science (9 works) · Law (8 works) · Sociology (7 works) · Gender Politics and Representation (6 works) · Gender Studies (6 works) · Politics (6 works) · Gender Studies (3 works) · Intersectionality (3 works) · Law (3 works) · African Sexualities and LGBTQ+ Issues (2 works)