Project Of Modernity Research Articles

'Hallucination': Hospital Ecologies in COVID's Epistemic Instability.

Historians and ethnographers have described biomedicine as a modernist project that imagines accumulating ever-more stable knowledge over time. This project broke down in heavily hit hospitals at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S., when bureaucratic, physical and knowledge structures collapsed. A combination of terror, a partially characterized disease entity and clinicians' inability to operate without disease models drove them to draw on rapidly changing and contradictory information via social media, changing medical practice minute-to-minute. The result was a unique form of knowing described as "hallucination": a hyperreal, unstable ecology of imagined viral particles distributed in physical spaces, transforming with each text message and tweet. The nature, experience and practice of this ecology sheds light on what happens when instability comes to otherwise stable places.

The Old Modernist Challenge: Navigating the Hypermodern World of Don DeLillo’s White Noise

While many critics believe technology and media create a postmodern world of endless simulacrum, fractured identity, and vanishing boundaries in White Noise, this essay explores the possibility that DeLillo’s text in fact reveals the hypermodernist world of Paul Virilio, resisting these apocalyptic consequences of technology. Daniel Joseph Singal’s definition of Modernism helps to show how central aims of the Modernist project – that is, to achieve authenticity and reintegrate Victorian dichotomies – are not only possible but also imperative to achieve in White Noise, for the text implicitly suggests that rejecting Modernist principles may result in a national, epistemic crisis. More specifically, the novel points to one particular stream of Modernist culture as the antidote to epistemic failure. This stream, which Singal attributes to John Dewey, inspirits the novel’s central Modernist characters: Jack and Denise Gladney. Using Modernist ideologies, these two characters successfully find authenticity and meaning in a growingly complex technological world.

Modern demonology: the discernment of spirits in the theatre of colonial modernity

ABSTRACT This article analyses contemporary Charismatic evangelical ideas of ‘discernment’ in the context of US ‘spiritual warfare’ demonologies to argue that these demonologies are distinctly modern. Through a critical examination of spiritual warfare texts, it first demonstrates that discernment situates spiritual warfare demonologies in wider modernist projects of taxonomic classification, intertextual referentiality, and empirical observation. Then, drawing on post- and de-colonial scholarship that has shown European modernity to have arisen through the mechanisms of colonialism, the article contends that narratives of missionary encounters with the demonic replicate this relation between modernity and coloniality. Spiritual warfare reduces vibrant non-evangelical lifeworlds to objects of demonological knowledge, raw data that can only be properly interpreted and systematised by evangelical discernment. This systematisation permits the assimilation of these lifeworlds into a soteriological narrative of modern progress through religious conversion and (thus) socio-economic development. By demonstrating discernment’s inextricability from modernist methodologies and modernity’s foundational and enduring relation to coloniality, the article argues for understanding contemporary Charismatic demonology as distinctly modern.

Ideal Model of Socialist Modernism

The paper addresses the Gheorgheni housing estate in Cluj (1964-1969) as a remarkably well-preserved example, representative of a particular phase in the evolution of socialist housing in Romania. It argues, in the context of the present debates on the notion of postwar modernism, that Gheorgheni is a proper modernist example and that this specific period in the history of Romanian socialist housing can be defined as the modernist period. This was a time when the state set up a housing production system adapted to mass scale at the national level, and when the first large housing estates emerged. A young generation of architects working in the newly created regional design institutes eagerly embraced modern architecture, in both its aesthetic and social dimension. Through an analysis based on interviews with architects, photographic archival material, publications of the time, and references to contemporary debates on postwar modernism, the paper identifies the sources that informed the Gheorgheni project and shows how it embodied the model of modernist housing in its "ideal" form – i.e., close to the classical functionalist model of modern architecture and urbanism. It demonstrates the consistency of its modernist project and claims that the coherent urban and architectural design, together with the social mixing of its residents, account for its success over time. Unlike other estates from the same period, it has suffered only minimal later interventions and it is still a desirable residential area today. Eventually, the objective is to make the case for the listing of the estate as a modern architectural and urban heritage monument that deserves preservation, despite the negative undifferentiating perception of postwar housing that persists in Romania today.

Serial Forms: The Unfinished Project of Modernity, 1815–1848 by Clare Pettitt (review)

Serial Forms: The Unfinished Project of Modernity, 1815–1848 by Clare Pettitt (review)

Serial Forms: The Unfinished Project of Modernity, 1815–1848

Serial Forms: The Unfinished Project of Modernity, 1815–1848

CONTEXT ANALYSIS OF THE CONCEPT OF OBJECTIVITY, ACCURACY AND “OTHER” IN ETNOGRAPHIC CONTEXT

The doctrine of Johannes Fabian and Rigoberta Mençu, which is discussed and discussed in our study, includes a lot of variability in context. If these doctrines and the conceptual terminology, they contain are mentioned; the analysis of Menchú’s work has seems a bit more complex and ambiguous. These ambiguities lie in different aspects of the work: Here, there is a more complex knower-known relationship than the binary opposition between the subject which produces knowledge about the other and the passive object which expects the knowledge to be produced about itself. In relation to this, to employ a genre different from the dominant genres within humanities, particularly in anthropology, and its reliability are questionable according to the current science paradigms. Moreover, the emerging of such contradictory views about the production, reproduction, representation, and reception of Menchú's work -the attempt of producing and representing a different knowledge for and about her own community- brings about questioning of possibility of producing an absolute knowledge/abstract truth about the other communities independent from social, political and economic context. This again draws our attention to the power-knowledge relation, the partiality of knowledge and situated knowledge. Thus, establishing a relation with the other needs to study epistemology of contemporary ethnography willing to produce better understanding, and requires investigating this epistemology embedded within/along broader social relations that locate researcher and researched in different places. This attempt entails to deal with the positivist scientifism inherited by ethnography from modern anthropology that is to say with the dominant assumptions of western modernity project. In our study, these concepts were questioned, interpreted, and discussed.

On the colonization of the environment

In this article, I apply the colonization thesis from Jürgen Habermas’s Theory of Communicative Action to capitalist societies’ relationships with their natural environment. Resolving the fixation of his critique of capitalism on the so-called lifeworld ( Lebenswelt) to include questions of the environment ( Umwelt) opens up new vistas in the ongoing ecological reorientation of Critical Theory. If we think about the exploitation of the natural environment in Habermasian terms, the paradoxical irrationality of the expansion of instrumental rationality from the market mechanism becomes evident, providing us with normative leverage against the systemic devastation of external nature. The conversed colonization thesis calls for promoting the ecological preconditions for self-determined societal development through the collective containment of capitalist dynamics: since it undermines the enabling capacities of the ecosystems based on which the ‘project of modernity’ thrives, economic instrumentalization of nature can no longer proliferate.

The Power of Everyday Networks in Nation-Building: The Case of Inter-Ethnic Friendships in Singapore

Abstract While scholars commonly see nation-building as a modernist project or a cultural assertion, we suggest that a “third way” is equally important. Analysing data from a representative survey of 2,001 Singaporean residents collected in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, we demonstrate that everyday social networks have been key to creating and maintaining Singaporean nationalism. We make the point that despite ambitious plans at transforming society, modernist projects must rely upon organic, routinised, and quotidian mechanisms such as friendship-making within and between ethnic groups for national cohesion to materialise.

Imaginal research for unlearning mastery: Divination with tarot as decolonizing methodology

AbstractTarot use has become increasingly popular in contemporary society. However, unlike the position afforded divination in some cultures, it is not culturally consecrated as a legitimate way of knowing in the so‐called Modern West—in large part, due to the attempted disenchantment of the world by the colonial project of modernity. This paper posits that engagement with tarot divination can be a decolonizing methodology. I explore how divination's dependence on chance, the imagination, and engagement with spirits can heal the Cartesian mental models that underly modernity's hold on our society. Academic writing on divination has, until recently, largely been authored by people who are not also practitioners of divination themselves. Writing as both a scholar and practitioner of tarot, I use the cards as a form of “imaginal research” to directly assist in the creation of this paper—allowing the tarot itself to speak (as much as me speak about it).

Estetica della Terra Forma Quali strumenti per l’immaginazione Terrestre? La lezione di Bruno Latour


 
 
 Landing on Earth. This now famous formula, which appears in the title of the exhibition/catalogue Critical Zones. The Science and Politics of Landing on Earth, curated by Bruno Latour and Peter Weibel, sums up Latour’s ecological-political project and his attempt to respond to the Anthropocene’s need to bring us back to Earth, to this unstable soil that reacts to our actions and from which the project of Modernity had progressively distanced us. For Latour, climate change and the definition of anthropos as a geological force impose the search for a new habitable territory: the Earth we thought we knew, but which now presents itself as a new terra incognita. However, because of the uncertainty about the shape of the Earth, the need to develop new tools to orient ourselves and describe the situation in which we find ourselves becomes more and more urgent. If what is at stake after the disorientation (spatial, temporal, identity) caused by Gaia’s intrusion is the re-politicization of belonging to the land, what are the cartographic representations that will be able to effectively describe our co-belonging to the space we inhabit, helping to make visible the different chains of agency? What are the tools we can use to learn to see things differently and thus become more “sensitive and responsive” to the fragile shells of this metastable world where life forms other than our own intersect their paths? What kind of map is an earthly map?
 
 

Dialogo sul pianeta Intervista a Giuseppe Genna e Pino Tripodi


 
 
 Landing on Earth. This now famous formula, which appears in the title of the exhibition/catalogue Critical Zones. The Science and Politics of Landing on Earth, curated by Bruno Latour and Peter Weibel, sums up Latour’s ecological-political project and his attempt to respond to the Anthropocene’s need to bring us back to Earth, to this unstable soil that reacts to our actions and from which the project of Modernity had progressively distanced us. For Latour, climate change and the definition of anthropos as a geological force impose the search for a new habitable territory: the Earth we thought we knew, but which now presents itself as a new terra incognita. However, because of the uncertainty about the shape of the Earth, the need to develop new tools to orient ourselves and describe the situation in which we find ourselves becomes more and more urgent. If what is at stake after the disorientation (spatial, temporal, identity) caused by Gaia’s intrusion is the re-politicization of belonging to the land, what are the cartographic representations that will be able to effectively describe our co-belonging to the space we inhabit, helping to make visible the different chains of agency? What are the tools we can use to learn to see things differently and thus become more “sensitive and responsive” to the fragile shells of this metastable world where life forms other than our own intersect their paths? What kind of map is an earthly map?
 
 

Revisiting the Kantian legacy in Habermas: the philosophical project of modernity and decolonial critiques to rationality and cosmopolitanism

This paper deals with Amy Allen’s critique of Habermas's theory of modernity, democracy, and cosmopolitanism. I will focus on her arguments that touch on the role of rationality. Allen's critique of Habermas will be presented, especially where she argues that focusing on rationality is ethnocentric and promotes the political exclusion of subaltern groups. The extent to which Allen's critiques affect the emancipatory potential of Habermasian theory will next be assessed. It is finally argued that Allen's position leads to a denial of the distinction between social rationality and irrationality as legitimate criteria. The consequences of such a position for the political sphere will then be analyzed.

POLITICAL PERFORMANCE AND DISCURSIVE DEMOCRACY: PECULIARITIES OF THE POLITICAL ACTIONISM`S INTERPRETATION

The article is devoted to clarifying the significance of a political performance, which acts as a theatrical communication action designed to draw society’s attention to the important problems of certain social or political groups. The purpose of the research is to establish the peculiarities of the interpretation of political performance in the paradigmatic and methodological dimensions of modern discursive democracy. The development of political performance under the conditions of the modern Russian-Ukrainian war is characterized. It was found that an important task of modern political science should be considered the identification of paradigmatic dimensions (or “poles”) of analytical judgments regarding the assessment of the significance of political performances. It was emphasized that political performance acts as a postmodern alternative to the realization of the unfinished project of political modernity. The importance of political performance for the discussion of society’s problems at the political level and its dependence on a specific topic and the subjects of its application are analyzed. The importance of public discussion and manifestation as signs of broad involvement of citizens in democratic political activity is revealed. It was found that the ability to express political meaning in a theatrical form is beyond the limits of rational planning and organization. It is revealed that the functionality of political performance stems from its connection with specific social groups. It has been proven that political performances are a form that contradicts the formal procedure of expressing the will and approving the results of the discussion. It has been established that, subject to regulatory support from the state, discussions require voluntary participation and a significant level of competence. It is assumed that political performance can provide certain advantages in political competition due to the imagery and emotionality of the political message. The limited suitability of performance for promoting the values of deliberative democracy has been established, since many cases of the use of performances in the modern period are related to the defense of the right to freedom of speech. It was concluded that in the conditions of political discussions, the importance of political performance consists in creating preliminary conditions for political dialogue.

Haunting the Factory: Indonesian Modernity and the Spiritual Landscape of Central Kalimantan

ABSTRACT This article explores enchantments accompanying industrial development and the national discourse of modernity in the ecologically fragile swamp landscape of Central Kalimantan, situated in the southern part of Indonesian Borneo. Focusing on the experiences of the Ngaju Dayak, a local indigenous group, and mass-mediated narratives on enchantments of (national) development, we explore the promises and anxieties of the modern industrial schemes that become part of their everyday lives. By bringing together the discussions of animate spiritual landscapes and Indonesian modernity, we explore the politics and capacity of the Dayak and the spirits to invite, deny or resist the effects of modern infrastructure projects. We examine the landscape of collaborations, dreams and anxieties influenced by capitalist industrial development (Ong 2010; Taussig 2010; Tsing 2005; Bubandt 2015; Duile 2020). We argue that a plurality of enchantments exists and local indigenous groups must navigate between these enchantments and national modernity projects.

Beyond the Modernist Project: A Decolonial Turn in the History of Psychology.

In this article, the authors argue for a decolonial history of psychology that will assist in the creation of psychologies (and their histories) that are true to place and time. We briefly place contemporary history of psychology as being of service to hegemonic psychology, which has continued to enforce a coloniality of being, knowing, and doing. We outline some of its limitations in regard to individualism, neoliberalism, and the ideologies of the market. In contrast, we articulate a way to begin to reconceptualize a psychology and its history that may serve to honor and respect multiple ways of knowing and being. We offer examples of emergent approaches that are being created that are non-dualistic, non-WEIRD, and focused on lived experiences in particular places and settings. The authors are mindful of the limitations of offering superabundant examples of each point due to the length constraints that accompanied the invitation to submit this manuscript. We encourage interested readers to explore the references for additional nuances and examples of the main points.

Memorialising and Forgetting in the City: Recovering Azimabad from the Many Pasts of Patna

This article interrogates the conventional idea of urban by historicising Patna, a provincial town neglected in urban studies. We argue that behind this neglect is the perception of urbanity as a project of modernity, development and infrastructure. The article foregrounds the role of culture in terms of literary productions and activities as significant yet ignored markers to define and reconceptualise urbanity. By studying the cultural activities of Patna from the eighteenth to the twentieth century, we not only redefine the urban but also the view of Patna as a provincial region. The article uses two occasions in the history of Patna, the formation of the New Capital and the construction of the Patna Museum, to underline the state’s desire for ‘monumental’ representation in the urban sphere and reveals how these instances were used to overwrite a certain kind of past for the city and create a formidable ancient identity for Patna.

“Why Don't They Display Male Nudes?”

Abstract In the West, the 1970s were the decade of rapid sexual liberalization. Similarly, in state-socialist Poland new approaches toward sex and nudity also gained momentum. Female nudes started being printed in the popular press and displayed in gallery rooms. Simultaneously, early feminist artists such as Natalia LL, Teresa Murak, and Ewa Partum experimented with nudity to question gendered discourses and social norms. This article compares popular nude photography exhibitions with the works of women artists to analyze two approaches toward female nudity that developed in 1970s Poland. Thus, it showcases the ambiguities surrounding the project of socialist sexual modernity and highlights conflicting visions of femininity and liberation.

Models for the New Old Future

The Geological Trilogy by Dmitry Morozov (::vtol::) is a contemporary interaction with the Soviet colonial project. The artist explores the ambiguity of the Soviet through construction of robotic models that turn out to be models of social processes: the production of the present on the material process of the ancient or recent past. Each of the installations of the trilogy is based on a physically repeatable process: the phase transition and cooling of a meteorite (Guest), the drying and filling of takirs with water (Takir), the drilling of solid earth (“12,262”). Spatially, the works construct a model of the Soviet modernist project of the colonization of nature: from the cosmic heights to the earth to 12 thousand kilometres deep. Each of these objects is transported to the original site in order to verify the accuracy of the physical model of the place and transcend its abandonment. We must be careful when we examine parts of the trilogy for we may find ourselves looking upon an abandoned future.

The Collapse of Communism as the End of the Modernity Project? Post-Soviet Transformation Narratives of the Lithuanian Population

The article analyses how Lithuanian inhabitants remember and assess the post-communist transformation and searches for the narratives that can be interpreted through the lens of modernization theories. The paper draws on a dataset of 43 biographical interviews collected in 2021 in Panevėžys city and Panevėžys district. Employing the method of thematic narrative analysis, four dominant narratives of post-soviet transformation were identified: “demodernization”, “real modernization”, “continuation of neo-traditionalism” and“continuation of modernity”. In the narrative of “demodernization”, the Soviet regime is seen as the true modernity, and the post-Soviet transformation is perceived as a process of demodernization, when progress is replaced by stagnation or regression, manifested in the decline of industry and the disappearance of other attributes of modernity. In the narrative of “true modernity”, on the contrary, the Soviet era is seen as a false or failed modernity characterized by inefficiency and backwardness, and the features of modernity are attributed to the new order emerging after the restoration of independence. The narratives of “continuity of neo-traditionalism” and “continuity of modernity” observe similar features in both the Soviet era and the period of transformation, but the former emphasizes the neo-traditionalist or “anti-modern” features of both periods, such as inefficiency, corruption, and privilege, while the latter sees both periods as progressive in their own ways.