Suchergebnisse

In this article, we integrate Nietzsche's visions of self-overcoming with a Žižekian toolbox to explore how 'market-based progress' is upheld through a fabric of ideological fantasies. Through an analysis of Huel, a nutritionally complete British food brand aligned with progressive and techno-utopian discourses, we reveal a fantasmatic structure centred on pragmatism, the search for unassailable truth and continuance of a prehistoric legacy. These fantasies function as illusory support for acceptance that humanity's great overcoming is singularly achieved through market logic and ethos. Here, a fetishistic inversion centres on subjects believing that the detached spectatorialism of consumption is closer to the act of the Nietzschean 'Overhuman' than it is to its inverse, the 'last human'. This article provides the parameters for how ideological fantasy insulates the market from its material deadlocks and concludes with a conceptualization of the post-sovereign consumer's subjectification along the fantastical contours of market-based progress.

This Special Issue of Cosmopolitan Civil Societies Journal focuses on the domination of social and political relations by Ethnocracy – rule or would-be rule by an ethnic group or ethnos, as distinct from Democracy or rule by the demos of all the people. Ethnocracy encompasses state regimes and associated political movements and parties that discriminate systematically in favour of a particular ethnic group (or groups) and against others. When we proposed the Special Issue in late 2014 ethnocratic practices were as prevalent as they had ever been; and now two years later they appear to be on the increase with an ethno-populist upsurge and the election or threatened election of governments pursuing ethnocratic agendas. From India to the USA, from Russia to Hungary, leading politicians openly discriminate against ethnic 'others' to attract support from 'their own' ethnic groups; across the European Union and in other liberal democracies they increasingly scapegoat 'immigrants' to hide their own inadequacies and further their political objectives. Now, more than ever, it is critical that the dynamics of ethnocracy are more clearly understood. This Issue documents the logics of ethnocracy in a variety of different contexts, posing questions about how it develops and how it can be challenged.

This Special Issue of Cosmopolitan Civil Societies Journal focuses on the domination of social and political relations by Ethnocracy – rule or would-be rule by an ethnic group or ethnos, as distinct from Democracy or rule by the demos of all the people. Ethnocracy encompasses state regimes and associated political movements and parties that discriminate systematically in favour of a particular ethnic group (or groups) and against others. When we proposed the Special Issue in late 2014 ethnocratic practices were as prevalent as they had ever been; and now two years later they appear to be on the increase with an ethno-populist upsurge and the election or threatened election of governments pursuing ethnocratic agendas. From India to the USA, from Russia to Hungary, leading politicians openly discriminate against ethnic 'others' to attract support from 'their own' ethnic groups; across the European Union and in other liberal democracies they increasingly scapegoat 'immigrants' to hide their own inadequacies and further their political objectives. Now, more than ever, it is critical that the dynamics of ethnocracy are more clearly understood. This Issue documents the logics of ethnocracy in a variety of different contexts, posing questions about how it develops and how it can be challenged.

Activity-based intelligence (ABI) is a discipline of intelligence where the analysis and subsequent collection are focused on the activity and transactions associated with an entity, a population or an area of interest. It is considered a new intelligence tradecraft. This report offers a survey of algorithmic-level literature that has been directly applied to ABI analysis. Areas considered include, ABI- and tactical intelligence-specific approaches, approaches for assessing stages of political unrest and societal radicalization and approaches explored in the field of ambient intelligence. Finally, recommendations of scientific techniques that have potential utility for ABI are offered. ; Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.

This article explores the compatibility of a process consulting stance with structural interventions intended to promote significant organizational redesign. Much of the existing literature on process consultation implies that this capacity‐building approach is best suited to relational or process concerns. However, Edgar Schein and other recent commentators have observed that structural issues are not precluded from its purview. Through a case study involving a process consulting stance in relation to a shifting range of structural concerns, this paper argues that the latter offers a feasible way of pursuing structural change. We also show that models focusing on structure allowed us to generate questions for our inquiry process. However, the paper also suggests that it is important to underpin the intervention with a sound grasp of the purpose and affordances of specific structural theories and to be watchful for the significant reserves of resistance that can be aroused when structural issues are tackled. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.