The Subversive Potential of Women’s Relation to Work*

This article makes the hypothesis that it is the relation to work, and not work itself, that holds subversive, or even liberating, potential for women. We begin by showing the theoretical convergence between this hypothesis and feminist epistemology. In order to test the hypothesis empirically, we then look at the paradoxical ways in which many women relate to paid work. In order to understand this paradox, we argue that it is necessary to go back to a feminist definition of work by calling into question the separation between professional and domestic work. Finally, we attempt to make suggestions to transform this subversive potential into collective emancipatory practices. We insist on the necessity for the feminist movement to put domestic work back at the center of its reflection on work and on the emancipation of women.     

Subversive semiotics and ironic anchorage on Vrye Weekblad covers: A visual analysis

Abstract

The apartheid-era Afrikaans press's compliance with apartheid politics and ideology is commonly recognised. This article investigates the newspaper Vrye Weekblad as an exception in this regard. A reading is made of four selected Vrye Weekblad front covers, through a qualitative visual semiotic analysis based on a Barthesian model, in order to describe the covers’ subversive and anti-apartheid tendencies. This analysis reveals that the subversive tendencies at work on the covers represent an open assault on the ruling National Party's (NP) norms and values, especially in terms of the bastions of apartheid Afrikaner nationalism, such as traditional reformed Christian beliefs, symbols of Afrikaner patriotism, concepts of racial purity and white ethnic superiority. The myths present on these covers, while functioning to undermine dominant ideologies, also naturalise an ideology of Vrye Weekblad's own, by creating alternative myths of a critical disposition towards the NP government. The subversive encoding of these covers stems from an ironic tension in anchorage between the conventional connotations associated with the cover images and their accompanying text, which undermine the dominant meanings of the images. This article seeks to contribute a theorisation of this ironic anchorage as a mode of encodification within the broader context of mythical representational practices. The author proposes that as these Vrye Weekblad covers were published under much the same uncertain circumstances as are experienced today with the African National Congress's (ANC) looming Protection of Information Bill and Media Appeals Tribunal, one might see the same occurrence of subversion through ironic anchorage in the contemporary South African media.     

Between the Letter and the Spirit: International Statebuilding Subversion Tactics in Burundi

This article explores the appropriation dynamics of international statebuilding in Burundi, with a focus on the period from 2010 to 2015. If international statebuilding is most commonly presented (and debated) as practices leaning towards the achievement of a liberal democracy, this article argues that it can also be used towards undemocratic ends. The central claim is the following: the (most) recent authoritarian trend observed in Burundi’s main political force in government, the National Council for the Defence of Democracy – Forces for the Defence of Democracy (CNDD-FDD), did not only occur against international statebuilding but also through its appropriation and, more specifically, through self-reinforcing subversion tactics of appropriation. The article conceptualizes these tactics, examines the factors of emergence and conditions of existence, and presents the main expressions along three major editorial lines of international statebuilding: pluralist democracy, vibrant civil society and respect of the rule of law.     

传统的颠覆与捍卫:《再别康桥》

徐志摩为什么对康桥、对翡冷翠、对日本的历史、对欧洲的文化是那么醉心、那样痴迷？为什么认为中国“本无可恋,近来更不是世界”？以其代表作《再别康桥》为例,从诗作在形式上对传统的捍卫和在诗性精神上对传统的颠覆两方面,去理解诗人内心的焦灼与矛盾,从另一个角度解释了这位被称为“中国的小布尔乔亚人”的心路历程。     

Striking Home: Ideal-Type of Terrorism

ABSTRACT

This essay presents some preliminary notes in an anthropological perspective on terrorism. The following aims to be a questioning review of issues that haunt informed students of terrorism, and yet also an introductory text to the study of terrorism. It is revisionist but didactic. The essay is based on extended research of Palestinian and Israeli terrorism cases, and on critical integration of the literature on terrorism. It offers an alternative approach to the problem of the definition and distinct character of terrorism, expands on overlooked aspects of terrorism, like its relationship to the concept of “home,” emphasizes under-theorized subjects, like the randomness of the targets, and discusses hitherto untouched topics, like the “bad death” of terrorism’s victims. Terrorism is examined in terms of liminality and hybridity, and consequently as more subversive than coercive, threatening our ontological security no less than our physical security.     

Discourses of popular politics,war and authenticity in Turkish pop music

Turkey and the United States (US) have had a close mutually beneficial political and military relationship since the end of World War Two. However, this relationship came under pressure when the US government and Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) tried to cooperate closely in the 2003 military invasion of Iraq. AKP's leadership failed to persuade Turkey's parliament to accept the deployment of US troops and equipment in Turkey partially due to public opinion. Despite Turkish media and its government being intertwined to the extent where subversive discourses are all but silenced, some popular music videos were able to articulate discourses which questioned AKP's military policies. This paper analyses lyrics, visuals and sounds of one of these songs to look at the way war and political issues become articulated through a form of simplified popular politics, despite being presented as serious and authentic by a number of key signifiers across the different modes. A number of scholars have addressed the issue of subversion in music both as actual political challenge and as popular counter culture. This case study is used to assess subversion in music in these terms in order to consider its likely place in political debate in Turkey.     

浅析我国图书馆的发展趋势

随着知识爆炸时代的到来,人们对于知识的要求越来越高,且越来越广了。图书馆数字化的迅速发展,不仅极大地丰富了图书馆赖以提供服务的资源基础,而且使传统图书馆的资源结构发生了翻天覆地的变化。     

If I only had a brain: Yip Harburg,J. Edgar Hoover,and the failures of FBI intelligence work

E. Y. Harburg, the lyricist behind The Wizard of Oz, remains one of the most important songwriters blacklisted during the Cold War. His removal from Hollywood features in the 1950s denied moviegoers a distinct American voice whose lyrics mixed humor and entertainment to champion liberal causes. From 1944–1972, Director J. Edgar Hoover and the Bureau’s major field offices investigated Harburg. His declassified FBI file shows institutionalized incompetence in the way the Bureau went about writing reports, evaluating evidence, making conclusions, and conducting counter-intelligence work. Harburg’s story illuminates the battle between the left and right to shape popular culture during the Cold War. Hoover and Harburg held opposing views on politics, religion, economics, and race. Yet both men shared a fervent faith in popular culture’s capacity to transform America. Together they vied to remake the nation according to their own distinct visions – Hoover’s fear of declension stood in contrast to Harburg’s hope for radical progress.     

性别跨越的狂欢与困境——朱迪斯·巴特勒的述行理论研究

朱迪斯·巴特勒的性别述行理论是酷儿理论的重要理论来源,国内学界目前对其理论的研究大都停留在梳理、概述层面。从解构主体、跨越性别界限与扮装等方面分析巴特勒的性别述行理论对述行理论的继承与发展以及其所面临的悖论性困境,对于研究酷儿理论以及女性主义思潮在当下的实践性价值与局限都具有重要的理论和实践意义。     

Organised crime and international aid subversion: evidence from Colombia and Afghanistan

Scholarly attempts to explain aid subversion in post-conflict contexts frame the challenge in terms of corrupt practices and transactions disconnected from local power struggles. Also, they assume a distinction between organised crime and the state. This comparative analysis of aid subversion in Colombia and Afghanistan reveals the limits of such an approach. Focusing on relations that anchor organised crime within local political, social and economic processes, we demonstrate that organised crime is dynamic, driven by multiple motives and endogenous to local power politics. Better understanding of governance arrangements around the organised crime–conflict nexus which enables aid subversion is therefore required.