Socialist Agenda Research Articles

Exploring the Impact of Flow Experience on College Students' Sense of Acquisition in Ideological and Political Theory Courses

In the context of China, higher education institutions, including colleges and universities, bear the significant responsibility of cultivating proficient contributors and future representatives aligned with the socialist agenda. This is achieved through the provision of ideological and political theory courses. However, students face challenges in achieving desired educational outcomes in these courses. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate the process of knowledge acquisition in ideological and political theory courses as experienced by students. This study employs a qualitative case study methodology, based on flow theory, conducted in a selected college located in Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, China. The research aims to gather relevant insights by examining data collected from 15 participants through individual semi-structured interviews. Subsequently, the qualitative data is meticulously analyzed using MAXQDA 2020 software. The findings of this study reveal that the factors influencing college students' perception of ideological and political theory courses encompass both internal factors, such as learning behavior and learning holistic quality, as well as external factors, including teaching behavior and teaching holistic quality. Drawing on the model developed in this study to elucidate the impact on college students' sense of acquisition in ideological and political theory courses, it is posited that flow experience constitutes the core factor influencing college students' sense of acquisition, whereby the intensity of flow experienced by college students in ideological and political courses directly affects the extent of their sense of acquisition. This research expands the scholarly exploration of instructional and pedagogical advancements specific to ideological and political theory courses within Chinese tertiary education institutions. Moreover, understanding the influential factors shaping the knowledge acquisition and comprehension process among college students in these courses has the potential to contribute to innovative educational approaches and strategies.

From “Socialist Accounting” to the “Livelihood of Man”: The Viennese and the Columbia Polanyi

Abstract Recent commentary on Karl Polanyi’s oeuvre has argued that the émigré scholar abandoned his earlier concerns of working out a (socialist) alternative to liberal market society when delving into the institutional study of ancient economies at Columbia University from the late 1940s to the late 1950s. This article reconsiders Polanyi’s late work through the lens of his 1920s efforts to theorize socialist accounting and a socialist economy in the context of the early Viennese socialist calculation debate. While many interpretations have been provided of Polanyi’s early and late work, the gradual—for some even “great”—transformation that led to his focus on ancient economic history has neither been reconstructed in detail nor fully understood. Focusing on how Polanyi’s socialist agenda of the earlier years laid the grounds for his institutional approach to economic history, this article draws attention to certain authors who have only rarely been taken into account, in particular, to Otto Neurath and Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk. Polanyi’s late work sits ambiguously between Austrian School economic theory on the one hand and economic history in a “substantive” key, first outlined by Neurath, on the other hand. This Viennese heritage bequeathed both an implicit naturalism and an implicit socialism in Polanyi’s late studies.

When the Chinese Dream Meets Chinese Dream Show: Reconstructing Dream Narratives in the Name of Public Interest Talent Shows

This paper primarily explores the manner in which China’s reality talent shows have rearticulated dream narratives surrounding the Chinese Dream political discourse. This has occurred in response to common perceptions of such shows as vulgar or culturally inappropriate, which themselves were a consequence of the post-2005 boom in popularity of Super Girl Voice. My analysis is contextualised within the ideological connotations of the Chinese Dream, and falls into three main sections. The first section investigates the discursive strategy of the Chinese Dream, which can be said to integrate Confucianism and nationalism into the framework of a neoliberal market so as to emphasise the consistency between national and individual dreams, as well as the important and positive aspects of market values in the socialist agenda of public affairs. The second and third parts examine a public interest talent show called Chinese Dream Show. Through a discourse analysis of this talent show, I argue that the show is neoliberal theatre with Chinese characteristics, wherein a discursive formula I call ‘public interest’ employs two intertwined discursive systems – neoliberal rationality and sentimentality – to narrate dream-realising stories that satisfy the needs of both political correctness and market interests.

Revisiting psychiatric support for the National Socialist Agenda in Germany: Implications for medical and residency training

The transition of power from a failing Weimer Republic to the National Socialist (Nazi) government was characterized by many economic and politically-motivated changes. Economic crises and the overcrowding of psychiatric hospitals in Germany were the setting for these events. The eugenics movement, although not unique to Germany in the 1920s, would eventually culminate in the compulsory sterilization, euthanasia, and extermination in concentration camps. Historical accounts tend to focus on political and military leaders with the role of medical professionals often overlooked or forgotten. Additionally, there are connections between these programs and medical research. This article aims to elucidate the factors that influenced their role in this historical tragedy and their current implications on how physicians train, learn, and practice role of the medical professionals.

Unfinished Business: Visuality, Space, and the State in (Post) Socialist Venezuela

ABSTRACT This article proposes (post)socialism as a conceptual lens to read the temporal dislocation and affective currents that define Venezuela’s current political and social reality and its relationship to the twenty-first-century socialism former president Hugo Chávez promised in 2006. It argues that this version of socialism, which claimed to be different from the ones that came before in Latin America and elsewhere, was translated into the country’s urban landscape in a visual display that served to smooth over its contradictions and blind spots and that made Chávez essential to the discussions regarding what shape it could take in Venezuela. The connection between Chávez and socialism lingered after his death, leading to an explosion of visual representations of him that included the reproduction of his signature on the walls of the apartment buildings constructed by the housing program Gran Misión Vivienda Venezuela. The article argues that, by creating the illusion that Chávez remains visible, present, and essential for the operations and conceptualization of the Revolution’s socialist agenda, the signature—and the other visual forms Chávez’s afterlife has publicly taken—reduces socialism to a crisis of imagination that prevents critical debates and the possibility of envisioning new political futures for the nation.

Maoist Laughter ed. by Ping Zhu, Zhuoyi Wang, and Jason McGrath

Reviewed by: Maoist Laughter ed. by Ping Zhu, Zhuoyi Wang, and Jason McGrath Howard Y. F. Choy Ping Zhu, Zhuoyi Wang, and Jason McGrath, editors. Maoist Laughter. Hong Kong UP, 2019. 224 p. In the beginning of The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte (1852), Karl Marx adds to G. W. F. Hegel's remarks that history always appears twice: "the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce." Could it be tragedy and farce at the same time? With the trademark smiley faces of Chinese artist Yue Minjun's 岳敏君 hilarious acrylic pink painting The Sun (Taiyang 太陽, 2000) as its cover image, Maoist Laughter is a groundbreaking addition to laughology, after similar works like Not Just a Laughing Matter: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Political Humor in China, coedited by Kingfai Tam and Sharon R. Wesoky (Singapore: Springer, 2018). The new publication's ten essays represent the most recent American and British studies of laughter in modern and contemporary Chinese literature, culture, cinema, dance, and theater. Zhu's introduction begins by discussing the healing effects of laughter, arguing that the Mao era actually "institutionalized laughter as a social practice and an ideological discourse" (1). Such "socialist laughter" had a "class identification function" (5) and "was closely intertwined with the production of Maoist discourse" (7). Dating the genealogy of Maoist laughter back to the Yan'an period (1935-1948) when Mao Zedong advocated Lu Xun's 魯迅 (1881-1936) [End Page 161] satirical essays and transformed the libidinal energies of humor into the revolutionary, militant spirit, Zhu traces the regulation of cartoons and comedies to the time of turmoil from the 1940s through 1976. Her claim that laughter marked the end of the Mao era's legitimacy and the beginning of "a new historical force" (12) is quite unclear and it is uncertain whether "Maoist laughter" is limited only to its historical context or a specter that is still haunting post-Mao China. The volume is divided into three parts: "Utopian Laughter," "Intermedial Laughter," and "Laughter and Language." Based on Zygmunt Bauman's assertation of socialism as an "active utopia," Zhu suggests that utopian laughter is "a revolutionary apparatus" for "a collective dream" (12). In the two case studies of film comedies, Wang Jiayi's 王家乙 Five Golden Flowers (Wu duo jinhua 五朵金花, 1959) and Guo Wei's 郭維 Happily Ever After (Hua hao yue yuan 花好月圓, 1957) based on Zhao Shuli's 趙樹理 novel Sanliwan Village (Sanliwan 三里灣, 1955), Ban Wang observes in the former that eulogistic and transethnic laughter was essential to the socialist agenda of national unity with ethnic minorities, while Charles A. Laughlin addresses the problem of socialist leisure in the latter where "no rigid boundaries in space or time between physical labor and rest and relaxation" exist (52). Using cross-cultural comparison with the "joke rite" found in post-WWII US sitcoms and "interracial buddy film" (67, 69), Emily Wilcox points out the "unpredictable, surprising, and rebellious" (64) potential represented by the choreography underneath the joke pattern of "conformist humor" (57) in the Chinese military dance "Laundry Song" ("Xi yi ge" 洗衣歌, 1964), created to promote Han-Tibetan and soldier-civilian harmony after the 1959 Tibetan uprising. In the second section, Xiaoning Lu demonstrates how the film Wandering in the Zoo, Awaking from a Dream (You yuan jing meng 遊園驚夢, 1956) innovated the interplay between cinema and Hou Baolin's 侯寶林 xiangsheng 相聲 or "cross-talk" to produce "sociopolitically appropriate laughter"—even though Hou himself "named satire as the first and most important element in the humor of a good xiangsheng piece" (73, 75n)—before the suspension of film comedy projects during the Anti-Rightist Campaign (1957-59). Yun Zhu's chapter illustrates how Yang Xiaozhong's 楊小仲 1963 screen adaptation of Zhang Tianyi's 張天翼 novella "The Magic Gourd" ("Bao hulu [End Page 162] de mimi" 寶葫蘆的秘密, 1958) played between "satire" (fengci 諷刺) and "extolment" (gesong 歌頌) in the aftermath of the hyperbolic Great Leap Forward (1958-60) that resembled the young protagonist's unrealistic ambitions. Then Li Guo investigates how adaptations between traditional pingtan 評彈 storytelling, film, folk performances, and radio-broadcast songs negotiated between individuals and the nation-state through vernacularization and redefinition of "'laughter' as an ideological act" with class consciousness (108). The final four essays explore laughter as a popular...

Popularna kultura kao poprište ideoloških borbi - uspon Skajvokera i povratak regresivnih vrednosti

Popular culture is a phenomenon that reflects the values of our societies and implies our active engagement in it. Thus, Star Wars films represent a special case. Since their appearance, the films created by George Lucas were double-coded - they included the critique of both current political and social climate. In the same manner, the books, video games and TV shows that developed from the original trilogy, attempted to emanate those same left-leaning values. Therefore, it did not come as a surprise that the new episodes of Star Wars starting from 2015, tried to preserve the same sentiments. This tendency reached its peak with The Last Jedi (2017), which directly addressed the problems of gender dynamics and discrimination, class struggles and war profiteering. However, this episode had a particularly polarizing effect on the Star Wars fandom. Those who negatively rated The Last Jedi as a form of spreading the "socialist agenda" have used their social media accounts to express their discontent, which has in turn resulted in the saga finale (The Rise of Skywalker, 2019) becoming the "greatest cultural theft of the decade". Therefore, the paper deals with the case study of The Rise of Skywalker, i.e. the correlation between the fandom and regressive values represented in the film. The main hypothesis is that popular culture, due to its active potential, becomes an ideological battlefield. The paper also intends to point out how The Rise of Skywalker has contributed to the collapse of continuity of the previous films, as well as of the Campbellian monomyth, which was the fundamental basis of Lucas' films, starting from 1977.

Gender and Generic Clashes in The Years Between (Compton Bennett, 1946)

Because of the enduring success of her novels and her short stories, Daphne Du Maurier is not immediately associated with the theatre except through her father. The Years Between, her first original play, was, however, a popular success. While the play ends up celebrating the Allies’ forthcoming victory, five months before VE Day, what is striking is its very bitter tone as it dramatises the upheaval that society is about to face. This bittersweet note is precisely what singles out its film adaptation when it was released in 1946. The film, however, is very much a product of producer Sidney Box and his wife Muriel, who co-wrote the screenplay. Unlike other Du Maurier’s adaptations, the Boxes do not so much sentimentalize Du Maurier’s work as give it a feminist and socialist agenda, underscoring both the wife’s perspective and the social ramifications of Du Maurier’s drama. In so doing, the film dramatises the gender clashes through subtle disruptions of viewers’ expectations regarding generic conventions.

The Labour Government and Decolonisation in British West Africa (1945-51)

The present research paper attempts to examine the attitude of the Labour Government 1945-51 towards the process of decolonisation in British West Africa and whether the party, with its socialist agenda, was able to initiate any new course different from that of the capitalist, imperialist Conservatives. To inquire into this, the paper sheds light on the colonial policies adopted by the Labour Party before 1945 and after to show how far the Party’s actions once in office were consistent with its resolutions once in opposition. Previous historical research on British decolonisation dating back to the late 1950s presented the Party as playing a major role in unscrambling the empire and assigned it a positive role in Africa. However, the chief limitation of this historiographical genre is its lack of objectivity as it did not make use of primary sources. Relying on some archival sources and adopting an analytical approach, this study argues that the Labour government of 1945-51 did not mark a new move towards decolonisation in West Africa. Contrary to what has often been assumed, the Party’s approach to colonial questions was not different from that of the Conservative Party. Labour adhered to the political, economic, social and ideological constituents that defined the culture of imperialism. Its colonial policy was neither innovative nor did it involve any revolutionary break with the past official colonial policy. A major influential factor had been British national self-interest.

Better in Pictures

Better in Pictures

The Biblical Ethic of Free Market Exchange

Despite the calls of ‘Christian Socialists’ to bring market forces under the control of the state and its temporal power, the supreme text of Christianity not only supports the existence of free markets, it also prescribes their existence and operation as the normal, God-given means of social interaction. Both the Old and New Testaments of the Bible provide an ethical defense of the market itself, the division of labor, the principle of voluntary exchange, and the condemnation of force, fraud, and coercion. As the introduction of force into society and exchange is always and ever the policy of interventionists and socialists, the aim of this paper is to oppose those doctrines on the grounds of Biblical ethics. This is not to dismiss the pragmatic, historic, or epistemological failings of the interventionists. The dismantling of socialism on these grounds has been thorough and devastating as provided by the Austrian school of economics. This work provides a moral and ethical ground that not only dismisses the socialist agenda, but adds to an already robust body of work that rejects its interventions due to its inefficiencies, failed states, and its pretense of knowledge.

Review: Architecture in Global Socialism: Eastern Europe, West Africa, and the Middle East in the Cold War

Review: <i>Architecture in Global Socialism: Eastern Europe, West Africa, and the Middle East in the Cold War</i>

Новый высший класс: революционная смена элит в США

The article analyzes the emergence of a new political class or elite in the United States, which is called the minority elite. This article is the first in a series dedicated to this topic. The author formulates three interrelated prerequisites that have caused the emergence of the new elite: the spread of the Affirmative Action (AA) to all spheres of public life and, above all, to the education system; the phenomenon of “woke” capitalism; a long history of minority protest movements. Experts take the current protests for a revolution; the author proves the opposite statement: protests are a direct consequence and one of the stages of a step-by-step revolution. Its roots lie in the long-term training of personnel for the revolution and social technologies for it, in the creation of financial, informational and organizational infrastructures of protest movements, and in moral defeat and the surrender of the intellectual class. Over the decades, hundreds of protest movements of various sizes have been co-organized in the United States and dozens of professional protest organizations have been formed. One of them, Black Lives Matter, has its own program, strategy, tactics and a solid budget. The goal of the organization is to create its own ruling elite. The Protestant (WASP) elite ruled the country for more than two centuries, in the second half of the 20th century it was replaced by the so-called intellectual elite. Harvard University, by its decision to raise the level of acceptance tests in the 1960s, spawned new, intellectual elite, California universities, by abolishing tests in the 2010-2020s, bring to power a new social group – the beneficiaries of the AA. The black movement is confidently entering the final phase of its development – the placement of its representatives in state and federal authorities, political parties and other social institutions. Ideologues of identity politics, primarily racial, have arrogated to themselves the position of mentors and experts on social justice and the protectors of civil rights in society. Other protest organizations have joined the BLM, with socialist-oriented organizations in the lead. These organizations have effectively “hijacked” a wave of protests and are already working on a socialist agenda for the Biden-Harris administration, if elected.

Women in China Moving Forward: Progress, Challenges and Reflections

While China’s socialist revolution has been credited with improving the status of women, gender inequality remains. Drawing on macro data, this article provides an overview of gender equality in China, focusing on labor force and political participation in the past 70 years, particularly since 1978, the onset of socioeconomic reform. Specifically, the article describes, compares, and examines the progress and challenges that women face in accessing economic opportunities and political resources. We find a more equal relationship between male and female when resources are relatively adequate, but that females are disadvantaged when resources are scarce, for example, including representation in more prestigious occupations, higher income, and political positions. These findings illustrate how inequality is maintained and reproduced, and suggest that despite China’s progressive socialist agenda, its gender revolution remains ‘stalled.’

Marxism and the Development of Theoretical and Methodological Views of Law Historian Boris Ivanovich Syromiatnikov

The article is devoted to the rethinking of theoretical and methodological foundations of the scholarly activities of B.I. Syromiatnikov, who was one of the leading Russian pre-revolutionary law historians. In historiography he has been described as a representative of critical positivism and a supporter of a factor approach to history. On the basis of information about his social activities and academic interests at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, the article demonstrates that he took a considerable interest in social problems and illegal socialist literature as well as in modern sociological thought, including Marxism. His European study trip from 1903 to 1905 only strengthened the interest in the works of Karl Marx. The examination of the journalistic articles by Syromiatnikov, published in the years of the First Russian Revolution, shows that by 1906 he had used ideas and analytical categories (socio-economic formation, class struggle) of K.Marx and his followers (A.Bebebel, K.Kautsky). In addition, he sympathized with right-wing socialists such as E.Bernstein and E.Vandervelde. Following the approaches of such thinkers, Syromiatnikov defined the contemporary political events in Russia as a liberal revolution, and considered that the socialist agenda was premature for Russia. Based on Marxist ideas and on the comparative historical method, the historian created in 1905 an original concept of the changes in forms of political organization of society in Russia from veche democracy to an absolutist state. Due to the fact that this scheme was developed with the use of Marxist ideas, Syromiatnikov was able to reproduce it in the framework of Soviet historical science.

POLITICAL PLAN OF TAKING OVER THE USA CONGRESS BY DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISTS IN THE POST-OBAMA ERA

The congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (AOC) offered a new political agenda for the USA, the Green New Deal, which was picked up by the 2020 Democratic candidates running for Pres- ident. The article analyzes the case of AOC and deals with the following questions: What organi- zations stand behind this project? What technologiеs and tactics did they use? Can their political technologies be considered as manipulative towards democratic elections? Our analysis reveals the two organizations behind the Cortez's elections, Justice Democrats and The Young Turks, as well as their new polittechnological project known as a Brand New Congress. It's goal is to replace members of Congress who do not share their radical socialist agenda with new members supported by their organizations. Thesе organizations of social organizers have participated in several presidential elections since 2004 and have invented political technology called “big organizing” or “distributed organizing.” The distributed organizing model moves away from the traditional hierarchical management structure, or the top-down model, and opts for the bottom-up model where volunteer leaders are assigned more autonomy in local campaigning efforts while they are still supervised by campaign managers. The authors of distributed organizing model also call it revolution tactics. The article describes other new political technologies used in the project: casting candidates from protest minorities, writing political and legislative initiatives for them as well as proposals, and assigning elected candidates their staffers. Social organizers claim that the revolution they work for tends to revitalize the democracy in the USA while, as it shown in the article, they in fact work around the democratic institutions, including elections, and aim to fundamentally transform the social system in the USA.The analysis makes these technologies visible and therefore open for professional and public discussion as well as for working out coun- termeasures to their manipulations.

The Debate on Reparations before the Debate on Reparations at the National Black Economic Development Conference in Detroit, 1969

The Michigan Historical Review 46:2 (Fall 2020): 175-186©2020 Central Michigan University. ISSN 0890-1686 All Rights Reserved The Debate on Reparations before the Debate on Reparations at the National Black Economic Development Conference in Detroit, 1969 By Keith Dye Recent studies on the African American demand for reparations continue to call attention to the significance of the Black Manifesto, the fire-brand statement produced in Detroit in the spring of 1969.1 Public understanding of this $500 million (later $3 billion) political-economic treatise from the National Black Economic Development Conference (NBEDC) was of a fluid document that challenged the American social conscience. However, preceding the disruptive presentation of the manifesto at church services throughout metropolitan Detroit and elsewhere, the economics of reparations was a point of disagreement among its supporters prior to, and during, conference sessions. Arguments revolved around the application of reparations to establish either a “Black Capitalist” economic system, a revolutionary socialist construction or, alternatively, a hybrid system somewhere in between. This internal conflict had to be reconciled before any call for reparations could emerge as a “tax” on white America. Revisiting this contentiousness affords a core understanding of its evolution overlooked by scholars. Eschewing discussion about the validity of reparations, this article argues that the debate over economic preferences by many of the 500 conference attendees was an historical milestone in the reparation movement, whose contemporary significance rests upon this divide between moderate and radical African Americans seeking to forge a consensus economic agenda. A steering committee for the NBEDC had by early 1969 secured a range of African American organizations and individuals committed to public discussion of the issue at the affair, scheduled for April 25-27. 1 Ana Lucia Araujo, Reparations for Slavery and the Slave Trade: A Transitional and Comparative History (New York: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2018), 144-51; Herb Boyd, Black Detroit: A People’s History of Self-Determination (New York: Harper Collins, 2017), 220-22; Brenda Gayle Plummer, In Search of Power: African Americans in the Era of Decolonization, 19561974 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013), 247-48. 176 The Michigan Historical Review Leading the way was the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization (IFCO), but the diverse gathering would also include the post-riot New Detroit Inc., Urban Design and Development Group, League of Revolutionary Black Workers (LRBW), Republic of New Africa (RNA), Shrine of the Black Madonna, and other groups. Among noted individuals in attendance were Fannie Lou Hamer of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, civil rights activist Julian Bond, former football star Jim Brown, economist Robert S. Browne, RNA leaders and brothers Gaidi and Imari Obadele (formerly Milton and Richard Henry), local bookstore owner Edward Vaughn, and many others. Persons spearheading the effort were longtime activists James Forman of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Reverend Lucius Walker of IFCO, Mike Hamlin and John Watson—both of the LRBW based in the city, Kenneth Cockrell Sr., Dan Aldridge, John Williams, Chuck Wooten, Renny Freeman, Luke Tripp, and other handson activists.2 The chance to direct initial start-up funds provided by IFCO and the National Council of Churches for African American economic development attracted individuals eager to include their personal organizations among those possibly to receive funding. A somewhat complicated cross-partnering of conflicting and comparable ideas distinguished the process from the start. This began when some individuals sought control over the conference debate to determine what should be the economic destiny of African Americans. To this effect a takeover was planned by persons associated with Forman, the key architect of the manifesto, including Walker, Hamlin, and Watson. This Forman/Walker faction intended to steer conference proceedings toward adoption of a socialist agenda that emphasized collectivism and equitable distribution of resources.3 In contrast to the Forman/Walker faction were persons preferring Black capitalism, the notion that the system of free markets, private enterprise and private property ownership could be adjusted to facilitate African American economic growth.4 This dichotomy represented a divide between contending ideologies, with Forman leading the way on behalf of the LRBW. SNCC members brought in from the South—along with Walker, who by then sympathized with Forman’s ideological orientation—were...

Normalizing Evil: The National Socialist Physicians Leagues

The National Socialist Physicians League (or NSDÄB), was a professional medical organization founded upon the same ideologies that shaped the broader National Socialist agenda. Despite the vast historical and ethical literature focused on physician involvement in Nazi atrocities during the Holocaust, little attention has been paid to the NSDÄB. However, the establishment of this group is important to understanding the forces shaping physician participation in the Nazi party. Physicians often look to professional medical organizations as a source of moral guidance; thus, ideologies of racism and the active harassment of ethnic or racial minority groups by this professional organization may have contributed to the establishment of this behavior as not only permissive but normal. This article will explore how this organization contributed to normalizing, desensitizing and legitimizing behavior that could not be justified by any normative theory of professional medical ethics.

Ubuntu: Revisiting an Endangered African Philosophy in Quest of a Pan-Africanist Revolutionary Ideology

In the final analysis, Kwame Nkrumah advanced that pan-Africanism must be about the unity of African masses under socialist governments. However, the concept of pan-Africanism in recent times has been misconstrued in the most treacherous manner. On one hand, the concept has been reduced to a “dansiki-wearing” competition by a layer of cultural nationalists; and on the other hand, it has been reduced to a “Black capitalism” bourgeois agenda. In spite of the apparent failures of capitalism, bourgeois economists like Nigeria’s Tony Elumelu, have been peddling a purported refined capitalist system under the ambiance of “Africapitalism”, as a stimulant for economic growth and development in Africa. Under the pretense of a “pan-African” agenda, bourgeois economists have been touting this neoliberal agenda across the continent and beyond, for self-serving purposes. The danger this portends is the detachment of pan-Africanism from its socialist agenda. Indeed, existing works on African personality have showed the nexus between a pre-colonial communal relationship and socialism. The Sotho epistemology, Ubuntu, is undoubtedly a product of this ancient communal relationship. Ubuntu expresses the humanistic tendencies that are fast going into extinction in today’s individualistic society. Ultimately, the withering of Ubuntu is not unconnected to the dominance of capitalism. The economic system through alienation has not just distorted the relationship among humans, but also between humans and nature. This study thus argues that Ubuntu as a value system is a material product of pre-feudal African society; and that because of this trajectory, Ubuntu must be reassessed as a potential social force for resistance that can pave the way for the emergence of a scientific socialist African society. Ubuntu is not scientific socialism and vice-versa, but the value system if properly understood can lay the foundation towards the birth of the former.

How can the entrepreneurship ecosystem in Guyana impact the tourism industry by 2025?

PurposeThe purpose of this conceptual paper is to discuss the entrepreneurship ecosystem in Guyana with particular emphasis on the role of cultural support and its possible impact on the tourism industry in the country by 2025.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is based on a literature review of entrepreneurship ecosystems, document analysis of key reports on Guyana and interviews with relevant authorities.FindingsThe paper observes that Guyana can focus entrepreneurial efforts on areas of natural comparative advantage, including nature-based tourism and agriculture. However, achieving high-impact entrepreneurship in developing world economies like Guyana requires a strategic approach that is process oriented and which addresses cultural impediments to entrepreneurship.Practical implicationsEncouraging wealth creation and addressing issues of poverty and inequality are but a few of the concerns governments grapple with. Guyana is no different to its geo-political counterparts who are pushing entrepreneurship as a viable means of addressing these concerns. Driven by factors such as setbacks experienced by those with a socialist agenda, the onset of globalisation, the removal of preferential agreements, the opening of trade routes and an emphasis on local economic development, much has been made of entrepreneurship as a panacea of development issues.Originality/valueThis paper seeks to contribute to a better understanding of entrepreneurship in a developing world context with particular significance for the tourism industry.