Suchergebnisse

Critical race theory in the United States is at a crossroads. As a jurisprudence it seems to be a success story: the number of legal scholars affiliating themselves with the movement seems to be steadily expanding; works of critical race theory are widely cited; and the literature is slowly but steadily moving out from the legal academy to reach a wider public. On the other hand, critical race theory as a community seems in danger of fragmentation, implosion, or simple abandonment. This article argues that the ill health of critical race theory as a community stems from a lack of critical attention to the politics of community building itself. This lack of critical attention created a vacuum filled by a patriarchal conception of race as 'family', a conception that ignores the lessons of queer activism and theory as well as feminism. The article argues that treating community building and community maintenance with the same critical energies that critical race theorists give to their intellectual constructions is important not just to the project of saving critical race theory as a community, but to the world-wide project of how to situate 'identity politics' within a strong commitment to justice and human flourishing.

In most industrialized countries, the buildings sector is the largest contributor to energy consumption and associated carbon emissions. These emissions can be reduced by a combination of energy efficiency and the use of building integrated renewables. Additionally, either singularly or as a group, buildings can provide energy network services by timing their use and production of energy. Such grid-aware or grid-responsive buildings have been termed Active Buildings. The recent UK Government investment of £36m in the Active Building Centre is a demonstration that such buildings are of considerable interest. One problem with the concept, however, is that there is no clear definition of Active Buildings, nor a building code to design or research against. Here we develop and test an initial novel code, called ABCode1. It is based on the need to encourage: (i) the minimisation of energy consumption; (ii) building-integrated generation; (iii) the provision of grid services; and (iv) the minimisation of embodied carbon. For grid services, we find that a lack of a precise, quantifiable measure, or definition, of such services means that for the time being, theoretical hours of autonomy of the building is the most reasonable proxy for these services within such a code.

Nach dem Ende der bipolaren Blocklogik ist eine auffallende Zunahme innerstaatlicher kriegerischer Gewalt bei gleichzeitigem Rückgang zwischenstaatlicher Kriege zu verzeichnen. Mehr als neunzig Prozent aller gewaltsamen Konflikte in den 90er Jahren des 20. Jahrhunderts waren Bürgerkriege. Die innerstaatliche kriegerische Gewalt stellt die internationale Politik vor neue Herausforderungen, auf die sie schlecht vorbereitet ist. Der vorliegende Beitrag diskutiert einige Gründe für diese Entwicklung. Einer besteht darin, dass die Epochenwende von 1989/90 sämtliche vertrauten Koordinaten der Weltordnung verschoben hat. Seit die Block-Rivalität nicht mehr existiert und sich die neue internationale Machtkonfiguration noch nicht endgültig abzeichnet, kann prekäre, gar scheiternde Staatlichkeit weniger denn je zuvor eine bloß "innere Angelegenheit" sein. Sie betrifft das internationale System und damit auch Sicherheitsinteressen jedes einzelnen Staats. Dieser Zusammenhang kommt in der vielstimmigen Kritik, die in Europa an Washingtons Unilateralismus, Neoimperialismus und Hybris artikuliert wird, meist zu kurz. (ICA2)