scholarly journals Los retos de las democracias desnacionalizadas: apuntes para el debate

2020 ◽  
pp. 350-379
Author(s):  
Auxkin Galarraga Ezponda

El artículo es una introducción general al debate planteado en el dossier. Ofrece una visión panorámica y general sobre algunos de los retos más importantes a los que se enfrentan las democracias liberales, en un periodo caracterizado por los procesos de desnacionalización que han remodelado de forma significativa las capacidades y posibilidades de respuesta a los mismos por parte de los Estados- Nación. Se señalan tres problemas principales que en la actualidad tensionan internamente el devenir de las sociedades democráticas: i) las desigualdades estructurales de las sociedades del conocimiento; ii) la desconfianza institucional y la pérdida de la legitimidad social de las instituciones democráticas; iii) la deriva autoritaria de los Estados democráticos y la expansión del discurso del odio. Cada uno de estos problemas, que en este artículo se exponen de forma breve e introductoria, obtiene un tratamiento en mayor profundidad en el resto de los artículos de los que se compone el dossier. Por ello, el artículo finaliza con una invitación a degustar las sabias reflexiones de los autores invitados al mismo. The article is a general introduction to the debate raised in the dossier. It offers a panoramic and general vision of some of the most important challenges facing liberal democracies, in a period characterized by the denationalization processes that have significantly remodeled the capacities and possibilities of response to them by the Nation-states. Three main problems that currently stress internally the future of democratic societies are pointed out: i) the structural inequalities of knowledge societies; ii) institutional distrust and loss of the social legitimacy of democratic institutions; iii) the authoritarian drift of democratic states and the spread of hate speech. Each of these problems, which in this article are briefly presented, obtains a more in-depth treatment in the rest of the articles of which the dossier is composed. Therefore, the article ends with an invitation to read the wise reflections of the authors invited to it.

2013 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 789-813 ◽  
Author(s):  
ADRIAN LITTLE ◽  
KATE MACDONALD

AbstractCritics of global democracy have often claimed that the social and political conditions necessary for democracy to function are not met at the global level, and are unlikely to be in the foreseeable future. Such claims are usually developed with reference to national democratic institutions, and the social conditions within national democratic societies that have proved important in sustaining them. Although advocates of global democracy have contested such sceptical conclusions, they have tended to accept the method of reasoning from national to global contexts on which they are based. This article critiques this method of argument, showing that it is both highly idealised in its characterisation of national democratic practice, and overly state-centric in its assumptions about possible institutional forms that global democracy might take. We suggest that if aspiring global democrats – and their critics – are to derive useful lessons from social struggles to create and sustain democracy within nation states, a less idealised and institutionally prescriptive approach to drawing global lessons from national experience is required. We illustrate one possible such approach with reference to cases from both national and global levels, in which imperfect yet meaningful democratic practices have survived under highly inhospitable – and widely varying – conditions.


2020 ◽  
Vol 62 (2) ◽  
pp. 327-358
Author(s):  
Thomas R. Prendergast

AbstractIf historians now recognize that the Habsburg Monarchy was developing into a strong, cohesive state in the decades before the First World War, they have yet to fully examine contemporaneous European debates about Austria's legitimacy and place in the future world order. As the intertwined fields of law and social science began during this period to elaborate a binary distinction between “modern” nation-states and “archaic” multinational “empires,” Austria, like other composite monarchies, found itself searching for a legally and scientifically valid justification for its continued existence. This article argues that Austrian sociology provided such a justification and was used to articulate a defense of the Habsburg Monarchy and other supposedly “abnormal” multinational states. While the birth of the social sciences is typically associated with Germany and France, a turn to sociology also occurred in the late Habsburg Monarchy, spurred by legal scholars who feared that the increasingly hegemonic idea of nation-based sovereignty threatened the stability of the pluralistic Austrian state. Proponents of the “sociological idea of the state,” notably the sociologist, politician, and later president of Czechoslovakia Tomáš Masaryk and the Polish-Jewish sociologist and jurist Ludwig Gumplowicz, challenged the concept of statehood advanced by mainstream Western European legal philosophy and called for a reform of Austria's law and political science curriculum. I reveal how, more than a century before the “imperial turn,” Habsburg actors came to reject the emerging scholarly distinction between “nations” and “empires” and fought, with considerable success, to institutionalize an alternative to nationalist social scientific discourse.


Design Issues ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 6-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stuart Reeves ◽  
Murray Goulden ◽  
Robert Dingwall

An often unacknowledged yet foundational problem for design is how ‘futures‘ are recruited for design practice. This problem saturates considerations of what could or should be designed. We distinguish two intertwined approaches to this: ‘pragmatic projection’, which tries to tie the future to the past, and ‘grand vision’, which ties the present to the future. We examine ubiquitous computing as a case study of how pragmatic projection and grand vision are practically expressed to direct and structure design decisions. We assess their implications and conclude by arguing that the social legitimacy of design futures should be increasingly integral to their construction.


2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 97
Author(s):  
Muhammad Amin Abdullah

The trend of Islamic sciences in the future, especially kalam Science/Islamic philosophy is a religion sciences that haveto interact and dialogue with modern science, the social sciences and humanities. If scientific Kalam and IslamicPhilosophy felt enough with himself (al-muhafadzah ala al-qadim al-shlih), refusing to touch and connect with otherscientific (wa al-akhdz bi al- jadid al-ashlah), then there is no future can be expected, morever their contribution to thedevelopment of the nations character. This paper describes the themes of what is required to form the new religious(Islamic) worldview that can contribute to the development of the nations character. Islamic sciences requires freshijtihad to deal with the contemporary of life, it is not enough just to repeating the experience of the past without lookinghow the development of the present and the future. Past (al-turts) is still needed, but also needed a paradigm shifttowards the present (al-hadtsah) in view of the contemporary religious and solve problems, especially those related tothe issue of character development in the format state of the nation (nation-states).


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 167-266
Author(s):  
Molly Morgan Jones ◽  
Dominic Abrams ◽  
Aditi Lahiri

COVID-19 is the most challenging global public health crisis we have faced for many decades. However, it is more than a health crisis. The impacts go well beyond the medical sphere and are changing lives, livelihoods, communities and economies within and across nation-states. The British Academy launched its Shape the Future initiative in May 2020 to bring insights from the social sciences, humanities and the arts together to understand how we can shape a positive future for people, the econ�omy and the environment post-pandemic. These disciplines have a critical role to play in the handling of and recovery from the pandemic. This paper summarises the discussions held during twenty policy and research workshops which considered topics under three broad themes relevant to the post-pandemic future: revitalising societal well-being, recreating an inclusive economy around purpose, and revisiting the histories and cultures of science, policy and politics.


Discourse ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 78-93
Author(s):  
A. V. Shcherbina

Introduction. The purpose of the study is to analyze and generalize the views on transhumanism (TH), presented in the modern discourse, and conceptual approaches to assessing the consequences of its spread. The relevance of the sociological analysis of TH is determined by the intensity of discussions and the inconsistency of its assessments in social media and the expert community, the growth of its international influence and the threats of the implementation of new norms set by the ideology of TH. The scientific novelty of the work consists in a typological interpretation of the concept of TH in its activity and information and communication aspects.Methodology and sources. In the work the results of studies presented in domestic and foreign publications on TH are used, as well as the materials of the public pages of the online communities Transhumanism and Transhumanism Without Borders in the social networks VKontakte and LiveJournal. Explanatory models of classical and non-classical sociology are involved: the theory of imitation of G. Tarde, the sociocultural approach of E. Durkheim, the structural-functional analysis of T. Parsons, the genealogical analysis of M. Foucault, the theory of rationality of J. Habermas. The historical-genetic method is used, which is adequate to the individualizing nature of socio-historical knowledge.Results and discussion. TH is a new global ideology that configures images of the social world dating back to archaic myths with representations of a synthetic theory of evolution, technoscience, and social philosophy. TH is an ideology adequate to the conditions that gave rise to it and a new type of social subject: weakening nation-states and the formation of the information contour of global society, a new communication infrastructure as a space for universal material and spiritual exchange, a new social subject – “communities” mobilized to fight for personal rights and self-determination in the anthropological field. The lifestyle constructed in the experimental mode is given a normative value. TH meets the imperative of globalization as a cultural ideology, since it interprets culture as a universe of methods, tools, and technologies that allow a person to rationally influence himself. Rationality in the TH is the highest value, a criterion for assessing and selecting the normative constructions of the future, developed by communities (minorities), which are underlined by features of ethnicity and cultural and historical identity.Critical arguments and polemics with TH in religious discourse are examined. The ideological status of TH is discussed. There is a radicalization in the TH of the ideas of liberalism and communism. TH is being studied as a platform uniting the ideological subcultures of communities oriented toward “rationality”, the analysis of which draws on the potential of non-classical sociology.Conclusion. TH is a utopia in a specific sense: it is a socio-anthropological practice, represented in the theoretical consciousness as an image of the future, and in practical terms as an experimental present. We must evaluate the social consequences of the spread of the ideology of TH at the same time by methods of historical analysis and futuristic modeling.


Crisis ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 202-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karl Andriessen ◽  
Dolores Angela Castelli Dransart ◽  
Julie Cerel ◽  
Myfanwy Maple

Abstract. Background: Suicide can have a lasting impact on the social life as well as the physical and mental health of the bereaved. Targeted research is needed to better understand the nature of suicide bereavement and the effectiveness of support. Aims: To take stock of ongoing studies, and to inquire about future research priorities regarding suicide bereavement and postvention. Method: In March 2015, an online survey was widely disseminated in the suicidology community. Results: The questionnaire was accessed 77 times, and 22 records were included in the analysis. The respondents provided valuable information regarding current research projects and recommendations for the future. Limitations: Bearing in mind the modest number of replies, all from respondents in Westernized countries, it is not known how representative the findings are. Conclusion: The survey generated three strategies for future postvention research: increase intercultural collaboration, increase theory-driven research, and build bonds between research and practice. Future surveys should include experiences with obtaining research grants and ethical approval for postvention studies.


2008 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-40
Author(s):  
Vera Eccarius-Kelly

The article examines trends in voting preferences and voting behavior of Turkish-origin German voters. Despite only representing a small percentage of the total German electorate, Turkish-origin voters are gaining an opportunity to shape the future political landscape. While the Social Democrats have benefited most directly from the minority constituency so far, this author suggests that the Green Party is poised to attract the younger, better educated, and German-born segment of the Turkish-origin voters. All other dominant national parties have ignored this emerging voting bloc, and missed opportunities to appeal to Turkish-origin voters by disregarding community-specific interests. 


Contention ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tareq Sydiq
Keyword(s):  

Based on fieldwork carried out from 2017 and 2018, this article examines various attempts to both organize publicly and disrupt such attempts during the Iranian protests during that time. It argues that interference with spatial realities influenced the social coalitions built during the protests, impacting the capacity of actors to build such coalitions. The post-2009 adaptation of the state inhibited cross-class coalitions despite being challenged, while actors used spatial phrasing indicating they perceived spatial divisions to emulate political ones. Meanwhile, in the immediate aftermath of the December 2017 protests, further attempts to control protest actions impacted not only those who would be able to participate in such events in the future, but also those who felt represented by them and who would be likely to sympathize with them. Based on the spatial conditions under which coalitions form, I argue that asymmetrical contestations of spatiality determined the outcome of the December 2017 protests and may contribute to an understanding of how alliances in Iran will form in the future.


2019 ◽  
Vol 110 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-45

The society of medieval Europe had specific expectations for marriageable girls. From an early age girls were taught how to be wives and mothers, for example by being entrusted with the care of their younger siblings. The girls learned everything they would need in the future by observation. According to the teachings of preachers and writers at the time, girls, irrespective of their social status, were not meant to remain idle, as there were fears that with too much free time on their hands, they might spend it contemplating their looks, practising gestures that were to attract the attention of men or spending time alone in the streets and squares, thus exposing themselves to a variety of dangers. A wife was expected to bear a lot of children, preferably boys, because the mortality rate among young children was high at the time. Wifely duties also included raising children, at least until they were taken over by, for example, a tutor hired by the father, managing the household and ensuring every possible comfort for the husband. As Gilbert of Tournai noted, it was the mother who was expected to bring up the children in faith and to teach them good manners. The duties of the wife obviously depended on her social standing — different duties were expected from the wives of noblemen than from women lower down on the social ladder, who often had to help their husbands, in addition to doing everyday chores.


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