Beyond Monks and Mushrooms

2020 ◽  
pp. 31-60
Author(s):  
Sara Rushing
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Social Conditions ◽  
Relational Autonomy ◽  
Western Thought ◽  
Ongoing Process ◽  
Democratic Practice ◽  
Political Ethic ◽  
Political Vocabulary ◽  
Embodied Agency

This chapter lays the intellectual-historical groundwork for thinking about the “virtues of vulnerability,” by mapping the concept of humility inherited in Western thought from Christianity, and the concept of autonomy inherited from liberalism. After detailing what these inherited concepts are, it argues that they are problematic from the perspective of embodied agency and citizenship-subjectivity, and develops alternative versions that bolster, not undermine, democratic practice. Confucian political theory provides a nontheological but deeply relational conception of humility, including concrete practices for cultivating a distinctly political ethic that is not about lowliness, self-denial, or subordination to authority. Feminist philosophy’s concept of “relational autonomy” provides an account of autonomy as an ongoing process that requires supportive social conditions and networks of relations, not mere non-interference. Bringing these traditions together, this chapter develops the conceptual framework and political vocabulary of the project, and begins to flesh out an important new concept of humility-informed-relational-autonomy.

scholarly journals Pathways to global democracy? Escaping the statist imaginary

2013 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 789-813 ◽  
Author(s):  
ADRIAN LITTLE ◽  
KATE MACDONALD
Keyword(s):  
Social Conditions ◽  
Democratic Institutions ◽  
Global Level ◽  
Foreseeable Future ◽  
Global Democracy ◽  
Democratic Practice ◽  
Nation States ◽  
The Social ◽  
Political Conditions ◽  
National Experience

AbstractCritics of global democracy have often claimed that the social and political conditions necessary for democracy to function are not met at the global level, and are unlikely to be in the foreseeable future. Such claims are usually developed with reference to national democratic institutions, and the social conditions within national democratic societies that have proved important in sustaining them. Although advocates of global democracy have contested such sceptical conclusions, they have tended to accept the method of reasoning from national to global contexts on which they are based. This article critiques this method of argument, showing that it is both highly idealised in its characterisation of national democratic practice, and overly state-centric in its assumptions about possible institutional forms that global democracy might take. We suggest that if aspiring global democrats – and their critics – are to derive useful lessons from social struggles to create and sustain democracy within nation states, a less idealised and institutionally prescriptive approach to drawing global lessons from national experience is required. We illustrate one possible such approach with reference to cases from both national and global levels, in which imperfect yet meaningful democratic practices have survived under highly inhospitable – and widely varying – conditions.

scholarly journals Reconsidering Relational Autonomy. Personal Autonomy for Socially Embedded and Temporally Extended Selves

2008 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Holger Baumann
Keyword(s):  
Social Environment ◽  
Personal Autonomy ◽  
Social Conditions ◽  
Social Dimension ◽  
Personal Relationships ◽  
Causal Role ◽  
Relational Autonomy ◽  
Social Environments ◽  
The Social ◽  
Over Time

AbstractMost recent accounts of personal autonomy acknowledge that the social environment a person lives in, and the personal relationships she entertains, have some impact on her autonomy. Two kinds of conceptualizing social conditions are traditionally distinguished in this regard: Causally relational accounts hold that certain relationships and social environments play a causal role for the development and on-going exercise of autonomy. Constitutively relational accounts, by contrast, claim that autonomy is at least partly constituted by a person’s social environment or standing. The central aim of this paper is to raise the question how causally and constitutively relational approaches relate to the fact that we exercise our autonomy over time. I argue that once the temporal scope of autonomy is opened up, we need not only to think differently about the social dimension of autonomy. We also need to reconsider the very distinction between causally and constitutively relational accounts, because it is itself a synchronic (and not a diachronic) distinction.

Cognition in Practice

1996 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louis Quéré
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Cognitive Science ◽  
Social Process ◽  
Alternative View ◽  
Theories Of Action ◽  
Recent Trends ◽  
Embodied Agency ◽  
Do So

How may we conceive of cognition in practice? What kind of thinking and reflection animate the accomplishment of action? These problems are usually settled by an intellectualist argument: to perform an action is mainly to execute decisions, to carry out plans or intentions, or to follow instructions. According to that view, cognition produces action, but it does not take place in the accomplishment of action itself Such an intellectualist view has been taken up again and developed by recent trends in cognitive science. Why focus on such a view? Because, by its systematizing of current assumptions in most of (he theories of action, it makes the conceptual framework of those theories very clear and allows one to see the inconsistencies of its underpinning. The alternative view outlined in this paper is based on an externalist and pragmatic conception of mind. It considers cognition as a social process and reintegrates it into the performance of situated actions. To do so, it grasps performance as a genuine praxis and specifies the thinking and reflection which animate it in relation to the phenomenon of 'embodied agency.'

The Concept of the Kurdish Political

2020 ◽  
pp. 175508822096634
Author(s):  
Jason Dockstader ◽  
Rojîn Mûkrîyan
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
State Sovereignty ◽  
Constituent Power ◽  
Kurdish Question

Recently, some have read Turkish political developments from the perspective of Carl Schmitt’s political theory. This paper aims to modify aspects of these readings and offer in response a Schmittian answer to the Kurdish question. By applying Schmitt’s conceptual framework, this paper argues that the Kurds, especially in their struggles for autonomy and independence, can be viewed as fulfilling Schmitt’s criterion for tellurian partisanship and forming an at least nascent constituent power. We argue that Turks and Kurds are enemies in Schmitt’s explicitly political sense. They constitute a threat to each other’s political existence. The Kurds exhibit the behavior of a Schmittian people or nation. They fight, against Turks, for their political existence. They aim to govern themselves, and so instantiate the de facto attributes of state sovereignty. They thus seek to constitute themselves as a free and independent people, thereby achieving a genuine political existence in the Schmittian sense.

Durkheim's Suicide and the Question of Intention

1974 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-54
Author(s):  
Vanderlyn R. Pine
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Social Factors ◽  
Statistical Information ◽  
Social Conditions ◽  
Social Fact ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Way

Durkheim dismissed “intention” and “motives” from his conceptual framework in his effort to analyze suicide as a social fact He also rejected psychopathic states, heredity, and other “extra-social” factors as possible causes of suicide on the basis of statistical information available to him. This paper examines the way in which Durkheim worked out his position on the social conditions he regarded as responsible for suicide, and discusses some of the major problems involved. It is argued that Durkheim did not achieve the consistent position for which he strived, and that his methods did not always parallel his views on the use of “intention.”

From Antagonistic Autonomy to Relational Autonomy: A Theoretical Reflection from the Southern Cone

2003 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roberto Russell ◽  
Juan Gabriel Tokatlian
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Gender Studies ◽  
Southern Cone ◽  
Relational Autonomy ◽  
Philosophical Psychology ◽  
Global Context ◽  
Complex Thought ◽  
Theoretical Reflection

AbstractThe concept of autonomy has acquired a plurality of meanings in international relations; this article analyzes the distinct uses given to this term in Latin America and its relationship to theoretical contributions from outside the region. The authors propose a far-reaching reconceptualization of autonomy appropriate to Latin America's new circumstances in the global context. They argue that these new circumstances favor the shift from autonomy as traditionally defined to what they call relational autonomy, a construct based on contributions from classical political theory, political sociology, gender studies, social and philosophical psychology, and the theory of complex thought.

Political Characterology: On the Method of Theorizing in Hannah Arendt's Origins of Totalitarianism

2016 ◽  
Vol 110 (2) ◽  
pp. 265-277 ◽  
Author(s):  
HANS-JÖRG SIGWART
Keyword(s):  
Structural Analysis ◽  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Theory Of Action ◽  
Current Debate ◽  
Conceptual Basis ◽  
Methodological Basis ◽  
Anti Semitism

Notwithstanding its status as a modern classic, Hannah Arendt's study on The Origins of Totalitarianism is generally considered to be lacking a clearly reflected methodological basis. This article challenges this view and argues that in her study Arendt implicitly applies a characterological method of political theorizing that provides a genuine conceptual framework for systematically connecting structural analysis with ideographic historical investigations and with a political theory of action. On this conceptual basis, the study renders an analysis of anti-Semitism, imperialism, and totalitarianism not merely in terms of abstract structural concepts, but in terms of dynamic character-context constellations. Arendt's account not only shows interesting parallels to a number of similar conceptual reflections, especially in the 20th century's theory debate; it can also serve to inspire the current debate on methodology in political theory.

scholarly journals The Feminist Case Against Relational Autonomy

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (5) ◽  
pp. 499-526
Author(s):  
Serene J. Khader
Keyword(s):  
Social Conditions ◽  
Relational Autonomy ◽  
Self Harm

Abstract Feminist socially constitutive conceptions of autonomy make the presence of idealized social conditions necessary for autonomy. I argue that such conceptions cannot, when applied under nonideal conditions, play two key feminist theoretical roles for autonomy: the roles of anti-oppressive character ideal and paternalism-limiting concept. Instead, they prescribe action that reinforces oppression. Treated as character ideals, socially constitutive conceptions of autonomy ask agents living under nonideal ones to engage in self-harm or self-subordination. Moreover, conceptions of autonomy that make idealized social conditions a requirement of autonomy yield the conclusion that oppressed agents are appropriate objects of paternalism.

scholarly journals State Anti-Robbery Squad operations and restructuring in Nigeria: Semiotics of the #EndSARS protests

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 82-113
Author(s):  
Nnennaya Uchendu Ola ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Social Conditions ◽  
The Political ◽  
Economic Knowledge ◽  
Surface Features ◽  
The Social ◽  
Systemic Level ◽  
Structural Imbalance

End State Anti-Robbery Squad (#EndSARS) protests represent symptoms of systemic issues in Nigeria. Those issues range from ideological differences of the various ethnic nationalities to the constitutional and structural imbalance in the political and economic equation. This paper attempts to put in perspective the implications of the over-centralisation of both political and economic powers. To do this, this research examines the events leading up to the #EndSARS protest, as well as the various signs and symbols emanating from the #EndSARS movement. Semiotics Theory is employed as conceptual framework and methodology to highlight the factors that ail Nigeria at the systemic level. Semioticians engage in a search for deep structures underlying the surface features of phenomena. With Semiotic theory as framework, this paper takes seriously the social conditions that led to the #EndSARS Protests, not neglecting the role of ideologies. The research has the potential to make useful contributions to both academic and socio-political cum economic knowledge for a meaningful national dialogue among contesting ethnic groups in Africa.

The Calculation of Women’s Inclusion

2019 ◽  
pp. 18-40
Author(s):  
Melody E. Valdini
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Social Conditions ◽  
Candidate Selection ◽  
Women's Roles ◽  
The Political ◽  
Costs And Benefits ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Political Sphere ◽  
Selection Decisions ◽  
The Ideal

Chapter 2 offers a new approach to understanding the conditions under which women are included in the political sphere. It presents a conceptual framework of the competing individual and partisan motivations that male rational opportunists face when making candidate selection decisions, referred to as the “inclusion calculation.” This is a calculation of the likely costs and benefits of women’s increased presence in the party under various institutional, political, and social conditions. In addition, it argues that under conditions of declining party or government legitimacy, citizens are not only updating their beliefs on women’s roles but are also temporarily changing their understanding of the ideal leader. This brings new value to the stereotypes traditionally associated with women which, as is explained, temporarily increases the value of women’s inclusion in the eyes of the elite.

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