A Feminist Defense of Political Liberalism

John Rawls ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 249-262
Author(s):  
Christie Hartley ◽  
Lori Watson
Keyword(s):  
Social Power ◽  
Political Liberalism ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Basic Structure ◽  
Social Hierarchies ◽  
Internal Resources ◽  
Substantive Equality ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Subordination ◽  
Equal Citizenship

Some feminists claim that liberal theories lack the resources necessary for fully diagnosing and remedying the social subordination of persons as members of social groups. Part of the problem is that liberals focus too narrowly on the state as the locus of political power. However, equal citizenship is also affected by systems of power that operate in the background culture and that construct social hierarchies in which persons are subordinated as members of social groups. This chapter argues that political liberalism, properly understood, entails a commitment to substantive equality such that it has the internal resources to address the kinds of inequality produced by unjust forms of social power. Although some will claim that if the basic structure is the subject of justice, political liberalism will still fall short of securing gender justice, we explain why this worry is misplaced.

scholarly journals Is a Feminist Political Liberalism Possible?

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christie Hartley ◽  
Lori Watson
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Political Liberalism ◽  
Social Conditions ◽  
Democratic Deliberation ◽  
Marginalized Groups ◽  
Substantive Equality ◽  
Recognition Respect ◽  
The Social ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Equal Citizenship

Is a feminist political liberalism possible? Political liberalism’s regard for a wide range of comprehensive doctrines as reasonable makes some feminists skeptical of its ability to address sex inequality. Indeed, some feminists claim that political liberalism maintains its position as a political liberalism at the expense of securing substantive equality for women. We claim that political liberalism’s core commitments actually restrict all reasonable political conceptions of justice to those that secure genuine substantive equality for all, including women and other marginalized groups. In particular, we argue that political liberalism’s criterion of reciprocity limits reasonable political conceptions of justice to those that eliminate social conditions of domination and subordination relevant to reasonable democratic deliberation among equal citizens and that the criterion of reciprocity requires the social conditions necessary for recognition respect among persons as equal citizens. As a result, we maintain that the criterion of reciprocity limits reasonable political conceptions of justice to those that provide genuine equality for women along various dimensions of social life central to equal citizenship.

Is a Feminist Political Liberalism Possible?

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christie Hartley
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Political Liberalism ◽  
Social Conditions ◽  
Democratic Deliberation ◽  
Marginalized Groups ◽  
Substantive Equality ◽  
Recognition Respect ◽  
The Social ◽  
Equal Citizenship

This chapter makes the case that political liberalism is a feminist liberalism. It is argued that political liberalism’s ideas of reciprocity and equal citizenship limit reasonable political conceptions of justice to only those that include principles that yield substantive equality for all, including women (and other marginalized groups). To this end, it is claimed that the criterion of reciprocity calls for (1) the eradication of social conditions of domination and subordination relevant to democratic deliberation among free and equal citizens and (2) the provision of the social conditions of recognition respect. As a result, the criterion of reciprocity limits reasonable political conceptions of justice to those that provide genuine equality for women along various dimensions of social life central to equal citizenship.

Generations of aristocracy

2002 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Greg Woolf
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Social Structure ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Social Power ◽  
Roman Period ◽  
Social Hierarchies ◽  
Continuity And Change ◽  
Roman Imperialism ◽  
Late Iron Age ◽  
The Social

AbstractThis paper sets out to examine issues of continuity and change in the social hierarchies of the peoples of the Gallic interior, between the late Iron Age and the early Roman period. This part of the empire is one in which we might reasonably expect to find substantial continuity of social structure. Many scholars have argued that this is indeed the case, notwithstanding the evident changes in material culture. This paper argues that the opposite was true. Apparent similarities, I suggest, reinforced by the ways we have studied provincial cultures, have masked dramatic changes in the basis of social power. That conclusion has implications for other provincial societies, and for Roman imperialism in general.

Generations of aristocracy

2002 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Greg Woolf
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Social Structure ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Social Power ◽  
Roman Period ◽  
Social Hierarchies ◽  
Continuity And Change ◽  
Roman Imperialism ◽  
Late Iron Age ◽  
The Social

AbstractThis paper sets out to examine issues of continuity and change in the social hierarchies of the peoples of the Gallic interior, between the late Iron Age and the early Roman period. This part of the empire is one in which we might reasonably expect to find substantial continuity of social structure. Many scholars have argued that this is indeed the case, notwithstanding the evident changes in material culture. This paper argues that the opposite was true. Apparent similarities, I suggest, reinforced by the ways we have studied provincial cultures, have masked dramatic changes in the basis of social power. That conclusion has implications for other provincial societies, and for Roman imperialism in general.

scholarly journals Tendencias de desarrollo del ayllu peruano (siglos XIV-XX)

1972 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 259-288
Author(s):  
Jan Szemiński
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Land Ownership ◽  
Colonial Period ◽  
Social Hierarchies ◽  
The Social ◽  
Individual Ownership

The Ayllu is an Andean societal model. Jan Szemiński reconstructs the ayllu in the pre-Incan and Tawantinsuyu periods. He investigates the social hierarchies, relations between social groups and land ownership issues of the pre-Columbian ayllu. He then describes the transformations of the ayllu and related cultural continuities of the Colonial period. In the independent Peru period collective land ownership was combated by Peruvian elites to facilitate individual ownership among the indigenous. Despite such policies, many indigenous communities practicing collective land ownership survived to the 20th Century.

The Social Aspects of Sport

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-66
Author(s):  
Jovan Bazić
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Social Power ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Basic Structure ◽  
Conflict Theory ◽  
Industrial Society ◽  
Sports Clubs ◽  
Government Power ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Media

SummaryIn this paper we evaluated the basic viewpoints on the mutual relations between contemporary sport and society. Sport is a global social phenomenon which is determined by a variety of different processes, including: the fast development of the industrial society and capital, an increase in leisure time, the development of a liberal democracy and the media. A special feature in these relations is the overall globalization process in today’s world. The basic structure of this paper is made up of two functional parts. In the first part we indicate the dominant theoretical-methodological paradigms in studying sport in social sciences, especially sociology: functionalism, conflict theory in society, interpretive and postmodern theory. In the second part of the paper we analyze the dialectics of contemporary relations between sport and society, where special attention is dedicated to the distribution of social power between sport, capital and the media at the local and global level. At the local level especially, there is a pronounced influence of politics on sport, which is realized through various mechanisms of government power, as well as other political subjects. The most solid bonds between sport and society on both levels are maintained by capital and the media, which know no boundaries. Through ownership and mechanisms of financing sports clubs and associations, athletes and athletic events, an entire network of capitalist relations in sport was created. Sport has become one of the most important factors of television programs, the internet and social networks, which has led to an enormous growth in profit and popularity of sport, but also to great changes in the social relations between people.

scholarly journals Infants' representation of social hierarchies in absence of physical dominance

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. e0245450
Author(s):  
Jesus Bas ◽  
Nuria Sebastian-Galles
Keyword(s):  
Social Status ◽  
Social Power ◽  
The Other ◽  
Human Relations ◽  
Social Hierarchies ◽  
The Social ◽  
Hierarchical Relationships ◽  
Physical Dominance

Social hierarchies are ubiquitous in all human relations since birth, but little is known about how they emerge during infancy. Previous studies have shown that infants can represent hierarchical relationships when they arise from the physical superiority of one agent over the other, but humans have the capacity to allocate social status in others through cues that not necessary entail agents’ physical formidability. Here we investigate infants’ capacity to recognize the social status of different agents when there are no observable cues of physical dominance. Our results evidence that a first presentation of the agents' social power when obtaining resources is enough to allow infants predict the outputs of their future. Nevertheless, this capacity arises later (at 18 month-olds but not at 15 month-olds) than showed in previous studies, probably due the increased complexity of the inferences needed to make the predictions.

scholarly journals The Representation of Masculinity and its Reflections in the Short Narrative Discourse of Badriya Al-Beshr

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 507
Author(s):  
Nidal Al-Shamali
Keyword(s):  
Short Stories ◽  
Social Power ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Narrative Discourse ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Social ◽  
Cultural Pattern ◽  
Feminine Discourse ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Masculine Discourse

The short stories of the Saudi writer Badriya Al-Beshr focus on her constructive criticism of conventional social power that governs society. This is actually the most obvious feature of her short story collection that was published in 1993 and the other two collections, “Wednesday Evening” (1994) and “Cardamom” (2004). Social power, as Badriya Al-Beshr shows, is best demonstrated in different representations of masculinity which the researcher believes to be the key to understand intertextuality of the text and its deconstructive features. In this context, Al-Beshr faces usurpation by a counter usurpation; a usurpation through writing fiction which deprives her imaginative narrative of the usual masculine discourse. The writer has represented masculinity as a general, distorted, feature that resorts towards negative attitudes, absolute control, deprivation, disability and corruption. This extremity resulted in much complexity that is deeply rooted in the social mentality. This has deepened the ideas of absolute power and controlling discourse which are based on the concept of masculine representation as a usurpation of the other and a limiting of its presence. These ideas and the concepts they have produced have indeed generated a stable cultural pattern in the social mentality; a pattern that has developed a system of values, beliefs, visions and tendencies which are deeply rooted in the subconscious of the individual and social groups. This stable cultural pattern has specified the way the individual views himself and other social groups. This is due to the fact that representations of masculinity provide the social group with an image of itself and of the other. This, in turn, forms the collective narrative identity which represents a coherent system of pre-thinking, indications or signs and rules that are all deeply rooted in the collective mentality of the specified social group. Here comes the role of the female writer who introduces her own point of view as she deviates from the usual pattern that is so much rooted in the mentality of her society. In this respect, Al-Beshr’s short stories represent the voice of the silent subaltern that has long been controlled by masculine representations and deprived of its right to represent its feminine voice. The masculine voice has long spoken for the feminine silent voice. The female writer here is the one who introduces a genuine vision that best depicts her world and that of all women like herself. This voice faithfully represents the suffering of the silent subaltern, consequently, it has become a distinguished cultural voice that forms a counter and a rebellious discourse resisting all the other dominating contexts. This paper applies feminist criticism to discuss the previous ideas through three different dimensions. The first dimension discusses the representations of masculinity in the short stories of Badriya Al-Beshr, its symbols and the vocabulary, philosophy and visions which she uses to depict the dominating masculine discourse. The second dimension traces the general features of the counter feminine discourse that shakes the stable masculine institution, its discourse and deeply rooted images. The researcher will show to what extent this feminine discourse can form an independent active institution that competes with the masculine one and whether it would be able to replace it and speak for itself. The third dimension is a stylistic one that shall discuss the features of Al-Beshr’s narrative discourse and how persuasive it may be. In addition, the researcher focuses on the means and stylistic techniques used by the writer to face the dominating masculine discourse. 

Equal Citizenship and Public Reason

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christie Hartley ◽  
Lori Watson
Keyword(s):  
Division Of Labor ◽  
Public Reason ◽  
Political Liberalism ◽  
Public Justification ◽  
Marginalized Groups ◽  
Substantive Equality ◽  
Law And Policy ◽  
Gendered Division Of Labor ◽  
Historical Sites ◽  
Equal Citizenship

This book is a defense of political liberalism as a feminist liberalism. The first half of the book develops and defends a novel interpretation of political liberalism. It is argued that political liberals should accept a restrictive account of public reason and that political liberals’ account of public justification is superior to the leading alternative, the convergence account of public justification. In the second half of the book, it is argued that political liberalism’s core commitments restrict all reasonable conceptions of justice to those that secure genuine, substantive equality for women and other marginalized groups. Here it is demonstrated how public reason arguments can be used to support law and policy needed to address historical sites of women’s subordination to advance equality; prostitution, the gendered division of labor and marriage, in particular, are considered.

The Emotions of Conversion and Kinship in the Qur'an and the Sīra of Ibn Isḥāq

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 137-163
Author(s):  
Karen Bauer
Keyword(s):  
Social Impact ◽  
Social Power ◽  
Shared Vision ◽  
Community Identity ◽  
Emotional States ◽  
Social Hierarchies ◽  
Emotion Words ◽  
The Social ◽  
Overlapping Spheres ◽  
Insight Into

This article traces the archetypical development of emotion from individual feeling to collective action by focusing on conversion and kinship as recorded in the Qur'an and the oldest extant biography of the Prophet, the Sīra of Ibn Isḥāq. The article's first part describes an individual's experience of emotions through the conversion story of ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb. Conversion can result in tension with kin networks, and the second part shows how the Qur'anic discourse on kinship evolves through time. The third part examines the social impact of conversion, as told through two narratives in the Sīra. Through these examples, this article proposes a method of reading which gives insight into the function and import of emotions and emotiveness in these texts. I suggest attending not only to emotion words, whether on their own or as an expression of social hierarchies, but also to emotional tension, and to the transformation of emotional states. Tension and transformation can indicate a text's emotiveness. Stories themselves can become objects of emotive attachment for a community, and the emotiveness of a story might be why it sticks in the memory and becomes emblematic, or how it becomes convincing. Such stories can bind people together with a shared vision of the nature of their community, its mores, and its history. Emotion is not always simply an expression of individual feeling. Emotive rhetoric can convince people to do something that they do not wish to do, such as fighting jihad, and emotive stories can create an idealized image of a community. Emotion in these texts can thus be considered in three overlapping spheres: as an expression of a religious experience, as an expression of a social power dynamic, and as a means of expressing and constructing community identity.

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