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Political production of individualised subjects in the paradoxical discourse of the EU institutions

Eduardo Crespo Suárez and Amparo Serrano Pascual

in Making it personal: Individualising activation services in the EU

This chapter talks about developments found at the level of the European Union (EU). It presents a discursive analysis of a selection of policy documents of the EU that are relevant in the context of ... More

This chapter talks about developments found at the level of the European Union (EU). It presents a discursive analysis of a selection of policy documents of the EU that are relevant in the context of activation policies. One of these is the documents that were produced in the context of the Lisbon Strategy and the European Employment Strategy (EES). The chapter also considers the political status and the paradoxical rhetoric of European discourse.Less

Case study: the war in Iraq 2003

Ben Tonra

in Global Citizen and European Republic: Irish Foreign Policy in Transition

This chapter analyses the interaction of the four narratives when faced with the short-term policy issue of the 2003 Iraq War. Three very different pictures emerged from the narratives' ... More

This chapter analyses the interaction of the four narratives when faced with the short-term policy issue of the 2003 Iraq War. Three very different pictures emerged from the narratives' representation of the Iraqi conflict: one of imperialist aggression, one of illegal conflict and one of regrettable war. This chapter explains that there was no sustained attempt within the Irish debate to initiate and develop a European discourse vis à vis this conflict and discusses the fissure between the Irish and Global discourses over attitudes towards the United Nations.Less

Jews, in Theory

Sergey Dolgopolski

in Jews and the Ends of Theory

This chapter focuses on Jews, political reason, and the concept of the human and the Jew, discussing the varieties of representation that play a role in perception, consciousness, and rationality. In ... More

This chapter focuses on Jews, political reason, and the concept of the human and the Jew, discussing the varieties of representation that play a role in perception, consciousness, and rationality. In this context, the figure of the Jew is presented as a type in European discourse, conceptually unrelated to ancient Jewish self-understanding and instead emerging as a fiction made necessary by the logic of Christian self-understanding. The chapter then considers Carl Schmitt's representation of representation, replacing it with a notion of authority embodied in Talmudic discourse, which can be called refutation of refutation. The desired result is an iterative refinement of collective memory as locus of the reasoning process by which ideas are given shared value, with the goal of restoring openness and inventiveness to tradition and eliminating mechanical transmission.Less

The Constitutional Court of The Republic of Latvia

Ineta Ziemele, Alla Spale, and Laila Jurcēna

in The Max Planck Handbooks in European Public Law: Volume III: Constitutional Adjudication: Institutions

This chapter examines constitutional review in Latvia. When the Latvian Constitution—the Satversme—was adopted in 1922, the European model of constitutional courts existed, but the idea of ... More

This chapter examines constitutional review in Latvia. When the Latvian Constitution—the Satversme—was adopted in 1922, the European model of constitutional courts existed, but the idea of establishing a constitutional court in Latvia was not discussed. The chapter traces the development of Latvian constitutional justice following the establishment of the Satversme, before providing a brief overview of both the institution of constitutional review as well as the constitutional court in Latvia. The Latvian Constitutional Court has played an important role in developing the legal order in accordance with the principles of rule of law and democracy and in educating the society in these values. Lastly, the chapter discusses the case law of the Constitutional Court as part of a wider European legal discourse.Less

Conclusion

in Colonial Tropes and Postcolonial Tricks: Rewriting the Tropics in the novela de la selva

This chapter presents some final thoughts. This book has analyzed the rewriting of European historical and literary constructions of the tropics by Spanish-American authors in the first half of the ... More

This chapter presents some final thoughts. This book has analyzed the rewriting of European historical and literary constructions of the tropics by Spanish-American authors in the first half of the twentieth century. It showed that the relationship of the novela de la selva to the colonial past is not purely antagonistic. Rather, the genre exploited European discourses of the tropics to generate a powerful postcolonial counter-narrative. The parodic rewriting of European discourses on the tropics was fundamental to the efforts of the novela de la selva to forge a postcolonial literary identity for the Spanish-American novel.Less

Conclusion: A Place in the World

in Autobiography and Independence: Selfhood and Creativity in North African Postcolonial Writing in French

This chapter summarizes the preceding discussions and presents some final thoughts. The four writers examined became, to varying degrees, alienated from their traditional cultural environment and ... More

This chapter summarizes the preceding discussions and presents some final thoughts. The four writers examined became, to varying degrees, alienated from their traditional cultural environment and made an intellectual effort in order to cope with that alienation. At the same time, all of them analyse the predicament of the colonial and postcolonial intellectual, frequently retaining a solidarity with their community while being critical of it. They are also all clear on the need to write themselves out of dominant systems of representation, to remove themselves as inventions of the colonial imagination, while simultaneously decolonising themselves from that colonial imagination and from their own ambivalent desire for the West; to posit themselves as subjects. The chapter also raises two rather more open-ended issues that have hovered around many of the readings here. The first is the challenge that all of these writers pose to the notion of the hegemony of European historical, philosophical and literary discourses; the second concerns their contribution to debates concerning identity, whether of individuals or groups, at various levels of contemporary society, and to the role of the writer and to literature generally.Less

Discrimination, Advocacy, and Collective Identity

Emily Cury

in Claiming Belonging: Muslim American Advocacy in an Era of Islamophobia

This chapter begins with the links between discrimination, identity formation, and minority advocacy. It examines how Muslim minorities and immigrants from disparate ethnic, national, linguistic, and ... More

This chapter begins with the links between discrimination, identity formation, and minority advocacy. It examines how Muslim minorities and immigrants from disparate ethnic, national, linguistic, and socioeconomic backgrounds think of themselves, and act, as members of a collective group with a unified set of interests. It also highlights the impact of Muslim advocacy organizations in their ability to frame and communicate a particular Muslim American collective identity. The chapter recounts anti-Muslim prejudice that has deep roots in American history and the European Orientalist discourse that has been adopted by the American nation since the inception of that prejudice. It discusses the construction of Islam as a false religion and how Muslims from around the world are racialized as Arab, non-white, and therefore biologically and morally inferior.Less