Social Life as Collective Struggle: Closure Theory and the Problem of Solidarity
In recent years, all over the globe we have seen intensifying economic exploitation, political disenfranchisement, social marginalization and cultural repression in all kinds of political regimes, from liberal democratic to authoritarian and dictatorial. Although the strategies vary with regard to r...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | deu |
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University of Fribourg - Division of Sociology, Social Work and Social Policy
2021-05-01
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| Series: | sozialpolitik.ch |
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| Online Access: | https://www.sozialpolitik.ch/article/view/3742 |
| _version_ | 1797694540280233984 |
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| author | Jürgen Mackert |
| author_facet | Jürgen Mackert |
| author_sort | Jürgen Mackert |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | In recent years, all over the globe we have seen intensifying economic exploitation, political disenfranchisement, social marginalization and cultural repression in all kinds of political regimes, from liberal democratic to authoritarian and dictatorial. Although the strategies vary with regard to regime and context, in all of them we observe that while a growing number of social groups are speaking out and rising against them, a presumably much higher number of groups do not. In this article, I argue that all these processes can be conceived as aspects of ongoing closure struggles in social life. However, in order to understand why some social groups are able to fight against closure strategies while others are not, closure theory in its current state of elaboration is not of any help. While it operates with the term solidarization, it does not offer any explanation of how such acting in solidarity may become possible in closure struggles. The article is a mainly theoretical contribution of how to solve this problem. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T02:59:24Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-ba4a92d59fec431db756dde16395e162 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2297-8224 |
| language | deu |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T02:59:24Z |
| publishDate | 2021-05-01 |
| publisher | University of Fribourg - Division of Sociology, Social Work and Social Policy |
| record_format | Article |
| series | sozialpolitik.ch |
| spelling | doaj.art-ba4a92d59fec431db756dde16395e1622023-09-03T15:01:59ZdeuUniversity of Fribourg - Division of Sociology, Social Work and Social Policysozialpolitik.ch2297-82242021-05-011/202110.18753/2297-8224-174Social Life as Collective Struggle: Closure Theory and the Problem of SolidarityJürgen Mackert0University of PotsdamIn recent years, all over the globe we have seen intensifying economic exploitation, political disenfranchisement, social marginalization and cultural repression in all kinds of political regimes, from liberal democratic to authoritarian and dictatorial. Although the strategies vary with regard to regime and context, in all of them we observe that while a growing number of social groups are speaking out and rising against them, a presumably much higher number of groups do not. In this article, I argue that all these processes can be conceived as aspects of ongoing closure struggles in social life. However, in order to understand why some social groups are able to fight against closure strategies while others are not, closure theory in its current state of elaboration is not of any help. While it operates with the term solidarization, it does not offer any explanation of how such acting in solidarity may become possible in closure struggles. The article is a mainly theoretical contribution of how to solve this problem.https://www.sozialpolitik.ch/article/view/3742social closurestrugglesolidarizationdemocracy |
| spellingShingle | Jürgen Mackert Social Life as Collective Struggle: Closure Theory and the Problem of Solidarity sozialpolitik.ch social closure struggle solidarization democracy |
| title | Social Life as Collective Struggle: Closure Theory and the Problem of Solidarity |
| title_full | Social Life as Collective Struggle: Closure Theory and the Problem of Solidarity |
| title_fullStr | Social Life as Collective Struggle: Closure Theory and the Problem of Solidarity |
| title_full_unstemmed | Social Life as Collective Struggle: Closure Theory and the Problem of Solidarity |
| title_short | Social Life as Collective Struggle: Closure Theory and the Problem of Solidarity |
| title_sort | social life as collective struggle closure theory and the problem of solidarity |
| topic | social closure struggle solidarization democracy |
| url | https://www.sozialpolitik.ch/article/view/3742 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT jurgenmackert sociallifeascollectivestruggleclosuretheoryandtheproblemofsolidarity |