scholarly journals Considering the academy: academics, public intellectuals and activism

2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (01) ◽  
pp. E
Author(s):  
Emma Weitkamp

Reflecting on the public role of academics, this issue of JCOM includes a set of commentaries exploring public intellectuals and intellectualism. The commentaries explore the role of academics in public debates, both as bringers of facts and passion. These pieces, together with past commentaries and letters to JCOM raise interesting questions about the role of academics in public debates that are, perhaps not those usually trodden in the academic literature.

2012 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-69
Author(s):  
Júlio Paulo Tavares Zabatiero

Abstract This article is a study of the public role of Christian theology in contemporary democratic societies. It focuses on the role of theologians as intellectuals in the public square, as defenders of values like justice, democracy and peace. After a brief reflection on Brazilian experiences of the presence of Christians in public debates, it discusses the role of intellectuals such as Habermas, Bourdieu, Said, Bauman and others.


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.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Benedicta Evie ◽  
Susy Yunia R. Sanie

Women as assets of Indonesia's human resources have a crucial role in disaster management. This research is descriptive using a qualitative approach that photograph the adjustment of women's activities based on their role in the current Covid disaster. The research findings shows the  informant’s perception that Covid-19 is a disaster, and they are worried, so they try to prevent themselves and their family members from being infected by implementing health protocols. They also provide nutritious food and vitamins as well as a variety of food/drink ingredients that are believed to ward off Covid. Increasing domestic role activities are child care and education. Meanwhile, the public role of economy has undergone adjustments, such as working from home, losing customers or jobs. To be able to survive, adjustments to household expenditure patterns were carried out, namely: increasing the cost of kitchen expenditures, and increase in electricity costs and telephone pulses as the implication of all family members are WFH/SFH online. Reduced expenses: spending on clothes / shoes / bags, cosmetics, and recreation. The social role of the public in this Covid situation is to participate in distributing food to the poor.


2020 ◽  
pp. 107-139
Author(s):  
Mattias P. Gassman

The controversy over the altar of Victory shows how pagans and Christians expressed competing ideas on the public role of religion in an increasingly Christian empire. In 382, Gratian revoked funding from the Roman state priesthoods and removed the altar from the Senate house. Following Gratian’s death in 383, the Senate appealed to his brother, Valentinian II, through the urban prefect, Symmachus, whose communiqué was successfully countered by Ambrose of Milan. Recent scholarship has favoured Symmachus’ account, which it sees as an appeal for religious tolerance, and argued that the affair was decided by the power politics of a child emperor’s unstable court. In response, this chapter argues that Symmachus was actually trying to exclude the emperor’s Christianity from public decision-making. All religions may, for Symmachus, lead to God, but the old cults are Rome’s divinely appointed defence, as well as the bond between Senate and emperors. Ambrose put Valentinian’s duty to God at the heart of his appeal. Ambrose’s Senate contained many Christians, and Ambrose was bound to resist an emperor who endorsed pagan sacrifices (the closest either work comes to explicit political gamesmanship). Together, their works show how malleable Rome’s public religion still was, more than seventy years after Constantine embraced Christianity.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document