Showing papers in "Thesis Eleven in 2014"
TL;DR: The authors reconstructs Heller's philosophy of history, arguing both that Heller's position presents a serious intervention into modern theorizing about historical patternicity and that Heller’s position should be understood as a valuable hybrid, uniting her existential, ethical, and pragmatic bodies of work.
Abstract: In this essay, I reconstruct Heller’s philosophy of history, arguing both that Heller’s position presents a serious intervention into modern theorizing about historical patternicity and that Heller’s position should be understood as a valuable hybrid, uniting her existential, ethical, and pragmatic bodies of work. For Heller, history is implicated indissolubly in the personal and ethical decision-making of individual actors. I conclude that Heller undermines postmodern claims about the relativism of history and scientific progress, notwithstanding initial appearances to the contrary.
129 citations
TL;DR: This article provided a taxonomy of uses of the term neoliberalism to include: "of-invoked but ill-defined" and "oft-invocable but illdefined".
Abstract: This article takes as its starting point the observation that neoliberalism is a concept that is ‘oft-invoked but ill-defined’. It provides a taxonomy of uses of the term neoliberalism to include: ...
126 citations
91 citations
TL;DR: The authors reflect on the international reception of my book Prisons of poverty as a revelator of penal developments in advanced societies over the past decade and show that the global firestorm of...
Abstract: This article reflects on the international reception of my book Prisons of Poverty as revelator of penal developments in advanced societies over the past decade. I show that the global firestorm of...
36 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that useful lessons can be learned from Bourdieu and Boltanski's critical investigation, as it provides crucial insights into the principal characteristics and functions of ideologies, including the ways in which they develop and operate in advanced capitalist societies.
Abstract: The main purpose of this article is to demonstrate the enduring relevance of the concept of ideology to contemporary sociological analysis. To this end, the article draws upon central arguments put forward by Pierre Bourdieu and Luc Boltanski in ‘La production de l’ide´ologie dominante’ [‘The Production of the Dominant Ideology’]. Yet, the important theoretical contributions made in this enquiry have been largely ignored by contemporary sociologists, even by those who specialize in the critical study of ideology. This article intends to fill this gap in the literature by illustrating that useful lessons can be learned from Bourdieu and Boltanski’s critical investigation, as it provides crucial insights into the principal characteristics and functions of ideologies, including the ways in which they develop and operate in advanced capitalist societies. The article is divided into two main parts: the first part examines various universal features of ideology; the second part aims to shed light on several particular features of dominant ideology. The paper concludes by arguing that the ‘end of ideology’ thesis, despite the fact that it raises valuable sociological questions, is ultimately untenable.
34 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a reassessment of the relationship among nationalism, globalization and glocalization is presented, and two conceptual links among the nation-form, historical globalization and cultural glocalisation, are presented to demonstrate the salience of this perspective.
Abstract: This article offers a reassessment of the relationship among nationalism, globalization and glocalization. Conventionally, globalization is viewed as a historically recent challenge to the nation. It is argued that globalization, in contrast, is a long-term historical process. The emergence and perseverance of the nation is linked to outcomes of global processes, such as the experience of globality. Two conceptual links among the nation-form, historical globalization and cultural glocalization, are presented to demonstrate the salience of this perspective. First, globalization’s dialectic of homogeneity and heterogeneity influences the nation in a two-fold manner: whereas cultural and institutional isomorphism causes the homogenization of national symbols and institutions, cultural glocalization preserves the specificity of individual national identities. Second, transnational nationalism has played an important role in shaping the nation through the construction of various categories of ‘aliens’ and the ...
30 citations
TL;DR: The authors reconstructs the normative core of the recent European riots, when young rebels reacted to the disregard for their civic claims to equal treatment, and use the example of the two biggest riots in contemporary French and British history to show that prevailing analyses only grasp certain aspects of these events: these riots were primarily neither "race riots", "issueless riots" nor "riots of defective consumers" and that the everyday undermining of their equality as citizens and the physically experienced violation of minimum constitutional standards that best explain the motivations of those participating in the riots.
Abstract: This essay reconstructs the normative core of the recent European riots, when young rebels reacted to the disregard for their civic claims to equal treatment. Referring to the available data and facts, the essay uses the example of the two biggest riots in contemporary French and British history to show that prevailing analyses only grasp certain aspects of these events: these riots were primarily neither ‘race riots’, ‘issueless riots’ nor ‘riots of defective consumers’. Nourished in particular by experiences with the police and the school system in the urban districts from which the rioters recruited, rage was directed against the symbols and embodiments of a state that has failed to live up to its promise of equality. It is the everyday undermining of the principle of their equality as citizens and the physically experienced violation of minimum constitutional standards that best explain the motivations of those participating in the riots.
19 citations
TL;DR: The authors re-examine the relationship between power, reason and history in Horkheimer and Adorno's Dialectic of Enlightenment, and argue that it is not the case.
Abstract: This paper re-examines the relationship between power, reason and history in Horkheimer and Adorno’s Dialectic of Enlightenment. Contesting Habermas’ highly influential reading of the text, I argue...
17 citations
TL;DR: The authors argue that Boltanski's pragmatic sociology makes an important contribution to two central concerns of critical theory: the empirical analysis of the contradictions and conflicts of critical theories, and the analysis of conflicts among critical theories.
Abstract: My paper argues that Luc Boltanski’s pragmatic sociology makes an important contribution to two central concerns of critical theory: the empirical analysis of the contradictions and conflicts of ca...
15 citations
TL;DR: While many connections can be drawn with some confidence between neoliberalism and penal policy and practice, it is difficult to support Loic Wacquant's attempt to render punitive penality integral.
Abstract: While many connections can be drawn with some confidence between neoliberalism and penal policy and practice, it is difficult to support Loic Wacquant’s attempt to render punitive penality integral...
13 citations
TL;DR: The constitutive and ubiquitous nature of representation can no longer be conceived as a relation between pre-existing entities as mentioned in this paper, as a result, representation cannot be regarded as a relational relation between entities.
Abstract: Several authors have recently stressed the constitutive and ubiquitous nature of representation, which, as a result, can no longer be conceived as a relation between pre-existing entities. This has...
TL;DR: A number of important city-building projects across the early 20th century drew on the utopian ideas of the City Beautiful movement, an architectural response to the poverty and social dysfunctions generated by urban industrialism.
Abstract: A number of important city-building projects across the early 20th century drew on the utopian ideas of the City Beautiful movement, an architectural response to the poverty and social dysfunctions generated by urban industrialism. This was also a moment in which the imperial connections and imperial ambitions of settler capitalist societies coincided with national projects. The curious co-existence of these ambitions was embodied in the capital city projects of the time – simultaneously imperial and national, and developed through an exchange of utopian ideas about architecture, planning, nature and modernity. Of these, Canberra is exemplary; the most fully realized. A hundred years later, its story is still largely told in narrow terms, as a parochial tale of incomplete nationalism. Shifting focus to explore Canberra in relation to other capital city building projects during the period offers a better understanding of the complex overlays of imperialism, nationalism and regionalism at play in new world ...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors suggest that the urban imaginary of Jakarta is co-constituted by a symbiosis of optimism and ambitions on the one hand and, on the other, by pessimism, fear, and anger materialized in the resistance of the occluded and expressed through processes of questioning and cursing the profit-seeking dreams that are transforming the cityscapes.
Abstract: Jakarta is a city of high aspirations of the entrepreneurial and professional middle classes. For the rich, this brave new world of malls, office parks, and apartments represents an optimistic economy. The displaced poor, however, express an emotional economy of fear and anger that begets a politics of resistance. This study seeks to grasp the new urbanisms that uncover this ‘structure of feeling’ among the poor. I suggest that the urban imaginary of Jakarta is co-constituted by a symbiosis of optimism and ambitions on the one hand and, on the other, by pessimism, fear, and anger materialized in the resistance of the occluded and expressed through processes of questioning and cursing the profit-seeking dreams that are transforming the cityscapes. Exploring the making of Jakarta in this way can lead to a fuller understanding of the politics of urban transformation – one that moves away from assuming globalizing neoliberalism is the sole or primary force shaping the urban world.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors combine critical, visual and aesthetic theory to argue that the very act of design is a Utopian process and that the Utopians dimension is not simply a matter of subject matter or subject matter.
Abstract: This article combines critical, visual and aesthetic theory to argue that the very act of design is a Utopian process. Crucially, the Utopian dimension is not simply a matter of subject matter or u...
TL;DR: Architecture, landscape architecture and urban design are seldom merely benign aesthetic propositions as mentioned in this paper, and with its victory in the Spanish-American War (1898), the United States unexpectedly found itse...
Abstract: Architecture, landscape architecture and urban design are seldom merely benign aesthetic propositions. With its victory in the Spanish-American War (1898), the United States unexpectedly found itse...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore the city of Jerusalem, which not only lies at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict but is inextricably shaped by its developments, and argue that re-thinking the frontier as a site of both conflict and coexistence is key to imagining future possibilities for the city that do not rest on the desire for ethnically-pure spaces, but are rather guided by a politics of copresence that recognizes the impossibility of disentangling Arab and Jewish histories, memories and connections to the city.
Abstract: In this essay, I explore the city of Jerusalem, which not only lies at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict but is inextricably shaped by its developments. Nominally unified under Israeli sovereignty, Jerusalem nevertheless remains starkly divided between an Israeli west and an occupied Palestinian east and is best understood as a frontier city characterized by long-simmering tensions and quotidian conflict. With its future tied to the future of the conflict, Jerusalem remains caught between two options: the almost global preference for the city’s repartition in accordance with a ‘two-state solution’ and the Israeli desire to maintain the status quo. A closer look at contemporary Jerusalem, however, reveals the untenability of both options. In this essay, I seek to document how the reality of Israeli-Palestinian division sits alongside a dynamic of blurred separation in the city, which has forged an uneasy coexistence of sorts. Re-thinking the frontier as a site of both conflict and coexistence, I argue, is key to imagining future possibilities for the city that do not rest on the desire for ethnically-pure spaces, but are rather guided by a politics of co-presence that recognizes the impossibility of disentangling Arab and Jewish histories, memories and connections to the city.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss the latent democratic theory in On Critique by focusing on the differentiation between reality and the world and the conceptualization of institutions, and relate a rather rudimentary democratic theory to the radical-democratic dimensions of the work of Claude Lefort and Cornelius Castoriadis to make its contours more explicit.
Abstract: In Luc Boltanski’s On Critique, various dimensions of democracy as a political regime and form of society are evident, but never explicitly conceptualized. There is, however, something to be gained by making the democratic dimension in Boltanski’s work more explicit: the normative and political standpoints become clearer, but also the real-life possibilities for and significance of critique in contemporary times. The paper will first discuss the (latent) democratic theory in On Critique by focusing on the differentiation between reality and the world and the conceptualization of institutions. In a second step, I will relate a rather rudimentary democratic theory to the radical-democratic dimensions of the work of Claude Lefort and Cornelius Castoriadis in order to make its contours more explicit. In a third step, I will discuss a tension that exists between the radical-democratic dimension in On Critique and Boltanski’s portrayal of contemporary capitalist-democratic societies as largely immune to critique.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors take as a starting point Foucault's rejection of prophecy and utopianism, and use this rejection as a basis for the elaboration of a more detailed rejection of them, invoking complexity-based epistemic limitations in relation to thinking about the future of political society.
Abstract: In this essay, I take as a starting point Foucault’s rejection of two different ways of thinking about the future, prophecy and utopianism, and use this rejection as a basis for the elaboration of a more detailed rejection of them, invoking complexity-based epistemic limitations in relation to thinking about the future of political society. I follow Foucault in advocating immanent political struggle, which does not seek to build a determinate vision of the future but rather focuses on negating aspects of the current conjuncture. I extend this argument into an ethical register, arguing that the same arguments apply mutatis mutandis to our personal lives. I conclude by engaging with Jacques Lacan’s account of subjectivity, and the interpretation of its political import furnished by Yannis Stavrakakis, drawing from these additional supports for my position, in particular the rejection of utopianism as an attempt to avoid limitation by the real.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that Kemalism should also be understood as a project of urbanism, and that urban interventions into Ankara, Tehran and Baghdad in the 20th century transformed all three into Kemalist cities.
Abstract: Kemalism has been the guiding and justifying ideology of the Turkish Republic since its institution in 1923. That Kemalism is exclusive to Turkey is a mainstay of Kemalist self-perception. But was (or is) Kemalism as political practice pursued by other regimes in the region? This paper argues that Kemalism should also be understood as a project of urbanism, and that urban interventions into Ankara, Tehran and Baghdad in the 20th century transformed all three into Kemalist cities. To illustrate, I describe certain features of their spatial, symbolic and sensory re-organization. My concluding remarks address the radically divergent fate of Kemalist urbanism in the contemporary cities of Baghdad, Tehran and Ankara.
TL;DR: In this article, Boltanski comments on how his recent work reconsiders the questions of agency and the nature of social explanation, and reflects on the connections between the questions and explanations.
Abstract: In this discussion with Craig Browne, Luc Boltanski comments on how his recent work reconsiders the questions of agency and the nature of social explanation. Boltanski reflects on the connections b...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore the constellation of fear and the social forces, assumptions and images that construct it, and explore two images and ideas of the city, around which the social theoretical tradition has revolved, both of which are linked in some way to the ideal of the metropolis and the counterideal of the stranger.
Abstract: This paper explores the constellation of fear and the social forces, assumptions and images that construct it. The paper’s underlying presupposition is that there are many locations for fear that run parallel to one another in modernity, one of which will be discussed here – the city. It begins by exploring two images and ideas of the city, around which the social theoretical tradition has revolved, both of which are linked in some way to the ideal of the metropolis and the counter-ideal of the stranger. The stranger invariably accompanies the image of the city, as someone who comes to it from the outside. This co-existence between integration and the experience of being outside generates the inner tension or unease of city life, especially when we are all strangers.
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TL;DR: Big City Blues as discussed by the authors discusses the themes and stories of the articles below, which present different aspects of life in the metropolis, including the over-stimulation of the desensitized urbanite, the wandering flâneur who fortifies him/her self against fragmenting pressures, the explosion of everyday peace into riots, the battles for political and social recognition of identity and property rights, and the f...
Abstract: The advent of the ‘mega’ or world city seems inseparable from the ambivalent and transient experience of modernity – the ideals of liberty, individuality, property, accelerating progress, and, for many, the realities of immobility, anonymity, poverty, and arresting regression. When more than half of the global population pursues an existence within an urban frame, the densities and boundaries of urban spaces swell to fantastical proportions. With the vast increase in size, so the experiences and expectations of the city become more pronounced and profound. This introduction to this special issue of Thesis Eleven, ‘Big City Blues’, discusses the themes and stories of the articles below, which present different aspects of life in the metropolis. The over-stimulation of the desensitized urbanite, the wandering flâneur who fortifies him/her self against fragmenting pressures, the explosion of everyday peace into riots, the battles for political and social recognition of identity and property rights, and the f...
TL;DR: The concept of the Formalesque preoccupied Bernard Smith during the last decades of his life as discussed by the authors and was first propounded in Modernism's History (1998), the formalesque is a proposed period style describing t...
Abstract: The concept of the Formalesque preoccupied Bernard Smith during the last decades of his life. First propounded in Modernism’s History (1998), the Formalesque is a proposed period style describing t...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine Castoriadis' concept of time as ontological creation in relation to the activation of the project of autonomy and argue that since Castorias presents as a practitioner of the...
Abstract: This paper examines Castoriadis’ concept of time as ontological creation in relation to the activation of the project of autonomy. We argue that since Castoriadis presents as a practitioner of the ...
TL;DR: In this paper, Allen presents Adorno's and Horkheimer's Dialectic of Enlightenment as a productive movement between a commitment to the project of reason and a sensitivity to the effects on reason of power.
Abstract: Amy Allen presents Adorno’s and Horkheimer’s Dialectic of Enlightenment as a productive movement between a commitment to the project of reason and a sensitivity to the effects on reason of power an...
TL;DR: The post-Marxist Hungarian philosopher Agnes Heller as discussed by the authors argued that science and technology, those "two cumulative and progressive developing institutions" are so important that an interruption of their evolution would mean the collapse of modernity itself.
Abstract: The post-Marxist Hungarian philosopher Agnes Heller can be taken as a significant reference for a non-specialist philosophical engagement with science and modernity. In her book A Theory of Modernity (1999) she emphasized the relevance of science and technology for forming an insightful historical and philosophical reflection on modernity and post-modernity. She argued that science and technology, those “two cumulative and progressive developing institutions”, are so important that an interruption of their evolution would mean the “collapse” of modernity itself. In particular, their progress is an unfolding of what Heller calls “rationalistic enlightenment,” that is, the unrestrained criticism and the constant renewal of all realms of society and culture that characterizes the modern world. This emphasis on science is a distinguishing feature of her perspective in comparison to other influential treatments of modernity, such as Jurgen Habermas’s Der philosophische Diskurs der Moderne [The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity] (1985). Habermas characterized the unfinished project of modernity (Die Moderne: Ein unvollendetes Projekt) almost exclusively in terms of historical awareness (modernes Zeitbewustsein) and the problematic justification of modernity (Selbstvergewisserung der Moderne) as a free and self-grounding process. Unlike Heller, Habermas de facto downplayed the role of science for (the discourse on) modernity although earlier considerations of his strongly influenced Heller’s opinions on science.
TL;DR: In this article, Wacquant's three recent volumes, UrbanOutcasts, Punishing the Poor and Prisons of Poverty, are considered with a particular focus on the theoretical and empirical contours of his over-arching account of the rise of what he calls a new government of social insecurity.
Abstract: Over the past 30 years a growing body of scholarship has highlighted the significance of practices of punishment and penality within contemporary Western societies. Penal expansionism, most dramatically evidenced in the United States, has drawn the attention of a raft of commentators, including that of French sociologist Loic Wacquant. In this essay, Wacquant’s three recent volumes – UrbanOutcasts, Punishing the Poor and Prisons of Poverty – are considered with a particular focus on the theoretical and empirical contours of his over-arching account of the rise of what he calls a ‘new government of social insecurity’.