Trying on Extremism

2019 ◽  
pp. 24-50
Author(s):  
Cynthia Miller-Idriss
Keyword(s):  
Sense Of Belonging ◽  
The Other ◽  
Far Right ◽  
Empirical Base ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
The Social ◽  
Youth Subcultures ◽  
Political Dimensions ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Meaning System

This chapter situates the empirical base of this book within theories of culture, nationalism, iconography, and youth extremist subcultures. It begins by describing two prevailing notions of how culture “works”—one that presents culture as a coherent meaning system and the other that characterizes it as a “tool kit” of actions and strategies. The chapter also addresses theories of extremism and youth subcultures, arguing that previous research on nationalism and extremism has paid more attention to political dimensions than cultural ones. Finally, it links far right commercial symbols to recent scholarship on visual symbols, arguing that attention to the aesthetic dimensions of far right subculture is particularly overdue in light of the recent “iconic” turn in the social sciences. As the chapter points out, sociologists' ongoing attention to Marxist understanding of economic objects and their relationship to class-based exploitation has led many scholars to overlook the potential for economic objects to have constitutive power for individuals' lives, identities, sense of belonging, or—in this case—the extremist participation of consumers.

Adorno’s Philistine: the Dialectic of Art and its Other

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-31
Author(s):  
Paul Ingram
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Critical Potential ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Critical Turn ◽  
The Ideal

Abstract Theodor Adorno’s philistine functions as the other of art, or as the ideal embodiment of everything that the bourgeois aesthetic subject is not. He insists on the truth-content of the derogation, while recognising its unjust social foundation, and seeking to reflect that tension in a self-critical turn. His model of advanced art is negatively delimited by the philistinism of art with a cause and the philistinism of art for enjoyment, which represent the poles of the aesthetic and the social. The philistine is also the counterpart to the connoisseur, with the interplay between them pointing to his preferred approach to aesthetics, in which an affinity for art and alienness to it are combined without compromise. However, Adorno fails to realise fully the critical potential of the philistine as the immanent negation of art and aesthetics.

Food Semiology in Selected Poems in ‘Lere Oladitan's ‘Poem of the Week'

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-58
Author(s):  
Ibrahim Esan Olaosun
Keyword(s):  
Academic Community ◽  
The Other ◽  
General Sense ◽  
Ample Evidence ◽  
Inaugural Lecture ◽  
The Social ◽  
Theatrical Performance ◽  
Popular View ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Poetry Collection

Inspired by the popular view in the field of semiotics that everything is a sign of something or a sign for something, this article dwells on food significations in ‘Lere Oladitan's poem titled “Mounds for Sharing” in his poetry collection titled ‘Poem of the Week.' Using this poem as the paradigm to deconstruct some other poems in the collection, the article deconstructs this semiological practice (food symbolism) in four ways: first, as a sign deployed by the poet to contribute to the aesthetic and affective qualities of the poem; second, as an appropriation and exhibition of the values of giving and sharing which typify many (if not all) African cultures; third, as a semiotic strategy of self- depiction and fourth, as the strategy for developing the motif of sacrifice practically demonstrated by the poet in the manner in which the poems were first freely disseminated before they were compiled and published into a book form in 2016. Mounds for Sharing is used in this article as the paradigm of the other poems in the collection because there is ample evidence to show that the poem is the container of the general motifs developed in the other poems. First, the poet himself refers to it as “the signature tune” of the collection. Second, “Iyán tí mo gún, Baba má jẹ ǹ nìkan jẹ́” (the first two lines of the poem) is now Oladitan's sobriquet or designation in Obafemi Awolowo University community. The poet is now being referred to as Professor Iyán tí mo gún (Professor the Pounded Yam I Prepare) in the academic community. Third, in the inaugural lecture presented by the poet on August 23, 2011, the poem was given a theatrical performance by Awo Vasity Theatre, a theatre that is based in Obafemi Awolowo Universty Ile, Ife, Nigeria. The article indicates that food-related representations in the poem convey more than the general sense of food as the substance eaten for survival. The analysis, cast within the framework of food semiotics, shows that each poem of ‘Lere Oladitan is a kind of food which carries one or a combination of such connotations of food as: food for the thought, food for the social psyche and memory and food for personal spiritual and psychosocial growth.

Some Recent Interpretations of John Stuart Mill

Philosophy ◽  
1968 ◽  
Vol 43 (163) ◽  
pp. 1-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. J. Halliday
Keyword(s):  
Central Place ◽  
John Stuart Mill ◽  
The Other ◽  
Political Structure ◽  
Relevant Question ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Conduct ◽  
Other Regarding

It is usual to interpret Mill's understanding of liberty in terms deriving from his distinction in On Liberty between self-regarding and other-regarding conduct. Granted this distinction and Mill's genuine concern to define and defend it, it remains a relevant question why he attached so much importance to it. This raises a less familiar theme in Mill, namely the inter-connection of self-regarding and other-regarding conduct. An uncommitted reading of the main texts suggests an equivalent value is attached to this. Mill clearly and constantly asserts a close connection between each person's own attempt to improve himself, to cultivate his ‘affections and will’, and the social and political structure in which he acts. Self-regarding virtue and responsible social conduct are interdependent; the quality of each depends upon the quality of the other. A fuller recognition of this and its central place in Mill's revision of Bentham may be of help in examining some of the particular problems raised by recent scholarship on Mill.

Poetics of Conspiracy and Hermeneutics of Suspicion in Tacitus's Dialogus de Oratoribus

2013 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-34
Author(s):  
Alex Dressler
Keyword(s):  
Affective Response ◽  
The Other ◽  
Literary Works ◽  
Modes Of Transmission ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
The Social ◽  
Different Strains ◽  
High Degree ◽  
Point Of Departure

This article argues that the end of Tacitus's Dialogus de Oratoribus is inconclusive in ways that draw attention to the difficulty of interpretation not only of the dialogue, as by modern scholars, but also in the dialogue, as by its leading characters. The inconclusiveness is especially marked by a commonly noted, but little discussed, feature of the end: when the rest of the characters laugh at the point of departure, Tacitus himself does not. Arguing that this difference of affective response on the part of the characters prefigures differences in interpretive response on the part of readers, the article identifies different strains in recent scholarship: pessimistic and optimistic. Both forms of response entail an attribution of a “poetics of conspiracy” (Hinds) to the ultimate speaker of the dialogue, the author Tacitus, and a “hermeneutics of suspicion” (Ricoeur) to its reader. At the same time, the author's double-position, as character and author, between narrated event and narration of the event to the reader, suggests that the other characters in the dialogue may, like the author and reader, also exercise such poetics and hermeneutics on one another and themselves. The article ends with the comparandum of the first satire of Tacitus's near contemporary, Juvenal, suggesting that, in the case of these works that can look with hindsight on the social and political past of the Early Empire, their modes of transmission and reception may be politically determined (e.g., as conspiratorial, suspicious) but may also demonstrate, within the restrictions of social and political determinations, a high degree of contingency, reflexivity, and autonomy. Such possibilities suggest that the text itself is part of a pragmatic and performative tradition of the kind enacted by its characters, in addition to a tradition of the production of (comparatively static and unfree) “literary” works.

scholarly journals A paisagem e sua dimensão estética [The aesthetic dimension of landscape]

2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (45) ◽  
pp. 37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Esdras Araujo Arraes
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
The Other ◽  
Georg Simmel ◽  
Social Transformations ◽  
Late Eighteenth Century ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The Social ◽  
Late Eighteenth ◽  
Elective Affinities ◽  
The Aesthetic

Os estudos que se dedicam à paisagem a compreendem como a materialização de relações entre o homem e o território. Por outro lado, a noção de paisagem abriga, desde sua origem, uma conotação estética, pensada como discurso valorativo da natureza. Assim, o objetivo desse artigo é mostrar a paisagem como categoria do pensamento e parte do campo reflexivo da disciplina Estética. Serão mencionados escritos de determinados filósofos empenhados em interpretar a paisagem em sua dimensão estética. Dentre eles, pode-se citar Georg Simmel, Augustin Berque e Arnold Berleant. Busca-se ampliar sua noção para além das transformações sociais do espaço, celebrando as maneiras sensíveis de apreensão da natureza. Pretende-se, ainda, compreender a noção de paisagem formulada no Renascimento e, especialmente, no final do século XVIII, pondo luz em algumas obras literárias de Goethe, tais como Os sofrimentos do jovem Werther e Escritos sobre arte.[The studies that are dedicated to the landscape understand it as the materialization of relations between man and territory. On the other hand, the notion of landscape has, since its origin, an aesthetic connotation, thought of as a valorative discourse of nature. Thus, the purpose of this article is to show the landscape as a category of thought and part of the reflective field of the Aesthetic discipline. It will be mentioned writings of certain philosophers committed to interpret the landscape in its aesthetic dimension. I will mention, for instance, the research of Georg Simmel, Augustin Berque and Arnold Berleant. It seeks to broaden its notion beyond the social transformations of space, celebrating the sensitive manners of apprehending nature. It is also intended to understand the notion of landscape formulated in Renaissance and especially in the late Eighteenth Century putting light on some of Goethe's literary works, such as The sorrows of young Werther and Elective affinities.]

The Federal Republic at Twenty: Of Blind Spots and Peripheral Visions

2010 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 17-33
Author(s):  
Jeffrey J. Anderson
Keyword(s):  
Federal Republic ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Blind Spot ◽  
The Other ◽  
Recent Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
Political Dimensions ◽  
Blank Spot ◽  
Blind Spots

Twenty years after all the excitement, Germans seem to be genuinely of two conflicting minds about unification. One is characterized by awe over the accomplishments of 1989-1990, the other by disappointment and even bitterness over unfulfilled ambitions and promises. These contrasting interpretations and assessments of unification are fluid, but surface repeatedly in the quality print media. This chapter examines the recurring themes, interpretations, and narratives about unification twenty years on, and seeks to trace the interconnections between the social, economic, and political dimensions of unification. As such, these contemporary printed narratives can tell us a great deal about how a people views its recent past, what its priorities are, and how it is facing the future. The analysis reveals that public discourse on unification twenty years after the fact resembles a blind spot—look straight at it, and it disappears, replaced by blank spot—a seemingly irreducible gap between East and West. Avert one's gaze, and the spot fills in, almost seamlessly.

ANDRIĆISM

2013 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 619-667
Author(s):  
Rusmir Mahmutćehajić
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Plastic Material ◽  
The Other ◽  
European Experience ◽  
The Social ◽  
Plural Society ◽  
Nineteenth And Twentieth Centuries ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Narrative Techniques ◽  
Over Time

Andrić’s fiction is closely identified with Bosnia and often taken for a faithful reflection of that country’s culture, social relations, and tragic history. Rather than reflecting Bosnian pluralism, however, his oeuvre undermines its very metaphysical underpinnings, in part because his works are so firmly rooted in the European experience of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. From the perspective of a dominant modernity, certain cultures and peoples came to be presented as un-European, Oriental, and essentially foreign. Bosnia, which had always been a religiously plural society, now became one where ideological models excluded its Muslim inhabitants. In line with long-standing European practice, Andrić drew an image of the Bosnian Muslim as Turk and the Turk as Bosnian Muslim, converting the real content of Bosnian society into a plastic material for the ideologues of homogenous societies to use in modelling external and internal enemies that were essentially identical. This process required as its precondition the destruction of that enemy through a process described as the social and cultural liberation of the Christian subject. Over time, this exclusion took on forms now termed genocide. In creating this image, Andrić deployed narrative techniques whose function may fairly be characterized as the aesthetic dissimulation of our ethical responsibilities towards the other and the different. Such elements from his oeuvre have been used in the nationalist ideologies anti-Muslimism serves as a building block. In this paper, certain aspects of the ideological reading and interpretation of Andrić’s oeuvre are presented.

scholarly journals An overview of liberation theology in orthodox Russia

2005 ◽  
Vol 61 (1/2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander I. Negrov
Keyword(s):  
Liberation Theology ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Social Situation ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Political ◽  
Russian Orthodox ◽  
The Social ◽  
Theological Perspective ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Political Dimensions

The aim of this article is to demonstrate the presence of a theological system of socio-critical and socio-pragmatic strands within Russian Christianity at the beginning of the twentieth century. The political and social situation in Russia at that time was reflected in a reading of the New Testament that went far beyond the more customary ecclesiastic, dogmatic and ethical issues that had traditionally concerned Russian Orthodox theology. Among the Orthodox thinkers there were two camps that focused on anti-oppression issues. Some combined these issues with the liberationist ideology of the Russian Marxists and Socialists; while the other regarded these liberation movements as an anti-Christian way of interpreting Christianity. This article further claims that certain modern developments in Liberation Theology can be found in the period during which the Russian religious thinkers attempted to develop a theological perspective which paid attention to the social and political dimensions inherent in social democracy (Marxism).

scholarly journals TECHNICAL INTEGRATION AND ITS ROLE IN THE FORMAL DISPLAY OF INTERIOR DESIGN

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
D: Salah Al-Din Qadir Ahmed
Keyword(s):  
Interior Design ◽  
The Other ◽  
Overall Design ◽  
The Social ◽  
Building Systems ◽  
Interactive Relationship ◽  
Design Idea ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
The One ◽  
Design Construction

The art of designing decoration in terms of aesthetics and its expressive symbolic connotations is mainly related to interior designs and its values based on formal relationships expressing its intellectual peculiarity in employment, as each of the designs is a mirror of a need and its tastes is not individual in itself, but according to an interactive relationship between the designer and the recipient on the one hand and between society As a whole . Through the formal appearance and content of artistic taste and design philosophy and the extent of the influence and influence of each on the other, especially that the interior designs are clearly subject to and affected by the social and economic environment and the development in the technical field, which formed as motives that gave the designer the ability to devise and innovate new systems resulting from his self-sensitivity to the components From which it derives the design idea In addition to its cultural and philosophical level, which are components and motives that depend on it in the design application, whether in the formations of the foundations and elements and their decorative aspects, they are basically linked to the need for new designs ranging from functional necessity to aesthetic necessity based on constructive relationships of shapes and building systems that support Its objective properties. Based on the foregoing, and through the researcher's review of a set of designs, he found that there is a problem standing in front of the concept of relationships that is taken away and the other by approaching the design construction in terms of structural relations and linkage and the meaning of integration based on the aesthetic and expressive dimensions and the need for compatibility with the functional goal If we take into account the concept of the resulting relationships and the investigator of aesthetic, expressive and functional values in the overall design achievement, and through that, the problem

Pit Bulls and Dogfighting as Symbols of Masculinity in Hip Hop Culture

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (5) ◽  
pp. 852-871
Author(s):  
Claudia Alonso-Recarte
Keyword(s):  
Hip Hop ◽  
The Other ◽  
Hip Hop Culture ◽  
Gangsta Rap ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
Multiple Meanings ◽  
Dog Breed ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Cultural Connections

This article explores the aesthetic and cultural connections between the hyper-masculinization inherent to hip hop culture (and particularly to gangsta rap), the pit bull dog breed, and dogfighting. Building on recent scholarship that has identified the racial and racist assumptions underlying the pit bull controversy, I provide further evidence and arguments on how the highly racialized and genderized hip hop discourses inoculate the pit bull body and suffuse it with multiple meanings reminiscent of America’s traumatic encounter with otherness. As a palimpsest that attests to both mainstream and countercultural explorations of racialized masculinities, the pit bull body is made to “perform” its role as both an agent and a victim within the nation’s compulsive need to control and monitor the “other.”

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