Critical Theory

"This double issue is being published simultaneously as a book, which can be downloaded as a free PDF from M-C-M′, and which is also available in paperback. Consisting of some 400 pages of new translations from the German-language Wertkritik tendency, Marxism and the Critique of Value presents a landmark effort to complete the critique of the value-form begun by Marx. The full text can, as always, be accessed at mediationsjournal.org, where it is accompanied by book reviews by Roberto Schwarz, Josh Robinson, Barbara Foley and Kanishka Chowdhury, and Matthew Moraghan.

For a detailed introduction to the material, see the Editors' Note: http://www.mediationsjournal.org/articles/editors-note-vol-27-no-1"

"Some biblical interpreters’ imaginations extend only as far as outlandish source theories or esoteric hypothetical audiences. The interpretive energies let loose in Glasgow over the past decade or so, however, have produced a cadre of interpreters who defy the disciplinary mandates of biblical criticisms in favour of reading the Bible with imaginations both careful and carefree. Infused with literary, political, art-critical, cinematic, liturgical and other interests, these essays display interpretive verve freed from the anxiety of disciplines — with closely observed insights, critical engagement with biblical texts, and vivid inspiration from the cultural world within which they are set.

Here there is no "gap" between world and text, but the intimate congeniality of close, dear, comfortable interpretive friends.

Contributors: Ben Morse, Hugh Pyper, Alastair Hunter, Hannah Strømmen, Jonathan C. P. Birch, Anna Fisk, Wabayanga Robert Kuloba, Samuel Tongue, A. K. M. Adam, Abigail Pelham, and the Religarts Collective (with Yvonne Sherwood)."

"In Between Biblical Criticism and Poetic Rewriting, Samuel Tongue offers an account of the aesthetic and critical tensions inherent in the development of the Higher Criticism of the Bible. Different ‘types’ of Bible are created through the intellectual and literary pressures of Enlightenment and Romanticism and, as Tongue suggests, it is this legacy that continues to orientate the approaches deemed legitimate in biblical scholarship.

Using a number of ancient and contemporary critical and poetic rewritings of Jacob’s struggle with the ‘angel’ (Gen 32:22-32), Tongue makes use of postmodern theories of textual production to argue that it is the ‘paragesis’, a parasitical form of writing between disciplines, that best foregrounds the complex performativity of biblical interpretation."

Building off of Fiske’s work on the shadow cultural economy of fandom, I argue that the ever-changing nature of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, when combined with the novel’s satirical approach to celebrity culture and its dedicated fan base, makes it seem as though the economic capital of mainstream, popular celebrity culture has effectively absorbed this particular fandom into the overarching bubble of popular culture. As a response to this threat from mainstream culture however, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’s fandom successfully repurposes and mobilizes the novel’s satirical approach to celebrity culture, effectively choosing to fuel a celebration of these dynamics instead of rallying against them. Therefore, I propose that The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy creates a new kind of fan culture that combines the biting celebrity satire of the series with the cultural and economic capital of traditional fan culture, ultimately transforming this phenomenon of global proportions into a global reclamation of fan culture. 

"This book offers a wide-ranging and critical examination of recent counter-radicalisation policies, using case studies from several countries.

Counter-radicalisation policies, such as the UK ‘Prevent’ strategy, have been highly controversial and increasingly criticised since their introduction. In this edited volume, voices from disciplines including sociology, political science, criminology and International Relations are brought together to address issues across the global roll-out of counter-radicalisation agendas. In so doing, the book critically interrogates: (i) the connections between counter-radicalisation and other governmental programmes and priorities relating to integration and community cohesion; (ii) the questionable dependence of counter-radicalisation initiatives on discourses and assumptions about race, risk and vulnerability to extremism; and, (iii) the limitations of existing counter-radicalisation machineries for addressing relatively new types of extremism including amongst ‘right-wing’ activists.

Through examining these questions, the book draws on a range of contemporary case studies spanning from counter-radicalisation in the UK, Germany and Denmark, through to detailed analyses of specific preventative initiatives in Australia and the United States. Conceptually, the chapters engage with a range of critical approaches, including discourse theory, autoethnography and governmentality.

This book will be of much interest to students of radicalisation, critical terrorism studies, counter-terrorism, sociology, security studies and IR in general."

This article explores the value of scholarship on state terrorism for the critical study of terrorist violences. The article begins by identifying four primary contributions of this scholarship: first, a rethinking of the status and significance of terrorism; second, an unsettling of broader assumptions within International Relations (IR) and terrorism research; third, an ability to locate state violences within pertinent, but potentially camouflaged, contexts; and, fourth, a prioritisation of critique as a responsibility of scholarship. The article’s second section then argues that the purchase of this work could be further extended by greater conceptual engagement with the state itself. In particular, we point to the value of contemporary approaches to the state as a terrain and outcome of social and political struggle, rather than as a singular actor of unitary purpose. Rethinking the state in this way has value, we argue, first, for moving research beyond the identification and typologising of state terrorisms; and, second, for circumventing the perennial problem of identifying intentionality in efforts to designate violences as (state) terrorism.

Deborah Klens-Bigman’s “Towards a Theory of Martial Arts as Performance Art” marks the first attempt to work out a theory of martial arts. While it makes a new direction in martial arts scholarship, her theory is a problematic one as she takes a simplistic view of martial arts in general. In this essay, I read the theory against several other pieces that discuss terms that she uses (e.g. performance, art, acting, etc.). In doing so, a number of questions about the theory and a contradiction that reveals the theory as self-defeating become apparent. In the wake of this, I propose three rules to move theory and theorizing about martial arts in another direction.

Debates about post-Westphalian forms of citizenship play a central role in contemporary political thought. I analyse a significant precursor to these debates, exploring fin de siècle conceptions of racial and imperial political membership. My argument has two main parts. First, I delineate different models of imperial citizenship: imperial-statist, institutional-imperial, racial-imperial, and isopolitan. Second, I dissect the notion of ‘isopolitan’ (or common) citizenship. Isopolity is a practice, derived from the ancient Greeks, in which independent states reciprocally grant citizenship rights to the members of other independent states, thus creating a loose form of political union. It was adapted at the turn of the twentieth century to theorise future Anglo-American relations. I examine the arguments of some prominent isopolitans, focusing on the constitutional theorist A. V. Dicey. ‘Anglo’ isopolitans challenged the isomorphic relationship between the territorial state, sovereignty and political membership. They did so through constructing a global white supremacist political vision.

""Recent years have witnessed a growing interest in multilingualism, language maintenance and managing language diversity both inside and outside the educational context. However, much of this work, especially in the educational context, has focused on (minority) languages and relatively little attention has been paid to ‘dialects’.

This study explores the status and role of Mewati, a dialect generally subsumed under Hindi (Government of India, 2001) in schools. While Mewati is spoken by most Meos as their first language (Srivastava, 2011, p. 250), there are currently no studies that examine the use and role of Mewati in education in Mewat. This thesis addresses an important gap in understanding what roles are assigned (or not) to local dialects in education.

This project was guided by two research questions: What language-in-education policies (LiEPs) were in place in the two types of schools (rural and urban) chosen for this study; and what role did Mewati play in the overall language policy framework in these schools.

The goal of this project was to develop an understanding about how teachers comprehended, negotiated and implemented LiEPs within classrooms. It also aimed at uncovering and critically analysing the underlying ideologies, policies and political processes that informed and influenced these LiEPs in the two schools studied and how these policies, affected the position of Mewati in these schools.

The schools studied differed across multiple dimensions including medium of instruction, board of affiliation, textbooks and curricula, location, infrastructure and the socio-economic background of the students. However, they were similar in that most students in both schools spoke Mewati as their home language. The case study was based on data collected in interviews, informal conversations, artifacts, documents and field notes. The data was gathered from both Meo and non-Meo teachers, who differed across linguistic, ethnic and religious lines, in order to obtain a richer and holistic perspective on teachers’ views and practices.

This project took an interdisciplinary approach and drew insights from sociolinguistics, applied linguistics, education and sociology. The study draws significantly on Spolsky’s (2004) model of language policy which was used both as an analytical framework as well as a tool for organizing data.

The study revealed that the LiEP of the rural schools was largely Hindi monolingual and the urban school mostly Hindi-English bilingual. Both types of schools failed to make space for Mewati, the mother tongue of the majority of students. In both school types, Hindi was taught as the first language. The majority of teachers also held negative attitudes towards Mewati. The teachers perceived Mewati as a hindrance for the learning and overall development of students. There was a significant communication gap between teachers and students particularly in the early years of education. There was also a severe shortage of local Meo teachers. Most teachers in both schools were non-Meos who could not speak Mewati. A complex mix of inter-ethnic relations between these groups and the socio-historical and political structures greatly influenced language choice patterns and policy decisions.

This study has important implications for the role of mother tongue in education for policymakers, government officials, educationists, and teachers as the findings indicate a need for change in language policy and procedures.""