Political Agency Research Articles

Deleuze and Foucault's Virtual Ontology of the Event

Deleuze's monograph on Foucault is often construed as a ‘metaphysical fiction’ (Frédéric Gros), which would attribute to Foucault a metaphysics of Deleuze's own issue. Notably, Paul Patton has argued that Deleuze thereby deeply mischaracterises Foucault's concepts of actuality, history, power and philosophy itself. Against this view, I argue that Deleuze's interpretation in Foucault clarifies the virtual force ontology that the two thinkers effectively developed in common. This ontological framework not only resolves Patton's specific objections; it also outlines a philosophy of the event demonstrating the conceptual consistency between Foucault and Deleuze on fundamental questions of philosophical critique and political agency.

The democratic public and the practices of the oppressed

Democratic theory, especially deliberative democracy, centrally focuses on verbal communication. In contrast, social movements, especially those fighting against oppression, often use practices such as dance, theatre, or other practical activities. In recent years, theorists have also turned to practices beyond words, for example, artistic expressions and the contributions they can make to democratic life. We expand this line of argument by exploring experimental and transformative practices and their connection to the democratic imperative to overcome oppression. Drawing on practical examples and on the literature on the epistemology and pedagogy of the oppressed, we explore the mechanisms through which experimental and transformative practices can help citizens to improve their epistemic position and to develop their political agency. We argue that even though such practices can also be used by non-democratic forces, democratic societies need to create space for, and take seriously, the contributions that such practices make to democratic life.

Land dispossession as continuum of violence: women’s political agency in post-genocide Rwanda

ABSTRACT The article investigates how gender and class shape women’s political empowerment in post-genocide Rwanda, where access to land creates gendered networks for women to exercise their political agency in the community, market, and state. It argues, based on interviews with Rwandan women, that after the genocide elite women with access to land obtained opportunities to participate in collective political activities that were denied to landless women who were more preoccupied with their daily struggles to survive. It calls for an intersectional examination of class within the continuum of violence against women in the aftermath of conflicts.

Reconsidering ‘Sook Ching’ victimhood: A microhistory of Singapore’s Nishimura trial

Abstract This article highlights the cross-disciplinary methodological potential of Third World approaches to international law (TWAIL) and microhistory by studying the active and complex exercise of agency by victims in an understudied historical instance of post-war justice, namely, the Singapore ‘Sook Ching’ trial or Nishimura trial. This trial dealt with the arbitrary massacre of Chinese residents by the Japanese military during the Second World War. Using TWAIL and microhistory methods, this article analyses trial transcripts and archival material on the Nishimura trial, with a focus on the trial experiences of witnesses, survivors, and community representatives. By studying the Nishimura trial as mobilization and meaning-making opportunity, this microhistory draws attention to the exercise of social and political agency by the Chinese community under difficult post-war conditions and British colonial rule. Chinese community leaders represented the community as collectively victimized and united in the pursuit of post-war justice. However, a close analysis of trial transcripts reveals tensions within the community and the need for a more complex understanding of victimhood.

Democratic education as a matter of civility: retrieving Arendt’s institutionalism via Balibar

ABSTRACT In this paper, my aim is to reintroduce and reclaim the concept of civility for the ongoing debates on democratic education within the Arendt-inspired philosophy of education. I juxtapose a prominent interpretation related to theories of radical democracy and radical democratic education, referring to Gert Biesta’s work, which amends Arendt’s ideas with insights from Jacques Rancière. Conversely, I explore an alternative construction of what can be considered ‘an Arendtian perspective on democratic education’ coming from another French philosopher, Étienne Balibar. Within this perspective the role of institutions is redeemed, and the primary concern shifts from the political agency of individuals to the conditions that allow the space of politics to be constituted and preserved. The discussion includes an analysis of Marius von Mayenburg’s play ‘Martyr’ to illustrate importance of thinking about education, especially democratic education, as a matter of civility.

Arizona Mormon Youths’ Religious Socialization and 2020 Voting Choices

In Arizona, Mormonism has a historical presence as a conservative and globalized faith. Though the Mormon Church officially maintains political neutrality, it also encourages civic engagement. Through an analysis of interview data collected from 38 Mormon youth as part of the Arizona Youth Identity Project, this paper explores the enactment of political agency in reaction to complex socialization processes. Mormon youths’ voting choices in the 2020 election season were shaped by religious socialization and Mormonism as an “ethnoreligious” identity. While religious upbringing was important in political decision-making, our study found that most youth were politically unaffiliated and voted across party lines instead. Further, we analyze how intersectional identities such as gender, race, and sexual orientation contributed to this generation’s political values and voting outcomes, even creating external tensions with peers and older Mormon leadership. As Arizona Mormon youth participated in a historic election season, this study highlights the nuances of religious socialization and voting choices.

President Wonder Woman and Congresswoman Batgirl: the authoritarian Überfrau and democratic resilience in superheroine comics

ABSTRACT Comic books are important sites where norms related to gender, leadership, and democratic engagement are negotiated. In this essay, we examine two comic book depictions of women’s political leadership: Diana Prince/Wonder Woman’s stint as US president, published in 1944, and Barbara Gordon/Batgirl’s tenure as a member of US Congress, published between 1972 and 1980. We contrast Wonder Woman’s tale of democratic fragility and gendered conflict with a Batgirl narrative that promotes a more complex view of women’s political agency and subordinates superheroism to the strength of democratic community. We contend that Wonder Woman #7 reflects the fascist tendencies observed in other Golden Age comics and theorize Überfrau as a counterpart to Übermensch, rooted in an ostensible ethic of protection and authoritarian white femininity. Reading Wonder Woman #7 through the lens of the Überfrau reveals the contours of an antidemocratic white women’s authoritarianism that continues to resonate in twenty-first century politics. An antidote to the reactionary Überfrau is offered by Batgirl, who eschews the role of super savior and puts the responsibility for democratic health into voters’ hands. We conclude by examining how these contrasting visions of women’s political leadership are echoed by women politicians in contemporary political culture.

Reification as Ecological Critique

In Kohei Saito's ecological Marxism, reification explains how formal economic categories lead to ecological crisis. Saito, however, lacks an account of praxis; of the collective political agency capable of overcoming reification. The relationship between reification and praxis was a central motif of Georg Lukács’ early Marxist work. An integrated concept of reification could then fill this gap in Saito's theory, thereby illuminating the political transition towards ecosocialism. Further, by resolving the ambiguous status of “nature” in Lukács critical theory, which currently blocks the possibility of such a conceptual integration, the critique of reification can be extended to the natural sciences.

“Stop AIDS Evictions!”

The early AIDS epidemic in New York City revealed the intersection of two long-term crises impacting gay and lesbian tenants in the city: a critical lack of affordable housing and homophobic discrimination in private and public housing provision. People with AIDS and their family members faced tenant harassment, eviction, and structural homophobia in New York State's rent regulations. This article's microhistory of the eviction of Michael Brown, a rent-regulated tenant in New York City's Chelsea neighborhood, highlights how activists brought knowledge acquired in the traditional tenant movement into new gay and lesbian organizations. This collaboration was a result of Chelsea's history as a center of both militant tenant organizing and neighborhood-based gay and lesbian activism. In Chelsea, gay and lesbian residents joined the housing movement as low-income tenants, while also participating in neighborhood activism reflecting their concerns as gay and lesbian residents. Michael Brown's eviction case brought these two local organizing traditions into direct collaboration. This article builds on scholarship revealing the political agency of tenants and recent literature on housing and care during the AIDS epidemic by situating gay and lesbian advocacy for housing during the early AIDS crisis within a long trajectory of New York City tenant activism.

Inquiring Children’s Security within the Framework of Human Security: A Theoretical Assessment

ABSTRACT While there is consensus on the individual as the primary referent object within the human security debate the question of which individuals? remains inadequately addressed. In this paper children are the primary referents and beneficiaries of security, arguing children’s human security possesses distinct characteristics that differentiate the nonviolent, preventable threats they face from those encountered by adults. Addressing these threats requires an integrated approach that combines theoretical exploration with practical policy implementation. The current academic discourse on human security, while extensive, must prioritize children’s specific needs by acknowledging them as key referents of security and essential subjects in both theory and practice. This involves recognizing children as active social and political agents, and addressing the unique dimensions of their vulnerability through comprehensive, targeted strategies. Achieving meaningful progress in safeguarding children’s security demands concerted efforts from all sectors, including researchers, policymakers, practitioners, and political leaders. Effective policy and practice require a collaborative approach that emphasizes the prevention and early identification of risks. Enhanced academic attention and robust discussions on children’s security are vital in shaping policies that reflect the urgency of these issues and drive effective interventions on a global scale. Keywords: children’s security, children’s rights, child well-being, human security, critical security. JEL Classification Codes: J13, H56, I31, K33, K38

Cleavages and identities in the changing landscape of world politics

The article advocates updating the research concerning divided societies and complexly organized states. It addresses the genesis and advancement of complex identities of social actors and political agency. The discussion focuses on the correlation between the structuration and content saturation of identities. The use of operational interfaces from fundamental distinctions to various kinds of divides, demarcations and polarizations leaves still unresolved the problem of qualitative parameters of identities, and ways to represent and analyze them. Innovative approaches developed by Russian political scientists take into account the relationship between the processes of world development and the identity of its development drivers and agency from individual political actors to complex social movements. The article shows that the effective deployment of the respective research program requires not only external accounting of the temporal parameters, but full integration of modern evolutionary approaches into their methodology. It is necessary to overcome the usual interpretations of identity in the singular as an abstract universal idea. Equally it is necessary to move to the study of the complex interaction of the acting forces of development and the formation of a dynamic flow of individual and mutual identifications in the plural. To this end, it is suggested not only to update the Rokkanian paradigm of demarcations by expanding the set of distinctions and making the whole structure more dynamic, but also to use the possibilities of extended evolutionary synthesis.

Recasting technocracy theory and analysis: Avenues for a critical-qualitative research framework

Technocracy strongly marks contemporary transformations of political and institutional regimes. Such increasing relevance triggered an exponential growth of dedicated research. Yet, this research often features a quantitative approach based on a reified conception of technocracy, resulting in a rationalist and functionalist perspective neglecting the political dimension. Technocracy is thus implicitly conceived as a depoliticised phenomenon deterministically set to ever-expand in democratic regimes. In contrast, this article proposes a recast of technocracy theory and analysis. First, we rethink the phenomenon of technocracy by exploring the agency of technocratic politics. Second, in epistemological and methodological terms, we lay the foundations for a systematic and robust qualitative research framework capable of tackling this form of politics by other – technocratic – means. To this end, we propose Critical Discourse Analysis as a main candidate to fulfil our theoretical-epistemic purposes, offering a detailed roadmap of a critical-qualitative approach to technocrats’ agency and discourse.

Teaching civics for sustainability in post-authoritarian order: The challenges of developing progressive citizenship in new democracies – Lessons from Poland

Civics courses have a great significance – they are supposed to train new cohorts of citizens to engage in multiple public roles in (democratic) society. How it is done depends on a multitude of factors, and teachers’ performance and program contents are among the most important. In post-authoritarian order like Poland, civic contents of educational curricula acquire particular significance: they must lay foundation for new forms of citizenship necessary for the consolidation of democracy. In new democracies, defining development is a lot more than talking about economic or political formulas. Ideas of sustainable development belong in a package of ideas which may anchor people in progressive world order, yet they meet resistance from the traditions and mindsets inherited from the previous system (homo sovieticus). SDG Civics, that is, that part of the catalogue of Sustainable Development Goals which directly refers to political agency, becomes a set of patchwork ideas incorporated into democratic citizenship. Through the study of academic curricula, textbooks, and government policies, this paper addresses the complexity of the problem of civics education in new democracies. It sees sustainable development as a concept wrestling with pressures coming from different ideologies, institutions, actors, and visions of the future. This article should be seen as a contribution to the discussions about the political nature of sustainability.

Municipal Politics and the PKK in the early 1970s: A citizenship perspective

This paper examines the Kurdistan Workers Party’s (PKK) municipal politics in the late 1970s through the lens of citizenship politics. The article introduces two concepts—activist citizenship and fugitive citizenship to analyse the PKK’s mobilisation in this period, before the 1980 military coup in Turkey. Activist citizenship challenges the restrictive boundaries of state-sanctioned citizenship, while fugitive citizenship creates alternative political spaces for marginalized groups. Both concepts highlight how individuals and groups, such as the PKK, can assert their political agency in contexts where they are denied formal citizenship. The research questions linear understandings of the PKK’s emergence as a political movement inevitably destined to become an insurgent movement.

The Impact of Work Ability, Work Discipline and Work Motivation on the Work Performance of Employees of the Office of the National Unity and Political Agency of North Sumatra Province

The study aims to determine whether work ability, work discipline and work motivation partially and simultaneously have a positive and significant impact on employee work performance at the Office of the National Unity and Politics Agency of North Sumatra Province. The sample was 54 respondents, The results of the study showed that ability had a positive and significant impact on employee work performance at the Office of the National Unity and Politics Agency of North Sumatra Province. Tested and acceptable based on the t-value of the work ability variable (X1) is 2.274 and the t-table value is 2.008, then t-count> t-table (2.274> 2.008) and the Sig. value <0.05 The magnitude of the impact of ability (X1) on work performance (Y) is 0.025, Discipline has a positive and significant impact on employee work performance at the Office of the National Unity and Politics Agency of North Sumatra Province. Tested and acceptable based on the t-value of the discipline variable (X2) is 8.527 and the t-table value is 2.008, then t-count> t-table (8.527> 2.008) and the Sig. value <0.05 The magnitude of the impact of discipline (X2) on work performance (Y) is 0.686, Work motivation has a positive and significant effect on employee work performance at the Office of the National Unity and Politics Agency of North Sumatra Province. Tested and acceptable based on the t-value of the work motivation variable (X3) is 2.939 and the t-table value is 2.008, then t-count> t-table (2.939> 2.008) and the Sig. value <0.05. The magnitude of the impact of work motivation (X3) on work performance (Y) is 0.211 Ability, discipline and work motivation simultaneously have a positive and significant impact on employee work performance at the Office of the National Unity and Politics Agency of North Sumatra Province. Tested and acceptable based on the F count value of 75.124 with a significance level of 0.000, greater than the F table value with a significance level of 95% (α = 0.05).

Large language models, politics, and the functionalization of language

AbstractThis paper critically examines the political implications of Large Language Models (LLMs), focusing on the individual and collective ability to engage in political practices. The advent of AI-based chatbots powered by LLMs has sparked debates on their democratic implications. These debates typically focus on how LLMS spread misinformation and thus hinder the evaluative skills of people essential for informed decision-making and deliberation. This paper suggests that beyond the spread of misinformation, the political significance of LLMs extends to the core of political subjectivity and action. It explores how LLMs contribute to political de-skilling by influencing the capacities of critical engagement and collective action. Put differently, we explore how LLMs shape political subjectivity. We draw from Arendt’s distinction between speech and language and Foucault’s work on counter-conduct to articulate in what sense LLMs give rise to political de-skilling, and hence pose a threat to political subjectivity. The paper concludes by considering how to reconcile the impact of LLMs on political agency without succumbing to technological determinism, and by pointing to how the practice of parrhesia enables one to form one’s political subjectivity in relation to LLMs.

PERAN FORUM PEMBAURAN KEBANGSAAN BADAN KESATUAN BANGSA DAN POLITIK KABUPATEN SINTANG

The study in this study is the Role of the National Integration Forum of the National Unity and Politics Agency of Sintang Regency. and therefore the objectives to be achieved in this study are to find out, describe and analyze. With this research method using Descriptive research. The subjects in namely the Head of the Agency, the National Unity Development Section, the Chairperson of the FPK and FPK Members, with the research techniques used in data collection are observation, interviews and documentation studies with data analysis using qualitative descriptive analysis methods. The results of this study indicate that (1). The role of the FPK has carried out its role in supporting existing policies and trying to comply with all applicable provisions regarding the implementation of programs in the field of Ideology and National Insight Development. (2). FPK development is running well but after the Covid-19 pandemic there is a budget problem in implementing the national insight program because the budget for implementing the national insight program is diverted to handling Covid-19 so that several programs have not run optimally. The suggestions submitted by the Research are (1). The role of FPK which has carried out its role in supporting existing policies and has attempted to comply with all applicable provisions regarding the implementation of programs in the field of Ideology and National Insight Development so that it continues to be improved. (2). FPK development which has been running well but has not yet run optimally so that it can be improved and continue to improve the work program.

Students in the global higher education market: identities, pathways, and political agency

Students in the global higher education market: identities, pathways, and political agency

A doctor for the crown princess: child mortality and women’s political agency at the Danish court, 1784–1797

ABSTRACT This article examines the entwined dynamics of gender, material bodies, and court politics at the Danish, absolutist court during what has been termed the reform reign, 1784–1797. The reform reign was inaugurated by a 1784 bloodless coup d’état, in which the crown prince took power in the royal Privy Council. During the following years, his leading advisers faced opposition from other factions at court and within the royal family, and the crown prince and his wife faced reproductive challenges, as they lost several children shortly after birth. The article explores the attempts at seeking influence made by two wives of leading advisers to the royal crown prince, Frederik (6.). Producing a male heir was imperative to the crown prince couple’s claim to power in the absolutist reign, and the advisers’ political positions therefore also hinged on the couple’s reproduction. I discuss how the advisers’ wives, the two sisters Sybille Reventlow (1753-1827) and Charlotte Schimmelmann (1757-1816), attempted to solve these issues and advance their group’s position at court. The article identifies several strategies employed by the women to help the crown prince couple’s situation, but primarily aimed at the crown princess; firstly, conversations on childrearing; secondly, the discussion of adoption; while a third strategy included traveling to the spa at Bad Pyrmont, where the advisers’ wives would engage the spa’s famous doctor Heinrich Mathias Marcard as accoucheur to the crown princess. The women’s struggles to gain influence show how those women who were not members of the royal household tried to navigate the political world of a hereditary and personal monarchy, where personal relationships and parenting experiences were also a political matter.

Caribbean street vending experiences: Guyanese migrant women in Trinidad and Tobago

ABSTRACT This article offers a critical overview of how South-South migration operates in the Caribbean. It represents an intersectional feminist analysis of the experiences of Guyanese migrant women who work as street vendors in Trinidad and Tobago. Via the use of narrative inquiry, the study examines the daily challenges migrant women face as they interact with state officials, police officers, customers, and other vendors. We also provide a summary of the individual and collective tactics migrant women employ to navigate a context in which they are often stigmatised, marked as Other, and experience multiple barriers to be able to make a living. In doing so, the piece details how sexism, xenophobia and racism are mutually constituted and function in a Caribbean context, as well as how interlocking systems of oppression create barriers for migrant women to secure sustainable livelihood. We also illustrate the political agency of Guyanese migrant women by highlighting the ways they co-create safe spaces and build community despite obstacles. This article contributes to critical migration studies from the Global South/Majority World, fosters greater regional consciousness across the Caribbean, and underscores the importance of centring migrant women’s experiences in research and scholarship.