Perspectives

About Perspectives

Let’s be honest here. On a map of the world, we can easily draw two main teams: the first one, made of the United States, the European Union, minority groups, democracies, developed nations and liberal economies. That’s team A, or as they usually call it, the “good guys”. The second one is composed of China, Russia, Brazil, Iran, authoritarian regimes, developing nations and illiberal economies. That’s team B, or usually known as the “bad guys”. Team A protects the world from the horrible crimes led by team B. Let’s stop here. Is the international chessboard really that black and white? Perspectives aims at showing that grey will always be the leading colour. Our cultural biases lock us into a Manichean vision of the world and perpetuate conflict. This podcast will allow cultures to speak together, to put forward our prejudices regarding one another, and show that conflict is never the only choice we have. "[E]ven when the Western Academy turns its attention towards the 'outside', it is often documenting the fruits of its own (idealized) intellectual labours" (Robert Shilliam, "International Relations and Non-Western Thought: Imperialism, Colonialism and Investigations of Global Modernity", 2010, Taylor & Francis Group, p. 16)

Publisher

Perspectives Team

Category

government · news · science

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

1 Nov 2022

Latest episode

26 Feb 2023

Latest episodes

3 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   26 Feb 2023

   3. Are Human Rights Really Human?

   WWII devastated one international order to recreate another, the liberal order. This order was defined by the winners of the war, and is mainly based on a so-called universal definition of human rights, to be applied equally to all states. Yet, according to Foucault, the ability to define what is universal is held by those who possess power. Thus, the many states that have joined the liberal international order, following their decolonisation, are obliged to comply with the 1948 Universal Dec...

2. 

   23 Dec 2022

   2. Individualist Societies versus Collectivist Societies: A Clash of Civilisations?

   In the aftermath of Covid, the whole world is recovering, still vulnerable and fragile. But even though the pandemic was global, its effects hit the world very unevenly: the scar in Asian societies has closed much faster than the still open wound in Western societies. Since the end of the Cold War, individualist liberalism seemed invincible and far more popular than its collectivist counterpart, but the debate has been rekindled. This episode will examine, through the perspectives of ...

3. 

   1 Nov 2022

   1. Secularism: defending the good practice of religion or preventing it?

   De-secularisation of the Hagia Sophia Church in Turkey, forbiddance of the hijab in French public spaces… Secularism is a concept that is very often misunderstood and is the subject of many controversies between religious and atheist cultures. Presenting the perspectives of Morocco, Nigeria, France, and Turkey on the matter, this episode aims at showing how secularism and religion are actually not opposed, and in fact, may have the same function of stabilising societies. Can a...