Constitutive Role Research Articles

The roles of accounting in the racial organization of work

This paper analyzes the links between accounting, race, and labor control from a critical perspective. For this purpose, a decolonial perspective is adopted. In particular, the colonial matrix of power is used to analyze a case of labor precarization in a sugar mill in the geographic valley of the Cauca River in Colombia. The study assumes that the precarization of individuals/peoples in contexts with a colonial legacy is fundamentally associated to classification/hierarchization processes based on race, knowledge, being, and territory (Quijano, 2000; Walsh, 2008; Segato, 2014). This paper contributes to a better understanding of the role of accounting in labor precarization in environments with a colonial legacy, showing that, unlike previous literature has proposed, accounting exercises multiple roles in the same organizational time and space, with these roles not necessarily being subordinated to whether the geopolitical realities of the Global South or the Global North are analyzed. Considering the case analyzed, when accounting wishes to control the labor of salaried and non-racialized people, it predominantly exercises its constitutive and transformative role in order to make labor more efficient-profitable, while at the same time it can exercise a reproductive and representative role by (re)creating over-exploitation mechanisms on non-salaried and racialized people to maintain an unequal-racist-discriminatory social order.

Free Speech and its Limits in the UK Parliament

Abstract The notion of Parliamentary supremacy in the United Kingdom’s constitution remains unquestionable. However, the legislative intent of Article 9 of the Bill of Rights 1689 which provides that debates or proceedings in Parliament ought not to be impeached or questioned in any Court or place out of Parliament appears to undermine rules and principles that have been established in a system of jurisprudence for the promotion of administration of justice and enforcement of other rights. The question is whether there should be limitations on Parliamentary privilege on free speech to preclude wilful disregard of Court injunctions. This article argues that the invocation of Parliamentary privilege on free speech in wilful disregard of Court’s injunction undermines the universal principles applicable to the rule of law, breaches the sub judice rule, threatens the constitutional role of the Courts in the administration of justice and damages the comity that exist between Parliament and the Courts.

Value, Virtue, and Vivienne Westwood: On the Philosophical Importance of Fashion

Abstract In the aforementioned quote, Vivienne Westwood sketches a role for fashion that elevates it from the prosaic to the status of art, as something important, life-enhancing, and worthy of pursuit. Here, a philosophical treatment of Westwood’s vision of fashion that does justice to the artistic and life-enhancing value that fashion can realise is offered, using an emergent theory in contemporary analytic aesthetics. The virtue theory of art delineates the intrinsic worth of art in terms of the opportunities it provides for us to exercise and cultivate virtues such as courage, self-expression, imagination, wit, or authenticity. Our engagement with art can subsequently be genuinely life-enhancing in lieu of the constitutive role the virtues play in living well. The present study takes Westwood’s claims as a jumping-off point, considering how they speak not just to her own designs but to our relationship with our clothes more broadly. Fashion is defended as a practice that performs this function in analogous ways to other genres of art and thus has clear artistic value as well as enables us to live well. Given this potential, just as Westwood claimed, there are reasons to perform the practice well because it has importance for the ways in which it can realise artistic value and aid us in living well.

Quantum Entities and the Nature of Time

The conceptual statute of modern quantum theory was formulated during the 5th Solvay Conference in 1927 and since then accepted as definitive, although criticisms and discussions have continued up to the present. The more properly physical aspects of the debate seem to concern the relationship between quantum entities and spacetime. A historical circumstance that should not be ignored is that in 1927 the exploration of the realm of the fundamental constituents of matter (the so-called "elementary particles") was just in its infancy, and therefore the properties of these constituents could not play a constitutive role in the theory. Here we propose to re-read the nature of quantum entities starting from the peculiar relationship that the elementary particles that constitute them maintain with the spatial domain. In particular, it is assumed that this relationship is mediated by time and that the time accessible to elementary particles (but not to the systems they compose) is a complex variable rather than a real one. This approach helps to dissolve much of the "mystery" surrounding quantum phenomena.

Religious Learning Environments of Austrian Muslim Youth: An Empirical Analysis of Religious Educational Processes

In recent decades, Islamic education and the religiosity of young Muslims have received considerable attention in academic research in German-speaking countries. However, an analysis of the different learning environments of religious education and their respective significance has yet to be carried out so far. Using Austria as an example, this paper explores these different processes of religious education among Muslim adolescents. Based on qualitative guided interviews, the experiences and learning processes in the family, in the mosque, in the school, and online are depicted from the learners’ perspective. In this way, this paper assigns Muslim adolescents a constitutive role in the analysis. In this context, we discuss how the understanding of education, pedagogical approaches, and person-centredness differs in the learning environments of Muslim religious education.

Quantum Entities and the Nature of Time

The conceptual statute of modern quantum theory was formulated during the 5th Solvay Conference in 1927 and since then accepted as definitive, although criticisms and discussions have continued up to the present. The more properly physical aspects of the debate seem to concern the relationship between quantum entities and spacetime. A historical circumstance that should not be ignored is that in 1927 the exploration of the realm of the fundamental constituents of matter (the so-called "elementary particles") was just in its infancy, and therefore the properties of these constituents could not play a constitutive role in the theory. Here we propose to re-read the nature of quantum entities starting from the peculiar relationship that the elementary particles that constitute them maintain with the spatial domain. In particular, it is assumed that this relationship is mediated by time and that the time accessible to elementary particles (but not to the systems they compose) is a complex variable rather than a real one. This approach helps to dissolve much of the "mystery" surrounding quantum phenomena.

Theoretical and Practical Aspects regarding the Independence of the Romanian Ombudsman

The Romanian Ombudsman (the Romanian People's Advocate) is an autonomous and independent public authority, as provided for by the law on the organization and functioning of this public institution, which is not part of any of the three powers in the state - legislative, executive and judicial. The decision of the constitutional legislator not to include this public institution in any of the three classic powers was determined, in our opinion, by the desire, but also the need, to configure an impartial institution that would exercise its constitutional and legal role with complete objectivity. In this context, through this paper, we propose to analyze, through specific research methods, such as the comparative, sociological, and teleological method, if the way of appointing and, respectively, revoking the head of this institution is one that does not affect this role, risking politicizing the institution of the Ombudsman.

The Topography of Memory: The Constitutive Relation Between Body Memory and Place Memory

A new interest in space emerged in contemporary studies of body memory. According to Merleau-Ponty, the lived body constitutes a close connection between place and memory. The real or even imagined movements of the body contribute to the recollection of places. Recently, Edward S. Casey and Thomas Fuchs highlighted the constitutive role of the body in remembering. First, the paper intends to show the intertwined relation between body memory and place memory. For instance, Casey regards Proust’s madeleine experience as an instance of place memory, and he argues that the body can sustain and recollect place memories. According to Casey, modern philosophy neglected the concept of place, in which the lived body is dwelling, and introduced the concept of site; that is, the geometrical extension of a homogeneous and isotropic space. Second, the paper examines the psychological and emotional aspects of place memories. According to Fuchs, body and place memory constitute a horizontal unconscious that consists of the zones of attraction and avoidance of the lived space. Finally, the paper argues that place memory has much to offer to the phenomenological investigation of the self. Place memory eventuates the recollection of distant memories in an affectively charged form. This type of memory establishes an affective connection with the past and contributes to the preservation of personal identity.

Euphemising Ageing in Popular and Academic Publications on the Life Course: An Exploratory Study

According to age studies expert Margaret Morganroth Gullette (2004) the social ideology of ageing as decline—and the concomitant anxiety—is affecting people increasingly early on in their lives. A linguistic way of coping is through minimising the threatening impact of words. This paper focuses on how life course scholars apply euphemisms to refer to age-related identities and issues. Additionally, in the background of our inquiry are two questions: (1) whether and how these authors engage in metalinguistic comment, and (2) whether they explicitly acknowledge the constitutive role of language and discourse. The conclusions suggest that there is some explicit recognition of the significance of language use for the social attitudes and behaviour related to ageing. Besides their personal choice of euphemisms, authors have used other discursive means to write non-evaluatively about ageing, as well as make informed comments about strategies present in the public sphere, perceived as euphemistic. Most importantly, this exploratory paper is to probe the interdisciplinary context of the ways scholars refer sensitively to ageing.

The mediatedness of interorganizational collaboration. How collaboration materializes through affordances, chains, and switches

In research into interorganizational collaboration (IOC), the number of contributions highlighting the constitutive role of communication constantly seems to increase. However, surprisingly few contributions are devoted to communication studies that concentrate on the use of different media. An advanced “mediatedness” perspective is increasingly required, not least in terms of theory, focusing on how different media, as objects, tools and agents altogether constitute collaboration through complex combinations and asymmetric usage patterns. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to develop a theoretical framework for analyzing IOCs as media-driven processes and practices, which is highly relational. Of particular importance are the diachronic transformations of meaning-making when discursive content (sketchy notes, brainstorming, digital threads, presentation program slides, etc.) is transferred and materialized into stable ideas, proposals or solutions; moving from one media context to another; and its impact on the collaborations’ outcome.

“Our Pain Makes Us Family”: March For Our Lives and the constitutive role of gun violence trauma in youth publics

This essay examines the dynamics of diverse youth public formation through analysis of the 20 student speeches delivered at the 2018 March For Our Lives rally. I argue that the collective identification as youth survivors of gun violence trauma functions to constitute this diverse youth public. I trace how the speakers’ shared gun violence trauma enabled them to form a racially integrated coalition while not discrediting their differently positioned identities and disparate gun violence experiences. In doing so, I forward a conceptualization of how youth publics negotiate gun violence trauma, asserting that youth publics are characterized by both present constraints and a future-oriented agency, members of youth publics must account for tensions across racial differences in their gun violence prevention advocacy, and gun violence trauma functions as a shared basis for political participation. My analysis of the students’ gun violence prevention discourse complicates this framework to reveal how gun violence trauma as a shared basis for youth public membership threatens their source of empowerment: ownership over their futures. Contributing to scholarship on the formation of publics, this essay demonstrates the significance of youth publics at the intersections of race, trauma, and gun violence.

The ‘mystical’ foundation of democratic society, mythmaking and truth in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (John Ford 1962)

In this article, I combine political philosophy and film to examine the problematic of the ‘mystical’ foundation of authority and democracy as represented in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. Ford’s filmic vision is interpretable as a parable of the passage from the state of nature to the modern republic and the deconstruction of American democratic progressivism. To analyse it, I proceed in two steps: first, I defend a middle-way critical Enlightenment perspective between the democratic-progressivist and the deconstructive approach to the question of foundations. Second, in dialogue with this critical Enlightenment perspective, I argue that Ford’s cinematic vision of the foundation remains ambivalent, given that its deconstruction of the mythology of American democratic progressivism is premised on the nostalgic mythologizing of the pre-democratic age. Moreover, I take issue with Robert Pippin’s interpretation of the movie as a cautionary tale against Enlightenment rationalism, and which poses at its center the key psychological role of myths in politics (2011). In contrast, I argue that Ford’s cinematic vision cautions against decoupling the socio-political and personal life from the vital connection to truth and acting upon truth. From this standpoint, a “politics of truth” is, against Pippin’s interpretation of Ford’s vision, compatible with taking into account the constitutive role of narratives in building political legitimacy and authority.

Participation of the parliament in the elections of the President of the Republic of Poland – traditions and comments de lege ferenda

The article concerns a potential change in the method of electing the President of the Republic of Poland, consisting in abandoning the universal and direct elections in force since 1990 and introducing elections using the method of an extended parliament. The study verifies the hypothesis that forms of electing the president with the participation of the parliament are present in the Polish tradition. The second research assumption relates to the relationship between the constitutional role of the head of state and the over-normative legitimacy resulting from the general election.

Effect of Crop Farmers-Pastoralist Conflict on Crop Output in Adamawa State, Nigeria

This study was conducted to determine the effect of crop farmers-pastoralist conflict on crop output in Adamawa State, Nigeria. Purposive and random sampling methods was used to select 24 communities and 192 respondents (Crop farmers) from the study area. Descriptive statistic and regression model were used to analyse the data collected. The results showed that majority (67.23%) of the respondents were between 31 – 50 years; 70.1% of crop farmers had western education and 80.7% of the respondents were married. Furthermore, the respondents had farming experience of 7 – 20 years and above with 48.4% having less than 20 years of farming experience. The multiple regression result showed that there is a strong correlation between the effect of conflict and output/income of crop farmer. Furthermore, the result further indicated losses in monetary term of N87,875,00 arising from the loss of farm produce. The major constraints to the strategies taken by government to resolve the conflict were weakness of state institution (97.95%), slow response to crises (97.92%) and excessive use of force (police/military) in mitigating the conflicts. Conclusively, the farmers-pastoralist conflict had negative effect on crop farmers’ output/income. It was recommended that state institutions need to be pro-active enough to nip the problem of crop farmers – pastoralist conflicts in the bud, Law enforcement agencies should be alive to their constitutional roles and government should strengthen the security around farmers and herders across the country by providing necessary training and sophisticated security equipment are required to control outburst of crisis. Government should make provision for customary institution to settle crop farmers-pastoralists conflicts rather than the courts, and a joint peace and conflict resolution committee consisting of leadership of farm community and the herders be constituted to mediate among conflicting groups.

Constitution-building and safeguarding the integrity of elections in Africa

ABSTRACT This article explores the significance of constitution-building and its impact on electoral integrity in Africa. Over recent decades, numerous African countries have turned to constitution-building and revisions to enhance democracy. The role of constitutions has expanded beyond governing and regulating governance-citizen relationships; they are now crisis management tools. Ultimately, constitution-building emerges as a crucial mechanism to fortify electoral processes and democratic development, particularly within Africa. The article highlights key elements for constitution-building to strengthen electoral integrity.

Ukrainian Discourses on NATO: Securitization, Otherness, and Their Effects on Russo-Ukrainian Relations

Abstract Ukraine’s aspirations for NATO membership have been a source of contention between Russia and Ukraine for decades. At the same time, domestic debates in Ukraine on relations with NATO have also been a divisive issue for Ukraine’s ruling political elites. These conflicts culminated in 2022, when Russia launched a military offensive against Ukraine claiming that its movement towards NATO was an existential threat to the Russian state. This paper summarizes some of the results of my longitudinal research of ruling elite discourse on NATO in Ukraine between 1997 and 2018. It focuses on the changes in national identity discourse and contestation, pinpointing their constitutive role for Ukrainian foreign policy.

Labour and Coercion in the Nordic Region in the Early Modern Period: Connections, Ambiguities, Practices

ABSTRACT This introduction discusses the constitutive role played by various practices of coercion within a range of labour relations across the Nordic region in the early modern period. In recent years a growing body of international literature has worked to re-conceptualize histories of labour coercion. Current trends in global labour history have emphasized the interrelational nature of labour regimes, eschewing traditional boundaries of free and unfree labour, productive and unproductive labour, wage labour and unpaid labour, and focused rather on the entangled history of labour and coercion in its various guises. Based on a critical discussion of the teleological frameworks and essentialized analytical categories that have largely characterized the historiography of labour in many of the Nordic countries, we argue for shifting the focus of attention to study the actual practices of labour and coercion in order to establish a more inclusive, contextual and historicized historiography of Nordic labour.

Effect of Crop Farmers-Pastoralist Conflict on Crop Output in Adamawa State, Nigeria

This study was conducted to determine the effect of crop farmers-pastoralist conflict on crop output in Adamawa State, Nigeria. Purposive and random sampling methods was used to select 24 communities and 192 respondents (Crop farmers) from the study area. Descriptive statistic and regression model were used to analyse the data collected. The results showed that majority (67.23%) of the respondents were between 31 – 50 years; 70.1% of crop farmers had western education and 80.7% of the respondents were married. Furthermore, the respondents had farming experience of 7 – 20 years and above with 48.4% having less than 20 years of farming experience. The multiple regression result showed that there is a strong correlation between the effect of conflict and output/income of crop farmer. Furthermore, the result further indicated losses in monetary term of N87,875,00 arising from the loss of farm produce. The major constraints to the strategies taken by government to resolve the conflict were weakness of state institution (97.95%), slow response to crises (97.92%) and excessive use of force (police/military) in mitigating the conflicts. Conclusively, the farmers-pastoralist conflict had negative effect on crop farmers’ output/income. It was recommended that state institutions need to be pro-active enough to nip the problem of crop farmers – pastoralist conflicts in the bud, Law enforcement agencies should be alive to their constitutional roles and government should strengthen the security around farmers and herders across the country by providing necessary training and sophisticated security equipment are required to control outburst of crisis. Government should make provision for customary institution to settle crop farmers-pastoralists conflicts rather than the courts, and a joint peace and conflict resolution committee consisting of leadership of farm community and the herders be constituted to mediate among conflicting groups.

Decolonising the Real: Transformative Constitutionalism and the Unconscious

Abstract “Transformative constitutionalism” has been suggested as a viable post-liberal alternative to juristic interpretation after apartheid. The article considers the role of transformative constitutionalism in the decolonisation of the Real. It suggests that colonialism denigrates the unconscious of the colonised through an instrumentalisation by way of which it is incorporated as a critical part of the system of colonialism. Transformative constitutionalism’s preoccupation with the “gaps, conflicts and ambiguities” of language positions it in a way conducive to the liberation of the colonised’s unconscious by way of what Jacques Lacan called “separation”. I argue that despite transformative constitutionalism’s aversion to violence, its acts of interpretation take place in a field of what Cover called “pain and death”. Such interpretations are thus necessarily acts of violence not within, but against, the colonial Symbolic, and so they can help to facilitate acts through which the Real can at last become decolonised.

Introduction

This interdisciplinary forum convenes a wide-ranging conversation centred around the writings of Denise Ferreira da Silva, whose unrelenting inquiry locates the workings of raciality in the very constitution of the modern subject, and, relatedly, global and historical consciousness. Da Silva's excavation of raciality is consequently expansive in its implications and fundamental in its focus. Throughout her oeuvre, including Unpayable Debt (2022) and Toward a Global Idea of Race (2007), the crucial role of ‘law’ in legitimizing the modern, global racial and economic order remains a central problem. Da Silva's decolonial agenda will meet with immediate sympathy from many in anthropology – a discipline that has engaged in sustained auto-critique of its own complicity in racialized colonial rule for decades (see Asad 1975; Lewis 1973; Pels and Salemink 2000; for a contemporary instance, cf. Price 2011). However, da Silva shows that any narrow focus on specific direct linkages to related problematics of knowledge production occludes the constitutive role of modern subjectivity in the globalization of modern juridical rule itself. The ambition of da Silva's excavation addresses, among other things, such recurring questions for legal anthropology as: ‘who has law and in what sense can different populations be said to have law?’; ‘how has the idea of “law” helped to reproduce the very world wrought by the post-Enlightenment?’; and ‘How might we test the limits of law?’