Power and Identity among Citizens in Networked Societies

2012 ◽  
pp. 109-127
Author(s):  
Jakob Svensson
Keyword(s):  
Political Participation ◽  
Western Society ◽  
Late Modernity ◽  
Academic Discussion ◽  
Late Modern ◽  
Contemporary Western Society

A classic question within studies of governance concerns what appears to be a paradox of being free and governed at the same time. In this chapter, the author addresses this question departing from contemporary Western society, a society to which he attaches labels such as digital, late modern, and networked. This is a theoretical chapter addressing political participation, citizenship practices, and power. How do people enter into citizenship through political participation online, and what governs these processes? The contribution to the academic discussion is to highlight the expressive as an increasingly important rationale for political participation in networked and digital late modernity. The author arrives at this conclusion departing from the intersections between technology, society, and culture. In these intersections, expressive processes of identification are keys. Therefore citizenship practices also need to be approached from an axis of individualism, creating even more intersections when combined with technology, society, and culture.

scholarly journals The Expressive Turn of Citizenship in Digital Late Modernity

2011 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jakob Svensson
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Identity Management ◽  
Theoretical Concept ◽  
Cultural Consumption ◽  
Management Information ◽  
Late Modernity ◽  
Late Modern

The purpose of this paper is to connect the idea of expressive rationality to current debates on citizenship and political participation online. Socializing, cultural consumption/ production, identity management, information and publication strategies are both different and accentuated in digital, networked and late modern environments. In the paper I argue that the kind of network sociability that is emerging today favours an expressive form of rationality. I also claim that expressive rationality transcends the bipolar instrumental – communicative dimension that has been so important for normative theorizing in Political (and Social) Sciences and hence is a more rewarding theoretical concept for understanding political participation in digital late modernity.

Geloof als innerlijke keuze: Over de kerkelijke, religieuze en maatschappelijke implicaties van individualisering

2014 ◽  
Vol 68 (3) ◽  
pp. 175-193
Author(s):  
Sipco Vellenga
Keyword(s):  
Social Behavior ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Western Society ◽  
Cultural Patterns ◽  
Freedom Of Choice ◽  
Church Decline ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Late Modern ◽  
Contemporary Western Society

Individualization is one of the basic traits of contemporary Western society. How are church and religion related to this trend? After defining individualization as a process in which people become more independent of their immediate environment, as well as of related traditional cultural patterns, values and norms, this article focuses on the consequences of individualization for church and religion. Individualization is seen to have three ecclesiastical implications: church individualization, increasing church mobility and church decline, as well as three religious implications: religious individualization, increasing religious mobility and an increase of the popularity of atheism. It is argued that individualization entails at least three social paradoxes: more freedom of choice but also a heavier burden upon the individual to make choices, less social restrictions but also a weakening of the sense of safety and belonging, and more informal ways of social behavior, but also social coarsening. Churches and religions which fully incorporate the positive aspects of individualization and at the same time clearly meet its negative aspects will have chances to flourish in late modern society.

New Spiritualities in Western Society

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam Possamai
Keyword(s):  
21St Century ◽  
Popular Religion ◽  
New Age ◽  
Religious Movements ◽  
Western Society ◽  
New Religious Movements ◽  
Western World ◽  
Cultural Changes ◽  
Late Modernity ◽  
Late Modern

Various social and cultural changes from modernity to late modernity have been key to the appearance and development of new spiritualities in Western society. The often-contested term of “new spiritualities” is often liked with other no less contested ones such as “mysticism,” “popular religion,” “the New Age,” and “new religious” movements. Further, if the expression new spiritualities or alternative spiritualities took off outside of institutionalized religions in the Western world, this term is now re-used by these institutions within their specific theology. As new spiritualities are becoming mainstream in the first quarter of the 21st century, they are having a low-key impact on post-secularism (i.e., a specific type of secularism characteristic of late modern societies).

La réception des notions philosophiques de trace, d’arkhé et de document dans l’œuvre d’Alain Nadaud

Labyrinth ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 91-105
Author(s):  
Gianluca Chiadini
Keyword(s):  
Jacques Derrida ◽  
Research Method ◽  
Historical Research ◽  
Philosophical Analysis ◽  
Western Society ◽  
Philosophical Theory ◽  
Philosophical Interpretation ◽  
French Writer ◽  
Contemporary Western Society

The reception of the notions of trace, arkhé, and document in the work of Alain Nadaud This paper intends to point out the philosophical features in the novels of the French writer Alain Nadaud and their links with the philosophical theory concerning the concepts of trace, arkhé and document elaborated by Jacques Derrida in the second half of the XX century. This subject, related to the contemporary socio-historical concept of post-truth, reveals the originality and the up-to-date tendency in the novels of Alain Nadaud. This paper uncovers new important aspects of his work by proposing a solid philosophical interpretation of its main theoretical principles. In particular, it uncovers the philosophical reasons at the origin of his writing, which is based on the historical research method. Furthermore, it reveals the sense of dystopia of his novels and relates it with the most recent socio-philosophical analysis of contemporary western society.

Solo Sailing: An “Ordinary Girl”, Voluntary Risk-Taking and (Ir)Responsibility

2014 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 267-286 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mike Brown ◽  
Dawn Penney
Keyword(s):  
Risk Taking ◽  
Focal Point ◽  
Western Society ◽  
Risk Averse ◽  
Perceptions Of Risk ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Public Reaction ◽  
Contemporary Western Society

This article draws on material associated with a solo sailing circumnavigation, undertaken by 16 year old Jessica Watson in 2009–2010, to discuss how her voyage provided a focal point for debates relating to voluntary risk-taking conducted within the sport and leisure context. Specifically, we illustrate how public and media commentaries on her voyage reflect discourses of risk being infused and conflated with discourses of responsibility, youth and gender. Our analysis brings to the fore the contested, moral and political nature of risk discourses in contemporary western society. Public reaction to Watson’s voyage indicates that descriptions of western society as risk-averse fail to capture the situated and dynamic perceptions of risk.

scholarly journals CORPO E AUTOEXPERIMENTAÇÃO: UMA LEITURA DA ARTCHARNELDE ORLAN A PARTIR DO PENSAMENTO PÓS-FEMINISTA DE PAUL B. PRECIADO / Body and self-experimentation: a reading of ORLAN's artcharnel from Paul B. Preciado's post-feminist thinking

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (39) ◽  
pp. 93-105
Author(s):  
Rejane Lopes Rodrigues
Keyword(s):  
Female Body ◽  
Western Society ◽  
Surgical Interventions ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Usa ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Theoretical Considerations ◽  
Contemporary Western Society

A partir da década de 1960 teve início na Europa e nos EUA um novo movimento artístico conhecido como arte performativa. ORLAN, artista plástica francesa, insere-se neste movimento através de obras que incluem intervenções cirúrgicas em seu próprio corpo com o objetivo de questionar o status do corpo feminino na sociedade ocidental contemporânea. Diante disso, propomos no presente artigo, uma análise do seu trabalho a partir das considerações teóricas do filósofo e escritor transgênero Paul B. Preciado.Palavras-chave: Arte performativa; ORLAN; Gênero; Feminismo; Paul. B. Preciado.AbstractFrom the 1960s, a new artistic movement known as performative art began in Europe and the USA. ORLAN, a French artist, is part of this movement through works that include surgical interventions on her own body in order to question the status of the female body in contemporary Western society. Therefore, in this article, we propose an analysis of his work based on the theoretical considerations of the transgender philosopher and writer Paul B. Preciado.Keywords: Performative art; ORLAN; Genre; Feminism; Paul B. Preciado.

Building a safe and confident future: Social work reform in England and late modernity

2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 89-108
Author(s):  
Martyn Higgins
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Theoretical Model ◽  
Social Work Education ◽  
Change Process ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Late Modernity ◽  
Work Education ◽  
Late Modern ◽  
Modern Thinking

Since 2009 social work has undergone significant changes. However, it remains unclear whether these reforms have reached a conclusion. There appears to exist a state of continuous reform, which may impede the opportunity to embed reform into social work education and practice. This paper aims to apply the theoretical model of late modernity to social work in England. Using this approach may offer a way to understand social work reforms as a feature of contemporary societies rather than a situation unique to English social work. The paper applies late modern thinking on risk, pedagogy and ambivalence to make sense of the change process in social work. Finally, a proposal to engage critically with social work reform is sketched out. The key message of this paper is that social work reform in England can be seen as a response to the dilemmas of late modern society. It attempts to eliminate risk in social work education and practice. However, this goal is doomed to failure and social work reform can be seen as stuck within a cycle of reform and change.Keywords: social work reform, late modernity, risk, pedagogy, ambivalence, irony

The Fanciful World of Clio

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesco Boldizzoni
Keyword(s):  
Economic History ◽  
Path Dependence ◽  
Multiple Equilibria ◽  
Institutional Economics ◽  
Rational Choice Theory ◽  
Choice Theory ◽  
New Institutional Economics ◽  
Western Society ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Contemporary Western Society

Cliometrics has evolved into a literary genre having little to do with numbers in the sense of econometric testing, though a lot to do with the deductive stance of the new institutional economics and of rational choice theory. At times these two approaches, which are not completely compatible, coexist even in the same author's work, giving rise to a sort of analytic schizophrenia. This chapter analyzes the recent developments in economic history. From the standpoint of methodology, it shows the confusion between history and path dependence or presence of “multiple equilibria” in a predetermined deductive schema. It argues that underlying these trends is an ideological slant, whether conscious or unconscious, aimed at exalting values such as individualism and materialism, which are typical of certain segments of contemporary Western society, and at projecting them unduly onto the past.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document