This article considers Alain Ehrenberg's extensive analysis of individualism in contemporary France. It shows how he has traced the emergence of autonomy as a key social value, and it goes on to analyse the distinctive features of Ehrenberg's sociological approach. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Ehrenberg does not regard the growth of individualism in France as a tragic process of anomie and isolation. In fact, he is critical of what he sees as a pervasive French discourse of 'declinology', and he has expressed his growing frustration with this perspective more recently in explicitly political terms. Although he acknowledges that autonomy can be burdensome for individuals, he feels that the state should respond to the sociological fact of autonomy by supporting and empowering citizens as autonomous agents. The article concludes by drawing attention to the limitations of this political position.
Urban political ecology (UPE) can contribute important insights to examine traffic congestion, a significant social and environmental problem underexplored in UPE. Specifically, by attending to power relations, the production of urban space, and cultural practices, UPE can help explain why traffic congestions arises and persists but also creates inequalities in terms of environmental impacts and mobility. Based on qualitative research conducted in 2018, the article applies a UPE framework to Bangkok, Thailand, which has some of the world's worst congestion in one of the world's most unequal countries. The city's largely unplanned and uneven development has made congestion worse in a number of ways. Further, the neglect of public transport, particularly the bus system, and the highest priority given to cars has exacerbated congestion but also reflects class interests as well as unequal power relations. Governance shortcomings, including fragmentation, institutional inertia, corruption, and frequent changes in leadership, have also severely hindered state actors to address congestion. However, due to the poor's limited power, solutions to congestion, are post-political and shaped by elite interests. Analyses of congestion need to consider how socio-political relations, discourses, and a city's materiality shape outcomes.Key Words: urban transport governance, Bangkok traffic congestion, urban political ecology, Thailand political economy, Bangkok's bus system
War is an inherently social process, from the mobilization of new, armed organizations, to the relational aftershocks of violence affecting families and local communities. This essay synthesizes existing feminist research on dynamics of conflict and peacebuilding and brings a social network approach to understanding gendered patterns of intersectional inequality. It presents a framework for understanding how civil war affects social structures vis-à-vis personal support networks, and in turn how that can constrain or enable women's and men's social and economic opportunities. Through a descriptive analysis of communities in Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, I argue that war's social processes, and ongoing militarization in particular, can create structural constraints for people seeking to participate peacefully in civilian life, and incentivize maintaining armed group connections. Network research shines light on the social processes that reproduce gendered inequalities and cleavages after conflict. It also reveals opportunities for bridging divides and transforming wartime networks into peacetime support structures.
War is an inherently social process, from the mobilization of new, armed organizations, to the relational aftershocks of violence affecting families and local communities. This essay synthesizes existing feminist research on dynamics of conflict and peacebuilding and brings a social network approach to understanding gendered patterns of intersectional inequality. It presents a framework for understanding how civil war affects social structures vis-à-vis personal support networks, and in turn how that can constrain or enable women's and men's social and economic opportunities. Through a descriptive analysis of communities in Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, I argue that war's social processes, and ongoing militarization in particular, can create structural constraints for people seeking to participate peacefully in civilian life, and incentivize maintaining armed group connections. Network research shines light on the social processes that reproduce gendered inequalities and cleavages after conflict. It also reveals opportunities for bridging divides and transforming wartime networks into peacetime support structures.
This article traces what recent research and primary sources tell us about psychotherapy in Communist Europe, and how it survived both underground and above the surface. In particular, I will elaborate on the psychotherapeutic techniques that were popular across the different countries and language cultures of the Soviet sphere, with a particular focus upon the Cold War period. This article examines the literature on the mixed fortunes of psychoanalysis and group therapies in the region. More specifically, it focuses upon the therapeutic modalities such as work therapy, suggestion and rational therapy, which gained particular popularity in the Communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe. The latter two approaches had striking similarities with parallel developments in behavioural and cognitive therapies in the West. In part, this was because clinicians on both sides of the 'iron curtain' drew upon shared European traditions from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Nevertheless, this article argues that in the Soviet sphere, those promoting these approaches appropriated socialist thought as a source of inspiration and justification, or at the very least, as a convenient political shield.
Psychotherapy was an invention of European modernity, but as the 20th century unfolded, and we trace how it crossed national and continental borders, its goals and the particular techniques by which it operated become harder to pin down. This introduction briefly draws together the historical literature on psychotherapy in Europe, asking comparative questions about the role of location and culture, and networks of transmission and transformation. It introduces the six articles in this special issue on Greece, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Russia, Britain and Sweden as well as its parallel special issue of History of Psychology on 'Psychotherapy in the Americas'. It traces what these articles tell us about how therapeutic developments were entangled with the dramatic, and often traumatic, political events across the continent: in the wake of the Second World War, the emergence of Communist and authoritarian regimes, the establishment of welfare states and the advance of neoliberalism.
Psychotherapy was an invention of European modernity, but as the 20th century unfolded, and we trace how it crossed national and continental borders, its goals and the particular techniques by which it operated become harder to pin down. This introduction briefly draws together the historical literature on psychotherapy in Europe, asking comparative questions about the role of location and culture, and networks of transmission and transformation. It introduces the six articles in this special issue on Greece, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Russia, Britain and Sweden as well as its parallel special issue of History of Psychology on 'Psychotherapy in the Americas'. It traces what these articles tell us about how therapeutic developments were entangled with the dramatic, and often traumatic, political events across the continent: in the wake of the Second World War, the emergence of Communist and authoritarian regimes, the establishment of welfare states and the advance of neoliberalism.
This article will briefly explore some of the ways in which the past has been used as a means to talk about psychotherapy as a practice and as a profession, its impact on individuals and society, and the ethical debates at stake. It will show how, despite the multiple and competing claims about psychotherapy's history and its meanings, historians themselves have, to a large degree, not attended to the intellectual and cultural development of many therapeutic approaches. This absence has the potential consequence of implying that therapies have emerged as value-free techniques, outside of a social, economic and political context. The relative neglect of psychotherapy, by contrast with the attention historians have paid to other professions, particularly psychiatry, has also underplayed its societal impact. This article will foreground some of the instances where psychotherapy has become an object of emerging historical interest, including the new research that forms the substance of this special issue of History of the Human Sciences.
The Alaska Permanent Fund was established by the State of Alaska in 1976 to save a portion of windfall revenues resulting from the discovery of the large Prudhoe Bay oil field. The Permanent Fund Dividend program, established in 1982, pays out about half the earnings of the Fund to each resident. The dividend was intended to both create a constituency for sound management of the Fund, and directly distribute the State's resource wealth to its citizens. The dividend has achieved great popularity, and has succeeded in allocating resource rents to boost jobs and personal income, and reduce poverty, while the Fund itself has grown. It has also protected the Fund from frivolous practices. But other sovereign wealth funds without dividends have also prospered. There have been trade-offs associated with the dividend, some of which have become more obvious with the Alaska economy grappling with the impact of chronic low oil prices. These include foregone earnings, political complexity, income inequality, and the question of public vs. private spending.
This article will briefly explore some of the ways in which the past has been used as a means to talk about psychotherapy as a practice and as a profession, its impact on individuals and society, and the ethical debates at stake. It will show how, despite the multiple and competing claims about psychotherapy's history and its meanings, historians themselves have, to a large degree, not attended to the intellectual and cultural development of many therapeutic approaches. This absence has the potential consequence of implying that therapies have emerged as value-free techniques, outside of a social, economic and political context. The relative neglect of psychotherapy, by contrast with the attention historians have paid to other professions, particularly psychiatry, has also underplayed its societal impact. This article will foreground some of the instances where psychotherapy has become an object of emerging historical interest, including the new research that forms the substance of this special issue of History of the Human Sciences.
Yew-Kwang Ng's research is the work of an obviously sincere, intelligent, and conscientious animal advocate. But I am unable to accept his starting assumption that animal welfare is an appropriate basis for animal ethics. More specifically I argue that animal welfare as a means to animal liberation is an issue that can be debated, but animal welfare as the ultimate end or goal of animal advocacy is misguided.
In the 21st century, a large part of our identities exist on the Internet. When we apply for jobs, meet a new person, or make plans to go out to eat at a restaurant, one of the most accessible tools to use is Google. But who is monitoring this and how are people managing their online identities? In the European Union, there exists a "Right to be Forgotten", which allows one to petition Google and other search engines to "unlink" one's identity from a website under certain circumstances. Following this unlinkage, the website continues to exist with the same content, but it no longer exists when a search is performed linking the persona to the article. This article proposes solutions to the privacy problems presented by an unchecked World Wide Web, recognizing that while the EU's system might not work in the US, a system needs to be implemented to deal with the fact that the Internet never forgets.
The East African coast, stretching from Somalia, down past Kenya and Tanzania to Mozambique was long thought to be a region of Africa that, while rich in minerals, was of little interest to international oil companies (IOCs). On the rare occasions that drilling had taken place in this vast and diverse region, it had too often failed; prolific oil seeps had failed to reveal commercially exploitable fields. And when potentially commercial fields had been found, for example in Somalia, political crises had intervened to send IOCs declaring force majeure, or at least persuading them not to renew their permits.
On 3 April 2006, covering the transfer of nuclear material and cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy were signed by the Australian and Chinese Governments. While the exports enabled by the agreements represent a windfall for the Australian uranium industry a number groups and individuals have expressed concern that uranium exports to China will ultimately contribute to the proliferation of nuclear weapons. In adhering to Australia's longstanding uranium export policy established during the 1970's, the agreements prescribe bilateral and multilateral safeguards regimes to ensure that Australian nuclear material will only be used within China's civil nuclear power industry. At the bilateral level, a detailed set of accounting procedures administered by the Australian Safeguards and Non-Proliferation Office will be used to account for Australian Obligated Nuclear Material (AONM) as it passes through the nuclear fuel cycle in China. Through the application of the nuclear accounting principles of "equivalence and proportionality" Australian bilateral safeguards effectively ensure that AONM cannot deliver any net benefits to China's military programs. At the multilateral level, Australian policy requires that the facilities through which AONM pass must be made available to inspection by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The IAEA's safeguarding role has evolved considerably since its creation in 1957, as have the methods and procedures by which its safeguards are carried out. While IAEA safeguards have played a positive role in building international confidence by demonstrating that other states are keeping to their non-proliferation commitments and halting the spread of nuclear weapons, the system does suffer from a number of deficiencies . Most important of these are the agency's insufficient funding and the "starting point" of safeguards not covering conversion facilities. Analysed in the context of China, these deficiencies are shown to pose few risks to the diversion of AONM, however improvements should be made. Proliferation concerns in China lie in three main categories: • The proliferation of nuclear weapons in China; • The transfer of sensitive nuclear technologies to other states; and • The theft or sabotage of fissile materials by terrorists or other sub-state groups. Chinese attitudes towards nuclear proliferation have changed significantly in the past 30 years, however there are a number of concerns regarding Chinese authorities' capabilities to enforce its non-proliferation commitments, as well as concerns about China's military intentions. Currently China is engaging in a broad based modernisation program of its strategic forces, raising concerns that AONM will be utilised in a new generation of Chinese war heads. However, for a number of reasons, most notably the fact that China is believed to have ceased producing fissile materials, this would appear unlikely. While China's record of proliferation to nations such as Pakistan is of some concern, State culpability has been unclear and Chinese authorities are working to implement effective export controls. Yet as this report finds, this is one area in which Australian policy could be focused through the Australian Safeguards Support Program (ASSP) to actively engage in eliminating this concern. Of greatest threat to AONM in the context of China is the possibility of global jihadists or China's restive minority groups attempting to steal nuclear materials for the construction of "dirty bombs". Although there is no specific intelligence indicating such a scenario, it cannot be ruled out. While there a number of both technical and political shortcomings in the IAEA's safeguards system, the report concludes that, in addition to Australia 's own bilateral provisions, they will be sufficient to prevent uranium sales to China from contributing to nuclear proliferation. There are simply too many factors to dissuade Chinese authorities from diverting Australian uranium. Nonetheless, the report makes a number of recommendations to help end the deficiencies within the IAEA's safeguards. By doing so the Australia Government can achieve a greater level of public acceptance of the agreements with China and ensure that Australian nuclear materials are at all times covered by fully effective safeguards.
This descriptive paper tells the story of the daily difficulties that members of the Public Order Police (POP) unit in South Africa experienced in their attempts to create a more diverse (in terms of race and gender) and representative police organization. This story is told through recordings of observations and conversations that span a 4-year ethnographic journal. The paper demonstrates that despite affirmative action and equity legislation and programmes, Durban POP by the year 2001, six years after the transformation process within the unit began, was still plagued by deep racial and gender divisions. These divisions were reinforced by the structural make-up of the unit and the inability of middle management to challenge entrenched practices, as well as deep-seated assumptions, schemas and values associated with race, ethnicity and gender. By means of a ethnographic journal I was able to discover some of the daily dilemmas of the police in their change efforts and also the difficulties of getting police practice to meet new policy agendas.
