scholarly journals A Dance of Shadows and Fires: Conceptual and Practical Challenges of Intergenerational Healing after Mass Atrocity

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 100-120
Author(s):  
Brandon Hamber ◽  
Ingrid Palmary
Keyword(s):  
Political Action ◽  
Truth Commission ◽  
Political Space ◽  
Political Reality ◽  
Institutional Responses ◽  
Mass Atrocity

The legacy of mass atrocity—including colonialism, slavery or specific manifestations such as apartheid—continue long after their demise. Applying a temporal intergenerational lens adds complications. We argue that mass atrocity creates for subsequent generations a deep psychological rupture akin to witnessing past atrocities. This creates a moral liability in the present. Healing is a process dependent on the authenticity (evident in discourse and action) with which we address contemporary problems. A further overriding task is to open social and political space for divergent voices. Acknowledgement of mass atrocity requires more than one-off events or institutional responses (the grand apology, the truth commission). Rather, acknowledgement has to become a lived social, cultural and political reality. Without this acknowledgement, healing, either collectively or individually, is stymied. Healing after mass atrocity is as much about political action (addressing inequalities and racism) as an act of re-imaging created through constant and contested re-writing.

The Social Views of Michael Attaleiates

2020 ◽  
pp. 44-61
Author(s):  
Dimitris Krallis
Keyword(s):  
Political Action ◽  
Eleventh Century ◽  
Roman Law ◽  
Biographical Sketch ◽  
Political Reality ◽  
The Social ◽  
Entry Points ◽  
Political Agent ◽  
Social Views ◽  
Privately Owned

The historian Michael Attaleiates was a judge and well-connected political agent active in eleventh-century Byzantium. The opinions he expressed in his historical work, but also in the synopsis of Roman law he dedicated to Michael VII and the monastic charter he produced to organize a privately owned pious foundation, become here entry points for the study of his take on the social and political reality around him. This chapter offers a short biographical sketch of our protagonist, who emerges as a patriotic Roman, who casts a sympathetic eye on popular political action. It then studies Attaleiates as a social and economic agent, looking at his active participation Byzantium’s economy only to reveal a confident investor and builder of a personal fortune. Here is also examined the ways in which Attaleiates’ take on foreign mercenaries outlines a readiness to accommodate others in a Roman polity. Finally, a study of his social circles considers how intellectual affinities and friendships developed, while serving the state and the emperor allowed for the development of a fluid and ever-adjustable politics of accommodation. All in all, we have here an updated portrait of an important figure in eleventh-century intellectual circles.

Dilemmas of Political Agency and Sovereignty: The Omelian Allegory

2020 ◽  
pp. 026327642096743
Author(s):  
Annabel Herzog
Keyword(s):  
Short Story ◽  
Good Life ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Popular Sovereignty ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Good Life ◽  
Walk Away ◽  
Political Reality ◽  
Neoliberal Capitalism ◽  
Conception Of The Good

This essay is a political reading of Ursula K. Le Guin’s ‘The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas’, which examines agency and resistance in situations of political wrong. Le Guin’s short story allows us to reformulate the questions of the boundaries of popular sovereignty and the opposition to general consent. These concerns will be here regarded as elements of a critique of neoliberal capitalism, in which freedom and self-realization are founded on injustices that persist because of a prevalent conception of the good life. The case of ‘Omelas’, moreover, challenges our understanding of resistance in revealing the blurred boundary between political action and mere noncompliance. The question asked will be about the nature of noncompliance: is noncompliance a form of resistance, and, if so, can it transform the political reality?

The constant mediation of resentment and retaliation

2012 ◽  
Vol 38 (4-5) ◽  
pp. 351-358 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdullahi Ahmed An-Naͨim
Keyword(s):  
Political Action ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Human Relationships ◽  
Political Reality ◽  
Human Value ◽  
Moral Choices ◽  
Globalized World ◽  
Political Actions

This article calls for moral choices and political action to escape the trap of the duality of aggression and resistance, of domination and liberation. Conflict is a permanent feature of human relationships, but violence is not only unproductive in resolving conflict, but can be rendered unnecessary by developing normative resources and institutional mechanisms for mediating conflict. Taking self-determination as a core human value and political reality in today’s globalized world, this article argues that we should reconceive realpolitik to escape the trap by acknowledging the moral choices of others, and striving to be persuasive about our moral choices and political actions. Persuasion, and not violence, provides sustainable mediation of conflict. The article concludes with a brief discussion of the possibilities of mediation of the trap of resentment and retaliation in Dar Fur, Sudan, through multilayered strategies from immediate and short- to long-term action by local, regional and global actors.

scholarly journals Espaço político e tensão democrática: os protestos recentes e a potência política das ruas/Political space and democratic tension: the recent protests and the political power of the streets

2018 ◽  
pp. 162-181
Author(s):  
Sérgio Silva Borges
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Political Power ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Space ◽  
Public Places ◽  
Contemporary Debate ◽  
The Public ◽  
Empirical Survey

RESUMOEste artigo busca analisar a potência política das ruas. Aborda-se, à luz de mobilizações políticas contemporâneas, a transformação de espaços do cotidiano social em recurso para a ação política. Este é o objetivo do texto, analisar, com base em episódios do ciclo de protestos recentes, a exemplo das Jornadas de Junho de 2013, no Brasil, o poder das ruas, sua potência política e a conexão existente entre essas arenas e os espaços de decisão. Acredita-se que certas manifestações políticas transformam logradouros públicos em espaços políticos abertos. Nesse sentido, fez-se uma breve discussão sobre o debate contemporâneo a respeito do espaço público para delinear uma distinção entre esse e o espaço político aberto e problematizar as condições pelas quais espaços de sociabilidade transformam-se em espaços de conflito e ação. Procurou-se, através de um levantamento empírico, explicitar a tensão entre as instituições e as ruas, bem como a potência política dessa última. Notar-se-á que diferentes manifestações políticas criam tipos ou subcategorias de espaços políticos. Palavras-chave: Espaço político; Potência política; Tensão democrática. ABSTRACTThis paper aims to analyze the potential political power of the streets. The approach, in the light of contemporary political mobilizations, is the transformation of social everyday spaces into a resource for political action. This text analyzes the power of the streets based on the cycle of recent protests in Brazil, such as the Journeys of June 2013, as well as their political power and the connection between these arenas and the spaces of decision. It is assumed that certain political manifestations turn public places into open political spaces. In this sense, a brief discussion was made on the contemporary debate about the public space to delineate a distinction between the public space and the open political space in order to problematize the conditions by which spaces of sociability become spaces of conflict and action. Through an empirical survey, it is attempted to explain the tension between institutions and the streets, as well as their the political power. It will be noted that different political manifestations create types or subcategories of political spaces.Keywords: Political space; Political power; Democratic tension.

Cosmopolitanism

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Held ◽  
Pietro Maffettone
Keyword(s):  
Political Action ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
First Century ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Cultural Groups ◽  
Political Reality ◽  
Political Relationships ◽  
The World ◽  
Political Traditions ◽  
High Degree

Cosmopolitanism, in the broadest sense, is a way of thinking about the human condition. It portrays humanity as a universal fellowship. The unity to which cosmopolitans refer can be intellectual (we all share a capacity for reason), moral (we are all part of a single moral community), or institutional (we are all vulnerable to the same political evils and thus require shared collective solutions). The cosmopolitan intuition with its drive to highlight commonality is undoubtedly important. It understands that human beings are capable of an enormous range of good and bad, and attempts to embed human activity in a framework of common rules and norms; hence, it seeks to tame the potential for violent conflict. It tries to give us reasons to care for each other and to broaden our moral and intellectual universe beyond the remit of our personal ties and immediate environment. It offers a model of political action that confronts some of the most pressing challenges we face in the twenty-first century and does so by suggesting inclusive institutional solutions. Yet, cosmopolitanism would not be an attractive philosophical position if it did not consistently strive to address some of its underlying tensions. One of the most intensely shared elements of the human experience is particularity, not unity. We come to the world from families and social and cultural groups, and often develop our moral sensibilities within the framework of public discourses based on specific political traditions. Critics often contend that cosmopolitanism downplays such particularity and is thus unable to reflect one of the most important aspects of persons’ lives. A second encompassing objection leveled at cosmopolitanism is its high degree of utopianism. Cosmopolitanism, its critics contend, is a flight from political reality. Its plans for institutional reform are too abstract to be credible and neglect the importance of power in human political relationships. Cosmopolitans should accept these challenges. Their aim should be to make cosmopolitanism more attractive by explaining the place of special ties in their moral outlook, and to make it more credible by detailing the urgency of cosmopolitan political reform. The enduring success of a cosmopolitan ethos is thus partly reliant on cosmopolitans’ ability to provide convincing answers to these alleged weaknesses.

scholarly journals Russian Political Space Faced with Digitalization: Main Risks

2020 ◽  
pp. 38-41
Author(s):  
Viktor Valereyevich Titov
Keyword(s):  
Political System ◽  
The Political ◽  
Russian Society ◽  
Political Space ◽  
Significant Potential ◽  
Emotional Perception ◽  
Political Reality ◽  
Information Activity ◽  
Digital Manipulation

The present study analyzes five key trends in the digitalization of the Russian political space, which are clearly risky in nature. This is the possibility of “digital manipulation” of electoral processes, the chaos of political practices, the spread of new ma-nipulation technologies, the predominance of frag-mented emotional perception of political reality and the formation of numerous political simulacra, in-cluding virtual identities. Most of these risks have manifested themselves already nowadays, which contributes to the growth of conflicts in the Russian society and the crystallization of protest sentiments. In the conditions of mass fatigue from “bad” politi-cal news, a major role in the politics of the “post-truth era” will play the mechanism of emotional ar-rhythmia, when bursts of information activity alter-nate with political calm. It seems that each of the above mentioned risks has a significant potential to destabilize the political system of Russia, each of them is on an “upward wave” these days and will have a serious impact on the Russian political pro-cess in the 2020s.

scholarly journals Propaganda through ‘reflexive control’ and the mediated construction of reality

2020 ◽  
pp. 146144482090244
Author(s):  
Christopher Till
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Political Action ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Political Reality ◽  
The Social ◽  
Deceptive Advertising ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Political Intervention ◽  
Psychological Operations

The nature of reality has been a central concern of philosophy and the social sciences, but since the proliferation of social media, psychological operations have taken on greater visibility and significance in political action. ‘Fake news’ and micro-targeted and deceptive advertising in elections and votes has brought the tenuous character of political reality to the fore. The affordances of the Internet, World Wide Web and social media have enabled users to be mobilised to varying degrees of awareness for propaganda and disinformation campaigns both as producers and spreaders of content and as generators of data for profiling and targeting. This article will argue that social media platforms and the broader political economy of the Internet create the possibilities for online interactions and targeting which enable form of political intervention focused on the destabilisation of perceptions of reality and recruit users in the construction of new politically useful realities.

scholarly journals Digital politics on Facebook during the Arab Spring in Morocco: Adaptive strategies of satire relative to its political and cultural context

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohamed Mifdal
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Context ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Adaptive Strategies ◽  
Political Space ◽  
Political Reality ◽  
The Face ◽  
Digital Politics ◽  
The Arab Spring ◽  
Political Norms

When the Arab Spring began, a growing number of Moroccan Facebookers flaunted their dissent in the face of the regime and used subversive satire to question its legitimacy or push for more freedoms.  However, this expression in the form of satire waned after the situation became settled and the satirists had to adjust their satire to the new political reality. This article explores the adaptive strategies of satire in a repressive context during settled and unsettled periods. By scrutinizing satiric posts on Facebook for over four years, I argue that satire, as critique and resistance, adjusts itself to the context,  either by taking advantage of  increased political space and freedoms or by resorting to indirection, self-censorship or tactical play with power. In both instances, the satiric performance is bound to stay within consensual cultural and political norms even when it is most subversive as these norms profoundly shape its creation and public reception.

scholarly journals КОНСЕРВАТИВНА ОЦІНКА ТЕРОРИЗМУ ЯК ФЕНОМЕНА ГЛОБАЛІЗАЦІЇ В РОБОТІ МАРГАРЕТ ТЕТЧЕР «МИСТЕЦТВО КЕРУВАННЯ ДЕРЖАВОЮ. СТРАТЕГІЇ ДЛЯ МІНЛИВОГО СВІТУ»

2019 ◽  
pp. 39-47
Author(s):  
О. В. Раздіна
Keyword(s):  
Driving Force ◽  
World Economy ◽  
Political Space ◽  
Margaret Thatcher ◽  
Political Reality ◽  
The World ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Further Development ◽  
World Development

Margaret Thatcher’s artistic heritage is one of the most vivid manifestations of topicality of conservative movement as the modern evaluation system of the world political reality. The conservative and later neoconservative ideological complexes were developed with maximum accuracy for the latest world reality in the perspective and retrospective.Margaret Thatcher’s research object and conservative evaluation object are very broad systemically and include the questions of the «Cold War» evaluation, the role of the USA as the superpower and world leader, the Asia and Europe achievements and values, the world conflicts, the role of modern national state and the anomaly of state development, terrorism, religion and human rights.Margaret Thatcher takes into account the fact that globalization and regionalization problems are basic questions and most important tendencies of the world development. Margaret Thatcher’s evaluation is entirely conservative and at the same time somewhat emotional, it corresponds to ideological conviction if it is dictated by the reality and the productivity of idea.In the part of retrospective analysis of the theory Margaret Thatcher underlines the role of technical and technological revolution in political and economic world development and the role of empire as a forming factor of world globalization model of political space organization. This model was used for British Empire expansion.Margaret Thatcher doesn’t exaggerate the significance of economic factors for the formation of globalization processes, their current and perspective conditions. The economic part of world development processes became a driving force and the «locomotive» of the world history of telecommunicate revolution. After the achievement of triumph by these tendencies the economic globalization processes gave way to political ones as the most important ones. Conservatives consider political processes to be system organizing and system transforming factors under any condition. Probably the complex and systemic evaluation of the globalization processes by conservatism doctrine is adjusted by the marginal modifications of world political space changes. Conservative research takes into consideration the meaning and character of changes of world political space or any fragment of this space for working out the most accurate estimate.Margaret Thatcher notes the bifurcation of world development in the period of formation of new tendencies and affirms that it is a new source of antagonisms as a driving force of further development. At the same time the ambiguity of economic role of globalization cannot be reduced to the indiscriminate capitalism criticism. Capitalism is not criticized as the way of production and the way of organization of global economy. On the contrary, capitalism as any other world economy organization model is a benefit if it is based on the strategic government management. However, capitalistic bifurcation of world economy development demonstrates the rightfulness of neoconservative idea of «world power» importance in newest modern realities. Systematic and invariable success of states using this system of economic and political values, such as the USA, is the example. So, in this context globalization processes determine the nature of world order and represent driving forces and factors of its further development and possible transformation in the conditions of changing globalization nature.Margaret Thatcher summarizes the globalization meaning and notes the necessity to glorify the triumph of global capitalism based on the free business activity, though shocks are inevitable. Margaret Thatcher also considers important actions aimed at making the profits from free trade accessible to all states in the world. The terrorism is a main problem of modern policy.Thus, the conservatism in Margaret Thatcher’s work appears as one of the most promising socio-political movements of modern world. The conservatism, as Margaret Thatcher summarizes, is able to explain the most difficult phenomena and contradictions of political reality and to suggest really promising political models and ideals. 

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