Alex Thomson
Biographic Data
| ID | 3614048 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Alex Thomson |
| GIVEN NAMES | Alex |
| FAMILY NAME | Thomson |
| SIGNATURE | THOMSON A |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Tasmania |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-9938-5048 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 16 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 20 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 16 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1994 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2017 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Democracy and justice
Power politics in Zimbabwe
Perceptions of value
The UK’s higher education relationship with Africa has changed in recent years. Past associations of developmental cooperation have been superseded by market-based student recruitment seeking income for UK universities. This paper is about assessing a form of recruitment that helps underpin this new relationship: the agent/commission model. It identifies the nature of this approach to recruitment, and the processes involved. The paper also asks w…
The Asymmetry of British Modernism
Devolution in the United Kingdom has begun to affect our understanding of modern literary history, if only because the tendency silently to conflate English with British has been made increasingly problematic.This is particularly marked in the case of Scotland.Critics and historians of Scottish literature have asserted the continuity of a different tradition north of the border.Scholars writing on English literature take pains not to make general…
Introduction
Homi Bhabba’s assertion from 1994 seems to have been borne out by subsequent developments within modernist studies. The spatial and chronological boundaries of those studies have been pushed to bursting point, and the two categories also intertwine in ever more complex ways. Bhabha points to the inextricable political dimension of our thinking about the relationship between space and time. Raised explicitly and repeatedly in both modernist art an…
A More Effective Constructive Engagement
As it stands, much of the historical account of US foreign policy towards South Africa ends in the mid-1980s. Little academic literature looks beyond 1986, and the imposition of US sanctions underwritten by the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act (CAAA). This article offers an analysis of US policy in the wake of the CAAA, covering the 1986–1994 period. It charts the adaption of the Reagan Administration's constructive engagement policy, and then co…
Bringing in the grassroots
Since 2008, the Government of Zimbabwe, the international community and non-governmental organisations have all advocated the need for transitional justice in Zimbabwe. Yet, few initiatives have emerged. This article suggests that local communities could be enabled to help fill this policy vacuum. The results of a pilot research project are presented, where 1,400 victims of violence were engaged. The data collected highlights a clear demand for j…
The Diplomacy of Impasse
This article seeks to explain the diplomatic impasse that developed between the United States and South Africa during later 1970s. Although the Carter Administration's foreign policy towards Pretoria was more confrontational than its predecessors, it failed to bring South Africa to account over apartheid. The critical rhetoric and diplomatic symbolism used against the Republic was intensified, yet Carter continued to reject the use of punitive ec…
Derrida’s “Indecent Objection”
Derrida’s account of forgiveness appears to oppose politics to ethics, challenging political reconciliation in the name of unconditional forgiveness. Yet at the same time Derrida seems to sacrifice ethics to politics by advancing but refusing to take the side of what he calls an “indecent objection” to reconciliation. This essay seeks to account for Derrida’s strategy and to think through some of the consequences of Derrida’s emphasis on the “imp…
The Philosopher and His Poor
Balancing interests beyond the water's edge
The United States, in formulating a foreign policy towards apartheid South Africa, attempted to balance a number of conflicting interests. These interests are divided into three categories (strategic, economic and human rights interests), and examined in turn. Initially, strategic considerations were to the fore. South Africa was judged by Washington DC to be a reliable ally on the tip of a continent vulnerable to Communist expansion. Strategic m…
"What's to Become of "Democracy to Come
What's to Become of "Democracy to Come"? Alex Thomson (bio) Abstract Does thinking a politics of the future depend on there being a future for democracy? In Voyous (2003), Derrida remarks that the enemies of democracy will often present themselves as its friends. If in the wake of Politics of Friendship (1994) and numerous other texts we are to understand the politics of deconstruction in terms of democracy-to-come, the suspicion with which we ou…
An Introduction to African Politics
Anonymized Focus Groups as a Research Tool for Health Professionals
An anonymized telephone-based focus group (AFoG) methodology was designed for studies examining family physicians' attitudes to social and sexual contact between family physicians and their patients. The method adapts the traditional focus group approach as a means of exploring a sensitive family practice topic while concealing participants' identities. Using this method, a safe environment can be created in which participants are able to freely …
Incomplete Engagement
Events in Southern Africa during the early 1990s have re-opened a debate over the effectiveness of the Reagan Administration's policy of 'Constructive Engagement'. This was a controversy that had previously been laid to rest with the US Congress passing its Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act in October 1986, since the ensuing punitive sanctions imposed by the enactment of this legislation scuttled Ronald Reagan's strategy of using friendly persuasi…
Prevention in general practice
The Philosopher and His Poor
An Introduction to African Politics
"What's to Become of "Democracy to Come
What's to Become of "Democracy to Come"? Alex Thomson (bio) Abstract Does thinking a politics of the future depend on there being a future for democracy? In Voyous (2003), Derrida remarks that the enemies of democracy will often present themselves as its friends. If in the wake of Politics of Friendship (1994) and numerous other texts we are to understand the politics of deconstruction in terms of democracy-to-come, the suspicion with which we ou…
Democracy and justice
The Asymmetry of British Modernism
Devolution in the United Kingdom has begun to affect our understanding of modern literary history, if only because the tendency silently to conflate English with British has been made increasingly problematic.This is particularly marked in the case of Scotland.Critics and historians of Scottish literature have asserted the continuity of a different tradition north of the border.Scholars writing on English literature take pains not to make general…
Introduction
Homi Bhabba’s assertion from 1994 seems to have been borne out by subsequent developments within modernist studies. The spatial and chronological boundaries of those studies have been pushed to bursting point, and the two categories also intertwine in ever more complex ways. Bhabha points to the inextricable political dimension of our thinking about the relationship between space and time. Raised explicitly and repeatedly in both modernist art an…
A More Effective Constructive Engagement
As it stands, much of the historical account of US foreign policy towards South Africa ends in the mid-1980s. Little academic literature looks beyond 1986, and the imposition of US sanctions underwritten by the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act (CAAA). This article offers an analysis of US policy in the wake of the CAAA, covering the 1986–1994 period. It charts the adaption of the Reagan Administration's constructive engagement policy, and then co…
Bringing in the grassroots
Since 2008, the Government of Zimbabwe, the international community and non-governmental organisations have all advocated the need for transitional justice in Zimbabwe. Yet, few initiatives have emerged. This article suggests that local communities could be enabled to help fill this policy vacuum. The results of a pilot research project are presented, where 1,400 victims of violence were engaged. The data collected highlights a clear demand for j…
Incomplete Engagement
Events in Southern Africa during the early 1990s have re-opened a debate over the effectiveness of the Reagan Administration's policy of 'Constructive Engagement'. This was a controversy that had previously been laid to rest with the US Congress passing its Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act in October 1986, since the ensuing punitive sanctions imposed by the enactment of this legislation scuttled Ronald Reagan's strategy of using friendly persuasi…
Prevention in general practice
Anonymized Focus Groups as a Research Tool for Health Professionals
An anonymized telephone-based focus group (AFoG) methodology was designed for studies examining family physicians' attitudes to social and sexual contact between family physicians and their patients. The method adapts the traditional focus group approach as a means of exploring a sensitive family practice topic while concealing participants' identities. Using this method, a safe environment can be created in which participants are able to freely …
Incomplete Engagement
Events in Southern Africa during the early 1990s have re-opened a debate over the effectiveness of the Reagan Administration's policy of 'Constructive Engagement'. This was a controversy that had previously been laid to rest with the US Congress passing its Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act in October 1986, since the ensuing punitive sanctions imposed by the enactment of this legislation scuttled Ronald Reagan's strategy of using friendly persuasi…
An Introduction to African Politics
Balancing interests beyond the water's edge
The United States, in formulating a foreign policy towards apartheid South Africa, attempted to balance a number of conflicting interests. These interests are divided into three categories (strategic, economic and human rights interests), and examined in turn. Initially, strategic considerations were to the fore. South Africa was judged by Washington DC to be a reliable ally on the tip of a continent vulnerable to Communist expansion. Strategic m…
"What's to Become of "Democracy to Come
What's to Become of "Democracy to Come"? Alex Thomson (bio) Abstract Does thinking a politics of the future depend on there being a future for democracy? In Voyous (2003), Derrida remarks that the enemies of democracy will often present themselves as its friends. If in the wake of Politics of Friendship (1994) and numerous other texts we are to understand the politics of deconstruction in terms of democracy-to-come, the suspicion with which we ou…
Derrida’s “Indecent Objection”
Derrida’s account of forgiveness appears to oppose politics to ethics, challenging political reconciliation in the name of unconditional forgiveness. Yet at the same time Derrida seems to sacrifice ethics to politics by advancing but refusing to take the side of what he calls an “indecent objection” to reconciliation. This essay seeks to account for Derrida’s strategy and to think through some of the consequences of Derrida’s emphasis on the “imp…
The Philosopher and His Poor
The Diplomacy of Impasse
This article seeks to explain the diplomatic impasse that developed between the United States and South Africa during later 1970s. Although the Carter Administration's foreign policy towards Pretoria was more confrontational than its predecessors, it failed to bring South Africa to account over apartheid. The critical rhetoric and diplomatic symbolism used against the Republic was intensified, yet Carter continued to reject the use of punitive ec…
A More Effective Constructive Engagement
As it stands, much of the historical account of US foreign policy towards South Africa ends in the mid-1980s. Little academic literature looks beyond 1986, and the imposition of US sanctions underwritten by the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act (CAAA). This article offers an analysis of US policy in the wake of the CAAA, covering the 1986–1994 period. It charts the adaption of the Reagan Administration's constructive engagement policy, and then co…
Bringing in the grassroots
Since 2008, the Government of Zimbabwe, the international community and non-governmental organisations have all advocated the need for transitional justice in Zimbabwe. Yet, few initiatives have emerged. This article suggests that local communities could be enabled to help fill this policy vacuum. The results of a pilot research project are presented, where 1,400 victims of violence were engaged. The data collected highlights a clear demand for j…
The Asymmetry of British Modernism
Devolution in the United Kingdom has begun to affect our understanding of modern literary history, if only because the tendency silently to conflate English with British has been made increasingly problematic.This is particularly marked in the case of Scotland.Critics and historians of Scottish literature have asserted the continuity of a different tradition north of the border.Scholars writing on English literature take pains not to make general…
Introduction
Homi Bhabba’s assertion from 1994 seems to have been borne out by subsequent developments within modernist studies. The spatial and chronological boundaries of those studies have been pushed to bursting point, and the two categories also intertwine in ever more complex ways. Bhabha points to the inextricable political dimension of our thinking about the relationship between space and time. Raised explicitly and repeatedly in both modernist art an…
Perceptions of value
The UK’s higher education relationship with Africa has changed in recent years. Past associations of developmental cooperation have been superseded by market-based student recruitment seeking income for UK universities. This paper is about assessing a form of recruitment that helps underpin this new relationship: the agent/commission model. It identifies the nature of this approach to recruitment, and the processes involved. The paper also asks w…
Democracy and justice
Power politics in Zimbabwe
Law (12 works) · Political science (12 works) · Politics (11 works) · Sociology (10 works) · Law (9 works) · Political economy (5 works) · Public Administration (5 works) · Epistemology (4 works) · Historical and Contemporary Political Dynamics (4 works) · Philosophy (4 works)