Bøger i Edition Politik serien

Populism is a growing threat to human rights. They are appropriated, distorted, turned into empty words or even their opposite. The contributors to this volume examine these practices using the example of freedom of religion or belief, a human right that has become a particular target of right-wing populists and extremists worldwide. The contributions not only show the rhetorical patterns of appropriation and distortion, but also demonstrate for various countries which social dynamics favor the appropriation in each case and propose how to strengthen human rights and the culture of debate in democratic societies.With a foreword by Nazila Ghanea.

The large-scale use of semantic transfer and inversion as rhetorical tactics is particularly prevalent in right-wing discourses and populist »alternative knowledge« production. The contributors to this volume analyze processes of re-semanticizing received meanings, effectually re-coding those meanings. They investigate to what extent rhetorical maneuvers serve to establish new and powerful belief systems beyond rational and democratic control. In addition to the contemporary rightwing and conspiracy narratives, the contributions examine the discursive fields around conceptions of human nature and the deep past, population politics, gender conceptions, use of land, identity politics, nationhood, and cultural heritage.

How can we understand long-term change in world politics better? Based on readings of thinkers as diverse as Habermas, Foucault and Luhmann, the authors of this book propose a framework for understanding such change in terms of social evolution. They show that processes of social learning and unlearning are key to understanding the long-term historical evolution of complex societies, and propose to approach these with the core concepts of autonomization, hierarchical complexity, and co-evolution. Three case studies illustrate this social evolutionary perspective to the study of world politics, examining the evolution of forms of organizing political authority, of conflicts, of diplomacy, of law as boundary condition.

Increasing irrigation efficiency has been high on the political agenda in Spain for many years. However, the overarching aim to reduce agricultural water consumption has not been met so far. To explore this phenomenon, Nora Schütze investigates processes of coordination between the water and agricultural sector in three Spanish river basins in the context of the EU Water Framework Directive implementation. From the perspective of polycentric governance, she identifies multiple mechanisms which illustrate how and why actors interact in certain ways, and thus shows why environmental aims of the Water Framework Directive remain unachieved.

In the past three decades, radical right parties had the opportunity to directly influence political developments from the highest public office in many post-communist Central and Eastern European countries. Oliver Kossack provides the first comprehensive study on government formation with radical right parties in this region. Even after the turn of the millennium, some distinct features of the post-communist context persist, such as coalitions between radical right and centre-left parties. In addition to original empirical insights, the time-sensitive approach of this study also advances the discussion about concepts and methodological approaches within the discipline.

How do conflicts escalate? This is one of the major questions in conflict research. To offer further answers, Richard Bösch follows a tripartite agenda: First, he develops a constructivist methodology for the study of conflict escalation embedded in a Luhmannian systems theoretical world society perspective. Bösch argues that conflicts can be observed as social systems and he looks at the process of conflict escalation by analysing communication. Second, this analysis offers two case studies: the Maidan protests in Ukraine 2013-2014 and Mali's crisis 2010-2012. Third, it gives insights on how systems theoretical research can be beneficial for Peace and Conflict Studies.

In 20 essays inspired by Hannah Arendt's analysis of crisis-ridden modernity, Wolfgang R. Heuer addresses aspects of depoliticization and the loss of politics, and thus of freedom. The wide-ranging essays are grouped in five sections: When Politics Vanishes, The Call of Responsibility, Images and Emotions, Federations, and From Plurality to Cosmos. They lead to the insight that the crises of our time require a common change of perspective towards ecological and political sustainability, the unity of »Cosmos and Republic«.

Brexit is a tale of two unions, not one: the British and the European unions. Their origins are different, but both struggle to maintain unity in diversity and both have to face the challenge of populism and claims of democratic deficit.Mark Corner suggests that the »four nations« that make up the UK can only survive as part of a single nation-state, if the country looks more sympathetically at the very European structures from which it has chosen to detach itself. This study addresses both academic and lay audiences interested in the current situation of the UK, particularly the strains raised by devolution and Brexit.

How did the relationship between the politically very disparate theorists Carl Schmitt and Otto Kirchheim shape their political thinking? Hubertus Buchstein investigates the personal, political, and theoretical dimensions between the infamous legal theorist Schmitt and his former student Kirchheimer, who became a member of the Frankfurt School in exile. The various links between them illuminate crucial moments in the recent history of political ideas and legal theory in German and European contemporary history as well as transatlantic intellectual history. Furthermore, it touches upon the role of German exiles in the American academic system, anti-Semitism, as well as German-Jewish relations in the 20th century.

In an age of immediate and global exchange of information, the ability to theorize about political conditions remains largely an elite, technocratic, and esoteric enterprise. In this timely intervention, Dean Caivano and Sarah Naumes argue that storytelling in the form of narrative and autoethnography creates an emancipatory potential through its ability to theorize from below, welcoming marginalized and excluded voices. Drawing from the disciplines of political studies, philosophy and literary studies, this volume offers a new assessment of political texts through the lens of the sublime as a fertile terrain to challenge who can write and disseminate political ideas - and how.

The belief that Nature exists as a blank, stable stage upon which humans act out tragic performances of international relations is no longer tenable. In a world defined by human action, we must reorient our understanding of ourselves, of our environment, and our security.This book considers how decentred and reflexive approaches to security are required to cope with the Anthropocene - the Human Age. Drawing from various disciplines, this bold reinterpretation explores the possibilities for understanding and preparing a future that will look vastly different than the past. The book asks to dig deeper into what it means to be human and secure in an age of ecological exception."e;In a growing field of interdisciplinary work on the Anthropocene, 'Security in the Anthropocene' sets itself apart. It blends ideas from criminology, international security studies and the environmental humanities to provide unique interdisciplinary insight into the challenges of living on an increasingly turbulent earth."e;- Audra Mitchell, Balsillie School of International Affairs/Wilfrid Laurier University"e;This essential, groundbreaking book offers a new conceptual framework that recalibrates what security means in the Anthropocene. Not content on simply highlighting the state of crisis fostered by existential risks in this new era, Cameron Harrington and Clifford Shearing invite us to imagine a more positive and caring form of security."e;- Benoit Dupont, University of Montreal"e;Harrington and Shearing's fine book explores evocatively how humans might cope with a world that is fundamentally changed through a critical appraisal of how new impacts on the Earth system shift the conditions of security. This is a tour de force of how our concepts of security create the world that afflicts us. The authors argue, convincingly, that there can be no security in the Anthropocene without an expanded vision of care."e;- John Braithwaite, Australian National University