In this article I wish to exemplify how an anti-ideological critique on “violence against women’” in the era of neoliberal India may be conducted. My main source lies in Marx’s critique of ideology as a body of content, of “ruling ideas” which are hegemonic, as well as the epistemological process of their production. With this understanding I want to speak about the current conjuncture in India of global neoliberal imperialism, of ideological and political use of religion and patriarchy. It appears to me that this fascistic agenda is present elsewhere in the world, where expanding neoliberal capitalism and fundamentalist religious ideology enter into a holy alliance.
{"title":"Politics and Ideology","authors":"H. Bannerji","doi":"10.18740/S44C7J","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18740/S44C7J","url":null,"abstract":"In this article I wish to exemplify how an anti-ideological critique on “violence against women’” in the era of neoliberal India may be conducted. My main source lies in Marx’s critique of ideology as a body of content, of “ruling ideas” which are hegemonic, as well as the epistemological process of their production. With this understanding I want to speak about the current conjuncture in India of global neoliberal imperialism, of ideological and political use of religion and patriarchy. It appears to me that this fascistic agenda is present elsewhere in the world, where expanding neoliberal capitalism and fundamentalist religious ideology enter into a holy alliance.","PeriodicalId":29667,"journal":{"name":"Socialist Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2016-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84305550","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Higher Education and the Diffusion of Knowledge","authors":"I. Angus","doi":"10.18740/S4VW2B","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18740/S4VW2B","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":29667,"journal":{"name":"Socialist Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2016-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73341546","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"How useful is Piketty’s Analysis for Political Action?","authors":"M. Cohen","doi":"10.18740/S40K60","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18740/S40K60","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":29667,"journal":{"name":"Socialist Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2016-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81692416","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Luck egalitarians equalize the outcome enjoyed by people who exemplify the same degree of distributive desert by removing the influence of luck. They also try to calibrate differential rewards according to the pattern of distributive desert. This entails that they have to decide upon, among other things, the rate of reward, i.e., a principled way of distributing rewards to groups exercising different degrees of the relevant desert. However, the problem of the choice of reward principle is a relatively and undeservedly neglected issue among luck egalitarians. The main goal of this paper is to highlight the importance and difficulty of this problem, and to elaborate upon G. A. Cohen's community-oriented response to it. In the last section, I provide a taxonomy of distributive pluralism, contrasting Cohen’s view with other (not so genuine) pluralisms - especially with all-things-considered varieties - while trying to motivate readers to adopt the more robust form of pluralism.
{"title":"Equality, Community, and the Scope of Distributive Justice: A Partial Defense of Cohen’s Vision","authors":"Dong-Ryul Choo","doi":"10.18740/S40590","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18740/S40590","url":null,"abstract":"Luck egalitarians equalize the outcome enjoyed by people who exemplify the same degree of distributive desert by removing the influence of luck. They also try to calibrate differential rewards according to the pattern of distributive desert. This entails that they have to decide upon, among other things, the rate of reward, i.e., a principled way of distributing rewards to groups exercising different degrees of the relevant desert. However, the problem of the choice of reward principle is a relatively and undeservedly neglected issue among luck egalitarians. The main goal of this paper is to highlight the importance and difficulty of this problem, and to elaborate upon G. A. Cohen's community-oriented response to it. In the last section, I provide a taxonomy of distributive pluralism, contrasting Cohen’s view with other (not so genuine) pluralisms - especially with all-things-considered varieties - while trying to motivate readers to adopt the more robust form of pluralism.","PeriodicalId":29667,"journal":{"name":"Socialist Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2014-08-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74341786","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Catastrophism: The Apocalyptic Politics of Collapse and Rebirth, by Sasha Lilley, David McNally, Eddie Yuen and James Davis
《灾难论:崩溃与重生的末世政治》,作者:萨沙·利利、大卫·麦克纳利、埃迪·袁和詹姆斯·戴维斯
{"title":"Catastrophism: The Apocalyptic Politics of Collapse and Rebirth, by Sasha Lilley, David McNally, Eddie Yuen and James Davis","authors":"Thomas Cheney","doi":"10.18740/S46P44","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18740/S46P44","url":null,"abstract":"Catastrophism: The Apocalyptic Politics of Collapse and Rebirth, by Sasha Lilley, David McNally, Eddie Yuen and James Davis","PeriodicalId":29667,"journal":{"name":"Socialist Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2014-08-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78057289","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This research uses the Occupy Movement as a springboard to discuss contemporary political struggles in Canada. Drawing on the recent experiences of Occupy activists, the author discusses the limitations of non-hierarchical, consensus and prefigurative strategies within social movements. In particular, I suggest that such practices, which are meant to challenge routine social inequalities, actually tend to reproduce them. I then ask how those who are exploited within capitalism can consciously and collectively push contemporary struggle in a socialist direction. Drawing on the works of Marx and Marxist theorists, the paper examines how an understanding of class, capital and hegemony are significant to the contemporary social justice agenda. Thus, insights from the empirical experiences of the Occupy movement are used to explore the broader question of how it is possible to bring about revolutionary transformation to a world capitalist system that is in crisis.
{"title":"Lessons of Occupy: Towards a Consequential Socialist Politics for the 99 Percent","authors":"J. Amirault","doi":"10.18740/S43W2H","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18740/S43W2H","url":null,"abstract":"This research uses the Occupy Movement as a springboard to discuss contemporary political struggles in Canada. Drawing on the recent experiences of Occupy activists, the author discusses the limitations of non-hierarchical, consensus and prefigurative strategies within social movements. In particular, I suggest that such practices, which are meant to challenge routine social inequalities, actually tend to reproduce them. I then ask how those who are exploited within capitalism can consciously and collectively push contemporary struggle in a socialist direction. Drawing on the works of Marx and Marxist theorists, the paper examines how an understanding of class, capital and hegemony are significant to the contemporary social justice agenda. Thus, insights from the empirical experiences of the Occupy movement are used to explore the broader question of how it is possible to bring about revolutionary transformation to a world capitalist system that is in crisis.","PeriodicalId":29667,"journal":{"name":"Socialist Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2014-08-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76749716","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This research note examines feminist theory from socialist feminism through the post-structural turn associated with thinkers like Foucault, Derrida and Butler to neo-materialism, this last noted for its emphasis on the body's materiality as opposed to the subject as a socially constructed or merely linguistic practice. Tracing these theoretical developments is contextualized with respect to theories and concepts such as feminist standpoint theories of epistemology, historical materialism and Baumann's "liquid modernity". I ask: have we lost sight of the strength of feminist structuralism - particularly the effects of capital - in order to accommodate multiple and complex subjectifications associated with gender? Mary O'Brien's reproductive consciousness, her argument that women's consciousness is fundamentally shaped through the different moments related to reproduction, is re-examined in light of recent developments in egg donation and surrogacy. This is not intended as an exercise in romantic longing for some sort of utopian society where femininity is venerated. Rather, it is an exploration of the potential for reproductive consciousness to guide political responses to contemporary problems raised by new reproductive technologies that combine capital and gender in a single dialectic.
{"title":"Revisiting Mary O’Brien – Reproductive Consciousness and Liquid Maternity","authors":"A. Burfoot","doi":"10.18740/S4VC72","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18740/S4VC72","url":null,"abstract":"This research note examines feminist theory from socialist feminism through the post-structural turn associated with thinkers like Foucault, Derrida and Butler to neo-materialism, this last noted for its emphasis on the body's materiality as opposed to the subject as a socially constructed or merely linguistic practice. Tracing these theoretical developments is contextualized with respect to theories and concepts such as feminist standpoint theories of epistemology, historical materialism and Baumann's \"liquid modernity\". I ask: have we lost sight of the strength of feminist structuralism - particularly the effects of capital - in order to accommodate multiple and complex subjectifications associated with gender? Mary O'Brien's reproductive consciousness, her argument that women's consciousness is fundamentally shaped through the different moments related to reproduction, is re-examined in light of recent developments in egg donation and surrogacy. This is not intended as an exercise in romantic longing for some sort of utopian society where femininity is venerated. Rather, it is an exploration of the potential for reproductive consciousness to guide political responses to contemporary problems raised by new reproductive technologies that combine capital and gender in a single dialectic.","PeriodicalId":29667,"journal":{"name":"Socialist Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2014-08-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89490922","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
For some Marxists, issues of culture, identity and representation are secondary. In this research note, I analytically reflect on Stuart Hall’s (1996) canonical essay “Cultural Identity and Diaspora,” which stresses that these are significant concerns for anyone struggling for liberation. In his essay, Hall explicates two definitions of "cultural identity." The first is an essentialist identity, which emphasizes the similarities amongst a group of people. Hall argues that this definition can and does inspire feminist, anti-colonial and anti-racist art and activism, but cannot help us comprehend the trauma of colonialism. The second definition emphasizes the similarities and the differences amongst an imagined cultural group. Hall asserts that this definition is useful for understanding the trauma of colonialism because it emphasizes the historical and social contingency of identity. By using this definition in our analysis of power and normalization, we are better able to scrutinize historical and contemporary colonial relations and to struggle against them.
{"title":"Note on Stuart Hall’s “Cultural Identity and Diaspora”","authors":"I. Hussey","doi":"10.18740/S4QP4S","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18740/S4QP4S","url":null,"abstract":"For some Marxists, issues of culture, identity and representation are secondary. In this research note, I analytically reflect on Stuart Hall’s (1996) canonical essay “Cultural Identity and Diaspora,” which stresses that these are significant concerns for anyone struggling for liberation. In his essay, Hall explicates two definitions of \"cultural identity.\" The first is an essentialist identity, which emphasizes the similarities amongst a group of people. Hall argues that this definition can and does inspire feminist, anti-colonial and anti-racist art and activism, but cannot help us comprehend the trauma of colonialism. The second definition emphasizes the similarities and the differences amongst an imagined cultural group. Hall asserts that this definition is useful for understanding the trauma of colonialism because it emphasizes the historical and social contingency of identity. By using this definition in our analysis of power and normalization, we are better able to scrutinize historical and contemporary colonial relations and to struggle against them.","PeriodicalId":29667,"journal":{"name":"Socialist Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2014-08-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90601037","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Historical materialism emphasizes antagonistic class relationships as the main characteristic of the social, hence historically contingent, capitalist mode of production. Socialism is a normative vision of a just society rooted in meeting needs and enabling unalienated human expression, within the ecological limits of the natural world. Both are useful, even critical ways of understanding the world and seeking to bring about a better one. However, both are radically inadequate. Indeed, some scholars charge that both are worse than useless. The most serious critique is that historical materialism and socialism collaborate in silencing other anti-oppressive theories and struggles, by insisting on exclusive “class-only” approaches. After describing three characteristic ways that many historical materialists do, in fact, collaborate to exclude many important anti-oppressive theories and struggles, I argue – following many others – that such exclusions are not tenable on analytical, empirical, moral and practical grounds. In fact, historical materialism and socialism have much to gain with a more inclusive approach, although that inclusiveness might take different forms. For instance, Indigenous, Black power and gay and lesbian movements are instances of anti-oppressive theories and struggles that offer critical insights into actually-existing capitalism; and the potential for transformative change within and even beyond capitalism. Class inequalities are inextricably bound up with other sources of oppression, rooted in race, gender, disability, sexuality and ongoing colonialism – which are not 'essential' inequalities but social, historically emerging and hence contingent oppressions. Put another way, understanding capitalism includes theorizing the ways that capitalist social relations create ecological 'niches', as Ian Hacking might say, for a range of interrelated unjust inequalities. Further, all oppressions must be fought in themselves, as part of socialist commitments, because they inhibit the free unalienated expression of each and all. The revised historical materialism and socialism that result from this are more modest because they do not aspire to attribute all “major” capitalist dynamics exclusively to class. But they are also more ambitious, because they are in a necessary, constant dialogue with other anti-oppressive theories and struggles.
{"title":"“Nothing Human is Alien to Me”: Rethinking Historical Materialism and Socialism","authors":"E. Coburn","doi":"10.18740/S4WC7C","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18740/S4WC7C","url":null,"abstract":"Historical materialism emphasizes antagonistic class relationships as the main characteristic of the social, hence historically contingent, capitalist mode of production. Socialism is a normative vision of a just society rooted in meeting needs and enabling unalienated human expression, within the ecological limits of the natural world. Both are useful, even critical ways of understanding the world and seeking to bring about a better one. However, both are radically inadequate. Indeed, some scholars charge that both are worse than useless. The most serious critique is that historical materialism and socialism collaborate in silencing other anti-oppressive theories and struggles, by insisting on exclusive “class-only” approaches. After describing three characteristic ways that many historical materialists do, in fact, collaborate to exclude many important anti-oppressive theories and struggles, I argue – following many others – that such exclusions are not tenable on analytical, empirical, moral and practical grounds. In fact, historical materialism and socialism have much to gain with a more inclusive approach, although that inclusiveness might take different forms. For instance, Indigenous, Black power and gay and lesbian movements are instances of anti-oppressive theories and struggles that offer critical insights into actually-existing capitalism; and the potential for transformative change within and even beyond capitalism. Class inequalities are inextricably bound up with other sources of oppression, rooted in race, gender, disability, sexuality and ongoing colonialism – which are not 'essential' inequalities but social, historically emerging and hence contingent oppressions. Put another way, understanding capitalism includes theorizing the ways that capitalist social relations create ecological 'niches', as Ian Hacking might say, for a range of interrelated unjust inequalities. Further, all oppressions must be fought in themselves, as part of socialist commitments, because they inhibit the free unalienated expression of each and all. The revised historical materialism and socialism that result from this are more modest because they do not aspire to attribute all “major” capitalist dynamics exclusively to class. But they are also more ambitious, because they are in a necessary, constant dialogue with other anti-oppressive theories and struggles.","PeriodicalId":29667,"journal":{"name":"Socialist Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2014-08-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89566528","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article considers feminist politics in the context of global capitalist restructuring. The incorporation of liberal feminist ideas into the contemporary neo-liberal capitalist order of the global north is analyzed through an intersectional lens and in relation to the successful employers’ assault on the working class which set the stage for the defeat of the radical equality demands of feminists, anti-racist activists, indigenous peoples and others which had flourished in the 1960s and 1970s. In the 21st century, it is argued, in response to structural adjustment policies enforced by neo-liberal capitalism in both the global north and global south, women of the working classes have entered the political stage through a broad array of movements. The article explores how these movements are creatively developing socialist feminist politics. The article concludes that this socialist-feminist politics has much to offer the left as it gropes toward new organizational forms and organizing strategies.
{"title":"21st Century Socialist-Feminism","authors":"Johanna Brenner","doi":"10.18740/S4RP43","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18740/S4RP43","url":null,"abstract":"This article considers feminist politics in the context of global capitalist restructuring. The incorporation of liberal feminist ideas into the contemporary neo-liberal capitalist order of the global north is analyzed through an intersectional lens and in relation to the successful employers’ assault on the working class which set the stage for the defeat of the radical equality demands of feminists, anti-racist activists, indigenous peoples and others which had flourished in the 1960s and 1970s. In the 21st century, it is argued, in response to structural adjustment policies enforced by neo-liberal capitalism in both the global north and global south, women of the working classes have entered the political stage through a broad array of movements. The article explores how these movements are creatively developing socialist feminist politics. The article concludes that this socialist-feminist politics has much to offer the left as it gropes toward new organizational forms and organizing strategies.","PeriodicalId":29667,"journal":{"name":"Socialist Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2014-08-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84135893","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}