scholarly journals Crippling the Will of a People: Morphostatic Structures of Violence and the Crawl-Space of Agency in the Lives of Eritrean Refugees

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Jared Commerer

<p>In conjunction with an exposition of the larger historical and political context of the nation of Eritrea, this thesis examines the life narratives of five refugees hailing from the Horn of Africa. In doing so, certain institutional, relational, and embodied forms of violence are identified as permeating Eritrea’s socio-political fabric and thus also the inter- and intra-personal lives of the participants. Where morphostatic structures are deemed as those that constrain an individual’s capacity to pursue their ultimate concerns, it is maintained that violence in the form of extreme nationalism, routinised fear, and varying subjective affects partially accounts for the fact that an estimated 5,000 people are fleeing this small, modernising African nation every month. Following this, I argue that, by examining the life-narratives of Eritrean refugees, violence can be understood as transpiring at the interstices of an ongoing – albeit skewed – dialectic between, on one hand, morphostatic structures of violence appearing in institutional, relational, and embodied forms, and, on the other, a degree of mimetic agency that, when harnessed, acts as a crawl-space through which individuals – if they are to realise their ultimate concerns – must absent themselves relative to such structures of violence.</p>

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Jared Commerer

<p>In conjunction with an exposition of the larger historical and political context of the nation of Eritrea, this thesis examines the life narratives of five refugees hailing from the Horn of Africa. In doing so, certain institutional, relational, and embodied forms of violence are identified as permeating Eritrea’s socio-political fabric and thus also the inter- and intra-personal lives of the participants. Where morphostatic structures are deemed as those that constrain an individual’s capacity to pursue their ultimate concerns, it is maintained that violence in the form of extreme nationalism, routinised fear, and varying subjective affects partially accounts for the fact that an estimated 5,000 people are fleeing this small, modernising African nation every month. Following this, I argue that, by examining the life-narratives of Eritrean refugees, violence can be understood as transpiring at the interstices of an ongoing – albeit skewed – dialectic between, on one hand, morphostatic structures of violence appearing in institutional, relational, and embodied forms, and, on the other, a degree of mimetic agency that, when harnessed, acts as a crawl-space through which individuals – if they are to realise their ultimate concerns – must absent themselves relative to such structures of violence.</p>


2007 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-63
Author(s):  
Luc Vandeweyer

In deze bronnenpublicatie ontleedt Luc Vandeweyer de parlementaire loopbaan van de geneesheer-politicus Alfons Van de Perre: hoe hij in 1912 feitelijk  tegen wil en dank  volksvertegenwoordiger werd, zich anderzijds blijkbaar naar behoren kweet van zijn taak en tijdens de eerste verkiezingen na de Eerste Wereldoorlog (1919) zijn mandaat hernieuwd zag maar meteen daarop ontslag nam. Volgens de bekende historiografische lezing was de abdicatie van de progressieve politicus een daad van zelfverloochening die enerzijds werd ingegeven door gezondheidsmotieven en  anderzijds was geïnspireerd door de wil om de eenheid binnen de katholieke partij te herstellen. De auteur komt op basis van nieuw en onontgonnen bronnenmateriaal tot de vaststelling dat Van de Perres spontane beslissing tot ontslag in de eerste plaats een strategische keuze was: in het parlement, waar hij zich overigens niet erg in zijn schik voelde, kon hij minder invloed uitoefenen op de Vlaamse beweging dan via de talrijke engagementen waarvoor hij voortaan de handen vrij had. Eén ervan was die van bestuurder én publicist bij het dagblad De Standaard.________Chronicle of the announcement of a resignation. Two remaekable letters by Alfons Van de Perre concerning his resignation as a Member of Parliament in 1919In this source publication Luc Vandeweyer analyses the parliamentary career of the physician-politician Alfons Van de Perre and he describes how Van de Perre became a Member of Parliament in 1912 actually against the grain, yet how he apparently did a good job carrying out his duties. During the first elections after the First World War (1919) Van de Perre found that his mandate was renewed, but he handed in his resignation immediately afterwards. According to the familiar historiographical interpretation the abdication of the progressive politician was an act of self-denial, which was prompted on the one hand by health reasons and on the other hand inspired by the will to restore unity within the Catholic political party. On the basis of new and so far unexplored source material the author concludes that the spontaneous decision by Van de Perres to hand in his resignation was above all a strategic choice: in the Parliament, which he did not much enjoy anyway, he could exert less influence on the Flemish movement than via his numerous commitments, which he was now free to take on. One of these was the post of director as well as political commentator of the newspaper De Standaard.


1949 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 153-169
Author(s):  
Bernard Wall

The following pages are based on the last six months of 1948 which the writer spent in England, France and Italy. During this period Marshall aid had begun to bear certain fruit. On the other hand the international situation, already bad at the opening of the period, had deteriorated cumulatively as time passed. The Berlin deadlock, a symbol of the will of East and West, continued as before; and not even the beginning of a solution was reached at the United Nations assembly in Paris in die autumn. All over Europe people were preoccupied widi the economic crisis; but also by the direat of a new war. A military committee composed of Great Britain, France and Benelux was formed in the autumn under the chairmanship of Marshal Montgomery. There remained problems about this committee's effectiveness as well as about the extent to which other proposals for Western union were practicable at present. While in each country in Western Europe common people and politicians are talking more about union than ever before, in practice separatist tendencies in each shrunken western nation are still at work and travel to, or independent contact with, neighboring countries is a far more difficult business today than it was in 1939.


2009 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 549-584
Author(s):  
John M. Lund

In February 1704, a Boston laborer named Thomas Lea found himself surrounded by townspeople as he lay on his deathbed. These spectators had gathered hoping to hear a much anticipated confession of the crimes they believed Lea had committed fifteen years earlier during the Dominion of New England. In Suffolk County, many townspeople had long maintained that Lea and others had used the confusion and chaos generated by the unsettling political and legal transformations introduced to New England during the 1680s to surreptitiously gain legal title to the estate of a prosperous Braintree, Massachusetts, landowner named William Penn. Standing by Lea's bedside, one witness, who believed Lea had perjured himself at the 1689 probate administration of Penn's estate, demanded: “Thomas can you as you are going out of the World answer at the Tribunal of God to the Will of Mr Penns, which you have sworn to[?]” “Was Mr Penn living or Dead when this Will was Made?” In the presence of assembled witnesses, Lea acknowledged, “he was dead.” Other townspeople pressed Lea to reveal the role he played in what many believed had been a murder for inheritance scheme. They reminded Lea that Penn's corpse had been found covered “in blood, in his own dung” with “a hole in his back, that you might turn your two fingers into it” and, even more disturbing, “one of his [Penn's] stones in his codd [scrotum] was broken all to pieces.” Averting the onlookers' gaze, Lea “turned his head aside the other way, saying what I did I was hired to do.” For these witnesses, the death-bed confession confirmed the rumors of Lea's crimes and strengthened their belief that a wave of corruption introduced in the 1680s had sabotaged New England's distinctive Puritan jurisprudence. Indeed, townspeople had labored for years to overturn the 1689 probate of Penn's estate in an effort forestall the crown's efforts to bring New England into political and legal conformity with the dictates of the growing English empire.


2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (04) ◽  
pp. 739-746 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna M. Agathangelou

International relations (IR) feminists have significantly impacted the way we analyze the world and power. However, as Cynthia Enloe points out, “there are now signs—worrisome signs—that feminist analysts of international politics might be forgetting what they have shared” and are “making bricks to construct new intellectual barriers. That is not progress” (2015, 436). I agree. The project/process that has led to the separation/specialization of feminist security studies (FSS) and feminist global political economy (FGPE) does not constitute progress but instead ends up embodying forms of violence that erase the materialist bases of our intellectual labor's divisions (Agathangelou 1997), the historical and social constitution of our formations as intellectuals and subjects. This amnesiac approach evades our personal lives and colludes with those forces that allow for the violence that comes with abstraction. These “worrisome signs” should be explained if we are to move FSS and FGPE beyond a “merger” (Allison 2015) that speaks only to some issues and some humans in the global theater.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Víctor Martin-Fiorino ◽  
Ignacio Miralbell ◽  
Eduardo Molina ◽  
Luis Mariano de la Maza ◽  
María Belén Tell ◽  
...  

This book analyzes, from diverse but convergent historical and theoretical visions, the central problems of the anthropological structure of the person in relation to freedom - as the center of personal dignity - and with the possibilities and limits of free action and its conditionings. The text highlights the tension between rationality and responsibility when studying freedom from different perspectives, and as a decision of the person who responsibly practice it to the other people, from the will, experience and intersubjectivity. By the hands of authors, from Aristotle to contemporary anthropology, who are essential references, the text clarifies the origin of the choices in which freedom is expressed and allows deepening its understanding as an idea and as a content, from the complexity and conflict. The work studies fundamental aspects of the person-freedom relationship from ethics, psychology, politics, metaphysics and theology, and highlights the value of purpose, autonomy and community environments in which freedom is realized, keeping in mind an integrative anthropological approach. Finally, the argument about the centrality of the person is especially valuable in times of visions that minimize the human to consumption, production or ideology. The conclusions of this volume revalue the foundation and the possibility of free action that makes the being human responsible and committed.


1967 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 243-253 ◽  
Author(s):  
Loy Bilderback

The Council of Basle was officially charged with three basic concerns: the reform of the Church in head and members; the extirpation of heresy, particularly Bohemian Hussitism; and the attainment of peace among Christian Princes. Yet, the Council was most absorbed by, and is most remembered for, a fourth, unscheduled concern. From its outset, the prime determinant of the actions and decisions of the Council proved to be the problem of living and working with the Papacy. In retrospect it is easy to see that this problem was insoluble. One could not expect the efficient functioning of the Church if there was doubt or confusion about the will of God, and the presence of such doubt and confusion was certain so long as even two agencies could gain support for their contentions that they were directly recipient to the Holy Spirit. Singularity of headship was absolutely necessary to the orderly processes of the Church. Yet the contradiction of this essential singularity was implicit at Constance in the accommodation, by one another of the curialists, the protagonists of an absolute, papal monarchy, and the conciliarists, who sought divine guidance through periodic General Councils. This accommodation, in turn, was necessary if the doubt and confusion engendered by the Great Schism was to be resolved. At Basle, this contradiction was wrought into a conflict which attracted a variety of opportunists who could further their ancillary or extraneous ends through a posture of service to one side or the other, and in so doing they obfuscated the issues and prolonged the struggle.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 51
Author(s):  
Yeni Mulyani Supriatin

Penelitian ini bertujuan mengungkap peristiwa Perang Bubat yang terjadi pada abad ke-14 atau tahun 1357 M dan resepsi sastranya. Masalah yang dibahas adalah bagaimana latar belakang terjadinya Perang Bubat, reaksi, dan tanggapannya. Teori yang digunakan adalah resepsi sastra. Metode untuk pengumpulan data adalah kualitatif dengan menerapkan prinsip resepsi sastra. Hasil penelitian menggambarkan bahwa terjadinya Perang Bubat adalah Raja Sunda tidak tunduk pada kehendak Gajah Mada dan Gajah Mada ingin menyatukan Nusantara. Resepsi sastra terhadap Perang Bubat dapat dikelompokkan menjadi 3, yaitu resepsi dari aspek kesejarahannya, resepsi pengaruhnya terhadap penciptaan karya baru, dan resepsi terhadap struktur sastra.  Simpulan penelitian ini adalah peristiwa Bubat diresepsi setelah dua abad berlalu, yaitu pada abad ke-16  dan peristiwa tersebut diresepsi ulang pada abad ke-20-an. Hasil resepsi sastra  dari abad ke-18 sampai dengan abad ke-20 cukup beragam. Keberagaman resepsi itu menunjukkan bahwa terdapat perbedaan horizon harapan pembaca.  This study aims to reveal the events of the Bubat War that occurred in the 14th century or the year 1357 AD and literary receptions that emerged after the incident occurred. The issue discussed is how the background of the Bubat War and the reactions and responses to the event through literary receptions. The theory used in analyzing data is literary receptions. The method used for data collection is qualitative by applying the principle of literary receptions. The results of this study illustrate that the background of the Bubat War have two versions and both controversial, the first version because the King of Sunda entourage do not obey to the will of Gajah Mada, on the other hand, the second version is that Gajah Mada tactics in unifying the archipelago while the Kingdom of Sunda is a state that has not been submitted. Literary receptions to the War of Bubat can be grouped into three, they are the reception of its historical aspect, the reception of its influence on the creation of new works, and the reception of the literary structure. The conclusion of this research is  Bubat event was perceived after two centuries passed, in the 16th century and the event was redrawn in the 20th century. Results of literary receptions in the 18th century until the 20th century quite diverse. The diversity of the receptions shows the difference in the horizon of readers' expectations.    


2009 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-140
Author(s):  
Mico Savic

In this paper, author deals with Heidegger's account of the modern age as the epoch based on Western metaphysics. In the first part of the paper, he shows that, according to Heidegger, modern interpretation of the reality as the world picture, is essentially determined by Descartes' philosophy. Then, author exposes Heidegger's interpretation of the turn which already took place in Plato's metaphysics and which made possible Descartes' metaphysics and modern epoch. In the second part of the paper, author explores Heidegger's interpretation of science and technology as shoots of very metaphysics. Heidegger emphasizes that the essence of technology corresponds to the essence of subjectivity and shows how the metaphysics of subjectivity subsequently finds its end in Nietzsche's metaphysics of the will to power, as the last word of Western philosophy. In the concluding part, author argues that the contemporary processes of globalization can be just understood as processes of completion of metaphysics. They can be identified as a global rule of the essence of technology. On the basis of Heidegger's vision of overcoming metaphysics, author concludes that it opens the possibility of a philosophy of finitude which points to dialogue with the Other as a way of resolving the key practical issues of the contemporary world.


2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (8) ◽  
pp. 87
Author(s):  
Parvaneh Zarei ◽  
Seyed Mohammad Moosavi Bojnoordi

<p>Contracts usually comes from agreement to those who are in harmony with the will and desires and in this economic interaction each party seeks to obtain his profits and interests and another forced or convinced to go with it. This way finally results in justice between the parties and hence the agreement as the best and most equitable means of exchange of goods and the distribution of wealth are established between two sides. However sometimes parties will not form in the open environment but a deception in the atmosphere caused by the use of deception and fraudulent practices methods to impose their will and the other party forced to the contract know that the fact is not refused to accept, or at least accept it with such situations. To condemn such behavior it is not enough that can only be committed morally to blame because the use of deception means to hide the faulty product which may cheated person bear the material or spiritual losses. Since jurisprudence knowledge is responsible for the expression of practical laws and ordinances principles and to deal with problems arising from fraudulent contract. Dealings in public life offer religious and legal solutions and this is not possible except with great scientific efforts in the field of jurisprudence. Deceiver responsibility is examples of un-arbitrary<strong> </strong>civil liability. Scholars have analyzed the deceiver’s liability and responsibility in detail to rule deceiver (Deceit) has been invoked. So that wherever deceit and pride to be true in taking responsibility for the spiritual and material elements no deceiver can be cited and compensation that pride has suffered through fraud and deceit pride demanded. Once a deceiver can be no liability for (Deceit) and the following conditions must be present:</p>1) beguiling act 2) prejudicing 3) sedative’s knowledge and seduced unknowing 4) element of deception 5) deceived dissatisfaction


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document