Introduction 1 the Political Sociology of Late Modernity
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Geosense an Open Publishing Platform for Visualization, Social Sharing, and Analysis of Geospatial Data
GeoSense An open publishing platform for visualization, social sharing, and analysis of geospatial data. ARCHNES Anthony DeVincenzi TT I T B.F.A. Visual Communication, Seattle Art Institute 2007 Submitted to the Program in Media Arts and Sciences, Shlf A- hi dlI c, oo~ o rcecur an- annng11, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Media Arts and Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology June 2012 @ 2012 Massachusetts Institute of Technology. All rights reserved Aut or Anthony DeVincenzi Program in Media Arts and Sciences May 11, 2012 Certified by Dr. Hiroshi Ishii Jerome B. Wiesner Professor of Media Arts and Sciences Associate Director, MIT Media Lab Program in Media Arts and Sciences Accepted by Dr. Mitchel Resnick Chairperson, Departmental Committee on Graduate Students Program in Media Arts and Sciences GeoSense An open publishing platform for visualization, social sharing, and analysis of geospatial data. Anthony DeVincenzi ;~ Thesis Supervisor Dr. Hiroshi Ishii Jerome B. Wiesner Professor of Media Arts and Sciences Associate Director, MIT Media Lab Program in Media and Sciences Thesis Reader Cesar A. Hidalgo Assistant Professor, MIT Media Lab {' 34> Thesis Reader Joi Ito Director, MIT Media Lab Acknowledgments THANK YOU, Hiroshi, my advisor, for allowing me to diverge greatly from our group's pri- mary area of research to investigate an area I believe to be strikingly mean- ingful; for no holds barred in critique, and providing endless insight. The Tangible Media Group, my second family, who adopted me as a designer and allowed me to play pretend engineer. Samuel Luescher, for co-authoring GeoSense alongside me. -
The Primitivist Critique of Modernity: Carl Einstein and Walter Benjamin1
The Primitivist Critique of Modernity: Carl Einstein and Walter Benjamin1 David Pan In the “Sirens” episode in Homer’s Odyssey, Odysseus, relying on nothing more than the wax in his sailors’ ears and the rope binding him to the mast of his ship, was able to hear the sirens’ song without being drawn to his death like all the sailors before him.2 Franz Kafka, finally giving the sirens their due, points out that their song could certainly pierce wax and would lead a man to burst all bonds. Instead of attributing Odysseus’ sur- vival to his cunning use of technical means, which he calls “childish mea- sures,”3 Kafka attributes it to the sirens’ use of an even more horrible weapon than their song: their silence. Believing his trick had worked, Odysseus did not hear their silence, but imagined he heard the sound of their singing, for no one could resist “the feeling of having triumphed over them by one’s own strength, and the consequent exaltation that bears down everything before it.”4 The sirens disappeared from Odysseus’per- ceptions, which were focused entirely on himself. Kafka concludes: “If the sirens had possessed consciousness, they would have been annihilated at that moment. But they remained as they had been; all that had hap- pened was that Odysseus had escaped them.”5 Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno have argued that this ancient 1. From Primitive Renaissance: Rethinking German Expressionism by David Pan. Copyright 2001 by the University of Nebraska Press. 2. Homer, Odyssey, Book 12, pp.166-200. 3. -
Open Geospatial Data, Software and Standards (2020) 5:1 Open Geospatial Data, Software and Standards
Minghini et al. Open Geospatial Data, Software and Standards (2020) 5:1 Open Geospatial Data, https://doi.org/10.1186/s40965-020-0074-y Software and Standards EDITORIAL Open Access Geospatial openness: from software to standards & data Marco Minghini1*, Amin Mobasheri2, Victoria Rautenbach3 and Maria Antonia Brovelli4 Abstract This paper is the editorial of the Special Issue “Open Source Geospatial Software”, which features 10 published papers. The editorial introduces the concept of openness and, within the geospatial context, declines it into the three main components of software, data and standards. According to this classification, the papers published in the Special Issue are briefly summarized and a future research agenda in the open geospatial domain is finally outlined. Introduction Army Construction Engineering Research Laboratories, The Open Definition qualifies knowledge as open “if while in the 1990s the history of Web Mapping began anyone is free to access, use, modify, and share it — sub- with MapServer (https://mapserver.org), originally devel- ject, at most, to measures that preserve provenance and oped by the University of Minnesota. The success of openness” [1]. This definition, derived from the Open both projects as well as the communities they were able Source Definition [2] which is specific to software, puts to attract explain the important role they still play today forward the idea of a common good based on access to in the open source geospatial arena. The establishment information that everyone can benefit from. This vision in 2006 of the Open Source Geospatial Foundation of a so-called ‘Open world’ is brilliantly invoked by Pol- (OSGeo, https://www.osgeo.org), dedicated to the devel- lock, who calls for an open revolution – where everyone opment and support of open source geospatial technolo- would have the freedom to use, enjoy and build on gies, was the key milestone to certify the maturity of everything – in a digital age where most information is open geospatial software and the related community. -
Post / Late? Modernity As the Context for Christian Scholarship Today,” Themelios 22.2 (January 1997): 25-38
Craig Bartholomew, “Post / Late? Modernity as the Context for Christian Scholarship Today,” Themelios 22.2 (January 1997): 25-38. Post / Late? Modernity as the Context for Christian Scholarship Today Craig Bartholomew1 [p.25] INTRODUCTION Scholarship is always historical, in the sense that it is crafted by particular humans at a particular time and place. Christian scholarship is of course no exception to this rule. Thus Christians in academia, using the insights of God’s Word, need to work as hard as anyone to understand the historical context in which they work, so that they might craft integrally Christian theory at their point in history. Once we try to think about the context in which we are doing our scholarship, the word postmodern is unavoidable. Go to any major bookshop, especially the sociology section, and you will see what I mean! Postmodern is the word in vogue to identify the context in which we in the West live and think as we head towards the end of the second millennium. In this article we shall try to unravel what ‘the postmodern turn’ involves and examine the challenge it presents for the practice of Christian scholarship at this time. THE TERM ‘POSTMODERN’ Postmodernity is an unusually slippery word, used nowadays in a bewildering variety of ways―’the adjective “postmodern” has now been applied to almost everything, from trainer shoes to the nature of our subjectivity―from “soul to soul” as the rappers might say’2. Although this fuzziness may reflect the instability of the postmodern era, it easily obscures the important issues at stake in the antithetical notions of postmodernity available today. -
Metamodernism, Or Exploring the Afterlife of Postmodernism
“We’re Lost Without Connection”: Metamodernism, or Exploring the Afterlife of Postmodernism MA Thesis Faculty of Humanities Media Studies MA Comparative Literature and Literary Theory Giada Camerra S2103540 Media Studies: Comparative Literature and Literary Theory Leiden, 14-06-2020 Supervisor: Dr. M.J.A. Kasten Second reader: Dr.Y. Horsman Master thesis submitted in accordance with the regulations of Leiden University 2 Table of Contents Acknowledgments ................................................................................................................................. 3 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................... 4 CHAPTER 1: Discussing postmodernism ........................................................................................ 10 1.1 Postmodernism: theories, receptions and the crisis of representation ......................................... 10 1.2 Postmodernism: introduction to the crisis of representation ....................................................... 12 1.3 Postmodern aesthetics ................................................................................................................. 14 1.3.1 Sociocultural and economical premise ................................................................................. 14 1.3.2 Time, space and meaning ..................................................................................................... 15 1.3.3 Pastiche, parody and nostalgia ............................................................................................ -
Beck's Risk Society and Giddens' Search for Ontological Security: a Comparative Analysis Between the Anthroposophical Society and the Assemblies of God
Volume 15, Number 1 27 Beck's Risk Society and Giddens' Search for Ontological Security: A Comparative Analysis Between the Anthroposophical Society and the Assemblies of God Alphia Possamai-Inesedy University of Western Sydney There is a contention by social theorists such as Beck, Giddens, Bauman and Lash that contemporary Western society is in a transitional period in which risks have proliferated as an outcome of modernisation. In accordance with these changes individuals' sense ofselfhood have moved toward being more sensitive as to what they define as risks, such as threats to their health, as economic security or emotional wellbeing than they were in previous eras. Living in such a world can lead individuals to what Giddens would term ontological insecurity. Obsessive exaggeration of risks to personal existence, extreme introspection and moral vacuity are characteristics of the ontologically insecure individual. The opposite condition, ontological security, when achieved, leaves the individual with a sense of continuity and stability, which enables him or her to cope effectively with risk situations, personal tensions and anxiety. This emergent field of study in sociology has nevertheless poorly addressed religious issues; as if these social researchers have omitted parts of the religious aspects ofcontemporary society. This article attempts to fill this lacuna and explores the notion of risk society and ontological security with that of postmodern religion/spiritualities. Two case studies of the Anthroposophical society and Pentecostalism aid in this task. UlrichBeck(1992; 1994; 1995; 1996)andAnthonyGiddens(1990; 1991; 1994; 1999) while differing in their approaches, share similar concerns, foci and epistemological underpinnings in their work. -
Action Yes, 1(7): 1-17
http://www.diva-portal.org This is the published version of a paper published in . Citation for the original published paper (version of record): Bäckström, P. (2008) One Earth, Four or Five Words: The Notion of ”Avant-Garde” Problematized Action Yes, 1(7): 1-17 Access to the published version may require subscription. N.B. When citing this work, cite the original published paper. Permanent link to this version: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-89603 ACTION YES http://www.actionyes.org/issue7/backstrom/backstrom-printfriendl... s One Earth, Four or Five Words The Notion of 'Avant-Garde' Problematized by Per Bäckström L’art, expression de la Société, exprime, dans son essor le plus élevé, les tendances sociales les plus avancées; il est précurseur et révélateur. Or, pour savoir si l’art remplit dignement son rôle d’initiateur, si l’artiste est bien à l’avant-garde, il est nécessaire de savoir où va l’Humanité, quelle est la destinée de l’Espèce. [---] à côté de l’hymne au bonheur, le chant douloureux et désespéré. […] Étalez d’un pinceau brutal toutes les laideurs, toutes les tortures qui sont au fond de notre société. [1] Gabriel-Désiré Laverdant, 1845 Metaphors grow old, turn into dead metaphors, and finally become clichés. This succession seems to be inevitable – but on the other hand, poets have the power to return old clichés into words with a precise meaning. Accordingly, academic writers, too, need to carry out a similar operation with notions that are worn out by frequent use in everyday language. -
LETTER to G20, IMF, WORLD BANK, REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT BANKS and NATIONAL GOVERNMENTS
LETTER TO G20, IMF, WORLD BANK, REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT BANKS and NATIONAL GOVERNMENTS We write to call for urgent action to address the global education emergency triggered by Covid-19. With over 1 billion children still out of school because of the lockdown, there is now a real and present danger that the public health crisis will create a COVID generation who lose out on schooling and whose opportunities are permanently damaged. While the more fortunate have had access to alternatives, the world’s poorest children have been locked out of learning, denied internet access, and with the loss of free school meals - once a lifeline for 300 million boys and girls – hunger has grown. An immediate concern, as we bring the lockdown to an end, is the fate of an estimated 30 million children who according to UNESCO may never return to school. For these, the world’s least advantaged children, education is often the only escape from poverty - a route that is in danger of closing. Many of these children are adolescent girls for whom being in school is the best defence against forced marriage and the best hope for a life of expanded opportunity. Many more are young children who risk being forced into exploitative and dangerous labour. And because education is linked to progress in virtually every area of human development – from child survival to maternal health, gender equality, job creation and inclusive economic growth – the education emergency will undermine the prospects for achieving all our 2030 Sustainable Development Goals and potentially set back progress on gender equity by years. -
Beyond the “Postmodern University”*
Beyond the “Postmodern University”* Claire Donovan Abstract As an institution, the “postmodern university” is central to the canon of today’s research on higher education policy. Yet in this essay I argue that the postmodern university is a fiction that frames and inhibits our thinking about the future university. To understand why the postmodern university is a fiction, I first turn to grand theory and ask whether we can make sense of the notion of “post”-postmodernity. Second, I turn to the UK higher education sector and show that the postmodern university is a chimera, a modern artefact of competing instrumentalist, gothic, and postmodernist discourses. Third, I discuss competing visions of the future university and find that the progressive (yet modernist) agendas that re-imagine the public value of knowledge production, transmission, and contestation, are those that can move us beyond the palliative and panacea of the postmodern university. * Health Economics Research Group, Brunel University, Uxbridge, Middlesex, UK. Email: [email protected]. 1 In this essay I investigate the idea of the postmodern university, an institution that is central to research on, and debate about, higher education policy.1 I contend that the postmodern university does not actually exist, yet this fiction casts a shadow over discussions of higher education policy that inhibits more lateral and creative thinking about the future university. In order to properly investigate the concept of the postmodern, it is first necessary to explain the difference between postmodernism and postmodernity. I then ask if we can make sense of being “beyond” postmodernity to prove that postmodernity has never, in fact, existed. -
Modernity, Modernism, and Fascism. a "Mazeway Resynthesis"
0RGHUQLW\PRGHUQLVPDQGIDVFLVP$PD]HZD\UHV\QWKHVLV 5RJHU*ULIILQ Modernism/modernity, Volume 15, Number 1, January 2008, pp. 9-24 (Article) 3XEOLVKHGE\-RKQV+RSNLQV8QLYHUVLW\3UHVV DOI: 10.1353/mod.2008.0011 For additional information about this article http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/mod/summary/v015/15.1griffin.html Access provided by Universitätsbibliothek Bern (1 Mar 2015 12:52 GMT) GRIFFIN / modernity, modernism, and fascism 9 Modernity, modernism, and fascism. A “mazeway resynthesis”1 Roger Griffin MODERNISM / modernity VOLUME FIFTEEN, NUMBER Fascism and modernism: finding the “big picture” ONE, PP 9–24. Researchers combing through back numbers of this journal © 2008 THE JOHNS HOPKINS in search of authoritative guidance to the relationship between UNIVERSITY PRESS modernity, modernism, and fascism could be forgiven for occa- sionally losing their bearings. In one of the earliest issues they will alight upon Emilio Gentile’s article tracing the paternity of early Fascism to the campaign for a “modernist national- ism” which was launched in the 1900s by Italian avant-garde artists and intellectuals fanatical about providing the catalyst to a national program of radical modernization.2 They will also come across the eloquent case made by Peter Fritzsche for the thesis that there was a distinctive “Nazi modern,” that the Third Roger Griffin is Reich embodied an extreme, uncompromising form of politi- Professor in Modern History at Oxford cal modernism, a ruthless bid to realize an alternative vision of Brookes University modernity whatever the human cost.3 But closer to the present (UK), and author of they will encounter Lutz Koepnik’s sustained argument that over 70 publications on the aesthetics of fascism reflected its aspiration “to subsume generic fascism, notably everything under the logic of a modern culture industry, hop- The Nature of Fascism ing to crush the emancipatory substance of modern life through (Pinter, 1991). -
Szarka GEP 2012 12 2 87.Pdf
Citation for published version: Szarka, J 2012, 'Climate challenges, ecological modernization and technological forcing: policy lessons from a comparative US-EU analysis', Global Environmental Politics, vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 87-109. https://doi.org/10.1162/GLEP_a_00110 DOI: 10.1162/GLEP_a_00110 Publication date: 2012 Document Version Peer reviewed version Link to publication University of Bath Alternative formats If you require this document in an alternative format, please contact: [email protected] General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 05. Oct. 2021 Climate Challenges, Ecological Modernization, and Technological Forcing Joseph Szarka Climate Challenges, Ecological Modernization, and Technological Forcing: Policy Lessons from a Comparative US-EU Analysis • Joseph Szarka* Introduction The international policy regime initiated by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 1992 has yet to prove its effectiveness. Dur ing negotiation of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol greenhouse gas emission (GHG) targets of around 8 percent were discussed for regions such as the European Union and the United States of America. These goals have offered scant global climate protection, given that global CO2 emissions alone increased by 40 per cent between 1990 and 2009.1 Indeed, the regime’s effectiveness was diluted by defections, notably the United States. -
Factor Endowment Versus Productivity Views
Globalization, Poverty, and All That: Factor Endowment versus Productivity Views William Easterly New York University Prepared for NBER Globalization and Poverty Workshop, September 10-12, 2004 Globalization causing poverty is a staple of anti-globalization rhetoric. The Nobel prizewinner Dario Fo compared the impoverishment of globalization to September 11th: "The great speculators wallow in an economy that every year kills tens of millions of people with poverty—so what is 20,000 dead in New York?” 1 The protesters usually believe globalization is a disaster for the workers, throwing them into “downward wage spirals in both the North and the South.” Oxfam identifies such innocuous products as Olympic sportswear as forcing laborers into “working ever-faster for ever-longer periods of time under arduous conditions for poverty-level wages, to produce more goods and more profit.”2 According to a best-selling book by William Greider, in the primitive legal climate of poorer nations, industry has found it can revive the worst forms of nineteenth century exploitation, abuses outlawed long ago in the advanced economies, including extreme physical dangers to workers and the use of children as expendable cheap labor.3 Oxfam complains about how corporate greed is “exploiting the circumstances of vulnerable people,” which it identifies mainly as young women, to set up profitable “global supply chains” for huge retailers like Walmart. In China’s fast-growing Guandong Province, “young women face 150 hours of overtime each month in the garment factories