Suchergebnisse

Intro -- Acknowledgements -- Contents -- 1 Introduction -- References -- 2 Foucault's Archaeology of Knowledge -- 2.1 The Origin and Development of Archaeology -- 2.2 Archaeology in Action -- 2.3 Madness, Medicine, Theory -- References -- 3 Power, Knowledge, and the Politics of Truth -- 3.1 Power -- 3.2 Knowledge -- 3.3 Sciences of Man, Sciences of Nature -- 3.4 Politics of Truth -- References -- 4 Left-Handers as Subjects of Science -- 4.1 Pre-scientific Conceptions of Left-Handedness -- 4.2 The Rise of the Scientific Study of Left-Handers -- 4.3 Left-Handed Science: The Longevity of Sinistrals -- 4.3.1 Why Think That Left-Handers May Have Reduced Longevity? -- 4.3.2 Study I: The Baseball Encyclopedia (1988) -- 4.3.3 Study II: The California Study (1991) -- 4.3.4 Study III: Marcel E. Salive et al. (1993) -- 4.4 Left-Handers and Knowledge Production -- 4.5 Conclusion -- References -- 5 Icelanders as Subjects of Science -- 5.1 Introduction -- 5.2 The Icelandic Health Sector Database: The Plan -- 5.3 Eugenics, Nationalism, Nazi Experiments and the Icelandic Health Sector Database -- 5.4 The "Totally Informative Population" -- References -- 6 Conclusion.

Í þessari grein skýrir höfundur og ver þær lýðræðishugmyndir sem felast í greiningu hans á íslensku stjórnarfari og stjórnmálamenningu í aðdraganda og eftirmálum fjármálahrunsins 2008. Gerð er grein fyrir og metin gagnrýni þeirra Jóns Ólafssonar og Birgis Hermannssonar á röksemdir Vilhjálms og notkun hans á fræðilegum lýðræðislíkönum Jürgens Habermas til að greina íslensk stjórnmál. Færð eru rök fyrir því að greiningu Vilhjálms verði að skilja í ljósi þess að hún taki mið af þeim sérstöku aðstæðum sem sköpuðust hérlendis kringum fjármálahrunið og villandi sé að slíta röksemdir hans úr tengslum við það. Í skrifum Vilhjálms er til dæmis stöðugt minnt á mikilvægi ákveðinna lærdóma sem draga þurfi af rökræðukenningunni um lýðræði andspænis þeirri gagnrýni á stjórnarhætti og stjórnsiði hérlendis sem sett var fram í skýrslu rannsóknarnefndar Alþingis á orsökum hrunsins. Sú gagnrýni Jóns og Birgis að Vilhjálmur smætti lýðræði í stjórnsýslu og geri ekki ráð fyrir aðkomu almennings í hugmyndum sínum um lýðræði er sögð eiga rætur sínar í því að þeir slíti umfjöllun hans úr þessu tiltekna samhengi og dragi af henni villandi ályktanir um afstöðu hans til lýðræðis almennt. Einnig er ágreiningurinn rakinn til ólíks skilnings þessara fræðimanna á lýðræðishugtakinu. Vilhjálmur hafnar því að gera aðkomu borgaranna að ákvörðunum að þungamiðju lýðræðis á kostnað vandaðra stjórnarhátta og öflugra stofanana sem vernda mikilvæg lýðræðisleg gildi og gera borgurunum kleift að draga stjórnvöld til ábyrgðar. Loks eru reifaðar hugmyndir um borgaravirkni í anda rökræðulýðræðis og hvernig þær megi útfæra andspænis þeim ógnum sem steðja að upplýstri skoðanamyndun í samtímanum.

Icelandic politics are analysed from the perspectives of three normative models of democracy: the liberal, republican and deliberative democratic theories. While the Icelandic constitution is rooted in classical liberal ideas, Icelandic politics can be harshly criticized from a liberal perspective, primarily because of the unclear separation of powers of government and for the extensive involvement of politics in other social sectors. Despite strong nationalist discourse which reflects republican characteristics, rooted in the struggle for independence from Denmark, republicanism has been marginal in Icelandic politics. In the years before the financial collapse, Icelandic society underwent a process of liberalization in which power shifted to the financial sector without disentangling the close ties that had prevailed between business and politics. The special commission set up by the Icelandic Parliament to investigate the causes of the financial collapse criticized Icelandic politics and governance for its flawed working practices and lack of professionalism. The appropriate lessons to draw from this criticism are to strengthen democratic practices and institutions. In the spirit of republicanism, however, the dominant discourse about Icelandic democracy after the financial collapse has been on increasing direct, vote-centric participation in opposition to the system of formal politics. While this development is understandable in light of the loss of trust in political institutions in the wake of the financial collapse, it has not contributed to trustworthy practices. In order to improve Icelandic politics, the analysis in this paper shows, it is important to work more in the spirit of deliberative democratic theory.

Icelandic politics are analysed from the perspectives of three normative models of democracy: the liberal, republican and deliberative democratic theories. While the Icelandic constitution is rooted in classical liberal ideas, Icelandic politics can be harshly criticized from a liberal perspective, primarily because of the unclear separation of powers of government and for the extensive involvement of politics in other social sectors. Despite strong nationalist discourse which reflects republican characteristics, rooted in the struggle for independence from Denmark, republicanism has been marginal in Icelandic politics. In the years before the financial collapse, Icelandic society underwent a process of liberalization in which power shifted to the financial sector without disentangling the close ties that had prevailed between business and politics. The special commission set up by the Icelandic Parliament to investigate the causes of the financial collapse criticized Icelandic politics and governance for its flawed working practices and lack of professionalism. The appropriate lessons to draw from this criticism are to strengthen democratic practices and institutions. In the spirit of republicanism, however, the dominant discourse about Icelandic democracy after the financial collapse has been on increasing direct, vote-centric participation in opposition to the system of formal politics. While this development is understandable in light of the loss of trust in political institutions in the wake of the financial collapse, it has not contributed to trustworthy practices. In order to improve Icelandic politics, the analysis in this paper shows, it is important to work more in the spirit of deliberative democratic theory ; Peer Reviewed

Environmental concern in contemporary societies is a complex phenomenon which is shaped and influenced by a host of different factors. One of the most important of these is the interplay between culture and nature that has taken place during the course of a nation's history and the various 'views of nature' that such interplay has generated. Such views can e.g. manifest themselves in aesthetic judgments of natural scenery or, more generally, in the values that nature is seen to contain or carry. They form the base from which contemporary ideas, conceptions, and evaluations of nature are generated and debated. The five studies that together comprise this thesis explore the socio-cultural background of Icelandic environmentalism from a number of different perspectives. The first study concerns the depiction(s) of nature that can be found in the oldest literary works that have survived in Iceland. The second study deals with the first attempts by an Icelander to visualize nature in his homeland, using photographic media. The third study seeks to compare contemporary views of nature amongst Icelanders, e.g. concerning the appreciation of natural beauty, with those of Swedes and Danes. The fourth study reports the results of an extensive survey which probed the environmental values, knowledge, attitudes and behaviors of present day Icelanders. The fifth study builds on this same survey but focuses on the public understanding and perceptions of sustainable development, and also on the connections between attitudes toward environmental and developmental issues. This overall thesis project was multi-disciplinary in nature, combining theory drawn from environmental philosophy, especially ethics and aesthetics, with the theories and methods of environmental sociology, politics and history. The empirical studies employed, furthermore sought to operationalize certain key theoretical constructs relating to views of nature, such as environmental value orientations and aesthetic appreciation of nature, and thus 'build bridges' between the concerns, theories and methods of the humanities, on one side, and those of the social sciences, on the other.

Counselling is of increasing importance in British society. Yet, very few detailed ethnographic descriptions exist of how it works in practice. This article focuses on training courses with the national bereavement care organization, Cruse. The discussion revolves around Cruse's conception of grief as a natural and ordinary process, yet individually variable and unique, and its client‐centred approach, which attributes 'expert' status to clients. Consideration of the 'ordinary' and 'expert' in Cruse ideology suggests fundamental questions: how does Cruse justify its counselling activity? How does it train and motivate people to carry out counselling? I argue that this is achieved by grounding the sense of grief in the trainees themselves through a process of situated learning that allows the trainees to assume expertise of the ordinary. Addressing the work of counselling theoretically, I argue that, while Foucauldian analysis of the psy‐sciences is to some extent applicable to counselling, detailed participant observation reveals complexities in the interplay of subjectivity and subjection that the Foucauldian approach is unable to grasp.

To understand the current difficulties and future prospects of European integration, multiple perspectives are required. The essays in this collection explore historical and geopolitical aspects of European integration and their relevance to interpretations of the current climate. They also examine the different regional dynamics of integration and the attitudes that result from those experiences, including in the European peripheries that are so often overshadowed by the dominant centres. In drawing all of these perspectives together, the collection allows the reader to assess the EU's current crisis in context