Patrícias, Patriarchy, and Popular Demobilization: Gender and Elite Hegemony in Brazil at the End of the Paraguayan War

2012 ◽  
Vol 92 (2) ◽  
pp. 303-330 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wiebke Ipsen

Abstract This essay examines the role of upper-class Brazilian women (patrícias) in the public sphere during and after the Paraguayan War (1864–70). Barred from formal citizenship by the Constitution of 1824, upper-class women developed a form of “delicate citizenship” through which they projected themselves onto the national stage. In support of the war effort, they organized fund drives and sent uniforms and other supplies to the front. Following Brazil’s victory, they sponsored parades and other public festivities in honor of the returning troops. While hailing the army’s achievements in Paraguay, the victory celebrations also stressed the theme of peacetime demobilization and the return of the troops to their civilian roles and identities. Such demobilization would reduce or eliminate the potential political role of the veterans, drawn overwhelmingly from the country’s working-class and slave populations, and reaffirm the principles of monarchical rule and social inequality. Particularly important in the symbolism of the victory celebrations was Ana Néri, an upper-class widow and mother from Bahia who served as a nurse in Paraguay. Publicly embraced as the “mãe dos brasileiros” (mother of Brazilians), her embodiment of the female virtues of tenderness, caring, and self-sacrifice made her the perfect exemplar of the patricias’ movement and of delicate citizenship.

2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 309
Author(s):  
Zaprulkhan Zaprulkhan

<p><strong>Abstract:</strong><strong><em> </em></strong><em>As if it never finished to talk about the role of women in the public sphere. This is because the role of women in the public sphere, particularly in their political role is considered to be less significant. Up to the third millennium, some scholars and intellectuals still had a negative view about the role of positive contribution of women in the political arena. They interpreted the Qor’an and the hadith (traditions of the Prophet, sayings of the Prophet)</em> <em>textually with which prohibited women involve in politics. Through constructive critics and holistic reconstruction, this study tried to explore the political role of women in the public sphere based on ‘notion’ of Musdah Mulia. According to Musdah, the important things that should be done was not only the reconstruction of the interpretation of the fundamental doctrines of Islam (Qur'an and Hadith), but also practical implementation in the fields of education, culture, and public policies. All reconstructions of woman</em> <em>role in political leadership should be carried out simultaneously in order to produce concrete changes. This is because there were a number of internal factors that had caused women not be able to play their role significantly in the political sphere that consisted of figure of women themselves who were unconfident and passive to the given opportunities they had. They also got lack of support; they were chained in stereotypes as guardians of household, and still confined by misogynistic tradition, as well as caused by the biased interpretation of religious doctrines related to the patriarchal values and gender domain.</em> <em></em></p><p dir="RTL"><strong>الملخص</strong> :كاد لا ينتهي الحديث عن دور المرأة في وسط المجتمع . وذلك لأن دورها فيه – وخاصة في المجال السياسي – قليل. وإلى هذا الحين لا يزال بعض العلماء والمثقفين نظروا إلى دور المرأة الإيجابي في وسط المجتمع نظرة سلبية.  فسّر هؤلاء الآيات القرآنية والأحاديث النبوية الناهية المرأة عن الاشتراك في المجال السياسي تفسيرا حرفيا. حاولت هذه الدراسة – بمدخل نقدي بنّاء شامل – دراسة الدور السياسي للمرأة وسط المجتمع فكرة موسدة موليا. ترى موسدة أن العمل الواجب قيامه به هو، ليس فقط إعادة طريقة تفسير القرآن والحديث بل كذلك إيجاد الحركات في مجال التربية، والثقافة، والقرارات الإجتماعية. وجميع إعادة بناء لدور المرأة لابد أن تقام جماعية لتحقيق التغيّر الواقعيّ. وهذا لأن هناك عوامل داخلية للمرأة تمنع المرأة للتدخّل في المجال السياسي، وهي عدم ثقتها بنفسها وعدم انتهازها للفرصة الموجودة. وكذلك التأييد لها قليل، محبوسة في ضوء المقولة " إنها ربّة البيت"،</p><p><strong>Abstrak: </strong><em>Membincang peran perempuan di wilayah publik, seakan tidak pernah selesai. Hal ini karena peran perempuan di wilayah publik ini, khususnya peran politik diyakini masih kurang signifikan. </em><em>Hingga memasuki milenium ketiga, masih terdapat sebagian ulama dan cendekiawan yang memandang negatif peran dan kontribusi positif kaum perempuan di ranah politik. Mereka melakukan interpretasi secara tekstual terhadap al-Quran dan hadis yang melarang kaum perempuan terlibat dalam politik. Melalui kritik konstruktif dan rekonstruksi holistik, kajian ini mencoba untuk mengeksplorasi peran politik kaum perempuan di ruang publik gagasan Musdah Mulia. Bagi Musdah, hal yang perlu dilakukan adalah tidak saja rekonstruksi interpretasi terhadap doktrin-doktrin fundamental Islam (al-Quran dan hadis), tapi juga gerakan praktis dalam bidang pendidikan, kebudayaan, dan kebijakan publik. Semua rekonstruksi terhadap peran kepemimpinan politik perempuan tersebut mesti dilakukan secara bersamaan agar menghasilkan perubahan secara konkret. Hal ini karena terdapat sejumlah faktor internal yang menyebabkan perempuan tidak bisa berperan secara signifikan dalam ranah politik yang mencakup pada sosok perempuan sendiri yang kurang percaya diri dan pasif terhadap peluang yang ada. Mereka juga kurang mendapat dukungan, terbelenggu stereotip sebagai penjaga ranah domestik, masih terkungkung tradisi misoginis, serta penafsiran agama yang bias nilai-nilai patriarki dan bias gender. </em></p><p><strong>Keywords: </strong>perempuan, publik, steorotip, patriarkhi, tafsir agama.</p>


2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 43-62
Author(s):  
Wisam Kh. Abdul-Jabbar

This study explores Habermas’s work in terms of the relevance of his theory of the public sphere to the politics and poetics of the Arab oral tradition and its pedagogical practices. In what ways and forms does Arab heritage inform a public sphere of resistance or dissent? How does Habermas’s notion of the public space help or hinder a better understanding of the Arab oral tradition within the sociopolitical and educational landscape of the Arabic-speaking world? This study also explores the pedagogical implications of teaching Arab orality within the context of the public sphere as a contested site that informs a mode of resistance against social inequality and sociopolitical exclusions.


2021 ◽  
pp. 2336825X2110291
Author(s):  
Vasil Navumau ◽  
Olga Matveieva

One of the distinctive traits of the Belarusian ‘revolution-in-the-making’, sparked by alleged falsifications during the presidential elections and brutal repressions of protest afterwards, has been a highly visible gender dimension. This article is devoted to the analysis of this gender-related consequences of protest activism in Belarus. Within this research, the authors analyse the role of the female movement in the Belarusian uprising and examine, and to which extent this involvement expands the public sphere and contributes to the changes in gender-related policies. To do this, the authors conducted seven semi-structured in-depth interviews with the gender experts and activists – four before and four after the protests.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Gerardo Serra ◽  
Morten Jerven

Abstract This article reconstructs the controversies following the release of the figures from Nigeria's 1963 population census. As the basis for the allocation of seats in the federal parliament and for the distribution of resources, the census is a valuable entry point into postcolonial Nigeria's political culture. After presenting an overview of how the Africanist literature has conceptualized the politics of population counting, the article analyses the role of the press in constructing the meaning and implications of the 1963 count. In contrast with the literature's emphasis on identification, categorization, and enumeration, our focus is on how the census results informed a broader range of visual and textual narratives. It is argued that analysing the multiple ways in which demographic sources shape debates about trust, identity, and the state in the public sphere results in a richer understanding of the politics of counting people and narrows the gap between demographic and cultural history.


10.1068/d459t ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 745-758 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haim Yacobi

This paper offers a critical analysis of the role of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that deal with planning policy in general and in Israel in particular. The inherent dilemmas of the different NGOs' tactics and strategies in reshaping the public sphere are examined, based on a critical reading of Habermas's conceptualization of the public sphere. The main objective of this paper is to investigate to what extent, and under which conditions, the NGOization of space—that is, the growing number of nongovernmental actors that deal with the production of space both politically and tangibly—has been able to achieve strategic goals which may lead towards social change.


Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 410
Author(s):  
Ian A. Morrison

Towards the end of the twentieth century, religion re-emerged as a topic of pressing concern in a number of the most self-consciously secularized states of the global north. From disputes over the wearing of headscarves in schools to debates over accommodations for religious practices in the public sphere, religion, particularly the ‘foreign’ religiosity of migrants and other minority religious subjects, appeared on the scene as a phenomenon whose proper place and role in society required both urgent and careful deliberation. This article argues that in order to account for the affective potency produced by the immanence of the figure of the ‘foreign’ religious subject, it is necessary to understand secularization as fantasy. It is within the fantasy of secularization that the secular emerges as an object of desire—as something that, if attained, appears as a solution to the problem of ‘foreign’ religiosity—and figures of inassimilable religiosity assume the role of scapegoats for the failure to resolve these concerns. In this sense, within this fantasy scene, the secular promises to provide ‘us’ with something that we are lacking. However, this promise has been undermined by the apparent persistence of religious difference. As such, as a result of their continued religiosity, ‘they’ appear to be taking something from ‘us’.


2007 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 295-316 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara A. Misztal

This paper's purpose is to exam Turner's (2006a) thesis that Britain neither produced its own public intellectuals nor a distinctive sociology. It aims to outline difficulties with the logic of Turner's argument rather than to discuss any particular public intellectual in Britain. The paper argues that Turner's claim about the comparative insignificance of public intellectuals in Britain reinforces the myth of British exceptionalism and overlooks the significance of the contribution to the public sphere by intellectuals from other disciplines than sociology. It discusses Turner's assumption that intellectual innovation requires massive disruptive and violent change and suggests that such an assertion is not necessarily supported by studies of the conditions of the production of knowledge. Finally, the paper argues that Turner's anguish at the absence of public intellectuals among sociologists in Britain is symptomatic of New Left thinking that models the idea of the intellectual on Gramsci. In conclusion, the paper asserts that Turner's idea of the intellectual fails to note the tension at the heart of the role of public intellectual–the tension between specialist and non-specialist functions.


2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 433-456 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthias Kortmann

AbstractThis paper deals in a qualitative discourse analysis with the role of Islamic organizations in welfare delivery in Germany and the Netherlands. Referring to Jonathan Fox's “secular–religious competition perspective”, the paper argues that similar trends of exclusion of Islamic organizations from public social service delivery can be explained with discourses on Islam in these two countries. The analysis, first, shows that in the national competitions between religious and secular ideologies on the public role of religion, different views are dominant (i.e., the support for the Christian majority in Germany and equal treatment of all religions in the Netherlands) which can be traced back to the respective regimes of religious governance. However, and second, when it comes to Islam in particular, in the Netherlands, the perspective of restricting all religions from public sphere prevails which leads to the rather exclusivist view on Islamic welfare that dominates in Germany, too.


Author(s):  
Christian Fuchs

This paper asks: What can we learn from literary communist utopias for the creation and organisation of communicative and digital socialist society and a utopian Internet? To provide an answer to this question, the article discusses aspects of technology and communication in utopian-communist writings and reads these literary works in the light of questions concerning digital technologies and 21st-century communication. The selected authors have written some of the most influential literary communist utopias. The utopias presented by these authors are the focus of the reading presented in this paper: William Morris’s (1890/1993) News from Nowhere, Peter Kropotkin’s (1892/1995) The Conquest of Bread, Ursula K. Le Guin’s (1974/2002) The Dispossessed, and P.M.’s (1983/2011; 2009; 2012) bolo’bolo and Kartoffeln und Computer (Potatoes and Computers). These works are the focus of the reading presented in this paper and are read in respect to three themes: general communism, technology and production, communication and culture. The paper recommends features of concrete utopian-communist stories that can inspire contemporary political imagination and socialist consciousness. The themes explored include the role of post-scarcity, decentralised computerised planning, wealth and luxury for all, beauty, creativity, education, democracy, the public sphere, everyday life, transportation, dirt, robots, automation, and communist means of communication (such as the “ansible”) in digital communism. The paper develops a communist allocation algorithm needed in a communist economy for the allocation of goods based on the decentralised satisfaction of needs. Such needs-satisfaction does not require any market. It is argued that socialism/communism is not just a post-scarcity society but also a post-market and post-exchange society.


2018 ◽  
Vol 74 (1) ◽  
pp. 187-194 ◽  
Author(s):  
Håkon Larsen

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to discuss the role of ALM organizations within a Nordic model of the public sphere. Design/methodology/approach This is a conceptual paper discussing the role of archives, libraries and museums in light of a societal model of the Nordic public sphere. Throughout the discussions, the author draw on empirical and theoretical research from sociology, political science, media studies, cultural policy studies, archival science, museology, and library and information science to help advance our understanding of these organizations in a wider societal context. Findings The paper shows that ALM organizations play an important role for the infrastructure of a civil public sphere. Seen as a cluster, these organizations are providers of information that can be employed in deliberative activities in mediated public spheres, as well as training arenas for citizens to use prior to entering such spheres. Furthermore, ALM organizations are themselves public spheres, as they can serve specific communities and help create and maintain identities, and solidarities, all of which are important parts of a civil public sphere. Research limitations/implications Future research should investigate whether these roles are an important part of ALM organizations contribution to public spheres in other regions of the world. Originality/value Through introducing a theoretical model developed within sociology and connecting it to ongoing research in archival science, museology, and library and information science, the author connects the societal role of archives, libraries, and museums to broader discussions within the social sciences.


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