Other Domains of Democratic Theory: Space, Power, and the Politics of Democratization

10.1068/d255t ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 255-276 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Slater
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Democratic Theory ◽  
Social Identities ◽  
Democratic Politics ◽  
Democratic Values ◽  
The West ◽  
Relations Of Power ◽  
Guiding Questions

Located in the analysis of spatial power and democratic politics, this paper brings together three guiding questions. First, given the fact that inside the West much theorization of power and social relations has assumed a geohistorical context that is intrinsically Western, to what extent and in what ways does this particularity constrain the conceptual and thematic effectiveness of the perspectives employed and especially in relation to the politics of democratization? Second, as it is most appropriate to argue that power shapes social identities, and that democratic politics cannot dispense with power, a key question becomes how to generate relations of power that are compatible with democratic values and opposed to ethnocentric privilege. Third, how can we open up a discussion of democratic politics so that the geographies of democratization can be explored in a way that might broaden our vision of power and geopolitics? These questions are pursued in the context of the coloniality of power and an exploration of the territoriality of democratization in the Peruvian and Bolivian cases. The overall objective is to go beyond the limits of a Euro—Americanist frame and open up the analysis of the complex and dynamic geographies of democracy.

scholarly journals Urban spatiality in the context of (homo/hetero)sexuality: Introduction to a theoretical debate in geographies of sexualities

Geografie ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 119 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-198 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michal Pitoňák
Keyword(s):  
Social Class ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Social Construction ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Social Identities ◽  
General Knowledge ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
The West ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social

The relevance and importance of sexualities as a geographical issue is yet to be recognized in Czechia, wherefore the main purpose of this article is to give spark to momentum to Czech geographies of sexualities. Consecutively, understandings of the issue produced from outside of the ‘West’ may contribute to our general knowledge about diverse spatialities of sexualities. For the sake of coherence, I narrow my discussion to urban geographies of sexualities and their various epistemologies. I begin with presenting evidence which suggests that sexualities have already been considered to be an important geographical subject in most Anglophone countries over the past 20 years. For this reason, the article is focused mostly on an Anglo-Saxon literature review figuring sexualities as being either social relations, axis of difference, social identities or categories not less important than gender, race and social class. I highlight the importance of discourse and its role in the social construction of sexualities. Finally, I provide a possible course for the study and production of geographies of sexualities in Czechia.

Beneath Improvisation

2019 ◽  
pp. 759-780
Author(s):  
Vijay Iyer
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Black Studies ◽  
Queer Studies ◽  
Traditional Music ◽  
Institutional Racism ◽  
Political Movements ◽  
The West ◽  
Subaltern Studies ◽  
Western Art ◽  
Critical Model

Improvisation has been construed as Western art music’s Other. This chapter urges music theorists to take the consequences of this configuration seriously. The decision to exclude improvisation as inherently unstable is not neutral, but is bound up with the endemic racism that has characterized social relations in the West and that is being brought to the fore in Black Lives Matter and other recent social and political movements. Traditional music theory is not immune from such institutional racism—its insistence on normative musical behaviors is founded on the (white) phallogocentrism of Western thought. Does the resurgent academic interest in improvisation offer a way out? No, at least not as it is currently studied. Even an apparently impartial approach such as cognitive science is not neutral; perception is colored by race. To get anywhere, this chapter argues, improvisation studies must take difference seriously. Important impetus for a more inclusive critical model comes from such fields as Black studies, Women’s studies, subaltern studies, queer studies, and disability studies.

scholarly journals Dinamika Kepentingan dan Interaksi Sosial Pedesaan: Studi Implikasi Alih Fungsi Lahan

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 64
Author(s):  
Dhina Yuliana ◽  
Faris Rahmadian ◽  
Nana Kristiawan ◽  
Selvy Anggriani Syarif
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Rural Communities ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Land Use Changes ◽  
Land Conversion ◽  
The West ◽  
The Social ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
Housing Estates

Land-use changes or land conversion issues not only poses a threat of ecological or environmental, but also trigger a variety of dynamics and complexity of social relations in it. West Cilebut Villages has been the target of investors and developers of housing since the 1990s, and now the West Cilebut Villages has changed from an area full of green “romantic” village, into the region filled with concrete. Therefore, this study was conducted to answer fundamental issues related to the issue of land conversion in the West Cilebut Village, first is to see the map and interests between actors in relation to land conversion in the West Cilebut Village, and second to know the social interactions dynamics that occur in West Cilebut community, following the land conversion from the farm into housing estates. The results showed that there are three main actors in relation to issues of land use change in West Cilebut Village: (1) The Housing Developer; (2) Village Apparatus / Government; (3) Society; where the three actors have a role and importance of different orientations. Meanwhile, social interaction between housing and rural communities basically shows a relationship of mutual need. Construction of housing community that luxurious and exclusive slowly turns into inclusive and reflect a resiprocity of the two communities. 

scholarly journals Amalgamation as a Strengthening Ethic

2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 334-341
Author(s):  
Joshua Fernando ◽  
Meta Sya ◽  
Rustono Farady Marta
Keyword(s):  
Social Identity ◽  
Social Identity Theory ◽  
Ethnic Diversity ◽  
Social Identities ◽  
Primary Group ◽  
Exploratory Research ◽  
The West ◽  
West Kalimantan ◽  
Mixed Marriages ◽  
Phenomenological Studies

Mixed Marriage or Amalgamation is a unique reality in the development of culture in Indonesia. In the midst of ethnic diversity in Indonesia, it is possible for amalgamation to occur, so that understanding one another is a condition for harmony. This study aims to discover how individuals' social identities are formed in the primary group, that is in families who do amalgamation and how are individuals' social identity in amalgamation pairs. This study uses a qualitative exploratory research method with phenomenological studies from the perspective of Tajfel & Turner's Social Identity theory. The results of this study are the symbols of Tong Ngin Fan Ngin Jit Jong in Bangka community as the principle of inter-ethnic equality of the individual's social identity in mixed marriages, while the act of losing personal identity as a member of one ethnic group (depersonalization) is occurred in the West Kalimantan due to conflict background ethnicity past.

scholarly journals Against the Grain: Socially Just Social Science from the Standpoint of Roxana Ng (Review Essay)

2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 136-159
Author(s):  
Elaine Coburn
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Review Essay ◽  
The Political ◽  
Race And Gender ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Relations Of Power ◽  
Varied Work

This contribution seeks to highlight the important scholarship of Roxana Ng, arguably one of Canadian sociology and political economy’s most underappreciated theorists. Like her activism, Ng’s academic work is both wide-ranging yet firmly focused on major, unjust inequalities. Her research particularly concerns the Canadian capitalist political economy but inevitably, given the embeddedness of these social relations within worldwide historical relations, stretches beyond national borders. In particular, Ng sought to unpack the everyday, intertwined – exploitative and unjust – relations of class, race, and gender, and the ways these unjust relations are articulated through migration and citizenship. This contribution situates the reception and uneven uptake of Ng’s varied work before critically analysing her contributions to understanding (1) immigrant women’s labour in Canada, (2) the complex racialized, gendered relations of power in the academy, and (3) the liberatory potential of embodied epistemologies, specifically Qi Gong meditation. In the conclusions, I consider the overall contributions and some contradictions of her work, in moving from the local to the global, and from the personal to the political.

Multidimensionality and the Matrix: Identifying Charter Violations in Cases of Complex Subordination

2010 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kerri A. Froc
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Freedom Of Expression ◽  
Supreme Court Of Canada ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Aboriginal Women ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Matrix ◽  
The Government ◽  
Relations Of Power ◽  
Aboriginal Groups

AbstractThe failure of the Supreme Court of Canada to give more than lip service to “context” when considering claims under s. 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms arises largely from the Court's analytic framework, which resists recognizing the social relations of power inherent in complex cases of oppression. The precise nature of the flaws in the Court's analysis is demonstrated in a number of thoughtful feminist critiques that received recognition in the recent decision in R. v. Kapp. While it is too soon to tell whether the Court intends to depart completely from the past decade of s. 15 jurisprudence, equality-seeking groups now have greater opportunities to advance alternative theoretical frameworks for Charter interpretation. This article discusses one such framework, multidimensionality theory, which focuses on the interaction of systems of oppression, conceptualized as an invisible matrix—a vast network of complex, overlapping, interactive, and mutually reinforcing systems. The operation of the systems obscures their effects, and their complexity renders outcomes difficult to predict when they interconnect at sites of subordination and privilege. One can expose the operation of the systems by looking at particular sites of oppression/privilege and considering the contradictions or “inexplicability” of the circumstances based on one system alone. The author argues that the failure of the Charter claim at the heart of the Supreme Court's decision in Native Women's Association of Canada v. Canada demonstrates the need for courts to employ multidimensionality theory in cases of complex oppression. In NWAC, multidimensionality theory reveals that the “dominant” Aboriginal groups were involved in the negotiation/performance of hegemonic masculinities within a racial/colonial context that provided them with justification to suppress NWAC's independent promotion of the interests of Aboriginal women in constitutional negotiations with the government, and that the government was complicit in this performance. By framing the freedom of expression issue as whether NWAC had a “special” right to a speaking platform, and the equality issue as exclusively one of determining whether NWAC could prove the other groups were “male dominated,” the Court fragmented considerations of patriarchy from those of racism and colonization, distorting the synergistic effect of the systems of oppression and reinforcing colonial ideology.

Making and Remaking: The Practice Research of Place

Placemaking ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 123-149
Author(s):  
Tara Page
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
The Body ◽  
Innovative Approach ◽  
New Materialism ◽  
Practice Research ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Empirical Methods ◽  
Artistic Practice ◽  
Practice Methods ◽  
Relations Of Power

To understand and question these everyday and artistic practices of life that are sometimes invisible or hidden - and most of the time taken for granted - because they are sensed, felt, of the body, and not easily verbalised, an embodied, affective, relational research approach is needed. The innovative approach of practice research, underpinned by new materialism, that can enable these understandings are discussed in Chapter Five. Additionally, inventive artistic practice methods and a remaking of traditional empirical methods are examined that enable the exploration of the agency of matter and advance vitalist frameworks. By moving beyond the problem-focused approach this chapter works the intra-actions of theory with practice, practice with theory, to develop new approaches to new materialist-place practice research. The practice research approach also politically positions research practices, emphasising the complex materiality of bodies immersed in social relations of power.

Jacques Rancière

In the Street ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 121-150
Author(s):  
Çiğdem Çidam
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Democratic Theory ◽  
Democratic Politics ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Theory Of Education ◽  
Democratic Action ◽  
Action Taking ◽  
As If

This chapter demonstrates that Rancière’s journey to democratic theory started in the aftermath of May 1968 with his efforts to overcome the problematic transformation of political theory into “a theory of education.” For Rancière, unpredictability is integral to democratic politics. Thus, in an anti-Rousseauian move, he emphasizes the theatrical aspect of democratic action: taking on a role other than who they are, acting as if they are a part in a given social order in which they have no part, political actors stage their equality, disrupting the existing distribution of the sensible. Rancière’s focus on the moments of disruption, however, opens him to the charge of reducing democratic politics to immediate acts of negation. Insofar as he erases the role of intermediating practices in the stagings of equality, Rancière imposes on his accounts a kind of purity that his own work, with its emphasis on broken, polemical voices, cautions against.

scholarly journals Democracy by Delegation? Who Represents Whom and How in European Governance

2011 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-125 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Bellamy ◽  
Dario Castiglione
Keyword(s):  
Democratic Politics ◽  
Democratic Legitimacy ◽  
Democratic Values ◽  
Political Equality ◽  
European Governance ◽  
European Public ◽  
Modes Of Governance ◽  
New Modes Of Governance

AbstractThe democratic legitimacy of European governance is often said to rest on its ‘output’. However, such arguments also make the implicit ‘input’ claim that the community method and new modes of governance offer a more participatory and deliberative style of democratic politics to standard democratic processes, which is best suited to represent the European interest. We test such claims by analysing them from three different perspectives: functional, societal and delegatory. We conclude that they are grounded on a substantive conception of representation in which the agents of European governance ‘stand’ or ‘act’ for the European public. However, such claims are empty without formal democratic processes of authorization and accountability that ensure European governance effectively promotes the democratic values of political equality and responsiveness.

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