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State-sanctioned corruption, repression, and violence shape Zimbabwe's past as well as present-day political-economic predicaments. Because of this situation, it is not uncommon for analysts to predict collapse for Zimbabwe. Such predictions have limited utility, and therefore, this article examines the micro-level activities of artistically inclined citizens that resist collapse and recast the terrain by maximizing the productivity of the city. The focus is on cultural activism – that is, arts-oriented engagements occurring beyond the boundaries of both state sponsorship and formally structured organizations. In Harare, the strength and influence surrounding artistic expressions rest in their abilities to inform and spark activism by focusing on lived realities as well as on the operations of the state conditioning those realities.

When the Supreme Court in 2003 struck down a Texas law prohibiting homosexual sodomy, it cited the right to privacy based on the guarantee of "substantive due process" embodied by the Constitution. But did the court act undemocratically by overriding the rights of the majority of voters in Texas? Scholars often point to such cases as exposing a fundamental tension between the democratic principle of majority rule and the liberal concern to protect individual rights. Democratic Rights challenges this view by showing that, in fact, democracy demands many of these rights. Corey Brettschneider argues that ideal democracy is comprised of three core values--political autonomy, equality of interests, and reciprocity--with both procedural and substantive implications. These values entitle citizens not only to procedural rights of participation but also to substantive rights that a "pure procedural" democracy might not protect. What are often seen as distinctly liberal substantive rights to privacy, property, and welfare can, then, be understood within what Brettschneider terms a "value theory of democracy." Drawing on the work of John Rawls and deliberative democrats such as Jürgen Habermas, he demonstrates that such rights are essential components of--rather than constraints on--an ideal democracy. Thus, while defenders of the democratic ideal rightly seek the power of all to participate, they should also demand the rights that are the substance of self-government. --From publisher's description.

Bis heute gilt das 'Gesetz über die Änderung von Familiennamen und Vornamen' (NamÄndG) – abgesehen von geringfügigen Abweichungen – in der am 5. Januar 1938 auf der Grundlage des Ermächtigungsgesetzes verabschiedeten Fassung. Das NamÄndG bestimmt die Grundvoraussetzungen, unter denen natürliche Personen ihren Namen außerhalb der im BGB geregelten Möglichkeiten zum Namenswechsel mit staatlicher Genehmigung ändern können. Als öffentlich-rechtlicher Teil des bundesrepublikanischen Namensänderungsrechts wird das NamÄndG bis heute als notwendiger Bestandteil der Rechtsordnung und daher gerade nicht als nationalsozialistisch geprägtes (Un-)Recht angesehen.Michael Wagner-Kern greift diese 'Unbedenklichkeitsthese' auf und zeichnet mittels einer rechtshistorischen Rekonstruktion die Entstehungsgründe für ein Namensänderungsrecht in Deutschland nach. Die historischen Befunde, gestützt auf eine Auswertung archivalischer Quellen, korrigieren herrschende Vorstellungen: Bei der Schaffung des NamÄndG ging es dem NS-Gesetzgeber einzig um die Konstruktion einer Rechtsgrundlage zur 'namentlichen Ausgrenzung' der jüdischen Bevölkerung. Struktur und Interpretation des öffentlich-rechtlichen Namensänderungsrechts stehen bis heute in der Tradition eines restriktiven Grundverständnisses, das jede Namensänderung als Ausnahme von dem Prinzip der kontinuierlichen Namensführung begreift. Diese Sichtweise erklärt sich aus dem bisherigen Verzicht, die Entstehungsgeschichte des NamÄndG umfassend zu rekonstruieren. Kontinuitätsphänomene prägen sowohl die Struktur des bundesrepublikanischen Namensänderungsrechts als auch dessen Bild in Literatur und Rechtsprechung. Daraus leitet sich die Forderung nach einer grundlegenden Reform des (Reichs-)NamÄndG ab, das gegenwärtig verfassungsrechtlichen Anforderungen nicht genügt.

The ability of innovation—both technical and social—to stretch and redefine 'limits to growth' was recognised at Stockholm in 1972, and has been a key feature in debates through to Rio+20 in 2012. Compared with previous major moments of global reflection about human and planetary futures—Stockholm, Rio in 1992, Johannesburg in 2002—we now have a better understanding of how innovation interacts with social, technological, and ecological systems to contribute to transitions at multiple levels. What can this improved understanding offer in terms of governance approaches that might enhance the interaction between local initiatives and global sustainability objectives post-Rio+20? The global political agenda over the last two decades has largely focused on creating economic and regulatory incentives to drive more sustainable industrial development patterns within and between nation-states—resulting most notably in the Convention on Biological Diversity and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. At the other end of the spectrum, 'Local Agenda 21', launched at the first Rio summit, envisaged a community-led response to sustainable development challenges locally. This paper discusses the successes and challenges of globally linked local action through a number of illustrative examples, reflecting on how these have contributed to Rio 1992's original objectives. In doing so, we will draw upon innovation studies and development studies to highlight three key issues in a hybrid politics of innovation for sustainability that links global and local: first, the direction in which innovation and development proceed; second, the distribution of the costs, benefits, and risks associated with such changes; third, the diversity of approaches and forms of innovation that contribute to global transitions to sustainability. Drawing on this analysis, we will also reflect on Rio+20, including the extent to which hybrid innovation politics is already emerging, whether this was reflected in the formal Rio+20 outcomes, and what this suggests for the future of international sustainable development summits.

AbstractThe growing dimensions of the global refugee crisis have led to considerable attention being paid by theorists to Hannah Arendt's notion of the 'right to have rights' (RTHR), concerning the right to asylum. There is a historical asylum case which Arendt privileged as exemplary, in relation to both asylum and political action: the refuge provided by Denmark for its Jewish citizens, and some Jewish refugees, during the Second World War. I argue that reading Arendt's reflections on the RTHR alongside her writings on the Denmark case provides greater illumination of both. The scope of the rescue of Jewish people in Denmark is arguably not as laudable as Arendt maintained, as Denmark placed restrictions upon the entry of refugees into its territory. This critique reconfigures the import of the RTHR in relation to Arendt's writings on plurality as the 'law of the earth'.

This chapter argues that political security is intertwined with democracy and human rights but that some issues and concerns subsist in the Barents Region notably in relation to the respect and protection of the rights of citizens and the rights of indigenous people. The right to vote in national, regional and local elections is crucial to ensure the establishment of representative institutions in a democracy, because the authority of the government derives itself from the consent of the governed. The right of the Sami people to self-determination is an essential feature of their human rights, and is the basis for their inclusion in democratic orders that govern them. While political security necessarily entails the negative obligation of the state to refrain from interfering with basic individual freedoms, it also includes positive obligations for national authorities to take necessary measures to safeguard basic political rights.

The 1964 Civil Rights Act certainly deserves a shower of golden anniversary tributes. Thanks to what Clay Risen, in his new book about its passage, calls "the Bill of the Century," most Americans now assume and most welcome the fact that restaurants and hotels cannot turn people away because of their race, that women can apply for the same jobs as men, and that colleges that practice discrimination can't receive federal funds.