Global Views (Asynchronous Session)
American Exceptionalism and Public Goods: US Leadership and Political Legitimacy Amidst Global Interdependency in the Anthropocene View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Benedict Edward DeDominicis
The creation of public goods is a concomitant with constructing a primary, terminal self-identity community whose authorities in the form of the government the modal member of the public grants legitimacy. Those authorities have the rhetorical and persuasive leadership capacity to create authoritative institutions and policies. The recognition of those goods as public signifies that the modal member of the public functionally views the output of the policy making process as morally acceptable. Such an observer functionally views the policy’s utilitarian distribution of resources within polity and society as representing the public interest. By serving the public interest, the goods distributed are functionally accepted as public goods. The policies reinforce the common welfare, the public interest. Public health is one of these public goods. The issue of public goods is intimately related to the authority of the government in regard to the public. The characterization of the political regime characterizes the control relationship between the authorities and the public. Generating public goods is uniquely problematic for each polity due to their unique dynamic constellation of values, attitudes and norms that are systemically interrelated. Effective legitimation public performance requirements by state authority figures vary across polities. Effective maintenance of control over and mobilization of societal resources constitutes effective leadership. The legacy of colonial racism interacts with American congressionalist protestant sectarianism to react negatively to central government control. It tends toward legitimation in terms of the national security state, including the carceral component. It derives from threats to control over enslaved people.
Featured The Two Africas: Representations of Africa in the Fictions of Joseph Conrad and Chinua Achebe View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Alvin Joseph
The so called 'dark' continent of Africa had a tenacious hold upon the European imagination. From the fifth century to the present, the mind of Europe has found Africa both fascinating and repellent. It is most familiar as a form of landscape as seen in the description of a journey into the interior Africa in Joseph Conrad's novel "Heart of Darkness". The Africa that is seen in such a description is characterized by impenetrable forests, throbbing drums, sudden sunsets, black water fever and primitive customs. This is an Africa, which has no meaning and no coherence and is in fact the 'heart of darkness'. Thus, unlike the African society in "Heart of Darkness", which is portrayed as having developed no culture, the African society in Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart" has an admirable civilization. The language of the African characters in "Things Fall Apart" cannot be described as babbling or animal like in any way. On the contrary, it is very effective medium for communicating the beautiful way of life that is portrayed in the novel. The dichotomous representation of Africa in Conrad and Achebe reinforces the idea that reality, after all, is a construct made possible by the discourses validating it. The fictional account of Africa by Conrad and Achebe could be placed into opposite poles, one feeding on the dominant colonial stereotypes about the continent and the other trying to liberate it from the colonial vituperation to which it was a victim for a long time.
On Analytical Reflexivity in Cultural Studies Research View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Katherine Vargas Tovar
The paper describes the way of thinking both to ask and to use data in cultural studies (CS) research about Latin American related to popular education principles. However, this is not a recipe proposal, but a reflexive exercise on how to consider intellectual work based on an empty set of apparently unconnected issues. The singularity of this theoric-methodological perspective is shown here in terms of question procedures, corpus criteria, reading and interpretation mechanisms, analysis and writing strategies to theorize from a change in asking logic.
The Narratives of Control/Freedom During the COVID-19 Pandemic in China and the U.S. View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Lin Zou
After the initial stage of the Covid pandemic, China exercised strong government control and enforced a “Zero COVID Policy,” which kept China relatively free of COVID. This is accompanied with a popular view, propagated by the Chinese government and widely shared by Chinese netizens, that the Chinese political system has shown its advantages over the Western democratic system. Some narratives in the U.S. about pandemic regulations and vaccination mandates tap into a similar vocabulary of superiority, championing libertarian notion of freedom against regulations. This study looks into the complex narratives about control of the COVID-19 pandemic in both China and the U.S. I argue that while both the supremacist and patriotic arguments in China and the U.S. about pandemic control focus on terms that emphasize absolute values, such as the value of life or the value of freedom, these arguments in fact always gain meaning through a global comparison, specifically with reference to each other. They serve domestic political purposes through binary oppositions established by trying to separate the self completely from the other while referencing each other. At the same time, however, the analysis of the pandemic asserts a scientific discourse into the debate, which shows that any meaningful global comparison cannot be done with a model of binary oppositions. Rather, it involves a complex model of multiple variables and constraints, in which either freedom (control) or life (death) can only be variations in value, but cannot gain absolute value.
Amnesty and Pardon as Elements of Transitional Justice in the Light of International Criminal Law - Colombia and Spain View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Melba-Luz Calle-Meza
Amnesty and pardon are two different manners of extinguishing criminal liability. Given some limitations and exemptions, they are provided by the internal Rights of the States and can be used as elements for the development of a transitional justice process. Their application to political crimes and offences thereto connected requires meeting rigorous international standards, since they must be compatible with principles of justice, truth, reparation and non-repetition. The Colombian legislation generally meets the international standards, although it constantly falls into excessive casuistry and emphasizes amnesty at the expense of pardon. Pardon offers a less radical form of impunity than amnesty, it is imposed upon those previously convicted in a process with all due guarantees. It should be reserved for crimes connected to political offences that, due to their evident or extreme gravity, would not be deserving of a conditioned legal oblivion, but of a beneficial extinction of punishment.
Bridging Industrial Relations Theory and Social Movement Theory: Ideological and Discursive Determinants of Relations between Trade Unions View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Grace Simpson
As if separated by a monolith, industrial relations scholars and social movement scholars have seldom engaged in discussion with one another. As industrial relations scholars focus their attention upon ‘traditional’ forms of collective action, as epitomised by the mobilisation of trade unions around economic issues, social movement scholars focus their attention upon ‘new’ forms of collective action, as epitomised by the coordination of protest movements around social and cultural issues. This paper argues that the theories produced by these different scholars can and should be profitably synthesised to better comprehend relations between trade unions during the Cold War. It presents as a case study the relationship between the National Union of Mineworkers of Britain and the Independent Self-Governing Trade Union “Solidarity” of Poland during the Polish Crisis. It demonstrates that neither structural, ideological, nor discursive factors alone suffice to explain the nature of this relationship and advocates for these factors to be considered simultaneously.
