Emancipation

Toward a Critical Pedagogy of the Global

by Noah De Lissovoy

In Critical Pedagogy in Uncertain Times (S. Macrine, Ed., Palgrave Macmillan, 2009)

Comparing the Emancipatory Value of two South African Mobile Learning Projects

by Jacqueline Batchelor

Co-authored by Liza Kriek, University of Pretoria
Machdel Matthee, University of Pretoria
Hugo Lotriet, University of Pretoria
Published in the Mlearn2010 conference proceedings Malta, greece.

Kriek, L., Matthee, M., Lotriet, H., & Batchelor, J. (2010). Comparing the Emancipatory Value of two South African Mobile learning Projects. Paper presented at the MLearn2010

Learning projects in diverse South African socio-economic contexts. This is done by applying Critical System... more Learning projects in diverse South African socio-economic contexts. This is done by applying Critical System Heuristics (CSH). The application of CSH to the two mobile learning projects results in a list of emancipatory values, including potential, realized and desired values as well as barriers towards realizing emancipatory potential. Similarities and differences are then identified and compared for the two projects. The study points towards “inherent” emancipatory potential of mobile learning but concludes by indicating other socio-technical factors as necessary conditions for emancipatory value to realize.

Suffering And The Work Of Emancipation Through Education

by John Schostak

A conference paper a revised version of which will be published later in 2012 in the Journal Power and Education http://www.wwwords.co.uk/power/

The paper begins:

Everyone goes through some form of schooling, not just in their youth but, in its widest... more The paper begins:

Everyone goes through some form of schooling, not just in their youth but, in its widest definition, all their working lives. Schooling, in the sense it is being employed here is intimately connected with organisational power and the politics of social and economic order. Some of the pressures and demands made by such forms of schooling at every stage of life may often be experienced as problematic at psychological, personal, and social levels that hinder development and cause health problems that in the extreme may involve medical, child psychiatric or psychological interventions. There have been many approaches to analysis. From a moralising point of view the child may be seen as lazy, undisciplined, naughty, even wicked. Medical and psychological perspectives may focus on learning difficulties, dyslexia, hyperactivity and so on. From an organisational and system point of view blame may be placed with a lack of resources, the quality of the teaching staff, the structuring of the school day, the teaching methods, the pressures and forms of assessment. What is not in question is the 'good' that schooling represents.

In this paper we question this 'good'.

Neoliberalising violence: of the exceptional and the exemplary in coalescing moments

by Simon Springer

Springer, S. 2012. Neoliberalising violence: of the exceptional and the exemplary in coalescing moments. Area 44 (2), 136-143.

This paper sets out to develop two related ideas. First, it seeks to identify how both violence and neoliberalism can... more This paper sets out to develop two related ideas. First, it seeks to identify how both violence and neoliberalism can be considered as moments. From this shared conceptualisation of process and fluidity, I argue that it becomes easier to recognise how these two phenomena actually converge. Building upon this conceived coalescence of neoliberalism and violence, the second aim is to recognise how the hegemony of neoliberalism positions it as an abuser, which facilitates the abandonment of those ‘Others’ who fall outside of neoliberal normativity. I argue that the widespread banishment of ‘Others’ under neoliberalism produces a ‘state of exception’, wherein because of its inherently dialectic nature, exceptional violence is transformed into exemplary violence. This metamorphosis occurs as aversion for alterity intensifies under neoliberalism and its associated violence against ‘Others’ comes to form the rule.

Public Space as emancipation: meditations on anarchism, radical democracy, neoliberalism and violence

by Simon Springer

Springer, S. 2011. Public Space as emancipation: meditations on anarchism, radical democracy, neoliberalism and violence. Antipode: A Radical Journal of Geography. 43 (2), 525-562.

In establishing an anarchic framework for understanding public space as a vision for radical democracy, this article... more In establishing an anarchic framework for understanding public space as a vision for radical democracy, this article proceeds as a theoretical inquiry into how an agonistic public space might become the basis of emancipation. Public space is presented as an opportunity to move beyond the technocratic elitism that often characterizes both civil societies and the neoliberal approach to development, and is further recognized as the battlefield on which the conflicting interests of the world's rich and poor are set. Contributing to the growing recognition that geographies of resistance are relational, where the “global” and the “local” are understood as co-constitutive, a radical democratic ideal grounded in material public space is presented as paramount to repealing archic power in general, and neoliberalism’s exclusionary logic in particular.

‘Thank god she’s a midget, not a dwarf’: dissociative behaviour of proportional short-statured people constructing a fantasy of normality

by etienne boumans

Submission to Conference on Sensualising Deformity: Communication and Constructions of Monstrous Embodiment @ The University of Edinburgh

In early modern times, dwarfs were considered deformed and, hence, socially discriminated, by average-statured... more In early modern times, dwarfs were considered deformed and, hence, socially discriminated, by average-statured individuals as well as by other little folks we used to call 'midgets', who were conceptualized as “no freaks, no dwarfs but perfectly normal.”
We found that accounts and personal memoirs by hypopituitary little persons suggest that they perceived dwarfs as disproportionate human oddities, monstrosities with grotesque heads, arms and legs, and, therefore, belonging to a different species. Throughout the history of popular entertainment, midgets – who were preferred in show-business - were cast in a way that positively enhanced their status while dwarfs were relegated to the back stage or freak shows.
In search of social acceptance, midgets rejected their impaired self in an attempt to construct a portrayal reinforcing the illusion of normality, fabricated for their audience. This proved somewhat successful, as the public, at least partially, concurred with this fantasy of normality, although the social construction of the midget as (close to) normal rather validated the normality of the audience, eager to rationalize the socio-cultural imagery of marginalized or impaired individuals.
The spectator’s weariness to associate short-statured people to sexual behaviour may stem from a subconscious association of littleness with childishness. Traditionally, achondroplastic dwarfs were depicted as asexual, in line with the aversion of portraying sexual activity of people with disabilities; the more socially accepted midgets were represented as closely resembling the average-statured men and women with their sensuality, sexual desires and activity. In an effort of complaisance to demanding audiences, promoters frequently constructed fallacious midget couples, sometimes accompanied by a narrative involving babies or infants.
In the 1930s, movies challenged the proportional little people’s illusionary world of normality regarding sensuality and sexuality in relation to average-statured people, often portraying a – tragic - love affair between individuals from both sides.

The Terror of Tiny Town: a dwarfsploitation movie with emancipatory value?

by etienne boumans

Submission to Popular Culture Association of Canada Annual Conference 2012. Accepted.

One year prior to the release of the all-time classic “The Wizard of Oz”, featuring the acclaimed Munchkins, Sam... more One year prior to the release of the all-time classic “The Wizard of Oz”, featuring the acclaimed Munchkins, Sam Newfield directed “The Terror of Tiny Town”, advertised as the first 'comedy western with an all-midget cast', starring “Jed Buell’s Midgets”. In this pastiche, conceived as a ‘weapon of mass distraction’ and categorized as a ‘pure exploitation movie’, diminutive actors are riding Shetland ponies and walking under the swinging doors of a local saloon. The “Terror of Tiny Town” is regularly cited among the Worst Movies of All Time. Various works of popular culture contributed to the movie acquiring cult status by recycling its title, re-interpreting its footage or through references in other movies; the film is ubiquitous on the internet and in social networks and blogs. The purpose of my paper is to demonstrate that the movie adapted American western genre stereotypes to a hitherto excluded category of actors and, by analogy to ‘blaxploitation’ movies, may have been instrumental in emancipating the short statured community. Although a black ‘midget’ featured in the film, it discriminated against ‘dwarfs’. It is likely that the absence of a ‘mirror audience’ prevented the movie to giving birth to a genre or even a sequel.

 Emancipation Landscapes: Archaeologies of Racial Modernity and the Public Sphere in Early New York. In The Importance of Material Things, Vol. II, J. Shablitsky and M. Leone, eds., Society for Historical Archaeology, 2011.

by Christopher Matthews

 Emancipation Landscapes: Archaeologies of Racial Modernity and the Public Sphere in Early New York. In The Importance of Material Things, Vol. II, J. Shablitsky and M. Leone, eds., Society for Historical Archaeology, 2011.

by Christopher Matthews

Rethinking Education and Emancipation: Being, Teaching, and Power

by Noah De Lissovoy

Published in the Harvard Educational Review

Towards Jewish Emancipation in the Grand-Duchy of Tuscany: the Case of Pitigliano Through the Emblematic Figure of David Consiglio

by Davide Mano

To be published in "Italia Judaica: Proceedings of the Jubilee Conference (Tel-Aviv University - January 3-5, 2010)".

The article explores some of the socio-political effects of the reformist age on the Jewish condition from the... more The article explores some of the socio-political effects of the reformist age on the Jewish condition from the standpoint of the Grand-Duchy of Tuscany, with special emphasis on the times of Grand-Duke Peter Leopold of Lorraine (1765-1790). While comparing Tuscan enlightened municipal regulations, the paper inspects specific local problems concerning Jewish eligibility to public offices. The relevant experience of one member of the Pitigliano community - David Consiglio - stands out as emblematic of the Jewish situation in the late eighteenth century.

La reinvención de la emancipación social en Boaventura de Sousa Santos

by Miguel Mandujano

En: Astrolabio. Revista internacional de Filosofía. (Universidad de Barcelona, España) No. 11. 2010. Pp. 282-289.

Mobile communications vis-à-vis teen emancipation, peer group integration and deviance

by Rich Ling

LA PSICOLOGÍA (CRÍTICA) PERMANENTEMENTE EN LA ENCRUCIJADA: SIRVIENTES DEL PODER Y HERRAMIENTAS PARA LA EMANCIPACIÓN

by Athanasios Marvakis

Teoría y crítica de la psicología

The Emancipation of Mina? The Portrayal of Mina in Stoker's Dracula and Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula

by Katharina Mewald

The nonillusory effects of neoliberalisation: linking geographies of poverty, inequality, and violence

by Simon Springer

Springer, S. 2008. The nonillusory effects of neoliberalisation: linking geographies of poverty, inequality, and violence. Geoforum. 39 (4), 1520-1525.

This paper steps into recent debates concerning the (f)utility of neoliberalism as an ‘actually existing’ concept by... more This paper steps into recent debates concerning the (f)utility of neoliberalism as an ‘actually existing’ concept by reminding the reader that without a Marxian political economy approach, one that specifically includes neoliberalisation as part of its theoretical edifice, we run the risk of obfuscating the reality of capitalism’s festering poverty, rising inequality, and ongoing geographies of violence as something unknowable and ‘out there’. By failing to acknowledge such nonillusory effects of neoliberalisation and refusing the explanatory power neoliberalism holds in relating similar constellations of experiences across space as a potential basis for emancipation, we precipitously ensure the prospect of a violent future.

Debating the Great Emancipator: Abraham Lincoln and our Public Memory

by Kirt Wilson

"Whenever They Judge It Expedient": The Politics of Partisanship and Free Black Voting Rights in Early National New York

by Paul J. Polgar

"To Raise Them to an Equal Participation": Early National Abolitionism, Gradual Emancipation, and the Promise of African American Citizenship

by Paul J. Polgar

Calling All Men: Political Considerations in Southwest Ghana's Gold Mining Industry (1900 – 1906)

by Cassandra Mark

A paper presented at the 4th European Conference on African Studies, 15-18 June 2011