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Hobbes, sovereignty, and politics: rethinking international political space
No full textIn this last chapter of the book, Raia Prokhovnik finds support in Hobbes for an argument in favour of the inter-constitution of the concept of sovereignty and politics. She presents evidence that Hobbes has a broader and more complex understanding of politics than is usually acknowledged - an understanding embracing a politics of cooperation, the role of natural law in the international realm, and the recognition of the play of power as political - in the sense of contestation in which to negotiate epistemic indeterminacy and incommensurable difference. Prokhovnik then outlines a theory of the under-acknowledged political dimension of the concept of sovereignty, in terms of how we ask sovereignty to organise politics and the political (for instance in helping to shape the conduct and limits of politics within a specific polity) while being above the fray of politics, and how at the same time sovereignty is deeply political and conditional. On this basis, Prokhovnik develops the case that insight into Hobbes's theory helps advance the idea that the domestic and international realms are both primarily spheres of politics rather than of morality and law. Hobbes had a broader understanding than he is often credited with, of the kinds of politics that are appropriate. And while he sought to eliminate the effects of political contestation, his theorisation of a political rather than normative solution to the problem provides important support for rethinking international political space
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Challenging centre-periphery relations in health policy
No full text[About the book]
This book is about public policy and how policy decisions shape the lives of citizens. "Policy" refers to one aspect of politics - not elections, nor party politics inside or outside parliament, nor dissent, but the making and delivery of laws, rules and guidelines. It is a distinctive feature of modern politics that governments are expected to make policies and implement them effectively, and that plans for policy provide the electorate with a means of distinguishing different parties at elections. Public policy is that part of politics concerned with government decisions, and their administration and implementation. Note an ambiguity straight away - "policy" can refer to what parties or governments plan to do, as well as to what governments actually do when in office
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Rational Woman: A Feminist Critique of Dichotomy
No full textThis comprehensive, analytical study considers the way in which the mind/body dichotomy has perpetuated social hierarchy on the basis of gender, and challenges the tradition of dualism, arguing that the term "rational woman" is possible - it is not a contradiction in terms. It develops an argument for a new relational conception of all the terms involved in the text, emphasizing the relationship of interdependence of reason and emotion, man and woman, rather than placing these terms in hierarchical and polarized opposition. It also proposes that all these terms - reason, emotion, rationality - need reconceptualizing, as a plausible idea and a fruitful conjunction. Raia Prokhovnik makes the case that the future of feminism lies in the emergence of a third wave, bringing with it a relational, non-dichotomous mode of thinking and approach to social values
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Sovereignties: Contemporary Theory and Practice
No full textThe book develops contemporary theorisation on the key concept of sovereignty in an original way, arguing that sovereignty is a key concept for understanding shifts in the sites of governance powers, understanding politics, analysing current discourses in political theory and international relations theory, and rethinking a way forward for reconceptualising sovereignty in the twenty-first century in the case study of Europe
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Rationality
No full textThe chapter analyses a successful means of overcoming the reason/emotion dichotomy which has been central to theorising and social practices in the modern period
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The Body as a Site for Politics: Citizenship and Practices of Contemporary Slavery
No full textSpecial issue of Citizenship Studies</i
Hobbes's Artifice as Social Construction
No full textThe paper argues that Leviathan can be interpreted as employing a constructionist approach in several important respects. It takes issue with commentators who think that, if for Hobbes man is not naturally social, then man must be naturally unsocial or naturally purely individual. First, Hobbes's key conceptions of the role of artifice and nature-artifice relations are identified, and uncontroversially constructionist elements outlined, most notably Hobbes's conceptualisation of the covenant. The significance of crucial distinctions in Leviathan, between the civil and the social, between science and philosophy, between mankind's nature and the human condition, is developed. A constructionist reading of the argument of Leviathan is then advanced. The interpretation focuses on the contribution of nature-artifice relations, and of Hobbes's notion of civil philosophy, in understanding the critical issues of the state of nature and individual subjectivity. This reconstruction of the meaning of the text highlights the necessarily social character of human life in Leviathan, expressed in the way that the social' gives meaning to the 'natural', as well as because for Hobbes we live in a mind-affected world of perception and ideas. Leviathan can be interpreted as, in particular, a political social construction, because both social and individual identity logically require the social order and arrangements that only a strong government can supply. The social world, in Leviathan, cannot exist prior to the generation of a political framework, in civil society, the commonwealth, and law
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