A Discussion between Quebecois Social Anthropologists and Historians

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (51) ◽  
pp. 113-140
Author(s):  
Denis Vorobiev ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Structure ◽  
First Nations ◽  
Indigenous Rights ◽  
17Th Century ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Political ◽  
The People ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
Intergenerational Continuity ◽  
The Relationship

The article examines the debate between Quebecois anthropologists and historians around the “disparationist” thesis. According to this thesis, first expressed in several 17th century texts, the Attikamegues and Montagnais peoples had completely disappeared by the end of that century due to epidemics and Iroquois raids, and the territories in which they lived were occupied by alien autochthonous groups. Therefore, the modern Innu and Atikamekw are implied not to be the direct descendants of the people who lived here before the arrival of Europeans. Anthropologists criticize this thesis, stressing intergenerational continuity. They see it as a political notion that denies the indigenous rights of the First Nations. The author examines the critical arguments of the anthropologists and tries to reveal the relationship between the political implications of the problem and its purely scientific component. From his point of view, the “disparationist” thesis does not take into account the mobility and the relatively amorphous social structure of taiga hunters, in which even the replacement of some groups by others does not imply a break in continuity.

scholarly journals “Hail the Census Night”: Trust and Political Imagination in the 1960 Population Census of Ghana

2018 ◽  
Vol 60 (3) ◽  
pp. 659-687 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerardo Serra
Keyword(s):  
International Standards ◽  
The Political ◽  
Population Census ◽  
Political Imagination ◽  
Development Discourse ◽  
Departure Point ◽  
The People ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
The Press ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractThe article uses the first population census of postcolonial Ghana to analyze the relationship between statistics and the process of imagining the nation-state. In contrast with much historical and sociological literature, which conceptualizes the relationship between census-taking and state formation in terms of identification, classification, and quantification, the departure point of this analysis is the importance of gaining the trust of the counted subjects. In Ghana, where the possibility of obtaining accurate population returns had been severely hindered by people's distrust in the state, the 1960 population census saw the organization of a capillary education campaign in schools and in the press. By dissecting the iconographies emerging from the Census Education and Enlightenment Campaign, the article makes three contributions. First, it shows that understanding the concrete ways in which statistics inform political imagination requires an expansion of the field of observation beyond the statistical machinery and other “centers of calculation.” Second, complementing James Ferguson's understanding of “development discourse” as an “anti-politics machine,” it is argued that the possibility of making the people of Ghana “census minded” depended on the construction of a much richer set of inherently political representations about the nature of the postcolonial state. Finally, it shows the importance of critically interrogating the political implications acquired by the reception of global statistical practices. It does so by documenting the multiple ways in which the international standards promoted by the United Nations became entwined with the transformation of Ghanaian politics through the mobilization of children and press propaganda.

Afterword

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hugh B. Urban ◽  
Greg Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Academic Discourse ◽  
Critical Study ◽  
The Political ◽  
The People ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
Education Today

The Afterword includes an interview with Bruce Lincoln, in which he is asked to reflect on the current study of religion, methods of comparison, and the political implications of academic discourse. In addition to responding to specific points in these chapters, Lincoln also fleshes out what he thinks it would mean “to do better” in the critical study of religion amid the ongoing crises of higher education today. Perhaps most importantly, he reflects upon and clarifies what he means by “irreverence” in the study of religion; an irreverent approach, he concludes, entails a rejection of the sacred status that other people attribute to various things, but not of the people themselves.

Interview with Vicki Kirby

2019 ◽  
Vol 36 (7-8) ◽  
pp. 261-271
Author(s):  
Daniel McLoughlin
Keyword(s):  
Social Theory ◽  
Life Sciences ◽  
The Political ◽  
Nature And Culture ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
New Materialisms ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Way

In this interview, Vicki Kirby discusses her research into the relationship between nature and culture, focusing in particular on her recent edited collection, What If Culture Was Nature All Along? The volume appears in the ‘New Materialisms’ series, and so the interview begins by situating the collection with respect to the recent materialist turn in social theory. Kirby discusses the influence of deconstruction on her thought, and the way that she draws upon Derrida to think through recent research in the life sciences and its implications for understanding the relationship between matter, life, and communication. She also goes into the political implications of her work and the relationship between biopolitics and biodeconstruction.

«Razao e Liberdade. A Filosofia Politica de James Madison» Arguicao e Resposta

2011 ◽  
Vol 19 (37) ◽  
pp. 217-240
Author(s):  
Alessandra Silveira ◽  
José Gomes André ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Human Nature ◽  
Judicial Review ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Political ◽  
Alexander Hamilton ◽  
James Madison ◽  
The Relationship

This paper includes the exam of a Ph.D thesis about James Madison’s political philosophy, as well as the answers presented by the candidate to several criticai observations. Various themes are considered, though always surrounding Madison’s work: the peculiar characteristics of his federalism, the relationship between the idea of human nature and the elaboration of political models, the political and constitutional controversies that Madison entangled with several figures from its time (namely Alexander Hamilton), the problem of “judicial review” and the place of “constitutionality control” taken from a reflexive and institutional point of view, and other similar themes.

scholarly journals РАСПРЕДЕЛЁННАЯ ОБРАЗНОСТЬ: ИМАГИНАТИВНЫЕ ПРАКТИКИ СОВРЕМЕННОЙ КУЛЬТУРЫ

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ilya Inishev
Keyword(s):  
Structural Characteristics ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Main Theme ◽  
Contemporary Culture ◽  
Normative Claim ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
Core Feature ◽  
And Control ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Regime Characteristic

В статье идёт речь о формах образного, которые во всё возрастающей степени становятся характерными для современной культуры. Центральная характеристика этих форм – распределённость в пространстве и времени, их способность сопровождать нас практически повсеместно, не будучи привязанными к каким-либо организационным формам. Распределённые разновидности образного противопоставляются «традиционным», нераспределённым образам, «репрезентирующим» некоторое идентифицируемое содержание. Одна из базовых черт нераспределенного образного – заключённое в нём нормативное притязание, затрагивающее не только способы его интерпретации, но и телесные практики воспринимающего «субъекта», релевантные для его восприятия. В отличие от репрессивного характера нераспределённого образа, являющегося его структурной характеристикой, связанной с характерным для него режимом восприятия, распределённая образность базируется не на редукции и контроле телесности воспринимающего, но – напротив – на интенсификации (и в этом смысле эмансипации) его эмоционально-телесного самоприсутствия. В диахронической перспективе отношение между нераспределённой и распределённой образностью опосредовано сложной социально-исторической и материально-технологической динамикой развитого и позднего модерна. Реконструкция этой динамики позволяет выстроить генетическую связь (континуальность) между нераспределённой и распределённой образностью. В синхронической перспективе распределённая и нераспределенная разновидности образности генерируют несовместимые типы опыта с взаимоисключающими структурными характеристиками и социально-политическими импликациями (дискретность).Main theme of the article are the types of imagery becoming increasingly characteristic of contemporary culture. The core feature of these types is their being distributed across time and space, their ability to accompany us virtually everywhere, without being tied to any organizational form. Distributed imagery opposes “traditional”, non-distributed images “representing” some identifiable subject-matter. One of the essential traits of non-distributed imagery is its normative claim addressing not only the ways of its interpretation but also bodily practices of the perceiving subject, relevant for experiencing images of this kind. In contrast to the inherent oppressiveness of non-distributed image connected to a perceptual regime characteristic of it, the distributed imagery draws not on reduction and control of body of the perceiving subject but – on the contrary – on intensifying (and in this sense, on emancipating) its bodily emotional self-presence. From a diachronic point of view, the relationship between distributed and non-distributed imageries is mediated by quite a complicated socio-historical and material-technological dynamic of the developed and late modernity. Reconstruction of this dynamic enables us to identify the genetic interrelation (continuity) between non-distributed and distributed imagery. From a synchronic point of view, distributed and non-distributed imagery forms generate incompatible experience types with mutually exclusive structural characteristics and social-political implications (discontinuity).

Transhumanism, Nietzsche and Politics: A Commentary on Their Relationship

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 229-234
Author(s):  
Anna Markopoulou
Keyword(s):  
Transition Point ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Dimension ◽  
The Relationship

The aim of this commentary is to highlight the relationship between Nietzsche and Transhumanism on the occasion of the publication of the Posthuman Studies Reader in 2021, which is edited by Evi D. Sampanikou and Jan Stasienko. More specifically, this commentary focuses on the fact that the Reader promotes Nietzsche as the official forerunner of Transhumanism, since it places humans at a transition point between animal and Overhuman.The analysis of the ten transhumanist texts in the Reader shows that, in essence, Transhumanism is not a transition but an overcoming of the human and, from this point of view, it is not in line with Nietzsche's conception. Moreover, this commentary focuses on the relationship between Transhumanism and politics and shows that the political dimension is entirely absent from most of the Transhumanist texts in the Reader. Thus, transhumanism should re-evaluate its epistemological foundations and its relation to politics. 

The People and the People: Democracy and Vitalism in Walt Whitman’s 1855 Leaves of Grass

2019 ◽  
pp. 74-113
Author(s):  
Christian P. Haines
Keyword(s):  
Common Property ◽  
The Political ◽  
Leaves Of Grass ◽  
National Belonging ◽  
Baruch Spinoza ◽  
Labor Politics ◽  
The People ◽  
The Common ◽  
Concepts Of Democracy ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter examines the relationship between politics and philosophy in Walt Whitman’s 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass. It focuses on Whitman’s articulation of two different concepts of democracy: a vitalist version, based on the organic life of the nation, and a revolutionary version, based on transforming the political culture of the people for the sake of fulfilling the American Revolution. The chapter traces Whitman’s reception as a Spinozist (an inheritor of the radical philosophy of Baruch Spinoza), a pantheist, and a monist. It argues that this philosophical legacy enables Whitman to reimagine the nation as the common property of the people and to reconceive of national belonging in terms other than citizenship. The chapter pays particular attention to Whitman’s commitments to labor politics and the abolition of slavery.

Consequences of the Cyberstate

2011 ◽  
pp. 116-132 ◽  
Author(s):  
Costas Panagopoulos
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Emerging Technology ◽  
International Perspective ◽  
The Political ◽  
Digital Government ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
Citizen Support ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Relationship

Emerging technology has provided public sector leaders with unprecedented opportunities to redefine the relationship between citizens and the state. Yet, even as leaders embrace the promise and possibilities afforded by digital government, there is little consensus about the political implications of digital government. While some experts expect little impact, others claim that advances in digital government will have significant political implications. This study assesses the political implications of digital government from an international perspective. Using data recently compiled by the United Nations (U.N.), the findings indicate that digital government is likely to produce significant political implications. Specifically, advances in digital government are likely to engender greater citizen support for government as well as higher levels of political participation.

The People: Ethnoracial Configurations, Old and New

2020 ◽  
pp. 79-96
Author(s):  
Leila Brännström
Keyword(s):  
Western Europe ◽  
Northern Europe ◽  
The Political ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
The People ◽  
Political Forces ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Political Association ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Point Of Departure

In recent years the Sweden Democrats have championed a clarification of the identity of the ‘the people’ in the Instrument of government. The reference, they argue, should be to the ethnic group of Swedes. This chapter will take this ambition to fix the subject of popular sovereignty as the point of departure for discussing some of the ways in which the contemporary anti-foreigner political forces of Northern and Western Europe imagine ‘the people’ and identify their allies and enemies within and beyond state borders. To set the stage for this exploration the chapter will start by looking at Carl Schmitt’s ideas about political friendship, and more specifically the way he imagines the relationship between ‘us’ in a political and constitutional sense and ‘the people’ in national and ethnoracial terms. The choice to begin with Schmitt is not arbitrary. His thoughts about the nature of the political association have found their way into the discourse of many radical right-wing parties of Western and Northern Europe.

Hope, or On Theology

2020 ◽  
pp. 170-197
Author(s):  
Ryan Patrick Hanley
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
The Political ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
Universal Order ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Theological Virtue

Chapter 6 turns to Fénelon’s theology, focusing on his treatment of hope and its significance for his political philosophy. It argues that he regarded hope not just as a key theological virtue, but also as a key virtue of political rulers and political reformers. Its discussion of the political implications of Fénelon’s theology proceeds in three parts. It first examines the role of hope in Telemachus. It then turns to the treatment of hope in Fénelon’s theology, focusing on three particular discussions: the place of hope in love, the relationship of hope to self-interest, and the place of hope in prayer. The final section turns to two aspects of Fénelon’s theology beyond hope which also have significant implications for his political philosophy: his understanding of the relationship of human being to divine being, and his arguments for the existence of God and their implications for universal order.

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