Being and Power. A Phenomenological Ontology of Forms of Life

Daniel Rueda Garrido

Why do we act the way we do? Why do we assume that our community's way of being and behaving is the right, good and common sense way? Why can't we come to understand those who act, feel and are different? Why don't we feel understood and accepted in the majority social group? These are some of the questions raised and answered in this book. A book that continues the same project as ‘Forms of Life and Subjectivity: Rethinking Sartre’s Philosophy’ (2021). With this ontology, I am conscious of making a turn or joining this contemporary turn from the centrality of language to action as an expression of our being. I construct this ontology from the phenomenological tradition but with the innovation of taking the “form of life” as the central ontological unit. We are our form of life, but as a transcendental-immanent reality, this is not directly equivalent to culture or society, but to the realisation in the world of an image of the human being shared by a given community. This overcomes the Sartrean dualities of individual and society, consciousness and body, facticity and freedom. The subject is a subject because he identifies with this image of the human being, which is equivalent to the intersubjective consciousness of how one should act and be in the world. This gives rise to multiple forms of life, which I also catalogue and study in their network of relations. Thus, in this attempt to show how the form of life is the fundamental unit that explains individual as well as social and international relations, I devote the second part of the book to a detailed study of the use of language as propaganda to reaffirm and reinforce the will to be, which is the power to impose onto oneself and then onto others the image of the human being we identify with.

A Shot in the Dark: A History of the U.S. Army Asymmetric Warfare Group

Paul Jeffrey Cook, Temple University

Thomas Jefferson and Maria Cosway, A Gordian Love Affair

Complete Correspondence with Critical Commentary

M. Andrew Holowchak

Lessons from Regional Responses to Security, Health and Environmental Challenges in Latin America

Edited by Ivo Ganchev, Founder of the Centre for Regional Integration, UK

What is the role of regional organizations in maintaining security across different parts of Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC)? How did COVID-19 impact states in the region and what types of collective action have helped respond to public health emergencies? In what way is LAC environmental policy formulated and what broader lessons can be drawn for the Global South? This edited volume addresses these questions, revealing the reasons behind the successes and failures of LAC regional responses to collective challenges as well as their limitations and potential for future improvement. It contains 11 chapters, authored by 16 authoritative academics who employ methodologically-diverse perspectives. Each chapter provides insights that would be of interest to scholars, students and policy-makers working on the regional governance of LAC and the Global South. The contributions are thematically organised in three parts and produced with pragmatic considerations in mind, discussing existing and potential real solutions to pressing issues.

Tomar la palabra. Islamofobia y participación política después del 15-M

Johanna M. Lems, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain

'Tomar la palabra' es un análisis basado en la búsqueda de justicia social por medio de la participación sociopolítica, que aborda con cuidado muchos de los temas que determinan y contribuyen a reproducir las situaciones de subalternidad y subordinación a las que se ven sometidas las personas musulmanas en España. Desde un posicionamiento novedoso sobre el islam en el contexto español, al abordar su estudio desde la existencia de musulmanidades diversas, contribuye al avance de los estudios sobre la realidad social y política de las poblaciones musulmanas en nuestro país. El principal objetivo de la autora ha sido identificar los procesos mediante los que las personas musulmanas – o aquellas leídas como tales– tratan de ganar voz y reclamar los derechos que les son negados sistemáticamente. Todo ello con el fin de contribuir a una comprensión más crítica y menos estigmatizadora sobre el islam y las personas musulmanas que viven en España. Se trata de un trabajo interdisciplinario que parte de una investigación etnográfica llevada a cabo entre 2017 y 2020 en distintas partes del territorio estatal. Puede resultar de gran interés como monografía para profesores y estudiantes de cursos de grado y posgrado en disciplinas como sociología, antropología, ciencias políticas, ciencias de las religiones. Igualmente, será de utilidad como obra de consulta en estudios de subalternidad, feministas y de migraciones o para trabajadores sociales, líderes y comunidades religiosas, instituciones gubernamentales y aquellas personas u organizaciones centradas en los derechos humanos, el diálogo interreligioso o las que, en general, quieren estar informadas sobre el escenario político contemporáneo español.