bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Notas sobre Democracia, agencia y estado en el legado de Guillermo O’Donnell
Authors: Berdondini Mariana 
Published: October 2020

El presente artículo analiza el legado de Guillemo O’Donnell a partir de su libro Democracia, agencia y estado en atención a los grandes ejes articuladores de su inconmensurable producción académica. Con la intención de generar nuevas miradas comparativas, la obra se constituye en un verdadero tratado de teoría política. En función de ello, se revisan las dimensiones principales de sus aportes respecto a la teoría democrática, el estado, la agencia y su historización, el Estado de derecho y las implicancias sobre la ciudadanía, su mirada sobre la democracia en América latina y las discusiones en torno a la Democracia Delegativa, con las conclusiones de lo que ha sido su preocupación y motivación: la democratización como construcción que no tiene límite. Confirma con ello su capacidad única para articular aportes y paradigmas diversos, proponer conceptos y teorizarlos, dejando su impronta intacta en la agenda de las ciencias sociales.
La producción de conocimiento en Trabajo Social: una mirada desde Bourdieu
Authors: Casá Evangelina 
Published: October 2020

En el presente artículo partimos del actual debate en Trabajo Social, en tanto profesión anclada fuertemente en el hacer y con escasas incursiones en la actividad investigativa. Para ello, retomaremos nociones de la propuesta teórica de Bourdieu como insumo para pensar los debates y reflexiones que orientan la tesis doctoral –aún en curso– bajo el nombre de La Producción de Conocimiento en Trabajo Social: su relación con el campo académico y el de intervención. Una exploración en la ciudad de Rosario entre 1990-2010. Con tal motivo, en primer lugar nos planteamos abordar la problemática de construcción del objeto y luego, recuperar las categorías de habitus y campo de dicho autor, a los fines de emplearlas como herramientas teóricas para nuestro proyecto.
Challenges to Democracy in the Middle East
Authors: Bokhari Kamran Asghar 
Published: October 2020

Many scholars have attempted to tackle the question of why democracy has seemingly failed to take root in the Islamic milieu, in general, and the pre dominantlyArab Middle East, in particular, while the rest of the world has witnessed the fall of"pax-authoritaria" especially in the wake of the demercratic revolution triggered by the failure of communism. Some view this resistance to the Third Wave, as being rooted in the Islamic cultural dynamics of the region, whereas others will ascribe it to the level of political development (or the lack thereof). An anthology of essays, Challenges to Democracy in the Middle East furnishes the reader with five historical casestudies that seek to explain the arrested socio politico-economic development of Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, and Turkey, and the resulting undemercratic political culture that domjnates the overall political landscape of the Middle East.
The first composition in this omnibus is "The Crisis of Democracy in Twentieth Century Syria and Lebanon," authored by Bill Harris, senior lecturer of political studies at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand. Haris compares and contrasts the political development of Syria and Lebanon during the French mandate period and under the various regimes since then. He examines how the two competing forms of national­ism, i.e., Lebanonism and Arabism, along with sectarianism, are the main factors that have contributed to the consolidation of one-party rule in Syria, and the I 6-year internecine conflict in Lebanon. After a brief overview of the early history of both countries, the author spends a great deal oftime dis­cussing the relatively more recent political developments: Syria from 1970 onwards, and Lebanon from I 975 to the I 990s. Harris expresses deep pes­simism regarding the future of democratic politics in both countries, which in his opinion is largely due to the deep sectarian cleavages in both states.
The next treatise is "Re-inventing Nationalism in B􀀥thi Iraq 1968- 1994: SupraTerritorial Identities and What Lies Below," by Amatzia Baram, professor of Middle East History at the University of Haifa. Baram surveys the Ba·th's second stint in power (1968-present) in lraq. Baram's opinion is that a shift has occurred in B􀀥thist ideology from an integrative Pan-Arab program to an Iraqi-centered Arab nationalism. She attributes this to Saddam's romance with the past, on the one hand, which is the reason for the incorporation of themes from both the ancient Mesopotamian civiliza­tion and the medieval Abbasid caliphal era, and, on the other hand, to Islam and tribalism, that inform the pragmatic concerns of the Ba'thist ideological configuration ...
The Qur'an's Self-Image
Authors: Afsaruddin Asma 
Published: October 2020

This is a well-researched and carefully thought out book on the highly complex issue of the Qur' an 's self-referential terms to its own status as Scripture. Particularly illuminating are the author, Daniel Madigan's, clear and profound engagements with the semantic content of key Qur'anic words like kitab, mushaf, qur'an, dhikr, tanzil. and wahy, and his discussion of the inter-relatedness of these tenns. Madigan successfully problematizes partic­ularly the key terms kitab and Qur'an since, as he shows, their meanings can be fairly fluid and their essence cannot be easily and crudely reduced to a rigid demarcation between orality and "writtenness" alone.
A central focus of his book is indeed the tension between the orality and the written nature of Islam's sacred scripture, already suggested in the name given to it, al-Qur'an, which itself may be translated as ''the Recitation," and "the Reading." Madigan stresses the primacy of the oral nature of the Qur'an; in his (rather brief) discussion of the terms kalam Allah (the speech of God) and kitabAl/ah (the book of God), he states, ... the focus on the ontological status of the Qur'an [as represented in the usage of the term kalam Allah] may be not merely the result of specula­tion but rather an attempt to recover something that was lost when the concepts of kitab Allah and Qur'an were collapsed into the content of the mushaf.
Chapters 2 - 4 provide a fine and nuanced exposition of the Qur'anic conception of kitab, which, as Madigan persuasively suggests, has to do with divine, timeless authority becoming manifest in the human, time­bound world. The difference between Qur'an and kitab is therefore, not merely a question of display or storage, through the medium of the human voice in the fonner and through written composition in the latter, but has to do rather with the Qur'an's origin, that is, "its author and the source of its composition." ...
Editorial
Authors: Bullock Katherine 
Published: October 2020

It is with a deep sense of humility that I take on the responsibility of edit­ing the American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences (AJISS), a journal established in 1984 to promote Islamically oriented scholarship in the social sciences. Now in its twentieth year, the journal has provided schol­ars with a forum for exploring and debating issues and concerns from diverse Muslim (or Muslim sympathetic) perspectives. It is a privilege to join the list of eminent scholars who have overseen the production of AJISS over these years - most recently, Louay Safi, a scholar with pro­found insight into both the Islamic and the western worlds. His is a hard act to follow. May Allah guide me.
Budgetary constraints have forced AJISS to combine this year's last two issues (summer/fall 2003) into one - albeit a rather expanded volume. We hope that this is only a temporary measure, and that AJlSS will return soon to publishing four volumes a year. Of course, the articles and reviews them­selves still represent the high-quality scholarship we have come to expect from contributors to AJlSS. Though not specifically theme-based, an underlying theme does unify the articles in this issue: the ongoing dialogue between Muslims and the West over issues having to do with Islam's encounter with modernity. Each article examines some aspect of this encounter: Necva Kazimov looks at the relationship between various reforms made to Egypt's divorce law and that country's reservations to the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDA W), Fathi Malkawi analyzes the role and future needs of educating Muslim children in the United States, and Mohamad Fauzan Noordin discusses why wisdom has to be a priority in implementing and using information and communication technology (ICT). Then, lmad-ad-Dean Ahmad analyzes constitutionalism from the compara­tive perspective of the American Constitution and the Prophet's (peace be upon him) Madinah Covenant, Glenn E. Perry looks at the relationship between sovereignty and law in the democracy-Islam compatibility debate, and lastly, Pernille Ironside draws our attention to the Shari'ah penal law in northern Nigeria and its relationship to Nigeria's secular-based system of law ...
An Enchanted Modern
Authors: Blomfield Bridget 
Published: October 2020

In An Enchanted Modern: Gender and Public Piety in Shi`i Lebanon, culturalanthropologist Lara Deeb writes an ethnography about a group ofShi`i Muslim women in a Beirut community. She follows their religiousand social commitments, allows them to express their individual and collectivesentiments, and describes their understanding of piety and how theymanifest it in their commitment to social activism. She argues that they createa space for Islam within the modern world and that the notions Islamand modernity are not contradictory, but rather complementary. Her subjectspractice authenticated Islam, which she defines as an Islam that has amodern interpretation based on knowledge and understanding, in contrastto a traditional, unquestioned Islam that is followed blindly by the oldergenerations.
Deeb uses interviews and participant observation to ascertain her interlocutors’multiple discourses. These women, having steadfastly studied theirreligion, locate themselves as pious women who can construct and definethemselves in the modern world without succumbing to the pressures ofwestern standards of modernity. Loosely associated with the Hizbullah politicalparty, her subjects live in al-Dahiyya, an area of southern suburbanBeirut (considered a Shi`i ghetto) that houses some 500,000 people.In the West, these women are seen as religious fundamentalists akin tothe Taliban. The goals of Deeb’s book are to dismiss this gross inaccuracy,suggest that Islam is not a static and monolithic religion, and show that Islamand modernity are compatible. She describes how the women she interviewedperceived modernity in the western sense, as well as their own ideaof what Deeb calls “enchanted ways of being modern.” This “enchantedmodern” form of piety emphasizes the importance of both material and spiritualprogress as well as a “new kind of religiosity, one that involves consciousand conscientious commitment.” ...
The Experience of Islamic Art on the Margins of Islam
Authors: Rührdanz Karin 
Published: October 2020

This volume is the fifteenth publication in the Giorgio Levi Della Vida ConferencePapers series, each of which contains the lecture presented by therecipient of the Giorgio Levi Della Vida Award for excellence in Islamicstudies along with contributions by other scholars dedicated to a specialtopic. For the first time ever, in 1996 the award was presented to an art historian,Oleg Grabar, who chose “The Experience of Islamic Art on theMargins of Islam” as the theme of the fifteenth conference.
The crossing of boundaries by artifacts, decorative elements, or figuralsubjects from one cultural hemisphere into another, as well as the perceptionof the “inherited” monuments of other cultures, is a broad and still largelyunexplored field. While studies following the wandering of motifs are quitenumerous, the reasons for their selection and tacit integration into new contexts,along with their reshaping and revaluation, are not dealt with veryoften. Each of the five articles directs our attention to a particular border areaof Islamic culture during a particular period, ranging from the Middle Agesto the present. Each contribution also approaches the question of how(regardless of the way) acquired Islamic objects and monuments weredealt with from a specific angle. The result is a small and very diverse collectionof experiences that surely does not offer an overview of all responsesto Islamic art. However, it convincingly demonstrates how revealing researchon the cultural margins can be ...
Observing the Observer
Authors: Al-Azami Usaama 
Published: October 2020

This excellent study brings together a number of widely regarded Western
scholars of Islam as contributors on the nature and history of Islamic studies in
the American academy. This compilation is part of “The State of Islamic Studies
in American Universities,” a research project undertaken by the International
Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT) and the Center for Islam and Public Policy
(CIPP) between 2004 and 2007. Its findings were first made available in draft
form on IIIT’s website in 2009 (http://iiit.org/iiitftp/ PDF%27s/Islamic-Studies.
pdf), where it remains as of writing this review. That draft appears to have
been substantially complete, and one wonders why it took three years to remove
a chapter and then add a more refined introduction, a short conclusion, and a
bibliography. Still, its earlier online availability (free of charge) means that one
cannot be too critical of its delayed publication.
This volume brings together some major names in Western Islamic studies,
including Seyyed Hossein Nasr, John Voll, Farid Esack, and Saba Mahmood,
and represents important reflections on the state of the field as an
academic endeavor. Ten essays, varying in length from eleven pages to ones
almost four times that length, are preceded by a useful introduction and conclusion,
both of which concisely summarize noteworthy aspects of each essay
and can serve as a valuable overview for the rushed reader. The study includes
essays of both a qualitative and quantitative nature, which are generally of
high quality. The editors state that they seek to inform the lay reader as well
as scholars in the field, but also feel that the “data and analyses […] will be
immensely valuable for educational planners and administrators who are interested
in strengthening programs of Islamic studies in institutions of higher
learning” (p. xxvii). Given the constraints of space, I restrict serious reflection
to only a handful of the rich essays ...
Islam and Christianity
Authors: Shafi Sophia Rose 
Published: October 2020

In Islam and Christianity: Theological Themes in Comparative Perspective,
John Renard gives us yet another gem of a book: beautifully written, meticulously
researched, and cleverly presented. A comparative study of these two
traditions could have easily resulted in a pluralistic muddle of two of the
world’s most studied religious traditions. Instead, the author gives us a careful
examination of theology that forces us to think carefully about categories like
religion, faith, and orthodoxy.
The preface begins with a confession of sorts, for Renard notes therein
the tension between comparative linkage and religious authenticity that presents
itself in such a project. While Islam and Christianity exhibit many of the
same themes, nowhere does he put forth the kind of thesis that would yield a
“many roads to one mountain” axiom. What makes this book compelling is
its careful presentation of two distinct theologies that, although clearly different,
exhibit a familial relationship. What is meant by “theology” is quite broad,
and Renard seems to suggest that a number of theological languages are at
play in these two traditions. Islam and Christianity is not the kind of reductionist
work that one might expect to see in such an ambitious project; rather,
it is a dialog, a conversation among scriptures, hagiographies, poems, liturgies,
and ideas ...
Did Pakistanis Vote for the Status Quo?
Authors: Abdullah Omer Bin 
Published: October 2020

The latest – and possibly the last – period of military rule in Pakistan
ended in 2008, when elections were held under the thendictator
General Pervez Musharraf. The voting sprouted a
coalition government headed by the Pakistan Peoples Party that
ruled (or rather riled) the country for five excruciating years. The
ever-erring ruling group included the Pakistan Muslim League-
Nawaz, one of the many breakaway wings of the country’s
founding political movement.
The country has suffered ever since the Soviets invaded neighboring
Afghanistan, leading the United States and its allies to fund
the “mujahideen,” the tribal-based loosely organized Muslim
fighters from all over the world. After 9/11, President George W.
Bush’s attack on Afghanistan and hot pursuit of targets inside Pakistan,
not to mention the military dictator Musharraf’s wholesale
willingness to support the United States in all of its decisions, has
led to high levels of violence and instability.
The Pakistani political establishment has little to show for its efforts.
However, another development took root seventeen years ago.
Imran Khan, the internationally respected and loved sports heroturned-
philanthropist, realizing that acts of kindness alone would
not heal the country’s malaise, launched his own political party in
a quest for justice and equality in a society firmly controlled by the
feudal landed class created by the British to rule the Subcontinent.
After ignoring him for some fifteen years, despite his many sacrifices,
the nation finally heard him. But while his popularity boomed
in 2011, his attempt to empower the masses by bringing in “fresh
blood,” namely, young educated people, women, and even the poor
into the assemblies failed. The voters were, as many Pakistanis believe,
deprived of their choice, and thus the same exploitative feudal
class was returned to power. Khan has not fared too well, but at
least he has planted the seeds of inclusive participation. Whether
he can sustain it, however, remains to be seen.
International Politics of the Persian Gulf
Authors: Kayaoglu Turan 
Published: October 2020

The Persian Gulf region is home to the six members of the Gulf Cooperation
Council (viz., Oman, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia),
Iran, and Iraq. Holding over 60 percent of the world’s oil and over 40 percent
of its natural gas reserves, the Persian Gulf is central to the global economy.
Yet a dominant regional power is lacking; beginning with the British in the
late nineteenth century, foreign powers have consistently been meddling in
the region. Significant economic, social, cultural, and political changes have
transformed the region’s international relations since Britain’s withdrawal in
the 1960s. The contributors to this volume, which provides a rich account of
this transformation, focus on natural resources, the Iranian-Saudi competition,
the interest of major external actors, and political reform.
The volume’s main thrust is the centrality of both state and regime security
in order to understand the region. The volume’s editor, Mehran Kamrava,
notes that the international politics there is essentially that of security
politics. He offers four reasons for this: (1) its central role in oil and natural
gas production and, increasingly, global finance, (2) the competition between
Iran and Saudi Arabia over regional leadership, (3) the long-standing
American-Iranian conflict, and (4) the instability brought about by intermixing
politics and religion.
He identifies three poles of power that shape the region’s security dynamics:
the American pole; the GCC pole, which is centered on Saudi military
and Qatari-UAE financial power; and the Iranian pole, which relies both on
military might and soft power. Since the Iranian revolution, the American and
the GCC poles have built a resilient alliance that has been driven by both the
United States’ growing direct involvement and the GCC’s failure to provide
security to its members.
The chapters, written by leading regional specialists, further elaborate on
the region’s security dynamics. In Chapter 2, J. E. Petersen offers a useful typology
of boundary formation. He discusses how the state-building process,
historical claims, colonial imposition, and resource competition have shaped
state boundaries. As these boundaries remain contested, Petersen details various
ongoing problems. In Chapter 3, Fred H. Lawson refines the concepts “security
dilemma” and “alliances dilemma” and uses them to explain the arms race in
the Gulf since the first Gulf War. Middle East specialists and international relations
scholars will find these chapters useful in conceptual refinement ...
The 2011 Egyptian Revolution and Islamists in Egypt and Malaysia
Authors: Pasuni Afif 
Published: October 2020

The opposition Islamist PAS (Parti Islam Se-Malaysia, or Pan
Malaysian Islamic Party) is one of the oldest political parties in
Malaysia. Inspired by Egypt’s Ikhwan al-Muslimin (Muslim
Brotherhood [MB]), PAS is also influenced by occurrences in the
Middle East; following the 1979 Iranian Revolution, its leaders
revamped their organizational structure to entrust key decisions
to religious scholars. The ramifications of the 2011 Egyptian revolution,
arguably one of the most significant Middle Eastern political
events in recent times, thus deserves a closer look.
This short article attempts to look at this revolution’s possible impact
on Islamists in Malaysia. I argue that Malaysia had already
undergone its own version of a revolution in the 1998 reformasi
(reformation) due to the shared characteristics between the two
events: both (1) shared the same premise of alleged political injustice;
(2) provided opportunities for Islamists to influence the
political discourse, with the difference that in Egypt there was a
political vacuum; and (3) utilized the Internet heavily to rally the
masses. However, due to Malaysia’s freer democratic and electoral
processes, political changes there will not be as abrupt as in
Egypt. Furthermore, both Egypt’s revolution and Malaysia’s reformasi
have hardly ended; the former is a tumultuous ongoing
process of battling for the legitimacy of rule by appealing to the
masses, while the latter is an ongoing process of appealing to voters
in order to come to rule.