Redefining the Political, Free Essay Sample

Politics is often an important social tool that can be used in the definition of power. In the current social systems of this world, the definition attached to some aspects of social relevance is of more importance about politics. Definition of some aspects of the social life without the integration of a sense of politics is viewed as a better way of keeping a deservedly low profile of these issues. The more an issue is brought to the attention of the public domain, the more it raises diverse and divisive opinions; and the more it is politicized. This paper seeks to evaluate and categorize opinion diversity and divisiveness that arise in the occurrence of issues such as the recent developments in the political world. Here much difficulty arises in coming up with the appropriate classification and description of some pertinent issues as being either progressive or resistant; of the people or not; and as populist or not. Of much interest is the right description of matter as political and the determinants of the political aspect of the issue.

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Lifeworld as a Resource and its Colonization

What shapes the political dimension of a system is inclusive of collective identities, social networks, and cultural formations. These three structural determinants translate to personality, society, and culture respectively and are collectively termed as the lifeworld. The lifeworld is a valuable resource for social movement and is important to individual mobilization and participation in these movements. However, the lifeworld is subject to the colonization of the existent political systems leading to threats to the previously mentioned determinants that are personality, society, and culture.

Popular opinion agrees that social movements are important signs used in determining the fracture lines in the society. The lifeworld, therefore, remains a key guide to the social movements by indicating the areas of the society where there is the need for communicative action. This type of action requires a symbolic face-to-face relation between individuals and can be translated to mutual understanding and consent. The structural determinants for social movements are all dependent upon and relate closely to communicative action. This means that the three structures are produced via communicative action, which depends on them as well. Therefore action coordination within a social group depends on the people within the groups; their integration and the shared values and stocks within the group. Considering the National Union of Teachers (NUT) as a social movement, for example, the severity of communicative interaction among the union members implies a corresponding scarcity in the social solidarity as a lifeworld resource. Regarding personality, communicative interaction is important to the integration of young NUT members into the unions identity frame. The NUT culture is also eroded when the communicative interaction between the union members is severed.

The lifeworld has in recent times been submerges into the affairs of the system leading to the failure of the social movements. For instance, in NUTs case, the economic and political alterations relating to the state education department have led to the erosion of the spheres of active, communicative interaction within the union which significantly affects the prevalence of the lifeworld. Such erosions are reminiscent of the strain in the mobilization of the unions members and even to some extent the resources required for individual participation. Such economic and political administrations refer to the system and have been hinderers to the development of the lifeworld. The social mindset of the movements has been altered greatly by these systems resulting in the adoption of political mindset by the members.

Feminism

Another good instance is the aspect feminism. Until in the recent times, feminism was not an issue in many countries including the United States. However, with the intrusion of new imaginations of gender justice have brought on a lot newer concept of hostility into this matter. Frasers demonstration of feminism shows clearly how the whole concept of politics has greatly shifted. Many feminist ambitions have been evolved from the quest for social democracy and retribution to the quest for recognition. However, in the recent years, there have been efforts to change the perception of feminine politics and designing of new ways to synthesize the concepts of retribution and recognition within a process known as reframing. The necessity of reframing cannot be understated in the politics of feminism due to its importance in challenging gender injustices. Reframing is aimed at creating lasting transnational feminist solutions and leading to their appreciation in fighting gender injustice. There is a new realm of feminism politics based on the reframed perception of gender justice. Such reframing has led to the third dimension of presentation; where not only political voice equality is ensured, but also restructuring of justice disputes. Therefore redistribution, recognition and representation elements of feminism politics are well balanced. This is a classic demonstration of representation of politics, where groups of officials with a presumed political neutrality and nationalism take part in advocating for some of the politically charged issues affecting the people. This sharply differs from the political representation where the citizens and the people voice their opinions on their manners. Politics of representation is a more efficient method in this regard as it surpasses the realm of national boundaries to transnational realms. Unfortunately, the current environment is the manifestation of representation of politics and recognition.

Seduction of Resistance

Due to the imbalance and politicization of social systems, there needs to be a method to rectify the coherence and stability of these systems in a similar way reframing has done to feminism politics. Resistance studies are one possible way to achieve this as described by Mitch Rose. Resistance studies conceal the various methods of positively manipulating stable space representations through the interpretation of practices within the social-spatial setup. The big challenge with this, however, is the means to come up with theories that can effectively identify and classify resistance practice.

Resistance can be used to overcome perceptions and strongholds concerning power efficiently. However, it is viewed as a weak method since the resistance may not always be based on the actors focus on the results but their need of recognition for engagement in a particular action. To enhance the performance of a societal system, it is necessary to exercise enactment that is made up of actions and gestures that are vital in translating texts to be significant in social life.

Enactment positively influences performance of a system and characterize meaning, values and rules within social aspects of life. Enactment, a form of resistance measures is exhibited by limitation and contingency; engenderment of social coherence; and some power forms. Resistance just like the politics of representation seeks to identify an agents oppression awareness and how it can be translated into a real political consciousness. It is recommended that the contents of the society be examined like a text to understand it context regarding political vulnerability and control by power.

Parsing Populism

The third space politics which is akin to the representation of politics is a characteristic of the Trump supporters who are not only carving out new political spaces but also legitimizing these political spaces. How else could such gain of populism based on outright oligarchy be described, if not dangerous populism? This raises a question on the possible ways of determining what describes a populist in recent times. The notion of Trump supporters as brought out a rather complicated perception of populism that can be of everyone whether friend or foe.

A more appropriate definition of populism can be associated with the people which may mean three different things. The people may mean all participants in a polity or a common group of individuals within a social rank who are always excluded from vital participation in the society or also, a nation with distinct sense of culture. Therefore a populist can be adequately described as any individual who identifies with the peoples needs and interests.

In the past time, this concept was associated with progressiveness in the US. Ideally, populism should be viewed as a moral-oriented imagination of the political world. Populism should position a morally upright majority against unauthentic and segregated elite minorities. To think of the likes of Trump as a populist is Roses third space imagination. It rather represents failed or poorly constituted democratic systems. A moralistic approach by the populist depends on the ability to distinguish between the moral and immoral and purity and corruption. This kind of approach leads to individuals adopting a rather recognition approach rather than focus oriented perception creating a third space kind of political system.

Strains in social communicative mechanisms have been identified as a possible cause of political redefinition. This is due to the submergence of the vital lifeworld aspects into the activities and the conundrum of existent systems. To understand the political engagements of society, it is important to study and analyze its contents and context as a text. Various well intended societal setups have been transformed into political fronts due to the representation of politics and the third space engagements. These transformations have changed the initially intended meaning of feminism and populism among other.