Researching Torture: Positivist and Interpretist Approaches
The following paper will firstly introduce the arguments for the Positivist approach to research, which focuses on quantitative methods, and for the Interpretist approach, which focuses on qualitative methods. The second part will apply these approaches to the issue of torture and in doing so will identify and discuss the limitations of applying only one theory or approach to research.
What Challenges Face Attempts to Alleviate Social Suffering within Israel/Palestine?
This essay first briefly explains the significance of ‘structural violence’ in Israeli society, before going on to critically examine dominant conceptions of ‘suffering’ in the Israeli context, arguing that the pragmatic and rationalist bias of this notion itself constitutes one major hindrance to ‘healing’. Finally, I consider the role of silence and memory in perpetuating suffering in Israel, looking specifically at the two imbricated elements of Holocaust memorialisation and the construction of the Other, arguing for a more processual rather than essentialist conception of suffering, community, healing and memory.
Biopolitics of the Self-Immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi
Self-immolation fundamentally challenges the unimportance of life in modernity by showing that the individual body through sacrifice can be more powerful than the sovereign power itself.
Compare and Contrast Contemporary Citizenship on the Left in Venezuela and Brazil
The resurgence of ‘the left’ in Latin America has received a great deal of attention from policy makers, academics and journalists alike. The November 2006 victory of Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua is merely the most recent in a string of electoral triumphs which has seen Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Bolivia come under the control of leftist governments. Following five decades in which civil, political and socio-economic rights have been damaged variously by authoritarianism, neo-liberalism and clientelism, many hope that a new era may be on the horizon.
Self Censorship and the Danish Cartoons Controversy
Self-censorship plays an integral role in the maintenance of freedom of expression since responsible use of that right prevents calls for its revocation.
Environmental Democracy? Does Anyone Really Care?
Environmental justice is not just a local issue but a global, an inter-generational, and undoubtedly a problematic one. This should be a concern of not only the few, but all countries.
Why Did the Soviet Union Invade Afghanistan?
The Soviet intervention in Afghanistan was a costly and, ultimately, pointless war. However, exactly why the Red Army wound up in direct military conflict, embroiled in a bitter and complicated civil war—some 3,000 kilometres away from Moscow—is a point of historiographical uncertainty. Little known and appreciated for its significance, the Soviet-Afghan War was one of the turning points of the late Cold War.
The Difference Principle: Inconsistency in Rawlsian Theory?
Why does the difference principle as outlined by John Rawls in “A Theory of Justice” and “The Law of Peoples” seem to demand less in the international than in the domestic case?
Modern Media and its Role in Insurgency
Modern media is a unique and as yet uncontrollable information battlespace with the potential to leverage internal and external forces to act on the side which can best utilize its effects.
Why is Intelligence Sometimes Controversial in Democratic States?
Exactly how accountable are intelligence agencies and to whom? Before the 1970’s many intelligence services acted by executive decree and there was very little in the way of legislature involvement.
