USB Journals (Univ. Köln)
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The Shadow Pandemic in India: ‘Staying Home’ and The Safety of Women During Lockdown
No full textThe unprecedented health crisis caused by COVID-19 has taken the world by storm. The only way deemed plausible to tackle the crisis in most countries was a policy of restricting mobility and of staying home. However, there are varied views on the merit of such a lockdown. In India the enforcement of ‘staying home’ also needs to be considered in light of the fact that about one-third of the households in the country have to accommodate 3-4 persons per room defying the requirement of social distancing. The situation of women during lockdown is particularly difficult, as their workload has increased, as has their exposure to violence and a denial of vital outside sources of support. The ‘staying home’ rule involves a myriad of issues differing according to the respective social environment. Middle-class women tend to be left with the additional burden of taking care of family members and home-schooling children without the support of helpers who have been released during lockdown. Women working in the informal sector are likely to be hit by a loss of their jobs, and as spouses of often equally jobless informal sector workers ‘add to the burden’ on the financial situation. Addressing the needs of women in times of lockdown is important as gender budgeting is widely known to impact positively on development planning
Within the Wires’ Intimate Fan-based Publics
No full textAs intimacy emerges as a key concept in podcast research, it becomes increasingly urgent to consider the multifaceted ways in which it interacts with the medium. This article advances research on podcasting intimacy by understanding intimacy as undergoing a continual process of culturally contingent negotiation and examining how podcasting participates in that negotiation. Instead of treating intimacy as an inherent part of podcasting, it demonstrates how podcasts can create intimacy and use it to form connections among members of a fan public. To do so, this article uses the first season of Within the Wires (2016) to show how narrative repetition constructs fan-based intimate publics. Within the Wires is an alternate reality fiction podcast whose first season takes the form of relaxation tapes. Throughout the podcast, the narrator repeats specific lines, phrases, and memories that the listener comes to recognize. By retooling Roland Barthes and Marianne Hirsch’s work on recognition and community building in photography for use in sound research, this article develops a theoretical framework for understanding the temporalities of recognition in podcasting. Using this framework, the article posits that Within the Wires uses non-narrative repetition alongside its aural aesthetics to create an intimate public through recognition. The podcast extends that recognition into its monetizing paratexts, making it possible for listeners to recognize themselves and others as fans. The first section of this paper defines recognition and its relationship to time, the second considers how recognition works within the show’s fandom, the third looks at recognition within Within the Wires’ monetizing paratexts, and the final tracks how the podcast finds horror in the breakdown of this system. The article argues that Within the Wires presents intimacy and creates fan-based intimate publics through the experience of recognition
Fragments of Fear and Power: On the Pornographic Construction of Masculinity
No full textThe degrading "objectification" of women in pornography has been widely debated. By implication, men in pornography are often perceived as overbearing "subjects". In this paper, I want to argue however that pornography reduces men visually and symbolically to fragments of a preliminary subjectivity. A brief discussion of pornographic cinematography identifies visual strategies of fragmentation. I then discuss symbolical strategies as revealed in Drucilla Cornell\u27s Lacanian approach to pornography. Cornell\u27s suggestion of infantility in the men of porn is invaluable to my hypothesis: pornography does not represent adult masculinity and sexual power conveyed by men but an infantile fantasy of masculinity and sexual power conveyed by fragments of men. In conclusion, I want to add that in times of ubiquitous online pornography, masculinity is at a loss for alternative models of sexual behavior. The last chapter of this paper explicitly moves from academic to creative questions and offers suggestions from an artist\u27s point of view on how such alternatives could be effected
Sociology of Female Foeticide and Infanticide. Where does the Law Stand?
No full textThe continuity of human generations depends both on men and women. Children are considered the gift of God on earth. But the patriarchal social structure of Indian society continuously denies the rights of girl children both before and after birth. The preference of sons over daughters in a family has been the cause of decreasing sex ratios year by year in India with few exceptions in certain States. The traditions and customs supported by the religious superstitions, play a vital role in this regard. The advances in medical sciences have made it easy to identify the sex of a child even before the birth by misusing the technologies like amniocentesis, scanning and ultra-sonography. Initially these technologies were designed to detect abnormalities of the foetus, but now they are being misused for learning the sex of the foetus with the intention of aborting it if it happens to be that of a female. It is estimated that 5 million girls were eliminated between 1986 and 2001 because of foetal sex determination done by unethical medical professionals. The enactments of laws to curb this attitudinal and social problem have proved unsatisfactory. The present paper seeks to critically examine the growing problem of female foeticide and infanticide in India from the point of socio-legal dimensions
Consumerism and Madness in Mary Harron’s American Psycho
No full textSituated in a different watershed era, in the booming 1980s, the film American Psycho focuses on the negative effects of consumerism in the milieu of the so-called "yuppies". This article traces the debilitating pressure to conform, and the resulting superficiality that drive the protagonist of the movie to murder. Here, the focus lies on the male psyche, as "engaging in commodified recreational activities started to lose its stigma as being a women’s domain", and men began to be specifically targeted as consumers in the second half of the 19th century
Editorial of the Inaugural Volume of "Philosophy of AI"
No full textIn this editorial, we introduce our journal, our recent society activities, and the articles of the first volume.
Vertical farming – agriculture for socio-ecological transformation? An analysis of vertical farming with reference to the concept of food sovereignty
No full textAngesichts sozialer und ökologischer Krisen des dominierenden Ernährungssystems wird die These aufgestellt, dass Alternativen zur vorherrschenden industriellen Landwirtschaft notwendig sind. Als ressourcenschonende Hightech-Alternative wird zunehmend Vertical Farming (VF) diskutiert. Die Arbeit untersucht, welchen Beitrag VF zu einer sozial-ökologisch gerechten und zukunftsfähigen Nahrungsmittelproduktion leisten kann.
Zur normativen Bewertung wird das Konzept der Ernährungssouveränität herangezogen, das für ein ökologisch nachhaltiges und sozial gerechtes Ernährungssystem steht. Methodisch kombiniert die Arbeit eine systematische Literaturrecherche (SLR) mit einer Fallstudie. Die SLR analysiert, welche sozialen und ökologischen Kosten und Nutzen von VF in der Forschung diskutiert werden. Darauf aufbauend werden zwei real existierende Vertical Farms – Bustanica (VAE) und Nordic Harvest (Dänemark) – analysiert, um kontextabhängige Vor- und Nachteile und praktische Umsetzungsspielräume zu untersuchen.
Die Ergebnisse zeigen: VF bietet ökologische und soziale Nutzen, weist jedoch auch erhebliche Kosten auf. Die Bewertung hängt wesentlich von drei Faktoren ab: der technischen Ausgestaltung, dem Standort und dortiger klimatischer Bedingungen sowie der Organisationsform. Insgesamt erfüllt VF derzeit nicht die zentralen Kriterien der Ernährungssouveränität. Unter bestimmten Bedingungen kann es jedoch eine sinnvolle Ergänzung zu herkömmlichen Anbaumethoden darstellen – etwa in verdichteten urbanen Räumen. Insgesamt besteht das transformative Potenzial von VF vor allem in Nischen, wobei es weder überschätzt noch ignoriert werden sollte.
Die Arbeit leistet damit einen Beitrag zur bislang wenig erforschten Verbindung von VF und Ernährungssouveränität und zeigt auf, unter welchen Voraussetzungen VF sozial-ökologisch gerecht ausgestaltet werden könnte.In view of the social and ecological crises of the dominant food system, the thesis is put forward that alternatives to prevailing industrial agriculture are necessary. Vertical farming (VF) is increasingly being discussed as a resource-saving high-tech alternative. This thesis examines the contribution that VF can make to socially and ecologically just and sustainable food production.
For the normative evaluation, the concept of food sovereignty is used, which stands for an ecologically sustainable and socially just food system. Methodologically, the thesis combines a systematic literature review (SLR) with a case study. The SLR analyses the social and ecological costs and benefits of VF discussed in the research. Building on this, two existing vertical farms – Bustanica (UAE) and Nordic Harvest (Denmark) – are analysed to examine context-dependent advantages and disadvantages and practical scope for implementation.
The results show that VF offers ecological and social benefits, but also entails considerable costs. The assessment depends largely on three factors: the technical design, the location and local climatic conditions, and the form of organisation. Overall, VF does not currently meet the key criteria for food sovereignty. Under certain conditions, however, it can be a useful supplement to conventional farming methods – for example in densely populated urban areas. Overall, the transformative potential of VF lies primarily in niche areas, and should neither be overestimated nor ignored.
The study thus contributes to the up till now little-researched connection between VF and food sovereignty and shows under what conditions VF could be designed in a socially and ecologically equitable manner