The Problem Is the One, the Body

Author(s):  
Emily Anne Parker

This chapter advocates re-engagement with the question of what it is like to become human and the sub-question of what dehumanization means. The question of what it is like to be human is indistinguishably ecological and political, and it is necessary to address not the ecological and the political but the distinction itself. The distinction itself hides this question of the one, the body, the very gesture that pretends that the political is not bodily. This chapter argues that advocates of performativity and political ecology each take up one side of the problem of the body, but what needs to be taken up is the question of the distinction itself.

2014 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 55-67
Author(s):  
Paulina Codogni

The article discusses the phenomenon of hunger strikes which are considered to be an example of strategies and tactics of nonviolent struggle. The resistance is based on a conscious refusal to eat food which causes the political matter against which the protest is directed to become an existential matter. Everyday actions, such as eating, take on a different meaning. The same happens with the meaning of the act of political contestation. On the one hand what can be seen is the embodiment of politics and on the other the politicization of the body. The article also showcases a number of historical and contemporary examples of hunger strikes and tries to find the answer whether hunger strikes are an effective method of political resistance.


Author(s):  
Alejandro Sánchez-Seco López

En el contexto de una obra mucho más amplia y en ciernes, que propone como único sistema plenamente legítimo aquél cuyo cuerpo político viene constituido por la totalidad de habitantes del planeta, es conveniente traer a colación la filosofía política y económica de George Soros, porque aporta una visión muy diferente a la aplicada por los endiosados economistas que no supieron ver con antelación la Gran Recesión global en la que seguimos inmersos. La relación entre la realidad y el pensamiento es clave en el sorismo, como también lo es la distinción entre los diversos tipos de ciencias. La hipótesis de la eficiencia en los mercados también es cuestionada, junto con el concepto de equilibrio en economía, la incertidumbre y la falibilidad. También se acomete la crítica del fundamentalismo de mercado y a las propuestas regulatorias. Y todo en el contexto de una globalización económica poco política.Within the context of a much wider and developing piece proposing as only fully legitimate system the one the body politic of which is composed of the totality of inhabitants on the planet, it is convenient to bring to us the political and economic philosophy of George Soros for it adds a very different vision to that applied by the deified economists who could not in advance see the global Great Recession in which we keep on living. The relation between reality and thought is key within Sorism, as it is the distinction amongst the several kinds of sciences. The Efficient Markets Hypothesis is also put into question side by side with the concept of equilibrium in Economics, uncertainty, and fallibility. The critique of market fundamentalism is also implemented as well as the regulatory proposals. And all of it taking place within the context of a scarcely political but very economic globalisation.


Area ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 260-261
Author(s):  
Michele Flippo Bolduc

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 174 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paula Bruna Pérez ◽  
Àngels Viladomiu Canela

Theories about the collapse of contemporary societies have aroused increasing interest in recent years. Similarly, the environmental discourse has entered strongly into contemporary art, not from the naturalist or ecological approach of aforetime, but from the political ecology. Art, like other areas of knowledge, questions possible alternatives to collapse in terms of sustainability. However, given that there are two interpretations of the term sustainability, a weak one (the institutional one) and a strong one (the one defended by political ecology), it is relevant to clarify the implication of artistic projects in this sense. In the first part of this article, the scenario of the collapse of contemporary western society is presented and a parallelism with geological instability processes is established, in the context of an artistic research. Next, the types of responses to collapse are analyzed, based on ecological economy and political ecology concepts, and examples of artistic proposals are presented for each type of response. This analysis concludes on the role of contemporary art in the transition towards a sustainable society, as well as the convenience and urgency to promote artistic proposals that are framed in the concepts of strong sustainability.


Author(s):  
Maria Kaika

When the French politician Clemenceau visited Athens in 1899, he was taken on a tour of the city and briefed on the social, political, and economic problems facing both the city and the young Greek state. Afterwards, he addressed the local political and intellectual elites, starting his speech by exclaiming: ‘The best politician amongst you shall be the one who will bring water into Athens’ (Clemenceau 1899, cited in Gerontas and Skouzes 1963: in). Indeed, water supply was one of the most important and intricate political and social issues of the nineteenth century. Although water supply and management is today often presented as a purely technological and engineering problem, it remains, as we shall see, a deeply political issue, implicated in relations of social power (Reisner 1990; Postel 1992). Indeed, today, more than a century onwards from Clemenceau’s comment, his aphorism still holds true. Despite the fact that Western economies have undergone a period of ‘fierce modernization’ during the twentieth century, and despite technological advances and innovation, water supply and management remain major socio-technical issues at the heart of the political agenda (Bank 1992). Whilst contemporary Europe is not faced with severe water shortages (although many areas, particularly but not exclusively in the European South still face disruptions in water supply during dry months (ETC/IW 1996; ICWS 1996)), water supply and management remain amongst the most important political issues at the European and international level (Hundley 1992; Faure and Rubin 1993; Gleick 1993). Today, if anything, the political ecology of water has become more complex, and more important politically than in the nineteenth century. With the increasing internationalization and complexity of water resource management, with the emergence of an increasingly larger number of actors and institutions involved in this process, with the newly vested economic interests in water supply, and with the increasing concern and sensitivity towards environmental protection, if Clemenceau were alive today, he would probably maintain his aphorism— rephrasing it for the contemporary era: ‘The best politician amongst you shall be the one who will bring clean water into Europe, while keeping happy all the parties involved in water supply, use, and management, at the local, regional, national, and European level.’


2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (40) ◽  
pp. 31-43
Author(s):  
Júlia Machado

O artigo apresenta uma reflexão sobre a vitalidade político-afetiva do corpo feminino na tela a partir da realização de um curta-metragem, Femme (2016). Minha aspiração artística com o filme foi de transmutar os significados afetivos usualmente associados ao corpo feminino e trabalhar com sua visualidade extrema no limiar estético entre o belo e o abjeto. Ao lidar com a exibição de certos conteúdos do corpo visceral, a artista pode enfrentar um desafio duplo: se há o risco de se ser meramente apelativo aos sentidos, há também o risco de se repetir uma certa poética da abjeção que se tornou padrão no artes. Em seu processo, o filme-experimento levou-me a combinar elementos singulares a partir do retrato de uma personagem e a gerar, de modo inesperado e contundente, indícios acerca das forças poéticas do corpo e da imagem no contexto contemporâneo.Palavras-chave: Imagem; Corpo; Poética; Afetos; Cinema.AbstractThe article provides a reflection on the political-affective vitality of the body on-screen based on the making of a short film, Femme (2016). My artistic aspiration with the film was to question the usual affective meanings of the female body and work with extreme visuality at the thresholds of the beautiful and the abject. In dealing with the display of visceral body contents, an artist might face a double challenge: on the one hand, there is a risk of being too appealing to the senses; on the other, one risks repeating a poetics of abjection that has become standard in the arts. This film-experiment led me to gather unique elements in the making of it as a portrait of a character and generate unexpected evidence on the poetic force of the body and image in the contemporary context.Keywords: Image; Body; Poetics; Affect; Film.


2018 ◽  
Vol 226 (2) ◽  
pp. 115-140
Author(s):  
Teacher Shahin Siham AbdulRazaq

     The boundaries of the Ottoman Empire span several centuries on a vast expanse, across the ancient continents of the world, with different races, diverse peoples and multiple faiths, and the Ottoman Empire was one of the forces that influenced the course of international politics at the time, and then it was weakened by the political balance and administrative, which was governed by the laws of the sultan between the central authority on the one hand, and those who carry out that policy from Baswat and Pikatagwat... and others on the other hand. The weakness is growing in state institutions and despite repeated attempts by some sultans to restore power and prestige to the body of the sprawling empire, it has achieved little or nothing. The first reformist calls were inspired by the spirit and principles of Islam in remedying the imbalance, and the reformers advocated the necessity of applying Islamic law within the various institutions, to return to its prosperous past, and on that basis the pioneering attempts were based on Islam and its basic principles at a stage where it did not expand The Ottoman Empire in the European-style quotation, as the European superiority was not as impressive as the Ottomans and pushed them to quotation, and the Ottomans were preparing themselves a major state during the seventeenth century and the beginning of the eighteenth century, and during that stage many of the leaders of the movement tried Reform in the Ottoman Empire, doing self-reliant reforms not on the quotation from the West, including Shaykh al-Islam Saad Eddin Effendi, Osman II, Murad IV and others.       The nature of the research required it to be divided into an introduction, six axes and a conclusion, the first axis addressed the beginning of the Ottoman retreat since 1683, and the signs of weakness experienced by the Ottoman state, as well as the emergence of European supremacy during that era, and the emergence of a number of early Ottoman reformers and their role in the beginnings The reform process. The second theme was devoted to the ways in which they showed Salim III in the reform, which led to his eventual execution, and the third axis was devoted to the study of the reign of Sultan Mahmud II at an important stage of the nineteenth century, with the appearance of a number of eminent personalities in Egypt and Iraq, as well as some changes of Europe. The fourth axis touched upon the Ottoman organizations, the efforts of a number of Ottomans and their influence on Western culture, which led to the promulgation of a number of important decrees (orders), including the line of Sharif kolkhanf in 1839 and the decree of Humayun in 1856, and a number of laws including the Land Law of 21 April 1858 The law of the Tarabo of 14 January 1859, as well as the state law of 1864, and its interpretation in the stabilization of the new correctional grounds.     The fifth axis dealt with a brief presentation of the results of the movement of Ottoman organizations, and its influence in the Arab States, especially the state of Baghdad, and devoted the sixth (last) to the features of the Iraqi reformist Midhat Pasha, the most important administrative works in the state of Baghdad, as well as giving a brief presentation Of the subsequent changes to the reign of Medhat Pasha until the early 20th century. In conclusion, we tried to show the most important conclusions reached through the research hubs, seeking reference to several related sources including a number of research and university messages as well as the use of the International Information Network (Internet), and these sources can be identified through the margins Search or list of sources.  


2017 ◽  
pp. 110-132
Author(s):  
James Miller

The Daoist experience of the world in the body and the body in the world is fundamentally an aesthetic experience, but one that must be trained through disciplines of body cultivation. Daoist body cultivation traditions are thus relevant for the task of overcoming the bifurcation between body and world, and mind and body, two insights that are explored in relation to the contemporary phenomenology and embodied cognitive science respectively. The Daoist aesthetic experience is connected to community ethics based on the principle of producing the optimal flourishing of the body and the world.


2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 107-129
Author(s):  
Marta Baron-Milian

The article constitutes an attempt at analysing futurist pronatalist discourse, on the basis of the manifestos and artistic praxis of the Futurists. The reproduction postulates, prevalent in the works of the Polish Futurists and usually placed in the context of vitalism, characteristic of the 1920s, are shown from a biopolitical perspective, emphasizing the intersection of the biological with the political and social horizons. The author attempts to trace especially the political entanglements of the “population project” of the Polish Futurists, which turns out be marked by numerous paradoxes, situating itself between the pronatalist rhetoric typical of nationalistdiscourse (on the one hand, the discourse promoted by F.T. Marinetti, and on the other, the one formulated in Poland directly after regaining independence) and thinking in terms of a community which starts from the material functions of the body. In this second context, the reproduction postulates are not only an attack on bourgeois morality, but are closely connected with the futurist critique of all social institutions and the state apparatus with its biopolitical dispositions.


2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 364-381
Author(s):  
Margot Gayle Backus ◽  
Spurgeon Thompson

As virtually all Europe's major socialist parties re-aligned with their own national governments with the outbreak of World War I, Irish socialist and trade unionist James Connolly found himself internationally isolated by his vociferous opposition to the war. Within Ireland, however, Connolly's energetic and relentless calls to interrupt the imperial transportation and communications networks on which the ‘carnival of murder’ in Europe relied had the converse effect, drawing him into alignment with certain strains of Irish nationalism. Connolly and other socialist republican stalwarts like Helena Molony and Michael Mallin made common cause with advanced Irish nationalism, the one other constituency unamenable to fighting for England under any circumstances. This centripetal gathering together of two minority constituencies – both intrinsically opposed, if not to the war itself, certainly to Irish Party leader John Redmond's offering up of the Irish Volunteers as British cannon fodder – accounts for the “remarkably diverse” social and ideological character of the small executive body responsible for the planning of the Easter Rising: the Irish Republican Brotherhood's military council. In effect, the ideological composition of the body that planned the Easter Rising was shaped by the war's systematic diversion of all individuals and ideologies that could be co-opted by British imperialism through any possible argument or material inducement. Although the majority of those who participated in the Rising did not share Connolly's anti-war, pro-socialist agenda, the Easter 1916 Uprising can nonetheless be understood as, among other things, a near letter-perfect instantiation of Connolly's most steadfast principle: that it was the responsibility of every European socialist to throw onto the gears of the imperialist war machine every wrench on which they could lay their hands.


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