Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Politics and Social Change Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 17 of 17

Full-Text Articles in Politics and Social Change

Ideologia E Utopias Nas Mais Recentes Constituintes Brasileira E Portuguesa: Algumas Linhas De Leitura, Paulo Ferreira Da Cunha Nov 2009

Ideologia E Utopias Nas Mais Recentes Constituintes Brasileira E Portuguesa: Algumas Linhas De Leitura, Paulo Ferreira Da Cunha

Paulo Ferreira da Cunha

Based upon a political compromise, in which « democratic socialists » and « social democrats » were the main protagonists, the ideology of Portuguese Constitution of 1976 was discrete, subtle. And ulterior constitutional revisions confirmed that fondamental aspect. Of course, utopia was present. But, even more present was the « hope principle ». We believe that the Brazilean constituent assembly, with the original importance of popular contributions, also had hope principle’s decisive influence. But the dinamics of the constituent assembly moderated, since the very beggining, the verbal signs of less discret ideologies. Utopia, neverthless, is very present in the aim …


The Mirror Effect, The Law Of Attraction, And "Points Of Attraction" That Can Nurture The Evolution Of Human Consciousness, Carroy U. Ferguson Jul 2009

The Mirror Effect, The Law Of Attraction, And "Points Of Attraction" That Can Nurture The Evolution Of Human Consciousness, Carroy U. Ferguson

Carroy U "Cuf" Ferguson, Ph.D.

This message has several purposes. First, I want to express my immense joy that Chip Baggett and I are serving as Co-Presidents of AHP since August 16, 2009. In my view, Chip and I are long-time friends, who have a transcendent connection and synergistic energies. My desire and intent is for our co-presidency to mirror the effect(s) of synergistic collaboration as a “point of attraction” that can assist in the evolution of human consciousness across often “perceived personal and societal boundaries” (e.g., race, culture, ethnicity, class, individual and collective belief systems, and dogma). More generally, however, this message is intended …


O Que É Uma Universidade?, Paulo Ferreira Da Cunha May 2009

O Que É Uma Universidade?, Paulo Ferreira Da Cunha

Paulo Ferreira da Cunha

Pouca gente sabe hoje o que é uma Universidade, a sério. Confunde-se muito Universidade e super-mercado de aulas, ou fábrica de « investigação » ou « pesquisa », assim como se confunde serviço público com negócio, vocação com interesse pessoal, etc. É a própria essência da Universidade que está em causa. A confusão é grande no público, que vê a Universidade sobretudo como uma forma de promoção social, pelos diplomas. A confusão não é menor na própria Universidade. Os universitários mais responsáveis interrogam-se sobre a sua função, o sentido do trabalho que fizeram e fazem, e a sua sorte na …


Latin American Migrants In The Las Vegas Valley: Civic Engagement And Political Participation, John P. Tuman Apr 2009

Latin American Migrants In The Las Vegas Valley: Civic Engagement And Political Participation, John P. Tuman

Institute for Latin American Studies

Funded by a grant from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (with support from the MacArthur Foundation), this project is part of a broader national study that examines Latin America migrants in selected cities in the United States. The goal of the project is to explore patterns of civic engagement and political participation among Latin American migrants and Latinos in the Las Vegas, Nevada, metropolitan area. A secondary, but not less important, goal is to understand the factors that contribute to or inhibit the ability of individuals from Latin America to acquire U.S. citizenship. The issues addressed by this …


Archetypal Energies, The Emergence Of Obama As A Practical Idealist, And Global Transformation, Carroy U. Ferguson Feb 2009

Archetypal Energies, The Emergence Of Obama As A Practical Idealist, And Global Transformation, Carroy U. Ferguson

Carroy U "Cuf" Ferguson, Ph.D.

During this time of change, AHP and kindred spirits on the edge have important roles to play. We are the keepers and nurturers of a transformative and evolutionary Vision for Consciousness and a more humane world. At issue is what I will call the “psychic politics” for global transformation, nurtured by practical idealism and the Archetypal Energies. In other writings, I have described Archetypal Energies as Higher Vibrational Energies, operating deep within our individual and collective psyches, which have their own transcendent value, purpose, quality, and “voice”, unique to the individual. We experience them as “creative urges” to move us …


Of Sweatshops And Human Subsistence: Habermas On Human Rights, David Ingram Jan 2009

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

Philosophy: Faculty Publications and Other Works

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 …


Liberalism, Tolerance And Multiculturalism: The Bounds Of Liberal Intervention In Affairs Of Minority Cultures, Raphael Cohen-Almagor, Marco Zambotti Jan 2009

Liberalism, Tolerance And Multiculturalism: The Bounds Of Liberal Intervention In Affairs Of Minority Cultures, Raphael Cohen-Almagor, Marco Zambotti

raphael cohen-almagor

One of the most pressing issues facing liberal democracies today is the politicization of ethno-cultural diversity. Minority cultures are demanding greater public recognition of their distinctive identities, and greater freedom and opportunity to retain and develop their distinctive cultural practices. In response to these demands, new and creative mechanisms are being adopted in many countries for accommodating difference. This paper discusses some of the issues raised by these demands, focusing in particular on the difficulties that arise when the minority seeking accommodation is illiberal. It is increasingly accepted that common citizenship rights are not sufficient to accommodate all forms of …


Diabolical Frivolity Of Neoliberal Fundamentalism, Sefik Tatlic Jan 2009

Diabolical Frivolity Of Neoliberal Fundamentalism, Sefik Tatlic

Sefik Tatlic

Today, we cannot talk just about plain control, but we must talk about the nature of the interaction of the one who is being controlled and the one who controls, an interaction where the one that is “controlled” is asking for more control over himself/herself while expecting to be compensated by a surplus of freedom to satisfy trivial needs and wishes. Such a liberty for the fulfillment of trivial needs is being declared as freedom. But this implies as well the freedom to choose not to be engaged in any kind of socially sensible or politically articulated struggle.


Hamas Controlled Televised News Media: Counter- Peace, Allen Gnanam Jan 2009

Hamas Controlled Televised News Media: Counter- Peace, Allen Gnanam

Allen Gnanam

The hegemonic force of Hamas censored televised news media in Gaza, can not be fully comprehended and appreciated without recognizing the role of propaganda, censorship, and the historical context of the middle east. These 3 interrelated dimensions will be analyzed using functionalism, the mass society theory, the dominant ideology framework, the critical criminology framework, and the symbolic interactionist framework. Through censorship, Hamas news media outlets were able to unilaterally inject culturally relevant propaganda, into the minds of children and citizens. The hypodermic syringe model can be applied to the state controlled news media situation in Gaza, as the people of …


Strategy, Meta-Strategy, And Anti-Capitalist Activism, Stephen J. D'Arcy Dec 2008

Strategy, Meta-Strategy, And Anti-Capitalist Activism, Stephen J. D'Arcy

Stephen D'Arcy

Whereas Marxism is a theory, or rather a cluster of theories, Leninism is something else: a political strategy. And as Lenin himself pointed out, strategies are neither true nor false, but only effective nor ineffective, depending largely on the context within which they are carried out. In the context of contemporary North America, however, the adoption by radical activists of the standard Leninist norms for anti-capitalist organizing would be counter-productive. What is needed now is a very different approach: a strategy of attrition, as Lenin would have said, rather than a strategy of overthrow. This article concludes by sketching an …


Cyberconflict At The Edge Of Chaos: Cryptohierarchies And Self-Organization In The Open Source, Athina Karatzogianni Dr, George Michaelides Dec 2008

Cyberconflict At The Edge Of Chaos: Cryptohierarchies And Self-Organization In The Open Source, Athina Karatzogianni Dr, George Michaelides

Athina Karatzogianni

This paper differentiates between different levels of conflict in the open-source movement and discusses the role conflict and self-organization play in the emergence of structures of leadership and the bifurcation into core and peripheral groups and soft control by cryptohierarchies; in the different levels of group polarization and conflict between communities negotiating their identity, strategy, coordination and complexity; and lastly, in the dynamic relationships between hierarchies and networks. These dynamics are forcing open-source communities to exist at the edge of chaos, and to constantly engage in lines of flight and resistance from the system of global control, while ignoring current …


Introduction: New Media And The Reconfiguration Of Power In Global Politics, Athina Karatzogianni Dr Dec 2008

Introduction: New Media And The Reconfiguration Of Power In Global Politics, Athina Karatzogianni Dr

Athina Karatzogianni

Whatever the developments and transformations in the sphere of global politics, the new media technologies and the political opportunities they present are unsettling the world system, the are rendering it chaotic and they are having a deeper systemic effect than the more powerful actors care to admit. It remains to be seen whether information age ideologies, new modes of capitalism, conflict, activism, terrorism and war in cyberspace will ever transfer to the ‘real world’ reversing the opposite trend, and causing everyday effects on a bigger scale than we are witnessing today. Even so, we are undoubtedly living in interesting times …


Confronting Internal And External Problems Of Inter-Displinarity.., Athina Karatzogianni Dr Dec 2008

Confronting Internal And External Problems Of Inter-Displinarity.., Athina Karatzogianni Dr

Athina Karatzogianni

No abstract provided.


How Small Are Small Numbers In Cyberspace? Small, Virtual, Wannabe ‘States’, Minorities And Their Cyber Conflicts, Athina Karatzogianni Dr Dec 2008

How Small Are Small Numbers In Cyberspace? Small, Virtual, Wannabe ‘States’, Minorities And Their Cyber Conflicts, Athina Karatzogianni Dr

Athina Karatzogianni

No abstract provided.


Politeia And Arete. Archeology Of Senses And Hellenic Legacy, Paulo Ferreira Da Cunha Dec 2008

Politeia And Arete. Archeology Of Senses And Hellenic Legacy, Paulo Ferreira Da Cunha

Paulo Ferreira da Cunha

The idea of the Republic and its value is again the order of the day, not only due to Neorepublican theorists, but also because of many current debates, such as multiculturalism, the laicity of states and societies, transparency and corruption, etc. Along with Republican constitutional rules, principles and values, some proclaimed during the French Revolution (such as Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité), the debate shows the importance of an even deeper question: the importance of virtues, and the Greek legacy of Republican virtues. In this paper, among other points, we remember Pericles’ funereal speech in Thucydides’ History of Peloponnesian War, and some …


Hermenêutica Constitucional Entre Savigny E O Neoconstitucionalismo, Paulo Ferreira Da Cunha Dec 2008

Hermenêutica Constitucional Entre Savigny E O Neoconstitucionalismo, Paulo Ferreira Da Cunha

Paulo Ferreira da Cunha

Apontar para os novos rumos jurisfilóficos mas também práticos do Neoconstitucionalismo contrastando as suas aportações hermenêuticas com o legado de Savigny nesta matéria.


Neoconstitucionalismo: De Espectro A Realidade, Paulo Ferreira Da Cunha Dec 2008

Neoconstitucionalismo: De Espectro A Realidade, Paulo Ferreira Da Cunha

Paulo Ferreira da Cunha

Prefácio da obra "Neoconstituionalismo", chamando a atenção para o papel desta nova perspectiva, novo paradigma da juridicidade, chamado a reforçar a centralidade do Direito Constitucional no mundo jurídico, e a desempenhar um papel de relevo no plano hermenêutico e da superação (?) de algumas querelas jurisfilosóficas.