Political Imagination Research Articles

Cultural Awareness of Intersex in Malta: Invisibility, Stigma and Epistemic Injustice

In 2015, Malta introduced ground-breaking legal reform designed to protect the bodily integrity of intersex infants in Malta. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with healthcare professionals, lawyers, policy-makers and advocates, this article considers the extent to which this reform has improved the cultural visibility and recognition of intersex people in Malta. Engaging with literature on epistemic injustice, this article provides new evidence for a cultural silence around intersex bodies that operates not only at a level of public knowledge but also at the individual and institutional levels. Our findings relate to three categories of visibility: political, cultural and medical. While the political visibility of intersex was an important factor in the introduction and shape of law reform in Malta, our respondents felt that the legislation had had very little effect on public understandings and familiarity with intersex issues. Moreover, respondents felt that many intersex people would be unlikely to know that they were intersex due to the limited conceptual and critical resources available to them: issues such as stigma and shame further encourage the epistemic silencing of intersex issues. The lack of cultural and medical visibility has significantly limited both the intended and hoped-for effect of the legislation. The article considers the broader implications of these results beyond Malta for those seeking to use the law to improve the lived experiences of intersex people.

‘One of the last secret maestros’: Nicola Chiaromonte between Europe and America

ABSTRACT The article describes the transatlantic cultural mediation performed by Italian editor, critic and political activist Nicola Chiaromonte, focusing specifically on his relationships with figures from the mid-twentieth-century U.S. cultural formation known as the New York Intellectuals. Drawing heavily on unpublished correspondence and archival materials, it highlights how Chiaromonte – who in the 1930s belonged to influential Italian and French intellectual networks, as well as to the antifascist movement ‘Giustizia e Libertà’ – publicly and privately transmitted political ideas forged in the debates of the Italian antifascist diaspora and the intellectual matrix of interwar Paris to leftwing 1940s New York circles associated with literary and socio-political magazines such as Partisan Review (P.R.) and politics. After exploring Chiaromonte’s years as a refugee in Manhattan as a scene of formal and informal cultural mediation, it turns to his post-war role as co-editor of the Italian Congress for Cultural Freedom (C.C.F.) magazine Tempo Presente (T.P.), foregrounding this institutional role as a site of idea circulation and exchange that leveraged Chiaromonte’s transnational cultural knowledge and connections. The article emphasizes the significance of interpersonal relationships not only to Chiaromonte’s political vision but also as sites of transformational intellectual labour.

City drafting: property-making and bureaucratic urbanism in South Asia

This Special Feature explores the negotiated bureaucratic politics shaping urbanization in South Asia. City drafting refers to the flexible and contextual practices, procedures and policies required to haul diverse property regimes into order and provisionally render urban land clear and settled. The drafted city, we argue, is necessarily provisional and uneven, left open to politicised remapping, redrafting and resettlement by a host of institutionally embedded brokers, bureaucrats, clerks and surveyors each wielding their own political and socio-technical vision of land. These drafting practices, not only shape a politics of uneven urbanisation in South Asian cities, but also help to explain the persistent fractal morphology of urban property in South Asia; spanning categories of public, private, non-private, commons, unauthorised, regularised, agrarian, urban and so on. While the South Asian city is commonly understood through the high-resolution imagery of masterplanners, policymakers and investors, city drafting methodologically focuses on the grounded bureaucratic struggles of the map, plot, record and title, through which claims to property rights, exclusions and access are shaped.

Review: Citizens of Photography: The Camera and the Political Imagination, edited by Christopher Pinney with the PhotoDemos Collective

Review: <i>Citizens of Photography: The Camera and the Political Imagination</i>, edited by Christopher Pinney with the PhotoDemos Collective

Sovereignty in Hebrew and the Decline of Democracy

Abstract Since assuming office in December 2022, Israel's government has worked to weaken the state's democratic infrastructure. While this appears to break from a long-standing Israeli consensus on democracy, this article demonstrates that retiring democracy has long been the agenda of the faction of the Israeli right most empowered in Israel's current government, namely the settler movement. Following the discourse in Sovereignty: A Political Journal, it finds that by recasting ‘sovereignty’ as involving annexation and disenfranchizing Palestinians, the settler right has consistently portrayed democracy—and particularly the Supreme Court that serves as a check on governmental power and protects minorities—as an obstacle to ‘sovereignty.’ Considering the settler right's political vision, the article claims that defending democracy today will necessarily involve engaging contentious questions of occupation and annexation.

The image of the Chechen War on the pages of the American daily newspaper The New York Times: headline review

The subject of the research in the article is the image of the First and Second Chechen Wars, created by journalists of The New York Times newspaper in the 1990s and reflecting the views of the American democratic public. The subject of the study is the headlines of articles related to this topic in the American daily newspaper The New York Times. At the end of the 20th century, the periodical press continued to play a significant role in public life, including shaping the news agenda and creating the image of certain events. Often, journalists sought to impose their vision of Russian politics on the reader. Reputable publications, avoiding the techniques of the "yellow press", used more subtle and unobvious manipulative forms. Such manipulations include the newspaper's choice of lexical units with a certain connotation and the frequency of their use. In this study, the author attempts to explicate the hidden information that is embedded in the headlines of The New York Times. To analyze the information identified by the author in the headlines of The New York Times newspaper, the article used methods such as historical, comparative and quantitative content analysis. The novelty of the study lies in the fact that the headlines of The New York Times newspaper of this period were first considered as a source of analysis of the transforming view of the American democratic press on the events of the First and Second Chechen Wars. According to the results of the study, the following conclusions were drawn: the image of the Chechen conflict of the 1990s in the American press has undergone significant changes. If the First Chechen War in The New York Times appears as a legitimate struggle of the Russian authorities against the separatist movement in Chechnya, albeit with a number of critical remarks, then the image of the Second Chechen War is radically different from the previous campaign. The newspaper presents the events of the Second Chechen Campaign as a new colonial war, while the emphasis was shifted towards criticizing the Russian leadership for violating human rights and freedoms in the Chechen Republic, as well as a direct impact on destabilization in the North Caucasus region.

Fictional varieties of postcapitalism and imaginaries of systemic transformation: mapping alternatives in science fiction and making use of their heuristic potential

ABSTRACT This contribution proposes to explore different forms of postcapitalist futures that have been imagined in science fiction and analyze their reflexive potential. The field of studies on diverse economies, those economies often made less visible by the preeminent economic system, should also be concerned with fictional representations oriented towards the future. The article first emphasizes how science fiction can participate in the political imagination, precisely because of its capacities for problematization and exploration. The next step is to exploit a corpus of mainly literary works to show how science fiction can be an original and heuristic vector for the exploration of transformative socioeconomic possibilities. The worlds created in these works allow us to show what a variety of alternative and postcapitalist socioeconomic systems might look like. A typological matrix of postcapitalist futures is then proposed to highlight the hypotheses on which these visions are based and the inspirations they provide.

Migration and the Dystopian Imagination of European Border Regimes

Inward migration has long troubled the European political imagination. For example, an emphasis on fortification and low immigration was key to the civilisational fantasy of many early modern European literary Utopias. The dominant contemporary political framing of irregularised migration as a European problem thus leans on an imagined transnational ‘European civilisation’, concretised in the contemporary EU but with roots stretching back centuries. This article examines critical cultural treatments of legal and policy frameworks, grounded in a (supra-)nationalist civilisational myth, which now determine the treatment of irregularised migrants. Specifically, I examine three cultural texts (a novel, a film, and documentary artwork) produced in the years immediately preceding the development of the current Dublin III Regulation, which determines how and where asylum claims are processed in the EU. These three realist primary texts counter the official techno-scientific discourse of territorial integrity using science fictional narrative strategies, generic conventions, and tropes: the 2012 documentary artwork Liquid Traces: The Left to Die Boat Case by Forensic Architecture uses science fictional visualisations to directly confront the deadly effects of European bordering in the Mediterranean. Aki Kaurismäki’s film Le Havre (2011), shows how twentieth-century history haunts contemporary migration fears by spatialising multiple temporalities in the titular city. Finally, Chika Unigwe’s novel On Black Sisters’ Street (2009), explores the colonial dynamics of irregularised migration and the complexities of individual agency, producing a form of critical dystopian engagement with the social and political conditions of the present without being a generic dystopia. These three texts expose the dangers and violence of European bordering, and counter the science fictional civilisational fantasies of its policies. They share an emphasis on the need for solidarity, resistance, and, via encounters with the spectral presences of Europe’s past, they demand forms of historical justice which will break with contemporary dystopian conditions and the hard borders of the present.

The Mughals and the Sufis: Islam and Political Imagination in India, 1500–1750, by Muzaffar Alam

<i>The Mughals and the Sufis: Islam and Political Imagination in India, 1500–1750</i>, by Muzaffar Alam

Political imaginaries of solidarity: the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) in Toronto

ABSTRACT This article discusses the impact of political imaginaries in facilitating or hindering sustained solidarity with the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement in Toronto, Canada. It conceives of the BDS movement as a space traversed by differentiated forces, actors, practices, and subjective dispositions that coalesce around a goal and constitute solidarity relations across time. In so doing, this article highlights the interplay of the multiple political imaginaries shaping the movement’s trajectory and analyses the ways these imaginaries facilitate or hinder the movement’s efforts to sustain solidarity. Based on fieldwork conducted between 2014 and 2019, the article analyses activists’ political imaginaries as sites of contestation structured through what Mbembe terms ‘entangled temporalities.’ It argues that the plurality of political imaginaries animating solidarity practices among BDS activists in Toronto significantly contributed to the attenuation and scattering of the movement relative to its unity and synchronicity a decade earlier. Specifically, the article identifies the continuum between an anti-colonial Third World Internationalist imaginary and a pragmatic rights-based imaginary as central to the trajectory of the movement.

Diderot and the ideal of paternalistic monarchy. An enlightenment struggle against moral decay and for political harmony

ABSTRACT Since the 1990s, there has been a growing tendency to interpret Diderot as a radical who first put into question absolutism in the Encyclopédie and then became a fierce opponent of any kind of ‘despotism’, even the ‘enlightened’ one, and a fervent partisan of democratic revolutions in the 1770s. It is argued here that the narrative that cuts Diderot’s life into different phases obscures continuities in his political thought, and misrepresents partly the political vision he had in the 1770s. Diderot’s political thought may have been more coherent than usually acknowledged, and this coherence is to be found in his ideal of a paternalistic monarchy taking advice from its subjects and respecting their rights, that is the constitution of the realm. This idea is not to be mixed up with a democratic programme of government by the people, nor with the endorsement of political change via a revolution. Rather, when towards the end of his life Diderot lost hope that the constitutional order of the French monarchy would be respected, he both feared civil war and hoped that these tumults might bring about the regeneration of the French monarchy. This vision derived from a classical cyclic view of history.

Back to Exile: Current Jewish Critiques of the Jewish State

This article reviews recent books by Jewish thinkers that critique the idea of a Jewish state from the perspective of Jewish exile. It outlines two main approaches. The first, secular approach, rejects the Jewish state in favor of a secular state, seeing Judaism itself as the problem, whether arising from biblical violence or collective identity. The second, post-secular approach, rejects the Jewish state as secular, and finds resources in Jewish tradition for an alternative political vision centered on exile, understood as resistance to sovereignty and violence. This article argues that Jewish opposition to the Jewish state aims to limit sovereignty, integrate Jews into the Middle East space, and recover an exilic Jewish tradition of social ethics and pluralism. The idea of exile thus provides resources for envisioning decolonization and coexistence in Israel–Palestine.

Postsocialism in International Relations: Method and critique

Abstract While postcolonial approaches to International Relations have offered new concepts, methods, and political imaginaries of global politics, postsocialism has been absent as an analytical and political approach. Postsocialism has been mainly a descriptive term naming the temporal transition of the Second World to liberal democracy and market economy or the geopolitical space of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Building on literature that has connected postsocialism and postcolonialism analytically and politically, particularly feminist work that has reclaimed postsocialism to understand the global legacies of socialism in the present, this article proposes to unpack dimensions of postsocialism as method and critique. Postsocialism as method attends to how socialist legacies endure and are transformed in the present while holding together contradictions and ambivalences. Postsocialism as critique is oriented to transversal solidarities and the epistemic vocabularies that can undergird these struggles. To trace these dimensions of method and critique, the article is situated empirically within debates about borders and migration. Postsocialism is not intended to replace or displace other critical approaches but to pluralise our vocabularies and multiply political interventions.

Pemikiran Politik Abdurrahman Wahid dan Pengaruhnya Terhadap Politik Partai Kebangkitan Bangsa

This research aims to answer the following problems: (1) Abdurrahman Wahid's political thought concept. (2) PKB Political Thought. (3) The influence of Abdurrahman Wahid's political thoughts on PKB political policies. The type of research is qualitative with a research approach, namely a sociological and political approach. The data collection methods used were observation, interviews, and documentation. Data processing and analysis techniques were carried out in three stages, namely: data reduction, data presentation and conclusions. The results of this research show the concept of Abdurrahman Wahid's thinking referring to the teachings of Indonesian Islamic values ??which are framed in Pancasila and the Constitution. Abdurrahman Wahid's thoughts became the PKB's political vision regarding the state, nationalism, pluralism, which can be seen through the PKB's policies in Jambi which refer to Abdurrahman Wahid's thoughts. The state is present to provide facilities to the community. Carrying out interfaith dialogue activities, sharing basic necessities in joint mourning activities as a reflection of a sense of nationalism and humanism. Assistance activities for the community to obtain religious freedom according to their beliefs as an attitude of pluralism. The implications of this research answer the need for an indication of Abdurrahman Wahid's thoughts in the Jambi PKB Party as an excellent concept of thought to implement for the progress of the nation and state. One example is the birth of study groups with the names Gemasaba, Lakumham and Garda Bangsa.

Analysis of the Strength of Looks of Female Politician Candidates "Case Study of the Last Election in Jambi Province"

This study aims to analyze the impact of the strength of appearance capital on voter perceptions and its contribution to the success of female political candidates in the Jambi Province General Election. Appearance capital includes physical appearance, attractiveness, and other visual elements. This research uses a qualitative method with a descriptive type with a purposive sampling technique. Data collection was carried out through field studies and literature studies. Informants in this research included Jambi female politicians, academics, political observers, and the Jambi community. Researchers took these informants because they were considered the best in providing the information needed. The findings show that, although appearance capital can influence initial perceptions, other factors such as background, experience and political vision still play a crucial role in determining a candidate's success. This research can contribute in the form of new insights regarding the understanding of women's political participation in Jambi Province.

The Myth of Vilnius and Its Revision in the Diaries of Vincas Mykolaitis-Putinas

One of the key figures of the Lithuanian-speaking intellectual elite, Vincas Mykolaitis-Putinas (1893–1967) formulated the programme of cultural nationalism, and he himself was inspired by the interwar political rhetoric. The “question of Vilnius”, which was instigated by the mobilised patriotic forces, was identified as crucial problem for the existance of the state. In his diaries of the 1938–1945, the writer and academician responded enthusiastically to the fulfilment of the political vision of the “eternal capital” in September of 1939. He cared for the reinforcement of ethnic Lithuanian cultural positions during the struggle of totalitarian regimes in 1940–1944. Some connotations of geopolitical imperialism can be seen in the diary, when the diarist insists on the urgent “re-Lithuanisation” of the public sphere. When in 1940 Mykolaitis-Putinas a well-acknowledged professor of literary studies, finally moved to the city, which has been so clearly visualised in the collective imagination for several decades, he familiarised himself extensively with the topography and cultural heritage of Vilnius. On the one hand, he never felt a stranger in the heterotopic territory; on the other hand, he seldom expressed tolerance towards the native inhabitants of the city. In the newly gained capital, Mykolaitis-Putinas tried to save the ethnocentric institutions of cultural memory (Institute of Lithuanian Studies, museums and archives preserving Lithuanian heritage). He supported the main Lithuanian-dominated cultural and educational institutions, such as the reformed Vilnius University, the Philharmonic, and the Academy of Sciences.

Historicised exploration and middle-range theoretisation of the housing regime in urban China

In comparative housing studies, the positioning of the Chinese housing regime is contested as to whether it converges to a (neo)liberal path or is a unique hybrid model. This paper argues that these disputes derive from the static and ethnocentric nature of welfare regime typologies and the inadequate political vision in explaining the housing regime in urban China. This study is dedicated to advancing the discussion with a historicised inquiry and a more holistic view of a balance of causes. The grounded theory methodology is adopted to avoid the omissions and biases of the priori knowledge. The materials analysed include 473 national policy documents, conference reports and official media reports in housing, economic, political and other related areas. We summarised three progressive stages of housing regime in the (quasi-)authoritarian and post-developing contexts, from 1) an underinvested social housing sector to reserve sufficient funds for industrialisation, 2) a real estate boom with a residualised social housing sector, to 3) enlarging social housing provision for productive groups under the overinvested and crisis-ridden real estate market. We attribute China’s housing system to the productivist feature with authoritarianism and the pursuit of nation-building and economic development in a post-developing state, with the underlying logic of capital switching.

LGBT Inclusion in American Life: Pop Culture, Political Imagination, and Civil Rights. By Susan Burgess. New York: New York University Press, 2023. 232p. $89.00 cloth, $28.00 paper.

LGBT Inclusion in American Life: Pop Culture, Political Imagination, and Civil Rights. By Susan Burgess. New York: New York University Press, 2023. 232p. $89.00 cloth, $28.00 paper.

Can You See Her? The Absent Presence of Black Female Subjectivity in Get Out (2017)

ABSTRACT This article investigates racial-sexual violence, and conceptualizations of Black female subjectivity as they are situated in the cinematic Black political imagination. Through a Black feminist analysis of Get Out (2017), the author argues that the film and its articulation of race in the post-Obama US fails to account for gender and sexuality by tangentially engaging Black women in its dissection of race and racism. The author contends that Black women are the absent presence in the film and utilizes theories of temporal, spatial, and material racial-sexual violence and the coupled subject invisibilities to dissect the (in)visible Black women in film.

Between visiting diary and political visions: recovering treasures from the Lazarus estate for the present

ABSTRACT Making accessible the estate of 19th-century German-Jewish intellectual Moritz (Moshe) Lazarus at the National Library of Israel benefits biographical research as well as studies in history, sociology, memory studies or philosophy. Documents like his visiting diaries demonstrate the reality of an intense German-Jewish social life not at all restricted to Jewish circles, even in a nationalist, Christian and authoritarian environment like Imperial Germany. This article discusses the possibilities and problems of digital editions and proposes four paths through the digital material now available, from the personal networks found in the diaries, to the political visions of the lectures and manuscripts.