scholarly journals Liberal Globalization and Peripheral Justice

Author(s):  
Weigang Chen

The increasing salience of cultural conflicts in the post-Cold War era brings the problem of peripheral justice, defined as the equal attainment of social justice, to the center of current debates on globalization. Specifically, they force us to directly confront the toughest challenge posed by the Weberian tradition: If the principles of justice and equality are beyond the peculiarity of the Occidental civilization, how then may we give a full explanation as to why in the West-and only in the West-the ideal of public reasoning by private people has been materialized? The present study seeks to address this fundamental challenge by drawing on the Marxist tradition of public hegemony developed by Confucian Marxists and Gramsci. I argue that at the core of the problem of peripheral justice is an intrinsic linkage between Eurocentricism and the liberal paradigm of "civil society." The prospect of equal justice, therefore, hinges on the development of a new conception of the "social" that reverses the liberal interpretation of the relationship between bourgeois subjectivity and the "social" and derives from the primacy of the ethical life for social formation.

2021 ◽  
pp. 188-205
Author(s):  
Julia Stępniewska ◽  
Piotr Zańko ◽  
Adam Fijałkowski

In this text, we ask about the relationship between sexual education in Poland in the 1960s and 1970s with the cultural contestation and the moral (including sexual) revolution in the West as seen through the eyes of Prof. Andrzej Jaczewski (1929–2020) – educationalist, who for many years in 1970s and 1980s conducted seminars at the University of Cologne, pediatrician, sexologist, one of the pioneers of sexual education in Poland. The movie “Sztuka kochania. Historia Michaliny Wisłockiej” (“The Art of Love. The Story of Michalina Wisłocka” [1921–2005]), directed in 2017 by Maria Sadowska, was the impulse for our interview. After watching it, we discovered that the counter-cultural background of the West in the 1960s and 1970s was completely absent both in the aforementioned film and in the discourse of Polish sex education at that time. Moreover, Andrzej Jaczewski’s statement (July 2020) indicates that the Polish concept of sexual education in the 1960s and 1970s did not arise under the influence of the social and moral revolution in the West at the same time, and its originality lay in the fact that it was dealt with by professional doctors-specialists. We put Andrzej Jaczewski’s voice in the spotlight. Our voice is usually muted in this text, it is more of an auxiliary function (Chase, 2009). Each of the readers may impose their own interpretative filter on the story presented here.


Author(s):  
Kevin Passmore

This chapter analyzes the relationship between history and various disciplines within the social sciences. Historians and social scientists shared two related sets of assumptions. The first supposition was of a world-historical shift from a traditional, hierarchical, religious society to a modern egalitarian, rational one. Second, history and social science assumed that progress occurred within nations possessed of unique ‘characters’, and that patriotism provided the social cement without which society could not function. Nevertheless, academic history seemingly differed from social science in that it was untheoretical and predominantly political. Yet historians focused on the nation’s attainment of self-consciousness, homogeneity, and independence through struggle against internal and external enemies—a history in which great men were prominent. Historians and sociologists unwittingly shared versions of grand theory, in which change was an external ‘force’ driven by the functional needs of the system, and in which meaning derived from measurement against theory, rather than from protagonists’ actions and beliefs.


2016 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 649-688
Author(s):  
Douglas G. Morris

What is the relationship between Nazism and natural law—the notion of universal standards, which arise from either God, revelation, nature, rationality, or morality, and which human-made statutes cannot break? In 1946, in the wake of World War II, Gustav Radbruch, one of Germany's most respected Social Democrats and legal philosophers, published his influential article, “Statutory Injustice and Suprastatutory Law,” which grappled with a pressing issue of postwar justice. Should courts deem judges criminally responsible for having earlier convicted defendants, and often sentenced them to death, based on denunciations by family, neighbors, or rivals, denunciations that the Nazi regime had encouraged but that a fair-minded government must condemn? As a matter of jurisprudence, Radbruch set forth his famous formula, which declared that judges must adhere to positive or statutory law, except in rare circumstances in which such law violated fundamental principles of justice. In his words, “[P]ositive law, secured through legislation and power, prevails, even if it is substantively unjust and inexpedient, unless the tension between positive law and justice reaches such an intolerable level that the law as ‘false law’ must yield to justice.” As a matter of history, Radbruch excused Nazi-era judges who had missed his jurisprudential point, because they had succumbed to the legal theory of positivism that had long permeated German legal thinking. “Positivism,” Radbruch wrote, “with its belief that ‘law is law’ rendered the German judiciary defenseless against arbitrary and criminal laws.”


Slavic Review ◽  
1964 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 660-675 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keith Hitchins

In the second half of the eighteenth century the leavening effects of the Enlightenment began to be felt among the Rumanians of Transylvania. The Enlightenment in Transylvania—and in Eastern Europe generally —was a curious blend of natural law, rationalism, and optimism, drawn from the West, and nationalism, a response to local conditions. It is no coincidence that the first tangible signs of national awakening among the Rumanians manifested themselves at this time. In the thought of the Enlightenment they discovered new justification for their claims to equality with their Magyar, Saxon, and Szekler neighbors. For example, they applied the notion of “natural” civil equality between individuals to the relationship between whole peoples, and they accepted wholeheartedly the myth of the social contract as the foundation of society and as the guarantee of the rights of all those who composed it.


2010 ◽  
Vol 35 (113) ◽  
pp. 361
Author(s):  
Erick C. de Lima

A freqüência com que a crítica hegeliana ao suposto formalismo da ética kantiana tem retornado em diversas ramificações da discussão éticopolítica contemporânea, em especial a partir da década de 1970, cria um ensejo oportuno para um reexame da primeira tentativa de Hegel de “superar” a filosofia prática de Kant: o programa arquitetado em Frankfurt, baseado no conceito de amor e que, graças a este embasamento, realça o sentido “comunitário” da Aufhebung do ponto de vista moral na “eticidade”. Pretende-se aqui, primeiramente, resgatar aspectos gerais da relação entre as investigações do jovem Hegel e a crítica ao idealismo kantiano-fichteano. Em seguida, partido do arcabouço geral da interpretação hegeliana do cristianismo, a intenção é interpretar a crítica da moral deontológica a partir do conceito de amor em Geist des Christentums.Abstract: With the profound renewal of political philosophy that happened since the 1970s, the objection of “empty formalism” directed by Hegel against Kant’s moral theory has been returning to the contemporary philosophical debate over the moral foundations of the political community. This fact raises interest in Hegel’s first attempt to overcome Kant’s practical philosophy: the project of a radical critique of deontological ethics that he planned in Frankfurt and was based on the concept of love, whose inherently intersubjective character underlines the social significance of what Hegel later conceived as the Aufhebung of the moral point of view in ethical life. Firstly, this paper aims to outline Hegel’s early critique of the Kantian-Fichtean idealism in the light of his historical philosophical investigations in Tübingen, Bern and Frankfurt. The second part is an attempt to reexamine the relationship between Hegel’s conception of love and his critique of deontological morality, as it is presented in Geist des Christentums.


10.1068/a396 ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 323-341 ◽  
Author(s):  
Phil Hubbard

Now a recognised phenomenon in many British cities, studentification is the process by which specific neighbourhoods become dominated by student residential occupation. Outlining the causes and consequences of this process, this paper suggests that studentification raises important questions about community cohesiveness and that intervention may be required by local authorities if social and cultural conflicts are to be avoided. Detailing the social impacts of studentification in Loughborough, a market town in the English East Midlands, the paper accordingly considers recent housing policies designed to prevent the formation of exclusive ‘student ghettos’. The paper concludes by suggesting that the type of ‘threshold analysis’ utilised in Loughborough may well spread students more thinly across a city, but that the relationship between students and the wider community requires other forms of regulation if town–university tensions are to be effectively managed. Throughout, comparison is made between the Loughborough and other UK university towns where the challenges and opportunities associated with studentification have been differently addressed.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 185-194
Author(s):  
Mohammad Reza Baladastian ◽  
◽  
Sara Janmohammadi ◽  
Shima Haghani ◽  
◽  
...  

Background: In recent years, social capital, and especially its importance among the elderly has attracted the attention of researchers. Moreover, it was suggested that older adults lack sufficient physical activity that may be due to the lack of motivation. Accordingly, this study was conducted to determine the relationship between social capital and physical activity participation motivation among the elderly living in the west of Tehran City, Iran, in 2020. Methods: This was a descriptive correlational study. The research population consisted of aged individuals present in the public areas of the west of Tehran City, Iran (districts 5, 9, 21, & 22 of Tehran Municipality), such as sidewalks and passages, shopping centers, parks, mosques, and so on. In total, 400 subjects were recruited by the multistage sampling method. The Abbreviated Mental Test (AMT), Participation Motivation Questionnaire for Older Adults (PMQOA), and Onyx and Bullen social capital scale were used to gather the required data. The obtained data were analyzed by Pearson’s correlation coefficient, Independent Samples t-test, and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) in SPSS at the significance level of P<0.05. Results: The Mean±SD social capital of the study subjects was equal to 86.27±23.3. The fitness and social factors of activity participation motives had the highest (49.72±19.34) and lowest (18.97±15.96) Mean±SD values (based on an index of 0-100). Social capital was significantly associated with physical activity participation motivators (except fitness & medical subscales) (P<0.05). Social capital was also associated with occupational status, the number of children, house size, and the economic status of the research subjects (P<0.05). Conclusion: According to the obtained results, the social capital of the elderly participating in this study was pretty low. Furthermore, there was a significant relationship between social capital and the motivators of physical activity participation (apart from fitness & medical); this result signifies the necessity of attention to the social capital of the elderly.


2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 138-157
Author(s):  
Nolen Gertz ◽  

While the mediational theories of Don Ihde and Peter-Paul Verbeek have helped to uncover the role that technologies play in ethical life, the role that technologies play in political life has received far less attention. In order to fill in this gap, I turn to the mediational theory of Hegel. Hegel shows how understanding the mediated nature of experience is vital to understanding the development of political life. Through examples found in the military, in particular concerning the relationship between explosive ordnance detonation (EOD) soldiers and robots, I illustrate how Hegel’s analysis of the “struggle for recognition” can be used to understand human-technology relations from a political perspective. This political perspective can consequently help us to appreciate how technologies come to have a role in political life through our ability to experience solidarity with technology. Solidarity is experienced by users due to the recognition of technologies as serving roles in society that I describe as functionally equivalent to the social roles of the user. The realization of this functional equivalence allows users to learn how they are perceived and respected by society through the experience of how functionally equivalent technologies are perceived and respected. I conclude by focusing on the importance of understanding functional equivalence in design, as well as in the case of the Dallas Police Department having turned an EOD robot from a life-saving to a life-taking device. These examples show why Hegel is necessary for helping us to understand the political significance of recognizing and of misrecognizing technologies.


Revista Foco ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 180
Author(s):  
Raphaela Reis Castro Silva ◽  
Isabela Grossi Amaral

Qual é a relação entre o conceito de trabalho e a ciência administrativa? Ou melhor, qual é sentido do trabalho na (ou para) sociedade atual? Essas são as questões que orientam esse ensaio teórico. Essa reflexão nos parece fundamental para a formação do administrador, a fim de que seja possível compreender a função social da ciência da administração no contexto atual da sociedade contemporânea, e principalmente sua atuação crítica e cidadã. O ensaio busca construir pontes entre o surgimento da Teoria Administrativa, a ideia do trabalho nas várias etapas da evolução do ocidente e o conceito atual do trabalho, objetivando promover e estimular um pensamento crítico acerca do sistema das relações de trabalho ao longo do tempo situando historicamente as perspectivas que a ciência da administração sobre, como forma de compreensão dos fenômenos existentes na sociedade e nas organizações. Nesse movimento, percebe-se que a conjuntura atual do trabalho vem se caracterizando pela precarização, informalidade, sobretrabalho, entre outros problemas que aumentam a exclusão social e fazem dos trabalhadores suas principais vítimas, tendo como aporte conhecimentos desenvolvidos dentro da área de administração. Essas transformações significativas apontam para ressignificações dos sentidos do trabalho na (ou para) sociedade atual influenciando nas relações concretas das formas de ser, nas identidades dos sujeitos incluídos e excluídos desse sistema, e também nas formas de ensino e formação desses profissionais, sempre permeadas por discursos ideológicos em consonância com sua época e com a classe que detém, de certa forma, o poder vigente. What is the relationship between the concept of work and administrative science? Or rather, what is the meaning of the work in (or for) the current society? These are the questions that guide this theoretical essay. This reflection seems to us fundamental for the formation of the administrator, so that it is possible to understand the social function of the science of administration in the current context of contemporary society, and especially its critical and citizen performance. The essay seeks to build bridges between the emergence of the Administrative Theory, the idea of work in the various stages of the evolution of the West and the current concept of work, aiming to promote and stimulate a critical thinking about the system of labor relations over time historically the perspectives that the science of the administration on as a way of understanding the phenomena existing in society and in organizations. In this movement, one can perceive that the current situation of work is characterized by precariousness, informality, overwork, among other problems that increase social exclusion and make the workers their main victims, having as contribution knowledge developed within the area of administration. These significant transformations point to the re-signification of the meanings of work in (or for) society influencing the concrete relationships of the forms of being, the identities of the subjects included and excluded from this system, and also in the forms of education and formation of these professionals, always permeated by ideological discourses in line with their times and with the class that holds, in a certain way, the prevailing power.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-56
Author(s):  
Richard Mohr

The relationship between humans and the environment is becoming unsustainable. Technologies mediate this relationship. In turn, technology is a product of dense cultural phenomena, from research institutions to capitalism, from ethics to cosmology. This paper investigates the ‘cosmotechnics’ of technical interactions with the environment and explores the sources of these social, ethical and environmental problems. The disconnect between humans and nature is traced to the roots of Western culture, while alternative views have emerged within the West and through its awareness of other cultures. Technology in the West betrays a titanic urge to overcome nature. Since all technologies mesh with their immediate and global environment, invention arises from the interaction between assemblages of humans, machines and the environment. All contribute incrementally to new developments, which are not conscious projects fulfilling specific intentions, but evolving scenarios. Without any clear intentional drive determining technological developments—nor any clear distinction between intended and unintended consequences—the concept of intention has little probative value. Instead, we approach the ethical judgment of outcomes from the viewpoint of responsibility. The social milieu and its actors are to be held to account for the consequences, regardless of intentions. The paper identifies a malaise arising when the products of labour are split from an awareness of agency. This alienation opens up a misrecognition basic to unsustainable technologies. It operates at three discernible levels: technology split from culture; technology split from ethics and values; and theory split from technological practice. Solutions are sought through overcoming each of these gaps.


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