The Creative Superiority of Self-Reproach

2018 ◽  
pp. 107-128
Author(s):  
Victoria Rimell

This chapter’s new reading of Horace’s AP teases out how this text negotiates a delicate tension and balance between Horace’s own inferior social status and superior status as older expert, and the superior social status and inferior age/expertise of the young Pisones for whom he writes. It traces how the text renders productive the challenges that result from these asymmetries by modelling and performing a mode of critical thinking centred on self-critique and self-reflection. Taking into account the dimension of class difference enables a new understanding of the AP’s emphasis on coherence and its obsession with tragedy, by pointing to the challenges contained and represented in the political microcosm of the theatre where—just as in Horace’s pedagogical encounter with the Pisones—shifting power relations among an unwieldy mix of members from different classes, all jointly engaged in the performance of art and art criticism, need to be carefully negotiated.

Author(s):  
Christian Gilliam

Christian Gilliam argues that a philosophy of ‘pure’ immanence is integral to the development of an alternative understanding of ‘the political’; one that re-orients our understanding of the self toward the concept of an unconscious or ‘micropolitical’ life of desire. He argues that here, in this ‘life’, is where the power relations integral to the continuation of post-industrial capitalism are most present and most at stake. Through proving its philosophical context, lineage and political import, Gilliam ultimately justifies the conceptual necessity of immanence in understanding politics and resistance, thereby challenging the claim that ontologies of ‘pure’ immanence are either apolitical or politically incoherent.


Author(s):  
Christopher Bobonich

The dialogues that are most obviously important for Plato’s political philosophy include: the Apology, the Crito, the Gorgias, the Laws, the Republic, and the Statesman. Further, there are many questions of political philosophy that Plato discusses in his dialogues. These topics include, among others: (1) the ultimate ends of the city’s laws and institutions; (2) who should rule, the forms of constitution, and their ranking; (3) what institutions and offices there should be; (4) the nature and extent of citizens’ obligation to obey the laws; (5) the proper criterion of citizenship; (6) the political and social status of women; (7) the purposes of punishment; (8) private property; and (9) slavery. This chapter attempts to provide an overall picture of Plato’s political philosophy, focusing on three moments: the “Socratic” dialogues, including the Apology and the Crito; the great middle-period work, the Republic, along with the Phaedo; and finally, two works from Plato’s last period, the Statesman and the Laws.


SEEU Review ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brikena Xhaferi ◽  
Gezim Xhaferi

Abstract Learning through reflection is one of the most interesting experiences that students might have. It is considered a very good tool for self-assessing learning. It is believed that “teachers who promote reflective classrooms ensure that students are fully engaged in the process of making meaning” (Costa and Kallick, 2008, para.5). Dewey (1991) was among the first researchers who based his work and research on the positive roles that reflection plays in fostering self-reflection and critical thinking. He has defined it as an active, persistent and careful consideration of any belief. Reflections give students opportunities to think and reflect about their learning and note down the obstacles they might face during this process. The present study aims to investigate the impact of journal writing in promoting critical-thinking skills, and its impact on enhancing learning. The study uses two instruments, a student refection journal and an interview. Also, Marzano’s New Taxonomy of Educational Objectives developed in 2000 was used in the third phase of the study. This Taxonomy contains Three Systems: the Self-system, the Metacognitive system and the Cognitive system. The overall study results show that reflection journals help students to become more independent learners, reflect on their learning experiences and identify the most useful learning strategies. Most importantly, all study participants hold positive attitudes towards reflection and they consider it as a valuable tool which can increase learning.


2021 ◽  
pp. 136754942199423
Author(s):  
Anne M Cronin ◽  
Lee Edwards

Drawing on a case study of public relations in the UK charity sector, this article argues that cultural intermediary research urgently requires a more sustained focus on politics and the political understood as power relations, party politics and political projects such as marketization and neoliberalism. While wide-ranging research has analysed how cultural intermediaries mediate the relationship between culture and economy, this has been at the expense of an in-depth analysis of the political. Using our case study as a prompt, we highlight the diversity of ways that the political impacts cultural intermediary work and that cultural intermediary work may impact the political. We reveal the tensions that underpin practice as a result of the interactions between culture, the economy and politics, and show that the tighter the engagement of cultural intermediation with the political sphere, the more tensions must be negotiated and the more compromised practitioners may feel.


2003 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Zeller

Elements of a geography of capitalism. Despite the variety of new approaches economic geography developed rather one-sided in the past decade. The regional and the firm lenses hardly enabled to recognize how economic processes and political power relations interact on different scales. These empirical deficits also express a restricted theoretical base. The approaches of the new “regional orthodoxy” claim to explain conditions of an improved competitiveness of firms and of regions. However, many socially relevant and spatially differentiated problems are ignored. In contrast, this paper argues for an integrative understanding of the capitalist economy in its historical dynamics and with its reciprocal effects for actors on various scales. In the course of neoliberal deregulation policies and globalization processes, a finance-dominated accumulation regime emerged in the USA which shapes the economy on a global scale. Institutional investors gained decisive control over investments. The political power relations and hierarchies between states remain important. Therefore, the paper suggests a shift of economic geographical research. In the perspective of an integrative geography of capitalism the paper outlines a research agenda of a geography of accumulation, a geography of production as well as a geography of power


Res Publica ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-99
Author(s):  
Jo Buelens ◽  
Kris Deschouwer

The municipalities in the Capital Region of Brussels have the same legal statuts as the other Belgian municipalities. Yet the political reality is quite different, and requires a different approach. Three specific aspects of the Brussels municipalities are discussed. They are bilingual, which leads to very specific strategical problems. Moreover the power relations between parties fluctuate a lot in Brussels. And finally the small size of the Region leads to an incremental 'emptying' of a number of local competencies by the powerfull political executive of the Region.


Organization ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 135050842110612
Author(s):  
Daniel S Lacerda

The spatial imaginations of organisations can be particularly insightful for examining power relations. However, only recently they have gone beyond the limits of the workplace, demonstrating the role of the territory for organised action, particularly in mobilising solidarity for resistance. In this article, I investigate power relations revealed by the political economy of the territory to explain contradictory actions undertaken by organisations. Specifically, I adopt the theoretical framework of the noted Brazilian geographer Milton Santos, who recognises spatial multiplicity and fragmentation while maintaining an appreciation of the structural conditions of the political economy. This perspective is particularly useful for the analysis of civil society organisations (CSOs) in a Brazilian favela (slum), given the context of high inequality perpetuated by the selective flows of urban development. First, I show that the history of favelas and their role in the territorial division of labour explain the profiles of existing organisations. Then, I examine how the political engagement of CSOs with distinct solidarities results in a dialectical tension that leads to both resistance based on local shared interests and the active reproduction of central spaces even if the ends are not shared. The article contributes to the literature of space and organisations by explaining how territorial dynamics mediate power relations within and across organisations, not only as resistance but also as the active reproduction of economic and political regimes.


2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 186
Author(s):  
Myles Carroll

This article considers the role played by discourses of nature in structuring the cultural politics of anti-GMO activism. It argues that such discourses have been successful rhetorical tools for activists because they mobilize widely resonant nature-culture dualisms that separate the natural and human worlds. However, these discourses hold dubious political implications. In valorizing the natural as a source of essential truth, natural purity discourses fail to challenge how naturalizations have been used to legitimize sexist, racist and colonial systems of injustice and oppression. Rather, they revitalize the discursive purchase of appeals to nature as a justification for the status quo, indirectly reinforcing existing power relations. Moreover, these discourses fail to challenge the critical though contingent reality of GMOs' location within the wider framework of neoliberal social relations. Fortunately, appeals to natural purity have not been the only effective strategy for opposing GMOs. Activist campaigns that directly target the political economic implications of GMOs within the context of neoliberalism have also had successes without resorting to appeals to the purity of nature. The successes of these campaigns suggest that while nature-culture dualisms remain politically effective normative groundings, concerns over equity, farmers' rights, and democracy retain potential as ideological terrains in the struggle for social justice.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Felix Lo

In the 20th century, several scholars across different disciplines have explored the relations between sociality and the associated perceptions of time and space. This paper draws on their theories to study how the Facebook News Feed feature inscribes users with a certain kind of temporality and spatiality. Building on Manual Castells' characterization of online activities as a "temporal collage" it argues that, through the interactions with News Feeds, users encounter the desequencing of the temporality of their social space. It further analyzes a News Feed page as a temporal object as defined by Bernard Stiegler, and adopts his critique of cinematic time to reveal how this feature inscribes an "always on" behavior for users even when they are offline. It concludes by discussing the political significance of this temporality and spatiality in two different senses: the constant acceleration in the pace of life and online surveillance. It draws on David Harvey's concept of space-time compression to discuss the relations between the temporality of Facebook and capitalism, and on Anthony Gidden's time-space distantiation to discuss the power relations of online surveillance.


2021 ◽  
pp. 233-253
Author(s):  
Igor I. Barinov

The article examines the biography of Valentin Dittmann, a lawyer and politician of Baltic-German origin, who became a counselor of the Diplomatic Mission of the Belarusian People’s Republic (BNR) in Berlin. The German-language brochure “Weissruthenien” was published with Dittmann’s active involvement and was considered as the main source of information about this region in Germany for a long time. In a broader context, through the prism of Dittmann’s life and activities, the transformation of the system of ideas and motivations of former Imperial elites after the 1917 revolution became the subject of research. The desire to preserve and improve their social status during the political instability has significantly expanded the boundaries of imaginary. In particular, the elite representatives previously loyal to the throne could drastically change their views on the very idea of a “strong state”. From now on their position ranged from federalism to cooperation with those who were previously considered as “separatists”. On the example of Dittmann, we can follow the peculiar experience of the “homo impericus”, who strove to combine the elitist consciousness inherited from his ancestors with national democratic political views and local (Belo) russian patriotism.


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