Between Speech and Silence: The Postcolonial Critic and the Idea of Emancipation

Abstract

The concept of emancipation has an increasingly ambivalent status in postcolonial criticism. Under the influence of poststructuralism, the idea that the subaltern subject might overcome colonial relations of cultural domination through acts of self-representation has been thrown into disrepute. If there is to be emancipation, according to this view, it will not come through the recovery of an authentic speaking subject, but through strategies of ‘strategic essentialism’. Here it is argued that this postructuralist approach leaves the subaltern in a politically pre carious position and should be exchanged for the kind of hermeneutic approach that makes possible a genuine politics of recognition.     

Recognition and Redistribution: Rethinking N. Fraser's Dualistic Model

Abstract

It can be argued that Nancy Fraser's work integrates the concepts of recognition and redistribution by questioning the definition of the concept of recognition in order to bring it closer to the practical scope of redistribution. One of the difficulties raised by the concept of recognition is that it can appear as a kind of social monism by presenting culture as the main factor behind all social criticism, and thus, behind all kinds of claims and conflicts. However, it is possible to acknowledge the theoretical significance of the economy as well. Instead of a monistic framework, we should adopt a dualistic one, founded less on the distinction between economy and culture than on the analysis of their imbrications. Both economy, and status as defined in cultural, ethnic, or sexual approaches to recognition, could work together to minimize the importance of the civil and political rights defended by liberal thinkers.     

Latino politics—class struggles: Reflections on the future of Latino politics

Abstract

This paper is a set of reflections about the future of Latino politics in the United States. All politics built around an identity presuppose the reality of that identity. In this paper, I examine the structural and ideological barriers to Latino identity formation and the structural commonalities that shape the experiences conducive to Latino identity formation. After I outline the major divisions in the “Hispanic"/Latino population, I present a theoretical analysis of identity formation and the functions of identity politics, theorizing the ways in which the characteristics of this population foster or hinder the development of Latino identity. The main argument of this paper is that preferences for and debates about ethnic labels/identities and ethnic claims often mask class divisions and class‐based grievances within this population, and that recognition of the relationship between class location, identity formation and identity politics might be a necessary step for the development of successful Latino workers’ politics.     

Recognition as Redistribution

Abstract

This paper aims to explore and examine the implied commitment to the premises of recognition in Rawls’s account of redistributive justice. It attempts to find out whether or not recognition relations that produce humiliation and cultural injustice can be followed to their logical conclusion in his theory of redistribution. This paper makes two claims. Firstly, although Rawls does not disregard the harms of misrecognition as demonstrated in his notion of self-respect being the most important primary good, he cannot liberally accommodate the idea of humiliation as a case of injustice without compromising the basic premises of his theory. Secondly, while resource distribution produces indirect side effects that can impact upon cultural injustice, addressing recognition issues through the prism of redistribution can inadvertently result in further misrecognition. The paper concludes that in the final analysis Rawls wrongly takes redistribution as the overarching principle of justice to which recognition is but a subservient principle.     

The Two Sides of Recognition: Gender Justice and the Pluralization of Social Esteem

Abstract

This article seeks to sketch the contours of a good society, distinguished by its gender justice and the plural recognition of egalitarian difference. I begin by reconstructing Nancy Fraser's arguments highlighting the link between distributive justice and relations of recognition, in particular as it applies to gender justice. In a second step, I show that the debate on the politics of recognition has confirmed what empirical analyses already indicated, namely that Fraser's status model takes too reductive a stance towards the identity-constituting effects of relations of recognition. The simple demand that identities be recognized, however, glosses over the paradox of recognition, which arises out of the ambiguity between the demand for equal respect and the demand for the recognition of difference. This paradox cannot be resolved unless one takes into consideration the compensatory effect of value pluralism, that is, the inherent pluralism of recognition, well captured in the notion of "egalitarian difference".     

Strangers and Others: From Deconstruction to Hermeneutics

Abstract

It is not clear that "cultural recognition" should be a central goal of leftist politics. The idea that cultures have value simply by virtue of being cultures seems absurd, so it might be better to talk simply about eliminating prejudice and stigmatisation.     

Police Performance As Symbolic Politics? Public Recognition and the Value of Awards

Abstract

What constitutes “good” performance in a law enforcement agency, who decides, and how does public recognition of that performance change how an agency performs? This study uses a quasi-experimental design and propensity-score matching model to assess the impact of a law enforcement agency’s status as a finalist for the annual Cisco/International Chiefs of Police Association (IACP) Community Policing Award on performance in future years, as measured by crime clearance rates. It is found that after comparing the treated group (finalist agencies) with the untreated group (non-finalist nearest-neighbor agencies), there is no meaningful difference in crime clearance rates. This unexpected finding establishes that the public recognition of finalist status by the Department of Justice, which promotes finalist agencies as exemplars of best practices in community policing, does not impact the subsequent performance of those agencies. Additionally, the results of the model suggest that the impact of symbolic politics and social construction on the award finalist selection process and the choice by DOJ to promote the practices of those agencies should be explored. Questions are also raised as to the utility of crime clearance rates as a performance measure, and future avenues for research in each area are proposed.     

Differences That Matter: Overcoming Methodological Nationalism in Comparative Social Policy Research

Abstract

Welfare states are often discussed as if they were territorially homogeneous state-wide institutions measurable by state-wide expenditure averages and explained by country-level variables. It is rare in comparative policy studies to investigate the role of territorial politics in the outcomes of even federal countries. This article argues, using social policy examples in the UK and US, that the impact of intergovernmental finance and division of labour profoundly shapes social investment and redistribution – producing almost as much expenditure variance within the US as within the OECD. The findings show the importance of incorporating territorial politics and intergovernmental arrangements into comparative welfare state and policy analysis.     

State,social policy and subaltern citizens in adivasi India

This paper argues that social policies work towards the subject-making of subaltern citizens by defining the grammar of state–subaltern relationship. The Forest Rights Act of India (2006) defines the state–adivasi relationship through a two-way process: claim-making by the indigenes for forest rights, and reduction of the discourse by the state into a politics of recognition without redistribution. While adivasis have employed their agency in wresting social policies from the state through protracted struggles, they are also made subjects of the state as they go about the Forest Rights Act procedure. The paper further points out that adivasi struggles and the organisations representing them constitute a distinct adivasi society contra the middle-class civil society. Though the spirit of the Act envisages substantive redistribution, the state institutions and the monitoring Non-Governmental Organisations have yet to adopt redistribution as a core narrative.     

Political citizenship and local political participation for disabled people

The theme of this article is political citizenship among people with disabilities. Political citizenship on the basis of gender and ethnicity has received attention internationally. However, there has been little attention on political citizenship of persons with disabilities. The article sheds light on political representation at the local level in Norway. The data used are from a survey sent to 767 political representatives in local politics and 50 administrative representatives. Our study shows that disabled people are under-represented in local political assemblies, and thus, their political citizenship is not fully acknowledged. We apply Fraser (N. Fraser, 1997. Justice Interruptus. Critical Reflections on the ‘Postsocialist’ Condition. New York and London: Routledge) concepts of redistribution and recognition to analyse the lack of representation of disabled people. According to the dimension of redistribution, the analysis shows that neither the physical conditions nor the organization of the different meetings is particularly well adapted for disabled people. The dimension of recognition shows that disabled representatives are expected to be more occupied with issues concerning disability than other representatives. The analysis also shows that over time it has become more important for elected disabled representatives to put issues concerning disability on the agenda.     

Rethinking the ‘Cold War’ in the Asia‐Pacific*

Abstract

Whereas the Yalta System collapsed and the Cold War ended in the Euro‐Atlantic context, the basic structure of the Cold War remains in the Asia‐Pacific region, and still provides potential sources for future conflicts. This paper reconsiders the regional Cold War and its implications for current international politics in the Asia‐Pacific region. It argues that the relaxation of tensions seen since the late 1980s resembles the 1970s’ détente in the Euro‐Atlantic region, i.e. recognition of a Cold War political status quo, rather than the ‘end of the Cold War’. Along with political and ideological confrontations, significant elements within the Cold War structure in the Asia‐Pacific are regional conflicts among its major players. Their historical correlation within the San Francisco System has been neglected in past studies. The paper suggests that re‐examining the disputes within a multilateral framework may provide a key to a breakthrough in understanding the current status quo.     

Seeing White−Female Whiteness and the Purity of Children in Australian,Chinese and British Visual Culture

In this paper, I interrogate the expression and usage of ‘whiteness’ in Australian, British and Chinese visual culture. My approach is through reading local texts with an eye to transcultural systems of meaning, paying particular attention to the ways in which whiteness is used as a doubled category in sexual politics. The paper is formed through the performance of cross-cultural connectivities within an epistemological emphasis on the travelled theorist. The movement between Chinese, Australian and English ethical positions are constitutive of the perspectives expressed here; the perspectives are themselves concerned to look back and into those ethical positions. The performance works towards a recognition of the semiotic systems of power and identity, and therefore of the conditions of theoretical performance itself.     

These fine lines: locating noncitizenship in political protest in Europe

Abstract

Since 2012, refugee protest camps and occupations have been established throughout Europe that contest the exclusion of refugees and asylum seekers, but that also make concrete demands for better living conditions and basic rights. It is a movement that is led by migrants as noncitizens, and so reveals new ways of thinking of the political agency and status of noncitizenship not as simply reactive to an absence of citizenship, but as a powerful and transgressive subjectivity in its own right. This paper argues that we should resist collapsing analysis back into the frameworks of citizenship, and instead be attentive to the politics of presence and solidarity manifest in these protest camps as a way of understanding, and engaging, noncitizen activism.     

Looking Backwards: 1968 Thirty Years Later 1

This essay is intended to open a discussion about building a coherent account of the decline of AIDS street activism amongst lesbians and gay men in the US in the early 1990s. It does so by demonstrating how a narrative of key events in the rise and decline of this activism can be structured by being linked to the trajectory of racial politics in the larger society. The argument is made that AIDS street activism was ultimately overwhelmed by political isolation caused by the withering of a broader "rainbow politics," and by an expanding white racial backlash in the larger society. In this context there was little room for the political development of movement participants, and movement solidarity was shattered as the broader culture and politics of racial backlash penetrated the movement.     

Inter-regional redistribution through infrastructure investment: tactical or programmatic?

In this paper we study the political economy of the inter-regional allocation of investment in infrastructure, in an effort to disentangle tactical and programmatic motives, where tactical politics refers to the discretionary allocation of investment to districts with more ‘political clout’ and programmatic politics refers to the allocation of investment according to certain ‘objective’ criteria (e.g., income level). We use a panel of data from the Spanish electoral districts for the period 1964–2004 to estimate an equation in which investment depends both on economic and political variables. The results show that tactical politics do matter since the districts receiving the most funds are those in which: (i) the incumbent’s vote margin is low, (ii) few votes are needed to win an additional seat in the legislature, (iii) the central and regional governments are controlled by the same party, and (iv) regional parties play a pivotal role in the legislature. However, the results also show that programmatic politics matter, since inter-regional redistribution is shown to increase: (i) with the arrival of democracy and European Union funds, (ii) under leftist governments, and (iii) the weaker the correlation is between ‘political clout’ and regional income.     

Beyond "Ethnic Democracy": State Structure,Multicultural Conflict and Differentiated Citizenship in Israel

Critical theoretical models usually aim to explain complex sociopolitical realities and open some space for constructive change. The "ethnic democracy model," developed by the Israeli sociologist Sammy Smooha, comes to justify the existing state structure in Israel in which democracy is selective and differential vis-à-vis the various social groups in Israeli society. A systematic critique of this model demonstrates the attempts made by Israeli political sociologists to turn the ethnic nature of Israeli democracy into a stagnant ideal-type in a time where regime dynamism and democratization is considered an ideal in world politics. In order to pinpoint the deficiencies in the ethnic democracy model, multiculturalism is utilized as a normative theory that better explains the sociopolitical reality in Israel. This paper concludes by suggesting searching for state recognition of the political benefits of differentiated citizenship and group rights to reduce the rising ethno-cultural conflict in Israeli society.     

‘Austria First’ revisited: a diachronic cross-sectional analysis of the gender and body politics of the extreme right

ABSTRACT

In this paper, Rheindorf and Wodak provide a discourse-historical analysis of extreme-right cultural politics in Austria, ranging from the blatant racism in the speeches of Vienna’s former Deputy Mayor Johann Gudenus (now MP in the Austrian parliament) to the construction of an idealized national body in the election campaigns of the Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs (FPÖ), its programmatic agenda in handbooks and pamphlets, and the performances of far-right pop singer Andreas Gabalier. Rheindorf and Wodak argue that such cultural politics use a wide spectrum of discursive strategies both inside and outside established party politics and that the accompanying production of an ideal extreme-right subject is informed by nativist ideology. The cross-sectional analysis demonstrates that the cultural politics of the Austrian extreme right ranges from appropriated national symbols to coded National Socialist iconography. These politics pervasively construct a gendered and racialized national body, policed by a ‘strict father’ and nurtured by a ‘self-sacrificing mother’, vis-à-vis an apocalyptic threat scenario identified with migration, intellectual and political elites, cosmopolitanism and progressive gender politics.     

The great Caliban: the struggle against the rebel body – part two

“The prospects for red‐green politics in Britain can appear bleak. The fourth successive Conservative general election victory in April, 1992 has caused disarray and demoralization among the opposition parties. Nevertheless, the shock of defeat leaves a fluid situation in which there is a growing space on the left. There is at least a possibility that this could be filled by an eco‐socialist political force.     

Postmodern politics and the battle for the future

Abstract

The postmodern turn which has so marked social and cultural theory also involves conflicts between modern and postmodern politics. In this study, we articulate the differences between modern and postmodern politics and argue against one‐sided positions which dogmatically reject one tradition or the other in favor of partisanship for either the modern or the postmodern. Arguing for a politics of alliance and solidarity, we claim that this project is best served by drawing on the most progressive elements of both the modern and postmodern traditions. Developing a new politics involves overcoming the limitations of certain versions of modern politics and postmodern identity politics in order to develop a politics of alliance and solidarity equal to the challenges of the coming millennium.