Weber, Marx and Contemporary Thailand

2013 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 177-198 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin Hewison

AbstractThailand's on-going political crisis began with agitation against the Thaksin Shinawatra-led government, saw a military coup and a spate of street-based protest and violence. Drawing on Marx and Weber and using the categories of class, status and party, it is argued that Thailand has reached a political turning point. Subaltern challenges to the hierarchical institutions of military, monarchy and bureaucracy appear to have resulted in political patterns of the past being set on a new trajectory. The social forces that congregate around old ideas associated with status honour – hierarchy, social closure and inequality, ‘Thai-style democracy’ and privilege – are challenged by those championing equality, access, voting and populism. While the balance of forces would suggest that an historical turning point has been achieved, reaction and unexpected outcomes remain possible.

1996 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-23
Author(s):  
Alan Kirkaldy

I would argue that history students should understand that the whole body of historical writing consists of interpretations of the past. They should be able to analyse a wide variety of texts and form their own opinions on a historical topic, and should be able to construct a coherent argument, using evidence to support their opinion. In doing so, they should be actively aware that their argument is no more “true” than that offered by any other historian. It is as much a product of their personal biography and the social formation in which they live as of the evidence used in its construction. Even this evidence is the product of other personal biographies and other social forces.


1996 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-23
Author(s):  
Alan Kirkaldy

I would argue that history students should understand that the whole body of historical writing consists of interpretations of the past. They should be able to analyse a wide variety of texts and form their own opinions on a historical topic, and should be able to construct a coherent argument, using evidence to support their opinion. In doing so, they should be actively aware that their argument is no more “true” than that offered by any other historian. It is as much a product of their personal biography and the social formation in which they live as of the evidence used in its construction. Even this evidence is the product of other personal biographies and other social forces.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 331-348
Author(s):  
Marjorie Silverman ◽  
Shari Brotman ◽  
Marc Molgat ◽  
Elizabeth Gagnon

Based on findings from a Canadian-based study, this article examines the stories of young adult women carers. Young adult women caring for a parent or grandparent were interviewed using social network maps, participant-driven photography and care timelines. The findings reveal numerous impacts on the women’s lives, which we categorise according to three temporal periods: the past (how they came to be carers); the present (their daily realities of care); and the future (how they imagine what is ahead). We conclude with a discussion regarding the tensions between the women’s personal stories and the social forces that shape young women’s caring.


Porównania ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 325-339
Author(s):  
Markéta Kittlová

This study focuses on Adam Borzič, one of the most distinctive contemporary Czech poets. The study contextualises his work within current Czech poetry but also examines his other work that is not strictly classified as art as though it were cultural work with avant-garde features. It investigates four volumes of Borzič’s work in terms of the changes in the author’s creative gesture, which expands from his conviction that the world is at a turning point and the avant-garde longing to change the world by poetry. In the four volumes of Borzič’s poetry (written so far), this gesture is embodied through delicately intimate, acutely physical, or even gigantically all-embracing positions, where he employs motives of the heart, head, hand and mouth. The study attempts to evaluate the change in Borzič’s work in the lightof T. S. Eliot’s understanding of the social role of poetry and avant-garde longing to change reality through art. The Czech poet, Adam Borzič, is one of the most distinctive figures of the current Czech literary scene. His poetry is distinct because of its unique gesture andalso represents a strong current in the poetry production of the past decade with its emphasis on the social function of poetry7 and the poet’s role as somebody who should nurture the world through his/her work or even change it. This study attempts to portray Borzič’s work as focused on the mentioned topics and related issues of the end of the first decade of the twenty-first century and renew interest in them, contextualise his work within current Czech poetry but also investigate his other work, which is not strictly artistic but which possesses some avant-garde features.


Author(s):  
Jill Stockwell

Since the return to democratic rule in Argentina in 1983, competing claims about how the period of political and state violence of the 1970s and 1980s might be collectively remembered by the nation have caused deep political and societal divisions. This paper explores the personal memories of Argentine women from two ideologically-opposed groups—those on the political Left affected by military repression during the 1976-1983 military dictatorship and those on the political Right affected by the armed guerrilla violence predominantly in the years leading up to the 1976 military coup. In contemporary Argentina, the memories of enduring personal trauma which both groups of women carry are commonly perceived as unable to co-exist in a shared mnemonic space – as if remembering one history of violence is seen as an attempt to forget or violate the other history of violence and trauma.


2004 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 627-635 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jungwha Choi ◽  
Hyang-Ok Lim

Abstract The status of interpreters and translators depends on the society in which they belong. Such factors as whether the society is multilingual, monolingual as well as its international standing all impact their status and consequently financial compensation. A brief overview of the history of the status of Korean interpreters reveals that, in the past, they enjoyed middle class status and, at times, even great wealth. The social importance of translators, on the other hand, was negligible—a situation which was aggravated by the fact that readers were not very demanding. During the modern era, and especially with increased foreign trade in the 1980’s, however, such tolerance was no longer the norm. There is still great interest among the general public in interpretation, especially since speaking English fluently is considered an asset in any profession in Korea. Conference interpreters, as such, are considered to be “master” English speakers. While they are envied their fluent mastery of foreign languages, interpretation, as such, is not considered a profession in which one should devote one’s life. In the case of translation, though there are many translators, they are held in even lower esteem than interpreters because of the relatively low pay.


2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 456-477 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frances Myfanwy Miley ◽  
Andrew F. Read

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to make visible the relationship between accounting and stigma in the absence of accounting. This research examines how failure to implement mandatory accounting and auditing requirements in the management of indigenous wages contributed to stigmatisation of indigenous Australians and led to maladministration and unchecked financial fraud that continued for over 75 years. The accounting failures are by those charged with protecting the financial interests of the indigenous population. Design/methodology/approach An historical and qualitative approach has been used that draws upon archival and contemporary sources. Findings Prior research has examined the nexus between accounting mechanisms and stigma. This research suggests that the absence of accounting mechanisms can also contribute to stigma. Research limitations/implications This research highlights the complex relationship between accounting and stigma, suggesting that it is simplistic to examine the nexus between accounting and stigma without considering the social forces in which stigmatisation occurs. Social implications This research demonstrates decades of failed accounting have contributed to the ongoing social disadvantage of indigenous Australians. The presence of accounting mechanisms cannot eradicate the past, or fix the present, but can create an environment where financial abuse does not occur. Originality/value This research demonstrates that stigma can be exacerbated in the negative space created by failures or absence of accounting.


2020 ◽  
Vol 45 ◽  
pp. 4-6
Author(s):  
Editorial Board ◽  
Rafael Plancarte

This Editorial Note contains a brief reflection on COVID-19 and Political Science, and a summary of the issue's content, featuring academic works on some of the most pertinent issues of our times: public health, elections, climate change, security, (in)equality and democracy: 'Volume 45 of IAPSS Politikon is launched during a historical turning point: the social, economic and political crisis originated by COVID-19. Political Science attests the crisis as a moment of institutional change in its broadest sense, but, unlike other phenomena, this change is not the result of actors’ intentionality [...]'.


Author(s):  
Kennedy Eborka

The challenge of leadership and development in Nigeria and a number of countries in Africa over the past several decades of independence has been a matter of tremendous public concern to which a great deal of scholarly efforts had been devoted. The situation has led many potentially great countries like Nigeria to be counted among some of the worst places in the world because of endemic poverty, unemployment, diseases and insecurity that ravage a large segment of the population. Efforts at interpreting the social forces propelling the pervasive poor quality leadership and development problems afflicting most parts of Africa, with special reference to Nigeria, tend to emphasize factors like colonialism, ethnic diversities, military interventions and multicultural realities. This paper argues that the emergence of these factors as sources of sociopolitical destabilization and development quagmire in Nigeria represents the consequences of the underlying political culture that evolved in the course of the country’s political development. Thus, the paper is an attempt to situate the challenge of poor quality leadership and its associated development challenge in Nigeria within the context of the prevailing political culture which tends to promote particularistic tendencies. The paper adopted Parson’s social system theory vis-à-vis pattern variables to provide theoretical elucidation, and drew attention to certain categorical imperativesthat can inspire the evolution of transformational political culture with social responsibility, transparency, accountability, ethics, discipline, fairness and collective interest as its essential ingredients.


1997 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 977-996 ◽  
Author(s):  
DANIEL SZECHI

George Lockhart of Carnwath is best known for his bitter denunciation of the Anglo-Scottish Union in his Memoirs, concerning the affairs of Scotland, first published in 1714. There Lockhart appears as a wholly Jacobite narrator and moralist, passionately inveighing against the iniquity of his peers. Yet we know that his background was not cut from the same cloth as that of his more stereotypical Jacobite contemporaries. Not for him the brooding presence of a Cavalier ancestor ‘martyred’ while fighting alongside Montrose or ancient traditions of loyalty to the Stuarts. Rather, like many Scotsmen after him, he was converted to Jacobitism in the course of the political crisis gripping early eighteenth-century Scotland. From the point of view of the historian studying the dynamics of political commitment the fact that Lockhart falls into this category is a godsend. Uniquely among his Jacobite peers, in the Memoirs and in his many surviving letters, as well as the correspondence and accounts of affairs penned by contemporaries, Lockhart has left the historian a substantial amount of evidence to work on. This article will explore the social and intellectual background to George Lockhart's adherence to the Stuart cause, focusing in particular on the interplay of social forces that shaped his childhood and teenage years, before going on to trace the key features of his understanding of politics and society. Lockhart was not a natural convert to Jacobitism, and the fact that he and many like him moved in that direction merits close analysis. By better understanding why a man like Lockhart embraced the exiled Stuarts we can gain a more general insight into the revival of the Jacobite cause in Scotland in the early eighteenth century.


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