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This article presents and proofs an alternative concept of democracy that seeks to overcome the limitations of rigid universalist, liberal-proceduralist conceptions by emphasizing the fundamental principles of democracy rather than combining them with culturally individualistic features. The approach presented here focuses on the fundamental principles of democracy. Democratic configurations assume that citizens' political self-efficacy of the people is a potential basic principle behind any institutionalization of democratic order. Therefore, this article refers on a discussion of the theoretical implementation of self-efficacy in the three models of democracy: liberalism, republicanism and communitarianism. Ultimately, every political system must be studied by whether the established institutions serve this basic principle. The article illustrates the proposed approach through case studies of Singapore, Ghana, and Ireland. The empirical examples show how different institutional settings and their adjustments strengthen and hinder political self-efficacy. Therefore, this new bottom-up-approach of studying configurations of democracy may help to get better insights on the democraticness of political systems and other institutional settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Communitarian thought could be a noteworthy alternative to the prevailing moral-political realities established by liberal assumptions and presuppositions, as its interpretations on issues it broaches in the realms of being, knowledge, and value indicate. However, it is not entirely accurate to say that communitarianism is examined as an alternative to liberal thought in the literature. The role assigned to it is more so to serve as a corrective that moderates the extremes of liberal thought. This article aims to reinterpret communitarianism not as a corrective of liberalism, but as an alternative thought system to it. The main contention of the article is that, just like liberalism, communitarianism can indeed be read as a standalone political philosophy. This claim is sought to be grounded in the article by the existence of a unique philosophical foundation from which the criticisms of communitarian thinkers toward liberalism also emerge and are nourished - in other words, the fundamental premises and assumptions that make the communitarian critique “communitarian”. In this context, rather than focusing on the critiques of communitarians against liberalism, the article offers an examination that reveals the ontological, epistemological, and axiological foundations of communitarian thought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community engagement initiatives, which include ideas of social change and collaboration, seek to value and use students' knowledge in real-world situations. However, a lack of connection between academic learning and the community environment may result in disengagement on the part of students. The article argues that, by including the philosophy and practice of moderate communitarianism in CEI, it is possible to balance individual rights with community obligations, in this way bridging the existing divide between the two. Based on Kwame Gyekye's thoughts, this article presents a conceptual framework that highlights the importance of humanity in the African sense (Ubuntu), interdependence, communalism, and respect and dignity concerning CEI. I argue that these four aspects have the potential to provide a harmonious relationship between individual autonomy and society's requirements and, in so doing, to improve educational outcomes and, in turn, the advancement of social equality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article offers a practical and theoretical exploration of a (highly) specialised type of comics re-mediation, namely, audio described (AD) comics for the Blind and Partially Sighted (BPS). Building on relevant work in comics studies and translation studies, it is argued that translation activity, broadly seen to include interlingual as well as intersemiotic translation (Jakobson 1959), helps rewrite original works. Translation is defined as a blend, or a hybrid mental space combining characteristics of source and target contexts. As such, it entails the imbrication of personal memory, collective memory and the diffusion of a translator's memory in linguistic codes, social milieus, textual traditions and digital capabilities at play. AD exhibits the same blend logic in that it selectively contains visual source-text information in target-text audio performance. An exploratory comics AD pilot project at The Cartoon Museum (London) serves as an exemplar. The project consists of three phases: a focused interview with the creative team (describer, curator, comic artists); scripting and performance of three AD samples; and collecting feedback from BPS visitors. The project reveals how collective memory started to form in this dialogic process and, ultimately, which aspects of AD practice may be deemed to be effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In March 1916 the German Jewish writer, philosopher, and anarchist-activist Gustav Landauer gave a lecture on Friedrich Hölderlin's hymn "The Rhine" (1802) at a women's club in central Berlin. The lecture aims to derive from Hölderlin a concept of community designed to disavow German militarism and gesture to a wholly different understanding of the social. Taking his cue from Hölderlin, Landauer thus argues that community is not a state in which self-sufficient subjects join together on the basis of certain ostensibly shared attributes (language, territory, ethnicity, etc.) but is a relationship of mutual obligation geared toward irreducible openness—a "community of love" (Liebesgemeinschaft). Accordingly, Landauer not only anticipates crucial aspects of later engagements with the concept of community but also sets the tone for an anarchistic strand of Hölderlin reception around the time of World War I that has hitherto remained relatively underexplored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A world faced with global climate change needs actionable ways to curb its effects. We suggest that Ubuntu philosophy is a way to achieve peaceful coexistence between humans and the ecosystem. From an African perspective, we use Ubuntu philosophy's concepts to understand how humans can create environmental policies and environmental education pedagogy. We use historical ecology and document review to explore the connections between humans, ecology, and Ubuntu philosophy. An understanding of how philosophy and ecology relate is proposed to fill the gap in the cosmological premise between the African person and ecology. The study first sets out a relational model of humans and the ecosystem, then applies the ecology of education to environmental policy formulation. The research demonstrates that humanness with humaneness and collectivism, afro-eco-communitarianism, Ubuntu consensus politics, and Ubuntugogy are concepts underlying how the essence of Ubuntu philosophy can inform an ecofriendly society. The ethno-philo-cological underpinnings help conceptualize these concepts of community. Finally, the study's conclusion shows how the concepts of Ubuntu philosophy suggest ways to improve environmental education and policy formulation. Climate concerns can be resolved by handing responsibility to the community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The religiously diverse society of NTT (Bumi Flobamora) has received national title as the most tolerant province in Indonesia. However, reality shows that there are religious conflicts, such as the rejection of the establishment of Islamic places of worship and the emergence of various forms of violence with religious nuances. This study attempts to provide a new contemporary social philosophy explanation for the development of religious social conditions. With the help of philosophical methods, the results show that the ideology of pluralism has long lived in Bumi Flobamora. However, this model of "traditional pluralism," which is based on local wisdom and supported by the government's policy of harmony, is currently no longer in line with demands for universal human rights, because "traditional pluralism" shows the unequal treatment of people of different religions. Therefore, contemporary social philosophy develops a "modern pluralism," which is built on the principle of equality. To strengthen this new model of pluralism, efforts are needed to overcome the weaknesses of communitarianism. The main weakness of communitarianism is that it opens up a space for religious appreciation that only emphasizes the togetherness and unity of a spiritual community and views those outside the community as other people who may or should even be excluded. The study concludes that the unity of religions in Bumi Flobamora will only survive if traditional pluralism is replaced with modern pluralism, which is in line with the Political Ethics of the Indonesian nation, Bhinneka Tunggal Ika, and the basic philosophy of Pancasila. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThe emergence of Covid-19 and its diverse impacts on human life ushered in the need to rethink some of the old ideas that humans have lived by. The desire to preserve human life amid threatening circumstances, without giving up on the values of life, requires the reordering of critical sectors of social existence. Against this backdrop, the paper aims to achieve three principal objectives. First, with the Covid-19 pandemic in mind, it reinterprets the individualist-communitarian debate. Second, it argues that the human instinct for self-preservation, reinforced by the Covid-19 pandemic, forcefully compels the concept of a person torn between the individual’s efforts to survive and a community committed to an environment enabling survival. Third, the paper extrapolates the concept of ‘person’ developed in objective two to reflect on students’ resilience in the context of the ‘new normal’ that has characterized academic success during Covid-19. While employing philosophical methods of conceptual and critical analyses to achieve these objectives, the paper concludes that academic success among students in the Covid-19 era has demanded the effort of willing students, combined with a supportive responsible community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Communitarians argue that social identity is formed through the connection between individuals and their communities. The purpose of this study is to examine how the institution of journalism functions as part of a larger community. Media influence and are influenced by the larger social, cultural, legal, political, and economic systems in which they operate. This textual analysis focused on the breakdown of four Boston institutions—the Catholic Church, the police force, the justice system, and the daily newspaper—depicted in the film Spotlight. These institutions failed their community, allowing decades of sexual abuse to go unrecognized and unpunished—at least until the Spotlight team investigated allegations against Catholic priests. Through the lens of communitarian ethics, the researchers argue that stakeholders must recognize the need for a strong community from which the press can report, explain, correct, and connect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article engages with utopian studies as an interdisciplinary field, scrutinizing the contested, yet prevailing bifurcated conceptualization of 'utopia' as either an ideal or praxis. Drawing upon Leonard N. Primiano's notion of 'vernacular religion' as a comprehensive approach for overcoming epistemologically problematic models in theorizing religion, I propose the concept of vernacular utopia as a methodological tool for the comparative study of utopian worldmaking beyond conceptual binaries, such as blueprint versus practice, or religious versus secular. My case example is New Harmony, one of the most famous 19th-century emigrant settlements in the US, where pietists and early socialists encountered and implemented their respective blueprints at the same geographical locale. Focusing on the historiographical roots of Primiano's concept, my objective is to substantiate the vernacular perspective within historical methodology by illustrating how the approach fosters alternative perspectives on source materials and integrates new sources into the historical study of religion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The social ecology proposed by Murray Bookchin argues that ecological problems are a consequence of the way in which society is organized, i.e. hierarchically. Based on the identification of this problem, social ecology proposes to generate a non-hierarchical interrelationship between ecological systems and social systems. In order to make this ethic viable, it is based on a community commitment that is reflected through an assembly dynamic, where each member of the community has a voice and influence, and an ecological habit that involves the recognition of agro-ecological forms of cultivation, as well as liberating technologies. This dynamic, fundamentally based on community processes, seeks to abolish all hierarchical forms of domination and subordination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article engages the global displacement crisis by rendering the concept of 'home' as a theological problem for politics, linking contemporary geopolitical conflict to broader issues of forced migration. For help, we engage Simone Weil's theopolitical critique of domination‐based political organising, Hannah Arendt's insights into the texture of political space and belonging, and Jodi Dean's concept of a 'collective desire for collectivity' to propose a lateral, connective politics of home that secures local communities while also fostering global connection. Our constructive theological proposal is that the power of love for home entails the embrace of neighbour (near and far) that moves beyond the usual options of liberal cosmopolitanism, communitarian localism, and the Realpolitik of geopolitical alliances. By reconsidering and intensifying the Christian concept of neighbour‐love and linking it to the common reality of displacement and the common longing for home, we take the first steps towards illuming and unveiling a political theology of home that is neither preferential nor naively inclusive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This Article begins with the introduction of two competing schools in private law. One school claims that private law is to achieve efficient resource allocation or wealth maximization. The other school follows the bipolar structure of corrective justice with the assistance of the Kantian theory. While each side is very strong and elegant, neither is able to claim the totality of private law. Naturally, scholarship reconciling the two schools is urgently needed. Although there is a thin body of literature, trying to reconcile the two competing schools, the outcome has been far from satisfactory. This Article tries to fill an important gap in the literature by developing the communitarian version of Kantian right while taking into consideration the efficient resource allocation within the bipolar structure of corrective justice. After articulating such a theory, this Article has made an effort in analyzing empirical evidence from United States judicial practice to test whether the communitarian version of Kantian right can be supported. The Article then examines the failure of judicial analyses when the utilization of the communitarian version of Kantian right ignores the bipolar structure of corrective justice and keeps an inappropriate balance on the interaction of the relationship between private parties in private law and the relationship between the government and individuals under public law [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The founding of the Episcopalian mission that would become known as Nashotah House in the Wisconsin territory in 1841 represented an altogether new phenomenon in American Protestantism: a mission station operated by a brotherhood of celibate men living in community with one another. The monastic pretensions of this mission placed it within the ambit of the ongoing catholic revival in the Church of England. And while the backlash against these monastic elements in the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States closely resembled the ecclesiastical politics of the British world, the controversy over the Nashotah mission was fraught with peculiarly American anxieties as well. For Nashotah, and the other monastic forms that followed in its train, took their place amidst a host of communal experiments that were then dotting the American wilderness. The controversy over Nashotah, this article claims, reveals a heretofore overlooked set of interchanges between ecclesiology and communitarianism in American life. Mapping these will allow us to consider the discourses about group life which comprised an understudied aspect of American romanticism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reformist doctors in Thailand have combined to create a primary health care system in rural areas in which village health volunteers play a major role. Consistent with the WHO whole-of-society approach, these doctors have envisaged a decentralised system that emphasises volunteers as community oriented, self-reliant agents of change. Our ethnographic research in Chiang Mai, Thailand, reveals that these ideals of village health volunteer empowerment have not been realised. Rather, village health volunteers have become entrapped in a hierarchical, top-down health bureaucracy that affords them limited deliberative agency. We argue that this predicament reveals a conflict of paradigms between, on the one hand, an idealised holistic, spiritual dimension of health with village health volunteers as dedicated, self-sacrificing agents of local communities and, on the other hand, the imperatives of state authoritarian interventions in the avian influenza and COVID-19 pandemics, including rigorous public health protocols and epidemiological methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Referencing the term "Great American Novel," the August 2010 cover of Time Magazine introduced Jonathan Franzen as "the Great American Novelist," a change that draws attention to the persona of the author, as well as to his alleged ability to capture the American experience in the 21st century. Based on the analysis of Franzen's novels, this article describes changes in mainstream American fiction under neoliberalism--the shift towards strong authorial presence, omniscient narrator, mimetism, middle-class family saga--that arguably constitute a postpostmodernist tendency, neorealism. In spite of Franzen's extra-literary promise of political critique of neoliberalism and cultural critique of therapy discourse, his fiction in fact performs de-politization on narrative level. Happy endings exemplify a new model of success attained by characters who renounce their idealism--happiness based on small community, family, and abandonment of the hope for a structural change. This redefinition of success is presented as anti-establishment, and is combined with a style of writing that stresses verisimilitude and pretends neutrality, while applying strong narratorial authority. Those inconsistencies between the declarative and narrative levels can themselves be perceived as an intervention of neoliberalism in literature, as they cater to the demand for political discontent from Franzen's liberal, intellectual readership, while affectively soothing it with de-politicized happy endings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents and proofs an alternative concept of democracy that seeks to overcome the limitations of rigid universalist, liberal-proceduralist conceptions by emphasizing the fundamental principles of democracy rather than combining them with culturally individualistic features. The approach presented here focuses on the fundamental principles of democracy. Democratic configurations assume that citizens’ political self-efficacy of the people is a potential basic principle behind any institutionalization of democratic order. Therefore, this article refers on a discussion of the theoretical implementation of self-efficacy in the three models of democracy: liberalism, republicanism and communitarianism. Ultimately, every political system must be studied by whether the established institutions serve this basic principle. The article illustrates the proposed approach through case studies of Singapore, Ghana, and Ireland. The empirical examples show how different institutional settings and their adjustments strengthen and hinder political self-efficacy. Therefore, this new bottom-up-approach of studying configurations of democracy may help to get better insights on the democraticness of political systems and other institutional settings.

The religiously diverse society of NTT (Bumi Flobamora) has received national title as the most tolerant province in Indonesia. However, reality shows that there are religious conflicts, such as the rejection of the establishment of Islamic places of worship and the emergence of various forms of violence with religious nuances. This study attempts to provide a new contemporary social philosophy explanation for the development of religious social conditions. With the help of philosophical methods, the results show that the ideology of pluralism has long lived in Bumi Flobamora. However, this model of "traditional pluralism,” which is based on local wisdom and supported by the government's policy of harmony, is currently no longer in line with demands for universal human rights, because "traditional pluralism" shows the unequal treatment of people of different religions. Therefore, contemporary social philosophy develops a "modern pluralism,” which is built on the principle of equality. To strengthen this new model of pluralism, efforts are needed to overcome the weaknesses of communitarianism. The main weakness of communitarianism is that it opens up a space for religious appreciation that only emphasizes the togetherness and unity of a spiritual community and views those outside the community as other people who may or should even be excluded. The study concludes that the unity of religions in Bumi Flobamora will only survive if traditional pluralism is replaced with modern pluralism, which is in line with the Political Ethics of the Indonesian nation, Bhinneka Tunggal Ika, and the basic philosophy of Pancasila.

Abstrak Globalisasi telah mendorong masuknya Korean Wave ke Indonesia yang menantang kesadaran nasionalisme dan kecintaan terhadap budaya bangsa. K-pop telah menjadi ciri khas Korean Wave karena persaingan yang signifikan antara girl band dan boy band, khususnya boy band BTS. Penelitian ini mengidentifikasi dan mendeskripsikan pentingnya pendekatan kewarganegaraan dan kesadaran nasionalis di kalangan K-Popers. Penelitian ini menggunakan metode etnografi dengan teknik pengumpulan data survei, observasi, dokumentasi, dan wawancara terhadap lima orang wanita fans BTS di Solo, Jawa Tengah yang disebut dengan komunitas Solo Army. Hasil penelitian memberikan gambaran bahwa pendekatan kewarganegaraan yang diterapkan oleh masyarakat Tentara Solo mendekati komunitarian. Namun para K-Popers menunjukkan fanatisme tanpa mengurangi rasa nasionalismenya dengan menyukai BTS sebagai hiburan sedangkan nasionalisme adalah sebuah kewajiban. K-Popers Army Solo juga membentuk nasionalisme dengan mengadakan kegiatan sosial yang ditujukan kepada sesama manusia yang harus saling membantu dan menghormati tanpa membeda-bedakan. Oleh karena itu, penting untuk memiliki pendekatan sipil dan kesadaran nasionalis di kalangan K-Popers agar budaya Korean Wave tidak mudah mempengaruhi mereka. -------- Abstract Globalization has encouraged the entry of the Korean Wave into Indonesia, which challenges the awareness of nationalism and love for the nation's culture. K-pop has become a hallmark of the Korean Wave due to the significant competition between girl and boy bands, especially the boy band BTS. This research identifies and describes the importance of a civic approach and nationalist awareness among K-Popers. This study used ethnographic methods with survey data collection techniques, observation, documentation, and interviews with five female BTS fans in Solo, Central Java, called the Solo Army community. The results of the study illustrate that the civic approach adopted by the Solo Army community is close to communitarian. However, K-Popers show fanaticism without reducing their sense of nationalism by liking BTS as entertainment while nationalism is an obligation. K-Popers Army Solo also forms nationalism by holding social activities aimed at fellow humans who must help and respect each other without discriminating. Therefore, it is essential to have a civic approach and nationalist awareness among K-Popers so that Korean Wave culture does not easily influence them.

The article analyses communitarian models of cultural conservatism. The specific features of cultural conservatism as a form of conservative theory are revealed. A comparative analysis of various communitarian models for cultural conservatism is carried out, their common and specific features are identified. It is concluded that the initial communitarian principles of cultural conservatives can lead to different assessments of the role of the state in the implementation of cultural and national policies, as well as the most preferable ways of protecting and preserving values.

In this paper, I argue that Kant has a far more communitarian theory of aesthetic life than is usually acknowledged. I focus on two aspects of Kant's theory that might otherwise be taken to support an individualist reading, namely, Kant's emphasis on aesthetic autonomy and his characterization of judgments of taste as involving demands for agreement. I argue that the full expression of autonomy in fact requires being a member of an aesthetic community and that within such a community, judgments of taste are issued as invitations to others to engage their faculties towards the goal of shared aesthetic appreciation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the wake of international organisations’ (IOs) politicisation, treaty-based transfers of authority to or from IOs have virtually come to a standstill. Instead, we increasingly see instances of informal internationalisation and unilateral renationalisation of IO authority. In this article, we introduce a Political Contest Theory (PCT) that explains both phenomena at the same time. PCT builds on the postfunctionalist assumption that, in the age of politicisation, IO authority transfers activate a transnational cleavage between communitarian and cosmopolitan factions fighting over the ‘right’ locus of political authority. Yet, beyond extant postfunctional theorising, PCT specifies the mechanisms through and the conditions under which either the one or the other faction may prevail. We argue that communitarians can rely on a structural mobilisation advantage which allows them to assert unilateral renationalisations, whereas cosmopolitans can rely on an institutional power advantage which allows them to push through informal internationalisations. Moreover, PCT highlights a pattern of mutual reinforcement between the systematic advantages enjoyed by the opposing factions that is likely to exacerbate the polarisation over IO authority transfers in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The popular genre of sung and spoken performance— naniwabushi —was the biggest 'craze' during the first decade of the twentieth century in Japan. This article uncovers how Miyazaki Tōten (1870–1922), a revolutionary and thinker who became a naniwabushi balladeer, was instrumental in the rise of naniwabushi as a popular art form during the Russo-Japanese transwar period (1902–1909) and used it to engage in a practice of nihilist democracy. In using a transwar frame to examine the content, audiences, and contemporary reports of his performances, this article concludes that Miyazaki Tōten created 'new' naniwabushi to deliberately link the techniques and rhetoric of the Freedom and People's Rights Movement from the 1880s to the Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905). He used naniwabushi to articulate his concepts of autonomous freedom, nihilism, and anarchist communitarianism in a time usually characterized by the heavy suppression of dissent. It counters the impression of the wholesale embrace of nationalism and support for Japanese imperialism and shows how Japan's urban poor engaged in political discourse through popular entertainment that was critical of Japanese imperialism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Bulletin of Educational Research is the property of National Taiwan Normal University, Department of Education and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article evaluates the moral implications of two leading theories on biodiversity preservation/conservation (Paul Taylor's biocentric egalitarianism and J. Baird Callicott's holistic communitarianism). Taylor argues for the moral equality of all members of the Earth's community of life, calling for an ethic of respect for nature to conserve biodiversity. Callicott argues for the moral consideration of ecosystems to maintain their integrity, stability, and beauty. The article makes two major claims. First, we need a plausible account of moral egalitarianism to disrupt ethical anthropocentrism. Second, the ethics of respect for nature requires a critical bottom‐up character‐based ethical theory to be morally forceful. These missing elements are central to the ubuntu philosophy about personhood and are significant for enriching egalitarian‐communitarian solutions to biodiversity loss. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What are the most important conceptions of 'sanctuary' in relation to citizenship and community, and how do today's sanctuary cities engage with such lines of thinking? This paper examines the moral visions underlying and animating many of today's sanctuary cities in the United States in order to illustrate how local communities have adopted a combination of liberal, communitarian and cosmopolitan perspectives in social and political philosophy. By tracing the recent history of the sanctuary cities movement and examining current public discourses among community leaders and activists in several leading sanctuary cities, the analysis shows how the idea of 'sanctuary' works across principles of individual freedom and human rights as emblematic within liberalism, notions of solidarity, social trust and local self-determination in communitarianism, and aspirations for shared responsibility and the advancement of human dignity as found in cosmopolitanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The most popular defense of altruism has come from ethicists, mostly Western ethicists, who argue that for an action to hold any justification as it pertains to altruistic commitments, such an altruistic action must stem from the agent's internal states such as beliefs, practical reasoning, desires, or deliberative attitudes. I refer to this as the internalist justification for altruism. On this internalist approach, the mere recognition of others—which I shall refer to as an externalist justification—albeit necessary for an agent who wants to perform an altruistic act, is insufficient in accounting for the agent's altruism. This paper offers an African model of communitarian ethics (ACE) under which the externalist justification for altruism is satisfied. I argue that at its core, ACE holds a normative conception of community and personhood that accounts for a sufficient externalist justification for altruism, which proponents of internal altruism have argued is insufficient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a world increasingly marked by ideological and theological divisions, this paper aims to foster intercultural and interfaith dialogue by examining the resonances and dissonances between Charles Taylor’s communitarianism and Confucian philosophy. Focusing particularly on their theological and spiritual dimensions, the paper explores how both traditions conceptualize selfhood in terms of authenticity, community, and transcendence. Employing a multi-disciplinary approach, the study incorporates Warren G. Frisina’s critique of Taylor, shedding light on the interconnections among value, identity, and theological beliefs. Ultimately, this paper contributes to a more nuanced understanding of selfhood across different cultural and theological contexts and offers constructive insights for bridging the existing epistemological and ethical divides that separate Eastern and Western religious and philosophical thought.

Purpose: This research investigates the presence of communitarian philosophy within contemporary Scottish public library strategy, exploring links between philosophy, politics and practice. Design/methodology/approach: The paper follows a qualitative research approach, combining content analysis and discourse analysis methodologies for the analysis of a corpus of Scottish public library trust documentation according to a thematic framework of communitarian values. Findings: The analysis revealed strong links between trust strategy and communitarian values but also highlighted contradictions within this form of communitarianism which belied a deeper neoliberal philosophical foundation. The research therefore identified a communitarian strategic service shift which introduced benefits of social inclusion, community autonomy and common good but also brought concerns of an inherently weakened communal foundation and the survival of a neoliberal status quo. Research limitations/implications: The analysis is focused on strategy in Scotland only and thus can only claim to be representative of that country. However, the growth in communitarian strategies in the public sector is informed from the analysis undertaken. Practical implications: The paper provides a novel analysis of public library strategy and thus contributes to the understanding of public library practice in the modern era. Social implications: The impacts of communitarian philosophy in the public sphere are under-researched and how these changes impact the mission of libraries needs to be better understood. Originality/value: This is the first analysis to consider public library strategy from a communitarian point of view. As such, it provides novel insights into a growing area of public service development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the development directions of liminal spaces and cities as a whole within the broader framework of neoliberalism in the Italian metropolitan context. First, neoliberalism was defined and considered in the context of liminal spaces and urban development, according to the international literature perspective. Then, with specific reference to the Italian case, through semi-structured interviews, it was found that liminal spaces, despite facing marginalisation, translocalisation and defamiliarisation, acted as antagonists and nuclei of resistance to the encroaching framework of neoliberalism. The article also explores the role of digital ecosystems as tools for empowerment; it also emphasizes the role of liminal spaces in fostering communitarianism while resisting the change experienced and brought about by the surrounding urban spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Crítica de Ciências Sociais is the property of Centro de Estudos Sociais and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In the past two decades, drug‐treatment centers called anexos (annexes) have proliferated throughout Mexico. Run and attended by the working poor, anexos' therapeutic practices blend criminal violence and religious ritual, and they are widely condemned as abusive and unethical. Based on several years of ethnographic research in Mexico City, this article situates anexos within a larger historical frame and examines how they conjure and rework contemporary forms of affliction through a novel form of confessional practice. It shows how confession simultaneously reproduces pervasive images of violence while also disclosing projects of communitarian survival that are ethically affirmative. In doing so, this article demonstrates that anexos' confessional practices constitute an aesthetics and politics of recovery that calls for a rethinking of criminal, religious, and therapeutic domains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]