The article outlines a methodological concept of political sensibility, building upon the politic... more The article outlines a methodological concept of political sensibility, building upon the political difference theory. Merging the ideas of the associative and dissociative theoretical branches of political difference literature, first, an integrated framework of the political condition is presented. From this, analytical dimensions are derived, namely, the associative/dissociative, the political/apolitical/discontentious, the static/processual, and the vertical/horizontal dimensions of the political. Second, the interpretive and ontological turns in social science are conceptualized, according to this framework, as a politicization of science. Taking this motion further, third, ideas to enact a politically sensible science are developed along the methodologically turned dimensions (merging the second and the third to an acknowledging/acting dimension). A political sensibility could deliver analytical categories to look upon political phenomena beyond structurally limited conception...
Master thesis concluding the „Democratic Politics and Communication“ degree program, University o... more Master thesis concluding the „Democratic Politics and Communication“ degree program, University of Trier, supervision: Prof.Dr. Winfired Thaa, June 2017. Abstract The post-socialist space is anything but a steady region. Numerous conflicts, political crises, lingering corruption and oligarchic power claims, and economic instabilities are feeding into growing discontent within the region’s populaces. This contradicts sharply the prognoses of the so called „transition paradigm“ in social sciences and economics – the assumption that, after the collapse of the Eastern bloc, the former socialist societies would fall in line with a somewhat unilinear, determined macro-stream of societal modernization. Using the reconstruction-deconstruction political theory technique, in this thesis I assess academic texts from the field of transformation studies to show the following: (1) The confrontation between supporters of the catch-up modernization paradigm and authors cautioning „problems of simultaneity“ are grounded in the same theoretical presuppositions, stating the universality and desirability of neoevolutionally determined societal modernization. (2) These mainstream presuppositions pose a highly problematic grounding for investigating societal transformations: The neoevolutional modernization theory normativistically objectifies its own premises, it is a teleological, functionalist theory. Deviations from its predictions can only be described negatively, it rather evaluates outcomes than that it describes processes. Policies formed following such a theory are mechanistic, human agency is left aside. This theoretical one-sidedness left some gaps in the academic understanding of post-socialist transformations. The field remained undercomplex in terms of democracy theory, underestimated the power aspirations of old elites and was left blind towards the heterogeneity and contingency of lived reality and civil societies in the post-socialist region.
Master thesis concluding the „Democratic Politics and Communication“ degree program, University o... more Master thesis concluding the „Democratic Politics and Communication“ degree program, University of Trier, supervision: Prof.Dr. Winfired Thaa, June 2017.
Abstract The post-socialist space is anything but a steady region. Numerous conflicts, political crises, lingering corruption and oligarchic power claims, and economic instabilities are feeding into growing discontent within the region’s populaces. This contradicts sharply the prognoses of the so called „transition paradigm“ in social sciences and economics – the assumption that, after the collapse of the Eastern bloc, the former socialist societies would fall in line with a somewhat unilinear, determined macro-stream of societal modernization. Using the reconstruction-deconstruction political theory technique, in this thesis I assess academic texts from the field of transformation studies to show the following: (1) The confrontation between supporters of the catch-up modernization paradigm and authors cautioning „problems of simultaneity“ are grounded in the same theoretical presuppositions, stating the universality and desirability of neoevolutionally determined societal modernization. (2) These mainstream presuppositions pose a highly problematic grounding for investigating societal transformations: The neoevolutional modernization theory normativistically objectifies its own premises, it is a teleological, functionalist theory. Deviations from its predictions can only be described negatively, it rather evaluates outcomes than that it describes processes. Policies formed following such a theory are mechanistic, human agency is left aside. This theoretical one-sidedness left some gaps in the academic understanding of post-socialist transformations. The field remained undercomplex in terms of democracy theory, underestimated the power aspirations of old elites and was left blind towards the heterogeneity and contingency of lived reality and civil societies in the post-socialist region.
The article outlines a methodological concept of political sensibility, building upon the politic... more The article outlines a methodological concept of political sensibility, building upon the political difference theory. Merging the ideas of the associative and dissociative theoretical branches of political difference literature, first, an integrated framework of the political condition is presented. From this, analytical dimensions are derived, namely, the associative/dissociative, the political/apolitical/discontentious, the static/processual, and the vertical/horizontal dimensions of the political. Second, the interpretive and ontological turns in social science are conceptualized, according to this framework, as a politicization of science. Taking this motion further, third, ideas to enact a politically sensible science are developed along the methodologically turned dimensions (merging the second and the third to an acknowledging/acting dimension). A political sensibility could deliver analytical categories to look upon political phenomena beyond structurally limited conception...
Master thesis concluding the „Democratic Politics and Communication“ degree program, University o... more Master thesis concluding the „Democratic Politics and Communication“ degree program, University of Trier, supervision: Prof.Dr. Winfired Thaa, June 2017. Abstract The post-socialist space is anything but a steady region. Numerous conflicts, political crises, lingering corruption and oligarchic power claims, and economic instabilities are feeding into growing discontent within the region’s populaces. This contradicts sharply the prognoses of the so called „transition paradigm“ in social sciences and economics – the assumption that, after the collapse of the Eastern bloc, the former socialist societies would fall in line with a somewhat unilinear, determined macro-stream of societal modernization. Using the reconstruction-deconstruction political theory technique, in this thesis I assess academic texts from the field of transformation studies to show the following: (1) The confrontation between supporters of the catch-up modernization paradigm and authors cautioning „problems of simultaneity“ are grounded in the same theoretical presuppositions, stating the universality and desirability of neoevolutionally determined societal modernization. (2) These mainstream presuppositions pose a highly problematic grounding for investigating societal transformations: The neoevolutional modernization theory normativistically objectifies its own premises, it is a teleological, functionalist theory. Deviations from its predictions can only be described negatively, it rather evaluates outcomes than that it describes processes. Policies formed following such a theory are mechanistic, human agency is left aside. This theoretical one-sidedness left some gaps in the academic understanding of post-socialist transformations. The field remained undercomplex in terms of democracy theory, underestimated the power aspirations of old elites and was left blind towards the heterogeneity and contingency of lived reality and civil societies in the post-socialist region.
Master thesis concluding the „Democratic Politics and Communication“ degree program, University o... more Master thesis concluding the „Democratic Politics and Communication“ degree program, University of Trier, supervision: Prof.Dr. Winfired Thaa, June 2017.
Abstract The post-socialist space is anything but a steady region. Numerous conflicts, political crises, lingering corruption and oligarchic power claims, and economic instabilities are feeding into growing discontent within the region’s populaces. This contradicts sharply the prognoses of the so called „transition paradigm“ in social sciences and economics – the assumption that, after the collapse of the Eastern bloc, the former socialist societies would fall in line with a somewhat unilinear, determined macro-stream of societal modernization. Using the reconstruction-deconstruction political theory technique, in this thesis I assess academic texts from the field of transformation studies to show the following: (1) The confrontation between supporters of the catch-up modernization paradigm and authors cautioning „problems of simultaneity“ are grounded in the same theoretical presuppositions, stating the universality and desirability of neoevolutionally determined societal modernization. (2) These mainstream presuppositions pose a highly problematic grounding for investigating societal transformations: The neoevolutional modernization theory normativistically objectifies its own premises, it is a teleological, functionalist theory. Deviations from its predictions can only be described negatively, it rather evaluates outcomes than that it describes processes. Policies formed following such a theory are mechanistic, human agency is left aside. This theoretical one-sidedness left some gaps in the academic understanding of post-socialist transformations. The field remained undercomplex in terms of democracy theory, underestimated the power aspirations of old elites and was left blind towards the heterogeneity and contingency of lived reality and civil societies in the post-socialist region.
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Papers by Nina Krienke
Abstract
The post-socialist space is anything but a steady region. Numerous conflicts, political crises, lingering corruption and oligarchic power claims, and economic instabilities are feeding into growing discontent within the region’s populaces. This contradicts sharply the prognoses of the so called „transition paradigm“ in social sciences and economics – the assumption that, after the collapse of the Eastern bloc, the former socialist societies would fall in line with a somewhat unilinear, determined macro-stream of societal modernization.
Using the reconstruction-deconstruction political theory technique, in this thesis I assess academic texts from the field of transformation studies to show the following: (1) The confrontation between supporters of the catch-up modernization paradigm and authors cautioning „problems of simultaneity“ are grounded in the same theoretical presuppositions, stating the universality and desirability of neoevolutionally determined societal modernization. (2) These mainstream presuppositions pose a highly problematic grounding for investigating societal transformations: The neoevolutional modernization theory normativistically objectifies its own premises, it is a teleological, functionalist theory. Deviations from its predictions can only be described negatively, it rather evaluates outcomes than that it describes processes. Policies formed following such a theory are mechanistic, human agency is left aside.
This theoretical one-sidedness left some gaps in the academic understanding of post-socialist transformations. The field remained undercomplex in terms of democracy theory, underestimated the power aspirations of old elites and was left blind towards the heterogeneity and contingency of lived reality and civil societies in the post-socialist region.
Book Reviews by Nina Krienke
Abstract
The post-socialist space is anything but a steady region. Numerous conflicts, political crises, lingering corruption and oligarchic power claims, and economic instabilities are feeding into growing discontent within the region’s populaces. This contradicts sharply the prognoses of the so called „transition paradigm“ in social sciences and economics – the assumption that, after the collapse of the Eastern bloc, the former socialist societies would fall in line with a somewhat unilinear, determined macro-stream of societal modernization.
Using the reconstruction-deconstruction political theory technique, in this thesis I assess academic texts from the field of transformation studies to show the following: (1) The confrontation between supporters of the catch-up modernization paradigm and authors cautioning „problems of simultaneity“ are grounded in the same theoretical presuppositions, stating the universality and desirability of neoevolutionally determined societal modernization. (2) These mainstream presuppositions pose a highly problematic grounding for investigating societal transformations: The neoevolutional modernization theory normativistically objectifies its own premises, it is a teleological, functionalist theory. Deviations from its predictions can only be described negatively, it rather evaluates outcomes than that it describes processes. Policies formed following such a theory are mechanistic, human agency is left aside.
This theoretical one-sidedness left some gaps in the academic understanding of post-socialist transformations. The field remained undercomplex in terms of democracy theory, underestimated the power aspirations of old elites and was left blind towards the heterogeneity and contingency of lived reality and civil societies in the post-socialist region.