Suchergebnisse

This response to critics gives me the opportunity to develop some aspects of the argument in Authoritarian Liberalism and the Transformation of Modern Europe. I do so by foregrounding the concept of political freedom, articulated by Franz Neumann. Authoritarian liberalism operates by suppressing political freedom and democracy. First making its mark in late Weimar, authoritarian liberalism is constructed in a more passive fashion in the decades after the Second Word War. Although it is contested by social movements in the 1960's and 70's, it is ultimately reinforced in the turn to neoliberalism. This reaches its apogee at the Treaty of Maastricht, with the de-politicization of economic and monetary union and the deepening and widening of the European Union. German ordoliberalism, which functions as an ideological support to authoritarian liberalism, is instructive, but is only a part of this story; Germany is at most 'semi-hegemonic' in Europe. Authoritarian liberalism operates instead through limiting the constitutional imagination in all member states of the Union. I end with some reflections on Walter Benjamin, whose philosophy of history inspired the cover of the book.

This paper is the introductory chapter to Authoritarian Liberalism and the Transformation of Modern Europe (OUP 2021). The book recounts the transformation of Europe from the interwar era until the euro crisis, using the tools of constitutional analysis and critical theory. Interwar liberalism, rocked by mass politics and social inequality, actively turns to authoritarianism in an attempt to suppress democracy, with disastrous consequences in Weimar and beyond. After the Second World War, economic liberalism is restored through a passive authoritarianism: inter-state sovereignty is restrained, state-society relations are depoliticised, and class struggle subdued. This transformation takes time to unfold and it presents continuities as well as discontinuities. It is deepened by the neoliberalism of the Maastricht era and yet counter-movements then also emerge, which are more actively repressed through the authoritarian liberalism of the euro crisis phase. This leads now to an impasse. If the postwar order of authoritarian liberalism has reached its limits, as suggested by the emergence of an authoritarian populism, there is yet to be any definitive rupture.

This paper is the introductory chapter to Authoritarian Liberalism and the Transformation of Modern Europe (OUP 2021). The book recounts the transformation of Europe from the interwar era until the euro crisis, using the tools of constitutional analysis and critical theory. Interwar liberalism, rocked by mass politics and social inequality, actively turns to authoritarianism in an attempt to suppress democracy, with disastrous consequences in Weimar and beyond. After the Second World War, economic liberalism is restored through a passive authoritarianism: inter-state sovereignty is restrained, state-society relations are depoliticised, and class struggle subdued. This transformation takes time to unfold and it presents continuities as well as discontinuities. It is deepened by the neoliberalism of the Maastricht era and yet counter-movements then also emerge, which are more actively repressed through the authoritarian liberalism of the euro crisis phase. This leads now to an impasse. If the postwar order of authoritarian liberalism has reached its limits, as suggested by the emergence of an authoritarian populism, there is yet to be any definitive rupture.

In 1942, the sociologist Pitirim Sorokin, a survivor of the post-WorldWar I pandemic, published "Man and Society in Calamity," a comparative study of the human response (including political responses) to four recurrent mass-death events. One was "pestilence." Sorokin reached many general conclusions. In Fall of 2020, the author of this paper (Wilkinson) held a seminar whose students attempted to re-evaluate Sorokin's conclusions, based upon their own experiences, observations, and mutual dialogue. In general, the seminar found that Sorokin's conclusions were mostly still applicable, but that his social theory of pestilence needed drastic changes as concerned (a) the gendered, class-based, ethnic and national distribution of pestilence and its consequences of pestilence, (b) the much-changed capacity (from 1942) for the scientific and technological response to pestilence, and (c) the much changed capacity (again, since 1942) for international-organizational response to pestilence. With these updates, Sorokin's theory of the human social response to pestilence can serve as guidance both for study and for policy in regard not only to the current pandemic, but for epidemics and pandemics yet to come.

This thesis examines men's experiences of change during a prolonged ceasefire in the state of Nagaland, India, following decades of armed conflict. Nagaland's conflict has had an immense impact on life in the state. Conflict is a source of economic stagnation, state dysfunction, and has encouraged the preservation and maintenance of a rigidly gendered social order that frames Naga men as guardians and protectors of Naga territory, culture and society from outside intruders. However, following ceasefires signed in the late 1990s and early 2000s, immense changes are taking place in Nagaland. The frontier state is becoming more economically incorporated and politically integrated with India, and a younger generation of Nagas have greatly different experiences with the Indian state than their elders. In light of these changes, the rigidly gendered model of Naga society is subject to new questions and new challenges. In this thesis, I ask 'how do men in Nagaland experience ceasefire and its associated changes?' Through ethnographic fieldwork involving interviews and observations made throughout the state this thesis reaches three conclusions. First, that ceasefire in Nagaland is conducive to a number of wider social changes that extend well beyond the immediate goals of the ceasefire. Second, that liberalization at the post-conflict frontier is marginalizing for certain groups of men in ways that are obscured by the presence of patriarchal customary institutions in the frontier. Third, that changes associated with ceasefire and liberalization at the post-conflict frontier are conducive to a patriarchal backlash against migrants and Naga women agitating for change.

Postwar Europe is partly reconstituted by a fear of democratic freedom, and a desire for political and economic stability. Constitutional relations are transformed over time through a mixture of political authoritarianism and economic liberalism. This takes place in a combination of domestic and supranational developments. The transformation also has a utopian dimension, and outlining its utopianism can help identify its ideological character. It is captured by such related terms as 'postpolitics', 'post-nationalism', 'post-sovereignty' and 'the 'end of history'. These terms all point to the way in which authoritarian liberalism is maintained not only – and perhaps not even predominantly - through coercion and consent but also in the grey area in between, namely through practices and beliefs that suggest politics can be transcended and the medium of law reign supreme. We may call this the new German ideology. It becomes a dominant trope in the European constitutional imagination. Although it is unsettled after Maastricht and enters a critical phase through the financial crisis, the new German ideology remains relatively resilient. It benefits from the support of a critical theory that has lost its moorings, and a political system that is able to incorporate aspects of authoritarian populism, even as the centre ground appears increasingly fragile.

This article will examine the rise and fragmentation of the All India Student Federation (AISF), 1936-1950. The AISF initially represented a successful attempt at consolidating the existing student organizations in colonial India and a dramatic indication of student power at the national level. This student movement became an arena for the negotiation of political and religious youth identities during the final decade of the British Raj. Indian students and their student leaders responded to wider political change, especially the power configuration of political parties, with a search for distinct political spaces for youth. The struggle for control and secessions from the organization, however, brought about its fragmentation. During WWII, student and adult political leaders competed to mobilize the splintered student movements for the purposes of civil defense, social service and for the Quit India movement. I will also argue these AISF groups became the convergence point for the colonial and early-post colonial state's coercive network.

This article develops my existing published work on The Fall, which seeks to examine the consequences of Mark E. Smith's classed, educational and regional formation on the band's aesthetics and politics. I think through these latter categories both as they unfolded during The Fall's post-punk peak and as they signify in the present, bridging this gap through the elaboration of the concept of 'the working class weird'. Over the past decade, the work of Mark Fisher has traced a fascinating, if speculative, formal and classed history to The Fall's 'pulp modernism'. Here, I respond to and build upon Fisher's work by situating The Fall more concretely within a postwar British history of working class experiments with avant-garde cultural form. I locate the band's output within the shifting class relations of the late 20th century and explore its conflicted ideological implications, arguing that although Smith and The Fall may appear to presage and articulate a particular variant of working class conservatism that has coalesced around Brexit, their work also retains elements of utopianism and intransigent oppositionality.

At the cornerstone of "Brexit" is the idea that the UK would be better off outside of the EU. Though the motivation for Brexit was, in my opinion, largely political, we have since the 2016 vote observed the encroaching panic on how to deal with its impending economic implications.

Both the UK and EU have consistently acknowledged that a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) may not be achieved and –as the clock runs down on the transition period –a proliferating view is that the possibility of an EU-UK trading relationship based on WTO terms seems at least very likely, if not reality.

This article argues that the combination of dialogicity, monologicity and polyphony in Jelinek's play Die Schutzbefohlenen [Charges] serves to present Austria and the EU's so-called 'refugee crisis' as a crisis of hospitality. Specifically, it analyses moments in the play text where dialogue is attempted but fails or where voices talk past each other to suggest that the monologic aspects of the text highlight both the inhospitality experienced by many seeking refuge in Austria and the EU as well as the sense of crisis among host-society politicians and citizens, stemming from their perception that they can neither control the arrival of refugees nor the discourse surrounding them.

Children and young people are now living in an era where their daily routines are saturated with different media platforms, competing for their attention. Once such platform is radio. Whilst other forms of media, such as social media and television, are associated with negative portrayals of young people in some contemporary popular and academic debate, radio has often been met with positive appraisals. For instance, radio has been heralded for its ability to empower young people and to position young people within dominant societal discourses, from which they were previously excluded. Writings on radio are a multidisciplinary effort, drawing on fields including communication and media studies; human geography; sociology; journalism; cultural studies; and musicology. There are many different 'types' of radio stations on which scholarship exists, including but not limited to commercial; community; college; university; and net-only. Most research into radio (particularly community radio) has used case studies from developing nations. Specific policy and political regulatory structures exist within different countries, and so research is not easily transferable. This article will introduce the reader to dominant themes and areas of interest from international and interdisciplinary scholarship regarding children and young people's relationships with radio – both as listeners and as volunteers/staff - as explored in academic debate. This bibliography begins by detailing texts that provide useful overviews of the topic of children, young people and radio. It then lists and discusses useful textbooks and journals. The paper then moves on to discuss textbooks and journal articles thematically, beginning with empowerment and voice, then belonging, community and social inclusion, and a final thematic section on learning, knowledge and skills. Texts discussing online radio and the history of radio as it intersects with young people are also discussed. The paper concludes by detailing useful resources for making radio, either by, or for, children and young people.

Constructions of masculinity in Nagaland have historically focused on stereotypes of a premodern, warrior savage. Early discussions are rife with ascriptions of primitiveness and a widely perceived adherence to 'headhunting' practices. Recent discussions of masculine discourses in Nagaland engage with ideas of manhood and masculinity as externally informed and influenced by these constructions, as well as Indian mass media, and national and international tourism dialogues. I argue that masculinity in Nagaland navigates myriad structures and scales of identity, involving shades of this externally drawn masculinity, as well as local configurations of masculinity that are less salient and 'loud', but in many ways are highly relevant to the changing nature of identity in Nagaland. Essentially, masculinity in Nagaland is fluid and dynamic, despite popular tourist and media rhetoric framing Naga men as cut from an ancient, temporally distinct, and savage stock. It is informed by these historical stereotypes, but also by contemporary politics and social issues. This is important for two reasons. Firstly, it contributes to discussions of multi-scalar identity in Nagaland, how Naga culture is presented to the outside world, and the ways many Nagas perceive themselves in a changing Nagaland. Secondly, these identity structures shape identity politics and political outcomes today, a phenomenon that is part of larger local debates on marginality in Nagaland.

Across the world, in countries with permissive or restrictive existing legislation, debates about Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide (EAS) continue to grip politicians, ethicists, physicians and the wider public. Early debates about EAS focused on whether it could ever be ethical for a physician to actively cause the death of a patient. However, most contemporary writers, including most of the contributors to this special double issue of the JME appear to accept that such actions could, in some circumstances, be ethical. Current debate is mostly focused instead on which actions are permissible, when they are permissible, and what safeguards are necessary to protect the vulnerable.

In the mid 21st century, humans finally established a small community on Mars. The Martian colony grew slowly over its first 50 years. There were substantial technical challenges to living in the artificial biospheres. Early colonists had to accept significant restrictions because of the harshness of the environment, and the limited shared physical space. However, by 2116, the community was starting to relax its initial strictures. There was a growing community of young, native Martians. Technology was more robust. Some of the initial strict rules were being reconsidered and debated in the Martian parliament. One question, tabled for late 2116, was whether it should be permissible to grow tobacco. Smoking had not been an option for the initial colonists. Only non-smokers were allowed to travel because of the dangers of fire during the long journey from Earth and in the first generation of domes. But now the atmospheric regulators were stable enough to cope with combustion of plant matter, while the community had sophisticated mechanisms to prevent dangerous fires. Should Martians be allowed to smoke?