scholarly journals Images of Modernity in the 21st Century: Altermodernism

2019 ◽  
Vol 62 (2) ◽  
pp. 7-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. V. Pavlov ◽  
Y. V. Erokhina
Keyword(s):  
Social Theory ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Critical Review ◽  
Negative Answer ◽  
Central Concept ◽  
Actual Problem ◽  
The Public ◽  
Time Diversity ◽  
Contemporary Social Theory

The article discusses an actual problem of the contemporary social theory – a problem of post-postmodernism that is the answer to the question: what comes to replace the supposedly outdated postmodernism. Post-postmodernism in an umbrella term that brings together various concepts like digimodernism, automodernism, metamodernism, hypermodernism, supermodernism, etc. One of the replacing postmodernism theories is the French curator and art theorist Nicolas Bourriaud’s concept that was called “altermodern” or “other modernism.” In his previous books Bourriaud proposed to rewrite modernism and, as the result, developed a new theory. The concept appeared in 2009 when Bourriaud presented the exhibition in London, timed to the publication of his manifesto Altermodern, and edited and published the book of collected papers of the same title. Globalization, which opened borders for art, is a central concept of the altermodernism theory. The main terms of altermodern are heterochrony (time diversity) and viatorisation (nomadism). The main social subject of the alternodern era is a free travelling artist, who interprets the meanings of “rewritten” art for the public. They are “rewritten” because Bourriaud proposes to use phenomena and products of past ages to make them work in a new way. However Bourriaud’s concept should be considered critically, as it was formerly done by several researchers. The article proposes a critical review that answers to the question: to what extent the idea of altermodern is heuristic and therefore it could compete with other concepts that abolish postmodern. The author gives a negative answer to this question first of all because altermodern just borrows a lot of elements of the language and apparatus of postmodernism and actually does not offer anything new.

Feminist reconstructions of universalism and the discourse of human rights

2009 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-92 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jill Marshall
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
Critical Review ◽  
The Public ◽  
Women’S Experiences ◽  
Women's Experiences ◽  
Universal Principles ◽  
The Public Sphere

In recent years, universal principles and, in turn, the universalistic discourse of human rights, have fallen under critical review by feminist scholars. This is part of a more general suspicion of a search for universalism and abstraction in law: feminist legal scholars have highlighted and critiqued the gendered dimension of such an approach.1Particular concepts fundamental to political, legal and social theory such as justice,2equality,3freedom4and rights5have been under the spotlight to see if their structure leads to detrimental consequences for women. Criticisms of rights have taken a variety of forms with rights being seen as too individualistic, reinforcing existing power imbalances, failing to account for women’s experiences and focusing too much on the public sphere.

Embeddedness through Networks: A Critical Appraisal of the Network Concept in theOeuvreof Karl-Heinz Ladeur

2009 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 483-500 ◽  
Author(s):  
Poul F. Kjaer
Keyword(s):  
Social Theory ◽  
Organizational Theory ◽  
General Framework ◽  
Critical Appraisal ◽  
Legal Theory ◽  
General Structure ◽  
Organizational Structures ◽  
Central Concept ◽  
The Public ◽  
Network Concept

The concept of “network” has become the most central concept within the work of Karl-Heinz Ladeur (KHL). It is an omnibus concept which he uses to extrapolate insights at all levels: It is used to provide a general framework at the level ofGesellschaftstheorie(social theory) in the sense that it provides insights into the general structure of society and thereby into the context within which legal processes unfold. At the level of organizational theory it provides a basis for understanding the transformation of organizational structures as it unfolds through the breakdown of hierarchy and the boundaries between the private and the public, just as the network concept plays an important role in its attempt to formulate a legal theory which is adequate for a society which, according to KHL, has become postmodern.

Realising immigration as a human right: public justification and cosmopolitan solidarity

2021 ◽  
pp. 136843102098713
Author(s):  
David Martínez ◽  
Alexander Elliott
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
Public Justification ◽  
Human Right ◽  
National State ◽  
The Public ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Legal Structures ◽  
The Right ◽  
Normative Justification

According to David Miller, immigration is not a human right. Conversely, Kieran Oberman makes a case for immigration as a human right. We agree with the latter view, but we show that its starting point is mistaken. Indeed, both Miller and Oberman discuss the right to immigration within the liberal paradigm: it is a right or not depending on the correct balance between the interests of the citizens of a given national state and the interests of the immigrants. Instead, we claim that public justification can underpin immigration as a human right. That said, the public justification of the right to immigration has several counterarguments to rebut. Before we deal with that issue, relying on Jürgen Habermas’s social theory, we examine the legal structures that could support the right to immigration in practice. To be sure, this does not provide the normative justification needed, instead it shows the framework that allows the institutional realization of this right. Then, through a combination of civic and cosmopolitan forms of solidarity, the article discusses the formation of a public sphere, which could provide the justification of the right to immigration.

The Problem of Energy

2014 ◽  
Vol 31 (5) ◽  
pp. 3-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Urry
Keyword(s):  
Social Theory ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Fossil Fuel ◽  
Energy Systems ◽  
Social Thought ◽  
Human Intervention ◽  
The West ◽  
The Past ◽  
And Control ◽  
Global Growth

Energy forms and their extensive scale are remarkably significant for the ways that societies are organized. This article shows the importance of how societies are ‘energized’ and especially the global growth of ‘fossil fuel societies’. Much social thought remains oblivious to the energy revolution realized over the past two to three centuries which set the ‘West’ onto a distinct trajectory. Energy is troubling for social thought because different energy systems with their ‘lock-ins’ are not subject to simple human intervention and control. Analyses are provided here of different fossil fuel societies, of coal and oil, with the latter enabling the liquid, mobilized 20th century. Consideration is paid to the possibilities of reducing fossil fuel dependence but it is shown how unlikely such a ‘powering down’ will be. The author demonstrates how energy is a massive problem for social theory and for 21st-century societies. Developing post-carbon theory and especially practice is far away but is especially urgent.

How Not to Go Beyond Marx: A Reply to Worrell and Krier

2016 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 241-257 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tony Smith
Keyword(s):  
Social Theory ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Capitalist Society ◽  
Critical Social Theory ◽  
Sociological Analysis ◽  
General Direction ◽  
Fatal Flaw ◽  
The Right ◽  
Political Imaginary

Worrell and Krier’s ‘Atopia Awaits! A Critical Sociological Analysis of Marx’s Political Imaginary’ raises serious issues regarding Marx’s legacy. They hold that a fatal flaw in Marx’s framework can be detected in his account of a post-capitalist society, which reveals a theoretically impoverished and politically dangerous neglect of essential features of social life. I argue that there are good reasons to reject Worrell and Krier’s thesis that Marx got immensely important things horribly wrong. Marx’s limited remarks on post-capitalist society are certainly inadequate in numerous respects. However, they point in the right general direction, and Worrell and Krier fail to offer a satisfactory alternative. The prospects for a critical social theory adequate to the immense challenges of the 21st century would be harmed if their readers agreed with the paper’s main thesis.

Social Control of Intellect: Four Features of the Academic–Media Nexus

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael McDevitt
Keyword(s):  
Social Control ◽  
Strategic Management ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
Academic Discourse ◽  
Ideal Type ◽  
Public Intellectual ◽  
The Public ◽  
Field Dynamic ◽  
The Mind

Abstract Intellect in social theory is often presented as an ideal type—the critical, iconoclastic side of the mind—but it must anticipate an audience in mediated contexts, unlike in the Kantian realm of transcendent reason. The terrain in which academia and media meet, consequently, is ripe for exploration into the fate of intellect when transgressive. This article explicates four features of the academic–media nexus that contribute to social control of intellect: instrumental rationalism of faculty, strategic management of university communication, journalistic appropriation of the “public intellectual” role, and surveillance of academic discourse. The article situates the features in a framework to recognize whether they originate primarily in academia or media, and whether the controlling process occurs through internalized norms or calculated practice. While social control is understood as recursive and reinforcing, reflexivity induced in an inter-field dynamic implies the possibility of reconciling intellect with news work.

scholarly journals Black Pete, “Smug Ignorance,” and the Value of the Black Body in Postcolonial Netherlands

2014 ◽  
Vol 88 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 262-291 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yvon van der Pijl ◽  
Karina Goulordava
Keyword(s):  
Social Theory ◽  
Cultural Difference ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Black Body ◽  
The Public ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Invented Tradition

This article discusses the controversies over the blackface figure Black Pete (Zwarte Piet)—central to the popular Dutch Saint Nicholas holiday tradition—and the public uproar surrounding the Saint Nicholas feast in 2013. It combines history, social theory, and patchwork ethnography, and draws on theoretical approaches discussing race, capitalism, and the commodification of cultural difference to establish an understanding of the controversial character. In doing so, it argues that Black Pete is an invented tradition that marks a “white Dutch habitus” in which the historical context of colonialism and the legacy of slavery is repeatedly ignored or denied.

scholarly journals Hebrew, Hebrews, Hubris?: Diagnosing Race and Religion in the Time of COVID-19

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (11) ◽  
pp. 1020
Author(s):  
Richard Newton
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Thought Experiment ◽  
Vaccine Hesitancy ◽  
The Public ◽  
Working Paper ◽  
History Of ◽  
Race And Religion

This thought experiment in comparison ponders a Black man’s conviction that his Hebrew identity would make him immune to COVID-19. Surfacing the history of the claims and the scholar’s own suspicions, the paper examines the layered politics of identification. Contra an essentialist understanding of the terms, “Hebrew” and “Hebrews” are shown to be classificatory events, ones imbricated in the dynamics of racecraft. Furthermore, a contextualization of the “race religion” model of 19th century scholarship, 20th century US religio-racial movements, and the complicated legacy of Tuskegee in 21st century Black vaccine hesitancy help to outline the need for inquisitiveness rather than hubris in matters of comparison. In so doing, this working paper advances a model of the public scholar as a questioner of categories and a diagnostician of classification.

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