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.     

Derrida on Identity and Difference: A Radical Democratic Reading of The Other Heading

Abstract

Both modernist and post-modern social criticism of power pre suppose that agents frequently consent to power relations, which a political theorist may wish to critique. This raises the question: from what normative position can one critique power which is, as a sociological fact, legitimate in the eyes of those who reproduce it? This paper argues that "symbolic violence" is a useful metaphor for providing such a normative grounding. In order to provide an epistemological basis of critique, it is further argued that social actors have multiple interpretative horizons avail able to them as part of their everyday social practices. Thus, they are not caught in a preconstituted web of meaning from which there is no escape, as is sometimes implicit in the over-socialized perceptions of agency associated with post-modernism.     

Political Theory,Critical Theory,and the Place of the Frankfurt School

Abstract

This paper explores the paradox of the Frankfurt School's Critical Theory where the notion of "critical theory" became identified with aesthetics and asks whether the disappearance of the political dimension of critical theory was necessary. This disappearance of the political also presents some uncomfortable affinities between it and postmodernism. But in the more sober world after 1989, post-communism poses more relevant questions than post-modernism for an assessment of the history of the Frankfurt School. The political project of the old Frankfurt School has to be revivified - or at least given a decent burial.     

The Hyper-Hermeneutic Gesture of a Subtle Revolution

Abstract

I argue that Shakespeare's Timon of Athens exemplifies the concept of mourning play that Walter Benjamin had in mind when he wrote The Origin of German Tragic Drama. While others have interpreted the play in various ways, no one has attempted to understand Timon in a Benjaminesque manner that seeks to show the emergence of baroque tragedy as a new aesthetic form at odds with, and liberated from, classical tragedy's mythical foundation and instead premised on historical time and progress. In my discussion, I question the view that Timon possesses inheritable or transmissible human social bonds that can be the subject of annihilation as is the case in Shakespeare's other tragedies. Rather, Benjamin sees in allegory, as illustrated by Timon of Athens, the social condition of modernity replete with suffering, chaos, and violence, but devoid of real human bonds; indeed, it is without human meaning.     

贵阳“生态文化”与“文化生态”建设研究

生态文化与文化生态建设既是生态文明城市建设的重要内容,也是容易混淆的两个重要范畴。明晰＂生态文化＂与＂文化生态＂的基本内涵,有助于找准＂生态文化＂与＂文化生态＂建设的着力点。贵阳生态文明城市建设已有一定基础,探索贵阳＂生态文化＂与＂文化生态＂建设的现状与存在的问题,并提出切合贵阳实际的一些对策性建议,极具理论指导意义和实践意义。     

《监狱学导论》思路、结构和特色

大学教科书《监狱学导论》全书划分为六编,强调独特性或者独创性的内容。在写作本书的过程中,特别重视对于监狱学基本知识的论述。在论述很多内容时,不仅描述“是什么”,还着意论述“为什么”,而“为什么”的内容往往体现出较为突出的理论色彩。监狱的三大有形构成要素是监狱设施、监狱工作者和被监禁的罪犯。在这三大有形构成要素中,最关键、最重要的有形构成要素是监狱工作者。在理论构建上,提出了“犯因性差异理论”。     

Arts,apartheid struggles,and cultural movements

ABSTRACT

This study i) briefly sketches some anti-apartheid arts initiatives of the 1980s; ii) examines the anti-apartheid academic common sense that assumed that “real struggle” could occur only within the labor movement; while iii) both are discussed in relation to early Afrikaner conservative cultural theory. The role of social theory within these sites of resistance is discussed. The article offers a lived methodology by including evocative observations from some social actors who participated in, and contributed to anti-apartheid art, drama and writing. The objective is to draw out debates on struggle rather than to offer a discussion of arts initiatives themselves. These are examined in terms of Albie Sachs’ pleas for discussion beyond the weaponization of art, one that restores the humanity robbed by apartheid.     

基于亚欧融合和支线陆桥一体化双重背景下中蒙俄的差趋性分析

面对持续低迷的欧盟经济,以中国为主导的亚洲经济却飞速发展,为了弥补亚欧贸易和投资的失衡,必须加强亚欧的经济联系,不断提升亚欧经济融合度。为了加强欧盟与东北亚的紧密合作,以锦赤白铁路为契机,构建亚欧支线陆桥,是构成东北亚经济一体化和亚欧经济融合的基础和前提。通过分析沿桥国家的差异性和趋同性,建立利益协调机制,以实现区域经济的可持续发展。     

British Muslims and the discourses of dysfunction: community cohesion and counterterrorism in the West Midlands

This article analyses how British discursive representations of Muslims during the last decade were utilised in a local context during the planning stages of a proposed mosque in the West Midlands town of Dudley. Locating the central narratives in dominant national discourses of community cohesion and counterterrorism, this article analyses how correspondents to a local newspaper re-articulated national representations of Muslims as culturally dysfunctional in a local context and used these representations to argue against construction. By critically analysing the local expression of dominant national discourses of threat and blame, in terms of both inherent contradictions and ideological effects, this article highlights the ways in which these discourses worked to exclude Muslims while simultaneously reprimanding them for failing to integrate into a national and local culture that regarded them as inherently ‘other’.