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Postmodernists reject what they call the universalist-rationalist framework of liberalism. When they do defend liberal democracy, they do so in a contextualist manner (within a 'form of life') and on the basis of contestation ('agonism'). Liberals are right to charge postmodernism with self-contradiction, relativism, and immoralism. It is also argued in this article that liberalism and postmodernism are incompatible, and therefore, they cannot be joined together in response to the hegemonic construction of democratic debate. However, liberals are caught in a bind as they insist on impartiality but also believe the exercise of virtue (reasonableness, mutual respect) is a requirement of rational dialogue. This article argues that perfectionism (objectivism) in value judgements is required both to insist that virtuousity is a requirement of rationality and to reject postmodernism. However, it must be possible to separate perfectionism from two features of Alasdair MacIntyre's Aristotelianism: he is hostile to liberal rights and his contextualism results in relativism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article excavates certain hidden and suppressed moments in the ancient and modern history of cosmopolitanism. In contradistinction to mainstream cosmopolitanism, which generally reduces the concept to a liberal politics of global pacification, an essential agonism between cosmos and polis that is further reflected in the aporetic relation between freedom and law will be revealed. Cosmopolitanism is not only a philosophy of perpetual peace, it is also, paradoxically, a call to perpetual provocation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article the author attempts to identify two unreconciled aspects of Belgian political theorist Chantal Mouffe's agonistic plularism. He uses the work of Argentine political theorist Ernesto Laclau and French philosopher Claude Lefort to argue that Mouffe's theory of agonistic pluralism papers embody the people and a populist, vertical model based on occupying the place of the king. The author also discusses democracy as a non-hegemonic struggle based on the ambiguities detected in the works of Mouffe.

The article presents the author's thoughts regarding the need to differentiate between the agonistic and deliberative approaches to democracy. The hegemony of deliberative democracy is described, noting the belief that failure to recognize the extent of the difference between agonistic and deliberative democracy contributes to the hegemonic position of the deliberative approach. Differences in the two approaches' understanding of the nature and scope of politics, the appropriate goals for democracy, and the nature of political action are discussed.

An essay is presented on the artistic influence inherent in the word choice of authors contemporaneous with American philosopher-poets Walt Whitman and Ralph Waldo Emerson. It relates that Whitman and Emerson have acknowledged a contemporary audience that includes resistant and divisive components. Moreover, it states that both authors are emphasizing the future in their democratic call for a new political consciousness to the common man of all the rights of art and culture.

The article focuses on philosophical discussions on the role art plays in democratic cultures. It talks about philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau's notion of the common good in democracy and on dissenting views from political scientist Joseph Schumpeter who views democracy as a type of capitalist market economy, or political theorist Chantal Mouffe who believes political consensus is best achieved through agonistic pluralism. It mentions German philosopher Friedrich Schiller who adapted philosopher Immanuel Kant's aesthetic theory as the foundation for a democratic society as described by Rousseau and how Schiller influenced the modernist art movement. It comments on philosopher Jean-Francois Lyotard's aesthetic theory which stressed the absolute particularity of art.

In the primordial scene, which Girard has described, society is constituted on the basis of the lynching mob, whose mimetic desire, envy and egotism culminate in sacrificing the scapegoat. With spite, though, we confront the opposite situation, in which the mimetic desire does not establish but rather destroys 'society'. Here everybody, and not only the scapegoat, is threatened with destruction. Regarding the genealogy of spite, the article elaborates on radical nihilism (that is, the will to negation) and relates this to passive nihilism (the negation of the will as such), arguing that these two nihilisms are significant to understand both the hedonism/disorientation that characterizes contemporary post-political culture and the emerging forms of despair and violence as a reaction to it. These two nihilisms constitute a nondialectical 'synthesis' in spite of seemingly antagonistic 'disjunctions'. The article concretizes the genealogy of spite with two cases: French bestselling writer Houellebecq's novels and (the war against) terrorism. Then it focuses on the relationship between the three social formations (primitive, despotic and capitalist societies) and spite as an 'affect without society'. Finally, agonism as a political virtue is set against spite. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the meaning of democracy in a multipolar world. The author states that the two concepts needed to grasp the nature of the political are antagonism and hegemony. She explains that these concepts acknowledge the dimension of radical negativity which impedes the full totalisation of society. The article examines the temporary articulation of contingent practices. The article also takes a look at liberal rationalism, the establishment of a cosmopolitan society, and the Western model of liberal democracy.

An introduction is presented which discusses various issues within the topics including the notion of democratic agonism, the physical representation of deliberation and the differentiation between participatory democracy and deliberative democracy.

Facilitating coexistence between people and large carnivores is critical for large carnivore conservation in human-dominated landscapes, when their presence impacts negatively on human interests. Such situations will often require novel ways of mediating between different values, worldviews and opinions about how carnivores should be managed. We report on such a process in an agricultural area of recent wolf recovery in central Italy where unsolved social tensions over wolf presence have radicalized opinions on either side of the wolf debate, resulting in a stalemate. Where previous mitigation policies based on top-down damage compensation have failed, we tested the potential for applying a participatory approach to engage different stakeholder groups in a dialogue aimed at sharing a deep understanding of the problem and co-creating potential solutions. We based our approach on the theory of meta-consensus, using a decision support tool known as Multi Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA). Over the course of three months, we carried out five workshops with stakeholder representatives from farming, hunting and environmental associations, and one biologist. Stakeholders shared several objectives and agreed over many management interventions, including the management of free-ranging dogs, the implementation of damage prevention measures, and a damage compensation system suitable for farmers. The process facilitated agreement over actions aimed at improving relations between stakeholders and enhancing the state of knowledge on the issues at stake. Most importantly, we recorded positive social and relationship outcomes from the workshops, and observed a willingness from participants to engage in further discussions over disputed management preferences. Overall, we found MCDA to be a useful tool for laying the groundwork for further participatory and deliberative processes on wolf management. However, challenges ahead included the involvement of a larger number of representatives of different social sectors, and a simplification of the methodology which some participants found too complicated and time consuming. • Agonistic pluralism theory provides insights into coexistence with carnivores. • Meta-consensus theory helps identify the goal of deliberation over wolf management. • Multi Criteria Decision Analysis facilitates structured and peaceful dialogue. • Stakeholder deliberation generates positive social and relationship outcomes. • Stakeholders in conflict over wolf management actually share several objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores how design games might serve as a form of design anthropological fieldwork drawing on examples from the project 'Changing Perspectives'- a social design project aimed at designing games to support family consultants in working with incarcerated fathers' empathic understanding of how their children and family experience the collateral effects of imprisonment. In this design anthropological approach to design games, focus shifts from how games facilitate collaboration to how they can help design researchers understand the ambiguous roles of the design researcher vis-à-vis participants, the gap between research intentions and situated practices, and stakeholder agonism to help us discover and challenge implicit assumptions and roles embedded in the design project. • Designing games can support family consultants' work with incarcerated fathers. • Design games can serve as a form of design anthropological fieldwork. • During fieldwork design games help challenge assumptions in the design project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this interview, Victor Villanueva and Tabitha Espina discuss, through a review of Villanueva's publications, how the teaching of Composition has changed throughout the years to consider the needs and exigencies of the times. Using rhetorical analysis, particularly of purpose and audience, and application of some of Villanueva's most influential texts, Villanueva and Espina discuss the field's critical responses to the racial reckoning of this historical moment through translingualism, decolonial pedagogies, agonism, and pluriversality. While Villanueva observes much progress in the field in approaching what he has called "cultural multiplicity," he interrogates the complexities and politics of Otheredness and critiques the disproportionate burden on academics of color. Villanueva and Espina affirm the significance of memoria as a conceptual framework that, not just includes, but essentially functions rhetorically as the means by which ideas and knowledge are experienced and communicated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A response from Stephen K. White and Evan Robert Farr to a commentary on their article "No-Saying in Habermas" which appeared in a 2012 issue is presented. According to the authors, foundationalism and deconstruction are the two interconnected issues that seem to be in contention. The authors explain that their essay was intended to show that the communicative action research can be reconstructed to provide a better understanding of agonism. White and Farr argue that the communicative paradigm should start with a commitment to the idea of the moral equality of voices under German philosopher Jurgen Habermas' foundationalism.

The article offers information on the meeting focused on the concept of urbanism and slums. It focuses on the struggle of Mumbai, India for fundamental resources like water. It mentions that the dialectics of opposition has been replaced by agonism and its deconstruction. It focuses on the concept of agonism and momentary union.

The article discusses various reports published within the issue including one by Abraham Mansbach on the radical democratic potential in the association between private and public spheres within the micropolitical practice of whistleblowing in the workplace and another by Stefan Rummens on Belgian political theorist Chantal Mouffe's theory of agonistic pluralism.

The article offers information on the political crisis in Guinea which leads to the September 2009 massacre in the country. It notes that upon the death of Guinea President Lansana Conté on December 22, 2009, Moussa Dadis Camara proclaims himself as the head of the National Council for Democracy and Development (CNDD). Hence, the governance of Camara leads to political conflicts extending to the massacre of hundreds of people who conduct demonstration against him.