Suchergebnisse

Abstract
Black aesthetics and Adornian aesthetics both articulate and embody what Hortense Spillers calls the "critical edge" of culture and art, and there is a recent history of black aestheticians engaging creatively with Adorno. Today, however, any constructive dialogue between these aesthetic traditions depends on whether Adorno's aesthetics can be decoupled from the anti-black racism in the genealogy of Western aesthetics and whether Adorno's negative dialectics can be reconciled to the transformative force of art, as that force is as central in black aesthetics as is the negative dialectics of art. Critically focusing on Adorno's discussion of "the ideal of blackness" in Aesthetic Theory, this article will argue that such decoupling remains incomplete, that he resolutely did not believe in the transformative force of art, and that these issues are connected, at least in Adorno's case. This article simultaneously demonstrates how black thinkers—Frederick Douglass, W. E. B. Du Bois, Angela Y. Davis, Fred Moten, Fumi Okiji, and Spillers—have long offered exemplary accounts of art that combine its negative dialectics, critical edge, and transformative force while defying the anti-black racism in Western aesthetics.

This is the introductory editorial to a special issue in honour of former editor of French Cultural Studies, Nicholas Hewitt (NH). It includes some reflections on the author's collaboration with NH and on the process of founding the journal in the late 1980s. It outlines the themes discussed in the nine substantive articles especially around the guiding theme of the sense of place, which NH did much to inspire.

This article introduces the special issue of the journal on France as a Laboratory of Culture. It asks whether France continues to foster creativity and innovation in the cultural realm. Six articles examine case studies, including the role of women in the making of modern Paris, France's role in world cinema through international co-production, French conceptions of world literature, recent fictional works by Alice Zeniter and Bessora, the rapper Abd al Malik as a complex example of hybrid music, and the state-funded project to create ÉcoQuartiers, or green neighbourhoods. These examples provide challenges to the way things are, whether in changing behaviours, tastes, perceptions or understandings, and demonstrate convincingly that France remains a vibrant laboratory of culture in the modern world.

The article is about the deteriorating conditions of our common home. The common home being in this case the natural environment. The various ways in which the environment is being deteriorated were looked at. The article furthermore, it looked at the measures that the various governments can implement to combat the various environmental challenges being faced in the world. ; Nature is declining globally at rates unprecedented in human history — and the rate of species extinctions is accelerating, with grave impacts on people around the world now likely. That is the sombre message from a landmark soon-to-be-published report entitled Nature's Dangerous Decline. This report, coming from the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), is the most comprehensive scientific report ever undertaken on nature and the natural environment; in fact it is so comprehensive that, at the time of writing (January 2020) the full six-chapter report, expected to exceed 1,500 pages, had not yet been published. However, the gist of the report has been made available through a 12-page Media Release and a 39-page Summary for Policy-Makers, both issued in May 2019, almost exactly four years after the publication of Laudato Si', Pope Francis' encyclical on care for our Common Home. The IPBES report presents an ominous picture of the way the health of the natural systems on which we and all other species depend is deteriorating more rapidly than ever before. The people are eroding the very foundations of our economies, livelihoods, food security, health and quality of life worldwide. While more food, energy and materials than ever before are now being supplied to people in most places, this is increasingly at the expense of nature's ability to provide such contributions in the future and frequently undermines nature's many other contributions. The net result is that the biosphere is being altered to an unparalleled degree, while biodiversity is declining faster than at any previous time in human history. This very full report presents decision-makers with the authoritative science, knowledge and policy options that they must consider in their concern to preserve and maintain the natural environment. But while it maps out in considerable detail the disastrous course upon which humanity and the modern world are set, the IPBES report, like Laudato Si', also tells us that it is not too late to make a difference: what is needed is urgent and unprecedented social and economic transformation at every level, from local to global, aimed at bringing about a fundamental, system-wide reorganisation of the technological, economic, political and social features that govern today's world, including its ideals, goals and values. Provided the necessary urgent and concerted efforts are made to promote such radical trans-formative change, nature can be conserved, restored and used sustainably while simultaneously meeting other global goals set by society, such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations. Furthermore, several ways in which the environment is being degraded was discussed and the different repercussions these had on the future of the environment. The actions to be taken on behalf of the common home were outlined.

This article introduces the special number of French Cultural Studies commemorating the role of Brian Rigby as the journal's first Managing Editor. It situates his contribution in the emergence of cultural history and French cultural studies during the rapid expansion of higher education from the 1960s in France, the UK, the US and other countries. It suggests that these new areas of study saw cultural activities in a broader social context and opened the way to a wider understanding of culture, in which popular culture played an increasingly important part. It argues that the study of popular culture can illuminate some of the most mundane experiences of everyday life, and some of the most challenging. It can also help to understand the rapidly changing cultural environment in which our daily lives are now conducted.

This is the introduction to a special number of French Cultural Studies devoted to religion in France, focusing on the issues of belief, identity and laïcité. The articles deal with social and cultural issues of secularity and identity, and also reach into philosophical argument and literary representation. They explore the relationship between France and Islam, issues of Jewish and Catholic heritage, the philosophical issues of belief and non-belief, and the historical roots of French secularism and the search for ways of living together.

Atheists were among the most militant supporters of laïcité in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. They saw it as a means of curtailing the traditional power of the Catholic church in French society. However, in recent years, the main religious groupings have come to the defence of laïcité as a protection for religious freedom. This article traces the changing relationship between atheism and laïcité in its different forms. It identifies the main groups that advocate both principles, and examines the work of recent secular thinkers who seek to offer an alternative ethical position and even an alternative spirituality. It argues that while some atheist groups still see laïcité as a crucial weapon in the battle against religious power, the leading atheist intellectuals are focusing instead on the personal beliefs and values of citizens, and are offering new perspectives on religion and secularism.

Historical knowledge is commonly believed to be a logical project that builds upon itself by successive generation. Problematically, this theory of history serves as a foundational feature of twenty-first-century historical methodology. The impact of modern historiography of the early medieval past on the formation of European myths of identity, nationalist ideologies and other extreme social and political concepts has been fairly established by scholars such as Patrick Geary, Jocelyn Hillgarth and Ian Wood. In this paper, the author argues that scholars need to reach back to the 'new history' of the sixteenth-century French Renaissance to find the figure-ground upon which modern scholars would construct their prism for seeing the Early Middle Ages. The author does this by following the history of one text, the Liber Iudiciorum (Visigothic Code), the grand legal-historical narrative of seventh-century Iberia, from its publication in Paris, in 1579, by Pierre Pithou. This interrogation will start to reveal the early modern origins of modern historical representations and the impact of those origins on twenty-first-century historiographies and historical method. ; En general, se piensa que el conocimiento histórico es un proyecto lógico que se construye por producción sucesiva. De forma problemática, esta teoría de la historia sirve como una característica fundamental de la metodología histórica de principios del siglo XXI. El impacto de la historiografía moderna del temprano pasado medieval en la formación de mitos europeos de identidad, ideologías nacionalistas, y otros conceptos políticos y sociales extremos, ha sido establecido con precisión por eruditos como Patrick Geary, Jocelyn Hillgarth y Ian Wood. En este trabajo, el autor argumenta que los eruditos deben remontarse a la "nueva historia" del Renacimiento francés del siglo XVI para encontrar la figura-fondo a partir de la cual los estudiosos modernos construyen su prisma para observar la temprana Edad Media. A tal fin, el autor rastrea la historia de un texto, el Código Visigotico (Liber Iudiciorum), la gran narrativa legal-histórica de la España del siglo VII, de su publicación en París en 1579, por Pierre Pithou. Este interrogante comenzará a revelar los orígenes modernos tempranos de representaciones históricas modernas y el impacto de estos orígenes en las historiografías del siglo XXI y el método histórico. ; Para acceder al Dossier utilice el link: http://revistascientificas.filo.uba.ar/index.php/AcHAM/article/view/2328

Historical knowledge is commonly believed to be a logical project that builds upon itself by successive generation. Problematically, this theory of history serves as a foundational feature of twenty-first-century historical methodology. The impact of modern historiography of the early medieval past on the formation of European myths of identity, nationalist ideologies and other extreme social and political concepts has been fairly established by scholars such as Patrick Geary, Jocelyn Hillgarth and Ian Wood. In this paper, the author argues that scholars need to reach back to the 'new history' of the sixteenth-century French Renaissance to find the figure-ground upon which modern scholars would construct their prism for seeing the Early Middle Ages. The author does this by following the history of one text, the Liber Iudiciorum (Visigothic Code), the grand legal-historical narrative of seventh-century Iberia, from its publication in Paris, in 1579, by Pierre Pithou. This interrogation will start to reveal the early modern origins of modern historical representations and the impact of those origins on twenty-first-century historiographies and historical method. ; Para acceder al Dossier utilice el link: http://revistascientificas.filo.uba.ar/index.php/AcHAM/article/view/2328 ; En general, se piensa que el conocimiento histórico es un proyecto lógico que se construye por producción sucesiva. De forma problemática, esta teoría de la historia sirve como una característica fundamental de la metodología histórica de principios del siglo XXI. El impacto de la historiografía moderna del temprano pasado medieval en la formación de mitos europeos de identidad, ideologías nacionalistas, y otros conceptos políticos y sociales extremos, ha sido establecido con precisión por eruditos como Patrick Geary, Jocelyn Hillgarth y Ian Wood. En este trabajo, el autor argumenta que los eruditos deben remontarse a la "nueva historia" del Renacimiento francés del siglo XVI para encontrar la figura-fondo a partir de la cual los estudiosos ...

En general, se piensa que el conocimiento histórico es un proyecto lógico que se construye por producción sucesiva. De forma problemática, esta teoría de la historia sirve como una característica fundamental de la metodología histórica de principios del siglo XXI. El impacto de la historiografía moderna del temprano pasado medieval en la formación de mitos europeos de identidad, ideologías nacionalistas, y otros conceptos políticos y sociales extremos, ha sido establecido con precisión por eruditos como Patrick Geary, Jocelyn Hillgarth y Ian Wood. En este trabajo, el autor argumenta que los eruditos deben remontarse a la "nueva historia" del Renacimiento francés del siglo XVI para encontrar la figura-fondo a partir de la cual los estudiosos modernos construyen su prisma para observar la temprana Edad Media. A tal fin, el autor rastrea la historia de un texto, el Código Visigotico (Liber Iudiciorum), la gran narrativa legal-histórica de la España del siglo VII, de su publicación en París en 1579, por Pierre Pithou. Este interrogante comenzará a revelar los orígenes modernos tempranos de representaciones históricas modernas y el impacto de estos orígenes en las historiografías del siglo XXI y el método histórico. ; Historical knowledge is commonly believed to be a logical project that builds upon itself by successive generation. Problematically, this theory of history serves as a foundational feature of twenty-first-century historical methodology. The impact of modern historiography of the early medieval past on the formation of European myths of identity, nationalist ideologies and other extreme social and political concepts has been fairly established by scholars such as Patrick Geary, Jocelyn Hillgarth and Ian Wood. In this paper, the author argues that scholars need to reach back to the 'new history' of the sixteenth-century French Renaissance to find the figure-ground upon which modern scholars would construct their prism for seeing the Early Middle Ages. The author does this by following the history of one text, the Liber Iudiciorum (Visigothic Code), the grand legal-historical narrative of seventh-century Iberia, from its publication in Paris, in 1579, by Pierre Pithou. This interrogation will start to reveal the early modern origins of modern historical representations and the impact of those origins on twenty-first-century historiographies and historical method.