Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Consciousness And The Reality Of Monsters In Horror Movies: Dehumanization And What Monsters In Horror Films Say About Us

Journal of Conscious Evolution

This essay responds to Carroll’s The Nature of Horror from the perspective of transdisciplinary phenomenological film theory, largely developed by Edgar Morin in the 1950s. It argues that Carrolls’s reduction of the phenomenological value of horror films to an unreal category minimizes and even dismisses the inherent value of horror films. Morin, Allan Combs, and others offer more integral and transdisciplinary methods for art interpretation and functionality. They help us understand how monsters in horror films can stand as mirrors and reflections of the monstrous in ourselves and society. Thus, the transformational function and value of film is revealed and …

The Contradiction Between Use-Value And Exchange-Value: Ecology, Imperialism, And The Telos Of Production, Larry Alan Busk, Elizabeth Portella

Emancipations: A Journal of Critical Social Analysis

This article elaborates and defends a critique of capitalism which, despite its appearance in various bodies of work, has not been named or systematically differentiated. The critique locates a contradiction between production for use-value and production for exchange-value, or a contradiction in what we call “the telos of production.” While maintaining that it has some basis in Marx’s work, we defend this model as preferable to the critique of capitalism based strictly on the exploitation of labor (which we call the “exploitation-exclusive critique”). We attempt to show this by applying the two approaches to the empirical realities of the ecological …

Capitalism, Global Militarism, And Canada’S Investment In The Caribbean, Tamanisha J. John

Class, Race and Corporate Power

At the end of the 1990s, there existed a belief that a growing Canadian military involvement in the Caribbean region was unlikely if it was not associated with Canada’s interest in Latin America (Klepak 1996). This view had such a large impact that today there is a dearth of information on Canada’s military involvement in the Caribbean region. Lacking systematic investigation, two myths have perpetuated: first that Canada has no stake or interest in Caribbean security, insofar as those interests cannot be tied to Canada’s interests in Latin America; and second, that all expressions of Canada’s involvement in Caribbean security …

Freedom, Vulnerability, And Capitalism, Jeremy M. Johnson

Culture, Society, and Praxis

This project will explore how economic vulnerability plays a role in the functioning and maintenance of today’s economic and political systems while investigating how substantive freedom is threatened by economic precarity, why widespread vulnerability is minimally addressed by the state, and potential reforms to the current economic and political arrangement that could be made to ameliorate material harm. Much focus has been dedicated to the study of the coercive power of capitalism, but by analyzing how vulnerability is caused, perpetuated, and taken advantage of, a comprehensive understanding of the lived experiences of the working class, as well as their ability …

Working Conditions Are Learning Conditions: Understanding Information Literacy Instruction Through Neoliberal Capitalism, Romel Espinel, Eamon Tewell

Communications in Information Literacy

Neoliberal capitalism’s demands for efficiency and innovation have greatly impacted North American academic libraries and the work conducted in them, including information literacy instruction. The divisive forces of neoliberalism must be met with resistance, and libraries hold the potential for generating an information literacy praxis where learners engage information with a critical consciousness instead of a consumerist one. Using library labor conditions and the contradictions between innovation and student learning as focal points, we argue that academic library workers should seek to center attention to inequities and injustices in the information economy and scholarly information systems in their instruction, identify …

The Profits Of (The Critique Of) Patriarchy: On Toxic Masculinity, Feminism, & Corporate Capitalism In The Barbie Movie, Bryant W. Sculos

Class, Race and Corporate Power

This article explicates the political, social, economic, and cultural contribution of Barbie (2023). Through a critical and normative analysis of four different prominent reviews of the film, this essay explores the quality of discourse surrounding Barbie, with particular emphasis on its feminist critique of toxic masculinity and lack of a coherent criticism of capitalism.

Navigating The Indeterminate Relationship Between Politics And Pedagogy. A Response To "Education As Commons, Children As Commoners: The Case Study Of The Little Tree Community”, Derek R. Ford

Democracy and Education

In their article, Pechtelidis and Kioupkiolis added a case study to research at the intersection of politics, pedagogy, and the commons. Examining the Little Tree Community to deepen our understanding of how education can operate as a common practice, they raised key questions about the political possibility of subjectification in an education in the commons, leaving the question of politics and pedagogy open. Case studies in general, especially in the article format, require a delicate balance of theoretical exposition, contextual explication, data presentation, and analysis. In this response, I propose one way we might refine the politics assumed in the …

The Downfall Of Capitalism: Its Exploitation Of Mental Health And The Working Class, Joanna Castaneda

Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science

Capitalism has been part of American culture for so long, but so has the topic of mental health. America has seen high rates of mental health issues occurring among working-class people of America. High-end companies making billions of revenues have taken advantage of their workers, leaving many to rely on working multiple jobs to get their families by. As for women and minorities, the job setting has not come easy for many as they face major inequality in the workforce and setbacks in wanting to reach positions. Capitalism has shown that income inequality has made life in America difficult, leaving …

The Constraints Within Capitalism: An Evaluation Of Ann E. Cudd's "Enlightened Capitalism" In 'Capitalism, For And Against', Phoebe E. Shown

The Cardinal Edge

There is extreme partisanship in the United States regarding whether or not capitalism should continue to be implemented. This partisanship is apparent in Capitalism, For and Against: A Feminist Debate, by Ann E. Cudd and Nancy Holmstrom. The published debate between Cudd and Holmstrom ultimately discusses whether systemic changes can be placed upon capitalism for an ideal "enlightened capitalism", presented by Cudd, or if the United States should adopt a new economic system altogether, suggested by Holmstrom. I address Ann E. Cudd's argument for an "enlightened capitalism" by summarizing her main ideas, and proceed to refute it on the grounds …

Perdagangan Perempuan Indonesia Dalam Situs Pengantin Pesanan: Perspektif Feminisme Sosialis, Wabilia Husnah

Paradigma: Jurnal Kajian Budaya

Mail-order bride websites can be easily found in cyberspace. These websites sell Indonesian women to Chinese men as wives. This study aims to explore the phenomenon of women cyber-trafficking in mail-order bride websites, especially the background of mail-order bride websites and their impacts on the victims. This qualitative research used the case study approach and the socialist feminism theory to investigate three mail-order bride websites. This study concludes that the oppression of women on mail-order bride websites is caused by long-standing patriarchy in Indonesia and China reflected in daily practices, cultural manifestations, and literary works in both countries. Capitalism has …

The Solidarity Economy: A Way Forward For Our De-Futured World, Julie Matthaei, Matthew Slaats

The Journal of Social Encounters

As society contends with the ongoing economic, environmental and political crises perpetuated by racist patriarchal ecologically-destructive capitalism, there is a need to look beyond forms of inequality to the opportunity of solidarity. While histories of mutuality and reciprocity have long been present in economies around the world, it is in the last thirty years that global movements have begun to coalesce under the framework of the solidarity economy. This framework asserts a path forward towards a just and sustainable post-capitalist future, based in cooperation and care.. We begin by exploring how the solidarity economy framework and movement have been making …

Anxiety In The Capitalism Of Late Modernity, Toyo Kawabata

Emancipations: A Journal of Critical Social Analysis

The logic of capitalism affects both individuals and society. Alienation augments existential anxiety in the current precarity capitalism, which keeps urging competition among individuals to survive in capitalism and grow more. Excessive individualism, materialism, and consumerism in capitalism may weaken social ties and lower self-recognition, augmenting the existential anxiety of individuals. Losers in capitalism aggravate their anxiety whereas even winners may keep being anxious in the never-ending competition in capitalism. As long as people are kept engaged in capitalism, the pressure of the competition leads to a vicious cycle that keeps inducing anxiety, which signifies the precarity of capitalism. Existential …

Selling Graduation: Higher Education And The Loaning Of Liberation, Annie Pocklington, Elizabeth J. Flanagan, Christopher Bodenheimer Knaus

Essays in Education

While the costs to attend college continue to rise exponentially, a bachelor’s degree is held up as required for economic stability within the U.S. and across the globe. With drastic disparities in earning potentials after graduation reduced by racism, sexism, classism, heterosexism, ableism, and related structural disparities, the value of a degree continues to be questioned, especially for historically marginalized communities. As the loan industrial complex continues to profit off of students, President Biden has offered $10,000 in student loan relief for some borrowers, though this action has been blocked by federal courts and is currently on hold. Whether Biden’s …

Path To Utopia, Leila Kincaid

Journal of Conscious Evolution

The way to survive in the Anthropocene and transform the world is to end capitalism. Humanity must stop commodifying everything and reifying its value for consumption for the sake of power and survival. The way to do this is through love. This is an inquiry into methods and processes for confronting and transforming the planetary destruction caused by capitalism, patriarchy, and colonialism among other phenomena. This paper challenges the idea that it is unrealistic to believe that love can change the world. It posits that loving is caring and caring is the way humanity will shift consciousness so that capitalism …

Cop27 In A Warming World Beset By Multiple Crises, Eve Croeser

Emancipations: A Journal of Critical Social Analysis

No abstract provided.

Waste In The Limits To Capital: How Capitalism Lays Waste To The Web Of Life, And Why It Can’T Stop, Jason W. Moore

Emancipations: A Journal of Critical Social Analysis

No abstract provided.

Zen And The Art Of Doughnut Economics: When Limits Are Strangely Liberating, Peter Doran

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

Kate Raworth's celebrated book, Doughnut Economics: Seven ways to think like a 21st century economist, calls for a reconciliation of our design principles for society and the economy with the rhythms and tolerances of ecological systems. It will demand something akin to a new axial revolution that will have to be experienced as much in the body and in the intimacies of a renewed care and appreciation for our relational and ecological selves as in the collective re-design of our societies, democratic decision-making and collective provisioning. Buddhist scholarship offers a distinctive contribution to this conversation invoked in a book that …

Comments To Magun’S And Yudin’S Papers, By Paul Apostolidis, Albena Azmanova, Darin Barney, Gal Kirn, Enzo Rossi, Paul Passavant, David Strecker, Albena Azmanova

Emancipations: A Journal of Critical Social Analysis

No abstract provided.

Capitalism And The Post-Socialist Road To Hell, Artemy Magun

Emancipations: A Journal of Critical Social Analysis

No abstract provided.

The Neoliberal Roots Of Putin’S War, Greg Yudin

Emancipations: A Journal of Critical Social Analysis

No abstract provided.

Worker Ownership And The Public-Private Dichotomy: Disparity In Cudd’S Capitalism: For And Against, Zane R. Phelps

The Cardinal Edge

Ideological traditions, movements, and their associated developments are riddled with interpretation and disparity: human affairs are too complex and too riddled with contradiction to be narrowed down, to be sure. To maximize clarity, as well as its benefits in dialectics and discourse, critical analysis of these disparities in authored research can be a step towards maximizing the utility of debate, wherein both sides reach a conclusion or synthesis, ending up better off than before. This is the formula to be applied in the case of Cudd and Holmstrom. I take Cudd’s reading and interpretation of concepts such as worker ownership …

Free Market: The History Of An Idea. By Jacob Soll. Basic Books, 2022. 326 Pp, Index. $32., James K. Galbraith

Emancipations: A Journal of Critical Social Analysis

Review of Free Market: The History of an Idea. Jacob Soll. New York, Basic Books, 2022. 326 pp.

Introduction: On The Timeliness Of Precarity-Critique Today, Paul Apostolidis

Emancipations: A Journal of Critical Social Analysis

Now is a propitious time to re-examine the present forms and political implications of precarity. As my colleagues and I write the essays for this special issue of Emancipations, questions abound regarding the manifestations of precarity that have appeared since popular movements in France first adopted the slogan of ‘the precariat’ in the early 2000s. Then, ‘precarity’ fit as an intuitive name for people’s negatively altered living and working conditions as national governments, corporations and supra-national institutions consolidated neoliberal transformations as, indisputably, the new norm. Two decades hence, should this situation simply be reaffirmed as the not-so new normal?

The Social Current Of Capitalist Dictatorship? Neoclassical Economic And Non-Marxist Sociological Conceptualization, Milan Z. Zafirovski

Journal of Ideology

The paper introduces the concept and social current of capitalist dictatorship to the broader sociological audience, aside from Marxist sociology. It conceptualizes, specifies and exemplifies capitalist dictatorship in the form of a mostly neoclassical economic and non-Marxist sociological conceptualization. Generally, it advances a conceptualization in terms of dictatorial rule of capital over non-capital, which it derives from neoclassical economic and non-Marxist sociological frameworks rather than the Marxist framework. Particularly, the paper conceptualizes capitalist dictatorship in terms of autocracy, oligarchy and plutocracy and kleptocracy within capitalism in accordance with neoclassical and non-Marxist frameworks. Also, it briefly outlines additional neoclassical economic and …

Answering The Call: Disrupting The Logics Of Capitalism Through Indigenous Economies, Madeline Jaye Bass

Emancipations: A Journal of Critical Social Analysis

Capitalism, racialism, and indigenous exploitation are deeply entangled practices. In their implementation, they each rely on forms of extraction and subjugation with long-lasting impacts. Denise Ferreira da Silva uses a Black feminist practice of “reading” in order to explicate the ways lives are valued and lost within this pursuit of global capital. Despite overwhelming extraction, looking closely and reading into Indigenous lifeways and organizing practices encourages the pursuit of “otherwise worlds.” This essay uses a close reading of da Silva’s chapter on global capital, and the larger collection it comes from, as a way of exploring the economic practices of …

Decolonizing The Western Mind: Gurminder K. Bhambra, In Discussion With Albena Azmanova, Gurminder K. Bhambra, Albena Azmanova

Emancipations: A Journal of Critical Social Analysis

No abstract provided.

White Dominion As Control: On Scientific Management And Racial Capitalism, Jonathan Masin-Peters

Emancipations: A Journal of Critical Social Analysis

This essay deepens the analysis of whiteness-as-dominion recently advanced by political theorist Ella Myers. Drawing on W.E.B. Du Bois, Myers focuses on the role that ideas of ownership and possession play in white racial identity. While I am persuaded that ownership and whiteness are cojoined, ownership does not necessarily imply control, although the former may be a prerequisite for the latter. I therefore argue that the idea of white dominion can be enhanced by paying greater attention to practices of racial control. More specifically, I focus on racialized modes of labor control via scientific management, or what recent scholars describe …

Introduction To Special Issue On Race And Capitalism, James Chamberlain, Albena Azmanova

Emancipations: A Journal of Critical Social Analysis

No abstract provided.

Climate Change And Racial Violence, Aidan Connors

Bryant University Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies

Climate change poses the greatest threat mankind has ever seen, not since WW2 is the damage potential so great for humanity. Humanity’s understanding of the dangers that climate change presents isn’t something new, newspaper archives show articles warning about the dangers of carbon output into the atmosphere as early as 1912 (Roney and Otamatea). Despite our knowledge of the dangers, the actions necessary to fight climate change aren’t being taken because of the risk to profits it presents for companies.

Don’T Believe The Hype, Big Finance Continues To Threaten Our Survival, Martin Hart-Landsberg

Class, Race and Corporate Power

This article is reprinted with permission from Reports From The Economic Front and the author.

Our special thanks to the author, Dr. Martin Hart-Landsberg.