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Municipal land-use planning for second-home development has become increasingly contentious in Norway, with particular concern regarding its environmental impacts. In this article, we investigate how environmental sustainability is interpreted and practiced in local second-home planning by comparing two neighbouring municipalities straddling the popular downhill ski destination of Norefjell. By applying the analytical concept of the empty signifier, we illustrate how different significations of environmental sustainability in the two municipalities allow local authorities to justify contrasting strategies for second-home expansion despite the cost to nature. The article further indicates the broader possibilities and problems resulting from the malleability of environmental sustainability in second-home planning against the urgent need to deal with climate and nature crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I will critically explore Arato and Cohen's work on populism acknowledging areas of agreement while noting gaps in their reasoning particularly regarding the complex relations between capitalism and democracy and the recent erosion of democracy replacing it with authoritarian regimes that are better suited for neoliberal policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Critical Race Theory (CRT) has become a flashpoint of elite political discord, yet how Americans actually perceive CRT is unclear. We theorize that Republican elites utilized a strong framing strategy to re-define CRT as an "empty signifier" representing broader racial and cultural grievances. Using a survey and a pre-registered experiment among U.S. adults (N = 19,060), we find that this strategy worked. Republicans exhibit more familiarity with CRT and hold more negatively valenced (and wide ranging) sentiments toward CRT, relative to Democrats. Moreover, compared to teaching the legacy of racism in schools, Republicans are significantly more opposed to teaching CRT while Democrats express greater uncertainty. Our findings suggest that by framing CRT as a broad term that envelopes many grievances (including those beyond the scope of CRT), Republican elites have shaped a subset of Americans' understanding of and attitudes toward CRT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Synergies Italie is the property of GERFLINT (Groupe d'Etudes et de Recherches pour le Francais Langue Internationale) 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 is an attempt to explore the two prominent populist moments in post- colonial India, namely Indira Gandhi's and Narendra Modi's politics, to understand the formation, transformation, and repercussions of populism at different historical conjunctures. To move beyond the existing accounts that have either tended to reduce populism to a rhetoric style or a campaign strategy or failed to address the dynamic relationship between populism and nationalism, the paper draws on the discursive- theoretical approach developed by Ernesto Laclau and scholars influenced by him, which sees populism as a political logic, with a specific focus on the distinction and articulation between populism and nationalism. Through a nuanced analysis of Gandhi's and Modi's populist politics, the paper hopes to shed light on the entanglement between populism and nationalism, or between "the people" and "the nation" in different forms that has continued to characterize the political landscape of India until today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Situated within the context of the rise of right-wing populism, this study aims to explore the enigmatic emergence of the idaenam movement and the prevailing gender polarization witnessed during the recent 19th and 20th presidential elections in South Korea. Among idaenam activists, feminism holds significant hegemonic influence, and their perception of reverse discrimination serves as a critical lens through which they interpret gender dynamics in Korean society. Additionally, the perceived structural injustices and unfulfilled promise of meritocracy, along with the fiercely competitive nature of contemporary society, compounded by the influence of neoliberalism and the overarching context of modernity, contribute to feelings of ontological insecurity among young men in their twenties. This sense of uncertainty and anxiety compels them to rally around a perceived shared objective, aligning themselves with right-wing populism, which espouses the restoration of stability by upholding certain traditional gender norms. By unraveling the complexities of these interconnected factors, this study contributes to a nuanced understanding of the idaenam phenomenon and its implications for gender equality and identity politics in modern Korean society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Studia Politicae is the property of Studia Politicae 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.)

AbstractThis study explores the discourse about health promotion and the role of the teacher in Swedish upper secondary schools. The material consists of student health plans from schools and local authorities that were analysed using discourse analysis. The results show that health promotion is largely an empty or floating signifier. The teacher is mainly in discursive shadow. When the teacher is in discursive light, their role in health promotion is connected to ordinary teacher tasks. Schools can set out what health promotion entails to a greater extent and clarify the role of the teacher.

This study examines how the Chinese government has adopted authoritarian digital populism to justify its political programs through its official social media sub-accounts. Through discourse analysis, we investigate textual material concerning the "Belt and Road Initiative" (BRI) posted on a representative WeChat account, Xiakedao. We find Xiakedao performing digital populism through stylistic-emotional manipulation to portray the benefits of the BRI to China, BRI countries, and the world, or, put succinctly, to legitimize the BRI. Specifically, in 2014–2016, through mixing informal and formal language, Xiakedao based its legitimization on stirring up a sense of hegemonic superiority by painting it as a strategy capable of significantly advancing China's interests. Since 2017, Xiakedao has shifted to emphasizing its massive global contribution to stimulate nationalist pride and exploiting a trauma complex to bestow a counter-hegemonic aura on it. Drawing on Laclau and Mouffe's discourse theory, we argue that Xiakedao has utilized the terms "China" and "BRI" as an empty signifier and a floating signifier, respectively. We unravel its discursive strategies of fixing their meanings and (re)drawing antagonistic frontiers to legitimize the BRI during different periods. The study contributes to theoretically understanding how an authoritarian state legitimizes the same political programs from disparate stances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have heard many times expressions such as: “empty words”, “empty talk”, “hot air”, but is there really an empty “phraseology”, one that does not mean anything, i.e., that does not have a clear referent (the idea it refers to)? Showing the possibilities of such phraseology without meaning, the paper examines its use in politics, focusing on bureaucratic language that shapes our political reality, and can be found in many constitutional documents of the EU, US, or even UN. Namely, we will try to show that between general and particular meaning, there is a huge gap, an emptiness, which is used by a certain type of speech, in order to absorb every other language and its performative powers. Our criticism will move in two directions: the first has the task of showing the meaning(less) character of political bureaucratic phraseology as such, and its passivizing or non-affirmative effects. The other one comes down to examining the ideological background of Eurocentrism, detecting the hegemonic character of the idea of Europe (and Western civilizations) embedded in its political language. Starting from Ernesto Laclau’s understanding of the “empty signifier” and the necessary function it has in the foundation of the system (especially a hegemonic one), through the history of the discourse of the idea of Europe, we will show the possibility and use of “emptiness” in meaning, especially when it comes to core values that are set for the foundation of one’s politics.

We were fooling ourselves if we thought that, by spreading the use of English as a common global language, we were building the ultimate bridge to international peace and understanding. We are now in an era in which globalization increases inequalities and competitiveness between economies and cultures; the “engagement algorithms” of social media not only foster new friendships, they also spread untruths and fear; and the English linguistic sign is increasingly reduced to a commodified or empty signifier. More than ever, our times call for more than communicative competence, tolerance of and respect for others – values supposedly vehiculated through English in intercultural communication. They urgently call for a critical understanding of the role that symbolic systems like Global English, global marketing discourses and the discourse of global ideological competition play in constituting the distressing world we live in. What we need in language education is a kind of symbolic competence that includes the ability to understand the symbolic universe in which utterances and texts are produced, identify the symbolic power struggles at work in face to face and online interactions, and be wary of the new A.I. systems that risk upending our efforts to understand one another across cultures. On two examples of “intercultural competence”, one in China, the other on Chat GPT, this paper reflects on how the globalization of English has changed the nature of intercultural communication and how an understanding of symbolic power is needed to come to grips with the changes.

Copyright of Historia y Comunicación Social is the property of Universidad Complutense de Madrid 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.)

As in many other parts of Europe, anti-government protest has been a topic of political and academic discussion in the Netherlands for some years. The definition of what anti-government protest entails and which groups and individuals it refers to is not as straightforward as it may seem. Where other institutions have attempted to place anti-governmental protest movements in frameworks of traditional extremist movements, the Dutch authorities describe the anti-government protestors as a group that is characterised by its pluriformity and fluidity. In 2022, they have even changed the term 'anti-governmental' to 'anti-institutional' to more broadly refer to the set of targets that the movement opposes, which includes government, but also the media, the scientific community, experts and the judicial system. In this paper we try to understand the anti-government, or anti-institutional, protest in the Netherlands using a different lens. We use Ernesto Laclau's discourse theory and its concept of empty signifiers to show how opposed interests and goals can be seen as a unified ideology to its proponents. Instead of trying to primarily define the group of people who are anti-government by their actions or characteristics, we look at how those actors define themselves and how they see their struggle against the authorities. We describe the rise and dynamics of anti-government protest in the Netherlands since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on "genealogies" and the eclectic topics of the protest movement. We compare our observations with the definition of anti-governmental protest and the antiinstitutional narrative as used by the authorities. We arrive at the conclusion that analysing the antigovernment protest through the lens of their shared ideas and grievances gives us more insight into the nature and dynamics of this movement than solely looking through the lens of the potential threat to the democratic legal order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adaptations of Shakespeare's Roman plays have frequently addressed political topics at the time of their production. As a result, Shakespeare's Rome, already a site of political conflict and power struggle, has found different and at times opposing significations in its new contexts. The present study is set to explore how two recent adaptations of the Roman plays in Iran, There Will Be Blood (2019, based on Titus Andronicus) and Coriolanus (2019 and 2020), have situated Shakespeare's texts in Iran's contemporary political context. The study argues that Shakespeare's Roman plays have created a platform for Iranian theatre directors to address the political issues and debates in Iran, a country in which it is extremely difficult to produce a political play. Jürgen Habermas's idea of legitimation crisis and Ernesto Laclau's concept of the empty signifier underpin the analysis of the adaptations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we investigate how different discourses on frugal innovation are articulated, and how the dynamics between these different discourses have led to a certain dominant understanding of frugal innovation today. We analyse the dynamic interactions between three discourses on frugal innovation: (1) innovations for the poor, (2) grassroots innovations by the poor, and more recently (3) co-creating frugal innovations with the poor. We argue that this latter discourse is articulated as a hegemonic project as it is designed to accommodate demands from both business and poor communities. We draw on Laclau and Mouffe's concepts of 'chain of difference', 'empty signifier' and 'floating signifier' to explain the advent of the hegemonic discourse on co-creating innovations with the poor. We show how a floating signifier with radical potential, frugal innovation, has been hijacked and co-opted in a hegemonic project that has leveraged powerful ambiguous signifiers, with co-creation acting as an empty signifier. To clarify what is problematic in this hegemonic intervention, we expose how contemporary frugal innovation discourse contributes to a project of governing and exploiting rather than helping the poor, in ways that benefit formal economic actors while further worsening global inequalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to provide a concise but systematic presentation of the discursive ontology of the social that underpins the thought of the Argentinian political theorist Ernesto Laclau. First articulated by Laclau and his collaborator Chantal Mouffe at the historical conjuncture of the late twentieth century that witnessed the disintegration of established leftist political visions and the rise of a plurality of new social movements, the post-structuralist discursive ontology on which Laclau bases his theorization of hegemony as the paradigm of politicsis one that continues to exert a powerful influence on contemporary post-foundational political thought, discourse analysis, and “left populist” political movements. This paper traces the fundamental claims of that ontology, paying special attention to Laclau’s theses apropos the limits of universality and impossibility of “fullness.” In the final third of this paper, the French philosopher Alain Badiou’s approach to the conceptualization of social change is employed as a foil to draw some key implications of Laclau’s elevation of “hegemony” as the universal form of the political for political thought and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Freedom is approached in this article as an empty signifier and as an object of discursive struggle, from a discourse-theoretical perspective. The hegemonic centrality of freedom in Western discourse and identity construction is acknowledged, but at the same time the article argues that hegemony is never total and all-encompassing. In other words, hegemonic constructions are seen as always particular, with their universal claims displaying cracks and gaps. Especially when different discursive communities (e.g. the West and Russia) engage in global discursive struggles, these cracks become visible through dislocatory strategies. The second part of the article then addresses a case study about how this discursive struggle is organised in practice, focussing on the RT mini-series How to Watch the News, which prominently features Slavoj Žižek. The discourse-theoretical analysis demonstrates how the mini-series deconstructs the Western articulation of freedom, in three ways, namely by showing the failures of Western liberal democracies, and the divided nature of Western societies, and by critiquing the individualistic articulation of freedom. The article concludes by pointing to the ambiguities related to the centrality of freedom, the role of RT and the role of Žižek as public intellectual. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research analyzed the processes that channeled the unrest on Twitter during the Chilean social outbreak in 2019. First, a review of the literature concerning the latest Chilean protests and social movements was conducted. Second, investigations related to opinion mining on Twitter were analyzed. Third, user comments were collected between October 18 and 26 (the most spontaneous moment of the outbreak), through opinion mining techniques; these comments were stored and analyzed to identify and recognize the posts that were related to the hashtags of the trending topics in Chile. Finally, this data was analyzed to verify the role of the figure of the president together with the other words found. With these data it can be stated that there is a re-significance of the malaise through the figure of Sebastián Piñera, his government and the institutions related to him. These are transformed into objects of discourse and representation of what is antagonistic to the idea of the people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Praktyka Teoretyczna is the property of University of Wroclaw 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 is based on the poststructuralist and deconstructivist practices of interpretation in modern art, which is understood as an empty signifier that opens up potentially infinite possibilities for free interpretation. After all, the credo of modern art is to be open to a variety of interpretations. The main challenge of the paper is the application of these practices in the field of modern architecture, whose primary goal is to be functional. However, according to Umberto Eco and Roland Barthes, as soon as there is any cultural and social function, it immediately becomes a signifier. Thus, the equivalent of free interpretation in the domain of modern architecture becomes free experience. Public space should be arranged in such a way as to force its resident/user to "participate in the design", as Manfredo Tafuri puts it. The ultimate goal of this understanding of modern architecture is to try to turn urban life into an event. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The NEET concept has become standard vocabulary when addressing youth disengagement. Across countries, the definition is used to measure young adults at risk of social exclusion. Using sequence and clustering analyses on unique Danish register data, this article presents a longitudinal study of the temporal developments of NEET occurrences. This enables a critical assessment of the quality of the NEET concept as a proxy for measuring young adults at risk of social exclusion. The article demonstrates how four out of five young adults labelled NEET cannot be characterized as being at risk of social exclusion. Using quantitative analyses, the results confirm the criticism of the NEET concept in some of the qualitative literature and find that there is a need to discuss the applicability of the concept nationally to define who is at risk, as well as in cross-national comparisons of young adults not in employment, education or training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article adopts Ernesto Laclau's notion of empty signifier to discuss Tang Junyi's uses of the concept of lixing ('reason' or 'rationality') in his seminal work Cultural Consciousness and Moral Reason (文化意識與道德理性; 1958). My dual goal, in doing so, is to bring to light the relations of power constitutive of the text's discourse on lixing and relate them to the problematic of writing philosophy from the periphery. I argue that in this work, lixing's dual referents—as a translation of 'reason' and as denoting a Neo-Confucian faculty to intuit moral truths—allow Tang to inscribe himself in a philosophical field designed to exclude non-Western philosophies, while at the same time enabling him to symbolically relegate Euro-American philosophy to a peripheral position by filling in the notion of lixing with a content that legitimizes his own agenda. Tang could thus authorize his Confucian metaphysics by presenting it as the true content of lixing, understood not only as a universal faculty enabling humanity's access to all that is universal, but also as a condition sine qua non of for one's inclusion in the philosophical game. By attempting to co-opt the empty signifier (lixing/reason) for his own purposes, I argue Tang employs one of two possible strategies that can be adopted by those situated at the periphery in order to oppose the hegemon; one that leaves the structure of power relations intact but working in favor of the periphery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Governments are widely viewed by academics and practitioners (and society more generally) as the key societal actors who are capable of compelling businesses to practice corporate social responsibility (CSR). Arguably, such government involvement could be seen as a technocratic device for encouraging ethical business behaviour. In this paper, we offer a more politicised interpretation of government engagement with CSR where "CSR" is not a desired form of business conduct but an element of discourse that governments can deploy in structuring their relationships with other social actors. We build our argument through a historical analysis of government CSR discourse in the Russian Federation. Laclau and Mouffe's (Hegemony and socialist strategy: Towards a radical democratic politics, Verso Books, London, 1985) social theory of hegemony underpins our research. We find that "CSR" in the Russian government's discourse served to legitimise its power over large businesses. Using this case, we contribute to wider academic debates by providing fresh empirical evidence that allows the development of critical evaluation tools in relation to governments' engagement with "CSR". We find that governments are capable of hijacking CSR for their own self-interested gain. We close the paper by reflecting on the merit of exploring the case of the Russian Federation. As a "non-core", non-western exemplar, it provides a useful "mirror" with which to reflect on the more widely used test-bed of Western industrial democracies when scrutinising CSR. Based on our findings, we invite other scholars to adopt a more critical, politicised stance when researching the role of governments in relation to CSR in other parts of the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leadership is a popular term, among scholars and in general. It is romanticized and seems to cover everything and nothing. Its analytical value has therefore been questioned, and so has the very existence of leadership as a phenomenon. Here, based on the social psychology of GH Mead, I argue that leadership is a fundamental human phenomenon emanating from docility. By exploring this through the lens of three classic texts – Milgram's Obedience to Authority, Foucault's Discipline and Punish, and Taylor's The Principles of Scientific Management – I argue that processes that accomplish leadership are often not understood as leadership, but as something else, for example manipulation or management. More generally, I argue that leadership disappears as we identify the details of its manifestations, and from this I argue that leadership is a concept that denies its own ontological foundation. My conclusions suggest that leadership scholars and practitioners increasingly should draw attention to the choices involved in leadership processes and to practices commonly seen as not being about leadership – leadership studies will benefit from making the immaculate concept of leadership dirtier. I set out to Make a Difference (MAD) by arguing that leadership is a fundamental feature of human existence and that it is an outcome of humans' innate predisposition towards docility. I argue that the key to understanding leadership is to see it as a social process that denies its own existence, and that it is in this the mystery and romance of leadership originates. Leadership scholars and practitioners should increasingly draw attention to the choices involved in leadership processes and to those 'dirty' practices commonly seen as not being about leadership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2015 the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs ) were ratified by 195 countries. To be achieved by 2030, the goals aim to transform our world by leaving no one behind. In 2017 the Global Ecovillage Network (GEN) investigated how 30 ecovillages from 5 continents already contributed to the UN SDGs. The results were presented on the 2018 High-Level Political Forum (HLPF). Based on the GEN research outcomes, we examined 17 international Ecovillages. We aimed to understand how ecovillages relate to the UN SDG framework. The research was done with Ecovillages Around the World subject students. Before the analysis, students became acquainted with the SDGs' targets and their implications in different communities. The research methods were web-content analysis and self-assessment from the ecovillages' representatives, and the results were compared. The research proved that studied ecovillages already contribute to most SDGs; still, most do not know or intend to use the SDG framework. The results indicate a communication gap between the global political community and local ecovillages. Both global and local efforts aim to support sustainable development, but there could be vast differences in the interpretation of sustainability. Therefore, there is a significant need to establish communication channels and platforms to support the partnership between stakeholder groups working for sustainability at different levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the use of "symbolic photographs"  – images in news reporting which have no direct connection to reported events – in news reporting. Such images deviate not only from the self-professed journalistic norm of factual reporting but also fundamentally challenge the act of civic eyewitnessing constitutive for visual journalism. Concepts of floating and empty signifiers from Discourse Theory are applied to "symbolic photographs" to analyse their ambivalent act of signification, their particular mode of iconicity and, by extension, the journalistic and political implications of their repetitive use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article revisits the theory of hegemony of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe and shows how a normative injunction, which according to Laclau is not compatible with the hegemonic logic, is not only possible but a necessary condition for hegemony to function. The article claims that the path to demonstrate this involves rethinking the relationship between the theory of hegemony and Derridean deconstruction. Following criticisms that the theory of hegemony overlooks the aporetic nature of Derridean undecidability that it nevertheless relies upon, the hegemonic logic is submitted to a deconstructive reading, which reveals an internal aporia in it. It is further argued that the unaccounted aporia in the logic of hegemony explains the theory's inability to satisfactorily account for its essential theoretical underpinning, the radical exclusion. However, the article also demonstrates that the aporia does not destroy hegemonic logic but, instead, supplements it by a normative dimension, by a demand of opening to the other as other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article traces the emergence and development of claims that the 2016 referendum on the UK's membership of the European Union delivered a mandate for a so-called no-deal Brexit. Utilising Lacanian ideas about group mobilisation combined with a detailed content analysis and evidence drawn from polling data, it shows that this no deal narrative should be viewed as a discursive project that was constructed by a section of Leave campaigners relatively late into the Brexit process amidst growing disillusionment with the direction that negotiations with the EU were taking. By emphasising the role of Brexit as an 'empty signifier', the article shows that Brexit was initially successful in mobilising and uniting a disparate, but often unconnected, range of discontent to its cause. However, over time the complexities of the Brexit process triggered a discursive 'war of position' as competing visions of Brexit attempted to vie for dominance amongst the Leave camp. It is within this context that the myth of no deal emerged as an attempt by an elite group of actors to re-mobilise support for their cause. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Theoretical Studies of Literature & Art / Wenyi Lilun Yanjiu is the property of Editorial Board of Theoretical Studies in Literature & Art 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.)

Copyright of Moment Journal: Journal of Cultural Studies is the property of Moment Journal: Journal of Cultural 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.)

The protests that took place across Turkey in the summer of 2013 started as a bottom-up response to the plans of the government and Istanbul municipality to build a shopping mall on a small yet symbolic park in the cultural heart of the city. Taking the name of this point of origin, Gezi Park protests have quickly turned into a countrywide resistance movement against the hyper-developmentalist environmental and urban policies of the government, and the authoritarian tendencies of PM (now President) Tayyip Erdoğan. The movement unified opposition from all sides of the political spectrum, and transformed not only environmental discourses and policy-making but also the language in Turkish politics. Using Laclauian discourse theory and 25 semi-structured interviews with protesters and opinion leaders, this article documents how environmental policy has become the focus of popular dissent and analyses the signifiers around which the resistance has emerged. The hegemonic struggles between the government and the protestors and the lasting effects of the protests are critically discussed, to scrutinise the increasingly focal place of environmental discourses in the global conjuncture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper follows a call for a new direction for sports studies in India, orienting it towards the field of cultural studies. It focuses on the representation of the figure of the sports celebrity in television advertising in India from the 1980s to the present, establishing the various kinds of representations of this figure, and proceeds to a historical analysis of the changes that these representations have undergone over time. It also argues that the evolution of the celebrity sportsperson, and the meanings attached to this figure, can help in tracing larger changes in sports discourse in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do disparate grievances join to form an agenda for collective action? This article analyses the articulation of movement demands and solidarity building during the formative phase of a popular mobilisation against a multinational mining company in Bangladesh. Drawing on a conceptual framework derived from Laclauian discourse theory, I explain how local community resistance inspired various social groups to support an anti-corporate social movement, ultimately defeating the mining company. I explain how the construction of an empty signifier had the capacity to connect disparate groups to oppose a common enemy. This analysis is based on a set of interviews with activists and a close reading of organisational documents. The examination of how movement demands are articulated emphasises the role of movement intellectuals and enriches the theorising of social movements in the Global South. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The essay proposes a journey through whateverness, in an attempt to rethink difference through a desire for a ‘whatever difference’ – a difference that is not specifically different – and a desire for a being with no specific name. The essay maps out the whateverness at work in queer theory and politics, and consists of six texts: Text 1 is “Whatever!” On exasperation”; Text 2 is “A trip to the death zone” (on Queer Nation); Text 3 is “Queer demos. Plunging into the whatever of democracy” (on Jacques Rancière); Text 4 is “The force of emptiness” (on Judith Butler and Ernesto Laclau); Text 5 is “Agamben in the disco: pausal politics” (on Agamben and disco dancers); Text 6 is “Becoming whatever” (on Paul B Preciado Testo Junkie).

Copyright of IUSTA is the property of Universidad Santo Tomas 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.)

Critical voices in the press argue that with digital media religious authority is weakened or endangered. Moreover, not only the press, but also academic researchers are convinced that the way the construction of religious authority is changing is crucial because it is the base and the backbone of religious organizations and their structures and function. However, there is by no means consensus on the definition of the term authority. Not only religious actors, but researchers as well ascribe different meanings to academic terms such as authority. Therefore, we have to ask critically what actually authority is. In other words, what meaning is ascribed to the concept or term author by the different researchers in their respective disciplines? Based on these reflections, the aim of this report is to analyze how the term authority is 'filled' with meaning in the academic discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The term "sacred" has a long history, but this introduction demonstrates that the concept of a contrast between the sacred or holy and the profane or trivial arose only at the beginning of the 20th century. A shared characteristic of definitions of the sacred or holy is that they are something special which is separated from the profane or trivial world. In the research discourse, sacred is not just a critical but also a controversial term. In our two case studies, we set out to analyze how meaning is ascribed to the semantic field "sacred". Building on Laclau's concept of empty signifiers (Laclau 1996) and the understanding that sacred and related terms of the lexical/semantic field are not stable but have ever-changing meanings, we explore how the semantic field is filled in academic and contemporary journalistic contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]