scholarly journals Thinking Theoretically about Religiosity, Secularity and Pluralism in the Global East

Religions ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. 337 ◽  
Author(s):  
Grace Davie
Keyword(s):  
East Asia ◽  
Final Section ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Social Progress ◽  
Scientific Thinking ◽  
International Panel ◽  
The World ◽  
Social Scientific ◽  
High Degree ◽  
Do So

This paper addresses the religiosity, secularity and pluralism of the global East from a theoretical perspective. To do so it draws from work undertaken by the author within the International Panel on Social Progress (IPSP), paying particular attention to the material on religion, diversity and pluralism. The final section of the article demonstrates the rootedness of social scientific thinking in the European Enlightenment and the consequences of this heritage for the understanding of religion in other parts of the world including East Asia. There are no easy answers to the questions posed by the mismatch between theory and data; there are, however, pointers towards more constructive ways forward—ways which respond sensitively to the context under review, maintaining nonetheless a high degree of scientific rigour.

scholarly journals INTRODUCTION TO THE SYMPOSIUM ON THE REPORT OF THE INTERNATIONAL PANEL ON SOCIAL PROGRESS (IPSP) 2018

2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 439-441
Author(s):  
Alexander Raubo ◽  
Alex Voorhoeve
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Social Progress ◽  
Theoretical Knowledge ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
Historical View ◽  
International Panel ◽  
Enlightenment Project ◽  
Social Scientific

The publication of the first Report of the International Panel on Social Progress is a significant intellectual event, both because of its hugely ambitious aim – of uniting the world's leading researchers from social sciences and the humanities to develop research-based, multi-disciplinary, non-partisan, action-guiding solutions to the central challenges of our time – and because it represents the completion of a mammoth effort in the service of this aim by a diverse set of 269 authors. In its attempt to synthesize and render accessible to social actors a broad range of the latest social scientific knowledge, as well as in its confidence that knowledge can empower those actors to make progress, it recalls D'Alembert and Diderot's famous Encyclopédie. Indeed, one can say that the Report is a quintessential Enlightenment project (cf. Bury 1920). For example, in his famous Outlines of a Historical View of the Progress of the Human Mind (1796), Condorcet asserts the possibility of an accumulation of empirical and theoretical knowledge and the concomitant expansion in our capacities to alleviate social and natural evils. And Condorcet and many of his contemporaries were motivated to propose political institutions that would enable such an indefinite increase in knowledge so as to bring about the attendant improvement to people's lives.

IN PURSUIT OF SOCIAL PROGRESS

2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 443-449
Author(s):  
Matthew Adler ◽  
Marc Fleurbaey
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
New York ◽  
Academic Career ◽  
New York Times ◽  
Social Progress ◽  
University Professors ◽  
University Campuses ◽  
International Panel ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World

In 2014, the New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof wrote: ‘Some of the smartest thinkers on problems at home and around the world are university professors, but most of them just don't matter in today's great debates … I write this in sorrow, for I considered an academic career and deeply admire the wisdom found on university campuses. So, professors, don't cloister yourselves like medieval monks – we need you!’ At that time, a group of academics were working to launch the International Panel on Social Progress, with the aim of preparing a report analysing the current prospects for improving our societies.1 It gathered about 300 researchers from more than 40 countries and from all disciplines of the social sciences, law and philosophy.

scholarly journals Social Progress and Global Governance

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc Fleurbay ◽  
Ravi Kanbur
Keyword(s):  
Global Governance ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Social Progress ◽  
Social Injustice ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Cambridge University ◽  
First Report ◽  
International Panel ◽  
The World ◽  
Multidisciplinary Group

Abstract Over the last four years, we have worked with a large, international, and multidisciplinary group of scholars and social scientists, in the preparation of the first report of the International Panel on Social Progress (IPSP) (Rethinking Society for the 21st Century, Cambridge University Press, 2018). The question this group set itself to answer was whether we can hope for better institutions and less social injustice in the world in the coming decades, given the ongoing trends.

LEGAL POWERS IN PRIVATE LAW

Legal Theory ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 21 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 136-155 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Essert
Keyword(s):  
Final Section ◽  
Private Law ◽  
Careful Attention ◽  
Normative Structure ◽  
The World ◽  
Do So

ABSTRACTThis article explores the nature and role of legal powers in private law. I show how powers are special in that they allow agents to change their (and others’) legal circumstances merely by communicating an intention to do so, without having also to change the nonnormative facts of the world. This feature of powers is, I argue, particularly salient in private law, with its correlative or bipolar normative structure; understanding powers and their role in private law thus requires careful attention to this correlativity. In the final section, I argue that the correct explanation of a variety of substantive problems in private law, many having to do with the role of a party's intention, turns on correctly understanding legal powers.

scholarly journals An Unknown Masterpiece: On Pak Kyongni’sLandand World Literature

2015 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 426-438
Author(s):  
Sowon S. Park
Keyword(s):  
East Asia ◽  
World Literature ◽  
Final Section ◽  
The World ◽  
Literary Histories ◽  
Minority Literatures ◽  
Literary Quality

This article explores some of the issues that prevent the existence of a more diverse canon in the field of world literature. It discusses extra-literary issues that have been effectively displaced onto the question of literary quality and outlines some of the concrete hurdles that face minority literatures, with reference to the literature of modern East Asia (China, Korea and Japan). The final section examines Pak Kyongni’sLand(1969–1994), a novel virtually unknown outside of Korea but revered there as the national epic. The discussion of a work that is regarded as ‘the best that has been thought and said in the world’ by one nation yet remains practically unknown to the world will bring to the fore issues of ranking and status produced by the ‘worldification’ of literatures. In the process, it will consider some of the dynamics between nationality and universality, the relations between literature and nation, and what it means for literatures to be in dialogue when literatures and literary histories have been defined along national lines.

COMMENTS ON THE REPORT OF THE INTERNATIONAL PANEL ON SOCIAL PROGRESS, CHAPTERS 9 AND 14: INEQUALITY, DEMOCRACY AND THE RULE OF LAW

2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 463-469
Author(s):  
Alina Rocha Menocal
Keyword(s):  
World Bank ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Social Progress ◽  
Global Level ◽  
Authoritarian Rule ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
The Past ◽  
International Panel ◽  
The World

Over the past 30 years, the world has experienced a profound transformation, becoming both more open and more prosperous. Whereas in 1985 more than half of the countries worldwide were under authoritarian rule, most countries today are considered electoral democracies (Economist Intelligence Unit 2017). Since 1990, more than a billion people have been lifted out of extreme poverty (World Bank 2016), while well-being indicators have improved dramatically on a global level, especially in terms of health and education (International Idea 2017).

9/11 and Armageddon: the Christian Right and George W. Bush

2003 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-50
Author(s):  
Göran Gunner
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Christian Right ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Religious Leader ◽  
The European Union ◽  
The World ◽  
Mega Church ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Jerry Falwell ◽  
High Degree

Authors from the Christian Right in the USA situate the September 11 attack on New York and Washington within God's intentions to bring America into the divine schedule for the end of the world. This is true of Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell, and other leading figures in the ‘Christian Coalition’. This article analyses how Christian fundamentalists assess the roles of the USA, the State of Israel, Islam, Iraq, the European Union and Russia within what they perceive to be the divine plan for the future of the world, especially against the background of ‘9/11’. It argues that the ideas of the Christian Right and of President George W. Bush coalesce to a high degree. Whereas before 9/11 many American mega-church preachers had aspirations to direct political life, after the events of that day the President assumes some of the roles of a mega-religious leader.

The Challenge of Sustaining Peace

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Necla Tschirgi ◽  
Cedric de Coning
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Security Council ◽  
Original Design ◽  
Entire Spectrum ◽  
The World ◽  
Effective Instrument ◽  
International Peacebuilding ◽  
Do So

While demand for international peacebuilding assistance increases around the world, the UN’s Peacebuilding Architecture (PBA) remains a relatively weak player, for many reasons: its original design, uneasy relations between the Peacebuilding Commission and Security Council, turf battles within the UN system, and how UN peacebuilding is funded. This chapter examines the PBA’s operations since 2005, against the evolution of the peacebuilding field, and discusses how the PBA can be a more effective instrument in the UN’s new “sustaining peace” approach. To do so, it would have to become the intergovernmental anchor for that approach, without undermining the intent that “sustaining peace” be a system-wide responsibility, encompassing the entire spectrum of UN activities in peace, security, development, and human rights.

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