Todorov, Levinas and anti-totalitarian humanism: A perspective on contemporary utopian thought

This article explores the significance of anti-totalitarian humanism for contemporary moral and social philosophy, with special reference to the thinking of Emmanuel Levinas (1906-1995). Special use is made of Tzvetan Todorov’s (1939) work “Hope and memory” to clarify the framework within which anti-totalitarian humanism takes shape, and also to shed light on the relation, similarities and disagreements between the totalitarian utopianism that characterized twentieth century fascist regimes, and other versions and residues of the utopian tradition, such as we encounter in Levinas and the early generation of Neo-Marxist philosophers. Levinas’ attempt in his early works to develop a humanism that is founded in both everyday material existence and interpersonal relationships is then examined in closer detail. Interpretations of the utopian significance of his phenomenological notions such as death, time and sociality, Messianic hope, despair and moral repair are offered. It is emphasized that Levinas’ early notion of innerworldly bliss constitutes a utopian core in his thought that is to be separate from the notion of innerworldly bliss that characterizes totalitarian utopianism, and also undermines the philosophical foundations of totalitarian utopianism

Todorov, Levinas and anti-totalitarian humanism: A perspective on contemporary utopian thought

This article explores the significance of anti-totalitarian humanism for contemporary moral and social philosophy, with special reference to the thinking of Emmanuel Levinas (1906-1995). Special use is made of Tzvetan Todorov's (1939) work “Hope and memory” to clarify the framework within which anti-totalitarian humanism takes shape, and also to shed light on the relation, similarities and disagreements between the totalitarian utopianism that characterized twentieth century fascist regimes, and other versions and residues of the utopian tradition, such as we encounter in Levinas and the early generation of Neo-Marxist philosophers. Levinas' attempt in his early works to develop a humanism that is founded in both everyday material existence and interpersonal relationships is then examined in closer detail. Interpretations of the utopian significance of his phenomenological notions such as death, time and sociality, Messianic hope, despair and moral repair are offered. It is emphasized that Levinas' early notion of innerworldly bliss constitutes a utopian core in his thought that is to be separate from the notion of innerworldly bliss that characterizes totalitarian utopianism, and also undermines the philosophical foundations of totalitarian utopianism. HTS Theological Studies Vol. 63 (1) 2007: pp. 301-32

Towards a humanistic narrative about art: reflections on Emmanuel Levinas and Ernst Bloch

This article explores the possibilities of a humanistic narrative about art with special reference to the thought of Emmanuel Levinas and Ernst Bloch. Throughout the articleit is shown how Levinas’s and Bloch’s respective interpretations of art are connected with their theories of ontology. Levinas understands being as a neutral and indifferent manifestation of reality. In his phenomenological analysis of art Levinas appeals to examples from modern art in particular and emphasises that artworks withdraw from the ‘light’ of being, which is to say, artworks refuse intelligible description in language. For Bloch, by contrast, being essentially carries an unrealised promise in the germ. Bloch hermeneutically explores the ‘pre-appearance of utopia’ and human happiness that are portrayed and symbolised by religious, pre-modern and early modern art in particular. Towards the end of the article an interpretation of prophetic hope is put forward with reference to Levinas’s and Bloch’s work, in an attempt to overcome the limitations of both authors with respect to the possibilities of a humanistic narrative about art

Tourism policy and destination marketing in developing countries: the chain of influence

Tourism marketers including destination marketing organisations (DMOs) and international tour operators play a pivotal role in destination marketing, especially in creating destination images. These images, apparent in tourist brochures, are designed to influence tourist decision-making and behaviour. This paper proposes the concept of a “chain of influence” in destination marketing and image-making, suggesting that the content of marketing materials is influenced by the priorities of those who design these materials, e.g. tour operators and DMOs. A content analysis of 2,000 pictures from DMO and tour operator brochures revealed synergies and divergence between these marketers. The brochure content was then compared to the South African tourism policy, concluding that the dominant factor in the chain of influence in the South African context is in fact its organic image

A violent legacy: policing insurrection in South Africa from Sharpeville to Marikana

Fifty-two years separate the fatal shootings by police of 69 anti-apartheid protestors at Sharpeville on 21st March 1960 and of 34 striking miners at Marikana on 16th August 2012. The parallels between the two ‘massacres’ are easy to overstate; but both involved the use of lethal violence by the police against people taking part in insurrectionary action. Drawing on Marenin’s (1982) work on the relative autonomy of the police, this paper argues that events at Marikana have to be seen in the context of South Africa’s failure to tackle the structural violence of apartheid and the use of direct, personal violence by the police before and since the country became a constitutional democracy in 1994

Gatekeepers of financial power: from London to Lagos

The main premise of this paper is that, until recently, African elites did not regulate or control financial flows moving across the continent. They were not financial gatekeepers. In Africa Since 1940, Cooper identified African elites as gatekeepers regulating access to resources and opportunities passing through strategic sites. This paper makes a case for revision of existing notions of the gatekeeper state in an ongoing effort to (re)negotiate the continent’s colonial past through two new arguments. The first is that financial power was never located at a ‘peripheral’ African gate, but resolutely held onto within leading financial centres, circumventing any opportunity for African elites to control financial flows. Failure to distinguish between types of flows distorts analysis of African political economic power under colonialism. It is only in the post-2000 period, that we see powerful African states driving the integration of African markets into the global financial system. The second argument is that these African goals to control financial flows correspond more to ‘gateway’ strategies than to gatekeeper. Drawing on the case of Lagos, I demonstrate how this ‘gateway’ concept better captures trans-scalar processes of new financial clustering in Africa’s emerging markets than a concept associated with ‘gates’ under Empire

Can deliberate efforts to realise aspirations increase capabilities? A South African case study

This paper takes up Appadurai's suggestion that aspirations could be used as a key to unlock development for people who are economically marginalised, and that their capabilities could be increased by this approach. The notion of “aspirations” is theoretically and conceptually framed, and then Amartya Sen's use of the term capabilities as the space within which development should be assessed is explored. I subsequently describe a five-year programme in which economically marginalised women in Khayelitsha near Cape Town were assisted in voicing and attempting to realise their aspirations, while being assisted with access to some resources. Capability outcomes and constraints are described and analysed, and the question of adaptive preferences is addressed. I conclude that deliberate efforts to realise aspirations, accompanied by some facilitation, can increase capabilities, but that there are also structural constraints to capability expansion for these women that frustrate their aspiration of class mobility.International Bibliography of Social Science