Private property and the problem of the miraculous: the kramats and the city of Cape Town

This paper seeks to explore the place of kramats the graves of Muslim saints or Auliyah – in the landscape of contemporary Cape Town. The kramat sites have been proclaimed as heritage sites because of their importance as tangible signs of Islam at the Cape. At the same time, the process of the kramats becoming heritage sites has contained moments of intense, often sensational, public contestation. Offering a reading of the discourses surrounding two contested kramats in Cape Town, this paper explores the way kramats mark out a miraculous space in the prosaic modern city and introduce into the post-apartheid evaluation of heritage, alternative conceptions of space and notions of temporality. They are sites of impossibility where, it is claimed, the laws of nature themselves are interrupted to mark the intangible particularities of the site. This paper explores what happens when this miraculous space is subject to the demands of private property and municipal law and the conflicts that arise from this collision of different conceptual and experiential modalities. It considers the effects of the entanglement of legend and history that result from the production of these sites as heritage in a market-driven economy.     

Disappointing and deviant youth and the rage of the elders

A generalized adult hostility toward youth derives from the complexities of the parent/child relationship, often mirrored in the helper/client and therapist/patient dyads. Parents derive considerable or little narcissistic gain from the accomplishments of their offspring, and conversely, are disappointed or even mortified by their failures. This is particularly true of narcissistically vulnerable parents—helpers and therapists as well—and accounts for widespread attitudes of competition, disparagement, and outright hostility toward young people. In the extreme, the pathological situations of emotional exploitation, incest, and physical abuse occur, but lesser forms of exploitation, such as personally gratifying advocacy, political gain, cultism, and enhancement of professional status, point to similar, but seemingly less destructive, forms of narcissistic gain. Youth may respond by conforming, defying, disappointing, and deviating. Adults may be either pleased, or enraged.     

Modernity and the Contingency of the Public

The idea of a public contingent on its participants is the analogue of resonance to music because neither would make sense without the other. This article introduces the concept of modernity as a framing device and explains the occlusion of the private by the public. Secondly, the article illustrates the Legal-Autonomous Public Model, and the Multiple Public Model in the work of John Dewey, Walter Lippmann, and Kenneth J. Arrow. Public space is what Foucault was alleged to have called '´ecriture', which refers to a convergence of and intermixing of signifiers within a de-gendered setting (hence ´ecriture, as opposed to l'´ecriture). The great contest between Lippmann and Dewey in the 1920s signified a clashing of the two interpretations of the public with one arguing about the need for a return to a constitutionally guaranteed, left-of-centre public philosophy that would entertain the elite while taking care of the poor, and the other a plea for a rationalistic recourse that surmised and envisaged rational public discourse as only one of several possible publics. The article concludes with the notion that the constructions of public space defined by Dewey, Lippmann, and Arrow promote distinct yet related interrogations of public space that is more than an agora of resonating ideas, but includes a kind of automatic reverberation on its own axes.     

Brexit and the Future of the Left

The referendum on British membership in the European Union divided not only the society in the UK but also the left both in Britain and all over the continent. This division however is produced not so much by this specific debate but by a deeper problem of the left capitulating ideologically and accepting neoliberalism as something objectively inevitable (even without publically recognizing it), replacing class struggle by ‘progressive’ cultural values that themselves form an essential part of the new capitalist hegemony. Leftist intelligentsia with its cultural critique of capitalism is no alternative to the current system, rather it is one of its pillars. While class division was very visible in the Brexit vote, with the working class and poor massively voting for ‘Leave’, most of the left either sided with the establishment or was wavering. Thus the success of the ‘Leave’ vote can be claimed by nationalists. Even after this political disaster instead criticizing itself leftist intelligentsia is blaming the people for being provincial and not accepting their progressive European values. However it was exactly the mass of common people in England who by voting for ‘Leave’ contributed to the formation of the new European agenda. Overcoming and unmaking bureaucratic, authoritarian, and neoliberal EU institutions is the only way to progress towards the making of a new democratic Europe.     

Women and the Emergence of the NAACP

This article discusses contributions of women to the emergence of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Using network analysis, the author studied affiliations between African American and White women who signed “The Call,” a petition calling for a national conference to obtain civil rights for African Americans. These links led to the origin of one of the most successful organizations in the fight for equality. Their experiences reflect the segregation and conflicts of the era. They also suggest strategies for facing cultural issues today. Teaching about social work history, its legacy of reform, and its commitment to social justice gained from the social movements of the Progressive Era can help social work students, most of whom are women, understand how social change can occur.     

Language and libertarianism: the politics of cyberculture and the culture of cyberpolitics

A significant number of theories concerning the nature of cyberspace or virtuality are being constructed with little regard for the empirical realities of online life. This article sets out certain simple empirical factors related to the nature first of politics in cyberspace and second culture in cyberspace. These questions are posed as ‘what is the politics of cyberculture?’ and ‘what is the culture of cyberpolitics?’. The politics of cyberculture revolves around issues of grossly uneven regional distribution of the Internet and a bias toward anglo‐american language and culture that is based on the competitive individual. The culture of cyberpolitics revolves around informational forms of libertarian and anarchist ideologies that posit cyberspace as the realm of individual freedom. These cultures and politics can be related to each other as the structure and action of cyberspace. The assumption that cyberspace is constituted by individuals is revealed as an assumption of both, and connection between, cyberpolitics and cybercultures.     

Altruism and the Endurance of the Good

Egoism is a pervasive trait in modern market societies that encourages people to focus upon their own self-interest above all else. Third-sector organizations, by contrast, are frequently termed altruistic. This essay elucidates the meaning of altruism as it applies to these organizations. Moral altruism means direct concern for another's well being—whoever that person might be. This study rejects psychological egoism as a meaningful psychological theory, and ethical egoism as a coherent moral position; it discusses empirical studies of altruism in rescuers of Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe as proof against the former form of egoism and Kant's moral theory against the latter. The essay then argues that altruism is a form of public action in Hannah Arendt's sense of this term. The essay concludes that third-sector organizations are altruistic insofar as they engage in public action, thereby, treating beneficiaries with respect for their individuality.     

Political Transformation and the Reinvention of the Ulster-Scots Identity and Culture

In the 1990s, Ulster-Scots language and culture was mobilized by some Ulster unionists in Northern Ireland as a badge of their cultural identity. The Ulster-Scots language and culture had its eighteenth century, premodern heyday in the north-eastern counties of the north of Ireland where it expressed distinctiveness from English and Englishness. However, in common with many regional dialects elsewhere in Europe, the processes of modernization signalled the demise of Ulster-Scots. The contemporary reinvention of an Ulster-Scots identity was precipitated by the 1990s political transformation of Northern Ireland. This reinvention has multiple manifestations. It is, variously, a myth of origin, a language and culture, a communal consciousness, a reaction against Irish nationalist cultural assertiveness in Northern Ireland, an embryonic nationalism, and a component part of the British identity. Ultimately, the reinvention of the Ulster-Scots cultural narrative appears designed to offset advances made by Irish nationalists in the assertion of their culture in Northern Ireland. Ulster-Scots has also been reinvented in an attempt to provide the Ulster unionist identity with the cultural booster required to deliver security and continuity to an identity experiencing chronic insecurity and doubt during a period of political transformation. However, the ability of Ulster-Scots to deliver on these aims is questionable.     

Romaphobia and the media: mechanisms of power and the politics of representations

ABSTRACT

This special issue of Identities, entitled ‘Romaphobia and the media’, examines entrenched and ongoing media coverage of Roma, Gypsy and Traveller people across Europe. The focus is on how the media problematises the Roma, how it constructs a ‘conceptual map’ about Roma people and what this tells us about the societies we live in. This special issue includes five academic articles all examining the constructions and stereotypes used in the media in various formats and European countries. After these academic articles, this special issue then deviates from the normal journal structure by including three commentary pieces from professionals from varying Roma backgrounds to give their views and experiences on how they tackle Romaphobia and the media. The inclusion of these commentary pieces are very powerful in offering a perspective of active interventions and resistance that we should not forget amidst the depressing continued circulation of racialised stereotypes.     

On the expansion of the market and the decline of the family

Over the past two hundred years, large, modern firms have tended to replace small, family businesses. In parallel, the family has declined as a social institution. We suggest that these developments are interrelated. Because information of cheating in market transactions spreads only gradually in large markets, the reputation of the family firm could support contractual performance only in small, traditional markets. As markets grew in size, this reputational mechanism could no longer operate. The small, family firm was then replaced by the large, modern firm. This transition led to a decrease in the importance of the family.      

The lips of the dead and the "kiss of life": the contemporary deathbed and the aesthetic of CPR

Over the last four decades, cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) has become the medical, legal and media standard for behaviour in the face of sudden death. The key therapeutic techniques of CPR: mouth–to–mouth ventilation, external–cardiac–compressions and defibrillation – with their origins in the eighteenth century, strange peregrinations in the nineteenth, and consolidation in the twentieth – are central to what may be seen as a newly dominant form of deathbed ritual.     

以高校校报的创新发展加强党建育人工作

加强高校党建育人工作,筑牢抵御＂和平演变＂及思想渗透的钢铁长城,具有深远而重大的战略意义。高校校报作为党的喉舌耳目和重要宣传舆论工具,理所应当在加强党建育人工作中发挥重要而积极的作用。     

Simmel and the Dialectic of the Double Boundary: The Case of the Metropolis and Mental Life

George Simmel's sociology was only one expression of his overall project of understanding the modern human condition. Works such as "The Metropolis and Mental Life" have been appropriated by sociology for their substantive insights. These works are more fully understood when they are interpreted in terms of Simmel's late philosophical writings, which are based on an image of man as standing between boundaries and therefore of being a boundary for them. In light of the boundary dialectic the metropolis becomes, for Simmel, a symbol of the failed mediations attempted in modernity between the objective culture of things and the subjective culture of personal development.     

Acyclicity and the dispersion of the veto power

Blair and Pollak (Econometrica (1982) 50: 931–943) prove that, if there are more alternatives than individuals, then, for every arrovian binary decision rule that is acyclic, there is at least one individual who has a veto power over a critical number of pairs of alternatives. If the number of individuals is larger than the number of alternatives, there need not be single vetoers but there could be small coalitions endowed with a similar power. Kelsey (Soc Choice Welfare (1985) 2: 131–137) states precise results in this respect. In this paper, we first give a new and much simpler proof of the main result of Blair and Pollak and complete proofs of the generalization of this result by Kelsey. Then we give a precise answer as to the minimum size of the coalitions that must have a veto power under any acyclic binary decision rule and the minimum number of pairs of alternatives on which these coalitions may exercise their power. We also show that, if the veto power of the coalitions of the minimal size attainable under the last objective is limited to the minimum number of pairs of alternatives, then all larger coalitions have a veto power on all pairs. All the results are obtained by appealing to an acyclicity condition found by Ferejohn and Fishburn (J Econ Theory (1979) 21: 28–45). In the case of symmetric and monotonic binary decision rules, proofs are even easier and illustrate clearly the reasons for the veto power.     

Neoconservative intellectuals and the limitations of governing The Reagan administration and the demise of the Cold War

Abstract

During the 1970s, the then-emerging 'neoconservatives' promoted a foreign policy of aggressive containment of the Soviet Union. Many of these neocons were subsequently appointed to the Reagan administration; however, despite the apparent ideological convergence between Reagan and the neoconservatives, his administration did not constitute an opportunity for them to fully implement their foreign policy vision. Their underlying principles were more rigid and absolutist than those of Reagan and rejected any kind of compromise. In contrast, Reagan's strategy had a pragmatic side to it, favouring agreements with Moscow on certain issues. This limited the contribution neoconservatives could make to policy and many of them became quickly disillusioned with Reagan.     

Social Equality and the Mobilization of the Law

Sociolegal scholars refer to the invocation of law or rules during a dispute as the mobilization of law. Most studies of the mobilization of law focus on the mobilization of law by people in non‐official capacities, particularly by persons of relatively low social status or in positions of social disadvantage. Early studies debated the effectiveness of court‐centered strategies for social justice, examining whether real social change could be achieved through formal judicial means. Scholars now largely agree that law can be effectively mobilized for social change through both direct formal legal action and the indirect radiating effects of legal mobilization. This is because the influence of law goes beyond the courtroom; rights consciousness and legal mobilization help to transform culture and understandings of social status and power. Currently scholars are turning their attention to the mobilization of law within organizations such as schools and workplaces and the mobilization of rights talk and justice talk in unofficial arenas domestically and internationally.     

Roots and the trope of the good slaveholder

Despite objections that the Roots miniseries painted all the blacks as good and the whites as bad, or conversely that the addition of sympathetic white characters undermined its critique of slavery and racism, the series frequently employs the trope of the ‘good slave holder.’ This was a feature of abolitionist literature that served to give sympathetic white readers someone to identify with initially while driving home the message that slavery could never be made good by even the most benevolent master, and that whites were morally obligated to support black freedom.     

Racialized Bodies and the Violence of the Setting

Turning to object relations psychoanalysis and Black critical theory, I argue that the violence of racialization works in and through clinical and national settings. The setting is theorized in terms of its phantasmatic and phantomatic dimensions: The former refers to phantasies that ensnare certain bodies in a mythologized past, while the latter refers to the irreducibly material histories that those phantasies fail to ensnare (i.e., the phantom world). The case of a Confederate statue’s proposed removal is used to illustrate the tension between phantasm/phantom at a national level, while Searles’s writings demonstrate the interplay of phantasm/phantom in a clinical context.     

Disruption and the theory of the interaction order

Micro-sociological theory has traditionally stressed interactional pressures towards alignment: actors’ attempts to co-construct a shared definition of the situation. We argue that this model provides an insufficient account of the coordination of action and of the emergence of intersubjectivity among actors. To complement the focus on alignment, we develop a theory of disruption—a perceived misalignment of the dramaturgical structure of interaction in coordinating expected lines of action. We develop a theory of the interaction order that takes the interplay between interactional alignment and disruption as a foundational challenge both for sociology and for actors in their everyday lives. We focus on the practical ways in which actors negotiate both interactional breaches and wider relational ruptures, and how they differentiate between disruptions-of relations and disruptions-for them. By doing so, we connect the interaction order to a wider relational order, providing a bridge between micro-level interactionism and the sociology of culture.

     

Australia and the Global South: Knowledge and the Ambiguities of Place and Identity

Australia was settled as a colony of Britain from the 17th century, and its early history of violent occupation has gradually given way to a relatively peaceful, wealthy, multicultural society. As a post-colonial country, its people share characteristics with those of Britain, but, as a multicultural society, national identity is increasingly influenced by the cultures of many countries, from both the global North and South. In this paper, the question of Australia's placement as a country of the global North or South is explored. Considerations of geography, the economy, political regimes and national identity are the backdrop to an investigation of Australian scholarship and the attitudes of scholars to the inclusion of Australia as a country of the global South.