Showing papers in "European Journal of Social Theory in 2014"
TL;DR: The authors defend the need to move from Karl Mannheim's excessive emphasis on political and intellectual self-awareness as a pre-condition for generation, arguing that the concept of generation can be replaced by a more self-aware one.
Abstract: Faced with the confused meanings of the concept of generation, this article defends the need to move from Karl Mannheim’s excessive emphasis on political and intellectual self-awareness as a pre-co...
53 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors challenge the orthodoxy of current critical readings of the European crisis that discuss the failings of the EU in terms of the triumph of "neo-liberalism".
Abstract: The article challenges the orthodoxy of current critical readings of the European crisis that discuss the failings of the EU in terms of the triumph of ‘neo-liberalism’. Defending instead a liberal...
45 citations
Abstract: As Michel Foucault and others have shown, from the seventeenth through the twentieth centuries, Western political discourse has perpetuated an art of governing aimed at societies and populations. This article argues that this modern art of governing is now coming undone, in the name of governance. The discourse on governance is taking us from an art of governing premised on producing policy for a society or a population to an art of governing premised on solving problems with no necessary reference to any kind of society or population. Tracing the evolution of that discourse, the article argues that existing social and political theory has failed to make sense of this shift. It concludes that in order to access and assess the new art of governing on its own terms we need a sociological imagination that stretches beyond societies and a political imaginary without the presupposition of collectivities.
42 citations
TL;DR: This article contrast the action and edgework approaches along three key parameters: fateful action versus corporeal edges, embodied semiotics versus embodied experience, and dramaturgical reflexivity versus hermeneutic reflexivity.
Abstract: Although the meaning and usefulness of Erving Goffman’s work are still being debated today, few would doubt the importance of his contributions to the sociological study of the self, emotions, deviance, and social interaction. Less well known to most contemporary sociologists is his effort to provide a sociological account of voluntary risk taking—participation in gambling, high-risk sports, dangerous occupations, certain forms of criminal behavior, and the like—activities he classified as ‘action’. While Goffman’s study of action anticipated the expansion of volitional risk taking in Western societies in recent decades, most contemporary research on this trend has been guided by a different concept—the notion of ‘edgework’. Contrasting the action and edgework approaches along three key parameters—fateful action versus corporeal edges, embodied semiotics versus embodied experience, and dramaturgical reflexivity versus hermeneutic reflexivity—reveals how the action and edgework concepts capture conflicting...
37 citations
TL;DR: This paper proposed complementing actor-network theory with Niklas Luhmann's communication theory, in order to overcome one of ANT's major shortcomings, namely, the lack of a conceptual rep...
Abstract: This article proposes complementing actor-network theory (ANT) with Niklas Luhmann’s communication theory, in order to overcome one of ANT’s major shortcomings, namely, the lack of a conceptual rep...
31 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors analyse the development of non-linear approaches to the political sphere, which seek to overcome the rationalist assumptions of the public/private divide, paying particular attention to the work of two key liberal theorists, John Dewey and Friedrich von Hayek.
Abstract: In liberal modernity, the democratic collective will of society was understood to emerge through the public and deliberative freedoms of associational life. Today, however, democratic discourse is much more focused on the formation of plural and diverse publics in the private and social sphere. In these ‘non-linear’ approaches, democracy is no longer seen to operate to constitute a collective will standing above society but as a mechanism to distribute power more evenly through the social empowerment of individuals and communities as the ultimate decision-makers. Government is brought back ‘to the people’ and democracy is seen to circulate through the personal decisions made in everyday life. This article seeks to analyse the development of non-linear approaches to the political sphere, which seek to overcome the rationalist assumptions of the public/private divide, paying particular attention to the work of two key liberal theorists, John Dewey and Friedrich von Hayek.
30 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors seek to understand moments of crisis vis-a-vis critique as a key feature of critical social theorizing, at a time when ideas of crisis and critique are at the forefront of public discourse.
Abstract: At a time when ideas of crisis and critique are at the forefront of public discourse, this article seeks to understand moments of crisis vis-a-vis critique as a key feature of critical social theor...
28 citations
TL;DR: The authors examines the democratic deficit in the EU and the tensions between its formal decision-making structures and the growth of what has been called "executive federalism" and also between collective planning and deregulation.
Abstract: Given that we have democracy of a kind in most of Europe, and that there seems a reasonable prospect of its survival in, and extension to the rest of, the sub-continent, this article asks whether and to what extent we also need European-level democratic politics and how we might hope to achieve this, against the background of the current crisis. This article examines the ‘democratic deficit’ in the EU and the tensions between its formal decision-making structures and the growth of what has been called ‘executive federalism’, and also between collective planning and deregulation.
23 citations
TL;DR: The right-wing parties and governments in Europe have recently expressed greater hostility towards cultural pluralism, at times officially denunciating multiculturalism, and calling for the closure of multiculturalism as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Right-wing parties and governments in Europe have recently expressed greater hostility towards cultural pluralism, at times officially denunciating multiculturalism, and calling for the closure of ...
22 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that the crisis of Europe, triggered by market and governance dysfunctionalities, represents a "critical moment" in the evolution of a European economy, and propose a solution to it.
Abstract: The article argues that the ‘crisis of Europe’, triggered by market and governance dysfunctionalities (summarized as the Euro crisis), represents a ‘critical moment’ in the evolution of a European ...
21 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors make the case that speed has become significant, indeed central, as a social scientific category and focus of attention today, and they engage with two contemporary theoreti...
Abstract: This article makes the case that speed has become significant, indeed central, as a social scientific category and focus of attention today. In particular, it engages with two contemporary theoreti...
TL;DR: Despite its frequent appearances in sociological textbooks, dictionaries and theoretical opuses, ethnomethodology is still one of the most misunderstood and undervalued domains of sociological inquiry as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Despite its frequent appearances in sociological textbooks, dictionaries and theoretical opuses, ethnomethodology is still one of the most misunderstood and undervalued domains of sociological inqu...
TL;DR: A special issue of the European Journal of Social Theory addresses the theme of a crisis in European integration, in particular in the context of the crisis of the Eurozone since 2009 as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: This special issue of the European Journal of Social Theory addresses the theme of a crisis in European integration, in particular in the context of the crisis of the Eurozone since 2009. The contributions to this issue offer assessments on the nature of this crisis, its extent and implications. It is now generally felt that the current crisis is particularly significant and marks a turning point in the history of European integration as it addresses new divisions, but also as it faces new opportunities in redefining the relationship between state, economy and society. The post-Second World War project of European integration had never been entirely crisis-free, but the present crisis appears to be different from earlier ones. Earlier crises – opposition to the eastern enlargement in 2002, the failed attempt to create a Constitution, the French and Dutch no votes in 2005, growing opposition to the so-called democratic deficit, etc. – did not imperil transnational governance, which always had the poles of deepening and widening to negotiate. There was never a preordained path to what can no longer be called ‘a project’. Indeed, the current situation is characterized by the plurality of possible paths. In the past, the critical issues were largely concerned with the problem of democratic legitimacy while today other issues have come to the fore. The formative period of European integration until the mid-1980s was largely an interstate attempt to achieve market integration through the removal of obstacles to the mobility of capital, labour, services and goods. Normative goals were secondary since the legacy of the Second World War and the aim to bring about lasting peace in the wartorn continent provided the requisite legitimation for a regime that apparently required otherwise only legality. In the early decades, European integration was largely a project of the transnationalization of the nation-state until the point that an optimal degree of
TL;DR: This article argued that the true crisis in Europe is not a question of a lack of a demos or cratos, but whether it is the democracy, legitimacy, or justice that is inadequate.
Abstract: We are still unable to correctly identify the true crisis in Europe: whether it is a question of a lack of a demos or cratos; whether it is the democracy, legitimacy, or justice that is inadequate;...
TL;DR: In this paper, a selective outline of social theories of crisis is presented, which is important for general societal argumentation, and the current article positions normative-critical critical theory of crisis.
Abstract: The article begins with a selective outline of social theories of crisis. Such crisis diagnosis is important for general, societal argumentation. The current article positions normative-critical th...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that the passage from the welfare state to disembedded markets and neoliberal governance has generated individual and collective anomie by depriving social actors of agency and voice while caging them in the disciplinary constraints of an ideal competition society.
Abstract: This article studies the chronic and acute anomic social impacts of the development of market societies in Europe over the past few decades. Focusing on the firm but linking micro and macro levels, it argues that the passage from the welfare state to disembedded markets and neoliberal governance has generated individual and collective anomie by depriving social actors of agency and voice while caging them in the disciplinary constraints of an ideal competition society. Promoted by public and private governors animated by visions of managerial omnipotence, this reconfiguration has hollowed out the cluster of rights that was the basis of democratic and social citizenship in Europe. The article discusses the manifestations of anomie, stressing the violence flowing from the radical uncertainty to which atomized employees and more broadly citizens are facing in the reification of collective goals, which have been reduced to participation in market society. Drawing on the classical literature (Durkheim, Parsons...
TL;DR: The authors discuss Boltanski and Chiapello's historical identification of forms of critique of capitalism as well as the contemporary relevance of these, and discuss the crucial role of the political in formulating common projects.
Abstract: The European crisis has provoked widespread critique of capitalist arrangements in most if not all countries in Europe. But to what extent do contemporary social protest and critique indicate a revival of critical capacity? The range of criticisms against the existing capitalist system raised by various social movements is seen as ineffectual and fragmented. Such observations are mirrored in sociological analyses of the critique of capitalism. A distinct type of critique of capitalism has, however, not been explicitly conceptualized. This political critique, denouncing the depoliticization and the erosion of autonomy resulting from capitalist arrangements, indicates the crucial role of the political in formulating common projects. The article will, first, briefly discuss Boltanski and Chiapello’s historical identification of forms of critique of capitalism as well as the contemporary relevance of these. In a second step, it will conceptualize and in a way recuperate a political critique of capitalism. In ...
TL;DR: The authors make both a more general and a more specific argument that empirical disciplines such as sociology are better suited to the production of ethical knowledge than more characteristically abstract and legalistic disciplines, such as philosophy and theology.
Abstract: This article makes both a more general and a more specific argument, and while the latter relies upon the former, the inverse does not apply. The more general argument proposes that empirical disciplines such as sociology are better suited to the production of ethical knowledge than more characteristically abstract and legalistic disciplines such as philosophy and theology. The more specific argument, which is made through a critique of Bauman’s Levinasian articulation of ethics, proposes what it calls ‘pragmatic humanism’ as a viable alternative model for sociological ethics to follow. This model rejects the abstract notion of some innate and universally distributed moral impulse, and instead turns to acknowledgement of the precariousness of life as a strategic resource in the construction, rather than revelation, of ethical solidarity.
TL;DR: This article developed an assessment of the present-day European crisis management, referring to Wolfgang Streeck's recent interpretation of the European ‘consolidation state’ as an attempt to insta...
Abstract: This article develops an assessment of the present-day European crisis management, referring to Wolfgang Streeck’s recent interpretation of the European ‘consolidation state’ as an attempt to insta...
TL;DR: Sennett can be interpreted as one of the more robust representatives of a current critique with regard to ethnic communities in urban areas, namely, that such ethnic enclaves are a proof of... as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Richard Sennett can be interpreted as one of the more robust representatives of a current critique with regard to ethnic communities in urban areas, namely, that such ethnic enclaves are a proof of...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that the many religious analogies Simmel uses to characterize money can be seen as a form of self-reference, and they argue that with these analogies, the analogies can be used to define money.
Abstract: This article seeks to understand a puzzling aspect of Georg Simmel’s The Philosophy of Money, namely, the many religious analogies Simmel uses to characterize money. We argue that with these analog...
TL;DR: The centrality of Levinasian ethics to Zygmunt Bauman's sociological vision has been affirmed by a number of writers as discussed by the authors, however, the way in which Bauman attempts to think through the implications of...
Abstract: The centrality of Levinasian ethics to Zygmunt Bauman’s sociological vision has been affirmed by a number of writers. However, the way in which Bauman attempts to think through the implications of ...
TL;DR: This paper argued that critique needs to be able to unmask the distortions and to weigh the costs of its cultural appropriations a.k.a. cultural appropriation, which is a critical task for all modern freedoms.
Abstract: Neoliberalism’s project of making the market the model for all modern freedoms means that critique needs to be able to unmask the distortions and to weigh the costs of its cultural appropriations a...
TL;DR: Foucault's 1970-71 lectures at the College de France, The Will to Know, highlight the significance of themes of purity and impurity in Western thought as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Foucault’s 1970–71 lectures at the College de France, The Will to Know, highlight the significance of themes of purity and impurity in Western thought. Reflecting on these themes coincided with the...
TL;DR: This paper questioned the popular assumption that the concept of civilization entered public discourse in a grand way with Samuel P. Huntington's sensational article on a ‘clash of civilizati....
Abstract: This article questions the popular assumption that the concept of civilization that entered public discourse in a grand way with Samuel P. Huntington’s sensational article on a ‘clash of civilizati...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that these views implausibly identify the causal ontological source of human sociality in collectively known, recognized and accepted statuses, criteria, norms and the like.
Abstract: Critically discussing the causal social ontologies presented by Dave Elder-Vass and John Searle, the article argues that these views implausibly identify the causal ontological source of human sociality in collectively known, recognized and accepted statuses, criteria, norms and the like. This is implausible, for it ignores human sociality as occurring in temporally and spatially dispersed on-going processes of human interaction of differently placed, often unequal, and thus epistemically differently equipped actors in division of labour. Human scientific concepts are best seen as picking out (aspects of) such complex and heterogeneous processes, not what the participating actors allegedly collectively know, accept or recognize about them. The article observes that similar appeals to collective recognition are also common in Wittgensteinian literature that, however, have claimed to reject the causal ontological view. It is argued that the ultimate value in rejecting the causal ontological view, and the ac...
TL;DR: The authors argue that Honneth's account relies too much on a foundational and undifferentiated notion of "empathetic engagement" and that in order to articulate the damage done by reification, we need to contend with the more radical notion of forgetting that is outlined in Adorno and Horkheimer's work.
Abstract: In his attempt at a renewal of the concept of reification, Axel Honneth has referred to reification as a kind of forgetting. He uses an epigraph from Adorno and Horkheimer’s work to introduce this theme. This article considers the different accounts that are given by Honneth, on the one hand, and Adorno and Horkheimer, on the other, as to the way that reification is a forgetting of core experiential capacities of intersubjective human relations. It argues that Honneth’s account relies too much on a foundational and undifferentiated notion of ‘empathetic engagement’, and that in order to articulate the damage done by reification, we need to contend with the more radical notion of forgetting that is outlined in Adorno and Horkheimer’s work.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine the capacity of existential analytic to suggest alternatives to entrenched dichotomies and dilemmas in practice theory, and more generally, in social theory, in order to illuminate a possible existential ontology of practices.
Abstract: The principal aim of this article is to examine the capacity of existential analytic to suggest alternatives to entrenched dichotomies and dilemmas in practice theory, and more generally, in social theory. In this regard, the doctrine of trans-subjective existentialism is developed. The underlying aim is to inform hermeneutic engagement with social practices’ potentiality-for-being in order to illuminate a possible existential ontology of practices. It is argued that the concept of chronotope should be central in this ontology. Thus, the possibility of hermeneutic realism about social practices becomes open to scrutiny.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors discuss common features of past Latin American crises and the current crisis in the Eurozone in order to show how such a comparison could help to manage (and avoid) crises in an integrated financial world as well as to teach how a faulty institutional design can arise from a defective understanding of how financial capitalism works.
Abstract: Many scholars have looked for similarities between the recent crisis in the Eurozone and the crises that have occurred in the past in developing countries and particularly in Latin America. Problems of balance of payments, public debt, overvaluation of the exchange rate and unregulated capital inflows are frequently mentioned to compare common features of different crisis events. Additionally, Continental European countries are following similar processes of welfare state retrenchment and labour market segmentation to Latin American cases in the past, but in different institutional contexts and with different levels of economic development. This article will discuss common features of past Latin American crises and the current crisis in the Eurozone in order to show how such a comparison could help to manage (and avoid) crises in an integrated financial world as well as to teach how a faulty institutional design can arise from a defective understanding of how financial capitalism works in a complex intern...