Categoria: works, projects, publications

Crisis and no end ? Re-embedding economy into life and nature

da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in contemporary socio-economic situation, publications, works, works, projects, publications

An article under the above title is published in the new journal Environment and Social Psychology (2015)–Volume 1, Issue 1, Edited by Brij Mohan.

Abstract: There is no end of the crisis in sight. Even more, the long nightmare of forcing Greece onto its knees during the first half of 2015, using banks instead of tanks, shows the contempt for mankind by established superior powers when it comes to defending their interest in a Hobbesian war, irrespective of subsequent human tragedies.

A more detailed and radical analysis is needed, allowing a change of the structures underlying the current situation. One point in question is that the European tragedy was and is part of a global drama.

The discussion of main paradigms as growth, nationality, statehood and the like have to be at the heart of any debates, questioning their validity. A radical shift is needed, aiming at a proactive and provocative re-interpretation of the future.

Keywords: political ecology, structural crisis, societal change, globalisation, five giant tensions, social quality

Sports – Shaping Urban Social Spaces

da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in publications, social quality, works, works, projects, publications

Social Inclusion – Social Exclusion: Physical Exercise as Means between Strengthening Individuals and Integration into Collectivities – Shaping Urban Social Spaces

had been the title of the presentation I gave during the

2015 Annual Conference of the International Journal of the History of Sports — Sport, Urbanization and Social Stratification in Asian Society which took place on November 27th – 28th in Nanchang, China.

Abstract:

Physical exercise, beyond the mere physical aspect, is very much a social construct. But moreover it is also a means of constructing the social and as such it can be used in different ways. The presentation, taking a broad comparative perspective, will reflect on two major possibilities: we may call the one social inclusion as subordination and we can look at the other as matter of social inclusion by strengthening individuals. – This also allows us developing an understanding of new dangers of exclusion in the era of liquid modernity.

The audio of the presentation can be found here, and here are the related slides of the presentation.

 

 

sustainability manifesto

da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in academic life - living in academia, contemporary socio-economic situation, social quality, works, projects, publications

IASQ and ISS to publish sustainability manifesto

At the approach of the Climate Conference in Paris IASQ and the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) will publish a manifesto, pressing for the crossing of existing borders in academic action on sustainability and inspiring state leaders to support this. The document will focus on the urgent need for universities to address increasing unsustainability of living conditions on our planet.

The manifesto proposes

  • a comprehensive approach to the study of sustainability, overcoming traditional dividing lines
  • the creation of academic ‘change-agent centres’ to develop a common work plan and start the implementation of this plan
  • support of governments all over the world for establishing these centers and facilitating their work
    . here for more …
    …..

Sports – Urbanisation and Social Stratification

da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in works, works, projects, publications

Leaving teaching and coping with life aside (well, who can say the latter is easy in a world of which modernity is not just liquid but where liquidity seems to wash away human rights on all levels – I am not writing this because I am in China!! Or perhaps I am writing it because I am here, seeing also many unexpected “white washers” coming here with their incredible “suggestions”), I am preparing the presentation for the end of this week:

The annual conference of the International Journal of the History of Sport (IJHS), taking place at Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics, Nanchang, China during the weekend of 27 – 28 November 2015. The conference is jointly organized by the IJHS and the School of Sports at Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics, China. The core themes are around Urbanization and Social Stratification.

Now I face the challenge to look for the key (I guess that is the meaning of key notes). And I am wondering if this is not very much about overcoming the limited understanding that remains frequently left out when talking about inclusion and also urbanisation.

  • The one aspect is that we discuss inclusion too often without (sufficiently) considering integrity as dialectical/relational issue and part and parcel of inclusion – and of course, with this we have to look also at the contradictions.
  • These may highlight, coming to the second aspect, that urbanisation is not just about space. Perhaps space is as such even the least important aspect, the multiple identities being the foundation that merges into the melting pot as which societies and parts thereof are frequently seen – but while we talk about such melting pots we still, and increasingly act along the ideas of gated communities.

Good stews need a recipe – it is not just throwing different stuff into a pot; and it is not about trying to separate them afterwards again …

Well, some desk work to be done, not allowing much exercise though …. – but such thinking is a bit like chess, and chess is sports, right?

Guess you can read at some stage about it in the International Journal of the History of Sport.

Studying, Responsibility and Ethics

da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in academic life - living in academia, publications, thoughts on life and its philosophy, works, works, projects, publications

Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding.
Albert Einstein

I uploaded a series of presentations given to students of economics at 中南林业科技大学班戈学院/Bangor College CSUFT in Changsha, Hunan Province in China.

The title/subject of the course these presentations introduced is “Learning Skills” – the recommended book rather stupidifying, assuming students are naive, pursuing a formalist approach to learn – and moreover reducing academic work on the approach: “Give me an answer. We will then look for the question.” It is also the way in which we ignore what is attributed to Einstein’s wisdom, namely that
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
I tried in these lectures to raise awareness of the importance of questions, working towards an preliminary or introductory understanding of methodology.
And I tried also to make students aware of the need to counter the
 The lectures used in particular arts and history (and a bit of arts history) as means to delve into different aspects of the relevant topics. – Although there are a few references immediately to my Economics course her ein China, the presentation is relevant (and can be understood) beyond this.
The videos can be found here – they also show the used slides (sorry for the audio-quality – but one gets used to it after a while).
The last lecture, given shortly after the attacks in the middle of November 2015, draws particular attention on ethical aspects and questions of responsibility.
Revised versions of the slides can be found on my researchgate site at

Spring …

da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in publications, works, works, projects, publications

A short text – published in German language – is titled

Frühling nach dem Winter – oder Trost in der Eiszeit?

and published in the recent edition of future2. Zeitschrift fuer Strategie & Entwicklung in Gesellschaft und Kirche (Journal for strategy&development in society and church)

The article is in particular discussing more recent developments of the catholic church. It does not aim on providing a systematic analysis. Instead, the aim is to look for the potentials of different societal movements to join forces aiming on societal change.
The abstract reads as follows.
Die Gedanken lassen sich zwar auf Religion und Kirche insgesamt beziehen, hängen sich aber vor allem an einigen jüngeren Entwicklungen der katholischen Kirche auf. Ziel ist nicht eine systematische Analyse, die weit mehr Platz benötigen würde1. Mehr geht es darum, einige Fragen aufzuwerfen, deren Beantwortung ein gemeinsames Handeln verschiedener gesellschaftlicher Kräfte ermöglichen.
Other contributions on this topic can be found here on Social Pedagogy and Liberation Theology and on The Vatican Spring.

New Publication: Social Pedagogy and Liberation Theology

da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in contemporary socio-economic situation, publications, works, projects, publications
Social Pedagogy and Liberation Theology; in: Kornbeck, Jacob/Úcar, Xavier (eds.)
Latin American Social Pedagogy: Relaying Concepts, Values and Methods between Europe and the Americas
Approaching the topic liberation theology is of some difficulty as for the non-catholic layperson the tension is actually located on a level that stands at the very core of reflection about theology. Two completely different positions can be brought forward: on the one hand it may be proposed that theology and liberation are in some fundamental way exclusive as much as religion is seen being in principle non-emancipative  … On the other hand then we find the position that we are actually dealing with a unit, or even identity of theology and liberation …
See for more details:

Christianity – after secularisation …

da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in contemporary socio-economic situation, publications, thoughts on life and its philosophy, works, projects, publications
 Reading the Ten Commandments we find the words
Thou shalt have no other gods before me
Secularisation meant in some way that human kind took power over, making us to self-conscious beings, being responsible for our being, and thus doing. And secularisation is – rightly or wrongly – very much matter of Western enlightenment which I criticised frequently (see volumes 2 and 3 of my “writings on philosophy and economy of power”:

for its “structural individualism”. This, however, developing to the highly unequal capitalist society, ended in a fatal situation, blocking critical development. Obviously too many people consider themselves as gods now, not accepting critique, not even being able to take it up. Can’t all these self-elected gods now claim:

Thou shalt have no other gods before me
This is the spirit from which the New Princedoms emerge.
This is the spirit of the 1%, carrying the Renaissance heritage of the living here and now and for themselves – and though they may engage with and for others, establish their foundations and engaging in “their communities” by buying soccer clubs, and infecting us all by the Hello– and Vanity-Fair-effect, obscene as the Billionaire Toys.
Though princes may hurt and princedoms may oppress, sovereignty has a true advocate – we find it formulated by Bertrand Russell in A Liberal Decalogue:
 The problem is a little bit what 珍妮弗 said last night, when we went for dinner:
We do not have to be all excellent – it is much more important to be healthy and happy.
Yes, I guess, she is a little bit right, but there is something else that seems to be more important, concerned with the question: What are the standards and who is defining them?

This is something we find so difficult to understand, making us to coevils, companions of the evil, not to say devil, even if it possibly too off their sheepskin …). When it comes to objects of desire – for upper and middle classes, and of course for all others, is a bit more complicated – and the attentive reader of Marx Introduction to a Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy will surely know it:

For one thing, the object is not simply an object in general, but a particular object which must be consumed in a particular way, a way determined by production. Hunger is hunger; but the hunger that is satisfied by cooked meat eaten with knife and fork differs from hunger that devours raw meat with the help of bands, nails and teeth. Production thus produces not only the object of consumption but also the mode of consumption, not only objectively but also subjectively. Production therefore creates the consumer.

In principle, the same pattern as we find it in Modern Times and on occasion of the Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

Opening Views against the Closure of the World

da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in contemporary socio-economic situation, publications, social quality, works, projects, publications

New Publication, open for preorders

Opening Views against the Closure of the World

Author: Peter Herrmann (EURISPES – Istituto di Studi Politici, Economici e Sociali, Rome, Italy, and others)

Book Description: 
The chapters of the present book analyze contemporary societal challenges and changes in light of the social quality approach and French regulationist thinking. This means overcoming as much as possible existing boundaries of social science in some main areas:

  • interdisciplinary approaches are important, but should be pushed beyond the mainstream concept, aiming at an integrated social science approach
  • critique of economism is important, though we should not forget that the question is not about “how much” but about what kind of economy
  • increasingly obvious is the lack of social integrity of contemporary growth policies, but less obvious is what is needed to fundamentally change the scene
  • treating globalization as a matter that goes beyond widening and deepening relations of countries and regions around the globe, seeing it as a news stage of world systems

By working along these different frontlines, the chapters take up important issues that can be found in different areas as ”growth beyond GDP”, human development”, “quality of life”, “world systems” and the like. In the end, it is about looking at the current political-economic patterns and the possibilities they entail when it comes to the claim that “another world is possible”. (Imprint: Nova)

for further information

Social Quality — The Book

da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in social quality, works, projects, publications

Book announcement 
SOCIAL QUALITY THEORY

A New Perspective on Social Development

Edited by Ka Lin and Peter Herrmann

160 pages, 21 figs., 26 tables, index

ISBN 978-1-78238-897-5 $39.95/£25.00 Pb Published (July 2015)

eISBN 978-1-78238-898-2 eBook

Social quality thinking emerged from a critique of one-sided policies by breaking through the limitations previously set by purely economistic paradigms. By tracing its expansion and presenting different aspects of social quality theory, this volume provides an overview of a more nuanced approach, which assesses societal progress and introduces proposals that are relevant for policy making. Crucially, important components emerge with research by scholars from Asia, particularly China, eastern Europe, and other regions beyond western Europe, the theory’s place of origin. As this volume shows, this rich diversity of approaches and their cross-national comparisons reveal the increasingly important role of social quality theory for informing political debates on development and sustainability.

Ka Lin is Docent at the University of Tampere, Senior Researcher and Docent at the University of Turku, Professor and Director of the Social Policy Research Center at Nanjing University, Professor and Executive Director of the MSW Center of Zhejiang University, and Deputy Director of the Center for European Studies at Zhejiang University. He is also Vice President of the International Association on Social Quality and Editor of the International Journal of Social Quality.

Peter Herrmann is Adjunct Professor in the Department of Social Sciences at the University of Eastern Finland, Honorary Associate Professor in the Department of World Economy at Corvinus University of Budapest, correspondent to the Max Planck Institute for Social Law and Social Policy, Munich, Associate Member of the Eurasian Center for Big History and System Forecasting, and Member of the Scientific Committee of Eurispes. Currently he lives and works in Rome.