Page 252 - Contemporary Political Sociology Globalization Politics and Power

238 Glossary

2 “ A particular way of life, whether of a people, a period or a group ”
as used by anthropologists to describe different cultures.

3 “ The works and practices of intellectual and especially artistic activ-

ity ” such as music, literature, painting, and sculpture, sometimes
including works of popular culture, too.

4 “ The signifying order through which necessarily … a social order is

communicated, reproduced, experienced and explored, ” as in the
post - structuralist understanding of culture as material practices in
which identities, objects, and social rules are constituted (quoted in
Jordan and Weedon, 1995 : 6 – 8).

essentialism: Diana Fuss (1989) gives a very subtle analysis of essentialism
in contemporary debates in Essentially Speaking . Following Locke, she
distinguishes between:

1 “ Real essences: ” “ the Aristotelian understanding of essence as that

which is most irreducible and unchanging about a thing. ” It is discov-
ered in nature by close observation.
2 “ Nominal essence: ” “ merely a linguistic convenience, a classifi catory

fiction we need to categorize and label. ” It is assigned or produced in
language through the arbitrary naming of objects.
To use an example Fuss gives to sum up the difference between them: for
a real essentialist, a rose by any other name would still be a rose; for a
nominal essentialist, it would be something quite different (Fuss, 1989 :
4 – 5). Challenges to essentialism have been particularly important in femi-
nist and queer theory, and also in debates on racism and cultural differ-
ences. “ Essentialism ” is invariably used as a pejorative term in such
debates.

governance: the effective regulation of social activity without the formal

authority of government

Inter - Governmental Organization (IGO): an organization made up of
official representatives of states and/or other IGOs

international: referring to the relations between nation - states. See also
transnational .

International Non - Governmental Organization (INGO): legally consti-
tuted organization that is independent of governments and oriented