The Making of the Bulgarian Middle Class: Citizens Against the People in the 2013 Protests
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Confucian Marxism and Its Implications in the Current Age of Globalization
CONFUCIAN MARXISM AND ITS IMPLICATIONS IN THE CURRENT AGE OF GLOBALIZATION Chen Weigang I. The Issue: Culture and Peripheral Justice One does not need to embrace Samuel Huntington’s theory of the clash of civilizations to recognize the increasing salience of cultural and ethnic confl ict in the post-Cold War world.1 Indeed, recent major trends in the developing world, from the spectacular growth of Islamic fundamentalism in Muslim countries to the rapid ascendancy of Confucian nationalism in East Asia,2 all demonstrate clearly that cul- ture and cultural identities have become the driving force in global politics today. How, then, do we explain the intriguing fact that precisely at the moment when the West scores a decisive victory over all political and economic alternatives, when capitalism is universally accepted as the only feasible way to rationally organize a modern economy, and when Third-World industrialization tears down the traditional North-South structure thereby marking the beginning of an age of capitalist global- ization, there has emerged across non-Western societies an ever more powerful anti-Western backlash and an ever stronger aspiration for 1 Huntington, Samuel, The Clash of Civilizations: Remaking of World Order (New York: Touchstone, 1996). 2 In 1993, Hanoi published, at great expense, a romanized Vietnamese translation (in fi fteen volumes with almost eight thousand pages) of “The Imperially Authorized Compendium of Institutions and Institutional Cases of the Great South” (“The Great South” was the Vietnamese imperial name for Vietnam, adopted in the late 1830s). The “Compendium of Institutions” had been compiled originally in classical Chinese by senior mandarins of the Vietnamese court at Hue in the 1840s. -
Critical Theory and the Critique of Antisemitism: on Society As Economic Object
Journal of Social Justice, Vol. 9, 2019 (© 2019) ISSN: 2164-7100 Critical Theory and the Critique of Antisemitism: On Society as Economic Object Werner Bonefeld1 The paper argues that the critique of modern antisemitism is fundamentally a critique of capitalist political economy. It expounds the critical tradition associated with the work of Marx, Horkheimer, Adorno and Postone, to argue that antisemitism is innate to the existent society. It explores antisemitism as a perverted form of anti-capitalism, one which associates labour economy with freedom, Arbeit macht frei, and rejects the manifestation of labour economy in the form of money as more money. It specifies antisemitism as a personalised critique of a crisis-ridden dynamic of real economic abstractions, of price and profit, and their regulation by the invisible hand. Modern antisemitism identifies the ghostlike character of the economic object, what Marx called the capital fetish, with the character and the power of the Jew. [Article copies available for a fee from The Transformative Studies Institute. E-mail address: [email protected] Website: http://www.transformativestudies.org ©2019 by The Transformative Studies Institute. All rights reserved.] KEYWORDS: Antisemitism, Money, Fetishism, Economic Object, Personalisation, Nationalism, (perverted) Anti-capitalism. INTRODUCTION Contemporary social theory reckons that the existing society contains within itself the ‘promise of freedom’ (Honneth 2010: 10). This would suggest that it also contains within itself the ‘promise’ of a freedom from 1 Werner Bonefeld is a Professor of Politics at the University of York (UK). Recent publications include Critical Theory and the Critique of Political Economy and The Strong State and the Free Economy. -
Masses, Turbo-Capitalism and Power in Jean Baudrillard's Social
International Journal of Theology, Philosophy and Science No. 3, Year 2/2018 MASSES, TURBO-CAPITALISM AND POWER IN JEAN BAUDRILLARD’S SOCIAL AND POLITICAL ONTOTHEOLOGY PhD. Prof. Spiros MAKRIS Assistant Professor in Political Theory University of Macedonia, Thessaloniki, GREECE Email: [email protected] ABSTRACT If postmodern Jean Baudrillard (1929-2007) could be defined as a theorist of power - to the extent that for some this is a contradiction by definition, although something very similar takes place in the case of Michel Foucault, he could be defined as a theorist of meta-power in the globalized era of turbo-capitalism. In his late texts (2005), which were published in 2010, the eminent French philosopher builds a provocative theory about power by using the classic concepts of domination and hegemony within the contemporary social, economic, political and ideological context of neoliberal globalization. In these papers, he analyzes in-depth the meta- power of hegemony in comparison with the power of domination. Actually, by signifying the critical passage of postwar capitalism from the phase of production to the phase of consumption, as Zygmunt Bauman does in his relevant work, Baudrillard formulates a meta-power theory as the equivalent of what he defines as turbo-capitalism. What is at stake is no longer the conventional issues of state sovereignty, Marx-inspired concept of alienation and Critical Theory-like negative dialectics but the crucial questions of hegemony, hostage and evilness. In short, Jean Baudrillard builds a new ontological and by extension disciplinary and theoretical field concerning global power, where the ‘Empire of Good’, or turbo-capitalism in his own terminology, is reborn in a totally catastrophic way (see simulation in the sense of a capitalist hypocrisy) either as an ‘Axis of Evil’ or as the ‘problem of terror’ (see simulacrum in the sense of a Lacanian stage of image within which turbo-capitalism represses, through a Freudian process of repelling, its unfamiliar self/i.e. -
Jewish Interest Table of Contents
OTHER PRESS JEWISH INTEREST TABLE OF CONTENTS UPCOMING 4 Nuestra América 4 by Claudio Lomnitz, translated by John Cullen Publication Date: 02/09/2021 Proustian Uncertainties 4 by Saul Friedländer Publication Date: 12/01/2020 JEWISH INTEREST 5 What You Did Not Tell 5 by Mark Mazower When Memory Comes 5 by Saul Friedländer, translated by Helen R. Lane Where Memory Leads 5 by Saul Friedländer A Brief Stop on the Road From Auschwitz 5 by Göran Rosenberg The Road to Rescue 5 by Mietek Pemper The Bell of Treason 6 by P. E. Caquet For Two Thousand Years 6 by Mihail Sebastian, translated by Philip Ó Ceallaigh The Brothers Ashkenazi 6 by I. J Singer The Witness House 6 by Christiane Kohl The Woman from Hamburg 7 by Hanna Krall Isaac’s Torah 7 by Angel Wagenstein, translated by Elizabeth Frank and Deliana Simeonova Farewell, Shanghai 7 by Angel Wagenstein, translated by Elizabeth Frank and Deliana Simeonova Stalemate 7 by Icchokas Meras and Jonas Zdanys The Impossible Exile 7 by George Prochnik A Guest in My Own Country 8 by George Konrad Stranger in a Strange Land 8 by George Prochnik Putnam Camp 8 by George Prochnik 2 The Sun and Her Stars 8 by Donna Rifkind And in the Vienna Woods the Trees Remain 8 By Elisabeth Åsbrink; translated by Saskia Vogel Hitler, My Neighbor 9 by Edgar Feuchtwanger and Bertil Scali, translated by Adriana Hunter Hurry Down Sunshine 9 by Michael Greenberg Beg, Borrow, Steal 9 by Michael Greenberg Departures 9 by Paul Zweig ISRAELI SOCIETY AND LITERATURE 10 Walled 10 by Sylvain Cypel, senior journalist from le Monde Breaking -
Models of Architecture from the Middle Ages to Present on the Valley of Struma River
MODELS OF ARCHITECTURE FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO PRESENT ON THE VALLEY OF STRUMA RIVER Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria Brestovo Monastery “St. Archangel Michael”, Municipality of Simitly, Bulgaria Pirin village, Bulgaria Melnik, Bulgaria Serres, Greece Blagoevgrad is the largest city in Southwest Bulgaria, the administrative center of Blagoevgrad District and Blagoevgrad Municipality. It is situated at the foot of the southwestern slopes of the Rila Mountain, in the valley of the Struma River, 100 km south from the capital Sofia. The city is located on the two banks of the Bistritsa river, just before its inflow into the Struma River. Besides the clear waters of the river, important factors for the development of the city were the mineral springs and the favorable central location of the city, situated between Sofia and Thessaloniki, Kyustendil and Razlog. About 35 km away from the city, in the upper course of the Bistritsa River, is located the ancient Parangalitsa forest - one of the most valuable reserves in Bulgaria. In 1973, it was proclaimed by UNESCO as a Biosphere Reserve. The history of Blagoevgrad dates back to 10th century BC. The Thracian settlement Skaptopara (Upper Market) was founded around the mineral springs around 300 BC. This settlement has been associated with the Thracian tribe Denteleti who inhabited the upper valley of the Struma River. In the 1st century AD the Thracians were conquered by the Romans. A Roman settlement from 3rd-5th century has been discovered in 2017, near the village of Pokrovnik, about 3 km from Blagoevgrad. The establishment’s location did coincide with the planned route of Struma highway and it has been destroyed, with only a few of the excavated buildings being moved away from the road. -
European Left Info Flyer
United for a left alternative in Europe United for a left alternative in Europe ”We refer to the values and traditions of socialism, com- munism and the labor move- ment, of feminism, the fem- inist movement and gender equality, of the environmental movement and sustainable development, of peace and international solidarity, of hu- man rights, humanism and an- tifascism, of progressive and liberal thinking, both national- ly and internationally”. Manifesto of the Party of the European Left, 2004 ABOUT THE PARTY OF THE EUROPEAN LEFT (EL) EXECUTIVE BOARD The Executive Board was elected at the 4th Congress of the Party of the European Left, which took place from 13 to 15 December 2013 in Madrid. The Executive Board consists of the President and the Vice-Presidents, the Treasurer and other Members elected by the Congress, on the basis of two persons of each member party, respecting the principle of gender balance. COUNCIL OF CHAIRPERSONS The Council of Chairpersons meets at least once a year. The members are the Presidents of all the member par- ties, the President of the EL and the Vice-Presidents. The Council of Chairpersons has, with regard to the Execu- tive Board, rights of initiative and objection on important political issues. The Council of Chairpersons adopts res- olutions and recommendations which are transmitted to the Executive Board, and it also decides on applications for EL membership. NETWORKS n Balkan Network n Trade Unionists n Culture Network Network WORKING GROUPS n Central and Eastern Europe n Africa n Youth n Agriculture n Migration n Latin America n Middle East n North America n Peace n Communication n Queer n Education n Public Services n Environment n Women Trafficking Member and Observer Parties The Party of the European Left (EL) is a political party at the Eu- ropean level that was formed in 2004. -
There Has Been No Bulgarian Tradition of Any Long-Standing Resistance to the Communist Regime
There has been no Bulgarian tradition of any long-standing resistance to the communist regime. There was neither any political opposition, nor any other kind of an influential dissident movement. Bulgaria never went through the purgatory of the Hungarian uprising of 1956, or the “Prague spring” of 1968. It is indeed difficult to find any counter arguments whatsoever against the cliché that Bul- garia was the closest satellite of the Soviet Union. The fundamental contradictions within the Union of Democratic Forces (SDS) coalition were present from the very first day of its inception. There were Marxists who were longing for “socialism with a human face”, intellectuals with liberal ideas, social democrats and Christian democrats, conservatives and radical demo- crats, monarchists and republicans. The members of the center-right coalition did not delude themselves about their differences; they rather shared the clear un- derstanding that only a painful compromise could stand some chances against the Goliath of the totalitarian Bulgarian Communist Party (BKP). It was this unani- mous opposition to the communist regime and its legacy that made the coalition possible. But only for a limited period of time. The United Democratic Forces (ODS) government under Prime Minister Ivan Kostov (1997-2001) completed the reformist agenda of anti-communism. At the end of the ODS term of office, Bulgaria was a country with a functioning market economy, stable democracy, and a clearly outlined foreign policy course towards the country’s accession to the European Union and NATO, which was accepted by all significant political formations, the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) included. -
Chronology of Key Events
Chronology of key events 1990 13 July 1990 With a Declaration of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Bulgaria accepts the invitation extended by NATO to establish regular diplomatic liaison. Mrs. Lea Cohen, Bulgarian Ambassador to Belgium, is authorized to maintain diplomatic liaison with NATO. 1991 4 April 1991 Establishment of the Atlantic Club of Bulgaria, the first non-governmental Atlantic association outside NATO member states. Since October 1992, the Atlantic Club of Bulgaria has been associated with the Atlantic Treaty Association (ATA), initially as an observer and later as an associate member. 12-14 June 1991 Dr Manfred Wörner pays the first official visit of NATO Secretary General to Bulgaria. 20 December 1991 Bulgaria participates as a co-founding state in the inaugural meeting of the North Atlantic Cooperation Council (NACC). 1994 14 February 1994 The President of Bulgaria, Zhelyu Zhelev, signs the Partnership for Peace Framework Document at NATO Headquarters. 25 November 1994 Bulgarian Deputy Foreign Minister Todor Churov visits NATO Headquarters. Bulgaria’s PfP Individual Partnership Program with NATO is formally accepted. 1995 28 September 1995 Bulgaria participates in a meeting at NATO Headquarters for a presentation of the conclusions of the Study on NATO Enlargement to NACC and PfP Cooperation partners. 16 October 1995 Bulgaria accedes to the Status of Forces Agreement between the NATO member states and the PfP countries (ratified by the National Assembly on 5 April 1996). 1996 1996-1998 Bulgaria participates in a number of meetings with NATO within the Intensified Dialogue with interested partners on NATO membership issues. 2-3 May 1996 NATO Secretary General Javier Solana visits Bulgaria. -
Bulgarian Marshall Center Alumni Book
Marshall Center Graduates from Republic of Bulgaria Capt Sasho Aleksandrov Language: EN CISS Class: 03-7 LC 2003-7, CPT, Company Commander, Motor Transport, MOD. 2006: Student, Military Academy Defense and Staff College, Rakovsky. As of: April 2008. EMail: [email protected] Tel:359 658 2 11 27 FAX: Ms. Diana Aleksandrova Language: EN CISS Class: 06-1 LPASS 2006-1, Desk Officer, USA and Canada, International Cooperation Directorate, MOD. March 2007: Deputy Chief, Protocol Department. August 2008: Chief, Protocol, State Agency for National Security. As of: April 2009. EMail: [email protected] Tel:359 2 92 20 492 FAX: 359 2 981 58 58 COL Petar Aleksiev Language: EN CISS Class: 07-6 SES 2007-6, COL, Director, Defense Information Service Directorate, MOD. As of: August 2007. EMail: [email protected] Tel:00359 29 227 390 FAX: Mr. Toni Aleksiev Language: RU CISS Class: 08-1 EPASS 2008-1, Head of Criminal Police Group, Police. As of: February 2008. EMail: [email protected] Tel:+056 856 127 FAX: Capt Stoyan Alexandrov Language: EN CISS Class: 99-2 LC 1999-2, CPT, Tank Company Commander, Sofia Garrison, MOD. February 2005: Chief of Staff, 2nd Tank Bn, 9 Bde, Gorna Bania. 2008: Company Commander, 5 Bde, Pleven. As of: April 2009. EMail: Tel:359 2 922 8417 FAX: COL (Ret.) Ilian Alipiev Language: RU CISS Class: 02-4 EP 2002-4, COL, Chief, Counterintelligence Department, MOD. Retired. February 2005: Chief, Government Reserves Agency. As of: February 2005. EMail: [email protected] Tel:359 2 921 0284 FAX: Page 1 of 47 Marshall Center Graduates from Republic of Bulgaria MAJ Hristo Anastasov Language: EN CISS Class: 01-3 LC 2001-3, MAJ, Deputy Chief, Aviation Equipment and Weapons, Unit 26930, MOD. -
The Shaping of Bulgarian and Serbian National Identities, 1800S-1900S
The Shaping of Bulgarian and Serbian National Identities, 1800s-1900s February 2003 Katrin Bozeva-Abazi Department of History McGill University, Montreal A Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 1 Contents 1. Abstract/Resume 3 2. Note on Transliteration and Spelling of Names 6 3. Acknowledgments 7 4. Introduction 8 How "popular" nationalism was created 5. Chapter One 33 Peasants and intellectuals, 1830-1914 6. Chapter Two 78 The invention of the modern Balkan state: Serbia and Bulgaria, 1830-1914 7. Chapter Three 126 The Church and national indoctrination 8. Chapter Four 171 The national army 8. Chapter Five 219 Education and national indoctrination 9. Conclusions 264 10. Bibliography 273 Abstract The nation-state is now the dominant form of sovereign statehood, however, a century and a half ago the political map of Europe comprised only a handful of sovereign states, very few of them nations in the modern sense. Balkan historiography often tends to minimize the complexity of nation-building, either by referring to the national community as to a monolithic and homogenous unit, or simply by neglecting different social groups whose consciousness varied depending on region, gender and generation. Further, Bulgarian and Serbian historiography pay far more attention to the problem of "how" and "why" certain events have happened than to the emergence of national consciousness of the Balkan peoples as a complex and durable process of mental evolution. This dissertation on the concept of nationality in which most Bulgarians and Serbs were educated and socialized examines how the modern idea of nationhood was disseminated among the ordinary people and it presents the complicated process of national indoctrination carried out by various state institutions. -
Combined and Uneven Development: Towards a New Theory of World-Literature
Combined and Uneven Development: Towards a New Theory of World-Literature Postcolonialism across the Disciplines 17 Postcolonialism across the Disciplines Series Editors Graham Huggan, University of Leeds Andrew Thompson, University of Exeter Postcolonialism across the Disciplines showcases alternative directions for postcolonial studies. It is in part an attempt to counteract the dominance in colonial and postcolonial studies of one particular discipline – English literary/ cultural studies – and to make the case for a combination of disciplinary knowledges as the basis for contemporary postcolonial critique. Edited by leading scholars, the series aims to be a seminal contribution to the field, spanning the traditional range of disciplines represented in postcolonial studies but also those less acknowledged. It will also embrace new critical paradigms and examine the relationship between the transnational/cultural, the global and the postcolonial. Combined and Uneven Development Towards a New Theory of World-Literature WReC (Warwick Research Collective) Liverpool University Press Warwick Research Collective: Sharae Deckard Nicholas Lawrence Neil Lazarus Graeme Macdonald Upamanyu Pablo Mukherjee Benita Parry Stephen Shapiro First published 2015 by Liverpool University Press 4 Cambridge Street Liverpool L69 7ZU Copyright © Sharae Deckard, Nicholas Lawrence, Neil Lazarus, Graeme Macdonald, Upamanyu Pablo Mukherjee, Benita Parry and Stephen Shapiro The right of Sharae Deckard, Nicholas Lawrence, Neil Lazarus, Graeme Macdonald, Upamanyu Pablo Mukherjee, Benita Parry and Stephen Shapiro to be identified as the authors of this book has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Design and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. -
Normalisation of Islam in Bulgaria and the Role of Intellectuals
Islam on Тrial: Normalisation of Islam in Bulgaria and the role of intellectuals by Madlen Ivanova Nikolova Submitted to Central European University Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology In partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Supervisors: Professor Alexandra Kowalski Professor Jean-Louis Fabiani CEU eTD Collection Budapest, Hungary 2016 Abstract The purpose of the thesis is to analyse the symbolic violence intellectuals exert in constructing politically effective representations of Islam in Bulgaria. This is done through the close investigation of expert witnesses’ discourse in a recent trial against thirteen Muslims from Bulgaria, who were accused and convicted of propagating a “foreign” and “political-ideological” Islam against the “democratic-liberal order.” The expert witnesses opposed this “political” and “foreign” Islam to “traditional” and “everyday” Islam. I argue that this discursive strategy could be read as normalisation in Foucauldian terms. In contrast to Foucault’s understanding of normalisation and the role of psychiatric expertise within the juridical field, what is normalised in the case of the trial I studied are not individual pathologies, but forms of (“everyday”) Islam that are compatible with the current post-political liberal regime. I also consider intellectuals’ conflicting relationships to the trial by taking into account their positioning within the field of power. CEU eTD Collection I Acknowledgements I would like to extend my gratitude to Professor Alexandra Kowalski for the thought- provoking conversations, constructive critique and support throughout the year. Professor Jean-Louis Fabiani’s classes helped me develop a more nuanced account of the dynamics within the academic field.