Power Relations In Society Research Articles

Особливості формування політичної свідомості.

The article analyzes the problems and peculiarities of political consciousness that arise in the process of transformation of society. The rapid changes that are taking place in all spheres of life in society lead to problems in the formation of citizens’ consciousness, including interests, value orientations. It is emphasized that the political consciousness is reflected in the feelings, attitudes, knowledge of the population and characterizes the peculiarities of political and power relations in society. The formation of the political consciousness of the individual is due to critical thinking, analysis of historical experience and contemporary events, awareness of the need for political participation in political processes. The political consciousness of the individual combines the formed value orientations, the ability of citizens to influence the functioning of the political system and attitude, the level of trust in the existing power. In the conditions of transformation of society the mechanisms of political consciousness formation are hidden, contradictory. It is noted that political consciousness promotes the integration of different social groups and individuals in society. Political consciousness is related to the particularities of the political system, the level of political culture of citizens, their knowledge and education. Political consciousness, while performing its functions, allows to guarantee a stable and legitimate functioning of the political system. Awareness of one’s position in society, an active civic position allows one to influence political power. The inability of the political elite to carry out reforms and overcome the crisis in society leads to changes in political consciousness and can cause sharp reactions from the society, which can manifest as dissatisfaction with the policies of the existing political authorities and active protest actions by the population.

ANARCHISM AND ECOTECHNOLOGY

The article addresses the issue of the role and purpose of technology in the modern discourse of eco-anarchism. The author examines the concepts of Murray Bookchin and John Zerzan in order to reactivate the need for understanding the technology regarding the current global environmental and social crises of the Anthropocene. The technology in eco-anarchism cannot be freed from the socio-ethical moment, therefore any questioning about technology is connected with understanding its relations with society and nature. Opposing Marxism, eco-anarchists see in technology not so much a way of exploitation of the environment by a man as an active embodiment of ecological symbiosis between society and nature. Such an interpretation of the technology allows us to rethink the essence of both the work activity of the person and the power relations in society.

POLITICAL PORTRAIT OF A UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR: SOME TENDENCIES IN THE GLOBALIZATION ERA

The article explores political and social characteristics of such a professional layer in higher education as university professoriate. Some changes in roles and political attitudes of a university professor are traced during the last decades of globalization in various types of states, Ukraine included. The author states that university professoriate constitutes the elite of higher educational establishments and exerts considerable impact not only onthe development of scientific knowledge and education but on power relations in society as well. By way of illustration, an imaginative simulated portrait of a professor with singling out the main characteristic features is provided. The articletraces the impact of introduction ofmarket relations onprofessorial activity at higher educational establishments and characterizes it on the basis of general tendencies of development at universities and in society.An imaginative simulated portrait of a professor with description of the main characteristics is suggested. The introduction of market relations into professorial activity at higher educational establishments is investigated and characterized on the basis of general tendencies of development at universities and in society. It is noted that the core of professor’s political portrait stems from political orientations and values which in their turn affect the formation of public opinion. The author points out that the main reasons of political preferences of professors are rooted in a character of a political regime, forms of government, existence or banning democratic rights and freedoms, changeability of ideologies in this or that country, etc. At the same time examples that illustrate different approaches of scholars to behaviorare referred.As they are a little studied, it is important for political scientists to pay attention to researchingpolitical attitudes of professoriate as this professional layer exerts great influence on young generation.

A commitment to the task at hand

ABSTRACT Leisure is experience of and with many meanings where the boundaries of inclusion, exclusion and citizenship are constantly negotiated on and off the field. In the Canadian context, an analysis of hockey and the decision to not play sport made by Punjabi-Canadian women reveals how the study of sport is intricately linked in the reproduction of power-relations in society. A commitment to think “outside the box” provides much needed and ongoing dialogue about alternative means of knowledge production that push back against normative ideas. The impetus to do so are situated in expanding notions of citizenship, justice and offering people-forward solutions to complex societal problems through the study of leisure.

The Making of the Good British Muslim

Abstract This article investigates the meaning and political implications of the poppy hijab, a headscarf sporting British World War Remembrance poppies and intended to give British Muslims a new way of showing their social integration in public. Based on fieldwork with Muslims in London, I argue, however, that instead of furthering Muslims’ equitable inclusion in British society, the poppy hijab rather represents a Foucauldian “technology of the self” for them to prove that they are “good British Muslims”. As such, it reflects the unequal relations of power in society and may foster rather than lower general suspicion towards Muslims in Britain.

The Strangers Within and Outside the Canadian Stage

This article reviews Barry Freeman’s 2017 book, Staging Strangers: Theatre and Global Ethics. With precision and intellect, Freeman layers multiple theoretical frameworks to examine Canadian theatre, predominantly focusing on performance in Toronto. Freeman fruitfully explores how the definition and production of who is a stranger on Canadian stages is contextually contingent and changes over time, as well as the ways in which it is a construct of complex power relations in society regarding nationalism, multiculturalism, and globalization. This book is a significant contribution to the study of theatre in Canada that combines complicated theories with practice and provides illustrative examples to explore the ways in which theatre can ethically encounter difference in an age of ‘liquid modernity.’

Pedagogi Kritis: Pemikiran Henry Giroux Tentang Pendidikan dan Relevansinya untuk Indonesia

This paper is a critique toward traditional pedagogy in education through a critical pedagogy perspective as formulated by Henry Giroux. Critical pedagogy is an attempt to question and to uncover the existing power relations in society which create various forms of subordination and social injustice. Critical pedagogy offers extended perspective as well as moral sensibility that encourage engagement in efforts of bringing social changes to produce freedom and justice in the society. According to Giroux, critical pedagogy provides various theoretical tools to examine neoliberalist mindset that spreads in various dimensions of human life. This writing furtjer seeks possibility to apply the concept of critical pedagogy in Indonesian context.

Producing the common goodPhilanthropic investment practices in 20th century Denmark

Since the beginning of the 1990’s, civil society has attracted both scholarly and political interest as the ‘third sphere’ outside the state and the market, strongly amplified by the sectorial conceptualization of state, market and civil society. In contrast, this article shows that civil society is and have never been a pre-existing location separated from state and market. Its boundaries are constantly produced through practices interweaving political, economic and moral components. This will be studied through an exemplary Danish historical case of the Egmont Foundation 1920-2014. The study shows how different and changing philanthropic investments practices took part in producing a distinction between state, market and civil society by demarcating categories of deserving and undeserving needy as part of the “common good” through changing donation practices and organisational forms. As a consequence, we can trace ongoing re-distributions of power relations in society over time. The developing of a post-sectorial concept of civil society is two-fold; First, by showing how political, economic and moral components are interlinked through the negotiation of the “common” and the “good”. Second, by showing how these interlinks and transgression constantly re-distribute power relations in society and in turn creates possibilities and limits for actions both in past, present and future.

On the news today: challenging homelessness through participatory action research

Purpose How can people with lived experience of homelessness actively participate in contesting their marginalisation? The purpose of this paper is to suggest that involving people who are homeless in participatory action research (PAR) is one such strategy. This paper shows that such an approach can have a significant impact on empowering people with direct of experience of homelessness to challenge prevailing social discourses, particularly in terms of the way in which the local media presents homelessness as a social issue. Design/methodology/approach A PAR approach informed the design, development and dissemination of the study on which this paper is based. Analytically, it is underpinned by Foucauldian discourse analysis (FDA). FDA, with its focus on power relations in society, is noted to be particularly useful for analysing local media representations of homeless people. Findings The research reported here found that academic practitioners and homeless people can work together to challenge media discourses, which serve to marginalise people affected by homelessness. Research limitations/implications The research reported here served to challenge some of the ways in homeless people are victimized and stigmatized. Practical implications The research reported here has the potential to inform future research concerned with understanding media presentations of homeless people. It can be seen as a model for how people affected by a particularly pernicious social issue can contribute to research in ways that go beyond researching for the sake of research. Originality/value The research reported here provides evidence of the emancipatory value of research that seeks to bring academic practitioners and homeless people together in a partnership to challenge vital social issues such as the power of the local media to frame understandings of homelessness.

Power, Property and Governmentality in South China: The Case of the Wen (Man) Clan in Hong Kong and Shenzhen

Based on fieldwork in Shenzhen and Hong Kong, we approach the case of the Wen Clan in contemporary China in terms of the interaction between formal institutions of government and informal institutions of kinship and village. This reveals the multi-facetted nature of property rights on land, which do not only enable and regulate economic action, but also structure power relations in society and vis a vis the state. In this context, we build on recent research on the role of colonialism in creating ‘Chinese tradition’ in the New Territories, and establish similarities with the extension of state power in Mainland local society. We argue that property relations are an essential aspect of governmentality, and are embedded into broader cultural phenomena, especially religion. Thus, the resurgence of lineages in Guangdong cannot be interpreted simplistically as revival of tradition, but is a distinct phenomenon in the evolution of the modern Chinese nation state.

Ezekiel’s Exagoge and the Politics of Hellenistic Theatre

The debate over the Jewish, Greek, or mixed social settings of Ezekiel’s Exagoge often focuses on whether the play was intended for performance in a Greek theatre. Consequently, much scholarship has attempted to define the play’s import to a reconstructed audience. This effort, while fruitful, has distracted scholars from the ways that this tragedy resonated with the broader parameters and ramifications of theatre culture in its particular social context. Our paper redirects the discussion by parsing the ways that the Exagoge engages with the theatre culture of Ptolemaic Alexandria. Literary and epigraphic evidence reveals that Hellenistic performance culture, no less than its Classical forebears, was markedly political. Festivals, including the penteteric Ptolemaieia in Alexandria, were an important means for communicating the ideology of the Hellenistic royal dynasties. Drawing on Catherine Bell’s understanding of “redemptive hegemony” as the way that human practices simultaneously convey an understanding of power relations in society and a vision for strategic empowerment, we interrogate the ways that the Exagoge both affirms and critiques Ptolemaic politics by invoking the same performative setting usually exploited as a means of royal acclamation.

Demystifying Native Speaker Ideology : The Critical Role of Critical Practice in Language Teacher Education

This case study demonstrates how the identity of a Korean nonnative English-speaking teacher (NNEST) was continuously negotiated and resituated according to how she positioned herself and how she perceived others positioned her in educational and social contexts. To explore her fluid and multiple identities as a nonnative English speaker (NNES) in English education, data sources included initial and follow-up individual interviews, group conversations, and artifacts (e.g., drawings and reflective memos). Analysis focuses on how a NNES’s self-image as an English language teacher can be transformed by participation in critical practices. This study reveals that critical practices can help demystify the ideology of native speakerism and concludes that language teacher education programs should provide NNESTs with frequent and consistent opportunities to raise their critical awareness of how language and ideology are structured by social and political practices and how those practices are (re)produced by power relations in society.

¿Para quién y para qué son buenas las buenas prácticas? Unión Europea, integración de (in)migrantes y despolitización/tecnificación de las políticas hegemónicas: un estudio de caso

Between the end of 90s and the beginning of the new century, a political framework at European Union level has been established. This framework fosters the achievement of a common understanding of migrant integration and promotes mechanisms of coordination, funding, information exchange and “best practices” through the affected institutional levels, by means of soft law. In this paper I will analyse and discuss some of the most important consequences derived from the most important actors' understanding of “integration”. I will use the case of “best practices” as an example, since they are considered as a fundamental tool within EU multi-level governance mechanisms. I will show that in the EU context, the very notion of integration has been constructed through an exercise of (apparent) depoliticization and technification, whose results are contradictory -since the political element often “returns” and manifests itself “at the bottom”, “at the border” and “within” the technical element- and at the same time effective -since this exercise has been able to foster and shape certain ways of knowing, speaking and acting on migrant integration, naturalizing unequal power relations in society itself- . This paper is based on the empirical materials proceeding from the fieldwork done in Brussels between 2011 and 2012. It is made up of interviews done to the most important social and political actors within the EU integration framework, observations of various meetings and the reading of numerous sources.

Autopsie von Revolution und Restauration: Georg Büchner und die politische Imagination by Patrick Fortmann

Patrick Fortmann. Autopsie von Revolution und Restauration: Georg Buchner und die politische Imagination. Berlin: Rombach, 2013. 354 pp.The extensive bibliography of contemporary Buchner research provided by the author of this volume leads the reader to ask: what more is there to say about Buchner, given the scholarly attention already devoted to the relatively small number of literary works produced before the poet's untimely death in 1837? Fortmann's Autopsie suggests that there is quite a bit, if one subjects the texts to a detailed theoretical analysis. The book is an expanded version of a chapter from his Harvard dissertation, informed by his reading of the French theorist Jacques Ranciere, and focuses on the distinction between Politik and dem Politischen. The former term is closely tied to the notion of Polizei, the representatives of the established order and regulators of power relationships in society; das Politische, on the other hand, stands as an implicit challenge to these relationships, revealing inner conflicts and posing challenges to the established order. Fortmann is interested in the role played by Asthetik or Sinnlichkeit in the mediation, reshaping, or criticism of Politik, and Buchner's works serve as an ideal instance of how these relationships functioned in the period between the end of the French Revolution and the late 1830s.Fortmann's book focuses primarily on three of Buchner's texts: Der hessische Landbote, Dantons Tod, and Leonce und Lena. Beginning with a brief summary of his theoretical approach, in the second chapter the author provides a historical and literary background. His detailed analysis of each of these texts in subsequent chapters traces Buchner's efforts to portray the tensions and contradictions underlying the seemingly stable political/social order, tensions that point via the aesthetic imagination to alternative or future political realities. In Buchner's literary imagination, Politik ceases to be limited to mere governance, whether by the despots of the reactionary restoration or by the icons of the revolution; it takes on a theatrical function that can undermine or redefine contemporary politics. Das Politische is thereby unchained and allowed to function within Politik. Fortmann muses on the guillotine as both a positive and a negative mechanism of transformation, as well as on the continual reconceptualizations of the republic and the possibilities for its stabilization and perpetuation. He concludes with reflections on the political functions of literature and the effectiveness of the aesthetic mobilization attempted by Buchner. …

Accounting in organizational change: a practice theory approach

The aim of this project is to gain a better understanding of the role of accounting practices within complex processes of organizational change. In the last couple of decades accounting scholars have shown an increasing interest in studying how practices of calculation of various types are involved in the transformation of organizational structures and identities. Accordingly, several studies on accounting have adopted interpretive approaches and focused on the role of institutional and social context in which accounting practices evolve. These studies have mainly investigated cases of accounting change, such as the introduction of new ERP systems (Quattrone and Hopper, 2005), the adoption of ABC techniques (Soin et al., 2002) and of performance management systems (Masquefa et al., 2016). Despite the interesting insights that these studies provide, showing how accounting systems are shaped by the context, there is still a lack of understanding of the interdependence between accounting and organization. In fact, if on one hand accounting is shaped by the context, on the other hand the context itself is object of changes which are planned on the basis of the information provided by the accounting system, that the context contributes to shape. For this reason, this study aims at investigate further this interrelationship by analyzing it in a context of radical organizational change. The specific questions this study will address are: How do accounting practices change to meet the need for organizational change? Who has the power to decide what the new accounting knowledge should contain, and how it should be fabricated? Who interprets accounting knowledge and what uses they make in the decision making process for organizational change? How the changing organization influences the new accounting system and approach? How does resistance to organizational change assess accounting knowledge? How does the new accounting knowledge contribute to transform the picture of organizational reality and thus to support the discourse of organizational change? This research is designed as an interpretive study based on an intensive fieldwork, where accounting practices are analysed in the context in which they operate and evolve. The organizational context that provides the basis for such study is a fashion company which is involved in a profound transformation process. The field, thus, offers an interesting case for the analysis of the dynamics and the interrelationship between accounting and organization in a changing environment. The theoretical framework draws on Bourdieu’s works, in particular around the notion of ‘habitus’—which constitutes the basis of his practice theory—, ‘field’ and ‘capital’, as well as from the works of other scholars who applied practice theory in management studies, in particular in the field of strategy (Whittington, 2006). According to Malsch, Gendron and Grazzini (2011), who reviewed the influence of Bourdieu’s work in accounting research, the majority of the Bourdieusian studies in accounting do not mobilize his core concepts of field, capital and habitus holistically. In particular, they say, the concept of habitus is infrequently used in examining micro processes ensuing from the creation and reproduction of power relations in society. This project will thus bring an innovative translation of Bourdieu’s theoretical framework in accounting research, with a particular emphasis on the concept of ‘accounting as practice’. The results of this research will be grounded on a consistent amount of data from different source (participant and non-participant observations, interviews, corporate documents), respecting the principle of triangulation. The analysis of the data is made through coding and analyzing the connections between categories. Works of this kind in management studies are well established, but rarely done given the difficulties in finding an adequate access to an organization and given the high time-consuming activities in which a researcher must be involved. This kind of research will thus provide to the academic environment a unique and innovative contribution.

Labour-burdened women utilising their marginalised indigenous knowledge in food production processes: The case of Khambashe rural households, Eastern Cape, South Africa

ABSTRACTThis article will discuss the intra-household labour allocations and how they impact on intra-household dynamics and the welfare of households. It builds upon fieldwork conducted in Khambashe rural households in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. Questionnaires and in-depth interviews were utilised and data was analysed through thematic analysis and the Statistical Package of Social Sciences (SPSS). The findings indicated that the different roles played by men and women in the application of indigenous knowledge (IK) in food production processes reflect the power relations in societies. Women face the burden of ensuring that households are food secure and in so doing perform most of the tasks. They carry out essential tasks in food production processes which include planting, hoeing, weeding and harvesting using local tools and with little assistance from men. Women’s role in food security and as stewards of indigenous knowledge should be acknowledged and augmented by equitable labour and resource allocations. More emphasis should be placed on redressing the subjugatory gender relations which marginalise and deter the full potential of women and the IK they possess to inform sustainable rural development.

Internet Public Spheres, Civil Society Organisations and the State in the Zimbabwean Crisis: A Case Study of Kubatana.net’s e-newsletters

ABSTRACTThis article focuses on the use of e-newsletters to disseminate information and provide a platform for individual bloggers, NGOs, political parties and activists during the Zimbabwean crisis, using the online activist NGO Kubatana.net’s 2010 e-newsletters as an example. The article concludes that the e-newsletters were important for disseminating information, providing spaces for alternative views and facilitating dialogue between various social groups in civil society, many of whom were not fairly represented on mainstream media platforms. The voices in the e-newsletter also sought to challenge official narratives and accounts which dominated state-controlled spaces. The majority of contributors exhibited what could be viewed as pro-Western and pro-opposition sentiments on Zimbabwe. The argument made here is that the e-newsletters suggest a more expanded and differentiated public sphere with the potential to alter state–civil society power relations. It is nonetheless possible to observe that in a country with a glaring digital divide, the e-newsletters have the potential to further disempower disadvantaged groups, who may not have access to online platforms.

A Study of Institutions in Dickens’s <i>Bleak House</i> as a Representation of Foucault’s Disciplinary Society

This study employs Foucault's views on the strategies of power to analyze that the institutional world of Bleak House makes a disciplinary structure. The intrusion of these institutions in all strata of society in the novel, from the aristocratic Dedlocks to the poor area of Tom-All-Alone shapes a panoptic structure in which everyone is visible through a permanent and omniscient gaze. Under the matrix of various institutions almost all the characters in the novel, directly or indirectly, are trapped and engaged. This study shows the modernity of Dickens views on power relations in society and gives readers new maps to read Bleak House and new perspectives from which to view it.

Stigma, Social Structure, and the Biomedical Framework: Exploring the Stigma Experiences of Inpatient Service Users in Two Belgian Psychiatric Hospitals.

The study discusses the stigma experiences of service users in mental health care, within the debate on the role of the biomedical framework for mental health care and power relations in society. Interview data of inpatient users ( n = 42) and care providers ( n = 43) from two Belgian psychiatric hospitals were analyzed using a constructivist grounded theory approach: Findings offer insight into how stigma experiences are affected by social structure. Stigma seemed to be related to the relation between care providers and service users their social position. The concept "mental health literacy" is used to frame this finding. In paying attention to the specific cultural and normative context, which influences the relationship between mental health literacy and stigma, it is further possible to cast some light on the meaning of the biomedical model for the construction and maintenance of power relations in mental health care and broader society.

Mapping the Gendered Contexts of the ‘Glocal’ Nation: A Critical Rereading of Alka Saraogi’s Kali-katha: Via Bypass

The announcement of the new economic policy in 1991 pushed India into hitherto unchartered domains of liberalisation, globalisation and privatisation. Many literary writings by Indian women published in the 1990s and 2000s reflect the rupture of Nehruvian model of development as India entered and settled itself in the brave new world of globalisation. Reading Alka Saraogi’s Kali-katha: Via Bypass (1998), this article attempts to explore how women writers in the post-1991 era negotiated the category of nation and its concomitant identity politics when it was impinged on by the looming spectre of liberalisation and globalisation. When we place women’s writing at the interstices of gender, caste and class inequalities alongside the syndicated structures of nation and globalisation, we find how deeply it engages with the fundamental asymmetry of power relations in society. Kali-katha: Via Bypass attempts to trace the kind of changes that have been taking place since the onset of the 1990s, proposing a rethinking of the very terms in which the woman’s question has been framed in the post-independence years. Thereby, this text calls for revising the way we have been constructing our knowledge of the nation, especially its gendered contexts. Such an epistemological revision, however, would not preclude looking at the past, suggests the text.