Sartre: The media and the ends

Boulé, J.‐P., Sartre médiatique: la place de l'interview dans son ?uvre (Minard, 1992), 262pp., 270F., ISBN 2 85210 045 2

Scriven, M., Sartre and the Media (St. Martin's Press, 1993), 152pp., £35, ISBN 0 333 55813 8     

Anxiety in Translation: Naming Existentialism before Sartre

Summary

This article examines the international debate over the most appropriate name for what became known as ‘existentialism’. It starts by detailing the diverse strands of the Kierkegaard reception in Germany in the early inter-war period, which were given a variety of labels—Existentialismus, Existenzphilosophie, Existentialphilosophie and existentielle Philosophie—and shows how, as these words were translated into other languages, the differences between them were effaced. This process helps explain how over the 1930s a remarkably heterogeneous group of thinkers came to be included under the same label. The article then shows how the word ‘existentialism’ and its cognates in other languages gained prominence because they were considered to represent best the diversity and richness of the movement. In detailing this process the article helps elucidate how existentialism emerged as an international philosophy in the period immediately following World War II, and sheds light on the ambivalence with which many have viewed both the term and the philosophy it represents.     

Police power and fettered freedom: regulating coastal freedom camping in New Zealand

Freedom camping is a form of tourism entailing overnight stays in public open spaces, rather than formal campgrounds. It presents varied challenges for local governments charged with maintaining safe and orderly public spaces. This article provides empirical and conceptual insights into the regulation of coastal freedom camping in New Zealand, drawing on the notion of police power. This form of law is centrally concerned with preventing disruption and disorder in public space, and seeks to advance collective welfare rather than individual rights. The purpose of this article is twofold. First, we consider why and how local governments in New Zealand regulate coastal freedom camping, focusing on a case study of the Coromandel district. Second, we consider how freedom campers understand and experience the regulation of their activities, drawing on a survey of 61 campers in three North Island coastal areas. We find that the policing of freedom camping proceeds through regulation of space, objects and behaviours. Underpinning this approach is an understanding of the activity as inherently problematic. Freedom campers themselves were generally aware of local regulations, but had little experience of enforcement. Most sought to perform camping responsibly, whilst noting that some others required policing.     

The necessity of Britishness: ethno‐cultural roots of Australian nationalism*

ABSTRACT. Until the last third of the twentieth century, Britishness figured prominently in the national identity of Australians. Many scholars of Australian nationalism have assumed an inherent antipathy between British and Australian solidarities; others have appreciated that there was a degree of mutuality between the two; few have explained why. This article offers such an explanation. It focuses on the crucial nation‐building period twenty years on either side of the federation of the Australian colonies in 1901. Drawing on ethno‐symbolist approaches to nationalism, it argues that Britishness provided the necessary ethno‐cultural foundations for Australian nationhood, the only available repertoire of myth and symbol that could fulfil the nationalist aspiration for unity. Yet Britishness in the antipodes was significantly different to that of the British Isles, as were the civic/territorial components of Australian conceptions of nationhood, giving rise to a distinctive British‐Australian composite nationalism.     

The power of belief: religious freedom in Australian parliamentary debates on same-sex marriage

ABSTRACT

More than merely a theme of the Australian parliamentary debates on the bill to legalise same-sex marriage, ‘religious freedom’ appeared in the bill’s very title. This paper explores why and how this happened using a corpus-assisted analysis of the 663 parliamentary speeches made during the marriage legislation debates from 2004 to 2017. The analysis demonstrates that by 2017, the idea that marriage equality was a profound threat to religious freedom was well entrenched in the parliamentary discourse. The study finds that the potential offence of religious sensibilities came to be regarded by politicians as more significant than ongoing discrimination, thereby granting tremendous social power to religious institutions to practise discrimination in the face of changing values in society.