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The question that one can ask about the heterotopias space at different levels, including the global, civilizational scope and the necessity of the study of self-perception of the people, who live in the heterotopias space, has been put in the article. The self-perception of the modern Belarusian who lives in the heterotopias space is determined by the “metaphysics of absence” (V. Akudovitch). The various configurations of the internal space demonstrated in the poems of the Belarusian poets of the beginning of the XXIst century have their individual differences, but they all reflect the life outside the boundaries of the real space and they are the variants of the virtual time-space. These are the spaces of the authors’ phantasms created on the basis of the mythical worldview, of the computer quest and oneiric poetics. The escapist in its intention to virtualize the time-space in the modern Belarusian poetry has been determined by the specific conditions of Belarus as the heterotopia of the whole world, and its position between past and future, between earth and sky, between other spaces and cultures. The life in the virtual space evokes the feeling of the real life which has not been lived, of lameness and deficiency. “The crisis of the subjectivity” (A. Gytenev), the loss of his own, the formula “the absence of a man” is typical for the post-modern period, however it is realized as the common state of its inhabitants just in Heterotopia of Belarus. The inconsistency between its own destiny and the historical destiny of the country from one side and The Eternal Book of Being from the other side causes dissatisfaction and forms the strained sensation of “extending” between the earth and sky.
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The article analyses the discursive and disciplinary practices at the basis of the mechanism of origin of the power in the Russian Empire of Nicholas I, by means of applications of theories elaborated by Michel Foucault on Nikolai Gogol’s The Overcoat. The codified and informal rules that predetermined the habitus of the members of bureaucratic organization (body image; manner of oral and written language; semiotics of clothes and gesture; different roles in the rituals of the hierarchical ladder) are here reconstructed. The central opposition in The Overcoat shows the contradiction between the formal legal status in the heterotopic space of the public service (rank, position) which is usually expressed through the induction of fear in others, and the real authoritativeness of a concrete person, qualified as a combination of his own direct authority and his public reputation as a significant person.
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In her book Stories of the Soviet Experience. Memoirs, Diaries, Dreams (2009), Irina Paperno writes that “communal apartment has become one of the master metaphors of Soviet society” (Paperno 2009), as well as “a self-conscious emblem of the Soviet experience” (ibid.). Tracing its roots back from the well-known writings of M. Bulgakov, E. Zamiatin, Y. Olesha, D. Kharms, M.Zoshchenko and many others, representations of living experience under communal conditions appear so frequently in the XX and XXI century Soviet and Russian literature and culture, that it is justified to talk about the “communal text” of Russian, i.e. Soviet literature. In this paper, our aim is to throw a new light on this intriguing part of Soviet lifestyle by analysing it in the theoretical framework of Foucault’s concept of heterotopy. Communal apartment was a powerful disciplinary force of lifestyle in Soviet society, and its main aim was to re-build a new Soviet society from its bottom. In literature, however, communal apartments were represented as undisciplined spaces of deviation, and of extreme „otherness“. In respect to the aforementioned hypothesis, we pose two intriguing questions. 1. Did communal experiences, according to the representations of communal places, that is articulated in selected works of contemporary Russian writers, such as Y. Mamleev, L. Rubinstein, and N. Sadur, created “docile bodies” (Foucault 1975)? 2. If spaces of heterotopy are experienced bodily, i.e. through bodily sensations (accordingly, they shouldn’t be understood only as spatial, but also as temporal phenomenon), to which extent aspects of temporality structure heterotopian, and communal spaces respectively?
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In the works of Foucault heterotopic space is conceptualized in substantialist terms. The relation between heterotopic and topic (or dominant) spaces is one of exteriority. This article deals with another form of heterotopy produced by situation, which I call relational. According to this perspective, a given space is not heterotopic apriori or by nature. It becomes so when a specific use or a certain practice takes place within its limits. Moreover, such spaces are not located outside but inside the corresponding topic spaces. In other terms, otherness occurs within identity. This kind of relationship between space on the one hand and action, movement or behaviour of an agent on the other, is observed in certain cinematographic narratives. Present analysis bears on such processes of production of heterotopicity in two films – Die Hard and The Pianist. Each of these displays a clandestine fight against dominant order, and in both that fight is manifested through a specific relation with dominant space.
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This text critiques a classic sociological text, The Polish Peasant in Europe and America. The value of the work, which consists in the successful combination of elements from several intellectual traditions, is presented in connection with the biographical and historical background of one of the authors, Florian Znaniecki. In conclusion, the author makes a number of remarks concerning the special situation of migrants in global intellectual networks.
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Izhodišče članka je ena ključnih dilem, ki označujejo sociologijo že od njenega nastanka: kontroverza struktura: delovanje, oziroma vprašanje, ali pojasnjevati družbo v terminih določujočih struktur, ali avtonomnih posameznikov. Avtor to dilemo imenuje “probleme delovanja” in poskuša pokazati, da številni poskusi sprave dveh omenjenih nasprotujočih si pozicij niso nujno tako zelo posrečeni, kot bi se to zdelo na prvi pogled. Po njegovem mnenju je dilema le podvojitev ključne premise evropske novoveške filozofije, kjer je subjekt zoperstavljen objektu, in na ta način vidi možnost njene razrešitve v teoretiziranju, ki se bi tej premisi izognilo. Takšna se kaže Luhmannova sistemska teorija, ki opozicijo subjekt:objekt nadomešča z dinamičnim konceptom samoreferenčnega sistema, vendar pa ta premik ne prinese v kontekstu problema delovanja nič novega. Luhmannova teorija socialnih sistemov tukaj ostaja povsem v okvirih klasičnih funkcionalističnih interpretacij, ki opisujejo družbo kot splet določujočih struktur, ki šele omogočajo delovanje posameznikov.
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The purpose of this paper is to introduce the theory and practice of Benjamin Bratton. His statement that “we look out into space, and from space back down to Earth to orient what planetarity should mean” indicate a two key aspects of his thought, which I discuss along with their political consequences. The first one is the recognition of planetary-scale computation as the condition for the possibility of phenomena such as climate catastrophe. The second one is the analysis of the planetary-scale means of production and the spaces of sovereignty they create. To achieve this, Bratton constructs a model of The Stack. Thinking about the future of politics, he speculates about two possible scenarios: neofeudalism and neocommunism. Inspired by his work, I formulate two necessary conditions of the rational politics of the future: the reorientation of planetary-scale computation to other purposes than a profit, and the rescaling of planning in both time and space. Elaborating on the first results of The Terraforming programme enables us to glimpse the possibility of an egalitarian and universal future through concrete projects.
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In this paper, the concepts of open society and organic state are compared. A genesis of the emergence of the concept of open society is performed, and its foundational meanings, as drawn in the texts of Bergson and Popper, are highlighted. The conceptions of both creators of the concept are characterized by common features – striving to substantiate philosophically international cooperation, peace, democracy, social justice, and the necessity of the constant reform of institutions. However, the nature of this substantiation differs. In Popper’s mind, a rational dialogue is sufficient for this, and it is necessary to discuss the modalities of rationality itself. Contrary to certain opinions that are established in historiography, Bergson does not deny the necessity of rationality in the formation of open society, but seeks its deeper anthropological substantiation in the intuition of duration. In both cases, the conception of open society was created as a reaction to the problems and spirit of the time. Lithuanian thinkers reacted to the same problems and created the theory of organic state. Organic state, both from the perspective of its content and anthropological substantiation, structurally corresponds to the conception of open society of Popper and, especially, to that of Bergson.
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The interview is concerned with the legacy of Leo Lowenthal (1900–1993), who was born into a Jewish family in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Lowenthal belonged to the first generation of Critical Theorists under Max Horkheimer’s directorship at the University of Frankfurt Institute for Social Research. Taking Lowenthal’s understanding of Critical Theory as their point of departure, the interlocutors – Katrin Stoll and Martin Jay – discuss ways of renewing Critical Theory in general and the necessity of thinking as a form of negation in particular. The interview provides reflections on the current political situation brought about by the global capitalist order, which owes its stability to both objective social processes and to authoritarianism, austerity, autocracy, antisemitism, racism, and fascization. Recasting Critical Theory in new ways, requires, as Martin Jay forcefully argues, creative theoretical experimentation. By way of example, the interlocutors engage in a joint critical rereading and reevaluation of Leo Lowenthal’s and Norbert Guterman’s 1949 book Prophets of Deceit: A Study of the Techniques of the American Agitator, recently reissued in Germany. Adopting the concept of “racket society”, which was developed by the Critical Theorists in the 1930s and 1940s, after their emigration from Nazi Germany, Martin Jay provides an analysis of current society and political culture in general and the United States in particular. He makes the point that the strongman/client relationship becomes possible through an internalization of patterns of domination as well as by loyalty and protection. The interview closes with a reflection on why it is important to criticize the false way of life and in so doing opening up the possibility of a life that is not wrong.
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The aim of the paper is to analyse theoretical preconditions for functioning of NGOs in social welfare The role of NGOs in social welfare is discussed, the concept of NGOs and their role in social welfare is explained and interpreted drawing on three contextual approaches: the structural functionalism, social conflict theories and P. Bourdieu’s theory of social fields. The structural functionalism and social conflict theories were chosen because they deal with the discussed object at macro level, meanwhile Bourdieu’s theory of social fields allows to combine both, micro and macro, levels. The structural functionalism theory was chosen because it helps investigate society at macro level by symbolically framing all elements of its functions and disfunctions and thus reveal as if two sides of society: the perfect and the desirable, the imperfect and the problematic. This picture of extremes allows to reveal society failings and identify its weaknesses in a structured way seeking to fulfill and restore its need for order. The conflict theory was chosen as a counterweight to functionalism and order denial emphasised by this paradigm, to a strive to look at the object, NGOs, not from the point of view of order but from the point of view of change and conflicts that affect them. Bourdieu’s theory helps identify the agents that function in the field of social welfare and their role, whether they are dominant and dominated, as well as the power of other agents functioning in the same field. According to this theory, capital (social, economic, cultural) is a very important factor because the agents, while fulfilling their functions, can use it for changes and the development of social welfare. Structural functionalism is the paradigm of positive extremes for which modern society is too dynamic and too individualized. The social conflict paradigm helps identify the competing sides in a structured way and make intuitive assumptions about what they are competing for, i.e. identify what power and authority they are competing for. However, this paradigm does not help explain our rather complex modern society the needs, values and attitudes of which are rapidly changing. The interests of three society sectors, the state, the market and the third sector, collide in the field of social welfare, their competition for power is an ongoing process and, depending on the distribution of social, economic and cultural capital, the agents, their power, role and even the location from which they affect citizens’ social welfare may change from dominant to dominated and vice versa.
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The film “Joker” by director Todd Phillips, interprets our real world by means of its fictional world. The film is problematic and problematizing: problematic, because it appears to incite violence, protest, revolution, vandalism; problematizing because it presents barbarism as the potential alternative to oligarchic states and hyper-real societies. In this article the film is interpreted from a philosophical perspective, establishing a link between the filmed scenes of Phillips and the philosophical concepts of T. S. Eliot, Orwell, Baudrillard and Kundera. “Joker” emerges as a film addressing abuse and revolt.
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Military sociology in Germany showed itself in the studies after the Second World War, and as in most countries of the world, American sociological models formed the basis of early German Military Sociology. In particular, the work of Janowitz and Huntington has had a significant impact on German Military Sociology. In addition, research centers funded by the German Armed Forces and publicly-funded foundations, often affiliated with a German political party, carried out military sociological research at certain times. The studies carried out in these centers were not limited to applied research on urgent military problems, but also basic, theory-oriented research on the relationship between the army and society. In this article, the foundational motives, academic institutionalization adventure and basic methodological and theoretical orientation of German Military Sociology are examined. In addition, compared to its Anglo-Saxon counterpart, inadequacies of German Military Sociology through the eyes of German military sociologists are discussed. This study aims to contribute to military sociology studies, which are few in number in Turkish literature. It is also evaluated that along with the American Military Sociology, German Military Sociology can also offer an alternative for research in Turkey.
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Individual behaviour has a significant role to play in reducing the negative impacts of climate change. The energy sector is a significant component impacting climate. Although individual energy saving behaviour can be perceived as something detached from climate change, it is important because of its impact and is therefore the subject of research. The aim of this study is to identify the main factors influencing energy saving behaviour in Lithuania. The Theory of Planned Behaviour and the Theory of Basic Human Values are tested using the European Social Survey Round 8 data. The results show that intention to save energy is the most important factor influencing behaviour. Values are also a strong predictor of energy saving behaviour. Attitudes towards climate change and perceived behavioural control have only a very weak relationship with behaviour.
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This paper analyzes several points of convergence, i.e., topics common to the influential books Dialectic of Enlightenment: Philosophical Fragments by Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno and The Magic World: A Prolegomena to a Story of Magism by Ernesto De Martino. Precisely because they were published in the post-war period, one year apart – in 1947 and 1948 – they were, alongside very few other publications, dubbed as the books of the “zero year” by the Italian historian Carlo Ginzburg. Although the two books were written in the philosophical and the anthropological tradition respectively, there were significant thematic overlaps between them, however, their authors would not give any significant mutual consideration to each other in their ensuing publications. Their common and at the same time differently articulated themes are the concept of myth, magic, enlightenment, and modernity. Content parallelism of these exceptionally influential works is intertwined into a related, but not too tightly connected whole, which underlines the results of their theoretical and empirical research. Alfred Sohn-Rethel’s publication which precedes the two was also considered and correlated with the two books.
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Postkoloniālisms ir viens no 21. gadsimta sākuma vadošajiem virzieniem humanitārajās zinātnēs. Tomēr bijusī “Otrā pasaule”, tai skaitā Baltijas valstis un citas Padomju Savienības okupētās teritorijas, ir vēsturiski problemātisks izaicinājums postkoloniālajai teorijai, kas liek kritiski pārlūkot ar rases reprezentācijām vai konkrētiem vēsturiski ekonomiskiem apstākļiem saistītus pamatprincipus. Tagadējās postsociālisma valstīs postkoloniālā teorija var tikt pieņemta tikai ar virkni atrunu. Postsociālisma postkoloniālā teorija un Baltijas postkoloniālisms kā šīs teorijas jaunākais atzars tomēr liecina, ka tā ir efektīva un daudzsološa pieeja padomju pagātnes analīzei. Postsociālisma postkoloniālā teorija var kļūt par veidu, kā paskatīties uz folkloristikas kā nozares vēsturi padomju okupācijas laikā. Raksta autors ar šādu nolūku piedāvā pārlūkot astoņus teorētiskos principus, kurus no folkloristikas vēstures Britu Impērijā savulaik ir atvedinājusi pētniece Sadhana Naithani. Baltijas postkoloniālisms ir pieeja, kas ļautu šos principus adaptēt Baltijas un citu postsociālisma valstu folkloristikas vēstures pētniecībai. Tas radītu instrumentu kopumu padziļinātai nozares vēstures analīzei – stingru teorētisko pamatu, ko sniedz pārskatīta postkoloniālā teorija un jēdzieni, kas ļauj precīzi attēlot pagātnes daudznozīmīgās un pretrunīgās atbalsis pētniecībā mūsdienās. Vienlaikus Baltijas postkoloniālisma pieejas plašam lietojumam ir vismaz četri ievērojami šķēršļi: teorijas fragmentārā uzbūve, bieža jēdzieniskā neskaidrība un sarežģītība, problemātisks rašanās un lietojuma laiks un ideoloģiskais tēls mērķa valstīs.
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L’auteur éprouve d'esquisser, en quelques mots, la grande actualité de la pensée marxiste, et son historique importance concernant le developpement de la philosophie contemporaine et surtout des sciences sociales en géneral.
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A main tenet of discourse theory, as derived from the original scholarship of Laclau and Mouffe, is that any social order is the contingent outcome of a political project. Such project is itself a consequence of material discursive practice, the pervasiveness of which is measurable in part by the extent to which its verbal articulations get disseminated with the help of news media. Thus, investigating news media agents which initiate, further, counter and discontinue the discursive process can be effective in mapping the political constitution of the social. But the question is: how to operationalize discourse theory for in-depth analysis of news media artifacts? Glynos and Howarth’s (2007) logics approach is a major step forward, but their account is too generalized to pass as an instructive account of their method. Others who have attempted to operationalize this approach have also left data analysis underspecified, particularly regarding the method of identifying the self-interpretations of social actors, on which the uncovering of logics initially depends. This article offers a more comprehensive methodological account. Through a sample analysis of one news report, we demonstrate that discourse theory’s analytical resources can be bolstered by subjecting the textual data to an approach derived from the literature on frame analysis. In the course of this illustration, we additionally hope to contribute to framing theory’s analytical repertoire.
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