Social Criticism Research Articles

Reaktualisasi Kritik KH. Misbah Musthofa dalam Tafsir Taj al-Muslimin Min Kalami Rabbil ‘Alamin terhadap Kurikulum Pendidikan di Era Orde Baru

This research aims to analyze the social critique of K.H. Misbah Musthofa regarding the education curriculum during the New Order era, particularly within the context of interpreting QS. al-Baqarah [2]: 29. In this study, we delve into his perspective in detail through a content analysis approach. The data utilized is sourced from various educational and Quranic interpretation-related literature. The analysis highlights the arguments put forth by K.H. Misbah Musthofa in his critique. One crucial point emphasized is the necessity of integrating moral and spiritual values into the educational system, as well as the importance of holistic individual development. He also issues a warning about the significance of not just following contemporary trends to avoid falling behind the Western world but also preserving and perpetuating traditional values. The outcomes of this research make a significant contribution to deepening our understanding of education from an Islamic perspective. The reevaluation of KH. Misbah Musthofa's critique can serve as a foundation for formulating a more comprehensive educational approach oriented towards developing the education system, with the hope that it will contribute to building a better society.

Politicizing Data: AI Ethics as a Social Critique of Algorithms

Abstract: The history of AI ethics reflects a mix of competing visions of norms and values for a technological future. While the fundamental tensions within the conceptualization and practice of AI ethics have played out in complex ways, this article examines the weaknesses inherent in trying to examine power from an ethical perspective, as well as to develop social policy from an individualist framework of ethical responsibility. What is needed to fully realize the social critique of AI and guide its legal regulation are theories of value based in social values and theories of technology based in systemic power dynamics. The pursuit of such a critique should also build upon science and technology studies theory and point toward a more critical mode of the social inquiry of technology.

Dead Ringers and the Horror of Childbirth on the Small Screen

The streaming series Dead Ringers (Amazon), loosely adapted from David Cronenberg’s 1988 body horror film about twin male gynecologists, viscerally represents the too-often-violent act of childbirth in order to address the crisis of maternal health care in America. As a series for the small screen, it exploits television’s capacities to show and tell as a form of public education, directing our attention to social issues, including the maternal mortality crisis and the racist history of gynecology and obstetrics. FQ contributing editor Laurie Ouellette argues that the series is “uncomfortable television” by feminist design, in that it deploys corporeal aesthetics and social criticism to unsettle audiences.

Spirits with Morality: Social Criticism and Notions of a Good Life in Laos through the Bangbot Imaginary

This article approaches notions of a good life in Laos via the imaginary of the bangbot (literally: “hidden in the shade,” i.e., “invisible”), a benevolent forest spirit of high moral integrity. The bangbot live in observance of the monastic precepts of Lao Buddhism deep in the jungle, far from human settlements, tying morality to undisturbed, remote forests. The article argues that this connection of morality with deep forest enables criticism and narratives about the good life at a time when “turning land into capital” is materializing in rapid deforestation. We suggest that the potential of this imaginary for socioecological criticism and alternative visions depends on social structure and historical context. While bangbot were instrumental in violent anti-colonial revolt, lending political legitimacy to rural ethnic elites, in today's context of frontier plunder vs. conservation, they are tamed to lend legitimacy to emerging urban milieus with a socioecological orientation. Thus the cultural, sociological, and ecological dynamics of Lao's late socialism are entangled in the spirit-figure of the bangbot.

Semiotics of Music by the Band Pyong-Pyong as a Tool for Social Criticism: an Analysis of the Symbolism in the Lyrics of the Album "Pigza"

Semiotics of Music by the Band Pyong-Pyong as a Tool for Social Criticism: an Analysis of the Symbolism in the Lyrics of the Album "Pigza"

How Zima Band Communicates in the Song Generasi Rapuh to Criticize Moral Degradation

This research was conducted to determine the meaning of social criticism in the lyrics of the song "Generasi Rapuh" ZIMA Band, with an analysis of Van Dijk's critical discourse. This research uses a qualitative method with Teun A. Van Dijk's Critical Discourse Analysis Theory approach which describes discourse into three dimensions, namely: the text dimension, the social cognition dimension, and the social context dimension. Data collection techniques in this research used library research and interviews. The results of research on text analysis show that the theme raised from the song "Generasi Rapuh" can be seen from the chorus or chorus about the current generation who have a weak mentality and are easily hurt, which has become a trend for many people. In social cognition, the results of researchers' interviews with songwriters regarding songwriters' anxiety regarding the problem of moral decadence that occurs in the current generation are obtained. in a social context, through the song "Generasi Rapuh" the songwriter tries to convey his criticism with social reality or facts that occur in people's lives.

Rachel Cusk’s New Realism: Gender, Power, Voice, and Genre in the Outline Trilogy

Abstract Rachel Cusk creates a new narrative form in the Outline trilogy—distanced, displaced first-person point of view—to create a safe position from which to speak truths about marriage and motherhood that she has been criticized for expressing in her nonfiction work. Eschewing linear plot and dominating perspective in favor of overheard stories, the novels also represent a new form of social realism that illustrates how listening and collaborative storytelling can communicate social critique. By incorporating elements of her life and nonfiction in the trilogy, Cusk creates a nexus of autobiography, fiction, essay, and memoir in which the suffering of women and the cruelty of misogyny register as visible and undeniably real, changing the fabric of social reality by rewriting the forms that represent it.

The Power of Patriarchy: Everett’s Work on the Dionysus Myth in Frenzy

This interpretation of Percival Everett's novel Frenzy focuses on the author's rewriting of the myth of Dionysus and other Greek myths referenced in the text, as it is through the revisions of classical versions of the myths that Everett expresses his social criticism. In order to understand the character of the main protagonist Dionysos, the article also discusses Everett's appropriation of The Bacchae by Euripides, in particular of the English translation by C.K. Williams as well as the author's drawing on the Nietzschean concepts of the Dionysian and the Apollonian. Finally, the analysis of major literary devices (narrative structure, first-person narrator, leitmotif of seeing, elements of humor) reveals various strategies Everett uses to incline readers to grapple with the severe critique of patriarchy and capitalism he offers.

Subalternitas Penganut Ahmadiyah dalam Novel Maryam Karya Okky Madasari

<p><em>The issuance of the Indonesian Ulema Council (Indonesia: Majelis Ulama Indonesia or MUI) fatwa declaring Ahmadiyya as a deviant sect and its followers as having departed from Islamic teachings has impacted the stereotypes surrounding the majority community. The novel "Maryam" is a work of fiction based on the experiences of Okky Madasari's best friend as an Ahmadiyya adherents. The novel narrates the discrimination and injustice faced by Ahmadiyya adherents and serves as a form of social criticism by the author towards the subaltern discourse surrounding Ahmadiyya adherents. This research aims to identify the various forms of subalternity experienced by Ahmadiyya adherents in the novel "Maryam". The research specifically examines the different forms of subalternity imposed by the majority group against Ahmadiyya adherents based on the concept of subalternity, which refers to the oppressed who lack access to voice their concerns developed by Spivak. The utilization of critical discourse analysis in this research helps identify and categorize the various forms of subalternity through the predetermined data corpus. The compiled data corpus is the primary source for the researcher to describe, interpret, and analyze the text, context, and discourse in the novel "Maryam". The data corpus will be analyzed through three stages: 1. Description, 2. Interpretation, and 3. Explanation. The research results indicate that the forms of subalternity depicted by the author in the novel "Maryam" include marginalization and silencing. </em></p>

Aspirational Laws in Action: A Field Experiment

This article examines aspirational laws in a randomized field experiment. We analyze the impact of an unenforced public smoking ban on individual behavior and attitudes. The findings indicate that aspirational laws, like public smoking bans, can make rights holders sensitive to behavior that violates their rights, irrespective of the material consequences of infringements and their personal views about the law. The results present a mixed position in the debate between rights-based social movement lawyering and critics of hollow rights. On the one hand, aspirational laws can create unforeseen social frictions when rights are declared, but their implementation and enforcement are ineffective. On the other hand, aspirational laws may also have self-fulfilling potential. Due to the adverse experience of rule breaking, rights holders may seek enforcement and compliance even if the law fails to influence public beliefs.

Precarious Subjectivities and Neoliberal Reconstruction of Modern Family

Parasite (Bong Joonho, 2019) attracted global viewers by addressing the intensifying class stratification and Neo-liberal reconstruction of global economy in the contemporary world. Parasite uniquely features class issues and social criticism instead of depicting typical class struggles between the rich and the poor. Parasite addresses the class structure in transition and highlights the precarious class on the margin. By personalizing class relations into family relations, Parasite features the changing family system along with the breakup of the conventional family. Parasite picks up the very point of this social change and the transformation of family types.

Haunted Images: Unsettling History and Traumatic Memory in Tintin Wulia's Artmaking

Taking as a point of departure the practice of Chinese-Indonesian Australian artist Tintin Wulia (1972–), the article investigates possibilities for social critique offered by the photographic image as it is co-opted by artists working in post-Reformasi Indonesia. Building on scholarship that aspires toward a more historically informed understanding of contemporary Southeast Asian art, the article connects Wulia's reworkings of photographs to a longer history of image making. This focus on the entanglement of the contemporary and the historical is sustained throughout an analysis of three works by Wulia—Ketok (2002), Invasion (2012), and Great Wallpaper (2012). In highlighting the ways in which Wulia's artmaking responds to, mirrors, and troubles broader structures of seeing, documentation, and representation that have shaped national identity, the article suggests that the reanimation and reproduction of family and identification photographs unsettle forgotten and suppressed histories of trauma unique to the experience of the Chinese ethnic minority in Indonesia.

Unveiling Gender Stereotypes: A Feminist Reading of the Film Bhumika

The present research paper is a feminist exploration of the critically acclaimed Hindi film, Bhumika (1977), set against the backdrop of Indian film industry, directed by Shyam Benegal, starring Smita Patil, Amol Palekar, Anant Nag, Naseeruddin Shah and Amrish Puri. The purpose of this study is to unveil gender stereotypes through the film narrative Bhumika from the feminist perspective. Besides, it delves mainly into the life and struggle of the female protagonist and a celebrated actress, Usha, who searches for her identity in a patriarchal realm. Hence, in the film Bhumika, Usha’s journey projects societal confinement and oppression as her image is an embodiment of her struggles against gender roles, showcasing how women were often silenced and how they were limited to their choices. Though, her narrative reflects the need for women’s empowerment in such a male chauvinistic world. With an application of feminist theories, the paper unearths how the film Bhumika is evident for both to reflect and to challenge the existing traditional gender norms in Indian Society. Apart from these, it examines Usha’s journey in terms of power and sexuality, highlighting her multifaceted role as a lens to investigate broader social causes. Thus, the findings of the study help for a better understanding of the intersection of cinema, gender, and society across the world highlighting the role of cinema as a medium for feminist discourse and social critique.

Fabricating the Truth About Bruno Latour(s)

In his lifetime, Bruno Latour (1947-2022) made many provocative and controversial arguments, such as about the nature of the practices of the natural sciences, and against standard social scientific forms of critique. Running through many of Latour’s interventions, aimed at what he took to be stultifying forms of academic and intellectual orthodoxy, was a concern with the nature of truth. Whether emphasising how science fabricates its ‘facts’, or in having to deal with uncomfortable similarities between that sort of analysis and the attacks on the allegedly fraudulent nature of climate science by climate sceptics, or in presenting the societal bases of standard forms of social critique as fictitious, Latour was constantly engaged in battles about and polemics concerning what counts as truths and truthfulness. In this paper, we consider the nature of some of the main contours of Latour’s battles about and with truths. We present an account of his practice in a critical light. Sometimes that involves stepping outside of the ‘anti-critical’ frame of reference he sought to construct and impose on how philosophy, sociology and other ways of thinking are done, but it also sometimes involves using that apparatus, while turning it against the intentions of the author. The purpose of this paper is not to try out-do Latour in the dismissal of intellectual positions other than one’s own. Instead, we focus on other types and levels of failure in the career-long endeavours and engagements with matters of truth of this curious but undoubtedly unavoidable figure, ‘Bruno Latour’. We end by speculating if more ‘Bruno Latours’ will be fabricated in the service of new modes of truth-creation in the future.

Kehidupan di Tepi Sungai Batang Arau dalam Karya Seni Grafis

The purpose of the creation of this work is as social criticism and conveying messages about river pollution behavior that occurs in the Batang Arau river in Padang city by visualizing the impact of river pollution on humans. which is poured into graphic artworks. The creation of the work uses the art consortium method with five stages, namely, the preparation stage (observation and exploration), the elaboration stage (searching and collecting references), the synthesis stage (application of main ideas), the realization of concepts (making works), and the completion stage (artist report and final work exhibition).So that the realization of ten works that the author made with the theme of the impact of river pollution, the resulting works are 10 works with a size of 55 x 40 cm with titles including: Hal Baik yang Terganggu, Blind, Seiring Sejalan, Tanpa Sadar, Ingin Tapi Tak Bisa, Malam yang Sulit, Dimatanya, Meniru, Luapan, Dari dan untuk diri sendiri.

A Feminist Analysis of George Bernard Shaw’s Mrs. Warren’s Profession: The Concept of the “New Woman”

Mrs. Warren’s Profession was written in 1893 by the Irish critic and dramatist George Bernard Shaw, who introduced social realism to the British stage. First performed in 1902 in London, the text is a social critique satirizing the stereotypical Victorian norms. Reflecting Shaw’s feminist ideals, the play also contributed to the development of the feminist movement. Mrs. Warren’s Profession introduces the “New Woman” type who rebels against the stereotyped female representations and male-centered conventions of the nineteenth century. The play mainly revolves around a controversial taboo topic, prostitution. Shaw dramatizes this profession through the two untraditional female characters. Kitty Warren is an audacious woman running a brothel to provide her daughter with better life and education standards and Vivie is a highly-educated and independent woman who expostulates her mother for her profession. Mrs. Warren’s Profession stresses that it is the social, economic and moral ills of the society that lead women to choose this profession. This paper, from a feminist lens, links these two non-conformist characters to navigate the ways through which the concept of the “New Woman” is represented. This paper also investigates how these characters protest against the stereotypical female roles imposed on them to gain an autonomous identity within society. Thus, this study, through these two female characters, reveals how this play dethrones the myth of the “Angel in the House,” the ideal Victorian woman, and sheds light on the modern feminism.

LUDRUK SEBAGAI MEDIA MENGABARKAN MISI KERAJAAN ALLAH DI LINGKUP GREJA KRISTEN JAWI WETAN

This study aims to explain ludruk culture as a means to preach the mission of the Kingdom of God in the scope of Jawi Wetan Christian Church (GKJW). Generally, the play/story ludruk revolves around social criticism of people's lives, with the aim of improvement in the lives of these people. Using the qualitative – descriptive method, this study shows the intersection point in the story ludruk with the mission of the Kingdom of God, so that ludruk can be used as a cultural foundation to bring the mission of the Kingdom of God on Earth East Java. The results showed that ludruk and the mission of the Kingdom of God are an appropriate synergy for GKJW to preach the mission of the Kingdom of God.

Aesthetic Approach for Critical Sociology of Contemporary Communication Technology

Critical theory has already marked that technology often threatens civil liberties, personal autonomy, and rights. Heidegger, later Marcuse, emphasized how technology is not value-free in its own revealing power of the surrounding environment, external and inner nature. Throughout this paper, I explore how the aesthetic approach engages with critical theory and contributes to the sociology of media and communication. For this, I will theoretically survey the terms of sociality under the forces of immediate communication, ubiquitous surveillance, and the compression of time and space that Baudrillard and Virilio once problematized through the lens of critical technology theory to adapt it to media and communication studies. I contend that techno-aesthetics that converge with Rancière’s dissensus can provide practical suggestions on an updated vocation of critical sociology. This article discusses the potential of aesthetic and social criticism of media for democratizing technology that Feenberg inserted. It is urgent to acknowledge the changing spatio-temporal aesthetic regimes that affect the societal imagination and limits of sociality and action to determine the next steps for achieving a commons-based society.

Two sorts of philosophical therapy: Ordinary language philosophy, social criticism and the Frankfurt school

In a recent article, Fabian Freyenhagen argues that we should understand first-generation Frankfurt School critical theory (in particular, the work of Adorno and Horkheimer) as being defined by a kind of ‘linguistic turn’ analogous to one present in the later Wittgenstein. Here, I elaborate on this hypothesis – initially by calling it into question, by detailing Herbert Marcuse’s extensive criticisms of Wittgenstein (and other analytic philosophers of language) in One-Dimensional Man. While Marcuse is harshly critical of analytic ordinary language philosophy, he is much more sympathetic to a different sort of ordinary language philosophy, which he unpacks with reference to Karl Kraus. I show how, by getting Marcuse’s criticisms of Wittgenstein and other analytic philosophers, and lauding of Kraus, into view, we can better understand the first generation of the Frankfurt School as having practised a sort of ‘non-quietistic’ philosophical therapy (that may or may not have been the sort of thing that Wittgenstein himself had in mind).

"You Feel Like You Did Something So Wrong": Women's Experiences of a Loved One's Child Sexual Abuse Material Offending.

This article examines the experiences of female partners and relatives of child sexual abuse material offenders and the (il)legibility of their experiences within prevailing theoretical frameworks and policy responses to violence against women. Drawing on survey and interview data with clients of a specialist support agency, we situate the lack of understanding and support available to these women within the systematic depoliticization of child sexual abuse. The article traces how women developed their own social critique of child sexual exploitation as a form of gendered violence and called for a feminist reengagement with the politics of child sexual abuse.