Editorial: New Editors
Katharina Manderscheid: Integrating Space and Mobilities into the Analysis of Social Inequality
Although there is an observable increase in socio-economic polarizations within most (Western) countries, the debate on social inequalities has lost its former central position within sociology. Against the background of current political and economic changes as well as technological developments, which appear to re-structure social relations, traditional approaches to social class, social mobility and social inequality show less and less analytical and interpretative power. This paper seeks to contribute to an improved understanding of the mechanisms through which social inequalities are being continuously reproduced. I suggest a synthetic approach which understands social inequality as multidimensional and relationally constituted within different social spaces. For this purpose, Bourdieu's approach to relational social inequalities represents a fruitful point of departure but also contains several shortcomings. Therefore, I propose an extension by Shepphard's concept of positionalities as the relationally defined places of actors within these spaces. Furthermore, I elaborate on the relational character of the socio-spatial world by drawing on the mobilities paradigm. The establishment and sustaining of social relations, which constitute spaces through material practice, rest to a large extent on mobilities allowing or denying access to the spatialities of resources, activities and goods. Understood in a broader sense encompassing potential, virtual and physical movement of goods, symbols and people, mobilities thus constitute a significant stratifying force through which unequal life chances are being continuously reproduced. The suggested integration of so far largely unconnected strands in social theory is seen as a fruitful frame for further research of the reproduction of social inequalities and their impacts on people's lives. A corresponding research agenda is at the end of the paper.
Keywords: Inequality; mobility; motility; positionality; social class; space; transport.
Naja Vucina and Peter Triantafillou: HIV, Constructionism and Biopower
In recent years we have seen the emergence of a wide range of critical analyses of political and social practices conducted under the heading of 'constructionism'. Drawing on Michel Foucault's historical work on sexuality and the formation of the sexed body, a branch of constructionist analysis has taken as its primary task to question the cultural constructions of gender, sex and sexuality as 'hetero-normative' bearings. We argue that the sexual critique posed by constructionism, despite its intention to break with the objectifying mechanisms of power over sexuality, may actually re-enforce those workings of power that target the sexual being. Through an analysis of health strategies aimed at homosexuals in the fight against AIDS in Brazil, we illustrate how constructionism has contributed to rendering a fluid and changeable sexual identity amenable to public health interventions both through and beyond the state apparatus.
Keywords: Biopower; Brazil; constructionism; Foucault; HIV; the repressive hypothesis; sexuality; subjectivity.
Mika Ojakangas: Apostle Paul and the Profanation of the Law
On the one hand, this article deals with the recent adoption of the theology of Apostle Paul in radical political philosophy by John Milbank, Alain Badiou and Giorgio Agamben. According to these interpretations, Paul's theology offers us elements to resist the nihilist utilitarian instrumental reason that prevails today, the reason that has transformed all politics, all human praxis, into what Agamben and Milbank call biopolitics. On the other hand, the aim of the article is to present an alternative interpretation of Pauline theology, based on the view that Paul, in fact, is one of the most important genealogical sources of the alleged contemporary nihilism. The principal argument is that by relativizing the fundamental distinction between the sacred and the profane, Paul paves the way for a purely instrumental view of the world in which the category of usefulness replaces the sacred as the measure of value. The focus of the analysis is on Paul's critique of the law (nomos). The aim of this critique, as Agamben correctly points out, is neither the abolition of the law nor an invention of a new law but the profanation of the law. Yet this profanation does not open up a 'messianic' dimension which would surpass the contemporary biopolitical constellation, as Agamben suggests. Through the Lutheran adoption of the original Pauline perspective, it has instead paved the way for the modern view of the law as a mere rational technical apparatus devoid of all sacredness of content.
Keywords: Giorgio Agamben; Alain Badiou; law; Martin Luther; John Milbank; Apostle Paul; Profanation.
Christian Borch and Uffe Lind: The Mobile Parliament: Taking Regional Matters of Concern Seriously
This paper proposes a practical vision of a new spatial politics that focuses on the regional level. Drawing on Bruno Latour's conception of a novel democratic structure, we suggest a new political institution called the mobile parliament. The paper presents the mobile parliament and its bicameral organization. The first house consists of satellites that map regional matters of concern. The second house applies the input generated by the first house to rank and decide on the regional matters of concern. By emphasizing the political dimension, the paper at the same time stresses that regionalization requires more than physical planning.
Keywords: Democracy; Bruno Latour; regionalization; Peter Sloterdijk; spatial politics.
Malreddy Pavan Kumar: Review Essay: Humanism and Its Other: Difference and Disjuncture in Postcolonial Theory
Postcolonial theory challenges humanism for its ethical and political rationality advanced by colonial apologists, who used 'civilizing mission' as a rhetorical humanist device to cultivate social hierarchies and the violence required to maintain them. To that end, postcolonial theory was expected to offer a counter-narrative to the humanist ideology that is grounded in the Eurocentric vision of the world. This essay reviews some of the key theoretical debates concerning humanism and its counter discourse(s) - nativism - in the postcolonial project. Three distinct bodies of the postcolonial theory are examined: Edward Said's humanist project of 'contrapuntality' and its pertinent cultural relativism; the foundationalist manifestos of 'provincializing' Europe in Subaltern Studies; and the post-essentialist theories of Homi Bhabha and Gayatri Spivak.
Keywords: Homi Bhabha; humanism; Orientalism; postcolonial theory; Edward Said; Gayatri Spivak; strategic essentialism; Subaltern Studies.