Rethinking Modes of Political Participation

Political participation is frequently defined as either being conventional or unconventional. This distinction is based on dualistic thinking. Participation is likened to other dualisms, such as legal–illegal, collective–individual, and unity–plurality. Drawing on Niklas Luhmann’s system theory, I argue that understanding political participation in terms of dualisms is reductive, as it overlooks those acts of participation that do not fit the conventional–unconventional distinction. To address this issue, the article introduces the notion of alternative political participation. This category is established by conceiving the existing dualism between conventional and unconventional political participation as a continuum of options existing between polar opposites.

Moradas do belo na educação

O artigo destaca a reflexão sobre o belo, abordado no campo filosófico, para pensar os seus possíveis desdobramentos pedagógicos. Ancorado em vários autores, por vezes até dissonantes entre si, o artigo pretendeu priorizar o exercício de uma prática ainda necessária: superar o pensamento dualista, em que as lentes estariam focadas em destacar um dos lados para extinguir os demais. A morada do belo depende de muitas perspectivas, não será possível aprisioná-lo em um só lugar, conceito ou autor. O belo movido pela arte, pelo trágico e pela vida escapa sempre de apressadas conclusões e quer nos ver em movimento para sofisticar ainda mais as possíveis expressões deste existir humano. O destino da reflexão é o campo da educação, com o intuito de devolver a ela o direito a pensar e fazer o belo se materializar nas inúmeras possibilidades de formação humana.Palavras-chave: Belo. Filosofia da Educação. PedagogiaThe homes of beauty in educationABSTRACT The article highlights the reflection on the beauty, approached in the philosophical field, to think about its possible pedagogical consequences. Anchored by several authors, sometimes even dissonant with each other, the article intended to prioritize the exercise of a still necessary practice: overcoming dualistic thinking, where lenses would be focused on highlighting one side to extinguish the others. The home of beauty depends on many perspectives, it will not be possible to imprison it in one place, concept or author. Beauty, moved by art, tragic and life, always escapes hasty conclusions and wants to see us moving to further sophisticate the possible expressions of this human existence. The fate of reflection is the field of education in order to return to it the right to think and make the beauty materialize in the countless possibilities of human formation.Keywords: Beauty. Philosophy of Education. Pedagogy,Moradas de la belleza en la educaciónRESUMENEl artículo destaca la reflexión sobre lo bello, abordado en el campo filosófico, para pensar en sus posibles consecuencias pedagógicas. Anclados por varios autores, a veces incluso disonantes entre sí, el artículo pretendía priorizar el ejercicio de una práctica aún necesaria: superar el pensamiento dualista, donde las lentes se centrarían en resaltar un lado para extinguir los otros. La morada de la belleza depende de muchas perspectivas, no será posible encarcelarla en un solo lugar, concepto o autor. La belleza, movida por la arte, lo trágico y la vida, siempre escapa a conclusiones apresuradas y quiere vernos en movimiento para sofisticar aún más las posibles expresiones de esta existencia humana. El destino de la reflexión es el campo de la educación para devolverle el derecho a pensar y hacer que lo bello se materialice en las innumerables posibilidades de la formación humana.Palabras clave: Bello. Filosofía de la Educación. Pedagogía.

Towards a Chinese Theology of Displacement: The Poetic Journey of a Chinese Migrant

While poetry was used as a rich vehicle to express one’s identity, freedom and communal belonging in the “poetry fever” (shige re, 诗歌热) of the 1980s in Mainland China, its connection with Christian theology has been long neglected despite the rapid increase in Chinese conversion to Christianity amongst the post-1989 generation. Using both autoethnographic and phenomenological methodology, this paper explores the relationship between the two using the author’s own poetry writings as a case study. From the vantage point of a Chinese Christian, poet and migrant to Australia, this paper is an inter-disciplinary study that journeys with the poetic voice from the themes of lament to search and then return, followed by some theological reflections. It argues that the dualistic thinking of poetry and theology can move into non-dualist responses so that the two can meet and become fused on the epistemological path towards God. This path parallels with that of the Israelites in exile, and ultimately Jesus’ journey in the gospel. It aims to provide a trajectory to develop further a poetic Chinese theology of displacement.

Spectres of Nature in the Trail Building Assemblage

Through research that was conducted with mountain bike trail builders, this article explores the processes by which socio-natures or ‘emergent ecologies’ are formed through the assemblage of trail building, mountain bike riding and matter. In moving conversations about ‘Nature’ beyond essentialist readings and dualistic thinking, we consider how ecological sensibilities are reflected in the complex, lived realities of the trail building community. Specifically, we draw on Morton’s (2017) notion of the ‘symbiotic real’ to examine how participants connect with a range of objects and non-humans, revealing a ‘spectral’ existence in which they take pleasure in building material features that are only partially of their creation. Such ‘tuning’ to the symbiotic real was manifest in the ongoing battle that the trail builders maintained with water. This battle not only emphasized the fragility of their trail construction but also the temporal significance of the environments that these creations were rendered in/with. In conclusion, we argue that these findings present an ecological awareness that views nature as neither static, inert or fixed, but instead, as a temporal ‘nowness’, formed from the ambiguity of being in and with nature. Ecologically, this provides a unique form of orientation that re-establishes the ambiguity between humans and nature, without privileging the former. It is set against this ecological (un)awareness that we believe a re-orientation can be made to our understandings of leisure, the Anthropocene and the nature-culture dyad.

Introducing the Language of “Relativity” for New Scaffold Categorization

Research related with scaffold engineering tends to be cross-domain and miscellaneous. Several realms may need to be focused simultaneously, including biomedicine for cell culture and 3D scaffold, physics for dynamics, manufacturing for technologies like 3D printing, chemistry for material composition, as well as architecture for scaffold’s geometric control. As a result, researchers with different backgrounds sometimes could have different understanding towards the product described as ‘Scaffold’. After reviewing the literature, numerous studies termed their developed scaffold as ‘novel’, compared with scaffolds previously designed by others using comparing criterion like ‘research time’, ‘manufacturing method’, ‘geometry’, and so on. While it may have been convenient a decade ago to, for example, categorize scaffold with ‘Dualistic Thinking’ logic into ‘simple-complicated’ or ‘traditional-novel’, this method for categorizing ‘novelty’ and distinguishing scaffold is insufficiently persuasive and precise when it comes to modern or future scaffold. From this departure of philosophical language, namely the language of ‘relativity’, it is important to distinguish between different scaffolds. Other than attempting to avoid ambiguity in perceiving scaffold, this language also provides clarity regarding the ‘evolution stage’ where the focused scaffolds currently stand, where they have been developed, and where in future they could possibly evolve.

Love at the Limits: Between the Corporeal and the Incorporeal

New materialist frameworks have increasingly repudiated dualistic thinking and challenged representationalist views, which hold that discursive practices mediate our access to the material world (a core tenet of social constructivism). As it has become clear that the material cannot be considered inert, important questions concerning agency, politics and subjectivity have been raised. But while the significance of corporeality has been emphasised, Elizabeth Grosz, in an interview on her most recent book, The Incorporeal (2017), notes that: ‘If materialism(s) cannot account for the immaterial events we experience and articulate, then it has a clear limit that it needs to address.’ An important question this raises in terms of the mutual conditionings of love and one I will address is: How can we account for the immaterial space and time tracings of love without negating the material in the process? To answer this, I turn to Deleuze's The Logic of Sense.

Linji (810/15–67)

Linji was one of the most reputed, and influential Chinese Chan masters in the history of East Asian Buddhism. He belonged to a school which advocates sudden enlightenment without dependence on words: there is an extralinguistic reality that can be intuitively apprehended through the rigorous meditative training. A person with this intuition escapes dualistic thinking and has grasped the freedom to act decisively, utilizing creatively whatever is presented before him/her. Linji’s method of teaching is often characterized as ‘thundering shouts and showering sticks’, actions which are used to effect an awakening in his disciples. His reputation rests primarily on his ability to seize on this opportunity.

Kuki Shūzō (1888–1941)

Kuki’s philosophical project was focused on the issues arising from dualistic thinking. He incorporated into his work a cross-cultural, historical perspective, while applying Heidegger’s hermeneutical ontology and exhibiting bold, systematic, speculative acumen.