Ryan Orko | BRAC University (original) (raw)

Papers by Ryan Orko

As an intellectual movement postmodernism was born as a challenge to several modernist themes tha... more As an intellectual movement postmodernism was born as a challenge to several modernist themes that were first articulated during the Enlightenment. These include scientific positivism, the inevitability of human progress, and the potential of human reason to address any essential truth of physical and social conditions and thereby make them amenable to rational control (Boyne and Rattansi 1990). The primary tenets of the postmodern movement include: (1) an elevation of text and language as the fundamental phenomena of existence, (2) the application of literary analysis to all phenomena, (3) a questioning of reality and representation, (4) a critique of metanarratives, (5) an argument against method and evaluation, (6) a focus upon power relations and hegemony, (7) and a general critique of Western institutions and knowledge (Kuznar 2008:78). For his part, Lawrence Kuznar labels postmodern anyone whose thinking includes most or all of these elements. Importantly, the term postmodernism refers to a broad range of artists, academic critics, philosophers, and social scientists that Christopher Butler (2003:2) has only half-jokingly alluded to as like “a loosely constituted and quarrelsome political party.” The anthropologist Melford Spiro defines postmodernism thusly:

The postmodernist critique of science consists of two interrelated arguments, epistemological and ideological. Both are based on subjectivity. First, because of the subjectivity of the human object, anthropology, according to the epistemological argument cannot be a science; and in any event the subjectivity of the human subject precludes the possibility of science discovering objective truth. Second, since objectivity is an illusion, science according to the ideological argument, subverts oppressed groups, females, ethnics, third-world peoples. [Spiro 1996: 759]

Postmodernism has its origins as an eclectic social movement originating in aesthetics, architecture and philosophy (Bishop 1996). In architecture and art, fields which are distinguished as the oldest claimants to the name, postmodernism originated in the reaction against abstraction in painting and the International Style in architecture (Callinicos 1990: 101). However, postmodern thinking arguably began in the nineteenth century with Nietzsche’s assertions regarding truth, language, and society, which opened the door for all later postmodern and late modern critiques about the foundations of knowledge (Kuznar 2008: 78). Nietzsche asserted that truth was simply:

a mobile army of metaphors, metonyms, and anthropomorphisms – in short, a sum of human relations, which have been enhanced, transposed, and embellished poetically and rhetorically, and which after long use seem firm, canonical, and obligatory to a people: truths are illusions about which one has forgotten that this is what they are. [Nietzsche 1954: 46-47]

According to Kuznar, postmodernists trace this skepticism about truth and the resulting relativism it engenders from Nietzsche to Max Weber and Sigmund Freud, and finally to Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault and other contemporary postmodernists (2008:78).

This contribution brings to our attention a Dalit (‘untouchable’) protest movement against caste ... more This contribution brings to our attention a Dalit (‘untouchable’) protest movement against caste violence (the 2006 Khairlanji massacre). Although anger is supposedly an emotion used in an open and demonstrative manner by the powerful as a means to enact their domination, the Dalit movement engaged in acts of ‘emotion work’ that upset such a social mapping of emotions. The paper engages critically with the sterile and biased concept of ‘axiological neutrality’ and advocates instead the heuristic possibilities enabled by the ethnographers’ personal exposure to the emotion work performed by social movements. The protest’s ideological stance illustrates the politically marginalised Dalits’ appropriation of democratic conceptions through the language of injustice and outrage. Two different sets of actors involved in the protest are distinguished: human rights and progressive activists of the peasant NGO movement on the one hand, and the local anti-caste movement of Dalits on the other. The distinct kinds of emotion work each set of actors performed, and the framing of the massacre as an outrage to moral values, highlights how, in the mobilisation for Dalit rights, the popular language of communal outrage and the language of democratic rights articulate with and support one another.

The argumento f this paper is based on the assumption that the devalorization that the domain of ... more The argumento f this paper is based on the assumption that the devalorization that the domain of power has suffered in the received wisdom of Marxism is, in crucial ways,r esponsiblef ori ts inability to take on the problemo f democracy power, franchiser,e presentation,
etc. in socialism.
With this view, this paper seeks to explore the phenomenono f
power and its theoreticals tatus in Marxistt heory,i n the lighto f
recenth istoricael xperience

Buffeted by the twin forces of postmodern cultural shifts and momentous technological development... more Buffeted by the twin forces of postmodern cultural shifts and momentous
technological developments, the conceptual structure of marketing that had crystallized
during the 1960s and 1970s is being strained. This article analyses the impact of
postmodernism and of new information technologies on the conceptual foundations
of marketing. Six main areas of challenge are identified. Cases that illustrate the
technology-driven cultural shifts, affecting the very foundation of marketing, are presented.

he abolition of sati by the British in 1829 has become a founding moment in the history of women ... more he abolition of sati by the British in 1829 has become a founding moment in the history of women in moder India.' The legislative prohibition of sati was the culmination of a debate during which 8,134 instances of sati had been recorded mainly, though not exclusively, among upper caste Hindus, with a high concentration-63 percent-in the area around Calcutta City.2 The debate, initiated primarily
by colonial officials, is regarded as signifying the concern for the status of women that emerges in the nineteenth century. Colonial rule, with its moral civilizing claims, is said to have provided the contexts for a thoroughgoing re-evaluation of Indian "tradition" along lines.

Contemporary theorizations of neoliberalism are framed by a false dichotomy between, on the one h... more Contemporary theorizations of neoliberalism are framed by a false dichotomy between, on
the one hand, studies influenced by Foucault in emphasizing neoliberalism as a form of
governmentality, and on the other hand, inquiries influenced by Marx in foregrounding
neoliberalism as a hegemonic ideology. This article seeks to shine some light on this division
in an effort to open up new debates and recast existing ones in such a way that might lead to
more flexible understandings of neoliberalism as a discourse. A discourse approach moves
theorizations forward by recognizing neoliberalism is neither a ‘top-down’ nor ‘bottom-up’
phenomena, but rather a circuitous process of socio-spatial transformation.

As a relatively recent human phenomenon, cities are the physical culmination of many pre-existin... more As a relatively recent human phenomenon, cities are the physical culmination of many
pre-existing psychological, social and cognitive capacities. The persistent presence
of deliberately empty spaces in urban areas both past and present signals the
conscious creation and maintenance of those locales at various levels: household,
neighbourhood and civic/centralizing. Domestic empty space, in particular the space
between and among habitations, was likely to have been curated and managed at
the household level. However, neighbourhood-level and urban-level empty spaces were
subject to multiple demands and levels of oversight; as a result, this publicly available
emptiness was flexible in its use but also potentially ‘expensive’ to govern. The
presence of empty spaces in an urban setting may serve as a proxy for understanding
the relationship between different levels of urban interaction, from the relative
autonomy of the household that used its nearby spaces idiosyncratically, to the larger
impositions of authority through urban design in the form of streets and open plazas.
Specific examples of empty space are assessed for the ancient city of Sisupalgarh in
eastern India, where geophysical surveys and excavations have enabled us to discuss
the multiple meanings of nothingness at the household, neighbourhood and urban
scales.

The victory of Hamas, a proscribed terrorist organisation, in the January 2006 elections for the ... more The victory of Hamas, a proscribed terrorist organisation, in the January 2006 elections for the Palestinian Authority, was greeted with dismay by the international community, which responded by cutting off aid. This article seeks to understand why Hamas was elected, as well as the international community's response, through an analysis of the liberal peace thesis. This thesis states that democracies do not go to war with one another, thus it was thought that building a democratic Palestinian state would buttress the peace process. The Palestinian people have, however, elected an organization that rejects the peace process. This has provided a wake-up call for the US to face up to the fact that promoting democratization may not always produce the results it desires. The US sees the election of Hamas as the cause of the current crisis and the main obstacle to peace. This article, however, argues that this is merely a symptom, not the cause, of the crisis. The Palestinian Authority's lack of sovereignty and its complete dependence on Israel put severe limitations on the building of a viable, democratic state. The article concludes that the US's uncompromising response to Hamas could well undermine democracy promotion in the region.