About this Event
Politics - 2024 Peace Lecture - 'Societal polarization and Academic Freedom in the Time of Symbolic Liberalism'
Sari Hanafi, professor of sociology, American University of Beirut
In his recent work, prof. Hanafi argued that the bulk of the responses of the social sciences and/or sociology to the pathologies of late modernity was defined as being classically liberal but politically illiberal – he calls this peculiar combination “Symbolic Liberalism”. Empowered by emotional and neoliberal capitalism, this kind of liberalism seeks to impose a hegemonic and deculturized conception of the good.
Corollary to Symbolic Liberalism, we witness a hierarchical polarization in various societies, manifested by the widening of the space between different elites. It is present everywhere including in university campuses and the media. This is showing itself through a high degree of intolerance in debates surrounding political, cultural and social issues, in which taking sides and positions has taken priority over making sound and explanatory arguments. Neoliberalism immerses in each sphere including academia to reinforce the polarization and cancel culture. The spread of the ‘culture of safetyism’ among administrators has resulted in their delivery of hasty decisions and disproportionate punishments against some professors, sometimes for simple quoting of the works of literature in classrooms or for not giving advance warnings to students, all in a spirit of panicked damage control. To illustrate this, he will give three examples not from the Arab world where academic freedom is catastrophic, but from two liberal democratic countries -- USA and France -- to show how such Cancel Culture, often driven by symbolic liberals, has spread widely in places that actually pride themselves on their academic freedom. Then he will have a case study related to the current War on Gaza.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Mansfield Cooper Building, Mansfield Cooper Building, Manchester, United Kingdom
GBP 0.00