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Four years after the Panama Papers scandal, tax avoidance remains an urgent moral-political problem. Moving beyond both the academic and policy mainstream, I advocate the “democratization of tax enforcement,” by which I mean systematic efforts to make tax avoiders accountable to the judgment of ordinary citizens. Both individual oligarchs and multinational corporations have access to sophisticated tax avoidance strategies that impose significant fiscal costs on democracies and exacerbate preexisting distributive and political inequalities. Yet much contemporary tax sheltering occurs within the letter of the law, rendering criminal sanctions ineffective. In response, I argue for the creation of Citizen Tax Juries, deliberative minipublics empowered to scrutinize tax avoiders, demand accountability, and facilitate concrete reforms. This proposal thus responds to the wider aspiration, within contemporary democratic theory, to secure more popular control over essential economic processes.
Four years after the Panama Papers scandal, tax avoidance remains an urgent moral-political problem. Moving beyond both the academic and policy mainstream, I advocate the “democratization of tax enforcement,” by which I mean systematic efforts to make tax avoiders accountable to the judgment of ordinary citizens. Both individual oligarchs and multinational corporations have access to sophisticated tax avoidance strategies that impose significant fiscal costs on democracies and exacerbate preexisting distributive and political inequalities. Yet much contemporary tax sheltering occurs within the letter of the law, rendering criminal sanctions ineffective. In response, I argue for the creation of Citizen Tax Juries, deliberative minipublics empowered to scrutinize tax avoiders, demand accountability, and facilitate concrete reforms. This proposal thus responds to the wider aspiration, within contemporary democratic theory, to secure more popular control over essential economic processes.
The system of representative democracy is under considerable strain. Its institutions are struggling to maintain legitimacy, and its elected representatives are failing to keep their monopoly on (formal) political representation. An emerging multitude of (new) claim makers contests the authority of elected representatives as well as the functioning of the existing system of representative democracy by alleging misrepresentation. In this article, we identify a significant shortcoming in Saward’s claims-making approach; specifically, we argue that it offers little direction in addressing misrepresentation. We distinguish between claims of representation and claims of misrepresentation, and show how the latter can fulfill one, two or all three of the following functions: (1) they appeal to an enemy/antagonist (strategy), (2) identify causes of misrepresentation related to policies, politics, and polity (persuasion), and (3) claim to create a new linkage to "the people", sometimes present themselves as new representatives (reframing). To test this proposed framework, we compare claims of misrepresentation in Brazil made by civil society groups (before and during the presidential impeachment between 2014 and 2016) and in Germany (focusing on the parliamentarians of the Alternative for Germany during the first six months of mandate). Our results suggest that claims of misrepresentation are not intrinsically democratic or undemocratic, but are instead ambiguous, have different manifestations and disparate impacts on the representative system. Our article contributes to the conceptual development of the claims approach and to further understanding several critical and current challenges to representative democracy.
This article seeks to build a bridge between the empirical scholarship rooted in the traditional theory of political representation and constructivist theory on representation by focusing on the authorization of claims. It seeks to answer how claims can be authorized beyond elections - selecting three democratic innovations and tracing claims through the claim-making process. Different participatory democratic innovations are selected - providing various claims and taking place in different institutional contexts, i.e., (elected) members of the Council of Foreigners Frankfurt; individual citizens in participatory budgeting procedures in Münster; and citizen’s associations elected politicians in the referendum campaign in Hamburg. We first analyze the claims raised by the different claim-makers to identify their claimed constituency eligible to authorize claims. In the second step, we focus on the authorization by the claimed constituency and the relevant decision-making authority. The article finds that claim-making in democratic innovations is fractured and incomplete. Nevertheless, this is not the reason to dismiss democratic innovations as possible loci of representation; on the contrary, seen through the prism of claim-making, all representation – electoral and nonelectoral – is partial. Focusing on the authorization of claims in democratic innovations provides novel inferences about the potential and limits of democratic innovations for broadening democratic representation.
t is becoming less and less controversial that we ought to aggressively combat climate change. One main reason for doing so is concern for future generations, as it is they who will be the most seriously affected by it. Surprisingly, none of the more prominent deontological theories of intergenerational justice can explain why it is wrong for the present generation to do very little to stop worsening the problem. This paper discusses three such theories, namely indirect reciprocity, common ownership of the earth and human rights. It shows that while indirect reciprocity and common ownership are both too undemanding, the human rights approach misunderstands the nature of our intergenerational relationships, thereby capturing either too much or too little about what is problematic about climate change. The paper finally proposes a way to think about intergenerational justice that avoids the pitfalls of the traditional theories and can explain what is wrong with perpetuating climate change.
However far we are from either in practice, basic global and intergenerational justice, including climate change mitigation, are taken to be theoretically compatible. If population grows as predicted, this could cease to be the case. This paper asks whether that tragic legacy can now be averted without hard or even tragic choices on population policy. Current generations must navigate between: a high-stakes gamble on undeveloped technology; violating human rights; demanding unbearable sacrifices of the already badly off; institutional unfairness across adults; institutional unfairness across children; failing to protect children’s basic interests; and threatening the autonomy of the family. We are not yet forced to choose between bequeathing a tragic choice and making one, by adopting basically unjust measures. However, even the remaining options present a morally hard choice. The fact we face it is yet another damning indictment on the combined actions and collective failures of the global elite.
Climate justice
(2015)
Coercion or privatization? Crisis and planned economies in the debates of the early Frankfurt School
(2023)
The 1930s–1940s underwent profound structural economic and political turmoil following the collapse of the nineteenth century liberal market economies. The intellectual debates of the time were dominated by the question of whether Marx’s theory of the tendency of rate of profit to fall was true, or what consequence could be imagined in the survival of capitalist societies. Placed in the middle of such debates was also the reorganization of national productions into war economies. By means of reconstructive analysis, the paper provides a critical overview of the debates that took place within the circle of the Frankfurt School during those years. It also advances an interpretive thesis suggesting that remedies to capitalist crises of the time turned state powers into privatized, illiberal coercive entities. Coercion and privatization reinforced each other. This general tendency is well illustrated by the famous Pollock-Neumann debate. These intellectuals expressed views not only intended to shed light on the historical period of time, but also to formulate long-term considerations on the authoritarian trends embedded in our contemporary democracies. Through historical reconstruction, the paper’s aim is to identify a long-term structural thread of transformation starting from the transformation of the German economy in 1930s and touching upon post Second World War problems of states’ restructuring along privatization/coercion divides.
Coming of voting age. Evidence from a natural experiment on the effects of electoral eligibility
(2024)
In recent years, several jurisdictions have lowered the voting age, with many more discussing it. Sceptics question whether young people are ready to vote, while supporters argue that allowing them to vote would increase their specific engagement with politics. To test the latter argument, we use a series of register-based surveys of over 10,000 German adolescents. Knowing the exact birthdates of our respondents, we estimate the causal effect of eligibility on their information-seeking behaviour in a regression discontinuity design. While eligible and non-eligible respondents do not differ in their fundamental political dispositions, those allowed to vote are more likely to discuss politics with their family and friends and to use a voting advice application. This effect appears to be stronger for voting age 16 than for 18. The right to vote changes behaviour. Therefore, we cannot conclude from the behaviour of ineligible citizens that they are unfit to vote.
This essay presents contributions by Jürgen Habermas and Paulo Freire for the constitution of critical-reflexive subjects and the implications in the teaching-research-extension processes in the field of Organizational Studies. We show that intersubjectivity and dialogicity are conditions for the understanding between subjects and it is precisely through these conditions that the subjects are constituted, in a process that is dialogical, pedagogical and political. Freire and Habermas offer elements to deconstruct dominant instrumental logic and provide the basis for the reconstruction of unprecedented-viable possibilities of ways of organizing and managing. Therefore, this article highlights the importance of Organizational Studies to broaden the focus of teaching-research-extension possibilities and directs them to a communicative and dialogic engagement, beyond the borders of universities. This reconstruction indicates that researchers participate in different public arenas, debate and build public problems, processes of resistance, visibility, and dramatization of problematic issues. Observing the contributions of Freire and Habermas, Organizational Studies as a field cannot be limited to developing a critique, from a distant point of view: it is necessary to co-participate, co-act, co-operate and co-construct with its public.
Mapping a public discourse with the tools of computational text analysis comes with many contingencies in the areas of corpus curation, data processing and analysis, and visualisation. However, the complexity of algorithmic assemblies and the beauty of resulting images give the impression of ‘objectivity’. Instead of concealing uncertainties and artefacts in order to tell a coherent and all-encompassing story, retaining the variety of alternative assemblies may actually strengthen the method. By utilising the mobility of digital devices, we could create mutable mobiles that allow access to our laboratories and enable challenging rearrangements and interpretations.
Este artigo apresenta contribuições de Jürgen Habermas e Paulo Freire para a constituição de sujeitos crítico-reflexivos e suas implicações nos processos de ensino/pesquisa/extensão no campo dos Estudos Organizacionais. Mostramos que intersubjetividade e dialogicidade são condições para o entendimento entre sujeitos e é justamente por meio delas que ocorre sua constituição em um processo que é dialógico, pedagógico e político. Freire e Habermas oferecem elementos para desconstruir a lógica instrumental dominante e fornecem bases para a reconstrução de possibilidades inéditas/viáveis de formas de organizar e gerir. A partir disso, este artigo destaca a importância dos Estudos Organizacionais ampliarem o foco das possibilidades de ensino/pesquisa/extensão e direciona-os para um engajamento comunicativo e dialógico, ultrapassando as fronteiras das universidades. Essa reconstrução indica aos pesquisadores que participem de diferentes arenas públicas, do debate e da construção de problemas, em processos de resistência, da visibilidade e dramatização de questões problemáticas. Nos caminhos de Freire e Habermas, os Estudos Organizacionais não podem apenas desenvolver uma crítica à distância: é preciso coparticipar, co-agir, co-operar e coconstruir com os públicos em que se engajam.
Tras presentar una somera panorámicade la evolución experimentada por la noción de «comunidad» desde Aristóteles hasta Hegel, este trabajo se detiene a analizar la célebre distinción acuñada por Ferdinand Tónnies entre sociedad y comunidad. Mientrasen Europa se tergiversaron enfoques teóricos como el de Tónnies hasta propiciar el surgimiento de auténticas aberraciones políticas, al contribuir involuntariamente a la creación del mito de la «comunidad del pueblo», en los Estados Unidos el debate sobre la «comunidad» siempre representó un ingrediente indispensable para una mejor comprensión de la sociedad liberal. Aun cuando, a partir de la Segunda Guerra Mundial, el concepto de «comunidad» brillópor su ausencia en las reflexiones de la teoría política, durante los últimos años la discusión en torno al «comunitarismo» ha estimulado una inesperada revitalización del mismo y su presencia en toda suerte de consideraciones morales, políticas o sociológicas.
L’autor sosté que el que caracteritza les societats liberals democràtiques és un cert grau d’intersubjectivitati cohesió. Segons ells, els liberals coincideixen amb els comunitaristes aconsiderar que aquestes característiques només poden aparèixer en la forma de «comunitat».Partint d’aquesta coincidència, argumenta, primer, presentant un concepte mínim de comunitaten el qual tots els comunitaristes estarien d’acord i que conté, com a nucli, el supòsitque l’autorealització humana va unida a una praxi vital comunitària. Aquesta autorealitzaciórau en l’estimació mútua entre els qui viuen en societat. La qüestió és establir relacionsde solidaritat de manera que les capacitats de l’altre puguin fer possible l’enriquimentde la pròpia vida. El concepte mínim de comunitat postradicional es definirà finalmentcom aquesta forma de solidaritat que implica estimació mútua i que, alhora, uneix amb elsupòsit de valors compartits.
Concepts historiques du capitalisme industriel avancé : « capitalisme organisé » et « corporatisme »
(2018)
Les économistes comme les spécialistes de sciences sociales semblent largement s’accorder sur le fait que le capitalisme industriel est entré à un moment donné dans une phase avancée de son développement, tout particulièrement dans ses variantes que l’on observe en Europe de l’Ouest, en Amérique du Nord et au Japon. Que le capitalisme se situe encore à cette étape, ou qu’il l’ait entre-temps déjà dépassée et laissée à nouveau derrière lui, il se différencie à tout le moins de la phase antérieure (ou bien des phases antérieures), à laquelle on peut rattacher le début d’une première industrialisation et l’avènement de l’industrialisation massive (Hochindustrialisierung). ...
A concepção de indivíduo na sociedade administrada é analisada por Horkheimer e Adorno (1973), no ensaio Indivíduo no livro Temas Básicos da Sociologia, cujo método de exposição instiga à reflexão sobre a concepção de indivíduo e as possibilidades de formação e educação na sociedade administrada, demonstrando que a concepção de indivíduo na Filosofia ora tendia para uma ênfase na subjetividade em detrimento das condições objetivas sociais, ora tendia à totalidade social, negligenciando a singularidade do indivíduo. Em seguida, estabelecem articulações entre as diferentes esferas complementares (indivíduo e sociedade) e as consequências sobre a formação do indivíduo e a educação na contemporaneidade, problematizadas por Adorno (2000), em sua obra Educação e Emancipação, quanto às suas possibilidades e limites na sociedade administrada.
This article is an attempt to re-read the magnum opus of Adorno's philosophy, namely Aesthetic Theory, using an interpretative key offered by Agata Bielik-Robson's book entitled Jewish Cryptotheologies of Late Modernity: Philosophical Marranos. This interpretative key, called by the Author The Marrano Strategy implemented to Adorno's late philosophy allows us to investigate the common points of Adorno's theory of art criticism and modern Jewish thought. Therefore the main question of this text concerns the characteristics of Jewishness and messianicity (Scholem, Derrida) in Adorno's Aesthetic Theory. The thesis that I am attempting to justify is as follows: the implementation of Marrano strategy to the modern art criticism redefines and reverses the relationship between the particular element and the universal domain. Consequently, this dialectical 'appreciation' of the particular establishes a common conceptual field for critical thinking and traditional, religious motifs.
O estudo aqui desenvolvido trata da formação da consciência social tensionada pela alienação e emancipação intersubjetiva. O problema da pesquisa é saber como o agir comunicativo de Habermas pode contribuir para a formação da consciência social/ética, contraposta aos processos de alienação. Para tanto, será feito uma releitura histórico-conceitual de alguns pontos da filosofia habermasiana. Objetiva-se, assim, discutir quais os principais elementos da Teoria do Agir Comunicativo contribuem para a formação de uma consciência social que concilie comunidade e pluralidade. Os sujeitos inevitavelmente fazem parte de certos contextos. Participar de um contexto/comunidade, exige uma consciência social atravessando as relações, o que implica co-responsabilidade e cooperação. Por fim, a formação de uma consciência sócio-ética só é possível através de uma comunicação aberta e argumentativa, cuja normatividade traz uma pretensão de validade pública.
This reading of Pride and Prejudice and Mansfield Park suggests that the semantic framework of the novels is provided by the contrast between two meanings of the word consequence, the archaic meaning of social or emotional importance and the common and garden meaning of effect of a cause. It also suggests that the narrative structure of the novels is that of a game of consequences, a game that was played at the time of Jane Austen.
The paper addresses the problem of justifying ethically sound dimensions of poverty or well-being for use in a multidimensional framework. We combine Sen’s capability approach and Rawls’ method of political constructivism and argue that the constitution and its interpretative practice can serve as an ethically suitable informational basis for selecting dimensions, under certain conditions. We illustrate our Constitutional Approach by deriving a set of well-being dimensions from an analysis of the Italian Constitution. We argue that this method is both an improvement on those used in the existing literature from the ethical point of view, and has a strong potential for providing the ethical basis of a conception of well-being for the public affairs of a pluralist society. In the final part, we elaborate on the implications for measuring well-being based on data, by ranking Italian regions in terms of well-being, and pointing out the differences in results produced by different methods.
This paper critically engages the legal and political framework for responding to democracy and rule of law backsliding in the EU. I develop a new and original critique of Article 7 TEU based on it being democratically illegitimate and normatively incoherent qua itself in conflict with EU fundamental values. Other more incremental and scaleable responses are desirable, and the paper moves on to assess the legitimacy of economic sanctions such as tying access to EU funds to performance on democratic and rule of law indicators or imposing fines on backsliding states. I hold such sanctions to be a priori legitimate, and argue that in some cases economic sanctions are even normatively required, given that EU material support of backsliding member states can amount to material complicity in their backsliding. However, an economic conditionality mechanism would need to be designed to minimize unjust and counterproductive effects. One way to pursue this could be to complement sanctions against the backsliding government with investment for prodemocratic actors in that state.
Contemporary closed circuits – subversive dialogues : artistic strategies against surveillance
(2010)
In the past years surveillance, especially visual surveillance systems, have entered our cities and streets on a large scale. In my hometown Frankfurt/Main, the city centre and traffic-hubs have become zones under intensive surveillance. Over 120 cameras are installed at the central station, over 2,000 at the airport. In such highly surveilled places it is impossible to remain unobserved. The extent of surveillance in the United Kingdom and the USA offers a glance into the future. In these countries visual surveillance systems have spread into the farthest corners of cities and villages and into the privacy of their inhabitants.
This development calls for artistic endeavours which examine the phenomenon and raise people’s awareness of CCTV. Subversive strategies have to be developed which counter the inherent power relations of surveillance systems and foster self-confident, active behaviour towards the instruments of control.
The ongoing artistic project, Contemporary Closed Circuits – Subversive Dialogues, examines practices of contemporary visual surveillance. The works explore possibilities of interaction with and subversion of systems of observation. Most of the works were produced during the past three years as an artistic final thesis at Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany.
Em particular em seus textos anteriores a Luta por reconhecimento, Axel Honneth se vale com frequência do adjetivo substantivado "o social" (das Soziale), sem jamais explicitar diretamente o significado que lhe atribui. Todavia, este conceito, sempre pressuposto, tanto está na base de sua conhecida crítica do déficit sociológico da tradição crítica frankfurtiana quanto orienta clandestinamente todo o desenvolvimento de sua obra até o modelo maduro da reconstrução normativa. Trata-se, aqui, de um esforço de torná-lo explícito enquanto compromisso social-ontológico assumido pela teoria crítica honnethiana. Conclui-se que o social de Honneth é senão idêntico, ao menos coextensivo às normas se constituem a partir de interações de reconhecimento intersubjetivo, o que emprestará tanto a força relativa de seu modelo crítico quanto determinará seus limites.
Este artículo presenta algunos de los debates y posiciones teóricas que caracterizan la tradición sociológica conocida como Teoría Crítica. Por lo tanto, explora el pensamiento de Max Horkheimer y Theodor Adorno, ambos vinculados a su origen; las críticas y las propuestas realizadas por Jürgen Habermas; y, después, las elaboradas por su sucesor, Axel Honneth. Por último, traeremos las formulaciones de este último autor en el libro “La lucha por el reconocimiento: la gramática moral de los conflictos sociales”, que se ocupa de elementos importantes para la comprensión de los movimientos sociales en el siglo XXI. Y, como tratan de argumentar, mantiene viva, en una forma actualizada, los propósitos actuales del origen de la Teoría Crítica.
Este trabalho tenciona fazer uma análise a respeito das contribuições de Axel Honneth no que concerne às suas contribuições para o debate sobre teorias da justiça no contexto atual. Neste sentido, pode ser elencada como principal a tentativa de alcançar princípios normativos pautados na horizontalidade, ou seja, na própria realidade social. Para alcançar êxito nesta empreitada reflexivo-filosófica, parte-se de suas obras A textura da justiça: sobre os limites do procedimentalismo contemporâneo e O direito da Liberdade, nos quais se tem a questão relacionada à liberdade, sendo esta tomada como o princípio de maior valor na contemporaneidade. Daí, a liberdade direcionada ao aspecto social ser especificamente expressa nas instituições, bem como seu vínculo estar intrinsecamente ligado às relações sociais, de mercado e também ao universo político. Ao se pressupor a existência de um vazio entre os princípios normativos pertencentes à justiça e a realidade social, conforme considera o autor, fomenta-se, a partir deste estudo, notar as potencialidades, bem como os limites desta reconstrução normativa, conforme proposição teórica de Honneth.
O Objetivo deste artigo consiste em apresentar fundamentos da proposta epistemológica de Jürgen Habermas, identificados em obras precedentes à sua Teoria do agir comunicativo. A partir de Teoria analítica da ciência e dialética será explorada a proposta do autor, tendo percorrido antecipadamente pela querela entre Popper e Adorno; posteriormente busca-se analisar como Habermas, em debate com seus contemporâneos, retrata sua proposta em Técnica e ciência como ideologia, considerado um marco para a Escola de Frankfurt.
This paper discusses the sustainability impact (contribution to sustainability, reduction of adverse environmental impacts) of online second-hand trading. A survey of eBay users shows that a relationship between the trading of used goods and the protection of natural resources is hardly realized. Secondly, the environmental motivation and the willingness to act in a sustainable manner differ widely between groups of consumers. Given these results from a user perspective, the paper tries to find some objective hints of online second-hand trading’s environmental impact. The greenhouse gas emissions resulting from the energy used for the trading transactions seem to be considerably lower than the emissions due to the (avoided) production of new goods. The paper concludes with a set of recommendations for second-hand trade and consumer policy. Information about the sustainability benefits of purchasing second-hand goods should be included in general consumer information, and arguments for changes in behavior should be targeted to different groups of consumers. Keywords: online marketplaces; online auctions; consumer; electronic commerce; used products; second-hand market; sustainable consumption
Participatory policy making is a contested concept that can be understood in multiple ways. So how do those involved with participatory initiatives make sense of contrasting ideas of participation? What purposes and values do they associate with participatory governance? This paper reflects on a Q‐method study with a range of actors, from citizen activists to senior civil servants, involved with participatory initiatives in U.K. social policy. Using principal components analysis, supplemented with data from qualitative interviews, it identifies three shared participation preferences: participation as collective decision making, participation as knowledge transfer, and participation as agonism. These preferences demonstrate significant disagreements between the key informants, particularly concerning the objectives of participation, how much power should be afforded to the public, and what motivates people to participate. Their contrasting normative orientations are used to highlight how participatory governance theory and practice frequently fails to take seriously legitimate diversity in procedural preferences. Moreover, it is argued that, despite the diversity of preferences, there is a lack of imagination about how participation can function when social relations are conflictual.
The article “Ganging up on Trump? Sino-German Relations and the Problem with Soft Balancing against the USA”, written by Sebastian Biba, was originally published Online First without Open Access. After publication in volume 25, issue 4, pages 531–550 the authors decided to opt for Open Choice and to make the article an Open Access publication. Therefore, the copyright of the article has been changed to © The Author(s) 2021 and the article is forthwith distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0. The original article has been corrected.
Every day thousands of people die from poverty-related causes. Many of these deaths could be avoided if appropriate medical treatments were available to the world’s poor. Due to the current structure of the international patent regime, they are not. Since the risks and costs associated with pharmaceutical innovation are extremely high, to incentivise research, inventor firms are granted a temporary monopoly over newly invented drugs. While allowing firms to make up for the costs of research, this has the morally perverse effect of raising the prices of pharmaceuticals to a level where they become unaffordable to the world's poor. To correct this grievous flaw, the paper proposes a concrete and realistic alternative scheme which, by rewarding medical innovators in proportion to the impact of their drugs on the global disease burden, would incentivise the production and selling of crucial drugs for the world’s poor at prices accessible to them.
The theory and practice of urban governance in recent years has undergone both a collaborative and participatory turn. The strong connection between collaboration and participation has meant that citizen participation in urban governance has been conceived in a very particular way: as varying levels of partnership between state actors and citizens. This over-focus on collaboration has led to: 1) a dearth of proposals in theory and practice for citizens to engage oppositionally with institutions; 2) the miscasting of agonistic opportunities for participation as forms of collaboration; 3) an inability to recognise the irruption of agonistic practices into participatory procedures. This article attempts to expand the conception of participatory urban governance by adapting Rosanvallon’s (2008) three democratic counter-powers—prevention, oversight and judgement—to consider options for institutionalising agonistic participatory practices. It argues that these counter-governance processes would more fully realise the inclusion agenda that underpins the participatory governance project.
Right-wing populist parties often resort to a xenophobic rhetoric which both exploits and fuels existing illiberal anti-immigrant sentiments. Since populist anti-immigrant sentiments are at odds with fundamental liberal values and challenge the implementation of any liberal ethics of migration, this essay argues that states should adopt civic education policies to counter such sentiments and persuade citizens to develop liberal attitudes towards immigrants. Empirical evidence suggests that sentiments may be malleable, and there are already examples of local governments devising or supporting initiatives aimed at dispelling prejudices and promoting positive interactions. It might be objected that a government’s involvement in shaping sentiments and opinions conflicts with liberal democratic states’ commitment to individual autonomy and electoral fairness. However, I argue that civic education policies are not necessarily incompatible with such values and I provide five criteria to identify policies that liberal democratic governments may legitimately adopt to counteract anti-immigrant sentiments.
This paper considers ways in which rulers can respond to, generate, or exploit fear of COVID-19 infection for various ends, and in particular distinguishes between ‘fear-invoking’ and ‘fear-minimising’ strategies. It examines historical precedent for executive overreach in crises and then moves on to look in more detail at some specific areas where fear is being mobilised or generated: in ways that lead to the suspension of civil liberties; that foster discrimination against minorities; and that boost the personality cult of leaders and limit criticism or competition. Finally, in the Appendix, we present empirical work, based on the results of an original survey in Brazil, that provides support for the conjectures in the previous sections. While it is too early to tell what the longer-term outcomes of the changes we note will be, our purpose here is simply to identify some warning signs that threaten the key institutions and values of democracy.
The COVID-19 pandemic has both highlighted and exacerbated global health inequities, leading for calls for responses to COVID to promote social justice and ensure that no one is left behind. One key lesson to be learnt from the pandemic is the critical importance of decolonizing global health and global health research so that African countries are better placed to address pandemic challenges in contextually relevant ways. This paper argues that to be successful, programmes of decolonization in complex global health landscapes require a complex three-dimensional approach. Drawing on the broader discourse of political decolonization that has been going on in the African context for over a century, we present a model for unpacking the complex task of decolonization. Our approach suggests a three-dimensional approach which encompasses hegemomic; epistemic; and commitmental elements.
Cryovalues beyond high expectations: endurance and the construction of value in cord blood banking
(2022)
Cryopreservation attracts attention as a practice grounded in high expectations: current life is suspended for future use—to generate life, to save life, and to resurrect life. But what happens when high expectations in cryobanking give way to looming uselessness and the risk of failure? Based on ethnographic insights into the case of umbilical cord blood (CB) banking in Germany, this contribution investigates the liminal state of “non-failure.” Averting failure amid a lack of success in this field requires putting effort into the construction of value. The resulting practices and dynamics overflow generic stories of commercialization and instrumentalization of biological material and are best grasped as an expanded version of the recently coined notion of “cryovalue.” The long-term availability of cryopreserved CB facilitates the steady yield of social and economic capital beyond and after promise. Moreover, the value construction is reoriented from CB itself toward the socio-technical cryo-arrangements in which it is embedded. In exemplifying how it expands the understanding of the diversity of valuation and valorization practices, continuities, and economic endurance in cryoeconomies and bioeconomies, the paper advocates the study of their ambivalent and allegedly uneventful sites.
O artigo apresenta uma reflexão sobre as relações entre cultura e lazer a partir de um referencial metodológico apoiado em Habermas. Adota o presídio, mais especificamente a Casa de Detenção de São Bernardo, como um espaço dotado de cultura própria (cultura delinqüente). Conclui apontando a importância das interações comunicativas, típicas da sociabilidade espontânea, presentes nas atividades de lazer, conforme as categorias apresentadas por Kholberg e incorporadas por Habermas, nos limites de um marco jurídico construído a partir de consensos originais do mundo da vida.
O presente artigo versa sobre a «musealização» da arte a partir de um ponto de vista estético. Evocando o ensaio Museum Valéry Proust de Theodor W. Adorno, procuraremos compreender o processo de «musealização» da arte como condição efetiva de possibilidade da sua experiência estética. As posições sobre a matéria avançadas por Valéry em Le problème des musées e por Proust em A l’ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs, tal como apresentadas por Adorno, constituem a pedra de toque deste artigo. Pretenderemos, assim, discutir a questão da experiência (subjetiva) do objeto artístico como potencialidade de configuração da sua «segunda vida» [Zweites Leben], oposta aos processos de neutralização cultural de tal objeto. Os recentes estudos de Dario Gamboni dedicados a Odilon Redon – e à sua conceção de art suggestif, que integra uma singular perspetivação de experiência estética – serão, também, tratados.
As the lowest in the caste hierarchy, Dalits in Indian society have historically suffered caste-based social exclusion from economic, civil, cultural, and political rights. Women from this community suffer from not only discrimination based on their gender but also caste identity and consequent economic deprivation. Dalit women constituted about 16.60 percent of India’s female population in 2011. Dalit women’s problems encompass not only gender and economic deprivation but also discrimination associated with religion, caste, and untouchability, which in turn results in the denial of their social, economic, cultural, and political rights. They become vulnerable to sexual violence and exploitation due to their gender and caste. Dalit women also become victims of abhorrent social and religious practices such as devadasi/jogini (temple prostitution), resulting in sexual exploitation in the name of religion. The additional discrimination faced by Dalit women on account of their gender and caste is clearly reflected in the differential achievements in human development indicators for this group. In all the indicators of human development, for example, literacy and longevity, Dalit women score worse than Dalit men and non-Dalit women. Thus, the problems of Dalit women are distinct and unique in many ways, and they suffer from the ‘triple burden’ of gender bias, caste discrimination, and economic deprivation. To gain insights into the economic and social status of Dalit women, our paper will delve more closely into their lives and encapsulate the economic and social situations of Dalit women in India. The analyses of human poverty and caste and gender discrimination are based on official data sets as well as a number of primary studies in the labor market and on reproductive health.
Die Frage, ob und in welcher Hinsicht ADORNO als Vorbereiter eines Paradigmas qualitativer Sozialforschung verstanden werden kann, wird diskutiert anhand zweier Briefe ADORNOs an Paul LAZARSFELD aus dem Jahre 1938, als er in dessen "Radio Research Project" an der Universität Princeton mitzuarbeiten begann. ADORNO musste sich hier erstmals mit empirischer Sozialforschung amerikanischer Prägung ins Verhältnis setzen, wobei er in Ermangelung praktischer Erfahrung auf diesem Gebiet zunächst ganz auf seine Bordmittel als Philosoph und Künstler angewiesen war. In der Korrespondenz mit LAZARSFELD artikulierten sich erstmals Überlegungen, die in ADORNOs Schriften zur Sozialforschung aus der Nachkriegszeit ihre kanonische Gestalt fanden. Die quantifizierenden Verfahren kritisierend, entwickelte er gleichsam naturwüchsig ein Modell qualitativer Forschung, das aber zugleich bestimmten, auch später nicht überwundenen Restriktionen unterlag, die ihren Grund vor allem in Vorbehalten gegenüber methodisch geregelten Vorgehen überhaupt hatten.
Das Bild unter der Schneedecke : visuelle Soziologie: Erforschung des Sozialen mit anderen Mitteln
(2010)
"Unter der Fotografie eines Menschen ist seine Geschichte wie unter einer Schneedecke vergraben", schrieb Siegfried Kracauer 1927 in seinem Essay "Das Ornament der Masse". Visuelle Soziologie nennt sich heute eine relativ junge Fachrichtung, die versucht, diese Schneedecke mit soziologischen Methoden beiseite zu räumen. Dann wird der Hintergrund sichtbar, auf dem die Geschichte des Bildes sich abspielt, das soziale Beziehungsgeflecht, dem die Fotografie ihre Existenz verdankt. Ist doch dieses Bild die Manifestation verschiedener Beziehungen, die sich etwa zwischen Fotograf und Fotografiertem, zwischen Betrachter und Betrachtetem, zwischen Auftraggeber und Nutzer entwickeln und in die ideologische Weltsichten ebenso eingehen wie die sozialen Lagen der Akteure. Visuelle Soziologie fragt also nach der Produktion, Distribution und Konsumtion von Bildern und stellt sie in Beziehung zur Sozialstruktur der Gesellschaft. ...
Schon früh im 19. Jahrhundert wurde der Treibhauseffekt entdeckt. Doch bis sich die Menschheit ihres Einflusses auf das globale Klima bewusst wurde, hat es noch viele Jahrzehnte gedauert. Ein Rückblick auf das zähe Ringen darum, aus wissenschaftlichen Erkenntnissen die richtigen politischen Schritte abzuleiten.
Das Private ist politisch! – 68 war der Slogan eine auf Ganze gerichtete Perspektive der Kritik und ein Impuls für die Revolutionierung des Alltagslebens: Es ging bei den Diskussionen und Analysen um die "Weltherrschaft des Kapitals" und den Zusammenhang von Faschismus und Kapitalismus immer zugleich um die Manifestationen von Herrschaft und Unterdrückung in den Kapillaren des Alltäg lichen. In den Blick gerieten dabei nicht zuletzt die Autoritätsstrukturen der bürgerlichen Familie und damit die (im Sinne marxistischer Gesellschaftsanalyse) sogenannte "Nebenwidersprüche" des Privaten: das Verhältnis der Geschlechter, Fragen von Liebe und Sexualität, Kindererziehung, Eigentumsfragen und Besitzdenken. Der Slogan wurde darüber hinaus zum Leitspruch der Frauenbewegung, die vor Augen führt, wie politisch das Private gerade in Fragen von Nachwuchs und Alltagsorganisation ist. ...
Das Unbehagen mit den Gender Studies. Ein Gespräch zum Verhältnis von Wissenschaft und Politik
(2020)
Der Beitrag ist ein Gespräch zweiter Sozialwissenschaftlerinnen im Feld der Gender Studies. Es kreist um den Vermittlungszusammenhang zwischen Wissenschaft und (politischer oder aktivistischer) Praxis am Beispiel der Geschlechterforschung. Wie politisch kann, darf Forschung (nicht) sein? Wie, wenn überhaupt, lassen sich Kritik, Normativität, Forschung, politische Praxis und Ethik einerseits trennen, andererseits produktiv aufeinander beziehen? Er plädiert für die Anerkennung der Eigenlogiken von Wissenschaft und Politik und für deren Vermittlung im Sinne reflexiver Übersetzungen sowie gegen einen positionalen Fundamentalismus, der soziale Position(-ierung) mit inhaltlichen Positionen gleichsetzt. Schließlich artikuliert der Beitrag eine reflexive Ethik des Zuhörens, die sich im Forschungsprozess als Anerkennung von systematisch bedingten blinden Flecken sowie in den Mühen um deren Überwindung realisieren sollte.
Desde Dialéctica de la Ilustración hasta Dialéctica negativa, el materialismo filosófico llevado adelante por T. W. Adorno ha ubicado en un lugar central de sus reflexiones la problemática de lo corporal, poniéndolo en discusión directa tanto con el psicoanálisis y su teoría de las pulsiones, así como con las diferentes versiones del idealismo. La reflexión acerca de este ámbito, permitirá exponer tanto el carácter represivo de la sociedad; también, la posibilidad de una ética verdaderamente democrática.
Ulrich Oevermann, Begründer der Objektiven Hermeneutik, ist Professor für Soziologie an der Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität in Frankfurt am Main. Am Rande seines traditionellen Blockseminars am Berner Institut für Soziologie bot sich für soz:mag die Gelegenheit, den Professionalisierungs- und Sozialisationstheoretiker zu treffen. Bei einer Portion Fisch mit feinen Salzkartoffeln und Salat im Restaurant "Mappamondo" kam es zum Gespräch über die Hochschulreform, die Logik der Forschung, das Problem von Uni-Rankings, die Konkurrenz um den guten Studenten und die Vorteile der Zwiebel.
No contraste entre a tradição alemã de ênfase na Bildung no sentido de auto-formação individual e as concepções contemporâneas de Habermas, que retira do indivíduo a condição de fonte do sentido, o autor encontra o ângulo para submeter a obra deste a uma análise crítica. No trajeto, examina a relevância de clássicos como Freud e Weber para esse debate.