1,720,987 research outputs found
Human rights trade-offs in a context of systemic unfreedom: work vs. health in the case of the smelter town of La Oroya, Perú.
Full text linkOver the last few years, the town of La Oroya, in Perú’s central Andes has received significant international attention due to the alarming number of children suffering from high levels of lead poisoning as a result of pollution from the town’s smelter. Paradoxically, instead of collectively unifying voices to claim the protection of their health and environment, a significant portion of members of this community opted to minimize the problem with the purpose of defending job opportunities at the smelter.This dissertation examines the deep structural causes that have placed residents of this community in the difficult position of having to sacrifice their human right to health in order to preserve their right to work at the smelter. I argue that the La Oroya community acquiesced in forfeiting their own rights because they have been historically trapped in a “context of systemic unfreedom.” This is a historically formed and politically and economically reproduced context of human rights abuses, a context that affects the overall well-being of individuals and communities, and diminishes their ability to challenge such abuses and transform their realities.
To assess the exact contours and components of the context of systemic unfreedom in La Oroya, and respond to the question of how this context has encouraged the trade-offs of health for work, I have designed a “capability-oriented model of human rights.” Conceptually, this model builds upon structural approaches to human rights proposed by authors such as Paul Farmer, Tony Evans and Mark Goodale. It also adopts Séverine Deneuline’s relational-political interpretation of the capability approach pioneered by Amartya Sen. Methodologically, a salient feature of my model is its incorporation of voices of affected community members as an important source of knowledge.
Results of this study show the extent to which the context of systemic unfreedom in La Oroya has been sustained by the interconnection of a constellation of factors: environmental (historical pollution); institutional (economic dependency, the state’s leniency in enforcing the smelter company’s environmental obligations, the extraction-based model of economic development in Perú, the institutional fragility of the human rights discourse); social (migration, loss of collective identity, socio-economic and gender inequalities, uncertainty about pollution, limited access to information, assignment of responsibility for pollution-based illness to individuals, stigma against the poor); and personal (individual values and needs, characteristics of individual identity). These factors have converged over time and intersected at the macro, meso and micro levels, trapping residents from La Oroya in a vicious cycle of disadvantage.
I conclude by suggesting that, in order to effectively address “systemic unfreedom” in this smelter town, both short-term and long-term solutions are required. That is, in addition to promoting the completion of proposed environmental mitigation and soil remediation plans in La Oroya, I offer suggestions towards reversing entrenched socio-economic and gender inequalities and reconstituting a collective community identity. Fundamentally, the ultimate goal of structural transformation in La Oroya requires addressing current patterns of power, economic dependency, and domination, thus fostering changes in the state’s vision of development.Graduate2016-04-3
Recommended from our members
Siberian Tigers and Exotic Birds: Ronald Dworkin\u27s Map of the Sacred
No full textAt its most abstract, Life\u27s Dominion: An Argument about Abortion, Euthanasia, and Individual Freedom is a meditation on the nature of individual freedom. However, as author Ronald Dworkin explains at the end of Chapter One, he believes in doing philosophy in much the same way common law jurists believe in doing law-from the inside out-that is, by starting with a concrete problem and then proceeding to the more general questions raised by that problem. According to Dworkin, this generates a theory that is appropriately tailored to the issue, Savile Row so to speak, rather than Seventh Avenue, and thus a theory that is more likely to improve the quality of public debate. The crucible for Dworkin\u27s theory in this instance is the debate over abortion and constitutional rights. Although euthanasia is discussed in the last two chapters of the book, it is not as comprehensively explored as the abortion issue. Indeed, it is plausible to read the book as an elaborate justification of the U.S. Supreme Court decision on abortion rights, Roe v. Wade, which Dworkin suggests may be the most famous case in America, if not the world. The majority in Roe v. Wade found that although women\u27s constitutional privacy rights entitle them to choose to terminate a pregnancy, those rights diminish as their pregnancies progress in accordance with a trimester framework
Protection from discrimination because of disability in European community law
No full textIn 2000 the European Union adopted the Framework Equal Treatment Directive which prohibits discrimination because of a number of grounds including disability. This thesis examines the nature of that protection from discrimination because of disability and considers what contribution the directive may make to achieving the policy objectives of the disability rights movement in Europe. The discussion is based on the text of the directive, policy statements issued by the European Council, the Council of the European Union and the European Commission, academic commentary and decisions of the European Court of Justice. The dominant models of disability, the medical and social models, are described and analysed. A formulation of the disability rights movement's general policy themes in the European context is proposed. Conceptual tensions between policy approaches to disability and different understandings of the principle of equal treatment are outlined. A detailed analysis of the likely interpretation of the directive's provisions related to disability is based on the extensive European Court of Justice case law on other forms of discrimination. The directive is likely to provide protection for individuals who are discriminated against in the employment context where that discrimination is caused by bias against disabled people, stereotyping or failure to provide reasonable accommodation. The contribution of the directive to the policy objectives of the disability rights movement in Europe will vary among the Member States ranging from making little difference in those countries which already had non-discrimination legislation to being a major tool for promoting disability rights in those countries which had no history of such legislation
Siberian Tigers and Exotic Birds: Ronald Dworkin\u27s Map of the Sacred
Full text linkAt its most abstract, Life\u27s Dominion: An Argument about Abortion, Euthanasia, and Individual Freedom is a meditation on the nature of individual freedom. However, as author Ronald Dworkin explains at the end of Chapter One, he believes in doing philosophy in much the same way common law jurists believe in doing law-from the inside out-that is, by starting with a concrete problem and then proceeding to the more general questions raised by that problem. According to Dworkin, this generates a theory that is appropriately tailored to the issue, Savile Row so to speak, rather than Seventh Avenue, and thus a theory that is more likely to improve the quality of public debate. The crucible for Dworkin\u27s theory in this instance is the debate over abortion and constitutional rights. Although euthanasia is discussed in the last two chapters of the book, it is not as comprehensively explored as the abortion issue. Indeed, it is plausible to read the book as an elaborate justification of the U.S. Supreme Court decision on abortion rights, Roe v. Wade, which Dworkin suggests may be the most famous case in America, if not the world. The majority in Roe v. Wade found that although women\u27s constitutional privacy rights entitle them to choose to terminate a pregnancy, those rights diminish as their pregnancies progress in accordance with a trimester framework
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
That's a really nice coat you're wearing : dignity, agency, and social inclusion in the administration of welfare
Full text linkAppropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Taking notice: judicial notice and practices of judgment in anti-poverty litigation
No full textThis thesis explores the doctrine of judicial notice, particularly as it applies in the context of anti-poverty litigation. I invoke a theory of judgment which centres valid judgment on the practice of an "enlarged mentality." I argue for an interpretation of judicial notice that can assist judges to approach their task in this way. First, judicial notice should be animated by the fundamental principles of the legal system. including equality. Second, judicial notice must be attentive to the different kinds of "facts" that could be subject to notice, and the criteria for notice that are appropriate in each case. Third. judicial notice requires an active posture on behalf of judges, which finds support in legal norms about impartiality and the duty to give reasons. Finally, judicial notice requires judges to be actively attentive to the content of their own common sense
- …
