Production Of Political Knowledge Research Articles

Political hegemony and the intellectual production in the world semi-periphery (Contribution to modern sociology of the school of Prof. Tomasz Zarycki)

In the conditions of military aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, the future of Ukrainian sociology largely depends on the ability to be included in the world processes of the development of science. The openness of the sociological community of Ukraine to prospective development trends in world sociology is necessary. The most favorable conditions for the emergence of stable dialogical relations exist in the relations between the Ukrainian and Polish sociological communities, which is due to the significant common past of our peoples, in many respects common problems and possible common perspectives. In modern Polish sociology, one of the most open to dialogue is the Warsaw sociological school of Prof. Tomasz Zarycki. Research of its participants, and first of all Prof. T. Zarycki, cover a wide range of problems: from changes in the social space of Poland to the peculiarities of the reformation of the ruling class and the production of political knowledge. A special feature of the school is the intense search for an adequate methodology for the study of modern society. This methodological search led to the synthesis of the ideas of Immanuel Wallerstein’s world-system analysis and Pierre Bourdieu’s field theory, which made it possible to cover the macro-, meso- and micro-levels of social life in a single perspective. The peculiarities of the transformation of the society of state socialism into the society of liberal capitalism in modern Poland are largely determined by the fact that the basis of the political class here was formed from representatives of the intelligentsia. This explains the insignificant weight of the bourgeoisie in the political life of the country, the absence of such a phenomenon as the oligarchy. At the same time, in global conditions, the Polish intelligentsia found itself in a difficult situation, because the country remained on the semi-periphery of the world capitalist system. This leads to the fact that the production of knowledge about society takes place in hierarchical relations, where the rules are set by the countries of the world center.

Spenser’s View and the Production of Political Knowledge in Elizabethan England

Abstract This article analyzes the View as an example of knowledge production, rather than plumbing it for representation or ideology as scholars have traditionally done. Tracing the process of construction, sources, and generic conventions that Spenser wielded not only illuminates some of the more curious elements of the View, but also reveals his practices and motivations for it. As this article suggests, such an approach reinforces the idea that Spenser designed the View as an appeal for the patronage and support of Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, by modeling specific forms of expertise and counsel characteristic of the Essex circle.

Independent experts with political mandates: ‘Role distance’ in the production of political knowledge

AbstractSome experts take on political mandates and simultaneously base their authority on a claim to independence: this balancing act enables international organisations (IOs) to incorporate ‘independent’ experts and generate ‘objective’ knowledge around their policies. However, how do these experts reconcile the contradictory roles of a mandated expert and an independent expert? I address this question by taking recourse to Goffman's sociology and two related concepts:sociological ambivalencerefers to situations in which a person faces conflicting expectations. This conflict can be remedied throughrole distance, that is, behaviour that signals a degree of disaffection from the role one is currently performing while one simultaneously continues to perform that role. I conduct a case study of ‘independent’ experts hired by the UN Security Council to monitor sanctions, analysing how their position is sociologically ambivalent and how their knowledge practices are interlaced with performances of role distance. The findings have two implications for macro-phenomena: first, by keeping their contradictory role constellation functional, experts make it possible for IOs to mobilise ‘independent expertise’. Second, because experts perform role distance through the way they produce knowledge, role distance leaves traces in political knowledge.

The Biopolitical Logics of Settler Colonialism and Disruptive Relationality

This essay argues that the biopolitical logics of settler colonialism function according to a naturalization in Western thought of politics as a project of hierarchically ordering life in relation to the sphere of politics. Significantly, such a mode of thinking discredits socio-political orders that operate on the basis of a non-hierarchical place-based relationality of all life forms including the land. Through a reading of Foucault and Agamben in their use of Aristotle, I want to show how hierarchy as a principle of the political is already implemented in the premise they draw upon for analyzing the biopolitical. In the same way it remains unrecognized in their analysis of biopolitics, this principle also becomes operative within settler colonial logics of life and land. Recently, however, Indigenous scholars and writers have mobilized relationality in its formative characteristic for Indigenous polities and politics as strategy to disrupt biopolitical logics and denaturalize settler colonial rule, which I want to show through engaging Daniel Heath Justice’s Indigenous fantasy trilogy The Way of Thorn and Thunder: The Kynship Chronicles as a site of disruptive relationality and political knowledge production.

To Whom It May Concern: Epistolary political philosophies and the production of racial counterpublic knowledge in the United States

This article explores the philosophical underpinnings and implications of the idea of the public in the US state processes of knowledge production and control. In it we take up questions of public and counterpublic political philosophical knowledge production and mediation in relation to an expanding state. Specifically, we examine the political philosophies of racialized counterpublics since the 1960s, considering the particular knowledge production genre of the political prison letter. We suggest that the philosophical principles of the dominant public in the US have a proclivity to merge with state mechanisms of domination and to thwart counterpublics and their modes of political knowledge production.

Confusion or Enlightenment?

Recent research has yielded inconsistent findings regarding the relationship between interpersonal discussion and media use in the production of political knowledge. This study seeks to better illuminate this relationship by introducing political disagreement as an additional moderator. Using nationally representative survey data collected during the 2000 primary campaign, the authors find a negative interaction between discussion frequency and disagreement in predicting knowledge of candidate issue positions. This suggests either that the benefits of frequent discussion are stronger for those whose discussion networks are composed of like-minded others or that disagreement facilitates learning only at low levels of discussion frequency. Results also demonstrate that frequent discussion enhances the relationship between debate viewing and issue knowledge among those who reside in politically homogenous networks. In diverse networks, however, the relationship between debate viewing and issue knowledge is weaker for those who regularly talk about politics than those who talk less. Political disagreement is unassociated with knowledge of candidates' personal backgrounds.