Suchergebnisse

"Muslim Views of the Polity: Citizenry, Authority, Territoriality, and Sovereignty" published on by Oxford University Press.

Citizens who lack basic skills and knowledge end up with unemployment or low-paying jobs. This leads to existence in poverty and a lack of opportunity to even voice. Low literacy levels affect economic development, diminish citizen participation and contribution, and are burdensome on nations. To address the issue, many nations consider, adopt, and support adult literacy programmes (ALP). Namibia is no exception. Hence, in 2003, the Adult Literacy Programme was initiated and is still actively engaging the targeted community members for acquiring basic skills and knowledge, thereby reducing poverty. Thus, the objective of this study is to assess ALP's success in poverty reduction as a citizenry approach. Based on the transformational learning theory and the capability approach, the qualitative research method is adopted, and data collection is done with structured interviews using a purposive sampling technique. Findings reflect ALP has enhanced the lives of participants and, therefore forms part of the measures to inhibit several social-related evils that cause poverty.

Islamic teachings and beliefs present the conceptual framework for preparing responsible and concerned citizens, while the acts of worship provide the training and upbringing of individuals and society for the purpose. A Muslim cannot stand indifferent to the needs and requirements of fellow human beings as well as towards the protection and judicious utilization of the nature and natural resources — aimed at comprehensive and all-round development of individual, society and the planet. With 97 percent population being Muslim, the sense of civic responsibility and obligations towards society finds solid ideological footings in Pakistan. It may be cemented further with spread of Islamic teachings, strengthening and channelizing the role of mosque, sensitization through media and synergizing the educational system, particularly the curriculum, for this grand purpose. The government's role Vis-à-vis providing an enabling environment, remains pivotal.
An earlier version of the paper was presented in the seminar titled Promoting Civic Responsibility in Technical Universities of Pakistan, organized by Centre for Policy Studies, COMSATS Institute of Information and Technology, Islamabad on November 26, 2013.

Während das "smart cities" Paradigma weltweit als Allheilmittel für das Management von städtischen Dienstleistungen angepriesen wird, hat "India's 100 Smart Cities Transform-nation Mission" entscheidend die Debatte über digitale Innovation und Nachhaltigkeit hinzu tieferen Fragen über sozio-ökonomische und räumliche Gerechtigkeit erweitert. Zunehmend argumentieren sowohl Unterstützter als auch Kritiker, dass technozentrische Ansätzen von bürgernäheren ersetzt werden sollten. Aber, was genau macht einen, smart(en) Bürger' aus? Welche Rechte werden erworben und welche verloren, vor allem wenn man (nicht) als Mitglied des 'smart' Milieus anerkannt wird? Der Fall Chandigarhs, als stark segregierte, aber höchst gefeierte modernist master-planning Ikone, veranschaulicht, wie Le Corbusiers Erbe zusammen mit technokratischen und city-branding Diskursen ausgenutzt wird, um die soziale Ungleichheit der Stadt aufrechtzuerhalten. Anstatt bürgerliche Teilnahme zu vereinfachen, beruht smartness in diesem Fall auf einem klassistischen Abstand zwischen denen, die Geschäfte über ihre Smartphones steuern, und denen, die als Eindringlinge in ihren Wohn- oder Arbeitsorten überwacht werden. Dennoch wird 'Smart Chandigarh' nicht komplett zu einem 'control room', da hier hoch komplexe algorithmische Technologien mit analogen Interventionen zusammengekoppelt werden, wie zum Beispiel öffentliche Befragungen, bestehend aus gewöhnlichen Umfragen und likes auf Facebook. Nichtdestotrotz, hat dies AktivistenInnen nicht etwa gestoppt, sondern eher motiviert, sich auf Gegenstrategien zu 'smartness' zu fokussieren. Zusammenfassend wird festgehalten, dass eine ausschließlich epistemische Neuinterpretationen von 'chatur Bürgerlichkeit' nicht ausreicht, um die materiellen und politischen Hindernisse der Arbeiterklasse auszuräumen, die diesen zur Erlangung ihrer verfassungsgemäßen Rechte im Wege stehen. Stattdessen bedeutet, das Digitale territorial zu denken, unbedingt die Institutionalisierung von (Il)Legalität, (In)Formalität, 'dem Raster' und 'der Peripherie' in Frage zu stellen. ; While the 'smart cities' paradigm is globally promoted as panacea for managing urban services, the launch of India's 100 Smart Cities Transform-nation Mission in 2015 crucially reformulates questionings about digital innovation and sustainability towards deeper inquiries on socio-economic and socio-spatial justice. Both promoters and critics of 'smart engineering' increasingly advocate for replacing technocentric by citizen-centered approaches. Yet, what precisely constitutes a smart citizen? Which rights are gained or lost once one is (dis)entitled from the realm of 'smartness'? Following a critical genealogy of the introduction of 'smart urbanism' in India, the author analyses whether 'smart cities' potentially enlarge or endanger the 'right to the city'. Taking Chandigarh- a highly segregated, yet greatly celebrated icon of modernist master-planning -as empirical case study depicts how Le Corbusier's heritage commingles with technocratic and city-branding discourses, in order to safeguard inequalities. By obstructing rather than enabling bottom-up participation, smartness reincarnates a classist divide; separating those, who manage transactions in their smartphones, and those who are surveilled as encroachers in their living or working places. Still, far from becoming a 'control-room', Smart Chandigarh illustrates how highly complex algorithmic technologies are mixed with analogue interventions such as public consultations, consisting of trivial polls and likes on Facebook. Importantly, this has not stopped, but encouraged activists to develop counterstrategies to the logics of 'smartness', wherein solely affirmative assertions count. In sum, mere epistemic reinterpretations of a 'chatur citizenship' do not suffice the working-poor's material and civic constrains to exercise their constitutional rights. Rather, territorializing 'the digital' entails calling into question the institutionalization of (il)legality, (in)formality, the 'grid' and the 'periphery'.

"This volume is designed to be an in-depth and nuanced philosophical treatment of the virtue of obedience in the context of the professional military and the broader civilian political community, including the general citizenry. The nature and components of obedience are critical factors leading to further discussions of the moral obligations related to obedience, as well as the related practical issues and implications. Pauline Shanks Kaurin seeks to address the following questions: What is obedience? Is it a virtue, and if it is, why? What are the moral grounds of obedience? Why ought military members and citizens be obedient? Are there times that one ought not be obedient? Why? How should we think about obedience in contemporary political communities?"--