Political Theory Commons^™

Policing A Negotiated World: A Partial Test Of Klinger’S Ecological Theory Of Policing, Christopher Salvatore, Travis A. Taniguchi

Christopher Salvatore

The primary goal of the current study is to examine a portion of Klinger’s theory. Specifically, we test the influence of organizational and environmental contextual factors, guided by Klinger’s theory, on one measure of officer vigor. To date, few studies have taken this approach to examine Klinger’s theory. The study builds on prior research that has tested aspects of Klinger’s theory and adds new analytic strategies that prior studies have not used. The results of this study have implications for both theory and practice, and they add to the growing literature examining the influence of ecological and organization factors on …

Strange Bedfellows: How An Anticipatory Countermovement Brought Same-Sex Marriage Into The Public Arena, Michael C. Dorf, Sidney Tarrow

Michael C. Dorf

Since the 1980s, social movement scholars have investigated the dynamic of movement/countermovement interaction. Most of these studies posit movements as initiators, with countermovements reacting to their challenges. Yet sometimes a movement supports an agenda in response to a countermovement that engages in what we call “anticipatory countermobilization.” We interviewed ten leading LGBT activists to explore the hypothesis that the LGBT movement was brought to the fight for marriage equality by the anticipatory countermobilization of social conservatives who opposed same-sex marriage before there was a realistic prospect that it would be recognized by the courts or political actors. Our findings reinforce …

The Public Sphere As Site Of Emancipation And Enlightenment: A Discourse Theoretic Critique Of Digital Communication, David Ingram, Asaf Bar-Tura

David Ingram

Habermas claims that an inclusive public sphere is the only deliberative forum for generating public opinion that satisfies the epistemic and normative conditions underlying legitimate decision-making. He adds that digital technologies and other mass media need not undermine – but can extend – rational deliberation when properly instituted. This paper draws from social epistemology and technology studies to demonstrate the epistemic and normative limitations of this extension. We argue that current online communication structures fall short of satisfying the required epistemic and normative conditions. Furthermore, the extent to which Internet-based communications contribute to legitimate democratic opinion and will formation depends …

Surfing The Revolutionary Wave 2010-12: A Social Theory Of Agency, Resistance, And Orders Of Dissent In Contemporary Social Movements, Athina Karatzogianni, Michael Schandorf

Athina Karatzogianni

Slavery And Freedom In Theory And Practice, David Watkins

David Watkins

Slavery has long stood as a mirror image to the conception of a free person in republican theory. This essay contends that slavery deserves this central status in a theory of freedom, but a more thorough examination of slavery in theory and in practice will reveal additional insights about freedom previously unacknowledged by republicans. Slavery combines imperium (state domination) and dominium (private domination) in a way that both destroys freedom today and diminishes opportunities to achieve freedom tomorrow. Dominium and imperium working together are a greater affront to freedom than either working alone. However, an examination of slavery in practice, …

Incumbent Landscapes, Disruptive Uses: Perspectives On Marijuana-Related Land Use Control, Donald J. Kochan

Donald J. Kochan

The Genealogy, Ideology, And Future Of Isil And Its Derivatives, Ahmed E. Souaiaia

Ahmed E SOUAIAIA

Experiencias De Migritud, Textos Y Carcajadas (Experiencias De Migritud, Textos Y Carcajadas), Andrés Henao Castro

Andrés Fabián Henao-Castro

No abstract provided.

The Political Ecology Of The State: The Basis And The Evolution Of Environmental Statehood, Joshua M. Mullenite

Joshua M. Mullenite

No abstract provided.

Oedipus Is So Bourgeois: ŽIžEk And The Mediating Subject, Luigi Russi

Luigi Russi

This paper is a review of R.C. Smith's "The Ticklish Subject? A Critique of Žižek’s Lacanian Theory of Subjectivity, with Emphasis on an Alternative" . Whereas Lacan places central importance on the Oedipal phase as a necessary step on the road to the acquisition of subjectivity, R.C. Smith views it as a fundamentally authoritarian moment in early child development. This disagreement, in turn, puts Smith at odds with Žižek’s rupture between the Real and the Symbolic, leading him to advance instead an understanding of the subject as engaged in constant mediation in concert with others. The political ramifications of a …

La Asfixia, El Estado Racista Y La Movilización Social En Defensa De Las Vidas Negras (Asphyxiation, State Racism And The Black Lives Matter Movement), Andrés Henao Castro

Andrés Fabián Henao-Castro

¿Cómo existir para los otros cuando el aire por el que circula la voz está contaminado con gas lacrimógeno? El movimiento social y la protesta popular constituyen una respuesta, se trata de multiplicar la singularidad de la voz rechazada por el estado racista en la pluralidad de todas esas gargantas congregadas en las calles. Se grita “¡no puedo respirar!” para transformar la asfixia del estado racista, para limpiar el aire contaminado ya no con el aire acondicionado del capital corporativo sino con el que circula, impropio, por las gargantas en común de la protesta popular.

Postindustrial Societies, Brian Hoey

Brian A. Hoey, Ph.D.

The term postindustrial society presupposes categorizing society based on an economic means of classification. Its use rests on assessing the relative status of manufacturing industry as an economic sector. Significant adjustment in sectoral location and nature of employment precipitated by late-twentieth-century deindustrialization in the developed world led many social theorists and critics to predict broad changes throughout domains of everyday life. Some began to speak not only of sectoral transformation but also of an emergent ‘ postindustrial society. ’ Following earlier agrarian and industrial ‘ revolutions, ’ postindustrialism suggested yet another revolution that would again transform how societies were organized.

Reading Du Bois On East Africa: Epistemological Implications Of Apartheid Constructions Of Knowledge, Jesse Benjamin

Jesse Benjamin

No abstract provided.

The Myth Of The White Minority, Andrew Pierce

Andrew J. Pierce

In recent years, and especially in the wake of Barack Obama’s reelection, projections that whites will soon become a minority have proliferated. In this essay, I will argue that such predictions are misleading at best, as they rest on questionable philosophical presuppositions, including the presupposition that racial concepts like ‘whiteness’ are static and unchanging rather than fluid and continually being reconstructed. If I am right about these fundamental inaccuracies, one must wonder why the myth of the white minority persists. I will argue that by re-envisioning whites as a minority culture struggling against a hostile dominant group, and by promoting …

Digital Prometheus: Wikileaks, The State-Network Dichotomy And The Antinomies Of Academic Reason, Athina Karatzogianni, Andy Robinson

Athina Karatzogianni

Book Review: Policing And The Poetics Of Everyday Life., Rodger E. Broome Phd

Rodger E. Broome

Policing and the poetics of everyday life. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2008. 256 pp. ISBN 978-0-252-03371-1 (cloth). $42.00. Policing and the Poetics of Everyday Life is a hermeneutical-aesthetic analysis within a human scientific approach of modern policing in the United States. It is an important study of police-citizen encounters informed by hermeneutic aesthetic thought and the author’s professional experience as a veteran with a Seattle area police department in Washington, USA.

Class Structure In Australian History - Poverty And Progress, Terry Irving, Raewyn Connell

Terence H Irving, Dr (Terry)

First published in 1980, this book is an updated and reorganized account of the history of the class structure in Australia. A new chapter discusses the period 1975-1991, and there is a new theoretical chapter introducing the reader to modern debates about class. Separate sections for documents and photographs support the narrative. Extensive notes provide a guide to research literature.

Incorporating A Class Analysis Within The National Question: Rethinking Ethnicity, Class And Nationalism In Cyprus, Umut Bozkurt, Nicos Trimikliniotis

Nicos Trimikliniotis

This article has two main aims. Firstly, it aims to challenge the widespread narrative in Cyprus studies that presents ethnic identities as historically inevitable and natural. Rather, identities need to be conceptualized as socially constructed. The second aim of this article is to problematize the argument that ethnic or national groups are homogenous actors. It underlines the need to deconstruct these supposedly unitary actors by making use of a class-based conceptualization of the state. By using such a conceptualization, the article will focus on the period between 1878 and 1974. It will start with a concrete analysis of the class …

The Structural Injustice Of Forced Migration And The Failings Of Normative Theory, David Ingram

David Ingram

I propose to criticize two strands of argument - contractarian and utilitarian – that liberals have put forth in defense of economic coercion, based on the notion of justifiable paternalism. To illustrate my argument, I appeal to the example of forced labor migration, driven by the exigencies of market forces. In particular, I argue that the forced migration of a special subset of unemployed workers lacking other means of subsistence (economic refugees) cannot be redeemed paternalistically as freedom or welfare enhancing in the long run. I further argue that contractarian and utilitarian approaches are normatively incapable of appreciating this fact …

Of Sweatshops And Human Subsistence: Habermas On Human Rights, David Ingram

David Ingram

In this paper I argue that the discourse theoretic account of human rights defended by Jürgen Habermas contains a fruitful tension that is obscured by its dominant tendency to identify rights with legal claims. This weakness in Habermas’s account becomes manifest when we examine how sweatshops diminish the secure enjoyment of subsistence, which Habermas himself (in recognition of the UDHR) recognizes as a human right. Discourse theories of human rights are unique in tying the legitimacy of human rights to democratic deliberation and consensus. So construed, their specific meaning and force is the outcome of historical political struggle. However, unlike …

The Infant Imaginary: Consent, Citizenship, And Pedagogy In Early America [Book Review], Elizabeth Dillon

Elizabeth Maddock Dillon

No abstract provided.

Religious Soft Power In International Relations: Dual Streams Or Theoretical Bias?, Sherrie Steiner

Sherrie M Steiner

No abstract provided.

A Cyberconflict Analysis Of The Arab Spring Uprisings, Athina Karatzogianni

Athina Karatzogianni

A cyberconflict perspective on the Arab Spring focuses in the first instance on the environment of cyberconflict. This includes situating the different countries swept by the Arab Spring in the world-systemic, geopolitical and international relations context, and the regional, and national socio-political and economic positions and relationships these countries have historically held. To put it simply then, this addresses the impact of the similarities and differences and identifies the common threads in the diffusion and spread of the uprisings across so many different settings. This is in addition to the obvious social media acceleration, diffusion and transnationalism hypothesis, which is …

When "J" Means "Jewish" Rather Than "Justice": On Zionism, Jewish Exceptionalism, And Jewish Supremacy In U.S. Palestine Solidarity Organizing, C. Heike Schotten

C. Heike Schotten

A critique of Jewish-identified Palestine solidarity work in the U.S.

“Onde Está A Felicidade?", Paulo Ferreira Da Cunha

Paulo Ferreira da Cunha

Poderemos ser felizes? Passamos a maior parte do tempo a trabalhar, no emprego ou em casa, e em Portugal até dormimos cada vez menos. A aproximação à felicidade parece cada vez mais depender de como nos sentirmos no trabalho. E face à dura realidade, poderemos sonhar que todos sejam felizes no trabalho, ou tal será uma quimera?

“Onde Está A Felicidade?", Paulo Ferreira Da Cunha

Paulo Ferreira da Cunha

Poderemos ser felizes? Passamos a maior parte do tempo a trabalhar, no emprego ou em casa, e em Portugal até dormimos cada vez menos. A aproximação à felicidade parece cada vez mais depender de como nos sentirmos no trabalho. E face à dura realidade, poderemos sonhar que todos sejam felizes no trabalho, ou tal será uma quimera?

“Onde Está A Felicidade", Paulo Ferreira Da Cunha

Paulo Ferreira da Cunha

Poderemos ser felizes? Passamos a maior parte do tempo a trabalhar, no emprego ou em casa, e em Portugal até dormimos cada vez menos. A aproximação à felicidade parece cada vez mais depender de como nos sentirmos no trabalho. E face à dura realidade, poderemos sonhar que todos sejam felizes no trabalho, ou tal será uma quimera?

Crime Virtuoso, Paulo Ferreira Da Cunha

Paulo Ferreira da Cunha

Neste artigo discute-se o que há de profundo e o que há de circunstancial na mania das fotocópias de livros e os problemas conexos da educação e da edição.

Para Uma Desconstrução Social E Política, Paulo Ferreira Da Cunha

Paulo Ferreira da Cunha

Feira de vaidades, sociedade de enganos, mundo de aparências, a pólis em tempo de crise profunda mostra rostos que não são a sua alma, se é que ainda a tem (e não a vendeu já: por exemplo ao diabo). É preciso olhar raio X para ver através das cortinas de fumo quando, na comunidade política, por um lado se quer parecer o que se não é, ou meramente se pretende demostrar o que se pensa, sem se ter já qualquer veleidade de alterar o que está aí. Quando as consciências morais - ou quem a tal aspire - se limitam …

Vencer A Crise. Ética, Psicologia E Partidos, Paulo Ferreira Da Cunha

Paulo Ferreira da Cunha

Crise e medidas de liofilização e compressão ensurdecem toda a comunicação social. Há contudo que analisar as raízes psicológicas da crise e da crise sobre a crise, e urgentemente regenerar os partidos, sob pena de sempre se ter "mais do mesmo". Ou então muito diferente, porque a obstinação de uns levará à obstinação de outros. E se a II República não mostrar que vale a pena, poderá vir (o diabo não nos oiça) uma anti-república que se chamará IV (porque contará também o Estado Novo) a tentar resolver tudo à força.