Critical Considerations
Globalization and the Conceit of the Present: Thomas Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions as Corrective
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Dennis Hickey
The premature announcement of “the end of history” and the contemporary discourse on globalization share an inherent assumption: a sense of triumphalism rooted in the singularity of the current moment. Popular writers and academicians ranging from Thomas Friedman to Francis Fukuyama have proclaimed the uniqueness of the present stage of human achievement - and the inevitable character of its future direction. While rooted in broader conceptions of progress and purpose central to Western thinking – from the sacred vision of the Judeo-Christian worldview through the secular speculations of Marx – rather than looking to a distant future for fulfillment these current iterations proclaim our era as a threshold of imminent possibility unparalleled by any epoch of the past. Moreover, this construction of reality is not without its practical advantages – indeed the “end of history” can be readily deployed as a “history of ends.” Thomas Kuhn’s study is now half a century old but it has lost none of its relevance. While his work focuses on the dynamic of how scientific knowledge is advanced it also provides a wider framework for understanding those episodic bursts of creativity that have advanced our material and technological horizons in the past and, most importantly, brought us closer together as a species. Indeed, Kuhn’s masterwork forcefully reminds us that today’s “age of globalization” is the latest – but certainly has not been the only – gateway leading to a radical transformation of the human condition.
Propagating the Image with Plausible Deniability: Covert Media Political Campaigns in the Context of Postwar Postmodernity
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Benedict Edward DeDominicis
International social media campaigns orchestrated by for-profit multinational companies such as Cambridge Analytica and Strategic Communication Laboratories are not in themselves new phenomena. They are the latest iteration of patterns of international political interaction reflecting ultimately the emergence of the nuclear era and its mutual assured destruction of the so-called great powers. The use of atomic weapons in 1945 followed by the Cold War between Washington and Moscow marked a radical turning point for the first time in the history of humankind. War was no longer a viable ultimate policy option for great powers purposefully to choose to pursue their political goals vis-à-vis each other. Instead, great powers engage in competitive interference within the polities of third actors with the aim to empower their respective local political allies at the expense of the local allies of the other great power competitor. The rise of nationalism increased local resistance and thereby raised the political costs of overt external intervention, leading to the emphasis on covert intervention and the creation of national security bureaucracies for implementing it. This competitive interference also included propaganda support; the new CIA’s first covert operation was to influence Italy’s first postwar elections in 1948 to prevent Italian Communist Party entrance into government. This paper explores today's for-profit sector, which has exploited and deployed diverse postwar personnel and expertise capacities, offering their services to government-affiliated actors seeking contractors. The 2016 US election showed that it is now part of the postmodern world that it helped create after 1945.
Globalization of Insecurities: Wellbeing as a Mode of Regulation Under Neoliberalism
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Anisha Datta
The paper examines the rationale behind the proliferation of the discourse of ‘wellbeing’ in the age of neoliberal capitalism. The production and maintenance of a neoliberal selfhood is intimately connected with the consumption of services and products from the wellbeing industry. The shift from a social contract based liberal democracy to a market driven neoliberal re-organization of institutions and life has impacted people’s understanding of the self. Day in and day out, this vulnerable self encounters the challenges of privatization, flexibilization, 24/7 acceleration, and financial volatility. In order to achieve a temporary state of security under ever increasing insecurities, the self needs to draw on the discourse of wellbeing, but in consequence the self falls victim to neoliberal interpellation and regulation.
Intersections of the Personal and the Public in Homespun Terror: Kamila Shamsie’s Home Fire (2017), Karan Mahajan’s The Association of Small Bombs (2016), and Nadeem Aslam’s The Golden Legend (2017)
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session John Charles Hawley
Fukuyama's argument is that in the future there will be more and more governments that use the framework of parliamentary democracy and that contain markets of some sort. The so-called end of history means liberal democracy is the final form of government for all nations and that there can be no progression from liberal democracy to an alternative system. Yet, pessimism about humanity's future is warranted because of humanity's inability to control technology. This paper uses contemporary literature from Pakistan and India to raise questions about the viability of parliamentary democracy to address festering border disputes like Kashmir, and the nagging and inevitable family disruptions arising from personal commitments and the violence these call forth.
