Suchergebnisse

Introduction: The L'Aquila Earthquake -- The state of emergency -- Disaster politics and the war among the poor -- Contesting urban recovery -- Activism and grassroots politics -- Culture and social recovery -- Mourning in court -- Conclusion: A future for L'Aquila.

When one million asylum seekers and other migrants entered Germany in 2015–2016, the situation was called a national crisis. This article examines the impact of an emergency reception centre on a small town, investigating how rural Germans debated crisis experiences, migration and borders. In the Harz Mountains, asylum seekers arrived in an area already suffering from decline. Accommodating newcomers became a specific challenge. The assumption of a European-wide emergency induced by the presence of foreigners neglects how contexts shape crisis perceptions. Social fragmentation occurred when some townspeople framed local developments as the Flüchtlingskrise covered by the media, whereas others used personal experience to critique the crisis concept. As new experts in emergency management, reception centre employees changed their political consciousness. The unsteady politico-spatial order, rather than asylum seekers as subjects, produced anxiety over marginalisation, since the reception centre shifted problematic border features – chaos and risk – into central Germany.

Recent analyses of the state have emphasized its inability to generate hope among citizens, suggesting that neoliberalism and globalization erode its protective power. However, this article suggests that the state still features as a coveted agent of support, in particular during unstable times. After the 2009 L'Aquila earthquake, the Italian state became the key actor responsible for emergency aid, restoration, and urban redevelopment. Dedication and the performance of compassion produced expectations of swift improvement. Hope became dependent on state authority. A few years later, uncertainty replaced hope, as promises for recovery remained unrealized. The state morphed from an agent of hope into the source of hopelessness, generating uncertainty and a sense of crisis. Since the state is revealed through its effects, this article highlights the need to trace state power in intimate human emotional experience, such as hope or despair. The production of a specific condition of uncertainty reveals the significance of state power in human life, particularly during times of personal or collective crisis.

"Although its beginnings can be traced back to the late 19th century, the interfaith movement has only recently begun to attract mainstream attention, with governments, religious leaders and grassroots activists around the world increasingly turning to interfaith dialogue and collective action to address the challenges posed and explore the opportunities presented by religious diversity in a globalising world. This volume explores the history and development of the interfaith movement by engaging with new theoretical perspectives and a diverse range of case studies from around the world. The first book to bring together experts in the fields of religion, politics and social movement theory to offer an in-depth social analysis of the interfaith movement, it not only sheds new light on the movement itself, but challenges the longstanding academic division of labour that confines 'religious' and 'social' movements to separate spheres of inquiry"--

In a rapidly changing world, in which religious identities emerge as crucial fault lines in political and public discourse, this volume brings together multiple disciplinary perspectives in order to investigate shifting conceptions of, and commitments to, the ideals of religious pluralism. Spanning theology, sociology, politics and anthropology, the chapters explore various approaches to coexistence, political visions of managing diversity and lived experiences of multireligiosity, in order to examine how modes of religious pluralism are being constructed and contested in different parts of the world. Contributing authors analyse challenges to religious pluralism, as well as innovative kinds of conviviality, that produce meaningful engagements with diversity and shared community life across different social, political and economic settings. This book will be relevant to scholars of religion, community life, social change and politics, and will also be of interest to civil society organisations, NGOs, international agencies and local, regional and national policymakers

As austerity measures continue to lead to cutbacks in basic social services, a number of grassroots organizations have grown up or expanded throughout Europe to help provide for citizens' basic needs. This book looks at a number of both secular and faith-based groups in Berlin and London to show how they and their activism have evolved in response to those changes in economic policy. It brings together scholars from different disciplines and practitioners in several areas of social intervention to explore how the very ideas of citizenship and community have begun to change in the wake of cutbacks to the welfare state. --

The arrival in 2015 and 2016 of over one million asylum seekers and refugees in Germany had major social consequences and gave rise to extensive debates about the nature of cultural diversity and collective life. This volume examines the responses and implications of what was widely seen as the most significant and contested social change since German reunification in 1990. It combines in-depth studies based on anthropological fieldwork with analyses of the longer trajectories of migration and social change. Its original conclusions have significance not only for Germany but also for the understanding of diversity and difference more widely

The politics of austerity has seen governments across Europe cut back on welfare provision. As the State retreats, this edited collection explores secular and faith-based grassroots social action in Germany and the United Kingdom that has evolved in response to changing economic policy and expanding needs, from basic items such as food to more complex means to move out of poverty. Bringing together scholars from different disciplines and practitioners in several areas of social intervention, the book explores how the conceptualization and constitutive practices of citizenship and community are changing because of the retreat of the State and the challenge of meeting social and material needs, creating new opportunities for local activism. The book provides new ways of thinking about social and political belonging and about the relations between individual, collective, and State responsibility

What makes people lose faith in democratic statecraft? The question seems an urgent one. In the first decades of the twenty-first century, citizens across the world have grown increasingly disillusioned with what was once a cherished ideal. Setting out an original theoretical model that explores the relations between democracy, subjectivity and sociality, and exploring its relevance to countries ranging from Kenya to Peru, The State We're In is a must-read for all political theorists, scholars of democracy, and readers concerned for the future of the democratic ideal