Performing Arts Curation as a Means of Advocating for Change in Cultural Policy

This article explores the potentials of performing arts curation to challenge current European cultural policies. It opens with a brief comparison of the genealogy of the curator in the visual and performing arts. Suzana Milevska’s concept of “curatorial agency” and contemporary understandings of the “curator as an intermediary” serve to highlight the discrepancies between the socio-political conditions of production and circulation in the two fields. The second part of the article draws on interviews with five performing arts curators from independent organizations active within European project networks to further examine the implications of curating as a mediating cultural-political practice. Finally, in a context where cultural policies increasingly support market-oriented cultural actors, it calls for a stronger accountability of the performing arts curator in the negotiation of values between the artistic community, audiences, and policymakers.

Historiographical facts and political practice in Russia in the XVIII – beginning of the XXI centuries

Статья посвящена истории связи между развитием исторической науки и политической практики в России. В контексте этого развития представлены, с одной стороны, эволюция исторических исследований и их координации и, с другой стороны, трансформация подхода институциональных структур государства к выбору управленческой стратегии в руководстве работой историков. В качестве примера для исследования обозначенной проблемы выбран период с начала XVIII до начала XXI века, потому что в его рамках была сформирована практика профессиональной деятельности в сфере историографии как процесса человеческой деятельности. Особое внимание в статье адресовано к роли идеологии в формировании различных моделей связи между работой историков и политических деятелей по конструированию образа прошлого, настоящего и будущего развития российской истории. The article reveals the connection between the historical science development and evolution of political practice in Russia.In that context shown are the course of the historical research and the coordination and control strategies implemented by the state, including institutional transformations.As a subject of current research was taken the period from the XVIII – beginning of the XXI centuries, when historiography became a profession and was institutionalized.Special attention is driven to the role of ideology in adopting different models of interaction between historians and political actors, while framing the image of the past, the present and the future of Russia.

The Impact of Emmanuel Levinas’ Philosophy on the Problem of Determining Others in Contemporary Society – in Relation to Ethics and Political Practice

This paper aims to examine the impact and overlap of the philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas in connection with the issue of determining others in contemporary modern society, especially in relation to ethical theoretical background and real political practice. This paper aims to relate Levinasian philosophy to the phenomena of contemporary modern society, specifically, its ethics and political practice. This paper intends to capture the relevance of Levinasian philosophy to our current political and religious conflicts, the issue of refugees, immigrants, and the phenomenon of mass migration. In a broader sense, it also reflects upon the issues of racism and globalization as pertinent issues in our current age.

Philosophy of the Deed. “Praxis” in Hegel and Posthegelian Discourses

In his Prolegomena to Historiosophy, published in 1838, August von Cieszkowski wrote that we are at the turning point in history, when facts turn into deeds. This raises the question of what is actually to be understood by the term “deed” [Tat] and why, the hour of the deed should have come precisely now. After focusing on Hegel’s concept of a history of freedom, I will present two models of understanding action and conclude by discussing their consequences. More specifically, I will undertake a search that will lead us – by way of a detour via Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit – to Fichte’s concept of the act of doing. That socio-political practice can be justified in this way, however, is denied by those who argue that society and politics in Hegel fall under the category of objective and not of absolute spirit. The alternative model of action that I will focus on, concerns action in relation to objects, or labour, a model that Hegel had already worked out in Jena, and that Marx will re-discover (rather than invent) and further develop.

Islamic Democracy and Popular Sovereignty: A Critical Essay on Andrew March’s The Caliphate of Man

In this review of Andrew March’s book, The Caliphate of Man, I shall focus on one central concept and one central claim to be found in the book: the concept of Islamic democracy, and the claim that al-Ghannūshī’s vision of popular sovereignty “reflects a genuine intellectual revolution in modern Islamic thought.” I suggest that the concept of Islamic democracy is logically possible only on the assumption of a purely procedural, value-neutral conception of democracy, and that the vision of the umma [the demos, populus] to be found in al-Ghannūshī is not such as to make the notion of popular sovereignty desirable by modern standards. I will suggest further that liberal Islamist thinkers stand to offer a superior view of Islamic democracy, one toward which al-Ghannūshī himself seems to be moving in his post-Revolutionary political practice.