Carl Schmitt’s Spatial Rhetoric

Author(s):  
Oliver Simons

By the end of the 1930s space (Raum) had become a common catchword in the writings of Carl Schmitt. This chapter argues that space was not merely a theme during this phase of his career, but was linked to a rhetorical strategy and mode of argumentation. Focusing on Land and Sea (1942) and “Nomos” of the Earth (1950), the first two sections show how Schmitt developed two contrasting modes of argumentation inextricably intertwined with his theory of space and the poetics of his writing. In the final section Agamben’s comments on Schmitt’s “topology” and the collaborative work A Thousand Plateaus by Deleuze and Guattari serve as case studies for recent reconfigurations of Schmitt’s spatial thought. The analysis of their appropriations of Schmitt points to major differences between his original perspective on space and these contemporary theories. Schmitt’s spatial theory is deeply rooted in the epistemology of the early twentieth century.

TERRITORIO ◽  
2009 ◽  
pp. 104-115
Author(s):  
Francesco Chiodelli

- Carl Schmitt, a controversial twentieth century jurist and political philosopher never addressed the subject of urban planning. Nevertheless, many of his intuitions and theoretical suggestions, buried before their time together with the ashes of the Modern, are still able to stimulate thought which enquires into the intimate nature of space and those disciplines which deal with it. More specifically, this paper analyses three key concepts of Schmitt's theory (the nomos of the earth, the earth-sea dichotomy and the political friend-enemy categories) that are particularly interesting because they provide fertile suggestions on the ‘arcanic' nature of space, useful suggestions for a more open-minded rereading of many subjects with which planners deal everyday. At the end of the essay, this possibility is examined in relation to the subject of the ‘space of globalisation'.


Author(s):  
Lesley Head

This article explores the idea of cultural landscapes. The term ‘cultural landscape’ is widely recognized as a description of a region of the earth that has been transformed by human action. This article explores the history of the idea of cultural landscapes, focusing on two dichotomies. The first is the dichotomy between materiality and symbolism; from highly material beginnings in the early twentieth century, the second is the dichotomy between nature and culture, concepts treated as oppositional for much of this history. It then examines some of the geographic differences, with particular attention to Australian and Scandinavian examples. The next section explores what happens when the cultural landscape idea itself becomes materialized, in the form of land and heritage management frameworks. The final section presents a recent critique of the cultural landscape concept and asks whether it is possible to go beyond the dichotomies, and whether the concept retains any usefulness.


2011 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 18-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rick Dolphijn

Starting with Antonin Artaud's radio play To Have Done With The Judgement Of God, this article analyses the ways in which Artaud's idea of the body without organs links up with various of his writings on the body and bodily theatre and with Deleuze and Guattari's later development of his ideas. Using Klossowski (or Klossowski's Nietzsche) to explain how the dominance of dialogue equals the dominance of God, I go on to examine how the Son (the facialised body), the Father (Language) and the Holy Spirit (Subjectification), need to be warded off in order to revitalize the body, reuniting it with ‘the earth’ it has been separated from. Artaud's writings on Balinese dancing and the Tarahumaran people pave the way for the new body to appear. Reconstructing the body through bodily practices, through religion and above all through art, as Deleuze and Guattari suggest, we are introduced not only to new ways of thinking theatre and performance art, but to life itself.


Author(s):  
Admink Admink

Прослідковуються урбанізаційні та дезурбанізаційні процеси в моді ХХ ст. Звернено увагу на недостатню вивченість питань естетичних та культурологічних аспектів формування моди як видовища в контексті образного простору культури повсякдення. Визначено видовищні виміри модної діяльності як комунікативної сцени. Наголошено на необхідності актуалізації народних мотивів свята, творчості в гурті, певної стилізації у митців та дизайнерів моди мистецтва ностальгійного, втраченого світу з метою осягнення фольклорної, глибинної стихії моди як екомунікативного простору культури повсякдення. Ключові слова: міф, мода, етнокультура, етнос, свято, площа Ключові слова: міф, мода, етнокультура, етнос, свято, площа. According to E. Moren ethnic cultural influences take place in urbanized environment and turn it into "island ontology".Everyday life ethnic culture is differentiated, specified as a certain type of spectacle. However, all that powerful cosmologism, which used to exist as an open-air theater in settlements, near rivers, grasslands, roads, is disappearing. The everyday life culture loses imperatives, patterns, and cosmological designs, where, for example, the “plahta” contains rhombuses, squares, and rectangles - images of the earth, and the top of the costume symbolizes the sky. Yes, the symbolic marriage of earth and sky was a prerequisite for marrying young people. The article deals with traces of the urbanization and deurbanization processes in the twentieth century fashion.Key words: ethnic culture, culture of everyday life, ethnics, holidays, variety show, knockabout comedy, square.


Our world of increasing and varied conflicts is confusing and threatening to citizens of all countries, as they try to understand its causes and consequences. However, how and why war occurs, and peace is sustained, cannot be understood without realizing that those who make war and peace must negotiate a complex world political map of sovereign spaces, borders, networks of communication, access to nested geographic scales, and patterns of resource distribution. This book takes advantage of a diversity of geographic perspectives as it analyzes the political processes of war and their spatial expression. Contributors to the volume examine particular manifestations of war in light of nationalism, religion, gender identities, state ideology, border formation, genocide, spatial rhetoric, terrorism, and a variety of resource conflicts. The final section on the geography of peace covers peace movements, diplomacy, the expansion of NATO, and the geography of post-war reconstruction. Case studies of numerous conflicts include Israel and Palestine, Afghanistan, Northern Ireland, Bosnia-Herzogovina, West Africa, and the attacks of September 11, 2001.


Author(s):  
Andy Lord

This chapter points to the ‘pluralization of the lifeworld’ involved in globalization as a key context for changing dissenting spiritualities through the twentieth century. These have included a remarkable upsurge in Spirit-movements that fall under categories such as Pentecostal, charismatic, neo-charismatic, ‘renewalist’, and indigenous Churches. Spirit language is not only adaptive to globalized settings, but brings with it eschatological assumptions. New spiritualities emerge to disrupt existing assumptions with prophetic and often critical voices that condemn aspects of the existing culture, state, and church life. This chapter outlines this process of disruption of the mainstream in case studies drawn from the USA, the UK, India, Africa, and Indonesia, where charismaticized Christianity has emerged and grown strongly in often quite resistant broader cultures.


Author(s):  
Adam J. Silverstein

This book examines the ways in which the biblical book of Esther was read, understood, and used in Muslim lands, from ancient to modern times. It zeroes-in on a selection of case studies, covering works from various periods and regions of the Muslim world, including the Qur’an, premodern historical chronicles and literary works, the writings of a nineteenth-century Shia feminist, a twentieth-century Iranian dictionary, and others. These case studies demonstrate that Muslim sources contain valuable materials on Esther, which shed light both on the Esther story itself and on the Muslim peoples and cultures that received it. The book argues that Muslim sources preserve important, pre-Islamic materials on Esther that have not survived elsewhere, some of which offer answers to ancient questions about Esther, such as the meaning of Haman’s epithet in the Greek versions of the story, the reason why Mordecai refused to prostrate himself before Haman, and the literary context of the “plot of the eunuchs” to kill the Persian king. Furthermore, throughout the book we will see how each author’s cultural and religious background influenced his or her understanding and retelling of the Esther story: In particular, it will be shown that Persian Muslims (and Jews) were often forced to reconcile or choose between the conflicting historical narratives provided by their religious and cultural heritages respectively.


Author(s):  
Paul D. Kenny

Case studies of Indonesia and Japan illustrate that party-system stability in patronage democracies is deeply affected by the relative autonomy of political brokers. Over the course of a decade, a series of decentralizing reforms in Indonesia weakened patronage-based parties hold on power, with the 2014 election ultimately being a contest between two rival populists: Joko Widodo and Subianto Prabowo. Although Japan was a patronage democracy throughout the twentieth century, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) remained robust to outsider appeals even in the context of economic and corruption crises. However, reforms in the 1990s weakened the hold of central factional leaders over individual members of the LDP and their patronage machines. This was instrumental to populist Junichiro Koizumi’s winning of the presidency of the LDP and ultimately the prime ministership of Japan. This chapter also reexamines canonical cases of populism in Latin America.


Author(s):  
Nicholas J. Wheeler

This Introduction to the book does three things. First, it introduces the concept of trust and develops a definition of trust as the ‘expectation of no harm in contexts where betrayal is always a possibility’. Next, it identities two conceptions of trust that guide the book, ‘calculative trust’ and ‘trust as suspension’, which provide very different explanations for how actors form expectations that another will be trustworthy. It then shows how trust as suspension opens up a new theory of accurate signal interpretation and demonstrates how this theory is superior to costly signalling-based theories of accurate signal interpretation. The final section of the Introduction sets out the rationale for the case studies and the key assumptions.


Author(s):  
Anthea Kraut

This chapter juxtaposes brief case studies of African American vernacular dancers from the first half of the twentieth century in order to reexamine the relationship between the ideology of intellectual property law and the traditions of jazz and tap dance, which rely heavily on improvisation. The examples of the blackface performer Johnny Hudgins, who claimed a copyright in his pantomime routine in the 1920s, and of Fred and Sledge, the class-act dance duo featured in the hit 1948 musical Kiss Me, Kate, whose choreography was copyrighted by the white modern dancer Hanya Holm, prompt a rethinking of the assumed opposition between the originality and fixity requirements of copyright law and the improvisatory ethos of jazz and tap dance. Ultimately, the chapter argues that whether claiming or disavowing uniqueness, embracing or resisting documentation, African American vernacular dancers were both advantaged and hampered by copyright law.


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