Published refereed articles by Jeremy C A Smith
International Journal of Community Music, 2024
Contemporary research into community music programmes highlights diverse contexts for collaborati... more Contemporary research into community music programmes highlights diverse contexts for collaborative music making. This article contributes a case of the collaboration in music making to a growing literature on creative practice in community music initiatives led by major orchestras. The authors reflect on field research involving an after-school programme that provides free, classical instrumental music instruction to primary school-age students who would not normally have an opportunity due to their socio-economic circumstances. The Pizzicato Effect, run by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO) in the City of Hume, Australia has operated in the northern suburbs of Melbourne since 2009. Through focus group interviews with students, family members and teaching artists, the researchers examined community experiences of accruing cultural
capital in conditions of social inequality and multicultural practice. Using qualitative methods, the case study aimed to position respondents as experts in their own lives, who own their knowledge of their worlds. Collaboration was central to a model of improvisation developed locally by teaching artists and applied on site. Furthermore, improvisation took the programme in different directions to the El Sistema model of youth orchestra training in Venezuela, which had been the original
source of inspiration for the programme.
Journal of Intercultural Studies, 2024
Classical and contemporary civilizational analysis has not sat comfortably with theoretical const... more Classical and contemporary civilizational analysis has not sat comfortably with theoretical constructions of the intercultural or their empirical applications. A 'classical era' of civilizations analysis generated a program of research problems that was productive in critical and multidisciplinary ways and limited in scope and vision in others, but this failed to generate a provisional notion of the intercultural. Contemporary civilizational analysis improves on this position significantly in respect of the intercultural, particularly in the development of a current around 'intercivilizational encounters'. This essay examines this current especially in the work of Benjamin Nelson, Marshall Hodgson and Johann P. Arnason. Arguing that this approach represents vital advances for theoretical constructions of the intercultural in civilizational analysis and more generally in the human sciences, the essay also identifies limitations in latter-day approaches.
Civilization, Modernity, and Critique: Engaging Johann P. Arnason’s Macro-Social Theory, 2023
The minor turn in the comparative social sciences to regional studies provides impetus to an inte... more The minor turn in the comparative social sciences to regional studies provides impetus to an interrogation of the concept of ‘region’. Tellingly, a parallel development in civilizational analysis creates interesting openings in a potential dialogue between historical and comparative sociologists and scholars specialising in civilizational analysis. Re-casting civilizational areas long regarded as unproblematic as ‘multi-civilizational’ and ‘multiregional’ is producing new thinking in civilizational analysis. This is highlighted in the work of Johann P Árnason with an invitation to theorize and research the relationship of regionality and civilizational encounters further. Meanwhile the turn to regions in the comparative social sciences is bringing world regions, regional formations, and (at times) sub-national regions into question. The literature urges us to consider ‘region’ and ‘regionality’ as dynamic concepts.
In addition to this theoretical contemplation, this chapter considers two types of specific regional configurations in the Americas. I argue that both sub-national territories and larger cross-border zones circumscribe regionality. Within constituted republics, the figuration of sub-regions has been central to the articulation of imagined national states. In this sense, the formation of national societies was consubstantial with the outgrowth of local identities and provincialisms. At the same time, sub-regions are a counterpoint. In the chapter, I explore the South-west of the US and the North-east of Brazil as cases. For the second type, Central America, and the Caribbean are candidates for multinational cross-border regions. Throughout the analysis, I argue that inter-civilizational engagement and encounters are central dynamics to the formation of regions and regional consciousness.
Australian Educational Researcher, 2022
This article examines the genesis, development, and implementation of an interdisciplinary univer... more This article examines the genesis, development, and implementation of an interdisciplinary university Cross-School Research Group (CSRG, School of Education, School of Arts and Federation Business School) at Federation University Australia. This CSRG is a consequence of both local and national calls for interdisciplinarity in university research and a direct response to the revised Federation University Strategic Goals and Policy directions. Using a framework based on a treatise by Jürgen Habermas in The Theory of Communicative Action (1987) incorporating three socio-political levels (Lifeworld, Steering Media, and Systems), we examined the ideals, processes, and challenges in working within an interdisciplinary university environment. Drawing on multiple data sets including member survey responses and interviews; email communication; online meetings, policy documents and co-leader feedback, we identified key resonant themes focusing on academic aspiration and motivation; the role of policy and practice; influence of grants and grant development across schools; mentoring and publishing. Using Habermas’ theoretical framework and his phenomenological notion of Lifeworlds and qualitative methods of data analysis , this article explores the establishment of the CSRG, the deeper academic aspirations and engagement for interdisciplinarity informing the group’s formation, and the effectiveness of the processes used in this specific case. The impact on systems and policy is addressed together with the processes adopted to bring about interdisciplinary university collaboration. The CSRG is an innovative approach to university collaboration that is enabling new approaches to generating knowledge, conducting research and learning.
Historicka Sociologie/Historical Sociology Journal, 2021
As a field of significant activity for historical sociologists in recent decades, civilizational ... more As a field of significant activity for historical sociologists in recent decades, civilizational analysis has produced extensive and incisive works examining Japan as a historical formationof Eurasia. However, the same cannot be said of Japan’s Pacific relationship with the United States, which is neglected in the major historical sociologies of Japanese modernity. This essay seeks to address that unnecessary oversight by putting that relationship into focus as an international dimension of the institution of both states. It would be tempting to elucidate the entanglement of the two as an encounter of civilizations, but the author instead casts it as intercivilizational engagement, that is a deeper set of connections generated by routine contacts and migratory movements, trade in commerce and culture, and selective appropriation of models of statehood. Delineating the lines of exchange in all four domains of connectivity between Japan and the US, the essay profiles the international and imperial extensions of both states. In
altering the perspective on Japan’s relations with the world, the author outlines a larger potential historical sociology of intercivilizational engagement between two Pacific-edge civilizational constellations.
Thesis Eleven, 2021
This essay aims to examine metropolitan cities of Latin America with two aspects of the literatur... more This essay aims to examine metropolitan cities of Latin America with two aspects of the literature in anthropology, history, and sociology in mind. First, the essay addresses an imbalanced focus in the English-language literature on cities of the North Americas by sketching the significance of migration and urban development in four major metropolises of South America. Second, in place of a framework of urban imaginaries, which has dominated the sociology of Latin American cities in recent years, I argue for a more precise notion of metropolitan imaginaries. With this more precise notion, I distinguish southern metropolises as crucial destinations in migration and lively centers of a greater magnitude and with international significance. I contend that the four metropolises are different from other cities due to the magnitude of their dynamics of migration, the size and diversity of their populations, the impact of their processes of metropolis making (particularly in architecture and urban design), and the connections they have to global and regional developments. The essay explores this argument in respect of nineteenth and twentieth century Buenos Aires,
Social Imaginaries, 2018
Scholars of modernity have taken a particular interest in processes of urbanization and-thinking ... more Scholars of modernity have taken a particular interest in processes of urbanization and-thinking of Simmel, Benjamin, Mumford and Weber-the character of different varieties of city. From a different angle, notions of urban imaginary have gained greater purchase in the field of contemporary urban studies in comparative analysis of varieties of city. This essay begins with notes on both classical accounts of the city in social theory and current concepts of urban imaginaries. The notes revolve around the essay's main topic: the institution of cities of New World, specifically those of the United States and Canada. Paralleling Castoriadis' conception of the imaginary institution, the present author argues for a more exact notion of metropolitan imaginaries, differentiated from the broader subject of urban imaginaries. 'Metropolitan imaginaries' denotes processes of urbanization at the heart of networks of migration, transport, and flows of capital and culture. As part of larger imaginaries, metropolises generate immigrant cities. The specific kind of creation in question produces creativity also by concentrating intellectual and creative schools of design in architecture and visual culture. In sum, metropolises are not merely part of networks of connection and creation; they produce networks and act as the hubs of interaction and creativity within larger social imaginaries. The essay explores this argument in the contexts of US and Canadian modernity and state formation, with specific foci on New York, Chicago, and Toronto. The conclusion notes two limitations to the case presented here and sketches planned directions for future research.
Comparative Civilizations Review, 2019
The making of Euro-Australia occurred against the backdrop of two dimensions of its historical co... more The making of Euro-Australia occurred against the backdrop of two dimensions of its historical constitution. First, it occurred on the back of Britain’s entry into the Oceanian world and its intercivilizational encounters with Pacific cultures. The second dimension was the appropriation of the land of a complex and internally diverse Aboriginal civilization and suppression of its social imaginary. This was vital to a lasting sense of ambivalence in Australian identity and in the relations of the Commonwealth of Australia with island states in the Pacific. After Federation (1901), Australia became more independent in the context of devolution of the Commonwealth. Engagement in the Pacific War heralded a turn from allegiance to Britain to alliance with the United States. A new orientation to the Asia-Pacific was not a chosen course, but one compelled by geo-political conditions and a growing dynamism in this multi-civilizational world region. From the 1970s to the end of the twentieth century, engagement in Asia accelerated with the onset of a policy regime of multiculturalism and a process of neo-liberal modernization.
This essay argues that Euro-Australia emerged out of complex intercivilizational interactions entailing colonialism, diverse migratory and cultural flows, and creation of a homogenizing collective memory. I contend that Australian modernity, due in part to its suppression of its indigenous civilization and accompanying denial of that suppression, has borne considerable cultural and political ambivalence about its place in the region — an ambivalence which structures its economic and political relations with neighbouring countries. In this essay, I focus on Pacific relations. I compare developments and turns in Australian foreign policy with patterns of cultural engagement since the 1970s. Towards the end, I raise regime of refugee detention Australia practices in relation to climate refugees. The essay concludes with notes on the merits of civilizational analysis in understanding the Oceanian constellation and its potential futures and points for further research on Australia in a multi-civilizational context.
This paper calls for an opening of dialogue on the historical character of the Atlantic world bet... more This paper calls for an opening of dialogue on the historical character of the Atlantic world between two fields. To date, historical sociologists researching the significance of intercivilizational encounters have not paid a great deal of attention to the case of the Americas. While historical and comparative sociology has assimilated the lessons of post-colonial critique, the startling histories of transatlantic colonialism have not had the impact on studies of civilizations carried out in this field that they should have. When it comes to the second field, Atlantic Studies, the paper argues that sociologists working in the first field have something to offer in their re-theorization of the character of long term inter-civilizational contacts. A fresh approach to the study of civilizations is sketched out here that reconstructs theoretical conclusions drawn in historical sociology in a way that will be of interest to specialists in Atlantic Studies. The first part of the paper examines the historical sociology of civilizations and sets out a new framework that revolves around a re-conception of radical difference and Otherness. In the second section, I explore how dimensions of the historical experience of transatlantic colonialism */such as mapping, place-naming and early ethnological curiosity */ constituted the Americas as a vital zone of the growing sense of civilizational superiority amongst Europeans between the 16th and 18th centuries. In this section, the article argues that civilizational sociology would profit from a systematic examination of this crucial historical zone. The conclusion puts out a call for further detailed inter-disciplinary research that combines the best insights of both the fields of Atlantic Studies and civilizational sociology.
Investigations into social imaginaries have burgeoned in recent years. From 'the capitalist imagi... more Investigations into social imaginaries have burgeoned in recent years. From 'the capitalist imaginary' to the 'democratic imaginary', from the 'ecological imaginary' to 'the global imaginary' – and beyond – the social imaginaries field has expanded across disciplines and beyond the academy. Th e recent debates on social imaginaries and potential new imaginaries reveal a recognisable field and paradigm-in-the-making. We argue that Castoriadis, Ricoeur, and Taylor have articulated the most important theoretical frameworks for understanding social imaginaries, although the field as a whole remains heterogeneous. We further argue that the notion of social imaginaries draws on the modern understanding of the imagination as authentically creative (as opposed to imitative). We contend that an elaboration of social imag-inaries involves a signifi cant, qualitative shift in the understanding of societies as collectively and politically-(auto)instituted formations that are irreducible to inter-subjectivity or systemic logics. After marking out the contours of the fi eld and recounting a philosophical history of the imagination (including deliberations on the reproductive and creative imaginations, as well as consideration of contemporary Japanese contributions), the essay turns to debates on social imaginaries in more concrete contexts, specifically political-economic imaginaries, the ecological imaginary, multiple modernities and their inter-civilisational encounters. Th e social imaginaries field imparts powerful messages for the human sciences and wider publics. In particular, social imaginaries hold significant implications for ontological, phenomenological and philosophical anthropological questions; for the cultural, social, and political horizons of contemporary worlds; and for ecological and economic phenomena (including their manifest crises). Th e essay concludes with the argument that social imaginaries as a paradigm-in-the-making offers valuable means by which movements towards social change can be elucidated as well providing an open horizon for the critiques of existing social practices.
This article elucidates grounds for engagement between two fields of the social sciencesengaged i... more This article elucidates grounds for engagement between two fields of the social sciencesengaged in critique of Eurocentrism: contemporary civilizations analysis and postcolonial sociology. Between the two fields there are both evident dissonances and points of potential dialogue and engagement. The article identifies three areas of high contention: divergent perceptions of essentialism, commitments to transformative politics and evaluations of the paradigm of multiple modernities. Despite extensive theoretical and normative differences, a notional intersection of the two fields is outlined in the form of three conceptual and methodological shifts. The first is a displacement of ideal typology. The second move is the most original. ‘Intercivilizational encounters’ and ‘intracivilizational encounters’ are re-cast as ‘intercivilizational engagement’. The goal is the demarcation of a discrete position based on a strong version of interaction that goes further than the notion of intercivilizational encounters recently re-developed in civilizational analysis. To illustrate potential grounds for engagement on this point, the article reviews the historiography of ‘connected histories’ and the insights of relational historians. Finally, the article urges for a nuanced definition of ‘region’ and deeper appreciation of the
Social Imaginaries, May 2015
We open this issue with the programmatic essay Social Imaginaries in Debate
by the Editorial Col... more We open this issue with the programmatic essay Social Imaginaries in Debate
by the Editorial Collective that scopes the fi eld of social imaginaries qua
interdisciplinary fi eld. As well as constituting a major statement of the fi eld’s
coalescence, Adams et al contend that the theoretical frames underlying social
imaginaries are inherently pluralistic, with the contributions by Castoriadis,
Ricoeur and Taylor constituting its core, and argue that social imaginaries
as a mode of analysis of contemporary phenomena involves reconceptualisation
of social formations as politically-instituted collectivities. Furthermore,
emergence of the fi eld expands an understanding of the imagination from
a singular faculty of the individual (counter-posed to reason) to an understanding
of multiple collective imaginaries and rationalities that are creative
as well as reproductive. Th e essay bears this out in a history of the imagination
before turning to specifi c contemporary imaginaries and problems of the
human condition, including ecology, political-economic modes of life and
inter-civilisational encounters. In all these respects, Adams et al. cast the fi eld
as a paradigm-in-the-making that is strengthened by a diversity of perspectives.
Th us constituted as a rich terrain for debates, they contend that ‘social
imaginaries’ stretch beyond critiques of current social practices and towards
the elucidation of movements for social change.
Asian Journal of Latin American Studies, Mar 2014
Starting from Peter Wagner’s insight about the re-theorization of
modernity, this article sketch... more Starting from Peter Wagner’s insight about the re-theorization of
modernity, this article sketches a theoretical framework to incorporate the interpretations of modernity which go beyond the domination of a single Western or European perspective. Much theorization of modernity has been European-centered to the neglect of rich social and cultural thought from other regions of the world. The rise of indigenous activism in Latin America has provided the world with an example of different kinds of activism, and distinct forms of cultural and political thought and practice. This article takes the bold step in arguing that Latin America’s indigenous movements have generated a fresh and alternative
interpretation of modernity. Those movements which have emerged over the course of the last three decades have pursued a different vision of recognition, sovereignty and ecology and bring to that pursuit a new kind of social and political agency. Unlike conventional philosophies of statehood derived from the Westphalian tradition of state-making, indigenous perspectives privilege new kinds of coexistence. Moreover, the different ontological relationship with Nature that they posit also has potentially significant implications for addressing climate change.
This paper provides insight into the experience of Clemente humanities education for six regional... more This paper provides insight into the experience of Clemente humanities education for six regional and rural Australian women living around Ballarat. Each took part in an audio-taped semistructured interview which explored the impact that university study had on their lives. Their responses suggest that Clemente Ballarat was life-giving. The student insights identified the critical importance of: providing a supportive learning environment for people lacking life opportunities and routine; students feeling better and happier with themselves resultant from personal learning 254 Ann Gervasoni, Jeremy Smith & Peter Howard achievements; doing something that was about 'me'; support from others including Learning Partners and the program's counsellor; students appreciating their academic and inner strengths; rekindling dreams and hope; seeking ways out of poverty for their family; finding friendship and connection; appreciating the academic disciplines; improvements in well-being and mental health; and pride in achievements. Students also were apprehensive about what the future may hold after completion and graduation. These insights highlight the treasures that students found when engaged in humanities education based upon community embedded socially supported structures that enable learning. Further, these insights provide contextual outcomes for the Clemente program, which could be implemented across regional and rural Australia for people experiencing multiple disadvantages or social exclusion.
Johann Arnason and Shmuel Eisenstadt's social theories have remarkably different origins. Yet eac... more Johann Arnason and Shmuel Eisenstadt's social theories have remarkably different origins. Yet each has moved onto common ground with the other over a period of time. They meet in historical sociology in dialogue over theories of state formation and images of civilisation. Each is engaged in a project of revising civilisations sociology that reaches an apex with the comparative study of Japan. Their groundbreaking contributions can be read critically against a wider background of debates about postcolonialism, the reputation of the notion of civilisation and the state of area studies in the humanities and social sciences.
The social thought of Castoriadis and Lefort address Old World
constellations. Yet both are posi... more The social thought of Castoriadis and Lefort address Old World
constellations. Yet both are positioned in a critical relationship to the
Enlightenment and Romanticism, and pose questions about power, the
political and citizenship relevant to different civilizational settings. Two
political philosophies that emerged in the era of revolutionary critique are
examined in this paper alongside Castoriadis and Lefort. Thomas Jefferson’s
philosophy of republic and empire and Simon Bolivar’s creed of independence
were American visions that connected with the political imaginary.
Each set down traditions open to interpretation and mythologization. Both
invoked an older rivalry of two images of the New World, as American or as
Colombian, which was really a rivalry of Spanish and British Empires and
their civilizational influences. Where earlier republican visions developed
at the cusp of virtue and interest cultures had posed a particular range of
questions about democracy, civic constitution and independence, American
states now contained democratic and authoritarian potential. Even though
Castoriadis and Lefort did not make these American contexts the centre of
their work, each conceive the political and politics in ways that are relevant
to American modernities. A key argument put in this paper with respect to
Castoriadis and Lefort is that Castoriadis’s conception of creation is more
salient to the republican revolutions more generally, while Lefort’s notion
of political imaginary finds a strong case in the North American revolution.
Johann Arnason’s exploration of the historical constellation of East Asia has helped reproblemati... more Johann Arnason’s exploration of the historical constellation of East Asia has helped reproblematize the conceptual framework of modernity and civilization. This article
outlines Arnason’s innovations in civilizational analysis and social theory in the field of comparative studies of Japan. It sets out the terms on which a nuanced elaboration of
Arnason’s framework could occur. Two areas warrant closer attention: state formation and the institution of capitalism. It is argued that there are signs of what might be termed a ‘tertiary’ phase of state formation, implicit in Arnason’s discussion of advanced modernity. Moreover, this phase brought Japan into close contact with the newly unfolding context of the West’s civilizational imaginary, particularly in its
ideological expressions of evolutionism. The article ends on the problematic of capitalism, raising questions about further potential theoretical developments based on Arnason’s conclusions and other inventive studies of Japanese capitalism.
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Published refereed articles by Jeremy C A Smith
capital in conditions of social inequality and multicultural practice. Using qualitative methods, the case study aimed to position respondents as experts in their own lives, who own their knowledge of their worlds. Collaboration was central to a model of improvisation developed locally by teaching artists and applied on site. Furthermore, improvisation took the programme in different directions to the El Sistema model of youth orchestra training in Venezuela, which had been the original
source of inspiration for the programme.
In addition to this theoretical contemplation, this chapter considers two types of specific regional configurations in the Americas. I argue that both sub-national territories and larger cross-border zones circumscribe regionality. Within constituted republics, the figuration of sub-regions has been central to the articulation of imagined national states. In this sense, the formation of national societies was consubstantial with the outgrowth of local identities and provincialisms. At the same time, sub-regions are a counterpoint. In the chapter, I explore the South-west of the US and the North-east of Brazil as cases. For the second type, Central America, and the Caribbean are candidates for multinational cross-border regions. Throughout the analysis, I argue that inter-civilizational engagement and encounters are central dynamics to the formation of regions and regional consciousness.
altering the perspective on Japan’s relations with the world, the author outlines a larger potential historical sociology of intercivilizational engagement between two Pacific-edge civilizational constellations.
This essay argues that Euro-Australia emerged out of complex intercivilizational interactions entailing colonialism, diverse migratory and cultural flows, and creation of a homogenizing collective memory. I contend that Australian modernity, due in part to its suppression of its indigenous civilization and accompanying denial of that suppression, has borne considerable cultural and political ambivalence about its place in the region — an ambivalence which structures its economic and political relations with neighbouring countries. In this essay, I focus on Pacific relations. I compare developments and turns in Australian foreign policy with patterns of cultural engagement since the 1970s. Towards the end, I raise regime of refugee detention Australia practices in relation to climate refugees. The essay concludes with notes on the merits of civilizational analysis in understanding the Oceanian constellation and its potential futures and points for further research on Australia in a multi-civilizational context.
by the Editorial Collective that scopes the fi eld of social imaginaries qua
interdisciplinary fi eld. As well as constituting a major statement of the fi eld’s
coalescence, Adams et al contend that the theoretical frames underlying social
imaginaries are inherently pluralistic, with the contributions by Castoriadis,
Ricoeur and Taylor constituting its core, and argue that social imaginaries
as a mode of analysis of contemporary phenomena involves reconceptualisation
of social formations as politically-instituted collectivities. Furthermore,
emergence of the fi eld expands an understanding of the imagination from
a singular faculty of the individual (counter-posed to reason) to an understanding
of multiple collective imaginaries and rationalities that are creative
as well as reproductive. Th e essay bears this out in a history of the imagination
before turning to specifi c contemporary imaginaries and problems of the
human condition, including ecology, political-economic modes of life and
inter-civilisational encounters. In all these respects, Adams et al. cast the fi eld
as a paradigm-in-the-making that is strengthened by a diversity of perspectives.
Th us constituted as a rich terrain for debates, they contend that ‘social
imaginaries’ stretch beyond critiques of current social practices and towards
the elucidation of movements for social change.
modernity, this article sketches a theoretical framework to incorporate the interpretations of modernity which go beyond the domination of a single Western or European perspective. Much theorization of modernity has been European-centered to the neglect of rich social and cultural thought from other regions of the world. The rise of indigenous activism in Latin America has provided the world with an example of different kinds of activism, and distinct forms of cultural and political thought and practice. This article takes the bold step in arguing that Latin America’s indigenous movements have generated a fresh and alternative
interpretation of modernity. Those movements which have emerged over the course of the last three decades have pursued a different vision of recognition, sovereignty and ecology and bring to that pursuit a new kind of social and political agency. Unlike conventional philosophies of statehood derived from the Westphalian tradition of state-making, indigenous perspectives privilege new kinds of coexistence. Moreover, the different ontological relationship with Nature that they posit also has potentially significant implications for addressing climate change.
constellations. Yet both are positioned in a critical relationship to the
Enlightenment and Romanticism, and pose questions about power, the
political and citizenship relevant to different civilizational settings. Two
political philosophies that emerged in the era of revolutionary critique are
examined in this paper alongside Castoriadis and Lefort. Thomas Jefferson’s
philosophy of republic and empire and Simon Bolivar’s creed of independence
were American visions that connected with the political imaginary.
Each set down traditions open to interpretation and mythologization. Both
invoked an older rivalry of two images of the New World, as American or as
Colombian, which was really a rivalry of Spanish and British Empires and
their civilizational influences. Where earlier republican visions developed
at the cusp of virtue and interest cultures had posed a particular range of
questions about democracy, civic constitution and independence, American
states now contained democratic and authoritarian potential. Even though
Castoriadis and Lefort did not make these American contexts the centre of
their work, each conceive the political and politics in ways that are relevant
to American modernities. A key argument put in this paper with respect to
Castoriadis and Lefort is that Castoriadis’s conception of creation is more
salient to the republican revolutions more generally, while Lefort’s notion
of political imaginary finds a strong case in the North American revolution.
outlines Arnason’s innovations in civilizational analysis and social theory in the field of comparative studies of Japan. It sets out the terms on which a nuanced elaboration of
Arnason’s framework could occur. Two areas warrant closer attention: state formation and the institution of capitalism. It is argued that there are signs of what might be termed a ‘tertiary’ phase of state formation, implicit in Arnason’s discussion of advanced modernity. Moreover, this phase brought Japan into close contact with the newly unfolding context of the West’s civilizational imaginary, particularly in its
ideological expressions of evolutionism. The article ends on the problematic of capitalism, raising questions about further potential theoretical developments based on Arnason’s conclusions and other inventive studies of Japanese capitalism.
capital in conditions of social inequality and multicultural practice. Using qualitative methods, the case study aimed to position respondents as experts in their own lives, who own their knowledge of their worlds. Collaboration was central to a model of improvisation developed locally by teaching artists and applied on site. Furthermore, improvisation took the programme in different directions to the El Sistema model of youth orchestra training in Venezuela, which had been the original
source of inspiration for the programme.
In addition to this theoretical contemplation, this chapter considers two types of specific regional configurations in the Americas. I argue that both sub-national territories and larger cross-border zones circumscribe regionality. Within constituted republics, the figuration of sub-regions has been central to the articulation of imagined national states. In this sense, the formation of national societies was consubstantial with the outgrowth of local identities and provincialisms. At the same time, sub-regions are a counterpoint. In the chapter, I explore the South-west of the US and the North-east of Brazil as cases. For the second type, Central America, and the Caribbean are candidates for multinational cross-border regions. Throughout the analysis, I argue that inter-civilizational engagement and encounters are central dynamics to the formation of regions and regional consciousness.
altering the perspective on Japan’s relations with the world, the author outlines a larger potential historical sociology of intercivilizational engagement between two Pacific-edge civilizational constellations.
This essay argues that Euro-Australia emerged out of complex intercivilizational interactions entailing colonialism, diverse migratory and cultural flows, and creation of a homogenizing collective memory. I contend that Australian modernity, due in part to its suppression of its indigenous civilization and accompanying denial of that suppression, has borne considerable cultural and political ambivalence about its place in the region — an ambivalence which structures its economic and political relations with neighbouring countries. In this essay, I focus on Pacific relations. I compare developments and turns in Australian foreign policy with patterns of cultural engagement since the 1970s. Towards the end, I raise regime of refugee detention Australia practices in relation to climate refugees. The essay concludes with notes on the merits of civilizational analysis in understanding the Oceanian constellation and its potential futures and points for further research on Australia in a multi-civilizational context.
by the Editorial Collective that scopes the fi eld of social imaginaries qua
interdisciplinary fi eld. As well as constituting a major statement of the fi eld’s
coalescence, Adams et al contend that the theoretical frames underlying social
imaginaries are inherently pluralistic, with the contributions by Castoriadis,
Ricoeur and Taylor constituting its core, and argue that social imaginaries
as a mode of analysis of contemporary phenomena involves reconceptualisation
of social formations as politically-instituted collectivities. Furthermore,
emergence of the fi eld expands an understanding of the imagination from
a singular faculty of the individual (counter-posed to reason) to an understanding
of multiple collective imaginaries and rationalities that are creative
as well as reproductive. Th e essay bears this out in a history of the imagination
before turning to specifi c contemporary imaginaries and problems of the
human condition, including ecology, political-economic modes of life and
inter-civilisational encounters. In all these respects, Adams et al. cast the fi eld
as a paradigm-in-the-making that is strengthened by a diversity of perspectives.
Th us constituted as a rich terrain for debates, they contend that ‘social
imaginaries’ stretch beyond critiques of current social practices and towards
the elucidation of movements for social change.
modernity, this article sketches a theoretical framework to incorporate the interpretations of modernity which go beyond the domination of a single Western or European perspective. Much theorization of modernity has been European-centered to the neglect of rich social and cultural thought from other regions of the world. The rise of indigenous activism in Latin America has provided the world with an example of different kinds of activism, and distinct forms of cultural and political thought and practice. This article takes the bold step in arguing that Latin America’s indigenous movements have generated a fresh and alternative
interpretation of modernity. Those movements which have emerged over the course of the last three decades have pursued a different vision of recognition, sovereignty and ecology and bring to that pursuit a new kind of social and political agency. Unlike conventional philosophies of statehood derived from the Westphalian tradition of state-making, indigenous perspectives privilege new kinds of coexistence. Moreover, the different ontological relationship with Nature that they posit also has potentially significant implications for addressing climate change.
constellations. Yet both are positioned in a critical relationship to the
Enlightenment and Romanticism, and pose questions about power, the
political and citizenship relevant to different civilizational settings. Two
political philosophies that emerged in the era of revolutionary critique are
examined in this paper alongside Castoriadis and Lefort. Thomas Jefferson’s
philosophy of republic and empire and Simon Bolivar’s creed of independence
were American visions that connected with the political imaginary.
Each set down traditions open to interpretation and mythologization. Both
invoked an older rivalry of two images of the New World, as American or as
Colombian, which was really a rivalry of Spanish and British Empires and
their civilizational influences. Where earlier republican visions developed
at the cusp of virtue and interest cultures had posed a particular range of
questions about democracy, civic constitution and independence, American
states now contained democratic and authoritarian potential. Even though
Castoriadis and Lefort did not make these American contexts the centre of
their work, each conceive the political and politics in ways that are relevant
to American modernities. A key argument put in this paper with respect to
Castoriadis and Lefort is that Castoriadis’s conception of creation is more
salient to the republican revolutions more generally, while Lefort’s notion
of political imaginary finds a strong case in the North American revolution.
outlines Arnason’s innovations in civilizational analysis and social theory in the field of comparative studies of Japan. It sets out the terms on which a nuanced elaboration of
Arnason’s framework could occur. Two areas warrant closer attention: state formation and the institution of capitalism. It is argued that there are signs of what might be termed a ‘tertiary’ phase of state formation, implicit in Arnason’s discussion of advanced modernity. Moreover, this phase brought Japan into close contact with the newly unfolding context of the West’s civilizational imaginary, particularly in its
ideological expressions of evolutionism. The article ends on the problematic of capitalism, raising questions about further potential theoretical developments based on Arnason’s conclusions and other inventive studies of Japanese capitalism.
Debating civilisations will appeal to academics and postgraduate and final-year undergraduate students in the fields of history, comparative and historical sociology and social theory.
years. From ‘the capitalist imaginary’ to the ‘democratic imaginary’, from the ‘ecological imaginary’ to ‘the global imaginary’ – and beyond – the social imaginaries field has expanded across disciplines and beyond the academy.
Th e recent debates on social imaginaries and potential new imaginaries reveal a recognisable field and paradigm-in-the-making. We argue that Castoriadis, Ricoeur, and Taylor have articulated the most important theoretical frameworks
for understanding social imaginaries, although the field as a whole remains heterogeneous. We further argue that the notion of social imaginaries draws on the modern understanding of the imagination as authentically creative
(as opposed to imitative). We contend that an elaboration of social imaginaries involves a significant, qualitative shift in the understanding of societies as collectively and politically-(auto)instituted formations that are irreducible
to inter-subjectivity or systemic logics. After marking out the contours of the field and recounting a philosophical history of the imagination (including deliberations on the reproductive and creative imaginations, as well as consideration
of contemporary Japanese contributions), the essay turns to debates onsocial imaginaries in more concrete contexts, specifically political-economic imaginaries, the ecological imaginary, multiple modernities and their intercivilisational
encounters. Th e social imaginaries fi eld imparts powerful messages for the human sciences and wider publics. In particular, social imaginaries hold significant implications for ontological, phenomenological and philosophical anthropological questions; for the cultural, social, and political
horizons of contemporary worlds; and for ecological and economic phenomena (including their manifest crises). The essay concludes with the argument that social imaginaries as a paradigm-in-the-making offers valuable means by
which movements towards social change can be elucidated as well providing an open horizon for the critiques of existing social practices.