122 research outputs found
Towards a critical concept of the statesperson
This article considers convergence between classical realism and critical theory in relation to pressing political problems. It argues that the spirit of both traditions can help develop critical reflection on the state as an agent of change. I suggest that too much recent critical theorization has avoided the state in its attention to social movements, but that a critical concept of state leadership is now required to address global threats and challenges. The article rehearses this critical concept in three stages. It considers, first, how the concept of national interest drives statecraft in the authorship of Hans Morgenthau and how complex this concept is both in its own terms and with regard to the political effects of the nuclear revolution. It develops, second, a multi-layered concept of responsibility as the guiding concept of statecraft in a world of increasingly incompatible demands. It argues, third, that these concepts of national interest and responsibility need to be aligned with global imperatives so that a greater marriage between the global and the national is possible. I conclude that it is the task of contemporary critical thought to address this present through a reimagined political realism
How Can I Drink Safely?; Perception Versus the Reality of Alcohol Consumption
This article investigates differences between perception and actual consumption of alcohol in young adults within the UK, suggesting that inaccurate information in the public domain may hamper those seeking to drink safely plus the development of moderate drinking cultures. Results confirm that inaccurate information may be preventing the development of safe drinking behaviours among certain groups. In addition, they indicate that some groups choose to ignore safe consumption limits in particular circumstances. Results indicate that many government strategies aimed at reducing unsafe drinking behaviour are inaccurately targeted; changing male public consumption behaviour may trigger changes in female behaviour
âAt âAmen Mealsâ Itâs Me and Godâ Religion and Gender: A New Jewish Womenâs Ritual
New ritual practices performed by Jewish women can serve as test cases for an examination of the phenomenon of the creation of religious rituals by women. These food-related rituals, which have been termed ââamen mealsââ were developed in Israel beginning in the year 2000 and subsequently spread to Jewish women in Europe and the United States. This study employs a qualitative-ethnographic methodology grounded in participant-observation and in-depth interviews to describe these nonobligatory, extra-halakhic rituals. What makes these rituals stand out is the womenâs sense that through these rituals they experience a direct con- nection to God and, thus, can change reality, i.e., bring about jobs, marriages, children, health, and salvation for friends and loved ones. The ââamenââ rituals also create an open, inclusive womanâs space imbued with strong spiritualâemotional energies that counter the womenâs religious marginality. Finally, the purposes and functions of these rituals, including identity building and displays of cultural capital, are considered within a theoretical framework that views ââdoing genderââ and ââdoing religionââ as an integrated experience
Life and the Technical Transformation of Différance: Stiegler and the Noopolitics of Becoming Non-Inhuman
Through a re-articulation of Derridean diffĂ©rance, Bernard Stiegler claims that the human is defined by an originary default that displaces all psychic and social life onto technical supplements. His philosophy of technics re-articulates the logic of the supplement as concerning both human reflexivity and its supports, and the history of the diffĂ©rance of life itself. This has been criticised for reducing Derridaâs work to a metaphysics of presence, and for instituting a humanism of the relation to the inorganic. By refuting these claims, this article will show that Stieglerâs doubling of diffĂ©rance enables him to articulate the human as constituted by both the individuation characteristic of âlifeâ, and that of a technical, psychic and collective individuation. Putting forward a reading of the logic of the trace in life, and emphasising the aspects of Leroi-Gourhan, Simondon, and Canguilhem that Stiegler uses in his reading of Derrida, I will demonstrate that the political stakes of adaption and adoption in Noo-Politics require this re-articulation of diffĂ©rance. Technics shapes the human future, arising from this differential mutation; marking the invention of the human as the site of the political
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