On Justifying the Study of Religion

This chapter takes up the question whether the study of religion can be justified and indicates why scholars of religion deny themselves reasons for tackling that question. It uses as its point of departure Max Weber’s lecture, “Science as a Vocation” as articulating a methodological standard for studying religion, one that privileges value-neutrality and avows an “ascetic ideal” (following Nietzsche). It is argued that this ideal poses obstacles to making justificatory claims on behalf of studying religion and fortifies a repressive scholarly conscience in the field’s regime of truth. The chapter adds that this conscience is not entirely repressive and notes the presence of quixotic, haphazard appeals to normative ideals that materialize in the study of religion. Lastly, it sketches the book’s alternative to the ascetic ideal and describes ideas from moral philosophy that inform the book’s critical and constructive argument.

Serving the Greater Social Good for Personal Gain: Effects of Polite Disagreements in Online Debates

Asynchronous, anonymous online debaters might be less likely than face-to-face debaters to value their public self-image ( face), and thus disagree more freely. In this study, we examined whether polite disagreements (as opposed to rude ones) help online debaters win over audience members. An analysis of the most voted-on 100 political debates on Debate.org (200 debaters; 1,750 voters; 472,652 words) showed that debate initiators who used politer face-saving strategies to disagree (i.e., using expressions such as negatives with agree words rather than disagree or harsh rejection words) were more likely to receive more audience votes and win their debates. These results suggest that politeness tactics during online debates increase effectiveness, align with normative ideals, and yield pragmatic gain.

The Eurocentrism of neo-Roman republicanism and the neglect of republican empire

Republicanism is an approach within political theory that seeks to secure the values of political liberty and non-domination. Yet, in historical practice, early modern republics developed empires and secured their liberty through policies that dominated others. This contradiction presents challenges for how neo-Roman theorists understand ideals of liberty and political freedom. This article argues that the historical practices of slavery and empire developed concurrently with the normative ideals of republican liberty. Republican liberty does not arise in the absence of power but is inherently connected to the exercise of power.

Introduction

The Introduction sets the stage by arguing that, in their current form, normative ideals of democratic public discourse tend to be too distant from reality to yield action-guiding prescriptions. Perhaps inclusive public speech is a powerful way of pooling knowledge or contesting power when people who like each other exchange reasons in good faith. But this tells us very little about the value of inclusive public speech in divided settings such as our own, where speech is routinely used to rage, vilify, or deceive, against a background of mutual dislike, political ignorance, and social fragmentation. The Introduction then argues that, to remedy this problem, we need to develop a systematic normative picture of democratic public speech—and specifically, of the norms that should govern democratic public speech—that is sensitive to these non-ideal features.

Political corruption: individual or institutional?

Contrary to current institutionalist theories of corruption, this chapter maintains that the quality of institutional practices can always be traced back to the officeholders’ conduct as both individual and interrelated role occupants via their institutional roles. This is the “continuity approach” to political corruption in public institutions. Because institutional roles are structurally interrelated, political corruption can be attributed to an institution in virtue of a variety of patterns (summative, morphological, and systemic), describing the shape of the interrelatedness of the officeholders’ conduct. Political corruption thus has its source in the action of officeholders within an institution, no matter how well designed that institution may be. This internal enemy is a serious one because the officeholders’ interrelated corrupt conduct may fail an institution’s raison d’être (the normative ideals that motivate an institution’s establishment and functioning).

Support and opposition in an attempted higher education merger

The study explores an ultimately unsuccessful merger of three Norwegian public university colleges. It shows how social practices of support for and opposition to the merger were the effects of the intersection(s) between why the merger was necessary and how the proposed merger process was enacted. Support and opposition may change during the merger process, since participants move in and out of positions given how the process unfolds. We relate support and opposition to identity. A merger supports attractive identities if it is consonant with overarching normative ideals of higher education and experienced fairness during the merger process. The findings have implications for how we can better understand and explain why some merger initiatives lead to termination instead of a merger.

Being a ‘Good Researcher’ in Transdisciplinary Research: Choreographies of Identity Work Beyond Community

Different contemporary developments are challenging the notion of a rather exclusive and lasting belonging of individual researchers to the one disciplinary community into which they had been socialised, to which they subsequently contribute, and which they reproduce. In turn, the very meaning of community is challenged when there is a perpetual exchange of community members. This chapter deals with how researchers with diverse and dynamic relations to different collectives develop a self-understanding of what it means to be a good researcher, i.e. what the normative ideals are that they should strive for. It is empirically analysed how researchers who engage in transdisciplinary research occasionally or regularly narrate, adopt, translate, resist, and combine the different imaginations of being a good researcher that they encounter. The sensitizing concept of ‘choreography’ is proposed to analyse the identity work done under conditions of multiple and flexible belongings that is held together by a certain style, rhythm, and pattern. In this sense, a specific way of moving constitutes an identity in the first place by aligning otherwise separate belongings.

Man-made man: The role of the fashion photograph in the development of masculinity

As a former male model and fashion photographer, I am fascinated by the visual representation of masculinity. Currently, this representation is in the midst of a shift away from traditional, singular notions of masculinity towards a more diverse and inclusive representation. This article looks to analyse the role of fashion photography in the changing landscape of masculinity in male fashion photographs. I will be examining the historic creation of singular hegemonic masculine ideals and comparing them to current representations in male fashion photography, which have become more complex and inclusive of gestures and elements that were once ascribed to non-normative ideals. My research has uncovered the role of authors who create male fashion photographs and the process they follow in the creation of new narratives that are more diverse in the current climate of accelerated digitized media.

Designing for Feminist Democratic Representation

Chapter 4 opens the second part of Feminist Democratic Representation. It first offers a discussion of the recent institutional and representational turn in democratic theory. Four ideals are identified that speak to concerns with women’s political representation: (i) democratic representation connects the institutional and the societal, (ii) democratic representation is creative and educative, (iii) democratic representation is deliberative, and (iv) democratic representation unifies and builds trust. These normative ideals are very promising but on their own only go so far. Added to them are the feminist principles of inclusiveness, responsiveness, and egalitarianism. Together these produce the feminist democratic effects that the authors seek. To this end, an introduction is provided to the design thinking and the specificities of the design practices envisaged. Chapter 4 is, therefore, where the authors’ approach is situated within the emerging literature on democratic design.