Problematic Alliance Research Articles

The problematic alliance. On the question of England's foreign policy towards Sweden in the era of two wars: for the “Spanish Succession” and the “Great Northern War”

The problematic alliance. On the question of England's foreign policy towards Sweden in the era of two wars: for the “Spanish Succession” and the “Great Northern War”

Zur Funktion des Demokratiebegriffs im Werk von Slavoj Žižek

The question of democracy is not directly at the center of Slavoj Žižek's political thought. While Žižek never elaborates an affirmative theory of democracy, his work contains critical analyses of different ideas of democracy that aim at keeping open the possibility of a conception of Marxist-Leninist politics that cannot be reduced to notions of political agonism organized in a formal, liberal democratic, radical democratic or popular mode. Although Žižek's respective critiques of different notions of democracy can unearth some of their problematic alliances with the logic of capital and with certain forms of (multiculturalist) racism, this paper also points to some of the shortcomings of Žižek's engagement with Ernesto Laclau's conception of populism as a model of antagonistic politics.

Student voice in pedagogical decision-making: nexus of transformation and problematic alliance

Within middle schooling philosophy student voice is identified as a way to engage young adolescent students with learning and feelings of belonging at school. Teachers are encouraged to co-construct responsive pedagogy and curriculum with their students. However, locating student voice in classrooms, governed as these are by entrenched student and teacher roles, renders student influence problematic. This article illustrates through discourse analysis the discursive intricacies one middle grades class encountered when the students and teacher interacted as pedagogical partners within collaborative action research to revitalise reflection pedagogy in their class program. The interplay between authoritative and dialogic discourses that emerged in the project, contextualised through the analysis of classroom talk, examines the micropolitics at play within the student/teacher partnership. The article illustrates student voice work as simultaneously a nexus for transformation and a problematic alliance when students and teachers work together as partners to co-produce pedagogy and curriculum.

Research as a military mascot: Political ethnography and counterinsurgency in southern Thailand

The term ‘political ethnography’ has been used to describe a recent trend whereby political scientists, including scholars of security studies and international relations, increasingly deploy fieldwork to explore a variety of political arenas. This article challenges a one-dimensional understanding of political ethnography that sidelines the politics activated in an ethnographic research process and instead calls for political ethnographers to self-reflectively analyse their own positionality in terms of imperial complicity. It discusses experiences of researching counterinsurgency practices in southern Thailand and outlines different dimensions through which counterinsurgents positioned the author as a ‘military mascot’. These include assumptions about the Western and Christian identity of the researcher as well as ideas about the author’s ability to produce objective ‘facts’ in reporting a presumably peaceful military mission. The article concludes by reflecting on the problematic alliance between political science and imperial military projects of counterinsurgency, arguing that the lack of discussion about this affinity constitutes one of the conditions that facilitate the ‘mascotting’ of political ethnographers with military interlocutors.

The First Nutcracker, the Enchantment of International Relations, and the Franco-Russian Alliance

Despite the lively scholarly debate on the place of The Sleeping Beauty (1890) in the political and cultural history of the Franco-Russian alliance in the 1890s, the representation of international relations in the first production of The Nutcracker (1892) has so far received little attention. This representation includes the well-known series of character dances in the second act of the ballet, but also the use of French fashion from the revolutionary era to costume the party guests, the mechanical dolls, the toy soldiers, and even Prince Nutcracker. The fairy-tale world offered a frame that not only promoted the absolutist aspirations of Alexander III's regime, but also solved the symbolic challenge of a problematic alliance between republican France and tsarist Russia. The same visual repertoire informed diplomatic life: four years after The Nutcracker, in 1896, the décor for the state visit of Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna in France duplicated that of the fairy-tale world on stage.

How do therapists ally with adolescents in family therapy? An examination of relational control communication in early sessions.

Sequential analyses examined associations between the working alliance and therapist-adolescent communication patterns in 10 Spanish cases of brief conjoint family therapy. Early sessions with strong versus problematic alliances, rated by observers, were selected for coding of relational control communication patterns. No differences were found in the frequency of exchanges, but competitive responding by the therapists (reflecting an interpersonal struggle for control) was significantly more likely in problematic alliance sessions than in strong alliance sessions. Cases in which the adolescent's alliance with the therapist remained positive from Session 1 as compared with Session 3 showed a decrease in the likelihood of competitive symmetry. Notably, when the quality of the alliance deteriorated over time, the therapists were increasingly more likely to respond to the adolescents' domineering messages in a competitive manner. Results underscore the need to avoid competitive responding in order to ally with adolescents in conjoint family treatment.

The Poetics of Alliance in Vergil’s Aeneid

The following paper argues that the series of desecrated altars that are found in the Aeneid reflects prior moments of ruptured alliances that have taken place in the epic cycle and Roman history more generally. Vergil has constructed these ruptured alliances along a number of parallel lines that focus on the various means by which the poem constructs ethnic and spatial unification. From the perspective of ethnic amalgamation the infectum foedus of Aeneid 12 raises a number of problems concerning the foundation of Rome and the nature of Roman alliance through time. This problematic alliance that ends the poem, however, moves against the theme of East-West unification in which a central feature of Aeneas’ actions is the reunification of Europe, Asia and Africa through a new system of alliance.

Exploring Triangulation in Infancy: Two Contrasted Cases

Two contrasted father-mother-infant interactions are observed longitudinally during trilogue play. They illustrate the contribution of recent research to the exploration of triangulation in infancy: namely, the infant's capacity to handle triangular interactions and share her affects with her two parents, and the way that this capacity is recruited in functional versus problematic alliances. It is likely that an infant under stress when interacting with one parent will protest at that parent and also at the other. Such is the case when, for example, the father acts intrusively while playing with his baby. The infant is then driven to avert and turns to the mother. The regulation of this dyadic intrusion-avoidance pattern at family level depends on the family alliance. When coparenting is supportive, the mother validates the infant's bid for help without interfering with the father. Thus, the problematic pattern is contained in the dyad, and the infant's triangular capacities remain in the service of her own developmental goals. But when coparenting is hostile-competitive, the mother ignores the infant's bid or engages with her in a way that interferes with her play with her father. In this case, the infant's triangular capacities are used to relieve the tension between the parents. The importance of tracing family process back to infancy for family therapy is discussed.

The Spanish at Trafalgar: Ships, cannons, men and a problematic alliance

(2005). The Spanish at Trafalgar: Ships, cannons, men and a problematic alliance. Journal for Maritime Research: Vol. 7, No. 1, pp. 26-43.

Non‐verbal behavioural patterns in trilogue play transitions and family alliances

This case study focuses on non‐verbal behaviour in father–mother–infant triads. Analyses were done on transitional moments during which the partners exchanged an active role for a participant–observer role, or vice versa. Transitions are known to be crucial moments for revealing familial transactional mechanisms. Our sample was comprised of six non‐clinical families, characterized by different types of functional or problematic alliances (which is the degree of coordination between the partners). Our methodology included micro‐analysis of body and gaze formations, facial expressions, and so on. Data were analysed using the research package ‘THEME’ for the detection of hidden patterns. Different types of non‐verbal patterns were found, which may be prototypes corresponding to the different types of alliance. The patterns of the families with high alliances had a more elaborate construction and were more efficient for the concluding of transitions than the patterns of families with low alliances, which were either elementary or laborious.

Variations in fathers’ discourse on fatherhood and in family alliances during infancy

The aim of this pilot study is to analyse the discourse of fathers of toddlers concerning fatherhood and the link between some particularities in the discourse and family alliance. The sample consists of 13 Swiss first time fathers (5 fathers of girls and 8 of boys). In order to evaluate the paternal discourse, the fathers were given a semistructured interview, which was later analysed using the research package Alceste. The family alliance, i.e., the degree of coordination among the partners when executing a task together, was assessed through the Lausanne Trilogue Play (Fivaz-Depeursinge & Corboz-Warnery, 1999). The main results indicated an interesting link between classes of paternal discourse grouped around the following themes “affective relationship”, “daily routine” and “educational goals”, and the family alliance (defined in two major categories; functional and problematic alliances). Finally, clinical perspectives on links between paternal representations and family functioning at an interactive level are discussed.

Nonprofit Organizations and Democratic Accountability in Implementing Supervised Pretrial Release Programs

This article explores some of the implications of the use of private organizations to deliver supervised pretrial release services in England and the United States. The impact of the use of private organizations depends both on the division of responsibility between the state agencies and the nonprofit organizations and on the policies of the particular nonprofit involved in a specific case. The most potentially problematic alliances occur when the private organization has responsibility for both provision and production of services, but some programs that utilize this division of labor are among the most innovative, helping to maintain a system that returns as many pretrial defendants to the community as can be accomplished without compromising safety. Case studies of programs developed by the Vera Institute in the United States and the Rainer Foundation in England are examined.