Ruth Abbey

No country for older people? Age and the digital divide

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the literature on age and the digital divide by examining the uses of and attitudes toward information and communication technologies (ICTs) by 26 politically senior citizens.Design/methodology/approach – The approach taken involved in‐depth face‐to‐face interviews.Findings – The majority of the respondents are informed and balanced cyber‐enthusiasts who have embraced the opportunities afforded by ICTs to enhance their lives in general, including their political activities.Originality/value – These findings destabilize the dominant image of older people and their attitudes to and experiences of ICTs that appears in most of the literature on age and the digital divide. Those aged 65 and over represent the last cohort, in Western societies at least, for whom age as such is likely to be a decisive factor in their relationship to ICTs. It is therefore vital to get some insight into their views.

Is Liberalism Now an Essentially Contested Concept

In contemporary English-language political theory, conversations between liberals and their critics have been largely superseded by arguments among those placing themselves under the liberal umbrella. As the debate among those calling themselves liberals has widened, so the meaning of liberalism and construction of the liberal tradition have become increasingly contested. It is therefore appropriate to consider whether liberalism is now an essentially contested concept. Gallies original argument about essentially contested concepts is reconstructed and evaluated and a number of contemporary approaches to liberalism are considered in its light. The significance of the passage of time is examined, and some of the theoretical and practical changes that might have contributed to liberalism becoming essentially contested are outlined. The consequences for critical thinking and fundamental criticisms of society and polity are raised, and it is suggested that liberalism provides normative resources for a society to continuously question, and potentially remake, itself.

Nietzsche and the Will to Politics

This article moves on two fronts. It continues the challenge to the belief that politics is not central to the concerns of Friedrich Nietzsche but questions attempts to transvalue Nietzsche into a democrat. With their illiberal and inegalitarian political views, Nietzsches writings best serve democratic political theory in an antidotal way. The article discusses Nietzsches aesthetic approach to political action and architectonic conception of politics. It also explores some of the qualities he believes future rulers would need and the mechanisms they could use to exercise and legitimate their power. Just as Nietzsche thinks of political action in aesthetic terms, so his own art has a political purpose for he envisages the formation of a social, cultural and political elite and hopes, through his writings, to galvanize this elite.

Odd bedfellows: Nietzsche and Mill on marriage

This paper examines Nietzsches views on love and marriage in the works of his middle period. Contrary to the general consensus in the secondary literature regarding Nietzsches ideas on these matters, it shows that he offers several positive reflections on love and marriage. Indeed, at times he accepts that friendship is possible between the genders and even models marriage on friendship. Modelling marriage on friendship creates an overlap between Nietzsches thought and that of John Stuart Mill and Harriet Taylor. However, it is argued here that, albeit for different reasons, none of these visions of marriage as friendship succeeds in fully accommodating sexuality.

Plus Ça Change: Charles Taylor On Accommodating Quebec’s mInority Cultures

This article examines the 2008 report of the Quebec Government’s Consultation Commission on Accommodation Practices Related to Cultural Differences which was co-authored by Charles Taylor. Summarizing its main themes, it identifies points of intersection with Taylor’s political thought. Issues of citizen equality, including gender equality, secularism, integration and interculturalism, receive special attention.

Back toward a Comprehensive Liberalism? Justice as Fairness, Gender, and Families

This article examines the attempts by John Rawls in the works published after Political Liberalism to engage with some of the feminist responses to his work. Rawls goes a long way toward addressing some of the major feministliberal concerns. Yet this has the unintended consequence of pushing justice as fairness in the direction of a more comprehensive, rather than a strictly political, form of liberalism. This does not seem to be a problem peculiar to Rawls: rather, any form of liberalism hospitable to feminist concerns must be, at the very least, a partly comprehensive, rather than a strictly political, doctrine.

Pluralism in practice: the political thought of Charles Taylor

This review article outlines some of the major contributions made to political theory by Charles Taylor. It focuses on his relationship to liberalism, his contribution to the understanding of democracy and his analysis of the politics of recognition. Several lines of critique of Taylors thought on these issues are also explored. Some reflections on Taylors style of theorising about politics are offered, and the question of whether he is a conservative or critical theorist is examined.

Recognizing Taylor rightly A reply to Morag Patrick

In ‘Rights and Recognition: Perspectives on Multicultural Democracy’, Ethnicities 2(1) Morag Patrick (2002) makes the important point that not all demands for recognition or respect (terms she uses synonymously) can be met by recourse to rights. A richer, more responsive conception of the politics of recognition looks beyond the attribution and retrieval of rights to the role that forces such as language, symbols and interpretations – those we have of ourselves and of others – play. Patrick suggests that, because of its preoccupation with rights, contemporary liberalism is unable to attend to this latter cluster of forces and, correspondingly, she proposes that a hermeneutic perspective offers the potential for a richer understanding of the politics of recognition.

The Chief Inducement? The Idea of Marriage as Friendship

A combination of social forces has thrown marriage into question in westernised societies at the end of the millennium. This uncertainty creates space for new ways of thinking about marriage. In this context, we examine the idea of marriage as friendship. We trace its genealogy in the work of Mary Wollstonecraft, John Stuart Mill and Harriet Taylor and then subject it to critical scrutiny using some of Michel de Montaignes ideas. We ask how applicable the ideal of higher friendship is to marriage and what might be gained and lost by a synthesis of marriage and friendship. Grounding the discussion in historical sources is valuable because the topic is so little explored in the contemporary philosophical literature. This approach also allows any enduring value in these historical texts to be elicited [1].

Rawls, Mill, and the Puzzle of Political Liberalism

This article examines John Rawls’s turn toward a purely political liberalism by comparing and contrasting it with the comprehensive liberalism he imputes to John Stuart Mill. We argue that Mill and Rawls have similar views about individual autonomy, despite Rawls’s insistence to the contrary. We contend that Rawls accords a much larger role to the state in enforcing justice than does Mill. Whereas Rawls’s view of justice rests ultimately on state enforcement, Mill sees justice reaching into many institutions, but accords the state a lesser role in this. Mill’s view of justice rests on a view of progress and moral psychology not shared by Rawls. In the service of stability, Rawls demands more agreement from citizens about justice than does Mill, but these demands undermine the stability that Rawls so desires. The differences between Rawls and Mill discussed here are not elucidated by the distinction between political and comprehensive liberalisms.