21 research outputs found
Recommended from our members
Turned Inside Out: The Rise of Private, Networked, Data-Centric Governance
No full textThe pursuit of more sustainable consumption and production of consumer goods has taken an inside-out turn. Instead of external stakeholders devising carrot-and-stick methods of influence, industry players like brands, retailers, and platforms are increasingly finding value in sustainability governance. Able to collect data streams inaccessible to stakeholders, with the market power to implement rapid changes transnationally, and guided by a vision of Industry 4.0, there has been renewed hope in private solutions to public issues. Firms are arguing that they can leverage their considerable power to achieve what NGOs and governments have struggled to achieve in thirty or so years: comparable and actionable data, market transparency, supply chain and product innovation, and enforcement of labor and environmental standards. Using interdisciplinary methods and novel empirical research, I describe and assess the emerging phenomenon of private, networked, data-centric governance (PNDG). First, I present a literature review of sustainable consumption. I demonstrate that the potential impact of so-called citizen consumption is extraordinarily limited, and argue that structural policies and politics are more likely to yield the necessary transformative change. My empirical work, in turn, focuses on production networks. In chapter three, through data analysis, surveys, and case studies, I examine the Higg Index, an apparel-industry wide initiative to collect and utilize environmental and social data. I find that after ten years, the Higg Index is a scale without a diet—it solves a number of measurement issues, but fails to address root issues of incentives and transparency. In chapter four, I perform a primarily econometric analysis of an intervention in a Thai clothing factory. My analysis demonstrates factory worker compensation formulas can incent higher productivity through higher wages, thereby showing a financially viable path towards living wages. And yet, the project highlights limitations on potential gains absent further external pressure by organized labor, NGOs, governments, or consumers. By offering novel empirical insights, as well as describing the phenomenon of PNDG, my findings inform ongoing policy debates, industry investments, and stakeholder projects. While PNDG holds promise, it needs to be complemented with more external accountability mechanisms that promote stronger incentives
Scandal on campus. Dietrich Schwanitz reads Niklas Luhmann’s systems theory
No full textNiklas Luhmann (1927–1998) is one of the most distinguished sociologists of the twentieth cen-tury and the author of systems theory, which to a great extent has been accommodated into lin-guistics. Dietrich Schwanitz (1940–2004), an anglicist, is one of the most interesting interpreters of Luhmann on the basis of literary studies. Schwanitz is also known as a writer and author of the novel Campus (Der Campus, 1995). The main character, a sociologist, Hanno Hackmann, is wrongly accused of the sexual harassment and rape of a student. His reckless romance is exploited by various people in the university milieu to achieve their own goals. In fact, these people are, however, only the representatives of various social systems, especially politics and the media. Striving for re-election, the university rector needs this matter for his campaign, and the media are only interested in a scandalous story to be exploited for some time. Social communication does not reflect reality, and, at the same time, can be described as based on the “reduction of complexi-ty” (“Komplexitätsreduktion”). This is one of the most important concepts in Niklas Luhmann’s work. It turns out that systems theory provides the specific key to interpret the novel
Systemic therapy – A practical implementation of systemic thinking
No full textA summary presentation of the historic development of systemic therapy as the follow-up to family therapies, with the usage of new metatheoretical thinking from the constructivist point of view is followed by a description of the material theoretical conditions of this psychotherapeutic approach, with particular consideration for the theories of cognition and autopoiesis by Chilean biologist Humberto Maturana as well as the sociological system theory according to German sociologist Niklas Luhmann. This is followed by an understanding of interaction systems with respect to the theory of therapy, as developed by the author – the member concept, as well as a system-theoretical adequate conceptualisation of psychical systems. The work ends with a short presentation of the implementation of the described theoretical concepts in systemic therapy practice.A summary presentation of the historic development of systemic therapy as the follow-up to family therapies, with the usage of new metatheoretical thinking from the constructivist point of view is followed by a description of the material theoretical conditions of this psychotherapeutic approach, with particular consideration for the theories of cognition and autopoiesis by Chilean biologist Humberto Maturana as well as the sociological system theory according to German sociologist Niklas Luhmann. This is followed by an understanding of interaction systems with respect to the theory of therapy, as developed by the author – the member concept, as well as a system-theoretical adequate conceptualisation of psychical systems. The work ends with a short presentation of the implementation of the described theoretical concepts in systemic therapy practice
NOTION OF PROPERTY LEGITIMACY
No full textThe article deals with the sociological theory of property, which belongs to the domain of
sociology of law. The author mentions both classic and contemporary sources from the continental
and Anglo-American legal tradition. The presented notion is based primarily upon Max Weber’s
methodological assumptions and some of its newer interpretations as well as upon the theories of
property by Niklas Luhmann, Jeremy Waldron, and Bruce Ackerman. The general theory o f legitimacy
has been borrowed from Jurgen Habermas’ works
Between politics and law or the question of transitional justice
No full textThe article is a theoretical study of legal strategies introduced in states under political transformation (post-communist states in Europe, Australia, South Africa) to deal with the effects of former political regimes. As the author argues, opening a discussion concerning the evils of former regimes is important for raising public engagement in building a new state of law. Legal retribution expresses the public contempt for committed crimes and reasserts the existence of public norms. However, following the arguments of Judith Shklar and Niklas Luhmann, the author warns against the inner limitations of legal instruments in defining the space of social and moral relationships. An antidote against the possible political instrumentalization of law and the dominance of legal regulations in public sphere should be found therefore in independent historical research and cultural debate that seeks for a deeper understanding of the past.Artykuł jest teoretyczną analizą strategii prawnych wprowadzonych w krajach przechodzących transformację polityczną (w państwach postkomunistycznych w Europie, w Australii, w Południowej Afryce), używanych przy radzeniu sobie ze skutkami dawnych reżimów politycznych. Zdaniem autora rozpoczęcie dyskusji na temat zła dawnych reżimów jest ważne dla zwiększenia zaangażowania społeczeństwa w budowaniu nowego ładu prawnego. Prawna «odpłata» jest wyrazem publicznego potępienia popełnionych zbrodni i potwierdza istnienie norm publicznych. Jednak idąc tropem argumentów Judith Shklar i Niklasa Luhmanna, autor ostrzega przed wewnętrznymi ograniczeniami instrumentów prawnych w definiowaniu przestrzeni stosunków społecznych i relacji o charakterze moralnym. Antidotum na ewentualną instrumentalizację prawa dla celów politycznych i dominację regulacji prawnych w sferze publicznej należy w związku z tym szukać w niezależnych badaniach historycznych i debacie kulturowej, która zmierza do głębszego zrozumienia przeszłości
Metaporównanie. Komparatystyka jako system zwrotny
No full textIn order to obtain, as the author
himself puts it, “a successful internalisation of the comparative metadiscourse” necessary for “the survival of
comparative literature”, the author refers to constructivism by noticing crucial similarities between the two
directions in terms of their historical development and character. The author does not agree with the accusation
of the secondary status of comparative research in relation to other fields of science. He points to the fact that the
existence of a rich comparative metadiscourse, which implies analogy with constructivism and accounts for the
status of comparative studies as an important area of research, is omitted. By means of referring to Niklas
Luhman, the author identifies comparative studies with second-order observation, that is, focusing not on the
objects of comparative studies (those seem to be as numerous and various as the reality surrounding the human
being), but on the nature of the comparative process, in other words on the manner in which the comparison of
the above mentioned objects is carried out
Essay About The Province (Notes About the Lack of Power in Modern Russia)
No full textIn this article, the author using sketches of Russian culture, tries to understand, how institutions of power can function in the Russian province, and how they can be perceived by the society. The power is distributed unevenly, and this has a full effect on its deficit in relation to provincial political discourse. The Russian example is not an exception. From the author’s point of view, modern practices may have significant cultural grounds, hiding in a special relation to the province, which traditionally accompanied political discourse. The author sees this attitude in various sketches from the texts of Aleksandr Pushkin, Andrey Platonov, Anton Chekhov, Ivan Bunin and other Russian classics. The author’s interpretation of the problem required an appeal to the theoretical works of political philosophers, such as Giorgio Agamben, Albert Camus, Niklas Luhmann, Michel Foucault and Max Scheler. The author believes that in the space of the Russian province there is an objective deficit of institutions of power, which speaks, on the one hand, of a certain disregard for the province, and, on the other hand, testifies to the strength of resistance to local initiatives and legal nihilism that has become part of the political philosophy of the Russian provincial. In turn, the provision of a person to himself, affects a fairly critical attitude toward the political power. A person is not more capable of trusting the authorities and seeking support from them. His being increasingly assumes an existential character. The policy of the federal government in modern Russia gives rise to serious gaps between the center and the province, which can forms affect the specific perception of power itself, and also affects the formation of anarchic attitudes.В данной статье автор пытается понять, как институты власти могут функционировать в условиях российской провинции и как они могут восприниматься обществом. Власть распределяется неравномерно, и это в полной мере сказывается на её дефиците применительно к провинциальному политическому дискурсу. Пример современной России не является исключением. Автор считает, что современные политические практики власти основываются на определённых культурных основаниях, объясняющихся особым отношением к провинции, которое традиционно присутствует в политическом дискурсе. Автор видит это отношение в различных сюжетах из текстов Александра Пушкина, Андрея Платонова, Антона Чехова, Ивана Бунина и других русских классиков. Авторская интерпретация проблемы потребовала обращения и к теоретическим работам политических философов, среди которых можно выделить Джорджо Агамбена, Альбера Камю, Никласа Лумана, Мишеля Фуко и Макса Шелера. Для автора важность подобного обращения была обусловлена тем фактом, что в центре отмеченных теоретических построений, так или иначе, присутствует проблема соотношения властии сопротивления. По мнению автора, в пространстве российской провинции существует объективный дефицит институтов власти, говорящий, с одной стороны, об определённом пренебрежении провинцией, а, с другой стороны, свидетельствующий о силе сопротивления инициативам власти на местах и правовом нигилизме, ставшем частью мировоззренческой философии российского провинциала. Представленность человека самому себе, влияет на достаточно критическое отношение к власти. Человек больше не способен доверять институтам власти и искать у них поддержки, что в полной мере раскрывается на примере современной российской провинции, наследующей традицию осторожного и нигилистического отношения к политическим институтам в собственной истории. Политика федеральной власти в современной России порождает серьёзные разрывы между центром и провинцией, что не может не сказываться на специфическом восприятии самой власти, а также влияет на формирование анархических установок
Post 1990s Dance Theatre and (the idea of) the Neutral
No full textPhDThe thesis focuses on the concept of neutrality in the works of contemporary
European (post 1990s) choreographers. While broad ideas around neutrality are
considered, the thesis primarily engages with Roland Barthes’ definition of
neutrality as a structural term: 'every inflection that, dodging or baffling the
paradigmatic, oppositional structure of meaning, aims at the suspension of the
conflictual basis of discourse'. I argue that the minimalist work of Judson
Church, New York City, is anticipating the interest in the neutral that will more
strongly formulate itself in dance theatre after the 1990s. In the first chapter on
Jérôme Bel, the concept of neutrality is introduced as a general idea, together with
its inherent problem. The 'problem' is not that this or that element that Bel
chooses cannot be perceived as neutral, but that neutral or stage zero can never be
neutral enough. The second chapter, dedicated to the work of Thomas Lehmen,
explores the idea of 'neutralization' in relation to the notion of the self in
Lehmen's performance, where 'It is not I or you who lives: 'one' (une vie) lives in
us' (P. Hallward). In the third chapter I argue that in Raimund Hoghe’s
performances, love is conceived essentially as a balance between narcissism and
pure object-love – as a neutral state. The fourth chapter, on Croatia’s BADco.,
gravitates around the ways in which group processes function, arguing that the
idea of the neutral is located in the ‘invisible hand’ of emergence. The thesis shifts
academic performance analysis towards a more concept-based approach,
unpicking and/or constructing timeless, abstract and broad concepts and ideas that
the work of these choreographers resonates with
Presence 2005: the eighth annual international workshop on presence, 21-23 September, 2005 University College London (Conference proceedings)
No full textOVERVIEW (taken from the CALL FOR PAPERS)
Academics and practitioners with an interest in the concept of (tele)presence are invited to submit their work for presentation at PRESENCE 2005 at University College London in London, England, September 21-23, 2005.
The eighth in a series of highly successful international workshops, PRESENCE 2005 will provide an open discussion forum to share ideas regarding concepts and theories, measurement techniques, technology, and applications related to presence, the psychological state or subjective perception in which a person fails to accurately and completely acknowledge the role of technology in an experience, including the sense of 'being there' experienced by users of advanced media such as virtual reality.
The concept of presence in virtual environments has been around for at least 15 years, and the earlier idea of telepresence at least since Minsky's seminal paper in 1980. Recently there has been a burst of funded research activity in this area for the first time with the European FET Presence Research initiative. What do we really know about presence and its determinants? How can presence be successfully delivered with today's technology? This conference invites papers that are based on empirical results from studies of presence and related issues and/or which contribute to the technology for the delivery of presence. Papers that make substantial advances in theoretical understanding of presence are also welcome. The interest is not solely in virtual environments but in mixed reality environments. Submissions will be reviewed more rigorously than in previous conferences. High quality papers are therefore sought which make substantial contributions to the field.
Approximately 20 papers will be selected for two successive special issues for the journal Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments.
PRESENCE 2005 takes place in London and is hosted by University College London. The conference is organized by ISPR, the International Society for Presence Research and is supported by the European Commission's FET Presence Research Initiative through the Presencia and IST OMNIPRES projects and by University College London
Household Portfolios in Germany
No full textThis paper describes portfolio choices of German households in the 1980's and 1990's. We present stylized facts and analyze recent trends of asset ownership rates and asset shares on the basis of national accounts and survey data. We correlate socio-demographic household characteristics with asset shares and ownership, and analyze how German households have adjusted their asset portfolios in response to the policy changes during this time. A particular focus is on the effects of German reunification and the portfolio adjustments of East German households during the transition process.
