The Political

The special issue New Swedish environmental and sustainability education
research, published in Education & Democracy 20(1), introduced
a novel generation of Swedish ESD research. With the intention to spur
academic debate this rejoinder offers alternative interpretations of some
of the findings in the special issue. The article contests the special issue’s
proclaimed distinction between empirical studies and ideological debate
in the field of ESD research, and points to the contradiction between
the special issue’s promotion of ‘pluralism’ and the absence of critical
interrogations of sustainable development. Theoretically informed by
post-Marxist thought the concept post-politics is employed to shed new
light on sustainable development and its companion ESD. It is argued
that the contributions in the special issue are partly embedded in a post-political logic and that several findings are open for far more radical interpretations. This suggests, ultimately, that there is a need for alternative
pathways that can challenge and complement mainstream ESD research.

This essay deals with the “Information” exhibition of 1970 at MoMA, one of the more significant exhibitions of Conceptual and related art of the period. The role of the curator as a type of artist is discussed, as is the importance of Marshall McLuhan’s writing to the exhibition.

In this paper I compare political theories of Carl Schmitt and Chantal Mouffe in three important aspects - the conceptualization of the political, their attitude towards liberal democracy and the conception of political process - and point to significant discrepancies. Schmitt's concept of the political is deeply existential and essentially involves real possibility of death, whereas Mouffe's is more domesticated, centered around the struggle, not physical elimination. Schmitt sees liberal democracy as inherently contradictory, because it is grounded on contradictory principles: democratic equality and particularism, and liberal freedom and universalism. Mouffe perceives this contradiction as a locus of tension with emancipatory potential. I trace these differences to their different perception of history. Schmitt's vision of history is marked with ruptures created by the political emergencies, which correlates with his eventual, decisionistic conception of politics. Mouffe's processual conception of politics corresponds rather with the conception of the end of history.

Thierry Geoffroy, otherwise known as the Colonel, is a French artist based in Denmark whose practice can be seen as a critical vis á vis with the material and metaphorical infrastructures of the international biennale system.
The ongoing project Biennalist follows the perpetual rerun of biennales in different venues and copes with their curatorial and educational statements. Its meticulous investigations employ a palimpsest of different platforms and media, from irruptions into the public space to a capillary presence on the Internet. Lowering to a literal meaning the symbolical and poetic intentions of each biennale, Thierry operates in a paradoxical and grotesque realm, which reveals a certain inconsistency of the contemporary art scene. For the ZKM exhibition The Global Contemporary (2011-12), Geoffroy has been commissioned to travel to Athens and investigate the announced political aims of the 2011 biennial. (Link to the project) Geoffroy’s video and interventions highlighted the shift between the biennial’s critical discourse and the actual environment, a context of deep economical and societal crisis. During the opening days of dOCUMENTA 13 Thierry Geoffroy plant his tent in front of the Fridicianum, the exhibtion main traditional venue. Shortly after he has been joined by the members of the Occupy movement – already invited by the simultaneously running Berlin Biennale. Unlike the Occupy community’s (officially welcome to camp in Kassel), Geoffroy’s tent has been removed, leading the skeptical artist to further questioning. The following essay presents the Colonel’s reflections on an exhibition which rests on a compromise between outspoken ideals and practical benefits, poetic premises and marketing strategies. He hence wonders Should the next dOCUMENTA be curated by a tank?
more on http://www.emergencyrooms.org/documenta_kassel.html

[This paper is based on BA course project (2012) written under supervision of prof. Naglis Kardelis at Vilnius University.] The paper argues that the distinction between the pre-political and the political in the form of the household and the state is essential to the understanding of Aristotle’s communal projects. The analysis with the help of this distinction reveals the structure and principles of Aristotelian communal projects and removes tensions, which are rooted in different and frequently incompatible statements of Aristotle. In the course of the paper, it is showed that the household and the state can be defined as separate and yet interdependent communities and how these definitions affect the understanding of concrete constitutional communities.

Grassroots environmental movements have recently started to question the focus on sustainable consumption as a main strategy to tackle climate change. They prefer to address individuals as citizens rather than as consumers, and focus on collective rather than individual change. Two prominent movements in this regard are Transition Towns and Climate Justice Action. While both movements criticise conventional approaches, they put forward entirely different strategies for what has to happen instead. Based on extensive qualitative research, I analyse how these movements manifest themselves in Flanders (Belgium). The focus is on their different accounts of how and why collective practices have to be built, and the place they attribute to 'the political' in this. The analysis reveals the existence of two different forms of ecological citizenship: one communitarian, the other agonistic.

Richard Rorty’s liberal utopia offers an interesting model for those who wish to explore the emancipatory potential of a post-foundational account of politics, specifically liberalism. What Rorty proposes is a form of liberalism that is divorced from its Kantian metaphysical foundations. This paper will focus on the gulf that appears between Rorty’s liberal utopia in theory, the political form that it must ultimately manifest itself in, and the consequences this has for debates on pluralism, diversity, and identity, within liberal political thought.
The strength of Rorty’s liberal utopia, in his analysis, lies in the fact that with the rejection of philosophy and metaphysics, we can simply get on with the job of reducing cruelty through experimental tinkering with the liberal political system. Instead of trying to develop intellectually sophisticated justifications for why we act, we should just act. Political action, for Rorty, does not require a philosophical or metaphysical justification. However, upon closer critical examination, we can see that whatever potential Rorty’s liberal utopia may have in theory, this is negated by the fact that at the level of political praxis, his re-description of liberalism leaves us with a conception of liberalism that is essentially unchanged. Whilst Rorty has re-situated liberalism from the philosophical to the political, his solution fails to address any internal problems.

EL PODER EN PLURAL. ENTRE LA ANTROPOLOGÍA Y LA TEORÍA POLÍTICA es un libro importante para la exploración teórica de las relaciones entre la antropología política e histórica, la teoría política, los estudios críticos del desarrollo y el poder y lo político, exploración que es más bien marginal en nuestro medio. Los enfoques conceptuales y los autores en los que se fundamentan los capítulos son relevantes y actuales. Los anclajes empíricos y las discusiones textuales ofrecen un valioso referente para la consolidación de una antropología contemporánea con un claro referente histórico e interdisciplinar.

http://antropolitica.uniandes.edu.co/spip.php?article44

The article is a synthetic analysis of the categories of universalism and particularism, which feature in a variety of academic fields, e.g. theology, religious studies, philosophy and history. The four main directions of analysis for the above-mentioned categories are: (1) Christian religion, (2) philosophy, (3) social sciences, and (4) politics.
The article addresses the issues of the divine universe; St Paul's universalist strategy; symbolic universe by Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann; Immanuel Wallerstein's European universalism; the fluidity of the identity in Ernesto Laclau's conception; Chantal Mouffe's politicality and politics; politics of emancipation and life by Anthony Giddens; Chantal Mouffe's and Ernesto Laclau's conception of political identity; agonic and radical democracies in the conception by Chantal Mouffe and Ernesto Laclau.

In this paper I compare and examine critically the political thought of Paul Ricoeur and Jacques Derrida. I analyze their specific ways of combining philosophy, ethics, and political theory. Despite the fact that they share specific concepts and criticize purely procedural and liberal definitions of the political, they profoundly disagree on the meaning of justice and sovereignty. Derrida's overflowing ethical and unconditional "event" has to be radically opposed to Ricoeur's attention for the "institution" and social cohesion. The concept of hospitality tackled lately by both authors illustrates this main opposition. Finally, I argue for a political theory approach to Derrida while calling for a cautious use of his first and foremost philosophical concepts.

... the disappear-ance of deference, but as more papers have adopted a populist anti-politician ... In their eagerness to comment on the speechmaker, such commentators ignored interesting parts of the ... in a democratic society, in the interests of na-tional security, territorial integrity ...

The aim of this article is to cultivate Schmitt’s concept of the political, employing a funcional-systematic framework which was formulated in German sociology and social philosophy. By way of Luhmann’s systems theory and Habermas’ systemizing reconstruction of Weber’s conception of value spheres, a model of intensity is worked out, which is constituted by two concepts: differentiation and politicization. Whereas Luhmann’s systems theory is significant for the final delineation of the political as a system, Habermas’ Kantian differentiation of culture anchors the semantics of politicization. This semantics also exploits considerations about re-distribution and recognition, with particular attention on Nancy Fraser‘s “perspectival dualism”. The reason for cultivating Schmitt’s concept of the political is to develop the political as an independent concept which is an alternative to a conception that concentrates the political in politically active or activated civil society.

People talk about the politicisation of civil society, of politics beyond the state, of political identities not confined to citizenship and territorial organs of representation, and so on. But there are few theoretical accounts of what allows us to say that this or that initiative is ‘political’. This paper draws from Schmitt’s distinction beweteen ‘politics’ and the ‘political’ in order to develop an operational criterion to think political engagement outside the formal setting of the political system.

The subject of the text is the issue of the "political", which is defined as the nature and level of the final judgment and ultimate reasoning. The issues of this kind of the "political" has been attempted to distinguish in political sciences. The text focuses on: (1) the scientist as an agent for the final judgment and reasoning, (2) the subject of study of political science, (3) "theoretical strategies" in the science of politics.
          The latter problem has been discussed mainly on the example of Polish political science. Discussed were among others: (1) "the dilemma of scale", (2) limited operational capacity (methodological and theoretical), (3) aesthetic imagery of political life, (4) structural ignorance in the field of ontology, epistemology and methodology.

ABSTRACT Grassroots environmental movements have recently started to question the focus on sustainable consumption as a main strategy to tackle climate change. They prefer to address individuals as citizens rather than as consumers, and focus on collective rather than individual change. Two prominent movements in this regard are Transition Towns and Climate Justice Action. While both movements criticise conventional approaches, they put forward entirely different strategies for what has to happen instead. Based on extensive qualitative research, this article analyses how these movements manifest themselves in Flanders (Belgium). The focus is on their different accounts of how and why collective practices have to be built, and the place they attribute to ‘the political’ in this. The analysis reveals the existence of two different forms of ecological citizenship: one communitarian, the other agonistic.

... Trustworthiness: the Commentators. JULIAN LE GRAND 1 ,; RICHARD WILSON 2 ,; SUZANNEFRANKS 3 ,; ANDREW BURNS 4 ,; MARTIN MOORE 5 ,; STEVEN BARNETT 6. ... Presented 25 September 1986. As quoted in Suzanne Franks Famine, Politics, Aid and the Media. ...