Arena Of Power Research Articles

Career development: A balance of opportunities and choices.

Career development: A balance of opportunities and choices.

The Limits of India’s Soft Power in South Asia

Since its independence, India could count itself among the few nations with strong cards in the arena of soft power like its culture, civilisation, democratic credentials, secular values, pluralistic society, professional expertise, free media, independent judiciary, dynamic civil society and so on. Ironically, India did not use this soft power strategy rigorously to achieve its national interest. In the 1990s, India has been pro-active in pursuing its soft power strategy than ever before to achieve its strategic interest. India, to a certain extent, has been successful in strengthening its ties with Southeast Asia, Africa, US and European countries through its soft power tools like promotion of culture, support towards democracy and involvement with the diaspora, increasing aid and investment and so on. However, India’s soft power strategy in South Asia had mixed results. In this context, the article attempts to identify the need for India to engage in more such tactics rather than hard power in South Asia. India’s plans to use soft power in South Asia and its limitations in achieving her foreign policy objectives in the region will be critically analysed too. Keywords: Soft Power, India, South Asia, Diaspora, Democracy, Tourism

Islam and Communist Power Relation in Najib Al-Kailani’s ‘Adzra Jakarta

PurposeThis study examined the battle of the arena of power between Islam and communism that occurred in the dark events in Indonesia in 1965 through the Najib al-Kailani novel’ 'Adzra Jakarta. MethodThis qualitative research applied a narrative case study design made uses of Najib al-Kailani novel’ 'Adzra Jakarta as the main unit of analysis. To analyzed the data, the study used Pierre Bordieu’s concept of power relations to dismantle the arena fight between Islam and communism in Indonesian history through the capital ownership of figures. Results/FindingsThe results showed a lame power relationship between Islam and communists. Islam in 'Adzra Jakarta is described as inferior because it has only two capitals, while communist ideology holds symbolic capital which includes the other three capitals; Cultural, social and economic capital. However, if you look further at the defeat of Az Zaim by the main character, Fatimah, and his death at the end of the story are symbols of the text's partiality to Islamic ideology. ConclusionThe study concluded that the novel 'Adzra Jakarta reaffirms the perception of the latent danger of the communist ideology constructed by the Indonesian government. Through the main female character, the novel also supports women movement emerged in Egypt.

Posisi dan Pencapaian Wisran Hadi dalam Arena Sastra Indonesia

Wisran Hadi is known as a man of letters and an expert in culture who has produced works in various genres. During his career, the works he produced not only received a number of awards, but also caused controversy from his own community group in the Minangkabau. In this regard, this research tries to examine the position and achievements of Wisran Hadi in the arena of Indonesian literature. The discussion includes the efforts made by the author to achieve a position, to operate in the literary arena, and to maintain his position. Based on Pierre Bourdieu's theory of genetic structuralism, the results of the analysis show the following. First, the position of the literary arena occupied by Wisran Hadi is dominantly on the principle of an autonomous hierarchy, so that it tends to contradict the laws that apply in the arena of power The structure of the literary arena is a limited production arena. Second, the achievement of positions based on habitus, artistic practice, the acquisition and exchange of symbolic capital, the acquisition of awards, and the survival of the Bumi Teater group. Third, practices and strategies in maintaining position are by producing works in various genres, prioritizing exploration of words and languages, and elaborating classic works such as kaba, tambo, and history. In addition, the work is positioned based on various elements such as habitus, the structure of the arena occupied, the position in the arena, to the situation and conditions of social reality that are the source and target of the work.

KELUARGA DAN NEGARA: RUANG NEGOSIASI DIRI DALAM NOVEL QUI A TUÉ MON PÈRE KARYA ÉDOUARD LOUIS

Abstract (Title: Family and State: Space of Self-Negotiation in “Qui A Tué Mon Père” Novel’s by Édouard Louis). Literary work reflects a culture outside its world. A family cannot be separated from society and country in which it is belonged to. Individuals in a family cannot be disconnected from their genetics. This qualitative descriptive study using Bourdieu’s theoretical reference aims to describe the habitus, symbolic violence, and the arena of power in the novel “Qui a tué mon père” or “Who Killed My Father” by Édouard Louis. The results showed that the habitus manifested through the main character “Je” or “I” was obtained through an individual historical process as someone who was born in a poor and a working family that is structurally dominated by society and state. In conclusion, the main character who experienced symbolic violence not only from his family (father and mother) but also from his social environment (neighbor, school, and government) try to negotiate his identity through this novel. Keywords: habitus, symbolic violence, arena of power, dialectical, structural-constructivist

Peminggiran Perempuan dalam Kuasa Kelahiran dan Perkembangan Dolalak

The oral history of the birth of dolalak dance differs from other traditional dance legends in Java, such as ronggeng, lengger or tayub. The birth of the traditional dances is related to female figures. The dolalak dance was invented by native soldiers (male) during the Dutch colonial period. This paper aims to examine dolalak as an arena of power and the contribution of women to dolalak in the context of historical reflection. This research is a qualitative study that uses data collection techniques by interviewing, observing, and is supported by documentation studies as well as related previous research. The results of this study show that dolalak becomes the arena of power in its invention. There is a major power in interpreting the invention of dolalak, namely by soldiers (men). As for its development, the dolalak becomes an arena for power struggles that surrounds it. The dolalak is performing art. The dolalak also a medium for spreading Islam, and then the power by the state over it. The power struggles of dance operate and be practiced, from one meaning to another, until the power of state enters. It strengthens the theorization of power. It will continue as a practice of power. In this context, the contribution of women as figures preserving the dance is vulnerable to the invisible. Dolalak dance is mostly performed by female dancers and this has become an icon for people in Purworejo Regency, Central Java. Therefore, it is time for women as traditional dance preservers to be narrated and fill in public knowledge.

The Strategy of the Nahdlatul Ulama in Maintaining Position and Legitimacy at the Indonesian Islamic Arena

This article aims to analyze NU strategy in maintaining the arena of moderate Islam in Indonesia. this strategy was used by NU to anticipate the radical movement intending to seize the Indonesian Islamic arena. This is because NU has legitimacy as a moderate organization in Indonesia. This study uses observational studies by looking at the historicity of NU as a religious organization and its role in the Indonesian Islamic arena. This study uses the theory of genetic structuralism which includes habitus, arena, capital, trajectory, and strategy. The results of this study indicate that NU basically has the capital to maintain the arena of moderate Islam in Indonesia. The accumulation of capital is then at stake with two strategies, that efforts to maintain and widen the arena of power in Islam in Indonesia has a great opportunity.

REGIONAL SECURITY COMPLEX IN ASEAN: Neutrality and Centrality at Brink in the South China Sea Issue

The South China Sea conflict has been a highly sensitive issue for the last 5 years in ASEAN. China and the US have been using the South China Sea as the New Cold War Arena of power and military hegemonic competition in the South East Asia region. This has been a major challenge for ASEAN as the only regional organization in the South East Asia region that has direct in the area must take major role in managing and resolving the dispute peacefully even though ASEAN has no defense pact like NATO. This paper argues that ASEAN, at this moment, must maintain its role as a mediator and independent-negotiator in the region but at the same time apply its principle of gradually adapting with the new international system. This article also suggests that in the future, ASEAN can take a major role in the governance of the South China Sea and the South East Asia region.

Rujm el-Hiri: The Monument in the Landscape

Rujm el-Hiri, located in the central Golan Heights, is one of the largest megalithic monuments in the ancient Near East. Although it was discovered almost 50 years ago and has been surveyed and excavated by several expeditions, there is still no consensus on its date and function, mostly due to the very scanty archaeological evidence found between its walls. In this paper the authors propose an approach to establishing a date and function that differs from what has been suggested previously. The construction of Rujm el-Hiri required a profusion of human and material resources. The monument was an ‘arena of social power’ that undoubtedly played a significant role in the communal and religious life of the population. All this left an imprint on the local landscape. The analysis of various elements of the surrounding area, some of them surveyed and excavated by the authors, demonstrates that it was during the Chalcolithic period that the inhabitants of this area were able to amass the resources required for the construction of such a monument. These conclusions were further reinforced by an OSL study. Based on these data, the authors discuss the role of Rujm el-Hiri in the social and religious life of the Chalcolithic population.

Scientific publishing as the arena of power and caring

Scientific publishing as the arena of power and caring

“(Self-)Surveillance, Anti-Doping, and Health in Non-Elite Road Running”

This article explores disciplining effects of current anti-doping surveillance systems on the health consequences of non-elites’ daily behaviors and habits. As they are left out of direct anti-doping testing and enforcement, it is tempting to argue non-elites are unaffected by anti-doping efforts focused on the elite level of their sport. However, it is because they are not subject to anti-doping surveillance systems nor forced to comply with anti-doping regulations that non-elites are implicated within the wider arena of disciplinary power that envelops both elite and non-elite athletes and anti-doping agencies (Foucault 1979). Drawing on data from 28 interviews with non-elite runners I argue these runners do conform to the rules and norms of their sport as far as they understand them, but their knowledge of banned substances is inadequate and many non-elite runners have only a superficial and sometimes incorrect understanding of doping. Many view doping and its associated health risks as a problem only of elite running, as well as a problem limited to only a handful of widely publicized performance enhancing drugs or doping methods. As a result of these misunderstandings non-elite runners are vulnerable to negative health effects of over the counter (OTC) medications and nutritional supplements, which they view as “safe” and part of normal training as a result of the current elite surveillance model of anti-doping. The recent death of a non-elite marathon runner linked to use of the unregulated energy supplement DMAA demonstrates, questionable products are used by runners who may not be fully aware of the risks of use.

Transformationen: Über Himmlisches und Teuflisches in Goethes Faust by Johannes Anderegg (review)

Reviewed by: Transformationen: Über Himmlisches und Teuflisches in Goethes Faust by Johannes Anderegg Elisabeth Krimmer Johannes Anderegg, Transformationen: Über Himmlisches und Teuflisches in Goethes Faust. Bielefeld: Aisthesis, 2011. 290 pp. Johannes Anderegg’s informative and well-written study Transformationen: Über Himmlisches und Teuflisches in Goethe’s Faust investigates the representation of religion and evil in Goethe’s most famous drama while also paying great attention to matters of form. Anderegg emphasizes Faust’s anticlassical, anti-Aristotelian structure, which Goethe famously likened to a “Schwammfamilie.” The text mixes genres and is uninterested in psychological verisimilitude; different forms of reality coexist, and past, present, and future are intricately interwoven. As Anderegg points out, Faust is a text that foregrounds its own theatricality. Transformationen identifies several features that are commonly associated with postmodern art, including citationality and intertextuality. Faust enters a dialogue with numerous other texts ranging from Ovid, Dante, Milton, and Shakespeare to the Bible and various traditions of religious writing. In addition, Anderegg traces numerous links to the visual arts, including works by Hieronymus [End Page 268] Bosch and Albrecht Dürer, and demonstrates in great detail that several important scenes in Faust II are inspired by famous paintings. A good part of the book deals with the figure of Mephisto. Anderegg sees in Goethe’s devil a complex character composed of a multitude of different, often contradictory masks and roles, including comic and demonic aspects, harsh reality and make-belief, myth and modernity. Mephisto is the embodiment of sexual drive, but also a master of enlightened critique. Anderegg contrasts Mephisto’s role with that of Satan in the Book of Job, which Herder singled out as the epitome of poetry. In Job, Satan destroys the protagonist. In Goethe’s drama, he promotes his earthly well-being. Anderegg suggests that, although Mephisto fails on an individual level, that is, in his role as corruptor of souls, he triumphs on a grander scale as the spirit of modernity. Anderegg sees in this the reason why Goethe’s drama is a tragedy even though Faust is saved: the tragic nature of the text relates not to the fate of the protagonist but to the state of a world where might is right. After all, Faust owes his success, power, and wealth to the devil. Seen in this light, Faust is “eine Erfolgsgeschichte des Bösen” (133). Individuals thrive for the wrong reasons; however, history itself is not on a trajectory toward progress but rather unfolds as an arena of power and greed. It is well known that, although Goethe knew the Bible intimately—he owned copies of the Luther Bible, the Vulgata, and the Hebraica—his notion of Christianity was rather unorthodox. Thus, it is hardly surprising that, even though Faust contains numerous references to religious traditions and motifs, the concepts it presents can hardly be confined within Christian categories. Instead, Anderegg proposes that we should look to the fine arts to make sense of the ending of Faust II. He reminds us that Goethe took a great interest in Heinrich Meyer’s Geschichte der Kunst and suggests that Faust integrates various citations from religious artworks discussed in Meyer’s opus magnum in the form of scenic montages. For example, Faust’s death is inspired by the motif of the Grablegung Christi, portrayed by numerous artists ranging from Raphael and Titian to Dürer and Caravaggio. Similarly, the scene in which angels and devils fight over the soul of the departed borrows from several representations of the same motif in the visual arts. Here, Anderegg is particularly interested in how the text replicates the simultaneous representation of successive events that characterizes these paintings. Like these paintings, Goethe’s work is polyfocal and operates on various levels of reality (Anderegg uses the term “Multirealität”). Anderegg reads the final scenes of Faust II as an enactment of different beliefs about the afterlife inspired by visual representations such as Lasinio’s Il Giudizio universale e l’Inferno. In his interpretation of Faust’s ending, Anderegg again returns to the Book of Job. He points to a textual and visual tradition that does not focus exclusively on Job’s suffering but rather depicts Job as he...

Struggles on the frontier of professional control: Leading cases from Canada

Professions and unions have often been positioned as opposing alternatives or logics of action in theories of labour. Professions embrace a spirit of individualism and mystique, privileged by a social status, while unions are collectivist and seek respect and to usurp power from a dominant class. How do professionals successfully shift their position from dominance to subordination when they engage in collective bargaining? This article proposes that collective representation of professions is not a substitution of one form of power for another, but rather is the expression of a new arena of power for labour playing itself out at the forefront of work regulation in Canada. Three cases of labour disputes of professionalized workers highlight the struggle over the exercise of discretion and illustrate that collective bargaining is an occupational closure strategy that alters the boundaries of a profession in an attempt to maintain professional control.

Post‐Conflict Ambon: Forced Migration and the Ethno‐Territorial Effects of Customary Tenure

ABSTRACTIn post‐conflict contexts characterized by large‐scale migration and increasing levels of legal pluralism, customary land tenure risks being deployed as a tool of ethno‐territorialization in which displaced communities are denied return and secure land rights. This thesis will be illustrated through a case study of the Indonesian island of Ambon where a recognition of customary tenure — also called adat — was initiated in 2005 at the end of a high‐intensity conflict between Christians and Muslims. Although a system of land tenure providing multiple forms of social security for the indigenous in‐group, adat in Ambon also constitutes an arena of power in which populations considered as non‐indigenous to a fixed historical territory are pushed into an inferior legal position. The legal registration of customary tenure therefore tends to be deployed to settle long‐standing land contests with a growing migrant community, hereby legally enforcing some of the forced expulsions that were brought about by the recent communal violence.

`The One-Company Approach': Transnationalism in an Israeli—Palestinian Subsidiary of a Multinational Corporation

This paper presents an ethnographic study of the Israeli—Palestinian subsidiary of a multinational hi-tech corporation. Critiquing the tendency of globalization theorists to conceptualize multinational corporations (MNCs) solely in terms of their impact on their external environment, this paper looks inward and examines the ideological and practical constituents of the transnational regime of consciousness as expressed through what management titles `the one-company approach'. We argue that this regime lays foundations for a transnational `imagined community' which does not rival the national one, but internalizes it, creating an arena of discretionary power for managers: deciding when to activate and when to suppress nationality in the global organizational universe. This study analyzes the relationship between transnationalism and nationalism inside the organization, and its implications for understanding MNCs' role in globalization.

Philip M Soergel (ed.), Sexuality and culture in medieval and renaissance Europe. Studies in Medieval and Renaissance History, 3rd series, vol. II, New York, AMS Press, 2005, pp xv, 287, $89.50 (hardback: ISSN 0081-8244, ISBN 0-404-64552-6).

In this thoughtfully edited volume, Philip Soergel brings together an international group of nine scholars, all historians of pre-modern society and culture. Their essays range from micro-studies of rural and urban women to broad statements about the nature and transmission of the Hippocratic corpus. All provide a fresh perspective on an often misunderstood topic: the history of human sexuality. Here, the topic is taken seriously and addressed with confidence and skill. Sexuality and culture opens with an engaging survey of medieval women's medicine. Monica Green reviews and discusses recent scholarship on technologies of the body, sexual difference, and the history of childbirth. There are also references to edited texts and on-line databases, the latter allowing for what Green aptly calls the democratization of knowledge. Her concern to elucidate theories of human sexuality is shared by Helen King in an essay that explains how ancient Greek texts re-entered the medical mainstream in the sixteenth century. This Hippocratic revival enhanced the perception that the female body required discrete and distinctive therapies. No longer was it commonplace to infer that women, with genitalia supposedly shrunk inward, were hardly different from men. The scientific thinking of the sixteenth century was more expansive and measured than this. Of course, people in earlier centuries were no less interested in acquiring knowledge and testing traditional norms. This is evident in three essays on the medieval world. In the first, ‘A medieval territory for touch’, Fernando Salmon reviews Latin commentaries on the five senses. He argues that touch represented a complex of sensations, surrounding the body like a net, and gradually becoming the locus of self and experience. What ultimately mattered were not simply the sexual overtones associated with touch, but the role it had in forming personal identity. Medieval constructions of personality reflected an interest in natural philosophy and admittedly had a part in Latin physiognomy. This was the art of discerning character and sexual nature by studying genitalia. Rather than dismiss physiognomy as little better than pseudo-science, Joseph Ziegler uses the scholastic commentaries it generated to document alternative ways of perceiving the body. More detailed as to practice is Carol Lansing's essay reconstructing a civic inquiry into female sodomy in 1295. Her story of Guercia of Bologna is so artfully told that it deepens our understanding of an aspect of sexuality seldom glimpsed in medieval texts. Equally informative are four essays that address the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Using Christian tradition as her starting point, Merry Weisner-Hanks places Martin Luther centre stage, deftly highlighting his ideas about the male libido and how they figured in Reformation theology and social thought. Joel Harrington discusses German society as well. Exploring the plight of an unwed mother in Nuremberg, he helps us to see that a story such as hers is at the very heart of social history. Mindful of a mother's life, Charlene Villasenor Black argues on behalf of utilizing images of the Madonna and Child to measure changes in breastfeeding and maternity in early modern Spain. Hers is an eloquent argument, illustrated by reproductions of Spanish painting and altar art. Retha Warnicke's meditation on marriage and female rulers in Britain concludes this volume, leaving no doubt that sexual nature influenced destiny in the arena of politics and power. The essays collected here obviously differ in method and approach. Yet all are distinguished by rigorous scholarship and historical insight. To read them together is to see that the story of human sexuality was as complex and compelling in medieval and renaissance Europe as it is today.

Cuisines of poverty as means of empowerment: Arab food in Israel

This paper suggests looking at cuisines of poverty as practical and political systems practiced by urban and rural Palestinian citizens of Israel. It is an important and interesting case study within which political and economical considerations govern and enhance the development, change, and acceptance of culinary knowledge. Cuisines of poverty operate in two simultaneous arenas. As systems of practical knowledge, they repeatedly center on the ability to maintain the traditional kitchen, turning it into a tool-kit out of which information is recruited upon need. Simultaneously, cuisines of poverty reveal the inter-connection between the culinary discourse and the political one. It is where issues such as access to land, national and ethnic identity, and means to participation in the dominant culture are of major concern. The analysis of cuisines as operating on two complementary discourses contributes to the understanding of the relationship between food and the arena of power.

An analysis of the rhetoric and practice of educational partnerships in the UK: an arena of complexities, tensions and power

Partnership is a concept that is increasingly being used in the UK political arena. This article seeks to contribute to the existing understanding of the theory and practice of educational partnerships. It argues that although partnerships are usually defined as necessary, pragmatic and benevolent ways of organizing social welfare, in practice they are complex, contradictory and even paradoxical social phenomena. Drawing on research on working partnerships, this paper argues that there is a mismatch between the political rhetoric on partnerships and empirical partnerships. It suggests that these disjunctions are the manifestation of the effective rhetorical power of partnerships. The notion of partnership constructs a vision of public policy that stresses efficiency, devolution and participation and in which everyone seems to benefit. However, when the actual practice of partnerships is explored, a different picture appears. Rather than inclusive, symmetrical and democratic social practices, current partnerships are revealed to be facilitating and legitimating central policy decision‐making as well as the private sector involvement in the delivery of public policies.

Catholic Martyrdom in Dekker and Massinger's The Virgin Martir and the Early Modern Threat of "Turning Turk"

While largely neglected by modern critics, Thomas Dekker and Philip Massinger's 1620 tragedy The Virgin Martir enjoyed considerable popular success in its time.1 It was performed at the Red Bull Theater, where according to the first quarto's title page, it was "divers times publickely Acted with great Applause, By the seruants of his Maiesties Reuels," and underwent four printings in the seventeenth century as well as a stage revival in 1660.2 What is striking about the play's popularity is its seemingly controversial adaptation of a medieval virgin martyr legend, a genre that was largely suppressed by the English Reformation. Following attempts in the 1570s by religious authorities to ban the cycles of mystery plays in English towns and cities, most if not all remnants of hagiographical drama had disappeared from the stage.3 The record of a fee of forty shillings paid to the Master of the Revels on 6 October 1620, for a "new reforming" of the play, seems to suggest both its potentially controversial content and the formal scrutiny that forced London playwrights to comply with official Church doctrine.4 The small body of critics who have addressed the play over the past fifty years either focus, like Louise Clubb (1964), on the striking anomaly of its apparent Catholic content or else attempt, like Larry Champion (1984) and Jose M. Ruano de la Haza (1991), to explain away this content by emphasizing the play's iconoclastic elements or arguing that its religious categories are mere "pretext" to "a simple and clear struggle between good and evil."5 But despite these scattered attempts to raise or refute the question of The Virgin Martir's Catholic affinities, the question remains largely unanswered: what accounts for the dramatic appeal in 1620 of an early Christian saint who is martyred in Catholic fashion? Or more specifically, what is appealing at this time about a martyr whose religious constancy is signified through her bodily resistance to torture and, above all, through the preservation of her virginity? Leaving aside the obvious, [End Page 83] though admittedly complex, explanation of persisting Catholic sympathies in Reformation England, I attempt to account for the significance of The Virgin Martir's particular representation of martyrdom by taking a broader global view of the political and religious threats that surrounded its production. I begin with the premise that the appeal of Catholic martyrdom and its emphasis upon physical inviolability can be better appreciated in light of England's increased commercial engagement with the Ottoman empire during the early seventeenth century and the particular anxieties that the English stage began to attach to the threat of Islamic conversion. As an emerging body of critical work in the field of literary studies has observed, the commercial and colonial threat that the Ottoman empire posed by virtue of its incredible size, wealth, and military capacity was acutely felt by the English during a period when they began to rely increasingly on eastern Mediterranean trade and to imagine themselves as a tiny player in an international arena of commerce and power. Popular English discourses represented the Turkish threat as one of conversion or of "turning Turk"—a phenomenon that constituted both a genuine predicament for Christian seamen who were captured by Turks and an imaginative theme or trope on the London stage. The Virgin Martir is roughly contemporary with a number of plays that overtly thematize Christian resistance to "turning Turk," including Robert Daborne's A Christian Turned Turke (1609–1612); John Fletcher, Nathan Field, and Philip Massinger's The Knight of Malta (1616–1619); and Massinger's The Renegado (1623–1624). In each of these plays, Islamic conversion is figured as the direct result of sexual intercourse between a Christian man and a Muslim woman. Conversely, Christian resistance is exemplified through the chastity of the Christian woman...

Confrontation and conciliation: the sami, the crown and the court in seventeenth-century swedish lapland1

This article aims to discover in what kind of legal cases conflicts may be traced between the Sami and representatives of the Crown, and in which situations conciliation is apparent; and it also answers the questions of how and why this happened. It is evident, from the court rolls from the court district of Jukkasjärvi (one of the two northernmost lappmarker in Sweden at this time), that the Crown prosecuted the Sami for sexual offences and crimes against religion. This was due to the prevailing ideology of the seventeenth century, in which Lutheran Christianity prevailed, and because the court was the arena for a power discourse: there was a “right” way to live and behave. This came into conflict with Sami tradition. The Sami themselves pursued a desire and need for conciliation, which becomes apparent in cases of crimes such as murder, manslaughter and grand theft, but also in civil cases, e.g. inheritance. This was due to the fact that the population was quite small, bound together in different relations, and because large-scale conflicts were not beneficial to Sami communities. Even though the Crown Court was an arena of power, it was also used by the Sami for their own ends, and thus we can see an interactive Sami society, independent of the prevailing political Lutheran Christian ideology and its discourse.