Revolution

Il mito rappresenta [...] la forza sociale e sotterranea di una immensa rivoluzione che minava nel sottosuolo ovunque il mondo antico.

Era comodo procedere quando il Maestro faceva tacere e tremare tutti, regalando miracoli, sanando infermi, risuscitando morti, facendo cadere l'arma dalla mano dell'aggressore.

Gli operai vinceranno se capiranno che nessuno deve venire. L'attesa del Messia ed il culto del genio, spiegabili per Pietro e per Carlyle, sono per un marxista del 1953 solo misere coperture di impotenza.

La Rivoluzione si rialzerà tremenda, ma anonima.

The article reads the invention of the Exodus-Narrative in its historical context of the religious and political system of the Ancient Near East. It reconstructs the revolutionary different approach to political power and theological foundation in the development of the Mose- and Exodus-Narrative and its innerbiblical Fortschreibung. For this development it is most decisive that the Exodus-Narrative is not based on a historical migration-movement "from point A to point B", but on a historical confrontation with the political powers at that time. The foundation of a strict monotheistic understanding of theology and the invention of “textual authority” that diverged from the status of scripture in the Ancient Near East and which can be reconstructed through the structure of the Exodus-Narrative and its canonical form as the Tora of Mose, has laid the foundation for the identity of Israel and the basis for the three Monotheistic Religions. The article's argument is strictly developed in correspondence with contemporary exegetical and historical research (esp. E. Otto and Chr. Dohmen) and is brought together with contemporary accounts to political thought from poststructuralist and deconstructive philosophers like Derrida, Levinas, Badiou and Agamben. The outcome of this study is articulated as a contribution to an affirmative reading of the so-called »crisis of representation«.

The massacre of almost 50 Maidan protesters on February 20, 2014 was a turning point in Ukrainian politics and a tipping point in the conflict between the West and Russia over Ukraine. This mass killing of the protesters and the mass shooting of the police that preceded it led to the overthrow of the pro-Russian government of Viktor Yanukovych and gave a start to a civil war in Donbas in Eastern Ukraine, Russian military intervention in Crimea and Donbas, and an international conflict between the West and Russia over Ukraine. A conclusion promoted by the post-Yanukovych governments and the media in Ukraine that the massacre was perpetrated by government snipers and special police units on a Yanukovych order has been nearly universally accepted by the Western governments, the media, and many scholars. The Ukrainian government investigation identified members of the special company of Berkut as responsible for killings of the absolute majority of the protesters, but did not release any evidence in support, with the exception of videos of the massacre.
              The question is which side organized the “snipers’ massacre.” This paper is the first academic study of this crucial case of the mass killing. It uses a theory of rational choice and a Weberian theory of instrumental rationality to examine actions of major actors both from the Yanukovych government, specifically various police and security forces, and the Maidan opposition, specifically its far right and oligarchic elements, during the massacre.
          The paper analyzes a large amount of evidence from different publicly available sources concerning this massacre and killings of specifics protesters. Qualitative content analysis includes the following data: about 1,500 videos and recordings of live internet and TV broadcasts from mass media and social media in different countries(some 150 gigabytes), news reports and social media posts by more than 100 journalists covering the massacre from Kyiv, some 5,000 photos, and nearly 30 gigabytes of publicly available radio intercepts of snipers and commanders from the special Alfa unit of the Security Service of Ukraine and Internal Troops, and Maidan massacre trial recordings. This study also employs field research on site of the massacre, eyewitness reports by both Maidan protesters and government special units commanders, statements by both former and current government officials, estimates of approximate ballistic trajectories, bullets and weapons used, and types of wounds among both protesters and the police. This study establishes a precise timeline for various events of the massacre, the locations of both the shooters and the government snipers, and the specific timeline and locations of nearly 50 protesters’ deaths. It also briefly analyzes other major cases of violence during and after the “Euromaidan.” This study includes two video appendixes.
            This academic investigation concludes that the massacre was a false flag operation, which was rationally planned and carried out with a goal of the overthrow of the government and seizure of power. It found various evidence of the involvement of an alliance of the far right organizations, specifically the Right Sector and Svoboda, and oligarchic parties, such as Fatherland. Concealed shooters and spotters were located in at least 20 Maidan-controlled buildings or areas. The various evidence that the protesters were killed from these locations include some 70 testimonies, primarily by Maidan protesters, several videos of “snipers” targeting protesters from these buildings, comparisons of positions of the specific protesters at the time of their killing and their entry wounds, and bullet impact signs. The study uncovered various videos and photos of armed Maidan “snipers” and spotters in many of these buildings. The paper presents implications of these findings for understanding the nature of the change of the government in Ukraine, the civil war in Donbas, Russian military intervention in Crimea and Donbas, and an international conflict between the West and Russia over Ukraine.

In recent years, Cuba has been immersed in a process of profound change. Among these changes, one that has been less addressed by specialists both inside and outside the island is ‘education reform’, specifically at the university level. The relevance of this study is to understand the current university education policy as the one that has perhaps the most political content, the analysis of which would help to understand the challenges in political and ideological matters faced by the government of Cuba today. Therefore, the present work makes a critical assessment of the Cuban educational model based on values as a central focus of university policy and its relevance in the transcendental process of change happening in Cuba today. For students of public policy, the Cuban case encapsulates an important singularity that allows the possibility of analysing short-term versus long-term assessments of public problems (Ascher 2009). It also allows us to learn about social and policy challenges in a country that has achieved universal mass, free and quality education that has been able to extend itself beyond the capital (Mészarós 2008). What happens next? A reflection on the role of education in a changing society is one of the main purposes of this work

В статье проведен анализ роли революций в историческом процессе. Показано, почему революции стали неизбежными в Новое время, какова их роль в развитии обществ, почему последнее пришло в несоответствие со сложившимися политическими и социальными институтами. С одной стороны, революции рассматриваются как закономерность определенно-го этапа развития общества, а с другой – проанализировано, как и почему роль революций существенно меняется в разные периоды истории, дано объяснение, почему революции из «локомотивов развития» в итоге оказались очень затратным и малопродуктивным социальным экспериментом. Сделана попытка развить некоторые аспекты теории революции (революционная ситуация, роль идеологии и психологии общества в определенные моменты и др.). Ключевые слова: революция, социалистическая революция, мировой порядок, баланс сил, геополитика, ядерная гонка, антиколониальное движение, третий мир, социализм, капитализм, новые принципы международных отношений, право наций на самоопределение. The article presents the analysis of the role of revolutions in historical process. It is shown why the revolutions were inevitable in the Modern era and what is their role in societal development as well as why the latter started to mismatch the existing political and social institutions. On the one hand, revolutions are considered as common phenomena for a certain stage of society's * Исследование выполнено при поддержке РФФИ (проект № 17-06-00464).
The article presents the analysis of the role of revolutions in historical process. It is shown why the revolutions were inevitable in the Modern era and what is their role in societal development as well as why the latter started to mismatch the existing political and social institutions. On the one hand, revolutions are considered as common phenomena for a certain stage of society’s development, and on the other hand, the author analyses why and how the role of revolutions considerably changes in different periods of history as well as explains why revolutions from a driving force finally become an expensive and not productive social experiment. He also makes an attempt to elaborate some aspects of the theory of revolution (a revolutionary situation, role of society’s ideology and psychology over certain periods etc.).

Dieser Sammelband geht dem Phänomen der Gewalt auf den Grund, indem er Texte u. a. von Arendt, Bonhoeffer, Bourdieu, Cicero, Butler, Foucault, Galtung, Kant, Locke, Singer und Weber um drei Fragestellungen gruppiert:
1. Wie lässt sich der Begriff »Gewalt« erläutern und von anderen Begriffen wie »Macht«, »Herrschaft«, »Kraft« und »Zwang« sinnvoll abgrenzen?
2. Wie sieht der Zusammenhang zwischen Gewalt und Gesellschaft aus (›strukturelle‹ Gewalt, Gewalt und Individuum, Ordnung und Gegengewalt)?
3. Und wie wäre Gewalt – wenn überhaupt – zu rechtfertigen (Revolution, Notwehr, gerechter Krieg)?
Eine Einführung gibt erste Orientierung.

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La denomination des Guerres civiles anglaises est un objet de debat entre historiens depuis l’epoque des faits eux-memes. Selon les inclinations politiques de chacun, elles ont tour a tour ete appelees “la Revolution puritaine” (the Puritan Revolution), “la Grande Rebellion” (the Great Rebellion), ou tout simplement “les Guerres civiles anglaises” (the English Civil Wars). Cependant, une autre question, plus problematique, enrobe la terminologie de ces evenements.Tandis que certains historiographes les envisagent comme une serie de ruptures au sein de la societe anglaise, d’autres qualifient la periode toute entiere de revolution. Toutefois, le concept de revolution n’existait pas au XVIIe siecle – du moins pas dans son sens contemporain. Le recours aux outils de l’histoire conceptuelle, appliques au concept de revolution present dans la theorie politique de Thomas Hobbes, permet de poser des questions fondamentales a l’historiographie des Guerres civiles anglaises. En particulier, ...

The Theses LVI belong to a series of hitherto unpublished early manuscripts of the Dutch humanist and jurisconsult Hugo Grotius (1583-1645) that were acquired by the University of Leiden in 1864. It is not certain when the Theses were written, but preliminary research on the physical manuscript and the sources cited indicate two possible windows. The first is around 1602-1605, that is roughly at a time when Grotius was also working on his Commentary on the Law of Prize and Booty (De Iure Praedae Commentarius). The second dating places the genesis of the manuscrbipt around 1613-1615.
In the context of Grotius’ writings, the Theses LVI assume an important position for several reasons: They raise questions about state formation, the duty of citizens to the state and the right of political resistance in far greater detail than in any other work of the celebrated Dutch humanist. The Theses LVI also feature important reading notes that yield priceless insights into the sources that Grotius directly consulted and their influence on his ideas. The manuscript grants modern scholars a unique glimpse into the working mind of its author. Evidence points not only to the ferocious haste with which Grotius wrote his works, but also the occasional sloppiness of his reading and research habits."""

Ponencia presentada en la conferencia:
INCURSIONES GRAMSCIANAS ARGENTINAS
Dilemas actuales, a 100 años de Octubre, a 80 años de la muerte de Antonio Gramsci
(Buenos Aires, 21, 22 y 23 de junio de 2017)
Centro Cultural de la Cooperación “Floreal Gorini”
Facultad de Ciencias Sociales – Universidad de Buenos Aires

This chapter focuses on the role of social media in galvanizing street protests, demonstrations, and other forms of democratic participation associated with the Iranian Green Movement, and examines how Iranian activists framed relevant events, norms, values, ideologies, issues, narratives, and symbols on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and other websites.  The political, social, economic, and technological circumstances in Iran that triggered the Green Revolution and eventually contributed to its apparent demise are investigated.  In particular, the chapter explores how movement activists utilized social media to enunciate their political demands and mobilize supporters – both within Iran and around the world.  Attempts by activists to achieve a frame alignment between the Green Movement and relevant indigenous (national) and transnational discursive concepts are examined.  The chapter proposes that the use of collective action frames in social media was instrumental initially in mobilizing the Green Movement and contesting the dominant frames of the regime, but ultimately proved to be insufficient and even counterproductive at times in sustaining the necessary levels of popular support to topple the regime from power.

This article addresses the sharp ideological conflicts which underlie attempts to characterise and explain the ongoing socio-political crisis in Ukraine, which started in 2013. It argues that both academic and non-academic commentators have presented diametrically opposed interpretations of the nature of the events of Autumn 2013 – Spring 2014, as well as of the relevant interpretations of the continuing socio-political crisis facing the country. Characterisations of these events vary from a revolution of dignity, denunciations of foreign intervention and separatist movements to assertions of a coup d'état which promoted and provoked regionalist movements and civil war. A second objective of the article is therefore to demonstrate the limitations of one-dimensional, strikingly ideologised interpretations of these events and the need for scholars engaged in the social sciences to generate unbiased, multi-dimensional, multi-level visions of complex, contradictory, tectonic transformations in contemporary Ukraine.

One of the most iconic expressions in the last one hundred years associated with Sun Yat-sen, Nanyang and the 1911 Revolution of China has been “The Overseas Chinese are the Mother of the Revolution.” This paper traces the hazy origin of the slogan in its particular, well-known form as well as through paraphrases by examining its linkages to Sun Yat-sen and a wide body of writings from different periods. It highlights the waxing and waning of its usage, pointing to a period of high currency in the early 1930s, fading out in the 1940s, emergence as a Cold War coinage in Taiwan from the 1950s to the 1980s, and its surfacing as a focus of scholarship in the mainland of China after 1978. The final sections of the essay explore the more recent transformation of the saying in Nanyang popular culture through museum displays, theatre performance, and film. Over time, the saying, in its various configurations, serves to use it as an umbilical cord connecting the Chinese diaspora with its ancestral land.

To analytically refute the thesis of Axel Honneth on the Cornelius Castoriadis' concept of revolution allows to identify different ideas of revolution that mark his philosophical-political horizon. After the publication of his main book, "The Imaginary Institution of Society" (1975), Castoriadis distinguishes the ideas of Social-historical and human autonomy to prevent building a political ontology. On this basis, he affirms a new idea of revolution at the beginning of the decade of 80: revolution is a general and instituting political practice. At the base of the "Project of Autonomy" there is Politics, understood as a social-historical creation that establishes autonomy on a collective level. Through a precise analysis of his thesis, we can affirm that this idea can be expressed by the concept of "political creation", and we can highlight it is based on the philosophical category of anthropological transformation. Despite its validity, the idea of "political creation" must be rethought. Se ci soffermiamo su alcuni pensatori considerati minori nel secolo scorso, si può concludere che la riflessione sulla rivoluzione non ha smesso di rappresentare l'oggetto di un dibattito prolifico. È il caso di Cornelius Castoriadis, filosofo politico che ha dedicato tutta la sua esistenza, e non solo l'impegno intellettuale, a elaborare a una nuova visione della rivoluzione. L'obiettivo del presente saggio critico è triplice: 1) superare l'interpretazione del concetto castoriadisiano di rivoluzione avanzata da Axel Honneth; 2) ricostruire le diverse idee di rivoluzione che il filosofo greco-francese assume nel tempo; 3) capire in che misura si possa assumere e usare l'idea di rivoluzione dedotta dal "Castoriadis maturo" (la creazione politica), per metterla a disposizione della discussione attuale. Link con la versione definitiva: https://ipk.uni-greifswald.de/storages/uni-greifswald/fakultaet/phil/ipk/Mitarbeiter/PoWi/Lehrstuhl_Politische_Theorie/Tropos_Prime_Bozze_trimcev.pdf

Revolution und Reform. Paradigmen der Gluck-Rezeption im 18. und 19. Jahrhundert. Vortrag auf dem Symposium "Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714-2014): Bilder, Mythen, Diskurse", Institut für Musikwissenschaft der Universität Wien, 23.-25. Oktober 2014: An English Version of this paper was given at the TOSCA@BOLOGNA2015 conference.

A global study of the process in its entirety, from the rising of the Togukawa rule to the establishment of the 1889 constitution casts a doubt over the denomination of 'Restoration' when it comes to 1868. Is the Meiji rule a restoration, a revolution or a renewal?

Resumen

En el presente ensayo intentaremos exponer algunos aspectos de la crítica de Graeber al capitalismo financiarizado. En el primer apartado introduciremos su concepto de alienación, clave para entender el sentido de su obra. En los apartados posteriores presentaremos las ideas principales que se pueden encontrar en Bullshit Jobs, su último libro. En él expone una teoría de los trabajos basura o inútiles, que considera uno de los pilares fundamentales de la ideología neoliberal, junto con la omnipresencia de la burocracia y la moralidad de la deuda. El fenómeno social de los trabajos basura es estudiado desde diversos niveles: qué son, cómo afectan a los que los realizan, cuáles son las causas económicas y por qué nadie hace nada para acabar con ellos.

Abstract

In the present paper I try to delve into some of Graeber’s critiques of the financial-ised capitalism. In the first section, I will introduce his idea of alienation, key to understand the sense of his work. In the rest of the paper I will present the main ideas of his last book, Bullshit Jobs. There Graeber presents a theory of bullshit jobs, which he believes to be an important base of the neoliberal system, along with the bureaucracy and the debt. He analyses the social phenomenon of bullshit jobs from different perspectives: what they are, how they affect the people doing them, which are the economic causes and why nothing is done.

This paper critically assesses the circumstances under which the European idea of public spaces was imported and implemented in the Arab context. Starting with an overlook of the periods and the initial intentions behind the implementation of these spaces and going deeply into the case study of Lebanon. The context of Beirut, Lebanon acts as the set example of the whole paper with a look at the influence of colonisation and the unsettling situation post-independence, which resulted in an unbalanced development of the city with the various influencing factors that were deducted as mainly political and economic rather than social or cultural. With that background, the paper deduces that the intense political and colonial influences that led to the replication of the European public spaces in the Arab context were not sufficient for their success. This is backed up through a comparative study between Martyr's Square in Beirut and Piazza di Duomo in Milan, which share a similar form, but different culture and process of implementation. By reaching this conclusion, the importance of the social and cultural aspects in the success of public spaces was emphasized through a close spatial analysis of the example of the Lebanese revolution in October 2019, which was able to transform those spaces. This marked a proof as for how the essence of public spaces and their development should react to the needs of the people and their culture. It looks at how public spaces are made by the people. Nevertheless, the paper acknowledges the disparities between the regimes and systems of different Arab countries.

The Quit India speech is a speech made by Mahatma Gandhi on August 8, 1942, on the eve of the Quit India movement. He called for determined, but passive resistance that signified the certitude that Gandhi foresaw for the movement is best described by his call to Do or Die. His speech was issued at the Gowalia Tank Maidan in Bombay (now Mumbai), since renamed August Kranti Maidan (August Revolution Ground). However, almost the entire Congress leadership, and not merely at the national level, was put into confinement less than twenty-four hours after Gandhi's speech, and the greater number of the Congress leaders were to spend the rest of the war in jail. Many years later, Martin Luther King, Jr., would mimic Gandhi in his "I Have A Dream" speech that promoted nonviolence and equality of races. Gandhi made this speech to help India gain Independence.

Issues regarding coup d’etat are of interest to many academic disciplines and are subject of studies in both political and legal sciences (history of the law and state, constitutional law, criminal law and criminal proceedings). The following article focuses on the concept of coup d’etat as one form of questioning the legitimacy of the law. The author considers the broad scope of coup d’etat, and includes its various forms such as the right to resistance, civil disobedience and revolution from the historical and normative perspectives.

In the process of decommunisation, Ukraine has toppled all its Lenin monuments. This book documents the inglorious fate of these Soviet statues, following their often violent removal. Photographer Niels Ackermann and journalist Sébastien Gobert have scoured the country in search of the remains of these toppled figures. They are found in the most unlikely places: Lenin inhabits gardens, scrap yards and store rooms. He has fallen on hard times –  cut into pieces, daubed with paint, turned into a Cossack or Darth Vader. Yet despite every attempt to reduce their status, the monuments retain a sinister quality, resisting all efforts to separate them from their history.

Myroslava Hartmond's introductory essay puts Niels and Sébastien's journey across Ukraine into historical and global perspective, highlighting the uniqueness of the Leninfall phenomenon and the significance of their work in the context of post-Soviet studies.

160x200 mm hardback
176 pages
ISBN 978-0-9931911-7-6
Published in 2017

Purchase from publisher here:
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This paper attempts to bridge doctrinal and theoretical terms. The use of terms such as 'hybrid,' asymmetric' and 'grey zone,' are often redundant and cause confusion. Furthermore, terms such as irregular and unconventional war are sometimes conflated. These terms have doctrinal or conceptual utility at the appropriate level, but we need to clarify where each belongs. Irregular war and the associated doctrinal activities are placed in a conceptual framework alongside revolution theory. Both the doctrinal and theoretical concepts are shown to fit in the strategic, operational, and tactical levels of war.

Rebelia i reakcja to studium plebejskiego doświadczenia politycznego w czasie rewolucji lat 1905–1907. Praca analizuje uczestnictwo robotników w życiu publiczn-ym i ideologiczne obrazy świata u progu " politycznej nowoczesności ". Wtedy to stare podstawy ładu społeczno-politycznego zaczęły kruszeć, nowe grupy ludności doma-gać się politycznego głosu i ukształtowały się języki polityczne nowoczesnych obo-zów ideowych. Nowe formy polityki spotkały się z silną, konserwatywną reakcją, która na długi czas ukształtowała polską sferę publiczną. Książka opisuje również nacjo-nalistyczną odpowiedź na rewolucję oraz zmianę politycznego myślenia Narodowej Demokracji przed, po i w trakcie tych wydarzeń. Przedstawiony materiał jest także przyczynkiem do badania przemian sfery publicznej w Polsce XX wieku i zrozumienia jej teraźniejszego kształtu.

ES: La dicotomía reformismo / revolución fue uno de los temas más discutidos en el ámbito académico durante el siglo XX, y parece ser que este debate permanece vigente hoy en día, particularmente en América Latina. En el presente trabajo, esta dualidad es analizada a través de dos de las figuras políticas más importantes de Latinoamérica en el siglo pasado: Rómulo Betancourt y Fidel Castro.

EN: The dichotomy between reformism and revolution was one of the most discussed subjects on the academic field during the 20th Century, and it seems this debate is still valid as of today, particularly in Latin America. In this paper, this duality is analyzed through two of the most important political figures in Latin America last century: Romulo Betancourt and Fidel Castro.

Chodak, J. (2015). Historyczno-porównawcze studia rewolucji: U progu (r)ewolucji perspektywy badawczej? W: B. Cymbrowski & K. Frysztacki (red.), Socjologia historyczna: Wokół wyzwań teoretycznych i praktyki badawczej (s. 113-135). Opole: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Opolskiego.

After the publication of The structure of scientific revolutions, Kuhn attempted to fend off accusations of extremism by explaining that his allegedly “relativist” theory is little more than the mundane analytical apparatus common to most historians. The appearance of radicalism is due to ...