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In the context of a new global order where the logic of the market reigns virtually unopposed, there is a clear need for original thinking that might reinvigorate a progressive political project. This collection of essays brings together the work of a number of leading scholars who are concerned to construct a convincing basis for incisive criticism today. These contributors represent the most vibrant and influential of contemporary critical perspectives: egalitarian liberalism, socialism, poststructuralism, psychoanalysis, hermeneutics and critical theory.
In the context of a new global order where the logic of the market reigns virtually unopposed, there is a need for thinking that might reinvigorate a progressive political project. This collection of essays brings together the work of a number of leading scholars who are concerned to construct a convincing basis for incisive criticism. These contributors represent such contemporary critical perspectives as egalitarian liberalism, socialism, poststructuralism, psychoanalysis, hermeneutics and critical theory.
The public and private distinction is essential to our moral and political vocabularies as it continues to structure our social and legal practices. Public and Private provides a multidisciplinary perspective on this distinction which has been at the centre of controversial debate in recent years. The focus of the debate has been on delineating acceptable boundaries between public and private in economic, social and cultural spheres. What is the nature and scope of citizenship? What are the implications of new reproductive technologies? And what is the fate of state sovereignty in a globalised world economy? At first glance these questions may appear unrelated, yet they all raise underlying and serious concerns regarding the scope and proper boundaries between the public and the private. Public and Private will stimulate the current debate with its original approach and provide a valuable resource for all those interested in the role the public and private play in structuring our societies.
This volume is the first book-length explication of hermeneutics in social work. It attempts to clarify and reconstruct the moral basis of social work. Against the mainstream current of doing social work with the technical-rational outlook, this book argues that value constitutes the very core of social work. It is with this solid foundation of moral concepts that social work techniques are reconstituted.This volume seamlessly combines theoretical discussions with empirical studies. It starts with a theoretical inquiry that combines hermeneutics and critical theory and examines the moral nature of social work. It then extends the theoretical analysis to empirical research on mental illness, cancer, community development and social work management. Redefining the relationship between theory and practice, the discussion on first-person value involvement and dialogical mode of understanding will inspire social workers to develop their professional practice in a new light. This volume will capture the attention of both social work scholars and frontline social work practitioners. The hermeneutic point of view will also be of interest to readers/students of social theory and social research.
This text examines which political principles should govern global politics, exploring the ethical issues that arise at the global level and addressing questions such as: are there universal values? Is national self-determination defensible? And when, if ever, may political regimes wage war?
Encompassing the relationship between the state and the individual, society and the individual, the nature of freedom and the concept of the person, this four-volume set covers the main tenets of the liberal tradition. The collection includes material from the rich background and history of classical writings, and also emphasizes modern scholarship and contemporary issues.Fully indexed and including a new introduction by the editor, this is an invaluable reference tool for both researchers and students in the field.
Ethnicity and Nationalism in Africa features a series of 'constructivist' contributions by leading scholars in the field of ethnicity and nationalism, and explores the differences among those who have come to be known as 'constructivists'. The contributors reflect upon ongoing methodological debates in ethnography, historiography, and political theory. They demonstrate the diversity of concepts and methods within constructivism, and assess the political implications of the concepts themselves. The debate between them is inter-disciplinary, critical and innovative, and should be of value to anyone interested in the study of ethnicity and nationalism.
Fictive Theories is a significant and innovative intervention in key debates in political theory concerning the ways theory should be philosophically grounded, and the task that political theory should set itself. Susan McManus argues that political theory has been grounded in controlling fictions (from fictions of human nature, to morals laws) that function to close possibility. Starting by interrogating the often hidden work of fictions in political theories, she argues that all theorizing is a form of world-creating. Rather than hiding the fictions at work in political theory, McManus argues that theory should become self-consciously fictive, and that there are political and ethical advantages to so doing. She then develops a uniquely deconstructive and utopian understanding of the project of political theory grounded in the 'fictive': a creative and future-oriented imagination. Rather than seeking to provide blueprints of how a polity should be organized, fictive theories seek to fabricate futures through the anticipatory articulation of possibility. Drawing on a rich range of thinkers from the traditions of political theory (Hobbes, Rousseau, Kant), deconstructive theory (Roland Barthes, Jacques Derrida) and utopian studies (Ernst Bloch), this book will be of interest to researchers, teachers and students in the fields of political theory, utopian studies, literary theory and cultural studies.
One of the most remarkable developments in the last twenty years has been the revival of the idea of deliberative democracy. Set against aggregative models of democracy derived from economics, such as the theory of rational choice, the idea of deliberative democracy, or decision-making based on public deliberations among free and equal citizens, represents a highly significant development in democratic theory. Exploring this development, this book provides a fresh and original perspective on a theme at the center of current debates in democratic theory and practice. The essays collected in this volume offer a series of powerful arguments in support of the view that fair and equal treatment of groups is best defended on the basis of a theory of public deliberation. Such a theory has both a normative and institutional dimension. It provides a framework for the normative justification of state policies toward socially or culturally disadvantaged groups, and suggests several institutional mechanisms, such as deliberative forums and citizen's juries, where the voices of disadvantaged groups can be articulated under fair conditions and become effective in shaping' public policy. Democracy as Public Deliberation reminds us that the issue of democracy is not simply one of top-down management and control, but bottom-up considerations that are often located in ethnic, religious and linguistic groups. The great virtue of this volume is to identify statist systems that claim to be democratic, but only in terms of the dominant culture. Democracy as Public Deliberation indicates that democracy often comes in small packages--and in that very fact, it tests the actual ambitions and standards of the macro-state. This is an especially powerful volume for those interested in the strengths and weaknesses of third world structures.
An exploration of the contemporary re-conception of freedom after the critique of objective truths and ideas of an unchanging human nature, in which modern self-determination was grounded. This book focuses on the radical theorist Cornelius Castoriadis and the new paradigm of 'agonistic autonomy' is contrasted with Marxian and liberal approaches.