brian barry’s culture and equality: a critical review

Brian Barry, in his monograph on the “politics of difference” or the “politics of recognition,” is skeptical of the degree to which current multiculturalism policies have in fact advanced “the values of liberty and equality,” to the extent that “the implementation of such policies tends to mark a retreat from both.” Multiculturalism introduces more [...]

foreign panic attack / asymmetry // (!) invading space

can the sound of space create a rich ultimatum of flowerless super-impositions? i spoke too loudly. and unfortunately woke up the person next to me. showering. deep space offers rehabilitation but somehow inconveniences. i feel incomplete and sadly depressed. and then.
the magic number appears again. as if to silence [...]

eu series: hegemonism – an eu love affair

Enlarging the European Union to include “new” member states is an ambitious and fascinating political project. Controversy however, does exist. Expanding the EU is an ideological exercise that strives to provide the impetus for the spread of neo-liberal market policies as well as other fundamental “democratic” concepts that may include a commitment to [...]

random responses: public policy critique [two]

Foucault’s primary concern in Governmentality is state control. State sovereignty, while often asserted over property and territory, is predominantly a means of controlling what Foucault calls “the complex of men and things.” Since state sovereignty cannot be absolute and completely arbitrary. Therefore, a rationalization or justification that explains why the state is [...]

random responses: public policy critique [one]

A) Summary
(1) Frank Fischer
Human beings exist in the world in which they find themselves both as physical beings and social phenomena. A distinction between these two spheres is a critical observation that allows postempiricist discursive to pursue an interpretative understanding of reality. Because this social reality is a construct, and as a result [...]

european union [meets] turkey: two democracies, one hypocrite

I wrote a paper on whether Turkey should or should not join the European Union. Again, I’m not posting everything, as that would probably completely miss what I’m trying to do: add accessibility to my blog. Here are some excerpts:

Introduction
To ask the question of whether Turkey should or should not join the European [...]

inside asset bubbles: the rationality of speculation (exec brief)

I wrote a paper on speculative asset bubbles, having loads of fun doing it. Although I am aware of the brutal reality that not everyone may full understand the dialectic/specific vernacular, this should not prevent discussion.
Caveats aside, here is the introduction:
“Chain letters, bubbles, pyramid schemes, Ponzi finance, and manias are somewhat overlapping [...]

immigration mini-series: hijabs and burkas in schools

Question 3: Should the hijab or the burka be banned in schools?

An interesting response to this once again “should or should not” question, would probably originate from Brian Barry and the thin liberal argument that he makes in his book, Culture and Equality, that current multiculturalism (read: inclusionary and accommodating) policies have failed to reconcile [...]

immigration mini-series: brubaker on france and germany

Question 2: Critically evaluate Brubaker’s thesis on France and Germany

Brubaker’s thesis on France and Germany posits that France and Germany have distinctive and deeply rooted “understandings of nationhood.” He further goes on to propose that while current criticism is unjustified and that this distinction between these two countries has and will continue to provide [...]

immigration mini-series: on open borders

Question 1: Should there be open borders?

It is ambiguous to concede an answer, to the question of whether there should or should not be open borders between sovereign states, in either the affirmative or otherwise. It needs to be made explicit that a tension does exist, whether it may be desired or not, between [...]