Invisible Images

Can we trust human visual culture in our modern machinic landscape?

Today, when the vast majority of the trillions of images produced every second live their entire virtual lives unseen by human eyes, what an image depicts and why matter less than the fact that the image is visible at all....

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Invisible Images

What, If Anything, Do Populism and Conspiracy Theories Have to Do with Each Other?

Why “powerless” populists suggest conspiracy

The following is an excerpt from an essay first published in Social Research: An International Quarterly. It is part of the journal’s issue Conspiracy Thinking. Populist parties that do not do well at the polls have to face an obvious contradiction: How can it be that the populists are the people’s only morally ...
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<strong>What, If Anything, Do Populism and Conspiracy Theories Have to Do with Each Other?</strong>

The Path from Conspiracy to Ungoverning

Delegitimating democratic foundations

Conspiracism, in sum, attacks the legitimacy of the two foundations that make democracy work: knowledge-producing institutions and regulated political rivalry. Because these are the very institutions that bring pluralism into political life, they must be delegitimated by those who claim to own reality and brook no contradiction. ...

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The Path from Conspiracy to Ungoverning

Hospitality, The New Issue of Social Research

The New School journal introduces its latest issue

The current issue of Social Research on hospitality, a subject that is intimately connected to that of xenophobia, was inspired by the compelling and fruitful suggestions of my friend and colleague, Polish philosopher Tomasz Kitlinski. It is a subject that lies at the heart of many of the problems besetting ...
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Hospitality, The New Issue of Social Research

The Global Rise of Xenophobia, the New Issue of Social Research

The New School journal unveils its latest issue

The rise of Xenophobia, globally, has unfortunately become increasingly virulent. The latest issue of Social Research, through a set of case studies, draws connections between the personal and the political with contributions from Marci Shore, Erika Lee, Bálint Madlovics, Irena Grudzińska Gross, Sina Arnold, Jocelyne Cesari, Mehmet Kurt, Munawwar Abdulla ...
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The Global Rise of Xenophobia, the New Issue of <em>Social Research</em>

Solitary

In the face of utter despair that goes with solitary confinement, tiny red ants are the only sign of hope

Focus. I pull my thoughts back from the edge of the abyss. You have to keep your mind on a short leash in this place—that is, you must rein it in when you feel it slipping, or risk losing it altogether. Strange things happen to minds here. Weak minds break ...
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Solitary

Loneliness, The New Issue of Social Research

The New School journal introduces its latest issue

time of social distancing: a result of the coronavirus pandemic, the latest issue of Social Research engages itself with a reconsideration of the ideas about loneliness in American Culture. The literature explores the concept of loneliness, as is present in a number of notable books: David Riesman’s The Lonely Crowd; ...
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Loneliness, The New Issue of <em>Social Research</em>