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Political Theory

Selected Works

2016

Articles 1 - 17 of 17

Full-Text Articles in Political Science

Surfing The Revolutionary Wave 2010-12: A Social Theory Of Agency, Resistance, And Orders Of Dissent In Contemporary Social Movements, Athina Karatzogianni, Michael Schandorf Dec 2016

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

The theorisation and understanding of contemporary social movements, socio-technological phenomena, and the intersection of the two are limited by an incommensurability between the conceptualisations of individual agency and the disciplining powers of social structures. We introduce a theory of sociotechnological agency that bridges the individual and the social through a reconceptualization of the conventional notion of intentionality. Drawing from recent theories of affect and embodiment, posthuman-influenced materialisms and realisms, postmodern critical theory, and critiques of network theory, we introduce a model for understanding sociopolitical action and dissent that accounts for individual human agency as a nexus of overlapping and often …

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De L'Affaire Katanga Au Contrat Social Global: Un Regard Sur La Cour Pénale Internationale, Juan Branco Nov 2016

De L'Affaire Katanga Au Contrat Social Global: Un Regard Sur La Cour Pénale Internationale, Juan Branco

Juan Branco

No abstract provided.

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Book Review. Secession: The Morality Of Political Divorce From Fort Sumter To Lithuania And Quebec By Allen Buchanan, Mary Ellen O'Connell Aug 2016

Book Review. Secession: The Morality Of Political Divorce From Fort Sumter To Lithuania And Quebec By Allen Buchanan, Mary Ellen O'Connell

Mary Ellen O'Connell

No abstract provided.

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The Barber Who Read History And Was Overwhelmed, Rowan Cahill Jul 2016

The Barber Who Read History And Was Overwhelmed, Rowan Cahill

Rowan Cahill

Beginning with a chance encounter in a Barber's shop whilst travelling, the author ruminates on history, and the proposition that each and everyone of us is an historian, and that in a sense we are all time travellers. Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) is invoked, and the role of radical historians from below discussed before the author returns to his Barber shop encounter, and to Brecht. The title of the piece references Brecht's poem A Worker Reads History (1936).

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Rethinking Linkage To The West: What Authoritarian Stability In Singapore Tells Us, Su-Mei Ooi Jul 2016

Rethinking Linkage To The West: What Authoritarian Stability In Singapore Tells Us, Su-Mei Ooi

Su-Mei Ooi

Recent regime change literatures compellingly assert that linkage to the West has been a significant factor in democratisation where the organisational capacity of authoritarian incumbents has overwhelmingly weakened pro-democracy forces. Detailed case studies confirming these findings have not included Singapore although high levels of linkage to the West suggest that democratisation should have taken place there. This qualitative case study fills the empirical and theoretical gap by explaining why linkage has so far failed to raise the cost of authoritarianism for Singapore's government. By eschewing the current structural approach, which conceptualises linkage as mere channels of external pressure or influence, …

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Slavery And Freedom In Theory And Practice, David Watkins Apr 2016

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, …

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Subjectivity, Shiera S. El-Malik Feb 2016

Subjectivity, Shiera S. El-Malik

Shiera S el-Malik

Subjectivity

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La Tragedia De La Revolución Haitiana (The Tragedy Of The Haitian Revolution), Andrés Fabián Henao Castro Feb 2016

La Tragedia De La Revolución Haitiana (The Tragedy Of The Haitian Revolution), Andrés Fabián Henao Castro

Andrés Fabián Henao-Castro

La tesis de este artículo sugiere la tragedia como el género dramático que expresa y problematiza la brecha existente entre la liberación y la libertad, la brecha que caracteriza la eticidad de la post-colonialidad haitiana. Una doble ausencia estructura dicha brecha en el horizonte de la libertad, una que marca la primera afirmación de la libertad ilegible en la segunda o, en otras palabras, una que cuestiona la imposibilidad de traducir la liberación en la libertad de acuerdo a los términos constitutivos de una modernidad incapaz de confrontar la historia de su colonialidad.

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Can Deliberative Democracy Work In Hierarchical Organizations?, Jason Pierce, Grant Neeley, Jeffrey Budziak Jan 2016

Can Deliberative Democracy Work In Hierarchical Organizations?, Jason Pierce, Grant Neeley, Jeffrey Budziak

Grant W. Neeley

Some measure of equality is necessary for deliberative democracy to work well, yet empirical scholarship consistently points to the deleterious effect that hierarchy and inequalities of epistemological authority have on deliberation. This article tests whether real-world deliberative forums can overcome these challenges. Contrary to skeptics, it concludes that the act of deliberation itself and the presence of trained moderators ameliorate inequalities of epistemological authority, thus rendering deliberative democracy possible, even within hierarchical organizations.

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Homonationalism: From Critique To Diagnosis, Or, We Are All Homonational Now, C. Heike Schotten Jan 2016

Homonationalism: From Critique To Diagnosis, Or, We Are All Homonational Now, C. Heike Schotten

C. Heike Schotten

This article tracks Jasbir Puar’s term “homonationalism” as its meaning has transformed in her scholarly work as well that of Maya Mikdashi. I argue that homonationalism has evolved from its original formulation as, in part, a critique of politics, into, in its current guise, a diagnostic of international political relations. Although this transition offers
insight into the international scene, I argue that homonationalism also loses its distinctiveness as a political formation in its own right as well as its critical capacity in the process. In particular, I argue that homonationalism becomes incapable of critically evaluating activist strategies, practices and discourses …

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Mandela's Dark Years: A Political Theory Of Dreaming, Sharon Sliwinski Dec 2015

Mandela's Dark Years: A Political Theory Of Dreaming, Sharon Sliwinski

Sharon Sliwinski

Inspired by one of Nelson Mandela’s recurring nightmares, Mandela’s Dark Years offers a political reading of dream-life. Sharon Sliwinski guides the reader through the psychology of apartheid, recasting dreaming as a vital form of resistance to political violence. This short, provocative study blends political theory with clinical psychoanalysis, opening up a new space to consider the politics of reverie.

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Reading Nietzsche In The Wake Of The 2008-09 War On Gaza, C. Heike Schotten Dec 2015

Reading Nietzsche In The Wake Of The 2008-09 War On Gaza, C. Heike Schotten

C. Heike Schotten

No abstract provided.

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The Digital Dionysus: Nietzsche & The Network-Centric Condition Dec 2015

The Digital Dionysus: Nietzsche & The Network-Centric Condition

Dan Mellamphy

No abstract provided.

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What Drives Contemporary Eu-China Strategic Engagement?, Natalia Wyzycka, Reza Hasmath Dec 2015

What Drives Contemporary Eu-China Strategic Engagement?, Natalia Wyzycka, Reza Hasmath

Reza Hasmath

This study examines the determinants of the European Union’s strategic engagement with China, with reference to three competing analytical approaches: institutional, social, and agency/stakeholder. The article examines the utility of each claim and outlines complementary variables amongst the three approaches, with the aid of recent evidence looking at the E.U.’s arms embargo on China, E.U.-China engagement in Africa, and the E.U.’s longstanding dispute on granting China market economy status. The findings can reduce the misunderstandings and uncertainties embedded in European Union-China interactions by demystifying the factors and variables that drive their relationship.

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Incumbent Landscapes, Disruptive Uses: Perspectives On Marijuana-Related Land Use Control, Donald J. Kochan Dec 2015

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

Donald J. Kochan

The story behind the move toward marijuana’s legality is a story of disruptive forces to the incumbent legal and physical landscape. It affects incumbent markets, incumbent places, the incumbent regulatory structure, and the legal system in general which must mediate the battles involving the push for relaxation of illegality and adaptation to accepting new marijuana-related land uses, against efforts toward entrenchment, resilience, and resistance to that disruption.

This Article is entirely agnostic on the issue of whether we should or should not decriminalize, legalize, or otherwise increase legal tolerance for marijuana or any other drugs. Nonetheless, we must grapple with …

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"A Foucauldian Theory Of American Islamophobia", Shyam Sriram Dec 2015

"A Foucauldian Theory Of American Islamophobia", Shyam Sriram

Shyam K. Sriram (ssriram@butler.edu)

No abstract provided.

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Evocative Objects: A Sexual Violence Primer, Sharon Sliwinski Dec 2015

Evocative Objects: A Sexual Violence Primer, Sharon Sliwinski

Sharon Sliwinski

This commentary on Nina Berman’s series, “Object Lessons,” examines the photographer’s strategy of photographing trial evidence from cases of sexual slavery and human trafficking as a study in object relations.

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