scholarly journals A material turn in International Relations: the 4x4, intervention and resistance

2017 ◽  
Vol 43 (5) ◽  
pp. 855-874 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger Mac Ginty
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
New Materialism ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Material Objects ◽  
International Intervention ◽  
Security Incident ◽  
Human Interface ◽  
Material Turn ◽  
Do So

AbstractThis article explores how analysis of material objects offers insights into international intervention and reactions to that intervention. Building on studies that examine the 4x4 as emblematic of intervention, the article argues that the 4x4 can also be seen as an object of resistance and agency. To do so, it uses the case study of 4x4 usage in Darfur and draws on primary data including interviews and a UN security incident database. The article is mindful of the limitations of a ‘material turn’ in the study of International Relations, especially in relation to how it might encourage us to overlook agency and structural power. While finding new materialism arguments largely convincing, the case study encourages a note of caution and proposes the notion of ‘materialism+’, which allows for the further investigation of the human/non-human interface, but is circumspect about tendencies towards neophilia, dematerialism, and posthumanism.

The Head, the Hand, and Matter: New Materialism and the Politics of Knowledge

2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (7-8) ◽  
pp. 49-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Rekret
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Social Constructivism ◽  
New Materialism ◽  
Political Agency ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Counter Narrative ◽  
Karen Barad ◽  
Material Turn ◽  
Material Conditions ◽  
Do So

This article seeks to examine the political connotations of a recent ‘material turn’ in social and political theory and its implications for theorizations of political agency. ‘New materialist’ theories are premised upon transcending the limits which social constructivism places upon thought, viewed as a reification of the division of subject and object and so a hubristic anthropocentrism which places human beings at the centre of social existence. Yet new materialist theories have tended to locate the conditions of the separation of mind and world they seek to overcome upon the terrain of epistemic or ethical error. By taking the work of Quentin Meillassoux, Jane Bennett and Karen Barad as exemplary, this article contends that new materialist theories not only fall short of their own materialist pretensions insofar as they do not interrogate the material conditions of the separation of the mental and material, but that the failure to do so has profound repercussions for the success of their accounts of political agency. This essay seeks to offer a counter-narrative to new materialist theories by situating the hierarchy between thought and world as a structural feature of capitalist social relations.

Postcolonial challenges to migration control: French–Moroccan cooperation practices on forced returns

2014 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 242-261 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nora El Qadim
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Statistical Evaluation ◽  
Security Studies ◽  
Good Strategy ◽  
The South ◽  
The North ◽  
Migration Control ◽  
State Actors ◽  
Do So

Analyses that develop a postcolonial critique of international relations and security studies have outlined the project of ‘decolonizing’ these disciplines and have underlined the importance of taking into account actors from the South. I seek to do so here through the study of migration policies, in particular by looking for the agency of state actors in so-called countries of origin. This article shows that the study of practices of cooperation is a good strategy for decolonizing the study of international relations. Based upon the example of mid-level cooperation on deportation between France and Morocco, this article focuses on two devices and the practices used for international cooperation on migration controls: the posting of immigration liaison officers and the statistical evaluation of cooperation. This case study shows that such practices open brokering spaces in the transnational security field and allow state actors from the South to challenge the dominance of the North.

Environment and atmosphere of night tourism based on the local wisdom: A case study of Berastagi

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Selly Veronica ◽  
Nurlisa Ginting ◽  
AmyMarisa
Keyword(s):  
Field Observation ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Tourism Development ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Tourist Destination ◽  
Innovative Strategy ◽  
Depth Interview ◽  
Social Environmental ◽  
Descriptive Method

Night tourism development comes up as an innovative strategy for tourism development in this current intense competition. There are four main elements in night tourism, namely economic, social, environmental, and night atmosphere. Berastagi is the most popular tourist destination in Karo Regency, Sumatera Utara, Indonesia, which already have night tourism destination but unfortunately undeveloped yet. Night tourism development in Berastagi must be with the local wisdom approach to maximize its benefit. Karonese as the majority ethnic of the local community in this area potential to be developed on its night tourism. This paper only analyzes the environmental and night atmosphere aspects in Berastagi’s night tourism, which based on local wisdom. Qualitative primary data from field observation and depth interview results have been analyzed by using the descriptive method. The study shows that involving local wisdom in developing the environment and night atmosphere can give the typical identity for the night tourism in Berastagi.Night Tourism

Professional Stress among Junior Commissioned Officers and Non Commissioned Officers of Indian Military Intelligence – A Case Study

GIS Business ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (6) ◽  
pp. 133-145
Author(s):  
Dr. S. S. Nirmala ◽  
Dr. N. Kogila ◽  
T. Porkodi
Keyword(s):  
Factor Analysis ◽  
Correlation Matrix ◽  
Null Hypothesis ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Questionnaire Data ◽  
Military Intelligence ◽  
Sphericity Test ◽  
Professional Stress ◽  
Structured Questionnaire

The present study is focusing on the professional stress on organisation among the Junior Commissioned Officers (JCOs) and Non-Commissioned Officers (NCOs) of Indian Military Intelligence. 384 samples of Military Intelligence personnel will be taken for this study. Sources of data is Primary data include a structured questionnaire. Data was collected through structured questionnaire and measure through Likert’s scale, using KMO measure of sampling adequacy, Cronbach’s alpha for checking internal consistency, Bartlett sphericity test for testing the null hypothesis and various factor analysis including Eigenvalues, Extract square Sum loading, variance percent and Accumulation percent values relative comparison and Correlation matrix will be used as tools to arrive at desired results and statistical interpretations. The hypotheses put for test and the resultant values at 0.01 and 0.05 (for different factors) clearly indicated that there is an existence of association between different level of cadres and professional stress among personnel of Indian Military Intelligence. The authority who can formulate the rules and regulations and binding them on the lower cadres and professions to accept and adopt.

scholarly journals What matters? The role of values in transformations toward sustainability: a case study of coffee production in Burundi

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Milda Nordbø Rosenberg
Keyword(s):  
Vital Role ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
New Materialism ◽  
Discursive Practices ◽  
Coffee Production ◽  
Ethnographic Fieldwork ◽  
Dynamic Relations ◽  
Participatory Observation

AbstractThis paper examines the role of values in transformations toward sustainability. Values, generally defined as what people deem to matter, are increasingly gaining interest in and outside of academia. For example, sustainability aligns with specific values such as dignity, equality, safety, and harmony for people and nature. However, current approaches to values are mind-matter dualistic, and therefore failing to honor the inherently dynamic relations of socio-ecological systems. Drawing on new materialism, I explore values as part of the relations that make this world and propose to consider values as material-discursive practices. Ethnographic fieldwork was done in 2017 with coffee producers in Burundi who aimed to transform production by caring for the coffee and people that grow it. Based on interviews and participatory observation, I present how values were integral to transforming the relational aspects of coffee production. In this study, values of togetherness, care, dignity, and faith were dominant and were found to reconfigure the socio-ecological system of coffee production. I argue that values are inseparable from, and hence co-productive of, the material world that we experience and play a vital role in sustainability transformations.

Socio-Semantic Processes in Social Actors Representation: A Case Study of “Ya-Sin”

2017 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 145-169
Author(s):  
Roghayeh Farsi
Keyword(s):  
Case Study Approach ◽  
Academic Field ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
Study Approach ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
Linear Nature ◽  
Do So ◽  
Semantic Processes

AbstractThe academic field of Qurʾānic Studies employs a wide range of approaches, each one of which helps to open up a new perspective on the Qurʾānic text. The Holy Book was revealed to guide people; it is thus of relevance to all aspects of people’s lives. This article focuses on the way social actors are represented in one Meccansūra, entitled “Ya-Sin”, and employs a case-study approach to do so. The analysis carried out includes the socio-semantic processes that thesūrauses in order to represent social actors either by behavior (action) or meaning (reflection), and it also analyzes the actors as they are represented in processes such as activation and passivation. The methodology adopted is eclectic and analytic. It is a hybrid of Swales’ move analysis, El-Awa’s identification of shift-markers, and Halliday’s and Van Leeuwen’s theories of social actor representation. This study shows how such an analysis can contribute to understanding the apparently fragmented and non-linear nature of “Ya-Sin”.

A double omission

1977 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 286-307 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. Kubálková ◽  
A. A. Cruickshank
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
International Relations Theory ◽  
Research Area ◽  
Major Work ◽  
Sole Purpose ◽  
Limited Scope ◽  
Do So

The title of the article is intended to focus the attention of Western writers on international relations theory upon two aspects of this rapidly growing research area. Rather than meeting with an incomprehensible neglect it is our argument that the aspects referred to might well be accorded one of the key places. Failure to do so, it our contention, when transferred from considerations of theoretical efficiency into the no less precarious realm of practical policy, might well have proportionately hazardous implications. We would beg forbearance, however, if within the necessarily limited scope of this article only a very perfunctory and sketchy outline of the meaning and implications of the omissions can be given. The sole purpose of this article is to provoke interest in these particular areas rather than to supply the deficiencies – a task which clearly could only be undertaken in the expanded context of a major work.

Colonial time in tension: Decolonizing temporal imaginaries

2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 1221-1238 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adib ◽  
Paul Emiljanowicz
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Body Politic ◽  
Prison System ◽  
The Body ◽  
Alternative Conceptions ◽  
Cultural Contexts ◽  
Colonial Time ◽  
Recent Trends ◽  
Political Economic

This article argues that colonial time is fractured, uneven, and co-constituted by tension. Despite coercive violence and instruments of temporal control, non-internalized alternative conceptions of time can/do exist, hybridize, and transform autonomously. We explore these tensions through an examination of post-revolution Iran's attempt to project colonial time through the prison system, and the persistence of non-internalized temporal alternatives as articulated through prisoner memoirs and narratives. Prisons and imprisonment, by removing bodies from the body politic, functions to colonize time to erase, homogenize, and mediate past, present, and future – thereby reproducing ideational-material governance. Yet prisoner memoirs and narratives reveal this process to be incomplete as the agency of individuals to retain, create, and testify provide indications of non-internalized decolonial temporal imaginaries. In taking into consideration our case study and recent trends in anthropology, we inject into the field of International Relations an understanding of colonial time as tension, which can be applied to political-economic and cultural contexts in which time is actively being colonized.

scholarly journals Success Drivers for Implementing Circular Economy: A Case Study from the Building Sector in Colombia

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 1350
Author(s):  
Luz Elba Torres-Guevara ◽  
Vanessa Prieto-Sandoval ◽  
Andres Mejia-Villa
Keyword(s):  
Circular Economy ◽  
Small And Medium Enterprises ◽  
Implementation Process ◽  
Construction Sector ◽  
Direct Communication ◽  
Management Commitment ◽  
Medium Enterprises ◽  
Large Building ◽  
Do So

This paper contributes to the circular economy (CE) literature by investigating the drivers of success of the CE implementation in the construction sector and how those drivers can complement any implementation process in small and medium enterprises (SMEs). To do so, we analyzed the case of TECMO Estructuras Metálicas, using the methodology proposed by Jaca and colleagues to implement the CE in SMEs. It is a Colombian company with more than five decades of experience in the manufacture and installation of steel and aluminum structures for small and large building and infrastructure projects. The data were collected between August 2019 and November 2020 through direct communication with the company via workshops, meetings, and company reports. This research found that five drivers are relevant for implementing CE in the construction sector: fertile ecosystem, management commitment, identification of valuable materials, green teams, and CE intermediaries. Moreover, this study also contributes to teaching the implementation of the CE in companies, since it shows that through the methodology presented, implementation projects can be developed in postgraduate classes.

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