Showing papers in "South Atlantic Quarterly in 2014"
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that debt has a central place in the history of humanity and the class struggle, and that it has been a powerful force in the development of the world economy.
Abstract: Introduction. Financialization and the rise of the ‘debt economy' Debt, as David Graber so powerfully reminded us, [1] has a central place in the history of humanity and the class struggle.…
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors consider the way in which recent historical work on the history of freedom of religion and freedom of conscience opens up a new interpretation of the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights in the headscarf cases, and argue that the decisions turn less on the balance between state neutrality and religious belief, than on an understanding of certain religious symbols as a threat to public order and as harbingers of sectarian strife which undermine democracy.
Abstract: This paper considers the way in which recent historical work on the history of freedom of religion and freedom of conscience opens up a new interpretation of the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights in the headscarf cases. These decisions have been widely criticized as adopting a militantly secularist approach to the presence of Islamic religious symbols in the public sphere, an approach that seems inconsistent or even overtly discriminatory in light of the court’s recent decision in Lautsi that the compulsory display of crucifixes in the classroom did not breach Italy’s convention obligations. I argue that the headscarf cases turn less on the balance between state neutrality and religious belief, than on an understanding of certain religious symbols as a threat to public order and as harbingers of sectarian strife which undermine democracy.
43 citations
TL;DR: The authors investigates the manner in which anti-austerity protests constitute practical negations of capitalist legitimacy, arguing that they contribute to personal and social empowerment, as well as to radical democratization.
Abstract: This article investigates the manner in which anti-austerity protests constitute practical negations of capitalist legitimacy. The analysis is divided into three parts. The first part discusses the key issues at stake in contemporary anti-austerity protests, from capitalist legitimacy to collective forms of autonomy. The second part examines central sociological dimensions permeating the reality of austerity, from the power of the state, via the pervasive processes of commodification, to the emergence of a “new spirit of capitalism.” The third part reflects on the emancipatory potential of anti-austerity movements, arguing that they contribute to personal and social empowerment, as well as to radical democratization. The article suggests that the recent protests against austerity indicate that there is room not only for despair but also for hope.
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33 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a small protest to prevent the demolition of a city park in central Istanbul was subjected to excessive police violence, and within days, the tiny protest bad become a countrywide civil revolt.
Abstract: In June 2013 a small protest to prevent tbe demolishing of a city park in central Istanbul was subjected to excessive police violence. Within days, tbe tiny protest bad become a countrywide civil revolt. Tbe Gezi uprising, named after tbe park, bas radically cbanged tbe dynamics of botb elite and grassroots politics in Turkey, creating an enduring spirit of resistance among the millions wbo had never been involved in street activism before, and undermining tbe belief tbat radical popular cballenges to tbe state emanate today primarily from the Kurdish, not tbe Turkisb, population. Millions took to the streets to cballenge tbe authoritarianism of Turkey's leader. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was widely regarded, at least by tbe international community, as a democratic figure, responsible for creating a \"Turkisb model\" that could potentially act as a beacon for tbe Arab world in tbe transition to democracy. Tbe Gezi uprising deconstructed tbis image outside Turkey wbile creating a deep political crisis witbin tbe power bloc inside Turkey. Tbis crisis, combined witb tbe newly vibrant wave of grassroots politics, is likely to alter irreversibly the trajectory of botb parliamentary and street politics in Turkey. In this article, I describe tbe bistory of tbe political and social conditions that structured tbe sudden and puzzling explosion of tbe nationwide Gezi revolt out of a small protest for an urban park in Istanbul. I first depict tbe macro-level political struggles tbat shaped tbe last decade and then portray tbe trajectory of grassroots political activism during the year preceding tbe Gezi uprising. Tbe bistorical analysis is combined witb my insigbts as a
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TL;DR: The authors argues that the answer to our question resides ultimately in a particular type of social power, one that recomposes the social practice of the commons to achieve autonomy from capital, especially and initially in matters of social reproduction (food, health, care, housing, knowledge, and education).
Abstract: What does it mean to say no to a capitalist social system that has the power to put life to
work for its own development and, in so doing, shapes subjectivities, horizons, architectures,
urban and rural spaces, life rhythms, ecologies, and polities in its own image? This question
arises with particular urgency in the midst of one of the deepest capitalist crises, with its
catastrophic social and ecological consequences. This article argues that the answer to our
question resides ultimately in a particular type of social power, one that recomposes the social
practice of the commons to achieve autonomy from capital, especially and initially in matters of
social reproduction (food, health, care, housing, knowledge, and education).
26 citations
24 citations
TL;DR: For information on subscriptions to the e-Duke Journals Scholarly Collections, see www.dukeupress.edu/library/eDuke.Subscriptions as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Subscriptions. Direct all orders to Duke University Press, Journals Customer Service, 905 W. Main St., Suite 18B, Durham, NC 27701. Annual subscription rates: print-plus-electronic institutions, $270; print-only institutions, $254; e-only institutions, $214; individuals, $38; students, $22. For information on subscriptions to the e-Duke Journals Scholarly Collections, see www.dukeupress.edu/library/eDuke. Print subscriptions: add $14 postage and applicable HST (including 5% GST) for Canada; add $18 postage outside the US and Canada. Back volumes (institutions): $254. Single issues: institutions, $64; individuals, $16. For more information, contact Duke University Press Journals at 888-651-0122 (toll-free in the US and Canada) or 919-688-5134; subscriptions@dukeupress.edu.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors provide historical reasons for thinking that conflicting forms of early modern religious identity were embedded in religious cultures whose force was such that they swept such philosophical principles along with them, giving rise to partisan philosophies that were themselves incommensurate and incapable of resolving the conflicts.
Abstract: It is sometimes presumed that early modern religious conflict can be understood (and judged) on the basis of philosophical principles of religious freedom that display the irrationality of such conflict. Some derive these principles from Lockean and Kantian doctrines purporting to show that religions can be a matter of free rational choice and mutual toleration. Others derive them from Thomistic and communitarian traditions that purport to show that religions can learn mutual toleration by viewing each other as independent virtue-realizing communities. In this article I provide some historical reasons for thinking that conflicting forms of early modern religious identity were embedded in religious cultures whose force was such that they swept such philosophical principles along with them, giving rise to partisan philosophies that were themselves incommensurate and incapable of resolving the conflicts. This incommensurateness applied to the principles of religious freedom themselves, which appeared in rival forms. In the German empire a culture of religious pluralism emerged not from philosophy but from the institutions and practices of public law, during the period between the treaties of Augsburg (1555) and Osnabruck (1648). I argue that this juridical culture was not grounded in a particular philosophy or ideology but arose instead from the institutional habitus of public law under the exigencies of polarized religious conflict, and that it was issued not in principles of religious freedom but in a casuistry for resolving the conflict between such principles.
TL;DR: The authors analyzes the current crisis in terms of a conflict of temporalities, arguing that the pace of the economic temporality and its speed in decision making clashes with the temporality of the state and the slowness of the democratic process of decision making.
Abstract: This article analyzes the current crisis in terms of a conflict of temporalities, arguing that the pace of the economic temporality and its speed in decision making clashes with the temporality of the state and the slowness of the democratic process of decision making. The synchronization of these different tempos configures the present crisis of democracy and its different reactions, such as the recent Occupy and antiausterity movements, which have expressed their disenchantment with formal democracy. The article examines these disjointed temporalities of capital, state, and popular insurgencies, to explore the possibilities of radical change. © 2014 Duke University Press.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explored how prison authorities used the prospect of temporary release as a means of incentivizing conformist behavior among prisoners, and found that the effectiveness of this seemingly straightforward mechanism was complicated by practical restrictions on the granting of Temporary Release, thus leading to "behaviorist" efforts on the part of prison authorities to transfer the incentivizing properties of temporary Release itself onto praise they extended to prisoners for observing institutional rules and regulations.
Abstract: Severe conditions of imprisonment have contributed to a rise in the frequency and seriousness of unrest in Greek prisons over recent decades. Drawing on fieldwork material collected in the largest and most overcrowded prison for men in Greece, this article explores how prison authorities used the prospect of temporary release as a means of incentivizing conformist behavior among prisoners. It is argued that the effectiveness of this seemingly straightforward mechanism was complicated by practical restrictions on the granting of temporary release, thus leading to 'behaviorist' efforts on the part of prison authorities to transfer the incentivizing properties of temporary release itself onto praise they extended to prisoners for observing institutional rules and regulations. The content of such praise entailed references to the ideal of a tamed masculinity embodied in the traditional Greek notion of philotimo, or honor, a finding that bolsters the limited body of research on the pacifying potential of masculine identities in carceral settings. While, and at least in part because, the gains made for order through this process have at best been transitory, the broader politico-economic functions of imprisonment have persisted.
TL;DR: The authors explores the social and doctrinal origins of the immigration detention boom and provides a critique of the legal doctrines that continue to insulate immigration detention from the legal scrutiny generally applied to comparable deprivations of liberty in the context of criminal punishment.
Abstract: Over the past two decades, the US government has expanded immigration detention to unprecedented levels. This essay explores the social and doctrinal origins of the immigration detention boom and provides a critique of the legal doctrines that continue to insulate immigration detention from the legal scrutiny generally applied to comparable deprivations of liberty in the context of criminal punishment. The article also evaluates recent immigration detention reform efforts and their limitations, assessing the potential impact of current immigration reform proposals on immigration detention. Notwithstanding the apparent trend in favor of immigration reform, viable reform proposals continue to assume the need for punitive detention for migrants as part of a criminalized immigration enforcement model. In this context, truly comprehensive reform of immigration detention practices in the United States remains a distant goal.
TL;DR: The currency of communism confronts us with two not-yetsynchronous sequences as discussed by the authors : the idea of communism and the currency of modernism, the so-called "Vortex".
Abstract: The currency of communism confronts us with two not-yetsynchronous sequences. One is “The Idea of Communism.” This eponymous sequence began well before the conference at Birkbeck Institute and the following “Pocket Communism” texts from Verso. A committed band of thinkers have labored to preserve communist thought in the anglophone and western european world during communism’s version of what modernism named “the vortex” — a disorienting break in historical tradition following the collapse of the communist bloc. If this preservation has occurred largely within the various formalizations available to philosophy and political theory, this can be understood as an artifact of its own conditions, developing in a period largely lacking avowedly anti-capitalist antagonism within the Anglo-European sphere.