Ambivalence and Citizenship: Theorising the Political Claims of Irregular Migrants

2012 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 182-200 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne McNevin
Keyword(s):  
Human Mobility ◽  
Political Community ◽  
The Political ◽  
Giorgio Agamben ◽  
Irregular Migrants ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
International Theory ◽  
Political Relations ◽  
Starting Point

Irregular migration gives rise to political claims that test the limits of political community and the expression of human rights in an increasingly interconnected world. This article provides a theorisation of the political claims of irregular migrants that starts with the notion of ambivalence. I argue that the ambivalence present in such claims can be understood as a political resource that is generative of new political relations across the terrain of human mobility and border control. In order to discern the generative quality of ambivalence, I argue in addition for an approach to theory production that is grounded in concrete migrant struggles. The argument is made via a critique of two theoretical perspectives that are influential amongst scholars working at the intersection of Migration Studies and Political and International Theory: the work of Giorgio Agamben and the ‘Autonomy of Migration’. An approach that avoids the reductive accounts of power evident in both perspectives provides a better starting point from which to assess the transformative potential of irregular migrants’ political claims.

The Scottish Political Community and the Parliament of 1563

2003 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 373-397 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julian Goodare
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Political Community ◽  
The Political ◽  
Scottish Parliament ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Government ◽  
Scottish History

When Mary queen of Scots met her first Parliament, she encountered an institution that had long played an influential part in Scottish history. The Scottish Parliament was important for its legislation and taxation, but it was even more important as the forum in which the political community assembled to take major decisions about how the government should be configured. This article uses a newly-discovered list of those attending the Parliament of 1563 as the starting-point for an investigation of the political community in Mary's reign.Although our understanding of sixteenth-century politics has been much enhanced by studies focused on “kingship,” many crucial issues concern relationships among people other than the king. For more than half of the century there was no adult monarch present, and government had to be carried on by consensus between a regent and the nobility. Adult monarchs usually had more power than temporary regents, but they, too, had to seek consensus if they were to rule successfully.

scholarly journals Science, Technology and Society: integrating social-science in the energy debate

2021 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simone Abram
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Energy Production ◽  
Energy Systems ◽  
The Political ◽  
Cultural Economic ◽  
Science Technology ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
Energy Flows ◽  
Political Relations ◽  
Production Distribution

Abstract This paper introduces key current themes in social sciences of energy that look beyond conventional concerns with energy consumers. Close, detailed studies of energy practices at all levels can offer insights into the ways that energy systems are enmeshed in social, legal, cultural, economic and political frameworks that pre-empt expectations about energy production, distribution and consumption. By bringing a sociological and anthropological focus onto the energy industries themselves, social sciences can offer new theoretical perspectives, reveal the political relations that accompany energy flows, and offer new ways to think about the potentials for current and future energy systems.

Loddet er kastet: Om bruken av innbyggerpaneler i lokalpolitikken

2021 ◽  
pp. 253-283
Author(s):  
Sveinung Arnesen ◽  
Anne Lise Fimreite ◽  
Jacob Aars
Keyword(s):  
Political System ◽  
Representative Democracy ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Internal Quality ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Opinion Formation ◽  
External Quality ◽  
Starting Point

This chapter examines a citizens’ panel (a ‘mini-public’) that took place in the municipality of Bergen in 2018. We begin by discussing mini-publics as innovative measures to increase participation in political systems. In the literature, the internal quality of the panels – who is recruited and included on the panel and how opinion formation is organized – is emphasized. How mini-publics affect the political/representative political system – the external quality of the panels – has not been studied as thoroughly, and is therefore the analytical starting point for our chapter. In the empirical part of the chapter, we present the panel in Bergen, how it was recruited and organized, and the recommendations it made to decision-makers in the municipality. We also explore how citizens in Bergen assess these sorts of innovative democratic measures. The chapter ends with a discussion of the mini-public’s place in a representative democracy – are mini-publics supplements or alternatives?

The Politics of Global Constitutionalism

ICL Journal ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ekaterina Yahyaoui Krivenko
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
Political Community ◽  
Carl Schmitt ◽  
The Political ◽  
Giorgio Agamben ◽  
Political Dimension ◽  
Current State ◽  
Global Constitutionalism ◽  
Open Discussion ◽  
State Form

AbstractThe article argues that no understanding of global constitutionalism will be complete without a thorough discussion of its political dimension. The current state of scholarship on global constitutionalism is dominated by discussions of legal elements. However, any theory of global constitutionalism has an underlying vision of the political. Without discussing this underlying vision of the political global constitutionalism will remain incomplete. In particular the article demonstrates that the contemporary debates on global constitutionalism are plagued by a contradiction between its aims and its underlying vision of the political. Thus, global constitutionalism postulates individuals as central units of its concern. However, by maintaining states as central actors although in a changed form and with fewer powers global constitutionalism unwittingly subscribes to a vision of the political anchored in the state form and based on the exclusion/inclusion dynamic. This vision of the political is most clearly articulated by Carl Schmitt. The discussion of his view of the political demonstrates that the political based on the state form makes the project of global constitutionalism impossible. The only way forward is an open discussion of different visions of the political and a search for a more adequate vision of the political able to further the aims of global constitutionalism and its focus on individuals. The article discusses one of these alternative visions of the political, namely the concept of the coming politics and coming community as articulated by Giorgio Agamben. It demonstrates how with this vision of the political the project of global constitutionalism can conceive of a political community fully dedicated to the singularities of each individual human being without creating divisions. The article concludes that in order for global constitutionalism to continue as a viable project, an open and explicit discussion of the political is called for.

Irregular migrants, neoliberal geographies and spatial frontiers of ‘the political’

2007 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 655-674 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANNE McNEVIN
Keyword(s):  
The Political ◽  
Multidimensional Approach ◽  
Irregular Migration ◽  
Irregular Migrants ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Us ◽  
Migration Flows ◽  
Political Communities ◽  
The Right ◽  
Economic Zones

AbstractIn this article I argue that the demands of irregular migrants to belong to political communities constitute key contemporary sites of ‘the political’. I also argue that geographies associated with neoliberal globalisation (transnational production circuits, special economic zones and global cities) are implicated in irregular migration flows and in new conceptions of political belonging. In relation to these claims, I reflect upon recent mobilisations in the US context, in which hundreds of thousands of irregular migrants and their supporters asserted the right to belong. I suggest that similar claims to belong are likely to proliferate and that neoliberal geographies may provide some clues as to where and how these contemporary frontiers of the political might proceed. I conclude by suggesting that a multidimensional approach to political belonging provides a sound conceptual starting point for the analytical and normative challenges raised by both the claims of non-status migrants and the sovereign practices of contemporary states.

scholarly journals Aristotle and the Constitution of the Political Community

2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-46
Author(s):  
Esben Korsgaard Rasmussen ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Vital Role ◽  
Political Community ◽  
Political Life ◽  
The Political ◽  
Bare Life ◽  
Giorgio Agamben ◽  
Viable Option ◽  
Point Of Entry

In this paper I will argue that the distinction between biological life and political life as found in Hannah Arendt’s reading of Aristotle and later repeated and elaborated by Giorgio Agamben under the headings of (“bare life”) and (“qualified life”), is in fact a fertile point of entry to , and the only viable option in order the grasp what constitutes the political as such for Aristotle. By hashing out the conceptual steps necessary for the establishment of what can be called a “political community” , I seek to illuminate how the distinction upon which much of Arendt’s and Agamben’s works rests, does indeed play a vital role in the work of Aristotle. By clarifying the nature of a “political community” according to Aristotle, this paper thus seeks to make a proper assessment of the thought of both Arendt and Agamben possible.

scholarly journals Voice of Society and the Crisis: The Potential and Limits of Reflexivity and Civility

Stan Rzeczy ◽  
2017 ◽  
pp. 277-301
Author(s):  
Víctor Pérez-Díaz
Keyword(s):  
Political Community ◽  
Historical Narratives ◽  
The Political ◽  
Cultural Resources ◽  
Economic Knowledge ◽  
Opinion Survey ◽  
Political Class ◽  
Global Context ◽  
Collective Agent

The strategic capacity of human agency to orient itself in a context of growing uncertainty and complexity depends on the degree and quality of its reflexivity and relationality, and of the civic impulse arising from the connection between both. The present article explores this capacity by analysing the results of an opinion survey carried out in May 2016, and by developing an argument about one collective agent: the Spanish citizenry. Spanish citizens send three main messages. First, they opt for a European course and for a range of policies consistent with convergence (and debate) between the traditions of social democracy and conservative liberalism. Second, they are attentive to the task of recreating a political community. Third, they ask for civil forms of doing politics. To send these messages they draw on socio-cultural resources, and forms of reflexivity and relationality. The article addresses society’s relations with the political class and with itself and the cultural resources (economic knowledge, historical narratives) that map these relationships within their global context and their past.

scholarly journals The Romanian-Finnish Cultural Relations: History, Trends, Bibliography

2009 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 112-127
Author(s):  
Alexandru Popescu
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
The Political ◽  
Cultural Relations ◽  
Scientific Interest ◽  
Political Relations ◽  
History Of ◽  
Selective Bibliography ◽  
The 19Th Century

The scientific interest for the study of the Romanian-Finnish relations considerably increased during the last years. Within this trend, this article focuses on the Romanian-Finnish cultural relations and briefly presents the most important events and moments in the history of these relations, from the 19th century to the present. It also includes a selective bibliography on the Romanian-Finnish cultural relations, with works published both in Finland and Romania. The article stresses the need for further research in the field of Romanian-Finnish cultural relations, noticing that when the quality of the political relations was negatively affected by different historical circumstances, the cultural contacts have been maintained and even developed.

Contiguity, constituencies, and the political representation of minorities

2020 ◽  
pp. 239965442097240
Author(s):  
Benjamin Forest ◽  
Mike Medeiros
Keyword(s):  
Political Representation ◽  
Political Community ◽  
The Political ◽  
Minority Representation ◽  
Democratic Deliberation ◽  
Clear Association ◽  
Per Se ◽  
Political Communities

Contiguity is commonly treated as an essential, albeit noncontroversial quality of electoral districts. In contrast, we argue that the virtues ascribed to contiguity – discouraging gerrymandering, facilitating democratic deliberation, and mirroring political communities – either have weak justifications in practice or do not have a clear association with contiguity per se. Moreover, contiguity can impose significant constraints on minority representation when minorities live in segregated, widely separated settlements. We use examples from Canada to demonstrate the effects of contiguity on minority representation by creating sets of non-contiguous constituencies that substantially increase the number of districts with minority majorities. More generally, we argue that scholars should pay more attention to how the conflation of contiguity and political community are woven into state practices.

TEORIE DELLA TRANSIZIONE E ANALISI DEL SISTEMA POLITICO: IL CASO ITALIANO

2001 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 313-327
Author(s):  
Gianfranco Pasquino
Keyword(s):  
Systems Analysis ◽  
Similar Case ◽  
Political Community ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Fifth Republic ◽  
Italian Case ◽  
Transitions To Democracy ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The One

Summary Reviewing the book devoted by Sergio Fabbrini to the Italian transition, the author makes three major criticisms. The first is that the book does not provide a precise formulation of what a transition really is and, therefore, does not satisfactorily identify the beginning of the Italian transition. The second criticism is that there is no attempt to utilize some of the existing theories to explain the Italian case. The reviewer strongly suggests that Easton's systems analysis might be a useful starting point. In fact, in the Italian as well as in several other transitions, the three major components of the political system: the political community, the regime, and the authorities, are significantly affected. Fabbrini does not refer to Easton's systems analysis and makes little use of the theory of the veto players as articulated by Tsebelis. The third criticism refers to the very episodical comparison between the Italian transition and the French transition that led to the Fifth Republic. On the one hand, the reviewer points to the fact that the Fourth French Republic was the most similar case to the First Italian Republic and, on the other hand, strongly suggests, contrary to Fabbrini's conclusion, that the French semipresidential solution might satisfactorily work in Italy as well. In the end, this review article underlines the need for the cumulation of knowledge, for the reliance on existing theories, and for the comparison of whole political systems in order to obtain a better understanding of the transitions to democracy.

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