Showing papers in "Distinktion: Scandinavian Journal of Social Theory in 2017"
TL;DR: The "governmentality" approach has been influential in analyzing how neoliberal governance transfers responsibility to individual agents through an "appeal of freedom" mechanism as discussed by the authors, and it has been used in analyzing the role of individual agents in the economic system.
Abstract: The ‘governmentality’ approach has been influential in analyzing how neoliberal governance transfers responsibility to individual agents through an ‘appeal of freedom’ mechanism. This productive co...
71 citations
TL;DR: Object-Oriented Ontology (OOO) as discussed by the authors is a theoretical commitment to thinking the real beyond human experience that seeks to uncover the true existence of things, favouring concepts of stability, stability, and order.
Abstract: ‘Object-Oriented Ontology’ (OOO) defines a theoretical commitment to thinking the real beyond human experience. It seeks to uncover the true existence of things, favouring concepts of stability, es...
22 citations
TL;DR: As John Bellamy Foster points out in numerous publications, we need Marx to make sense of our current ecological predicament in the Anthropocene, the age in which humankind affects the eart...
Abstract: As John Bellamy Foster points out in numerous publications, we need Marx to make sense of our current ecological predicament in the Anthropocene, the age in which humankind affects the eart...
20 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors draw out some of the points of overlap and divergence between Marxism and Actor-Network Theory (ANT), in the vein of Marx's own critique of classical political economy.
Abstract: In this paper, I draw out some of the points of overlap and divergence between Marxism and Actor-Network Theory (ANT). In the vein of Marx’s own critique of classical political economy, this examin...
20 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors take R. G. Collingwood's writing about causality as its point of departure for answering the question "How are we to understand causal relations and analysis in social science?"
Abstract: How are we to understand causal relations and analysis in socialscience? This paper takes R. G. Collingwood’s writing aboutcausation as its point of departure for the answering of thisquestion. Two ...
18 citations
TL;DR: The authors provide a review of Rodrigo Cordero's crisis and critique: On the fragile foundations of social life (2017) and identify major challenges that need to be faced in order to do justice to the tension-laden role that the relationship between critique and crisis can, and should, play in contemporary social theory.
Abstract: The main purpose of this paper is to provide a review of Rodrigo Cordero’s Crisis and critique: On the fragile foundations of social life (2017). To this end, the analysis examines Cordero’s book at several levels. The first part makes some general observations on its principal strengths. The second part gives a brief overview of its thematic structure. The third part elucidates its key arguments. The fourth part sheds light on its most significant limitations. The paper concludes by identifying major challenges to which, in light of the methodical evaluation of Cordero’s study, we need to face up in order to do justice to the tension-laden role that the relationship between crisis and critique can, and should, play in contemporary social theory.
18 citations
TL;DR: Bourdieu increasingly engaged psychoanalytic concepts in his work throughout his life as discussed by the authors and focussed his analysis on the social causes of psychic processes, and had a particularly amb...
Abstract: Pierre Bourdieu increasingly engaged psychoanalytic concepts in his work throughout his life. However, he focussed his analysis on the social causes of psychic processes, and had a particularly amb...
16 citations
TL;DR: Although the various interpretations of Foucault's model of critique often seem to differ only in minor details, they seriously diverge by situating critique on different levels of abstraction in F....
Abstract: Although the various interpretations of Foucault’s model of critique often seem to differ only in minor details, they seriously diverge by situating critique on different levels of abstraction in F...
14 citations
TL;DR: Online crowds are, therefore, not crowds per se but an instance of swarming where digital connectivity provides rationalized conditions for individual thoughts, feelings and actions to be grouped into convergent activities resembling self-organization without central control.
Abstract: The concept of online crowds reflects a shift in crowd semantics occasioned by the spread of digital media. It poses an alternative to the classical notion of crowd by addressing gatherings in digital rather than physical space. Researching online crowds assumes individual participation to be additive as inferred from tweets grouped around hashtags in microblogging. However, tweets may be understood as a type of inter-textual communication rather than spontaneous displays of emotion. It suggests that online gatherings inferred from these displays do not necessarily reflect the transformation of digital connectivity into crowds. Instead, digitally connected individuals assert their individuality to become members of a swarm. Compared with networks and multitudes, swarms do not separate the parts from the whole to imply a type of collectivism that subsists on the contradiction of the individualized whole. Online crowds are, therefore, not crowds per se but an instance of swarming where digital conne...
12 citations
TL;DR: A complementary account that allows us to map out and systematize temporal processes concerning reflexivity is, therefore, an account that must address the fact that: reflexive activity does not start from scratch, in a vacuum, each time it operates; and, effects of previous lived experiences are at the heart of the mediatory process of reflexivity.
Abstract: Although attempts to complement the concept of reflexivity with social embeddedness have been made by many sociologists, theoretical tools for coming to grips with ‘temporally embedded’ aspects of reflexive activity have yet to make an entrance in the sociological arena. This paper intends to rectify this deficiency by spelling out how laypeople’s reflexive orientations draw on past lived experiences in the social world. Margaret Archer’s celebrated approach to reflexivity struggles to accommodate this dimension of reflexive agents since its clear ‘subjective–objective distinction’ is hostile to any talk of reflexivity as being historically constituted. A complementary account that allows us to map out and systematize temporal processes concerning reflexivity is, therefore, apt, an account that must address the fact that: reflexive activity does not start from scratch, in a vacuum, each time it operates; and, effects of previous lived experiences are at the heart of the mediatory process of reflex...
12 citations
TL;DR: The Levi-Strauss/Derrida debate as discussed by the authors explores the relationship between speech and writing, the violence of social life, and the logic (or lack thereof) of anthropology itself.
Abstract: The Levi-Strauss/Derrida debate saw two of the great minds of the twentieth-century wrestle with some of the most vexing problems of anthropological theory: the relationship between speech and writing, the violence of social life, and the logic (or lack thereof) of anthropology itself. A careful consideration of the debate uncovers three oscillations present in Levi-Strauss’ corpus: between the affirmation and negation of the law of the excluded middle, the reducibility of the human sciences to the natural sciences, and the value of philosophy. Outside the confines of the debate itself, Derrida’s celebration of Levi-Strauss for his embracing of myth and bricolage nevertheless reveals a particular reluctance toward that embrace on Levi-Strauss’ part – a modality of nostalgia, manifest within the debate, for a lost presence of speech. Speech act theory sheds further light on a certain underlying unity of speech and writing, the limitations of the law of the excluded middle, and what may have really ...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors counterpoise the abstract idea of cosmopolitanism with the concept of societal cosmo-moronism, which is, in their view, more appropriate for grasping the empirical reality of relations.
Abstract: To consider cosmopolitanism independently, purely as a value, neglects consideration of the way in which people live, how they create collective judgements and how they build their relations with others. Our study counterpoises this abstract idea of cosmopolitanism with the concept of societal cosmopolitanism, which is, in our view, more appropriate for grasping the empirical reality of relations. In this sense, we reject the idea of a generalized universalism of human reason and the associated cultural hegemony of liberal cosmopolitanism. This expression of cosmopolitanism derives from a practical idea of mankind and conceives the ‘social’ as a condition of existence for cosmopolitanism. This, in our view, occurs either through the ‘social incorporating cosmopolitanism’ (in line with Durkheim’s notion of patriotisme spiritualise) or through ‘cosmopolitanism transcending the social without annihilating it’ (based on Simmel’s ‘law of individuality’). In both cases, cosmopolitanism as a condition of...
TL;DR: The authors argued that the tradition of social theory can benefit from being linked to Wittgenstein's method which suggests a way of theorizing on the basis of detailed case-knowledge; that it can profit from bringing this method into an explicit relation to existing approaches, styles and tools in social theory.
Abstract: The article argues for the relevance of rediscovering Wittgenstein in social theory with particular focus on his philosophical method. The article is divided into three parts. Part I gives a brief overview of Wittgenstein’s role in the coming of age of the influential 1980s generation of European social theory. Parts II and III discuss Wittgenstein’s method and its significance for social theory. In Wittgenstein’s late philosophy, there are deep and unique insights to be gained about doing theoretical research. These insights can be extended to the social sciences. The article argues that the tradition of social theory can benefit from being linked to Wittgenstein’s method which suggests a way of theorizing on the basis of detailed case-knowledge; that it can profit from bringing this method into an explicit relation to existing approaches, styles and tools in social theory. Despite its sketchy and unfinished character, Wittgenstein’s case study method can be a guide for a way of bridging the wide...
TL;DR: The distinctness of each person's life and experience is an important consideration in dominant accounts of how democratic institutions should distribute basic rights and liberties as discussed by the authors. But the distinctness is not always a positive attribute.
Abstract: The distinctness of each person’s life and experience is an important consideration in dominant accounts of how democratic institutions should distribute basic rights and liberties. Drawing on rece...
TL;DR: This article argued that Tarde's sociology proposes a notion of individuality according to which the individual is understood as given in a tensional relationship between mimesis and anti-mimesis, that is, between retaining some internal core and being subject to external influence.
Abstract: The recent revival of Gabriel Tarde’s sociology has generated conflicting interpretations of his work. According to one camp, Tarde’s sociology is reducible to a psychologism that merits no present-day sociological interest. By contrast, other scholars argue that Tarde’s work remains of great analytical value because it presents an anti-essentialist conception of the individual as being plastic and moldable. In this paper, I critically discuss each of these interpretations. Further, I argue that a careful reading of Tarde reveals a rather more complex notion of individuality than has been recognized in the recent reception of his work. Specifically, I suggest that Tarde’s sociology proposes a notion of individuality according to which the individual is understood as given in a tensional relationship between mimesis and anti-mimesis, that is, between retaining some internal core and being subject to external influence.
TL;DR: The extent to which ecocide should be treated within the existing framework of genocide has been hotly debated, and recent literature on what some have called the anthropocene epoch has further hig... as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: The extent to which ecocide should be treated within the existing framework of genocide has been hotly debated, and recent literature on what some have called the anthropocene epoch has further hig...
TL;DR: In this paper, the normative languages used by ordinary citizens to measure ongoing welfare state transformations in Denmark are explored, based on qualitative data from a delibeacon survey of the Danish population.
Abstract: This article explores the normative languages used by ordinary citizens to measure ongoing welfare state transformations in Denmark. Empirically, the article turns to qualitative data from a delibe...
TL;DR: In this article, the sociologies on morality developed by Zygmunt Bauman and Emile Durkheim are brought into conversation and it is suggested that while there are differences in their broad approaches there is also a hitherto uncommented upon overlap concerning the possibility of moral rebellion.
Abstract: This paper seeks to bring the sociologies on morality developed by Zygmunt Bauman and Emile Durkheim into conversation. Rather than adopting an approach which sees their perspectives as opposed, it will be suggested that while there are differences in their broad approaches there is also a hitherto uncommented upon overlap concerning the possibility of moral rebellion. For Bauman, inspired by those who were part of the resistance to the Holocaust, this is seen to reside in the pre-social moral impulse to be for the other while Durkheim links this to the role of education as a form of moral socialization. By exploring these links, we can see that both rely upon a conception of the conscience which, expressing the moral ideal lying behind our morally imperfect world, inspires actors to act morally in immoral times. The paper concludes by suggesting that this argument reflects recent claims concerning the potentially humanist elements of a sociological perspective and long-running debates on the pote...
TL;DR: In this paper, Simon Susen's generous, detailed and insightful reading of my book gives me the chance to further reflect on the challenges involved in asserting the legacy of critical theory in a non-foundational world.
Abstract: Simon Susen’s generous, detailed and insightful reading of my book gives me the chance to further reflect on the challenges involved in asserting the legacy of critical theory in a nonfoundationali...
TL;DR: This article study the social not as something outside of us that is fixed eternal but rather as contingent, conjectural, and yet patterned and patterning, and if we take this seriously, how do we und...
Abstract: How do we study the social not as something outside of us that is fixed eternal but rather as contingent, conjectural, and yet patterned and patterning? And if we take this seriously, how do we und...
TL;DR: In recent years, the number of scholarly outputs claiming to advance social theoretical debate has proliferated at a dizzying rate as discussed by the authors, and the amount of theoretical work is increasing; or more accurately, more accurately...
Abstract: In recent years, the number of scholarly outputs claiming to advance social theoretical debate has proliferated at a dizzying rate. The amount of theoretical work is increasing; or, more accurately...