TY - JOUR A1 - Mackert, Jürgen T1 - In the name of the state the secret society of the torturers JF - Berliner Journal für Soziologie = Journal de sociologie de Berlin N2 - Torture is an extreme act of collective violence that is secretly executed in the name of a state. In order to explain the reasons why people torture others, individualist approaches concentrate on individuals' motives or interests. Contrary to that, the article argues that torture should be understood as a social relation. Thus, it takes the social relations of the group of torturers as a starting point. Firstly, following Georg Simmel's analysis of the secret society the paper argues that the group of torturers can adequately be conceptualized as a secret society; secondly, against this background the article reconstructs the conditions which structure torturers' agency; finally, this article offers an outline of the processes and dynamics that allows for explaining the phenomenon of torture. The thesis of the article argues that a relational sociology helps better explain and understand the social phenomenon of torture. KW - Torture KW - Secret society of torturers KW - Georg Simmel KW - Relational sociology KW - Processes KW - Dynamics KW - Explanation Y1 - 2011 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s11609-011-0165-9 SN - 0863-1808 VL - 21 IS - 3 SP - 431 EP - 459 PB - Springer CY - Wiesbaden ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Mackert, Jürgen A1 - Turner, Bryan S. T1 - Introduction BT - a politcal economy of citizenship T2 - The Transformation of Citizenship : Volume 1 Political Economy N2 - In the course of the last four decades, neo-liberalism has established itself as the dominant form of governing both national societies and global affairs. On the foundation of both Keynesian economic policies and the Bretton Woods system of fixed exchange rates among currencies, the world economy recovered. The classical sociological meaning and concept of citizenship as defined by T. H. Marshall and others after World War II rests on an analysis of the relationship between the capitalist economy and political democracy against the background of 'embedded liberalism'. Today, however, the enforcement of neo-liberal principles in order to turn modern democracies into 'market societies' impinges heavily on our idea of citizenship. The critical aspects of a flawed citizenship go directly to the heart of the idea of citizenship itself, as both democratic and social participation and a substantial conception of individual liberty all seem to be under attack from the global politico-economic regime. Y1 - 2017 SN - 978-1-138-67290-1 (print) SN - 978-1-315-56228-5 (online) U6 - https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315562285 IS - 1 SP - 1 EP - 12 PB - Routledge Taylor CY - London ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Mackert, Jürgen A1 - Turner, Bryan S. T1 - Introduction BT - citizenship and political struggle T2 - The Transformation of Citizenship : Volume 3 Struggle, Resistance and Violence N2 - The history of citizenship is one of social struggle against pre-modern authorities, nobles and aristocracies, of class struggles and the demands of social movements, and no less of cultural, ethnic, indigenous protests against the long history of colonialism. Paths to citizenship in Europe have taken very different directions, as Charles Tilly has shown with regard to England, the Netherlands, Russia or Prussia. Max Weber's dictum of defining the state by the accomplishment of the monopolisation of the legitimate means of violence is of utmost significance for the history of citizenship. There can be no doubt that the experience of World War II prepared the ground for the twentieth-century idea of citizenship. Consequently the Western concept of citizenship has been promoted as a role model in the march towards modernity as peaceful, democratic and universalistic. Finally, this chapter presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. Y1 - 2017 SN - 978-1-138-67288-8 (print) SN - 978-1-315-56227-8 (online) U6 - https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315562278 IS - 3 SP - 1 EP - 14 PB - Routledge Taylor CY - London ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Mackert, Jürgen A1 - Turner, Bryan S. T1 - Introduction BT - citizenship and its boundaries T2 - The Transformation of Citizenship : Volume 2 Boundaries of Inclusion and Exclusion N2 - This introduction presents an overview of the concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book examines the role of Frontex in the European Union as an agency to protect its external borders in the Mediterranean from irregular or 'illegal' migration. It discusses that Europe is an arrangement for European citizens only – and for some privileged non-citizens as in the Swiss case. The book explains the points to the possibility of a transnational membership regime that, however, bears certain antinomies that also point to unresolved problems. It offers an interesting view on the symbolic boundary between the citizen and the consumer, discussing this nexus from the perspective of citizenship studies, consumer culture and surveillance studies. Among the many far-reaching transformations that both societies and citizens have faced in recent years, the European migration crisis has most urgently brought to mind the fact that modern citizenship has always been about boundaries and about processes of inclusion and exclusion Y1 - 2017 SN - 978-1-138-67289-5 (print) SN - 978-1-315-56226-1 (online) U6 - https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315562261 IS - 2 SP - 1 EP - 14 PB - Routledge Taylor CY - London ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Mackert, Jürgen ED - Fitzi, Gregor ED - Mackert, Jürgen ED - Turner, Bryan S. T1 - Introduction BT - is there such a thing as populism? T2 - Populism and the crisis of democracy Volume 1 Concepts and Theory N2 - The rise of populism has promoted a broad, vivid and flourishing debate in the social sciences that seems to have arisen even in the face of the ties between right-wing populism and the extreme right. The social sciences are struggling with how properly to conceptualise and theorise populism as a social and political phenomenon. Incongruity or asynchrony of events in factual history and their being conceptualised is obviously critical with regard to the problems that arise with defining and conceptualising populism. The plurality of usages, applications and meanings of populism thus only shows how, in a vivid debate, scholars can observe a contest for coming to terms with a concept that remains in flux and that needs to be continually revised given rapidly changing social conditions. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book. Y1 - 2018 SN - 978-1-138-09136-8 SN - 978-1-315-10807-0 SP - 1 EP - 13 PB - Routledge CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Mackert, Jürgen T1 - Towards a sociological explanation of violence in conflicts of social orders JF - Berliner Journal für Soziologie = Journal de sociologie de Berlin N2 - The article argues that the uprisings during the Arab Spring as well as the riots in either the banlieues of French cities or in London have to be considered as violent conflicts that pose a serious threat to the social orders in which they emerge. These different kinds of social resistance have in common that they communicate more or less developed alternative conceptions of social orders that challenge what has been considered legitimate so far. Until now, sociology has neither successfully explained such kinds of conflicts nor the way they are triggered. Therefore, the article discusses crucial problems of a sociology of violence, i.e. violence as term and concept, theoretical and methodological deficits and, finally, assumptions about the role of violence in conflict-ridden processes of modernization and civilization in general. The article argues that a sociology of violence should concentrate on the nexus of social order and violence in order to explain how and why violent conflicts emerge in specific social contexts. Thus, a sociology of violence should take an effort to reconstruct the crucial social mechanisms that underlie the dynamics of emerging violence in processes of production and reproduction of social order. KW - Social order KW - Conflicts of social orders KW - Conceptions of social orders KW - Legitimization KW - Social relations KW - Relational sociology KW - Collective violence Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s11609-013-0210-y SN - 0863-1808 SN - 1862-2593 VL - 23 IS - 1 SP - 91 EP - 113 PB - Springer CY - Wiesbaden ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Mackert, Jürgen T1 - We the people BT - liberal and organic populism, and the politics of social closure T2 - Populism and the crisis of democracy Volume 1 Concepts and Theory N2 - The chapter argues that populism as a modern phenomenon is closely linked with the great democratic revolutions that, for the first time in history, addressed ‘the people’ as the sovereign, thereby constituting the modern citizen. Yet, ‘the people’ can and do draw boundaries between ‘us’ and ‘them’. In an analytical perspective the article suggests a distinction between three forms of populism, ‘organic populism’, ‘liberal economic populism’, and ‘liberal cultural populism’, that operate differently. Applying closure theory to these different forms allows understanding of the different processes of populist politics that today promote exclusion by applying differentiated strategies of social closure. Y1 - 2018 SN - 978-1-138-09136-8 SN - 978-1-315-10807-0 SP - 91 EP - 108 PB - Routledge CY - London ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Mackert, Jürgen T1 - Why we need a new political economy of citizenship: neo-liberalism, the bank crisis and the 'Panama Papers' T2 - The Transformation of Citizenship : Political Economy Y1 - 2017 SN - 978-1-138-67290-1 (print) SN - 978-1-315-56228-5 (online) IS - 1 SP - 99 EP - 117 PB - Routledge Taylor CY - London ER -