Feminism and the political: introduction

The paper compares and confronts the work of two of the most distinguished living Marxist philosophers: G. A. Cohen from the English-speaking world, and Louis Althusser from France. It develops a critique of certain of Cohen's theses from the standpoint of ideas present in the work of Althusser. But it also problematizes certain presuppositions common to the work of both – in particular, the notion that historical development (transition or revolution) should be explained in terms of some general theory of non-correspondence between productive forces and production relations: the difference being simply that, within this scheme, Althusser accords explanatory primacy to the latter, Cohen to the former. Cohen's and Althusser's accounts of technological innovation and development are also compared, in connexion with the contrasting place which they attribute to the notice of human rationality on the one side and class struggle on the other.     

The labour of identity: performing identities,performing economies

Recent analyses of workplace organization have stressed that the self-identify of workers constitutes a key resource in new regimes of accumulation. Morever, this significance of self-identify has been understood to form part of an aestheticization of work since the techniques involved in the performance of identity are widely conceived as aesthetic or cultural practices. However, in this article we suggest that in these assumptions the questions of a person's relation to self-identity and of how the labour or work of identity may contribute to the political organization of production remain hidden. Through looking not just at the kinds of self-identity available to and performed by workers but also at the terms and conditions of their performance. We show that a person's self-identity is a key site of conditions of their performance, we show that per' self-identity is a key site of contestation in the struggle that maps out production. In particular, and through a focus on issues of gender and the body, we illustrate the ways in which workers may be denied authorship of their identities and the ability to claim their identity performances as occupational resources. Our analysis indicates that self-possessing workers with performable identities should not be universalized by theorists of the economic and, moreover, that considerations of the aestheticization of work need to be sensitive to what we term socio-cultural regimes of accumulation in which the implications of particular processes of aestheticization for the relation between self and identity and of both to production are explored rather than assumed.     

To What Extent Can the January 25 Revolution Be Seen as a “Bifurcation” in the Life Stories of Egyptian Migrants in France?

ABSTRACT

The revolutionary process initiated in Egypt in 2011 triggered a surge in Egyptian-led organizations in the public arena in Paris. This article examines the issue of the “biographical impacts of commitment” and applies the “life history approach” to these Egyptian activists. Our basic hypothesis is that the opening up of political perspectives in Egypt may be understood as a bifurcation process in such individual trajectories. It may have entailed a series of disruptions in everyday life to the extent of causing these Egyptian migrants to reconsider their positions within the French context.     

An overview of the state of research on women and politics in Spain

Abstract. This article is an overview of quantitative and qualitative research on women and political decision-making in Spain. Ten parts of the literature are examined including: government and legislative; public administration; political parties; employers' organizations; unions; pressure groups and lobbies; social movements and NGOs and womens' policy machinery. The future prospects of filling the enormous gaps in the research are negative, given the weak institutionalization of gender studies in Spain.     

B. Reviews: general

i. ISLAM IN THE WORLD. By Malise Ruthven. London, Penguin Books, 1984. pp.400. £3.95.

ii. ISLAM IN FOREIGN POLICY. Edited by Adeed Dawisha, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press in Association with Chatham House, 1983. pp.181 and index. £17.50.

iii. BAHA'U'LLAH: THE KING OF GLORY. By Hasan Balyuzi. Oxford, George Ronald, 1980. pp.539 with photographs and 1 colour plate. £9.00.

iv. THE GREAT ANATOLIAN REBELLION, 1000/1591–1611. By William J. Griswold. (Islamkundliche Untersuchungen Vol.83). Berlin, Klaus Schwarz Verlag, 1983. pp.xxiv, 333, 12 maps.

v. CONSTRUCTION WORK IN OTTOMAN CAIRO. By Nelly Hanna. Supplement aux Annales Islamologiques, Cahier No.4). Cairo, Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale, 1985.

vi. REGIONALE REFORMEN IN OSMANISCHEN REICH AM VORABEND DER TANZIMAT. By Michael Ursinus. (Islamkundliche Untersuchungen, Bd.73), Berlin, Klaus Schwarz Verlag, 1982. pp.vii, 327.

vii. NORTH AFRICA, 1800–1900: A SURVEY FROM THE NILE VALLEY TO THE ATLANTIC. By Magali Morsy, London & New York, Longman, 1984. pp.356 with maps, tables and figures.

viii. LETTERS FROM EGYPT. By Lucie Duff Gordon. London, Virago, 1983. pp.xxiv, 383. £4.95.

ix. BRIDE OF THE RED SEA. A 10th/16th CENTURY ACCOUNT OF JEDDAH. (AL SILAH WA‐'L ‘UDDAH FI TARIKH BANDAR JUDDAH). Arabic text edited, translated and annotated by G.Rex Smith and ‘Umar Al‐Zayla'I. (Occasional Papers Series, No.22). Durham, University of Durham. Centre for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, 1984. pp.vi., 153, 4 plates.

x. ARAB HISTORIANS OF THE CRUSADES: Selected and translated from the Arabic sources by Francesco Gabrieli; translated from the Italian by E.J.Costello. London, Routledge & Kegan Paul, reprinted 1984. pp.xxxvi, 362. £6.95.

xi. INTERNATIONAL POLITICS AND THE MIDDLE EAST: OLD RULES, DANGEROUS GAME. By L.Carl Brown. London, I.B.Tauris, 1984, pp.xii, 363. Casebound £29.50., Paper £9.50.

xii. RELIGION AND POLITICS IN IRAN. Edited by Nikki R. Keddie. New Haven & London, Yale University Press, 1983. pp.x, 258. 1 map. £20.00.

xiii. THE STATE AND REVOLUTION IN IRAN, 1962–1982. By Hossein Bashiriyeh. London, Croom Helm, 1984. pp.202. £16.95.

xiv. THE ARABIAN PENINSULA: ZONE OF FERMENT. Edited by Robert W. Stookey. (Hoover International Studies Series). Stanford, Stanford University, 1984. pp.xxxiii, 151, 4 maps. Casebound £20.80, Paper £9.40.

xv. THE PLO: THE RISE AND FALL OF THE PALESTINE LIBERATION ORGANIZATION. By Jillian Becker. London, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1984. pp.x, 303, maps.

xvi. SUDAN AT THE CROSSROADS. By Charles Gurdon. London, Menas Press, 1984. pp.vii, 128, 1 map. £6.25.

xvii. THE STRUGGLE FOR SOUTH YEMEN. By Joseph Kostiner. London, Croom Helm, 1984. pp.194, map. £14.95.