Engaging Subjective Knowledge: How Amar Singh's Diary Narratives of and by the Self Explain Identity Formation

2003 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 681-694 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lloyd I. Rudolph ◽  
Susanne Hoeber Rudolph
Keyword(s):  
Identity Formation ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Identity Politics ◽  
The Self ◽  
Politics Of Recognition ◽  
Subjective Knowledge ◽  
The Public ◽  
Subaltern Agency ◽  
Category Formation ◽  
The Public Sphere

What should count as knowledge in political science? We have tried here to show that subjectivity is valid and useful, that firstperson accounts of experience—‘telling what I know,” narratives of and by the self, partial and contingent truths, and self-asother ethnography—contribute to knowledge. The move to subjective knowledge does not require the abandonment of objectivity. Self-consciousness and reflexivity simply make it possible to render the familiar unfamiliar, to gain a certain detachment, to achieve “objective subjectivity.” Subjective knowledge helps to explain identity and category formation and the politics of recognition. Accessibility to the politics of those taken to be outside the public sphere, those whose behavior is not easily observed or counted by objective political science—colonized persons, subalterns, and marginalized minorities—depends on their ability to articulate their identities, purposes, and interests. Such forms of identity politics have become of increasing interest to political scientists concerned with subaltern agency, multiculturalism, and ethnic conflict and peace.

Compressed Identity

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 13-35
Author(s):  
H. Şule Albayrak
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Civil Service ◽  
Muslim Women ◽  
The Self ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
The Public ◽  
Economic Issues ◽  
Turkish State ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Depth Interviews

For decades the authoritarian secularist policies of the Turkish state, by imposing a headscarf ban at universities and in the civil service, excluded practising Muslim women from the public sphere until the reforms following 2010. However, Muslim women had continued to seek ways to increase their knowledge and improve their intellectual levels, not only as individuals, but also by establishing civil associations. As a result, a group of intellectual women has emerged who are not only educated in political, social, and economic issues, but who are also determined to attain their socio-economic and political rights. Those new actors in the Turkish public sphere are, however, concerned with being labeled as either “feminist,” “fundamentalist” or “Islamist.” This article therefore analyzes the distance between the self-identifications of intellectual Muslim women and certain classifications imposed on them. Semi-structured in-depth interviews with thirteen Turkish intellectual Muslim women were carried out which reveal that they reject and critique overly facile labels due to their negative connotations while offering more complex insights into their perspectives on Muslim women, authority, and identity.

Eritrean Asylum Seekers’ Lament Ceremonies in Israel as Contested Sites of Identity Formation

2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 147-173 ◽  
Author(s):  
Galia Sabar ◽  
Adam Rotbard
Keyword(s):  
Identity Formation ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
Multiple Identities ◽  
Public Parks ◽  
Transnational Identities ◽  
The Public ◽  
Religious Rituals ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Shed Light

Based on extensive qualitative research, this paper focuses on lament ceremonies Eritrean asylum seekers in Israel performed in public parks in 2008–2014.1 Specifically, we expose social and political structures of this diaspora, including mechanisms of survival in a context of harsh living conditions, a fragile legal status and a hostile environment. Following Werbner’s analysis of diasporas as chaordic entities, having no single representation and fostering multiple identities, we show how chaordicness underlies this diaspora’s ability to survive and thrive in Israel, and to embrace the unique Eritrean trans-local nationalism. We highlight how these public religious rituals were transformed into contested sites of identity formation following Israeli struggles against them. Finally, we shed light on the role that such ceremonies play in shaping transnational identities, as well as how disenfranchised communities of asylum seekers aim for visibility and recognition in the public sphere.

scholarly journals From Scientific Communism to Political Science: The Development of the Profession in Selected Former Soviet European States

2021 ◽  
pp. 51-85
Author(s):  
Tatsiana Chulitskaya ◽  
Irmina Matonyte ◽  
Dangis Gudelis ◽  
Serghei Sprincean
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Academic Freedom ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Academic Discipline ◽  
Political Environment ◽  
Important Research ◽  
The Public ◽  
Political Conflicts ◽  
The Public Sphere

AbstractThe chapter explores the trajectories of the evolution of political science (PS) in four former Soviet Socialist Republics (Estonia and Lithuania, the Republics of Moldova and Belarus) after the USSR collapse. Departing from the premise that PS is appreciated as the science of democracy, the authors claim that its identity and autonomy are particularly important. Research shows that PS in these countries started from the same impoverished basis (“scientific communism”), but it soon took diverse trajectories and currently faces specific challenges. Democracy, pro-Western geopolitical settings and the shorter period of Sovietization contributed to the faster and more sustainable development of PS in two Baltic States. However, in Estonia, political developments have led to the retrenchment of PS and to downsize of universities’ departments and study programmes. In Lithuania, political scientists are very visible in the public sphere. In Moldova, its uncertain geopolitical orientation and a series of internal political conflicts have led to the weak identity of PS and questionable prospects for its further institutionalization. In authoritarian Belarus, PS as an academic discipline exists within a hostile political environment and under a hierarchical system of governance offering practically no degree of academic freedom.

Locals

2017 ◽  
pp. 256-279
Author(s):  
Will Hanley
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Identity Formation ◽  
Social Rights ◽  
Social Meaning ◽  
World War ◽  
World War One ◽  
The Public ◽  
Government Employment ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Political Membership

The public sphere of the bourgeois effendiya, reflected in the sources that dominate the historiography Egypt before World War One, engaged only a narrow set of ideas about political membership. But police and legal records show that many residents of Egypt relied on a more generic and flexible label—“local”—which they refined in contradistinction to foreign nationalities. The term had a clear social meaning, particularly in imperial context, where it was a polite synonym of “native.” Localness began to gather a legal garb, particularly in the sphere of social rights such as education and government employment, until it began to resemble a nationality. This chapter argues that one key to explaining Egypt’s political quiescence between 1882 and 1919 is recognizing identity formation taking place under the banner of “local” status, rather than the more familiar category of Egyptian national citizen, which emerged only in the decades that followed.

scholarly journals Religion and Politics in Africa: The Future of “The Secular”

2014 ◽  
Vol 49 (3) ◽  
pp. 83-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jon Abbink
Keyword(s):  
Identity Politics ◽  
Religion And Politics ◽  
Philosophical Argument ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Public Spheres ◽  
The Public ◽  
African Populations ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Secular State

This essay discusses the continued importance that religion holds in African life, not only in terms of numbers of believers, but also regarding the varieties of religious experience and its links with politics and the “public sphere(s)”. Coinciding with the wave of democratization and economic liberalization efforts since about 1990, a notable growth of the public presence of religion and its political referents in Africa has been witnessed; alongside “development”, religion will remain a hot issue in the future political trajectory of the continent. Its renewed presence in public spheres has also led to new understandings of what religion means and how it figures into both “world-making” and identity politics. This will prolong the challenges associated with the role and status of religion in the “secular state model” found in most African countries. Can these states, while “besieged” by believers, maintain neutrality among diverse worldviews, and if so, how? The paper discusses these issues in a general manner with reference to African examples, some taken from fieldwork by the author, and makes a philosophical argument for the development of a new kind of “secular state” that can respect the religious commitments of African populations.

TALKING TO OURSELVES? ACADEMIC PHILOSOPHY AND THE PUBLIC SPHERE

Think ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 13 (37) ◽  
pp. 57-72
Author(s):  
Chris Norris
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Continental Philosophy ◽  
Analytic Philosophy ◽  
Critical Assessment ◽  
The Self ◽  
Philosophical Thinking ◽  
The Public ◽  
Current State ◽  
Academic Philosophy ◽  
The Public Sphere

This essay takes a hard look at the current state of much academic (mainly analytic) philosophy and sets out to diagnose where things have gone wrong. It offers a sharply critical assessment of the prevailing narrowness, cliquishness, linguistic inertness, like-mindedness, intellectual caution, misplaced scientism, over-specialisation, guild mentality, lack of creative or inventive flair, and above all the self-perpetuating structures of privilege and patronage that have worked to produce this depressing situation. On the constructive side I suggest how a belated encounter with developments beyond its cultural-professional horizons – including certain aspects of ‘continental’ philosophy – might bring large (and reciprocal) benefits. I also offer some tentative ideas as to what ‘creativity’ could or should mean as applied to philosophical thinking and writing.

Social Policy, Cultural Integration and Faith: A Muslim Reflection

2012 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 625-635 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dilwar Hussain
Keyword(s):  
Identity Formation ◽  
Identity Politics ◽  
British Society ◽  
Cultural Integration ◽  
Muslim Identity ◽  
Big Society ◽  
Economic Reality ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Muslim Communities ◽  
The Uk

This article is a reflection on some of the discussions around faith and public life, within the context of Muslim communities and their interaction with public policy. It looks at the gap between popular debates on Muslims and the actual lived socio-economic reality of most people of Muslim background, and then goes on to look at aspects of identity formation and Muslim identity politics in the UK. It also considers the idea of integration and looks briefly at emerging Islamic discourses that are grappling with some of the challenges presented by modern British society. Finally, the article explores the role of faith in the public sphere and if it can help to build social capital and play a role in ideas such as the Big Society. The article concludes by emphasising the need to move beyond identity politics and communitarianism and asks where the real divides in society are – between religious and ideological groups or within them?

scholarly journals Ideology and Truth

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 7-39
Author(s):  
Krešimir Petković
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Political Science ◽  
History Of Ideas ◽  
Philosophical Tradition ◽  
The Public ◽  
Social Sciences And Humanities ◽  
The Third ◽  
Western Philosophical Tradition ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Public Sphere

The author argues that any discourse analysis, as well as other approaches in social sciences and humanities, cannot ultimately avoid the truth and ideology distinction. The first part of the article provides several glimpses at the Western philosophical tradition that preserves the value of truth. In the second part, an idea for political science, grounded in such a history of ideas, is sketched. After a brief discussion of what is ideology as opposed to truth, the author proposes a thesis about ideology, identity and power, and several heuristic ideas how to develop it. In the third part, he briefly provides examples from political and policy analysis that correspond to such a project. In the final part, he explains the importance of preserving the distinction between ideology and truth in the discursively postulated “post-truth” era. This combination of epistemology, science, analysis and teleology is reflected together in one political area of utmost importance for political science operating in the public sphere: the politics of naming.

scholarly journals Complicating the Political Scientist as Blogger

2013 ◽  
Vol 46 (02) ◽  
pp. 383-386
Author(s):  
Robert Farley
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Academic Career ◽  
The Political ◽  
Multiple Models ◽  
Political Scientist ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Public Sphere

AbstractIn our efforts to make blogging an acceptable component of an academic career in political science, we ought not tame the practice of blogging beyond recognition. Multiple models exist under which blogging can contribute to the discipline of political science and through which political scientists can contribute to the public sphere.

Political Science in Real Time: Engaging the Middle East Policy Public

2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 121-131 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc Lynch
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Political Science ◽  
The Political ◽  
Good Work ◽  
The Public ◽  
Political World ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Middle East Policy

A decade ago, very few political scientists had either the opportunity or the incentive to engage with the political public in a direct, unmediated way. Today, there is a dense and eclectic ecosystem of political science and international relations-focused blogs and online publications, where good work can easily find an audience through social media. There are multiple initiatives dedicated to supporting academic interventions in the public sphere, and virtually every political or cultural magazine of note now offers a robust online section featuring commentary and analysis in which political scientists are well represented. This has transformed publication for a broader public from something exotic to something utterly routine. I discuss how these changes have affected individual scholars, the field of political science, and the political world with which we are engaged.

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