Re: Future of Europe (Tausch vs Derrida-Habermas)

   Derrida is a philosopher, a student of Foucault and Althusser
at the ENS, and later an important philospher in his own right.  His
best book, in my opinion, is "Specters of Marx".  Whether or not he
is a "pomo" (or whatever) has to do with how you see his attempts at "deconstructing"
the foundations of Western metaphysics, and thereby providing some of the
grounds for those who were so keen on doing away with all 'big theory'. 
But that was part of the conjuncture of the late sixties and early seventies. 
Since then some powerful critiques of the postmodern position have already
been launched (I merely repeat what you already know) by Jameson, Harvey,
Eagleton, Anderson, Callinicos, and in 1994, the publication of  The
Long Twentieth Century brought back into the debates the necessity
of a long historical perspective to make sense of a shifting present. 
Like Jameson, I am inclined to see the condition of postmodernity as indicative
of a deep crisis of representation produced by the shifting  materialities
of world accumulation and the globalized project of neoliberlism. 
The current conjuncture does raise the question of the political, of what
is entailed in imagining the political in the context of the latest rounds
of space-time compression, 'flexible accumulation', financial expansion,
growing polarization between North and South and the targeting of the South
for renewed primitive accumulation, as well as the concentration of the
weapons of mass destruction in the US. Ganesh.

n0705590 wrote:

Derrida is not a pomo.  In fact, I would challenge anyone in this forum to
come up with a coherent definition of Pomo, as a set of parameters that would
characterise at least more than  one author.

And if you ask me what Postmodernism actually means, I must reply that it
means nothing at all, that the term is so meaningless it cannot be used to
actally 'label' people

>===== Original Message From Andre Gunder Frank <franka@fiu.edu> =====
> MY PREJUDICES are pro Taush and anti- Habermas & Derrida to begin with,
>and would not ordinarily trouble even to read Habermas.  I know him
>poersonally and had only the worst experiences with him - as my boss -
>and with Tuh only the best poersonally and otherwise. And as for
>Derrida, he comes marked by PO-MO. nough said
>agfrank
>On
>Wed, 18 Jun 2003, Gernot Koehler wrote:
>
>> Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2003 14:08:42 +0200
>> From: Gernot Koehler <gktbg1@tiscali.de>
>> To: wsn@csf.colorado.edu
>> Subject: Future of Europe (Tausch vs Derrida-Habermas)
>>
>> Future of Europe (Tausch vs Derrida-Habermas)
>>
>> The views on the future of Europe expressed by Tausch, on the one hand, and
>> Derrida and Habermas, on the other, are not necessarily mutually exclusive.
>> However, the emphases are markedly different. Tausch, as an empirical
>> world-system sociologist, looks at socio-economic trends and finds that
>> Europe - rather than becoming a hegemonial leader, is stagnating and on the
>> path of becoming a banana republic (my expression). In contrast, Derrida
and
>> Habermas, as philosophers, dream  (nothing wrong with dreaming per se) of a
>> virtuous Europe and its potential good influence in the world along
>> liberal-pacifist lines. Both Tausch and Derrida-Habermas see dangers and
>> difficulties in the intra-European relationship between West (old EU) and
>> East (new members of EU), with the old West of Europe being in danger of
>> bullying and/or exploiting the East.
>>
>> HIGHLIGHTS:
>>
>> (1) Tausch writes:
>>
>> "Hypothesis 14: . . . Europe, with its huge state sector, its high tariff
>> walls against foreign competition, and its large scale penetration by
>> foreign capital, its slow process of technological innovation, is destined
>> to become the 'Argentina' of the 21st Century. Also its small future
>> population base and rigid migration regime do not qualify it for a rapid
>> 21st Century economic growth. There is a great risk that the European West
>> will treat the newly democratic East as a reservoir of surplus value and
>> exploitation."
>>
>> (2)Derrida and Habermas write [my translation]:
>>
>> (a) "There must be no separatism within the framework of the future
European
>> constitution. Leading does not mean excluding. The vanguard core Europe
must
>> not crystallize into a Small-Europe; it must be the locomotive, as many
>> times before."
>>
>> (b) "Europe must use its weight at the international level and within the
>> framework of the UN, in order to counterbalance the hegemonial
unilateralism
>> of the United States."
>>
>> (c) for "a cosmopolitan order based on international law"
>>
>> (d) "The success story of the European Union has reinforced the conviction
>> on the part of Europeans that the domestication of the exercise of state
>> power requires also the mutual limitation of sovereign spheres of action at
>> the global level."
>>
>>
>> REFERENCES
>>
>> (1) Tausch, Arno, "The European Union. Global Challenge or Global
>> Governance? 14 World Systems Hypotheses and Two Scenarios on the future of
>> the Union." In: Gernot Kohler and Emilio Jose Chaves (Editors)
>> "Globalization: Critical Perspectives" Hauppauge, New York: Nova Science
>> Publishers, 2003. Other contributions: Samir Amin, Immanuel Wallerstein,
>> Christopher K. Chase Dunn, Kimmo Kiljunen, Patrick Bond, Petros Haritatos,
>> Andre Gunder Frank, Ernesto Gantman, Robert J. S. Ross, Sadik Unay, Hardy
>> Hanappi, Edeltraud Hanappi-Egger, Emilio J. Chaves, Gernot Kohler. ISBN
>> 1-59033-346-2. See: www.amazon.com
>>
>> (2) Derrida, Jaques,  and J. Habermas, "After the war: The Rebirth of
>>  Europe" in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (Germany)_, 31may03 -
>> the url for the German text in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung is
>>
http://www.faz.net/s/Rub117C535CDF414415BB243B181B8B60AE/Doc~ECBE3F8FCE2D049
>> AE808A3C8DBD3B2763~ATpl~Ecommon~Scontent.html
>>
>> Respectfully submitted with a disclaimer
>> (this short posting cannot do justice to the complex texts
>> by the cited authors, but has the purpose of highlighting their positions)
>>
>> Gernot Köhler, Ph.D.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
>
>    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
>               ANDRE    GUNDER      FRANK
>
>Senior Fellow                                      Residence
>World History Center                    One Longfellow Place
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>Boston, MA 02115 USA                    Tel:    617-948 2315
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>Web-page:csf.colorado.edu/agfrank/     e-mail:franka@fiu.edu
>
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Damian Popolo
PhD candidate
Newcastle University
Department of Politics
Room 301