Seminar 2: Political and sociological perspectives: international contexts

Oxford Brookes University
3 February 2009

Domestic policy concerns in the United States and in parts of Europe, and concerns about the emotional well-being of populations, influence strategies from the World Bank’s poverty reduction approaches and humanitarian aid programmes, to global security strategies in the war on terror. Concerns about emotional well-being are integral to the shift from geopolitics to bio-politics, where an emphasis on non-material aid affects ideas about how to change subjectivity. These developments have major implications for ideas about international relations between donor and developing countries and for concepts of global and local social justice and citizenship.

Speakers

• Sarah Amsler, Lecturer in Sociology, Aston University: ‘Educating the emotions: the new bio-politics of critical pedagogy’
• Steffen Jenson, Senior Researcher, Rehabilitation and Research Centre for Torture Victims, Copenhagen: ‘Humiliation and dignity in Cape Town’
• James Nolan, Professor of Sociology, Williams College, USA: ‘International problem-solving courts’
• Rudi Roose, Researcher, Department of Social and Welfare Studies, Ghent University: ‘Human rights and social justice: questioning the obvious’

Documentation

• Outline programme of the day (.pdf)
• Summary of discussions (.pdf)

Working papers

The following working papers are freely available for downloading, but should not be circulated or cited without the permission of the authors.

• Amsler, S. (2009) 'Educating the emotions: the new biopolitics of critical pedagogy'

Relevant publications

• Amsler, S. (2008) 'Pedagogy against dis-utopia: from conscientization to the education of desire', Current Perspectives in Social Theory, 25: 291-325.
• Freire, P. (2001) Pedagogy of Freedom: Ethics, Democracy and Civic Courage, NY: Rowman and Littlefield.
• Jensen, S. (2008) Gangs, Politics and Dignity in Cape Town, Chicago: University of Chicago Press
• Nolan, J. (2008) Legal Accents, Legal Borrowing: The International Problem-Solving Court Movement, Princeton: University of Princeton Press
• Nolan, J. L (2003) Reinventing Justice: The American Drug Court Movement, Princeton: University of Princeton Press
• Roose, R. and Bouverne-de Bie, M. (2007) Do children have rights or do their rights have to be realised? The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child as frame of reference for pedagogic action, Journal of Philosophy of Education, 41, 3, 431-442