Defending Diversity in an Era of Populism: Multiculturalism and Interculturalism Compared

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Will Kymlicka
Keyword(s):  
Political Narrative

This chapter contends that interculturalists may think they are defending diversity, but their crude anti multiculturalist rhetoric may play into the hands of xenophobes who reject both multiculturalism and interculturalism. It focuses on the intercultural strategy to build a new political narrative in which interculturalism emerges from the alleged failed extremes of multiculturalism. The chapter also asks whether this new narrative can work to energize pro-diversity forces and to undercut support for populism. The answer is uncertain, for interculturalist narratives have too often left untouched exclusionary accounts of nationhood, and unintentionally legitimised populist narratives about the untrustworthy nature of mainstream elites on issues of diversity.

Contesting the City

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian D. Liddy
Keyword(s):  
Urban Politics ◽  
Low Countries ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Urban Citizenship ◽  
Town Government ◽  
Medieval Europe ◽  
Political Narrative ◽  
Classical Models ◽  
The Rich ◽  
The City

The political narrative of late medieval English towns is often reduced to the story of the gradual intensification of oligarchy, in which power was exercised and projected by an ever smaller ruling group over an increasingly subservient urban population. This book takes its inspiration not from English historiography, but from a more dynamic continental scholarship on towns in the southern Low Countries, Germany, and France. Its premise is that scholarly debate about urban oligarchy has obscured contemporary debate about urban citizenship. It identifies from the records of English towns a tradition of urban citizenship, which did not draw upon the intellectual legacy of classical models of the ‘citizen’. This was a vernacular citizenship, which was not peculiar to England, but which was present elsewhere in late medieval Europe. It was a citizenship that was defined and created through action. There were multiple, and divergent, ideas about citizenship, which encouraged townspeople to make demands, to assert rights, and to resist authority. This book exploits the rich archival sources of the five major towns in England—Bristol, Coventry, London, Norwich, and York—in order to present a new picture of town government and urban politics over three centuries. The power of urban governors was much more precarious than historians have imagined. Urban oligarchy could never prevail—whether ideologically or in practice—when there was never a single, fixed meaning of the citizen.

The Israeli–Lebanese war of 2006: consequences for Lebanon

2008 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 187-210
Author(s):  
Ziad Hafez
Keyword(s):  
Arab Countries ◽  
The Political ◽  
National Unity ◽  
Major Consequence ◽  
Political Narrative ◽  
Defence Policy ◽  
Before And After ◽  
The Usa ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Impact

This article focuses on the political narrative in Lebanon before and after the Israeli war against Lebanon in 2006. It revolves around the subject of national unity as a sine qua non condition for success for the Lebanese resistance led by Hezbollah. A major consequence of the narrative on national unity is the need to build a modern state and establish a cohesive defence policy. The paper also examines the impact of the war on Lebanon's economy and on its relations with the rest of the world (the USA, France, Syria, Arab countries, and Iran).

The Date and Circumstances of Olympiodorus of Thebes

Traditio ◽  
1993 ◽  
Vol 48 ◽  
pp. 1-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Gillett
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Imperial Court ◽  
Political Narrative ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Rich ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Western Half

Olympiodorus of Thebes is an important figure for the history of late antiquity. The few details of his life preserved as anecdotes in hisHistorygive glimpses of a career which embraced the skills of poet, philosopher, and diplomat. A native of Egypt, he had influence at the imperial court of Constantinople, among the sophists of Athens, and even outside the borders of the empire. HisHistory(more correctly, his “materials for history”) is lost, surviving only as fragments in the narratives of Zosimus, Sozomen, and Philostorgius, and in the rich summary given by the ninth-century Byzantine patriarch Photius. These remains comprise the most substantial narrative sources for events in the western Roman Empire in the early fifth century. Besides its value as a source, theHistoryis important as a monument to the vitality of the belief in the unity of the Roman Empire under the Theodosian dynasty. Olympiodorus wrote in Greek, and knowledge of his work is attested only in Constantinople, yet his political narrative, from 407 to 425, concerns only events in the western half of the empire. To understand the significance of these facts, it is necessary to set the composition of Olympiodorus's work in its proper context. Clarifying the date of publication is the first step toward this goal. Internal and external evidence suggests that the work was written in 440 or soon after, more than a decade later than the date of composition usually accepted. Taken with thematic emphases evident in the structure of theHistory, this revised dating explains why an eastern writer should have written a detailed account of western events in the early part of the century. Olympiodorus's account is a characteristic product of the highly literate class of eastern imperial civil servants, and of their genuine preoccupation with the relationship between the eastern and western halves of the Roman Empire at a time when both were threatened by the rise of the new Carthaginian power of the Vandals.

scholarly journals Zmiana w postrzeganiu imigracji, integracji, wielokulturowości i zagrożenia islamskim radykalizmem przez władze niektórych państw UE

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (24) ◽  
pp. 11-45
Author(s):  
Krzysztof Izak
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Far Right ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
State Security ◽  
Dangerous Situation ◽  
Political Narrative ◽  
The One ◽  
Methods Of Operation ◽  
Right Wing Extremism

Kryzys imigracyjny w 2015 r. stał się motorem dla ruchów i partii negujących dotychczasowy porządek polityczny, także tych, które nie ukrywają swoich ksenofobicznych haseł i idei. Z perspektywy czasu jest coraz więcej oznak, że decyzja o niekontrolowanym przyjęciu uchodźców była bardziej wyrazem myślenia życzeniowego niż racjonalnym rozstrzygnięciem uwzględniającym rzeczywistą sytuację polityczną. Tym samym Europa znalazła się w niebezpiecznej sytuacji, kiedy to z jednej strony rosną w siłę ruchy skrajnie prawicowe, a z drugiej – radykalny islam. Każda z tych formacji legitymizuje swoje istnienie i metody działania istnieniem drugiej strony, a także próbuje doprowadzić do polaryzacji społeczeństwa i stworzenia takiej sytuacji, która niejako wymusi na obywatelach opowiedzenie się po stronie którejś z tych formacji. Paradoksalnie, decyzja kanclerz Merkel znacznie zwiększyła ryzyko wystąpienia takiego scenariusza, dlatego też niemieckie władze postrzegają i islamski, i prawicowy ekstremizm jako stwarzające jednakowe zagrożenie bezpieczeństwa państwa. Jednak dopiero ostatnie zamachy terrorystyczne w październiku i listopadzie 2020 r. we Francji i Niemczech przyczyniły się do zmiany politycznej narracji. Changes in the perception of immigration, integration, multiculturalism and threats of Islamic radicalism in certain EU member states The 2015 immigration crisis became a driving force for movements and parties that negate the current political order, including those that do not conceal their xenophobic slogans and ideas. In retrospect, there are more and more signs that the decision to accept the uncontrolled refugee influx was more an expression of wishful thinking than a rational decision, taking into account the actual political situation. Thus, Europe finds itself in a dangerous situation with far-right movements on the one hand, and radical Islam on the other. Each of these formations legitimizes its existence and methods of operation by the existence of the other side, trying to polarize society and create a situation that will somehow force citizens to opt for one of the two options. Paradoxically, Chancellor Merkel’s decision significantly increased the risk of such a scenario, hence the perception of Islamic and right-wing extremism by the German authorities as posing an equal threat to state security. However, it was only the recent terrorist attacks in October and November 2020 in France and Germany that changed the political narrative.

‘We have nothing to celebrate!’: Fighting gender-based violence in Cape Town, South Africa

2021 ◽  
Vol 24 (3/4) ◽  
pp. 243-259
Author(s):  
Paula Vermuë
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Cape Town ◽  
African National Congress ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
Gender Based Violence ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Political Narrative ◽  
National Congress ◽  
Multiple Levels ◽  
Gender Based

Abstract This article illustrates the de-politicisation and re-politicisation of the fight against gender-based violence and femicide in Cape Town, South Africa. Firstly, this article shows how gender-based violence and femicide has been de-politicised through a conservative political narrative of the African National Congress (ANC) and through restricting funding relationships between Northern donor organisations and womxn’s NGOs in Cape Town. Secondly, I argue that, with the emerge of a new autonomous feminist movement in 2018, the Total Shutdown (TTS), the re-politicisation of gender-based violence happened on multiple levels. Not only did the activist movement manage to put gender-based violence back on the political agenda, it also helped NGO benefactors to reconnect with their feminist goals to end femicide in South Africa. This research is based on ethnographic fieldwork in Cape Town from September 2018 until January 2019 and includes the stories of Capetonian NGO benefactors and TTS activists.

Ancient Liberties

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fiona Price
Keyword(s):  
Historical Novel ◽  
Ann Radcliffe ◽  
Horace Walpole ◽  
Political Narrative ◽  
Clara Reeve

Chapter One explores how the historical novel emerged in the 1760s as a form which at once employed and interrogated the dominant political narrative of ‘ancient liberties’. The notion of ancient constitutionalism allowed proposals for reform or for limits on monarchical power to be seen as attempts to ensure stability or, at most, (as with the theory of the Norman Yoke) to return to political origin. Yet for Horace Walpole ancient constitutionalism seems at times a troubled jest; Clara Reeve senses that the motif desperately needs reinforcement; and even after the more radical uses of the theory of the Norman Yoke by the Constitutional Society in the 1780s and 90s, Ann Radcliffe considers it a frozen political fable. Haunted by the spectre of the divine right of kings, in the historical novel the narrative of tradition ultimately proves an insufficient underpinning for the constitution.

Conclusion

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mandy Sadan
Keyword(s):  
Political Culture ◽  
Previous Analysis ◽  
Political Narrative ◽  
Underlying Causes ◽  
National Reconciliation ◽  
Similar Kind

This concluding chapter refers back to the original intentions outlined in the Introduction and comments on how the preceding chapters have expanded upon those intentions. It proposes that further work of a similar kind in relation to other regions is greatly desired, but outlines some of the impediments to such work. It says that the book has demonstrated the complexity of Kachin ideological systems and Kachin political culture and how the underlying causes of conflict in the Kachin region cannot be reduced to a simplistic political narrative. Burmese national politicians have yet to engage with the kind of complex history outlined in this book. However, recognising the limitations of previous analysis is an important element of any national reconciliation and political rehabilitation.

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