Enemies of the people

Focaal ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 (74) ◽  
pp. 42-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katrine Bendtsen Gotfredsen
Keyword(s):  
Social Identity ◽  
Social Status ◽  
Personal Experience ◽  
Political Influence ◽  
Political Rhetoric ◽  
Explanatory Framework ◽  
The People ◽  
Moral High Ground

This article connects a specific generational experience of having been dispossessed of former social status and political influence to suspicious theories of conspiracies and hidden connections. Th rough ethnographic cases from Georgia I argue that while acting as an explanatory framework for the personal experience of being economically and politically dispossessed, conspiracy theorizing may also work as an everyday means of reappropriating a morally meaningful social identity through the mirroring of a general form of political rhetoric and power. The theories analyzed in the article draw on socially and culturally recognizable registers and tap into a general atmosphere of suspicion and opacity in which mistrust of official accounts and rhetoric is reasonable and appealing. They thus work as a means of repacking generational and economical marginality into a broader framework that is of concern to the wider community and may be seen to represent an effort of reclaiming a moral high ground and being reinscribed into wider social and national domains.

On the Will of the People: Notes on the Political “Theory” of Populism

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Claus Offe
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Identity ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Conflicts Of Interest ◽  
Political Rhetoric ◽  
The Political ◽  
The People ◽  
National People ◽  
The Will

The “will of the (national) people” is the ubiquitously invoked reference unit of populist politics. The essay tries to demystify the notion that such will can be conceived of as a unique and unified substance deriving from collective ethnic identity. Arguably, all political theory is concerned with arguing for ways by which citizens can make e pluribus unum—for example, by coming to agree on procedures and institutions by which conflicts of interest and ideas can be settled according to standards of fairness. It is argued that populists in their political rhetoric and practice typically try to circumvent the burden of such argument and proof. Instead, they appeal to the notion of some preexisting existential unity of the people’s will, which they can redeem only through practices of repression and exclusion.

The Meritocratization of Civil Society

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Bovens ◽  
Anchrit Wille
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Third Sector ◽  
Political Influence ◽  
Public Affairs ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
Advocacy Groups ◽  
Interest Representation ◽  
The People ◽  
Professional Advocacy ◽  
Education Gap

Civil society organizations are, if not schools, at least pools of democracy. In the ‘third sector’, too, active engagement and participation ‘by the people’ have given way to meritocracy, or, in other words, to rule by the well-educated. Many popularly rooted mass organizations have witnessed a decline in membership and political influence. Their role as intermediary between politics and society has been taken over by professionally managed advocacy groups that operate with university educated public affairs consultants. First, the chapter describes the associational revolution, the enormous increase in the number of civil society organizations. Then it in analyses the education gap in membership and the shift from large membership organizations to lean professional advocacy groups, which has occurred over the past three decades. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the net effect of this meritocratization of civil society for political participation and interest representation.

L'Eviction des Sēfuwa du Kānem et l'origine des Bulāla

1982 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 315-331 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dierk Lange
Keyword(s):  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Political Influence ◽  
Oral Traditions ◽  
The West ◽  
Lake Chad ◽  
Border States ◽  
Sedentary Population ◽  
The People ◽  
In The Beginning

The Sēfuwa dynasty seized power in Kānem around 1075, but it was only in the beginning of the thirteenth century that the rulers of Kānem were able to extend their authority over Bornū. Prior to this move small groups of Saharan speakers had already established themselves among the Chadic speakers of the Komadugu Yobe valley. Towards the end of the reign of Dūnama Dībalāmi (c. 1210–48) the court of the Sēfuwa itself was shifted to Bornū, mainly as a result of disturbances in Kānem. Indeed, according to oral traditions of the sixteenth century, the Tubu, in alliance with certain members of the Sēfuwa aristocracy, staged a major rebellion against the central government, apparently attempting to resist the strict application of Islamic principles of government by Dūnama Dībalāmi. Towards the end of the thirteenth century powerful rulers were again able to establish the authority of the Sēfuwa on firm grounds: in the east, even on the fringes of Kānem, they brought the situation under strict control and in the west they extended – or confirmed – the political influence of the Sēfuwa dynasty over the focal points of interregional trade which began to rise in Hausaland. Thus Bornū became the central province of the Sēfuwa Empire in spite of the fact that several kings continued to reside temporarily in the old capital of Djīmī situated in Kānem. This major shift of their territorial basis affected the position of the Sēfuwa in their original homelands. Written sources from the end of the fourteenth century show that the increasing involvement of the Sēfuwa in Bornū and its western border states must have changed their attitude towards the people living east of Lake Chad: after having acquired the character of an autochthonous (or national) dynasty of Kānem – in spite of their foreign origin – the Sēfuwa progressively became an alien power in this major Sudanic state, even though the people of Kānem and Bornū were closely related. Furthermore, the rise of a powerful kingdom in the area of Lake Fitrī under the rule of the Bulāla became a serious threat to the Sēfuwa in their original homelands as the warrior aristocracy of the Bulāla state – which must have been of Kanembu origin – remained closely connected with the sedentary population of Kānem. When finally during the reign of 'Umar b. Idrīs (c. 1382–7), the Sēfuwa were forced by the Bulāla to withdraw their forces from Kānem, this territorial loss did not affect the future development of the Empire to the extent that has formerly been supposed, since losses in the east were largely compensated by earlier gains in the west.

scholarly journals WOMEN, POLITICS, AND THE 1723 OATHS OF ALLEGIANCE TO GEORGE I

2016 ◽  
Vol 59 (4) ◽  
pp. 975-999 ◽  
Author(s):  
EDWARD VALLANCE
Keyword(s):  
Political Participation ◽  
Social Status ◽  
Political Identity ◽  
Political Influence ◽  
Level Of Detail ◽  
Mass Public

ABSTRACTThis article explores the last instance of mass public oath-taking in England, the tendering of the oaths of allegiance, supremacy, and abjuration in the aftermath of the Jacobite Atterbury Plot of 1722. The records of this exercise, surviving in local record offices, have been little examined by historians. The returns are, however, unusual not only in the level of detail they occasionally provide concerning subscribers (place of abode, occupation, and social status) but also in the consistently high numbers of women who can be found taking the oaths. Prior to 1723, the appearance of female subscribers on oath returns was exceptional and usually assumed to be accidental. As this article seeks to demonstrate, the targeting of women in 1723 was intentional and represented a recognition of women's economic and political influence in early Hanoverian England. Even so, the presence of women on these oath returns represented a breach in the normal exclusion of women from formal political participation. The article suggests that other means of presenting public loyalty, namely the loyal address, were subsequently preferred which both seemed more the product of popular enthusiasm rather than state direction and which could informally represent women without conferring a public political identity.

scholarly journals HVOR BOR DE VILDE? Erindringer om identitet og politik i Amazonas

1997 ◽  
Author(s):  
Søren Hvalkof
Keyword(s):  
Social Identity ◽  
Personal Experience ◽  
Field Work ◽  
The Political ◽  
Peruvian Amazon ◽  
Central Importance ◽  
Study Tour ◽  
Conventional Study ◽  
Political Success

Søren Hvalkof: Where are the Savages? Memories of Identity and Politics in the Amazon The author’s personal experience with a conventional study tour to the Peruvian Andes that metamorphosed into an ethnographic joumey of the Amazon, highlights the central importance of the ethnographic field work as anthropology’s phenomenological soul. The case of the Asheninka of the Peruvian Amazon is used to show why the ethnographic description is crucial to the realization of the political potentials inherent in non-Westem societies. Using classificatory models of ethnic and social identity developed by Dr. Niels Fock and rethinking them in the context of power, the epistemological contrast between the developmentalist and essentialist monolith of Western thinking and the indigenous, nonessentialist, multicentric and particularistic universe is demonstrated. The recent political success of the latter is related to the potentials released through the growing process of globalization. An anecdote from the field epitomizes the choices made by the Asheninka.

scholarly journals Come Fly With Me: Analyzing The F-35 Aircraft Acquisition Discourse to Study Incivility in Question Period

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arun Jacob
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Political Rhetoric ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Accountability ◽  
The People ◽  
Canadian Politics ◽  
The Government

The main objective behind the parliamentary practice of Question Period is to ensure that the government is held accountable to the people. Rather than being a political accountability tool and a showcase of public discourse, these deliberations are most often displays of vitriolic political rhetoric. I will be focusing my research on the ways in which incivil political discourse permeates the political mediascape with respect to one instance in Canadian politics - the acquisition of the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter. I believe that incivility in the political discourse of Question Period must be understood within the mechanics of the contemporary public sphere. By interrogating the complexities of how political discourse is being mediatized, produced and consumed within the prevailing ideological paradigms, I identify some of the contemporary social, cultural and political practices that produce incivility in parliamentary discourse.

scholarly journals Paradigm Shift among Scheduled Caste in Jharkhand: A Study of Garhwa District

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Ambrish Gautam ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Structure ◽  
Social Status ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Exceptional Case ◽  
Personal Attributes ◽  
The People ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Socially Excluded

Status is a position provided to the person of the concern society based on societal norms, values and customary practices. It is further being divided into two parts, first one is the Ascribed status, and another is Achieved status. The ascribed status is assigned to a person by the group or society, whereas achieved status is earned by the individual through his/her personal attributes and is taken note of by the people in and around his/her location. It is also evident that in majority of the cases, the ascribed status always determines the nature and extent of the achieved status. The ascribed status of the Dalits contributes or hinders in the formation of their achieved status. It also includes their social interaction and social relations with non-Dalits in the exiting local level social structure. This status is being characterized and specified by the process of Sanskritization, social and religious reforms, and the constitutional provisions in the formation of achieved status of Dalits in their different strata of life. The social status is the convergent form of both the ascribed and achieved statuses of a person in each society or social structure. In every circumstance, one’s higher ascribed status always contributes positively to his or her higher achieved status. Conversely, lower the ascribed status, lower is the achieved status though this may be other way round in the exceptional case. Anyway, the symmetrical or linear relationship between the lower ascribed and achieved statuses gets more crystallized, if the person comes from a group which remains socially excluded forever. But due to the prospects of Independence, Education, Constitutional safeguards and Modernisation several kinds of changes occurred in the status of Dalit’s in the society. Through this paper, I have tried to identify the process of social status formation among Dalits in Jharkhand.

scholarly journals Paradigm Shift among Scheduled Caste in Jharkhand: A Study of Garhwa District

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Ambrish Gautam ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Structure ◽  
Social Status ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Exceptional Case ◽  
Personal Attributes ◽  
The People ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Socially Excluded

Status is a position provided to the person of the concern society based on societal norms, values and customary practices. It is further being divided into two parts, first one is the Ascribed status, and another is Achieved status. The ascribed status is assigned to a person by the group or society, whereas achieved status is earned by the individual through his/her personal attributes and is taken note of by the people in and around his/her location. It is also evident that in majority of the cases, the ascribed status always determines the nature and extent of the achieved status. The ascribed status of the Dalits contributes or hinders in the formation of their achieved status. It also includes their social interaction and social relations with non-Dalits in the exiting local level social structure. This status is being characterized and specified by the process of Sanskritization, social and religious reforms, and the constitutional provisions in the formation of achieved status of Dalits in their different strata of life. The social status is the convergent form of both the ascribed and achieved statuses of a person in each society or social structure. In every circumstance, one’s higher ascribed status always contributes positively to his or her higher achieved status. Conversely, lower the ascribed status, lower is the achieved status though this may be other way round in the exceptional case. Anyway, the symmetrical or linear relationship between the lower ascribed and achieved statuses gets more crystallized, if the person comes from a group which remains socially excluded forever. But due to the prospects of Independence, Education, Constitutional safeguards and Modernisation several kinds of changes occurred in the status of Dalit’s in the society. Through this paper, I have tried to identify the process of social status formation among Dalits in Jharkhand.

scholarly journals Cultural Perspectives of Financial and Non-Financial Incentives

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Kyriaki Kafka ◽  
Anna Maria Kanzola ◽  
Panagiotis E. Petrakis
Keyword(s):  
Social Identity ◽  
Personality Traits ◽  
Cultural Change ◽  
Financial Incentives ◽  
Human Action ◽  
Explanatory Framework ◽  
Economic Action ◽  
Cultural Perspectives

The present paper delineates an explanatory framework for the defining factors of incentives, both financial and nonfinancial, through the theory of human economic action and that of personality traits, which shape human goals and, ultimately, social identity. It is ascertained that three types of variables affect incentives: basic conditions (cultural change, etc.), basic values and needs (tradition, external values, etc.) and the dynamism of social identity, which includes the goals that are set. More specifically, the two basic variables that shape the incentives for human action and imbue dynamism in behavior relate to megalothymia—i.e., the need for acknowledgement of a person’s integrity along with the predisposition to be thought superior to others as well as the aspiration to a certain level of quality in life.

scholarly journals DARI ISOLASI KE AKULTURASI (STUDI TENTANG PEMBENTUKAN DAN PENGEMBANGAN KAMPUNG TRANS DI DESA KURAU)

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 156-168
Author(s):  
Trisna Malinda
Keyword(s):  
Social Identity ◽  
Social Identity Theory ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Social Values ◽  
Community Change ◽  
Analysis Techniques ◽  
The People ◽  
The Social ◽  
In Trans ◽  
The Individual

This study exposes about society changes when the formation and development of Trans Village program from isolation to acculturation. Its purpose is to identify how the community change from isolated to acculturated and changes then forms a social identity in Trans Village. The Theory used in this field is Henri Taifel’s social identity theory that stated the individual concept forms by their experience in the group by acknowledging and applied the social values, participate, and develops their sense of care and pride of their group. This research uses descriptive qualitative research. Data collection techniques through observation, interviews, and documentation. This study also uses data analysis techniques by reducing data, displaying data and drawing conclusions. The number of informants used is 9 people filtered through purposive sampling. The results of this study indicate that the process from isolation to community acculturation occurred at the time of the formation and development of the Trans Village in Kurau Village. At first, the transmigrant communities are isolated from the local community so there are no interactions. Then by the time being, Trans Village leads to the transformation of social identity. Social identity is formed starting from the awareness, relationships, collaboration and harmonization among the people. People who were initially isolated have now become acculturated in Kampung Trans. This condition can be seen from the merging of the community, namely the local community and transmigrants in Trans Village which caused mixing between cultures so that new cultures are formed while still preserving old cultures. People live mingled by promoting the values ​​and rules that exist in Kampung Trans.

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