Suchergebnisse

AbstractSimon Skempton's book re-reads Marx's concept of alienation, and its roots in Hegel, through Derrida's critique of the metaphysics of presence. In a wide-ranging study that engages with Heidegger, Kant and Lukács, as well as with a large proportion of Derrida's work, both early and late, Skempton argues that, contrary to the prevailing orthodoxy in critical theory, it is possible to account for a kind of political 'disalienation', provided that one first accepts that the metaphysical account of the self-present subject is itself a product of alienation. 'Disalienation', on this model, would be a recognition of the inherently differential condition of humankind, with both Marxian and post-Kantian theories of the subject enlisted to support the Derridean thesis of an originary différance. Skempton's thesis is attractively original, but it risks artificially reducing Kant, Hegel and Marx to mere avatars of Derrideanism avant la lettre, while simultaneously denying the force of Derrida's critique of post-Kantian philosophy.

Posterity has not been kind to the Australian-born polymath Jack Lindsay (1900–1990), a self-confessed 'odd man out' who published over one hundred and seventy books across a range of genres. This article asks what Lindsay wrote, why it has been forgotten and why we should care. It restores to view Lindsay's politico-cultural trajectory from his conversion to Marxism in 1936. It argues that Lindsay's searching and sceptical Marxism was a source of his prolific creativity and that he evolved a distinct and sometimes eccentric Marxist theoretical framework – a system with the concept of alienation at its core – within which his individual works are most legible. It argues that Lindsay's theoretical Marxism is not reducible to that of 'British Communism' or the 'Old Left', but exceeded and was mostly in tension with the Marxism of his party and its Soviet models, despite his political affiliation. It explains that Lindsay's oeuvre sank gradually from mainstream cultural visibility through the Cold War and that his conflicted but ongoing CP and Soviet-facing alignment alienated him from an emerging New Left with which he actually shared much theoretical ground. Estranged from his own party and largely dismissed by the New Left, his project disappeared through the cracks that opened during the traumatic realignments of the British Left in the post-1956 decade and remains largely absent from accounts of Marxist thought in Britain today. But though in many ways flawed, Lindsay's central project – tracing the processes of alienation through social formations, sifting human history for moments of resistance to that alienation, and attempting to prefigure a society in which values of creative production and communication are generalized across society as a whole – speaks loudly to ever-sharpening problems and deserves revisiting now.

Anglo-Malaysian alienation expressed in a Malaysian policy of positive economic discrimination against Britain was precipitated by a coincidental decision by the London Stock Exchange to change its takeover rules immediately following the purchase by Malaysia's investment agency of The Guthrie Corporation by the then legitimate technique of share-purchasing known as a "dawn raid".The sharp response by Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad against Britain's "privileged position" marked a personal breaking point after a series of acts of omission which suggested that the government in London had taken its counterparts in Kuala Lumpur for granted. Underlying the personal policy position of Dr Mahathir was a deep conviction that Britain as a colonial power had been responsible for the communal predicament of Malaysia and for the backward condition of the Malays, whose political birthright had been put at risk. (International Political Science Association)

Terrorism, and particularly its militant Salafist form, remains an oft-discussed but often poorly understood phenomenon. There is an ever-expanding body of literature on militant Salafism in the West. A great deal of this offers some manner of alienation as an explanation as to why a path of militancy was pursued. This article explores what explanatory value alienation is felt to offer such accounts. It then considers some of the considerable problems that face these claims, difficulties that seriously undermine the usefulness of alienation as a concept that helps us to understand militancy. [Reprinted by permission; copyright Sage Publications Ltd. & ECPR-European Consortium for Political Research.]

Political alienation is a topic of enormous importance to American society. It can inspire protest voting, renunciation of citizenship, and violent protest against the established political system. It also reduces political participation, meaning that the views of the politically alienated are not as well-represented in government as the views of those who are not politically alienated. Despite this, there has been very little research into political alienation in the past two decades. This study attempts to help fill that void in the literature. I analyze pre-election (N=2,322) and post-election (N=2,102) survey data from the 2008 American National Election Survey to find the causes of political alienation among the population as a whole and among men and women separately. Ordinary least squares regression analysis and difference-of-slopes tests are used in this analysis. Results show several causes of political alienation in the population, including a low degree of civic engagement and little or no affiliation with a major political party. Also, a low level of education is found to be a cause of political alienation among women, but not among men. On the basis of these findings, several methods are proposed for the reduction of political alienation in American society. The limitations of this study are also addressed, as well as its implications for theory and future political alienation research.

The concept of alienation is defined, discussed, & diff'iated.

Marxists have generally understood alienation as a condition. This conception is flawed because it implies that the only means of moving toward a "dealienated" future is leadership by an already dealienated (enlightened) elite. The only other alternative is the realization that the condition of alienation is permanent & immutable. However, if one considers alienation not as a condition but rather as a struggle, the possibility of mass participation rather than vanguard leadership emerges. Moreover, regarding alienation as a struggle, particularly as a class struggle or the struggle of capital to maintain its dominance in the face of determined resistance, allows for a more autonomous & dignified life for those who struggle. 1 Reference. K. W. Larsen

Explores changing attitudes toward work in industrial societies, drawing on data culled from previous theoretical & empirical research. In particular, the vicissitudes of the classic concepts of commitment to work & alienation from labor are analyzed in the context of: (1) different stages of industrialization, notably the shift from manufacturing to servicing; & (2) different types of industrialization, eg, socialist or entrepreneurial. 2 Photographs, 50 References. Adapted from the source document.