Human beings are described by many spiritual traditions as ‘blind’ or ‘asleep’ or ‘in a dream.’ These terms refers to the limited attenuated state of consciousness of most human beings caught up in patterns of conditioned thought, feeling and perception, which prevent the development of our latent, higher spiritual possibilities. In the words of Idries Shah: “Man, like a sleepwalker who suddenly ‘comes to’ on some lonely road has in general no correct idea as to his origins or his destiny.” In some religious traditions, such as Christianity and Islam, the myth of the ‘Fall from the Garden of Eden’ symbolizes the loss of the primordial state through the veiling of higher consciousness. Other traditions use similar metaphors to describe the spiritual condition of humanity:

The Human Condition.

On the Genealogy of a Morality

Globalisation and the reform of European Social Models

Critique of Cynical Reason

Historical institutionalist theories of endogenous change have enhanced our understanding of institutional development by providing a theoretical vocabulary for analyzing how institutions may be renegotiated over the long run by social and political actors. In these theories, however, the causal impact of institutions themselves on political outcomes, including their own change and reform, is less developed―a significant problem for an institutional research program. This paper addresses this problem by proposing strategies that integrate historical institutionalism’s insights into endogenous institutional change with a systematic analysis of the institutional conditions under which “bottom-up” processes of gradual change are likely to be counteracted. In particular, the institutionalization of cultural categories and the allocation of power over the timing of reform within institutional and policy configurations are important variables for understanding how pre-existing institutions may enable institutional incumbents to channel, delay, or prevent institutional change.

When Do Institutions “Bite”? Historical Institutionalism and the Politics of Institutional Change

Abstract The European Social Dialogue (ESD) is a mixed story of ongoing negotiations between the social partners but with rather few binding agreements. Whereas some see the sparse actions as an inevitable consequence of deep structural and political asymmetries, others have pointed out the key role played by the Commission, as a “shadow of hierarchy”, in pushing the social partners towards binding agreements. By applying novel insights from theories of veto players and asymmetric interdependence to an in-depth case study of two agreements, the article is the first attempt to take a systematic game theoretical approach to the study of the ESD. We show that the likelihood of a binding agreement depends on the degree and changeability of the shadow of hierarchy as well as the complexity of issue and reputational risks of the social partners. The findings have implications for the likely effectiveness of the recent attempt to “re-launch” the ESD.

Explaining the deadlock of the European social dialogue: negotiating in the shadow of hierarchy

Det er nu 30 år siden, at Luc Boltanski og Laurent Thévenot (B&T) for alvor præsenterede sig på den bredere sociologiske scene med deres fælles værk De la justification (DJ) (1991), som i dag fremstår som en af sociologiens nyklassikere. Analyserammen i DJ har vist sig særdeles sejlivet og har sat ringe i vandet, så også filosoffer, politologer, økonomer, geografer og historikere har taget den op til debat – og ikke mindst brugt den enten i dens oprindelige form eller i teoriudviklende arbejde. Formålet med artiklen er at kortlægge de mest fremtrædende internationale debatter samt se på anvendelsen i en dansk kontekst. Vi fremhæver de særligt interessante udviklingsveje, som kan lede læseren (studerende så vel som forskere) videre ind i et stadigt spirende forskningsfelt. Vi identificerer fire overordnede tilgange til at arbejde med retfærdiggørelsesmodellen: 1) socialteoretiske debatter og udvidelser af selve retfærdiggørelsesmodellen; 2) etnografisk inspirerede studier af menneskers kritik og retfærdiggørelse; 3) diskursive analyser af offentlige debatter og 4) brug af retfærdiggørelsesmodellen i genealogiske analyser. Afslutningsvis opsummerer vi, hvilke analysetilgange og udviklingsveje vi finder særlig interessante, og argumenterer for, hvorfor vi mener, DJ stadig er aktuel i dag – 30 år efter udgivelsen.

Magnus Paulsen Hansen

Papers

Explaining the deadlock of the European social dialogue: negotiating in the shadow of hierarchy

De la justification 30 år efter: En kortlægning af udbredelse og anvendelser