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The book is a collection of essays, which aim to situate African legal theory in the context of the myriad of contemporary global challenges; from the prevalence of war to the misery of poverty and disease to the crises of the environment. Apart from being problems that have an indelible African mark on them, a common theme that runs throughout the essays in this book is that African legal theory has been excluded, under-explored or under-theorised in the search for solutions to such contemporary problems. The essays make a modest attempt to reverse this trend. The contributors investigate and introduce readers to the key issues, questions, concepts, impulses and problems that underpin the idea of African legal theory. They outline the potential offered by African legal theory and open up its key concepts and impulses for critical scrutiny. This is done in order to develop a better understanding of the extent to which African legal theory can contribute to discourses seeking to address some of the challenges that confront African and non-African societies alike

The purpose of this study is to seek to an answer to the question of what constitutes a tenable model for global ethics. This is done in part by a critical engagement with four different models of global ethics; two proposals from political philosophy and two contributions from theological ethics. The models analyzed in the study are: (1) the capabilities approach as developed by Martha Nussbaum, (2) Seyla Benhabib's discourse ethics and model of cosmopolitan federalism, (3) David Hollenbach's model of the common good and human rights, and (4) the model for responsibility ethics and theological humanism as developed by William Schweiker. These models contain different understandings of global justice, human rights, and sustainable development. The study works with six primary problems: (1) Which are the main moral problems associated with different processes of globalization? (2) What should be the response to these problems, in the form of a normative ethical model? (3) What is the relation between global ethics and universalism? (4) What kind of institutional vision for the international arena does a tenable global ethic promote? (5) Given the human diversity and global pluralism, what would be a reasonable view of the human being included in a global ethic? (6) What kind of ethical theory is sustainable for global ethical reflection? These questions also form the basis for the analysis of the models. The study uses a set of criteria in order to assess the answers that the models offer for these questions. These criteria also constitute the framework within which the author's contribution to the discussion of global ethics is phrased. The criteria are founded on an idea of what characterizes global ethical reflection. The contention is that a tenable global ethic should be relevant, and it should also be related to a reasonable view of human beings and a plausible ethical theory. Together these support the criterion of communicability, which argues that a global ethic should above all be communicable, i.e. capable of enabling cross-cultural communication. A central argument which this study makes is that a kind of ethical contextualism is more reasonable than an epistemological universalism.

This article aims to bring together post-Marxist discourse theory and the critique of political economy in the context of the debate on the Marxian theory of value. Although Laclau and Mouffe criticized Marxism for its economic reductionism, they did not connect this to a comprehensive critique of Marx's writings on value and labor. The merit of considering the theory of value in more detail is underscored by discourse theory's relative silence on the capitalist economy. By drawing on the work of Postone and Elson, it will become clear that there are largely two ways to interpret Marx's theory of value: either as an essentialist theory of price and exploitation, or as a historically specific theory of the constitution of social labor relations in capitalist society. By teasing out Laclau's implicit understanding of Marx's value theory, the article argues that it is in fact his essentialist interpretation of the labor theory of value that constitutes an obstacle toward grasping the social relations of labor and commodity production from a discourse-theoretical perspective. This clears the ground toward approaching Marx's value theory from a post-Marxist perspective, which would grasp the social relations of abstract labor as a hegemonic formation.

18 páginas ; El artículo indaga desde la perspectiva del análisis del discurso, el sintagma "calidad educativa" en diversos documentos de política educativa de finales del siglo XX, con el propósito de dilucidar el sentido político-social de la educación. Sostiene que el concepto de "calidad educativa" es un punto privilegiado de reflexión, en tanto opera como una síntesis del conjunto de ideas mediante el que se desea establecer las propiedades de la educación. Este trabajo establece un análisis de la configuración del discurso de la calidad de la educación como forma precaria y relativa de fijación del sentido, que se halla vinculado directamente al orden social. ; This article looks at the phrase "quality education" in a number of documents on education policy at the end of the twentieth century. It does so from the standpoint of analyzing the discourse on this point and to clarify the political and social meaning of education. The author argues the concept of "quality education" is a privileged point of reflection and one that combines all the ideas we want the properties of education to reflect. This study considers the pattern of the discourse on the quality of education as a precarious and relative way to assign meaning that is linked directly to the social order.

This article investigates citations metrics as an institutional phenomenon from two perspectives: first it tries to articulate the role of citation metrics within a Gramscian framework; second it compares citation patterns from orthodox and heterodox economic journals to gain insights on the current economic discourse. Complementary to this general question the role of the Review of Radical Political Economics within citation metrics will be discussed. JEL classification: A14, B50, B51

In theDiscourse on Inequality, Rousseau presents himself as declaiming in "the Lyceum of Athens" but in the presence of Plato and Xenocrates. Why should Rousseau's arguments be heard in such precincts, and why, moreover, is Aristotle missing from them? Rousseau's response to the topic proposed by the Dijon Academy, on which the Discourse was based, may be correspondingly interpreted as a response to Aristotle's philosophy of nature and of the ways in which that philosophy informs thePoliticsin particular. The critique Rousseau thereby offers of an Aristotelian discourse of nature and society invokes a similar challenge once presented by ancient Epicureanism, and reflects the extraordinary revival of interest in Lucretius'On the Nature of Things, a poem that became the focus of intense critical scrutiny during the Enlightenment. We may therefore understand why theDiscourse on Inequalitywas read as an "Epicurean" text by certain contemporaries, and recognize particular critical objectives served by Epicurean philosophical resources that were further deployed in works like theSocial ContractandLetters Written from the Mountain, reflecting Rousseau's engagement with Genevan reform politics of the 1750s and 1760s.

In postmodern area, flexible and innovative management should become an integral part of the European education system as every knowledge-based society demands to educate high-quality specialists. The present research combines two dimensions: structural and administrative, including a dual fringe of both management and teacher education environments in the Nordic democratic space. The article offers a comparative analysis of the structural model, administrative principles, and new management initiatives in teacher professional training within the tertiary education system of neo-liberal Denmark. The Danish context is the most essential because this country has gained a unique experience in creating an effective system of self-governing teacher education institutions existing on a relevant background of centralized and decentralized management principles. The methodological contribution of this research is based on a case study approach that includes methods of qualitative analysis, critical induction, information reinterpretation, and generalization. Neo-liberal management initiatives of the Danish democratic state aimed at improving pedagogical education after postmodern period are considered to be a part of the response to the ongoing need for high-quality professional training of teachers based on a solid foundation of autonomy and effective innovative practices.

Neste artigo, tratamos da accountability horizontal, da accountability societal vertical, da representação e da intertextualidade a fim de analisar as representações discursivas da escola democrática, da qualidade da democracia (DIAMOND; MORLINO, 2005; O'DONNEL, 1998) e da violência (MINAYO, 2006, 2009) que reproduzem relações de dominação e de exploração (FAIRCLOUGH, 2003). Esse estudo demonstra como os efeitos potenciais de sentido que a mídia jornalística transmite, no gênero reportagem, legitimam relações sociais hegemônicas. A análise linguística dos textos verbais, não verbais e multimodais da reportagem do portal de notícias Metrópoles sobre escolas públicas do Distrito Federal focou a seleção lexical de textos verbais, o enfoque multimodal e as metáforas utilizadas com base na Análise de Discurso Crítica (ADC) (FAIRCLOUGH, 2001, 2003, 2006) e na Teoria da Semiótica Social da Multimodalidade (TSSM) (KRESS; VAN LEEUWEN, 2001, 2006 [1996]; KRESS, 2010). Nesta pesquisa, evidenciou-se que o jornalista legitimou relações sociais hegemônicas, apesar de demonstrar alto comprometimento com a identidade social criada para o Governo do Distrito Federal por meio das metáforas que utilizou e da seleção lexical que fez dos relatos dessas autoridades. ; This work concerns the horizontal and vertical societal accountabilities, as well as representation and intertextuality, in order to analyze discursive representations of the democratic school, including quality of the democracy (DIAMOND; MORLINO, 2005; O'DONNEL, 1998) and the violence (MINAYO, 2006, 2009) that reproduces relations of dominance and exploration (FAIRCLOUGH, 2003). This study demonstrates how meaning-making potentials broadcasted by the journalistic media can legitimate social hegemonic relations. The linguistic analysis of verbal, non-verbal and multimodal texts found in an article from the portal "Metrópoles" on public schools of the Federal District focused on the lexical selection of verbal texts, multimodal approach and metaphors used based on the Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) (FAIRCLOUGH, 2001, 2003, 2006) and on the Theory of Multimodal Social Semiotics (TMSS) (KRESS; VAN LEEUWEN, 2001, 2006 [1996]; KRESS, 2010). This research evidenced that the journalist legitimated social hegemonic relations, despite showing a high level of commitment to the social identity created for the Government of the Federal District by means of metaphors and lexical selection used to depict such authorities.

This paper engages with the growth of contemporary fascism by arguing that affect plays a key role in its discourse. Departing from an understanding of affect as integral to discourse, the paper explores how the myth of palingenesis is employed by the most prominent Swedish Nazi movement to recruit new members. A methodological combination of affective – discursive theory, detailed representational analysis, and a critical reading that buys into the representations reveals the recruitment discourse as offering an affective script of feeling angry, insulted, and ashamed, as well as courageous, proud, and hopeful. These findings offer important insights into how affective–discursive practices are employed to create gateways to radicalization and ideologically motivated violence. In order to make sense of the attractiveness of contemporary fascism, the paper concludingly argues for multifaceted readings and contemplative critical engagement with the far and extreme right.

Examines LatCrit's emergence as a scholarly and activist community within and beyond the US legal academyEmerging from the US legal academy in 1995, LatCrit theory is a genre of critical outsider jurisprudence—a vital hub of contemporary scholarship that includes Feminist Legal Theory and Critical Race Theory, among other critical schools of legal knowledge. Its basic goals have been: (1) to develop a critical, activist, and inter-disciplinary discourse on law and society affecting Latinas/os/x, and (2) to foster both the development of coalitional theory and practice as well as the accessibility of this knowledge to agents of social and legal transformative change.This slim volume tells the story of LatCrit's growth and influence as a scholarly and activist community. Francisco Valdes and Steven W. Bender offer a living example of how critical outsider academics can organize long-term collective action, both in law and society, that will help those similarly inclined to better organize themselves. Part roadmap, part historical record, and part a path forward, LatCrit: From Critical Legal Theory to Academic Activismshows that with coalition, collaboration, and community, social transformation can take root

The article considers news discourse as one of the leading genres of the media sphere, of particular concern is the issue of ideologically biased news reports. It focuses on how ideology and knowledge are managed in news discourse production and comprehension. The theoretical perspective of the paper is the critical epistemic discourse analysis proposed by T.A. van Dijk. The paper considers mental representation of the event nominated in British and American mass media as "Russian spy poisoning". The author offers the issue that knowledge may be relative to the members and the criteria of different epistemic communities, and one of the strategies of persuasion is to define beliefs as knowledge of facts. The paper reveals the communicative function and pragmatic potential of epistemic modality and evidentiality in the ideological control of news discourse. It is argued that evidentials do not always come alone but may be part of complex evidential strategies. The author claims that the evidence-epistemic markers with the semantics of knowledge / possibility / probability / likelihood in mental representation of the event "Russian spy poisoning" aim at manipulating and misleading the addressee. The article is an initial step toward analyzing the role of knowledge and beliefs in the formation of mental event models in ideologically based news discourse.

The elderly population has increased considerably in recent years and it is estimated that by 2050 32% of the Spanish population will be older persons. This group is underrepresented in the media and does not attract much research interest. To put this right, we present an analysis of the representation of older persons in advertisements appearing in magazines aimed directly or indirectly at seniors in Spain. A content analysis estimated the frequency of appearance of the images and words that represent the elderly, and a discourse analysis enabled this study to investigate the presence of stereotypes and discourse relations between advertising and theories of ageing. The results show that the older people who appear in the ads are mostly men portrayed as consumers of entertainment products who are at the beginning of their period of old age. A marked gender stereotype is observed. The differentiation between the institutional and commercial advertising discourse is also clear. The study analyses such advertising over three decades, covering the period in which the age distribution of the population has been inverted in Spain. Throughout this period, the frequency of appearance has been very low. Older persons are clearly an invisible collective in magazine advertising.

Different understandings of development and education have great socio-political implications on nations worldwide. These understandings are reflected in policy discourses. It is important to critically analyze discourses since they can unintentionally reinforce inequality in power-relations. As the World Bank's policy influences a vast number of countries and their education reforms, this study focuses on analyzing its discourse on development and education. The aim of this study is twofold: firstly, we strive to understand different approaches to development and education by examining various theoretical perspectives. Secondly, we shed light on the ways in which the World Bank Education Strategy 2020 (WBES2020) portrays development and education. Our theoretical overview of the different theories is the starting point for providing an informed critique of the Strategy. This is a qualitative study informed by a combination of critical theory, poststructuralism, and postmodernism. In our theoretical framework, we elaborate on the plurality of approaches to development and education. We discuss five different theories of development: development as economic growth, as modernization, as redistribution of power, as dependency, and finally development as freedom. We shall also give an overview of the World Bank as an institution, briefly explain how it became involved with education, and explain its contemporary position as the major financier of development and education. Our empirical framework is based on Critical Discourse Analysis, which enables the deconstruction of underlying assumptions regarding development and education in the policy discourse. In the analysis, we distinguish six recurrent discursive patterns that constitute two predominant narratives in the policy discourse of the specific World Bank strategy. Based on our analysis, we conclude that the notions of development and education in the discourse of WBES2020 are predominantly constructed within the understandings of development as economic growth and modernization. We base this claim on our Critical Discourse Analysis that draws from the theoretical understandings of diverse development theories. Policies are not merely texts, but also discourses that create reality. As development is a complex concept inseparable from culture, values, ethics, politics, and power-relations, developmental agenda should always be open for democratic debate and dialogue. ; Erilaisilla käsityksillä kehityksestä ja koulutuksesta on suuria sosiopoliittisia vaikutuksia kansakuntiin ympäri maailman. Näitä käsityksiä on mahdollista löytää poliittisista diskursseista. On tärkeää analysoida diskursseja kriittisesti, sillä ne voivat tiedostamatta vahvistaa eriarvoisuutta valtasuhteissa. Koska Maailmanpankin politiikka vaikuttaa suureen määrään maita sekä niissä tapahtuviin koulutusreformeihin, tämä tutkimus keskittyy analysoimaan sen diskursseja kehityksestä ja koulutuksesta. Tämän tutkimuksen tavoite on kaksiosainen: ensiksi haluamme ymmärtää erilaisia käsityksiä kehityksestä ja koulutuksesta tutkimalla erilaisia teoreettisia lähestymistapoja. Toiseksi, selvitämme Maailmanpankin uusimman koulutusstrategian (World Bank Education Strategy 2020) tapoja esittää kehitys ja koulutus. Teoreettinen katsauksemme erilaisiin teorioihin on lähtökohta kriittiselle analyysille Maailmanpankin koulutusstrategiasta. Tämä on kvalitatiivinen tutkimus, joka perustuu yhdistelmään kriittisestä teoriasta, poststrukturalismista ja postmodernismista. Teoreettisessa viitekehyksessämme esittelemme kehityksen ja koulutuksen teorioiden moninaisuutta. Keskitymme kuvaamaan viittä erilaista teoriaa kehityksestä: kehitys taloudellisena kasvuna, modernisaationa, vallan uudelleenjakamisena, riippuvuutena, ja lopuksi kehitys vapautena. Lisäksi kuvaamme lyhyesti Maailmanpankkia instituutiona, kerromme miten koulutus tuli osaksi sen toiminta-aluetta ja avaamme Maailmanpankin nykyistä asemaa suurimpana kansainvälisenä koulutuksen ja kehityksen rahoittajana. Empiirinen viitekehyksemme perustuu kriittiseen diskurssianalyysiin, joka mahdollistaa poliittisessa diskursissa piilevien kehitykseen ja koulutukseen liittyvien oletusten purkamisen. Erottelemme analyysissämme kuusi toistuvaa diskursiivista mallia, jotka muodostavat kaksi laajempaa, hallitsevaa narratiivia Maailmanpankin kyseisen asiakirjan poliittisessa diskurssissa. Analyysimme perusteella toteamme, että Maailmanpankin koulutusstrategian käsitykset kehityksestä ja koulutuksesta ovat pääosin sijoitettavissa teorioihin, jotka ymmärtävät kehityksen taloudellisena kasvuna ja modernisaationa. Väitteemme perustuu kriittiseen diskurssianalyysiimme, joka puolestaan pohjautuu ymmärrykseemme erilaisista kehitykseen liittyvistä teorioista. Poliittiset linjaukset eivät ole pelkästään tekstiä, vaan myös diskursseja, jotka luovat todellisuutta. Tämän takia on tärkeää tarkastella kriittisesti tapoja, joilla kehitystä ja koulutusta kuvataan poliittisissa asiakirjoissa. Koska kehitys on monimutkainen käsite, jota ei voida erottaa kulttuurista, arvoista, etiikasta, politiikasta, tai valtasuhteista, kehitystyön tulisi olla aina avointa demokraattiselle keskustelulle ja dialogille.