Права на природата – насред екологичната есхатология и правната теория

Author(s): Stoyan Stavru / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1-2/2016

With the increase of the ecological problems and most of all with the increase of the adverse to human beings climate changes, the question of nature protection from human impact is (more) often raised. This brings a number of ethical and legal questions, including those with the potential to change the subjective structure of the currently existing law. The article attempts to systematize the holders of legal personhood and to locate potential areas for the rights of nature in the law structure. We could outline a “full range of legal entities”, which includes two major categories: physical persons and legal entities. Physical persons can be divided into two groups: people (human persons) and other individuals (nonhuman persons). Legal entities can also be divided into two groups: social entities, the most common of which are corporations, and natural entities, the most common of which are ecosystems. So the outlined categories and groups are symmetric: on one side there are animals as “nonhuman” physical persons and natural formations as legal entities, and on the other side – people as “human” physical persons and their social formations as legal entities. This symmetry in the delineation of possible legal personhoods creates conditions for balance on a structural level – at the level of structure of law there are already comparable mechanisms for balancing the interests of people with those of animals, and the interests of corporations with those of ecosystems.

Превенция на агресията чрез позитивни начинания и позитивна подкрепа

Author(s): Nadie Karagyozova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 7/2017

This paper discusses the need for positive support in dealing with children in conflict with the law, as well as the successful forms of positive impact on the practice of the local Committee dealing with antisocial activities of minors and underage in the Municipality of Kubrat.

Társadalmi reprodukció

Author(s): Gergely Csányi,Ágnes Gagyi,Ágnes Kerékgyártó / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 24/2018

The process during which the reproduction of life is integrated into capitalist production is usually referred to as reproduction, social reproduction, or reproductive labour. These concepts include the process during which capitalism transforms and makes use of the practices of love, sex, care and housework in a way that they fit the logic of capitalist accumulation. In our paper, we summarise the theoretical history of social reproduction: following the original concept of social reproduction of Marx and Engels, we look at ensuing waves of research using and critiquing this concept – feminist research, world-systems-focused research, research focusing on informal labour, peasants, or the exploitation of nature. Then we pose the question of what we may gain from these approaches for the understanding of Eastern-European social relations.

Nem vész el, csak átalakul?

Author(s): Anikó Gregor / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 24/2018

The article aims to apply the concept of neoliberal neo-patriarchy (Campbell 2014) through the example of elderly care and its contextual problems in present day Hungary. According to the theory of neoliberal neo-patriarchy, gender inequalities have been maintained in spite of economic growth and the spread of women in the labor market, contrary to what classic modernization theories had hypothesized. However, as we know from the work of Fraser (2016) and others, in absence of the rethinking and restructuring of the gendered division of reproductive labor, there is an internal tension within the logic of neoliberal capitalism: the woman who is projected to be present on the labor market is the same woman who is expected to perform a variety of reproductive tasks. In the public form of neoliberal gender regime (Walby 2011) the market, namely women from a lower social class, will be the ones undertaking this work, while in the domestic neoliberal gender regime female members of the family will perform it. Based on the results of a recent Hungarian study entitled Women’s Affairs 2018 (Gregor and Kováts 2018) I present how, due to the lack of social services, middle aged Hungarian women are left with the tasks of caring for the elderly, thereby enhancing the reproduction of unequal gender relations in society.

A szülés és a reproduktív technológiák értékelméleti megközelítése

Author(s): Kathryn Russell / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 24/2018

Social and technical changes in reproduction are drawing childbirth into the marketplace. People are creating new relations that separate genetic, gestational and social parentage. Reproductive engineering makes options of in vitro fertilization, embryo transfer, surrogacy, and fetal tissue transplants. This paper explores an analogy between childbearing and social labor, arguing that the labor theory of value gives insight into the social functions of childbirth under capitalism. The valorization of childbearing is consistent with other ways of socializing the reproduction of labor power despite the capitalists need for an autonomously functioning private household sector. A value-theoretic approach is necessary to reveal how childbearing is being placed in material relation with other forms of labor under capitalism. Neither reproductive engineering nor biological difference are themselves sources of oppression for women, but when found in a historical context where value can be extracted, childbearing can become a form of alienated labor.

A kapitalocén – avagy mibe kerül az olcsó természet?

Author(s): Attila Szigeti / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 25/2019

In the last decades the Capitalocene discourse was emerging in the Marxist ecological thinking. This approach offers a sociohistorical explanation to the current ecological crisis by questioning the historical narrative of the Anthropocene discourse. Authors of Capitalocene are arguing that climate change and ecological crisis was not caused by the collective and homogenous humanity (predetermined by the human nature). According them capitalism’s accumulative and expropriative socioeconomic relations are responsible for climate crisis.This paper analysis how Capitalocene-arguments are applying the Marxist critique of capitalism, especially the labour theory of value and its contemporary expansions and corrections in the understanding of the current ecological crisis. The first two subchapters are summarizing World-Ecology theory of Jason W. Moore, than I interpret the debate of Moore with the Metabolic Rift school (John Bellamy Foster, Paul Burkett, Andreas Malm and others), and finally I analyse the possible normative ecopolitics from the theoretical perspective of Capitalocene.In the last decades the so-called Capitalocene discourse was emerging in the Marxist ecological thinking. This approach offers a sociohistorical explanation of the current ecological crisis by questioning the historical narrative of the Anthropocene discourse. Authors of Capitalocene are arguing that climate change and ecological crisis were not caused by the collective and homogenous humanity (predetermined by the human nature) in general. According them capitalism’s accumulative and expropriative socioeconomic relations are responsible for climate crisis.This paper analysis how Capitalocene-arguments are applying the Marxist critique of capitalism, especially the labour theory of value and its contemporary expansions and corrections in the understanding of the current ecological crisis. The first two subsections are summarizing World-Ecology theory of Jason W. Moore, than the paper interprets the debate of Moore with the Metabolic Rift school (John Bellamy Foster, Paul Burkett, Andreas Malm and others), and finally it analyses the possible normative ecopolitics from the theoretical perspective of Capitalocene.

A történettudomány válsága és haszna az antropocén témák tükrében: egyenlőtlenség, hatalom, világrendszer, ellenállás és deep history (Bonneuil és Fressoz: The Shock of the Anthropocene; Lewis és Maslin: The Human Planet)

Author(s): Róbert Balogh / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 25/2019

The importance of the books reviewed here lies in their ability to go beyond the Anthropocene versus Capitalocene debate and in describing a framework of notions that lead to the conclusion that the adequate response to the risks that global biophysical changes bring about is a new mode of living replacing the current form of consumer capitalism. The authors of the two books are two ecologists and two historians. Their arguments converge on the point that if we live in the Anthropocene, then the academic response to this condition is a critical theory that includes a new narrative about human history and analysis of the processes that brought about the current condition and that need to be changed. The new ground that the volumes break makes it possible to hypothesize that historiography may overcome its decades-long crisis as a result of increasing sensitivity to socio-natural phenomena and interaction with biological sciences.

PHENOMENOLOGY, DECONSTRUCTION, AND CRITIQUE: A DERRIDEAN PERSPECTIVE

Author(s): Stella Gaon / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2021

Critical phenomenology is gaining currency as a progressive philosophy of emancipation, but there is no consensus on what its “criticality” entails. From a Derridean perspective, critique can be said to involve radical self-interrogation; a philosophy that questions its own conditions of possibility or grounds is one that opens itself to its auto-deconstruction. Deconstruction produces undecidability, however, which means that the philosophy in question can no longer account for its political claims or its normative force. This is the predicament in which critical phenomenology, like any other critical theory, will find itself when it takes its critical injunction to heart.

Commentary piece

Author(s): Mark Weeks / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2016

Very little has been published on the subject of solitary laughter. Yet it appears quite possible that it is experienced by a large majority of people. A pilot study I have recently undertaken involving participants of numerous nationalities, as well as searches through literature and across the Internet, suggest that solitary laughter, while not as common as social instances of laughing, is a widespread human behaviour. It is even accorded special value by some. Seeking to encourage further research into the subject, this article discusses research and examines the forces that have militated against a more thorough research engagement with solitary laughter. It argues that a primary factor may be a pervasive assumption among influential scholars that laughter is an essentially social phenomenon and that laughing in solitude may be explained away as “vicarious” or “pseudo” socialising. Doubt is cast here upon that assumption. It is argued that while the reductionism at work in the extremely broad application of a social hypothesis may be theoretically attractive, it belies the diverse, evolving operations of both laughter and humour; this may be unnecessarily, if unwittingly, restricting the field of enquiry. Solitary laughter is a significant, complex behaviour and worthy of attention in its own right.

ЕКОФЕМИНИЗАМ И ЕТИКА

Author(s): Danica B. Milošević / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 72/2020

Inclined towards consumerism, modern patriarchal society suffers from denaturalisation which reflects itself through the processes of natural oppression and animal exploitation. Logic of domination upon which patriarchy acts and by which it imposes a superior attitude over nature and nonhuman species, destroys internal values that animals and nature possess, which are not recognized at the capitalist stage where value is regarded through the prism of instrumentalism. This paper aims to disclose the opposite practice which employs the ethics of care and partnership with nature and its elements, through the postulates of ecofeminism oriented towards the life-affirming principle, not the destructive force that patriarchy is prone to. By analysing different ecofeminist approaches, this paper reveals the importance of nature and animals as a unique potential and subjectivity, with a right to freedom and existence. In view of maintaining biodiversity, the animal is redefined from the absent referent, that is, inferior and subdued phenomenon endangered by the masculine hegemony, into a siginificant constituent of human reality by introducing the language of empathy and moral responsibility with the capacity to build a close relationship with the environment from the angle of ecofeminism. It is important to develop ecological consciousness, and accept the time flow needed for renewal of nature, by understanding the importance of the natural surroundings in which man is only a small particle. In such a language, the culture of meat eating has an alternative in the form of vegeterianism, whereas animal and nature become part of moral community, so that hunting, and laboratory exploitation of animals, as well as the use of natural resources are reduced to necessity, not the indispensable. Meat consumption is an attack on animals and an act of support to consumer culture, whereas the refusal of meat is an act of defiance to patriarchal power in the contex of ethics towards nature and its living beings.A conclusion is reached through argumentation that ecofeminism sees the practice ofanimal killing as justified only in special/extreme cases, that is, in situations when it is necessary to save human lives, or when the terrain does not offer other options for human diet. On the other hand, the exclusion of animals from laboratory practices is considered desirable for two reasons: firstly, because animals can feel pain due to their neural structures in the brain, and secondly, because there is no guarantee that a good effect of research on animals will give good results in humans. Following Ynestra King who claims that there is no hierarchy in nature, and that man is not imposed as a superior being over other species by any laws of nature, a conclusion is reached that man has no right as a rational and conscious being with a highly de- veloped system of communication to use that position as an argument or an excuse for demonstrating his agression towards animals which have an equal right to live and be free. The system of nature is declared a sacred space in the value system of ecofeminism in which the life of each individual being is invaluable. Man as a spe- cies has the greatest impact on nature, environment and diversity and, at the same time, he is the only one who can assist nature in the act of renewal, by limiting his appetites so as to sustain the world of nature, including animals as valuable species in it. Protection of animals is; therefore, needed in all segments – they should not be regarded as guinea pigs, meat or trophies, but looked upon as specific beings with their needs and instincts.

Against the “Anthropocene Apathy” About the Rescue Potential of Postsecularism (on the Example of Works by the Romany Poetess Papusza)

Author(s): Anna Filipowicz / Language(s): English Issue: 7/2021

In this day and age, the ovewhelming hopelessness in the face of the anthropocentric paradigm makes thinking about the future of our planet constrained, while in turn reinforcing pesimism and helplessness. The foregoing refers also to the ecocritical humanities, which point to the need of conscious transformation aiming at the containement of the climate catastrophy. However, the said current in humanities requires an assistance from reality-changing tools that would respond to the social needs of the whole, sense, and spirituality, whilst remaining open to non-western religiosity patterns. It is especially worthwhile to keep it in mind upon studying post-secular thought, which marries the rational and the intuitive way of understanding reality.

САКРАЛНИ СВЕТ СТАРИХ ВРАЊАНАЦА

Author(s): Nataša Ivković / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 74/2021

In this paper, the motif of wedding in the novel Nečista krv (Impure Blood), by Borisav Stanković is analysed from the viewpoint of erotological theory of George Bataille. The wedding is observed as a celebration resulting in psychoerotic release of the individual. The erotica manifested here has a key role in profiling two different cultures, the urban culture and the rural culture, personified in the Effendi Mita’s and Gazda Marko’s families. By comparing the urban and rural weddings, distinctive erotic features of the two cultures are perceived, as well as differences in character and aim of the celebration.

АНАЛИЗА ОРВЕЛОВИХ ПОГЛЕДА НА ИДЕЈЕ СОЦИЈАЛИЗМА У „ЖИВОТИЊСКОЈ ФАРМИ“ И „1984“

Author(s): Pavle Antonijević / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 74/2021

This paper examines the last two literary works of George Orwell with the aim to analyze his political beliefs. Although these works have remained characterized primarily as critiques of totalitarianism and the Stalinist version of socialism, the pur- pose of this study is to show Orwell’s attitude towards the ideas of socialism in theory with parallel comparison of Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four. Furthermore, in order to consider this problem more comprehensively, it was necessary to research the author’s attitude towards capitalism and liberalism. The article is divided into two main sections. The first section gives a brief overview of Orwell’s political evolution from the second to the fourth decades of 20th century. The second section examines the content of the books which are the subject of research. The article proves that Orwell remained committed to the ideas of democratic socialism in both of his liter- ary works. Portrayal of Orwell as an anti-socialist is unjustified and was formed due to the Cold War context in the West. Additionally, the article concludes that Orwell’s Animal Farm and 1984 contain a critique of capitalism and Western imperialism, which is more pronounced in Animal Farm as compared to 1984.

The scientific value of the twin researches conducted by Gheorghe Oancea-Ursu

Author(s): Mariana Marinescu,Mihai Botea,Dragos Botea,Georgeta Groza / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2021

Romanian contributions of the twin method between theory and practice. The twins method allows us, more than the other methods, to approach the forms of interaction between heredity and the environment:– identical heredity (monozygotic twins) – identical environment;– identical heredity (monozygotic twins) – different environment; – different heredity (dizygotic twins) – identical environment. In the education of pupils, an important contribution is represented by the interaction between genetic factors and environmental factors, so that the controlled addition of influences from the proximal environment(family, group of friends, everyday situations) and influences from the distal environment (Internet, media) leads to: – improving school performance and daily driving; – the development of skill.

The Culture of a Modernizing Traditional Society (Ethnical Aspect)

Author(s): Anzhelina A. Koriakina / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2022

The intensification of world processes has acutely raised the problem of transitional or modernizing societies and cultures. In this regard, the question of the culture of a modernizing society is actualized. In the article, the concept of “culture of a modernizing society” through the prism of modernization of a traditional society and ethnical aspect is analyzed. The explanatory cultural concept of the present day is developed. In this context, the main characteristic of a modernizing society is culture. It is revealed that culture of a modernizing society is quite plastic, multicomponent, and includes both traditional and innovative (modern) components. The Yakut culture at the modern stage is observed and it is cleared that the Yakut people are going through the final process of acculturation of the Yakut ethnos and the cultural assimilation of its large part.

A művészet eltagadott gazdaságának feminista megközelítése

Author(s): Katja Praznik / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 30/2022

Autonomy has historically been a gendered notion, a defining feature of masculinity as opposed to the relational otherness and dependency that has characterized dominant representations of femininity. It therefore follows that the notion of artistic labour, which as we saw in chapter 1, is rooted in the idea of art’s autonomy, would also be a gendered concept. This convergence of labour and gender calls, I argue, for an approach that is informed both by labour theory of value and a feminist epistemology to unpack the implications of autonomy of art. In this chapter, I therefore employ a feminist epistemology about the gendered nature of (women’s) work as an element of my labour-focused analysis

Kinek a kultúrája? Táncházmozgalom és hegemónia

Author(s): Márton Szarvas / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 30/2022

Review of Taylor, Mary N. 2021. Movement of the People: Hungarian Populism, Folk Dance and Citizenship. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Energia, praca i walka z entropią

Author(s): Michał Krzykawski / Language(s): Polish Issue: 44/2022

This paper argues that what we commonly mean by “labour” in industrial democracies stems from the obsolete theoretical assumptions of neoclassical economics, which also serve as foundations for a highly entropic economic process. Therefore, to determine the new purposes and functions of what working means is necessary in order to redesign economy and, consequently, to offer an alternative to the Anthropocene. The article develops Bernard Stiegler’s take on work and discusses the way Stiegler brings up to date the theoretical reflection on the transformations of work undertaken by André Gorz. The article addresses the question of work in relation to energy crisis and work automation. Advocating for a redefinition of work beyond employment, the article envisages work automation as a new opening for what work denotes, rather than the end of work. However, two conditions must be met in order to make such a change possible; it is necessary to redefine work beyond employment and socialize benefits from work automation.

The New Humanities: In Search of Boundaries

Author(s): Agata Bielik-Robson / Language(s): English Issue: 44/2022

This article attempts to discuss the philosophical contexts and meaning of the new humanities in the context of the philosophy of subjectivity. At the foundation of the new humanities, as it is argued, is not enlightenment, but Heidegger’s thought, with his excoriating critique of modern subjectivity and its Machenschaft. The article points to the foundational hubris that the new humanities oppose, and to the attempt to reinstall the subject within fixed boundaries. The new humanities, and posthumanism in particular, might backlash with violence against civilisation, comparable to that they endeavour to renounce. In order to manoeuvre through these convoluted figures of subjectivity, the article supports its theses with insightful readings of Hölderlin and Adorno.

Съдържание на 54-тата годишнина на сп. Социологически проблеми

Author(s): Plamen Ivanov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2022