Constructing and Deconstructing Liberty: A Feminist and Poststructuralist Analysis

Debates about liberty have been dominated by discussion about the relationship between its negative and positive conceptions. In accepting this framework, political theorists have left unquestioned certain foundational ideas that both concepts share but which actully constrain our thinking about freedom. This relates in particular to subjectivity and our assumptions about the free self. This critique uses feminist and poststructuralist approaches and explores the implications of the spatial metaphors which both concepts of liberty invoke.     

A Feminist Utopia

Project Alternative Future is funded by the Norwegian parliament, and its aim is partly the construction of a model for an alternative society It is a Utopian project in the best meaning of the concept. Like Plato's ideal society, the project attempts to combine ambitious visions and concrete thinking. This paper is a discussion of feminist principles on which to base a model for a fundamentally different society. Feminism, as distinct from womanism, is seen as a political ideology criticizing the sexist, patriarchal social structures as well as general structures of domination, competition and violence. A feminist Utopia involves new principles for allocating values; a new ethics based on the principle of reproduction. Feminist theory is criticized for us dualist tradition, and the paper argues for the rationality of aesthetics in addition to the rationality of utility and the rationality of care. Several suggestions as to how to approach a feminist Utopia are made.     

女性主义文学批评的走向——谈性别诗学的建构前提

对于女性主义文学批评的理论未来而言,性别诗学的建构具有十分重要的意义。本文围绕女性主义文学批评逐步走向理性与成熟、逐步实现诗学的转换、强化个性的文学写作方式与批评理念、逐渐改善女性的生存状况与文学现状、跨学科研究等方面,阐述了建构开放多元的性别诗学体系的必要前提,从而对女性主义文学批评的发展走向进行一些前瞻性思考。     

Eco-feminist Organizing in South Africa: Reflections on the Feminist Table

ABSTRACT

This article focuses on the activities of a modest feminist initiative called “The Feminist Table.” Established in 2012, it is one of a number of initiatives trying to develop grassroots eco-feminist solidarity among black women in contemporary South Africa. It uses the Marxist feminist notion of social reproduction, i.e. the unpaid care work which these women do outside the market, both in their households and in their communities. This work is both essential to sustaining capitalism and has potential to contribute to its overcoming. By focusing on the legacy of colonialism and the apartheid, and by drawing on black women’s experiences of socially and ecologically destructive capitalism in contemporary South Africa, we aim to contribute to the literature on eco-socialist feminist struggles and resistance from a Southern perspective. This paper draws on informal conversations and key informant interviews, as well as on our experience of participation in various initiatives trying to develop eco-socialist feminism in South Africa during the last five years.     

Unruly Practices: Gezi Protests and the Politics of Friendship

In 2013, Gezi Park housed perhaps the most significant democratic protest of the Turkish Republic’s history. The Gezi protests have drawn the attention of many democratic theorists since then. What is surprising about these theorists’ commentaries on Gezi is that in none of them is it possible to find an account of political practices that enabled actors with such different interests and worldviews to act in concert during this moment of popular action. This article argues that to attend fully to the unique features of events such as Gezi, we need to develop an alternative conceptualization of democratic action that brings to light such mediatory political practices. To develop that alternative, I turn to Aristotle and creatively appropriate his notion of “political friendship.” Interpreted as an ethico-political notion, which refers to a set of mediating practices, political friendship becomes a rich conceptual resource that lays bare the dynamics of democratic popular action.     

Feminist Research in Transitional Justice Studies: Navigating Silences and Disruptions in the Field

This paper will analyse what it takes to conduct feminist and sensitive research in countries that have seen mass human rights violations. Transitional justice research involves critical examination of difficult topics which raises a number of ethical and methodological issues for both the participants and the researchers. Although empirical research has been a facet of the studies produced in the field, researchers’ accounts of undertaking research in often politically sensitive environments is largely missing from published books and research reports. This paper is informed by personal experiences of doing research in wartime rape in the ethnically and politically divided country of Bosnia and Herzegovina. I argue that the researcher’s profile and positionality directly affects the fieldwork and that fieldwork is a dialogical process which is structured by the researcher and the wider political processes in the country.     

Feminist comparative policy: A new field of study

Abstract. This article presents feminist comparative policy (FCP) as a new field of study. It argues that FCP scholars have successfully developed a distinct approach to doing political research and a significant scientific community which follows this approach. In doing so, FCP scholars, particularly since the early 1990s, have moved this area of study into a new stage of institutionalization and influence. These achievements are documented in a discussion of first, the development and major features of the FCP approach and second, the individuals and research infrastructure that comprise the FCP community. The conclusion considers the successes of FCP in the context of speculations about its contributions to non feminist political science.     

女权视野下的富人超生问题

富人超生已经成为一个严重的社会问题.女权理论认为,人的生育欲望是社会文化的产物,而主张多育的生育文化观念则是男权社会的产物;妇女权利的增加可以改变陈旧的生育文化观念,并有利于最终造就一个低生育水平的社会;男女之间的社会结构不仅是一种支配与屈从的人际关系模式,更是一种社会发展成果的分享和利用模式.当前,我国的女权发展不足,妇女在教育和就业等方面处于劣势,社会上轻视妇女权利的现象还比较严重.通过发展女权应对富人超生,需要将女权发展战略与加强生育控制有机结合,需要将富人因超生而缴纳的"社会抚养费"投入到女权发展事业中,需要全面把握、科学理解党和政府关于发展女权的有关规定,将女权发展提升到新高度.     

当代美国地方政府间关系协调的实践及其启示

当代美国联邦制的实践需要对地方政府间关系进行协调,而协调实践中市场机制与科层制都无法解决全部问题,因此组织间网络作为一种新型治理机制应运而生;当代美国地方政府间关系协调成功的关键在于有效的制度建设,包括多元化的治理机制、良好的制度环境和相对规范的地方政府,这对当代中国类似问题的有效治理具有借鉴意义。