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Im/Perceptible Boyhood in a Post-Andrew Tate World
Get PDFThis study examines how boyhood is rendered im/perceptible via the infamous social media influencer Andrew Tate, in response to testimonies of teachers that attest to his influence on boys’ adoption of misogynistic, anti-feminist and sexist behaviour. Alongside the assemblage of discourses about Tate, we examine videos featuring him on the social network, a TikTok. Somewhat in contrast to the prevailing narrative that Tate’s influence on and appeal to boys is confined to misogyny, much of the content featuring him centred on narratives of self-improvement, mental health, resilience and upward mobility. Negative framings or outright degradation of women – while present in some content – appeared within a much wider context in which factors ranging from highly neoliberal aspiration, harshly conservative and traditional gender roles for men and women, pseudoscientific claims about evolutionary biology and extravagant consumerist lifestyles were presented as a single belief system. We conclude that the cultural individualism encouraged and exacerbated by neoliberalism in the English-speaking developed world act as a key element in the life of boys and young men anticipating their transition to adulthood, raising questions for the opportunities that this case may offer for the development of forms of feminism that include boys
Governmentality or Class Politics: The Path Ahead for Indian Communists
Get PDFConsidering the June 2024 general parliamentary election results in India, this article undertakes a broad discursive analysis of the parliamentary Communists, tracing their trajectory from the inception of independent India to the present day. It argues that the Communists have continued to oscillate between liberal and neo-liberal notions of “governmentality,” constrained by its perpetuation of “capitalo-parliamentarian” hegemony. Drawing parallels with B.R. Ambedkar’s dichotomies on liberal democracy, the article highlights that the shifts in capital–labour dynamics have further deepened this ideological vacillation of the Communists. The article suggests that to move forward, Indian Communists must choose between constitutional governmentality and extra-parliamentary interventions rooted in transformative class politics
Decloaking whiteness: Linguistic and pedagogical imperialisms of International Baccalaureate teacher education in Japan
Get PDFThis article examines everyday International Baccalaureate Educator Certificate (IBEC) environments in Japanese higher education through a theoretical framework of whiteness. Exploring dissonances shaped by English and constructivism at two universities, I argue that communities challenge Anglo‐American and Euro‐American epistemologies imbued within globalist education. I call for scholarship on whiteness to better prioritize decloaking its plethora of still concealed artifacts, an issue I elucidate with two examples in language and pedagogy
Embedding Externalisation: How Bordering Practices Transform Places
No full textOver the past twenty years, research into border externalisation has developed a rich spatial vocabulary to understand these bordering practices as well as critical analyses that challenge the often North-centric views towards externalisation. In this Special Issue, we emphasise that a place-based gaze can lend new mileage to border externalisation research. We emphasise that the place has been under-theorised and under examined in its relation to border externalisation. Existing work often has an implicit framing that understands externalisation as part of a migrant vs. border dialectic, or as part of geopolitical relations between states. By focusing on place, we argue that border externalisation: generates new contexts by connecting previously disparate sites into a border continuum; is place dependent, as its different forms are contingent on situated dynamics; and is place transformative, the border changes the social dynamics of the places where it is implemented
Decolonizing Cameroon's language policies: a critical assessment
Get PDFDue to its colonial history and prevalent multilingualism, Cameroon is a country where language policies have profoundly impacted socioeconomic and political life. Cameroon has 273 local languages and two official languages, English and French. The two official languages have been a crystallization point for discontent and civil unrest, leading to secessionist sentiments and violence. In this paper, we assess Cameroon’s language policies, firstly by providing a brief historical and legal overview based in the literature. We then present a new decolonial analytical framework, building on but extending existing theoretical frameworks. Our new analysis shows that a transition to using indigenous languages in formal education and other domains is not necessary at present. However, we argue that such a transition will become unavoidable in future. We show that it will be practically possible to use a limited number of indigenous languages as mediums of instruction, building on existing bilingualisms in the country. We believe these languages should be chosen using rational criteria and we introduce an approximate assessment of which languages are easy to learn and teach, and for speakers of which other languages. The transition we foresee requires planning and preparation. A different approach to Cameroon’s languages may help in building national unity and healing national wounds in the areas of sociolinguistic power-sharing and interregional cohabitation. We expect that our approach also holds benefits for other African countries
A coalitional perspective on democratic backsliding: elite coalitions and the bureaucracy in Turkey
Get PDFThe rise of populism and the authoritarian shift has triggered a debate on the politics-administration nexus with a focus on the politics of democratic backsliding and the role of the bureaucracy. Recent studies have increasingly concentrated on the strategies of populist politicians to control the bureaucracy and the responses from the bureaucracy to these attempts. However, this dyadic approach to the politics-administration nexus remains limited in explaining fully the ramifications of democratic backsliding on bureaucracy. In this article, we propose a coalitional perspective on the politics of bureaucracy during the process of democratic backsliding. Illustrating the usefulness of this perspective through the Turkish context, the article highlights the role of intra-elite conflict and inter-elite competition in shaping the politics-administration nexus and explains why and how democratic backsliding has led to subordination, instrumentalization, and even deconstruction of bureaucracy in Turkey. As such, the article contributes to our understanding of the dynamics at play during the process of backsliding and the transformation of the politics-administration nexus
The Responsibility to Protect: Promising Protection, Sustaining Crisis: The Case of Darfur
Get PDFThis thesis critically revisits the doctrine of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) to examine whether it offers a suitable framework for responding to situations of mass atrocity – namely genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. Developed in the early 2000s and formally adopted at the 2005 United Nations World Summit, R2P was introduced as a response to the failures of humanitarian intervention in the 1990s, seeking to reframe sovereignty as a responsibility rather than a right. It presents a continuum of engagement involving prevention, protection and rebuilding, with its most controversial aspect being military intervention.Drawing on insights from Critical Legal Studies (CLS) and Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL), the thesis interrogates the normative and political assumptions underpinning R2P. It argues that, as currently conceptualised and operationalised, R2P offers a decontextualised framework that reflects crisis-driven logics, displaces local agency, and fails to address the structural conditions that often give rise to mass atrocities.Through a detailed case study of Darfur – the first major test case for R2P – the thesis examines how international protection was theorised, mobilised and experienced. It foregrounds the perspectives of Sudanese civil society actors and protection practitioners, highlighting the disconnect between international responses and the realities on the ground. Rather than treating R2P as a failed policy, the thesis situates its shortcomings within broader institutional and conceptual constraints that shape international legal engagement.The study concludes by advancing a localised, human rights-based approach to protection, grounded in the principles of participation, accountability, non-discrimination and dignity. It argues that such an approach can better engage with the lived experiences of affected populations, and offers a more responsive framework for prevention and protection in contexts of atrocity violence
The Vernacular Buildings of the Ethiopian Monasteries and their Wider Communities at Lake Tana
No full textThis thesis advances the study of vernacular architecture found in nine Christian Orthodox monasteries around Lake Tana, the largest lake in Ethiopia. Located in the northern part of the country, it is situated to the far south of the Gondar region.This work is a study of the structures that have been built and the spaces that have been laid out for use by the monastic communities, examining how these spaces are utilised, their integration within monastic culture, the construction techniques and materials employed in the buildings, and the artistic and aesthetic aspects of their design. The narrative will remind the reader that simplicity of shape does not equate with simplicity of experience.The thesis is that the Tana monasteries studied are the sum of many parts, and the focus on the historic churches and their incredible murals needs to be widened. The work presents the entire monastic life, as represented by all its built forms and spaces, and illustrates the true vernacular environments of these complexes
Between Rule and Prerogative: Petitions by terror-accused individuals and the imaginings of Indian law
Get PDFThis article argues that contemporary Indian law is animated by two intertwined imaginings of law: as a rational, rule-bound process and as a power that makes decisions as a normless act of prerogative. Through ethnographic fieldwork in Delhi's terrorism courts, the paper examines petitions written by individuals accused under anti-terror laws, revealing how these texts invoke the dual legal imaginaries. Petitions-ranging from formal legal documents to handwritten pleas-are analysed through the idea of epistolarity, to pay attention to both the form and content of these petitions. The article argues that these letters are affective and rhetorical performances that simultaneously invoke imaginings of the law as both rule and prerogative. In doing so, the subjectivity of the petitioners oscillates between rights-bearing citizens and humble supplicants praying for the law's intervention
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