Citizenship,nation-building and diversity: What is the role of the media in all this?

Abstract

This article explores concepts and discourses regarding citizenship, nation-building and civic solidarity in particular with regard to diverse societies. Attention is given to diverging viewpoints on nation-building and different models on how civic solidarity could be achieved in heterogeneous societies. A distinction is made between Jacobinistic and syncretistic approaches to nation-building and citizenship, as well as between constitutional patriotism, liberal nationalism and deep diversity as models for achieving feelings of belonging, patriotism and social cohesion in heterogeneous societies. Nation-building in Africa and South Africa – and the implications thereof for sub-national groups – are furthermore considered. The role of the media in nation-building, on the one hand, and the accommodation of diversity, on the other, are also considered. The article ends with conclusions and recommendations on the role of the media in promoting discourses on diversity.     

E–governance and e-publicanism: preliminary perspectives on the role of the Internet in South African democratic processes

Abstract

The idea of peace has gained a hegemonic place in the discourse of intellectuals and the mass media. From being a preoccupation of religious and utopian sages throughout history, a vision of a peaceful world emerged as a fashionable occupation for peace activism in the 1960s and ultimately in the 21^st century peace research has become a fast-growing industry. The assumed need to end wars and violence and to enforce peaceful existence on individuals, groups, societies and the entire world has been unquestionably accepted as if a self evident truth. By accepting such dubious claims many scholars have consciously and unconsciously distorted historical data in order to produce an image of an ideal peaceful world. Yet increasingly the belief in the ability to abolish war and eliminate conflict is being questioned and conflict prevention is seen as unrealistic, undesirable and based on misguided assumptions. Thus, if achieving peace is counterproductive what are the motives, aims and consequences of peace enforcement? This article begins a critical interrogation of the idea of peace and peace discourse and the formative value of war as human reality. The article uncovers the genealogy of peace, evaluates the relationships between peace and war and exposes the deceptive strategies and tactics of peace discourse as it manipulates language and the mass media. The article concludes that the consequences of enforcing peace do not produce a beautiful society but a nightmare where war is seen once again as a blessing.     

Punishing coaching: bukatsudō and the normalisation of coach violence

At the beginning of 2013 two independent cases made the headlines of Japanese newspapers. The first case involved the suicide of a high school student that was allegedly triggered after he received several beatings from his basketball coach for failing to perform well enough. The second case involved fifteen female judoka, including competitors in the London Olympics, who filed a letter with the Japanese Olympic Committee complaining of violence by two coaches, including the head coach of the women's team. Both these cases caused a national debate about the practice of taibatsu (corporal punishment) in sport in Japan. This article is based on the outcomes of focus groups that were conducted with students at ten universities from across Japan in 2013. In particular, we examine the ways in which students’ normalised acts of violence from coaches, accepting them as necessary forms of discipline and, in many cases interpreting such acts as indicative of caring coaching and kindness. Further, we consider the responses of students, which suggest that these forms of corporal punishment are necessary in producing a uniquely Japanese form of identity. The complex relationship between sport and education in Japan suggests that attempts to change the ways in which bukatsudō operate, including coach/athlete relationships, is problematic and may require major reconsideration of the role of sport in education.     

The aesthetics of “everyday” violence: narratives of violence and Hindu right-wing women

“Right-wing” movements see significant participation by women who espouse their exclusionary and violent politics while at the same time often contest their patriarchal spaces. Women also serve as discursive and symbolic markers that regularly form the basis of the rhetoric, ideology, actions and policies of the right-wing. However, even as women’s roles and politics within the right-wing remain diverse and important, dominant feminist scholarship has had uneasy encounters with right-wing women, labelling them as monolithic pawns/victims/subjects of patriarchy with limited or no agency. This article aims to question this notion by examining the aesthetics and visual and oral imagery appropriated, (re)constructed, transformed and mediated by right-wing women. Based on ethnographic and visual research conducted in 2013–2014 with women in the cultural nationalist Hindu right-wing project in India, I argue that right-wing women use a variety of visual and oral narratives (from images to storytelling) to negotiate with spatialities and carve out independent “feminine” discourses within the larger language of the right-wing. I also argue that these narratives are “ritualised” and performed in various spaces and styles and remain crucial to the “everyday” politics and violence of right-wing women. The “everyday” politics of right-wing women often contest, subvert and bargain with the patriarchal goals of the larger projects, rendering narratives as sites of examining agency. Using specific examples of visual and oral narratives from the aforementioned movement, this article articulates how everyday violence is shaped by the aesthetics of the nation and the body, and how these aesthetics shape everyday violence.     

Political crime and the case of young neo‐nazis: A question of methodology

This article critically analyses some of the traditional scholarship that deals with the rise of ultra‐right politics and the requisites for the emergence of such collective action. It is argued that such approaches have limited explanatory value for understanding why people commit political crimes. The question is asked whether traditional concerns with locating causes and the tendency to offer structural determinants (such as social dislocation and high levels of unemployment) provide the best explanations for the appeal of such politics. The article continues by developing a rationale and framework for an alternative interpretative or hermeneutic approach to research on contemporary Nazism.     

Political and economic issues within the alliance: The future of Burden‐sharing and the Southern region

Annuario 1999: la costituzione europea : atti del XIV Convegno Annuale, Perugia 7–8–9‐ ottobre 1999 / Associazione italiana dei costituzionalisti. ‐ Padova : Cedam, c2000. ‐ XXXII, 633 p. ‐ ISBN 88–13–22621–7

La constitution de I'Europe / edité par Paul Magnette. ‐ Bruxelles : Editions de I'U‐niversité de Bruxelles, c2000. ‐ 201 p. ‐ ISBN 2–8004–1245–3

Europe's first constitution : the European Political Community, 1952–1954 / Richard T. Griffiths. ‐ London : Federal trust, c2000. ‐ 275 p. ‐ ISBN 1–903403–21–9

Consolidation of democracy in Africa : a view from the South / edited by Hussein Solomon, Ian Liebenberg. ‐ Aldershot: Ashgate, c2000. ‐ xii, 367 p. ‐ (The making of modern Africa). ‐ ISBN 0–7546–1174–4

The dissolution of Yugoslavia and the Badinter Arbitration Commission : a contextual study of peace‐making efforts in the post‐Cold War world / Steve Terrett. ‐ Aldershot: Ashgate, c2000. ‐ xxii, 395 p. ‐ ISBN 0–7546–2102–2

Europe and the breakup of Yugoslavia : a political failure in search of a scholarly explanation / Sonia Lucarelli. ‐ The Hague : Kluwer Law International, c2000. ‐ xvi, 278 p. ‐ ISBN 90–411–1439–4

Evolution and devolution : the dynamics of sovereignty and security in post‐Cold War Europe / Tom Lansford. ‐ Aldershot : Ashgate, c2000. ‐ viii, 242 p. ‐ ISBN 0–7546–1255–4

Funding virtue : civil society aid and democracy promotion / Marina Ottaway, Thomas Carothers, editors. ‐ Washington : Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, c2000. ‐ x, 340 p. ‐ ISBN 0–87003–178–3 (pbk)

The third force : the rise of transnational civil society / Ann M. Florini, editor. ‐ Tokyo : Japan Center for International Exchange ; Washington : Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, c2000. ‐ viii, 295 p. ‐ ISBN 0–87003–179–1 (pbk)

The geostrategic triad: living with China, Europe, and Russia / Zbigniew Brzezin‐ski. ‐ Washington : CSIS, c2000. ‐ XII, 75 p. ‐ (Significant issues ; v.23, n.1). ‐ ISBN 0–89206–384‐X

Islam and European legal systems / edited by Silvio Ferrari, Anthony Bradney. ‐Aldershot: Ashgate, c2000. ‐ x, 203 p. ‐ ISBN 1–84014–466–1

The nuclear challenge : US‐Russian strategic relations after the Cold War / Christoph Bluth. ‐ Aldershot : Ashgate, c2000. ‐ viii, 190 p. ‐ ISBN 1–85521–896–8

The politics of British arms sales since 1964 : ‘to secure our rightful share’ / Mark Phythian. ‐ Manchester: Manchester University Press, c2000. ‐ xii, 340 p. ‐ ISBN 0–7190–5907–0

The role of small states in the European Union / ’Baldur Thorhallsson. ‐ Aldershot : Ashgate, c2000. ‐ x, 252 p. ‐ ISBN 0–7546–1423–9.

South American Free Trade Area or Free Trade Area of the Americas?: open regionalism and the future of regional economic integration in South America / Mario Esteban Carranza. ‐ Aldershot: Ashgate, c2000. ‐ xiv, 245 p. ‐ (The political economy of Latin Amrica). ‐ ISBN 1–84014–795–4

Taiwan's security in the post‐Deng Xiaoping era / Martin L. Lasater, Peter Kien‐hong Yu; with contributions from Kuang‐ming Hsu and Robyn Lim. ‐ London : Frank Cass, 2000. ‐ xii, 355 p. ‐ ISBN 0–7146–5083–8

Taiwan Strait dilemmas : China‐Taiwan‐U.S. policies in the new century / edited by Gerrit W. Gong. ‐ Washington : The CSIS Press, c2000. ‐ XVIII, 174 p. ‐ (Significant issues ; v.22, n.1). ‐ ISBN 0–89206–363–7     

America''''s Difficulties after the War and the International Political Consequences of the War

The U. S. A will succeed militarily in the Iraq war. However, it is far away from the true meaning of victory in war defined by distinguished strategic thinker B. H. Liddell Hart, even inaccessible. Using Hart's own word, the true victory in war is to attain a better state of peace and improve the quality of life for the survivors after the war is over. What await America after the basic success in Iraq are grave military and political difficulties. Moreover, there may be bigger economic and financial troubles as well.     

On Some Problems and Trend of the World Security

The″９·１１″incidenthasbroughtaboutmanynewbewilderingphenomenoninthefieldofworldsecurity．Greatchangeshavealsotakenplacea－mongvariouscountriesinunderstandingofthreatstosecurityandinsubjectiveperceptionofsecurity．Countriesattheverycoreoftheinternationalcom－munitysuchastheUnitedStatesandcountriesonthemarginlikeAfghanistanlacksenseofsecurity．Whilepushingaheadwiththeglobalstrategyinanall－roundmannerandmakingeffortstomaintainitsinterestsabroad，theUScannoteffectivelysafe－guarditshomeland…     

Perils of parliamentarism? Political systems and the stability of democracy revisited

Parliamentary systems are generally regarded as superior to presidential ones in democratic sustenance. This article contributes to the debate on the relationship between systems of government and the survival of democracy by bringing in a new perspective and analysing the experiences of 131 democracies during 1960–2006. We argue that systems of government do matter, but their effects are indirect; they exert their influence through societies' prior democratic records. Confirming the conventional argument, our data analysis shows that uninterrupted parliamentary democracies face significantly lower risks of a first breakdown than their presidential counterparts. Contrary to the common understanding, however, we find that the risk of a democratic breakdown can be higher for parliamentary regimes than for presidential regimes among the countries whose democracy has collapsed in the past. Furthermore, the risk of a previously failed democracy falling again grows as (the risk of) government crises increase(s). Hence our study questions the common belief that parliamentary systems are categorically more conducive to democratic stability than presidential ones.     

Managing East Asia''''s Political and Security Risks:From the Perspective of Transition of International Order

In the sixty years after World War II, albeit with unceasing local conflicts, Asia as a whole moved into a relatively stable period of peace. It has been also a period of the most rapid and sound development in history indeed. However, the international order has broken down, and it is in a historical transition period. Different from the transition of international order at     

A Household Full of Bodies: Neoliberalism,Care and “the Political”

This article explores “the political” of political economy through an analysis of neoliberalised care. Borrowing Glyn Daly's metaphor of the political economy as a disorganised household, where the “political” disrupts the neat order of the oikonomia, we argue that in neoliberalism care is a central site of the political. Through Foucauldian biopolitics we define commodification as a central logic in the governance of care, and situate it in the wider context of neoliberal governmentality. Conceptualising care as a corporeal relation, and following Annemarie Mol's logic of care, we show how, despite the constant attempts to domesticate it, the hegemonic discourse fails to fully subsume care within the “order of the household”. Examining the ruptures produced when care resists its governance, the article demonstrates how the corporeal relatedness of care continues to open up spaces for the political, hence ensuring that the economy remains political.     

War, ‘strategic communication’ and the violence of non-recognition

Contemporary Western war-fighting is animated by the fictitious imagination of a war free from antagonism. In this logic, winning wars is about winning the ‘hearts and minds’ of local populations, about persuasion rather than confrontation. In recent years, the concept of ‘strategic communication’ (SC) has been elevated to the top echelons of strategic thinking in United States military circles, focusing attention on how to communicate ‘effectively’ with local populations. Via an analysis of the concept of SC, this article examines the ethico-political dimensions of contemporary Western-led ‘population-centric’ war. Through a reading inspired by Judith Butler's recent work in Precarious life (London: Verso 2006) and Frames of war (London: Verso 2009), and an analysis that turns on the link between ethics and ontology, I reflect on the significance of the ‘communications turn’ in warfare for our study of war in ontological terms.     

Age structure and political violence: a re-assessment of the “youth bulge” hypothesis

A popular hypothesis in international studies states that a “youth bulge”––an age pyramid dominated by large cohorts between 15 and 29 years of age––increases the risk of political violence. However, empirical evidence on this link remains inconclusive to date. In this article, we systematically assess the youth effect using new data from 183 countries between 1996 and 2015. We find that within countries, a decrease in the youth ratio is generally associated with a decrease in the number of violent deaths from terrorism or other internal conflicts, and vice versa. This is also confirmed in out-of-sample predictions. However, the association is not evident in all constellations and sensitive to modeling issues. In particular, large cohorts of young males can become a disruptive power in countries that increase enrollment in post-primary education. Although this is usually followed by fertility decline, youth bulges often remain at record levels for quite some time due to high birth rates in the past. Strong labor markets can in general suppress the detrimental consequences of youth bulges. However, the combination of growing youth cohorts and educational expansion often leads to increased political violence even in the presence of low youth unemployment.     

India and the dialectics of domestic and international “land grabbing”: Historical perspectives,current debates,and the case of Ethiopia

International land “acquisition” or land “grabbing” has become a global phenomenon in which India plays an increasingly important role. While there is a critical domestic debate regarding land deals within India — especially pertaining to the provisions of the Land Acquisition Act of 2014 — there is practically no such debate regarding international land deals by Indian companies in Sub-Saharan Africa. By applying a two-level discourse analysis, this article argues that the land discourse within India can be understood as a strategy of exclusion. By linking land issues with questions of “development,” the discursive strategies of powerful actors lead to the exclusion of the arguments of NGOs and others opposed to the land deals from the discourse within India. This strategy of exclusion is then taken to the extreme with the strategy of securitization outside India: land deals are linked to “food security,” as the example of Ethiopia highlights.     

Nourishing men's anger and inflaming the fires of hatred: Bayle on religious violence and the ‘Novus Ordo Saeclorum’

In 1697, the Huguenot writer Pierre Bayle (1647–1706) published his Dictionnaire historique et critique ‐ a one‐man encyclopaedia. The article entitled Macon drew attention to the cruel atrocities perpetrated during the French Wars of Religion. This article explains the context of Bayle's critique, arguing that he uses the example to reflect on the Gallican regime's renewal of persecution against his community, and on the notorious revocation by Louis XIV, in 1685, of the Edict of Nantes. As a long‐term remedy for state violence against a law‐abiding minority, he recommends deliberative freedom within a framework of government impartiality, thereby anticipating a new secular order. A new translation of Bayle's article Macon can be found in the appendix.     

Cruise‐ship terrorism and the media

Abstract

An attempt is made to analyze physical differences between the Achille Lauro incident and seizure of hostages on board aircraft, for their impact on terrorist use of the news media. Among the important differences considered are the following: the number of hostages, the range and endurance of the transportation vehicle, the possibilities of disappearing into the unknown, the degree of “de facto torture” in the physical situation of the hostages, the ease of media (especially television) access, the general accessibility of the vehicle for rescue efforts, and the sheer novelty of this mode of terrorist attack. Some analogies are drawn with terrorist seizures of railroad trains and buses, including comparisons of media behavior.     

Shattering crystals: The role of ‘dream time’ in extreme right-wing political violence

This article prepares the conceptual ground for a new heuristic approach to understanding acts of political violence that consciously incur the risk of death to their perpetrators. It focuses on the deep-seated human drive to escape the futility and emptiness induced by clock-time (chronos), and the way a sense of being ‘chosen’ for a mission of destruction can precipitate the experience of being reborn in a new supraindividual dimension (‘dream time’). At this point the etymological connotations of ‘self-sacrifice’ and ‘fanatic’ acquire a new significance, since the personal palingenesis experienced by the soldier or terrorist confronting death may rehearse archetypal patterns of mystic purification and immortality. This ‘chrono-ethological’ perspective on extreme political violence is elaborated by considering the devastating impact that Western modernity has had on the access to states of ‘self-transcendence’ available in traditional religious culture. It is then applied to examples of inter-war fascist paramilitarism and contemporary ‘lone-wolf’ terrorism.