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Fixing For a Fight: Can Interstate Rivalry Ever be Positive for the State’s Populace?
Get PDFThis article aims to challenge the myth that interstate rivalry and conflict can only have negative effects for state populace. It observes that interstate rivalry can have positive effects on poverty reduction in developing states. It begins by explaining Tilly’s bellicose model of war and state-building, and investigates how it can be adapted to non-OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) states, engaging with current literature in the process. Then it considers some objections to the application of the model to non-OECD states, concluding the literature review by explaining the causal mechanism expected to result in poverty reduction. The article then runs a number of comparative statistical regressions on a pooled cross-sectional time-series dataset, measuring poverty, rivalry and control variables tri-annually from 103 non-OECD states between 1981 and 1999. The results of these tests support the general hypothesis that interstate rivalry reduces poverty. The article then concludes by discussing moral considerations, policy advice and future research directions
The Construction of the (Convincing) Child Subject in Victorian Literature
No full textDrawing on genre theory and especially Shklovsky’s definition of ostranenie, or defamiliarisation, this article investigates the evolution of the construction and understanding of the child subject in Victorian literature. Engaging not only with the role of literature in shaping representations of the child, but also how the child\u27s knowledge is furthered or tested through the genre of ‘children’s literature’, this article offers close readings of several key novels. From the ‘plastic children’ of Dickens to Carroll’s empowered Alice, this article fuses a discussion of the technique of defamiliarisation in creating a convincing child voice with an emphasis on the implications of doing so. Moreover, it traces the roots of the contemporary child’s agency as well as the linguistic formulations of childhood, language, and civil society. In weighing the distinctions between nineteenth-century realism and non-sense, this article ultimately proposes that the ostranenie synonymous with the technique of the child’s standpoint evokes a coded social commentary, shifting the child from an affective to a political narrative device
Identifying the Ideological Social Construct: What are its Implications for Sociology?
No full textIn contemporary western discourse the concept of the social fact has gradually been diluted in favour of what many activists refer to as the ‘social construct’. However, this approach to constructivism is not truly sociological, and is based on discourse rather than analysis. This has led to a rise in ‘pop’ sociology. The first half of this article will explore what I have deemed the ‘ideological social construct’, its origins in western discourse and its relation to contemporary identity politics. The second half will focus on possible reconstructive methods for the harm that the ideological social construct has done to social science methodology
The Cultural Status of Art Forgeries
Get PDFThis article explores the cultural status and significance of forgeries in the world of art, as well as tracing an evolution of the changes in their perception. Forgeries are generally thought to be culturally perverse, falsifying our experience and understanding of art. However, this very devaluation of forgeries presupposes notions of authenticity and originality which, upon examination, turn out to be arbitrary or inconsistent. Thus, the value of forgeries is twofold: firstly, they highlight and help criticise the presuppositions behind our cultural and aesthetic practices and attitudes; and secondly, they can also be valuable as works in their own right. Forgeries cannot be left out from the study of art history, as they have contributed in the shaping of art historical study as it is today
Mythical Measures: The Problem of Objective Inequality Measurement in Economics and the Social Sciences
No full textThe Gini coefficient, one of the most widely used inequality measures in economics, is thought to report income disparity with a reliable degree of objectivity. However, a critical assessment of the Gini’s implicit normative assumptions reveals that this objectivity is overstated. Moreover, this critique can be extended to other indices as well, uncovering a more general worry that the perception of distributive justice, which determines the ideal level of inequality underlying such indices, is necessarily subjective. As a result, the prospect of a mutually intelligible and transparent discussion on inequality suffers – both at the scientific and policy level. The implication of this finding is that more work needs to be done in specifying the normative foundations of inequality measures
Anti-Body: The Body and the Evolution of Dadaism as Performance Art
Get PDFThis article was originally written for a course entitled ‘Body, Flesh, Subject’, taught by Dr. Kelli Fuery for Chapman University’s Honors Program. The course focused on considerations of the body as the grounds of phenomenological experience and examined both the physical and the socially-constructed borders between bodies. This article brings together those discussions through a history of Dadaism, a radical art movement beginning in World War I, and influencing performance art of the 1970s and of today. By focusing on one key figure in each of these periods, I will seek to demonstrate how Dadaists use their bodies to mediate non-meaning, causing spectators to critically examine the socially-constructed borders of the body
An Imperial Story: Paul Gauguin and the Idealised ‘Primitive’
Get PDFThis article examines the relationship between the French fin-de-siècle painter Paul Gauguin’s (1848-1903) anti-modernism and the ideology behind the colonial project. Setting out to refute the Western materialistic ‘civilisation’, Gauguin embraced the supposed savage, primitive, and pure ‘Other’. In paintings such as ‘Breton Calvary’ (1889) and ‘The Specter Watches Her’ (1892), Gauguin uses Breton farmers and Tahitian women as formal embodiments of his imagined ‘earthly paradise’ and the primordial ‘savage’ character. However, as the postmodern philosopher Michel Foucault (1926-1984) argues, there is always a relationship of power within a discourse. Through defining what is ‘primitive’ and what is ‘civilised’ from within a Western paradigm, Gauguin is testifying to a Western hegemony. Though Gauguin’s idealisation of the ‘primitive’ essentially sought to criticise the Western colonial discourse, it essentially reinforces its main ideological justification: the hierarchical dichotomy between the ‘primitive’ and the ‘civilised’
Columba at Keil Point: Uncovering the Myth
No full textUntil recently, it has been taken on faith that Columba, the sixth-century Irish monk, landed at Keil Point, Kintyre, in Argyll in 563AD on his way to Iona. Truth or otherwise, historians have perpetuated this myth, which was later championed by the tourism industry. This article will investigate the archaeological remains at Keil Point that have been used to support the claim that Columba was once there, and attempt to uncover the truth behind this claim. It will be argued that there is no archaeological evidence or written historical record in support of the myth. It will also be argued that the domination of the Columba myth is effectively suppressing other aspects of Scottish history. This investigation demonstrates how accepted history can be challenged by archaeological evidence
Censoring Perversion: J.G.Ballard’s Crash, the Novel and the Film
Get PDFThis article considers JG Ballard’s seminal novella Crash and its film adaptation by David Cronenberg within the tradition of lascivious, subversive literary utopias. It examines how Crash, as both a caustic critique of consumerist culture and a work of futurist pornography, sought to uncover the psychopathologies of sexual and political transgression simmering beneath the concrete surface of suburban ennui. The controversy ignited by Cronenberg’s film amongst critics and audiences alike brought contemporaneous social morality into sharp relief with the black mirror Ballard held up to society, two decades earlier
Constructing the Ideal Interpretation: The Significance of King Saul’s Mood in 1 Samuel
Get PDFThe First Book of Samuel traces the rise and fall of King Saul. His troubled kingship has been interpreted in numerous ways over the centuries by biblical scholars, literary critics, medical professionals and people of faith. The search for an explanation of King Saul\u27s \u27madness\u27 has meant that the text has been handled in several different ways, ultimately leading to the construction of various perceptions of the biblical narrative, of King Saul\u27s character and of the biblical representation of mental health