2024-03-29T09:56:18Z
https://socialtheoryapplied.com/journal/jast/oai
oai:ojs.socialtheoryapplied.com:article/76
2021-04-12T12:25:44Z
jast:ED
"210408 2021 eng "
ISSN 2398-5836
dc
The Applied Social Theory of Character Assassination
Samoilenko, Sergei A.
George Mason University https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8607-3053
Array
Journal of Applied Social Theory
2021-04-08 17:44:21
editorial
application/pdf
text/html
https://socialtheoryapplied.com/journal/jast/article/view/76
Journal of Applied Social Theory; Vol 1, No 3 (2021): Special Edition: Character Assassination and Applied Social Theory
eng
Copyright (c) 2021 Sergei A. Samoilenko
oai:ojs.socialtheoryapplied.com:article/19
2018-04-05T14:47:28Z
jast:ART
"160626 2016 eng "
ISSN 2398-5836
dc
‘Thou art a scholar; speak to it…’: Digital Pharmakology and the Future of Academic Practice
Dawson, Mark
Lancaster University
Array
At no point in history has the education system been so intimately entwined with a globalised, market-driven, technical system. As Bernard Stiegler has argued, this synchronization of the education system's mnemotechnical capabilities with technical systems of production is unprecedented (Stiegler, Technics and Time, Vol.3, 2001). Nowhere is this better illustrated than in the figure of the scholar; a nexus of personal drives and social influence, public and private spheres, (mnemo)technology, educational institution and market influence. This paper argues that the confluence of these factors raises urgent questions as to the future of digital technology in education, and scholarship in general.
The paper will address these issues through two interrelated discourses: one which reads digital technology through the figure of the pharmakon (that which can be both poison and remedy), and the other which aligns the scholar ‘to come’ with a future it must remain impossible to pre-programme, predict or know in advance. Both strands of the paper follow the work of Jacques Derrida and — via the work of Donald Winnicott on the Transitional Object — Bernard Stiegler, but resituate their argument within the realms of academic practice and technology enhanced learning. It argues that Derrida's reading of the pharmakon in Plato’s Phaedrus (Derrida, La dissemination, 1972), in which he deconstructs Plato’s opposing of anamnesis and hypomnesis (between ‘originary’ knowledge and hypo-mnemetic writing as its technological and supplementary contamination), and Bernard Stiegler's repositioning of this through his reading of the technical/'transitional object' (Winnicott, Playing and Reality, 1971), suggests that the inherently 'pharmakological' nature of tekhnē gives us a framework to think through the position, application and impact of the digital upon academic scholarship. By reading this against Derrida’s distancing of ‘the future’ (le futur) from the ‘to come’ (l’avenir), however, we can also suggest how digital technology provides conditions for a scholarship ‘to come’; one which can look the radically ambiguous technological condition of the modern academic institution in the face and speak to it.
It begins, however, with Hamlet, and with the odd suggestion that only Horatio, the scholar, can speak to the spectre of a King who demands justice.
Journal of Applied Social Theory
2016-06-26 22:43:25
text/html
application/pdf
https://socialtheoryapplied.com/journal/jast/article/view/19
Journal of Applied Social Theory; Vol 1, No 1 (2016): Special Edition: Theorising digital scholarship
eng
Copyright (c) 2016 Mark Dawson
oai:ojs.socialtheoryapplied.com:article/2
2014-12-15T00:07:30Z
journal:ART
oai:ojs.socialtheoryapplied.com:article/75
2021-04-08T16:44:21Z
jast:ART
"210408 2021 eng "
ISSN 2398-5836
dc
Advancing Research on Character Assassination and Stigma Communication: A Dynamics of Character
Smith, Rachel A
Department of Communication Arts and Sciences
The Pennsylvania State University https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2407-7515
Eberly, Rosa A.
The Pennsylvania State University
Array
Documented occurrences of character assassination and stigmatization like those seen during the COVID-19 outbreak are not unique to the era of COVID-19. In fact, these forms of communication are ancient and ubiquitous in human society. Yet they have gained the sustained attention of communication scholars only in the past few decades. Although stigma communication and character assassination have much in common, they largely have been studied separately. Research on how character is attacked and why some attacks become social facts has not progressed as quickly as needed because these two bodies of scholarship have not shared insights and because character as a concept has gone largely uninterrogated. In this essay, we begin the process of sharing insights across the two bodies of scholarship. Further, by visiting with three ancient conceptions of character, we describe a theory of character dynamics: a process of exclusion in which an evolving, agentic character (tropos) becomes established (ethos) and fixed (χarakter) by others, ephemerally and sometimes longitudinally.
Journal of Applied Social Theory
2021-04-08 17:44:21
application/pdf
text/html
https://socialtheoryapplied.com/journal/jast/article/view/75
Journal of Applied Social Theory; Vol 1, No 3 (2021): Special Edition: Character Assassination and Applied Social Theory
eng
https://socialtheoryapplied.com/journal/jast/article/download/75/259
Copyright (c) 2021 Rachel A Smith
oai:ojs.socialtheoryapplied.com:article/57
2018-10-09T14:07:45Z
jast:ART
"181009 2018 eng "
ISSN 2398-5836
dc
Feminist trade unionism and post-work imaginaries
Wånggren, Lena
University of Edinburgh
Array
Feminist academics in the marketised university are doing not only unpaid emotional and social work, but other unpaid work which makes up the core business of the institution. In a culture of overwork and increased demands for productivity, teaching, research, and administration cannot fit into contracted hours so are done at nights and weekends. This article highlights the gendered impacts of current working conditions, focusing specifically on the conditions of precariously employed researchers and educators in the UK higher education system. Emphasising the unpaid work done by feminists in academia and beyond, this article suggests looking toward a post-work imaginary as one strategy to make possible more inclusive and accessible educational futures. Sharing feminist trade unionist strategies through which to question some of the unrealistic demands put upon university staff, the article emphasises the need for a feminist ethics of care to build sustainable movements and futures.
Journal of Applied Social Theory
2018-10-09 00:00:00
text/html
application/pdf
https://socialtheoryapplied.com/journal/jast/article/view/57
Journal of Applied Social Theory; Vol 1, No 2 (2018): Special Edition: Futures and Fractures in Feminist & Queer Education
eng
Copyright (c) 2018 Lena Wånggren
oai:ojs.socialtheoryapplied.com:article/29
2016-06-26T21:43:25Z
jast:ART
"160626 2016 eng "
ISSN 2398-5836
dc
Sociable scholarship: The use of social media in the 21st century academy
Pausé, Cat
Massey University http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1812-6632
Russell, Deborah
Massey University
Array
Social media have broken down the distance between scholars and the larger world, enabling lay people to become active participants in the construction of knowledge, through offering ideas and data, recounting experience, and engaging critically with academic research. Academics no longer operate from the safety of ivory towers: they are able to engage with a much wider audience, in a conversation rather than a lecture, through the use of Twitter, Tumblr, blogs, discussion forums, etc. These Web 2.0 tools have broadened academic spaces, enabling the participation of different voices, and addressing the academy’s commitment to social justice. Using the feminist theory of intersectionality, we explore the use of social media in academic collaboration and dissemination, and the tensions that may arise as scholars and the academy are reshaped in the 21st century.
Journal of Applied Social Theory
2016-06-26 22:43:25
text/html
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https://socialtheoryapplied.com/journal/jast/article/view/29
Journal of Applied Social Theory; Vol 1, No 1 (2016): Special Edition: Theorising digital scholarship
eng
Copyright (c) 2016 Cat Pause, Deborah Russell
oai:ojs.socialtheoryapplied.com:article/72
2021-04-08T17:32:15Z
jast:ART
"210408 2021 eng "
ISSN 2398-5836
dc
Character Assassination on Judge Brett Kavanaugh in his 2018 Supreme Court Confirmation Hearing
Benoit, William L
University of Alabama
Stein, Kevin A
Southern Utah University
Array
On July 9, 2018, President Donald Trump nominated Judge Brett Kavanaugh to fill a vacant seat on the Supreme Court. Republicans were naturally excited at the possibility of a conservative majority on the court; not surprisingly Democrats were opposed. Kavanaugh’s nomination provoked a storm of controversy largely focused on accusations of sexual assault from Christine Blasey Ford. The hearing, held on September 27th, featured testimony by Ford and pointed comments by Senate Democrats. The Senate voted to confirm Kavanaugh 50-48 as the 114th Supreme Court justice on October 6, 2018. This essay applies the Theory of Persuasive Attack to criticisms leveled against Kavanaugh during the Senate confirmation hearing. These criticisms argued that Kavanaugh was responsible for the act, enhanced perceptions of the offensiveness of the act, and indicated that Kavanaugh possessed an unfavorable character.
Journal of Applied Social Theory
2021-04-08 17:44:21
application/pdf
text/html
https://socialtheoryapplied.com/journal/jast/article/view/72
Journal of Applied Social Theory; Vol 1, No 3 (2021): Special Edition: Character Assassination and Applied Social Theory
eng
Copyright (c) 2021 Kevin A Stein, William L Benoit
oai:ojs.socialtheoryapplied.com:article/45
2016-06-26T21:43:25Z
jast:ED
"160626 2016 eng "
ISSN 2398-5836
dc
Theorising digital scholarship – introducing the new edition
Costa, Cristina
University of Strathclyde http://socialtheoryapplied.com/author/cristinacost/
Murphy, Mark
University of Glasgow
Array
Journal of Applied Social Theory
2016-06-26 22:43:25
editorial
text/html
application/pdf
https://socialtheoryapplied.com/journal/jast/article/view/45
Journal of Applied Social Theory; Vol 1, No 1 (2016): Special Edition: Theorising digital scholarship
eng
Copyright (c) 2016 Cristina Costa, Mark Murphy
oai:ojs.socialtheoryapplied.com:article/3
2014-12-15T00:07:30Z
journal:ART
oai:ojs.socialtheoryapplied.com:article/66
2021-04-08T16:44:21Z
jast:ART
"210408 2021 eng "
ISSN 2398-5836
dc
Root Narrative Theory and Character Assassination
Simmons, Solon
George Mason University
Array
This paper develops a theoretical device for the analysis of the contexts in which character attacks will take place that can help explain why, when, and how they will succeed or fail. This device is called the root narrative profile, which is based on a narrative theory of conflict and politics that provides a way to simplify the variance in political arguments into a manageable number of representative categories. The root narrative profile is based on the idea that character attacks will be successful when they can be represented as an example of the abuse of social power. Accordingly, there are as many types of character attacks as there are forms of social power to abuse. This insight is useful for practitioners who can use the root narrative profile to either protect themselves before relevant audiences or to advance their interests with more effective attacks on their opponents. This paper develops this concept and provides illustrations of its use in a variety of empirical data.
Journal of Applied Social Theory
2021-04-08 17:44:21
application/pdf
text/html
https://socialtheoryapplied.com/journal/jast/article/view/66
Journal of Applied Social Theory; Vol 1, No 3 (2021): Special Edition: Character Assassination and Applied Social Theory
eng
Copyright (c) 2021 Solon Simmons
oai:ojs.socialtheoryapplied.com:article/56
2018-10-09T13:59:02Z
jast:ART
"181009 2018 eng "
ISSN 2398-5836
dc
German early career scholars in Gender Studies: Do networks matter?
Gewinner, Irina
Leibniz University of Hanover
Array
Purpose of the study: The field of Gender Studies in Germany demonstrates a rather heterogeneous culture due to its unclear status in relation to other disciplines, while its scope varies from diversity management to critical feminism. Career origins, paths and options for new generations of researchers in this field have to date been only minimally analysed. The contribution of this essay aims at reducing the existing research gap by focusing on the career start and qualification stage in Gender Studies and highlighting the significance of social networks in this process.
Methodology: Building upon a qualitative analysis, this study is based on an explorative investigation into German early career researchers. It utilises primary data collected during semi-structured problem-centred telephone interviews with 30 PhD students and Postdocs. The findings evidence three forms of recruitment of PhD students into Gender Studies and question the same sex co-optation principle reported within other fields of scientific inquiry. At the same time, results show that network composition and modes of support are based on the supervisor’s and the early career scholar’s mutual interest in contributing to theory, rather than maximising political and administrative power. The main contribution, thus, addresses social networks and institutional nepotism in general and as a recruiting strategy in particular, as well as the role of graduate schools as a ‘second best’ option for junior researchers in Gender Studies.
Journal of Applied Social Theory
2018-10-09 00:00:00
text/html
application/pdf
https://socialtheoryapplied.com/journal/jast/article/view/56
Journal of Applied Social Theory; Vol 1, No 2 (2018): Special Edition: Futures and Fractures in Feminist & Queer Education
eng
Copyright (c) 2018 Irina Gewinner
oai:ojs.socialtheoryapplied.com:article/14
2016-06-26T21:43:25Z
jast:ART
"160626 2016 eng "
ISSN 2398-5836
dc
Making internal conversations public: reflexivity of the connected doctoral researcher and its transmission beyond the walls of the academy
Rainford, Jon
Staffordshire University http://www.jonrainford.co.uk
Array
Advances in digital technologies, especially those associated with Web 2.0 such as blogs and Twitter, have created new spaces for discussion and to encourage the development of ideas. These advances have the ability to reduce the isolation of the doctoral researcher who may have previously been limited to discussions restricted to physical spaces such as departmental offices and at conferences. Whilst moving these conversations into public spaces can offer benefits, it also presents a distinct set of challenges. This paper adopts an autoethnographic approach in order to explore my experiences of using digital technologies to support my development as a doctoral researcher. Drawing on Archer’s (2003; 2007) theories of reflexivity and the internal conversation, it explores two critical incidents (Tripp, 1993) during my first year as a doctoral researcher. The first focuses on making sense of the rejection of a conference paper and the second on making sense of what ‘can’ and ‘should’ be said in a digital space as the result of tweeting and blogging at a conference. In doing so, this paper highlights the ways in which digital technologies have the capacity to support an individual’s varied modes of reflexivity. Through this, it also illuminates how bringing these conversations into a public space can also offer a form of public scholarship, opening up the inner workings of the academy to a wider public, challenging traditional academic practices. Consequently, the paper concludes with suggestions for future research and training needed to support digital scholarship for doctoral researchers.
Journal of Applied Social Theory
2016-06-26 22:43:25
text/html
application/pdf
https://socialtheoryapplied.com/journal/jast/article/view/14
Journal of Applied Social Theory; Vol 1, No 1 (2016): Special Edition: Theorising digital scholarship
eng
Copyright (c) 2016 Jon Rainford
oai:ojs.socialtheoryapplied.com:article/68
2021-04-08T16:44:21Z
jast:ART
"210408 2021 eng "
ISSN 2398-5836
dc
The Bullying Pulpit: The Audience Effects of a Partisan Character-Attacking Speaker
Schumacher-Rutherford, Amy
University of Kansas
Muddiman, Ashley
University of Kansas
Array
Campus speakers, and the protests against them, have sparked debate in the U.S. about declining support for free speech. Yet, the content of such speeches has largely been ignored. Do audiences want to shut down a speaker because that speaker holds a disagreeable position, or is it the way in which that position is conveyed? That is, does disagreement generally or only difference delivered with animus—in this case, with character attacks—drive audiences toward retaliatory action? To answer, we draw from Kenneth Burke’s theory of identification to investigate how audiences react to political rhetoric when they encounter character attacks against the political party with which they affiliate. We propose that the very character attacks a speaker uses to achieve identification with a target audience can also cause disidentification that engenders an oppositional audience poised to act against the speaker – in this case, to restrict the speaker’s right to speak. We expect that espousing a different opinion absent character attacks will not have this effect, but we do anticipate differential effects based on the type of character attack. For this, we turn to Burke’s approach to framing to determine whether character attacks presenting one’s in-group party as foolish (comic frame) rather than traitorous (tragic frame) have distinct effects on the audience. We conduct an online survey experiment of U.S. residents to test whether the two types of attacks, compared to arguments that use identification strategies, decrease support for expressive rights in the context of a college campus speech. Our results indicate that character attacks increase the likelihood that participants attribute malevolence to the outgroup political party, which then decreases their support for a speaker’s right to speak. Both comic and tragic attacks lead to the same outcomes. Optimistically, civilly disagreeable speeches that use identification strategies prompt normatively beneficial outcomes, suggesting that not all disagreeable content decreases free speech support. Conversely, character attacks prompt disidentification that leads to retaliatory action. These findings indicate that audiences’ free speech support may be more dependent on a speaker’s use of character attacks than their issue content.
Journal of Applied Social Theory
2021-04-08 17:44:21
application/pdf
text/html
https://socialtheoryapplied.com/journal/jast/article/view/68
Journal of Applied Social Theory; Vol 1, No 3 (2021): Special Edition: Character Assassination and Applied Social Theory
eng
https://socialtheoryapplied.com/journal/jast/article/download/68/239
Copyright (c) 2021 Amy Schumacher-Rutherfored, Ashley Muddiman
oai:ojs.socialtheoryapplied.com:article/61
2018-10-09T13:42:13Z
jast:ART
"181009 2018 eng "
ISSN 2398-5836
dc
Queer desire’s orientations and learning in higher education fine art
Gunn, Vicky
Glasgow School of Art
Array
This paper explores the mechanisms of LGBTQI+ desire that intersect with fine art disciplinary learning. Sara Ahmed's Queer Phenomenology provides a theoretical scaffold for this work, particularly her reflection that orientations involve different ways of registering the proximity of objects and others. In so doing, sexual orientations might shape not just how we inhabit space, but how we apprehend this world of shared inhabitance (Ahmed, 2006, 3). I posit that the desires which determine self-placing within the LGBTQI+ rubric orient learning towards and/or away from disciplinary objects of engagement. They effect this through: accentuated tensions between two colliding aspects of a students' singularity (firstly, sexuality-centred states of being in which productive erotic desires reside and secondly, an individual student's creative will); sense making of the related desires; and the interaction of all of this with dominant disciplinary cultural manifestations in creative visual arts higher education. To investigate this premise, the work of queer/queering visual artists is introduced to the higher educational student learning research canon as a valuable source of understanding of what it means 'to be' in sexual orientation. In light of the work of queer artists, the discussion recognizes that tactics used by queer student artists and the cultural registers that they access and create can usefully be identified as a queer anatomy of agency that deserves fuller investigation. Specifically, it demonstrates how an analysis of queer artists' work offers a unique way of interrogating LGBTQI+ student learning experiences in fine art.
Journal of Applied Social Theory
2018-10-09 00:00:00
text/html
application/pdf
https://socialtheoryapplied.com/journal/jast/article/view/61
Journal of Applied Social Theory; Vol 1, No 2 (2018): Special Edition: Futures and Fractures in Feminist & Queer Education
eng
Copyright (c) 2018 Vicky Gunn
oai:ojs.socialtheoryapplied.com:article/4
2014-12-15T00:07:30Z
journal:ART
oai:ojs.socialtheoryapplied.com:article/100
2021-04-12T12:26:23Z
jast:ART
"210408 2021 eng "
ISSN 2398-5836
dc
Character Assassination: The Sociocultural Perspective
Samoilenko, Sergei A.
George Mason University https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8607-3053
Array
This article offers a fresh view on character assassination as a strategic effort embedded in power and ideological struggles in society. The author uses structuration theory to explain character assassination as a means of both domination and subversion. In the latter, character assassination practices are integrated into modes of signification and legitimation and executed via subversion campaigns. Knowledgeable subversive actors consider character assassination a power resource to challenge cultural hegemony and traditional moral order via strategic and audience-centered protest campaigns. Social networking sites provide strategic actors with resources to realize subversive campaigns in both liberal democracies and authoritarian societies. Although social media allow more active audiences to challenge dominant conventions, the modes and aesthetics of social protest can be easily harnessed and appropriated by power structures for spin and information control. The author calls for more research inspired by the sociocultural view of character assassination to make sense of new social phenomena such as “cancel culture.”
Journal of Applied Social Theory
2021-04-08 17:44:21
application/pdf
text/html
https://socialtheoryapplied.com/journal/jast/article/view/100
Journal of Applied Social Theory; Vol 1, No 3 (2021): Special Edition: Character Assassination and Applied Social Theory
eng
Copyright (c) 2021 Sergei A, Samoilenko
oai:ojs.socialtheoryapplied.com:article/62
2018-10-09T13:42:13Z
jast:ED
"181009 2018 eng "
ISSN 2398-5836
dc
Futures and fractures in feminist and queer higher education
Breeze, Maddie
University of Strathclyde
Taylor, Yvette
University of Strathclyde
Array
Journal of Applied Social Theory
2018-10-09 00:00:00
editorial
text/html
application/pdf
https://socialtheoryapplied.com/journal/jast/article/view/62
Journal of Applied Social Theory; Vol 1, No 2 (2018): Special Edition: Futures and Fractures in Feminist & Queer Education
eng
Copyright (c) 2018 Maddie Breeze, Yvette Taylor
oai:ojs.socialtheoryapplied.com:article/33
2016-06-27T13:44:44Z
jast:ART
"160626 2016 eng "
ISSN 2398-5836
dc
Collapsed publics: Orality, literacy, and vulnerability in academic Twitter
Stewart, Bonnie
University of Prince Edward Island http://bonstewart.com
Array
This paper outlines ways in which scholars build identity and connection on open networked platforms such as Twitter, and considers the risks and benefits of networked participatory engagement. The paper reports the findings of an ethnographic study examining the digitally-networked practices of scholars from a range of disciplines, identity positions, and geopolitical locations, and explores participants’ experiences of care and vulnerability within open, networked academic systems. The paper draws on White and LeCornu’s (2011) visitors and residents continuum, Veletsianos and Kimmons’ (2012) concept of Networked Participatory Scholarship (NPS), and Ong’s (1982) theories of secondary orality and secondary literacy to explore networked scholars’ practices and experiences. It examines ‘academic Twitter’ as a phenomenon in which oral and literate traditions – and audience expectations – are collapsed, creating a public that operates on very different terms from those of academia. The paper’s findings examine the risks of this collapse, yet also show that networked engagement – in which personal identity signals, humor, and expressions of commonality are found to be the dominant means by which scholars build networks ties – can result in opportunities and affinities that institutional scholarship may not offer. The substantive goal of the paper is to offer a portrait of networked scholars’ experiences and practices related to engagement, and to consider the tensions these practices raise within the contemporary academy.
Journal of Applied Social Theory
2016-06-26 22:43:25
text/html
application/pdf
https://socialtheoryapplied.com/journal/jast/article/view/33
Journal of Applied Social Theory; Vol 1, No 1 (2016): Special Edition: Theorising digital scholarship
eng
Copyright (c) 2016 Bonnie Elaine Stewart
oai:ojs.socialtheoryapplied.com:article/67
2021-04-08T16:44:21Z
jast:ART
"210408 2021 eng "
ISSN 2398-5836
dc
Depth Charges: Does “Deep State” Propagandizing Undermine Bureaucratic Reputations?
Johnson, Tyler
The University of Oklahoma http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3519-0364
Array
In the wake of prominent instances of bureaucratic defiance, supporters of Donald Trump’s presidency have taken to describing said bureaucrats and the departments and agencies they represent as part of a “deep state” seeking to maintain and wield power behind the scenes. Such claims can be understood as an attempt at character assassination with the end goal of undermining the reputations of bureaucracy and bureaucrats alike. Efforts to disseminate this propaganda across varied forms of media have been both sustained and forceful. Do such attempts to shape public opinion lead Americans to think less of prominent agencies, cabinet departments, and their leaders? The author utilizes an original survey experiment to examine if learning about what a deep state is, reading media members debate its reality, or hearing the President’s son declare it to be truth shapes attitudes toward the image of the CIA and the Departments of State, Justice, and Defense. Preliminary results reveal such propagandizing rarely changes how individuals think about bureaucracy. The rare instances in which it does affect attitudes reveal such arguments may be just as likely to improve bureaucratic reputation as they are to diminish it, with presidential approval at times conditioning outcomes.
Journal of Applied Social Theory
2021-04-08 17:44:21
application/pdf
text/html
https://socialtheoryapplied.com/journal/jast/article/view/67
Journal of Applied Social Theory; Vol 1, No 3 (2021): Special Edition: Character Assassination and Applied Social Theory
eng
https://socialtheoryapplied.com/journal/jast/article/download/67/236
Copyright (c) 2021 Tyler Johnson
oai:ojs.socialtheoryapplied.com:article/60
2018-10-09T13:42:13Z
jast:ART
"181009 2018 eng "
ISSN 2398-5836
dc
Accidental Academic Activism - Intersectional and (Un)intentional Feminist Resistance
Sobande, Francesca
Edge Hill University Business School
St Helens Road
Ormskirk
L39 4QP
Array
Drawing on autoethnographic reflections, this work explores the concept of ‘accidental academic activism’. It outlines how this notion aids understanding of power struggles and resistance in higher education. Shaped by feminist and queer theory, there is discussion of processes of (mis)identification as an academic activist. This article examines how the intersections of racism and sexism result in the presumed political presence of Black women in academia, in ways that may influence their academic activism. This account also considers how creative and self-reflexive approaches can enable resistance to neoliberal pressures to perform perfection as an academic. When considering the history and future of academia, questions concerning identity, ideology and inequality inevitably arise. These include the contested scope for individuals to pursue and produce work that is both academic and activist in nature. Pairing such debates with discussion of race, gender and feminism yields insight into fractious forms of academic resistance, solidarity, (un)settling silences, and identities. This article stems from my perspective as a Black (and mixed-race) woman, and who as an early career researcher is still determining the extent to which their work is resistant. By reflecting on tensions and overlaps between academia and activism, there is exploration of the parameters within which feminist research and resistance is (im)mobilised.
Journal of Applied Social Theory
2018-10-09 00:00:00
text/html
application/pdf
https://socialtheoryapplied.com/journal/jast/article/view/60
Journal of Applied Social Theory; Vol 1, No 2 (2018): Special Edition: Futures and Fractures in Feminist & Queer Education
eng
Copyright (c) 2018 Francesca Sobande
oai:ojs.socialtheoryapplied.com:article/5
2014-12-15T00:07:30Z
journal:ART
oai:ojs.socialtheoryapplied.com:article/101
2021-04-08T16:44:21Z
jast:REV
"210408 2021 eng "
ISSN 2398-5836
dc
Review of The Routledge Handbook of Character Assassination and Reputation Management, edited by Sergei A. Samoilenko, Martijn Icks, Jennifer Keohane, and Eric Shiraev. New York: Routledge, 2020
Jasper, James M.
The City University of New York
Array
Journal of Applied Social Theory
2021-04-08 17:44:21
application/pdf
text/html
https://socialtheoryapplied.com/journal/jast/article/view/101
Journal of Applied Social Theory; Vol 1, No 3 (2021): Special Edition: Character Assassination and Applied Social Theory
eng
Copyright (c) 2021 James M. Jasper
oai:ojs.socialtheoryapplied.com:article/71
2021-04-08T16:44:21Z
jast:ART
"210408 2021 eng "
ISSN 2398-5836
dc
Government-Sponsored Systemic Character Assassination
Rothbart, Daniel
George Mason University
Array
Episodes of character association (CA) among political figures are ubiquitous in the current political landscape of the United States, where political campaigns routinely include ad hominem attacks of one’s opponent. Yet, another form of CA lies beneath the surface of political figures hurling insults at each other. CA is also situated within certain social-political systems that strategically deploy mechanisms to dominate a targeted population group by casting them inherently inferior to society’s so-called pure members. The primary objective of this article is to characterize systemic character assassination [SCA] within the United States as an insidious form of disciplinary control. After identifying certain features of governmental domination over segments of society (section 1), the author introduces the notion of SCA (section 2). A case study is provided of the systemic denigration of migrants seeking asylum in the United States (section 3). This case is followed by an analysis of SCA in terms of the power dynamics between governmental authorities and the targeted population group (section 4). All of which indicates a fundamental tension between the state’s legitimacy as rightful rulers and its illegitimacy from the perspective of those subjected to the insidious manipulations of SCA.
Journal of Applied Social Theory
2021-04-08 17:44:21
application/pdf
text/html
https://socialtheoryapplied.com/journal/jast/article/view/71
Journal of Applied Social Theory; Vol 1, No 3 (2021): Special Edition: Character Assassination and Applied Social Theory
eng
Copyright (c) 2021 Daniel - Rothbart
oai:ojs.socialtheoryapplied.com:article/31
2016-06-27T13:26:39Z
jast:ART
"160626 2016 eng "
ISSN 2398-5836
dc
Bakhtin, digital scholarship and new publishing practices as carnival
Cooper, Anna Mary
University of Salford http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8305-8587
Condie, Jenna
Western Sydney University
Array
Digital scholarship is causing disruptions to established academic practices that have long framed how we share knowledge and do research. The web is increasingly vital to all forms of academic scholarship. Using key theoretical concepts from the work of Mikhail Bakhtin, we question what it means in relation to social science when digital scholarship is considered by some to be ‘carnivalesque’ in relation to established academic practice. We draw upon our experiences of editing and curating a collection of works, commonly known as a Book of Blogs published online as Dialogues of sustainable urbanisation: Social Science Research and Transitions to Urban Contexts. The idea of the book was that it would encourage multivoicedness around the topic of sustainable urbanisation. We reflect upon how the Book of Blogs aims to foster a dialogical, unfinalised approach to social sciences research. Seventy chapters or ‘blogs’ from 83 researchers were included in the collection. Such engagement with the Book of Blogs format emphasised that this approach to scholarship spoke to many as a way to be heard. Therefore, we include our reflections on the implications of networked participatory scholarship in the digital sphere for our professional identities and academic careers, alongside example lessons and practicalities of curating and editing a Book of Blogs. We conclude with considering how social theory, particularly a dialogical epistemology, influences our digital scholarship and the ways in which we perform academia.
Journal of Applied Social Theory
2016-06-26 22:43:25
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https://socialtheoryapplied.com/journal/jast/article/view/31
Journal of Applied Social Theory; Vol 1, No 1 (2016): Special Edition: Theorising digital scholarship
eng
Copyright (c) 2016 Anna Mary Cooper, Jenna Condie
oai:ojs.socialtheoryapplied.com:article/69
2021-04-08T16:44:21Z
jast:ART
"210408 2021 eng "
ISSN 2398-5836
dc
“A ritual civil execution”: Public shaming meetings in the post-Stalin Soviet Union
Stephenson, Svetlana
London Metropolitan University https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5249-8160
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The resurgence of public shaming campaigns in modern societies has important antecedents in the relatively recent past. The paper addresses the practice of prorabotka, a ritual of public shaming that took place in schools, universities and workplaces in the Soviet Union. Prorabotka, whose genealogy can be traced to early post-revolutionary years, was aimed at the reinforcement of social norms challenged by political and moral deviance. Public shaming was applied to a wide range of behaviours, including ideological and moral deviations such as public drunkenness, marital infidelity by party members, planned emigration to Israel, etc. The paper applies a theoretical framework that builds on Durkheimian and neo-Durkheimian approaches to ritual, Garfinkel’s outline of the theory of public degradation ceremonies, and Zizek’s account of split law. It shows that, in addition to an official script, the meetings had a supplementary script that unleashed a jouissance of punitiveness but also generalised guilt and fear in the face of collective justice. It addresses the consequences of shaming for the perpetrators and members of the group. It is based on oral history interviews with individuals who participated in the meetings as denouncers, witnesses or perpetrators.
Journal of Applied Social Theory
2021-04-08 17:44:21
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https://socialtheoryapplied.com/journal/jast/article/view/69
Journal of Applied Social Theory; Vol 1, No 3 (2021): Special Edition: Character Assassination and Applied Social Theory
eng
Copyright (c) 2021 Svetlana Stephenson
oai:ojs.socialtheoryapplied.com:article/58
2018-10-09T13:42:13Z
jast:ART
"181009 2018 eng "
ISSN 2398-5836
dc
Forging queer feminist futures through discomfort: vulnerability and authority in the classroom
Murray, Órla Meadhbh
University of Edinburgh http://www.sps.ed.ac.uk/gradschool/community_and_representation/research_student_profiles/
Kalayji, Lisa
University of Edinburgh http://www.sps.ed.ac.uk/gradschool/community_and_representation/research_student_profiles/
Array
This article explores how to do queer intersectional feminist teaching through the two authors’ autoethnographic reflections on our own teaching experience in UK higher education alongside queer and feminist pedagogy literature. We argue that central to queer intersectional feminist teaching is the negotiation of various discomforts in the classroom, whether discomfort is deliberately used as a pedagogical tool or it arises spontaneously and must be dealt with. However, it is a delicate and imperfect balancing act to negotiate competing aims and emotions in the classroom, whether they be ours as teachers or those of our students. The paper will focus on two key negotiations: ‘coming out’ and negotiating authority and privilege in the university classroom. Firstly, we will explore how to negotiate vulnerability in the classroom, particularly through using personal stories and ‘coming out’ as queer and as traumatised as a pedagogical tool. Secondly, we will explore how to acknowledge students’ own expertise and experiential knowledge, challenging the idea of the teachers as the only experts in the classroom, alongside the seemingly contradictory use of our position of power to challenge privilege in the classroom. These contribution to our overall argument that such queer feminist negotiations take time, something we are short of in the neoliberal university. Through these complex negotiations, we explore the challenges of prefiguring transformed feminist futures while navigating the less-feminist neoliberal present.
Journal of Applied Social Theory
2018-10-09 00:00:00
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https://socialtheoryapplied.com/journal/jast/article/view/58
Journal of Applied Social Theory; Vol 1, No 2 (2018): Special Edition: Futures and Fractures in Feminist & Queer Education
eng
Copyright (c) 2018 Órla Meadhbh Murray, Lisa Kalayji
oai:ojs.socialtheoryapplied.com:article/16
2016-06-26T21:43:25Z
jast:ART
"160626 2016 eng "
ISSN 2398-5836
dc
Digital selves, digital scholars: Theorising academic identity in online spaces
Hildebrandt, Katia
University of Regina
Couros, Alec
University of Regina
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As the digital world becomes enmeshed with our physical world, identities become public by default, and this can have disastrous consequences for those whose digital identities are deemed socially unacceptable. For scholars, considerations of public identity are especially critical, as academia functions in many ways as a reputational economy (Willinsky, 2010). Thus, while concerns over digital footprint are widespread amongst the general population, they become particularly pressing for academics, but avoiding digital spaces entirely is increasingly a non-viable option as institutions of higher education expand into digital domains. As well, there are many affordances made possible by various forms of digital scholarship (Veletsianos and Kimmons, 2012). Many scholars are therefore tasked with the necessity of navigating a digital culture that is quick to judge and reluctant to forgive.
In this paper, we theorise the ontological foundations of (digital) identity in order to better understand the complexity of academics’ online participation. We explore the conceptualization of identity as fixed and unitary or as a coherent whole from which we might select ‘acceptable identity fragments’ to present in public online spaces (Kimmons and Veletsianos, 2014). Then, employing a poststructural lens, we theorise the effects of such a modernist epistemology on digital identity and scholarship, including the repercussions of seeing identity as fixed, unitary, and controllable on diverse digital phenomena: cultural hysteria around the permanence of digital footprints; a decreased collective capacity for forgiveness as we lose the ability to forget past misdeeds (Ambrose, Friess, and Van Matre, 2012); increasing occurrences of cybervigilantism in response to acts taken out of context (Ronson, 2015). Finally, we theorise the possibilities and challenges offered by a reimagining of digital selfhood in poststructural terms, as fluid, never complete, and conferring a constrained agency.
Journal of Applied Social Theory
2016-06-26 22:43:25
text/html
application/pdf
https://socialtheoryapplied.com/journal/jast/article/view/16
Journal of Applied Social Theory; Vol 1, No 1 (2016): Special Edition: Theorising digital scholarship
eng
Copyright (c) 2016 Katia Hildebrandt, Alec Couros