Indigenous Peoples and Neoliberal “Privatization” in Canada: Opportunities, Cautions and Constraints

2011 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 257-273 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fiona MacDonald
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Political Opportunity Structure ◽  
Political Opportunity ◽  
The Public ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Débat Public ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Peuples Autochtones ◽  
Governmental Strategy

Abstract.This article addresses the impact of the current neoliberal political context for Indigenous governance in Canada. While some observers have argued correctly that the neoliberal context provides new opportunities or points of entry in the political opportunity structure for “self-government” initiatives (Helvin, 2006; Scott, 2006; Slowey, 2008), I examine to what extent recent decentralizing initiatives, generally viewed as “concessions” made by the state to meet the demands of Indigenous peoples, must be evaluated as part of a broader governmental strategy of neoliberalism. This strategy is not simply about meeting the demands of Indigenous peoples but also about meeting the requirements of the contemporary governmental shift towards “privatization” within liberal democratic states. As such, I argue that certain manifestations of Indigenous self-government are vulnerable to criticisms launched against practices of privatization, practices which include a variety of policies designed to promote a shifting of contentious issues out of the public sphere and thereby limiting public debate and collective—that is, state—responsibility.Résumé.Le présent article analyse d'un oeil critique l'impact du contexte politique néolibéral actuel sur la gouvernance autochtone au Canada. Certains auteurs ont avancé avec raison que le contexte néolibéral donnait aux peuples autochtones de nouveaux points d'entrée pour leurs initiatives d'autogouvernance (Helvin, 2006; Scott, 2006; Slowey, 2008). Toutefois, j'examine ici dans quelle mesure les tentatives récentes de décentralisation, souvent comprises comme des «concessions» faites par l'État pour répondre aux revendications des peuples autochtones, doivent être évaluées dans le cadre plus vaste d'une stratégie de néolibéralisme du gouvernement. Cette stratégie ne vise pas uniquement à répondre aux besoins des peuples autochtones, mais aussi à permettre au gouvernement de s'orienter vers la «privatisation» qui distingue l'État libéral démocratique contemporain. À ce titre, je soutiens que certaines manifestations d'autogouvernance des Autochtones peuvent se prêter aux mêmes critiques que les pratiques de privatisation, qui comprennent diverses politiques visant à retirer de la place publique certains sujets controversés afin de limiter le débat public et la responsabilité collective, c'est-à-dire celle de l'État.

The Landscape of War and the Transformations of the Public Sphere

2019 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 62-67
Author(s):  
Dijana Alic
Keyword(s):  
The European Union ◽  
Independent State ◽  
The Public ◽  
Time Space ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Modern Warfare ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The City ◽  
Edward Soja

On 6 april 1992, the european union (eu) recognised bosnia and hercegovina as a new independent state, no longer a part of the socialist federal republic of Yugoslavia. The event marked the start of the siege of sarajevo, which lasted nearly four years, until late february 1996. It became the longest siege in the history of modern warfare, outlasting the leningrad enclosure by a year. During its 1425 days, more than 11,500 people were killed. The attacks left a trail of destruction across the city, which began to transform it in ways not experienced before. This paper explores how the physical transformation of sarajevo affected the ways in which meaning and significance were assigned to its built fabric. I argue that the changes imposed by war and the daily destruction of the city challenged long-established relationships between the built fabric and those who inhabited the city, introducing new modes of thinking and interpreting the city. Loosely placing the discussion within the framework of ‘Thirdspace', established by urban theorist and cultural geographer edward soja, i discuss the relationship that emerged between the historicality, sociality and spatiality of war-torn sarajevo. Whether responding to the impacts of physical destruction or dramatic social change, the nexus of time, space and being shows that the concept of spatiality is essential to comprehending the world and to adjusting to and resisting the impact of extraordinary circumstances. Recognising the continuation of daily life as essential to survival sheds light on processes of renewal and change in a war-affected landscape. These shattered urban spaces also show the ways in which people make a sense of place in relation to specific socio-historical environments and political contexts.

Transnational Protest and The Public Sphere

2005 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-109 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle Beyeler ◽  
Hanspeter Kriesi
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Public Support ◽  
Economic Globalization ◽  
The Public ◽  
The World ◽  
World Economic ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Selection Of

This article explores the impact of protests against economic globalization in the public sphere. The focus is on two periodical events targeted by transnational protests: the ministerial conferences of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the annual meetings of the World Economic Forum (WEF). Based on a selection of seven quality newspapers published in different parts of the world, we trace media attention, support of the activists, as well as the broader public debate on economic globalization. We find that starting with Seattle, protest events received extensive media coverage. Media support of the street activists, especially in the case of the anti-WEF protests, is however rather low. Nevertheless, despite the low levels of support that street protesters received, many of their issues obtain wide public support.

Evidence of an Open Government Data Portal Impact on the Public Sphere

2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 21-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rui Pedro Lourenço
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Research Effort ◽  
Open Government ◽  
The Internet ◽  
The Public ◽  
Open Government Data ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Google Search ◽  
The Impact

Data portals are being created as part of open government strategies to increase transparency. But although the potential of the internet to increase transparency (as data disclosure) has been widely considered in the literature, there is no reported evidence of any of the released data actually being used by their ultimate recipients (citizens) for public accountability purposes. This descriptive research effort aims to find evidence of the impact of open government portals, asserting whether data is indeed being used and for what purposes. One contract portal was selected and Google Search was used to find portal references on the internet. A qualitative content analysis approach was adopted, whereby references were examined with respect to its main purpose and data usage. Evidence was found of contract data being used, among others, to identify possible situations of corruption, nepotism and misusage of public resources, support argumentation on public policy debates and, in general, to hold public officials accountable in the public sphere through ‘blame and shame' sanctions.

The Jews in Rome during the Flavian Period

Antichthon ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 47 ◽  
pp. 156-172
Author(s):  
James S. McLaren
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Jewish Identity ◽  
Abrupt Change ◽  
The Public ◽  
Counter Narrative ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
And Function ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Ways Of Life ◽  
The Way

AbstractDuring the late republic and early principate the Jews who called Rome their home occasionally found themselves in the public gaze. Some of their customs and aspects of their ways of life also attracted occasional comment, often for their apparently strange and foreign manner. At no stage, however, during this period did they feature prominently in the public sphere of life in Rome. The aftermath of the war of 66-70 CE brought about an abrupt change in circumstances for the Jews living in Rome. Apart from the immediate visual celebration of the triumph, there followed a number of substantial monumental and numismatic commemorations of the Roman victory. In this article the purpose and function of those commemorations and the possible consequences for the Jews who lived in Rome are examined. In particular, the impact of the public profiling of the war on Jewish identity and of how the writings of Josephus are to be read in this setting is explored. Rather than regard Josephus as a supporter of the Flavian rulers, writing an account of the war that encouraged fellow Jews to collaborate with Rome, it is argued that he was offering Jews in Rome a counter-narrative to the way the war was being publicly commemorated.

Worktown and Muslims

British Gods ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 144-181
Author(s):  
Steve Bruce
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Survey Data ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Attitude Survey ◽  
The Public ◽  
Satanic Verses ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Town ◽  
British People

In the 1930s, Bolton was the site of Mass Observation’s first major research project, and subsequent restudies allow us to track in detail the decline of Christianity in the town. It was also the site of the first major Muslim demonstration against Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses. The reaction of Boltonians to Islam is discussed as an introduction to wider consideration of the impact of the growth of Islam in Britain. Detailed discussion of media coverage of Muslims and of attitude survey data makes the case that, while some British people dislike Islam, a more powerful trend is growing hostility to any religion that is taken seriously enough to intrude on the public sphere.

Additional Opinions and Judicial Diversity at the International Court of Justice

2020 ◽  
pp. 246-262 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hemi Mistry
Keyword(s):  
Gender Diversity ◽  
Personal Characteristics ◽  
International Court Of Justice ◽  
The Public ◽  
Court Of Justice ◽  
International Court ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Impact

Additional opinions—that is, dissenting opinions, separate opinions, and declarations—are, by definition, the primary institutional mechanism through which judges can express their individual views on a particular decision, as distinct from the judgment or decision proclaimed on behalf of the institution. Therefore, within the public sphere they are the principal institutional manifestation of the individual—and thus the individuality—of the judge. Consequently, for those who seek to understand the impact of certain personal characteristics upon how a judge discharges their professional functions and, in turn, the wider institutional and systemic implications of the participation of individuals bearing those characteristics, the study of additional opinions would seem a useful analytical enterprise. Using gender diversity at the International Court of Justice as a case study, the purpose of this chapter is twofold: first, to explain the relationship between diversity and additional opinions, and second, to explore the methodological potential, and challenges, that the study of additional opinions entails.

scholarly journals ‘The Cat’s Paw’: Helen Arthur, the act of resumption andThe Popish pretenders to the forfeited estates in Ireland, 1700–03

2018 ◽  
Vol 42 (162) ◽  
pp. 225-243 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frances Nolan
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Board Of Trustees ◽  
Women's Roles ◽  
Irish Woman ◽  
Female Agency ◽  
The Public ◽  
Irish Catholics ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Political Game

AbstractThis article examines the case of Helen Arthur, a Catholic and Jacobite Irish woman who travelled with her children to France following William III’s victory over James II in the War of the Two Kings (1689–91). It considers Helen’s circumstances and her representation inThe Popish pretenders to the forfeited estates in Ireland, a pamphlet published in London in 1702 as a criticism of the act of resumption. The act, introduced by the English parliament in 1700, voided the majority of William III’s grants to favourites and supporters. Its provisions offered many dispossessed, including the dependants of outlawed males, a chance to reclaim compromised or forfeited property by submitting a claim to a board of trustees in Dublin. Helen Arthur missed the initial deadline for submissions, but secured an extension to submit through a clause in a 1701 supply bill, a development that brought her to the attention of the anonymous author ofThe Popish pretenders. Charting Helen’s efforts to reclaim her jointure, her eldest son’s estate and her younger children’s portions, this article looks at the ways in which dispossessed Irish Catholics and/or Jacobites reacted to legislative developments. More specifically, it shines a light on the possibilities for female agency in a period of significant upheaval, demonstrating opportunities for participation and representation in the public sphere, both in London and in Dublin. It also considers the impact of the politicisation of religion upon understandings of women’s roles and experiences during the Williamite confiscation, and suggests that a synonymising of Catholicism with Jacobitism (and Protestantism with the Williamite cause) has significant repercussions for understandings of women’s activities during the period. It also examines contemporary attitudes to women’s activity, interrogating the casting of Helen as a ‘cat’s paw’ in a bigger political game, invariably played by men.

Epilogue

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna D. Jaroszyńska-Kirchmann
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Formal Schooling ◽  
The Public ◽  
Polish Language ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
The Impact

This epilogue comments on the changes within the Polish American community and the Polish-language press during the most recent decades, including the impact of the Internet and social media on the practice of letter-writing. It also poses questions about the legacy and memory of Paryski in Toledo, Ohio, and in Polonia scholarship. Paryski's life and career were based on his intelligence, determination, and energy. He believed that Poles in the United States, as in Poland, must benefit from education, and that education was not necessarily the same as formal schooling. Anybody could embark on the path to self-improvement if they read and wrote. Long before the Internet changed the way we communicate, Paryski and other ethnic editors effectively adopted and practiced the concept of debate within the public sphere in the media. Ameryka-Echo's “Corner for Everybody” was an embodiment of this concept and allowed all to express themselves in their own language and to write what was on their minds.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document