Suchergebnisse

In 2016, Alexandru Vișinescu was sentenced to 20 years in prison for his actions as a prison commander five decades earlier. This article explores the epistemic function of this "landmark case" by contrasting the judicial narrative with the narratives of the participants in the trial, i.e., the civil parties, and spectators, i.e., the university students representing the younger generation. The accounts of the survivors' families, while showing great similarities with the judicial account, considerably broaden the setting and locus of responsibility and place Vișinescu's story in the larger context of communist repression. University students, by contrast, have very limited knowledge of the adjudicated events, reflecting their de-contextualised understanding of the past. This understanding is an expression of what I call the available narrative world, including publicly accessible narratives and discourses, but also subjective stories from the private sphere. In the Romanian context, characterised by perpetuated silences about the communist past, the narrative world available to university students is restricted and offers little resonance for the judicial narrative, making its integration into existing knowledge structures difficult. Consequently, I argue that the reception and acceptance of judicial narratives varies according to their resonance with societally available narrative worlds.

How do multiple obligations to give, to receive, and to reciprocate contribute to the evolution of international society? This question can be derived from the works of the French anthropologist and sociologist Marcel Mauss, in particular from his classic essay The Gift, published in 1925. The aim of this article is to introduce Mauss' theory of the gift to international political theorists, to develop a general theoretical argument from his claim about the universality of gift-giving, and to lay out the plan of the Special Issue. First, we explore the basic concepts of gift-giving and reciprocity and how they highlight a type of exchange that differs from market exchange and from other forms of quid-pro-quo interactions. Second, we consider the Marshall Plan as an iconic and controversial example of international gift-giving. Third, we use Martin Wight's division of international political thought into realism, rationalism, and revolutionism to locate the work of Mauss and neo-Maussian scholars within the tableau of modern international thought. Fourth, we take a look at the interplay between analytical and normative aspects of Mauss' works and assess the theoretical purchase of these works for international studies. Finally, we introduce the contributions of the Special Issue.