The Archives and the Political Imaginary

2002 ◽  
pp. 29-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bhekizizwe Peterson
Keyword(s):  
The Political ◽  
Political Imaginary

Time to break up with the international community? Rhetoric and realities of a political myth in Cambodia

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Katrin Travouillon ◽  
Julie Bernath
Keyword(s):  
Field Research ◽  
International Community ◽  
The Political ◽  
Legal Aid ◽  
Political Reality ◽  
Development Interventions ◽  
Political Myth ◽  
Transnational Cooperation ◽  
Political Imaginary ◽  
Liberal Peacebuilding

Abstract The international community is as ubiquitous as it is elusive and its universalist pretensions remain unchallenged in political and academic discourse. In response, this article turns to Bottici's work on political myths. Against the notion of myths as falsehoods, we argue that they create their own sphere of shared social and political reality. The analysis centres on the case of Cambodia, a country that served as an experiment of liberal interventionism. It draws on archival and field research on two consecutive international interventions, a review of public statements by international actors, and interviews with Cambodian actors and activist. We argue that to understand the ideas actors use to orient themselves as they press for change, it is necessary to consider how decades of engagement with the myth have shaped the political imaginary. Our empirical analysis points to three different phases in the use of the myth: Its production during UNTAC, the reinforcement of its narratives through subsequent legal, aid and development interventions, and finally its contemporary use in a post-liberal context. We observe that Cambodian actors increasingly engage the myth to question the terms of transnational cooperation for democracy. Our work has implications for assessments of the legacies of liberal peacebuilding.

scholarly journals #weareone: blood donation, terrorism and dreams of inclusion in Kenya

Africa ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 90 (1) ◽  
pp. 112-131
Author(s):  
John Harrington
Keyword(s):  
Healthcare System ◽  
Blood Donation ◽  
Terrorist Attack ◽  
Hard Work ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Terrorist Attacks ◽  
The Political ◽  
Shopping Centre ◽  
Political Imaginary ◽  
Ordinary Citizens

AbstractThis article examines responses to the terrorist attack on the Westgate Shopping Centre in Nairobi in September 2013 in order to investigate the role played by blood donation, as an expression of national dreams, in the political imaginary of contemporary Kenya. It considers the symbolic effectiveness of calls for blood donation made by political figures in the aftermath of the attacks. Such calls drew on a tradition of donation drives begun in the early years of independence, which emphasized the modernizing imperative of the new state and the importance of unity, hard work and self-sacrifice in building the nation. However, the reaction to Westgate, including calls for blood donation, also needs to be understood with reference to the response of American and other leaders to equivalent terrorist attacks in more recent years. These elite dreams found resonance among ordinary citizens and blood donation recruiters. But they were also subjected to trenchant critiques that sought to expose the reality of the transfusion system, as well as the inequality and injustice that mark the general healthcare system and Kenyan society as a whole. These shortcomings were also highlighted by mobilization drives organized by Kenya's Somali and Asian communities both before and during the Westgate crisis. The latter are presented by their organizers as a means of overcoming historic exclusion and discrimination.

“To Build a New World”: Black American Internationalism and Palestine Solidarity

2019 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 52-68
Author(s):  
Russell Rickford
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
African American ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Middle East ◽  
New World ◽  
Black American ◽  
The Political ◽  
Freedom Struggle ◽  
Pan Africanism ◽  
Political Imaginary

This essay traces the arc of Black American solidarity with Palestine, placing the phenomenon in the context of twentieth-century African American internationalism. It sketches the evolution of the political imaginary that enabled Black activists to depict African Americans and Palestinians as compatriots within global communities of dissent. For more than half a century, Black internationalists identified with Zionism, believing that the Jewish bid for a national homeland paralleled the African American freedom struggle. During the 1950s and 1960s, however, colonial aggression in the Middle East led many African American progressives to rethink the analogy. In the late 1960s and the 1970s, African American dissidents operating within the nexus of Black nationalism, Pan-Africanism, and Third Worldism constructed powerful theories of Afro-Palestinian kinship. In so doing, they reimagined or transcended bonds of color, positing anti-imperialist struggle, rather than racial affinity, as the precondition of camaraderie.

A REVOLUÇÃO RUSSA NO BRASIL: o imaginário e cultura polá­tica da imprensa anarquista (1917)

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (27) ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
LEANDRO RIBEIRO GOMES
Keyword(s):  
Political Culture ◽  
Labor Movement ◽  
Russian Revolution ◽  
The Political ◽  
Socialist Revolution ◽  
Political Struggles ◽  
The Media ◽  
Political Imaginary ◽  
Medios De Comunicacion

 O presente artigo tem por objetivo analisar as repercussões da Revolução Russa na imprensa operária anarquista do Brasil. As formas como foram representados os eventos russos em nossa imprensa operária, assim como os aspectos que tomaram o imaginário polá­tico anarquista brasileiro com esta revolução e o comportamento da cultura polá­tica operária a ela vinculada são o foco do nosso artigo. As especificidades dos meios de comunicação do perá­odo e as lutas polá­ticas que ocorriam no paá­s moldaram, de certa maneira, os contornos de como era vista e interpretada a revolução socialista da Rússia nos cá­rculos que mais imediatamente se interessavam por ela: o movimento operário.  Palavras-chave: Revolução Russa. Imprensa operária. Imaginário politico.THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION IN BRAZIL: the imaginary and political culture of the anarchist press (1917)Abstract: This article aims to analyze the repercussions of the Russian Revolution on the Brazilian anarchist working press. The ways in which the Russian events were represented in our working press, as well as the aspects that took over the Brazilian anarchist political imaginary with this revolution, and the behavior of the workers' political culture linked to it are the focus of our article. The specificities of the media from that period and the political struggles that took place in the country shaped, in a way, the contours of how the socialist revolution of Russia was seen and interpreted in the circles that were most immediately interested by it: the labor movement. Keywords: Russian Revolution. Labor press. Political imaginary.  LA REVOLUCIÓN RUSA EN BRASIL: el imaginario y cultura polá­tica de la prensa anarquista (1917)Resumen:  El presente artá­culo tiene por objetivo analizar las repercusiones de la Revolución Rusa en la prensa obrera anarquista de Brasil. Las formas como fueron representados los eventos rusos en nuestra prensa obrera, asá­ como los aspectos que tomaron el imaginario polá­tico anarquista brasileño con esta revolución y el comportamiento de la cultura polá­tica obrera vinculada a ella son el foco de nuestro artá­culo. Las especificidades de los medios de comunicación del perá­odo y las luchas polá­ticas que ocurrá­an en el paá­s moldearon de cierta manera los contornos de cómo era vista e interpretada la revolución socialista de Rusia en los cá­rculos que más inmediatamente se interesaban por ella: el movimiento obrero.Palabras clave:  Revolución rusa. Prensa obrera. Imaginario polá­tico.    

Spinoza and the Political Imaginary

Qui Parle ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 115-133 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Saar
Keyword(s):  
The Political ◽  
Political Imaginary
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