The Cognitive Immune System

How do we know when a belief or behavior qualifies as pathological? Are institutions vulnerable to pathological beliefs and behaviors? Nicolas de Condorcet sought answers to these questions using Enlightenment reason. This chapter argues that Condorcet’s modern liberal approach to diagnosing and treating pathological beliefs and behaviors (1) didn’t go far enough, and (2) contained significant blind spots that we are only now coming to appreciate through scientific discoveries. Currently the United States and much of the world is crippled by two pandemics: the coronavirus (a physical virus) and the right-wing cult (a cognitive virus). This chapter introduces the theory of the cognitive immune system and discusses the affordances and limits of the metaphor to medical epidemiology.

Civilizational mnemonics and the longue durée: The Bulgarian case

Constructivist assumptions have dominated the field of memory studies, producing an avalanche of case studies focusing on the instrumental and expedient factors shaping memory politics. However, this constructivist bias has also yielded new blind spots. For one, it tends to privilege “events” and “contingencies” over the longue durée of a particular memory configuration. Two, it remains caught in a binary juxtaposition with some states adopting globally circulating mnemonic scripts, signaling universal aspirations, while other states pursue nation-centric approaches. To overcome these blind spots (and binaries), we propose two interrelated conceptual moves: first, we are taking the importance of enduring memory figurations into consideration. Second, we expand the nation-state focus by introducing the notion of “civilizational mnemonics,” which does not replace national memories, but frequently underwrites them. Bulgarian memory politics, our test case, is part of a complex nexus of imperial legacies and post-colonial discourses. Bulgaria has been a middle ground, accommodating competing imperial projects—Ottoman, Russian, and Western. These intersections allow us to draw general inferences about mnemonic tropes and their enduring salience.

Heterotopian Disorientation: Intersectionality in William Oldroyd’s Lady Macbeth

This article reads William Oldroyd’s Lady Macbeth (2016) through the lens of Michel Foucault’s concept of the heterotopia to explore the film’s ambivalent gender and racial politics. The country house that Katherine Lester is locked away in forms a quasi-heterotopia, mediated through a disorienting cinematography of incarceration. Although she manages to transgress the ideological boundaries surrounding her, she simultaneously contributes to the oppression of her Black housemaid, Anna. On the one hand, the film suggests that the coercive space of the colony—another Foucauldian heterotopia—may threaten white hegemony: While Mr Lester’s Black, illegitimate son Teddy almost manages to claim his inheritance and, hence, contest the racialised master/servant relationship of the country house, Anna’s voice threatens to cause Katherine’s downfall. On the other hand, through eventually denying Anna’s and Teddy’s agency, Lady Macbeth exposes the pervasiveness of intersectional forms of oppression that are at play in both Victorian and twenty-first-century Britain. The constant spatial disorientation that the film produces, this article suggests, not only identifies blind spots in Foucault’s writings on heterotopian space as far as intersectionality is concerned, but also speaks to white privilege as a vital concern of both twenty-first-century feminism and neo-Victorian criticism.

Contributions and Blind Spots of Constructivist Norms Research in International Relations, 1980–2018: A Systematic Evidence and Gap Analysis

The study of international norms from a social constructivist perspective has been one of the major conceptual innovations to the discipline of international relations (IR) over the past forty years. However, despite the concept's ubiquity, there is only a limited understanding of the large-scale trends in research associated with its rise. This analytic essay interrogates conventional wisdom, using a dataset of 7,795 mainstream, English-language journal articles from the Teaching, Research and International Policy Journal Article Database, supplemented with data from Web of Science. How have international norms been studied substantively and methodologically, what are major contributions and blind spots, and which opportunities for future innovation might exist? Although norms research has historically helped expand the scope of issues covered in IR (e.g., gender issues and public health), others have evidence gaps relative to the broader discipline of IR (e.g., terrorism and public opinion). Over the years, the proportion of empirical studies has increased, while purely theoretical, epistemological, and methodological work and innovation have decreased. Despite calls for methodological pluralism, norms research is significantly more qualitative and conceptual than mainstream IR in general and far less multi-method. While more international and less US-based than IR in general, norms research in mainstream journals seems to be no closer to a “Global IR,” measured by regional focus and author affiliation. This suggests three promising avenues for future innovation: greater attention to specific substantive blind spots, more multi-method research, and increased attention to the agenda of Global IR. Beyond these individual insights, this review illustrates the general utility of complementing narrative literature reviews with ones based on quantitative data. It also provides a case study on conceptual proliferation and innovation in IR.

Endoscopic Imaging Using a Multimode Optical Fibre Calibrated with Multiple Internal References

The interferometric acquisition of the transmission matrix (TM) of a multimode optical fibre (MMF), which is at the heart of multimode fibre-based endoscopic imaging methods, requires using a reference beam. Attempts to use an internal reference, that is to provide the reference in a common pathway geometry through the MMF itself, lead to a speckled reference intensity and consequential occurrence of “blind spots”—locations where insufficient optical power in the reference wave inflicts strong measurement errors. Here we show that combining a relatively small number of TMs, which are measured using different internal references, facilitates a complete elimination of blind spots, and thereby a significant enhancement of the imaging quality.

The Infantile in the Psychoanalyst at Work

In order to define the Infantile and to examine its role in the analytic relationship, I considered this concept from both its developmental and structural status. I based my position on Freud’s view of a double Unconscious, together container of the repressed and drive source. I also used jointly both Freudian models of the psychic apparatus, that I do not consider as exclusive from each other, but as complementary, although not always easy to put together. This led me to consider the peculiarities of the criteria for the termination of the analyst’s personal analysis, and to try and describe the economic situation of repression in the psychoanalyst at work. By observing the impact of the Infantile-of-the-analysand upon the system PCS-CS of the psychoanalyst, I dealt with the odds and ends of the lack of representation and I tried to examine the situation and the future of the blind spots issued from such an impact.

State of Agricultural Finance in India

Agricultural finance has come a long way in the past 15 years. After the concerted efforts of GOI, supported by RBI and NABARD, towards doubling of agricultural credit flow in 2004¬¬¬¬--2005, the growth in credit flow to the sector has been robust with an impressive CAGR of 18% between 2004--2005 and 2019--2020. While outreach increased, the Terms of Trade (Farmers and Non-farmers) has largely been on a declining trend, reflecting the underlying stressed conditions in farming. There is a challenge of inclusion, where small and marginal farmers continue to struggle for suitable and affordable credit products and access. This book summarizes the current state of agricultural finance in India, highlighting policy blind spots and grey areas. It documents the important advancements made in the agri-finance space in the last few years. The book covers various aspects of Agri-Finance Policy; institutional appetite and architecture for agriculture credit; formal financial services for enterprises in agriculture; agri-business, including FPOs; and innovations in credit, insurance, delivery mechanisms for agri-sector.