Searching for “Tolerance” in Islamic Thought

Author(s):  
Humeira Iqtidar

This chapter argues that the search for liberal tolerance within Islamic thought will inevitably be a tautological, somewhat barren exercise, given the specific, historical origins of the liberal conception of tolerance. Moreover, through a comparison of the political ideas of two important Islamic thinkers of the twentieth century, Abul Aʻla Maududi (1903–1979), an influential Islamist thinker, and Javed Ahmed Ghamidi (1951–), a prominent contemporary public intellectual, the chapter argues for the value of thinking explicitly about the relationship between the state as an institution, and the political role of difference, rather than of revealing attitudes toward minorities or thinking of tolerance as a virtue.

2019 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 249-259
Author(s):  
Joseph Acquisto

This essay examines a polemic between two Baudelaire critics of the 1930s, Jean Cassou and Benjamin Fondane, which centered on the relationship of poetry to progressive politics and metaphysics. I argue that a return to Baudelaire's poetry can yield insight into what seems like an impasse in Cassou and Fondane. Baudelaire provides the possibility of realigning metaphysics and politics so that poetry has the potential to become the space in which we can begin to think the two of them together, as opposed to seeing them in unresolvable tension. Or rather, the tension that Baudelaire animates between the two allows us a new way of thinking about the role of esthetics in moments of political crisis. We can in some ways see Baudelaire as responding, avant la lettre, to two of his early twentieth-century readers who correctly perceived his work as the space that breathes a new urgency into the questions of how modern poetry relates to the world from which it springs and in which it intervenes.


ZARCH ◽  
2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victor Ténez Ybern

Si asumimos que el paisaje es el resultado perceptible de la relación dinámica entre un determinado grupo humano y su medio; esa definición que se cuenta entre las de más consenso entre aquellos que dicen hacer paisajes, suscita de inmediato ciertas preguntas: ¿Cuál es el papel de aquel que pretende crear paisajes, si el paisaje es un proceso que se da por si solo? ¿Hasta qué punto incide cambiar el aspecto de un lugar en esa relación entre la gente y su entorno cotidiano?El texto pretende explorar las consecuencias de esas paradójicas preguntas, a partir de una primera hipótesis: la del carácter intrínsecamente político del proyecto del paisaje. De esta hipótesis parte la intención de mostrar la evolución de la reflexión sobre ese papel político del hacer paisajes, en el que el hacedor de paisajes que está siempre situado entre los equilibrios de poder que se establecen entre las instituciones y la gente. A partir de aquí, se analizan algunos momentos clave de la historia de ese paisaje político, donde el “hacedor de paisajes” intenta encontrar su lugar.En el horizonte del texto, aparecen también imágenes de la historia reciente de mi ciudad, a modo de ilustración de lo dicho. If we accept that landscape is the perceptible result of the dynamic relationship process between a specific human group and an environment, this definition, which enjoys the most acceptance among those people who ‘make landscape’, immediately raises certain questions: What is the role of the person who aims to create landscapes, if landscape is a process that takes place on its own? To what point does this affect the relationship between people and their daily setting?This article initially aims to explore the consequences of that paradox through a first hypothesis: the intrinsically political nature of the landscape project. This hypothesis springs from the intention of describing the evolution of the reflection on this political role of making landscape, in which ‘landscape makers’ constantly find themselves affected by the balance of power established between institutions and people. Subsequently, analysis will be conducted on a series of key periods in the history of the political landscape in which landscape makers endeavour to find their place.Pictures of the recent history of my city appear interspersed within the text, in order to illustrate what has been described.


Author(s):  
Guillaume Heuguet

This exploratory text starts from a doctoral-unemployed experience and was triggered by the discussions within a collective of doctoral students on this particularly ambiguous status since it is situated between student, unemployed, worker, self-entrepreneur, citizen-subject of social rights or user-commuter in offices and forms. These discussions motivated the reading and commentary of a heterogeneous set of texts on unemployment, precariousness and the functioning of the institutions of the social state. This article thus focuses on the relationship between knowledge and unemployment, as embodied in the public space, in the relationship with Pôle Emploi, and in the academic literature. It articulates a threefold problematic : what is known and said publicly about unemployment? What can we learn from the very experience of the relationship with an institution like Pôle Emploi? How can these observations contribute to an understanding of social science inquiry and the political role of knowledge fromm precariousness?


2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (11) ◽  
pp. 228 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandro Busso

In modern democracies, nonprofit organizations and social enterprises have a relevant political role that may be threatened by the entry into the market of services. This risk increases in time of economic crisis, when the competition grows stronger and the economic needs become more urgent. Starting from this assumption, the article analyzes the relationship between the managerial strategies and the political role of the Italian third sector, focusing on the implications of the management models put in place in order to “survive” the 2008 economic crisis. Two ideal-typical strategies will be outlined, labelled respectively “entrepreneurial turn” and “hyper-embeddedness”, which seem to have effects both in terms of the manner in which the political role is realized, and in terms of the degree of politicization of the organizations. Since such strategies can both increase or decrease nonprofits’ political ambitions, it is not possible to give an interpretation in terms of a tout court distancing from politics. However, it will be argued that a trait common to all the trajectories is the withdrawal from what Mouffe defines “the political”, referring specifically to the dimension of conflict and antagonism.


1994 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 253-287 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. P. Salt

ABSTRACTThis paper investigates the relationship between constitutional ideas and political action during the 1630s by comparing the privately expressed ideas of Sir Simonds D'Ewes regarding ship money with his conduct regarding the levy, especially while he was sheriff of Suffolk in 1639–40. The first section investigates the constitutionalist views expressed in D'Ewes's ‘autobiography’, unpublished during his lifetime, and their relationship to D'Ewes's attitude to the political role of the levy. The second section studies D'Ewes's conduct as sheriff, in which he gave almost no expression to constitutionalist ideas, and suggests that he struck a middle course between neglect and zeal, while finding means to oppose the levy through his connections at court. The third section seeks to establish the reasons for the inconsistencies between D'Ewes's privately expressed ideas and his public conduct, which may have lain in a belief that, in the prevailing political situation, criticism of the levy had, in order to be effective, to be expressed in terms acceptable to potentially sympathetic courtiers; D'Ewes adapted the tone of his comments on ship money to his audience in order to achieve political ends, but had also to act in ways which would make that tone convincing. Participation in the collection of ship money was therefore not inconsistent with opposition to it.


Author(s):  
Roberto Miranda

In December of 2001, due to the financial crisis, Argentina had to suspend external payments. The country started a frantic process of abandonment of default thereafter. Research about the causes, processes, and mechanisms of the crisis has been focused on economic issues. The present work instead considers international politics. The aim of the paper is to analyze the role of the United Sates in the restructuring of Argentina’s debt. We consider the reasons, conditions, and actions developed by the hegemonic power in the relationship between Argentina and its creditors. We specially emphasize the political role played by the US government, a position that the US administration had no intention to assume neither before the debacle nor after the crisis started. We conclude that, despite the fact that Argentina has overcome the most difficult part of its default, the episode made evident, once more, the strong Argentine dependence towards the United States.


2021 ◽  
pp. 101-138
Author(s):  
Per Selle ◽  
Kristin Strømsnes

A vibrant civil society is important in a democratic system, and society’s contact with, opposition to and control of the political system is crucial for the democratic system to survive. In this chapter we look at the relationship between the Sámi Parliament and Sámi civil society from several perspectives: those of the party leaders and representatives, the civil society organizations, and the voters. We find that Sámi interest and participation in civil society is at the same level as that of the population at large when we measure participation in Sámi and Norwegian organizations combined. We also find that the level and type of contact between the parties represented in the Sámi Parliament and Sámi civil society organizations is limited, and that little points to these organizations having an important advocacy role. Their control and opposition role is weak. We conclude that the political role of Sámi civil society is weak and challenging for the Sámi political system and democracy.


2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 424-451
Author(s):  
Cristiane Brum Bernardes ◽  
Sarah Albertina Cerqueira Nunez

ABSTRACT – This article analyzes the challenges, obstacles, and theoretical and methodological advances that the ethnography of organizations can bring to journalism research based on two studies on legislative media in the Brazilian National Congress. It discusses how the triple identity of ethnographer-journalist-public servant complicates the analysis of these media outlets, creating an environment favorable to reflexivity. Based on the assumption that such media are a privileged space to observe the relationship between the political and journalistic fields, this study concludes that the ethnography advantages are related to the possibility of perceiving and understanding the hybrid identity of the observed subjects, and the researchers themselves. The political role of actors in this context is complex and emphasized in order to further the understanding of the social role of journalism.RESUMO – Este estudo analisa desafios, obstáculos e avanços teóricos e metodológicos que a perspectiva da etnografia das organizações pode trazer à pesquisa em jornalismo, com base em duas análises das mídias legislativas do Congresso Nacional. Discute-se como a tripla identidade de etnógrafa-jornalistaservidora pública complexifica as análises sobre esses veículos, criando um ambiente favorável à reflexividade. Partindo do pressuposto de que tais mídias são um espaço privilegiado para observar a relação entre os campos político e jornalístico, o estudo conclui que os ganhos da etnografia estão relacionados à possibilidade de perceber e compreender a identidade híbrida dos sujeitos observados, e do próprio pesquisador. No contexto estudado, o papel político dos atores é complexificado e colocado em evidência, o que amplia a compreensão do papel social do jornalismo.RESUMEN – Este estudio aborda desafíos, obstáculos y avances teóricos y metodológicos que la perspectiva de la etnografía de las organizaciones puede aportar a la investigación en periodismo, a partir de dos análisis de los medios legislativos del Congreso Nacional brasileño. Se discute cómo la triple identidad de etnógrafo-periodista-servidor público compleja el análisis de estos vehículos, creando un ambiente favorable a la reflexividad. Partiendo del supuesto de que dichos medios son un espacio privilegiado para observar la relación entre los campos político y periodístico, el estudio concluye que las ganancias de la etnografía están relacionadas con la posibilidad de percibir y comprender la identidad híbrida de los sujetos observados y del propio investigador. En el contexto estudiado, se compleja y resalta el rol político de los actores, lo que amplía la comprensión de la función social del periodismo.


2011 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 277-310
Author(s):  
Mauricio Duarte

This article examines the relationship between poetic writing and the discourse of landscape in Madera Viva y árbol difunto (1982) by Blanca Wiethüchter (1947-2004). Landscape is often understood as a modern device of normative representation in which people and places are classified merely as private property. I argue that Wiethüchter’s poetry establishes a counter-narrative of the landscape through the use of a poetic gaze that reinstates social and marginal imaginaries by recognizing the materiality of such landscape and, most importantly, the political role of imagination in shaping the sense of the real. In doing so, I show how Wiethüchter uses poetic language to claim multiple and conflictive realities that lie beneath the names and harmonic appearances of things. Finally, by analyzing Wiethüchter’ poetic and critical work in dialogue with thinkers and scholars such as García Linera, Mamani, Zavaleta Mercado, and Rivera Cusicanqui, this article contributes to the understanding of the politics of representation during the 1980s in Bolivia.ResumenEste artículo examina la relación entre la escritura poética y el discurso del paisaje en Madera Viva y árbol difunto (1982) de Blanca Wiethüchter (1947-2004). A menudo el paisaje es entendido como un mecanismo moderno de representación normativa en la cual los sujetos y los lugares son clasificados simplemente como propiedad privada. Nuestro argumento propone que la poesía de Wiethüchter establece una contra-narrativa del paisaje a través del uso de una mirada poética que reinstala imaginarios sociales y marginales al reconocer la materialidad del paisaje y, más aún, el rol político de la imaginación en la configuración del sentido de realidad. Al proponer lo anterior, se muestra cómo Wiethüchter usa el lenguage poético para reclamar realidades múltiples y conflictivas anquilosadas bajo la armónica apariencia de las cosas. Finalmente, al analizar la obra poética y crítica de Wiethüchter en diálogo con pensadores como García Linera, Mamani, Zavaleta Mercado y Rivera Cusicanqui, este trabajo contribuye a las investigaciones realizadas en torno a la política de la representación en la Bolivia de 1980. 


Author(s):  
Alicia García Ruiz

Resumen: En este trabajo se realiza un recorrido por la idea de protesta a lo largo de tres dimensiones. En primer lugar, se trata la relación de la protesta con la ley (incluyendo aquí el problema de la desobediencia civil y de la tensión entre legalidad y legitimidad). En segundo lugar, se aborda el papel político de la contestación social en el funcionamiento de las sociedades democráticas. En tercer lugar, se analiza el problema del populismo punitivo y las políticas represivas en el contexto de sociedades fuertemente marcadas por la desigualdad, la pobreza y la conflictividad social.Palabras clave: Protesta, desobediencia, democracia, legalidad, legitimidad.Abstract: In this article, the idea of protest is approached along three dimensions. First, it deals with the relationship between protest and law (with particular attention to the problem of civil disobedience and the tension between legality and legitimacy). Secondly, the political role of social contestation in the functioning of democratic societies is addressed. Finally, the problem of punitive populism and repressive policies is analyzed in the context of societies strongly marked by inequality, poverty and social conflict.Keywords: Protest, disobedience, democracy, legality, legitimacy.


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