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Interference of esotericism and politics became apparent especially in the 19th century when the early socialists expected the coming of the Age of Spirit, and narratives about secret wisdom being kept in mysterious sacred places became all the more popular. Thus, the idea of the Age of Enlightenment underwent transformation: the world will be saved not by ordinary knowledge but by some special secret wisdom. In this context, Helena Blavatsky (1831–1891) developed the doctrine of Theosophy the ideas of which were overtaken by the next-generation theosophists including also the Russian painter Nicholas Roerich (1874–1947) and his spouse Helena Roerich (1879–1955) who developed a new form of Theosophy. The aim of this article is to analyse the interference between Theosophy and politics paying special attention to its historical roots, which, in the context of Roerich groups, are to be sought in the political activities of Nicholas Roerich, the founder of the movement. The following materials have been used in the analysis: first, writings of the founders of Agni Yoga or Teaching of Living Ethics; second, the latest studies in the history of Theosophy made in the available archives after the collapse of the soviet regime; third, materials obtained from the interviews of a field research (2006–2008). The author has made use of an interdisciplinary approach combining anthropological methods with the method of systematic analysis. The historical roots of the political activity of contemporary theosophists stretch into the political aspirations of Nicholas Roerich, the founder of Agni Yoga or Teaching of Living Ethics. Opening of the USSR secret archives and publication of several formerly inaccessible diaries and letters of theosophists offer an opportunity to study the "spiritual geopolitics" of the Roerichs. Setting off to his Central Asian expeditions (1925–1928; 1934–1935), Nicholas Roerich strived to implement the Great Plan, i.e. to found a New State that would stretch from Tibet to South Siberia comprising the territories governed by China, Mongolia, Tibet and the USSR. The new state was conceived as the kingdom of Shambhala on the earth, and in order to form this state, Nicholas Roerich aspired to acquire the support of various political systems. During the Tzarist Empire, the political world outlook of Nicholas Roerich was markedly monarchic. After the Bolshevik coup in Russia, the artist accepted the offer to work under the wing of the new power, but after his emigration to the West Roerich published extremely sharp articles against the Bolsheviks. In 1922, the Roerichs started to support Lenin considering him the messenger of Shambhala. Roerich's efforts to acquire Bolshevik support culminated in 1926 when the Roerichs arrived in Moscow bringing a message by Mahatmas to the soviet government, a small case with earth for the Lenin Mausoleum from Burhan-Bulat and paintings in which Buddha Maitreya bore strong resemblance to Lenin. The plan of founding the Union of Eastern Republics, with Bolshevik support, failed, since about the year 1930 the soviet authorities changed their position concerning the politics of the Far East. Having ascertained that the Bolsheviks would not provide the anticipated support for the Great Plan, the Roerichs started to seek for contacts in the USA which provided funding for his second expedition (1934–1935). The Roerichs succeeded even in making correspondence (1934–1936) with President Roosevelt who paid much larger attention to Eastern states especially China than other presidents did. Their correspondence ceased when the Security Service of the USA grew suspicious about Roerich's pro-Japanese disposition. Nicholas Roerich has sought for support to his political ambitions by all political regimes. In 1934, the Russian artist tried to ascertain whether German national socialists would support his efforts in Asia. It may seem that the plans of founding the Union of Oriental Republics have passed away along with Roerich; yet in 1991 his son Svyatoslav Roerich (1904–1993) pointed out once again that the Altai is a very important centre of the great future and Zvenigorod is still a great reality and a magnificent dream. Interference between esotericism and politics is observed also among Latvian theosophists: the soviet regime successfully made use of Roerich's adherents propagating the communist ideology in the independent Republic of Latvia. In the 1920s and 1930s, the embassy of the USSR in Riga maintained close contacts with Roerich's adherents in Latvia and made a strong pressure on the Latvian government not to ban the Roerich's Museum Friend Society who actively propagated the success of soviet culture and economy. On 17 June 1940, the soviet army occupied the Republic of Latvia, and Haralds Lūkins, the son of the founder of the Roerich's Museum Friend Society, was elected to the first government of the soviet Latvia. Nevertheless, involvement of theosophists in politics was unsuccessful, since after the official annexation of Latvia into the USSR, on 5 August 1940, all societies including the Roerich's Museum Friend Society were closed. Since the members of the movement continued to meet regularly, in 1949, Haralds Lūkins was arrested as leader of an illegal organization. After the Second World War, theosophists were subjected to political repressions. Arrests of Roerich's followers (1948–1951) badly impaired the movement. After rehabilitation in 1954, the repressed persons gradually returned from exile and kept on their illegal meetings in small groups. To regain their rights to act openly, Roerich's followers started to praise Nicholas Roerich as a supporter of the soviet power. With the collapse of the soviet regime, Roerich's followers in Latvia became legal in 1988 when the Latvian Roerich Society was restored which soon split up according to geopolitical orientation; therefore, presently in Latvia, there are the following organisations: Latvian Roerich Society, Latvian Department of the International Centre of the Roerichs, and Aivars Garda group or the Latvian National Front. A. Garda fused nationalistic ideas with Theosophy offering a special social reorganization – repatriation of the soviet-time immigrants and a social structure of Latvia that would be formed by at least 75% ethnic Latvians. Activity of A. Garda group, which is being criticized by other groups of theosophists, is a continuation of the interference between theosophical and political ideas practised by the Roerichs. Generally it is to be admitted that after the crush of the soviet regime, in theosophist groups, unclear political orientation between the rightists and leftists is observed, characterised by fairly radical ideas.

In der vorliegenden Arbeit wird die enge Verbindung von Zeitvorstellungen und gesellschaftlicher Zeitorganisation zu gesellschaftlichen Zukunftsvorstellungen und individuellen Lebensperspektiven herausgearbeitet. Erfasst und analysiert werden auch jene Faktoren, die die Manipulationsmacht des Menschen und der gesellschaftlichen Systeme bei temporalen Gestaltungsvorhaben begrenzen. Kernaussage und zentrale Fragestellungen: Zeitbewusstsein und Zeitvorstellungen prägen die Vorstellungen von Zukunft. Bestimmte Formen von Zeit und gesellschaftlicher Zeitorganisation können die Entstehung und Entwicklung von Zukunftsvorstellungen hemmen oder fördern. Damit ragen Zeitbewusstsein und Zeitorganisation in die Wahrnehmung und Entwicklung von Zukunft hinein. Zentral ist u.a. die Form, in der Zeit zur Verfügung steht. Sind es immer nur kurze Momente, die für Reflexion, Retrospektion oder Prospektion zur Verfügung stehen oder längere zusammenhängende Sequenzen? Stehen solche Zeiten nur dem auf sich gestellten Individuum oder ganzen gesellschaftlichen Gruppen gemeinsam zur Verfügung? Liegen diese Zeiten so und sind sie so gestaltet, dass sie sinnvoll zur Entwicklung und Gestaltung von Zukunft genutzt werden können? Aufbau der Arbeit: Im ersten Kapitel wird das Thema expliziert und werden Aufbau, Methode und Grenzen der Fragestellung werden. Im zweiten Kapitel werden verschiedene Formen des Umgangs mit Zukunft und unterschiedliche Methoden der Vorausschau beschrieben. Dabei liegt der Fokus auf den zeitlichen Voraussetzungen für individuelle und kollektive Entwicklung von Zukunftsvorstellungen und für die demokratische Gestaltung von Zukunft. Im dritten Kapitel werden auf Basis naturwissenschaftlicher, medizinischer und psychologischer Quellen die zeitlichen Strukturen und Bedürfnisse des Menschen erläutert. Es wird dargestellt, wie diese bewusst und unbewusst auf Zeitvorstellungen und den Umgang mit Zeit und Zukunft einwirken. Der Bogen wird gespannt von der Naturzeit bis zu einer von Menschen in unterschiedlicher Form wahrgenommenen und gestalteten Zeit. Herausgearbeitet werden die negativen Folgen und die positiven Möglichkeiten unterschiedlicher Formen des Umgangs mit Zeit. Zugleich wird verdeutlicht, wie die Gestaltung von Zeit das Denken über Zukunft beeinflussen, ermöglichen oder blockieren kann. Im vierten Kapitel wird gezeigt, wie sich die gesellschaftliche Zeitorganisation und das Zeitbewusstsein historisch verändert haben, während Zukunftsvorstellungen und Zukunftsentwürfe sich gleichzeitig wandelten. Die historische Spanne reicht dabei von den handlungsorientierten Zeitvorstellungen primitiver Gesellschaften, über zyklische, naturnahe Zeitvorstellungen der Agrargesellschaften, bis zur Entstehung linearer Zeitvorstellungen in der Religion und weiter über die entwickelten linearen Zeitvorstellungen der bürgerlichen Gesellschaft hin zur fragmentierten oder digitalisierten Zeit der Gegenwart. Diese Entwicklung verläuft parallel zur Entwicklung der Zukunftsvorstellungen von einer klaren Handlungsorientierung, über Paradieseskonzeptionen und große gesellschaftliche Utopien, zu einer zunehmend individualisierten und verkürzten Vorstellung von Zukunft. Im Mittelpunkt der Analyse steht die enge Verbindung zwischen diesen beiden Elementen. Es wird betrachtet, wie auf frühere Phasen der Geschichte, in denen Zukunft in einem diesseitigen Sinn kaum eine Rolle spielte, Phasen folgen, in denen Zukunft als langfristige Gestaltung der Welt und des eigenen Lebens das Denken der Menschen präge, während heute die kurzfristige Gestaltung des individuellen Lebens im Vordergrund steht. In einem kurzen Schlusskapitel werden zwei zentrale Ergebnisse formuliert: 1. Der Mensch ist in zeitlicher Sicht grundsätzlich abhängig von den Zeiten der Natur. Die Natur (die innere und die äußere) ist rhythmisch strukturiert und diese Rhythmen sind gekennzeichnet durch eine Vielfalt von Zeitformen und Bedürfnissen. Die Gesellschaft muss auf diese Vielfalt Rücksicht nehmen und sie in ihre Zeitorganisationsentscheidungen integrieren, um eine Balance von Stabilität und Flexibilität zu entwickeln. 2. Zeitvorstellungen und Zukunftsvorstellungen sind epochal unterschiedlich. Dabei prägt die jeweilige Zeitvorstellung zentral die Vorstellungen von Zukunft. Auch wenn heute immer mehrere Zeitvorstellungen nebeneinander existieren, die individuelle Wahl- und Orientierungsentscheidungen ermöglichen, gibt es doch dominante Vorstellungen von Zeit und eine gesellschaftliche Ordnung der Zeit, die diese Optionsvielfalt wesentlich verringern. Abschließend werden kurze Hinweise auf einen zukunftsfähigen Umgang mit Zeit und Zukunft unter den Stichworten Zukunftsgestaltung, Zeitbrachen, Chillout, individuelle Reflexion und Zukunftsoffenheit gegeben. ; This paper addresses the close relationship between a) concepts of time and how a society organises time and b) a society's concepts of future as well as future modes of living and life phases. Included and analysed are those factors that limit the ability of humans and social systems to choose and influence the way time is structured and spent. Thesis and central problems: The awareness of time and concepts of time influence the concepts of future. Certain forms of time and a society's organisation of time can prevent or promote the emergence and development of these concepts. Thus, the awareness of time and society's organisation of it impose themselves on the concrete processes of perception and structuring of future. Of central importance, inter alia, is the form in which time is available. Is it available to reflect on the past, present and future only in brief moments, or in longer, uninterrupted sequences? Is it available only to individuals left to their own resources, or to entire social groups collectively? Is time structured in such a manner to allow sensible development and shaping of the future? Structure In Chapter 1 the thesis is defined, and the structure, method, and limits of the problems treated are set forth. In Chapter 2 various ways of dealing with the future and looking forward are described. A central focus is on temporal prerequisites for the individual and collective development of concepts of future and how to shape it in a democratic manner. In Chapter 3 the time structures and needs of humans are examined on the basis of scientific, medical, and psychological sources. It is outlined how time structures and time needs affect, consciously and unconsciously, the way people conceive of and deal with time and future, beginning with primitive cultures exposed directly to nature and ending with the current day, where humans perceive, structure and spend time in various forms. The negative consequences and positive possibilities of various ways of dealing with time are developed. At the same time, it is explained how the manner in which time is structured and spent can promote, impede or otherwise influence thinking about the future. In Chapter 4, numerous examples illustrate how society's organisation and awareness of time have evolved historically: from the action-orientated concept of time in primitive societies, to the cyclical, close-to-nature notion of time in agricultural societies, the nascent linear idea of time in religion, the developed linear time concepts of bourgeois society, and finally to the fragmented or digitalised concept of time in the present age. This evolution is paralleled by the evolution of concepts of the future from a clear emphasis on the present, to notions of paradise and grand social utopias, to the current increasingly individualised and shortened concept of future. The analysis focuses on the close relationship between how a society organises time and the room available to contemplate and plan the future. In early phases of history the concept of a future prior to death was virtually insignificant. Later on, human thought was influenced by the sense of future as a long-term shaping of the world and one's own life. Today, the concept of future as a short-term shaping of the life of the individual has gradually come to dominate. In a brief final chapter two central conclusions are reached: 1. Humans and their perception of time are fundamentally dependent on natural cycles. Nature (internal and external nature) is structured in rhythms characterised by a wide variety of time forms and needs. Society must respect this variety and integrate it into organisation of time to ensure a balance between stability and flexibility. 2. The concepts of time and future may differ from epoch to epoch, but in every epoch the concept of time has a central impact on the concept of future. Today, although several different concepts of time exist side by side that permit individual choices and orientations, there are nonetheless dominant concepts of time and an ordering of time by society which eliminate essential parts of the range of choices. The paper concludes with brief suggestions for dealing with time in a manner that is viable for the future, with reference to such terms as "shaping the future", "fallow time", "chillout", "individual reflection" and "keep the future open".

Development agencies and actors concerned with promoting sustainable development have been joined in recent years by another player - big business. Increasing adherence on the part of senior managers to concepts like corporate citizenship or corporate social responsibility suggests that this sector of business is beginning to recast its relationship with both the environment and its multiple stakeholders. This evolving situation stands in sharp contrast to the scenario of the past when big business was seen to be insensitive to the needs of certain stakeholders and responsible for much of the environmental degradation of the planet. This paper assesses the reality behind the claims of some sectors of business that an increasing number of large firms are adopting policies and practices conducive to the promotion of sustainable development, particularly in developing countries. After describing various institutional developments that have occurred in the 1990s and that appear to be promoting corporate social and environmental responsibility, the paper assesses the current state of play, highlighting in particular the incipient and piecemeal nature of change. It goes on to examine whether there are forces or an enabling environment in place that might permit a scaling up of initiatives associated with corporate responsibility. Some of the more powerful forces that drive corporate responsibility are identified. The question of why some sectors of business are changing reveals an answer that has less to do with a new-found ethical concern among corporate executives for the environmental and social condition of the planet, than with economic, political and structural factors. These include so-called "win-win" opportunities, the possibility of enhancing competitive advantage, "reputation management", pressure group and consumer politics, regulation or the threat of regulation, and changes in the way production and marketing are being organized globally. While such "drivers" may encourage corporations to be more responsive to environmental and social concerns, it is argued that the process of change is likely to remain fairly fragmented, spread unevenly in terms of companies, countries and sectors, and, from the perspective of sustainable development, fraught with contradictions. What amounts to a fairly minimalist and uneven agenda is not simply a reflection of the fact that the process of change is of recent origin; it also derives from the way in which companies choose to respond to the economic, political and structural drivers of change - responses that often involve imagery, public relations and relatively minor adjustments in management systems and practices, as opposed to significant changes in the social and environmental impact of a company's activities. The final section of the paper reflects on how trends associated with corporate environmental and social responsibility might be both scaled up and "deepened", so that business can make a more meaningful contribution to sustainable development. It begins by considering whether the dominant approach that is currently in vogue centred on the promotion of "voluntary initiatives" and "partnerships" is likely to be effective. While there are important benefits that can derive from such institutional arrangements, there may also be a considerable downside that is often overlooked. The success of many voluntary initiatives requires a certain institutional setting - for example, basic laws related to disclosure and freedom of information, watchdog institutions and strong civil society movements. Such conditions may be weak or absent in many countries. Furthermore, certain initiatives, such as codes of conduct and certification systems, have often been designed by Northern actors, be they governments, NGOs or corporate interests. Southern governments and NGOs are often marginalized in the decision-making processes that affect them. Too often, voluntary initiatives are held up as substitutes for government regulation when in fact various forms of legislation and state sanctions are often what motivated such initiatives in the first place and are crucial for their success. Despite the obvious appeal of the pragmatic and co-operative features of "partnerships", involving, for example, business and United Nations agencies or NGOs, serious questions are raised about their impact. Of particular concern are issues related to the weak criteria often used by United Nations and other organizations to select corporate partners, the way in which more critical voices are silenced as NGOs and United Nations agencies get closer to business, and the problem of "institutional capture" as business comes to exercise influence over decision-making processes associated with the public sphere. Perhaps the most significant concern with some forms of voluntary initiatives and partnerships is that they may serve to weaken key drivers of corporate responsibility - namely government regulation, collective bargaining and certain forms of civil society activism. If one examines the history of corporate environmental and social responsibility, and some of the major reforms of corporate policies and practices, one or a combination of these factors has been crucial. The paper ends with a call for "rethinking regulation and partnerships". There is potentially an important role for certain forms of "co-regulation". These may involve, for example, so-called "negotiated agreements" between government and business, and "civil regulation", where NGOs, consumers and trade unions have considerable influence in determining the standards and norms shaping business relations with society and the environment. Key to the success of co-regulation are not only the "softed" features of dialogue and compromise, but also the "hard" ones of government sanctions; laws related to disclosure and freedom of information, freedom of association and collective bargaining; and various forms of civil society protest. To avoid the ongoing proliferation of weak codes of conduct and certification and reporting systems, it is important that there be some degree of harmonization and adherence to higher standards. This implies a greater role for international codes and frameworks, which use as benchmarks internationally agreed standards contained or implied in such documents as Agenda 21 and ILO and human rights conventions. There should also be a greater role for "independent verification" of codes of conduct, environmental management systems and UN-business partnerships. Greater attention needs to be paid, however, to the status or legitimacy of the verifiers. Rethinking partnerships involves not only addressing the concerns raised above, but also recognizing the need to build a stronger civil society movement for change by strengthening links between environmentalists, consumer groups, social-interest NGOs and trade unions.

The Brexit referendum to leave the EU and Trump's success in the US general election in 2016 sparked new waves of discussion on nativism, nationalism, and the far right. Within these analyses, however, very little attention has been devoted towards exploring the transnational ideological circulation of Islamophobia and anti-establishment sentiment, especially amongst diaspora and migrant networks. This article thus explores the role of the Indian diaspora as mediators in populist radical right discourse in the West. During the Brexit referendum and Trump's election and presidency, a number of Indian diaspora voices took to Twitter to express pro-Brexit and pro-Trump views. This article presents a year-long qualitative study of these users. It highlights how these diasporic Indians interact and engage on Twitter in order to signal belonging on multiple levels: as individuals, as an imaginary collective non-Muslim diaspora, and as members of (populist radical right) Twitter society. By analysing these users' social media performativity, we obtain insight into how social media spaces may help construct ethnic and (trans)national identities according to boundaries of inclusion/exclusion. This article demonstrates how some Indian diaspora individuals are embedded into exclusivist national political agendas of the populist radical right in Western societies.

Militant groups transform traumatized people into perpetrators of violence through the use of trauma stories. In this article I argue that ruthless factions among oppressed people exploit the pain & suffering of the entire group, using narratives that may be also be used for healing. Repetition of the stories of rape, killings, displacement, & loss of jobs & homes in the riots against minority Tamils by the Sinhalese marked a sharp turn toward political violence among the Tamils. This collective memory of fear, anger, hatred, & despair has led the Tamils to embrace any means that may alleviate their distress. Stories about the traumatic events became both a powerful symbol & an effective tool to create new combatants by creating a new Tamil consciousness. Critical questions emerge from my analysis. Is it possible to separate the clinical from the personal & political aspects of the trauma of war? Is a traumatized society political capital for sustaining the power of unscrupulous leaders? How should we address social trauma within the context of healing & peace building? I conclude by suggesting an alternative, personalized way of storytelling for traumatized people that offers a way to break the cycle of political violence. References. Adapted from the source document.

Uganda has placed the fight against corruption high on the development agenda by establishing a range of anti-corruption institutions and strategies. The Uganda third National Integrity Survey, released in 2008 by the Inspectorate of Government, recommended that if Uganda was to make real progress in tackling corruption nationwide, individual sectors would need to undertake sector-specific studies to identify best practice and facilitate scaling-up of anti-corruption efforts. In that year, the good governance sub-sector working group, chaired by the Ministry of Water and Environment, commissioned a water integrity study to establish how citizens in both rural and urban areas contractors, private operators, local government officials and staff from the main water utility experience integrity in the provision of water services. The study would also facilitate development of an updated action plan to address integrity risks. This note describes the key ingredients to putting in place a nationwide good governance action plan in Uganda's water sector, the challenges to be overcome and lessons learned to date. The implications for practice are discussed from the perspectives of policy makers, regulators and ombudsmen, development partners, water service providers and civil society actors. This provides guidance for the replication of best practice by stakeholders in other countries and sectors.

In African Agrarian Societies greeting and leave-taking rituals are an essential part of the communication processes that constitute these societies as collective entities. Through elaborate forms of greeting and leave-taking people initiate and end communication and interaction processes within a framework of collective identities and cultures. Intricate greeting rituals allow to deal with all forms of encounters, with living people as well as with the spirits of the deceased. Greeting rituals are acquired through lengthy periods of learning. Their mastery is the sign of being an adult and competent member of society. External actors from different cultures often seem to be unaware of the subtleties of these greeting rituals. They ignore them at a cost. This essay provides some insights into the inner workings of African societies concerning the framing of most of their internal and external communication processes that are as vital for their lifeworlds as they are for their interaction with external actors from different spheres. Analysing the societies in a comprehensive manner as self-organising entities within an ethnic matrix clearly shows the limits of reducing greeting rituals to mere speech acts between individuals and proves that some of the fundamental assumptions of modern communication theories are not valid for African Agrarian Societies.

"The nature of the party systems in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) has puzzled many scholars. High instability of the party systems and their specific evolution makes the application of theoretical models designed predominately for Western European party politics problematic. The paper puts forward the argument that we should further elaborate and specify the models for a small N comparative party system analysis in CEE countries and to incorporate some region specific components into the framework. The essential dimensions included into proposed comparative framework are as follows: (1) the stability of the party system, (2) party system fragmentation, (3) parties' penetration into society, (4) the ideology and origins of the major parties, (5) the dominant cleavage constellations framing the party competition (6) the strength of the party organizations. The above-mentioned dimensions are expected to capture the most important aspects that make the difference between the party systems in general, and each dimension is complemented with the specific additional variables suitable for party system analysis in CEE in particular. The framework will be tested on the Baltic States, which party systems are often regarded to be very similar to each other. However, the analysis will demonstrate that based on the above-mentioned framework, very significant and noteworthy differences will be revealed." (author's abstract)

The attempts to reform the Russian education system since the fall of communism have had very uneven results. (… The authors research has lead him) to conclude that both Russian reformers and their international allies miscalculated the degree to which professional activism or a nascent "civil society" would compensate for the loss of state or public administration and financing after 1991. Assuming that the end of "totalitarian" education would result in a flourishing of grass-roots "innovation", reformers failed to anticipate the deepening financial and administrative crises in post communist education. These severe crises, mitigated only in part by Western assistance, have resulted in the sharp degradation of the public education systems and human resource capacities in Russia and the other newly independent states, and directly threaten the future of democratic and market reform. It seems that both many Russian reformers and their Western allies were guided more by idealized Western models than by an accurate sense of Russian needs and capacities. (… The authors) conclusions are that international assistance should be focused more directly on helping to foster new professional networks that can better defend and retrain educators and teachers; and also that we must better combine general educational research with area studies knowledge to inform our cooperative efforts. (DIPF/ Orig.)

Abstract'Pasmanda' is arguably the most explosive term that the more recent anti-caste discourse in India has produced. It is assembled from the Persian words pas ('back') and manda ('left behind'), thus describing somebody 'at the back' (of society), who 'has been left behind'. Like 'Dalit', 'Pasmanda' is essentially a political term, which means that it only comes into being and develops significance if people decide to acquire it and to identify themselves as different and as discriminated—in this case as lower-caste and 'Dalit Muslims'. 'Pasmanda' is hence intrinsically reliant on being communicated and mediated so as to enable its acceptance among the signified and to normalise the creation of a respective reality through a newly collectivising identity. This essay approaches 'Pasmanda' as 'a term to think with', in tracing the very possibility, among deprived and discriminated groups, to openly communicate, negotiate, and mediate this identity that challenges claims of religious (comm)unity and demands for national loyalty. This possibility varies greatly even across north India. As I examine 'Pasmanda' through three different local prisms, the term thus also becomes a dialectical index for the political conditions of its realisation: the conditions of its emergence and, however increasingly precarious, its thriving (in the state of Bihar) as much as the conditions for its suppression (in the capital Delhi) and even of its complete absence (in the state of Gujarat)—i.e. of the conditions that render Pasmandas non-existent. A different form of regional comparison thus emerges.

The Pacific region is in the midst of an information and communications technology (ICT) revolution in which small island countries are increasingly connected to the global economy. The regions improving internet connectivity presents an opportunity for Pacific Island countries (PICs) to overcome their inherent limitations, and help address the long-standing issues of employment and income generation, which is vital to accelerate progress towards ending poverty and creating an inclusive society. The PICs possess unique vulnerabilities that make addressing poverty and development challenges particularly difficult and complex. The purpose of this study is to examine the feasibility of leveraging ICT to help generate job opportunities in the PICs. This is because of the positive experiences that several countries, including small island economies, have had in generating new types of employment opportunities. The study's main focus is on cities and urban areas, given the still low availability of internet infrastructure and services in rural and remote areas and islands in the Pacific region. The study focuses specifically on the information technology (IT) - enabled global outsourcing services (GOS) industry. ICT covers diverse subsectors that include telecommunications and IT hardware and software.

The Pacific region is in the midst of an information and communications technology (ICT) revolution in which small island countries are increasingly connected to the global economy. The regions improving internet connectivity presents an opportunity for Pacific Island countries (PICs) to overcome their inherent limitations, and help address the long-standing issues of employment and income generation, which is vital to accelerate progress towards ending poverty and creating an inclusive society. The PICs possess unique vulnerabilities that make addressing poverty and development challenges particularly difficult and complex. The purpose of this study is to examine the feasibility of leveraging ICT to help generate job opportunities in the PICs. This is because of the positive experiences that several countries, including small island economies, have had in generating new types of employment opportunities. The study's main focus is on cities and urban areas, given the still low availability of internet infrastructure and services in rural and remote areas and islands in the Pacific region. The study focuses specifically on the information technology (IT) - enabled global outsourcing services (GOS) industry. ICT covers diverse subsectors that include telecommunications and IT hardware and software.

Krisen verschärfen gesellschaftliche Problemlagen bzw. lassen diese besonders deutlich hervortreten. Zugleich werfen krisenbedingte Einschnitte in bisher selbstverständliche Gewohnheiten grundlegende Fragen zum Zusammenleben in modernen Staaten und zur Funktionsweise gesellschaftlicher Institutionen auf. Vor dem Hintergrund der Corona-Pandemie leuchten die Beiträger*innen des Bandes das Thema der gesellschaftlichen Kohäsion in Krisenzeiten aus unterschiedlichen Fachrichtungen näher aus. Sie diskutieren nicht nur grundlegende sozialtheoretische Fragen und empirische Forschungsergebnisse zum Thema, sondern analysieren auch Handlungsansätze der Solidarisierung in Zeiten der Krise.

Die digitale Transformation der Öffentlichkeit führte zu einem Aufschwung von alternativen Nachrichtenmedien im Netz, die den professionellen Informationsjournalismus konkurrieren. Als Gegenöffentlichkeiten stehen sie in Opposition zur hegemonialen Öffentlichkeit aus Politik und Medien. Die Autorin nimmt eine Bestandsaufnahme alternativer Nachrichtenmedien im deutschsprachigen Raum vor und ordnet diese typologisch ein. Mit einem netzwerkanalytischen Ansatz untersucht sie die Relationen zwischen Alternativ- und Mainstreammedien in der Twitter-Sphäre und liefert neue Erkenntnisse zu einem gesellschaftlich hochrelevanten Thema.