Strangers, Ambivalence and Social Theory

Strangers, Ambivalence and Social Theory

Author: Bülent Diken

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2018-12-20

Total Pages: 351

ISBN-13: 0429761899

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First published in 1998, this volume dwells upon the socio-political problem of "under-representation" at great length within the context of immigration through analysis of Turkish immigrants within the "cosy" country of Denmark on the European Periphery. The main purpose has been to show the fictitious and constructed character of the identities that are normally presupposed and taken for granted. Bülent Diken attempts to "defamiliarize" the familiar notions of the "immigrant" and what is taken for granted in the field of immigration. To counter this, Diken allows the "immigrant" to speak throughout interviews. In addition, the study dwells on local and central state policies and planning. This requires a merger of social theory with research on immigration as well as (social and physical) planning, in this case in a Danish context with an examination on how the application of planning and urban politics are oriented toward immigrants. Together with an interest in political and discursive "strategies", the "tactics" used by immigrants in coping with these strategies are focused on at length.


Revolt, Revolution, Critique

Revolt, Revolution, Critique

Author: Bulent Diken

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2012-03-15

Total Pages: 244

ISBN-13: 1134005636

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In contemporary society the idea of ‘revolution’ seems to have become obsolete. What is more untimely than the idea of revolution today? At the same time, however, the idea of radical change no longer refers to exceptional circumstances but has become normalized as part of daily life. Ours is a ‘culture’ of permanent revolution in which constant systemic disembedding demands a meta-stable subjectivity in continuous transformation. In this sense, the idea of revolution is painfully timely. This paradoxical coincidence, the simultaneous absence and presence of the desire for radical change in contemporary society, is the point of departure for the symptomatic reading this book offers. The book addresses the social, political and cultural significance of revolt and revolution in three dimensions. First, it analyzes revolt and revolution as ‘events’ which are of history but not reducible to it. Second, it elaborates on theories that grant revolt and revolution a central place in their structure. Thirdly, it discusses revolutionary or emancipatory theories that seek to participate in radical change. Further, since both revolt and revolution involve the critique of what exists, of actual reality, the implications of the intimate relationship between revolt, revolution and critique are explicated.


Geographies of Embodiment

Geographies of Embodiment

Author: Kirsten Simonsen

Publisher: SAGE

Published: 2020-01-13

Total Pages: 206

ISBN-13: 1529702143

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Geographies of Embodiment provides a critical discussion of the literatures on the body and embodiment, and humanism and post-humanism, and develops arguments about "otherness" and "encounter" which have become key ideas in urban studies, and studies of the city. It situates these arguments in a wider political context, looking at power-relations through case studies at urban, national and transnational scales. These arguments are situated across disciplinary boundaries, at the borderline between between philosophy and social science that is associated to critical phenomenology, and reaches across Human Geography, Sociology, Philosophy, Anthropology, Cultural Studies and Urban Studies.


Postmodernism and the Ethical Subject

Postmodernism and the Ethical Subject

Author: Barbara Gabriel

Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 370

ISBN-13: 077352701X

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The ethical claims discussed mobilize new relations between ourselves and others as well as new cultural practices, including new forms and genres In a historical moment when the more-than-century-old shock of the modern has given way to global and trans-national shifts and cultural displacements, what new ethical demands are created? Writing across the disciplines of anthropology, literature, museology, film, and sociology, contributors to this groundbreaking volume confront a world fraught with new crises and instabilities. The ethical claims they discuss mobilize new relations between ourselves and others as well as new cultural practices, including new forms and genres. Postmodernism and the Ethical Subject points us to new ways of thinking that raise the ethical stakes of our historical moment.


Strange Encounters

Strange Encounters

Author: Sara Ahmed

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-02-01

Total Pages: 219

ISBN-13: 1135120110

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Examining the relationship between strangers, embodiment and community, Strange Encounters challenges the assumptions that the stranger is simply anybody we do not recognize and instead proposes that he or she is socially constructued as somebody we already know. Using feminist and postcolonial theory this book examines the impact of multiculturalism and globalization on embodiment and community whilst considering the ethical and political implication of its critique for post-colonial feminism. A diverse range of texts are analyzed which produce the figure of 'the stranger', showing that it has alternatively been expelled as the origin of danger - such as in neighbourhood watch, or celebrated as the origin of difference - as in multiculturalism. The author argues that both of these standpoints are problematic as they involve 'stranger fetishism'; they assume that the stranger 'has a life of its own'.


Mobilities and Complexities

Mobilities and Complexities

Author: Ole B. Jensen

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2018-10-25

Total Pages: 246

ISBN-13: 0429892705

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The new ‘mobilities turn’ has become a powerful perspective in social theory. John Urry’s oeuvre has been very influential in the emergence of this new field and has had lasting impacts on many scholars. This collection presents originally commissioned essays from leading scholars in the field who reflect on how Urry’s writing influenced the course of their research and theorizing. This volume gathers contributions in relation to John Urry’s path-breaking work. The new ‘mobilities turn’ made a strong imprint in European social theory and is beginning to make an impact in the Americas and Asia as well. It challenges mainstream theoretical and empirical approaches that were grounded in a sedentary and bounded view of states. It propels innovative thinking about social and media ecologies, complex systems and social change. It bridges many disciplines and methodologies, leading to new approaches to existing problems while also resonating with questions about both history and the future. Mobilities research marks the rise of academic and intellectual cooperation and collaboration ‘beyond societies’, as nations around the world face the ecological limits of contemporary mobility and energy systems. The contributors represent several national contexts, including England, Germany, Denmark, Finland, Taiwan, Brazil, Canada, Australia and the USA. This book collects personal essays and gives insight into a vivid network of scientists who have connections of various degrees to the late John Urry as an academic figure, an author and a person.


Immigration, Integration and Mobility

Immigration, Integration and Mobility

Author: Adrian Favell

Publisher: ECPR Press

Published: 2015-05-08

Total Pages: 360

ISBN-13: 1910259462

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A compilation of Adrian Favell's innovative and agenda-setting essays which, since the late 1990s, have charted the emergence of new migration patterns and politics in Europe. Tackling in turn issues of multiculturalism, immigrant integration, free movement, high skilled mobilities, new East-West migrations and regional integration, the collection offers a comprehensive introduction to the dynamic field of international migration studies. At the same time, it poses a sharp challenge to current complacencies, challenging researchers to escape methodological nationalism and the unreflective reproduction of concepts and assumptions in the field, as well as embracing new methodologies and theoretical resources. Moving fluidly across intellectual boundaries as much as national borders, Favell points the way forward to new thinking in this burgeoning and rapidly evolving interdisciplinary field.


Peripheral Insider

Peripheral Insider

Author: Khaled D. Ramadan

Publisher: Museum Tusculanum Press

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 246

ISBN-13: 9788772899671

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With increased mobility and transnational interaction worldwide, internationalism in contemporary visual art is no longer exclusively a western issue. Contemporary visual art includes works by expatriate artists who have settled in the west, as well as artists outside the west reflecting on everyday events in a globalized world. Peripheral Insider examines the conditions of expatriate artists from various angles: the historical and colonial roots of the issue, positions among theorists dealing with expatriate artists in the west, the role of established art institutions, and examples of recent developments in the field. Peripheral Insider argues that expatriate art or internationalism in visual art is a phenomenon with a specific history, closely related to colonial and post-colonial experiences. The contributors elucidate the book's main theme on various theoretical levels and set forth their analyses of a number of issues relevant to new interpretations of "the post-colonial agenda."


Foucault's Monsters and the Challenge of Law

Foucault's Monsters and the Challenge of Law

Author: Alex Sharpe

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2009-12-16

Total Pages: 201

ISBN-13: 1135182655

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This book considers the legal category 'monster' from theoretical and historical perspectives and deploys this category in order to understand contemporary anxieties surrounding transsexuals, conjoined twins and transgenic humans.