ABSTRACT In this paper, we are juxtaposing the notions of cosmopolitanism and koinopolitanism, to sketch a theoretical perspective in which local productions of knowledge, as a binding force of local communities, can meet more abstract regimes of knowing and more global concerns of democratic elites. We see this issue as politically significant in light of the current problems with democracy which we interpreted as resulting, among other factors, form the lack of connections between those regimes of knowing. The crucial part (...) of our argument is that socially engaged art is capable of effectively building such connections, and we analyze community-based artistic interventions by Agnieszka Wołodźko in this perspective. (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Naharaim Jahrgang: 10 Heft: 1 Seiten: 57-77.

The concept of heterotopia challenges political theory, which has often focused on utopic thinking. Foucault describes a heterotopia as a heterogenous space that juxtaposes in a single real place several spaces, several sites that are in themselves incompatible. Streets, squares and parks form heterotopias when their utopic purity as public space is juxtaposed with the private spaces created by the cardboard boxes and other temporary shelters of homeless people. Since citizenship has traditionally been thought of as participation in a democratic (...) public sphere, how do heterotopias of homelessness challenge the ideas about citizenship? Based on narrative research with homeless people in Poland, I show how the homeless conceive of their marginality. Their participation or non-participation in democracy is not hidden but, on the contrary, very visible in public spaces where they are included as excluded. (shrink)

Descendre acheter le journal? Réflexion : vous délibérez, construisez un projet, argumentez. Décision prise, la volonté vous met debout. Alors, dès le premier pas, l'acte vient à la rencontre de l'action-projet qui agrégeait dans votre tête réflexion, délibération, argumentation, décision, volonté. L'acte est une aventure. Toute la réalité imprévisible du monde se trouvait là, en réserve, dont les créations intellectuelles de l'action escamotaient la part d'inconnu. On décide une action, c'est l'acte qu'on rencontre. Mais alors, pourquoi les deux mots sont-ils (...) communément employés l'un pour l'autre, obligeant à penser l'acte dans une réduction à l'action " dans la tête "? Tel est le sujet de ce livre magistral de Gérard Mendel qui prend la suite de La psychanalyse revisitée (1988) et La société n'est pas une famille (1992). A partir d'une lecture critique de l'œuvre des grands philosophes, d'Aristote à Habermas, en passant par Saint Augustin, Descartes ou Nietzsche, Gérard Mendel montre comment la naissance philosophique de l'être il y a vingt-cinq siècles a chassé l'acte de la réflexion intellectuelle. En s'appuyant sur une étude approfondie de l' " intelligence pratique " nourrie de son expérience de terrain sur le champ social et sur la relecture des travaux fondamentaux de Winnicott, il propose une nouvelle approche théorique du sujet et de l'acte. Loin du fantasme occidental d'une domination absolue de l'esprit sur la nature et la société, s'affirme alors l'idée d'un acte, pouvoir individuel et collectif en quête d'un rapport plus harmonieux avec la réalité qui, parce qu'elle résiste continûment, reste toujours aussi blessante pour le narcissisme humain. Cette réflexion passionnante, d'une écriture toujours claire, intéressera tous ceux qui ne se satisfont pas de la césure entre théorie et pratique dans la compréhension de l'activité humaine : psychanalystes, psychologues et philosophes, bien sûr, mais aussi travailleurs sociaux et sociologues. (shrink)

Myth, Utopia, and Political Action Starting from the premise that some form of "reality transcendence", i.e. the ability to imagine a different reality and reach out for the (un)thinkable, is necessary for political action, the aim of this paper is to analyse the concepts of myth and utopia elaborated by Georges Sorel and Karl Mannheim and to examine their possible contributions to a theory of political action and social change. By comparing the role the authors assign to rationality and irrationality (...) in human affairs, methodological and conceptual differences between Sorel's and Mannheim's approaches to the political are illustrated. It turns out that due to its immunity to critique Sorel's concept of the social myth is highly problematic. Mannheim's concept of utopia, on the other hand, culminates in a technocratic understanding of the political. Though both approaches emphasise the collective dimension of political action, they ultimately exhibit elitist understandings of the political. (shrink)

The topic of instrumentalism has engaged many scholars of contemporary educational thought. One can distinguish the positions of anti-instrumentalism from those that stress noninstrumental values of education, both conceived in the context of neoliberal/neoconservative and consumption-driven reality. In this text, Maria Mendel enters into this engagement from the perspective of the current political consumption of memory. While taking up the problem of the role public pedagogy plays in contemporary nation-states — especially in the current turn toward the past — Mendel (...) focuses on both educational and sociopolitical issues in the context of what she calls “retroactive instrumentalism.” When return to the past is the “principle of the contemporary,” she argues, instrumentalism does not necessarily result from intentional planning ex ante. If education is broadly understood as a practice of public space formation, it may be composed of experiences that do not have to be “traditionally” purposeful and oriented toward the future. They may gain their instrumental character ex post. To illustrate this possibility, Mendel analyzes snippets of Polish reality concerning the construction of “the good nation.” Many of the elements of public pedagogy in this case contain unifications that pertain directly to the instrumental character of the learning experiences employed by a society as it transforms into a nation. The instrumentalism of those elements is discovered post factum. In its ontological dimension, then, education may gain or solidify its instrumental character ex post. Based on the analysis proposed in this text, one could say that when instrumentality is retroactive, it becomes displaced intentionality — that is, it provides an instrumental story that disguises the intentions of the one writing the narrative. Mendel concludes by using the Aristotelian notion of phantasia, which regards “being without a matter,” to encourage productive thought about how to create public narratives that are free of instrumentalism. This grounds a version of public pedagogy that is oriented toward the animation of people's active imagining and thus becoming public. By epistemologically shifting learning into a public space, such public pedagogy serves to recultivate society and humanity as plurality, diversity, and coproduction of the public. (shrink)

This paper presents an attempt to describe parents’ activities, in which context it is puzzling that – on the basis of a negative assessment of the current reality (current crises, including the privatization of what is public) – parents seem to be searching intensively for new solutions that would make better not only the school but also the world it is a part of. Their focus, in this, is on the local dimension of activities that refer to sustainability and emphasize (...) place. In this approach, place is a field of confrontation and constant becoming. Parental activities in one sustainable community school in Chicago is the point of departure to introduce a pedagogy of the vital place that pays specific attention to how the heritage of these places makes them (partially) resistant to capitalist capture, and somewhat ready to take on the challenges of the crisis in which we live on the planet today. The reflection presented in this article is guided by the assumption that, in these times, when the survival of humankind is at stake, we desperately need a more-than-human format of world. (shrink)

Filial obligation and its implications have been little-debated in ethics. The basis of informed consent in libertarian positions may be challenged by inclusion of others beyond the immediate doctorpatient relationship. Some of the literature arguing for and against filial duty, including feminist literature, is presented as a backdrop to the argument that a patient’s family, and further, his or her community, contains the source of a broader perspective regarding decisions concerning his or her medical treatment. Communitarian models allow for a (...) medical decision to be owned by some or all stakeholders in patient outcomes. Although such a position undoubtedly confronts traditional notions of autonomy, it offers an alternative that may positively impact the practice of medicine by providing a more holistic treatment context. New models premised on shared decision-making will be presented as frameworks that may provide a theoretical basis for greater physician input into medical decisions that impact a patient’s family members and in more global terms, his or her community. (shrink)