Homosexuality and the Construction of “Anglican Orthodoxy” : The Symbolic Politics of the Anglican Communion

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The Collaborative Management of Sustained Unsustainability: On the Performance of Participatory Forms of Environmental Governance

n modern democratic consumer societies, decentralized, participative, and consensus-oriented forms of multi-stakeholder governance are supplementing, and often replacing, conventional forms of state-centered environmental government. The engagement in all phases of the policy process of diverse social actors has become a hallmark of environmental good governance. This does not mean to say, however, that these modes of policy-making have proved particularly successful in resolving the widely debated multiple sustainability crisis. In fact, they have been found wanting in terms of their ability to respond to democratic needs and their capacity to resolve environmental problems. So why have these participatory forms of environmental governance become so prominent? What exactly is their appeal? What do they deliver? Exploring these questions from the perspective of eco-political and sociological theory, this article suggests that these forms of environmental governance represent a performative kind of eco-politics that helps liberal consumer societies to manage their inability and unwillingness to achieve the socio-ecological transformation that scientists and environmental activists say is urgently required. This reading of the prevailing policy approaches as the collaborative management of sustained unsustainability adds an important dimension to the understanding of environmental governance and contemporary eco-politics more generally

Between angels and demons: boundary symbols and symbolic politics in the Danish management of aliens

This article will engage with some of the political symbols and the symbolic politics which over the last decade have been developed in aid of the con rmation and reassertion of the borders between ‘them’ and ‘us’ in Denmark – and the ways such border and boundary symbols get deployed as discursive weapons in the ght against a threat which sometimes is demonized as both internal and external, but more and more frequently get played down, modi ed or even neutralized in the context of more pragmatic perceptions of integration. In consequence of this current tendency, the paper will nally discuss not only the symbolic politics of boundaries, but also new developments constraining the usefulness of old-style symbolic politics while in the process introducing new boundaries and di erent political priorities.

The symbolic politics of delegation: macroprudential policy and independent regulatory authorities

This paper investigates the motivations that led policy-makers to delegate macroprudential authorities to newly created independent systemic regulatory authorities (SRAs). Three case studies are examined: the US Financial Stability Oversight Council, the European Systemic Risk Board and the UK\u2019s Financial Policy Committee. Policy-makers\u2019 motivations are captured by examining the specific institutional features of the newly created SRAs and by tracing the legislative debates that surrounded their creation. The findings of this empirical analysis call into question several of the conventional claims that are used to justify delegation to technocratic agencies from the functionalist and ideational scholarship. Given the limitations of the explanations based on efficiency considerations and socialisation of welfare losses, this paper suggests that the delegation of powers to SRAs was ultimately motivated by what is referred to as the \u2018logic of symbolic politics.\u2019 It is argued that the main motivation that emerges from the legislative debates for delegating this important task is that the SRAs provided a quick institutional \u2018fix\u2019 to signal to the public that in the wake of the international crisis of 2007\u2013 2009, policy-makers were redressing regulatory mistakes made prior to and during the crisis that had caused a severe deterioration of public\u2019s wealth

Against Idols: The Court as a Symbol-making or Rhetorical Institution

Symbolic politics can be quite powerful. This article pursues the question of how the Supreme Court signifies itself, how it discovers and enacts the metaphors from which it will play its part in the American political drama aimed at containing some of the nightmares of human existence, while affirming and encouraging the possibilities for human flourishing. Embedded in this inquiry is the question of how the Court can signify itself while still preserving the truth-telling and humility necessary to legitimize Court decisions

The Global City as a Space for Transnational Identity Politics

Global Cities are key nodes in circuits of transnational political activity. As dense spaces of political interaction, cities provide bundles of material, political and ideational resources that allow for the generation of new identities and frames of meaning, shifts in tactical and strategic alliances, and network brokerage activities. The key function of cities in facilitating transnationalism has not been adequately explored in the existing International Relations literature on transnationalism. In this paper, we use the case of London as a Global City to examine how its features as a dense institutional context; a node in multiple global networks; and as a resource-rich environment creates a creative space for innovations in transnational politics. We focus on the strategies employed by identity-based transnational political entrepreneurs and discuss four mechanisms of mobilization: brokerage (the linking of disparate networks), strategic framing (the use of symbolic politics), coalition-building (the forging of alliances between organizations) and social learning or mediated diffusion (the adoption of new ideas and practices). Our analysis challenges both standard state-centric and single-case study accounts of transnational activity, suggesting a novel site of investigation for IR scholars

PRESIDENTIAL RHETORIC AS SOURCE OF SYMBOLIC POLITICS

This article focuses on some essential questions concerning the features of the rhetoric of political actors and aims to identify the stylistic hallmarks prevalent utilized in presidential speeches. It was selected for analysis the Barack Obama speech on Remarks by the President Naturalization ceremony on the 4th of July 2012. The speech in question is particularly interesting because it provides a useful insight into how a presidential message can be presented on an issue, which it considers important and current. The discourse is analyzed from the perspective of its inclusion in the action of symbolic politics of the President, taking into account the increasingly pronounced process of symbolizing the political arena. The perception of the problem of immigration in the vision of President Obama is pursued. Particular attention is paid to the complexity of the factors that determine the rhetorical manifestations of the orator’s position as a mode of political influence. They are established the conceptual peculiarities of Barack Obama’s July 4, 2012 speech, discourse is analyzed through the prism of special syntactic features realized, which promote message transfer and reinforcement of the spirit of the nation, are elucidated the tasks promoted by these hallmarks in delivering the intended messages. The substance of Obama’s presidential rhetoric is exemplified by the elucidation of rhetorical means such as parallelism, repetition, metaphors, and so on

THE IMPORTANCE OF SYMBOLIC AND CULTURAL POLITICS IN THE MARCUS GARVEY MOVEMENT

This research incorporates interdisciplinary data in order to discuss the Marcus Garvey Movement which emerged in the urban North during the World War I era. The importance of symbolic and cultural politics for Garvey's appeal to newly arriving, often uneducated and unskilled northern urban Blacks, is elaborated. Such forms of symbolic communication and politics, along with Garvey's inability to anticipate repression and other macro-structural issues and conditions, created intense conflicts with potential allies, as well as his own followers. Garvey's form of ideological or symbolic politics provided short run successes in the recruitment of poor, relatively uneducated segments of the Harlem community to his racial struggle. However, in the long run, Garvey failed to provide leadership and tactical direction for a sustained broad based movement for racial equality

Flying green from a carbon neutral airport : the case of Brussels

The aviation sector is one of the fastest growing emitters of greenhouse gases worldwide. In addition, airports have important local environmental impacts, mainly in the form of noise pollution and deterioration in air quality. Although noise nuisance in the vicinity of airports is recognized as an important problem of the urban environment which is often addressed by regulation, other environmental problems associated with aviation are less widely acknowledged. In the climate debate, the importance of which is rising, aviation has remained under the radar for decades. In the present paper, we use the case of Brussels Airport (Belgium) to demonstrate that the local perception of air travel-related environmental problems may be heavily influenced by the communication strategy of the airport company in question. Basing our analysis on publicly available data, communication initiatives, media reports, and policy documents, we find that (1) the noise impact of aviation is recognized and mainly described in an institutionalized format, (2) the impact of aviation on local air quality is ignored, and (3) the communication on climate impact shows little correspondence or concern with the actual effects. These findings are relevant for other airports and sectors, since the type of environmental communication produced by airport companies can also be observed elsewhere