Terms like peace and democracy are contested concepts in struggles
Evidence
Labour and free speech/democratic movements are “old”: that is, they were well-established in certain forms prior to the current century. The other types of social movements are newer, in the sense that they have come to increasing prominence in relatively recent years. Their newness, however, can be exaggerated. Peace movements have as their site of struggle the arena of control of the means of violence, including both military and police power. “Peace” here has to be seen, like “democracy,” as a contested concept central to the dialogues which such movements enter into in the fields of action they share with organisations such as the military or the state. Pacifist movements of some kinds, normally influenced by religious values, date back to the early origins of industrialised war. If they have assumed a particular significance today, this is undoubtedly in large part an outcome of the growth in high-consequence risks associated with the outbreak of war, with nuclear weaponry forming the core component in contemporary times. — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 377
Categorization
- DEFINE: ‘Contested concept’ — that democracy, peace, and by extension dignity/professionalism are sites of definitional struggle rather than fixed referents. Pairs with the reader’s question of whether ‘head butler’ is a genuine expert role or a hollow institutional label.
- XREF: connects to: Human rights and democracy discourse replaced older imperial justifications for war — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 403; Socialist meaning must be won through struggle; Cities and stories both run on contested frontiers of meaning. (+8 more)
Related
Broader Connections
- Ideological signs carry opposing class accents and become sites of struggle
#corroborates(0.80) - Jihad means struggle and carries a contested internal and external history
#exemplifies(0.80) — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 285 - Ethnophilosophy debates are tied to colonial ideology and contested concepts of philosophy
#exemplifies(0.65) - Socialist meaning must be won through struggle
#exemplifies(0.60) - Culture acquires class meaning only through present political struggle
#corroborates(0.60) - Institutions once deemed inevitable became unthinkable through political struggle
#exemplifies(0.60) — Davis, Angela Y, Are Prisons Obsolete, 57 - Cities and stories both run on contested frontiers of meaning.
#exemplifies(0.55) - Human rights and democracy discourse replaced older imperial justifications for war
#expands(0.50) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 403 - Democracy is a mode of associated living, not just a form of government
#contradicts(0.45)