An interdisciplinary collection that seeks to explore Thai literature in the wider context of the global perspectives, themes and debates within the study of World Literature. In the wake of recent unrest in the country, it offers a rare insight into the unique cultural, political and historical context of Thailand.
Protests as Events: Politics, Activism and Leisure is an edited collection that explores activism as a leisure activity and protests as events.
Protests as Events: Politics, Activism and Leisure is an edited collection that explores activism as a leisure activity and protests as events.
Using a highly original multi-method approach, this book examines a wide range of innovative institutional participatory processes across Spain, Italy and France.
Using a highly original multi-method approach, this book examines a wide range of innovative institutional participatory processes across Spain, Italy and France.
A detailed and inventive study of the thinking at work in modern painting, drawing on a formidable body of scholarly evidence to challenge modernist and phenomenological readings of art history, The Brain-Eye presents a series of interlinked ';case studies' in which philosophical thought encounters the hallucinatory sensations unleashed by ';painter-researchers.'Rather than outlining a new ';philosophy of art,' The Brain-Eye details the singular problems pursued by each of its protagonists. Striking readings of the oeuvres of Delacroix, Seurat, Manet, Gauguin, and Cezanne recount the plural histories of artists who worked to free the differential forces of colour, discovered by Goethe in his Colour Theory, in the name of a ';true hallucination' and of a logic proper to the Visual.A rigorous renewal of the philosophical thinking of visual art, The Brain-Eye explores the complex relations between concept and sensation, theory and practice, the discursive and the visual, and draws out the political and philosophical stakes of the aesthetic revolution in modern painting.
Representative democracy has long been problematic and subject to erosion through the introduction of components of direct democracy (referenda, voter initiatives and systems of recall). Following the increase of direct action across the world, through the Occupy movement and the rise of new populist parties championing greater citizen inclusion in decision making, many are considering whether the hierarchical system of political control might have had its day. But what might be the alternative, next democracy? This book considers the viability of a populist conception of democratic organization, which puts power into the hands of ordinary citizens. Examining contemporary and classic theory to contextualize the critique of existing systems, the book goes on to explore alternative arrangements tested out by activists, eco-protestors and anti-capitalists from the recent Occupy agenda to Gandhi's experiments in alternative living. Milligan confronts the practical challenges posed by these systems of direct democracy and discusses the considerable difficulties of scaling up and sustaining them in state-level contexts. Whilst the book concedes that such concerns are genuine, it argues that a theory of generalized direct democracy can shake off its utopian aspirations and become a legitimate alternative for the future.
Based on a major three-year research project, this book explores the various roles of political actors and the policies that deal with the governance of reducing transport-related carbon emissions. Using this clear - and globally crucial - example of climate change governance, the authors are able to tease apart a range of debates and dilemmas and to fully explore the nature, pace and significance of core policies designed to tackle climate change.Much research in the field has over-emphasized the international realm and global policy, whereas this text uncovers the huge importance that domestic policy development plays in reducing emissions. It highlights normative positions that lie at the heart of institutional structures, enabling broader debates into the capacity and future of democratic governance.
By what aesthetic practice might post-politics be disrupted? Now is a moment that many believe has become post-racial, post- national, post-queer, and post-feminist. This belief is reaffirmed by recent events in the politics of diminished expectations, especially in the United States.What Lies Between illustrates how today's discourse repeats the post-politics of an earlier time. In the aftermath of World War II, both Communism and Fascism were no longer considered acceptable, political extremes appeared exhausted, and consensus appeared dominant. Then, unlike today, this consensus met a formal challenge, a disruption in the shape of a generative and negativist aesthetic figurethe void.What Lies Between explores fiction, film, and theory from this period that disrupted consensual and technocratic rhetorics with formal experimentation. It seeks to develop an aesthetic rebellion that is still relevant, and indeed vital, in the positivist present.
The volume reflects on citizenship practices and policies across post-socialist states. Seven original research chapters look at the effects of institution-building on the relationship between citizens residing beyond the borders of "their" state and the political processes taking place both in their countries of residence and in their kin states.
The volume reflects on citizenship practices and policies across post-socialist states. Seven original research chapters look at the effects of institution-building on the relationship between citizens residing beyond the borders of "their" state and the political processes taking place both in their countries of residence and in their kin states.
Since the publication of Homo Sacer in 1995, Giorgio Agamben has become one of the world's most revered and controversial thinkers. His ideas on our current political situation have found supporters and enemies in almost equal measure. His wider thoughts on topics such as language, potentiality, life, law, messianism and aesthetics have had significant impact on such diverse fields as philosophy, law, theology, history, sociology, cultural studies and literary studies.Yet although Agamben is much read, his work has also often been misunderstood. This book is the first to fully take into account Agamben's important recent publications, which clarify his method, complete his ideas on power, and finally reveal the role of language in his overall system. William Watkin presents a critical overview of Agamben's work that, through the lens of indifference, aims to give a portrait of exactly why this thinker of indifferent and suspensive legal, political, ontological and living states can rightfully be considered one of the most important philosophers in the world today.
Love in the Post (2013) is inspired by Jacques Derrida's book The Post Card. Like the book, the film plays with fact and fiction, weaving together the stories of a scholar of literature and a film director, alongside insights from critics and philosophers. Theo Marks works in a university department that is soon to be closed. His wife Sophie, enigmatic and distant, is in analysis. Filmmaker Joanna struggles to make a film about The Post Card. These people are set on a collision course prompted by a series of letters that will change their lives. The film features a never before seen interview with Derrida, alongside contributions from Geoff Bennington, Ellen Burt, Catherin Malabou, J. Hillis Miller and Samuel Weber.Alongside the original screenplay, Martin McQuillan provides an extended commentary on Derrida's original text, the film and its making. Joanna Callaghan reflects on her practice as a filmmaker and her engagement with philosophy as a director. The volume concludes with interviews between McQuillan and five leading Derrida scholars.
Is Democracy a Lost Cause? explores the current debate on democracy.
Sixty years of democratic representation in Germany allow us to study the working of a specific type of electoral system, namely a mixed system combining proportional and majoritarian rules, in great detail. Mixed systems have figured as a reference point in many reform debates of the recent past. This is because they appear to combine advantageous traits of proportional and majoritarian rules, such as fairness, proximity between constituencies and representatives, and stable government majorities. Mixed systems have also attracted much scholarly attention of late, because they allow us to study the effects of electoral rules while holding many intervening variables constant. But they also attract interest because the proportional and majoritarian electoral tiers affect each other in ways that differ from what would have resulted under pure PR or plurality. All this makes mixed systems a fascinating object of study, and the German system is its oldest and prototypical exemplar. 'Professor Manow's book establishes a new standard for work on German elections and on mixed-member proportional electoral systems more generally. Given the influence of the German system on electoral system designers around the world in the past quarter century, this book should rightly find a broad audience.'John M Carey, Dartmouth College 'Professor Manow provides a terrific summary of the modern literature on Germany's mixed electoral system and extends it in several directions. Highly recommended for scholars of mixed electoral systems.'Jens Hainmueller, Stanford University
Insiders and outsiders agree; there is something particular about negotiating in Brussels. This book analyses ten years of continuous negotiations about EU enlargement to the Western Balkans, answering questions such as When and how are decisions typically reached in the European Union? What is this 'culture of consensus' that pervades negotiations in the Council of Ministers? And why are some member states more successful than others in making their voices heard? Using the metaphor of the Caucus race from Alice in Wonderland, Smeets' book offers a fresh perspective on the decision-making realities in Brussels' European Quarter. By providing unique empirical insight into behind-closed-doors debates, it explains the faltering accession process of the countries of former Yugoslavia. But most of all, it reveals the mechanism by which national interests are accommodated, so that deals can be reached between the member states. Much work has been done in individual disciplines on the phenomenon of tax competition that lies at the heart of this crisis. Yet, the combination of issues of democratic legitimacy, social justice, economic efficiency, and national sovereignty that tax competition raises clearly requires an interdisciplinary analysis. This book offers a rare example of this kind of work, bringing together experts from political science, philosophy, law, and economics whose contributions combine empirical analysis with normative and institutional proposals. It makes an important contribution to reforming international taxation.
This book offers a rare example of this kind of work, bringing together experts from political science, philosophy, law, and economics whose contributions combine empirical analysis with normative and institutional proposals.
This text brings together leading experts, business leaders, entrepreneurs and politicians with ideas for how Britain can thrive in a global context, building an inclusive and broad-based economy.
Explores the articulation of identity in the context of popular uprisings in the Middle East, going beyond a focus on the Arab Spring
An in-depth analysis of the memories and experiences of the British second generation of refugees from Nazism before the Holocaust. This oral history project investigates the impact of their parents' trauma, dislocation and pattern of silence on ordinary members of this second generation in this unique geographical context.
Killingsworth's book presents three broad arguments, all of which reject the way civil society has been applied in the analysis of opposition and dissent in totalitarian Czechoslovakia, the GDR and Poland.
Seek new approaches to empirical studies on the relationship between citizens and their chosen representatives, this book focuses on the way in which representatives and citizens interact during mandate periods between elections.
There has been a recent revival of interest in reading Kierkegaard as an ontologist, as a thinker who engages with questions about the kinds of entity or process that constitute ultimate reality. This new way of reading Kierkegaard stands alongside a revival of interest in ontology and metaphysics more generally. This highly original book concentrates on the claim that Kierkegaard focuses in part on ontological questions and on issues pertaining to the nature of being as a whole. Alison Assiter asserts that Being, for Kierkegaard, following Schelling, can be read in terms of conceptions of birthingthe capacity to give birth as well as the notion of a birthing body. She goes on to argue that the story offered by Kierkegaard in The Concept of Anxiety about the origin of freedom connects with a birthing body, and that Kierkegaard offers a speculative hypothesis, in terms of metaphors of birthing, about the nature of Being.
There is massive public interest in same-sex marriage, a controversial topic that is rarely out of the media. This book investigates the extent to which legalizing same-sex marriage can contribute to ending the discrimination and social stigma faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender men and women (LGBT) in the Western world. This issue breaks down into several further questions: can marriage equality be defended without reinforcing the idea that marriage is the most/only valuable form of intimate relationship? Can marriage equality be defended without further marginalizing non-conforming LGBT people? What kind of equality should LGBT people strive for? What critical agency might they lose when this equality is achieved? What institutional legacies should we embrace? The book focuses on human rights arguments supporting same-sex marriage and questions whether they are likely to both justify legal change and encourage shifts in the sociopolitical reception of LGBT people. After critically analyzing various arguments in favor of same-sex marriage, the author puts forward a justification that allows for marriage equality and does not result in the assimilation of queer identities into heteronormative identity.
In this fascinating book, Sarah Worth addresses from a philosophical perspective the many ways in which reading benefits us morally, socially and cognitively.
Connecting urban activism to historical, philosophical and theoretical ideas of the dialectic, this book builds a new theoretical framework for reimagining the work of anarchist organizing and social movements
What sort of ethos does democratic politics demand? While many political thinkers argue that democratic ethics should shape political judgments, the concept of ethos remains underdeveloped.Appearances of Ethos responds to this gap in three ways. It begins by identifying the contours of the concept as it has appeared in political thought. Then drawing on ancient philosophers such as Heraclitus and Protagoras, and contemporary thinkers such as Heidegger, it makes the case for a world-affirming ethos that can animate individual and collective political action. The book then develops an original interpretation of the ancient concept of metis the skill and craft of practical political reasoning showing how this is a vital part of contemporary democratic political action. Such resourcefulness, the book argues, is essential for anyone who faced by contemporary political, social, and environmental challenges seeks to create possibilities for action in the name of a more just and equitable life.
What is the work of art? How does art work as art? Andrew Benjamin contends that the only way to address these questions is by developing a radically new materialist philosophy of art, and by rethinking the history of art from within that perspective. A materialist philosophy of art starts with the contention that meaning is only ever the after effect of the way in which materials work. Starting with the relation between history, materials and work (art's work), this book opens up a highly original reconfiguration of the philosophy of art. Benjamin undertakes a major project that seeks to develop a set of complex interarticulations between art history and an approach to art's work that emphasizes art's material presence. A philosophy of art emerges from the limitations of aesthetics.
Exploring a range of transnational labour movements, the book provides a theory for understanding how collective action succeeds and fails.
Explores the experiences of intervention in Mozambique to examine the efficacy of colonial approaches to post-crisis statebuilding.
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