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The Importance of Cultural Identity to Liberal Democracy
Claremont Colleges Scholarship @ Claremont CMC Senior Theses CMC Student Scholarship 2019 The mpI ortance of Cultural Identity to Liberal Democracy Rebecca Ilana Shane Recommended Citation Shane, Rebecca Ilana, "The mporI tance of Cultural Identity to Liberal Democracy" (2019). CMC Senior Theses. 2264. https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/2264 This Open Access Senior Thesis is brought to you by Scholarship@Claremont. It has been accepted for inclusion in this collection by an authorized administrator. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Claremont McKenna College The Importance of Cultural Identity to Liberal Democracy submitted to Professor Paul Hurley and Professor Aseema Sinha by Rebecca Shane for Senior Thesis Spring 2019 April 29, 2019 1 Abstract The challenge facing liberal theories of democracy is to describe an organization of state that both legitimates state power and protects individual liberty. In Democratic Rights: The Substance of Self-Government, Corey Brettschneider develops the value theory of democracy that resolves this tension. By locating the democratic ideal in a set of core values with both procedural and substantive implications, the value theory legitimates state coercion only when it protects citizens’ rights. While the value theory guarantees both substantive and procedural rights, this thesis will show that Brettschneider fails to account for the necessity of a secure cultural context, without which members of a minority culture may not be able to enjoy the core values as Brettschneider intends. Yet, the value theory of democracy can maintain a commitment to equality and autonomy when amended to have specific ethnic and cultural identity protections. Ultimately, this thesis will argue that the amended value theory provides a framework for citizens to both evaluate laws and correct injustices based on whether or not the policies uphold the core values. -
Observations of Red–Giant Variable Stars by Aboriginal Australians
preprint Observations of red–giant variable stars by Aboriginal Australians Duane W. Hamacher Monash Indigenous Studies Centre, Monash University, Clayton, VIC, 3800 Australia Astrophysics Group, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, QLD, 4350, Australia Email: [email protected] Abstract Aboriginal Australians carefully observe the properties and positions of stars, including both overt and subtle changes in their brightness, for subsistence and social application. These observations are encoded in oral tradition. I examine two Aboriginal oral traditions from South Australia that describe the periodic changing brightness in three pulsating, red–giant variable stars: Betelgeuse (Alpha Orionis), Aldebaran (Alpha Tauri), and Antares (Alpha Scorpii). The Australian Aboriginal accounts stand as the only known descriptions of pulsating variable stars in any Indigenous oral tradition in the world. Researchers examining these oral traditions over the last century, including anthropologists and astronomers, missed the description of these stars as being variable in nature as the ethnographic record contained several misidentifications of stars and celestial objects. Arguably, ethnographers working on Indigenous Knowledge Systems should have academic training in both the natural and social sciences. Keywords: Cultural astronomy; history of astronomy; ethnoastronomy; Aboriginal Australians; Indigenous Knowledge Systems. Introduction Aristotle (350 BCE) wrote that the stars are unchanging and invariable, a position held in academic discourse for two millennia. Aside from the appearance of the occasional “guest star” (novae and supernovae) it was not until the year 1596 that this position was challenged. After nearly two thousand years, careful observations of the star Mira (Omicron Ceti) by David Fabricius in 1596 revealed that its brightness changes over time (Hoffleit 1996). -
Coalescence and the Fiction of Iain Banks
Études écossaises 12 | 2009 La Science Coalescence and the fiction of Iain Banks David Leishman Electronic version URL: http://journals.openedition.org/etudesecossaises/208 DOI: 10.4000/etudesecossaises.208 ISSN: 1969-6337 Publisher UGA Éditions/Université Grenoble Alpes Printed version Date of publication: 30 April 2009 Number of pages: 215-230 ISBN: 978-2-84310-138-0 ISSN: 1240-1439 Electronic reference David Leishman, « Coalescence and the fiction of Iain Banks », Études écossaises [Online], 12 | 2009, Online since 30 April 2010, connection on 08 September 2020. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/ etudesecossaises/208 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/etudesecossaises.208 © Études écossaises David Leishman Université Stendhal – Grenoble 3 Coalescence and the fi ction of Iain Banks Iain Banks’s second novel, Walking on Glass, seems to be ideally suited for the 2007 SAES conference theme of “l’envers du décor” or “behind the scenes”, since it is preoccupied with the exploration of literature’s mechanisms and workings and with the frontiers of fi ctional worlds. All this is foregrounded in the novel’s incipit. The opening paragraphs are dominated by the colour white as if to reaffi rm the ultimate liminality of the text, the presence of the blank page that lies permanently beneath (p.11). Meanwhile, an incongruous character has opened up a service hatch in the (white) fl oor and is scrabbling about inside with a torch, the unfamiliar conduit leading to hidden levels and unimagined apparatus that defamiliarise the surface reality and challenge its seamlessness. The text precisely specifi es the time as being “3:33” and this trinity is pre- sented by the narrator as a “good omen”, portentous of “a day events would coalesce” (p. -
Sfrareview in This Issue 312 Spring 2015
312 Spring 2015 Editor Chris Pak SFRA University of Lancaster, Bailrigg, Lan- A publicationRe of the Scienceview Fiction Research Association caster LA1 4YW. [email protected] Managing Editor In this issue Lars Schmeink Universität Hamburg, Institut für Anglis- SFRA Review Business tik und Amerikanistik, Von Melle Park 6 Gearing Up ............................................................................................................2 20146 Hamburg. W. [email protected] SFRA Business Nonfiction Editor #SFRA2015 ............................................................................................................2 Dominick Grace Live Long and Prosper .........................................................................................3 Brescia University College, 1285 Western Sideways in Time [conference report] ..............................................................3 Rd, London ON, N6G 3R4, Canada phone: 519-432-8353 ext. 28244. BSLS: British Society for Literature and Science [conference report] ..........5 [email protected] Feature 101 Assistant Nonfiction Editor Teaching Science Fiction .....................................................................................7 Kevin Pinkham College of Arts and Sciences, Nyack To Bottom Out: An Incomplete Guide to the New Venezuelan SF ............14 College, 1 South Boulevard, Nyack, NY 10960, phone: 845-675-4526845-675- 4526. Nonfiction Reviews [email protected] The American Shore: Meditations on a Tale of Science Fiction by Thomas M. Disch -
A Liberal Order Beyond Earth? Civil Sphere, “The Culture” and the Future of Liberalism
doi: 10.17323/1728-192x-2020-4-36-60 A Liberal Order Beyond Earth? Civil Sphere, “The Culture” and the Future of Liberalism Werner Binder PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University, Brno (Czech Republic) Address: Joštova 10, 602 00 Brno, Czech Republic E-mail: [email protected] Starting with George Orwell’s liberal problem of meaning, this article investigates liberalism as cultural structure and myth, drawing on the theory of civil sphere by Jeffrey C. Alexander and the science fiction novels of Ian M. Banks. Following Alexander, it is argued that liberal societies are built around a sacred core described by the cultural structures of the civil sphere, which are structures of meaning as well as feeling. Civil discourses and movements in liberal (and not so liberal) societies mobilize powerful symbols of the sacred and profane and are thus able to inspire an almost religious devotion. The article then continues to explore the meaning structure, cultural contradictions and possible future of the liberal order discussing Bank’s Culture series. These novels are set in the borderlands of “the Culture”, a galactic civili- zation and liberal utopia. It is precisely this utopian setting, which allows Banks to probe the internal dilemmas of liberalism, for example between pacifism and interventionism, while addressing issues of contemporary relevance, such as the liberal problem of meaning, the al- lure of authoritarianism or the social status of artificial intelligence. With their literary imagi- nation, science fiction writers construct “a myth of the future” (Banks), which may often reflect the myths of their time, but which can also—as in the case of Banks—reflect on those myths, their implications and contradictions. -
Serious Shenanigans the New Space Opera and Social
SERIOUS SHENANIGANS THE NEW SPACE OPERA AND SOCIAL COMMENTARY: AN ANALYSIS OF IAIN M. BANKS’S SURFACE DETAIL AND THE HYDROGEN SONATA AND ANN LECKIE’S IMPERIAL RADCH TRILOGY. Marloes de Vogel 3865878 RMA Comparative Literary Studies Supervisor dr. Barnita Bagchi Second Reader dr. Monica Janssen August 2018 1 Abstract This thesis contributes to research on the genre of space opera. Space opera is generally considered the least sophisticated form of science fiction, and remains underrepresented in scholarly research. Yet, a considerable part of the greatest science fiction published over the past three decades has been space opera. Specifically, it has been New Space Opera (NSO), a renewed, innovative form of space opera that arose during the second half of the 1980s. The NSO uses space opera’s core elements of adventure and conflict to both entertain and address serious contemporary social, political, and economic issues. The aim of this thesis is to demonstrate that the NSO is an exceptionally suitable form to provide social commentary. I will show that the NSO is an innovation of the Classic Space Opera (CSO) in terms of both form and content, that the critical and satirical space operas written during the 1960s and 1970s aided this innovation, and that the perceived unsophisticated and clichéd nature of the Classic Space Opera (CSO) actually encouraged the development of the NSO. Furthermore, through a close-reading analysis of US-American author Ann Leckie’s Imperial Radch trilogy (2013-2015) and Scottish author Iain M. Banks’ Culture novels Surface Detail (2010) and The Hydrogen Sonata (2012), which are typical examples of NSO novels, I will analyze how the narrative strategies of estrangement, defamiliarization, affect, and the novum, which are integral to the speculative and imaginative nature of space opera, are employed to provide social commentary on topics such as the oppression and dehumanization of cultural others, and on issues of identity and subjectivity formation. -
The Banksoniain 17
The Banksoniain #17 An Iain (M.) Banks Fanzine April 2012 Editorial Banks’s Next Book The publication of Stonemouth is upon us. Iain is writing, or hopefully just about Apologies for not publishing in 2011, but then finishing, an ‘M’ book at the moment. An again neither did Iain. This issue looks at the early public comment about it was in an build up to the new book, and also the next interview with Irish SF magazine Albedo Culture novel, The Hydrogen Sonata. There is One (issue 41) that was conducted in April a bit more film news, and over a year of 2011. At that point he said it was to be Banks’s public appearances to report on, as “written over Jan/Feb/Mar next year, and it’s well as the calendar of forthcoming Banks almost certain to be a Culture novel.” He events on the back page. added that, “I think I need to tackle the idea of Subliming; it has delighted us with its The Wasp Factory Film vagueness long enough.” This is a long and complicated story Early in January 2012 it got an ISBN, previously discussed in various editions of 9780356501505, and a listing on book selling The Banksoniain. There was a step forward websites calling it Untitled New Iain M. when on the Friday of Novacon 40 Banks 1. However, Iain said that the working (12/11/2010) Iain commented that a deal had title was, The Hydrogen Sonata, and this was been done, and on the night he mentioned confirmed when bookselling websites were Stephen Daldry. -
BBC WEEK 44, 1 – 7 November 2014
BBC WEEK 44, 1 – 7 November 2014 Programme Information, Television & Radio BBC Scotland Press Office bbc.co.uk/mediacentre bbc.co.uk/iplayer facebook.com/BBCScotland twitter.com/BBCScotland THIS WEEK’S HIGHLIGHTS TELEVISION & RADIO / BBC WEEK 44 _____________________________________________________________________________________________________ MONDAY 3 NOVEMBER Viva Variety, Ep1/4 NEW BBC One Scotland TUESDAY 4 NOVEMBER River City TV HIGHLIGHT BBC One Scotland FRIDAY 7 NOVEMBER Still Game Live NEW BBC One Scotland _____________________________________________________________________________________________________ Viewers outside Scotland can access BBC One Scotland on Sky 141 (HD) & 951, Freesat 108 (HD) & 960, Virgin Media 108 (HD) & 862. BBC Two Scotland can be viewed on Sky 142 (HD) & 970, Freesat 970. BBC ALBA is on Sky 143, Freesat 110, Virgin Media 188, Freeview 8 (Scotland only). BBC Radio Scotland can be accessed on Sky 0116, Freesat 712, Freeview 719 (Scotland only). BBC One Scotland, BBC Two Scotland and BBC ALBA are also available on the BBC iPlayer bbc.co.uk/iplayer & BBC Radio Scotland on bbc.co.uk/radioscotland EDITORIAL 2014 / BBC WEEK 44 _____________________________________________________________________________________________________ STELLAR CAST ANNOUNCED FOR BBC DRAMA STONEMOUTH, ADAPTED FROM THE LATE IAIN BANKS NOVEL An impressive cast including Peter Mullan, Gary Lewis, Sharon Small, Christian Cooke and Charlotte Spencer are to star in new BBC drama, Stonemouth, a two-part dramatization of acclaimed author Iain Banks’ novel made by BBC Scotland and Slate North which started shooting in Scotland this week, to air on both BBC One Scotland and BBC Two in 2015. The first TV adaptation of Banks' work since his death in 2013, Stonemouth is a rite-of-passage tale delving into love, loyalty and vengeance, focusing on the character of Stewart Gilmour played by Christian Cooke (The Promise, Magic City), who returns to the fictional village of Stonemouth for his best friend's funeral. -
Science Fictional the Aesthetics of Science Fiction Beyond the Limits of Genre
Science Fictional The Aesthetics of Science Fiction Beyond the Limits of Genre Andrew Frost University of NSW | College of Fine Arts PhD Media Arts 2013 4 PLEASE TYPE Tl<E UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES Tht:tltiDittorUdon Sht•t Surname or Fenily name: Frost FIRI neme; Andrew OCher namels: Abbr&Yia~lon fof" dcgrco as given in the Unlverslty caltn<S:ar. PhD tCOde: 1289) Sd'IOOI; Seh.ool Of Media Arts Faculty; Coll999 of A ne Am Title: Science Fletfonar.: The AestheUes or SF Beyond the Limit:t of Gcnt'O. Abstract 350 words maximum: (PLEASE TYPE) ScMtnce Flcdonal: The Anthetics of SF Beyond the Umlts of Genre proposes that oonte~my eufture 1$ * $pallal e)Cl>ertence dom1nS'ed by an aesane(IC or science liction and its qua,;.genefic form, the ·$dence ficdonal', The study explores the connective lines between cultural objects suet! as film, video art. painting, illustration, advertising, music, and children's television in a variety ofmediums and media coupled with research that conflates aspects of ctitical theory, art history a nd cuttural studies into a unique d iscourse. The study argues thai three types of C\lltural e ffeets reverberation. densi'ly and resonanoe- affect cultural space altering ood changing the 1ntel'l)totation and influeooe of a cuUural object Through an account of the nature of the science fictional, this thesis argues that science fiction as wo uncJersland It, a.nd how 11 has beon oooventionally concefved, is in fact the counter of its apparent function within wider culture. While terms such as ·genre~ and ·maln-stream• suggest a binary of oentre and periphery, this lh-&&is demonstrates that the quasi-generic is in fact the dominant partner in the process of cultural production, Ocelamlon ,.~ lo disposition or projoct thnlsJdtuen.tlon I htrOby grltlt t<> I~ Ul'll\IOI'IiiY Of Now SOUIJ'I WaltS or i&& agents the rlg:tlllo ard'llve anct to INike available my ttwrsl9 or di$sertabon '" whole or in 1»Jt il'lllle \Jtlivetsay lbrsrles., at IOtmS Of tnedb, rtOW or hero <~~Ot kncwn, 5tAijod:.lo lho Jl«Mdonll ol lho Co9yrlghlt Act 1968. -
Rejecting Limits and Opening Possibilities in the Works of Iain Banks
Rejecting Limits and Opening Possibilities in the Works of Iain Banks Olga Roebuck Abstract This text deals with the question of Scottish self-definition and also the escape from it. Scottish identity debate in 1980s and 1990s took on different forms and searched for other inspirations: outside Scotland or in dealing with identities traditionally overlooked due to the overall focus on national identity. This paper thus analyses the question of Scottishness through the subversive voice addressing the identities traditionally problematic in Scotland or even through individual self-definition as presented in Iain Banks’s novels The Wasp Factory (1984) and The Crow Road (1992). Keywords Scotland, cultural subversion, Scottishness, Iain Banks, The Wasp Factory, The Crow Road The classification of Iain Banks as a writer is probably as difficult as the classification of Scottishness itself. To claim that Iain Banks is a representative of a Scottish literary tradition poses several problems: to what extent can the works of this author be regarded as representative and how does he fit into the context of any literary tradition? He is not part of any school or movement and his literary voice does not fall under any simple label. Banks embodies many dualities, many undecided and hard-to-classify issues – and this is perhaps a feature that makes him particularly Scottish. To assess the cultural milieu as represented in Banks’s works, the most significant aspect seems to be an omnipresent mood of identity tiredness. After the traumatic experience of the failed devolution vote in 1979, when Scotland lost the chance to alter its status as a stateless nation after not being able to muster the necessary forty per cent of votes to enable the abolishing of the Home Rule, the sense of national identity sank into depths. -
The Hydrogen Sonata Pdf, Epub, Ebook
THE HYDROGEN SONATA PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Iain M. Banks | 640 pages | 09 Oct 2013 | Little, Brown Book Group | 9780356501499 | English | London, United Kingdom The Hydrogen Sonata PDF Book I think I was mostly right. It goes some way towards preventing readers from taking the Culture as an endorsement of the American neo- conservatives Banks loathes, but it does so by reducing the distance between the Culture as an entity and present countries, particularly America. That those who have long thought themselves your friends and allies—. Along the way there's a variety of stuff that's seen throughout the series that's fun - lots of inter-Mind and internal Mind conversations and rivalries and multiple amazing landscapes and cultures and aliens described in loving detail. It's sad coming to the end of the series which I've enjoyed a lot even when I've criticised it , especially knowing that it's the end because the brilliant author has died. The Hydrogen Sonata is a Culture novel, part of that vast and complex tapestry of future history with which Banks revitalized the subgenre of space opera and, in large measure, helped to make SF in general fun again. The Culture citizen does not own everything in common with their fellow citizens; they merely can afford to own whatever they want. This is a very fun book, from the setpieces to the humor. The Zihdren-Remnant , what is left of an older species that Sublimed before the Culture was formed, send an envoy to confess a long- kept secret before the Gzilt depart but a Gzilt warship intercepts and destroys their ship several weeks before the Sublimation is due to take place in order to preserve that secret. -
Transhumanism
T ranshumanism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=T ranshum... Transhumanism From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia See also: Outline of transhumanism Transhumanism is an international Part of Ideology series on intellectual and cultural movement supporting Transhumanism the use of science and technology to improve human mental and physical characteristics Ideologies and capacities. The movement regards aspects Abolitionism of the human condition, such as disability, Democratic transhumanism suffering, disease, aging, and involuntary Extropianism death as unnecessary and undesirable. Immortalism Transhumanists look to biotechnologies and Libertarian transhumanism other emerging technologies for these Postgenderism purposes. Dangers, as well as benefits, are Singularitarianism also of concern to the transhumanist Technogaianism [1] movement. Related articles The term "transhumanism" is symbolized by Transhumanism in fiction H+ or h+ and is often used as a synonym for Transhumanist art "human enhancement".[2] Although the first known use of the term dates from 1957, the Organizations contemporary meaning is a product of the 1980s when futurists in the United States Applied Foresight Network Alcor Life Extension Foundation began to organize what has since grown into American Cryonics Society the transhumanist movement. Transhumanist Cryonics Institute thinkers predict that human beings may Foresight Institute eventually be able to transform themselves Humanity+ into beings with such greatly expanded Immortality Institute abilities as to merit the label "posthuman".[1] Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence Transhumanism is therefore sometimes Transhumanism Portal · referred to as "posthumanism" or a form of transformational activism influenced by posthumanist ideals.[3] The transhumanist vision of a transformed future humanity has attracted many supporters and detractors from a wide range of perspectives.