Spheres of Justice: A Defense of Pluralism and Equality
TL;DR: Lawler as mentioned in this paper argued that being for the freeze means that one is not for disarmament, which is hardly a rational position in the sense that it is suspect if not immoral, in the eyes of some.
Abstract: that a plurality of the American Catholic bishops endorse a nuclear freeze (p. 4), saying that they are thus "taking their stance with Moscow,55 which is for a freeze, and not with the Vatican, which "is still in favor of disarmament?not a freeze.55 To make any sense at all, Mr. Lawler must mean that being for the freeze means that one is not for disarmament? hardly a rational position. One recalls here the arguments, during the 19305s and 19405s, that being for racial justice in the United States was suspect if not immoral, in the eyes of some, because the communists also favored it.
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Abstract: 1.1 Theories of natural law: Origins in Ancient Greece 1.2 The development of theories of natural law and natural rights: The Roman, Medieval and Early Modern periods 1.3 The influence of the Enlightenment 1.4 Declarations and assertions of rights and liberties in the political movements and revolutions of the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries 2. Responding to relativism: Some points of departure 2.1 The nature and scope of the relativist critique 2.2 Responding to relativism: the idea of "contested cultures"; the need for more adequate "crosscultural foundations"; anthropological perspectives on shared ethical values; Sen's framework; "reoccuring ethical principles" and the idea of the "Golden Rule"; the idea of an "overlapping consensus"; an "hermeneutical approach" to cross-cultural dialogue. 3. Antecedents of the idea of human rights in different cultures and traditions from around the world 3.1 Antecedents in Islamic traditions of tolerance, freedom and rights 3.2 Antecedents in Confucian traditions of universalism and tolerance 3.3 Antecedents in Buddhist traditions of universalism and compassion 3.4 Antecedents in Indian traditions of universalism, tolerance and diversity 3.5 Some Christian and Jewish perspectives: Rights-based strategies and the non-violent struggle against racism in the United States; liberation theology; and the vision of liberation. 3.6 Antecedents in African traditions and cultures and the need for new theoretical frameworks
29 citations
01 Aug 2020
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present an exercise in non-ideal theory which, nonetheless, has implications for a seminal question in ideal democratic theory as to how to define and justify the boundaries of the demos.
Abstract: The 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol are the main legal documents governing the movement of refugee and asylum seekers across international borders. As the number of displaced persons seeking refuge has reached unprecedented numbers, states have resorted to measures to circumvent their obligations under the Convention. These range from bilateral agreements condemning refugees to their vessels at sea to the excision of certain territories from national jurisdiction. While socio-economic developments and the rise of the worldwide web have led to deterritorialization of vast domains of the economy and the media which enable them to escape from state control, territorial presence, whether on terra firma or on vessels at sea which are functional surrogates for territorial sovereignty, continues to be the basis for the entitlement to human and citizens’ rights. We are facing a dual movement of deterritorialization and territorialization at once, both of which threaten the end of the 1951 Convention. This article is an exercise in non-ideal theory which, nonetheless, has implications for a seminal question in ideal democratic theory as to how to define and justify the boundaries of the demos. If the demos refers to the constitutional subject of a self-determining entity in whose name sovereignty is exercised, regimes of sovereignty, including those which govern the movement of peoples across borders, define the prerogatives as well as obligations of such sovereign entities under international law. The period ushered in by the 1951 Convention was such a sovereignty regime which today may be nearing its end.
29 citations
Cites background from "Spheres of Justice: A Defense of Pl..."
...These arrangements encourage what I have called the 95 See J. Rawls 1999, 38–39; M. Walzer 1983, 51; T. Nagel 2005, 113–147....
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TL;DR: In this paper, a special issue on fairness in access to higher education is presented, with a focus on the notion of "merit" and "fairness" in higher education.
Abstract: What does “fairness” mean with respect to the distribution of access to higher education? We conceived this special issue as part of a broad conversation to address this and related questions across disciplines and across nations. Within that conversation philosophers have asked what criteria should be used to allocate funding and offers of admission at selective institutions (Fullinwider and Lichtenberg 2004). Assuming the notion of “merit” comes into play when answering these first questions, others have focused on how merit should be conceived and assessed (Daniels 1978; Selmi 1995; Guinier and Sturm 2001). Moving from a normative to a descriptive standpoint, sociologists such as A. H. Halsey (2011) have examined the criteria that countries actually do use—or did use in the past—to decide who will be admitted whenever some selection needs to be made. Given these criteria, to what extent and through which mechanisms do existing inequalities of class, race/ ethnicity, and gender impact university entrance? Such questions motivate many contemporary analysts (Shavit et al. 2007; Charles et al. 2009; Espenshade and Walton Radford 2009). Scholars have also looked into the initiatives now taking place with a view to alleviating these inequalities (Grodsky 2007; van Zanten 2009). Finally, we sought to connect this concern for “widening participation”—to use a ubiquitous British phrase—to the research on the consequences of the marketization of higher education (Callender 2006; Douglass 2007; Kirby 2011). Those are some of the general questions that
29 citations
30 Nov 2014
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine ontological commitments and accompanying discursive power relations that frame the negotiation of Mining and Development in the minerals industry in the South Gobi of Mongolia and argue that the lack of understanding of Mongolian ontology generates conflict, tensions, and/or unsustainable practices for both communities and companies.
Abstract: This thesis examines ontological commitments and accompanying discursive power relations that frame the negotiation of Mining and Development in the minerals industry in the South Gobi of Mongolia. The aims of the analysis are to explore the culture of companies and communities in the region, critically examine the discourse of the shared relationship, and assess implications for community development initiatives in the minerals industry more broadly. By premising and privileging the culturally situated subject, Women and Development feminist theory assists in unpacking the power relations between communities and mining companies situated within or governed by cross-cultural contexts. An analysis of the discourse on Mining and Development, gender issues and patriarchy in the context of Social Impact Assessment processes, reveals asymmetrical power relations operating both within and between companies and communities that have an effect on community development. In applying a feminist theoretical perspective, the thesis argues that the companies’ ontological commitments differ markedly from those of the South Gobi communities with which they are engaged, resulting in different conceptualisations of ‘development’, social impacts, and decision-making processes. The thesis demonstrates that commitments to particular ontological frames lead companies to implicitly prioritise their own notions of power, change, and impacts over those of the community. The thesis contends that the lack of understanding of Mongolian ontology generates conflict, tensions, and/or unsustainable practices for both communities and companies in the South Gobi. Research in this thesis indicates that the recognition of difference between these ontological commitments needs to be central to the discourse of Mining and Development in Mongolia if the benefits of mining are to be enhanced for the community. Limited research has been conducted into the impacts and development associated with the rapidly emerging mining industry in Mongolia. This thesis identifies and explores key themes around the negotiation of change in Mongolia, which provides insight into the broader field of Central Asian Studies. Similarly, the thesis contributes to the emerging fields of Mining and Development, and Gender and Development by providing an original critique to enable an understanding of minerals development in a developing world context.
29 citations
Cites background from "Spheres of Justice: A Defense of Pl..."
...The theorist Bernard William coined the term ‘thick vocabulary’, which is used by communitarian theorists to describe the tradition, history, culture and customs inherent in a society that shape the individuals within it (MacIntyre 1985; Walzer 1985; Warnke 1992; Walzer 1994; Warnke 2003)....
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Dissertation•
01 Jan 2010
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors draw from theories of standard and cultural citizenship; analyze a sample of technologically specific ideas of citizenship (e.g., netizenship, e-citizenship, technological citizenship, cyber citizenship); and conduct in depth empirical analysis of two case studies.
Abstract: Many kinds of social, participatory and citizen oriented platforms make up today's media landscape. Many claim that open source and collaborative media change the ways we think about citizenship (Jenkins). Tim O'Reilly claims that Web 2.0 applications "have a natural architecture of participation" (2005). Yet social constructionists, feminists and sceptics caution against attributing new technologies with these kinds of natural characteristics. Drawing from the cultural history of early internet and mobile technologies, this research asks what, is meaningful about technologically specific ideas of citizenship. In order to answer this question, I draw from theories of standard and cultural citizenship; analyze a sample of technologically specific ideas of citizenship (e.g. netizenship, e-citizenship, technological citizenship, cyber citizenship); and conduct in depth empirical analysis of two case studies. Theoretically, this research synthesizes and builds upon citizenship theories beginning with T. H. Marshall and followed by cultural citizenship (e.g. Pakulski 1997; Isin and Wood 1999; Stevenson 2001; 2003). From this conceptual frame, the empirical patterns of connection are analyzed along three primary axes: membership systems; rights and obligations; and participatory strategies. Technologically specific ideas of citizenship fit well with theories of cultural citizenship and cultural rights closely resemble most of those rights that are also technologically specific such as rights to: participate, ideational and symbolic spheres, voice, to representation and to innovate. The cases are of two citizenship initiatives using internet or mobile platforms: the BBC's iCan project and Proboscis' Urban Tapestries project. While these projects emerged on the cusp of social media, both cases are early iterations of participatory media. Both cases provide insights into articulations of changing ideas of citizenship and participatory practices. Technologically specific ideas of citizenship are conditional. Project users engage different kinds of membership than producers and there is an uneven distribution of cultural rights which favours producers. As a result, users engage different and mostly shallow patterns of public participation. In contrast, producers have broader membership networks, stronger protection of rights and show more variation in deeper more collectively oriented participatory strategies. In the case of limited or partial forms of participation, findings suggest that citizenship language is used as an active manipulative strategy to centralize media organizations as dominant public sites. I argue that the characteristics of technologically specific ideas of citizenship mark a distinct moment in the history of media and citizenship; a moment characterized by the emergence of "public citizenship." The idea of public citizenship attempts to capture the ways in which technologically specific ideas of citizenship, at least in practice, involve making space for ordinary people in cultural institutions.
29 citations