Picturing Climate

Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funded international research project that explores the use of participatory photography and narrative storytelling for climate change education. The project was conceived by Eva Sajovic and Dr Agnes Czajka (Open University) and was delivered in collaboration with partners in Cuba, Jordan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the UK: Corinne Silva (visual artist, UK); Jasmin Hasic (International Burch University); Dzeneta Karabegovic (University of Salzburg); Dijana Rakovic (Counterpoints Arts); Riera Studio (Cuba); Most Mira (Bosnia and Herzegovina); and Auranitis Lifeline (Jordan). Network participants have come together to organise participatory programmes in Cuba, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Jordan and the UK using a variety of methods and approaches. Our work began in Havana, Cuba in April 2019, continued in Bosnia in August 2019, and Jordan in September 2019. The project culminated in a public programme at Tate Modern in London, between November 28th and December 1st, 2019

Orientalising the Egyptian uprising, take two: response to Rabab el-Mahdi and her interlocutors.

Published by Jadaliyya on April 11 2011, Rabab el-Mahdi’s “Orientalising the Egyptian Uprising” precipitated a spirited discussion both in online comments on the article and offline discussions among Jadaliyya readers. While it is impossible to do justice to the article and the debates it has generated, the crux of el-Mahdi’s argument is that the Egyptian uprising – as distinguished from revolution – has been “orientalised” by international and local media, academics, politicians and the local elite. El-Mahdi argues that the “grand-narrative” of Arab Awakening, through which the aforementioned groups are narrating the uprising, does not differ fundamentally from the previously dominant orientalist narrative of Arab Exceptionalism. Both narratives are equally orientalist as they are both grounded in the same “bases of representation” and supported by the same “fundamental pillars”: “othering,” which el-Mahdi defines as the simultaneous construction of the categories of “us” and “them” and the normative privileging of the former, and “romanticisation and exoticisation,” defined as the construction of the oriental other (i.e. the “they”) as “mystical and mythical.

Inclusive exclusion: citizenship and the American prisoner and prison

The alarming proliferation of American prisons generally, and supermaximum security prisons specifically, intensifies the urgency of analyzing society’s relationship to prisons and their populations. This paper attempts to delineate a novel way of understanding both the American prisoner and the prison system. The paper contends that a comprehensive analysis of American imprisonment must, first, make a distinction between standard prisons and supermaximum security (or camp) prisons, and second, that analyses of camp prisons should be grounded in the camp paradigm, as elucidated by Giorgio Agamben in Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life. Having established this distinction, the paper then focuses on camp prisoners and prisons, locating the former at a theoretical juncture of Hannah Arendt’s concept of superfluity, Julia Kristeva’s understanding of abjection, and the historically reoccurring notion of the “dangerous classes.” Camp prisoners and prisons are then understood as liminal subjects and spaces, whose relationship with the remainder of society is best characterized by Agamben’s notion of inclusive exclusion. The paper concludes with an investigation of this inclusive exclusion, focusing the lens of citizenship first on a number of supermaximum security institutions and then on the citizenship practices that are increasingly extending the prisoners’ exclusions beyond the period of incarceration

Rituals of resistance and the struggle over democracy in Turkey

The 2013 Gezi Park protests and the 2016 coup attempt in Turkey were watershed moments in recent struggles over Turkish democracy. Both made use of and gave rise to performative repertoires that unmistakably revealed the existence of competing conceptions of democracy in Turkey. This chapter explores the manner in which two of these repertoires – the yeryüzü iftarları (earth iftars) and demokrasi nöbeti (democracy vigil) – performatively disclose two distinct and indeed, irreconcilable, variations on democracy. In exploring these two repertoires, the chapter suggests that the earth iftars, which draw on a ‘religious’, ‘Muslim’ ritual, offer a more radically open, inclusive and indeed ‘democratic’ articulation of democracy than the ‘secular’, ‘nationalist’ vigil avowedly staged in defence of democracy. The chapter concludes with a brief consideration of Jacques Derrida’s articulation of democracy and deconstruction, suggesting that the deconstructive framework and Derrida’s conception of democracy-to-come offer a way of grasping what might, at first glance, seem like a counterintuitive argument – namely, that the performance of a ‘religious’ ritual has greater democratic potential than a ‘secular’ performance explicitly staged in defense of democracy

Discursive constructions of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon: from the Israel-Hezbollah war to the struggle over Nahr al-Bared

Focusing on th e particularly volatile period between the Israel-Hezbollah war (July–August 2006) and the prolonged struggle over Nahr al-Bared refugee camp (March–October 2007), this article outlines and historicizes the complex and altering landscape of discursive constructions of the Palestinian refugee presence in Lebanon. Examining some of the more prominent discursive strands that emerge in relation to Palestinian refugee presence in Lebanon, the article argues that although the recent problematization of Hezbollah initially dwarfed the Palestinian “problem,” Palestinian presence in Lebanon was quickly reproblematized in the context of the protracted struggle over Nahr al-Bared and the increasing instability in and around Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp. Yet while past discursive strands have reemerged, a discursive shift is also apparent, tending in the direction of the establishment of a more conciliatory relationship between Palestinian refugees and the Lebanese state and the latter’s interest in a partial regularization of Palestinian refugee presence.</jats:p

The Prime Minister as President?

On 26 July, Turkish citizens began voting in the first round of the first direct presidential elections in the history of the Turkish Republic. Voting began at Turkish embassies and at the forty-two polling stations set up at Turkish land crossings, harbors, and airports; it will continue until 10 August, when Turkish citizens residing in Turkey will cast their ballots. Following a 2007 referendum, direct presidential elections replaced the existing system, in accordance with which the president was elected by the Turkish parliament. Under the new electoral system, a candidate must secure an absolute majority of the popular vote (fifty percent plus one) to claim first round victory. Should no candidate secure an absolute majority, the two candidates with the highest percentage of the popular vote will compete in a second round of elections, scheduled—and widely expected to take place—on 25 August. The election is historic for its “firsts.” It is the first direct presidential election in Turkish history. It is also the first election in which Turkish citizens living abroad can cast a ballot at embassies. Since the same opportunity was not afforded in parliamentary elections, the issue has attracted criticism, with some accusing the current government of trying to capitalize on the popularity of Prime Minister and presidential candidate Recep Tayyip Erdoğan among Turkish expats, particularly in Germany. But the election could also be historical for its “lasts.” If the Prime Minister becomes president (as is widely expected, after the second round), the current president, Abdullah Gül, may be the last to have held a largely ceremonial post in a parliamentary republic. Declaring that the times of a passive presidency are over, Erdoğan has pledged to be an “active” president, and expressed interest in transforming the office into an executive presidency, with greater and more wide-reaching powers. Suggesting that nothing should happen in a state without the authorization of the president, as head of state, Erdoğan has promised active involvement in the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government. In the context of the increasing authoritarianism, paternalism, and micromanagement that had characterized the Prime Minister’s third term in office, that is precisely what his critics fear

Securing the people (or state?): efforts in governing through fear

Traditionally conceptualised as pertaining to the state and achieved through its safeguarding against the interests (territorial or otherwise) of other states, security has become an increasingly and intensely contested concept. Two assumptions that structured the field of security studies – grounding the meaning of security and determining the mechanisms and strategies for its attainment – have been fundamentally challenged. The widening and deepening of the security agenda has called into question both the privileging of the state as the primary object of security, and the narrow definition of what constitutes a threat. A multiplicity of sub- and trans-national subjects and objects – refugees, migrants, sleeper cells, ecological systems, networks, technologies, cultures, religions, children, youth, pandemics, rights – are now perceived as either security threats, or as in need of securing (that is, under threat)

The potential of sanctuary: acts of sanctuary through the lens of camp

[About the book] Sanctuary Practices in International Perspectives examines the diverse, complex, and mutating practice of providing sanctuary to asylum-seekers. The ancient tradition of church sanctuary underwent a revival in the late 1970s. Immigrants living without legal status and their supporters, first in the United Kingdom, and then in the US, Canada, and elsewhere in Europe, have resorted to sanctuary practices to avoid and resist arrest and deportation by state authorities. Sanctuary appeared amidst a dramatic rise in asylum-seekers arriving in Western countries and a simultaneous escalation in national and international efforts to discourage and control their arrival and presence through myriad means, including deportation. This collection of papers by prominent US, European, Canadian, and Japanese scholars is the first to place contemporary sanctuary practices in international, theoretical, and historical perspective. Moving beyond isolated case studies of sanctuary activities and movements, it reveals sanctuary as a far more complex, varied, theoretically-rich, and institutionally-adaptable set of practices