Showing papers by "Bryan S. Turner published in 2016"

We are all denizens now: on the erosion of citizenship

Abstract: This article makes a contribution to the general theory of citizenship. It argues that there is a need for a supplementary concept of ‘denizenship’ to illustrate changes to and erosion of postwar social citizenship as famously described by T H Marshall. The first aim is to construct a more theoretically developed idea of what the concept of a ‘denizen’ means in sociological terms. In its conventional meaning, this term describes a group of people permanently resident in a foreign country, but only enjoying limited partial rights of citizenship. I label this Denizenship Type 1. By contrast, Denizenship Type 2 refers to the erosion of social citizenship as citizens begin to resemble denizens or strangers in their own societies. The argument then is that there is a general convergence between citizenship and denizenship. As such, Denizenship Type 2 provides a possible supplement to the various terms that have recently been proposed, such as flexible citizenship, semi-citizenship, or precariat to desc...

Tracing the roots of social citizenship: Jane Addams’ thought between formal rights and moral obligation

Abstract: The modern social citizen is a dual figure: at one and the same time a legal-universal abstraction and a particular living being with specific capacities, proclivities and attitudes. The Settlement movement from the late nineteenth century articulated and shaped both universal and particular dimensions of social citizenship. It contained the imperative of guidance of individual conscience and the modern discourse of universal social rights. The article demonstrates that it is impossible to maintain a division between, on one side, the subject of individualizing pastoral care originating in religious poor relief and philanthropy, and, on the other side, formal rights based on universalism and the modern state. The Settlement movement lies at the pathway of belief, subjective interpretation and respect for the particular person and at the pathway of factual knowledge of social patterns and large-scale policy reforms. The focus on the particular person as subject was the legacy of Christian piety, wh...

Shari'a in cyberspace: A case study from Australia

Abstract: New forms of communication and greater accessibility of Islamic texts on-line allow Muslims to shape their own religiosity, to become less dependent on established sources of authority, and thereby to become more aware of their own cultural diversity as a community. New practices of transnational Islam, and the growth of new concepts of Muslim identities currently emerging in the on-line community, are relatively free from immediate constraints. This article provides the result of a sociological analysis of three Internet sites in Sydney which deliver on-line fatwas. Even if cyberspace has allowed the Muslim world to be de-territorialised and provides a way for people to distance themselves from traditional communities if they wish, this research points out a variety of approaches, including one case which is aiming at re-localising an Australian Muslim system of values. This case highlights ways in which first generation Muslims are re-territorialising Shari‘a in a specific western country.

Shari’a and Everyday Life in Sydney

Abstract: This article investigates how Shari’a is experienced in the everyday life of 57 Muslims from Western Sydney. It focuses on their opinions about its application in Australia, and on how they negotiate their lives around the necessity or non-necessity of adhering to Shari’a principles. The findings show that their observance of Islam tends to be negotiated in their everyday life within the framework of the Australian law, to which they show strong adherence. Respondents strongly reported the inaccurate picture of Shari’a that the media have painted. For this reason, the informants are reticent to have discussions in the public sphere about the implementation of officially recognised Shari’a within an Australian legal system for fear that it would stoke the flames of Islamophobic sentiment. This is an impediment to the development of a post-secular Australia.

A Response to Comments

Abstract: The authors reply to the comments by Catherine Blaya, Abdulhadi Khalaf, Ermete Mariani, Anna Neumaier, and Armando Salvatore, explicating some arguments of the original article.

Employment, spillovers and ‘decent work’: Challenging the Productivity Commission’s auto industry narrative:

Abstract: The 2013 and 2014 announcements by major car manufacturers that they would wind down all their remaining Australian automotive operations by 2016/2017 pre-empted the March 2014 release of the Produ

The last frontier: The struggle over sex and marriage under Pope Francis

Abstract: The paper deals with the way the Church is facing the challenge of sexual modernization. This struggle, we argue, not only involves the orthodoxy of Church teaching on human society but also will contribute to define Francis' papacy and the future of the Catholic Church. In this vein, the struggle with sexual modernization might be «the last frontier», the final dividing line between the universal Church and denominationalism. While the Protestant denominations have largely adjusted to and compromised with secular society in terms of accepting individualism and sexual modernization, the Church has instead defended the traditional views on marriage and sexuality. To accept homosexuality and same-sex marriage would be in effect the protestantization of Catholicism thereby becoming a denomination rather than a universal Church.

Islam and globalization: Islamophobia, security and terrorism

Abstract: This chapter argues that there is much evidence of prejudice against Muslims and fear of Islam in the West. Conflict with Islam and fear of Muslims is obviously not confined to theWest. Importantly, the characteristics of this form of Islam, often described by the umbrella notion of 'Salafism', are common in cities around the world. The reality of Islam could only be understood from the perspective of world history. In considering Islam in the framework of globalization, our substantive concerns are with the global spread of prejudice against Muslims, often referred to as Islamophobia. While the Turko-Mongolian world was based on nomadism, the Silk Road connecting Europe to China gave rise to a system of oasis city states such as Samarkand and Tashkent. These trade routes brought precious goods and materials to the region, but they were also the conduit of other religions, especially Buddhism.

Max Weber and the Sociology of Islam

Abstract: Max Weber discussed Islam in various places in his sociology of religion, but there was no sustained or systematic commentary unlike his other work on the religions of China and India. What he did have to say about Islam was, even by the standards of his own analysis of value neutrality, judgmental. Subsequently his sociology of Islam has been criticized as Orientalist. While he provided positive interpretations of Protestant inner-worldly asceticism and Old Testament prophecy as radical and charismatic, his commentaries on Islam were by contrast negative and critical. He regarded Islam as a warrior religion in which the salvation drive was turned away from the individual soul and the energy of the Muslim community was directed towards imperial conquest. His arguments did not for example provide a valid account of how Islam spread peacefully in South and South East Asia through Sufi traders. The article however notes an ironic justification for Weber’s analysis through the growth of urban ascetic piety in so-called post-Islam. Finally the article , turning away from Weber’s focus on economic ethics of the world religions, argues that Weber’s work is better understood as an ethical reflection on the perennial conflict between religion (the ethic of absolute ends) and politics (the ethics of responsibility).

Max Weber and the Sociology of Religion

Abstract: Max Weber is a dominating presence in western sociology, but his legacy remains a matter of considerable controversy. His influence is felt in the philosophy of social science, in theories of class, status and power, and of course in the various substantive areas where he had a lasting impact. However this article argues that his comparative studies of religion form the core of both substantive and theoretical interests. Firstly the interpretation of his oeuvre is skewed towards by excessive attention to the Protestant Ethic thesis, which was in fact only two essays that explored an issue that was already well known in German academic circles. Secondly Weber’s contribution to the study of Axial Age religions has only recently received adequate attention. The Axial Age religions emerging between 800 and 200 BCE created the foundations of the world religions through the idea of transcendence and developed a critical view of the everyday empirical world. Thus I argue that more attention should be given to his view of the interface between politics and religion. Weber pessimistically concluded that the world is dominated by ‘unbrotherliness’ and that the ethic of brotherly love in the major religions had come to nothing.

Narcissism, kropp och modernitet

Abstract: En stor del av den empiriska forskningen om och teoretiserandet kring medier, popularkultur, kropp, identitet och livsstil har med andra ord inte skett inom sociologin, utan inom andra samhallsvetenskapliga och huma nistiska discipliner, samt inom vissa tvarvetenskapliga forskningsomrd den.4 Detta har bidragit till ett berikande av forskningen och till framvax ten av en rad olika tolkningsmodeller, men det har aven lett till att forska re som har intresserat sig for ovan namnda omr&den sokt sig till andra discipliner an sociologin. Ett klassiskt sociologiskt forskningsomr&de som i allt storre utstrackning hamnat inom andra discipliner an sociologin ar forskningen om sociala karaktarer och identitet.51 den foljande framstall ningen tanker jag rekonstruera delar av debatten om och teoretiserandet kring den narcissistiska personligheten. Med utg&ngspunkt i en kritik av olika teorier om narcissism kommer jag sedan att visa hur man kan an vanda sociologisk teoribildning till att konstruera en teoretisk tolknings ram for de fenomen som g&r under beteckningen "narcissism". Min avsikt ar inte att argumentera for nagon renodlad sociologisk ana lys av narcissismbegreppet, utan snarare for en analys dar man utg&r frSn ett sociologiskt perspektiv och sedan inkorporerar begrepp och tankar fr&n andra discipliner. Jag ar emellertid kritisk till kulturteoretiska analyser av den narcissistiska personligheten som tar sin utgSngspunkt i ett psykolo giskt perspektiv och sedan okritiskt applicerar detta p& kulturella och so ciala forhallanden. Jag ar likaledes kritisk mot kulturvetare och sociologer som p& ett slarvigt satt anvander begreppet "narcissism" for att beteckna kroppsfixering eller en passiv konsumtionsidentitet. Fordelen med nar cissismbegreppet ar i sjalva verket att det, snarare an att leda till en teore

Legal Pluralism: Freedom of Religion, Exemptions and the Equality of Citizens

Abstract: One simple definition of legal pluralism is that it concerns the development of different legal traditions or legal sources within a single sovereign jurisdiction. It is often seen therefore to be a challenge to legal centralism or the thesis that the sovereign state has a monopoly over law making to the exclusion of all other sources. It is helpful to make a distinction between ‘weak legal pluralism’ and ‘strong legal pluralism’. The former refers to a situation where there may be various institutions at the central level of government or jurisdictions covering different regions or communities, which nevertheless remain under the hierarchical oversight and control by a state or empire. The latter refers to legal orders that govern over peoples but are not part of a single, hierarchical and integrated system. In short the weak-strong notion describes the degree of delegated legal authority to social groups, communities and institutions. The underlying question behind both forms is the issue of state sovereignty. Critics of legal pluralism regard the development as a threat to the sovereignty of the state and the coherence of a society. By contrast, it is possible to see legal pluralism as the natural companion of political liberalism allowing peoples and their institutions some protection from centralized authoritarian rule and in that regard legal pluralism is sometimes associated with the right of resistance against tyrannical powers. One historical issue in the debate about legal pluralism is its presence in empires such as the Ottoman Empire and attempts to control or eliminate legal pluralism during the rise of the nation state.