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Simone de Beauvoir – eine interdisziplinäre Vortragsreihe

Published October 29, 2008 Data , Politics , Soße Leave a Comment

Simone de Beauvoir would have celebrated her 100th birthday this year. The french existentialist philosopher, author and feminist theoretician is seen as the most important female intellectual of the 20th century. Starting from her individualistic critique in the 1940ies, she developed one of the most important key readings of the second feminist movement and a magnum opus of feminist theory: “The Second Sex” was first published in 1949. Together with a lot of other writings and political statements she created the project of her life. In her lifetime her person and opus were highly controversial, her writings is full of fractures and not yet fully interpreted.

Within the interdisciplinary series of lectures, central topics of Simone de Beauvoirs opus are adressed by political scientists, philosophers, theologians, literary scholars, historians and politicians. What are still actual topics, which aspects of Simone de Beauvoirs thought can be related to contemporary problems and ideas?

The lecture series will be held in German and will start on 6th November 2008, 18.00 at Hoersaal 24, Kupferbau in Tübingen with a panel discussion. The lecture series is organized by Patricia Graf, Ursula Konnertz and myself in cooperation with Rosa-Luxemburg-Forum Baden-Wuerttemberg, Heinrich-Boell-Stiftung Baden-Wuerttemberg, Institut francaise Tübingen, the teaching equalty programme (TEA) of Tübingen University and UI-Plan.

You can find the flyer in German with all the data here: flyer-beauvoir

Two new Publications on the Middle East

Published October 9, 2008 Politics , Publications Leave a Comment

Within the scientific row “Weltregionen im Wandel”, volumes 4 and 5 are published and available now.

Volume 4 “Der Staat im Vorderen Orient”, (The State in the Middle East), edited by Peter Pawelka, adresses concepts of the State in the Middle East. This Region is the only one in the world with 5000 years of traditions and concepts of the State. This bureaucrat, interventionist, and authoritarian type of state struggles nowadays struggles to survive in a globalized world. In this volume, renowned authors discuss the historic and cultural roots of the oreintal state and his developmental perspectives.

Volume 5 “Politischer Islam im Vorderen Orient” (Political Islam in the Middle East), edited by Holger Albrecht and Kevin Köhler, adresses one of the most discussed phenomena in the Arab World and offers an insightful overview of the different phenotypes of Political Islam and discusses both conceptional questions and particular islamist movements in the most important countries of the Middle East, e.g. the egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, the development of political Islam in Algeria, and the question of islamist movements in Iraq.

Taken together these volumes contribute to a deeper understanding of the Middle Easts’ political,  historic, cultural and religious history and actual development.

electoral seismographs I

Published October 1, 2008 Politics , Russia Leave a Comment

I had the opportunity to talk with Prof. Busygina, an expert on federalism and the economies of space at the MGIMO yesterday. We discussed the question of elections in Russia very briefly, but verz fruitful. There are four major points, that can be considered the results of this meeting. First, it is easy to run elections when there is no real opposition and therefore the chance of a defeat of the party of power is very little. Second, she told me about serious rumours that United Russia probably will experience a schism. This, in my opinion, might partly happen because the experiment of Just Russia did not work. Third, Prof. Busygina pointed out that the most important development of the last years was that there are less elections that ever since the elections of the governors were abolished. And last, not least, I asked her what she thinks the functions of parties and elections in Russia are. The answer was a little more complex, but I will briefly summarize it: People are really habitualized to elections as even the Soviet System held elections. The difference today is that they have a choice, and that there is an opposition, even if it is compliant with the system. I argued  that elections probably are the only possibility for the elites to stay in touch with the electorate and probably have the function of a political seismograph and, after thinking about it, she agreed. Even though there are a lot of opinion polls, there is little credible information passing from the bottom to the top because of the huge problem of social desirability researchers have to deal with in Russia. Apparently, she said, people first look at you to estimate what the interviewers expectations are, and then they adjust their answer. But as they are habitualized to elections and now have the possibility to choose where to make their cross, the percentage of the party of power and of the other parties serves as a good indicator for the satisfaction of the electorate with the (national or local) government, at least in the urban regions. This is a very interesting argument.  It will be interesting to do further research and fieldstudies on this pattern of what i call “electoral seismography”.

Barack – nophobia / Obama – nia

Published August 1, 2008 Obama , Politics 1 Comment

There are many rumors about who Barack Husein Obama really is and what he stands for.  Some say he is a muslim, some say he is not the right choice, and so on. But do you know the true story of Barack Obama a.k.a Banel Nicolita that even wikipedia and Jon Stuart do not know?

In real life the democrats’ presidential candidate 2008 is a romanian football professional just having been part of Romanias Team at the UEFA EURO 2008, that hopefully will not be a benchmark for Baracks success in the elections.

Doubts?

Look at this:

By the way, no one in the world calls the game soccer but the Americans. No one. It’s football!!!!

Weltregionen im Wandel – Lateinamerika

Published July 14, 2008 Politics , Publications Leave a Comment

Within the scientific row “change in world regions” a new volume is just out now concerning Latin America.  Te volume is edited by my dear collegues and friends Patricia Graf and Thomas “Charlie” Stehnken who did a realy good job to give an overview on developments in Latin Americas politics, economies and societies.

As Latin America experienced fundamental transitions not only due to globalization, latin american countries were faced with substantial problems. Part One of the volume analyzes the changes of stateness, mechanisms of political power and governance as well as the results of state reforms. The second part deals with  economic issues reaching from strategic partnerships with the EU to questions of competitive capacities in the international environment. The third part is dedicated to political culturem civil society and the means of populist political leaders to mobilize the masses. As this volume brings together  authors from science and practice, it offers a unique perspective on transitions in Latin America.

  • Patricia Graf/Thomas Stehnken (Hrsg.) (2008): Lateinamerika. Politik, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft. (Weltregionen im Wandel Bd. 3), Baden-Baden: Nomos, 244 pp., 45.-€, ISBN 978-3-8329-3432-3

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