Populism as a fantasmatic rupture in the post-political order: integrating Laclau with Glynos and Stavrakakis

ABSTRACT

The recent challenges of populist movements to the ‘post-democratic horizon’ in Greece and elsewhere have highlighted its possibilities as a political force able to mount a challenge to the technocratic logics of the neoliberal consensus. The theoretical perspective of Ernesto Laclau, which focuses on the rhetorical act of naming ‘the people’ and extrinsic representative form over intrinsic content, thus becomes increasingly valuable to explore such possibilities and to account for the current ubiquity of populist articulations both here in New Zealand and further afield. However, the need to clarify and iron out any inconsistencies in Laclau’s approach also increases, and the main task of this article is to raise the consideration of how it could be supplemented by, and articulated with, the Lacanian psychoanalytic concepts of fantasy and jouissance. Analysis of a selection of John Key’s populist articulations in the New Zealand media, and photographs from Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) protests, reveal that both forms of populist articulation, while constructing very different visions of ‘the people’, hinge on the fantasmatic representation of an other; an antagonistic power who steals our enjoyment. However, I conclude that a normative assessment of populist articulations is both possible and necessary.     

Estimating the error distribution function in semiparametric additive regression models

We consider semiparametric additive regression models with a linear parametric part and a nonparametric part, both involving multivariate covariates. For the nonparametric part we assume two models. In the first, the regression function is unspecified and smooth; in the second, the regression function is additive with smooth components. Depending on the model, the regression curve is estimated by suitable least squares methods. The resulting residual-based empirical distribution function is shown to differ from the error-based empirical distribution function by an additive expression, up to a uniformly negligible remainder term. This result implies a functional central limit theorem for the residual-based empirical distribution function. It is used to test for normal errors.     

Low-status work consequences on immigrant workers' organization: the cases of five immigrant groups in Athens

The article centres on the repercussions low-prestige work has on the collective organization and representation of immigrant workers. This micro-sociological analysis focuses on the cases of Egyptian, Albanian, Bangladeshi, Palestinian, and Philippine immigrants in Athens and how the frame of their work and their employment affects their participation in their immigrant work associations. Evidence from in-depth interviews proves that the majority of immigrants do not claim established workers' rights and do not seek membership in any unions. On the contrary, they rely on a network of friends and relatives for support and develop individual behaviours and alternative solutions to achieve survival and protection.     

海德格尔与计算机————兼论当代哲学与技术的理想关系

一般认为,现代哲学与技术实践是分离的,这种未经反思的信念之所以为人接受,原因在于哲学总是作为技术实践的背景而存在。人们只有在技术难题无法通过技术手段克服时,才有可能去反思它背后的哲学假设。计算机与哲学的距离似乎是最遥远的,然而潜藏在计算机科学和技术深处的是传统的哲学信念———世界的可表征性和主客的二元分立。当科学家们想要弄清知识表征难题的根源时,传统的哲学信念才开始得到严肃反思和摒弃。海德格尔凭借他对传统哲学的深刻批判而进入到计算机领域中。在海德格尔式的设计进路中,最具代表性的工作是:存在主义设计、指示表征设计、具身交互设计。它们说明,哲学不只是技术实践的批判者和局外人,还可以成为参与者和推动者。     

The turn to the self: From “Big Character Posters” to YouTube videos1

This paper explores the process by which user‐created content in contemporary China has evolved from being appropriated as a weapon of political mobilization and accusation to serving as a vehicle of independent self‐representation. The analysis is set in the context of the social, political and economic metamorphosis that China has undergone in the past five decades and foregrounds the dynamics of political, economic and technological forces transforming Chinese media. The metaphor of “the wall” is used to chart the contours of the struggle for self‐expression and representation. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of the political and social implications of the Internet and networked user created media content for China.     

Modernity as Masquerade: Representations of Modernity and Identity in Turkish Humour Magazines

This article aims at an alternative analysis of Turkish “modernity” by analysing the representations in a popular humour magazine. This study departs from the idea that representations in “low” discourses in Turkey can provide us with a text other than those of the official-dominant discourses in order to see how the certainty and positivity attributed to the modern identity in the dominant ideology is elaborated, demystified, and subverted as well as contained. Essentially, in the magazine, one of the main sources of humour derives from the clash of two main identities, between those who are modern, civil, urban, and effeminate and those who are traditional, uncivil, rural, and super-masculine. In the modern urban space, the modern and traditional become a stake in the power struggles between groups. This struggle operates through tastes, styles, and the body, which are at the same time means of identity construction as well as marks of identity. This duality and the concomitant dualities have come to structure all significatory practices to such an extent that everything gets symbolically overloaded by these series of dualities. In this struggle, the essence and appearance duality is the main framework within which Turkey's modernity and identity are represented. “Modernity” is signified as a masquerade, a play of appearances and a stake in the power struggles among groups rather than as a measure of progress. Bodies, sexuality, and masculinity become the nodal points of the expression of identity struggles, not only of social groups but also of the Turkish nation.     

Communicating Amok in Malaysia

This article analyzes the different messages communicated in Malaysia by violent acts labeled amok. In the colonial period, English-language uses of the term represented the presence of an anti-modern remnant among the peninsula's Malay population, one that led to a medico-legal understanding of individualized violence. Malay-language uses of amok represented, in contrast, the presence of modern changes amid the collective peninsular society. These two vectors of interest combined in the post-colonial period, where amok became a primary ingredient for analyzing Malaysian politics and national security, from the pivotal urban rebellion of May 13, 1969, to the Reformasi protests of 1998. Critically reexamining these representations of amok helps us to rethink the efficacy and power of violent acts in Malaysia and elsewhere.     

Democracy and global governance: the case for a bottom-up and context-sensitive approach

This concluding chapter outlines a theoretical framework for understanding the relation between global governance, democracy and the findings of the papers in this volume. It identifies the two principles of affectedness and representation in the literature on democratic global governance, and relates them to the three democratic building blocks of equality, inclusive participation and accountability. These five theoretical components are then combined to relate the findings of the previous chapters to three heuristic models of governance: the domination model, the market model and the global democracy model. We show that the particular global governance arrangements discussed in previous chapters to some extent contain elements of all these models: undemocratic domination, mildly democratic market mechanisms and fully democratic global-democratic processes. Through this theoretical framework, the reader gains insight into how to assess and strategize the democratization project for global governance.     

Women Acting for Women

In the new country of Timor-Leste, women constituted in 2011 32 per cent of the parliament, a relatively high figure in the world and in the region. But to what extent has the presence of women in parliament contributed to progress towards gender equality? In this article we argue that the passage of a parliamentary resolution on gender-responsive budgeting in Timor-Leste was an act of substantive representation, and we draw on a range of data to examine what made it possible. We find that while ‘newness’, international norms, women's movement unity, women's machinery in government and parliament and networks linking them were important, it was the development of a cross-party parliamentary women's caucus that was crucial to success. The role of gender-focused parliamentary institutions in supporting critical actors has rarely been examined in the literature on substantive representation. This is in contrast to the rich literature on institutions such as women's policy agencies. Our study suggests that more focus on parliamentary institutions is needed to discover what enables women parliamentarians to become critical actors.