Political freedom in Byzantium: the rhetoric of liberty and the periodization of Roman history

ABSTRACT

This paper proposes an intellectual history of the idea that the later Roman empire and, subsequently, the whole of Byzantium were less ‘free’ in comparison to the Roman Republic. Anxiety over diminished freedom recurred throughout Roman history, but only a few specific expressions of it were enshrined in modern thought as the basis on which to divide history into periods. The theorists of the Enlightenment, moreover, invented an unfree Byzantium for their own political purposes and not by examining the facts about its political culture. The second part of the paper proposes that the Byzantines valorized a model of positive freedom as legal-institutional protection against arbitrary oppressive power, including against both barbarian domination and domestic abuses. In contrast to modern thought, which tends to see the imperial position as the chief threat to liberty, the Byzantines viewed it as its bulwark. Yet they too had remedies for oppressive emperors, suggesting that the otherwise well-attested invocations of freedom were not a mere rhetorical trope for them but an actionable cultural norm.     

“A Success in Every Particular”: British August First Celebrations in Canada and America and the Black Quest for Unblemished Commemorations,While Critiquing July Fourth, 1834–1861

British August First celebrations were an important day of the year for Blacks in North America. Elite and aspiring organizers attempted to use the holiday as a sight of excellence. Partakers understood they were watched closely during commemorations and that their slightest imperfections could be magnified to unreasonable proportions. Thereby, Blacks felt it was essential to present themselves in near “perfection” to prove that they could be “upstanding citizens.” This article asserts that the standard of outright excellence Blacks attempted to execute on August First was neither achievable nor performed by Whites at celebrations like July Fourth. While Whites could be the notorious offenders of uncivilized and imperfect behavior, First celebrations were to be as the Liberator proclaimed an “array of virtue, loveliness, moral heroism, and true piety.” In all, when Blacks utilized the power to assemble, it was viewed more as a potential site of lawlessness and subversion, despite their efforts.     

Frisonica libertas: Frisian freedom as an instance of medieval liberty

In the later Middle Ages the predominantly rural Frisian territories covering the coastal area between the Zuider Zee and the River Weser stood out by virtue of their anomalous position. One striking phenomenon in this area was the early breakdown of feudalism; another was the failure of sovereign rule to take root. A crucial development was how the resulting political vacuum was filled by communal institutions. This paper tries to explain this state of affairs, a situation the Frisians themselves referred to as ‘Frisian freedom’, in terms of the communalism thesis propounded by Peter Blickle. In summary, it can be said that the Frisian territories, at least while the communal institutions were in their prime, constitute an even more prototypical model of rural communalism than the founding cantons of the Swiss Confederation.     

Segmented Publics and the Regulation of Critical Speech in China

Abstract

In contemporary China strict censorship coexists with significant freedom of expression and restrictions are enforced inconsistently. Yet certain principles underlie determinations of what is acceptable public speech, depending on the institutional location of the utterance, the identity of the speaker and the time of the event. What is allowed depends on the specific circumstances, but it results from patterns in the institutional practices of Chinese politics that involve constraining debate within “segmented publics”. This article analyses how formal and informal rules limit discussions of particular issues to specific segmented publics, and how varying degrees of debate are permitted within these institutional fields, based on the expertise of their members or, in the case of associations, their engagement in specific areas of policy implementation. Another dimension of variation relates to the personalised character of authority in the Chinese system of governance, which means that leaders set the tone for debate within institutional spheres they control. State control, however, is only part of the story: segmented publics are dynamic spaces where boundaries are permeable, often contested, and constantly in formation. The operation of segmented publics is explored here through case studies of activism in the legal field; on women’s rights in the associational field; at the grassroots in resident and villager committees; and in oppositional publics.     

Resistance and radical democracy: freedom,power and institutions

ABSTRACT

In this article, I argue that resistance and radical democracy can be used to the good of representative democracy. I submit that resistance is about the popular power – the freedom as power – to create better institutions. I argue that the conflict and resistance that is at the core of radical democracy enables freedom and democracy and resists domination best if it is institutionalized. This counterintuitive claim is substantiated by an argument for freedom as power through representation and how the power to resist is linked to at least four domains of freedom. This builds on the work of Machiavelli, Marx and Foucault, amongst others, and insights drawn from resistance struggles across the globe. I end by proposing institutional changes to representative democracy that, I suggest, would allow us to conceive of democracy as both a form of government and a constantly destabilizing transgressive practice.     

中国华侨华人研究的学科建设与学术定位

在前期研究的基础上,进一步对当前华侨华人学科建设与学术定位中的一些认识问题、理论问题进行了阐述。主要观点为:学术研究与政策宣传是相辅相成的。相对独立和自由的学术研究是制定政策的基础工作和必要前提;华人研究不应该以中国社会为中心,而应该以海外华人社会为研究的主要对象;华侨华人研究应该摆脱功利主义的考量和民族情绪的影响,坚持理性思考的科学精神;华侨华人研究应该有宽松的氛围、宽阔的视野和宽容的态度。     

学术自由与制度保障——以中央研究院为例

民国时期的中央研究院,从创制思想、机构设置到制度运行,逐步形成了一套较为完备和运行良好的学术自由制度体系.这样的安排,使中央研究院成为近代中国充分尊重学术自由,并予以制度保障的典范.但是,由于国民政府的干预,加上各种因素的影响,中央研究院事实上所能维护和保障的,也只能是院内的一片"自由"的天空.     

4. REASON,AGENCY, AND HISTORY: REMARKS ON KANT AND BENJAMIN

This essay begins by determining the nature of Richard Eldridge's project. Referring mainly to writings by Immanuel Kant and Walter Benjamin, I view his attempt as considering what it involves to be an agent in a historical setting. According to Eldridge, the correct answer will have to involve the right combination of Kant's emphasis on rational self‐determination and Benjamin's account of spontaneous (yet nonrational) self‐transformation. In response to this answer, I suggest that Benjamin's view may not easily lend itself to being made compatible with Kantian thinking. In particular, Benjamin's effort to think experience in terms that do not make any reference to rational self‐determination must be viewed as deeply foreign to Kant's project. I also argue that Kant's third Critique, in particular its conception of reflective judgment, could have provided Eldridge with a view of agency and experience that does not deviate substantially from Kant's project elsewhere. At the end of the essay, I argue that the duality we find in Eldridge's exposition should be viewed as not only related to individuals but to society in general. An attempt to resolve it must involve reflection on how historically constituted social forms create such stark oppositions between reason and its other.     

Italian receptions of Hegel: Epilogue

ABSTRACT

The reconstruction of national receptions of Hegel, and the inflections of his influence through local traditions and international exchanges, remains a fruitful field of investigation. The Anglophone literature has been relatively neglectful of the specific contributions made by Italian readings of Hegel, from his earliest reception onwards. The collection published here builds toward a fuller understanding of Hegel’s diagnosis of the origins and functions of the modern state and the dialectics of modern individuality and freedom, as these issues appear in debates undertaken in the Italian Risorgimento and beyond.     

Sheltering from domestic violence: Women’s experiences of punitive safety and unfreedom in Cambodian safe shelters

This paper explores the experiences of Cambodian domestic violence survivors who have fled their abusive partners to live in NGO-run safe shelters. Through in-depth interview research undertaken in 2016, we explore the stories of seven women whose experiences speak to tensions between having safety from violence and freedom to live as they choose. The pervasive impunity of the legal system means that Cambodian society operates as a safe space for perpetrators of domestic violence and spatially excludes survivors from it to guarantee their safety from injury and even murder. Just as violence against women has been described as a major area of ‘unfreedom’, we contend also that safe shelter provision in Cambodia, albeit essential, does not necessarily afford freedom from violence, but rather a punitive safety from it which can curtail women’s bodily integrity. Survivors are too often being excluded from decision-making processes in the shelter and treated as passive recipients of physical safety. Making the argument that safety and freedom are not coterminous, we contribute to recent feminist scholarship in geography and aligned disciplines focused on the significance and workings of safe space for marginalised groups. As such, the paper complicates singular viewpoints of safe spaces as enabling environments which can challenge oppressive forces both inside and outside of them.