scholarly journals Beyond Compassionate Aid: Precarious Bureaucrats and Dutiful Asylum Seekers in Italy

2021 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniela Giudici
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
The Other ◽  
Moral Imperative ◽  
Labor Conditions ◽  
State Restructuring ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
The One ◽  
Ethnographic Analysis ◽  
Alternative Discourses

In this article, I track shifting paradigms of refugee management in Italy in times of austerity and welfare state restructuring. Drawing on an ethnographic analysis of asylum-related bureaucratic work in Bologna, the essay explores paradoxical and violent effects of welfare decline both on reception workers’ labor conditions and on the dynamic of aid that they end up providing to asylum seekers. On the one hand, recent developments in asylum management in Italy suggest a transition to post-compassionate forms of aid, hinged more on the making of dutiful subjects ready to repay the “hospitality” offered by the state than on the moral imperative to rescue suffering bodies and lives. On the other hand, reception workers’ precarious positioning and unrest hold the potential for exposing the inherent contradictions of state-based narratives, thereby shaping alternative discourses on the causes and responsibilities of both refugee and economic “crises.” Abstract Questo articolo ricostruisce l’emergere di nuovi paradigmi di gestione dei rifugiati in Italia, in tempi di austerità e ristrutturazione dei sistemi di welfare. Prendendo spunto dall’analisi etnografica di un ufficio di supporto per l’asilo a Bologna, l’articolo esplora effetti violenti e paradossali dello smantellamento del welfare pubblico, sia sulle condizioni di lavoro degli operatori dell’accoglienza, che sulle dinamiche di aiuto a richiedenti asilo che essi finiscono col contribuire a produrre. Le recenti trasformazioni nella gestione dell’asilo in Italia suggeriscono uno slittamento verso forme di aiuto post-compassionevoli, incentrate più sulla costruzione di soggetti attivamente impegnati nel ricompensare “l’ospitalità” offerta dallo stato, che sull’imperativo morale di salvare corpi e vite sofferenti. Al tempo stesso, la precarietà e il dissenso dei lavoratori dell’accoglienza sono potenzialmente in grado di illuminare alcune delle contraddizioni intrinseche alle narrazioni statali, elaborando così discorsi alternativi sulle cause e responsabilità della “crisi”, sia migratoria che economica.

scholarly journals Theology at Thresholds: Learning from a Practice ‘In Transition’

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel Muers ◽  
Rhiannon Grant
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
The Other ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Theological Ethics ◽  
Reciprocal Influence ◽  
Core Practices ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Collective Process ◽  
The One ◽  
Over Time

Recent developments in contemporary theology and theological ethics have directed academic attention to the interrelationships of theological claims, on the one hand, and core community-forming practices, on the other. This article considers the value for theology of attending to practice at the boundaries, the margins, or, as we prefer to express it, the threshold of a community’s institutional or liturgical life. We argue that marginal or threshold practices can offer insights into processes of theological change – and into the mediation between, and reciprocal influence of, ‘church’ and ‘world’. Our discussion focuses on an example from contemporary British Quakerism. ‘Threshing meetings’ are occasions at which an issue can be ‘threshed out’ as part of a collective process of decision-making. Drawing on a 2015 small-scale study (using a survey and focus group) of British Quaker attitudes to and experiences of threshing meetings, set in the wider context of Quaker tradition, we interpret these meetings as a space for working through – in context and over time – tensions within Quaker theology, practice and self-understandings, particularly those that emerge within, and in relation to, core practices of Quaker decision-making.

Solidarität Erwägungen zu ihrer gegenwärtigen Problematik

1998 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-28
Author(s):  
Christian Walther
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
The Other ◽  
Individual Needs ◽  
The One ◽  
Close Interrelationship

Abstract Starting from the fundamental role which is assigned to solidarity in politics and society, the essay tries to answer the question of whether or not solidarity still functions accordingly. Observations showing that there are deficits in the actual ways expression is given to solidarity cause the search for the reasons. In this context attention is drawn to a close interrelationship between a highly developed welfare - state and its administering corporate solidarity on the one band and an almost hypertrophied individualism which feels itself widely released from acting in solidarity on the other band. Both has led to lessen sensitivity for the need of cultivating a personal sense of solidarity. To meet individual needs as weil as social requirements, it seems necessary to find an new balance

Entreprenøren som figur under neoliberalismen - Kapitalisme, individ og velfærdsorganisering

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luise Li Langergaard
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Social Welfare ◽  
Social Entrepreneurship ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Other ◽  
State And Society ◽  
Economic Innovation ◽  
The One ◽  
The Welfare State

The article explores the central role of the entrepreneur in neoliberalism. It demonstrates how a displacement and a broadening of the concept of the entrepreneur occur in the neoliberal interpretation of the entrepreneur compared to Schumpeter’s economic innovation theory. From being a specific economic figure with a particular delimited function the entrepreneur is reinterpreted as, on the one hand, a particular type of subject, the entrepreneur of the self, and on the other, an ism, entrepreneurialism, which permeates individuals, society, and institutions. Entrepreneurialism is discussed as a movement of the economic into previously non-economic domains, such as the welfare state and society. Social entrepreneurship is an example of this in relation to solutions to social welfare problems. This can, on the one hand, be understood as an extension of the neoliberal understanding of the entrepreneur, but it also, in certain interpretations, resists the neoliberal understanding of economy and society.

The Political Construction of a Coordinated Political Economy

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Philip Manow
Keyword(s):  
Economic Policy ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Economic Performance ◽  
Research Question ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Political ◽  
Central Research ◽  
Economic Policies ◽  
The One

The first chapter motivates the book’s central research question: how did the German variant of capitalism emerge, and what today is its central functioning logic? The chapter argues that past and recent accounts of Germany’s economic performance and economic policy have failed to fully explain how long-term stable economic coordination could have evolved in as large a country as Germany, and that this has also translated into an often biased view of Germany’s current economic policies. The chapter sketches the basic argument of the book—namely that the German welfare state was the prime means of economic coordination for unions and employers, labor and capital—and situates it in two relevant literatures: the Varieties of Capitalism literature on the one hand and the Comparative Welfare State literature on the other. The chapter also presents an overview of the book.

scholarly journals Recent Developments in the Design of Non-Biofouling Coatings for Nanoparticles and Surfaces

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 1007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos Sanchez-Cano ◽  
Mónica Carril
Keyword(s):  
Gold Standard ◽  
Protein Corona ◽  
The Other ◽  
Engineered Surfaces ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Protein Adhesion ◽  
And Performance ◽  
The One ◽  
Biological Context

Biofouling is a major issue in the field of nanomedicine and consists of the spontaneous and unwanted adsorption of biomolecules on engineered surfaces. In a biological context and referring to nanoparticles (NPs) acting as nanomedicines, the adsorption of biomolecules found in blood (mostly proteins) is known as protein corona. On the one hand, the protein corona, as it covers the NPs’ surface, can be considered the biological identity of engineered NPs, because the corona is what cells will “see” instead of the underlying NPs. As such, the protein corona will influence the fate, integrity, and performance of NPs in vivo. On the other hand, the physicochemical properties of the engineered NPs, such as their size, shape, charge, or hydrophobicity, will influence the identity of the proteins attracted to their surface. In this context, the design of coatings for NPs and surfaces that avoid biofouling is an active field of research. The gold standard in the field is the use of polyethylene glycol (PEG) molecules, although zwitterions have also proved to be efficient in preventing protein adhesion and fluorinated molecules are emerging as coatings with interesting properties. Hence, in this review, we will focus on recent examples of anti-biofouling coatings in three main areas, that is, PEGylated, zwitterionic, and fluorinated coatings.

Alternative paths to refugee and asylum seeker protection in Malaysia and Indonesia

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 132-154 ◽  
Author(s):  
Atin Prabandari ◽  
Yunizar Adiputera
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
International Law ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Asylum Seeker ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
The Other ◽  
Refugee Convention ◽  
Refugee Law ◽  
International Refugee Law ◽  
The One

This article explores how refugees in non-signatory countries in Southeast Asia, particularly Indonesia and Malaysia, have some protection through alternative paths under international refugee law. These two countries provide forms of protection even if they are not States Parties to the Refugee Convention. These two case studies show that the governance of protection for refugee and asylum seekers is provided through alternative paths, even in the absence of international law and statist processes. These alternative paths offer a degree of meaningful protection, even if this is not tantamount to resettlement. Alternative paths of protection are initiated mainly by non-state actors. The states try to manage alternative protective governance to secure their interests by maintaining their sovereignty, on the one hand, and performing humanitarian duties on the other. In this regard, Indonesia and Malaysia have resorted to meta-governance to balance these two concerns.

Social Quality in a Transitive Society

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valeriy Heyets
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Central And Eastern Europe ◽  
The Other ◽  
Social Quality ◽  
The Social ◽  
The One ◽  
Quality Approach ◽  
The Welfare State

Nearly 30 years of transformation of the sociopolitical and legal, socioeconomical and financial, sociocultural and welfare, and socioenvironmental dimensions in both Central and Eastern Europe, including Ukraine, has led to a change of the social quality of daily circumstances. On the one hand, the interconnection and reciprocity of these four relevant dimensions of societal life is the underlying cause of such changes, and on the other, the state as main actor of the sociopolitical and legal dimension is the initiator of those changes. Applying the social quality approach, I will reflect in this article on the consequences of these changes, especially in Ukraine. In comparison, the dominant Western interpretation of the “welfare state” will also be discussed.

Biography and (Global) Microhistory

2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Gamsa
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Northeast China ◽  
The Other ◽  
Historical Writing ◽  
Forthcoming Book ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
History Of ◽  
German Origin ◽  
The One ◽  
The City

AbstractThis article has two goals. It reflects on the recent developments and agenda of an approach to historical writing that is now becoming known by the name global microhistory, and it analyses the attention which this approach pays to individual lives. It also explores some of the challenges in writing the biography of a city alongside the life history of a person. The city is Harbin, a former Russian-managed railway hub in Manchuria, today a province capital in Northeast China. The person is Baron Roger Budberg (1867–1926), a physician of Baltic German origin who arrived in Harbin during the Russo-Japanese war and remained there until his death, leaving published works and unpublished correspondence in German and Russian. My forthcoming book about Budberg and Harbin challenges the distinction between writing “biography”, on the one hand, and “history”, on the other, while navigating between the “micro” and “macro” layers of historical enquiry.

QUANTUM COSMOLOGY: SUSY'S STAGE

2013 ◽  
Vol 22 (04) ◽  
pp. 1330006 ◽  
Author(s):  
PAULO VARGAS MONIZ
Keyword(s):  
Early Universe ◽  
Quantum Cosmology ◽  
Quantum Effects ◽  
The Other ◽  
Parallel Session ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
The One

This report comprises two parts. On the one hand, I will, based on the talks at the CM4 parallel session "Quantum Cosmology and Quantum Effects in the Early Universe" which I chaired, point to interesting recent developments in quantum cosmology. On the other hand, some of the basics of supersymmetric quantum cosmology are briefly reviewed, pointing to promising lines of research to explore. I will start with the latter, finishing the report with the former.

The Theoretical Potential of the Within-Nation Comparison: How Sub-National Analyses Can Enrich Our Understandings of the National Welfare State

2017 ◽  
Vol 61 (8) ◽  
pp. 861-886 ◽  
Author(s):  
Prerna Singh
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Social Welfare ◽  
Comparative Politics ◽  
National Level ◽  
The Other ◽  
Theory Building ◽  
National Welfare ◽  
Theory Generation ◽  
Cross Country ◽  
The One

This article seeks to showcase the previously underexplored theoretical potential of the recent “sub-national turn” in comparative politics. Specifically, I hope to delineate how theories derived to explain variation in an outcome across sub-national units can enrich our repertoire of theories to explain variation in the same and/or related outcomes across national units. I show the potential of this method of theory generation through an analysis of social welfare, a specially apposite outcome for this purpose because it has been studied rigorously at the both the national and sub-national levels of analyses. I argue that sub-national analyses can, on the one hand, help us refine and rethink national-level theories for the same outcomes. They can push us to nuance and extend established national theories and show us how the same variables and mechanisms that have been hypothesized to explain cross-country variations might work differently, even in opposite directions, within countries. On the other hand, sub-national analyses can push us past the established repertoire of national-level explanations to bring to light new (or forgotten) theories. In this way, this article seeks to challenge cross-country analyses as the exclusive domain of theory building in comparative politics.

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