SocietyPub Date : 2024-08-05DOI: 10.1007/s12115-024-01006-3
Nnanna Onuoha Arukwe
{"title":"Russia’s Growing Military in Africa: Economic Partnership or Colonial Pillage?","authors":"Nnanna Onuoha Arukwe","doi":"10.1007/s12115-024-01006-3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s12115-024-01006-3","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Russia is currently intervening in Africa through the activities of private military contractors tied to the Kremlin. Although there seems to be growing public support in Africa for Russian intervention, it is important to determine whether the people’s enthusiasm for Russia’s military’s presence in Africa is justified. To analyze the phenomenon of Russia’s military presence in Africa, this article combines Edward W. Said’s postcolonialism theory of Orientalism with James Blaut’s world system theory of cultural racism. After analyzing the empirical literature and theoretical formulations on the phenomenon, the study concludes that despite the alluring façade that is typical of every empire, Russia’s current intervention in Africa is driven by a covert desire for exploitation and colonial plunder. In order to avert this colonial pillage and foster genuine beneficial changes, the article suggests that public intellectuals in Africa engage in active participation in the social and political arenas within their communities.</p>","PeriodicalId":47267,"journal":{"name":"Society","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2024-08-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141969908","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
SocietyPub Date : 2024-07-23DOI: 10.1007/s12115-024-01004-5
Volker M. Heins
{"title":"Internalization of Borders: The Concept and Its Applications","authors":"Volker M. Heins","doi":"10.1007/s12115-024-01004-5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s12115-024-01004-5","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Europe and the United States are spending billions on the fortification of borders to stop migrants deemed unwanted by the government. The questionable effectiveness of this policy and its disastrous, often deadly consequences for people on the move have been studied extensively. The political project of closing borders to racially stigmatized migrants has serious consequences not only for outsiders who want to get in, but also for the internal organization of the society that is responsible for governing those borders. Taken together, these social and normative consequences constitute what we call the “internalization of borders.” Borders reach out far into society and are felt not only by would-be migrants in the places where they are stuck. Societies in the Global North, too, are being adversely affected and harmed by restrictive border regimes and their internalizing effects. Yet, unlike the “externalization” of borders, their “internalization” has so far not been researched systematically. To address the gap, this Introduction proposes a conceptual framework of how to study border internalization. The other articles in the Forum will offer diverse case studies on the dark side of border internalization as well as on ways of countering it.</p>","PeriodicalId":47267,"journal":{"name":"Society","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2024-07-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141770103","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
SocietyPub Date : 2024-07-12DOI: 10.1007/s12115-024-01003-6
Julian Young
{"title":"Charles Taylor, Cosmic Connections: Poetry in the Age of Disenchantment","authors":"Julian Young","doi":"10.1007/s12115-024-01003-6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s12115-024-01003-6","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47267,"journal":{"name":"Society","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2024-07-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141652959","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
SocietyPub Date : 2024-07-10DOI: 10.1007/s12115-024-01002-7
Raymond Geuss
{"title":"Does Philosophy Need to Know Its History?","authors":"Raymond Geuss","doi":"10.1007/s12115-024-01002-7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s12115-024-01002-7","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The point of doing the history of philosophy is to confront that which is completely foreign to us and seems unassimilable, in the hope of thereby getting some distance from our own form of life, and of learning to treat what is alien on its own terms. This is more difficult to do than might first seem to be the case, because of our almost irresistable tendency to assimilate that which is radically different to that which seems familiar to us. In history, one of the major forms this takes is anachronism. How can one avoid making them-then too much like us-now? The motivation for doing the history of philosophy is, therefore, basically ethical and political. In a society characterised by the division of labour, it is perfectly permissible for individual philosophers to pursue different goals, and deploy different parts of the huge corpus of knowledge which we have at our disposal. There is no need for each individual philosopher to integrate the study of the history of philosophy into each of their individual projects. The essay leaves it to the judgment of the reader to decide to what extent the active, sympathetic engagement with the alien is an ethical and political goal which is desirable — perhaps even so desirable as to count as a demand. In any case, this is a demand on the institution, not on individuals. Even if one thought that it was highly advisable that the history of philosophy form an integral part of the discipline of philosophy, it is hard to see this as a “necessity”.</p>","PeriodicalId":47267,"journal":{"name":"Society","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2024-07-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141570765","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
SocietyPub Date : 2024-07-03DOI: 10.1007/s12115-024-01001-8
Ekkehard Coenen
{"title":"Contested Understandings of Violence: Refiguring Modern and Postmodern Perspectives","authors":"Ekkehard Coenen","doi":"10.1007/s12115-024-01001-8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s12115-024-01001-8","url":null,"abstract":"<p>There are numerous conceptions of violence today, such as physical, psychological, emotional, structural, and epistemic. The question of which social phenomena are to be described as violence is itself a matter of furious dispute. In social theory, there is a widespread tendency to distinguish between ‘modern’ and ‘postmodern’ conceptions of violence. In this scheme, modern violence is primarily physical, while postmodern violence takes places across a broad spectrum of forms. The paper questions this binary. The co-occurrence and conflict between these forms of violence leads to a third form, which I call refigured violence. The refiguration of violence can be observed in three developments, which are mediatisation, polycontexturalisation, and translocalisation. I provide one illustration of these considerations with the example of so-called shock sites on the internet. In so doing, I emphasise that the sociology of knowledge can provide a valuable perspective for making sense of contemporary discourses about violence in all their complexity.</p>","PeriodicalId":47267,"journal":{"name":"Society","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2024-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141549206","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
SocietyPub Date : 2024-06-14DOI: 10.1007/s12115-024-00993-7
Ronan McDonald
{"title":"John Guillory: Professing Criticism: Essays on the Organization of Literary Studies","authors":"Ronan McDonald","doi":"10.1007/s12115-024-00993-7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s12115-024-00993-7","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47267,"journal":{"name":"Society","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2024-06-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141341273","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
SocietyPub Date : 2024-06-11DOI: 10.1007/s12115-024-00998-2
Quassim Cassam
{"title":"How to Survive a Crisis: David Omand in Conversation with Quassim Cassam","authors":"Quassim Cassam","doi":"10.1007/s12115-024-00998-2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s12115-024-00998-2","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47267,"journal":{"name":"Society","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2024-06-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141359765","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
SocietyPub Date : 2024-06-11DOI: 10.1007/s12115-024-00997-3
Michael Laver
{"title":"George Monbiot and Peter Hutchinson, The Invisible Doctrine: The Secret History of Neoliberalism (and How It Came to Control Your Life)","authors":"Michael Laver","doi":"10.1007/s12115-024-00997-3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s12115-024-00997-3","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47267,"journal":{"name":"Society","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2024-06-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141358385","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
SocietyPub Date : 2024-06-04DOI: 10.1007/s12115-024-00991-9
David Roochnik
{"title":"Plato’s Ambivalent Assessment of Democracy","authors":"David Roochnik","doi":"10.1007/s12115-024-00991-9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s12115-024-00991-9","url":null,"abstract":"<p>In his 2016 article, “Democracies End When They Are Too Democratic,” Andrew Sullivan argued that Book VIII of Plato’s <i>Republic</i> accurately depicts a “mature” democracy, such as that found in the United States, as well as the process by which first a demagogue and then a tyrant can emerge from it. He expressed the fear that Donald Trump was just such a man. Part I discusses Sullivan’s article. Part II argues that he missed something important: the <i>Republic</i> VIII account of democracy is surprisingly ambivalent. Part III examines a notion explicitly stated in Plato’s <i>Statesman</i>, but implicit in <i>Republic</i> VIII as well: in the actual political world, where the vast majority of regimes fall miserably short, democracy is the “best of the bad.”</p>","PeriodicalId":47267,"journal":{"name":"Society","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2024-06-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141256177","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
SocietyPub Date : 2024-06-03DOI: 10.1007/s12115-024-00996-4
Paul Boghossian
{"title":"Puzzling Beliefs: Why Do Many Americans Mistrust Science?","authors":"Paul Boghossian","doi":"10.1007/s12115-024-00996-4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s12115-024-00996-4","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Why is there such a pervasive mistrust of science and expertise in the United States these days? This essay argues that, alongside the contribution made by the internet in facilitating the spread of misinformation, information silos, validation of kooky views, and so forth, the most significant factor derives from our failure to inculcate in our citizenry the basics of critical scientific thought and of its myriad extraordinary accomplishments.</p>","PeriodicalId":47267,"journal":{"name":"Society","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2024-06-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141256015","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}