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Freeride skiing is the fastest-growing sector of the skiing industry, but there are no studies analyzing its nature and values. First, we provide descriptions of freeride skiing and competitive freeride skiing, trying to analyzing the nature of these activities in comparison and contrast with conceptions of traditional sport and nature sport. Whilst freeride skiing must be seen in some sense as a nature sport, competitive freeride skiing is best seen within the category of traditional sport. However, these 'new' sports raise questions about the adequacy of our current categories, leading us to our second task, which was to identify and discuss the values of freeride skiing. We identify freedom and creativity as primary values, which lead to a greater rapport with nature, and a greater attention to risk, danger and safety, as concomitant values. Finally, we briefly indicate further values of the activity, such as responsibility, community and preservation of the practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Beginning from the 1960s, the Oromo struggle for emancipation from authoritarianism in Ethiopia took dimensions of peasant uprisings, liberation movements, and everyday forms of resistance through which discourses and institutions of domination have been resisted and defied. As part of their resistance strategies, the Oromo use art in defying political oppression, economic inequalities, and socio-cultural marginalization. From legendary musicians to amateur singers, Oromo artists have been speaking to power and inspiring the people in the struggle for freedom. Haacaalu Hundessa, a young Oromo artist and resistance singer who has garnered a reputation as an icon within a short period of time – murdered on 29 June 2020 – is one of those whose works revolutionized modern Oromo resistance music. Three of Haacaalu's latest songs, namely, Maalan Jiraa (What existence is mine), Jirra! (We are still alive), and Jirtuu? (Are you still there?), were released between 2015 and 2017 during a critical juncture in Oromo Protests and thus deserve critical analysis to unpack spatially and temporally grounded state violence against the Oromo. These lyrics reveal a postcolonial or post-imperial land dispossession, on the one hand, and decolonial struggles the Oromo launched against the violent Ethiopian state, on the other hand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Myths—symbolically dense narratives in wide cultural circulation that resist critical scrutiny—are often thought to be counterproductive to political discourse, but they are also ubiquitous in contemporary culture and society. Just two years apart, Jürgen Habermas and Hans Blumenberg developed contrasting visions of how we ought to respond to the myths in our society. By reconstructing their disagreement, this paper uncovers the distinctive challenge of balancing a commitment to political emancipation with the opacity of myths to critical reason. I argue for an alternative approach to myths than those in the theoretical mainstream, taking Blumenberg's relatively neglected position as a starting point. Blumenberg invites us to pay closer attention to the cognitive needs that necessitate the generation of myths while simultaneously reminding us of our own creative agency to reinvent them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the cultural diplomacy of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) at the World Congress of Women in October 1975 in East Berlin. Organized by the Women's International Democratic Federation to celebrate the UN International Women's Year, the congress provided a space for communist and leftist advocates from across the globe to discuss women's rights in connection with issues like global economic justice, anti-colonialism, and peace. But it also gave its host, the GDR, a platform to promote its emancipatory policies to women from the Global South. For weeks, delegates from Africa, Asia, and Latin America visited concerts, museums, and art exhibitions on women's lives and took trips to neighbourhoods, kindergartens, schools, women's advice centres, and hospitals across the GDR. Building on research on the performative dimensions of international diplomacy, this article discusses how the socialist regime transformed the congress halls, the city of East Berlin, and public institutions into 'diplomatic stages'. It argues that while this performance was challenged by audiences like foreign journalists, Western delegates, and citizens, its success depended on the Demokratische Frauenbund Deutschlands (German Democratic Women's League), the GDR's mass women's organisation, and its networks to the international women's movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite Jean-Paul Sartre and Cornelius Castoriadis placing the imagination centre stage in their respective conceptual theories, little work has been done to bring them into conversation on this issue or, indeed, any other. This is perhaps not surprising given Sartre's early work on this topic has tended to be downplayed in favour of his affirmation of freedom, while Castoriadis not only denigrates Sartre's thinking generally and his account of the imagination specifically but also posits their relationship as one of opposition. In contrast, this article brings them into conversation on the question of the imagination to call into question Castoriadis assessment of their relation. To do so, I outline Sartre's position in The Imaginary, showing that Castoriadis assessment of Sartre's notion is based on a problematic, if common, misunderstanding of Sartre's notion of nothingness and its relationship to creativity. Having overcome the opposition that Castoriadis affirms between their respective positions, I argue that, while there certainly are differences between their positions, there are also important points of agreement and overlap between them, especially regarding the constitutive role that the imagination plays for consciousness, and the relationships between the imagination and freedom and the imagination and creativity, that point to a shared and original approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article from the Queensland History Journal discusses the life of Hannah Rigby, the last female convict of Moreton Bay. Hannah Rigby's life was marked by repeated criminal offenses, multiple sons by different fathers, and a history of theft and imprisonment. Despite her troubled past, she gained the approval of her employer, Dr. David Keith Ballow, who advocated for her release. Hannah's life after gaining freedom was marked by hardships, including the loss of her sons and a tragic death in 1853. The article sheds light on the challenges faced by convicts and the impact of historical religious segregation in Brisbane cemeteries. [Extracted from the article]

In this article we argue that governmental practices of secrecy threaten the epistemic dimension of rights. We defend the view that possessing a right entitles its holder to the largest extent of available knowledge of the circumstances that may impede the enjoyment of that right. We call this the 'epistemic entitlement' of rights. Such an entitlement holds in ideal conditions once full transparency is assumed. However, under non-ideal conditions secrecy is a fact that should be accounted for. We argue that, under such conditions, interference due to secrecy is legitimate when the circumstances under which it occurs are open to assessment by the right-holder. We call this the 'right of assessment'. It ensures the ex-post fulfillment of the epistemic entitlement under non-ideal conditions of partial compliance where full transparency is unattainable due to the fact of secrecy. The right of assessment shields against arbitrary interference by imposing an obligation on the government to provide justification for any interference in the sphere of fundamental rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The DC bus current ripple is a critical performance parameter affecting the operation of current source inverters (CSIs). In high-power applications, CSIs often operate at lower switching frequencies to minimize losses. However, maintaining low levels of DC bus current ripple necessitates the use of large inductors on the DC side, which increases the size, weight, and cost of the system. This paper first explores the inherent limitations of conventional CSI designs. Subsequently, it proposes a hierarchical coordinated switching modulation strategy based on the H7 current source inverter (H7-CSI) to address the issue of DC bus current ripple. By segmenting the zero-vector states, the proposed method fully utilizes the modulation freedom of the H7-CSI, achieving high-frequency chopping effects on the DC-side current. Experimental results show that the new modulation strategy reduces the amplitude of DC bus current ripple to 43% of that achieved by conventional CSIs under similar switching loss conditions. Furthermore, the dynamic performance of the proposed scheme remains consistent with conventional CSIs. Spectrally, this method exhibits improved performance in the low-frequency range and slightly degraded performance in the high-frequency range, although the latter remains within acceptable limits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article argues that liberty-based arguments alone are not enough to justify a universal basic income, whether as a replacement of current welfare programs, or as an addition to them. Appeals to negative liberty, real freedom, republican liberty, and autonomy cannot show that a universal basic income is superior to (all kinds of) conditional benefits. To do so, proponents of a universal basic income will have to invoke values beyond liberty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of cyclic movement in the fictional works of Mongo Beti and Ahmadou Kourouma needs a deep analysis due to its stylistic-philosophical importance. Previous studies associated cyclic movement with Beti's novels; this present research therefore associates the technique with the works of Beti and Kourouma with a view to comparing the its effects in the works of both authors. Marxist theory of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels is adopted; our data are purposively selected based on their stylistical and ideological uniformities while cyclic technique is explicated in an analytic manner. The cyclic adventure of Abéna and Birahima in Remember Ruben and Allah n'est pas oblige respectively has the beginning, the middle and the end. A new social order, through education and popular democracy for the emancipation of the African countries is proposed while foregrounding the philosophical essence of the technique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article offers a proposal for analysis of Una holandesa en América (1888), by Soledad Acosta de Samper. To determine how the conditions of education were imposed on women in New Granada, we use the concept of intersectionality (Lugones, 2014). It is concluded that Lucía, a character who represents the author's thought in the face of the social situation of the 19th century New Granada woman, is still far from proposing female emancipation by educating her sisters from their privileged position. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hospitalized patients lacking the mental capacity to consent to treatment may demand to be discharged from the hospital against medical advice. Forced custody of these patients, including the use of restraints, may be required if the plan is to proceed with treatment. This raises ethical concerns with regard to depriving people of their liberty. The determination of the wishes and values of the patient and her best interests may sometimes vary, depending on the assessor or the clinical team entrusted to perform the evaluation. We therefore propose the following triad for clinicians when determining the best interests for this group of patients to ensure ethical and legal soundness as well as in providing consistency in approach. Firstly, the treatment should serve as a rescue response. Secondly, any restraint deployed must be proportionate with a foreseeable end. Her liberty and autonomy interests should be enhanced by the treatment. Thirdly, the patient's family must be supportive. This paper analyzes the use of the triad approach on two clinical cases, both assessed as lacking in mental capacity to decide on treatment and insisting to be discharged. Using this approach, we could justify how the contrasting outcomes, one in which the voluntary discharge was acquiesced versus the other, which was not acquiesced, were reached. We also examine the compatibility of the triad approach with the obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyzes the poetics of Rosario Castellanos and its relationship with fire as a metaphor for human existence, highlighting the keynote lecture at the XXXI International Colloquium on Gender Studies in her honor. It explores how fire in her work represents resistance against mortality and gender mandates, as well as the importance of the present and memory in her literature. Castellanos challenges the gender roles imposed by society through counter-narratives featuring characters like Gertrudis, Reinerie, and Catalina Díaz Puiljá, promoting autonomy and female emancipation. [Extracted from the article]

Several statements in Paul's letters have led scholars to conclude that Paul was not Law-observant and that he was at best indifferent, if not antagonistic, to Jewish Law-observance. This article challenges these views by situating supposedly "negative" statements on the Law within Paul's discourse on justification (Gal 2) and freedom from the Law of sin and death (Rom 7), and argues that aspects of 1 Cor 7, Gal 2–3, and Rom 3–4 imply Paul expected even believing Jews to remain Law-observant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper adopts a post-comparative approach to explore the concept of harmony in the Zhuangzi, moving beyond traditional comparative frameworks. It examines how Zhuangzian harmony offers a solution to the potential risks of domination that harmony may pose to individual freedom. It first challenges Chenyang Li's distinction between Confucian "active harmony" (主动和谐) and Daoist "passive harmony" (被动和谐), arguing that the "passive" label fails to capture the characteristic of Zhuangzian harmony. Instead, Zhuangzian harmony is better understood as "responsive harmony" (随动和谐), a unique form of harmony that is neither passive nor merely the opposite of Confucian active harmony. Responsive harmony shares similarities with active harmony, yet it offers distinct features that address certain challenges to harmony, such as the risk of domination, which Confucian harmony may not fully resolve. This perspective provides a fresh philosophical resource from Daoism for addressing contemporary concerns about harmony in ethical contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article delves into the historical evolution of academic freedom in English universities during the seventeenth century, examining the concepts of libertas scholastica and libertas philosophandi. Key figures such as John Milton and Edmund Dickinson are highlighted in debates surrounding university independence and the promotion of free thought. The text also addresses the challenges faced by reformers in establishing academic freedom amidst entrenched scholastic traditions, shedding light on the intricate relationship between institutional autonomy and intellectual liberty during this period. Additionally, the article explores the tension between libertas philosophandi and libertas scholastica in the context of the English Revolution, with scholars advocating for philosophical liberty within universities while others, like Milton and Hobbes, critiqued the lack of freedom in academic settings. The exclusion of women from universities and the empowerment of individuals like Margaret Cavendish, who sought philosophical liberty outside traditional academic structures, are also discussed, along with historical events such as book burnings and condemnations of dissenting works that illustrate the complex interplay between academic freedom and institutional control. [Extracted from the article]

"J. G. A. Pocock: A Life in Letters" by Quentin Skinner delves into the scholarly career of John Pocock, focusing on his significant contributions to political thought and history. Pocock's correspondence with Skinner reveals his dedication to academic pursuits, despite his formal writing style and conservative leanings. The text also explores Pocock's resistance to technological advancements and his strong connection to his New Zealand roots, highlighting his unique perspective as an outsider in American and European societies. Through his letters, Pocock's warmth, admiration for colleagues, and belief in the importance of the outsider's viewpoint are showcased, providing valuable insights into his life and work. [Extracted from the article]

The article "Duties in the age of rights" from the magazine Rights and Freedoms analyzes the relationship between rights and duties in today's society. Emilia Bea highlights the importance of duties in interpersonal relationships and their role in responsibility and solidarity. Bea argues that duties are fundamental to balance the society of rights and ensure justice and mutual care. The author advocates for attention towards others as the basis for true justice and emphasizes the need to rethink duties in the age of rights to protect future generations. [Extracted from the article]

The article considers the possibility of approaching reading as a human right. For this purpose, it is subjected to the questions that the general theory of rights uses to identify the actions that contain the requirements to be considered as such: why should reading be a right, to what purpose it would respond, what is its nature, and to which limits it should be subjected. In this first approach, the text focuses on the object of reading, on that part of reading that should be protected by the human right, specifically its profile as a freedom and its nature as a provision. Finally, and as a link for a future text, the subjects of the right to read are identified: the holders, those obliged by it and the 'indispensable'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On Tuesday, December 29, 2020, 16 protesters at Waikeria Prison, one of New Zealand's largest male prisons, engaged in a six-day standoff with prison guards to protest inhumane prison conditions. The Department of Corrections framed the event as an aimless riot, delegitimizing the intentional demonstration of resistance against state violence. Imprisoned intellectuals, specifically Imprisoned Black Radical tradition, have long examined and centered the prison as the harshest instrument of the state linked to the struggles of the collective. However, voices from imprisoned intellectuals are rarely considered in academic scholarship despite acute analysis of the state and liberation. This article employs the state of exception to contextualize the Waikeria protest. Particular attention is devoted to the 'state of continuity,' which allows for a broader understanding of a permanent state of racialized oppression and marginalization faced by Indigenous and Black communities in racialized-settler-colonial contexts. Populations designated as the exception are thus framed as a threat targeted for militaristic police intervention. This article concludes by extending the discussion of the state of continuity to include how expressions of rage and dissent by Indigenous and Black people are viewed as a direct threat to the sovereign order but are necessary for revolutionary change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay argues that an alternative conception of time to that underlying the ideology of productivism and growth is not only possible, but desirable. The creation of this time requires what I refer to as the practice of refusal via taking time: the self-determined arrangement of the nexus of time, action and utility that begins with the a-synchronous insertion of unproductive time into the synchronous horizontal time of productivism. The essay is divided into three sections. The first offers the reader a discussion of Jacques Rancière's notion of time as a social and political medium that partitions and distributes actions and utility. The subsequent section of the essay elaborates in aesthetic terms an account of unproductive time that is indifferent to the time of productivism. In the final section, I discuss examples that show how taking time to do 'nothing' can elicit an emancipatory politics that seeks to liberate us from the hegemony of productivism. I conclude that political theory should attend to time as a political medium and to the possibilities of its occupation, and that picturing the taking of time in terms of stopping the force of productivism's normalized horizontal time by entering the unproductive time of reverie and aesthetic experience, provides a promising perspective from which to apprehend a time for thriftless refusals, deliberate dis-identifications, and the forging of cooperation among people(s) and with nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the relation between the critical theory of Moishe Postone and the philosophy of Theodor Adorno. While the former is clearly influenced by the latter, these influences mostly stay implicit. When explicit, he does not so easily put his own thought in line with Adorno's and is highly critical of him. I will investigate the ways in which ideas from Adorno made their way into Postone's work, but also where the latter diverts from them. As will be shown, Postone's critical theory runs into a problem when one examines the immanent ground of his critical norm, freedom. Adorno, on the contrary, does succeed in employing the same norm in his own immanent critique. I will conclude that the problem Postone encounters can be avoided by being more of an 'Adornian', and that his theory allows this. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nature-inspired metaheuristic algorithm plays an autocratic role in optimization (OP). The dominance of metaheuristic algorithms has managed to solicit the focus upon themselves and has overshadowed other types of OP algorithms. Random optimization (RO) is one such type of underrepresented OP algorithm, which commanded significant interest in the mid-'60 s but eventually lost its glitter due to its lackluster OP performance. Pure random orthogonal search (PROS) is a recently published RO algorithm that has revived interest in RO. PROS is a simple, hyperparameter-free OP algorithm capable of dissipating performance better than some established metaheuristic algorithms. Unlike pure random search (PRS), where the optimizer is free to move anywhere within the feasible region, PROS effectively restricts the explorable feasible region to the region strictly orthogonal to the current location, and this restriction immensely boosts its OP performance. Between the two extremes of PRS and PROS, a spectrum of possible movement patterns merits our attention. In this paper, we perform several numerical experiments to study how the freedom to move in different dimensions (Degrees of Freedom) influences the performance of the PRS & PROS algorithm. Further, the notion of an 'Active Feasible Region' is introduced to analyze PROS and other related RO algorithms. We propose two simple modifications to the PROS algorithm based on the experiments. The modifications yield marginal performance gains over PROS. Nevertheless, valuable insights are revealed upon the effect of different degrees of freedom and orthogonality constraint and how they could be leveraged to our advantage. The python code is publicly available at: https://github.com/Shahul-Rahman/Less-is-more. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the notion of loneliness as lack of solidarity in relations to Palestinians living in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Israel, and the diaspora. Loneliness as lack of solidarity is defined as lacking someone to identify with and/or lacking someone who is willing to assist while carrying a burden. We describe the mechanism of lack of identification using the concept of epistemic injustice. The paper suggests that art may serve as a way to mitigate this kind of loneliness, and focus on the Freedom Theater, which was operating in Jenin Refugee Camp until recently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I will explore the role of memory in the context of homosexual liberation movements. I will do this through the lens of the queer press, which will serve as a doorway for the exploration of activist mnemonic labour. Activists undertake mnemonic labour to craft narratives that weave together historical oppression and resistance with hopes for a better future. These narratives are used to motivate and sustain activists in their present struggles. The queer press helps spread narratives across borders and creates shared memoryscapes for activism. My proposal is to view memoryscapes as schemata that inform activist mnemonic labour. On one hand, memoryscapes offer a shared purpose and direction for activists spread across different countries. On the other hand, they serve as arenas for mediation and comparison, linking distinct histories from diverse social groups and revealing their shared threads. This turns memory into a resource for building alliances across borders, and among different political and social groups. I will adopt this perspective to study two Argentinian homosexual liberation groups from the 1960s-70s: Nuestro Mundo and Frente de Liberación Homosexual (FLH). I will explore activist mnemonic labour on Nuestro Mundo's bulletins and the FLH's periodicals: Homosexuales and Somos. I will focus on two main aspects: (1) how activists adapt transnational narratives to the local context, and (2) how Argentinian activists weave narratives that blend historical oppression and resistance with visions of a different future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given recent developments in Church-State relations, it is important to discuss the relationship between liberty and morality in law. We must reconcile the classical understanding of politics as a way to make citizens virtuous with a more modern understanding of law as institutional safeguards to liberty. Legal pronouncements can lead citizens to virtue or condemn their wrongdoing without engaging in forceful punishment. The law in this way can be used as an instrument of moral education. Congressional resolutions and moral curricula serve as current examples of this. Political theorists and lawyers should reaffirm not only the just structures that constitute political offices but also the virtue required to uphold them. Without this proper moral education, citizens abandon their commitment to liberty. This solution allows us to recognize that liberty and virtue must coexist because the moral order is inextricably tied with the free order of society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Every day, through internal adjudicative proceedings, agencies make thousands of rights determinations that affect critical matters such as financial security, family unity, personal safety, and individual liberty. Scholars and policymakers have recognized the significant impact that representation can have on adjudicative outcomes across the administrative state. Many agencies have implemented policies affirmatively seeking to boost an individual's ability to bring an advocate to assist with the adjudication process. In the immigration context, however, agencies have enacted procedural hurdles that have made it more difficult for individuals to reap the benefits of this assistance. This Essay uses recent developments in the rules governing immigration courts as a vehicle to explore how agencies can alter procedural rules around administrative adjudication to discourage the effective assistance of counsel in these proceedings. It identifies how agency control over docketing practices, scheduling orders, and filing deadlines--often justified in terms of "efficiency"--can constructively limit an individual's ability to find an attorney, as well as that attorney's ability to effectively represent their client in the underlying proceedings. Acknowledging these downstream consequences reveals how agencies can operationalize adjudicative procedures to influence substantive outcomes, possibly violating their statutory and constitutional obligations in the process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To examine in-depth experiences of loneliness and freedom after late-life divorce from an intergenerational familial/dyadic perspective in a family-oriented society that also values self-determination. Considering the expansion of late-life divorce, it is important to understand its consequences for the family wellbeing. Method: According to phenomenology tradition, data was collected through 51 semi-structured qualitative interviews, comprised from 7 family units (n = 33) including all/most family members and 9 parent-child dyads (n = 18), using thematic-analysis and dyadic interview-analysis principles. Analyzing family units enables a more complex examination of the phenomena, providing a holistic view of family life. Results: Loneliness and freedom experienced simultaneously was the most common. A gap was identified between generations regarding benefits and costs of late-life divorce. Whereas most divorcees emphasized the benefits of freedom, most of their adult-children mainly described the disadvantages of loneliness, perceiving both loneliness and freedom as negative. Conclusion: Late-life divorce is a complex experience comprised of both loneliness and freedom. Each generation experiences the benefits and costs of late-life divorce differently. Unique aspects of freedom and loneliness at old age in a socio-cultural context located between self-determination and family-oriented are discussed, including strategies of coping with loneliness. Implications for families and professionals are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The prevailing view of the origin of the idea of republican liberty holds that it emerged as a polemical tool to wield against political opponents in the Roman republic. But viewing republican liberty as partisan rhetorical device has obscured the important philosophical innovations that were necessary to render it theoretically viable and coherent. Turning to Cicero, the earliest extant theorist of republican liberty, I seek to explore the depth of the conceptual revolution that made it possible to articulate that ideal. Cicero transforms the practice of republican libertas into a coherent ideal through a re-thinking of some of the central claims of Greek political philosophy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines Cicero's treatment of libertas and its constitutional underpinnings in Pro Rabirio perduellionis reo. In Pro Rabirio , Cicero offers a concentrated discussion of libertas in which he downplays its relationship with popular institutions and procedures and emphasizes instead its strong correlation with social and political consensus. Indeed, for Cicero, libertas is more closely associated with the qualitative characteristics of peaceable association than any particular constitutional order. By characterizing libertas as an experience of calm security that goods citizens enjoy when they are consistently and effectively protected against by injury at the hands of moral degenerates, Cicero makes it possible to distance libertas from provocatio and auxilium , the two major legal and institutional mechanisms associated with libertas in the Roman context, and forge a much stronger connection with the self-regulating activity of the Roman ruling elite. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Tribologie und Schmierungstechnik is the property of Narr Francke Attempto Verlag GmbH & Co.KG and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In recent years, political theorists have increasingly turned their attention to the past in search of conceptual renovation in the present. While recourse to the past has been a recurring thread throughout the history of political thought, the overlapping concern of recent scholarship has been to revisit seemingly exhausted political concepts with the aim of repurposing them for contemporary political challenges and realities. The three edited collections under review – Positive Freedom, Perfektionismus der Autonomie and Rethinking Liberty Before Liberalism – are distinguished by their thoughtful attempts at retrieving and politicizing the concepts of positive freedom, post-Kantian perfectionism, and neo-Roman liberty in contemporary political thought. These retrievals present promising avenues for theoretical innovation, along with the ever-present risk of diminishing interpretive returns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This chapter discusses and evaluates Erik Olin Wright's reception of Max Weber. To this end, it presents Wright's and Weber's class theories and focuses on and counter poses their respective notions of emancipation, exploitation, inequality, and democracy. The article, furthermore, critically evaluates Wright's assessment of Weber by referring them to Weber's own texts and argues that Weber's notion of exploitation connotes the sphere of production, not that of exchange; that exploitation for Weber hinges on differences in life chances that cause obstacles in mobility between social classes; and that for Weber exploitation may be found in other modes of production in addition to capitalism. Finally, this chapter traces the differences in these authors' respective notions of exploitation to their different understanding of emancipation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Van den Berg and Amasyali make a persuasive (though not yet definitive) case that, in practice, appeals to ideas about agency do little to advance our sociological understanding. However, they seem to treat the antithesis of this (vague as it is) notion, explanatory determinism, as if it were stable. Not only are the two concepts equally paradoxical, but one calls out for the other, and we cannot criticize and dispense with one while retaining its twin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Arab Law Quarterly is the property of Brill Academic Publishers and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article "Aron and Tocqueville: Liberty and Equality: A Review Essay" from Cosmos + Taxis discusses the shared beliefs of French thinkers Raymond Aron and Alexis de Tocqueville in freedom and equality. Aron's preoccupation with liberty intensified during World War II, leading to his final lecture in Paris in 1978. The article also reviews Olivier Zunz's biography of Tocqueville, detailing his political career, personal life, and views on democracy, liberty, and equality. The text highlights the contributions of both thinkers to the understanding of these fundamental concepts. [Extracted from the article]

The article discusses the contributions of Michael Oakeshott and Russell Kirk to the evolution of conservatism in the 20th century. Oakeshott's works, particularly "On Human Conduct" and "Rationalism in Politics and Other Essays," emphasized the importance of ordered liberty and morality in civil society. The text highlights Oakeshott's role in uniting conservative intellectuals internationally and shaping modern conservative philosophy. Additionally, it explores the distinction between liberal conservatism and social conservatism, tracing their roots back to thinkers like Burke and Hegel. The article suggests that Oakeshott's philosophical foundation for ordered liberty played a crucial role in transforming conservatism into a creed of liberty, alongside the contributions of Kirk, Reagan, and Thatcher. [Extracted from the article]

Copyright of Tabayyun is the property of Arab Center for Research & Policy Studies and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper aims to examine the concept of dream in the poetry of Langston Hughes and Mahmoud Darwish as a technique of resistant consciousness and emancipation. The intransigent, non-reconciliatory stance of both Darwish and Hughes against oppression profoundly preserves their dream of emancipation, making it alive even as an idea. The dream empowers the two poets' resilience, oppositional, and resistant consciousness against all forms of oppressive power. This article analyzes how both Darwish and Hughes can be viewed as non-reconciled poets in the name of humanist intransigence and refusal to surrender. The concept of dream is the ultimate way for the two poets, providing them with radical and oppositional resistance. Hence, the presence of the concept of dream and its prevalence in the two poets' thinking and poetic works encourage them to be always in a state of dynamic generative mobility of resistance, intransigence, and non-reconciliation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Signa is the property of Editorial UNED and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)