Responsibility Of Intellectuals Research Articles

‘Trauma work’ as hindrance to political praxis during democratisation movements

This paper examines the impact of a shift in focus from political praxis to trauma work in the context of a failed democratisation movement. It investigates the various phenomena which emerge when intellectuals, under the traumatic impact of violence and atrocities, place trauma narration at the core of their interventions. Drawing on document analysis, participant observation and semi-structured interviews with twenty nine exiled Syrian intellectuals in Paris and Berlin who had participated in the revolutionary movement of 2011, the paper suggests that an inversion of the normative power structures pertaining to how intellectuals relate to their publics occurs when they adopt, under conditions of extreme violence and trauma, what we call a radically embedded positionality vis-à-vis ‘the people’. This results in the dismantling of previous figurations of the ‘militant intellectual’ along with praxis-focused notions of the ‘responsibility of intellectuals’, ultimately undermining their ideational influence upon domestic publics and weakening their political impact and critical role within a revolutionary movement.

Teaching & Learning Guide for: Jürgen Habermas and the Public Intellectual in Modern Democratic Life

Teaching & Learning Guide for: Jürgen Habermas and the Public Intellectual in Modern Democratic Life

The Responsibility of Intellectuals to Explain the Historical Background to International Conflicts: Ukraine and Israel/Palestine

The Responsibility of Intellectuals to Explain the Historical Background to International Conflicts: Ukraine and Israel/Palestine

Yitik Cennet: Ütopya mı Gerçek mi? Düşüşten Dirilişe Sezai Karakoç’ta Medeniyet Meselesi

Bu çalışma Sezai Karakoç’un Yitik Cennet adlı eserinden hareketle ortaya koymaya çalıştığı medeniyet tasavvurunu imkân ve sınırları ile soruşturmayı amaçlamaktadır. Karakoç, kriz içerisinde olduğunu düşündüğü medeniyetin yeniden inşa ve idamesini İslam/hakikat ile hayat arasında aydınların sorumluluğunda kurulacak yeni bir irtibatın tesisinde arar. Ona göre, ruhi, sosyal, politik, ekonomik, kültürel, estetik yönleriyle somut İslam ülküsünü yeniden hayata geçirecek olan aydınlar hayata, realiteye ve tarih şuuruna yabancılaşmayacaklardır. Bu anlamda İslam medeniyetinin durumlanışını ya da tavrını üç ana eksene oturtur: Birincisi, teorik temeli belirleyen metafizik perspektif; ikincisi, bu perspektife bağlı bir realizm olarak dünya ve doğa görüşü; üçüncüsü ise ilahi olana teslimiyet. Karakoç’un bu tezinin tecessüm edeceği habitat, devlettir. Devlet her şeyden önce bir ülkü bir ideal ve erdem devletidir. Karakoç bu ideal devletin siyasal formasyonunu Aristoteles ve Farabi’de olduğu gibi belirli erdemlere dayalı site devleti şeklinde düşünür. Karakoç’un teklifi insanın metafiziksel amaçlarına ulaşmayı içeren ahlaki sağduyuya bağlı bir yaşam tarzı ile etiketlenir. Böylece akıl ile duyarlılık arasında denge kurulacak; bu uyum ile inanca ve ahlaka da yer açılarak yeniden doğuşun imkânı bulunabilecektir. Kaynağı ve işlevi bakımından çağdaş medeniyet teorilerinden farklılık gösteren bu medeniyetin yol haritası Kur’an-ı Kerim kıssaları ile oluşturulurken kurucuları da peygamberlerdir. İnsanlık için üretilen yeni bir örgütlenme modeli olan diriliş, herhangi bir görüşün antitezi ya da sentezi olmayıp, hiçleşmeye giden yönelimi yeniden varoluşa devşiren üçüncü bir yoldur. Söz konusu bu yol üç perspektifli bir yönelim üzerine kurulur: Birincisi, insanın Allah’a bakışı; ikincisi, insanın kendine bakışı; üçüncüsü, insanın eşyaya bakışı. Karakoç’a göre diriliş eri bu üçlü kombinasyon içerisinde daha önce kuramadığı uyum ve dengeyi diriliş ruhu çerçevesinde kurabilme imkanına kavuşur. Diriliş medeniyetinin referans değeri ise sevgidir. Karakoç’un düşüncesinde tıpkı Yunus Emre ve Mevlana’da olduğu gibi şeytanı yenen metafizik güç olan sevgi temel değerdir. Karakoç’un Varlık görüşünün sonucu olarak okunabilecek bu varoluş yolu özne (diriliş eri) için kendi oluş yolculuğunda varlığı/nı kat ederken yönünü öncelikle özüne çevirerek ideal olanın kavram yerine mefhum ile karşılanmasını gösteren bir “olma” durumuna gönderme yapar. Karakoç’un yeni bir öznellik girişimi olarak medeniyeti inşa edecek ve özneye ontolojik güvenini inançlar üzerinden sağlayacak ufuk açıcı teklifi son derece önemli olmakla birlikte deneyim alanında karşılaşılacak sorunlarla ilgili hususlarda muğlak kalmaktadır.

‘Black Intellectuals in the Age of Crack’: Organic Responsibility, the Race-Class-Gender Nexus, and Action Paralysis in the Boston Review Roundtables, 1992–1993

ABSTRACT The existing research on the role of intellectuals in alleviating suffering has overlooked contributions by prominent Black intellectuals from the United States in the early 1990s. Two roundtable debates co-organised under the auspices of the Boston Review at Harvard and MIT in 1992 and 1993 in response to Eugene Rivers’ essay “On the Responsibility of Intellectuals in the Age of Crack” were central to these contributions, counting a star-studded line-up of Black intellectuals including bell hooks, Cornel West, and Glenn Loury. Participants explore the role of Black intellectuals in the US, debating what they can and should do to combat oppression and domination. In this article, I recover the context of the debates, reconstruct their arguments, and make a case for their major historical and political significance. I comparatively interpret the two roundtables, identifying three major points of convergence. First, participants begin from a Gramscian conception of organic intellectuals, developing this further to defend the need for collective intellectual praxis. Second, the race-class-gender nexus plays a central role in structuring the very possibility of intellectuals affecting social change. Third, these intellectuals subscribe to a significantly pessimistic action paralysis, indicative of the relative powerlessness of intellectual debate in addressing structural oppression.

SIKAP KRITIS TERHADAP KUALITAS PENDIDIKAN AGAMA HINDU DI TENGAH KONDISI UMAT YANG MENCEMASKAN

The quality of Hindu religious education that has existed since ancient times and has developed until now, of course, must receive greater attention. This is important as an effort to address various religious issues. In the midst of the condition of Hindus who are currently in an anxious position due to a lack of basic understanding of their religious teachings, of course it is a shared responsibility, especially the responsibility of Hindu intellectuals who play an important role in conveying religious teachings contained in the sacred Vedic literature. Various types of improvements are needed in the Hindu education system so that the objectives of the Hindu education system can be achieved. Another thing that is also needed is mutual awareness to maintain Hinduism so that it is able to have better quality and can have a strong belief in the teachings they have.

Eugene Rivers and the responsibility of intellectuals

Eugene Rivers and the responsibility of intellectuals

Intellectuals Power and Responsibility in Obi Egbuna’s the Madness of Didi

This paper questions the role and responsibility of African intellectuals in their communities as depicted by Obi Egbuna in The Madness of Didi. Although set in the 1980’s, the novel is dealing with a reality that is still relevant to contemporary Africa. The legitimate questions among many others are: should African intellectuals cross their hands and watch, as mere spectators, the socio-political life unfolds in their communities? Do they have a part to play in the advocacy of issues of their times? Do they have the power to make things happen or to change the course of things? The present article tries to answer these interrogations.

The responsibility of linguists in combatting manipulation of public opinion via the Internet

Este artigo busca inspiração no ensaio de Chomsky (1967) sobre a responsabilidade dos intelectuais nas guerras imperialistas dos EUA para conclamar os linguistas a denunciar o uso das tecnologias de fala e linguagem nos mecanismos de controle da opinião pública do capitalismo atual. Para tanto, analisa a expansão e popularização dessa tecnologia como passo decisivo na consolidação do capitalismo digital do século XXI. Aponta, ainda, a sua mercantilização como fonte de mudanças no mercado de trabalho global conducentes à precarização em todos os campos, inclusive a ciência. Expõe, por fim, a exploração da mão de obra científica precarizada pelas gigantes da tecnologia digital como um dos principais meios da captura de dados pessoais via internet – um negócio ainda à espera de regulamentação.

In The Search of Lost Albertina: the University of Königsbergin Contemporary Historiography

The article explores contemporary historiography of the history of Königsberg University (Albertina), which had existed in East Prussia since 1544 until 1944. Over the course of four centuries there was an official narrative on the history of the university as a stronghold of German culture in the east of the country.
 After World War II the university history was mainly investigated by German historians, but after the end of the Cold War the interest in this topic increased not only in Germany, but also in other countries. The researchers are primarily focused on
 two periods – the early modern one (mid-16th – 17th centuries) and the end of the 19th – the first half of the 20th century. A considerable number of topics on the history of Königsberg University, which earlier were taboo or ignored for other reasons, have become a subject of academic interest in recent decades. Discussions arose about the degree of responsibility of university intellectuals for the Nazis’ crimes. New biographies of historians such as Hans Rothfels or Werner Conze force a reader to form a more realistic image of Albertina in the 1930s. The material ofthe university history makes it possible to reconsider the
 contradictory relations between the German state and Jewish communities as well as to expand understanding of the circumstances of the Jews’ persecution at the beginning of the National Socialistera. The analysis of contemporary historiography shows that, with all its achievements, it retains some stereotypes dating back to the traditional narrative, primarily a lack of attention to the role of women in the university history and the importance of the university as an institution strengtheninga gender order. The paper introduces a number of examples of women scholars that are not fully represented in the history of the university (Frieda Fromm-Reichmann, Sophie Brutzer, Elise Jenny Baumgartel). Moreover, the article gives a brief description of Russian historiography. Taking into account the development trends of contemporary historiography, the author considers the prospects of the research devoted to Königsberg University history.

Neo-liberalism and the Declining Reading Culture at African Universities: Reflections on Social Responsibility of Intellectuals

In the 1960s and 1970s there were lively and fervent intellectual debates and discussions at the University of Dares-Salaam, Tanzania. The debate revolved around how Africa could extricate itself from the barbaric capitalist socioeconomic system. It was pioneered by the radical wing of the University students who, partly, sought to transform the erstwhile colonial education system whose purpose was mental enslavement into the socialist education for liberation of mankind. Today, not only that such a debate has fizzled out, but more importantly, the paucity of the culture of reading has characterised the entire educational system inTanzania. The purpose of this article is to highlight the social factors responsible for this state of affairs. It is claimed thatthe onslaught of the neoliberal policies pursued by monopoly capital through its financial institutions, namely the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, and in collaboration with the compradorial ruling classes in African countries, have been the principal forces responsible for the process of undermining the education system in Africa in general, and Tanzania and Nigeria in particular. In Tanzania today, for example, in contrast to the aims and ethos of the Arusha Declaration and the policy of Education for Selfreliance, the education system is for preparing candidates for the labour market, and hence, for subordination, exploitation, and the generation of mental confusion. The paper ends up by one, calling upon the left intellectuals in Africa to do a“rethinking” of the said issue, and two, by suggesting a tentative programme for reviving the culture of reading in Africa.

III. After the War: The Responsibility and Competence of Academics

Twenty-five years after the end of the war, the political and social scene of Bosnia and Herzegovina is still characterized by the mentality of the 1990s. In recent months, we have witnessed political rhetoric that is very much reminiscent of the time before, at the beginning, and during the war. In the first part of this essay, I will try to present some of the reasons for this situation. In the second part, I will point out the responsibility of intellectuals for such a condition. In this concluding section, I will discuss how we have used our academic resources in an attempt to change the situation and strengthen social responsibility.

“Why war”? The Prevention of War and the Responsibility of Intellectuals

The article is devoted to the consideration of the 1932 correspondence of Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud, known in the intellectual world, on the prevention of war. For ideological reasons, correspondence was not published in the USSR and was not officially known to Soviet scientists. The publication of its fragments in the Literary Newspaper in 1995 attracted the attention of Academician I.T. Frolov, creator and director of the Human Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences at that time. This publication has been preserved in his archive. The article sets the task of reconstructing the context of the discussion of the problem of prevention in three time plans: the time of the 30s. XX century, when a new wave of instability and military preparations covered Europe; time of the first acquaintance of the Russian reader with the text of the correspondence of two intellectuals and the state of military conflicts of the 90s XX century; finally, the growing concern of intellectuals for maintaining peace in the modern world of ongoing military conflicts and terrorism. The author believes that Freud’s idea of ​​the development of human intelligence as the basis of culture, the guarantor of the elimination of the death instinct and, therefore, the prevention of war, is realized in the modern world in the “technoscience” space, where a person loses his humanitarian position and therefore new fears of escalation of military conflicts, accompanied by poorly controlled growth of nuclear weapons and bio-threats to humanity are becoming increasingly relevant and alarming.

Objetivos, discursos y protagonistas del Congreso Cultural de La Habana (1968)

Este artículo reflexiona sobre el Congreso Cultural celebrado en La Habana en enero de 1968. En ese evento más de cuatrocientos intelectuales de todo el mundo fueron convocados para debatir los efectos del colonialismo y el neocolonialismo en el desarrollo de los pueblos y la responsabilidad de los intelectuales ante la penetración cultural del imperialismo y el avance de las luchas de liberación. El texto se centrará en el contexto del congreso, motivaciones para su celebración e ideas formuladas durante sus sesiones.

The historical revisionism in Bulgaria: problems of national revival history and political responsibility of intellectuals

The historical revisionism in Bulgaria: problems of national revival history and political responsibility of intellectuals

The Media Enlightenment and the Responsibility of Intellectuals: “The 150ers” and the Local Media in Hatay

Yuzyilin dusunuru Noam Chomsky’nin aydin sorumluluguna dair fikirlerinin ve yorumlarinin Hatay yerel basininin gelisimi baglaminda ve 150’likler boyutunda ele alindigi bu calismada dort degerli aydinin (Mesut(d) Fani Bilgili, Fanizade Ali Ilmi, Refik Halit(d) Karay ve Tarik Mumtaz Yazganalp) surgun geldikleri Hatay’da donemsel olarak yazin ve dusun alanina sunduklari katkilar ele alinmistir. Bagimsiz zihinlerin toplumlarin donusumundeki rolleri uygarlik tarihi boyunca onemli olmustur. Tarihi sorumluluklarini surgunde de olsalar yerine getirmis olan bu dort bilge insan entelektuel birikimlerini donemin Iskenderun Sancagi’nda ve sonrasinda Hatay’da yerel basina, edebiyat dunyasina ve egitim alanina hicbir beis gormeden aktarmislardir.

The Responsibility of Intellectuals

The Responsibility of Intellectuals

Noam Chomsky (1928-), Fierce and Formidable Critic of the Vietnam War.

article discusses Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) professor of language and linguistics Noam Chomsky, focusing particularly on his criticisms of the Vietnam War and the U.S. government. Topics include his essay The Responsibility of Intellectuals, his 1969 book American Power and the New Mandarins, his political activism, and his fifty years as a dissident with targets including the Cold War, the Iraq War, and the Occupy Movement.

Motivational Factors: Implications for Job Performance among Workers of a Public Tertiary Institution in Nigeria

Background: University workers are saddled with the responsibility of training intellectuals, a function pivotal for building leaders of tomorrow, which in turn shape society. This study sought to investigate what truly motivates workers in a tertiary institution. Methods: A cross-sectional, analytic design was adopted to investigate motivational factors among 200 workers in a tertiary institution selected with a stratified sampling technique. A self-administered semi-structured questionnaire was applied to collect data and analysed with SPSS version 22. Results: More than half (51.2%) of lecturers and three-fifth (64.1%) of those with a PhD were among the highly motivated workers. Overall motivation (r=0.629) was more strongly correlated with job performance than intrinsic motivational factors(r=0.594); (p=0.01). Extrinsic reward had a weak negative relationship with job performance whereas job satisfaction was weakly positively correlated with work output; (p=0.01). Duration of job positively predicted overall motivation, intrinsic motivational factors and job performance but job satisfaction; education was a positive predictor of job satisfaction and performance. Overall motivation had the strongest influence on job performance, followed by intrinsic factors which predicted job performance far better than job satisfaction however; extrinsic factor had a weak negative association with job performance. Conclusion: Workers’ level of motivation was moderate; lecturers with a PhD were the most motivated. Highly motivated workers had improved job performance; however extrinsic reward was low and had a negative impact on performance. The university can develop and incorporate training/motivational programmes into departmental work plans to enhance professional development.

Sport-for-development and the struggle for subaltern voices to be recognised: a response to Manley, Morgan and Atkinson

ABSTRACTIn their article entitled, ‘Mzungu!’: implications of identity, role formation and programme delivery in the sport for development movement, published in volume 8(3) of this journal, Manley, Morgan and Atkinson focus on constructions of volunteer identities using Goffman’s dramaturgical analysis of social interactions. Their empirical work is based on an international volunteering placement within the sport-for-development (SfD) sector in Zambia. The authors highlight social interactions between UK student volunteers and host country social actors as encounters that influence volunteer identity, role formation or identity disruption. We offer a response to their article with particular attention to critiquing the knowledge production and programme development approaches employed to undertake research among economically marginalised communities. We draw on postcolonial theory and Long’s actor-oriented approach to capture of alternative narratives in SfD research. To support our critical response to the limited application of the dramaturgical perspective by Manley et al., we further apply four of Goffman’s perspectives to analyse social establishments. By so doing, we bring to the fore social processes within which the agency of local social actors is neglected by Manley et al. Instead, the authors state their sampling limitations. We argue that it is the responsibility of privileged intellectuals in global North institutions to reach out to subaltern voices rather than resorting to stating limitations of sampling techniques. Such limitations simply extend the marginalisation of global South voices and exacerbate asymmetrical powers which enable those with resources to undertake SfD research to define the ‘other’.