1,721,074 research outputs found
The Violence of Workfare
No full textThis chapter analyses the testimonies of 97 people who have participated in ‘workfare’ schemes in the UK and have raised concerns about the health and safety risks experienced on these placements. Overall, these placements, which were carried out between May 2011 and November 2015, equate to some 1,139 weeks of compulsory unpaid labour. They were carried out under the threat of having social security benefits removed (sanctioned) if the placements were not completed. Analysing these testimonies, this chapter uncovers 64 concrete allegations of breaches of health and safety legislation at 43 different workplaces. It argues that these placements can constitute a dangerous, and illegal, threat to the safety of benefits claimants. It scrutinises the processes which ensure claimants comply with unsafe working conditions
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Introduction: The Violence of Austerity
No full textOne decade after the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) and seven years since the Coalition government first rolled out a suite of public sector cuts it described as austerity measures, public sector cuts continue to devastate communities. The contributions gathered in this book collectively present evidence showing that people most affected by austerity cuts are not only struggling under the financial strain but are becoming ill, physically and emotionally, and many are dying. As well as pointing the finger at political leaders responsible for designing the policies that target marginal and vulnerable populations, we focus attention on the assemblage of bureaucracies and institutions through which austerity policies are made real. The various chapters identify the politicians, the public and private servants and the institutions responsible for the violence of austerity and set out, in no uncertain terms, to demonstrate how these people and organisations have harmed key marginal groups whose welfare they are ultimately responsible for. Before turning our attention to this task, this introduction will explore in detail what is meant by ‘austerity’ and how it has been used to legitimise a political process that we argue has comprehensively reshaped our relationship with government and the public sector
The Violence of Workfare
No full textThis chapter analyses the testimonies of 97 people who have participated in ‘workfare’ schemes in the UK and have raised concerns about the health and safety risks experienced on these placements. Overall, these placements, which were carried out between May 2011 and November 2015, equate to some 1,139 weeks of compulsory unpaid labour. They were carried out under the threat of having social security benefits removed (sanctioned) if the placements were not completed. Analysing these testimonies, this chapter uncovers 64 concrete allegations of breaches of health and safety legislation at 43 different workplaces. It argues that these placements can constitute a dangerous, and illegal, threat to the safety of benefits claimants. It scrutinises the processes which ensure claimants comply with unsafe working conditions
Conclusion : reconnecting the asymmetries of political violence
No full textCollectively the chapters in this book show very clearly that a primary
purpose of the political violence of the state is to devalue, undermine and
ultimately eradicate, the political legitimacy of those that resist state power.
The causes and the actions of insurgent sub-state political violence are represented as a technical problem, devoid of politics, motivated by irrationality, barbarism and evil 'Bringing politics back in', the book has therefore shown, entails a focus on both state and counter-state political violence, and indeed the connections between the two
Introduction: Counter-Terrorism and the Terrorist State
No full textof terrorism to that committed by nonstate actors, or by otherwise ignoring or overlooking state terrorism, develops a way of thinking about terrorism that effectively constructs states, particularly Western states, always as the victims and never the perpetrators of 'terrorism' (Herman and O'Sullivan, 1989; Chomsky and Herman, 1979; Herman, 1982; Schlesinger, 1978; George, 1991). This book is firmly located in this critical tradition of 'bringing the state back in' to the study of terrorism, and is likewise building upon a more recent body of work which revives and updates this literature (Blakeley, 2007, 2009; Jackson et al., 2009, 2010). This book, however, is not merely part of a growing critical mass, but it also sets out to make a distinctive contribution to this literature. The chapters collected in this volume address a particular form of state terrorism: one that results directly from 'counter-insurgency' and 'counter-terrorist' operations. As the contributions herein testify, there is always a hidden solidarity between the terrorism of the state and the techniques states use under the broad rubric of the 'war on terror'
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
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