Introduction

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Robert B. Talisse
Keyword(s):  
Social Interaction ◽  
Democratic Politics ◽  
Crowding Out ◽  
Central Theme ◽  
Social Spaces ◽  
Political Identities

This introductory chapter introduces the central theme of the book: our social spaces have become overrun with appeals to our political identities and allegiances, thereby crowding out other bases for cooperative social interaction, such as the time-honored American custom of Thanksgiving dinner. This has, in turn, rendered our politics all the more divisive and polarizing. In making democratic politics the framework that organizes all that we do together, we overdo democracy. And overdoing democracy undermines democracy. If we seek to improve our democratic politics, we must devise things to do together that are in no way political. The book contends that democracy is worth doing well because there are other things worth pursuing that can be pursued best in a well-functioning democracy.

Overdoing Democracy

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert B. Talisse
Keyword(s):  
Social Contexts ◽  
Good Thing ◽  
Democratic Legitimacy ◽  
The Political ◽  
Crowding Out ◽  
Social Spaces ◽  
Democratic Ideal ◽  
Empirical Results ◽  
Social Lives ◽  
Social Goods

Democracy is an extremely important social political good. Nonetheless, there is such a thing as having too much of a good thing. When we overdo democracy, we allow the categories, allegiances, and struggles of politics to overwhelm our social lives. This has the effect of undermining and crowding out many of the most important correlated social goods that democracy is meant to deliver. What’s more, in overdoing democracy, we spoil certain social goods that democracy needs in order to flourish. Thus overdoing democracy is democracy’s undoing. A thriving democracy needs citizens to reserve space in their shared social lives for collective activities and cooperative projects that are not structured by political allegiances; they must work together in social contexts where political affiliations and party loyalties are not merely suppressed, but utterly beside the point. Combining conceptual analyses of democratic legitimacy and responsible citizenship with empirical results regarding the political infiltration of social spaces and citizens’ vulnerabilities to polarization, this book provides a diagnosis of current democratic ills and a novel prescription for addressing them. Arguing that overdoing democracy is the result of certain tendencies internal to the democratic ideal itself, the book demonstrates that even in a democracy, politics must be put in its place.

The Decentering of Democracies

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pierre Rosanvallon
Keyword(s):  
Great Majority ◽  
Political Obligation ◽  
Democratic Politics ◽  
Majority Principle ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Democratic Elections

This introductory chapter considers the definitions of legitimacy in the context of democratic politics. Expressions such as the “great majority” or “vast majority” established the law of numbers, in contrast to the minority rule characteristic of despotic and aristocratic regimes. At first, it was the difference in the origins of power and the foundation of political obligation that was crucial. Later, the majority principle came to be recognized in a more narrowly procedural sense. The chapter traces this evolution within the history of democratic elections, positing a decentering of democracy as newer forms of political investment emerge, making democratic politics into something more than merely electing representatives.

Introduction

Abject Joy ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Ryan S. Schellenberg
Keyword(s):  
Social Interaction ◽  
History Of

What could it mean for Paul to express contentment and joy in prison? This question lies at the heart of this book. Its force is often blunted, however, by heroizing depictions of Paul that render his joy the singular feat of a legendary apostle. Misleading juxtapositions with other ancient prison letters have only reinforced this tendency, and comparisons with Stoic discourses of eupathic joy have failed to reckon with the concrete social and somatic location from which Paul writes. This introductory chapter sets the theoretical groundwork for a different mode of comparison, one rooted in the premise that Paul’s letter to the Philippians is an artifact of Paul’s imprisoned body. A history of Paul’s emotions, it argues, is also a history of his body, which is itself a history of his social interaction. Comparison with modern prisoners serves to defamiliarize the ancient evidence and suggest how it might be redescribed.

Preference on Social Spaces in High Density Condominiums in Malaysia

2015 ◽  
Vol 747 ◽  
pp. 165-167 ◽  
Author(s):  
Parvin Amini Fard ◽  
Mustafa Kamal Mohd Shariff ◽  
Mohd Yazid Mohd Yunos ◽  
Md Azree Othuman Mydin
Keyword(s):  
Social Interaction ◽  
Sense Of Belonging ◽  
Leisure Time ◽  
High Density ◽  
Psychological Problems ◽  
Social Spaces ◽  
Questionnaire Surveys

People are interested to spend their leisure time in spaces where variety of activities take place so more users are attracted to such spaces.Living environments lacking inappropriate social spaces, resulting poor social interaction have been causing psychological problems as well as issues on security and safety and matters with sense of belonging to the environment. This paper focuses on residents’ preference on character of spaces for social interaction in their condominiums. This study employed questionnaire surveys for selected condominium residents in Kelang Valley, Malaysia. The study found that limitations, cumbersome rules, as well aspoor connectivity of spaces have caused people to prefer outdoor social spaces where they can have free activities,view other people activities and half hear them.

Spaces of Democracy: Remapping the Apartheid City

1998 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
pp. 533-548 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jenny Robinson
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Local Government ◽  
South African ◽  
Democratic Politics ◽  
Political Identities ◽  
Democratic Culture ◽  
African Cities ◽  
Chantal Mouffe ◽  
South African Cities ◽  
Transitional Phase

Democracy is associated with particular kinds of spatialities. In this paper I address two aspects of the spatiality of democracy through an assessment of transitional arrangements for local government in South African cities. Political identities, as well as spatial arrangements, involved in democratic politics are associated with instability, uncertainty, and ongoing contestation. In democracies, the contestation both of identities and of spaces is institutionalised and this implies the generalisation of particular spatialities. Drawing on a spatially informed interpretation of the work of Ernest Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, I argue that the transitional phase in the emergence of democracy in South Africa has involved the growth of a democratic culture—even in situations where substantial compromises have been made to keep recalcitrant white interests on board. I question the assertion of a nonracial politics which seeks to erase the possibility of ethnically based political identities and argue that the failure of the left to hegemonise their perspective of a nonracial political project and a nonracial postapartheid city may have ironically assisted in extending the possibilities for democracy. A key conclusion is that democracies are associated with different spatialities which facilitate contestation and representation. A politics of space, given the radical undecidability of spatial boundaries, is supportive of the extension of democracy.

scholarly journals Dirty scholarship and dirty lives: Explorations in bodies and belonging

2019 ◽  
Vol 67 (4) ◽  
pp. 746-765 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucy Pickering ◽  
Phillippa Wiseman
Keyword(s):  
Central Theme ◽  
The Third ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
History Of ◽  
A Site

What is dirt, and how is it used in processes of Othering? This is the central theme of this opening, introductory chapter. The chapter brings together a number of theoretical approaches to dirt. In exploring the central role of dirt and dirt management to the civilising process, we (re)produce a particular sort of history of European relations with dirt – a history characterised as much by dirt as a site of distinction as by an apparent increasing aversion to the dirt of bodily exuviae. By bringing this into dialogue with a second sort of history of European relations with dirt, characterised by shifting ideas about illness and contagion, we explore the kinds of work that discourses about dirt do. Viewed together, it becomes clear that central to both histories are processes of Othering – of the dirty by those who define the dirty. This links to the third theme of the introduction which explores specifically symbolic dimensions of dirt, drawing Douglas’s idea of dirt as ‘matter out of place’ into dialogue with Kristeva’s idea of the abject. In layering a discussion of dirt as abjection upon dirt as distinction we come back to contagion, and the power of (re)producing self/other boundaries through dirt. Together, these tell a story of dirt as a site of power, and a tool used by those who define the dirty to oppress those they consider unclean.

scholarly journals THE PROVISION OF VERTICAL SOCIAL POCKETS FOR BETTER SOCIAL INTERACTION IN HIGH-RISE LIVING

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aw Siew Bee ◽  
Lim Poh Im
Keyword(s):  
Social Interaction ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Defensible Space ◽  
Space Theory ◽  
Social Spaces ◽  
Social Communities ◽  
High Rise ◽  
Defensible Space Theory ◽  
Sheer Number

High-rise living makes it difficult for social communities to form despite the provision of several dedicated social spaces at ground, podium, mid- and roof-levels, partially due to the sheer number of residents per block. The pull of easily-accessed, solitary recreational activities such as surfing the Internet and watching television further exacerbates the problem. Social spaces need to be brought closer to residents to promote social interaction. This paper proposes to improve social interaction by supplementing currently stratified social spaces with vertically-connected social hubs using existing transitional spaces in high-rise living, such as the lift lobby, to create micro-communities comprising the residents of each respective floor in a cost-effective way. Previous research indicated that strong communities look after each other, indicating that the creation of microcommunities will create an effect not unlike the defensible space theory. Therefore, this paper analyses residential high-rise layouts based on chosen case studies in Malaysia, then suggests several possible design outcomes that turn the lift lobby into social spaces at every floor level.

Preliminaries

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jack Knight ◽  
James Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Interaction ◽  
Institutional Arrangements ◽  
Second Order ◽  
Collective Decision ◽  
Collective Decision Making ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Heavy Burden ◽  
Normative Significance

This introductory chapter presents the book's argument about the normative significance of democracy. Democracy is a set of institutions. It has an important priority among the available institutional alternatives. The priority of democracy derives from its fundamental features. Three such features include voting, argument, and reflexivity—each of which relates to the positive effects of democratic processes on collective decision making. These effects distinguish democracy from other ways of coordinating ongoing social interaction. These qualities lend democratic arrangements presumptive priority of a particular sort. In any effort to negotiate unavoidable social disagreement over institutional arrangements, democracy enjoys a second-order priority precisely because it operates in ways that potentially meet a heavy burden of justification.

Vygotskii, Lev Semënovich (1896–1934)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Joravsky
Keyword(s):  
Social Interaction ◽  
Child Development ◽  
Brain Damage ◽  
Special Interest ◽  
Mental Development ◽  
Central Theme ◽  
Central Institute ◽  
Historical Approach ◽  
Psychological Science ◽  
The Mind

Vygotskii was a Soviet psychologist, the most comprehensive in creative reach and the most influential. Trained in literary studies and originally active as a critic, he took a post in a pedagogical institute and came thus to psychological science, with a special interest in child development. That was the period of foundational debates between rival schools of psychology, intensified in the Russian case by the Revolution of 1917 and the subsequent campaign for a Marxist school. Vygotskii became the major theorist at the central Institute of Psychology. While dying of tuberculosis he worked his intensive way through contested claims to know what mind is and how it acts. His profuse reflections on that large contest remained largely unpublished for decades, while disciples echoed his call for a ’cultural-historical’ approach to a unified science of the mind, and actually worked on the mental development of children and the neuropsychology of brain damage. The concept of ’activity’, which was supposed to resolve philosophical issues, served largely to evade them, while harmonizing with Marxist-Leninist slogans on ‘practice’. Among Western cognitive psychologists Vygotskii acquired a tardy reputation as a pioneer who emphasized social interaction in the mental development of children. The publication of his major works in the 1970s and 1980s revealed a much broader theorist. His central theme was the obvious truth at the basis of each artistic and psychological school, the lure of an effort to unify all of them, and the present impossibility of achieving such unification within science, outside philosophical speculation.

Introduction

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Robert Schuett
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Legal Philosophy ◽  
Intellectual Biography ◽  
Central Theme ◽  
Writing Style ◽  
Political Realism ◽  
Political Methodology ◽  
Political Thinking ◽  
Substantial Interest

What does it mean to say that, from first to last, Kelsen’s political thinking was focused on the real You and Me? Why such a hard-edged defence of Kelsen as a man of political realism for our time? The introductory chapter situates the book’s central theme against the current wave of substantial interest in Kelsen’s legal philosophy and democratic theory. It elaborates on the book’s political methodology of doing combined intellectual biography and comparative conceptual analysis, and explains its combative writing style. This scene-setter suggests forgetting the jurist for a little while, and outlines how the book’s five analytical chapters bring Kelsen’s life and thought into a productive tension with today’s Schmittians and conventional views of foreign-policy realism.

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