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What is critical hermeneutics?
Abstract
This article explores the promises of critical hermeneutics as an innovative method and philosophy within the human sciences. It is argued that its success depends on its ability to articulate a theory of meaning with one of action and experience as well as its capacity to renew our understanding of the problem of ideology. First, critical hermeneutics must explain how cultural messages 'show and hide'; that is, how the ambiguity of meaning always allows for a group to represent itself while opening the door for distortion and domination. Second, critical hermeneutics ought to show how action can be best understood as opposing performances driven by ideological-moral views. Through an analysis of social movements, for instance, it is shown that any attempt to do justice could also and easily create exclusion. Third, critical hermeneutics has to clarify how tension and dualism within meaning and action are not to be dissociated from the self-interpretation of concrete individuals. A theory of experience is thus required in order to explain why the autonomy of the subject is finally at stake with regard to the problem of ideology.
... Ricoeur (1990, p. 101) argumenta que "cada uma pode reconhecer a reivindicação de universalidade da outra, de tal forma que o lugar de uma se inscreva na estrutura da outra". A posição mediadora de Ricoeur é o que denominamos hermenêutica crítica (ROBERGE, 2011), argumentando que a crítica e a interpretação se pressupõem mutuamente. Assim, Ricoeur (1990, p. 17) defende que "a hermenêutica é a teoria das operações da compreensão em sua relação com a interpretação dos textos" que também é crítica, enquanto a crítica das ideologias também é hermenêutica. ...
... Segundo ele, "[...] é quando o papel mediador da ideologia encontra o fenômeno da dominação que o caráter de distorção e de dissimulação da ideologia passa ao primeiro plano" (RICOEUR, 1990, p. 72). Por último, para Roberge (2011), em Ricoeur a ideologia é um significado que fornece excedente de sentido e ela pertence ao campo da interpretação. Portanto, se faz importante decodificar e decifrar as suas significações (BELL, 2011). ...
... Na SAP, várias pesquisas são construídas considerando a linguagem, a comunicação e o discurso como questões relevantes para a prática da estratégia (VAARA, 2010a;BALOGUN et al., 2014;SEIDL, 2007), indo em direção à agenda proposta por Fenton e Langley (2011). A hermenêutica crítica possui elementos de convergência com essas visões, todavia, a problemática dela está contida no fato de que um texto se renova (é dinâmico) no ato da leitura, isto é, existem confluências/conflitos de interpretação (ROBERGE, 2011), além de diversos elementos que distorcem esse processo (PRASAD, 2002;ROBERGE, 2011). É importante destacar que, dessa forma, a hermenêutica crítica na SAP é importante para identificar os textos que se tornam ideológicos (estabelecendo relações de poder e dominação) em dado contexto sócio-histórico. ...
Resumo Apresentamos uma abordagem epistemo-metodológica para o estudo dos elementos interpretativos e ideológicos presentes nos textos que constituem as estratégias por meio da hermenêutica crítica. Revisamos as aproximações e distâncias entre os filósofos Hans-Georg Gadamer, Jürgen Habermas, Paul Ricoeur e suas contribuições para desvelar os fenômenos hermenêuticos e ideológicos na interpretação de textos estratégicos. No escopo da perspectiva da estratégia como prática, destacamos como posicionamento epistemológico os vínculos entre interpretação, crítica e ideologia; o status epistemológico das relações autor↔texto↔intérprete inseridos em seus contextos e nos situamos em uma abordagem que compartilha elementos das matrizes crítica/dialética e hermenêutica. Metodologicamente, indicamos a importância dos círculos críticos-hermenêuticos em dois movimentos interdependentes (hermenêutico e crítico/dialético) e três momentos (contextual/sócio-histórico; formal/textual e interpretação-reinterpretação). Consideramos que algumas das “caixas-pretas” da estratégia são ideologias, comunicações distorcidas e deformações que “escurecem” os processos de interpretação e crítica. A hermenêutica crítica é apresentada para “lançar luz” sobre esses fenômenos, de um “lugar” que pauta sua coerência na crítica que é hermenêutica e na hermenêutica que é crítica.
... There are five stages to the CHaSSMM framework, and each directly relates back to the idea that ideology is always at play, and that multimodal semiotic resources are its performers. Further, each stage refers back to three critical hermeneutic theories outlined by Roberge (2011): the theory of meaning, theory of action and the theory of experience. ...
... It can also be understood as a text, a semiotic network of things that place themselves in opposition to one another. It is also interpretive, as it relates to the members of a group, its foundation and its boundaries (Roberge 2011). For example, our ideological boundaries can be based upon personal or institutional contexts; our relationships and attitudes to family, personal or professional networks, or issues of national identity, for example. ...
... The theory of action helps us to understand the ways in which ideology is performed in the world. Critical hermeneutics is particularly concerned with examining power structures, social movements and counter movements, and how, through action or performance, ideologies become legitimized or undermined (Roberge 2011). Social semiotics also shares an interest in understanding power structures (van Leeuwen 2005a), and as a working theory that proffers the idea that semiotics is an activity, it has exciting potential as a complementary tool of analysis alongside critical hermeneutics. ...
Designing information for pediatric health education that is easily interpreted by patients is complicated by factors including attitudes and complex power relationships. This study examines such factors in relation to three pediatric health education case studies on asthma
management, chronic functional constipation and rehabilitation. They emphasize direct communication with pediatric patients with a view to increasing patient empowerment. Strategic graphic design is employed in collaboration with clinicians to create multimodal semiotic resources. This paper examines these cases within Wahlin’s CHaSSMM Model (Wahlin 2015), which combines social semiotics with multimodality and critical hermeneutics. CHaSSMM’s potential is making explicit the project’s underlying power structures and meaning
potential of multimodal, semiotic resources. It begins with an overview of the pediatric health education case studies and the CHaSSMM Model of analysis, and then explains how CHaSSMM can provide support for the planning and interpretive stages of design projects.
Keywords: 3-Corner Collaborative Design Model,
CHaSSMM Model, critical hermeneutics, graphic design
for pediatric health, multimodal social semiotics
... First, the relevance of linkage may be rooted in the premise that every form of communication, whether written, spoken, or even visual, involves some level of interpretation. Hermeneutics is not just an academic or philosophical but a practical tool used in interpreting everyday communications-from reading news articles and interpreting legal documents to understanding personal emails and social media posts or participants' verbal externalizations given during a one-to-one interview within a naturalistic inquiry (Roberge, 2011). ...
... Still, every understanding is a version of interpretation. From this perspective, the interpretation as it constitutes the meaning of natural or social phenomena is primary (Brogan, 2020;Roberge, 2011;Thiselton, 2009). ...
This review proposes that exploring hermeneutics could reveal significant potential for reassessing the essence and structure of qualitative research, particularly in refining validation methods like memberchecking. This inquiry suggests that embracing a hermeneutic perspective might provide fresh insights into how we understand and validate qualitative data, potentially enhancing our comprehension and improving the robustness of research practices in this field. The review is divided into multiple sections and subsections to build the argument that the hermeneutic viewpoint offers greater explanatory and exploratory potential for guiding specific validation strategies, such as member-checking, in qualitative research. This review’s main argument begins with an overview detailing which aspects and how-aspects of qualitative research and its validation strategies. Subsequently, this review delves into the member-checking strategy as a central validation approach in high-quality qualitative research. The review then introduces hermeneutics within the qualitative research paradigm. Moreover, the present review explores how hermeneutics can serve as a tool for thinking in research endeavors. Finally, the current review integrates the focus on memberchecking with the perspective of hermeneutics to achieve a broader and more holistic understanding. Concluding remarks and research-based implications are offered for the use of future qualitative researchers.
... In this analysis, critical hermeneutics (Roberge 2011) provides us with the method for developing this inquiry over the presupposed moral assumptions lying within the RRI discourse. Critical hermeneutics show the meanings that are behind actions, namely the hidden ideological-moral views, focusing on their practical consequences in our practices at the societal level. ...
... The discovery of the hidden presuppositions in RRI by Timmermans and Blok (2018) can thus be understood as an inquiry into the prejudices implicitly underpinning the debate on innovation. The analysis of these axiological presuppositions and their role in our interpretative conceptualisations of responsibility, thus needs a critical use of the art of interpretation (Roberge 2011). ...
Notwithstanding the EU endorsement, so far Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) is discussed as regards its definition, its features and its conceptual core: innovation and responsibility. This conceptual indeterminacy is a source of disagreements at the political level, giving rise to a plurality of outcomes and versions upheld within the same model of governance. Following a Charles Taylor’s suggestion, this conceptual opening of the RRI model can be explained by the existence of plural, clashing moral frameworks: discourse ethics, Aristotelian ethics, care ethics, dignitarian ethics, rights-based moralities etc. Given the diffusion in the RRI literature of references to care ethics and its justification of participation and responsibility, I will compare the conceptual premises of this philosophical line with those of ethics of rights, which have been criticised by advocates of care ethics. I will argue that public engagement based on only needs cannot lead to responsible outcomes since it produces however the exclusion of some needs, covered instead by rights. In order for participation to be effective, rights or an alliance between the two perspectives is required.
... The approach used was Paul Ricoeur's critical hermeneutics as a theory of meaning, a theory of action, and a theory of experience (Roberge 2011). As the focus of the research, we emphasize more on critical hermeneutics as a theory of meaning by studying the identity politics of Shihab on YouTube before the 2017 Jakarta gubernatorial election to the 2024 presidential election and making it relevant to political economic interests. ...
This article aims to answer the question of whether identity-based movements are free from tendencies in political economy. By analyzing the actions and orientations of the militant Islamic group from the New Order to the Reform era, we show that social movements based on cultural identities are far from representing the demands of groups of recognition. Rather, these movements are leveraged as political tools for the executive group in determining dominant issues among the public to increase voter preferences and bring economic benefits to militant Islamic groups. This is insisted upon through a shift in political trends from religious populism to authoritarian populism. We argue that a possible solution could be prioritizing democratic values that lead to performance and integrity, not sectoral interests that can create fragmentation in society.
... Poststructuralist theory, particularly Derrida's concept of deconstruction, encourages students to question the stability of meaning in texts and promotes a more critical and dynamic approach to literary analysis (Roberge, 2011). By incorporating poststructuralist principles in the classroom, teachers create an environment where students feel empowered to engage in diverse and innovative interpretations, thereby enhancing their creative thinking skills (Myren-Svelstad & Gruters, 2022). ...
This paper explores the theoretical foundations and methodologies linking the study of general literature to the development of critical and creative thinking. Due to its multi-layered nature and symbolic richness, literature has the potential to foster deep thinking, analytical skills, and creativity. The study, grounded in theories like reception aesthetics, hermeneutics, and constructivism, emphasizes the interactive nature of reading and interpreting literary works. It reviews various literary theories and pedagogical approaches, such as dialogic learning, simulations, and interdisciplinary methods, demonstrating their impact on enhancing students' critical and creative thinking. Results show that these methods encourage active participation, empathy, and innovation, making literature a powerful tool for developing key competencies required in the 21st century. The study underscores the significance of integrating literature into education, highlighting its role in bridging theoretical knowledge with practical skills. By adopting the approaches discussed, educators can effectively cultivate students' reading competencies, essential for their personal and academic growth in a complex modern world.
... Simple hermeneutics (Clarke & Hoggett, 2009) was used to make sense of participants' narratives. Double hermeneutics (Roberge, 2011) represent a second level of interpretation whereby the researchers constructed a systems psychodynamic understanding of participants' narratives. Triple hermeneutics (Hofius, 2020) was applied to interpret the systems psychodynamics of the primary researcher's experiences of the research process. ...
Orientation: Voluntary turnover is a costly and frequently disruptive organisational phenomenon, particularly when it involves high achievers.Research purpose: The study aimed to develop a psychodynamic exposé of voluntary turnover by applying the conflict, identity, boundaries, authority, roles and task (CIBART) model to the lived experiences of high achievers.Motivation for the study: The research primarily focusses on voluntary turnover as an individual, rational decision-making process. It recognises the contribution of unconscious systems psychodynamics to voluntary turnover. Research conducted from this perspective is necessary to gain a more comprehensive and in-depth understanding of the topic.Research approach/design and method: Seven case studies of individual voluntary turnover were conducted in a large private retail company. Data were collected using free association narrative (FANI) interviews. The analysis of the data was guided by hermeneutic phenomenology, and the interpretive frame used was the CIBART model.Main findings: Six themes were constructed to describe the conflict dynamics along each of the six CIBART dimensions. Within each theme, the conflict dynamic is exposed, revealing the subsequent anxiety and defences that accumulate leading to the decision to leave. Ultimately, the six themes synthesise to propose that voluntary turnover is a conscious manifestation, yet an unconscious defence against system-wide conflict.Practical/managerial implications: Facilitating leaders’ understanding and processing of the conflict dynamics that occur across the CIBART dimensions, and which contribute to voluntary turnover, create opportunities for both transformation and prevention.Contribution/value-add: The research offers insights into the psychodynamics of voluntary turnover, which consulting psychologists and organisational leaders can utilise to address this phenomenon within their work groups.
... The current work is anchored in the interpretivism and Critical Hermeneutics paradigm (Berryman, 2019;Bleiker et al., 2019;Roberge, 2011). In critical discourse studies (CDS) (Fairclough, 2013), these paradigms are commonly used to interpret the ideology and agenda attached to language in a particular text and context. ...
Studies on English language textbook analysis rarely incorporate cultural values in the functional grammar exercises since it is a crucial learning material in the English textbook. To address this gap, we aim to pinpoint the representation of cultural values in the functional grammar exercises in an Indonesian junior high school English textbook. By employing critical discourse study as the research methodology, we analyzed both the visual and textual data presented on the functional grammar exercises in the textbook. We adopted two analytical tools for analyzing data, i.e. transitivity analysis; and critical discourse analysis. The result shows that there are 28 functional grammar exercises that facilitate students in making meaning. Meaningful cultural representation from many social practices was found. This study suggests incorporating its findings into teaching to explain cultural values to students. Further studies need to focus on providing teacher experiences in teaching functional grammar exercises.
... Berkaitan dengan fungsi akademik, Champion (2020) menjelaskan bahwa siswa yang mengalami tingkat tinggi pada kekerasan di sekolah akan menjadi berkurang kemampuan akademik dan prestasinya. Pendekatan hukuman atau punishment dengan menyalahkan individu atau institusi semakin tidak menyelesaikan akar penyebab dari kekerasan, bahkan pendekatan hukuman merupakan model intervensi yang memiliki tingkat keberhasilan sangat rendah (Roberge, 2011). ...
Kedamaian pada kenyataanya tidak selalu mudah diwujudkan. Berbagai konflik mulai dari kekerasan berdimensi verbal hingga fisik terjadi di sekolah. Oleh karena itu, tugas dari pendidikan adalah mengubah budaya kekerasan menjadi budaya damai. Penelitian berfokus pada mengajarkan penerapan Social Emotional Learning (SEL) kepada stakeholder, terutama guru kelas. Artikel ditulis dengan metode kajian pustaka dan dianalisis dengan ruang lingkup kajian yaitu sekolah damai, SEL, dan kompetensi sosial guru Bimbingan dan Konseling. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa SEL mampu mempromosikan berbagai hasil positif bagi perkembangan siswa. Kesimpulan dari penelitian ini adalah guru Bimbingan dan Konseling didorong untuk dapat merancang pelatihan dan bimbingan penerapan SEL secara terstruktur melalui kolaborasi dengan guru dan stakeholder sekolah serta melakukan program kemitraan dengan komunitas yang relevan dengan tujuan penerapan SEL yaitu untuk membangun budaya damai di sekolah. Kata kunci: damai, student's social and emotional learning, kompetensi sosial
... This never fails to be problematic: it is precisely these worlds of meaning that are increasingly under the sway of an appropriation that could be described here as other or heteronomous -as we define further in the next section. At the same time, this should incite hermeneutics -very broadly -to rethink interpretation-comprehension as a sociological and critical issue by attempting, for instance, to reflect on the political economy that does not fail to go with the deployment of language processing models such as BERT or GPT-3 (Roberge 2011;. ...
... The Qur'ānic verse, Q4:34 (wife beating), is analysed in this research using critical hermeneutics and the problem lies in the interpretation of the verse. Jonathan Roberge says, '… cultural messages 'show and hide'; that is, how the ambiguity of meaning always allows for a group to represent itself while opening the door for distortion and domination' (Roberge, 2011). ...
This paper undertakes a praxiological study (practice based approach) of Muslim “religious tribunals”, Shari’ā Councils and Muslim Arbitration Tribunals (MATs) not part of the UK law. Some Western scholars maintain that traditional shari’ā law is discriminatory on issues of gender equality, in particular, with reference to Muslim family law. It is important to examine the shift from the “true narratives” of the Qur’ānic Model (QM) to the “living practice”; co-construction of “true narratives” with the QM.This paper argues that discrimination can be eliminated through the QM by adopting the interpretive/hermeneutical approach. Praxiological/practice based approach (PBA) in this study has identified that discrimination does exist in the “living practice” of traditional shari’ā law.This study treats the Qur’ān-Sunnā as complementary sources to each other because this has important implications with reference to “wife beating” verse in the Qur’ān (Q.4:34). PBA enabled to identify the specifics of discrimination that occur. Thesecular-religious debate has been politically influenced, for example, inequality issue for women seeking advice from RTs. BaronessCox has introduced the Arbitration and Mediation (Equality) Services Bill (HL) 2014-15 that went through its first reading on 11 June 2014. The Bill addresses gender discrimination within Muslim religious tribunals and the parallel legal system.
... The present study includes in qualitative study that adopted critical document study as research methodology (Hatch, 2002). This study nuanced by the interpretivism paradigm and critical hermeneutics (Berryman, 2019; Roberge, 2011), The researchers intended to reveal the multiple agendas, meanings, ideologies, and social practices in the English textbook, especially in the English grammar exercises. The English textbook for the study was published by the ministry of education entitled "English in Mind Student's Book Starter, Second Edition." ...
Despite the sufficient amount of language textbook analysis studies that have been conducted, little attention focused on grammar exercises analysis presented in the Indonesian junior high school English textbooks that facilitated the students to make meaning where functional grammar principles were adopted. This current study nuanced education artifacts analysis. The researchers intended to reveal to what extent the English grammar exercises present functional grammar exercises. Moreover, The study provided a practical suggestion to teachers, textbook developers, and language practitioners to revise and include the functional grammar approach in designing English grammar exercises. Anchored into critical document study, this study focused to find the representation of functional grammar exercises portrayed in an English language textbook where the mandated English language curriculum endorses genre-based and text-based language pedagogy in an Indonesian secondary school context. Two analytical tools were combined (i.e. transitivity analysis and critical discourse study) to reveal the existing English grammar exercises. The findings present a total of 88 English grammar exercises found in the textbook. However, 28 English grammar exercises indicated activities for the student to make meaning. The result provided a critical suggestion for grammar exercises revision that facilitates students to make meaning and understanding the social practices of the language. However, this study only provided a textbook analysis, further studies possibly focus on action studies where the functional grammar exercises were implemented in classroom activities.
... In general, parents and teachers cannot protect children from the phenomenon of violence, and schools cannot solve all forms of violence (Levin, 2012). Punishment approaches by blaming individuals or institutions increasingly do not solve the root causes of violence (Bickmore, 2011), and existing intervention models for violence have very low success rates (Roberge, 2011). To restore the school's function as an ecosystem of student development, the task of education is to change a culture of violence into a culture of peace (Kartadinata, Riswanda, & Ilfiandra, 2014;Nadhirah & Ilfiandra, 2020). ...
... However, in interpreting, analysing, and understanding these narratives, the study was underpinned by the philosophies and theories of renowned critical hermeneuticist Paul Ricoeur (1976Ricoeur ( , 1984). Ricoeur's critical hermeneutics is described as an innovative methodology and method within the human and social sciences: it "is at once a philosophy, a philosophical approach, and a methodological model for the human and social sciences, which works to coordinate explanation and understanding under the rule of interpretation" (Busacchi, 2016, p. 82;Roberge, 2011). Broadly, a philosophical framework of hermeneutic interpretivism involves the integration of unfamiliar information or knowledge, into existing knowledge, context, or content (Kruger, 2019). ...
The deprivation, adversity, and lack of protection for children on the streets of urban Uganda are well known; as is the reality that most of their support is facilitated by Western Missionary operated, non-government organisations (NGOs). However, their approach is problematised as ineffective, oppressive, and colonial. Yet there is a dearth of research from the children’s perspectives, capturing the meaning of such actors’ interventions within their lifeworld’s, and no such literature within the Ugandan context. Therefore, this case study focuses on the ‘Mzungu Phenomenon’, a theme unearthed from critical hermeneutic analyses of the life stories of 30 former street children within an orphanage in Kampala, Uganda. The Mzungu phenomenon refers to the meaning and influence of the Western Missionaries and volunteers that feature within the children’s experiences, captured within their narratives. Underpinned by Ricœur’s narrative philosophy, this study illuminates and problematises the way in which Western NGO actors feature within the children’s lifeworld’s, and the wider ramifications from postcolonial, and postcolonial feminist theoretical perspectives. This includes the perpetuation of colonial legacies, ideologies, and praxis, that contribute to disempowerment for children, their families, and their communities, and the dual oppression of women. Therefore, this piece argues that despite a need to enhance child protection measures in Uganda, the current approaches that do not align with national and international rights-based policies must be further critically examined, challenged, and reformed, to ensure the wellbeing of the children.
... Oleh karena penelitian ini menggunakan desain penelitian tafsir, maka narasi-narasi dalam video-video yang diteliti dibatasi hanya pada analisis sumber-sumber penafsiran yang digunakan oleh UAZ. Adapun pendekatan yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah hermeneutika kritis (Roberge 2011) yang berbasis pada pembacaan filosofisdekonstruktif. Pendekatan itu digunakan untuk mengungkap kejanggalan representasi atau misrepresentasi terhadap penafsiran yang digunakan oleh UAZ (Bowen 2009: 27-40). ...
The quality of interpretation toward the editorial of the revelation has been influenced by social media, particularly in the content of preaching in the apocalyptic genre being popularized by Indonesian preachers via YouTube. This study aims to investigate the relationship between the practice of interpreting the Qur’an and Hadith and the impact of the distribution of apocalyptic narrative content on religious extremism on YouTube. That study is achieved by the observation using a critical analysis design that incorporates intertextuality and deconstruction approaches. This study found the practice of reducing the interpretation towards theeditorial revelation in the content of da’wah in apocalyptic times. This study also demonstrated the existence of a symbiotic relationship between the practice of reducinginterpretations through the use of non-authoritative sources. This type of behavior may have an impact on the spread of religious extremism narratives on YouTube.Both of those can be used by transnational jihadist extremist groups to recruit new members in Indonesia.
... The study is theoretical by design and involves a comprehensive review of the existing literature in examining and determining the prevalence and impact of sexual harassment and workplace bullying amongst first responders. An analysis was conducted using the hermeneutic interpretation of the literature (Paterson & Higgs, 2005;Roberge, 2011;Ware, 2008). The study examines the effects workplace bullying, and sexual harassment has across ESOs and the impact on targets as being severe and pervasive, with negative consequences for the targets and the organizations in which they work. ...
The phenomenon of workplace bullying and sexual harassment amongst first responders for the purpose of this study involves a thorough, comprehensive review of the literature. This examination demonstrates the effects workplace bullying, and sexual harassment has across Emergency Service Organizations [ESOs] and the impact on targets as being severe and pervasive, with negative consequences for the targets and the organizations in which they work.
During the exploration of this work, 305 articles were reviewed and then screened through Hermeneutic research methods to net 209 studies in the results. Core themes that emerged support that the phenomenon has severe implications for the psychological health of targets, organizational culture implications and public safety outcomes that are serious, pervasive and have negative consequences for individuals, the organization and the public. Data in this study show that factors that influence workplace bullying and sexual harassment include organizational culture (acceptable) and a “rite of passage” which creates a groupthink mentality that normalizes and creates a toxic culture ripe for incivility within emergency service organizations. The impact on targets includes severe psychological harm and the depletion of psychological resource that has long-lasting negative mental health implications. Also, data shows that there are public safety implications for workplace bullying, and sexual harassment as targets experience an erosion of professional competence and burnout that can lead to catastrophic consequences regarding critical incidents with clients.
... The study is theoretical by design and involves a comprehensive review of the existing literature in examining and determining the prevalence and impact of sexual harassment and workplace bullying amongst first responders. An analysis was conducted using the hermeneutic interpretation of the literature (Paterson & Higgs, 2005;Roberge, 2011;Ware, 2008). The study examines the effects workplace bullying, and sexual harassment has across ESOs and the impact on targets as being severe and pervasive, with negative consequences for the targets and the organizations in which they work. ...
A theoretical study on workplace bullying and sexual harassment amongst
first responders. Dissertation Manuscript. Doctor of Clinical Psychology
... However, the greater depth, coherence and shared understandings that form the agreed narrative of this article only emerged retrospectively, as a result of reflecting on our data. We also used a critical hermeneutic approach (Roberge, 2011), sympathetic to all the experiences we revisited, read about and recounted to each other, but not taking any of them purely at face value. Our analysis was refined through continual collective reflection as we took account of conflicting or minority views. ...
In discussing the events leading up to the resignation of the former Open University Vice Chancellor in April 2018, we focus on the enactment of a form of resistance against proposals for the university through a WhatsApp group, enabling rapid information exchange, discussion of tactics and concrete planning for action. We suggest our group – ‘the Hive’ – was unusual because, first, it countered the politically quiescent trend in academia to comply (at least outwardly) with neoliberalisation, and/or only to write about it, as opposed to mounting challenges. Second, the Hive was virtual, comprising various staff categories, including people based off-campus; it operated almost entirely online and many members had never met face-to-face. This for us evokes notions of the multitude. Third, the group exemplifies alternative forms of solidarity and resistance in other ways, being non-hierarchical, highly pluralist and non-exclusionary. Finally, our Hive provided a supportive, caring space for resisters, which we suggest emerged partly through members’ love for the distinctive social mission of The Open University – although our story also provides hope for harnessing similar emotions within other academic institutions.
... Melihat sifat naskah yang sangat kaya dan dalam dengan berbagai gaya kesusateraan, sejak muncul di dalam tradisi oral hingga menjadi teks tertulis Alkitab, hermenetik Sastra Hikmat adalah sebuah tantangan bagi para teolog komtemporer. Roberge mengatakan perlunya konsep critical hermeneutics untuk mengangkat makna kitab-kitab itu dan menjembatani ke dunia komtemporer (Roberge, 2011). Menarik untuk diselidiki secara teoritis, model dan pendekatan hermenetik apakah yang sesuai untuk tujuan tersebut. ...
Sonny Eli Zaluchu, The Hermenetic Pattern of Hebrew Wisdom Literature. Hebrew Wisdom Literature is one of the most distinctive kinds of literature that can found in the Old Testament. Particular hermeneutic patterns are needed to interpret literary books. The writings of the wisdom literature of the Hebrew people are rich in various types of literary styles from being oral traditions to written forms and being part of the Old Testament canon. This paper aims to form a hermeneutic pattern in the form of defining literary categories, capturing the main ideas of the writer, seeing the text in context, and paying attention to the style of language. Studying these four patterns will help the interpreter elevate the meaning of the contents of the literature of Wisdom. Writing presented in a descriptive, analytical form. Sonny Eli Zaluchu, Pola Hermenetik Sastra Hikmat Orang Ibrani. Sastra Hikmat Orang Ibrani adalah salah satu sastra yang sangat khas yang dapat dijumpai di dalam Perjanjian Lama. Diperlukan pola hermenetik khusus untuk melakukan penafsiran terhadap kitab-kitab sastra tersebut. Hal tersebut diper-lukan karena tulisan sastra hikmat orang ibrani kaya dengan berbagai jenis gaya kesusasteraan sejak men-jadi tradisi oral hingga dalam bentuk tertulis dan menjadi bagian dari kanon Perjanjian Lama. Tulisan ini bertujuan merumuskan pola hermenetik berupa menentukan kategori sastra, menangkap gagasan utama penulis, melihat teks di dalam konteks, dan memperhatikan gaya bahasa. Mempelajari keempat pola ter-sebut akan menolong penafsir mengangkat makna dari isi kitab-kitab sastra Hikmat. Tulisan disajikan di dalam bentuk deskriptif analitis.
... When AI disseminates throughout all parts of society, it is through such translations that explanations about what it does (or could soon be doing) are built up as mainstream knowledge. First section will discuss this in more detail, but suffice to say for now that the notion of translation could account for the whole range of hype, myth, prediction, and symbolic ambiguity-as in more hermeneutical and critical traditions (Roberge, 2011(Roberge, , 2016). Yet translations should never be accounted for as disembodied processes playing out in the ether; such displacements of meaning cannot be accurately rendered without proper attention given to the translators. ...
Automated technologies populating today’s online world rely on social expectations about how “smart” they appear to be. Algorithmic processing, as well as bias and missteps in the course of their development, all come to shape a cultural realm that in turn determines what they come to be about. It is our contention that a robust analytical frame could be derived from culturally driven Science and Technology Studies while focusing on Callon’s concept of translation. Excitement and apprehensions must find a specific language to move past a state of latency. Translations are thus contextual and highly performative, transforming justifications into legitimate claims, translators into discursive entrepreneurs, and power relations into new forms of governance and governmentality. In this piece, we discuss three cases in which artificial intelligence was deciphered to the public: (i) the Montreal Declaration for a Responsible Development of Artificial Intelligence, held as a prime example of how stakeholders manage to establish the terms of the debate on ethical artificial intelligence while avoiding substantive commitment; (ii) Mark Zuckerberg’s 2018 congressional hearing, where he construed machine learning as the solution to the many problems the platform might encounter; and (iii) the normative renegotiations surrounding the gradual introduction of “killer robots” in military engagements. Of interest are not only the rational arguments put forward, but also the rhetorical maneuvers deployed. Through the examination of the ramifications of these translations, we intend to show how they are constructed in face of and in relation to forms of criticisms, thus revealing the highly cybernetic deployment of artificial intelligence technologies.
... Finally, hermeneutics also has a branch that is referred to as critical hermeneutics (Kinsella 2006;Roberge 2011). The argument is that in the qualitative interpretation of documents under a hermeneutic approach, uncertainty and ambiguity might arise. ...
Orientation: The accounting literature acknowledged that a gap exists between accounting research and accounting practice and supported the argument that accounting research does not significantly contribute to accounting practice.
Research purpose: The purpose of this article is to evaluate the appropriateness of applying the research approaches identified in doctrinal research to the accounting policy debate.
Motivation for the study: The article is motivated by calls for accounting research, accounting standard-setters and accounting practice to work together to address the identified gap.
Research approach, design and method: The theoretical article interpreted the research approaches of doctrinal research for application in accounting research by following a structured approach of assessing each research approach separately.
Main findings: The article found that doctrinal research used logical argumentation of hermeneutics as foundation for the authoritative interpretation of practical documents. In applying aspects of hermeneutics, doctrinal research includes descriptive, interpretative, normative, critical and comparative research approaches, depending on the desired outcome of the research.
Practical/managerial implications: The article provides different research approaches that could be used by researchers to apply doctrinal research to assess the development of new policies in accounting.
Contribution/value-add: Hermeneutics and the different research approaches applied in doctrinal research add value by creating a research framework to conduct accounting policy research on accounting doctrines developed in practice. More methodological rigour is therefore created for accounting policy research and helps to bring practice and research closer to each other.
... On the other hand, not only 'as theory of action or as a theory of experience' but also 'as a theory of meaning', Visual Political Science shapes the contours of the action and contributes to modeling the identity of the narrative's different protagonists. Ι am interested in analyzing visual aspect on individual images as symbolically mediated, politically motivated and culturally situated (Roberge 2011). ...
As a response to calls for political research to do more than refer to visuals and for visual research to focus on the political, this paper discusses a Ricoeurian narrative-communicative action approach to the construction of political space applied to images, even though, until today, very little attention has been given to Ricoeur’s conception of the relationship between hermeneutics and visual theory. An updated reworking of Paul Ricoeur's critical hermeneutics offers a better basis for reconstructing visual (political) studies by sharpening the focus on the ideas of embodied imaginary and iconic augmentation. Ricoeur offers an explicit connection to visual political studies in the direction of pointing out the ways in which images, scenes, and narratives attempt to convey ideology, balancing a hermeneutics of suspicion with a hermeneutics of faith, illustrating the aporias, the opening and closing of possibilities from iconic image to ideograph and identity.
... Hence, this study is underpinned by critical hermeneutic philosophy. With reference to Roberge (2011), critical hermeneutics focuses on the 'fine dialectic of meaning, action, and experience' (p. 6) with the purpose of revealing the ideological constitution of reality. The dialectic aspect points to a reality that is full of tensions and contradictions, but which nonetheless reside in the same world, while 'anything within meaning, action or experience that prevents the subject's autonomy from understanding and expressing itself could be argued as fundamentally ideological' (Roberge 2011, p. 15). ...
The demand for developing creativity among doctoral students is found in a number of educational policies all over the world. Yet, earlier studies on Swedish doctoral education suggest that doctoral students’ creativity is not always encouraged. Based on a critical hermeneutic approach and cases in four different disciplines, the aim of this study was therefore (1) to explore different shapes of doctoral students ’ creativity in Swedish doctoral education and (2 ) to reveal and find possible explanations to some of the conditions stifling doctoral students’ scholarly creativity. Interview data was collected from 28 participants, constituting 14 dyads of students and supervisors in four disciplines. Through hermeneutic interpretative analysis of the disciplinary cases, the results show that creativity "kept on playing" in musical performance, was "an unexpected guest" in pedagogical work, was "captured in frames" in philosophy and "put on hold" in psychiatry. Across the cases, students’ scholarly creativity was essentially "encapsulated in silence". This silence seemed to emanate from controlling intellectual, political and economic agendas that enabled stifling conditions of the students’ scholarly creativity, where it was as follows: "restricted by scholarly traditions", "embodying supervisors’ power" and "unrequested in practice". Based on these findings, the article ends in suggestions for preventing such conditions, holding that it is important to establish a discourse on scholarly creativity in doctoral education, to view doctoral students as capable creative agents and to actually ask for their scholarly creativity.
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... The combination of such an approach is not uncommon and has been referred to as a form of 'Critical Hermeneutics' (see, for example, Phillips and Brown: 1993;Kinsella: 2006;Roberge: 2011). Though uncommon in Construction Management research, such an approach has already been utilised in management and organisational studies (see, for example, Phillips and Brown: 1993) and is aptly considered 'Critical', because, ...
The following thesis explores construction policy discourses within the context of the United Kingdom (UK). The research was deemed both important and necessary as the construction sector represents a major portion of the UK economy, accounting for approximately seven per cent of GDP, and employing millions (Rhodes: 2015).
Adopting an ontology of becoming and an interpretive epistemological perspective, it is argued that construction policy documents are best characterised as crystallised snapshots of a community’s attempts at meaning making in time. Utilising a qualitative methodology, the thesis primarily achieves its aims through the textual analysis of three prominent construction policy documents (‘Rethinking Construction’ - the Egan report, the ‘Government Construction Strategy’, and the ‘Industrial Strategy: Construction 2025), as well as informational interviews with eleven contemporary, senior construction policy stakeholders, from nine different organisations. The empirical element was inspired by interpretive approaches to policy analysis, and in particular the works of Yanow (2000; 2003; 2007) and drew upon the Hermeneutical approach repopularised by Taylor (1971), and Gadamer (1975). Four primary discourses were discovered, these being:
The discourse of the ‘need to be competitive’; The discourse of the ‘essentialness of efficiency’; The discourse of ‘unfulfilled potential’; The discourse of ‘fear of not being ‘Modern’’.
The analysis suggests that construction policy discourses at the time of writing are predominantly influenced by the dominant cultural trends known as ‘neoliberalism’ and the ‘enterprise culture’, but that these too must be seen as emerging from, and as informed by, the super-ideology of political ‘declinism’ (Tomlinson: 2000). It is from these cultural sources that the ‘pools of meanings’ articulated in the texts are drawn (Marton: 1986). Furthermore, tracing the etymology of the word ‘policy’, it is suggested that construction policy documents ‘police’ behaviour by shaping it towards particular directions in keeping with specific normative visions concerning the ‘good life’ policy elites have. The findings are important as they suggest that contemporary construction policy discourses are in danger of becoming increasingly myopic, with alternative perspectives and visions increasingly marginalised, and so any potential for the flexible adaptation or reimagining of future policies is reduced. As a result, the thesis argues for greater involvement from a broader spectrum of social actors in all stages of construction policy, to both contribute to strengthening citizenry and democracy in the UK, whilst reducing the potential for myopia amongst policy elites.
Keywords: Built Environment; Construction Management; Discourse; Interpretive Policy Analysis; Policy; Urban Studies; Urban Sociology
Accurate and relevant biblical interpretation requires an approach that integrates various dimensions, both historical, theological, and contemporary. This article explores the application of contextual hermeneutics as a holistic method of biblical interpretation by combining four main contexts: faith, history, literature, and contemporary situation. The aim of this research is to demonstrate how contextual hermeneutics can yield a deeper and more applicable understanding that is relevant for contemporary readers. The research method employed is qualitative analysis using a contextual hermeneutic approach, involving literature studies and evaluation of biblical texts in relation to their historical, literary, and social contexts. The findings show that by understanding the contexts of faith, history, literature, and contemporary situations, interpreters can produce more comprehensive and balanced interpretations that bridge denominational differences and offer relevant guidance for modern Christians. The main contribution of this research is emphasizing the importance of a multidimensional approach to biblical interpretation to create more inclusive, adaptive, and applicable interpretations in addressing contemporary challenges. Penafsiran Alkitab yang akurat dan relevan dengan konteks zaman kini memerlukan pendekatan yang dapat mengintegrasikan berbagai dimensi, baik historis, teologis, maupun kontemporer. Dalam artikel ini, penulis mengeksplorasi penerapan hermeneutika kontekstual sebagai metode penafsiran Alkitab yang holistik, dengan menggabungkan empat konteks utama: iman, sejarah, sastra, dan situasi kontemporer. Tujuan penelitian ini adalah untuk menunjukkan bagaimana hermeneutika kontekstual dapat menghasilkan pemahaman yang lebih mendalam dan aplikatif, serta relevan bagi pembaca masa kini. Metode yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah analisis kualitatif dengan pendekatan hermeneutika kontekstual, yang melibatkan studi literatur dan evaluasi terhadap teks Alkitab dalam kaitannya dengan konteks historis, sastra, dan sosial. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa dengan memahami konteks iman, sejarah, sastra, dan kontemporer, penafsir dapat menghasilkan interpretasi yang lebih lengkap dan seimbang, yang mampu menjembatani perbedaan denominasi serta memberikan panduan hidup yang relevan bagi umat Kristen di era modern. Kontribusi utama dari penelitian ini adalah penekanan pada pentingnya pendekatan yang multidimensional dalam penafsiran Alkitab untuk menciptakan interpretasi yang lebih inklusif, adaptif, dan aplikatif dalam menghadapi tantangan zaman kini.
Maschinelles Lernen stellt zunehmend einen wichtigen Faktor soziotechnischen Wandels dar. Zugleich ist es selbst Produkt der Realitäten, an deren Reproduktion es in Form praktischer Anwendungen wie auch als Spekulationsobjekt beteiligt ist. Die Beiträge des Bandes verhandeln gegenwärtige Manifestationen maschinellen Lernens als Phänomene, die für epistemische Verunsicherungen sorgen und die Bedingungen von Sozialität rekonfigurieren. Sie begegnen dieser Herausforderung, indem sie konkrete Verfahren in ihrer gesellschaftlichen Einbettung analysieren sowie bestehende theoretische Charakterisierungen sogenannter Künstlicher Intelligenz kritisch reflektieren.
Buku ini mengungkap adanya praktik misrepresentasi dalam proses konstruksi penafsiran terhadap redaksi Al-Quran dan hadis, khususnya dalam mode kajian-kajian keagamaan bergenre akhir zaman di YouTube. Bahkan praktik itu rentan berkontribusi terhadap penyebaran doktrin ekstremisme keagamaan di Indonesia. Hal itu disebabkan karena adanya indikasi kesamaan narasi-narasi wacana akhir zaman yang digunakan oleh para mubalig di YouTube dengan narasi indoktrinasi yang digunakan oleh kelompok militansi Jihadis-ekstremisme jaringan transnasional yang menganut ideologi "apocalypticism".
Le déploiement aujourd’hui de modèles sémantiques automatisés tels le BERT de Google ou le GPT-3 d’OpenAI se montre comme un remarquable défi pour l’inscription de l’herméneutique au coeur même du projet des sciences sociales. L’intelligence artificielle est bel et bien à la conquête du langage. Cela implique d’abord qu’il faille prendre au sérieux les possibilités et la puissance de tels modèles, en se penchant sur l’histoire récente des avancées technologiques en apprentissage profond et les modi operandi de ces machines interprétantes. Cela implique ensuite de s’attarder au type de compréhension mis en jeu, à savoir principalement comment le calcul de probabilité, de variation et de seuil par exemple vient vectoriser le langage pour le restituer à la manière d’un perroquet. Larticle aborde le renvoi par Google de la chercheure Timnit Gebru suivant la parution de « On the Danger of Stochastic Parrots » pour montrer comment la valeur du traitement automatisé du langage tient tant au monde qu’il met de l’avant qu’à sa référence à un contexte précis. Cela, enfin, doit permettre de circonscrire les apories économiques, politiques et éthiques autour de ces modèles, notamment le fait que les plateformes les développant font l’impasse sur la manière dont ils procèdent par extraction et instrumentalisation du sens. À terme, c’est ce lien étroit entre signification et déplacement des centres de pouvoir qui devient l’enjeu central des Critical AI Studies .
The prison model as a form of punishment and retribution for acts and perpetrators of crimes has received criticism from some scientists and legal activists. Critical Legal Studies (CLS) personnel criticize the model of punishment by imprisonment because of its positivistic nature. The norm of applying prison law is considered universal without regard to the relativity and particularity of facts which cannot be separated from various social contexts. For this reason, this research examines and considers alternative models of punishment outside prison institutions that accommodate the particularity of facts and cases in order to obtain a model of punishment that is not only retaliatory for the perpetrators of crimes, but also educational in nature while respecting their right to freedom. By using a critical hermeneutic approach combined with CLS, this study concludes that supervision as punishment can be applied as an alternative model of punishment beyond imprisonment that is deemed to be more humane and effective.
In this concluding chapter, I reiterate the importance of taking a critical approach to technology in language education. To support transformative and emancipatory ways of utilizing technology and to achieve viable alternatives to oppressive pedagogies, I propose that the field of language teacher education (LTE) promote a critical and philosophical understanding of technology. To prepare future language teachers for an increasingly digitized world, I believe that teacher education programs will benefit from a critical hermeneutics of technology. Such an approach should view technology in its cultural embeddedness and oppose both deterministic and instrumentalist perspectives on technology. A critical hermeneutics of technology will likely enable teacher-educators and future language teachers to interrogate the design, manufacture and promotion of digital artifacts, to develop a total vision of their pedagogical context, and to imagine alternative uses of digital tools.KeywordsCritical hermeneuticsTechnologyLanguage teacher educationEmancipationPedagogyCulture
The U.S. Government’s decision to establish a Train and Equip (T&E) Program for Moderate Syrian Opposition (MSO) forces to fight the ISIS terrorist organization came to fruition in the third year of the Syrian Civil War. This article examines the Train and Equip Program, a small but important chapter in the overall post – Sadaam and post Arab Spring societal upheaval in the Middle East. The analysis employs a broad tool-kit that includes: three hypotheses, the multi-causal model for conflict analysis, theoretical grounding in both Groupthink and Lay-epistemics, and an interpretivist lens provided by critical hermeneutics. The aim is to use this discrete unconventional warfare campaign as a platform activity to examine how decision-making and actions at the executive levels of government influenced the overall outcome. The findings of this examination will show that the greatest outcome of the Syria Train and Equip Program may be to serve as a cautionary tale and a guide for policy makers – especially when considering Unconventional Warfare as a policy option.
What is meant by a cultural life of machine learning (ML), and how can it be studied? How can one keep up with the rapid pace of ML’s technical development, while simultaneously offering analyses that “generalize” for the next generation? We propose the necessity for an end-to-end sociology of contemporary ML/AI which trains itself on the entire cultural process of ML research, production, and deployment, from historical genesis to sociotechnical innovation to political impact and back again. Along with the other chapters in this volume, we discuss how ML historically developed its claim to capture meaning; how its present-day relevance is tied to an increasingly cascading agency; and why one must critically address ML’s limited forms of interpretation in order to ultimately alter its course.
Background
Fisher (1985) argued that “there is no genre…that is not an episode in the story of life” (p. 347). As they incorporate moral claims, stories become ‘sticky,’ even when they are not accurate of fact, shifting listener beliefs, values, and sense of self.
Purpose
This study examined ‘sticky‘ storytelling and moral claims inherent in workplace bullying.
Method
Critical hermeneutic method nested within an integrative review served as the research approach, extending findings reported in published research reports and gray literature.
Findings
Through polished use of rhetorical style and resource control strategies within tacitly or explicitly supportive workplace contexts, bullies construct convincing but morally disengaged narratives—sticky stories—that violate ethical principles and yield moral ambiguity for their victims as they impede workplace productivity.
Discussion
Largely ineffective, policies aimed to stem bullying have done little to date to mitigate bullying's impact. Recognizing the moral storytelling characterizing workplace bullying might strengthen policy for constraining workplace bullying.
A incorporação da metodologia hermenêutica na exegese bíblica contemporânea.* Jean Luc Fobe-PUC-SP 1 Resumo. A exegese na Teologia Bíblica tem a proposta da compreensão plena dos textos das sagradas escrituras empregando as ferramentas estruturalista e histórico gramatical. A hermenêutica corresponde ao envolvimento racional cognitivo e emocional do seu intérprete, e deslocando o seu significado para o leitor contemporâneo de forma relevante. A distinção entre exegese e hermenêutica se faz historicamente a partir da reforma com a valorização do sentido original do texto das escrituras. A hermenêutica contemporânea ou filosófica se desenvolve historicamente a partir do século XIX sendo aplicada diretamente a interpretação bíblica. A metodologia hermenêutica moderna desenvolvida desde Schleiermacher é apresentada evolutivamente, com sentido crítico na incorporação de ferramentas para hermenêutica exegética contemporânea, capacitando o estudioso das escrituras a se aproximar mais do sentido original e sensus plenior dos textos das sagradas escrituras. As ferramentas ou chaves hermenêuticas contemporâneas são apresentadas no processo de incorporação metodológica do exegeta aumentando a sua compreensão da Teologia Bíblica. Palavras chaves: Hermenêutica Bíblica, Exegese Bíblica, método hermenêutico exegético, integração exegese e hermenêutica.
In the UK, major IT public procurement projects regularly fail at significant cost to the taxpayer. The prevalence of these failures presents scholars with a challenge; to both understand their genesis and to facilitate learning and prevention. Functional approaches have revealed numerous determinants of failure ranging from procurement specifications to risk escalation, but true and definitive causes remain elusive. However, since failure is not itself an absolute truth, but rather a concept which is reached when support is withdrawn, the survival of a project depends on there being sufficient belief in its legitimacy. We use critical hermeneutic methods and the conceptual lens of legitimacy to reveal powerful legitimating influences that enable and constrain action, but which are not analysed in the retrospective government inquiries that determine lessons learned.
Practice theories of our equipped and situated tacit construction of participatory narrative meaning are evident in multiple disciplines from architectural to communication study, consumer, marketing and media research, organisational, psychological and social insight. Their hermeneutic focus is on customarily little reflected upon, recurrent but required, practices of embodied, habituated knowing how-from choosing 'flaw-free' fruit in a market to celebrating Chinese New Year Reunion Dining, caring for patients to social media 'voice'. In ready-to-hand practices, we attend to the purpose and not to the process, to the goal rather than its generating. Yet familiar practices both presume and put in place fundamental understanding. Listening to Asian and Western consumers reflecting-not only subsequent to but also within practices-this book considers activity emplacing core perceptions from a liminal moment in a massive mall to health psychology research. Institutions configure practices-in-practices cohering or conflicting within their material horizons, space accessible to social analysis. Practices theory construes routine as minimally self-monitored, nonetheless considering it as being embodied narrative. In research output, such generic 'storied' activity is seen as (in)formed, shaped from a shifting hierarchy of 'horizons' or perspectives-from habituated to reflective-rather than a single seamless unfolding. Taking a communication practices route disentangles and avoids conflating tacit and transformative construction of identities in qualitative research. Practices research crosses discipline. Ubiquitous media use by managers and visitors throughout a shopping mall responds to investigating not only with digital tracking expertise but also from an interpretive marketing viewpoint. Visiting a practice perspective's hermeneutic underwriting, spatio-temporal metaphorical concepts become available and appropriate to the analysis of communication as a process across disciplines. In repeated practices, 'horizons of understanding' are solidified. Emphasising our understanding of a material environment as 'equipment', practices theory enables correlation of use and demographic variable in quantitative study extending interpretive behavioural and haptic qualitative research. Consumption, Psychology and Practice Theories: A Hermeneutic Perspective addresses academics and researchers in Communication Studies, Marketing, Psychology and Social Theory, as well as university methodology courses recognising philosophy guides a discipline's investigative insight.
This PDF includes the editorial and all the articles published in Issue 1.
p>If reality is socially established through practices that, directly or indirectly, depend on communication and therefore on some notion of truth, the idea of a post-truth communicative regime or “age” may seem not only bizarre but also worrying. The dissolution of the real announced by the prophets of postmodernism in the form of either a “perfect crime” or a “liquid reality”, has been interpreted as the effect of the crisis of truth and legitimation that Jean-Françoise Lyotard referred to with his notions of ”performativity” and ”legitimation by force”. In this perspective, reality depends on truth and the possibility of truth depends in turn, by configurations of power that seem too elusive and ephemeral to be effectively engaged with in either theory or practice. In this paper, I mobilize the notions of parrhesia and persona in an effort to establish an alternative standpoint to discuss the epistemological and ontological implications of the postmodern condition and the crisis of truth associated to it. The main point can perhaps be summarized in the idea that, if the new regime of truth (or post-truth) relies on persona expressing the roles/characters compatible with it, the notion of parrhesia may gain a critical relevance for the normative evaluation of these personas and the social implications of their truth. Famously re-introduced by Michel Foucault in his analysis of truth and its discursive conditions, the notion of parrhesia has a heuristic potential that is not fully exploited. While challenging in fundamental ways the social construction of reality on practical grounds, the digitalization of social life presents also theoretical challenges some of which can be addressed by the reconceptualization of parrhesia in relation to the social role of the persona rather than the individual. In my paper, I present some preliminary research notes in this direction.</p
Nation states are increasingly linked by a homogenised imaginary of a future that calls for individual citizens to be innovative and creative lifelong learners, who have to be provided the skills and dispositions to compete successfully in creative, twenty-first century knowledge societies. An emerging strategy in working towards this imaginary is to drastically reshape the physical environment of learning. This chapter considers two separate and different examples of such reshaping occurring in two different national contexts. These examples are used in this chapter to develop an application of Lefebvrian theoretical constructs and a critique of the way space influences, shapes and directs the work of educators, and the messages it conveys regarding what counts as worthwhile education for students in the twenty-first century.
Chapter 1 frames the study by highlighting the contemporary challenges of comparative literature to respond to expanding and diversifying transnational readerships. Kaakinen argues that the analytical approach of twentieth-century reception aesthetics should be updated to account for readers who cannot engage with a given text in an unimpeded relationship of dialogue; this is especially the case when literary texts revolve around transnational histories of violence. Drawing on analyses of postcolonial untimeliness and historical trauma, the book’s readings of Weiss, Conrad and Sebald identify implied, unimplied and unwelcome reading positions and differentiate between various ways in which situated readers engage with gaps in literary texts. The study demonstrates in practice how to take into account the noncontemporaneity of reading contexts without resorting to mere relativism.
Procurement in the UKs National Health Service (NHS) is facing its most significant financial challenge. Despite the sheer scale and complexities of the public healthcare sector, the Government's solutions are all too often packaged as "collaborate more", "standardise products" and "leverage spend". Unfortunately, these over simplistic solutions take a myopic view of market drivers, conflate spend with potential savings and fail to deliver value. Many contracts have already been commercially optimised yet the funding crisis continues to deepen. New value-based procurement approaches are needed to drive longer-term innovation and cost reduction and to move debates from efficiencies to embrace effectiveness in integrated supply chains. In this research, we adopt the resource-based view (RBV) as a lens to explore the extent to which NHS resources support the strategic adoption of value-based approaches. An empirical case study on a regional cluster of six NHS Trusts in England, confirms the dominance of narrow price-based approaches that create barriers to moving towards longer-term, valuebased procurement. The antecedent roots of price-based approaches are unpicked through a hermeneutic analysis of recent Government commissioned reports to show how these have set the tone, culture and priorities for healthcare procurement in the UK. The analysis provides explanatory power to the case study by illustrating how Government reports have led to, and legitimised the dominance of price-based approaches and caused relational and resource-based barriers to adopting value-based procurement, despite stakeholder enthusiasm. The findings provide unique insights into why public procurement has struggled to reach beyond its traditional cost orientated scope. We contribute to an extended consideration of the RBV in public organisations through identifying the role of the policy environment in determining and legitimatising an organisation's strategic direction.
Sociology as a discipline has a long history of hermeneutic approaches to understanding the complexity of interpreting meanings and actions. However, there is less emphasis on the contribution of sociologists to theories of space and spatial theories. Social life takes place and is shaped and moulded not only by actions but the meanings and values that are attached through everyday life and practice in, through and to space. This chapter will provide a discursive introduction to the works of three seminal sociologists whose theories and analysis explicitly address the spatial dimensions of social interaction, of socio-spatial formations, of the impact and influence of the social production of space. That is, the works of Georg Simmel (the first ‘sociologist of space’), of Walter Benjamin (social and cultural critic of the city of modernity) and of Henri Lefebvre (the major influence in the spatial turn of the social sciences). Whilst I do not claim that any or all of these theorists would have identified themselves with an explicitly hermeneutic approach, philosophy or method a hermeneutic analysis can be applied to their works to elucidate the practical application of their insights and perspectives. Why taking space seriously is not only important for the social and human sciences but also why understanding space is an essential element of hermeneutic practice. Each of these theorists has an explicit focus on the city and the urban which can be treated hermeneutically as a text-analogue. That is, from the social, cultural and historical context in which we are situated we can seek to interpret and understand these theorists of space and spatial theories to analyse and explain the similarities and differences, the continuities and contrasts with our own urban times, experiences, spaces and places.
Anthropological studies of space and place recognize that landscape, space and the body represent important sites for cultural meaning, social and political memory, and public discourse. Space can be used to carry social meanings that are culturally and historically constructed as well as contested. The hermeneutic study of space explores space as a symbolic medium and recognizes that space and space language convey a culture’s meanings about the immediate world, while place carries with it sentiments of attachment and identity that emerge out of lived experience. At the macro or cosmic level, geo-symbolic systems can order the world cosmologically and serves as one element of political organization.
Michel Foucault’s work is concerned with positioning knowledge in discourse and power. Despite being defined by multiple reorientations, an underlying focus remains the rejection of any transcendental or essentialist notion of the subject, truth, or meaning. Foucault’s efforts are driven by the aim to situate subjects, knowledges, and truths; experience is understood to be defined by specific settings. Yet if Foucault’s concern is thus the concrete positioning of our experience, the question arises how such positionings are themselves undertaken: from which discursive position is the reconstruction of discourses itself possible? And in which way is the analyst of power herself embedded in power practices, possibly engaged in acts of domination and objectification? In this essay I follow Foucault’s own (in the end problematic) attempts to answer these methodological questions. Through a careful reconstruction and engagement of Foucault’s efforts to define his approach as a pure description of discursive events, or to situate his genealogy alongside the oppressed and marginalized agents, the essay arrives at a hermeneutic grounding of discourse and power analysis which avoids the pitfalls of his own proposals. At the core of Foucault’s discursive view from somewhere, we shall find the hermeneutic potential for a dialogical reciprocity between theorist and agent. The new vision of a mutual perspective-taking between discourse analyst and social agent fuses both sides into the perspective of situated reflexive agency.
This paper undertakes a praxiological study (practice based approach) of Muslim ‘religious tribunals,’ Shari’ā Councils and Muslim Arbitration Tribunals (MATs) not part of the UK law. Some Western scholars maintain that traditional shari’ā law is discriminatory on issues of gender equality, in particular, with reference to Muslim family law. It is important to examine the shift from the ‘true narratives’ of the Qur’ānic Model (QM) to the ‘living practice;’ co-construction of ‘true narratives’ with the QM. It is my contention that discrimination can be eliminated through the QM by adopting the interpretive/hermeneutical approach. Praxiological/Practice Based Approach (PBA) has identified that discrimination does exist in the ‘living practice’ of traditional shari’ā law. I treat the Qur’ān-Sunnah as complementary sources to each other because this has important implications with reference to ‘wife beating’ verse in the Qur’an (Q.4:34). Religious tribunals (RTs) have restricted access for research purposes and solving my problem is a challenge and PBA was the only way to obtain an ‘insider’s view.’ PBA uses practitioner case excerpts and this gives insight into the specifics of non-compliance, emergence of pluralism within Islam and legal practice of shari’ā law and factors such as the judges’ beliefs and values are examined. PBA further enabled me to investigate the specifics of discrimination or inequalities that occur. The Qur’ānic Model has a potential to engender a more egalitarian (gender neutral) Islamic legal theory. Any Islamic legal theory must recognise that, the Qur’an does not provide a systematic, historical and comprehensive system of universal ethics that can be simply retrieved or discovered.The secular-religious debate has been politically influenced, for example, inequality issue for women seeking advice from RTs. Baroness Cox has sponsored the Arbitration and Mediation (Equality) Services Bill that has gone through its first reading on 14 May 2013. It is important to understand different cultures and different ‘versions of Islam’ emerging in policy formulation on a national and international level in the 21st Century.
Realist and Marxist critiques of humanitarian intervention are distinctively materialistic in scope. The IR literature has already described this scepticism as a ‘hermeneutics of suspicion’, a term associated with the work of Paul Ricoeur, which aims to unearth the intervenors’ material and geopolitical interests hypocritically hidden behind the pretext of humanitarianism. The article first notes the decontextualised misappropriations of the term as an iconic and omnipotent instrument of doubt, as well as the limitations of the social constructivist response on the matter. By contextualising Ricoeur’s hermeneutics of suspicion as developed in his life work, the article then calls for an extension of critique from a hermeneutics of suspicion to a hermeneutics of naïveté. Applied in the critique of the ideology of humanitarian intervention, the article thus calls for a shift of focus from the examination of the distorting (Marxism, realism) and legitimising (social constructivism) functions of this ideology to its integrating function that has allowed the evocation of humanitarian principles as international norms, and uncritically vindicates this arrangement. The article proposes that this hermeneutical detour could allow critique to proceed to a greater analytical depth, opening up a set of critical questions.
In the last decade the framing perspective has gained increasing popularity among social movement researchers and theorists. Surprisingly, there has been no critical assessment of this growing body of literature. Though the perspective has made significant contributions to the movements literature, it suffers from several shortcomings. These include neglect of systematic empirical studies, descriptive bias, static tendencies, reification, reductionism, elite bias, and monolithic tendencies. In addition to a critique of extant movement framing literature. I offer several remedies and illustrate them with recent work. The articles by Francesca Polletta, John H. Evans, Sharon Erickson Nepstad, and Ira Silver in this special section address several of the concerns raised in this critique and, in so doing, contribute to the integration of structural and cultural approaches to social movements.
Finding a pragmatic exit from the semantic labyrinth surrounding ‘ideology' and ‘culture', this article considers the neutral connotations of ‘ideology' as a formative, intrinsically paradoxical, constituent of culture, and argues that the heterogeneous, volatile, and contested nature of all ideologies when viewed through some postmodernist lenses is their hallmark only under the historically exceptional societal conditions of high modernity. It moves on to consider the virtues of several non-reductionist variants of Marxist theory that postulate a subtle dialectic between ideology's coercive and emancipatory functions, aspects that can be seen at work at the generative and experiential core of all human cultures, and not just capitalist ones. These reflections lead to a call for a dialectical, anthropologically informed approach to the interface between culture and ideology. It concludes on a speculative note by suggesting that analogies made between ideological self-replication in cultural processes and the genetic basis of evolution could be more than metaphorical should the infant science of ‘memetics' prove to have an empirically sound base.
This is a study in the philosophy of social science. It takes the form of a comparative critique of three contemporary approaches: ordinary language philosophy, hermeneutics and critical theory, represented here respectively by Ludwig Wittgenstein, Paul Ricoeur and Jürgen Habermas. Part I is devoted to an exposition of these authors' views and of the traditions to which they belong. Its unifying thread is their common concern with language, a concern which nonetheless reveals important differences of approach. For whereas ordinary language philosophers tend to treat linguistic activity as the ultimate object of inquiry, both Ricoeur and Habermas regard it as a medium which betrays more fundamental dimensions of human experience and the social world. Part II complements the exposition with a critical analysis of its central themes: the conceptualisation of action, the methodology of interpretation, and the theory of reference and truth. The author defends many aspects of the work of Ricoeur and Habermas, such as the emphasis on power and ideology, the strategy of depth interpretation, and the link between consensus and truth; but he argues that there are serious deficiencies and obscurities in their work. He proposes solutions to these difficulties and concludes with a sketch of a critical and rationally justified theory for the interpretation of action - a critical hermeneutics.
The conceptual definitions we use in social science often need adjusting to allow scholars to hone in on issues that are obscured under other definitions and to open research agendas. Here it is argued that a focus upon social movements as ideologically structured action accomplishes two objectives. First, it allows us to incorporate cultural/cognitive components of action into our core definition. Second, it helps us to broaden our research agenda to include a deeper and fuller view of socialization to social movement ideology and to social movement-related action that takes place in a variety of institutional arenas, including electoral competition, legislative processes, bureaucratic agencies, and executive ojfces.
In the same measure that the concept of recognition has become the normative core of several different emancipation movements over the last several years, so have there also been increasing doubts as to its critical potential. This theoretical skepticism has doubtlessly been fostered by the experience that we live in a culture of affirmation in which publicly displayed recognition often bears the marks of mere rhetoric and has the character of being a mere substitute. The act of praising certain characteristics or abilities seems to have become a political instrument whose unspoken function consists in inserting individuals or social groups into existing structures of dominance by encouraging a positive self-image. Far from making a lasting contribution to the conditions of autonomy of the members of our society, social recognition appears merely to serve the creation of attitudes that conform to the dominant system. The reservations entertained with regard to this new critical approach thus amount to the thesis that practices of recognition don't empower persons, but subject them. We could summarize this objection by saying that through processes of reciprocal recognition, subjects are encouraged to adopt a particular self-conception that motivates them to voluntarily take on tasks or duties that serve society. These fundamental reservations recall the considerations that moved the Marxist theoretician Louis Althusser more than thirty years ago to find the practice of public recognition to be the common mechanism of all forms of ideology. © Cambridge University Press, 2009 and Bert van den Brink and David Owen 2007.
With the turn of the new century, Critical Theory appears to have become an intellectual artifact. This superficial dividing point alone seems to increase the intellectual gap separating us from the theoretical beginnings of the Frankfurt School. Just as the names of authors who were for its founders vividly present suddenly sound from afar, so too the theoretical challenges from which the members of the school had won their insights threaten to fall into oblivion. Today a younger generation carries on the work of social criticism without having much more than a nostalgic memory of the heroic years of western Marxism. Indeed, already over thirty years have passed since the writings of Marcuse and Horkheimer were last read as contemporary works. There is an atmosphere of the outdated and antiquated, of the irretrievably lost, that surrounds the grand historical-philosophical ideas of Critical Theory, ideas for which there no longer seems to be any kind of resonance within the experience of the accelerating present. The deep chasm that separates us from our predecessors must be comparable to that which separated the first generation of the telephone and movie theatre from the last representatives of German idealism. The same vexed astonishment with which a Benjamin or a Kracauer may have observed a photo of the late Schelling must today come over a young student who, on her computer, stumbles across a photo of the young Horkheimer posing in a bourgeois Wilhelmian interior.
Introduction The concept of social movement is a well-established term in the sociological lexicon. The aim of this chapter is not so much to once again attempt to define a social movement or to offer criteria for determining when forms of collective action qualify as genuine movements. In fact, some of the examples I use to illustrate my argument are not taken from “social movements” properly defined.1 Rather, the aim is to explore what “movement” means, and to ask what is or can be said to be “moved” in the performance of opposition or extended protest. Social movement is a form of acting in public, a political performance which involves representation in dramatic form, as movements engage emotions inside and outside their bounds attempting to communicate their message. Such performance is always public, as it requires an audience which is addressed and must be moved. Following Goffman (1971) and others (for example, Schechner 1985; Hetherington 1998; Apter, chapter 7, this volume; Alexander, chapter 1, this volume), the application of a theory of performance calls attention to the place and space of movement, as well as how opposition is performed. Performance theory focuses on corporality, presence, and the pre-discursive, while at the same time including it. This allows us to better address questions concerning what happens when people enter a movement, how this affects their actions and the actions of others, and to ask how social movements move.
recognition;political mobilization;cultural domination;fundamental injustice;material inequality
Jeffrey C. Alexander brings together new and leading contributors to make a powerful and coherently argued case for a new direction in cultural sociology, one that focuses on the intersection between performance, ritual and social action. Performance has always been used by sociologists to understand the social world but this volume offers the first systematic analytical framework based on the performance metaphor to explain large-scale social and cultural processes. From September 11, to the Clinton/Lewinsky affair, to the role of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Social Performance draws on recent work in performative theory in the humanities and in cultural studies to offer a novel approach to the sociology of culture. Inspired by the theories of Austin, Derrida, Durkheim, Goffman, and Turner, this is a path-breaking volume that makes a major contribution to the field. It will appeal to scholars and students alike.
This chapter analyzes the discourse on civil society in the U.S. It explains that civil society consists of actors and the relationships between actors and institutions, and that at the heart of the culture of American civil society is a set of binary codes that discuss and interrelate these three dimensions of social-structural reality in a patterned and coherent way. It suggest that the culture of civil society should be conceived as a system of symbolic codes that specify good and evil because conceptualizing culture in this way allows for causal autonomy by virtue of its internal semiologics and also affords the possibility for generalizing from and between specific localities and historical contexts.
During the 1920s and the 1930s, the notion of reification brought about recurring themes that concerned social and cultural critique. This term was used to describe the increasing level of unemployment, the economic crisis, and other such historical events that characterized the Weimar Republic. By combining concepts adapted from prominent philosophers such as Karl Marx, Max Weber, and Georg Simmel, George Lukács was able to come up with a three-part dissertation-"Reification and the Consciousness of the Proletariat" which prompted that the forms of life in such circumstances be examined as a consequence of social reification. This chapter illustrates four indicators which demonstrate how the term reification has veered away from the definition it acquired from the Weimar Republic and has moved toward a more theoretical discourse. © 2008 by The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
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Exemplifying a fruitful fusion of French and German approaches to social theory, The Power of Dialogue transforms Habermas's version of critical theory into a new "critical hermeneutics" that builds on both Gadamer's philosophical hermeneutics and Foucault's studies of power and discourse.
Kögler argues for a middle way between Gadamer's concept of interpretation as dialogue (which has been faulted for its strong focus on the agent's own self-understanding) and Foucault's conceptualization of the structure of discourse and the practices of power (which has been faulted for neglecting the role of individual subjectivity and freedom in social interaction).
At the book's core is the question of how social power shapes and influences meaning and how the process of interpretation, while implicated in social forms of power, can nevertheless achieve reflective distance and a critique of power. It offers an original perspective on such issues as the impact of prejudice and cultural background on scientific interpretation, the need to understand others without assimilating their otherness, and the "truth" of interpretation.
Le prix qui m'honore et pour lequel j'adresse mes vifs remerciements au John W. Kluge Center, à la Library of Congress, est motivé par l'humanisme dont l'oeuvre de ma vie est créditée par les généreux donateurs. C'est à l'examen de quelques-unes des bases de cet humanisme que sont consacrées les réflexions qui suivent. Mon titre est doublee : il désigne d'une part les capacités qu'un agent humain s'attribue, d'autre part le recours à autrui pour donner à cette certitude personnelle un statut social. L'enjeu commun aux deux pôles de cette dualité est l'identité personnelle. Je m'identifie par mes capacités, par ce que je peux faire. L'individu se désigne comme homme capable, non sans ajouter… et souffrant, pour souligner la vulnérabilité de la condition humaine. Les capacités peuvent être observées du dehors, mais elles sont fondamentalement ressenties, vécues, sur le mode de la certitude. Celle-ci n'est pas une croyance, tenue pour un degré inférieur du savoir. C'est une assurance confiante, parente du témoignage. Je parle ici d'attestationn : celle-ci est en effet au soi ce qu'est le témoignage porté sur un événement, une rencontre, un accident. Phénoménologie de l'homme capable Il est possible d'établir une typologie des capacités de base, à la jointure de l'inné et de l'acquis. Ces pouvoirs de base constituent la première assise de l'humanité, au sens de l'humain opposé à l'inhumain. Le changement qui est un aspect de l'identité – des idées et des choses – revêt au niveau humain un aspect dramatique, qui est celui de l'histoire personnelle enchevêtrée dans les histoires innombrables de nos compagnons d'existence. L'identité personnelle est marquée par une temporalité qu'on peut dire constitutive. La personne est son histoire. Dans l'esquisse de typologie que je propose, je considère tour à tour la capacité de dire, celle d'agir, celle de raconter, à quoi j'ajoute, l'imputabilité et la promesse. Dans ce vaste panorama des capacités affirmées et assumées par l'agent humain, l'accent principal se déplace d'un pôle à première vue moralement neutre à un pôle explicitement moral où le sujet capable s'atteste comme sujet responsable. Quelques mots sur chacune de ces capacitéss : par «« pouvoir diree », il faut entendre une capacité plus spécifique que le don général du langage qui s'exprime dans la pluralité des langues avec chacune sa morphologie, son lexique, sa syntaxe, sa rhétorique. Pouvoir dire, c'est produire spontanément un discours sensé. Dans le discours quelqu'un dit quelque chose à quelqu'un selon des règles communes. Dire quelque chose, c'est le senss ; sur quelque chose, c'est la référence à l'extralinguistiquee ; à quelqu'un, c'est l'adresse, base de la conversation. Par «« pouvoir agirr », j'entends la capacité de produire des événements dans la société et la nature. Cette intervention transforme la notion d'événements, qui ne sont pas seulement ce qui arrive. Elle introduit la contingence humaine, l'incertitude et l'imprévisibilité dans le cours des choses.
1) the cultural construction of repertoires of contention and frames
2) contribution of cultural contradictions and historical events in providing opportunties for framing
3) framing as a strategic activity
4) frames are contested - within the movement and externally (competetive processes determine what frame dominates)
5) frames are transmitted and reframed in the mass media
This paper examines two fundamentally different ways that recent philosophical thinkers have theorized the good society and demonstrates that each tradition has engaged in revisionist efforts that brings it toward its rival tradition. Rawls and Habermas represent the "base" of this contemporary effort, establishing neo-Kantian positions in the sixties and seventies that represent an initial effort at theorizing the good society in terms of an historically unsituated, free floating universalism. The contemporary versions of the hermeneutic, communtarian approaches emerge in response, with thinkers like Walzer, Boltanski and Thevenot, Taylor, and Young arguing for the situated self, community based standards, cultural specificity, and relativism. It is demonstrated, however, that within each of these works there is a decisive space that is, or must be, given to some more universalizing sphere of justice. Responding to this possibility, against these communitarian and hermeneutic approaches, there developed internal revisions of the neo-Kantian, externalist approach, beginning with the large shift manifest in the Rawls of Political Liberalism. Similar changes are demonstrated in the works of thinkers like Benhabib, Honneth, and even in Habermas himself. Just as the communitarians move back, with difficulty, toward universalism, so do these universalists seek to move back, with difficulty, to particularism. In the concluding section of this paper, I argue that if we look empirically at the actual nature of the discourses about the good society that circulate in Western societies, we will see both of these discourses, the universalist and the particular, acting side by side. I try to explain how they actual intertwine in a systematic way, as what I call a "binary discourse of civil society.".
This paper considers and evaluates Jeffrey Alexander's strong program in cultural sociology, which represents an exercise in paradigm for- mation and an ambitious attempt to refound American sociology along interpretive lines. Cultural sociology is assessed according to four axes, namely its social constructivist epistemology, culturalizing methodology, analytical realism, and internal and external positioning. In addition to discussing the accomplishments and limitations of cultural sociology in all these areas, the paper indicates ways to strengthen it by setting it in conversation with other and more explicitly critical currents of thought.
The Paradox of Ideology Revisited by Paul Ricœur
In restoring the concept of ideology, Paul Ricœur endeavors to resolve its inherent paradox, demonstrated by K. Mannheim. Indeed, everything happens as if all criticism of ideology was suspected in itself of belonging to an ideology. To escape from this vicious circle, P. Ricœur follows neither the line engaged by marxist « science », neither the line inspired by sociology of knowledge for which he shows the aporetic nature in both respects. The original contribution of the hermeneut consists in solving the paradox of ideology, in drawing in the resources of a political philosophy. Confronted with the inoperative science/ideology opposition, Ricœur prefers to implement subtle dialectics between utopia and ideology. In other words, a criticism of ideology is only conceivable on the basis of a utopian reflection which keeps the social order out of reach in proposing a « liberating horizon ».
Ideology : a culturalist concept and a critical concept
The successive announcements concerning the “end” of ideology or its “return” fail to register the major shift in its use as a concept in social theory: its redefinition in a culturalist perspective. The article begins by recalling the Marxist definition of the concept, comprising three ideas: the distortion of reality, the legitimation of domination, and the loosening of ideological “hold” through its critique. The article then notes the gradual abandoning of the term, before looking at the terms which presided over its culturalist redefinition. The article then examines the contours of a possible renewal of the critical concept paving the way for a renewed critique of ideology. Such a reconstruction is notably based on the theory of recognition. It locates in the idea of the loosening or undoing of ideological hold the thrust of an internal critique.
Previously overlooked dimensions of movements and countermovements in conflict (a “conflux”) are suggested. Propositions concerning the forms and outcomes of countermovements are delineated. Civil rights and anti-busing protest in Boston serves as a case study to illustrate the schema with examples from other “anti” movements. This analysis is based on the view that the study of movements and countermovements may usefully be conceptualized as a continuous dialectic of social change.
When it comes to issues of equality and redistribution, sociologists are particularly prone to think in anti-cultural terms. External, objective, and material forces are conceived as determining unequal distributions without reference to the wills of actors - via hegemony, domination, subordination. But if inequality is imposed by material and coercive force, then it can be remedied only by accumulating power and counter-force, and by exercising them in an instrumental and potentially coercive way.What is missing from this account is meaning, the recognition of its relative autonomy. The imposition of inequality, and struggles over justice, inclusion, and distribution, are mediated by cultural structures. Inequalities are nested inside the discourse of civil society, and so are demands for equality. Vis-à-vis the binary codes of civil society, protest movements pollute hegemonic forces and purify subordinate groups in its name.
In this article, Axel Honneth outlines a plural theory of justice. In developing his argument he takes his departure not in the classic elimination of ‘inequality’, but in the avoidance of ‘humiliation’ or ‘disrespect’. He is convinced that an appropriate point of departure for a recognition-theoretical conception of justice must show that the experience of social injustice is always measured in terms of the withholding of some recognition held to be legitimate. Throughout the article, Honneth makes strong reservations about Nancy Fraser’s approach, where ‘recognition’ and ‘redistribution’ are separated into two conceptual totalities with the single goal of ‘participatory equality’. On the contrary, he suggests having a more elaborate concept of identity formation, so that participating in the public realm means participating without shame, capable of unfurling his or her own personality’s potential in an unforced manner and of thus developing a personal identity. From this standpoint Honneth points to three differentiated spheres of recognition that must be obtained if the individual is to obtain a personal identity, namely love, equal treatment in law and social esteem.