Rob Reich
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780199253661
- eISBN:
- 9780191601972
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199253668.003.0012
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
The essays in Part III of the book, on liberal constraints and traditionalist education, argue for a more regulatory conception of liberal education and emphasize the need for some controls over ...
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The essays in Part III of the book, on liberal constraints and traditionalist education, argue for a more regulatory conception of liberal education and emphasize the need for some controls over cultural and religious educational authority. Rob Reich’s essay, on multicultural accommodations in education, proposes that the liberal state needs to rethink its commitment to cultural groups whose educational agendas advance the integrity of the group over and against the freedom and equality of its members, and that thus educate in ways that place strict limits on the autonomy and critical thinking skills of their members. He aims to examine two prominent defenses of multiculturalism, showing how each pays insufficient attention to the tension between cultural groups: Avishai Margalit and Moshe Halbertal argue that, because individuals have a ‘right to culture’, the state must grant groups a status that may flout the rights of some individuals, conditioned on the ability of those individuals to exit; Will Kymlicka, in a far more sophisticated version of multiculturalism, defends cultural rights, and accommodations, but only for those cultural groups that are themselves internally liberal (except in rare circumstances) and that take seriously the value of personal autonomy. Reich contends that, while the freedom to exit from a group is important, the group rights supported by Margalit and Halbertal may serve to disable or severely impoverish the ability of children to exit from groups; further, he contends that, while personal autonomy is important, Kymlicka’s conception of autonomy is unsatisfactory and, moreover, his defense of rights to separate schooling for national minorities and to educational exemptions for some polyethnic groups leaves him open to the same critique about exit that Reich levies against Margalit and Halbertal. Along the way, Reich comments on the odd fixation of multiculturalists on rights of exit.Less
The essays in Part III of the book, on liberal constraints and traditionalist education, argue for a more regulatory conception of liberal education and emphasize the need for some controls over cultural and religious educational authority. Rob Reich’s essay, on multicultural accommodations in education, proposes that the liberal state needs to rethink its commitment to cultural groups whose educational agendas advance the integrity of the group over and against the freedom and equality of its members, and that thus educate in ways that place strict limits on the autonomy and critical thinking skills of their members. He aims to examine two prominent defenses of multiculturalism, showing how each pays insufficient attention to the tension between cultural groups: Avishai Margalit and Moshe Halbertal argue that, because individuals have a ‘right to culture’, the state must grant groups a status that may flout the rights of some individuals, conditioned on the ability of those individuals to exit; Will Kymlicka, in a far more sophisticated version of multiculturalism, defends cultural rights, and accommodations, but only for those cultural groups that are themselves internally liberal (except in rare circumstances) and that take seriously the value of personal autonomy. Reich contends that, while the freedom to exit from a group is important, the group rights supported by Margalit and Halbertal may serve to disable or severely impoverish the ability of children to exit from groups; further, he contends that, while personal autonomy is important, Kymlicka’s conception of autonomy is unsatisfactory and, moreover, his defense of rights to separate schooling for national minorities and to educational exemptions for some polyethnic groups leaves him open to the same critique about exit that Reich levies against Margalit and Halbertal. Along the way, Reich comments on the odd fixation of multiculturalists on rights of exit.
Susan Moller Okin
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780199253661
- eISBN:
- 9780191601972
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199253668.003.0013
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
The essays in Part III of the book, on liberal constraints and traditionalist education, argue for a more regulatory conception of liberal education and emphasize the need for some controls over ...
More
The essays in Part III of the book, on liberal constraints and traditionalist education, argue for a more regulatory conception of liberal education and emphasize the need for some controls over cultural and religious educational authority. Susan Okin, in her essay on group rights, gender, and realistic rights of exit, is mostly concerned, not with the oppression of traditional groups by the liberal state, but with the oppression of individuals, and especially of girls and women, by the traditional community. She is critical of those liberal theorists who argue that a right of exit is sufficient to qualify a cultural or religious group for special recognition in liberal societies, and to counter these views, she notes that the unequal treatment of girls and women can mean that even though they may have a formal right to exit a group, their actual opportunities for doing so are far less adequate than those of their male counterparts. She holds, then, that the right of exit is not sufficient and that the liberal state should have a higher requirement, namely, that girls and women should be treated fairly within the group and thus should be able to take advantage of any formal right of exit. The chapter is arranged in three sections: Section 12.1, Gender and Other Forms of Inequality in Group Rights Theories, shows, by looking at three examples of liberal defenders (as exemplified by Joseph Raz, William Galston, and Chandran Kukathas) of group rights, that they tend not to take gender inequality seriously when considering group rights and limitations; Section 12.2, Cultural Factors Affecting Women’s Realistic Rights of Exit, specifies and discusses a number of reasons that contribute to women being significantly less able than men, in many cultural contexts, to chart their own courses of life outside their community of origin; and Section 12.3. Rights of Exit and Realistic Rights of Exit for Women, concludes that the theories examined contain several problematic elements concerning rights of exit for women.Less
The essays in Part III of the book, on liberal constraints and traditionalist education, argue for a more regulatory conception of liberal education and emphasize the need for some controls over cultural and religious educational authority. Susan Okin, in her essay on group rights, gender, and realistic rights of exit, is mostly concerned, not with the oppression of traditional groups by the liberal state, but with the oppression of individuals, and especially of girls and women, by the traditional community. She is critical of those liberal theorists who argue that a right of exit is sufficient to qualify a cultural or religious group for special recognition in liberal societies, and to counter these views, she notes that the unequal treatment of girls and women can mean that even though they may have a formal right to exit a group, their actual opportunities for doing so are far less adequate than those of their male counterparts. She holds, then, that the right of exit is not sufficient and that the liberal state should have a higher requirement, namely, that girls and women should be treated fairly within the group and thus should be able to take advantage of any formal right of exit. The chapter is arranged in three sections: Section 12.1, Gender and Other Forms of Inequality in Group Rights Theories, shows, by looking at three examples of liberal defenders (as exemplified by Joseph Raz, William Galston, and Chandran Kukathas) of group rights, that they tend not to take gender inequality seriously when considering group rights and limitations; Section 12.2, Cultural Factors Affecting Women’s Realistic Rights of Exit, specifies and discusses a number of reasons that contribute to women being significantly less able than men, in many cultural contexts, to chart their own courses of life outside their community of origin; and Section 12.3. Rights of Exit and Realistic Rights of Exit for Women, concludes that the theories examined contain several problematic elements concerning rights of exit for women.
Kevin McDonough
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780199253661
- eISBN:
- 9780191601972
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199253668.003.0014
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
The essays in Part III of the book, on liberal constraints and traditionalist education, argue for a more regulatory conception of liberal education and emphasize the need for some controls over ...
More
The essays in Part III of the book, on liberal constraints and traditionalist education, argue for a more regulatory conception of liberal education and emphasize the need for some controls over cultural and religious educational authority. Kevin McDonough’s essay, on multinational civic education, develops a conception of this that allows for both federal and minority national groups to reinforce conditional civic attachments. This ‘conditionalist’ view of civic education is necessary in multinational federal societies, he argues, because appeals to one set of national attachments may exacerbate rather than alleviate particular injustices in particular circumstances. For example, McDonough argues that when aboriginal women and children are the victims of injustice at the hands of tribal institutions and leaders, they must be able to appeal to their fellow non-aboriginal citizens and federal institutions for assistance, although this is not possible unless citizens – aboriginal and otherwise – have come to regard attachments to the minority nation as conditional rather than absolute. Similarly, citizens whose primary identification is to the federal society must be able to recognize that some of their fellow citizens legitimately have a minority nation as the object of their primary loyalty – otherwise, efforts to support federal intervention in minority national affairs will be vulnerable to forces of cultural insensitivity and arrogance, rather than of liberal justice.Less
The essays in Part III of the book, on liberal constraints and traditionalist education, argue for a more regulatory conception of liberal education and emphasize the need for some controls over cultural and religious educational authority. Kevin McDonough’s essay, on multinational civic education, develops a conception of this that allows for both federal and minority national groups to reinforce conditional civic attachments. This ‘conditionalist’ view of civic education is necessary in multinational federal societies, he argues, because appeals to one set of national attachments may exacerbate rather than alleviate particular injustices in particular circumstances. For example, McDonough argues that when aboriginal women and children are the victims of injustice at the hands of tribal institutions and leaders, they must be able to appeal to their fellow non-aboriginal citizens and federal institutions for assistance, although this is not possible unless citizens – aboriginal and otherwise – have come to regard attachments to the minority nation as conditional rather than absolute. Similarly, citizens whose primary identification is to the federal society must be able to recognize that some of their fellow citizens legitimately have a minority nation as the object of their primary loyalty – otherwise, efforts to support federal intervention in minority national affairs will be vulnerable to forces of cultural insensitivity and arrogance, rather than of liberal justice.
Stephen Macedo
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780199253661
- eISBN:
- 9780191601972
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199253668.003.0016
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
The essays in Part III of the book, on liberal constraints and traditionalist education, argue for a more regulatory conception of liberal education and emphasize the need for some controls over ...
More
The essays in Part III of the book, on liberal constraints and traditionalist education, argue for a more regulatory conception of liberal education and emphasize the need for some controls over cultural and religious educational authority. In the last chapter, on liberalism and group rights, according to Stephen Macedo, while the commitment of liberalism to individual freedom and equality is far more easily reconciled with group-based remedies for group-based inequalities than the critics of liberalism allow, the liberal commitment to freedom of association imposes limits on group recognition by insisting on intragroup openness and diversity. The chapter has two main parts. Section 15.1, Liberalism, Education, and Group Identities, rebuts the charge that a liberal public philosophy embraces a narrow individualism that is incompatible with tackling group-based forms of inequality, and surveys some of the myriad liberal reforms of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s that promoted more equal respect for differing group identities, especially in schools. Section 15.2, Special Exemptions and the Rights of Traditional Communities, focuses on the difficulties raised by “traditionalistic” groups that seek special accommodations in part because they reject liberal values of equal freedom for all, and makes the point that a liberal regime should not seek to be equally hospitable or accommodating to groups that accept and those that reject educational policies designed to promote the equal freedom of all persons; various examples are presented and discussed.Less
The essays in Part III of the book, on liberal constraints and traditionalist education, argue for a more regulatory conception of liberal education and emphasize the need for some controls over cultural and religious educational authority. In the last chapter, on liberalism and group rights, according to Stephen Macedo, while the commitment of liberalism to individual freedom and equality is far more easily reconciled with group-based remedies for group-based inequalities than the critics of liberalism allow, the liberal commitment to freedom of association imposes limits on group recognition by insisting on intragroup openness and diversity. The chapter has two main parts. Section 15.1, Liberalism, Education, and Group Identities, rebuts the charge that a liberal public philosophy embraces a narrow individualism that is incompatible with tackling group-based forms of inequality, and surveys some of the myriad liberal reforms of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s that promoted more equal respect for differing group identities, especially in schools. Section 15.2, Special Exemptions and the Rights of Traditional Communities, focuses on the difficulties raised by “traditionalistic” groups that seek special accommodations in part because they reject liberal values of equal freedom for all, and makes the point that a liberal regime should not seek to be equally hospitable or accommodating to groups that accept and those that reject educational policies designed to promote the equal freedom of all persons; various examples are presented and discussed.
Walter Feinberg
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780199253661
- eISBN:
- 9780191601972
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199253668.003.0015
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
The essays in Part III of the book, on liberal constraints and traditionalist education, argue for a more regulatory conception of liberal education and emphasize the need for some controls over ...
More
The essays in Part III of the book, on liberal constraints and traditionalist education, argue for a more regulatory conception of liberal education and emphasize the need for some controls over cultural and religious educational authority. Walter Feinberg’s essay, on religious education in liberal–democratic societies in relation to the question of accountability and autonomy, takes up the issue of educational constraints with respect to religious schools in such societies. While he allows that religious education need not be inconsistent with liberal goals, and can find reasons why some liberal societies feel it appropriate to provide public support for religious schools, he argues that certain conditions can render such support tyrannical and unwise. He concludes that if the conditions are appropriate for public support of religious schools, then there should also be significant public control. After an introduction in Section 14.1, the chapter has six further sections: Section 14.2 discusses some of the potential lines of conflict between religious liberal education and public (common) education; Section 14.3 examines a number of arguments that have been advanced in support of public funding for religious schools; Section 14.4 looks at a potentially fundamental reason for denying public funding for religious schools – that it would be tyrannical to take tax funds from one believer in order to advance the beliefs of another – and the implications as regards the First Amendment to the United States Constitution; both Sections 14.4 and 14.5 suggest some of the conditions that need to be satisfied in order to supply this funding – primarily that it must be predicated on the school advancing individual and social autonomy; Section 14.6 briefly suggests what such an arrangement might entail for the traditional way in which the public/private divide is conceived; Section 14.7 concludes.Less
The essays in Part III of the book, on liberal constraints and traditionalist education, argue for a more regulatory conception of liberal education and emphasize the need for some controls over cultural and religious educational authority. Walter Feinberg’s essay, on religious education in liberal–democratic societies in relation to the question of accountability and autonomy, takes up the issue of educational constraints with respect to religious schools in such societies. While he allows that religious education need not be inconsistent with liberal goals, and can find reasons why some liberal societies feel it appropriate to provide public support for religious schools, he argues that certain conditions can render such support tyrannical and unwise. He concludes that if the conditions are appropriate for public support of religious schools, then there should also be significant public control. After an introduction in Section 14.1, the chapter has six further sections: Section 14.2 discusses some of the potential lines of conflict between religious liberal education and public (common) education; Section 14.3 examines a number of arguments that have been advanced in support of public funding for religious schools; Section 14.4 looks at a potentially fundamental reason for denying public funding for religious schools – that it would be tyrannical to take tax funds from one believer in order to advance the beliefs of another – and the implications as regards the First Amendment to the United States Constitution; both Sections 14.4 and 14.5 suggest some of the conditions that need to be satisfied in order to supply this funding – primarily that it must be predicated on the school advancing individual and social autonomy; Section 14.6 briefly suggests what such an arrangement might entail for the traditional way in which the public/private divide is conceived; Section 14.7 concludes.
Kathryn Gleadle
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197264492
- eISBN:
- 9780191734274
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264492.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
Within their communities, women could act as authoritative public figures in ways that were strikingly at odds with the highly feminized modes of action with which they were associated in the wider ...
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Within their communities, women could act as authoritative public figures in ways that were strikingly at odds with the highly feminized modes of action with which they were associated in the wider ‘public sphere’ of national campaigns. Gender was always central to individual identity and social interaction, yet in these contexts it was a less obvious predictor of public engagement. Studying the multifarious constructions of women's local personas enables us to focus upon the varying salience of gender in the experiences and representations of publicly active women. This chapter explores the various sites of the ‘parochial realm’, a term used to denote situations characterized by daily, local interaction and personal communication. It focuses on three themes in particular: female economic agency, women's cultural activities, and female philanthropy. Finally, it discusses women's economic activities and local profiles, female philanthropy in relation to politics and community, cultural authority and civic identity, and the significance of female householders as political agents.Less
Within their communities, women could act as authoritative public figures in ways that were strikingly at odds with the highly feminized modes of action with which they were associated in the wider ‘public sphere’ of national campaigns. Gender was always central to individual identity and social interaction, yet in these contexts it was a less obvious predictor of public engagement. Studying the multifarious constructions of women's local personas enables us to focus upon the varying salience of gender in the experiences and representations of publicly active women. This chapter explores the various sites of the ‘parochial realm’, a term used to denote situations characterized by daily, local interaction and personal communication. It focuses on three themes in particular: female economic agency, women's cultural activities, and female philanthropy. Finally, it discusses women's economic activities and local profiles, female philanthropy in relation to politics and community, cultural authority and civic identity, and the significance of female householders as political agents.
Corey Ross
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199278213
- eISBN:
- 9780191707933
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199278213.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This chapter offers an overview of the rise of the commercial media in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and their complex inter-relationship with existing cultural traditions in Germany. After ...
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This chapter offers an overview of the rise of the commercial media in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and their complex inter-relationship with existing cultural traditions in Germany. After briefly surveying the social and economic pre-conditions underlying the growth of the new media, it analyses how they intermingled with existing cultural forms and practices, and how media producers sought to identify with perceived audiences. Though this process entailed a number of innovations, the need to build on older, ‘safe’ traditions drawn from the theatre or music hall profoundly shaped how the media and commercial entertainments were perceived by both producers and consumers alike. Arguing that the new media did not so much displace these traditions as reconfigure them, this section then briefly considers the threat this reconfiguration posed to cultural authority, and the various arguments of articulate critics that were advanced against it.Less
This chapter offers an overview of the rise of the commercial media in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and their complex inter-relationship with existing cultural traditions in Germany. After briefly surveying the social and economic pre-conditions underlying the growth of the new media, it analyses how they intermingled with existing cultural forms and practices, and how media producers sought to identify with perceived audiences. Though this process entailed a number of innovations, the need to build on older, ‘safe’ traditions drawn from the theatre or music hall profoundly shaped how the media and commercial entertainments were perceived by both producers and consumers alike. Arguing that the new media did not so much displace these traditions as reconfigure them, this section then briefly considers the threat this reconfiguration posed to cultural authority, and the various arguments of articulate critics that were advanced against it.
Jesse Zuba
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691164472
- eISBN:
- 9781400873791
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691164472.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter examines the professionalization of the poetic vocation in the wake of the expansion of the American system of higher education during the post-1945 era. The teaching of poetry writing ...
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This chapter examines the professionalization of the poetic vocation in the wake of the expansion of the American system of higher education during the post-1945 era. The teaching of poetry writing in colleges and universities redefined poetry as something that could, at least in some sense, be taught, and it rendered the traditional image of the poet as an “untutored genius” highly problematic. First-book prizes for poetry proliferated in this new literary environment largely because they served to reinforce its central values. For the institutions to which they were in many cases linked, such prizes functioned as an assertion of cultural authority. They strengthened poetry's status as a profession by presenting its hierarchy as a meritocracy, open, like other professions, to anyone with talent and drive, and also affirmed the authority of contest judges.Less
This chapter examines the professionalization of the poetic vocation in the wake of the expansion of the American system of higher education during the post-1945 era. The teaching of poetry writing in colleges and universities redefined poetry as something that could, at least in some sense, be taught, and it rendered the traditional image of the poet as an “untutored genius” highly problematic. First-book prizes for poetry proliferated in this new literary environment largely because they served to reinforce its central values. For the institutions to which they were in many cases linked, such prizes functioned as an assertion of cultural authority. They strengthened poetry's status as a profession by presenting its hierarchy as a meritocracy, open, like other professions, to anyone with talent and drive, and also affirmed the authority of contest judges.
Luis Moreno-Caballud
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781781381939
- eISBN:
- 9781781382295
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9781781381939.003.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
This book examines the tensions between cultural authority and the so-called ‘cultures of anyone’ that have reemerged time and again during Spain's economic crisis of 2008. It considers how these ...
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This book examines the tensions between cultural authority and the so-called ‘cultures of anyone’ that have reemerged time and again during Spain's economic crisis of 2008. It considers how these cultures of anyone, which arose mostly around grassroots social movements and in collaborative spaces fostered by digital technology, promote processes of empowerment and collaborative learning and create ‘collective intelligence’. The book first discusses the emergence of a new layer of powerful disciplines and institutions that has been deposited over Spain's long tradition of cultural authoritarianism. It then explores some of the disagreements and alternatives that confronted the model of cultural authority during the neoliberal crisis. Drawing on feminist theories of social reproduction, it analyzes aspects of ‘cultural autonomy’ relative to knowledge monopolies and the competitive mechanisms of neoliberalism. Finally, it describes the difficulties in creating stable cultural institutions that can function democratically.Less
This book examines the tensions between cultural authority and the so-called ‘cultures of anyone’ that have reemerged time and again during Spain's economic crisis of 2008. It considers how these cultures of anyone, which arose mostly around grassroots social movements and in collaborative spaces fostered by digital technology, promote processes of empowerment and collaborative learning and create ‘collective intelligence’. The book first discusses the emergence of a new layer of powerful disciplines and institutions that has been deposited over Spain's long tradition of cultural authoritarianism. It then explores some of the disagreements and alternatives that confronted the model of cultural authority during the neoliberal crisis. Drawing on feminist theories of social reproduction, it analyzes aspects of ‘cultural autonomy’ relative to knowledge monopolies and the competitive mechanisms of neoliberalism. Finally, it describes the difficulties in creating stable cultural institutions that can function democratically.
Luis Moreno-Caballud
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781781381939
- eISBN:
- 9781781382295
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9781781381939.003.0002
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
This chapter examines some distinctive characteristics of the forms of cultural authority prevailing in Spain during a period of neoliberal crisis. It first traces the genealogy of these forms of ...
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This chapter examines some distinctive characteristics of the forms of cultural authority prevailing in Spain during a period of neoliberal crisis. It first traces the genealogy of these forms of cultural authority, focusing on the ways in which big communications media, experts, politicians and intellectuals have presented the crisis. It then considers the tendency of agencies of cultural authority to promote a competitive, individualistic way of life that lies at the heart of neoliberalism. It also discusses the cultural elites' attempts to make the rest of the population adapt to the capitalist mode of production and distribution of value, a practice that occurred during the second phase of Francoism and enshrined through the technoscientific legitimacy of certain expert elites who claimed to be modernizing the country. The chapter concludes by assessing the impact of capitalist ‘modernization’ and technocracy on the traditional rural community-based peasantry.Less
This chapter examines some distinctive characteristics of the forms of cultural authority prevailing in Spain during a period of neoliberal crisis. It first traces the genealogy of these forms of cultural authority, focusing on the ways in which big communications media, experts, politicians and intellectuals have presented the crisis. It then considers the tendency of agencies of cultural authority to promote a competitive, individualistic way of life that lies at the heart of neoliberalism. It also discusses the cultural elites' attempts to make the rest of the population adapt to the capitalist mode of production and distribution of value, a practice that occurred during the second phase of Francoism and enshrined through the technoscientific legitimacy of certain expert elites who claimed to be modernizing the country. The chapter concludes by assessing the impact of capitalist ‘modernization’ and technocracy on the traditional rural community-based peasantry.
Luis Moreno-Caballud
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781781381939
- eISBN:
- 9781781382295
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9781781381939.003.0006
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
This chapter examines new subjectivities and their contradictions in the 15M movement (also known as the Indignados). It considers the creation of small ‘tent cities’ in the plazas at the start of ...
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This chapter examines new subjectivities and their contradictions in the 15M movement (also known as the Indignados). It considers the creation of small ‘tent cities’ in the plazas at the start of the movement and how it intensified the coordination of different abilities that was taking place online in support of protesters in the plazas. It argues that the 15M movement avoided participation in the hierarchical, competitive logics of the neoliberal cultural authority that was being blamed for the economic crisis in Spain and strengthened a cultural model based on mutual empowerment. It explains how this model emerged as one of the main elements of a new political and cultural ‘climate’, underpinning many other collective processes such as those of the Plataforma de Afectados por la Hipoteca, Marea Blanca, and Marea Granate. It also discusses the ways that intellectuals and the mass media have tried to discredit the ‘cultures of anyone’ arising from the ‘15M climate’.Less
This chapter examines new subjectivities and their contradictions in the 15M movement (also known as the Indignados). It considers the creation of small ‘tent cities’ in the plazas at the start of the movement and how it intensified the coordination of different abilities that was taking place online in support of protesters in the plazas. It argues that the 15M movement avoided participation in the hierarchical, competitive logics of the neoliberal cultural authority that was being blamed for the economic crisis in Spain and strengthened a cultural model based on mutual empowerment. It explains how this model emerged as one of the main elements of a new political and cultural ‘climate’, underpinning many other collective processes such as those of the Plataforma de Afectados por la Hipoteca, Marea Blanca, and Marea Granate. It also discusses the ways that intellectuals and the mass media have tried to discredit the ‘cultures of anyone’ arising from the ‘15M climate’.
Edwin L. Battistella
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195367126
- eISBN:
- 9780199867356
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195367126.003.0012
- Subject:
- Linguistics, English Language
Chapter 12 begins an analysis of the market conditions that supported Cody's course, chief of which was the anxiety about grammatical correctness that grew in the Anglo‐American tradition of language ...
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Chapter 12 begins an analysis of the market conditions that supported Cody's course, chief of which was the anxiety about grammatical correctness that grew in the Anglo‐American tradition of language and letters.Less
Chapter 12 begins an analysis of the market conditions that supported Cody's course, chief of which was the anxiety about grammatical correctness that grew in the Anglo‐American tradition of language and letters.
Troy Feay
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195396447
- eISBN:
- 9780199979318
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195396447.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, History of Religion, World Modern History
Focusing on the early to mid-nineteenth century, this chapter argues that the desire to create utopias—the aspiration for a moral mission of social transformation—was an underlying motivation that ...
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Focusing on the early to mid-nineteenth century, this chapter argues that the desire to create utopias—the aspiration for a moral mission of social transformation—was an underlying motivation that united administrators and missionaries while locking them into conflicts over methods and authority. Just before and after France’s abolition of slavery in 1848, specific projects aimed at improving the lives of the enslaved demonstrated both the experiential piety that guided Catholic missionary utopian visions and the corresponding secular utopian visions that foresaw productive colonial populations contributing to the glory of the French nation. The conflicts that resulted between missionaries and officials allowed colonized peoples the space to use religious experience to create communities that could challenge European political and cultural authorities.Less
Focusing on the early to mid-nineteenth century, this chapter argues that the desire to create utopias—the aspiration for a moral mission of social transformation—was an underlying motivation that united administrators and missionaries while locking them into conflicts over methods and authority. Just before and after France’s abolition of slavery in 1848, specific projects aimed at improving the lives of the enslaved demonstrated both the experiential piety that guided Catholic missionary utopian visions and the corresponding secular utopian visions that foresaw productive colonial populations contributing to the glory of the French nation. The conflicts that resulted between missionaries and officials allowed colonized peoples the space to use religious experience to create communities that could challenge European political and cultural authorities.
Ruth Barton
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780226551616
- eISBN:
- 9780226551753
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226551753.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
The chapter examines the X-men’s roles as spokespersons for science. The chief publicists devoted enormous energy to lectures, speeches, and articles addressed to general audiences. They saw ...
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The chapter examines the X-men’s roles as spokespersons for science. The chief publicists devoted enormous energy to lectures, speeches, and articles addressed to general audiences. They saw themselves as scientific missionaries, converting ignorant “heathen” English to scientific ways of thinking; they represented all scientific men as especially reliable in their reasoning and virtuous in their concern for the public good. The quieter members, it is shown, shared the naturalism of the leading publicists. Naturalism is here reinterpreted as a project to provide a naturalistic account of the universe, from the original fiery nebula to the development of life, mind, and emotion– rather than as based on particular “scientific” theories. They emphasized continuity through deep time, from plant to animal, ape to human, savagery to civilization. By contrast, their statements of agnosticism reveal little common ground. They also differed over the degree of combativeness appropriate in their circumstances. Their interactions with other cultural elites demonstrate both shared goals and conflicts, their own growing cultural authority and the multi-dimensional nature of Victorian cultural authority. Most notably, in anti-Sabbatarian Sunday societies, they cooperated with reforming lawyers, positivists, and Unitarians to oppose devout culture by offering improving lectures as an alternative to Sunday sermons.Less
The chapter examines the X-men’s roles as spokespersons for science. The chief publicists devoted enormous energy to lectures, speeches, and articles addressed to general audiences. They saw themselves as scientific missionaries, converting ignorant “heathen” English to scientific ways of thinking; they represented all scientific men as especially reliable in their reasoning and virtuous in their concern for the public good. The quieter members, it is shown, shared the naturalism of the leading publicists. Naturalism is here reinterpreted as a project to provide a naturalistic account of the universe, from the original fiery nebula to the development of life, mind, and emotion– rather than as based on particular “scientific” theories. They emphasized continuity through deep time, from plant to animal, ape to human, savagery to civilization. By contrast, their statements of agnosticism reveal little common ground. They also differed over the degree of combativeness appropriate in their circumstances. Their interactions with other cultural elites demonstrate both shared goals and conflicts, their own growing cultural authority and the multi-dimensional nature of Victorian cultural authority. Most notably, in anti-Sabbatarian Sunday societies, they cooperated with reforming lawyers, positivists, and Unitarians to oppose devout culture by offering improving lectures as an alternative to Sunday sermons.
Ruth Barton
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780226551616
- eISBN:
- 9780226551753
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226551753.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
This group biography of the X Club follows the nine members from their family and cultural roots, through their early friendships, to their intense lobbying campaigns in the 1860s, and on to their ...
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This group biography of the X Club follows the nine members from their family and cultural roots, through their early friendships, to their intense lobbying campaigns in the 1860s, and on to their years of scientific power and cultural authority. Although often identified as professionalizers of science, few of their preoccupations fall under this heading, the exception being their concern with developing the infrastructure of scientific research –specialist journalism, specialist libraries, and bibliographies. Their multifaceted ambitions are largely summed up as a shared determination to promote the dignity and independence of science and scientific men. They rejected the imprimaturs of aristocratic patronage, theological orthodoxy, and practical utility. Rather, scientific achievement should itself receive cultural and social recognition. More broadly, they sought to change “ways of thinking” and to build a secular culture and society. The quieter members are shown to share the naturalism of the leading publicists; their shared project was to include human life, mind and society with the natural order. The achievements of the conspicuous publicists are shown to depend on the reliable support of the obscure members and of many allies, both within and outside science. Thus, the rich material on the nine members enables this microhistory of the X Club to become a macrohistory of the operation of Victorian scientific societies and the place of science in Victorian culture, and heroic modes of interpretation, which attribute foresight and power to a few individuals, are countered.Less
This group biography of the X Club follows the nine members from their family and cultural roots, through their early friendships, to their intense lobbying campaigns in the 1860s, and on to their years of scientific power and cultural authority. Although often identified as professionalizers of science, few of their preoccupations fall under this heading, the exception being their concern with developing the infrastructure of scientific research –specialist journalism, specialist libraries, and bibliographies. Their multifaceted ambitions are largely summed up as a shared determination to promote the dignity and independence of science and scientific men. They rejected the imprimaturs of aristocratic patronage, theological orthodoxy, and practical utility. Rather, scientific achievement should itself receive cultural and social recognition. More broadly, they sought to change “ways of thinking” and to build a secular culture and society. The quieter members are shown to share the naturalism of the leading publicists; their shared project was to include human life, mind and society with the natural order. The achievements of the conspicuous publicists are shown to depend on the reliable support of the obscure members and of many allies, both within and outside science. Thus, the rich material on the nine members enables this microhistory of the X Club to become a macrohistory of the operation of Victorian scientific societies and the place of science in Victorian culture, and heroic modes of interpretation, which attribute foresight and power to a few individuals, are countered.
Karla Pollmann
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- March 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780198726487
- eISBN:
- 9780191793295
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198726487.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Early Christian Studies, Religion and Literature
With the rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire, increasing numbers of educated people converted to this new belief. As Christianity did not have its own educational institutions, the issue of how ...
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With the rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire, increasing numbers of educated people converted to this new belief. As Christianity did not have its own educational institutions, the issue of how to harmonize pagan education and Christian convictions became increasingly pressing. Especially classical poetry, the staple diet of pagan education, was considered morally corrupting (because of its deceitful mythological content) and damaging for the salvation of the soul (because of the false gods it advocated). But Christianity recoiled from an unqualified anti-intellectual attitude, while at the same time the experiment of creating an idiosyncratic form of genuinely Christian poetry failed (the sole exception being the poet Commodianus). This book argues that, instead, Christian poets made creative use of the classical literary tradition, and—in addition to blending it with Judaeo-Christian biblical exegesis—exploited poetry’s special ability of enhancing the effectiveness of communication through aesthetic means. It seeks to explore these strategies through a close analysis of a wide range of Christian, and for comparison partly also pagan, writers mainly from the fourth to sixth centuries. The book reveals that early Christianity was not a hermetically sealed uniform body, but displays a rich spectrum of possibilities in dealing with the past and a willingness to engage with and adapt the surrounding culture(s), thereby developing diverse and changing responses to historical challenges. By demonstrating throughout that authority is a key in understanding the long denigrated and misunderstood early Christian poets, this book reaches the ground-breaking conclusion that early Christian poetry is an art form that gains its justification by adding cultural authority to Christianity. Thus, in a wider sense this book engages with the recently emerged scholarly interest in aspects of religion as cultural phenomena.Less
With the rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire, increasing numbers of educated people converted to this new belief. As Christianity did not have its own educational institutions, the issue of how to harmonize pagan education and Christian convictions became increasingly pressing. Especially classical poetry, the staple diet of pagan education, was considered morally corrupting (because of its deceitful mythological content) and damaging for the salvation of the soul (because of the false gods it advocated). But Christianity recoiled from an unqualified anti-intellectual attitude, while at the same time the experiment of creating an idiosyncratic form of genuinely Christian poetry failed (the sole exception being the poet Commodianus). This book argues that, instead, Christian poets made creative use of the classical literary tradition, and—in addition to blending it with Judaeo-Christian biblical exegesis—exploited poetry’s special ability of enhancing the effectiveness of communication through aesthetic means. It seeks to explore these strategies through a close analysis of a wide range of Christian, and for comparison partly also pagan, writers mainly from the fourth to sixth centuries. The book reveals that early Christianity was not a hermetically sealed uniform body, but displays a rich spectrum of possibilities in dealing with the past and a willingness to engage with and adapt the surrounding culture(s), thereby developing diverse and changing responses to historical challenges. By demonstrating throughout that authority is a key in understanding the long denigrated and misunderstood early Christian poets, this book reaches the ground-breaking conclusion that early Christian poetry is an art form that gains its justification by adding cultural authority to Christianity. Thus, in a wider sense this book engages with the recently emerged scholarly interest in aspects of religion as cultural phenomena.
Daniel G. Williams
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748622054
- eISBN:
- 9780748651993
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748622054.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, African-American Literature
Writing in 1903, W. E. B. Du Bois suggested that the goal for the African American was ‘to be a co-worker in the kingdom of culture’. He was evoking ‘culture’ as a solution to the divisions within ...
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Writing in 1903, W. E. B. Du Bois suggested that the goal for the African American was ‘to be a co-worker in the kingdom of culture’. He was evoking ‘culture’ as a solution to the divisions within society, thereby adopting, in a very different context, an idea that had been influentially expressed by Matthew Arnold in the 1860s. Du Bois questioned the assumed universality of this concept by asking who, ultimately, is allowed into the ‘kingdom of culture’? How does one come to speak from a position of cultural authority? This book adopts a transatlantic approach to explore these questions. It centres on four Victorian ‘men of letters’ – Matthew Arnold, William Dean Howells, W. B. Yeats and W. E. B. Du Bois – who drew on notions of ethnicity as a basis from which to assert their cultural authority. In comparative close readings of these figures, the author addresses several key areas of contemporary literary and cultural debate. The book questions the notion of ‘the West’ as it appears and re-appears in the formulations of postcolonial theory, challenges the widespread tendency to divide nationalism into ‘civic’ and ‘ethnic’ forms, and forces its readers to reconsider what they mean when they talk about ‘culture’, ‘identity’ and ‘national literature’.Less
Writing in 1903, W. E. B. Du Bois suggested that the goal for the African American was ‘to be a co-worker in the kingdom of culture’. He was evoking ‘culture’ as a solution to the divisions within society, thereby adopting, in a very different context, an idea that had been influentially expressed by Matthew Arnold in the 1860s. Du Bois questioned the assumed universality of this concept by asking who, ultimately, is allowed into the ‘kingdom of culture’? How does one come to speak from a position of cultural authority? This book adopts a transatlantic approach to explore these questions. It centres on four Victorian ‘men of letters’ – Matthew Arnold, William Dean Howells, W. B. Yeats and W. E. B. Du Bois – who drew on notions of ethnicity as a basis from which to assert their cultural authority. In comparative close readings of these figures, the author addresses several key areas of contemporary literary and cultural debate. The book questions the notion of ‘the West’ as it appears and re-appears in the formulations of postcolonial theory, challenges the widespread tendency to divide nationalism into ‘civic’ and ‘ethnic’ forms, and forces its readers to reconsider what they mean when they talk about ‘culture’, ‘identity’ and ‘national literature’.
Laura J. Miller
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780226501239
- eISBN:
- 9780226501406
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226501406.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Health, Illness, and Medicine
This book provides a history of the American natural and health foods industry and its leadership in the social movement oriented to spreading a natural foods way of life. The natural foods case is ...
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This book provides a history of the American natural and health foods industry and its leadership in the social movement oriented to spreading a natural foods way of life. The natural foods case is used to consider the broader question of what possibilities open up and what limits emerge when private enterprise is involved in movements advocating for broad-based social and cultural change. Beginning with the first American natural foods advocates in the early nineteenth century, and continuing to the early twenty-first century, this history shows how the leadership of the natural foods industry was central to transforming natural foods consumption from a culturally marginal activity associated with religious minorities, immigrants, the elderly, and the infirm, to a hip lifestyle associated with the young, the fit, and the affluent. In the process, industry helped lead the natural foods movement away from an emphasis on asceticism and simple living, and towards a valuation of indulgence and material comforts. The book argues that instead of acting as a singularly eradicalizing force, the natural and health foods industry reinforced the natural foods movement's often radical rejection of medical expertise. The natural foods case demonstrates that business interests promote a flexible approach to cultural meanings and symbols, which undermines cultural authority and catalyzes cultural change.Less
This book provides a history of the American natural and health foods industry and its leadership in the social movement oriented to spreading a natural foods way of life. The natural foods case is used to consider the broader question of what possibilities open up and what limits emerge when private enterprise is involved in movements advocating for broad-based social and cultural change. Beginning with the first American natural foods advocates in the early nineteenth century, and continuing to the early twenty-first century, this history shows how the leadership of the natural foods industry was central to transforming natural foods consumption from a culturally marginal activity associated with religious minorities, immigrants, the elderly, and the infirm, to a hip lifestyle associated with the young, the fit, and the affluent. In the process, industry helped lead the natural foods movement away from an emphasis on asceticism and simple living, and towards a valuation of indulgence and material comforts. The book argues that instead of acting as a singularly eradicalizing force, the natural and health foods industry reinforced the natural foods movement's often radical rejection of medical expertise. The natural foods case demonstrates that business interests promote a flexible approach to cultural meanings and symbols, which undermines cultural authority and catalyzes cultural change.
Stephen P. Rice
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520227811
- eISBN:
- 9780520926578
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520227811.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century
This introductory chapter explains the theme of this volume, which is about class formation in America during the early industrial period. This book tries to show that the cultural arena provided ...
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This introductory chapter explains the theme of this volume, which is about class formation in America during the early industrial period. This book tries to show that the cultural arena provided opportunities for antebellum Americans to make sense of and give order to the profound social changes that were underway. It considers class formation more in terms of how power is wielded than in terms of how power is resisted and attempts to account for the relative success of the middle class in consolidating its social and cultural authority by considering how classes formed discursively at the same time that they formed socially. It argues that antebellum Americans constructed a class society in a broad popular discourse on mechanization that flourished in the newspapers, periodicals, and pamphlets of the day.Less
This introductory chapter explains the theme of this volume, which is about class formation in America during the early industrial period. This book tries to show that the cultural arena provided opportunities for antebellum Americans to make sense of and give order to the profound social changes that were underway. It considers class formation more in terms of how power is wielded than in terms of how power is resisted and attempts to account for the relative success of the middle class in consolidating its social and cultural authority by considering how classes formed discursively at the same time that they formed socially. It argues that antebellum Americans constructed a class society in a broad popular discourse on mechanization that flourished in the newspapers, periodicals, and pamphlets of the day.
Ruth Barton
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780226551616
- eISBN:
- 9780226551753
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226551753.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
The nine men of the X Club and the approach and themes of the book are introduced. The members, in birth-order, were George Busk, Joseph Dalton Hooker, Herbert Spencer, John Tyndall, Thomas Henry ...
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The nine men of the X Club and the approach and themes of the book are introduced. The members, in birth-order, were George Busk, Joseph Dalton Hooker, Herbert Spencer, John Tyndall, Thomas Henry Huxley, William Spottiswoode, Edward Frankland, Thomas Archer Hirst and John Lubbock. They dined together as a formal club from 1864 to 1892. Such dining clubs were common in gentlemanly London. The approach taken is non-heroic. Like group biographies of families and women, it is as much interested in the ways in which the protagonists were representative as those in which they were powerful. Although the members were among Darwin’s leading defenders, their Darwinism must be loosely interpreted to include non-Darwinian developmental schemas. Similarly, scientific naturalism, with which the X Club has been closely associated, is reinterpreted to include its pre-Darwinian and metaphysical sources alongside the scientific aspects usually emphasized. The historiography of professionalization, and the continuing importance of gentlemanly status and manners within science are discussed. Approaches to cultural authority from outside history of science suggest that the range of claimants to cultural authority be broadened beyond “science” and “the Church.” Finally, the variety and importance of religion in Victorian life is emphasized, and “secularization” interpreted.Less
The nine men of the X Club and the approach and themes of the book are introduced. The members, in birth-order, were George Busk, Joseph Dalton Hooker, Herbert Spencer, John Tyndall, Thomas Henry Huxley, William Spottiswoode, Edward Frankland, Thomas Archer Hirst and John Lubbock. They dined together as a formal club from 1864 to 1892. Such dining clubs were common in gentlemanly London. The approach taken is non-heroic. Like group biographies of families and women, it is as much interested in the ways in which the protagonists were representative as those in which they were powerful. Although the members were among Darwin’s leading defenders, their Darwinism must be loosely interpreted to include non-Darwinian developmental schemas. Similarly, scientific naturalism, with which the X Club has been closely associated, is reinterpreted to include its pre-Darwinian and metaphysical sources alongside the scientific aspects usually emphasized. The historiography of professionalization, and the continuing importance of gentlemanly status and manners within science are discussed. Approaches to cultural authority from outside history of science suggest that the range of claimants to cultural authority be broadened beyond “science” and “the Church.” Finally, the variety and importance of religion in Victorian life is emphasized, and “secularization” interpreted.
