Kim Dae-jung and the Persistence of Anti-Communist Hegemony in South Korea

Existing writings that explore the relationship between inter-Korean relations and the political economy of South Korea stress the role of the ruling ideology of anti-communism in the domestic struggle for power or hegemony. They also consider Kim Dae-jung a member of the hegemonic group because he represented the interests of the bourgeoisie and, thus, they contend that the level of inter-Korean reconciliation during his presidency was a product of the hegemonic group’s accommodation of the people’s nationalist demands. Their arguments are, however, contradictory because, among other things, Kim was one of those most severely damaged by the hegemonic group’s ruling ideology. Drawing on Gramsci’s concepts, such as historical bloc and hegemonic project, I attempt to resolve the contradiction by arguing that Kim was not a member of the hegemonic group, but a leader of the counter-hegemonic liberal nationalists. Accordingly, this article demonstrates Kim’s stance on the chaebol-centred economic structure and his abortive attempt to change it. By the same token, it argues that the inter-Korean reconciliation was a hegemonic project to realise the liberal nationalists’ vision of peaceful unification through a liberal approach and to undermine the anti-communism with which the hegemonic group had exercised ideological leadership for decades.     

State,Politics and the Idea of Social Justice in Chile

This article explores the ways in which the idea of social justice has been utilized during this century as an idée-force in Chilean politics. It stresses the Catholic background of the concept and shows how it has been adapted to the political objectives of several doctrinal streams. The idea of social justice has been a powerful ideological instrument for governments in their attempts to deal with the social expectations of the electorate and to create a broad consensus between different political and social sectors. This idea has also been historically related to an active state role in the search for equity through income distribution and the adoption of progressive social legislation. While the recent military government (1973-90) radically reformulated both the social function of the state and the official definition of social justice, the current democratic authorities seem to have readopted the idea of social justice as a key element in their ideological discourse.     

Restitution over coffee: truth,reconciliation, and environmental violence in East Timor

Truth commissions have become an almost obligatory component of the process by which national societies attempt to reconstruct themselves in the aftermath of, and recover from, periods of violent, authoritarian rule, and/or war, especially of the civil variety. Proponents of truth commissions see them as indispensable to promoting reconciliation between former adversaries as well as a transition to a more just, democratic, and peaceful political order, while serving as an important component in nation-state-(re)building. This paper analyzes and critiques the boundaries that typically define the tasks of truth commissions with a focus on East Timor’s. It contends that commissions achieve less than they might in terms of their goal of facilitating a justice-infused notion of reconciliation between conflicting parties because of their tendency to focus on individual acts or events of violence, while giving relatively little weight to systemic or structural forms of violence. To substantiate this argument, the paper analyzes the relationship of coffee—East Timor’s primary export commodity—to the violence and terror that the country’s truth commission addresses. In doing so, the paper illustrates the dynamic links between violence and the environment and how said environment comes to embody that violence and to reproduce it in various forms. It also demonstrates the limits of truth commissions as conventionally defined as they relate to matters of social justice. In doing so, it potentially points the way toward more ambitious, and more successful, truth-telling and reconciliation processes—if we assume the goal is to promote a just and peaceful coexistence between former adversaries. The framework employed is one of a Third World political ecology of violence, one that understands violence not only in terms of direct acts of physical brutality, but also in terms of indirect acts and social structures that cause injury.     

Destruction,mitigation, and reconciliation of cultural heritage

Attacks on built cultural heritage often occur during times of armed conflict. Many such acts are not collateral damage, but rather are deliberate and ideologically driven assaults intended to eradicate the adversary’s identity and collective memory. They represent ‘urbicide’ and ‘identicide’. The victims typically attempt to mitigate the loss, frequently by reconstructing the lost historic place and thereby restoring tangible evidence of their identity. Reconstruction, however, is itself an ideological act and a destructive activity, since it erases memories of the violence and removes physical evidence. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation has commemorated several cultural heritage sites that have been destroyed and subsequently reconstructed, by inscribing them on the World Heritage List. Although this ensures the perpetuation of their memory, it may distort the original purpose of the list as a celebration of ‘outstanding universal value’. Beyond commemoration, a desired outcome is reconciliation. True reconciliation requires the release of anger and pain, so that memories of the violence may be retained without a desire for retribution. This article looks at a selection of acts intended at destroying cultural heritage, including some that did not occur during war, and examines means and motives for achieving mitigation and reconciliation.     

Genocide,masculinity and posttraumatic growth in Rwanda: reconstructing male identity through ndi umunyarwanda

While the experiences of Rwandan women during and after the 1994 genocide have been studied quite extensively, little attention has been paid to the lives of men. Through an analysis of their testimonies, this article explores how Tutsi men experienced the 1994 genocide and how it has affected their identities. The analysis identifies three time periods where different versions of masculinity are expressed: the early stages of the genocide, where a predominantly warrior/military identity persisted; later stages of the genocide, during which men became aware of their vulnerability and the extent of the genocide; and the post-genocide period, in which masculinity has been rebuilt through the ideology of ndi umunyarwanda, the notion of Rwandanness or Rwandicity. Post-genocide male identity draws heavily on precolonial military values such as patriotism, dignity, unity and the importance of a strong army; however, the idealism of warriorhood has been lost. The emphasis of masculinity post-1994 appears to be on a shared culture and language and collectively working for one's country, not fighting for it. Indeed, there appears to be a complete aversion to violence of any kind, which, it is argued, is a form of posttraumatic growth. Another positive aspect of the change in male identity is the rejection of former colonial influences and their ideas in exchange for more authentic cultural expression and self-acceptance. The form of ndi umunyarwanda adopted by the men in this study is distinct from the government's version of this ideology, however, as these men reject the idea of forced apologies and reconciliation. In light of these findings, the article discusses the practical implications for those engaged in social work with survivors, and also calls for a more nuanced discussion of post-genocide Rwanda and the concept of Rwandicity.     

Sociobiology and human nature

Abstract

One of the main theses of sociobiology is that between human beings and the so called 'social' animals there are no qualitative differences, and it is for this reason that it is possible to identify in human beings and social animals essentially similar behaviours, all of which are genetically determined. Sociobiologists often take this idea as a basis for the belief that there exists in the universe an ontological unity that can be understood by means of the scientific empirical method. In this sense, sociobiologists attempt to build a model of human nature in which the fundamental goal of all human action is biological survival, to be understood in terms of the preservation and transmission of genes. In this paper I present a critical approach to these sociobiological theses. Employing a dialectical method, I start from the idea that human beings are qualitatively different from the social animals. Without denying their biological foundations, I affirm that human behavioural characteristics should be understood as products of historical–cultural relations. Even phenomena considered to be the most basic and essential for biological survival, for example diet, rest, and sexuality, possess a fundamental cultural character in which biological survival does not necessarily play an important role. The same can be said of human attitudes towards death and pain. Sociobiology underestimates this historical–cultural dimension of human existence and, despite being a discipline grounded in the theory of evolution, it takes for granted a series of essential principles as unchangeable realities. In this way sociobiology produces an ideological discourse on human nature, a false representation of the world which can be of great utility for legitimising many oppressive and discriminatory practices.     

The economics of reconciliation: tracing investment in Indigenous–settler relations

The relationship between Indigenous peoples and the settler state remains fraught due to ongoing violence and mistrust. Numerous attempts have been made to ‘reconcile’ this beleaguered relationship over the past three decades. Indigenous peoples have advocated for the decolonization of the settler state and a suitable land base using the language of public investment. In response, settler governments reframe these requests as opportunities for economic investment that is guaranteed to produce self-esteem and social inclusion for Indigenous peoples. This article documents and problematizes an ideological shift whereby holistic decolonial approaches to reconciliation give way to an investment rationale that is used to bypass demands for Indigenous peoples’ jurisdiction and self-determination. The ramifications of this shift are examined in three ‘eras of reconciliation' (Section 37 Constitutional Talks, Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, reparations for Indian residential school [IRS] Survivors) that also coincide with three types of investment: a) national; b) social; and c) therapeutic.     

Fighting for the Unknown Soldier: The Contested Territory of the French Nation in 1934–1938

The left's triumphant appropriation of the nation in discourse and commemoration has become an important focus for studies of the Popular Front period. Yet the response of the leagues and parties of the right to this rhetorical and symbolic challenge has received very little attention, and a significant facet of the political rivalry of these years has thus remained unexplored. This article proposes a comparative study of the concepts of the nation developed by left and right in the period 1934–1938. After analysing the conflicting images of the nation that they espoused, rooted in fundamentally incompatible visions of the First World War, the article then illuminates areas of tension and ambiguity emerging from 1935 onwards, as both the Popular Front and their opponents identified the nation as a territory to be defended and as a community offering reconciliation above geographical and social divisions. In so doing, the article suggests that the concept of the nation became one of the most important centres of contention between left and right in this tumultuous period.     

国外政党意识形态观述论

政党的意识形态观是政党对意识形态所持的态度和看法,它通过政党对意识形态的地位和作用、意识形态与实践的关系、意识形态与民众利益诉求的关系所持的态度和看法得以体现。从这些方面对国外政党的意识形态观进行综合性考察,就能得出关于政党意识形态观的一般性规律。     

The Politics of Reconstructing National Identity: A Corporatist Approach

In both liberal democracies like Australia and Canada and autocracies like Singapore, the state has stepped in to try to manage ethnic claims that had hitherto been marginalised or suppressed. Once the concept of corporatism is rescued from its recent economic-focused excursion, it provides a framework within which to examine new state strategies for managing ethnicity, and the resultant politics of national identity. The states have sought to license or create ethnic institutions as channels for ethnic interest articulation, for ethnic elite cooptation, and for the funding and political control of ethnic assertions. The corporatist strategies for ethnic management imply also attempts by the states to unify the disaggregated polyethnic societies by seeking new myths of organic national unity. The attempts to manage ethnic politics within these new institutional and ideological parameters generate tensions which exacerbate rather than ameliorate the decline in state authority.     

Visions of reconciliation: Longley,Heaney and the Greeks

At the heart of myth is negotiation, as the inner world comes to terms with external conditions. Many contemporary Irish poets have turned to mythical material in order to explore how, as Derek Mahon suggested, a good poem could be a paradigm of good politics. This essay explores the ways in which Seamus Heaney and Michael Longley have used ancient Greek myths to bring a hopeful light against seemingly intractable political problems, in line with the principle of third-party intervention, or the deus ex machina that prevents further misunderstanding. Translation opens up entrenched perspectives, forcing the self, in unfamiliar situations, to face the reality of the other, and to consider the other's perceptions and needs. This intervention aims for reconciliation, whether between individuals, social groups, individual and state, or between the living and the dead, and it reveals that reconciliation is always an approximation that must be continually fought for.     

Beyond genocide and ethnic cleansing: demographic surgery as a new way to understand mass violence

This article argues that while ethnic cleansing and genocide are generally recognized as major features of modern history, pitfalls inherent in both concepts make them seriously deficient for purposes of historical understanding, especially because of the legal nature (and relevance) of the term genocide. Both terms carry the risk of accounting only for a part (albeit a major one) of a larger history of mass violence and, by over-emphasizing this part, of contributing to the phenomenon of a posteriori ‘ethnization of history’. The article thus proposes the recourse to the new concept of ‘demographic surgery’—one that is able to account for many different, and yet fundamentally similar, instances of category-based persecution of particular groups of people resulting in their massive displacement and/or killing. Episodes of category-based mass killing and displacements have happened along a number of different lines. In addition to ethnic or racial markers, religious, social and ideological ones—isolated or in combination—have all been politicized and used to identify categories of populations targeted by perpetrators of demographic surgery. Even if it is unlikely that terms like genocide or ethnic cleansing will be jettisoned by future writers on issues of mass violence, the concept of demographic surgery will be useful to scholars who need to group together similar events in order to better understand them.     

The Socio‐Nature of Local Organic Food

Abstract: The concept of socio‐nature asserts that social relations are inherently ecological and that ecological relations are inherently social. This paper examines how, and with what consequences, discourses and practices of support for local and organic food reflect this idea. It argues that proponents of local organic agriculture view the food they promote as simultaneously social and the product of human labor. However, advocates’ understanding of the concept is partial and constrained by social privilege. It does not extend to industrial agriculture or paid farm labor. The literature on socio‐nature coheres around the revelation that what is understood as natural is also social and vice versa. In contrast, this paper takes a new approach, examining socio‐nature as a practice‐shaping discourse already embedded in social life. Investigating the on‐the‐ground ideological work performed by the concept also allows for assessment of its political consequences.     

Reception and use of intersectionality. A reading from French perspective

This text seeks to provide an overview of the concept of intersectionality as it was introduced and disseminated in French social and cultural geography. To understand this reception and use, I will recall the place occupied by each matrix of domination that constitutes intersectionality – gender, race and class. First it is important to remember that the notion of intersectionality has been introduced in a French academic context in which research on gender is still disputed. Second, it is worse in the case of race because it is a blind spot in French republican ideology (one nation, one people). Third, class has always had a central dimension in the analysis because of the weight of the Marxian heritage in the social sciences. The introduction of the notion of intersectionality thus marked a return of the class and materialist perspective in analysis. After this review of the context, I highlight to the work accomplished as intersectinalists outside the category of intersectionality and explain why the notion of intersectionality may be easier and better accepted in this light. I conclude with two examples of work on intersectionality.     

Unsettled peace? The territorial politics of roadbuilding in post-war Sri Lanka

This paper analyses the role of roadbuilding as a process of state territorialisation in post-war Sri Lanka. In the aftermath of a brutal civil war (1983–2009), and in lieu of a broader peace and reconciliation process between Sinhalese, Tamil and Muslim communities, road infrastructure has been promoted by the state as essential to the region's recovery and nation's sovereignty. Roads were to bring national unity and political integration. We interrogate such claims, drawing on fieldwork conducted in Jaffna and neighbouring areas to cast doubt on the prospects of new roads to ameliorate ethnic tensions. Rather, as militarised security discourses and policies continue to dominate the Sri Lankan public sphere, such schemes can be understood as part of broader Sinhala-Buddhist nationalist project to consolidate territorial control in restive parts of the country. Our research suggests that, rather than facilitating rehabilitation and recovery, road networks mirror pre-existing fault lines and entrench the privileged position of the military in Sri Lankan society. Such shifts do little to avail persistent minority sentiments of political marginalisation, aggravating social fractures and re-constituting the hegemony of Sinhala-Buddhist nationalism.     

Capitalism and the emergent world order

The two‐centuries‐old hegemony of the West is coming to an end. The ‘revolutions of modernity’ that fuelled the rise of the West are now accessible to all states. As a consequence, the power gap that developed during the nineteenth century and which served as the foundation for a core–periphery international order is closing. The result is a shift from a world of ‘centred globalism’ to one of ‘decentred globalism’. At the same time, as power is becoming more diffuse, the degree of ideological difference among the leading powers is shrinking. Indeed, because all Great Powers in the contemporary world are in some form capitalist, the ideological bandwidth of the emerging international order is narrower than it has been for a century. The question is whether this relative ideological homogeneity will generate geo‐economic or geopolitical competition among the four main modes of capitalist governance: liberal democratic, social democratic, competitive authoritarian and state bureaucratic. This article assesses the strengths and weaknesses of these four modes of capitalist governance, and probes the main contours of inter‐capitalist competition. Will the political differences between democratic and authoritarian capitalists override their shared interests or be mediated by them? Will there be conflicting capitalisms as there were in the early part of the twentieth century? Or will the contemporary world see the development of some kind of concert of capitalist powers? A world of politically differentiated capitalisms is likely to be with us for some time. As such, a central task facing policy‐makers is to ensure that geo‐economic competition takes place without generating geopolitical conflict.     

On the Spacing of Time: On “The Tide of History”

The author discusses aspects of how time appears and is used by the individual and by society. In focus is what the author calls the ideological time scale as it appears in Western society. The concept of the ideological time scale implies systems of strong, ideological signals transferred through time in the human mind from one generation to another. One such signal is the age-old concept of the hero and the symbolism projected around this concept. The paper ends with an admonition to scholars to be aware of and study the kinds of messages transferred through time by this signal system. These messages carry important information about the ways in which society directs itself in the time continuum.