Ugly Freedoms

In Ugly Freedoms Elisabeth R. Anker reckons with the complex legacy of freedom offered by liberal American democracy, outlining how the emphasis of individual liberty has always been entangled with white supremacy, settler colonialism, climate destruction, economic exploitation, and patriarchy. These “ugly freedoms” legitimate the right to exploit and subjugate others. At the same time, Anker locates an unexpected second type of ugly freedom in practices and situations often dismissed as demeaning, offensive, gross, and ineffectual but that provide sources of emancipatory potential. She analyzes both types of ugly freedom at work in a number of texts and locations, from political theory, art, and film to food, toxic dumps, and multispecies interactions. Whether examining how Kara Walker’s sugar sculpture A Subtlety, Or the Marvelous Sugar Baby reveals the importance of sugar plantations to liberal thought or how the impoverished neighborhoods in The Wire blunt neoliberalism’s violence, Anker shifts our perspective of freedom by contesting its idealized expressions and expanding the visions for what freedom can look like, who can exercise it, and how to build a world free from domination.

LIBERAL THINKING IN SALAF PESANTREN, IS IT POSSIBLE? (FREEDOM OF THOUGHT THE SANTRI MA’HAD ALY SUKOREJO, SITUBONDO)

The existence of Ma’had ‘Aly is an exciting thing and brings a narrative of controversy. Since being legalised in 2002, Ma’had ‘Aly has transformed into a modern Islamic educational institution under the auspices of a traditional Salaf pesantren. This article aims to explain Ma’had ‘Aly as an Islamic educational institution that specifically (takhaṣṣuṣ) produces fiqh experts and supports freedom of thought in exploring Islamic law. The research method uses a qualitative approach by studying documents extracted from the history of Ma’had ‘Aly, the takhaṣṣuṣ curriculum, and the Tanwirul Afkar (TA) bulletin. The results reveal the integration of the Ma’had ‘Aly curriculum, which is combined with the general curriculum and contemporary scriptures. Second, the controversy over TA as a forum for students to manifest their competence as fuqaha on various developing issues. Some of the controversial issues decided by TA were allowing interfaith marriages, allowing non-Muslim Indonesian President elections, and similarities between Islam and Christianity in relations and history. Some realities above show that Islamic liberal thought has emerged in salaf pesantren through Ma’had ‘Aly. The contribution of this research provides novelty that apparently Ma’had ‘Aly is trying to show that the door of ijtihād in the excavation of Islamic jurisprudence is still wide open.

Liberalism of the Third Force in Republican China: Carsun Chang and Zhang Dongsun

<p>This study investigates the liberal thought of Carsun Chang and Zhang Dongsun who were core figures of the “Third Force”, those parties who did not align themselves either with the KMT or with the Communists in the 1940s. They developed a distinctive Chinese form of liberalism that contained elements of socialism, German idealism (Hegel and Kant), and the British tradition of liberty (Mill). Though similar in many respects to New Liberalism represented by the British thinker L. T. Hobhouse, this form of liberalism was specifically adapted to Chinese conditions. Like Hobhouse, Chang used German idealism to reconcile liberalism with socialism but he aimed to address Chinese problems including poverty, national sovereignty, and authoritarianism. Zhang subscribed to Chang’s views and agreed that these problems were the obstacles to Chinese democracy and state-building. I use Michael Freeden’s theory of ideological morphology to establish the distinctive character of Chinese liberalism represented by Chang and Zhang. As an alternative to conventional approaches, it centres around the semantic meanings of a cluster of political concepts which constitute liberalism and socialism rather than specific definitions of those ideologies. This approach successfully explains the variations within liberalism, socialism, and their complex relationship in different cultures and regions, but has not yet been used by other scholars to discuss Chinese political thought. In addition, I also discuss specific textual and contextual aspects of the Chinese liberalism of Chang and Zhang. Recognising the liberal tradition Chang and Zhang established helps develop a new understanding of Chinese liberalism and Chinese socialism past and present which are conventionally excluded from the narrative of Chinese political history. The Chinese liberalism identified in my research had an overlap with social democracy. It was not a single concept of liberty but a particular configuration of a few concepts such as liberty, equality, progress, justice, welfare, and limited power. This form of liberalism continues to exist in contemporary China. Chinese thinkers of this liberal tradition were and are actively involved in the debates over socialism, liberalism, and their relationships to Chinese problems such as modernisation, democratisation, and social transformation. In addition, this study reveals an ideological cause of a divided Chinese liberalism in the 1940s. Chang was a new liberal whereas Zhang was a representative of left liberalism. Furthermore, this research enables us to understand the continuing influence of the liberalism of Chang on the constitutional thought in Taiwan and its implications for the relationship between Taiwan and mainland China. Chang drafted the Constitution of the Republic of China. His liberal thought had an impact on this constitution that was initially intended to cover mainland China but was only enforced in Taiwan.</p>

Liberalism of the Third Force in Republican China: Carsun Chang and Zhang Dongsun

<p>This study investigates the liberal thought of Carsun Chang and Zhang Dongsun who were core figures of the “Third Force”, those parties who did not align themselves either with the KMT or with the Communists in the 1940s. They developed a distinctive Chinese form of liberalism that contained elements of socialism, German idealism (Hegel and Kant), and the British tradition of liberty (Mill). Though similar in many respects to New Liberalism represented by the British thinker L. T. Hobhouse, this form of liberalism was specifically adapted to Chinese conditions. Like Hobhouse, Chang used German idealism to reconcile liberalism with socialism but he aimed to address Chinese problems including poverty, national sovereignty, and authoritarianism. Zhang subscribed to Chang’s views and agreed that these problems were the obstacles to Chinese democracy and state-building. I use Michael Freeden’s theory of ideological morphology to establish the distinctive character of Chinese liberalism represented by Chang and Zhang. As an alternative to conventional approaches, it centres around the semantic meanings of a cluster of political concepts which constitute liberalism and socialism rather than specific definitions of those ideologies. This approach successfully explains the variations within liberalism, socialism, and their complex relationship in different cultures and regions, but has not yet been used by other scholars to discuss Chinese political thought. In addition, I also discuss specific textual and contextual aspects of the Chinese liberalism of Chang and Zhang. Recognising the liberal tradition Chang and Zhang established helps develop a new understanding of Chinese liberalism and Chinese socialism past and present which are conventionally excluded from the narrative of Chinese political history. The Chinese liberalism identified in my research had an overlap with social democracy. It was not a single concept of liberty but a particular configuration of a few concepts such as liberty, equality, progress, justice, welfare, and limited power. This form of liberalism continues to exist in contemporary China. Chinese thinkers of this liberal tradition were and are actively involved in the debates over socialism, liberalism, and their relationships to Chinese problems such as modernisation, democratisation, and social transformation. In addition, this study reveals an ideological cause of a divided Chinese liberalism in the 1940s. Chang was a new liberal whereas Zhang was a representative of left liberalism. Furthermore, this research enables us to understand the continuing influence of the liberalism of Chang on the constitutional thought in Taiwan and its implications for the relationship between Taiwan and mainland China. Chang drafted the Constitution of the Republic of China. His liberal thought had an impact on this constitution that was initially intended to cover mainland China but was only enforced in Taiwan.</p>

4. Liberalism

This chapter examines the liberal tradition in international relations (IR). It first considers the basic liberal assumptions, including a positive view of human nature and the belief that IR can be cooperative rather than conflictual. In their conceptions of international cooperation, liberal theorists emphasize different features of world politics. The chapter explores the ideas associated with four strands of liberal thought, namely: sociological liberalism, interdependence liberalism, institutional liberalism, and republican liberalism. It also discusses the debate between proponents of liberalism and neorealism, and it identifies a general distinction between weak liberal theories that are close to neorealism and strong liberal theories that challenge neorealism. Finally, it reviews the liberal view of world order and the notion that there is a ‘dark’ side of democracy.

CANCEL CULTURE AS A HYBRID PATTERN OF POSTMODERN SOCIABILITY

The central issue discussed in this paper concerns the post-modern social development, which has made people – high-ranking officials, persons entrenched in the cultural establishment, intellectuals, and ordinary individuals without public notoriety alike – stew over every publicly uttered word under threat of total “cancellation”. Despite frequent attempts to interpret this phenomenon, now commonly referred to as the cancel culture, in the light of maintaining the hegemony of liberal thought or as a peculiar continuation of political correctness, I shall demonstrate herein that the key function of the cancel culture is the social embedment of disembedded individuals, as part of a global trend of tribalisation of society. This is the result of various processes which accompany the reflexive modernisation and bring about insecurity and distrust as the main characteristics of life in a risk society. Individuals are therefore forced to seek refuge in adopted hybrid patterns of sociability, the cancel culture being only one of them. These patterns arise as a consequence of convergence of pre-modern and post-modern patterns of sociability by means of digital technologies, which become their hybridisation agent.

Wojtyła’s Category of Participation and the Question of Common Good

The author presents Wojtyła’s views on participation and its connections to the common good. The analysis consists of two parts. The first part outlines the concept of participation (coexistence and action together with other people in relation to the common good) and its various forms (solidarity and opposition, conformism and evasion). The second part presents views of the nature of common good found not only in liberal thought (common good as the expression of deliberation and the rights of the individual), and personalist thought (common good as the development of the person and its natural potentialities), but primarily in the work of Wojtyła himself (common good as personal self-fulfilment through coexistence and cooperation with others in relation to the conscience-discerned truth, elected in a free act). His reference point was also personalism, which stresses the inalienable dignity of the person in both the private and the social spheres of life.

Modus Operandi Gerakan Liberalisme di Malaysia

Abstrak Liberalisasi adalah proses tersusun dalam mempromosi dan menerapkan bentuk-bentuk pemikiran bebas dalam minda masyarakat khususnya umat Islam. Matlamat asasnya adalah untuk membebaskan pemikiran umat Islam daripada pandangan-pandangan turath yang dianggap tidak munasabah dan menyekat kemajuan. Kepercayaan daripada matlamat ini jelas bertentangan dengan prinsip-prinsip asas Ahli Sunah Waljamaah yang menuntut umat Islam berpegang teguh kepada al-Quran dan hadis serta pandangan-pandangan mujtahid dari pelbagai bidang dan sudut. Tulisan ini bertujuan mengenal pasti modus operandi penyebaran pemikiran liberal dalam masyarakat Islam di Malaysia. Kajian ini menggunakan pendekatan kualitatif yang melibatkan analisa kandungan dan temu bual separa berstruktur bersama lima orang belia yang menyokong idealisme liberal dan agenda liberalisme kepada masyarakat Islam di Malaysia. Dapatan temu bual dianalisis menggunakan kaedah analisa perkataan dan thematic. Hasil dapatan kajian menunjukkan gerakan liberalisme di Malaysia mempunyai kerangka modus operandi yang tersusun dalam menyebarkan fahaman tersebut kepada masyarakat di Malaysia. Mereka menggunakan sembilan (9) kerangka modus operandi iaitu persepsi, prinsip, motif, skala, propaganda, perkaderan, proksi, lingkaran sosial dan indoktrinasi. Dapatan ini mendedahkan tentang modus operandi gerak kerja liberalisme dalam mempengaruhi pemikiran masyarakat Islam dan menjauhkan masyarakat daripada peraturan hidup Islam yang sebenar. Namun begitu, kekuatan Islam yang terkandung di dalamnya akidah, syariah dan akhlak dapat menjadi perisai utama dalam mendepani pelbagai ancaman pemikiran khususnya ancaman liberalisme di Malaysia. Kata Kunci: Liberalisme; Pemikiran Islam; Ahli Sunah Waljamaah; Islam; belia Abstract Liberalization is a structured process in promoting and implementing forms of free-thinking in the minds of the people, especially Muslims. Its basic purpose is to free the minds of Muslims from the views of turath which are considered unreasonable and to hinder progress. Beliefs of this aim are clearly at odds with the fundamental principles of the Sunnis who require Muslims to adhere to the Qur'an and the hadith as well as the views of the mujtahid from various fields and angles. This paper aims to identify the modus operandi of disseminating liberal thought in the Muslim community in Malaysia. This study uses a qualitative approach that involves content analysis and semi-structured interviews with five youths who support liberal idealism and the liberalism agenda for the Muslim community in Malaysia. Interviews were analyzed using word and thematic analysis methods. The findings of the study show that the liberalism movement in Malaysia has a modus operandi framework in place to disseminate that understanding to the Malaysian public. They use nine (9) modus operandi frameworks namely perception, principle, motive, scale, propaganda, proportion, proxy, social circle, and indoctrination. This finding reveals the modus operandi of liberalism's work in influencing the thinking of the Muslim community and keeping society out of the true rules of Islamic life. Nonetheless, the Islamic power contained in the creed, sharia and morals can be a key shield in dealing with various threats of thinking especially the threat of liberalism in Malaysia. Keywords: Liberalism; Islamic thought; Ahlus Sunnah wal Jamaah; Islam; youth

Images of Relations between Nobility and Peasantry in Russian Liberal Literature in Late 19th — Early 20th Centuries

The article is devoted to the peculiarities of the representation of relations between the nobility and the peasantry in Russian liberal thought at the cusp of XIX—XX centuries. A review of the existing historiography on the problem is carried out, the main attention is paid to the emerging from the middle 1980s the traditions of studying the liberal intelligentsia in Russia and the peculiarities of the relationship between the “educated minority and the peasant world”, an analysis of the latest scientific literature is presented. Special attention is paid to the main research approaches to the study of the topic, microhistorical, positional and other approaches, the concept of “new local history” is highlighted and the need for their complex use is declared. The results of a comparative analysis of various groups of sources are presented: reminiscence and memoirs, periodicals, statistical materials, correspondence. The question is raised about the differences in the self-identification of the Russian nobility, as well as in the mutual representations of the two most important estates of post-reform Russia. The novelty of the study is seen in the fact that, on the basis of new methodological approaches, several images of relations between the nobility and the peasantry have been identified at the cusp of XIX—XX centuries: the image of the “new entrepreneurial type”, “guardianship” and “preservation of traditions”, conventionally “lordly”, as well as the image of “free action”; their distinctive characteristics are given. The proposed classification is due to the main ideas of the Russian nobility about the peasants in the context of the institutionalization of liberal ideology.