How to theorize the nation's Janus-like form, its simultaneous modernity and antiquity? This paper provides an original answer to this longstanding question. It argues that nations arise from the interaction of 'societal multiplicity' and the expansionist tendency of historical capitalism. The emergence of capitalism super-adds a modern inflection to the inherently relational process of collective identity formation by generating modern sovereignty as an abstract form of rule. Crucially however, just like its emergence, capitalism's expansion also refracts through societal multiplicity. Non-capitalist societies are therefore pressured into 'nationalist' projects of emulative self-preservation in which the nation's political form (i.e. the sovereign state) is forged before its sociological content (i.e. primitive accumulation). Thus, the original site of this process, France, produced the modular nation-form that unlike Britain's imperial nationhood could be globalised. The paper therefore shows that IR's premise of multiplicity may be the key to one of social sciences' most enduring puzzles.
Received 26.01.2021. The article investigates the role of new digital technologies during a crisis period on the example of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Considering the methods used by different states to prevent the spread of the virus and its consequences, the author analyzes the advantages of the impelled rapid digitalization, scrutinizes its negative aspects, and discusses perspectives. Although the digital transformation had already been taking place before the pandemic actually started (2019), the current crisis facilitates the unprecedented digitalization breakthrough in all life spheres, which will have delayed consequences. The short-run effects are already obvious: deepening of virtual communication; advancement of electronic document flow systems and online-services (including E-Government, public health service, etc.); virtualization of education, culture, sports, leisure activities; transformation of labour market towards distance employment, an outburst of electronic commerce and services, robot automation in economy; virtualization of political life (online-meetings, online-debates, online-summits, etc.), and, moreover, a transfer of power struggle and geopolitical struggle itself to digital platforms. Greater convenience and effectiveness are the most vivid advantages of digital technologies development, which plays the key role in crisis periods. Better access of disabled persons and people living in geographically remote places to medical aid, education, cultural objects, etc. also belongs to important achievements of the rapid digitalization. At the same time, there are significant negative aspects of this process, both general and specific. The violation of democratic rights and freedoms (primarily, of personal data security and individual privacy) is unavoidable in the light of the necessary "digital control" from the state to contain the spread of infection. Private IT companies participating in the process of the virus spread control due to their products (mobile applications, Internet platforms, etc.) also benefit from access to personal data. Whereas this issue is not central in authoritarian regimes like China, it becomes very challenging for democratic societies of the West. The digitalization of services gives wide room for irregularities and fraud in general. A growing "digital exclusion" is another concern: the greater dependency on technical means excludes certain parts of the population unable to use them for different reasons. An increasing individualization and solitude amid the lacking real-life communication gives rise to complicated psychological issues and mental disorders. Among specific negative side-effects of digitalization there are obstacles in personal electronic verification, worsening in the quality of remote medical assistance and online-education, unemployment growth and smashup of offline-businesses in economy, and some other. The most complicated question of the current crisis and the next "post-COVID" period is how serious the above-mentioned negative consequences of the rapid digitalization will be, to what extent they may devaluate its advantages, what sacrifice will be made by humanity to pay for comfort and effectiveness. Acknowledgements. The article was prepared within the project "Post-Crisis World Order: Challenges and Technologies, Competition and Cooperation" supported by the grant from Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation program for research projects in priority areas of scientific and technological development (Agreement № 075-15-2020-783).
Intro -- Preface -- Acknowledgements -- Contents -- Part I: State, Citizen and Dissent -- Chapter 1: Conscience and Conscientiousness: Principles, Concepts, and Parameters -- 1.1 Introduction -- 1.2 Principles and Definitions -- 1.2.1 Religion, Belief and Matters of Conscience -- 1.2.1.1 Traditional Religions -- Christianity -- Islam -- Judaism -- 1.2.1.2 Contemporary Belief Systems -- Legitimacy and Cogency -- 1.2.1.3 Matters of Conscience -- Ethics -- 1.2.1.4 Public and Private -- 1.2.1.5 The Public Interest -- 1.2.2 State Neutrality Towards Religion and Belief -- 1.2.2.1 The Secular and the Sacred -- Secularism -- State Preferencing of Religion -- State Defence of Cultural Heritage -- 1.3 Conscientious Objection: Concept, Interpretation and the Law -- 1.3.1 Objections: Conscientious and Otherwise -- 1.3.1.1 The Conscientious Objector -- Singular or Also Collective -- Conscientiousness -- 1.3.1.2 The Means or Method of Objecting -- Whistleblowers -- Victim of Religious/Belief Discrimination -- Conscientious Objection and/or Discrimination -- Social Activists -- 1.3.1.3 The Subject -- A Principled Rejection of the Status Quo -- 1.3.1.4 Selectivity and Scale -- 1.3.2 Objections: Conscientiousness and the Law -- 1.3.2.1 Authority -- Government and Legislature in Democratic Societies -- 1.3.2.2 Objecting Conscientiously and the Law -- A Specific Legal Duty -- 1.4 Parameters -- 1.4.1 Origins: Exemption on Grounds of Religious Belief -- 1.4.1.1 Exemption from Military Service -- 1.4.1.2 Exemption from Oaths -- 1.4.1.3 Exemption from Vaccinations -- 1.4.2 Broadening the Parameters: The De-Criminalisation of Abortion, Homosexuality and Prostitution -- 1.4.2.1 Reproductive Rights -- Decriminalisation -- Assisted Reproduction Technology -- 1.4.3 Extending the Parameters by Analogy: Same Sex Issues Etc.
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"This handbook intends to offer a comprehensive and authoritative overview of the human rights implications of emerging technologies in the fields of life sciences and information and communication technologies (ICT). To this end, the volume brings together leading experts whose expertise encompasses several disciplinary domains (law, ethics, technology, basic science, medicine, business, etc.) with purposes of gathering extensive multidisciplinary knowledge about the evolutive transformation of the human rights framework in response to technological innovation. In particular, the aim of this volume is threefold. First, it aims to provide a comprehensive state-of-the-art report on emerging technologies that are likely to transform the human rights framework in the upcoming decades. Second, this collection of essays aims to raise awareness of the ethically and legally appropriate implementation of these technologies and to identify possible critical issues that arise or might arise in the context of their application. Third, and ultimately, the volume intends to contribute to the development of a robust, inclusive, and anticipatory human rights framework that can guide global societies across the ongoing digital transformation. In doing so, special attention is devoted to promoting policies and regulatory frameworks that foster the inalienable rights of individuals and the prevention of potential inappropriate uses or abuses of emerging technologies"--
"As societies, governments, corporations and individuals become more dependent on the digital environment so they also become increasingly vulnerable to misuse of that environment. A considerable industry has developed to provide the means with which to make cyber space more secure, stable and predictable. Cyber security is concerned with the identification, avoidance, management and mitigation of risk in, or from, cyber space - the risk of harm and damage that might occur as the result of everything from individual carelessness, to organised criminality, to industrial and national security espionage and, at the extreme end of the scale, to disabling attacks against a country's critical national infrastructure. But this represents a rather narrow understanding of security and there is much more to cyber space than vulnerability, risk and threat. As well as security from financial loss, physical damage etc., cyber security must also be for the maximisation of benefit. The Oxford Handbook of Cyber Security takes a comprehensive and rounded approach to the still evolving topic of cyber security: the security of cyber space is as much technological as it is commercial and strategic; as much international as regional, national and personal; and as much a matter of hazard and vulnerability as an opportunity for social, economic and cultural growth"--
Cover -- Front Matter -- Title Page -- Contents -- Preface A Year to Remember -- Abbreviations -- Glossary -- Essays -- Come With Me: The Installation Address of Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis -- Jewish Law on Child Abuse -- Women in the Community -- The 2011 Census: A Remarkable Resource Revealing a Decade of Jewish Population Change -- British Jewry in the Great War -- Cometh the Hour, Cometh the Man. Chief Rabbis Face Different Problems -- The Glasgow Jewish Representative Council -- Anglo-Jewish Institutions -- Jewish Representative Councils -- Communal Organisations -- Interfaith Representative Bodies -- Jewish Press, Radio and Information Services -- Religious Organisations -- Welfare Organisations -- Refugee Organisations -- Organisations Concerned with the Jews of Eastern Europe -- Zionist Organisations -- Other Organisations Concerned with Israel and Israeli Organnisations -- Educational and Cultural Organisations -- University Centres and Organisations -- Organisations Concerned with Jewish Youth -- Organisations Concerned with Jewish Students -- Libraries, Museums and Exhibitions -- Professional Organisations -- Miscellaneous Organisations -- International Organisations -- London and the Home Counties -- Synagogues -- Religious Organisations -- Ritual Baths -- Cemeteries -- Memorials -- Educational Organisations -- Schools -- Welfare Organisations -- Clubs and Cultural Societies -- Miscellaneous Organisations -- The Regions -- Wales -- Scotland -- Northern Ireland -- Isle of Man -- Channel Islands -- Other Countries -- Israel -- Jewish Statistics -- Historical Note on British Jewry -- United Kingdom Legislation Concerning Jews -- Marriage Regulations -- Listed Synagogues, Former Synagogues and Other Jewish SItes in the UK -- Honours List 2013 -- Privy Counsellors, Peers, MPs, etc -- Who's Who -- Obituaries -- Events in 2015.
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The predominance and global expansion of homogenizing modes of production, consumption and information risks alienating non-Western and Western people alike from the intellectual and moral resources embedded in their own distinctive cultural traditions. In reaction to the erosion of traditional cultures and civilizations, we seem to be witnessing the re-emergence of a tendency to "re-ethnicize the mind" through renewed and more or less systematic cultural revivals worldwide (e.g., "hinduization," "ivoirization," "sinofication," "islamicization," "indigenization," etc.). How do and should philosophers understand and assess the significance and impact of this phenomenon? Authors acquainted with the contemporary situation in Africa, Asia, the Middle-East, South-America, and Europe try to answer this question. In the final analysis, the authors of this original and groundbreaking collection of essays plead for a full critical engagement with one's own particularity while at the same time rejecting any form of cultural, national or regional chauvinism. They consider various ways in which local and global conceptions as well as practices can and already do judiciously inform and positively fertilize each other. At this juncture of history, they argue, societies and peoples must articulate their self-identity by looking critically at their respective cultural resources, and beyond them at the same time
The degradation of renewables - land and freshwater - worldwide leads to conflict over access and/or distribution of these resources. However, not all conflicts become violent. Environmentally-caused violence is hardly found in relations between states. Today, mainly in developing countries, there is a correlation between environmental degradation and violent conflicts. As this synthesis of 40 case studies indicates, there are different causal pathways of current violent conflicts and wars that can be traced to the environmental roots of the conflict. Rwanda is a good example to demonstrate the interaction of ethnic, social, political and ecological factors. Whereas most studies in this field focus on classical security issues, the author here puts an emphasis on growing structural heterogeneity in agricultural societies which tend to discriminate chiefly against those rural producers who are the victims of bad resource allocations, unequal resource distribution, high dependence on natural capital, and bad state performance. One major conclusion to be discussed among scholars, teachers, and advanced students and to be taken seriously by professionals in international organizations is the following: competing land tenure systems, unclear property rights, large-scale farming, and nationalizing land by discriminating against small-holders, pastoralists, the landless, etc. provide a considerable potential for conflict and, thus, contribute to unsustainable resource use, social unrest, and political instability
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The outburst of the coronavirus pandemic in Poland has led to specific measures related to covid, which affected unequally different age groups. Children were presented as "spreaders" of the disease, and a threat to the societies' safety. Such fears led to new disciplining practices, such as prohibiting children from leaving the house without adult's supervision during the first wave of pandemic in Poland. In the consequence of those special measures, the pandemic crisis challenged and blurred some previously existing boundaries, such as those between home and school, private and public, health and illness, online and offline, etc. In this paper, we examine how Polish children experienced their childhood through playful activities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using data from three different research projects conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic in Poland, we reflect on the children's understandings of what is safe. Our focus is on various spaces which either enabled or restrained such activities, and on active work of children in finding and creating a safe space. We argue that, in the circumstances in which known-to-date divisions blurred, children's seeking of safe spaces, in literal and metaphoric sense, were the means to deal with the new realities. These were primarily negotiable spaces, created through various social practices such as play.
With the advent of COVID-19, people spent more time at home. Countries, societies, companies and individuals suddenly became dependent on cyberspace overnight. Work, shopping and leisure meant we became more than ever weak to the risks of cyberspace. The human factor makes people the "key" to otherwise technically hardly penetrable systems – criminals play on people's greed, emotions, happiness, etc.
It is no surprise that Estonians are more active daily internet users compared to the rest of the Europeans. But what is being done in Estonia at the national level, as well as in cyber protection organisational level, to raise the awareness of residents about cyber security? What else should be done to reduce victims among ordinary citizens and how to protect various important public and private organisations from the consequences of the cyber-risky behaviour of their employees? What is the role of libraries in promoting cyber security awareness? A human error is a central target of cyber attacks, phishing scams, and data breaches. Cyber criminals are becoming more and more inventive. It is important to understand that cyber security risks can be managed and mitigated, but not completely eliminated. Increasing security awareness is the only factor that can help limit breaches caused by human frailty.
This article is devoted to the presentation of the manuscript stored in the State Archive of the Kostroma Region. The topicality of this work is explained, firstly, by the importance of introducing unpublished archival materials into scientific circulation and their critical analysis; secondly, by the need to assess the painstaking work of collectors of folklore and ethnographic materials in the XIX – beg. XX century – folklorists, ethnographers, correspondents of regional scientific societies, representatives of rural intelligentsia (teachers, priests), etc. The author's focus is the manuscript "Wedding in Songs and Rites (in Kostroma County)" compiled from materials of the Kostroma Scientific Society for the Study of the Local Territory and the Kostroma Scientific Archival Commission; physical, graphic, and meaningful features of the manuscript are analyzed. Folklore material mainly a spoken repertoire – speeches and rhymes of wedding ranks and participants of the ritual (groomsman, brother of the bride, girls – friends of the bride, natives) is characterized, the proportion of which exceeds the number of texts of other genres (lamentations and songs). The latter circumstance distinguishes the manuscript from a large number of handwritten materials stored in different archives of Russia. The stylistic features of folklore texts are analyzed, some of these texts are rare and have no analogues in published collections and archival materials.
The growth of peasant ownership in peasant societies is usually associated with a reduction in social hierarchies due to the improvement of social-economic conditions, decline of large-scale land ownership and development of small-scale agriculture. When qualifying such assertions, scholars have proved that the peasant ownership's impact on the evolution of agriculture and social differentiation are highly variable depending on the social-historical contexts. The article aims at contributing to this debate by showing how the rise of peasant ownership may lead to contradictory dynamics in terms of social-spatial differentiation due to the so-called differentiated 'relationship with land and kinship' or 'reproduction patterns' of peasant families. To test this hypothesis, the paper examines two European rural areas located in Northern France and Veneto, focusing on the evolution of land ownership, tenancy, kinship and social-professional features in a sample of municipalities in these two areas from the mid-19th century to the end of the 20th century. In addition to the analysis of aggregated data at the municipal level, the author also considers the evolution of smaller areas in each municipality under study with the qualitative approach based on the 'biography' of some properties and holdings, individuals and families. The research relies on both public sources (population census, property cadasters, agrarian surveys, etc.) and private archives.
This article presents and critically assesses the latest anthropological and archaeological research on the chronology, lethality, and frequency of violence and war in human history. Stepping back from the rhetorically polarized dispute between 'Hobbesians' and 'Rousseauans', the article examines the methods and findings of the latest research in a conceptually novel way, i.e. by dropping the existing and widely used polarized terms that have inevitably framed the literature so far. The article demonstrates that multiple sources of evidence point more in the direction of the modal human prehistoric social organization, i.e. nomadic hunter-gatherers, likely having warfare only in a minority of cases, or war even being virtually non-existent (with interpersonal violence being more common). The dispute over this claim so far is found to stem, at least in part, from the varying definitions of war and the grouping together of nomadic with complex foragers. More significantly, the disagreement is due to different sampling and sourcing techniques of different researchers, the biggest divide being between self-selection/systematic sampling and first-best/second-best sources. Important potential warlike exceptions are also noted and discussed in the article from multiple angles (Jebel Sahaba, Nataruk, Aboriginal Australia, etc.), as are the discovered precursors and enabling conditions of war, such as the complexification of (nomadic) hunter-gatherer societies with the transition to settled life.
There are numerous complex scenes, including images of people and deer, among the rock paintings of Northern Europe and Siberia. Some of them can be interpreted as rituals (Alta, Glosa, Surukhtakh-Kaya, etc.). We consider them in the context of the deer cult, which developed in deer hunter societies and survived at a later time. Totemic and cosmological myths were the essence of this cult, they were inextricably linked with rituals — calendrical, which correlated with natural and economic cycles, and liminal, conditioned by the life cycle of people. Archaeological materials and rock paintings of the Mesolithic-Neolithic of Northern Europe and Northern Asia indicate that the cult of the deer played a leading role in the myths and ritual complex. We used the method of ethno-archaeological reconstruction for the interpretations of the compositions. We compared some narratives of rock carvings in Northern Europe and Siberia with totemic rites of the indigenous peoples of the subarctic zone. These ceremonies were supposed to guarantee success in hunting and, at the same time, the reproduction of deer. Imitating deer, creation of models of deer, killing of a sacrificial deer, dismemberment, joint eating and preservation of the remains for further restoration – those were the main elements of the rituals. These ritual actions are reflected in the rock art of Northern Eurasia.
The revolution towards the port of the future is going to change the long-term Port Business Ecosystem (PBE). The objective of this paper is to analyse how current trends might have implications for the future PBE. For this purpose, the research uses the Business Canvas Model (BCM) as a framework tool. The BCM models are based on data from a literature review of trends, interviews and workshops with relevant port stakeholders that validate the results. A specific case study is done for the Port of Barcelona. Some of the conclusions are suggested to be extended to other EU Ports. The results of this research are conceptual actions to be considered and introduced in port planning to ensure its sustainable growth in harmony with its nearby societies. Results suggest three main policy recommendations to foster new future business models for ports: 1) develop sustainable green energy hub models (energy communities, hydrogen strategies, etc.), 2) develop intermodal logistic hubs not only oriented to the maritime sector and 3) promotion of emerging industries to become a customization hub adding logistic value to the cargo transiting the port. All these recommendations are highlighted in order to define key drivers of a generic European port strategy masterplan. ; Peer Reviewed ; Postprint (published version)
