This paper reflects on the change of relations among participants in nanotechnology governance through their participation in governance processes such as stakeholder dialogues. I show that policymaking in practice—that is, the practice of coming and working together in such stakeholder dialogues—has the potential for two-fold performative effects: it can contribute to the development of trust and mutual responsibility on the part of the involved actors, and it may bring about effects on the formation of boundaries of what is sayable and (...) thinkable in nanotechnology governance. Three vignettes about the work of the German NanoKommission indicate the development of new relations of trust, recognition and mutual responsibility among actors. It is concluded that governance in practice can assemble new collectives in which relations of trust are the glue holding the complex structure together. While such a consensus-based progress may be favourable for smooth technology development, it can be considered problematic if evaluated against the ideals of deliberative democracy, which often form the premises on which public engagement is based. Stakeholder forums were set in place with the intention of including various actors, but this is Janus-faced: if a dialogue becomes encapsulated in new governance networks, new exclusions can arise. For example, a policing of which information is released to a wider audience can occur. (shrink)

In this text, I respond to a paper by Erik Thorstensen entitled “Public Involvement and Narrative Fallacies of Nanotechnologies.” In his paper, Thorstensen critically reviews a previous ELSA project on engagement and nanotechnology known by the acronym DEEPEN. While I agree that the ELSA community could benefit from the critical examination of earlier research, I believe the approach taken by Thorstensen is not a constructive one. My response deals with three main issues: the character of the paper, narrative theory, and (...) interdisciplinarity. (shrink)

The present article shifts the focus and burden of whistleblowing away from an individual to the collective and argues for the necessary incorporation of whistleblowing into an ethical infrastructure in institutions of higher education. The authors argue that institutions of higher learning should be understood as collective agents bestowed with ethical responsibility which obliges them to act in an ethical manner. The fundamental principle guiding the ethical practice of all higher-learning institutions should be a culture of voice because conscientization – (...) the purpose of education – necessitates dialogue to emerge. However, this culture of voice is not self-evident in institutions of higher learning and transpires in the harmful ways in which some of these institutions react to the disclosure of their problematic practices by whistleblowers. In light of this, the authors propose that one should not expect individuals to assume a whistleblower role; it is the higher-education institution’s ethical responsibility to create an infrastructure which integrates channels for critical engagement with problematic practices and supports a culture of voice. This infrastructure should consist of four fundamental elements: whistleblowing’s enablement, whistleblowers’ protection, the correction of problematic practices, and the recognition of the whistleblower’s action. (shrink)

Europe as a political entity is born with the general public disagreement against the Iraqi war, while governments were divided on that point. Those linked with European opinion are going to build politics together while the others will remain in a corm on market. This new political stage is supported by the global movement.

Die naturwissenschaftliche Erkenntnis nimmt die Trennung in ein erkennendes Subjekt und erkanntes Objekt vor, um die Gesetzmäßigkeit natürlicher Abläufe zu erforschen und menschlichen Zwecken dienlich zu machen. Die Naturgegenstände werden zwar begrifflich und funktional bestimmt, jedoch nicht ganzheitlich erfasst. Mit dem Blick auf Mahāyāna-Lehren in Indien und Japan wird eine neue Sicht eröffnet: Nāgārjuna (ca. 2. Jahrhundert) lehrt als Weiterführung des Herz-Sūtras das abhängige Entstehen aller Dinge aufgrund der Leerheit. Der japanische Zen-Denker Dōgen Kigen (1200 -1253) erfasst die Phänomene als (...) Verkörperung der allumfassenden Lehre dharma. In der Einsicht prajñā ist das wahre Wesen der konkreten Wirklichkeit, die Buddha-Natur, mit dem Erkennenden im Augenblick untrennbar verbunden. (shrink)

The thesis that `1968' resulted in the rise of the individual, on the one hand, and the end of politics, on the other, is critically discussed by interpreting the events of 1968 as a project of emancipation and by distinguishing between the individual and the collective aspects of emancipation.

Modern philosophical thought has a manifold tradition of emphasizing "the moment". "The moment" demands questioning all-too-common notions of time, of past, present and future, uniqueness and repetition, rupture and continuity. This collection addresses the key questions posed by "the moment", considering writers such as Nietzsche, Husserl, Benjamin and Badiou, and elucidates the connections between social theory, philosophy, literary theory and history that are opened up by this notion.

Das Handbuch der" Islamischen Philosophie im Mittelalter"präsentiert in einer umfassenden Gesamtdarstellung eine der faszinierendsten Epochen der Geschichte des Denkens. Renommierte internationale Fachleute führen sowohl in die Theorien und Argumente der bedeutendsten islamischen Philosophen als auch in ihre Biographien ein. Überblicksartikel leiten in die Geschichte der islamischen Philosophie, ihre historischen Rahmenbedingungen und den stets wechselnden Austausch mit anderen Wissensgebieten ein. So ermöglicht das Handbuch seinen Lesern, so bedeutende Denker wie Avicenna, Averroes und al-Farabi besser kennenzulernen und sie vor einem ganz neuen, (...) breiteren Hintergrund zu würdigen. Dabei treten nicht zuletzt die philosophisch-rationalen Wurzeln deutlich hervor, die die arabische Kultur mit der europäischen bis heute verbinden. (shrink)

"Identity" has become a core concept of the social and cultural sciences. Bringing together perspectives from sociology, anthropology, psychology, history, and literary criticism, this book offers a comprehensive and critical overview on how this concept is currently used and how it relates to memory and constructions of historical meaning.

How to hospitably welcome refugees and migrants presents urgent questions for social and political thought. Current debates can be attributed to three discursive fields. Liberal versions hold that there are good reasons for political and legal limits of hospitality, critical perspectives advocate a renewed cosmopolitanism and, finally, deconstructive perspectives focus on the demand of unconditional hospitality as an absolute ethical requirement. These concepts trouble the conventional congruence of citizenship and bounded territory that make up modern nation states, on the one (...) hand. On the other hand, they affirm the rights of political communities to decide on the contents and the extent of the universal duty to host those endangered. Taking the Mediterranean and the local arena (Lampedusa) as the example, the article, which is based on extensive, multi-sited anthropological field research, engages with the tensions and limits inherent in current notions of hospitality. (shrink)

The arrival of migrants in search of a better life puts forward urgent questions for social and political thought. Historically, hospitality has been considered as a religious duty, a sacred commandment of charity and generosity to assign strangers a place — albeit ambivalent — in the community. With the development of the modern nation state, these obligations have been inscribed into the procedures of political deliberation and legislation that determine the social spaces of aliens, residents and citizens. Current debates are (...) tied to notions of justice which question borders and undermine the congruence of citizenship, territory and belonging that make up modern nation states. These debates focus on the rights of others and the demands of unconditional hospitality, an absolute requirement on one hand, and political and legal limitations on the other. The paper will critically engage with these debates, and evidence the tensions and limits inherent in current notions of hospitality. (shrink)

Comparative analysis of civilizations has recently revived and has led into a debate about varieties of modernity. This connection between an empirically defined area of study, `civilizations', and a theme that is predominantly seen as conceptual, `modernity', is a peculiar one and raises crucial questions for any social theory. Can `modernity' be located spatio-temporally among the civilizations? Is it itself a civilization (or the successor to all civilizations), or does it not rather refer to a human condition? This article takes (...) its starting point from the observation that civilizational comparison is always some form of cultural analysis and asks if and how a cultural theory of modernity is possible and fruitful under current theoretical and historical conditions. (shrink)

Comparative analysis of civilizations has recently revived and has led into a debate about varieties of modernity. This connection between an empirically defined area of study, `civilizations', and a theme that is predominantly seen as conceptual, `modernity', is a peculiar one and raises crucial questions for any social theory. Can `modernity' be located spatio-temporally among the civilizations? Is it itself a civilization (or the successor to all civilizations), or does it not rather refer to a human condition? This article takes (...) its starting point from the observation that civilizational comparison is always some form of cultural analysis and asks if and how a cultural theory of modernity is possible and fruitful under current theoretical and historical conditions. (shrink)

Newly accessible source material calls for a revision of our picture of the more technical transmission of sceptical epistemologies in the intellectual landscape of early Islam. Abū al‐Qāsim al‐Balkhīʼs (ninth/tenth century) Book of Doctrines shows that naẓar as the basic argumentative method of kalām is defined by the encounter with a broad spectrum of sceptical strategies. By the beginning of the tenth century, Greek traditions were amalgamated in a complex way with other intellectual traditions, most notably dualist ontologies. This situation (...) has shaped the evolution of kalām methodology decisively. Based on extensive paraphrases in Ibn al‐Malāḥimī (twelfth century) going back to Nawbakhtī (tenth century), it can be seen that arguments of the Greek sceptical tradition were accessible in Arabic in the early tenth century. The scarcity of coherent information on sceptical approaches before that time rather has to do with the problem that in general few sources of this earlier formative period of Islamic theology are preserved. Early Muʿtazilī treatises from this period are superseded by Ashʿarī texts in the later transmission. Sceptical approaches, being systematically involved in the very formation of early Muʿtazilī theology, are particularly invisible due to this process. (shrink)

Što se može očekivati od susreta i dijaloga između kulture i Crkve ? Polazna točka u ovoj raspravi je novum kojega je iznjedrio Drugi vatikanski sabor; kulturalno gledano, on predstavlja događaj kojim su srušene umjetne prepreke između kulture i Crkve . Upravo taj događaj čini se da je širom otvorio vrata susretu i dijalogu između Crkve i kulturalnog ambijenta u kojemu se i Crkva nalazi.Crkveno-teološko zauzimanje za dijalog sa suvremenom kulturom moralo bi, prema autorovu mišljenju, ispuniti neke zahtjeve ili pretpostavke, (...) kako bi taj dijalog ne samo bilo lakše ostvariti nego da donese i određene plodove svijetu i čovječanstvu. Jedna od prvih pretpostavki jest simpatija u odnosu prema svijetu i vremenu u kojemu se živi i djeluje; to je neophodan prvi korak u uspostavljanju »prvoga kontakta« između Crkve i kulture. Druga je pretpostavka ona koja se odnosi na snažniju valorizaciju uloge lokalnih crkava koje se čine primjerenijim subjektima što će lakše naći dodirne točke između općeljudskih pitanja i kulturalno elaboriranog navještaja vjere. Nadalje, unutar Crkve sve važnije mjesto i ulogu u vođenju dijaloga sa suvremenom kulturom trebaju imati vjernici-laici, tj. muževi i žene više uronjeni u razna svjetska životna područja kao što su politika, gospodarstvo, zdravstvo, itd. Unutar same Crkve valjalo bi sjediniti tzv. »benediktinsku duhovnost«, koja privilegira autoritet , s tzv. »franjevačkom osjetljivošću« koja je više usmjerena na bratstvo/sestrinstvo , ne samo među ljudima nego i sa svim stvorenim. Konačno, ne treba zaboraviti niti razlikovanje između vjere i teologije : to razlikovanje, koje ne znači strogo dijeljenje, otvara prostore da se različitim kulturalnim načinima izrekne vjera u Isusa Krista u različitim ozemljima i ambijentima u kojima ljudi obitavaju.What is to be expected from an encounter and dialogue between culture and the Church ? The starting point of this paper is the novelty introduced by the Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican; culturally speaking, it represents an event with which the artificial obstacles between culture and the Church were pulled down. It seems that it was this event precisely that fully opened the doors to the encounter and dialogue between the Church and the cultural environment which the Church is also part of.The Church and theology’s advocating of dialogue with contemporary culture must, according to the author, meet a number of requirements or presuppositions not only for this dialogue to be conducted without unnecessary difficulty, but also for it to be fruitful for the world and humanity. One of the first presuppositions is sympathy in relation to both the world and times we live in; this first step is essential in the Church’s making “first contact” with culture. The second presupposition pertains to a more potent valorisation of the role of local churches , which seem to be more appropriate subjects to be able to more easily locate connection points between universally human questions and the culturally elaborated annunciation of faith. Furthermore, those who should have an increasingly more important role within the Church itself in leading this dialogue with contemporary culture are worshiping laymen, i.e. men and women who have been deeply and greatly involved in the various universal fields of life, such as politics, economy, health services, etc. Within the Church the so-called ‘Benedictine spirituality’, which privileges authority , should be merged with the so-called ‘Franciscan sensibility’, which is more directed towards a brotherhood/sisterhood not only between people but also with all that is created. Finally, the difference between faith and theology must not be forgotten either: this difference, which does not imply a strict division, creates space for the faith in Jesus Christ to be professed in the different ways of the cultures and environments that people live in. (shrink)

It is a background assumption of much of social science - here called modernist social science - that, in principle, there are neither questions that it cannot decline nor answers that cannot be found. Modernist social science does not accept the issues of inescapability and of attainability; they are names for adversaries that need to be fought against. In contrast to modernism in social theory, this article argues that social theory not only cannot succeed in suppressing the questions of the (...) inescapable and the attainable but indeed needs to be reconceptualized such that an understanding of inescapability and attainability becomes one of its organizing elements. The argument is developed by discussing three central problematics of social theory - the continuity of self, the certainty of knowledge and the viability of the polity - and by showing that an irreducible pluralism of modes of social theorizing exists which includes positions that emphasize the questions of inescapability and attainability. The various perspectives on self, knowledge and polity can be related to each other by reasonings that link a philosophy of the social sciences to a historical sociology of modernity. (shrink)

Research shows that trained mentors achieve better results than untrained ones. Their training should particularly address their expectations for their future mentoring. Our study involved 190 preservice teachers, potential mentors of ongoing school mentoring for primary and secondary school students of all grades. They were randomly assigned to one of four conditions in a 2-x-2 between-subjects design of mentoring type (traditional mentoring versus e-mentoring) and mentoring context (non-pandemic versus COVID-19 pandemic). Participants assessed mentoring conducted under these four conditions in terms (...) of its appropriateness for achieving four mentoring program targets: learning, key skills, social targets, and problem coping. Participants were also asked to assess the resources available to achieve each program target. Overall, the potential mentors considered the various conditions to be suitable for achieving the four program targets. They were particularly favorable in their assessment of the possibility for the realization of learning targets. Likewise, they assumed that sufficient resources were available to achieve the targets. However, a repeated-measures MANOVA showed that the potential mentors considered more ambitious targets to be possible in traditional mentoring than in e-mentoring and normal (i.e., pre-pandemic) contextual conditions than during the COVID-19 pandemic. In contrast, they estimated the resources available to achieve the targets to be about the same in the four conditions. This indicates a decoupling of mentoring targets from the consideration of the resources needed to achieve them. This assumption was confirmed in correlation analyses and has implications for mentor training. (shrink)

'Cenários construtivistas - temas e problemas' pretende ampliar a esfera dos estudos literários com uma perspectiva que fundamenta a sua investigação em pressupostos epistemológicos construtivistas. Esta coletânea reúne textos de trabalhos discutidos no Colóquio Construtivismo, realizado em setembro de 2008 no âmbito do Programa de Pós-Graduação de Estudos de Literatura do Departamento de Letras da PUC-Rio. Os artigos reunidos oferecem pistas para outros modos de olhar a literatura através de lentes construtivistas.