Ernest Gellner and Historical Sociology The principal aim of this special issue is to shed light on the broader scope of Gellner’s work with a view to demonstrating the contemporary relevance of his ideas. More specifically, the ambition is to engage with his key theories and concepts in philosophy of history and historical sociology and…
Cultural systems, crisis, and entrepreneurship Articles: What is world-systems analysis? Distinguishing theory from perspective Salvatore Babones Abstract: World-systems analysis is a well-established but poorly-defined critical research tradition in the social sciences. Its undisputed progenitor, Immanuel Wallerstein, steadfastly maintains that world-systems analysis is not a theory, yet it is widely referred to as such by commentators,…
György Márkus: Antinomies of Modernity Introduction: György Márkus at 80 David Roberts Articles: Philosophy in the times of late modernity: Reflections on György Márkus’s Culture, Science, Society János Kis Abstract: It is a central claim of György Márkus’s philosophy of (modern) culture that the Enlightenment project ended up in deep, apparently irresolvable antinomies. But, unlike…
Ágnes Heller: A Philosophical Suite “There is no rigorous philosophy which does not depend on history of philosophy, and which does not acknowledge this dependence; there is no cogent research on history of philosophy which does not take also a philosophical position. This is the credo informing the contributions to this Thesis Eleven special…
South African author Ivan Vladislavic talks to thesis eleven director Peter Beilharz. Ivan Vladislavic is the leading South African writer of urban fiction. His work combines irony, humour, engagement and detachment, the insight and wisdom of the flaneur in this new and different environment. His recent works include Double Negative (2011); A Labour of Moles…
On Luc Boltanski: Contradictions and Critiques “Boltanski is described as challenging formulaic approaches in sociology and as developing instead novel theoretical insights and an innovative pragmatist methodology. It is suggested that these innovations are complemented by Boltanski’s substantial investigations into empirical developments. Links are drawn between the themes of Boltanski’s work, especially on the…
What is remembered when the bombing of Hiroshima is remembered? Keith Tester, University of Hull introduced by Peter Beilharz @ La Trobe University According to Gunther Anders, the bombing of Hiroshima signified the dawning of the age of the Inverted Utopia – utopians, he said imagine what they cannot achieve, but now we are…
Art, Aesthetics and the City August 2014; 123 Articles Bernard Smith’s Formalesque and the end of the history of art Jim Berryman Abstract: The concept of the Formalesque preoccupied Bernard Smith during the last decades of his life. First propounded in Modernism’s History (1998), the Formalesque is a proposed period style describing the art…
State of in/security Table of Contents: Articles: Contesting representation: on democracy and representative government Matthias Lievens Abstract: Several authors have recently stressed the constitutive and ubiquitous nature of representation, which, as a result, can no longer be conceived as a relation between pre-existing entities. This has important consequences for democratic representation, traditionally thought in terms…
Big city blues Table of Contents April 2014; 121 (1) Introduction: Big city blues Trevor Hogan and Julian Potter Abstract: The advent of the ‘mega’ or world city seems inseparable from the ambivalent and transient experience of modernity – the ideals of liberty, individuality, property, accelerating progress, and, for many, the realities of immobility,…
thesis eleven 