scholarly journals "En gift i blodet": Følelsesøkonomier i de dansk-grønlandske relationer

2018 ◽  
Vol 46 (125) ◽  
pp. 71-94
Author(s):  
Kirsten Thisted
Keyword(s):  
Power Relations ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Economic Conditions ◽  
The Political ◽  
Uranium Extraction ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
History Of ◽  
Financial Power ◽  
Email Correspondence

Inspired by Sara Ahmed, the article analyzes how long-established affective economies still dominate post-colonial relations between Danes and Greenlanders. Affective relationships between Greenlanders and Danes are embedded in historically inherited, asymmetric political, and financial power relations. While the political and economic conditions often are subject to analysis because data in these fields is relatively easy to access, it is much harder to access material that illuminates affective relationships. The article focuses on an email correspondence between two women, each of whom has a prominent place in the Danish-Greenlandic cultural debate. The two women know each other in advance and are both eager for the communication to succeed. It turns out not to be quite so simple. The analysis shows how the Dane, contrary to her own intentions, maintains the Greenlander in the role as the object of the Danish, evaluative and normative, gaze. The Greenlander protests against this and tries to renegotiate their positions so that the Greenlanders become subjects of their own actions and the history of Greenland. The article argues that it is not possible to understand the current political discussions, including debates on large scale projects, uranium extraction, and independence, unless these affects and their historicity are taken into account. A conversation about reconciliation must also begin here.

Investigating the political economy of the territory: The contradictory responses of organisations to spatial inequality

Organization ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 135050842110612
Author(s):  
Daniel S Lacerda
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Division Of Labour ◽  
Spatial Inequality ◽  
The Political ◽  
Civil Society Organisations ◽  
Dialectical Tension ◽  
History Of ◽  
Territorial Division

The spatial imaginations of organisations can be particularly insightful for examining power relations. However, only recently they have gone beyond the limits of the workplace, demonstrating the role of the territory for organised action, particularly in mobilising solidarity for resistance. In this article, I investigate power relations revealed by the political economy of the territory to explain contradictory actions undertaken by organisations. Specifically, I adopt the theoretical framework of the noted Brazilian geographer Milton Santos, who recognises spatial multiplicity and fragmentation while maintaining an appreciation of the structural conditions of the political economy. This perspective is particularly useful for the analysis of civil society organisations (CSOs) in a Brazilian favela (slum), given the context of high inequality perpetuated by the selective flows of urban development. First, I show that the history of favelas and their role in the territorial division of labour explain the profiles of existing organisations. Then, I examine how the political engagement of CSOs with distinct solidarities results in a dialectical tension that leads to both resistance based on local shared interests and the active reproduction of central spaces even if the ends are not shared. The article contributes to the literature of space and organisations by explaining how territorial dynamics mediate power relations within and across organisations, not only as resistance but also as the active reproduction of economic and political regimes.

The Homeland Debate, Redux: The Political–Cultural Impact of the 1946–1949 Repatriation to Soviet Armenia

2020 ◽  
pp. 84-125
Author(s):  
Tsolin Nalbantian
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
The Political ◽  
Cultural Impact ◽  
National Belonging ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Armenian Identity ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Heating Up

Chapter 2 deals with the 1946-1949 Soviet repatriation drive to collect all worldwide Armenians and “return” them to the ASSR and, specifically, the Lebanese Armenian political-cultural understandings of it. I explore how that initiative formed a chapter of Lebanese (and other Middle Eastern) Armenians’ renegotiation of national belonging in early post-colonial times. And although about a third of all Armenian repatriates travelled via Beirut, I also look at those who remained in Lebanon and in other countries in the Middle East. The emerging Cold War was more than a backdrop to this story. Heating up, the Cold War – and the very divergent readings of, and responses to, the repatriation initiative among Lebanese Armenians – reinforced tensions between Armenian rightists and leftists. Armenians’ response to repatriation did not simply reflect their extant political-cultural positions. Rather, repatriation sharpened those positions. Responses to repatriation echoed issues on the changing Lebanese/Syrian/Armenian identity complex at the dawn of the post-colonial nation-state. The responses to repatriation included a retelling and a reconstitution of the history of the tragedy of the genocide. They also automatically triggered questions about the location and nature of the Armenian homeland, adding fuel to the division between Dashnaks and Armenian leftists.

Iron Age landscape, society, and regionality : The material culture

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Rippon
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Good Reason ◽  
First Century ◽  
The Political ◽  
Symbolic Meanings ◽  
Big Picture ◽  
History Of ◽  
Shed Light

In his review of South East Britain in the later Iron Age, Hill (2007, 16) observed that ‘Since the 1980s, little attention has been given to large-scale social explanations and narratives in British Iron Age archaeology. Debates over core–periphery models, the interpretation of hillforts, and the nature of social organization, were—for good reason—eclipsed by a focus on the symbolic meanings of space, structured deposition, and ritual.’ He goes on to argue that British archaeology is in need of more ‘straightforward storyboards’ around which data can be arranged (Hill 2007, 16), and Brudenell (2012, 52) has similarly noted how ‘close-grained understandings have often been won at the expense of broader pictures . . . [and that] with a few exceptions, recent approaches have atomized the study of later prehistoric society, focussing on the specifics of the local social milieu at the expense of broader scales of social analysis’. There have been some ‘big picture’ studies—most notably Cunliffe’s (1974; 1978; 1991; 2005) Iron Age Communities in Britain—but all too often studies of this period have focused on specific counties, types of site, or artefact, and it is noticeable how little systematic mapping of data there was in three recent collections of papers (Gwilt and Haselgrove 1997; Haselgrove and Moore 2007; Haselgrove and Pope 2007). This study, in contrast, aims to shed light on one important ‘storyboard’: the territorial structures within which communities built their landscapes. The written history of Britain begins in the first century BC when we first get insights into its political and territorial arrangements, although as this was a period when the island was becoming embroiled in the political instability caused by the expansion of the Roman world, the trends seen then may not reflect the longer-term patterns of territorial stability or instability that preceded it. In 54 BC, for example, Caesar describes how his major opponents were a civitas (usually translated as ‘tribe’) who had recently surpassed the neighbouring Trinovantes as the paramount group in South East Britain (Gallic War, 20–1; Dunnett 1975, 8; Moore 2011).

scholarly journals LANGUAGES OF FREEDOM IN DECOLONISING AFRICAThe Gladstone Prize Winner

2017 ◽  
Vol 27 ◽  
pp. 253-269 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emma Hunter
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
The Political ◽  
Nation State ◽  
African Continent ◽  
Political Thinking ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Local Contexts ◽  
Before And After ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Individual

ABSTRACTThe ‘triumph of liberalism’ in the mid-twentieth-century west is well known and much studied. But what has it meant for the way the decolonisation of Africa has been viewed, both at the time and since? In this paper, I suggest that it has quietly but effectively shaped our understanding of African political thinking in the 1950s to 1960s. Although the nationalist framing that once led historians to neglect those aspects of the political thinking of the period which did not move in the direction of a territorial nation-state has now been challenged, we still struggle with those aspects of political thinking that were, for instance, suspicious of a focus on the individual and profoundly opposed to egalitarian visions of a post-colonial future. I argue that to understand better the history of decolonisation in the African continent, both before and after independence, while also enabling comparative work with other times and places, we need to think more carefully and sensitively about how freedom and equality were understood and argued over in local contexts.

Experimentation under Hierarchy in Local Conditions: Cases of Political Reform in Guangdong and Sichuan, China

2014 ◽  
Vol 218 ◽  
pp. 339-358 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wen-Hsuan Tsai ◽  
Nicola Dean
Keyword(s):  
Chinese Communist Party ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Political Reform ◽  
Economic Conditions ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
Local Conditions ◽  
Political Dynamics ◽  
Hierarchical Interaction ◽  
Economic Considerations

AbstractReforms carried out by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) have long followed a traditional model of “experimentation under hierarchy.” This article will attempt to develop this model further by building a framework to illustrate the influence of both the political dynamics of hierarchical central–local relations and local economic circumstances in the introduction of large-scale political reforms. The initiation and expansion of “experimental points” are only permitted in those select few provinces with both favourable political and economic local conditions, allowing the CCP to minimize risk and make informed decisions regarding possibilities for nationwide reform. This article proposes that the hierarchical interaction of central and local political elites, and in particular provincial secretaries, can explain the extent of reforms, whereas the type of reform is linked to distinct provincial economic conditions and the provincial secretary's interpretation of provincial priorities. Put succinctly, the CCP's model of political reform can be specifically characterized as “experimentation under hierarchy in local conditions.” This article presents a detailed discussion of both the political and economic considerations inherent in this concept, and provides examples of reform programmes in Guangdong and Sichuan to illustrate the model in practice.

scholarly journals The Power of Shop Culture

1992 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 350-375 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erik Olssen ◽  
Jeremy Brecher
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Scientific Management ◽  
The Political ◽  
Minor Role ◽  
Skilled Workers ◽  
Labour Process ◽  
History Of ◽  
Hiring And Firing ◽  
A Minor

SummaryThis paper investigates the history of the labour process in New Zealand's state-owned railway workshops and questions the idea that large-scale industry inevitably destroyed whatever agency skilled workers had enjoyed. It also shows that relations of production vary with the political and cultural contexts. Craft control of the labour process survived in New Zealand's state-owned railway workshops and the union played only a minor role. Jop control was more important in achieving bureaucratic instead of autocratic control over such matters as hiring and firing; the retention of apprentice-based crafts; the institutionalization of seniority; and in resisting both de-skilling and the “premium bonus”. The strength and vitality of shop culture, based on craft control of the labour process, also survived and modified the Government's vigorous attempt to introduce “scientific management”. In brief the article concludes that productive processes do not inevitably determine social relations of production, that capitalism has been neither homogeneous nor uniform, and that mechanization never inevitably results in de-skilling.

Mathematics Didn't Just Happen!

2001 ◽  
Vol 94 (9) ◽  
pp. 780-784
Author(s):  
James E. Lightner
Keyword(s):  
History Of Mathematics ◽  
Economic Conditions ◽  
The Political ◽  
Mathematical Activity ◽  
The Past ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of

Students of the history of mathematics have long enjoyed the fascinating stories of the mathematical discoveries that have occurred over the past 4000 or so years. In considering the early developments, that is, those that happened before A.D. 100, we must often conjecture about who made the discovery or observation, where it really took place, and exactly when it happened. We still do not always know why the developments occurred when they did. However, mathematical developments often seem to be tied to the history of the world; certain periods of time have certainly been much more conducive to major mathematical activity than others. In other words, mathematics did not just happen; it was encouraged—or discouraged— by the zeitgeist—the nature of the prevailing culture— and the political, social, and economic conditions under which mathematicians had to work.

Malaysian Drama in English: Is there a Case for a Post-Mortem?

1983 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 234-246
Author(s):  
Margaret Yong
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
National Language ◽  
The Political ◽  
National Context ◽  
Indian Languages ◽  
National History ◽  
Race Riots ◽  
Quarter Century ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
History Of

Malaysian drama in English (MDE) is an inelegant name, but it describes exactly a curious breed of theatre in Malaysia: Englishlanguage drama, which seeks to be locally appropriate, in a country whose polycultural history has resulted in the presence of a diverse mixture of languages including Malay (the National Language), the major dialects of Chinese, Hindi, Tamil and other Indian languages, as well as English. Malaysian drama in English has existed for some twentyfive years – not a long history, even measured by the standards of the New Literatures of post-colonial nations. Its quarter century of life has been short and turbulent. MDE has followed a course marked by race riots, language demonstrations, defections from its fold, institutional indifference, censorship, and the gradual withering of the English language itself as a medium viable within the national context. Much of the history of MDE has been affected by the major socio-political changes of the nation. It is not possible, then, to see MDE as an autonomous, selfenclosed entity. Its life cannot be extricated from the national history out of which it grows, and its story is inseparable from the political fortunes of the English language in Malaysia.

scholarly journals Afrikanerdom, Archives, and Change: The Archive for Contemporary Affairs at the University of the Free State, South Africa

Itinerario ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 19-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kate Law ◽  
Huibré Lombard
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Political Party ◽  
Regional Level ◽  
Free State ◽  
The Political ◽  
National Party ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
The Core ◽  
History Of ◽  
The University

This article examines some of the core holdings within the Archive for Contemporary Affairs at the University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa. Prominent amongst this material are the papers of the National Party (NP), the political party that formalised the structures of apartheid. Paying particular attention to the papers of what Hermann Giliomee has termed ‘The Last Afrikaner Leaders’ alongside recently acquired material concerning post-colonial politics, we argue for the importance of this archive for scholars studying Afrikaner nationalism, at both national and regional level, the rationales and discourses of apartheid and the history of the country more broadly.

Comparing Tales of the Tribe

2021 ◽  
pp. 137-166
Author(s):  
Václav Paris
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Social Darwinism ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
National Representation ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Moment

This chapter compares two texts written in the same year, 1928, in very different geographical settings: Mário de Andrade’s Macunaíma and Virginia Woolf’s Orlando. Both works narrate, in peculiar allegorical form, the history of their nations embodied in one unusual hero. Macunaíma tells the story of Brazil’s modernization; Orlando begins in Elizabethan England and works its way up to the moment of composition. Although each is deeply idiosyncratic, they arrive at a similar set of conceits for national representation. Orlando famously changes sex halfway through Woolf’s narrative, while Macunaíma changes race, from black to white. To make sense of the contiguities between Macunaíma and Orlando, the chapter reads both as epics responding to the changing discourse of large-scale social Darwinism in the 1920s. In particular, it points out that both authors were aware of fascism’s increasingly rigid interpretations of evolution’s significance. Drawing out the similarities between Andrade and Woolf’s narratives, the chapter explains how Macunaíma and Orlando exemplify and expand this book’s methodology for reading modernist epic fiction comparatively against changing perceptions of evolution. It shows how such a bifocal reading allows us to see connections across traditional disciplinary borders of high and low, center and periphery, European and post-colonial.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document