Suchergebnisse

If peace is regarded as a positive force, viewed from the postulate of social justice, then peace research does more than merely obey preventive demands for models of conflict-regulation. Rather, it may be defined as a society-oriented developmental theory with the aim of a new planning science directed toward domestic politics. It studies political socialization, develops models for learning stages, & creates conflict-activation plans for given social institutions. If such a program is to be implemented, detailed empirical case studies will be needed, & are presented as abstracts. Concerning the system-transforming effect of citizens' initiatives: if amends for the lack of opportunity to participate in the production sphere are made in the recreation sphere, then becoming involved in this sphere will affect the whole system. This politicizing is a process that comes about through various stages of learning. It is not the productive sphere, but the reproductive sphere that yields itself to opening up conflict & action areas. Modified HA.

Almost a decade ago, in June 2000, the Canadian Human Rights Act Review Panel conducted a comprehensive review of the Canadian Human Rights Act [CHRA] and recommended that "social condition" be added as a prohibited ground of discrimination. Since then, no action has been taken to implement this recommendation, despite calls for action from international bodies, political actors, human rights agencies and organizations, and academic commentators to provide protections from discrimination for those suffering from social and economic disadvantage. The authors analyze the experiences at the provincial level with socio-economic grounds of discrimination, jurisprudential developments under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms related to claims based on socio-economic disadvantage, the broader proposal of incorporating justiciable social and economic rights into Canadian law, and the range of arguments both for and against recognizing social condition as a prohibited ground of discrimination. In the end, the authors recommend a feasible and practical means for adding social condition to the Canadian Human Rights Act so that it will provide predictability for administrators, adjudicators and respondents, as well as sufficient flexibility to reflect the multi-faceted and intersectional experience of discrimination of human rights claimants. While socio-economic inequality continues to be a significant and pressing problem in need of a multi-pronged and comprehensive solution, the addition of the ground of social condition to the CHRA will be one more tool in advancing the rights and interests of those on the very margins of Canadian society.This paper was co-authored with Natasha Kim, Dalhousie University.

Many prominent health experts now assert that major improvements in the health of the American people must come from individual efforts to alter unhealthy personal habits & lifestyles rather than through medical services & technology. But it does not necessarily follow that a more ethical & feasible national health policy would focus primarily on exhorting Americans to mobilize their individual willpower to change to more healthful personal habits. In determining the nature of such a policy, three points are vital: (1) the "health & individual responsibility" argument may overestimate health benefits of personal habit changes, (2) the same argument tends to overlook or misconstrue the nature of societal constraints on individual will, failing to specify the sociological conditions under which millions can change their lives, & the role social conditions play in maintaining unhealthy behavior, & (3) the focus on individual decision making deemphasizes the role of collective efforts in securing higher health standards. A health policy that promotes curbing unhealthy habits & encourages healthy ones through societal action is more ethical & feasible than one focusing on "health as individual responsibility." Modified HA.