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Reification And The Critical Theory Of Contemporary Society, Chris O'Kane Apr 2021

Reification And The Critical Theory Of Contemporary Society, Chris O'Kane

Political Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

This article concerns how a critical theory of reification should be conceptualized to grasp the 2007 crisis, state-imposed austerity, and the rise of right-wing authoritarian populism. It argues that Jürgen Habermas’s, Axel Honneth’s, and Georg Lukacs’s interpretations of reification cannot provide a theoretical framework for a critical social theory of these developments due to their inadequate theories of domination, crises, character formation, and historical development. It then outlines a critical theory of reification that draws on Max Horkheimer’s notion of reified authority and contemporary Marxian critical theory’s interpretation of the critique of political economy to conceive of domination, crises, and …


Policy Memo: Political Violence And Terrorism On The Mexico-Us Border, Terence Garrett Sep 2019

Policy Memo: Political Violence And Terrorism On The Mexico-Us Border, Terence Garrett

Political Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

The shooting and mass murder in El Paso that occurred recently is an example of a toxic mix of a number of elements typical of the USA political violence culture – a few of which will be analyzed in this memo. Two elements are permanent features and the third is subject to temporal and spatial limitations. These elements are: (1) extraordinary accessibility by almost anyone to military-grade weapons used in mass shootings; (2) white nationalist ideology and the propensity towards dehumanizing the “other” – or using Giorgio Agamben’s term, homo sacer,1 - those who may be sacrificed without rights, including …


An Analysis Of U.S. Custom And Border Protection’S Tripartite Mexico Border Security Policy, Terence Garrett Mar 2019

An Analysis Of U.S. Custom And Border Protection’S Tripartite Mexico Border Security Policy, Terence Garrett

Political Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

The Custom and Border Protection (CBP) border security policy was explicitly presented by former Acting Commissioner of CBP, David Aguilar, in testimony before the United States Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC) on April 4, 2017 in testimony on the subject of “Fencing Along the Southwest Border.” Important for discussion here are the key components of the DHS/CBP/Border Patrol’s strategy, or sets of policies, laying forth elements of the border walls (including barriers, fences), personnel, and technology in order to hinder, or intercept, undocumented migrants (homo sacer) from entering the United States illegally—all socially constructed. Aguilar …


Where There’S A Wall There’S A Way: The End (?) Of Democratic Discourse Regarding Immigration And Border Security Policy, Terence Garrett Jan 2018

Where There’S A Wall There’S A Way: The End (?) Of Democratic Discourse Regarding Immigration And Border Security Policy, Terence Garrett

Political Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Border walls have become part and parcel to corporate strategies to garner profits in the new era of post-911 insecurity. Combined with pre-911 agribusiness, service industry and other corporateindustrial expansion including encouraging the “ongoing” recruiting of undocumented cheap labor, the twin corporate policy directives are achieving profits at the expense of the people migrating from Latin America. Building on previous work, the authors analyze the problems created by corporations, complicit government agencies and elected officials in terms of maintaining a status quo that effectively exploits communities from both sides of the US/Mexico border. Policy alternatives are developed, offered and examined …