This thesis focuses on the problem of defining and designing public space in contemporary mass society. "Assembly" revaluates a cultural understanding of public space as the space of regulation, consumption and leisure, and works to find spaces of freedom, agency and action. Three iconic sites located in Toronto from three successive generations are examined: Nathan Phillips Square, the Eaton Centre and the new Dundas Square. These three sites form the primary division of the work and are respectively paired with extended critiques from three thinkers: Hannah Arendt, Jean Baudrillard, and Guy Debord. The pairings centre on Arendt's account of the "rise of the social", on Baudrillard's analysis of consumption and on Debord's dissection of the spectacle. The argument is presented in the form of an assemblage. Although the nature of this method invites each reader to construct their own meaning, this thesis grounds itself on a defined polemic. It considers public space to be marked by 1) the erosion of a clear distinction between our public and private realms, and their subsequent dissolution into the realm of the social, 2) the ideology of consumption overtaking the realm of the social, and 3) the world of the commodity replacing reality with the world of the spectacle. "Assembly" first consists of three main sections corresponding to the three sites. Each of these parts is assembled from three distinct strands: factual, theoretical and visual. The factual strand forms the main "field" of each section and is made up of selected quotations from mass media ? newspapers, public documents and websites. The theoretical strand, consisting of pointed quotations from the relevant social theorist, is threaded through the field of mass media. The visual strand comprises two elements: a postcard that marks the beginning of the section and a series of authored photographs that follows and complements the text-based assemblage. <br /><br /> Inevitably, the relationship between general social values and those of individuals is fraught. Consequently, and perhaps also inevitably, architectural design tends to reduce the manifoldness of the public realm into a homogenous and singular public space: the "whole". This thesis pursues the question of how to conciliate individual agency with collective public experience. The process and form of "Assembly" deliberately celebrates this uncertainty of design, and takes "heterogeneity" as a necessary condition of public space. That it cannot offer a comprehensive solution is, perhaps, inherent to the question.

Four years ago, on May 15th 2011, we witnessed in the Spanish State ‘something’ that was quickly and popularly referred to as 15M or the Indignados. Since that day, 15M has had a tremendous impact on the way a large part of the Spanish population understands itself and its response-abilities and rights. In addition, 15M has affected the way in which a large part of the Spanish population understands its environment and those living-beings with whom said environment is co-created and co-inhabited. In this essay I immerse myself in an on-going non-disciplinary, multi-traditional multilogue with individuals being 15M. What I witness, feels and looks like a complex; mutating and dialogic; collective and cooperative; agonistic and transformative 'climate' that many refer to as el clima 15M (15m climate). Allowing different 15M wisdoms to frame the research, I envision this essay as an attempt at gaining a dialogical understanding of what it is that we might be speaking of when referring to 15M. Through this exploration, I seek to place my work within the sketched parameters of what James Tully refers to as public philosophy. The essay engages with individuals being 15M and with the vast literature in Spain around 15M and party-movement Podemos by academics and participants, and the European literature around populism, horizontality and Podemos grounded in Antonio Gramsci. It also draws on reciprocal elucidation literature in theory and in participatory, community-based social science. Moreover, the essay enters into dialogue with a whole body of literature on instrumental versus constitutive means-ends views of political change going back to Mahatma Gandhi and forward to Aldous Huxley, Richard Gregg, Hannah Arendt, Robert Young, Gene Sharp and Cesar Chavez. By giving ‘perspicuous representation’ or thick description of 15M by means of reciprocal elucidation, I am able to make a unique contribution to the theoretical literature on reciprocal elucidation and public philosophy. I am also able to disclose the field of 15M (the phenomenon) in a way that shows it to be different from the way 15M appears in other theoretical frames. Finally, the use of this method of reciprocal elucidation makes a unique contribution to community-based and engaged forms of social scientific research. / Graduate / 0422 / 0615 / 0344 / pouziel@uvic.ca

「積極生活」與「沉思生活」乃是鄂蘭思想的核心關切，晚年更是致力於研究如何從心靈的活動走向實踐的行動。在眾多心靈能力中，鄂蘭特別看重能避免罪惡的「思考」與分辨對錯的「判斷」，兩者皆與現實政治關聯甚深。然而鄂蘭最終認為「判斷」是「最具政治性的心靈能力」，「思考」則難於政治處境中適用。對此，筆者認為「思考」與「判斷」並非截然對立的兩種能力，事實上兩者有許多相通之處，而真正的差異其實是「標準」與「角色」不同的兩種對話，且從鄂蘭建構「思考」的原型─蘇格拉底─身上亦能發掘許多實踐意義，這將是如何實踐更理想的政治的關鍵。 / “Vita activa” and “vita contemplentiva” are the two main subjects in Arendt’s thought. In her last years, she committed herself to find the path from “mental faculties” to “actions.” In all mental faculties, Arendt paid more attention on the evil-prevented ability called “thinking” and “judging,” which can telling right from wrong, both of them have a lot to do with real politics. But Arendt considered “judging” is “the most political of man’s mental abilities” and “thinking” is not applicable to politics at last. In my point of view, “thinking” and “judging” are not actually two different kind of “ability” but two kind of “conversation,” the difference between them is “standard” and “role”. If we delve into the model of “thinking” in Arendt’s thought –Socrates,– we can find out that there was lots of practical meanings in his actions, those will be the key to make ideal politics practicable.

This study examines the responses of European intellectuals since the 1880s to an increasingly virulent and organized anti-Semitism in Europe, and the ways in which they sought to understand the character and origins of the hatred, and to fathom and work out the problems, terms and possibilities for Jewish identity. Focusing on the French figures Bernard Lazare and Marcel Proust from the time of the Dreyfus Affair and then on the Frankfurt School of social theory and Hannah Arendt from the period around and after the Second World War, the thesis argues that these thinkers created a common historical-psychological discourse on anti-Semitism, which attempted to confront, comprehend and explain the historically critical issues of anti-Semitism and Jewish identity. The study explores the discourse’s fundamental assumptions, insights, and arguments regarding the origins, character, and magnitude of anti-Semitism. It also analyzes its contentions concerning the contradictions, sources, and alternatives for Jewish identity. But, more, it claims that, despite their frequent perceptiveness, these figures’ interpretations of the two concerns proved limited, deficient, even deeply flawed. The thesis seeks to show that its intellectuals’ attempt to understand the twin issues was hence a failure to grasp and interpret them adequately, and to resolve them. It contends further that what impaired the authors’ engagements with anti-Semitism and Jewish selfhood were ideas that were fundamental to their thinking. These intellectual factors, moreover, connected the figures solidly to important historical contexts that they inhabited, thereby implicating the significant settings in the epistemological errors and defeats. These momentous ideas thus operated as both contextualizing and destructive forces—linking the intellectuals to their home contexts and transforming their understanding of their historic problematic into a misunderstanding. / Thesis (Ph.D, History) -- Queen's University, 2009-04-16 08:34:25.821

In this thesis, Lisa Figge analyzes the political space of ecological citizenship by theorizing her art practice. Beginning with an Arendtian lens, Figge creates projects in the vein of New Genre Public Art, to trace the qualitatively-distinct activities of the public sphere, in which ecological citizens appear. The art practices of Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Colette Urban, Pat Aylesworth, Helen and Newton Harrison help move this critique along. Then, taking Judith Butler’s thinking on the bond between speech and action, or speech acts, Figge situates her art practice and thesis writing as an account of herself as an ecological citizen. Figge is interested in finding ways to multiply opportunities, for her and others, to perform concerned engagement with the world. In order to begin this process Figge acts out and analyses her three art interventions: Madame E and her suit of environmentally conscious a(r)mour, Ecological Citizen in Training, and 86 Hands on Wolfe Island. In giving an account of herself, she shows how our aptitude for sorting things should not be used to override our capacity to make a meaningful life. The art exhibition Dust to Dust, 2010 is the twin of this accounting, which was held at Queen’s University’s Union Gallery. / Thesis (Master, Environmental Studies) -- Queen's University, 2010-09-06 18:48:33.277

No description available.

Hannah Arendt argues that political action is only meaningful through the disclosure of who the actor uniquely is, and that this disclosure is the basis of human dignity. Arendt’s notion of performative disclosure helps us to rethink the individuated actor, not as a sovereign and self-transparent subject whose action expresses an authentic individual essence or constative what, but rather as a decentered and ecstatic who whose action reveals meaningful dimensions of the world and of the actor’s unique situation in history, through the performance of acts and speech before public spectators. The idea that no actor can stand in a position of control with respect to his life story extends to a critical displacement of the notion of freedom understood as sovereignty and of political projects that attempt to make history. Action, as praxis and not poiesis, is best understood through Arendt’s metaphor of performance, rather than productive art. There are new interpretive possibilities for Arendt’s theory of action, especially if we trace appearances of the ancient Greek daimon in Arendt’s publications and lecture notes, and among works that Arendt confronted: Plato’s Socratic dialogues and the myth of Er, Heidegger’s notion of aletheia as Dasein’s disclosure of Being, Jaspers’ valid personality, and Kant’s notion of aesthetic genius. The daimon implies that the public realm is a spiritual realm, that action is a form of connection to the divine, and that the actor is a decentered discloser of transcendent meanings and new possibilities within the world. The daimon also shows moral deliberation to be more vital to meaningful action than Arendt suggests prior to The Life of the Mind, so that the distinctions usually read in Arendt between actor and spectator, as well as those between acting, thinking, and judging, may be productively occluded. Arendt’s struggle to re-invigorate action’s disclosive capacity is at the center of her entire project. It sheds light on her critique of the world-alienating aspects of Marx, her insistent protection of a distinct political sphere from the private and the social spheres, and her rejection of Hegel’s philosophy of history in favor of a fragmentary historiography inspired by Kafka and Benjamin.

Thesis (DPhil)--University of Stellenbosch, 2005. / Bibliography. Also available via the Internet.

Cette recherche, préoccupée de traiter les questions inaugurées par le mouvement de la Réforme Psychiatrique et, par conséquent, par la restructuration politique de la prise en charge des sujets porteurs de troubles mentaux graves, vise à situer et à délimiter les questions essentielles que ce mouvement impose au champ de la santé mentale. Pour cela, en prenant comme point de départ le texte d’Hannah Arendt intitulé Entre o passado e o futuro, ce travail envisage de souligner la position adoptée par la réhabilitation psychosociale depuis que le mouvement de la Réforme Psychiatrique a été déclenché, ainsi que d’examiner l’évolution du concept de réhabilitation psychosociale et de faire des recherches sur les possibilités d’action dans le cadre de l’attention psychosociale. Cette étude s’est organisée à partir de l’analyse de la dyade expérience-transmission – comprise par le biais du paradigme psychanalytique et basé sur les concepts de transfert de S. Freud et de structure moebienne de Jacques Lacan – et y sont présentés les dispositifs thérapeutiques qui sont en train de développement dans le Caps Cais Mental Centro, tout comme les voies de transmission de l’expérience clinique que de tels dispositifs peuvent rendre possible pour le champ de l’attention psychosociale, en traitant l’expérience du Projeto Insere comme pratique dans le réseau de la réhabilitation psychosociale, sa transmission et sa possibilité d’insertion dans l’histoire du mouvement de la réforme de l’assistance sans le rendre un paradigme ou un protocole. / A presente pesquisa, interessada em abordar questões inauguradas pelo movimento da Reforma Psiquiátrica e, consequentemente, pela reestruturação política do atendimento a sujeitos portadores de transtornos mentais graves, busca situar e delimitar as questões essenciais que este movimento impõe ao campo da saúde mental. Para tanto, tomando como ponto de partida o texto de Hannah Arendt, Entre o passado e o futuro, propõe-se a destacar a posição que a reabilitação psicossocial vem assumindo desde que este movimento foi deflagrado, bem como examinar a evolução do conceito de reabilitação psicossocial e investigar as possibilidades de atuação no campo da atenção psicossocial. Também utiliza-se Walter Benjamin como autor central desta tese para desenvolver o termo experiência. O estudo organizou-se a partir da análise da díade experiência-transmissão – entendida a partir do paradigma psicanalítico e com base no conceito de transferência, de S. Freud, e na noção de estrutura moebiana, de Jacques Lacan – e, nele, são apresentados os dispositivos terapêuticos que vem sendo desenvolvidos no CAPS Cais Mental Centro, assim como as vias de transmissão da experiência clínica que tais dispositivos podem propiciar para o campo da atenção psicossocial, abordando a experiência do Projeto Insere como prática na rede de reabilitação psicossocial, sua transmissão e possibilidade de inserção na história no movimento de reforma da assistência sem torná-lo paradigma ou protocolo. / The present research, concerned with the questions raised by the movement of Psychiatric Reform and, therefore, by the political restructuring of the care of subjects with severe mental disorders, aims to situate and delimit the key questions this movement imposes on the field of mental health. For this task, taking as a starting point Hannah Arendt's text, Between Past and Future, it intends to highlight the place that psychosocial rehabilitation has assumed since this movement was started, as well as to examine the evolution of the concept of psychosocial rehabilitation and to investigate the possibilities of action in the field of psychosocial care. The study was built from the analysis of the experience-transmission dyad – understood from a psychoanalitic paradigm and based on the concepts of transference, of S. Freud, and Moebian structure, of Jacques Lacan –, and it presents the therapeutic tools that have been developed at the Psychosocial Care Center Cais Mental Centro, as well as the paths of transmission of the clinical experience these tools may provide to the field of psychosocial care, addressing the experience of Project Insere as a practice in the network of psychosocial rehabilitation, its transmission and possibility of insertion in the history of the movement of care reform without making it a paradigm or protocol.

PETR POLA : PROLEGOMENA TO PROBLEMATICS OF SOLITUDE Dissertation abstract The aim of the dissertation entitled Prolegomena to Problematics of Solitude is to introduce solitude as an existential characteristic, explore ways of its surpassing and articulate its relationship to experience of art. The issue of solitude represents for us a possible way to understand modern existence. First we examine the problem of solitude as an problem of isolated existence and formulate the question of its origin. The resolution of existential loneliness and solitude of being come to grasp the possibility of a relationship between isolation and solitude of being as sovereignty of being. Existential solitude means to effacer the relation of one who exists to oneself, which is a precondition for its existence. Finally we formulate a relationship between existential solitude and essential solitude, which is the paradigm for the experience of art especially for M. Blanchot. Deepening the problematics of existential solitude also enables to formulate the basis for discussions on the concept of subjectivity, which recently been revived.