scholarly journals SPACE AND PLACE OF THE BALKANS: A GEOCRITICAL PERSPECTIVE

2021 ◽  
Vol 70 (4/2020) ◽  
pp. 205-225
Author(s):  
Sanja Lazarevic Radak
Keyword(s):  
Balkan Peninsula ◽  
Academic Discourse ◽  
Physical Geography ◽  
The Other ◽  
Space And Place ◽  
The Political ◽  
Spatial Turn ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
Symbolic Geography

The literature that explores the representations of the Balkans is based on the assumption that the Balkans were constructed, imagined or invented. This claim is usually accompanied by the attempts to highlight the discrepancy between physical and imaginary geography and to point out the gap in semantics between the Balkan Peninsula and the Balkans. While the first one functions as physical geography, the other one refers to a place populated by representations, rather than people. Following the trend of linguistic and spatial turn, they hold the binary logic that insists upon the duality of the spatial. Some of the most important studies in this field can be read and interpreted as another in a series of texts about the Balkans. Thus, the aim of this paper is to: 1. Point out the places and passages where academic discourse on the Balkans separate physical and symbolic geography; 2. Highlight the political implications of this approach; 3. Suggest a geocritical aim that provides a sort of ballance between the material geography („real“) and imaginary spaces.

Afterword

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hugh B. Urban ◽  
Greg Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Academic Discourse ◽  
Critical Study ◽  
The Political ◽  
The People ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
Education Today

The Afterword includes an interview with Bruce Lincoln, in which he is asked to reflect on the current study of religion, methods of comparison, and the political implications of academic discourse. In addition to responding to specific points in these chapters, Lincoln also fleshes out what he thinks it would mean “to do better” in the critical study of religion amid the ongoing crises of higher education today. Perhaps most importantly, he reflects upon and clarifies what he means by “irreverence” in the study of religion; an irreverent approach, he concludes, entails a rejection of the sacred status that other people attribute to various things, but not of the people themselves.

The Catholic Hierarchy in the Nicaraguan Revolution

1985 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 341-369 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip J. Williams
Keyword(s):  
Structural Transformation ◽  
Urban Poor ◽  
The Other ◽  
Viable Alternative ◽  
The Political ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Rural And Urban ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
Nicaraguan Revolution ◽  
Clear Majority

The involvement of Christians in the Nicaraguan Revolution is a clear manifestation of the profound changes taking place within the Nicaraguan Church as a whole. While a clear majority of the clergy took a stand against the injustices of the Somoza regime, a smaller group of priests and religious demonstrated a more profound commitment to radical structural transformation of society. Although their efforts to organize andconcientizar1rural and urban poor had serious political implications – in fact, many joined the guerrilla as a result of the ‘radicalization of their faith’ – to these priests and religious the political solutions available to counter growing social injustices and government abuses were few: either fight or capitulate. The bishops, on the other hand, were cautious about the pace of change and rejected the violent option, choosing instead an intermediate path. Unfortunately, such an option proved futile in the case of Nicaragua, and finally the bishops justified armed revolution as a viable alternative to systematic repression.

To what question is the Badiouan notion of the subject an answer? On the dialectical elaboration of the concept in his early work

2016 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 96-120
Author(s):  
Jan-Jasper Persijn
Keyword(s):  
Direct Consequence ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Political ◽  
Academic World ◽  
Systematic Account ◽  
Political Field ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The One ◽  
Work Up

Alain Badiou’s elaboration of a subject faithful to an event is commonly known today in the academic world and beyond. However, his first systematic account of the subject ( Théorie du Sujet) was already published in 1982 and did not mention the ‘event’ at all. Therefore, this article aims at tracing back both the structural and the historical conditions that directed Badiou’s elaboration of the subject in the early work up until the publication of L’Être et l’Événément in 1988. On the one hand, it investigates to what extent the (early) Badiouan subject can be considered an exceptional product of the formalist project of the Cahiers pour l’Analyse as instigated by psychoanalytical discourse (Lacan) and a certain Marxist discourse (Althusser) insofar as both were centered upon a theory of the subject. On the other hand, this article examines the radical political implications of this subject insofar as Badiou has directed his philosophical aims towards the political field as a direct consequence of the events of May ’68.

The politics of the unities: tragedy and the Risorgimento in Byron and Manzoni

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arnold Anthony Schmidt
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Political Change ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
The One ◽  
Original Approach

This chapter takes an original approach to Byron’s much-discussed engagement with the early Risorgimento by focusing not on biographical aspects, but rather on formal issues. It centres on The Two Foscari in the context of the highly politicised contemporary Italian critical debates about the dramatic unities. In this fashion, it teases out the political implications of Byron’s adherence to the unities by comparing his play to Alessandro Manzoni’s Il conte di Carmagnola, which programmatically violates them. Focusing specifically on the playwrights’ representations of the fifteenth-century mercenary leader, Francesco Bussone da Carmagnola, the chapter explores these writers’ use or abuse of the unity of time, in particular. In doing so, it throws light on, and contrasts, Manzoni’s Risorgimento agenda on the one hand and Byron’s generally sceptical attitude about leadership and uncertainty about social and political change on the other.

Reforms and Deficits: Ottoman Response to European Challenges

2018 ◽  
pp. 90-111
Author(s):  
Şevket Pamuk
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Political ◽  
Economic Power ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
The Social ◽  
Modern Turkey ◽  
The One ◽  
Independence Movements

This chapter discusses the Ottoman reforms as well as the efforts to finance them. The Ottoman government, faced with the challenges from provincial notables and independence movements that were gaining momentum in the Balkans, on the one hand, and the growing military and economic power of Western Europe, on the other, began to implement a series of reforms in the early decades of the nineteenth century. These reforms and the opening of the economy began to transform the political and economic institutions very rapidly. The chapter shows the social and economic roots of modern Turkey thus need to be sought, first and foremost, in the changes that took place during the nineteenth century.

Between ‘Anti-totalitarianism’ and Radical Democracy

Populism ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-119
Author(s):  
Irem Taşçıoğlu
Keyword(s):  
Democratic Theory ◽  
Radical Democracy ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Political ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
Emancipatory Politics ◽  
Intellectual Milieu

Abstract Laclau’s theory on populism which is inseparable from his strategic endeavour to formulate a novel form of left-wing emancipatory politics has set off a variety of critiques, most notably from scholars who associate themselves with different strands of democratic theory. This paper picks out and uses Lefortian theory on democracy, utilizing it in order to figure out the different ways in which Laclau’s account could be construed and criticized. It argues that there are two possible interpretations of Lefort’s democratic theory with two different political implications, one liberal and the other radical-democratic and that they provide us with two different ways to formulate a critique of Laclauian populism. It particularly addresses the historical conjuncture from which Lefort’s democratic theory emerges and investigates how his ambiguous encounters with the intellectual milieu in France in the 70s, namely the ‘antitotalitarian moment’ undergird these two possible interpretations. This article’s elaboration on these two interpretations for addressing Laclau’s populism finalizes with a comparison between the political implications of the two and with a new proposal to invigorate counter-populism along the lines of Etienne Balibar as a (Lefortian) radical-democratic alternative to Laclau’s populism.

scholarly journals Moving Spaces: Mapping the Drama Room as Heterotopia

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 67
Author(s):  
Elsa Szatek
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
The Other ◽  
Space And Place ◽  
The Political ◽  
Democratic Process ◽  
Community Group ◽  
Everyday Lives ◽  
Artistic Work ◽  
A Performance

This article is aimed at exploring the political characteristics of the drama space, which reflects, juxtaposes, and opposes particular sites in a participant’s everyday life, such as the school. By putting spatial theories to work, this article investigates the drama space belonging to an all-girls community group in Sweden, participation in which is voluntary and where the artistic work produced relies on a democratic process, with the girls’ input being vital. I conceptualise the drama room as a heterotopia that functions as an exclusive and excluding space as a well as a space of resistance. Based on interviews with the girls, this ethnographic study challenges the conventional notion that applied drama is only an interrelational matter between the drama participants. By examining the drama room’s role as the ‘other place’ in the girls’ everyday lives while being connected to ‘everyday’ places, this article demonstrates the drama room as an important space for the girls to have agency, there and elsewhere. When placing space and place in the foreground, a ‘dramaspaceknowledge’ emerges, the influence of which stretches beyond the drama room. This article argues that the girls’ dramaspaceknowledge is utilised when creating a performance and while challenging structures and norms elsewhere, such as in their schools and communities.

scholarly journals Feminist Autoethnography, Gender, and Drug Use

2017 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 356-374 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Ettorre
Keyword(s):  
Drug Use ◽  
Feminist Research ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Political ◽  
Gender Analysis ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Use Of Data ◽  
Political Implications

This article explores autoethnography as one way of doing feminist research in the drugs field. By telling my story during my 40 years experience as a feminist researcher in the drugs field, I aim to help those practicing critical drug scholarship to become familiar with this methodology as a viable way of employing a gender analysis, an employment that is the focus of this special issue. This paper is divided into five related discussions. First, I explain what feminist autoethnography is. Second, I look at how doing feminist “drugs” autoethnography helps to develop empathy. Third, I describe the methods and use of data employed in this paper. Fourth, I tell my story chronologically from 1972 to the present time. Lastly, as with many autoethnographies, my analysis of my “story as data” is left to last and I discuss the political implications of my experiences, while “feeling about” empathy as resonance with the other.

scholarly journals The Politics of Memory as an Instrument of the Formation of National States in the Balkans: Achievements and Mistakes

2018 ◽  
pp. 154-166
Author(s):  
V. Rozumjuk
Keyword(s):  
Balkan Peninsula ◽  
Memory Studies ◽  
The Political ◽  
Local Version ◽  
Politics Of Memory ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
High Conflict ◽  
Ruling Elites ◽  
Balkan States ◽  
National Mythology

The article is devoted to the study of the politics of memory as an instrument of the formation of national states in the Balkans. The basic historiography of the memory studies is analyzed; features ofthe politics of memory in the leading countries of the Balkan Peninsula are highlighted. The author defines the thirst for grandeur, the emphasis on historical heredity, the call for struggle and the victimcomplex as the main features of the politics of memory and the national mythology of the Balkan states, which determine the high conflict potential of the “memory wars” in this region. It is emphasized a danger of a local version of the “provincial imperialism”, as the political megalomania of ruling elites has repeatedly led to horrible wars and national disasters.

scholarly journals Meeting the political and the legislative Copenhagen Criteria, the case of Kosovo

2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 329
Author(s):  
LL.M. Rinor Hoxha
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Balkan Peninsula ◽  
The Political ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Small Country ◽  
Independent State ◽  
Association Agreement ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
Eu Candidate Countries

The next enlargement of the European Union is predicted to be in the Balkans. Kosovo, a small country of the Balkan Peninsula, which has been declared as an independent state in 2008, aims the membership in EU. Kosovo is currently at the stage of negotiating the Stabilization and Association Agreement with EU. For the membership in EU, candidate countries are required to achieve certain criteria: political, legislative, economic and administrative. The first three are known as the Copenhagen Criteria, whereas the last one as the Madrid Criteria. This paper looks to briefly asses the difficulties of Kosovo in meeting the two Copenhagen Criteria: the political and the legislative one. Although, Kosovo has achieved certain progress related to this matter, this paper presents only the dimensions where Kosovo is lacking in achieving the aforementioned requirements.

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