scholarly journals Reflecting on the principles and problems of solidarity

2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 1175-1192
Author(s):  
Jelena Vasiljevic
Keyword(s):  
Theory And Practice ◽  
The Political ◽  
Collective Intentionality ◽  
Voluntary Organizations ◽  
Social Brain ◽  
Complex Idea ◽  
The Social ◽  
Political Sources ◽  
Concrete Problem ◽  
Significant Step

This review essay takes a critical look at two recently published edited volumes, both focusing on the notion and problems of solidarity. Solidarity: Theory and Practice (Laitinen and Pessi, eds.) attempts to unpack the complex idea of solidaristic practice by looking at a whole range of related concepts, such as the social brain, collective intentionality, empathy, work, and voluntary organizations. The Strains of Commitment: The Political Sources of Solidarity in Diverse Societies (Banting and Kymlicka, eds.), on the other hand, focuses on a concrete problem: the generation and maintenance of redistributive solidarity within societies marked by diversity. Still, both volumes take a thorough and systematic look at existing scholarship on solidarity, and by encompassing both the theoretical and the empirical, mark a significant step forward in deepening our understanding of the role and place of solidarity in general social theory.

The Communist Roots of Zapatismo and the Zapatista Uprising

2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (1-3) ◽  
pp. 167-179 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Gunderson
Keyword(s):  
Political Development ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Contentious Politics ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
The Political ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Theoretical Status ◽  
The Social ◽  
Zapatista National Liberation Army ◽  
Late Nineteenth

This study suggests that communist politics had much deeper roots in the larger indigenous-campesino movement that formed the social base of the Zapatista National Liberation Army (ezln) than has previously been acknowledged. Tracing the political development of the indigenous communities of Chiapas, Mexico from the late nineteenth century to the founding of the ezln in 1983, it examines the influence of several currents of revolutionary socialist and communist theory and practice on the Zapatistas. It concludes with a call for further investigation into the theoretical status of communism as a category of a critical theory of contentious politics.

Four modalities of the experience of others in groups

2018 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 175-196 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victor L. Schermer
Keyword(s):  
Theory And Practice ◽  
The Other ◽  
Presentation Of Self ◽  
Social Brain ◽  
Ethical Imperative ◽  
Sense Data ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
The Social ◽  
European Philosophy ◽  
Group Members

The ways in which group members experience and interact with one another has been explored in philosophy from Greek antiquity to the present. In modern European philosophy, beginning with the Enlightenment, the problem of ‘the Other’ has been taken up by empirical, idealist, phenomenological and existential philosophers. Based on such philosophical discourse, this article presents a fourfold schema of ‘modalities’ through which people acquire knowledge of one another in groups. The four modalities are as follows: (1) ‘Mind’, the use of reason, cognition and sense data to form a model of the other person’s mental processes; (2) ‘Body’, the intuitive, empathic, embodied perception of others; (3) ‘Gaze’, the establishment of power and authority by scrutiny of each other’s presentation of self; and (4) ‘Face’, the ethical imperative presented by the Other. The ideas of (1) Descartes, Locke and Kant; (2) Merleau-Ponty; (3) Sartre and Foucault; and (4) Levinas are discussed to elucidate each modality. The relationships between the modalities, group analytic theory and neuroscience are explored to build bridges between philosophy, group theory and practice, and the neuroscience of the social brain.

Theory and Research Process in Social Sciences in Nigeria: A Synthesis and Evaluation of the State of Debate in Political Science

2000 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Celestine O. Bassey
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
The Political ◽  
Distant Future ◽  
The Past ◽  
Political Analysis ◽  
The Social ◽  
Disciplinary Matrix

The disciplinary matrix of politics has been at the epicentre of the theoretical and epistemic ferment which has characterized the social sciences in the past forty years. This epistemic ferment found cogent expression in the Nigerian social sciences in the!980s and 1990s, as could be seen in the works of a number of scholars. By and large, however, the ‘search for a paradigm’ an inclusive attempt to comprehend the theory and practice of states’ behaviour which has characterized endeavours in the political science discipline, in the West and East is still an exception rather than the rule in the literature concerning Africa in general and Nigeria in particular. The ‘golden age’ of contemporary political analysis involving the best and brightest in both East and West is still a distant future horizon for Nigeria. This paper argues that the reason for this epistemic ‘underdevelopment’ of political science in Nigeria has multiple causes and is organically linked to generational thought forces which devalue theory and methoiiin political science, castigate Marxist epistemology and seek through intimidation to make ‘disciples’ rather than ‘scholars’ out of the young ‘initiates’ into the discipline.

The Social Origins and Provenance of the English Bishops during the Reign of Edward II

1959 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 51-79
Author(s):  
K. Edwards
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Social Background ◽  
Early Career ◽  
The Political ◽  
Social Origins ◽  
Political Activities ◽  
Edward Ii ◽  
The Social ◽  
Complete Study ◽  
History Of

During the last twenty or twenty-five years medieval historians have been much interested in the composition of the English episcopate. A number of studies of it have been published on periods ranging from the eleventh to the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. A further paper might well seem superfluous. My reason for offering one is that most previous writers have concentrated on analysing the professional circles from which the bishops were drawn, and suggesting the influences which their early careers as royal clerks, university masters and students, secular or regular clergy, may have had on their later work as bishops. They have shown comparatively little interest in their social background and provenance, except for those bishops who belonged to magnate families. Some years ago, when working on the political activities of Edward II's bishops, it seemed to me that social origins, family connexions and provenance might in a number of cases have had at least as much influence on a bishop's attitude to politics as his early career. I there fore collected information about the origins and provenance of these bishops. I now think that a rather more careful and complete study of this subject might throw further light not only on the political history of the reign, but on other problems connected with the character and work of the English episcopate. There is a general impression that in England in the later middle ages the bishops' ties with their dioceses were becoming less close, and that they were normally spending less time in diocesan work than their predecessors in the thirteenth century.

Women in Power and Decision making Positions : Conditions and Restraints

1970 ◽  
pp. 53-57
Author(s):  
Azza Charara Baydoun
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Political Life ◽  
The Political ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Power Structures ◽  
Policies And Procedures ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Status ◽  
Slow Progress

Women today are considered to be outside the political and administrative power structures and their participation in the decision-making process is non-existent. As far as their participation in the political life is concerned they are still on the margins. The existence of patriarchal society in Lebanon as well as the absence of governmental policies and procedures that aim at helping women and enhancing their political participation has made it very difficult for women to be accepted as leaders and to be granted votes in elections (UNIFEM, 2002).This above quote is taken from a report that was prepared to assess the progress made regarding the status of Lebanese women both on the social and governmental levels in light of the Beijing Platform for Action – the name given to the provisions of the Fourth Conference on Women held in Beijing in 1995. The above quote describes the slow progress achieved by Lebanese women in view of the ambitious goal that requires that the proportion of women occupying administrative or political positions in Lebanon should reach 30 percent of thetotal by the year 2005!

Nazistowski mord na Żydach w prasie polskich komunistów (1942–1944).

2006 ◽  
pp. 54-75
Author(s):  
Klaus Peter Friedrich
Keyword(s):  
Shared Responsibility ◽  
The Political ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Social Democrats ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Government ◽  
Post War ◽  
Polish Government ◽  
The Right ◽  
Political Right

Facing the decisive struggle between Nazism and Soviet communism for dominance in Europe, in 1942/43 Polish communists sojourning in the USSR espoused anti-German concepts of the political right. Their aim was an ethnic Polish ‘national communism’. Meanwhile, the Polish Workers’ Party in the occupied country advocated a maximum intensification of civilian resistance and partisan struggle. In this context, commentaries on the Nazi judeocide were an important element in their endeavors to influence the prevailing mood in the country: The underground communist press often pointed to the fate of the murdered Jews as a warning in order to make it clear to the Polish population where a deficient lack of resistance could lead. However, an agreed, unconditional Polish and Jewish armed resistance did not come about. At the same time, the communist press constantly expanded its demagogic confrontation with Polish “reactionaries” and accused them of shared responsibility for the Nazi murder of the Jews, while the Polish government (in London) was attacked for its failure. This antagonism was intensified in the fierce dispute between the Polish and Soviet governments after the rift which followed revelations about the Katyn massacre. Now the communist propaganda image of the enemy came to the fore in respect to the government and its representatives in occupied Poland. It viewed the government-in-exile as being allied with the “reactionaries,” indifferent to the murder of the Jews, and thus acting ultimately on behalf of Nazi German policy. The communists denounced the real and supposed antisemitism of their adversaries more and more bluntly. In view of their political isolation, they coupled them together, in an undifferentiated manner, extending from the right-wing radical ONR to the social democrats and the other parties represented in the underground parliament loyal to the London based Polish government. Thereby communist propaganda tried to discredit their opponents and to justify the need for a new start in a post-war Poland whose fate should be shaped by the revolutionary left. They were thus paving the way for the ultimate communist takeover

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