Search Results (20)

In the democratic structure of the EU (European Union) the representation of employers and employees is seen as an important element for the development of the economy. It is not sufficient to have a representation of these groups, but the representation of these groups is also expected to be representative. Representativeness is often seen as an equal proportional distribution of the representatives of different groups that have to be represented. Nevertheless, representativeness can also be differently approached. In this article, we examine whether sociological paradigms can help us to get a more nuanced picture of representativeness in employment relations. For this purpose, we present in paradigms developed by Max Weber, Emile Durkheim, Robert K. Merton, Talcott Parsons, and Jürgen Habermas and the exchange theory and symbolic interactionism. Subsequently, we apply these principles on some employment relations in the EU. And we finish with a discussion and conclusion, in which we support the use of a richer concept of representativeness as it is shown in some sociological paradigms. Full article

A remarkable amount of work on the study of Islamic ethical thought is published annually, covering an unprecedented variety of topics and themes. Yet despite the strides made, these debates have not addressed vital questions about how Islamic ethical thought can contribute to ongoing discourses that affect not only the Muslim community but society at large. In other words, how can we bring Islamic ethical thought into systematic engagement with modern philosophy? Specifically, how can Islamic ethical thought learn from contemporary philosophy, as it learned from Greek philosophy in the Middle Ages? And how might it be possible to develop Islamic ethical thought that can withstand both religious and rational scrutiny? In this programmatic overview, I respond to these questions by engaging with responsibility ethics within and beyond the Islamic tradition. As much as the debate about ethics has reached new heights in contemporary philosophical discourses, so too has the debate about responsibility re-emerged in theological discourses. In this paper, I bring into conversation the thought of Taha Abdurrahman on responsibility, which is nested within his larger paradigm of contemporary Islamic ethics, and Jewish thinker Hans Jonas’ concept of an ethics of responsibility. I argue that orchestrating this scholarly dialog between a 20th-century German Jewish thinker (Jonas) and a contemporary Muslim thinker (Abdurrahman) can lead to both a productive and constructive elaboration of Islamic ethical thought. Furthermore, I suggest that Habermas’ philosophy can serve as a bridge in this discussion, facilitating a comparative exploration of the ethical frameworks presented by both thinkers. By engaging with Habermas, we can highlight how Islamic thought can approach modernity, including philosophical debates, in a manner similar to that of 20th-century Jewish scholars like Jonas. This engagement not only enhances our understanding of responsibility within these traditions but also underscores the potential for interdisciplinary dialog in navigating contemporary ethical challenges. Full article

Intrapersonal parental factors play a significant role in the development of problematic gaming in children. However, few studies have explored parental perspectives on their relationship with a child engaged in problematic gaming, as well as the need for support parents perceive in relation to the child’s gaming. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 12 parents (83.3% women) of 11 children (81.8% boys, Mage = 15 ± 2) to examine how parents of children with problematic gaming behavior perceive the parent–child relationship and their need for additional support. We analyzed qualitative accounts using thematic analysis to identify themes and subthemes while drawing on the theoretical frameworks of Aaron Antonovsky’s theory of sense of coherence (SOC) and Jürgen Habermas’ theory of logic. Participants described difficulties regarding all three components of SOC (meaningfulness, comprehensibility, and manageability) in relation to their child’s gaming, with the most significant challenge being manageability. Parents primarily sought assistance from institutions and organizations, such as mental health services, to enhance manageability. The findings emphasize parents’ need for relational and practical support tailored to their unique context, as well as their wish to be more involved in the treatment of their children. Full article

As scholars, practitioners and activists continue to strive to better understand, prevent and respond to campus sexual assault, we need stronger conceptual frameworks that provide insight into both causes and potential solutions. In this article, I propose a critical sociology of campus sexual assault, informed by Jürgen Habermas’s and Dorothy Smith’s work, and illustrated through data from interviews with campus sexual assault victim advocates. Specifically, I examine how understanding policies and practices operating primarily through the system versus the lifeworld can help us to identify those that serve institutions versus those that serve survivors. I argue further that policies and practices that prioritize consensus, self-articulation, and care—those that promote a particular understanding of the “lifeworld”—can help us to resist systemic oppression that contributes to the problem of campus sexual assault, potentially strengthening our response to this problem. I argue that our best hope for more effective efforts to reduce and ultimately eliminate campus sexual assault requires collaboration among academics, activists and advocates who center the experiences of survivors, in the spirit of critical theory’s insistence on the active participation of citizens in their own emancipation from oppressive systems. Full article

This paper considers Habermas’s translation proviso, which requires religious concepts to be translated into secular language when in the public sphere. Translation, for Habermas, protects the state from religious interference and elicits essential aspects of pre-rational thought—that is, religious and metaphysical thought, which post-metaphysics cannot generate for itself, e.g., social solidarity. The task undertaken by Habermas’s translation proviso is illustrated through his own work of translation: that of the translation of the biblical image of humanity as created in the image of God into the identical dignity of each human being. To provide context to and to highlight the difficulties involved in Habermas’s translation proviso, consideration is given to the thought of Joseph Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI and Alasdair MacIntyre on these themes. What is demonstrated is that Habermas’s translation is, in essence, assimilation and re-appropriation. In practice, it manifests itself as the truncation of Christian metaphysics, in which the divine Logos is replaced by or collapsed into the logos of intersubjective human language. The relational image of humanity as a creature distinct from the Creator, in which human reason is analogous to divine reason, is erased, leaving autonomous human beings, from which human reason emerges out of the discursive communication of the logos of intersubjective human language. The conclusion is that the translation proviso fails in its objective. An alternative to Habermas’s translation proviso, the presupposition proviso, is presented as a more apt approach to addressing the underlying issues involved: facilitating human flourishing in an orderly, free, and just society. Full article

This article delves into the pressing challenges confronting liberal democracies in Western Europe as they grapple with managing religious diversity, with a specific focus on Muslim minorities. Historically, the secularization paradigm has been at the forefront of managing such diversity; however, its intrinsic limitations become increasingly evident in the context of super-diversity, underscoring the need for a paradigmatic shift toward post-secularization. Central to this discourse are the nuanced concepts of “culturalization of religion” and “religionization of culture”, which illuminate the disparities in treatment between majority and minority religious groups. The article identifies three endogenous limitations intrinsic to liberal democracies: the contested nature of state neutrality vis-à-vis religion and belief, the implementation of this principle through non-neutral judicial tools, and the historically and culturally laden context within which the principle of neutrality is enacted. Drawing on the seminal contributions of Jürgen Habermas to post-secularization theory, the article posits that fostering genuine inclusivity and pluralism in managing religious diversity necessitates a departure from the rigid division between the religious and the secular. Instead, it calls for an acknowledgment of the dialogical relationship between the religious and secular dimensions as they manifest in the public sphere by religious minorities. Full article

This essay compares key essays on Buddhism by B.R. Ambedkar and Jürgen Habermas vis-à-vis the issue of Buddhism, wealth, and privilege, and the respective statements again to what the Buddha taught, from a Theravada perspective. In doing so, it can be seen that Buddhism does not indeed endorse privilege in this world—but what seems to be privilege and inherited wealth are actual merits from a former life. Since these come with their own dangers, viz. attachment and not putting wealth to good use, wealth may be nice but not more. That someone is better than someone else because of birth and inheritance rather than action is, however, established as completely non-Buddhist, again and again, even by the Buddha himself. Full article

This paper attempts to explore the public dimension of religion in Korea. First, it examines the Western and East Asian contexts on the concept of ’public’, noting that the gap in notions of public is large between East Asian and Western traditions. The following section discusses Habermas’ ‘institutional translation proviso’ in relation to the notion ‘public’. The institutional translation proviso serves as the basis for further discussion on rethinking the public role of religion in Korea in the era of climate crisis. We argue that ‘secular’ translations of religious convictions can help religious citizens and communities engage in public discourses on ecological challenges. We then consider major limitations of Habermas’ understanding of religion. In the following section, we move on to discuss Albert Schweitzer and process theology in order to demonstrate how religious languages can be reinterpreted on the basis of modern experiences of ecological challenges. We then consider Buddhist alternatives for overcoming the climate crisis. The final section introduces José Casanova’s account of public religions and discusses its implication for envisioning the public role of religious organizations in ecological efforts. Reviewing the contributions made by religious organizations to the Korean society, we suggest that ‘ecological publicness’ of religion can be obtained. Full article

The aim of this paper is to capture older adult women’s experience of dance. To this purpose, a qualitative research study was carried out with members of the ‘Gracje’ dance group. The study used Jürgen Habermas’s theory of communicative action as its theoretical underpinnings. The focus was on the models of action and validity claims expressed in language (narrative). In this theoretical framework, dancing activity has been shown as promoting not only physical health and mental wellbeing but also social involvement. Our study has found that, in and through dance, the older adults primarily realised their claims to pleasure, attractiveness, health and emancipation. This has considerably improved their bodily capacity and increased their self-esteem. However, what the older adults themselves find most important is that the realisation of these claims beneficially affects their interactions in family and neighbourly communities and facilitates their engagement in volunteer activities, helping people at risk of exclusion due to age and/or disability. Full article

Various contemporary phenomena of social regression and authoritarianism are related to religious actors, movements, and beliefs. This text, however, seeks to follow this up with the political–theoretical argumentation that New Atheism has to be understood as a way of thinking which carries illiberal and authoritarian tendencies with it as well. In defence of this position, this article will first reconstruct, with reference to Habermas’s and Rawls’s theory of democracy, elements that must include personal beliefs in order to be considered congruent with democratic values. Subsequently, New Atheism’s conception of rational politics will be presented in order to show in which aspects it contradicts the demands of reasonable convictions. This concerns, in particular, the rejection of reasonable pluralism on the one hand and a non-positivistic view of human beings on the other. As a conclusion, this text supports the proposition that, when speaking of the connection between certain worldviews and today’s illiberalism, New Atheism must also be considered as an unreasonable comprehensive doctrine. Full article

Carl Schmitt’s controversial 1922 Political Theology: Four Chapters on the Concept of Sovereignty initiated a long-standing, lively, and oft misunderstood discourse at the intersections of religious studies, theology, and political theory. Political theology as a discourse has seen something of a revival in recent decades, which has raised genuine problems of interpretation. These include questions of what is at stake in political theology, how political theology can be applied to economic discourses, and how it can be understood in relation to secularity and post-secularity. This study takes Giorgio Agamben’s The Kingdom and Glory as a conceptual bridge that helps to situate contemporary political theologies of neoliberalism historically and theoretically. A survey of four recent political theologies of neoliberalism yields a methodological reflection on the limits and potential of political theology as a discourse. A distinction is made between descriptive-genealogical political theologies and normative-prescriptive political theologies. The former is privileged in its philosophical potential, insofar as it reveals both the contingency and genuine variety of normative-prescriptive political theologies. Full article

The aim of this study is to develop a Communicative Rational Action Scale and analyze its validity and reliability. The scale has been prepared for all administrators and especially for firm administrators based on Max Weber’s rationalizing theory and Jürgen Habermas’ communicative action theory. The scale reveals to what extent administrators’ behaviors are communicatively rational while deciding or acting. In total, 282 participants joined this study. The sample group consisted of senior administrators of 87 firms acting in Turkey’s different Organized Industrial Zones or Free Zones. Data were analyzed by the SPSS 21 and AMOS 22 programs. Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were applied to the obtained data. In order to test item discrimination, total item correlations were calculated and items under the value of 0.40 were removed from the scale. Exploratory factor analysis revealed 21 articles and five factors. The correlation coefficient of the 21-article scale with a similar scale is 0.979 (p < 0.001). The Cronbach’s alpha value is 0.945 and the test–retest correlation parameter is r = 0.793 (p < 0.001). In conclusion, it was determined by confirmatory factor analysis that the Communicative Rational Action Scale has a good cohesion criterion, and it is a valid and reliable assessment instrument. Full article

It is assumed that the states have the right to control their borders and decide whom they want to exclude, isolate, ban, or impose restrictions on. Although it seems that the problematic notion of “sovereignty” gives the state the right to make these kinds of decisions, there are situations where ethical duties to other human beings supersede sovereignty and where, in fact, those ethical duties limit sovereignty. This would be the case of group asylum situations. In this paper, we propose Axel Honneth’s ethics of recognition as a complement to the liberal notion of solidarity. By introducing a derivation of the ethics of recognition, namely, the “ethics of care,” we argue that our connection to others and the ethical duties we have with them impose some limits on the idea of sovereignty. Full article

Embedded in a critically adapted version of Jürgen Habermas’ postsecular approach, this article analyzes empirically and evaluates normatively the role of religion in the Middle East. Integrating and adapting William Connolly’s understanding of political change as power politics of becoming, the argument is that an authoritarian pluralism is evolving that, in contrast to secular nationalism and Political Islam, can be called postsecular insofar as it attempts to integrate more strata of the population into the public discourse, regardless of their religious creed but based on interreligious plurality. The Document on Human Fraternity, signed 2019 in Abu Dhabi, is a prime example of that postsecular trend embedded in power politics. The article concludes that the turmoil of the Arab Spring did not pave the way for democracy but for authoritarian and partisan versions of a postsecular public that try to accommodate the plurality of the Middle East. Full article

This article looks at the ‘public’ ‘place’ of drama in Britain at present by offering an analysis of a contemporary version of an ancient Greek play by Aeschylus, entitled The Suppliant Women, written by David Greig, directed by Ramin Gray, and first performed at the Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh in 2016. Following an agonistic (Chantal Mouffe), rather than a consensual (Jürgen Habermas) model of the public sphere, it argues that under globalisation, three cumulative and interwoven senses of the public sphere, the discursive, the spatial, and the individual and his/her/their relation to a larger form of organisation, despite persisting hegemonic structures that perpetuate their containment, have become undone. This is the kind of unbounded model of public sphere Greig’s version of Aeschylus’ The Suppliant Women seems to suggest by precisely offering undoings of discourses, spaces, and individualisations. In order to frame the first kind of undoing, that is, the unmarking of theatre as contained, the article uses Christopher Balme’s notion of ‘open theatrical public sphere’, and in order to frame the second, that is, the undoing of elements ‘in’ Greig’s version, the article utilises Greig’s concept of ‘constructed space’. The article arrives then at the notion of the open constructed public sphere in relation to The Suppliant Women. By engaging with this porous model of the public sphere, The Suppliant Women enacts a protest against exclusionary, reductive models of exchange and organisation, political engagement, and belonging under globalisation. Full article