scholarly journals The ghosts of the past: 20 years after the fall of communism in Europe

2009 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 165-179 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marta Rabikowska
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Path Dependency ◽  
The Political ◽  
Democratic Development ◽  
The Past ◽  
Transitions To Democracy ◽  
Political Struggles ◽  
The Given ◽  
Similar Stage ◽  
Insight Into

Twenty years after the fall of communism in Europe, the post-Soviet countries have not achieved a similar stage of democratic development. They have shown to be too diverse and historically too independent to follow one path of consolidation. This volume questions the premises of transitology, homogeneity, and path dependency theories and suggests an insight into the continuities and discontinuities within particular contexts of the given countries (Russia, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Ukraine, Poland and others). The latter quite often collide with each other and with the Western democratic values, thus putting a concept of a harmonious dialogue or a definite democratic solution for Europe into doubt. This volume challenges one-directional analyses of both communism and capitalism and offers an examination of their inner contrasts and contradictions that are a part of transitions to democracy. The irreconcilable differences between the two systems of ideologies determined by universalisms, such as utilitarianism, liberalism, harmony, and productivity, were derived from the post-Enlightenment heritage of the humanist ideals which today cannot be acknowledged without criticism. To grasp the dynamics of the post-Soviet countries that are developing their own democratic models requires looking into their political struggles, social fissures and complexities within their past and present, rather than observing them from the epistemological standpoint. Such a standpoint is criticised in this volume for seeing those countries as locked in one homogenous totalitarian paradigm. The abstractness of the universalist and utopian concept of transition imposed on concrete social relations is criticised, while the theoriticisation of democratic ideals is related to the political legitimisation.

(Anamnesis) Revolting Bodies: “Le Forgeron” and the Poetry of the Past

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert St. Clair
Keyword(s):  
Victor Hugo ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Past ◽  
The People ◽  
Political Struggles ◽  
Louis Xvi

weChapter 4 takes up the question of poetry and engagement at its most explicit and complex in Rimbaud, focusing on a long, historical epic entitled “Le Forgeron.” We read this poem, which recreates and re-imagines a confrontation between the People in revolt and Louis XVI in the summer of 1792, as Rimbaud’s attempt to add a revolutionary supplement to the counter-epics modeled by Victor Hugo in Châtiments. Chapter 4 shows how Rimbaud’s “Forgeron” challenges us to examine the ways in which a poem might seek “to enjamb” the caesura between poiesis and praxis by including and complicating revolutionary (counter)history into its folds in order to implicate itself in the political struggles of its time.

scholarly journals Presenting unwieldy pasts

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 245-252
Author(s):  
Katherine Hite ◽  
Daniela Jara
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Late Phase ◽  
The Political ◽  
History And Memory ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
Political Struggles ◽  
Intellectual Traditions ◽  
The Rich

In the rich and varied work of memory studies, scholars have turned to exploring the meanings that different communities assign to the past, the social mediations of memories, as well as how the memories of subaltern subjects re-signify the relationship between history and memory. This special issue explores the ever present dynamics of unwieldy pasts through what have been termed “the spectral turn” and “the forensic turn.” We argue that specters (which appear in the literature as ghosts, or as haunting) and exhumations defy notions of temporality or resolution. Both trace the social dynamics that redefine the meanings of the past and that voice suffering, expose institutions’ limits, reveal disputes, explore affect and privilege political resistance. They draw from significant intellectual traditions across disciplinary and thematic boundaries in the natural and social sciences, the humanities, art and fiction. Their intellectual subjects range from work that explores the political struggles of confronting slavery and the possibility of reparations in the Americas long after it was formally abolished, to sensitive treatments of graves of Franco’s Spain. We suggest that both the spectral turn and the forensic turn have provided lenses to conceptualize the social life of unwieldy pasts, by exploring its dynamics, practices, and the cultural transmissions. They have also offered a language to communities that mobilize the political strength of resentment, deepened by the late phase of global capitalism and its consequent, deepening inequalities.

The French Revolution Revisited

1989 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 264-282
Author(s):  
François Furet
Keyword(s):  
French Revolution ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
The Political ◽  
Historical Interpretation ◽  
The Past ◽  
Political Struggles ◽  
The One ◽  
Selection Of ◽  
The French Revolution

I SHOULD LIKE TO START WITH AN EXTREMELY SIMPLE STATEment about the French Revolution. This is that there are many historical arguments among historians on many subjects, but that none of these arguments is so intense and so heated as the one which takes place in every generation about the French Revolution. It is as though the historical interpretation of this particular subject and the arguments of specialists directly reflect the political struggles and the gamble for power. It is true that we are all aware today that there are no unbiased historical interpretations: the selection of facts which provide the raw material for the historian's work is already the result of a choice, even although that choice is not an explicit one. To some extent, history is always the result of a relationship between the present and the past and more specifically between the characteristics of an individual and the vast realm of his possible roots in the past. But, nevertheless, even within this relative framework, not all the themes of history are equally relevant to the present interests of the historian and to the passions of his public.

Is Democracy Possible in Russia?

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-27
Author(s):  
Andrei Val’terovich Grinëv
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Political System ◽  
Private Property ◽  
Political Regime ◽  
The Political ◽  
Short Term ◽  
The West ◽  
Basic Principles ◽  
Democratic Development ◽  
The Past

Abstract This article discusses the question of why a Western-style democracy has not been formed in Russia. The prerequisite for the formation of a democracy as a political regime is the domination of small and medium-sized private property and a middle class. Since the middle class has been small in Russia throughout most of its history for a number of objective reasons, the country has hardly known full-fledged democracy, and the current political system only imitates it. Russia’s attempts to enter the trajectory of democratic development—both in the early twentieth century, and since the early 1990s–have failed, and the trend of abandoning the basic principles of democracy has prevailed over the past two decades. The blame for this lies not only on the current Russian leadership but to no lesser extent on the political leadership of the West, which for the sake of short-term self-serving interests or political ambitions has contributed much to the formation of the current Russian regime.

Outside the Ghetto: Jews and Christians in the Duchy of Modena

2013 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 245-271
Author(s):  
Katherine Aron-Beller
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Jewish Life ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Past ◽  
Jewish Immigrants ◽  
City States ◽  
Main City

Abstract Historians have in the past concentrated their studies of early modern Jewish life on the main city-states of Northern Italy where the largest Jewish communities existed. These areas have been categorized as territories which absorbed Jewish immigrants, enclosed them in ghettos, and monitored their actions with the creation of specific agencies. My essay turns to Jewish existence in the smaller towns and rural areas of the duchy of Modena in the seventeenth century, and attempts to question how this alienated minority was able to fare in areas which housed no ghettos. Here the political and religious decentralization, particularly in the early seventeenth century, generated retaliatory hostility as well as intimacy between Jews and Christians. Sources for this study will be Inquisitorial documents that concerned professing Jews. These sources, once decoded, provide extraordinarily rich images of daily life and provide a unique picture of social relations between the two religionists.

scholarly journals Entrepreneurial subjectivity and the political economy of daily life in the time of finance

2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 216-235 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niamh Mulcahy
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Financial Markets ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
The Political ◽  
Critical Realist ◽  
Personal Investment ◽  
Financial Restructuring ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Insight Into

This article examines the emergence of a ‘financial subject’ in the transformation of the UK economy since 1979, using a critical realist approach to subjectivity that investigates underlying causal mechanisms and structures as they affect daily life. Financial restructuring, including widespread borrowing and increasing personal investment, has forged links between finance markets and personal finance, as workers’ wages are financialized. This engenders entrepreneurial subjectivity, with individuals interpellated to be self-reliant in managing possible risks. It argues that the process of subjectivation, where individuals recognize themselves and their goals relative to financial markets, exemplifies the development of financialization itself, since it gives an insight into the successful reproduction of social relations of finance. It illustrates the instability related to wages and inequality, as some subjects have to contend with unpredictable employment prospects as potential future risks that complicate the practices of personal investment and borrowing, creating new hierarchies bound up with the financialization of the economy.

scholarly journals Disputed Past: The Friendship and Competing Memories of Anna Lesznai and Emma Ritoók

2012 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 77-93
Author(s):  
Judith Szapor
Keyword(s):  
The Political ◽  
Intellectual Life ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Literary Works ◽  
Women Intellectuals ◽  
The Past ◽  
Shared History ◽  
Official Ideology ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Insight Into

This paper is part of a larger research project that explores the contributions of women intellectuals to the nationalistic, anti-liberal rhetoric of the early 1920s and the gendered aspect of the official ideology of the Horthy-era. The paper probes the connection of the personal and the political by exploring the shared history and competing memories of two woman writers, Anna Lesznai (1885-1966) and Emma Ritoók (1868-1945). The writers were friends and founding members of the Sunday Circle in 1915 but ended up in opposite camps during the 1918-19 revolutions. Ritoók, with Cécile Tormay, became a champion of the counter-revolution, contributing to its anti-Semitic ideology and rhetoric. Lesznai, the wife of Oszkár Jászi and a supporter of the Republic of Councils, was forced to flee and she spent the rest of her life in exile. Their diaries and autobiographical novels reflect the two writers’ diagonally opposing perspectives on their past and their shared intellectual and spiritual home, the Sunday Circle. The juxtaposition of their respective biographies and literary works offers insight into the process of re-interpreting and re-writing the past, whether for personal or political ends. It also illustrates the broader contours and irreparable breach between the Left and the nationalistic Right in Hungarian political and intellectual life after 1919.

A Data Visualization Dashboard like a Game to Show Associations Between Cited-by and Similar Journals related to JMIR Serious Games: A Bibliometric Study (Preprint)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tsair-Wei Chien ◽  
Hsien-Yi Wang ◽  
Yang Shao ◽  
Willy Chou
Keyword(s):  
Social Network ◽  
Social Network Analysis ◽  
Network Analysis ◽  
Serious Games ◽  
Deep Insight ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Given ◽  
Strength Of Association ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
The U.S

BACKGROUND Over 47,703 articles were found on Pubmed.com by searching for the keyword “association between[Title]” in the past. However, to date, none present the association between cited-by and similar journals related to a given journal. Authors need one effective and efficient way to find journals related to a specific journal. The strength of association between cited-by and similar journals for a given journal is required to report. OBJECTIVE This study aims (1) to present the feature of a given journal about their keyword topics and international author collaborations; (2) to show the cited-by and similar journals related to the given journal; (3) to investigate the association between their cited-by and similar journals. METHODS We obtained 85 abstracts since 2013 from Medline based on the keywords of ("JMIR Serious Games[Journal]) on June 30, 2018, and plotted the clusters, including (i) international author collaborations, (ii) keyword topics, (iii)cited-by and similar journals related to JMIR Serious Games(JSG), and (iv) association between cited-by and similar journals, on Google Maps by using social network analysis(SNA). RESULTS This study found that (1) the most number of papers are from the U.S.( 28, 32.9%) and the U.K. (11,12.9 %), the most frequently used keywords are serious games and video games; (2) the top two journals for cited-by and similar journals, respectively, are (i) JMIR mHealth uHealth(IF=4.541), J Med Internet Res (IF=4.671) and (ii) Games Health J (IF= 2.019), J Med Internet Res (IF=4.671); (3) a mild association(=0.14) exists between cited-by and similar journals related to JSG. CONCLUSIONS SNA provides deep insight into the relationships of related journals to a given journal. The results of this research can provide readers with a knowledge and concept diagram to use with future manuscript submissions to JSG. CLINICALTRIAL Not available

scholarly journals Serbia at the time of Prince Milos (Ethnosociological treatises of Tihomir Djordjevic)

2004 ◽  
pp. 321-330
Author(s):  
Danijela Zdravkovic
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Basic Characteristic ◽  
Basic Feature ◽  
Social Community ◽  
Bourgeois Society ◽  
The Past ◽  
Spiritual Climate ◽  
Peasant Society ◽  
Rich Material ◽  
Insight Into

The work of Tihomir Djordjevic contributes to the establishment and development of ethnosociology among the Serbs and enables a better insight into the traditional basis of Serbian society (during the rule of Prince Milos). Therefore, the visionary views of T. Djordjevic represent a cultural heritage and a rich material for the study of the form of social community of the Serbs in the past and its developmental circumstances. Studying the folk life, he indirectly studied the condition and social relations in the traditional peasant society, not neglecting the emerging of the young Serbian bourgeois society. The basic characteristic of Djordjevic?s initial vision of the Serbian society, that is the specification of "turmoil" as the basic feature of Serbia two hundred years ago, is also characteristic for the spiritual climate in our country at the beginning of this century.

scholarly journals The Political Use of Prophecies in Indonesia

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mladen Stajić
Keyword(s):  
Political Activism ◽  
The Political ◽  
Cultural Perception ◽  
Political Situation ◽  
Political Struggles ◽  
Future Events ◽  
Perception Of Time ◽  
Historical Periods ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Influential Individuals

The paper analyzes through different historical periods in Indonesia the political instrumentalization of three prophetic narratives based on the prophecies of the medieval Javanese king Jayabaya, and looks at the ways in which millenniarist organizations and political activists have used the myths of the Savior and the Golden Age to achieve their own goals. The form of prophetic narratives has proved extremely productive in the process of channeling dissatisfaction and mobilizing for the purpose of political activism, and their interpretation does not only yield a clearer picture of the complex political situation and historical events, but also, through the actions of influential individuals, it provides insight into a number of other aspects of local culture, such as the forming of religious syncretism, the division of power in society or the cultural perception of time. The paper seeks to show that these prophecies do not aim to foretell future events, but rather serve as a means of ensuring the legitimacy of individuals in political struggles in the present time.

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