Political Space Research Articles

The UK’s role in shaping the anti-russian policy of The West

In the context of the Ukrainian crisis, Western countries have significantly intensified their anti-Russian policy along with its collective development. The article examines the role of the UK in the process of multilateral formation of the collective Western anti-Russian policy. The theoretical basis of the study is the spatial approach and organisational theory. Based on the analysis of institutional-identitarian dynamics using the qualitative and quantitative content analysis, the British foreign policy identity, the transnational identity of the political space of the West, and their mutual influence are explored. It is concluded that the anti-Russian aspects of the foreign policy narratives of the UK and the collective West generally coincide. However, there are features in the corresponding discourse in the UK, which bring it closer to the discourse of the countries of the Anglosphere. International institutions and practices with the participation of the UK are considered, their compliance with anti-Russian narratives is substantiated. The article reveals the directions of British foreign policy that have the most influence on the collective policy of the West. The study focuses on cases where the British leadership was the first to take certain anti-Russian measures, encouraging other countries to follow its example. The reverse impact of international institutions and practices on the British foreign policy identity was analysed. It is argued that the UK has a significant influence on the formation of a collective anti-Russian policy, and is one of the leaders of the West in this context.

Reading care work as a borderland in My Cleaner, Muz Sesleri and Lullaby

In this article, I compare the literary representations of women care workers in Maggie Gee's My Cleaner, Ece Temelkuran's Muz Sesleri and Leïla Slimani's Lullaby through the concept of borderlands which, especially since Gloria Anzaldúa's Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza, has come to represent a space surpassing geographical borders in ways to bring attention to crossroads of challenging yet promising encounters of personal, cultural and political spaces. I also argue that when feminism and literature meet in a comparative frame, they might have the potential to facilitate a space to contextualize women's lives and understand similarities and differences among women within a non-hegemonic frame. I thus propose that a comparative analysis of the literary representations of women care workers in these novels denotes such a fruitful crossroads where relationality can be discussed as a nuanced concept affording space to discuss the complexity of women's experiences and enhance the frame of feminist solidarity.

Commemoration as a form of representation of the Holocaust in the cultural space of Ukraine in the XXI century

The relevance of the article. Commemoration1 of the Holocaust2 is a practice that is the quintessence of the memory of the Jewish past and a promising approach for comprehension of collective experience. Successful realization of forms of remembrance is actively implemented in the main historical centers associated with Jewish history: Poland, Hungary, Germany, and others. It is there that commemorative practices have become an integral part of the multicultural dimension. For a long time, the national focus of Holocaust remembrance was regulated by political mechanisms post-Soviet space, depriving society of the opportunity to expand the functionality of commemoration. This influenced the presentation of the perpetuation of the tragedy and the formation of self-identity among Ukrainian Jews.
 The purpose of the research. The article presents an examination of individual examples of modern Holocaust commemorative practices and their impact on the cultural space of Ukraine. The dynamics of urban, visual and memorial aspects of commemoration are identified and analyzed, and their specifics are outlined.
 The methodology is based on the use of the following methods: historical and cultural methods, which were used to characterize the peculiarities of Jewish cultural memory within the framework of the Holocaust representation; sociological method of visual analysis, which was used to study the specifics of commemoration practices using examples of commemoration; structural and semiotic methods, which were used to determine the relationship between individual and collective reflection within the memorial space, and to outline the specific symbolism of the tragedy. It is determined that the rethinking of the tragedy of the Jewish people is the result of rethinking the Holocaust in society. This became possible due to the intensification of research into the meaning of the tragedy.
 The results. It is proven that by reconstructing the image of the past in the sociocultural dimension, it becomes possible to deprive the Jews of local perception and focus on building intercultural communication through the prism of a positive trend in preserving and restoring memory.
 The scientific novelty of the research. Іs presented in the analysis of examples of Holocaust commemoration in Ukraine and the identification of the constituent elements of the cultural space of remembrance.
 The practical significance. The prospect of a further vector of research is the practical implementation of the theoretical material for creating projects dedicated to the tragedy and Jewry in the national territory.
 Conclusions. Having carried out a cultural analysis of illustrative examples of Holocaust remembrance, we can draw the following conclusions. Firstly, in the course of the study, we determined that the urban perspective of the Holocaust commemoration, together with the elaboration of the trauma of witnesses, aims to create a tendency to perceive the «other». We believe that this is a mentally necessary strategy for Ukrainian realities. Secondly, we have generalized that commemoration focuses on creating an individual experience of perceiving the tragedy of the Holocaust, making it unique. We argue that a complex conglomerate of feelings, which concentrate visual forms, will allow everyone to find their place in this event, discover its leitmotifs, and construct the context of the future with a clear understanding of the cyclical nature of history. Thirdly, memorial commemoration is the most accessible for reflection. However, the places of memory executions are not without variability in interpretation and are an example of a primary source that makes it possible to study of the Holocaust.

Умиротворение террористических организаций и способы их интеграции в легитимный политический процесс

The subject of the study is cases of the integration process of terrorist organizations into the legitimate political space. Analysis of the degree of influence of internal and external relations (in relation to the state) on terrorist activities made it possible to propose a typology of terrorist organizations. The types of organizations whose characteristics contribute to integration are indicated. A comparative analysis of the ontological foundations of the concept of “terrorist organization” was carried out in the instrumental (T. C. Schelling, A. Schmid) and organizational (P. Wilkinson, M. Crenshaw) approaches. Generalization of a number of ideas from the concepts of the organizational approach made it possible to construct an explanatory model of the preservation and integration of terrorist groups. Four methods of integration are described, which differ in the level of acceptance by the political system of the demands of groupings and their role in the political process.

Human Rights and Views of the Catholic Church under Habermas Discourse Theory


 
 
 This article aims to explain the views of the Catholic Church on human rights and put them into dialogue with the concept of human rights based on discourse theory as put forward by Jürgen Habermas. In the view of the Catholic Church, the ethical basis for the concept of human rights is the biblical view of human beings as being made in the image of God, which later became the forerunner to the birth of the concept of human dignity and the ethical basis for human rights. This article shows that the discourse theory rejects this theological model of justification for human rights. The criticism of the discourse theory as it relates to an absolute paradigm is that the absolute paradigm requires metaphysical premises. However, in a modern society characterized by a pluralism of worldviews and philosophical and religious beliefs, such metaphysical claims are no longer acceptable. Through the lens of discourse theory, the foundation of the notion of human rights cannot be based on the pre-political basis of religious values. This discourse theory grounding model is based on the conditions of contemporary post-metaphysical society, characterized by a plurality of comprehensive doctrines. However, Habermas emphasizes the role of religion in the public sphere in promoting human rights. He advocates for the reinvention of public reason by encouraging religious people to translate sacred terms into secular language when entering formal political spaces. According to Habermas’ theories, democratic decision-making must allow citizens the right to use religious terms in public debate. Furthermore, this article shows that discourse theory creates a roadmap for human rights by allowing religion, law, and politics to coexist. Only if we adhere to the principles of discourse theory can we guarantee the fair and just participation of both secular and religious members in a democratic constitutional state.
 Keywords: Human Rights, Catholic Church, Religion, Habermas’s Discourse Theory
 
 

Les elevés des Wandjina de George Grey. De L’art Aborigène à L'art primitif (1838–1906)

George Grey’s Wandjina Copies. From Aboriginal Art to Primitive Art (1838–1906) The history of the recognition of Palaeolithic art has been written from the perspective of European discoveries in the last third of the 19th century. Through this case study of the publication of the Wandjina paintings (Australian Kimberley) by George Grey between 1838 and 1841 and through the contextualisation of the interpretations attributed to them the article investigates the intellectual and political space in which conceptions relating to the ability of Aborigines to produce this art emerged within the debates of contemporaries and, later, of English and French prehistorians. It also provides an insight into the different contexts that shaped the will to reconstruct the heritage of non–European cultures in a colonial context.

Gendered Politics in Post-Independence Kenya: The Case of Lower Eastern Region

Women make up a significant proportion of the population, accounting for over half of the global population. Despite this, their participation in politics has always been lower than that of men. In Kenya, women constitute more than half of the entire population and form a sizable part of the electorate, yet they still face political exclusion. Political participation of women in politics is of great significance. This is because it is within the political realm that resource allocation and conflict resolution takes place. People join politics to individually or collectively pursue their interests and if women as a category are not equitably represented, it would mean that key policy and decisions are made without considering their aspirations. The objective of the study was to examine patterns of women's political mobilization in Kenya between 1963-2022. The study was guided by Social Relations Gender Approach. This theory is underpinned by the following assumptions: 
 
 Human well-being is the primary goal of development, 
 Social relations determine people's roles, rights as well as their power over others and 
 Societal institutions play an integral role in perpetuating social inequality. 
 
 The research employed an exploratory research design. It is held here that the Jomo Kenyatta regime perpetuated the colonial patriarchal ideology anchored on gender bias. The independence regime conceptualized the role of women’s organizations as mainly useful to improve the nation’s economy but deliberately muzzled their political aspirations. The Moi regime opened political space for women and it is the Kibaki administration through the promulgation of the 2010 Constituion that gave women the requisite platform towards achieving gender equity in politics.

„almost certainly the major European poet of the period after 1945“. George Steiner liest Paul Celan

The article examines, based on several works by cultural philosopher George Steiner, what con-ception of Europe he advocates by classifying Celan as “the major European poet of the period after 1945”. The analysis shows a convergence of poetic practices of modern poetry with basic values of a Humanist understanding of Europe, which Steiner experienced paradigmatically in Celan’s poems. This concerns not least Celan’s explicit intention of a future-oriented poetry after the rupture of history. Finally, the chapter questions the strict connection of Steiner’s aes-thetic and ethical ideas to the geographical and political space of Europe.

Interrogating Youths’ Involvement in Politics and Implications on Violence in Nigeria

Protests, whether violent or non-violent are part of the instruments deployed by youths to express their dissatisfaction with poor governance and non-inclusion in decision-making in Nigeria. To the youths, their relevance in politics seems to begin during election and terminates as soon as elections are over. Changing this narrative becomes critical for these youths in order to enable them to utilise their potentials and contribute to national development. This scenario raises a number of questions: what have been the activities of youths within political spaces and decision-making over the years? Are they involved or excluded and why? The present article interrogates these and other issues and makes suggestions on how youths’ potentials in Nigeria can be properly harnessed, developed and utilised for the benefits of both youths and the citizenry as a whole.

Platforms in the city and cities at the service of platforms: An urban perspective on the platform economy and workers’ responses

AbstractThe social and economic impacts of the emerging platform economy are most obvious in urban settings, where platforms are giving rise to unfamiliar dynamics of inclusion and exclusion, cooperation and division, as well as social and political integration and fragmentation. Platform urbanisation has created a new and unprecedented kind of politics. It has given rise to new political spaces and new subjectivities, resulting in a permanent reorganisation of ‘historical’ assemblages of territory, authority and rights. Drawing on the results of the European-based PLUS Project (Platform Labour in Urban Spaces: Fairness, Welfare, Development), this themed collection offers a fresh perspective on the platform economy by analysing it in terms of the relationship between urban contexts and the ongoing platformisation process, with an emphasis on how this relationship is reshaping (platform) labour and reconfiguring (or even reinvigorating) social action. Along the way, the articles in this issue consider whether platforms are useful for the development of urban environments and labour markets, or whether urban environments and labour markets are useful for the development of platforms. Likewise, they seek to identify the conditions under which relevant actors can mobilise and build alliances to ensure that such forms of development can be made to benefit not only workers but also (urban) citizens and the (urban) environment in general.

Administration as Democratic Trustee Representation

AbstractThe “folk” theory of democracy that typically justifies the administrative state cannot help but lead to a discourse of constraint. If agency action is only legitimate when it mechanically applies the will of the voters as transposed by Congress through statutes, then the norms guiding that action will inevitably restrain agency discretion. As a result, attempts to establish the democratic credentials of the administrative state ironically obstruct the application of collective power. But this “folk” theory of democracy is bad theory. It is empirically incredible and, alarmingly, facilitates dangerous populist politics. Political theory instead suggests that a theory of democratic representation not only better explains legislative outcomes, but also deprives demagogues and deregulatory partisans of the fictions that prop up their agendas. After a brief survey of representative theory, this article will demonstrate that a model of trustee representation adequately describes administration, reinforces its democratic credentials and constitutes a space for politics in shaping the regulations that govern us all.

Political Violence and Democratic Consolidation in Nigeria: A focus on the 2019 and 2023 General Elections

Overtime, election has been the most controversial aspect of Nigeria’s democracy as it includes activities for choosing amongst individuals for the leadership and representative role in the country. Leadership seats have always been a contest and a battle that most individuals pursue. The political space of Nigeria therefore has always been characterized by violence which is usually being employed for political gains, ethno-religious vices and destabilization of the democratic processes. The research studies the various reasons for the continuous violence in Nigeria’s electoral processes, its impacts on the electoral processes and largely on the democratic consolidation of the country. The paper employed the descriptive analysis method in analyzing the causes and impact level of political violence. The paper asserted that the ethnic and religious volatility plays a great role in the ensuing of violence in the last election, as the election was viewed as an election amongst individuals of ethnic groups. The researchers therefore, suggest that principle of federal character can reduce political violence and make for democratic consolidation in Nigeria.

Feasting on the land: Haunted political space in recent Welsh language films

This article will focus on spectrality in the cinematic spaces of two Welsh language films, Yr Ymadawiad (The Passing) (2015) and Gwledd (The Feast) (2021). Both films envision spectral happenings as a means of exploring and re-exploring past and present debates about the endlessly contested nature of the Welsh landscape and the resulting hauntological traces within the national psyche. The films suggest contradictory versions of the Welsh landscape. Often described as empty and barren, Wales has simultaneously been seen as a rich resource for extensive extraction of its natural resources. With located hauntings by ghosts that are specific and placed, Yr Ymadawiad’s temporal indeterminacy imagines ghostly presences beneath the waters of a drowned village, while Gwledd depicts the horrific revenge of an earth at the mercy of humans, characterizing human use of rural space as monstrous and destructive. Both films are highly located and rooted within specific Welsh landscapes, depicting both the uniqueness of the Welsh experience and its intimate connection with global issues relating to the loss of land.

Decolonizing Space and the Self A Postcolonial Reading of Activism on Statues

This article discusses recent activism on public statues from a post-colonial perspective. First, it outlines a post-colonial concern with the notion of subaltern space, focusing on the relation of space-making to subjectivation. Then, it analyses distinct theoretical insights coming from post-colonial literature that deal with the theme of political space and resistance, addressing in particular the thought of Mbembe, hooks, and Ahmed. Finally, it discusses activism over colonial statues in light of this theoretical approach, interpreting activism on statues as a decolonial intervention that directly addresses questions of representation and democracy.

India’s Democracy: The Competitive Authoritarian Propensity? Rahul Mukherji and Seyed Hossein Zarhani

This paper explains and corroborates the mechanisms by which civic and political spaces opposed to Hindu nationalism have been attacked, especially after the arrival of the right-wing Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in 2014. Three mechanisms are discerned for replacing pluralistic values with Hindu majoritarian ones. Sometimes institutions are just allowed to drift by interpreting old rules in new ways. For example, no formal rules for media control have changed but the government???s control over media has increased substantially. At other times, incremental legal and policy changes are executed to make the change explicit, often building on a new moral purpose. To give another example, the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) was amended and weaponized against NGOs in a layered way in 2020. Finally, when political opposition is weak, institutions that have provided guarantees for protecting diversity have simply been displaced by new and radically different ones. This was the case with abrogating Article 370, which converted the special status of the subnational state of Jammu and Kashmir to the status of two federally administered union territories–Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. These mechanisms place India in a competitive authoritarian frame, where those in power deploy electoral majorities to systematically attack the political opposition, making it more di(cult for it to rise. Despite these propensities, opposition parties have won elections in some of India’s subnational states. The challenges facing the world’s most populous democracy are significant, even though competitive elements co-exist. These elements in a competitive authoritarian regime, however, are under severe stress. India’s democratic credentials can be revived only if the competitive elements of India’s democracy stand united against ethno-nationalist Hindu majoritarianism.

FRANCE: SOCIAL CLEAVAGES IN THE FACE OF POLITICAL PROCESSES

Abstract. The article examines the social schisms existing in French society and the impact that these divisions had on the social climate and political processes in the country. The factors contributing to the formation of these imbalances are analyzed. It is shown that although the ruling circles have smoothed out the social consequences of numerous extraordinary events that took place during Macron’s rule, they have not been able to mitigate the fundamental social divisions. The author comes to the conclusion that the abundance of deep social divisions in society leads to social instability, fragmentation of the political space and a significant increase in the influence of populist movements. Special attention is paid to the problems of increasing the degree of radicalism in the political arena and the degree of aggression and violence in society

Powerless? Gender Regimes and Women’s Place in Uganda’s Political Parties

Multiparty politics in Uganda in some ways opened the political space for women and also reinforced the patriarchal nature of parliamentary and electoral politics. Women are increasingly used as appendages and tools to further the political dominance of the ruling government. So, while they seem to be visible, their voices and substantive representation is controlled by the parties’ executive wings. This paper identifies and describes the gender regimes of Ugandan political parties, showing how women are systematically alienated by party politics. The analysis of party constitutions and structures revealed antipathy towards gender equality demonstrated in male dominance of top positions and positions of valuable portfolios, deputization of women and the use of women’s leagues to promote party agendas. Although women’s participation is supported legislatively, there is a need for women’s leagues to operate autonomously from the party.

Towards an understanding of how school climate strikes work as public pedagogy

PurposeSchool climate strikes are opening spaces of appearance, becoming differently active forms of public pedagogy where new and previously unthought collective climate action is possible. This inquiry contributes to understanding school climate strikes as important forms of climate justice activism by exploring how they work as public pedagogy.Design/methodology/approachThe inquiry process involved poetic inquiry to produce an affective poetic witness statement to an event of school climate strikes, and then a performative enactment of diffractive reading using the poem created. The diffractive reading is used to conceptualise school climate strikes as public pedagogy and move towards an understanding of how school climate strikes work as public pedagogy. Diffused throughout is the question of where the more-than-human fits in public pedagogy and youth climate justice activism.FindingsSchool climate strikes are dynamic and differently acting (diffracting) public pedagogies that work by open spaces of appearance that enable capacities for collective action in heterogeneous political spaces. Consideration of entanglements and intra-actions between learner, place, knowledge and climate change are productive in understanding how phenomena work as public pedagogy.Originality/valueThis inquiry extends on important considerations in both climate change education and public pedagogy scholarship. It diffuses consideration of the more-than-human throughout the inquiry and enacts a move beyond the humanist limits of existing public pedagogy scholarship by introducing climate intra-action, heterogeneous political spaces and non-conforming learning to an understanding of activist public pedagogies and the educative agent.

“There Is a Corpse in the Room”: On Political Guilt and Reparation of the Past

AbstractPolitical theory scholarship tends to resist guilt, and especially collective guilt, as a framework for thinking about wrongs committed in the past or still enduring. The voices and experiences of those wronged, however, often imply that they are attributing guilt, and they are attributing it to a collectivity. I follow their lead and think through the potential of political guilt in motivating reparation and redress. Drawing on insights that Karl Jaspers fails to fully develop, I appropriate his notion of political guilt as situation, and read it as something that is contested among victims, perpetrators, and bystanders. Through contestation political guilt creates political spaces for reckoning with the past, and can be instrumental in making space for marginalized voices. I apply my framework to race relations in the contemporary United States, but guilt could be a catalyst to rethink postcolonial relations as well.

Policy complementarity and the paradox of carbon pricing

AbstractWe present an economics framework appropriate to the exceptionally broad scope of the climate change problem. This considers that economic and social processes, particularly those involved in purposive transitions of energy technologies and systems, involve the interplay between three distinct domains of decision-making and associated actors. The first concerns small-scale and often short-term decision-making, much of which reflects extensive ‘satisficing’ and habituation as identified in behavioural economics. Calculated economic optimization decisions, especially of companies in the energy and energy-intensive industries, then best reflect the core assumptions of neoclassical and welfare economics, including discrete market failures. Third, at the largest scale are strategic judgements made by big actors (e.g. governments, large multinational companies) relevant to transformation of complex systems over long periods—particularly concerning innovation and structural changes, for which lessons from theories of evolutionary and institutional economics are most relevant.Economically, these can be logically mapped in relation to the technology (or more accurately, ‘best practice’) frontier. Each has corresponding policy implications: most directly, respectively in terms of (i) standards and engagement to establish norms; (ii) competitive markets with the critical role of prices; and (iii) strategic investment in innovation and infrastructure. Each faces challenges of implementation and government failure, as observed, for example, with wholly inadequate carbon pricing to date, naïve and ineffective approaches to enhancing energy efficiency, or misdirected support to R&D. Based on the domain distinctions, we argue that the corresponding pillars of policy are naturally complementary, and can be mutually supportive: strong standards and norms on energy efficiency, for example, would enhance the political space for carbon pricing by reducing its direct consumer impacts, while carbon pricing has multiple positive two-way interactions with enhanced low-carbon innovation.From this we also posit a ‘carbon pricing paradox’: that adequate carbon prices, the central recommendation of most economists, are in most jurisdictions only feasible (or even optimal) if equal analytic and policy attention is devoted to the other pillars, and the wider context of macroeconomic and fiscal policies. Only these other aspects can reduce the absolute cost impact of carbon pricing (potentially turning into a gain) and offer consumers and businesses better lower-carbon alternatives, which are critical to establishing climate-compatible pricing structures across our economies.