Welcome to Indications

Created and managed by Besnik Pula, Ph.D.

I am a political economist and social theorist employed as an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at Virginia Tech, where I also direct the International Studies Program.

I post on political economy, social theory, phenomenology, and world politics, focusing particularly on Europe’s periphery.

My current explorations include the phenomenology of Alfred Schutz, critical realism, knowledge and society, and global histories of computing and technology transfer.

Indications is so named inspired by the phenomenologist Alfred Schutz and his distinction between four forms of social communication: marks, indications, signs, and symbols. Marks are traces of one’s own subjective life. Signs and symbols reference other lives and transcendent realities. Indications, by contrast, are traces of the acts of others whose meaning is only partially transparent to the observer. Indications are indeteminate, multivalent, and imply real limits to knowledge. The only meaning possible of indications is what the observer makes of them. I see my products here as mostly dealing indicatively with the world, i.e., providing partial interpretations given the indicative nature of the objects dealt with. At times, the themes dealt with in writing may be a tad more concrete (e.g., a book review).

For my research and academic publications, please visit www.besnikpula.com.

I can also be found on Bluesky.

Box icon in logo is created by Kiranshastry - Flaticon.