Breaking Consensual Silence through Storytelling: Stories of Conscience and Social Justice in Emer Martin's The Cruelty Men

2021 ◽  
Vol 62 ◽  
pp. 167-185
Author(s):  
M. Teresa Caneda-Cabrera
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Public Domain ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Irish Society ◽  
Cultural Narrative ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Past ◽  
Healing Power ◽  
Institutional Abuse

In recent years Irish society has witnessed an upheaval in public opinion before the discovery of conspiracies of silence hiding stories of institutional abuse which had remained concealed from the public domain. These narratives of secrecy have been consistently identified and stripped away by writers like Emer Martin whose novel The Cruelty Men (2018) denounces the fact that forgetting and silence are woven into the fabric of society and politics in Ireland. Drawing on the notion of consensual silence, the article explores The Cruelty Men as a text that addresses institutional abuse and challenges official discourses by rescuing the unheard voices of the victims and inscribing their untold stories into the nation’s cultural narrative. As the article will discuss, ultimately the novel calls attention to the healing power of storytelling as a way of renegotiating  Ireland’s relationship with the silences of the past.

scholarly journals Intellectual Freedom and Social Justice: Tensions Between Core Values in American Librarianship

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Emily J. M. Knox
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Core Values ◽  
Intellectual Freedom ◽  
Bill Of Rights ◽  
Hate Groups ◽  
Ethical Philosophy ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Theoretical Foundations

AbstractOver the past few years, tensions between two core values in U.S. librarianship, intellectual freedom and social justice, have roiled the profession. This conflict was most recently seen in the insertion and subsequent removal of “hate groups” to the list of entities that cannot be denied access to library meeting rooms in the American Library Association’s Meeting Rooms Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights. This paper is intended to provide context for this conflict. It begins by situating its arguments within ethical philosophy, specifically the study of values or axiology. It then provides an overview of the theoretical foundations of the values of liberalism. Next, the paper discusses the values of truth and freedom from harm in librarianship. Finally, it suggests that a fuller understanding of the library’s place within the public sphere is a possible model for mitigating the tensions currently found in American librarianship. The paper is intended to provide a theoretical foundation for further research.

scholarly journals Indestructible Pasts and Paranoid Presents: John Franzen against Active Forgetting in Purity

2019 ◽  
pp. 21-34
Author(s):  
Cristina Garrigós
Keyword(s):  
Traumatic Event ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Contemporary Society ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Past ◽  
Personal Archives ◽  
Conscious Process ◽  
Unconscious Desire ◽  
Selection Of

Forgetting and remembering are as inevitably linked as lifeand death. Sometimes, forgetting is motivated by a biological disorder, brain damage, or it is the product of an unconscious desire derived from a traumatic event (psychological repression). But in some cases, we can motivate forgetting consciously (thought suppression). It is through the conscious repression of memories that we can find self-preservation and move forward, although this means that we create a fable of our lives, as Nietzsche says in his essay “On the Uses and Disadvantages of History for Life” (1997). In Jonathan Franzen’s novel, Purity (2015), forgetting is an active and conscious process by which the characters choose to forget certain episodes of their lives to be able to construct new identities. The erased memories include murder, economical privileges derived from illegal or unethical commercial processes, or dark sexual episodes. The obsession with forgetting the past links the lives of the main characters, and structures the narrative of the novel. The motivated erasure of memories becomes, thus, a way that the characters have to survive and face the present according to a (fake) narrative that they have constructed. But is motivated forgetting possible? Can one completely suppress facts in an active way? This paper analyses the role of forgetting in Franzen’s novel in relation to the need in our contemporary society to deny, hide, or erase uncomfortable data from our historical or personal archives; the need to make disappear stories which we do not want to accept, recognize, and much less make known to the public. This is related to how we manage information in the age of technology, the “selection” of what is to be the official story, and how we rewrite our own history

Conclusion

2020 ◽  
pp. 214-234
Author(s):  
Jon Elster
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Public Interest ◽  
Public Domain ◽  
Social Classes ◽  
Ancien Regime ◽  
Economic Variables ◽  
The Public ◽  
Group Interest ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
Ancien Régime

This chapter emphasizes the incompleteness of knowledge on key economic variables, which is in part due to the reluctance of individuals, from all social classes, to comply with requests for information. It notes how individuals and institutions had an incentive to misreport, exaggerate, or understate their income and property. At a different level, statements by royal officials, venal magistrates, and elected deputies can rarely be taken at face value. The chapter analyzes the universal tendency of speakers or writers to disguise self-interest or group interest as the public interest. It also argues that by the end of the ancien régime, public opinion was considered a poor substitute for publicity as it is often based on rumors rather than on facts in the public domain.

scholarly journals Positive steps turning into a process

Temida ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 9-10
Author(s):  
Goran Bozicevic
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Regional Cooperation ◽  
Peace Building ◽  
Target Groups ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Past ◽  
Individual Work ◽  
Peace Initiatives

The conclusion of the research conducted in Croatia for QPSW in 2003 is there is no systematic, accountable and structural confrontation with the past in Croatia, but there is growing concern within the civil society about the problems incurred by the lack of such a confrontation. Two different approaches can be discerned: individual work with particular persons or target groups and advocacy that could influence the alteration of the public opinion and decision-making. Both levels are necessary and they should unfold simultaneously. The systematization and regional cooperation of documentation centers, cooperation between victim organizations and peace initiatives, the inclusion of former warriors into peace building processes the cooperation of artists and activists - represent some of the new and promising steps on the civilian scene in Croatia. The constant strengthening of the independent media and the judiciary, coupled with constant efforts on both levels - the personal and the public - raises hopes that the confrontation with the past in Croatia is a process and not a trend.

scholarly journals Murals make (Our) history: paintings on the wall as media of cultural memory. Interpreting the current state of Warsaw’s commemorative murals

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 114-135
Author(s):  
Ilija Upalevski
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Cultural Memory ◽  
Public Domain ◽  
Secondary Memory ◽  
Cultural Institutions ◽  
Complex State ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Past ◽  
Current State

The aim of this paper is to closely examine the ways in which the outdoor mural as a form of art. has been used for commemorative purposes in the context of the Polish capital. Drawing on content analysis this paper will argue that regardless of their democratic potential and potential to act subversively in the public domain, the commemorative murals in the case of Warsaw are predominantly reflecting the official narrations/representations of the past and thus reproducing the state-supported, nation-centered, male-dominated perspective of history. Referring to Wulf Kansteiner methodological instructions, the paper introduces the notion of “secondary” memory makers in order to describe the position the mural makers are occupying in the field of Warsaw’s cultural memory. It will also be argued that mural makers, by adapting their works to the demands of the cultural institutions responsible for the memory production and dominant discourses of memory from mainly pragmatic reasons, are forgoing a fair portion of the democratic and subversive potential of the murals. As such, the paintings on the walls are, intentionally or not, further involved in more complex state-sponsored strategies of nationalizing the public space.

scholarly journals Analysis of the Coverage of Paratriathlon and Paratriathletes in Canadian Newspapers

Sports ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 87
Author(s):  
Gregor Wolbring ◽  
Brian Martin
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Sport Participation ◽  
Public Domain ◽  
Elite Sport ◽  
Disabled People ◽  
Thematic Content Analysis ◽  
Thematic Content ◽  
The Public ◽  
Personal Stories

From recreational to elite levels, sport has many benefits for disabled people. At the same time, it is acknowledged that there is a trickle-down problem from para-elite sport to sport participation of disabled people, in general. Newspapers are one form of media that sets agendas and influences public opinion. Many studies have highlighted problematic aspects of parasport and para-athlete coverage in newspapers. Paratriathlon was one of two new events added to the Paralympics in Rio 2016, which increased its visibility in the public domain. We investigated the coverage of paratriathlon and paratriathletes in 300 Canadian newspapers using the ProQuest database Canadian Newsstream as a source, and utilizing a descriptive quantitative and a qualitative thematic content analysis. The main themes evident in the reporting on paratriathlon and paratriathletes, in the three hundred Canadian newspapers we covered, were the supercrip imagery of the para-athlete, personal stories mostly linked to the supercrip imagery, and the theme of able-bodied athletes in juxtaposition to the para-athletes. Using the lens of the four legacy goals of the International Paralympic Committee, we conclude that our findings are detrimental to the fulfillment of the four legacy goals.

scholarly journals Compulsory Vaccination in a Fundamental Rights Perspective: Lessens from the ECtHR

ICL Journal ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anja Krasser
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
The Public ◽  
Compulsory Vaccination ◽  
The Past ◽  
European Court ◽  
Master Thesis

Abstract The multiple COVID-19 vaccines developed over the past months are typically thought of as the only means to meet the challenges posed by the current pandemic. Still, the public opinion on vaccines is heavily divided. And, of course, discussions about compulsory vaccination, oftentimes based on fundamental rights arguments, tend to become heated. This note This note builds on the arguments developed in the author’s master thesis Anja Krasser, ‘Die grundrechtliche Zulässigkeit einer Impfpflicht in Österreich’ (Universität Graz 2019) which have previously been summarized in Anja Krasser, ‘Zur grundrechtlichen Zulässigkeit einer Impfpflicht’ (2020) 2020/206 RdM 136. analyses the issues at hand based on the case law of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR).

Apologies, Restitutions, and Compensation

2018 ◽  
pp. 696-732
Author(s):  
Robert Aldrich
Keyword(s):  
Well Being ◽  
Public Domain ◽  
Colonial Era ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Past ◽  
Monetary Compensation

Coming to terms with an imperial past has involved difficult and often divisive questions of how far the inhabitants of former imperial powers should accept responsibility for the deeds of their predecessors, how far back into the past one might go to remedy such injustices, and what happens when the reparative demands of injured parties conflict with the security and well-being of others. This chapter looks at a range of cases and claims for restitution, reparation, and apologies in order to consider how the imperial past has entered into the public domain, the selectivity of imperial memories, and processes of reconciliation. After discussing the historical conjuncture in which demands have arisen, this chapter explores three types of ‘reparative politics’: apologies and expressions of regret for colonial-era actions, restitution of heritage objects in metropolitan collections, and monetary compensation for the perceived crimes of colonialism.

scholarly journals Relational welfare: a socially just response to co-creating health and wellbeing for all

2020 ◽  
pp. 140349482097081
Author(s):  
Dina Von Heimburg ◽  
Ottar Ness
Keyword(s):  
Health Promotion ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Transformative Change ◽  
Human Relationships ◽  
Relational Approach ◽  
The Public ◽  
Health And Wellbeing ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Welfare State

Aims: Contemporary approaches to pursuing public value and the vision of health and wellbeing for all have evolved notably in the past few decades, with distinct approaches termed ‘co-creation’ and ‘health promotion’ gaining traction. This article explores a critique of ongoing paradigmatic shifts in public health and the public sector, focusing on cross-fertilisation between co-creation and the promotion of health and wellbeing. Drawing on Nancy Fraser’s claims for social justice through redistribution, recognition and representation to achieve participatory parity, we discuss a need for transformative change to achieve societal goals of creating health and wellbeing for all, leaving no one behind. Conclusions: Health promotion and co-creation converge in a quest for active citizenship through participation, as well as embracing a whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach. However, inequity in such processes, as well as health and wellbeing outcomes, are still persistent and contradictory to health promotion aims. This article argues that radically attending to human relationships and our dependency on other humans as a ‘collective’ need to be placed at the core of future-forming social construction of public and democratic institutions to allow the ongoing cross-fertilisation between health promotion and co-creation to work. Responding to this calls for transformation, the article presents a framework for developing a relational approach to welfare. The framework advocates for ‘relational welfare’, which captures the intersection of the welfare state, democracy and human relationships attending to social justice, capabilities and health and wellbeing for all as key public values in societal development.

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