Biopolitics, Occupational Health and State Power: The Marginalization of Sick Workers in China

2014 ◽  
Vol 219 ◽  
pp. 808-826 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wing-Chung Ho
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Practices ◽  
State Power ◽  
Blind Spot ◽  
Public Realm ◽  
Bare Life ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
The Public ◽  
Chinese Workers ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
Contemporary Chinese

AbstractThis article endeavours to address the experience of Chinese workers with occupational disease as an instantiation of Agamben's notion ofhomo sacer– the ultimate biopolitical subject whose life is located outside the “normal” political, economic and cultural practices and, hence, is rendered largely silent and unintelligible in the public realm. It argues that the victimization of the occupationally sick worker has become almost a blind spot at the centre of governmentality insofar as the specific set of social regulations and power relations has created a “double ambivalence” among the victims who are constantly and disturbingly caught in between the public and private, the productive and unproductive, and the culturally normative and the culturally deviant. Such experiences of marginality contribute to the understanding of the biopolitical nature of contemporary Chinese state power, which adopts extensive “stability maintenance” (weiwen) measures to reduce resisters to a state of “bare life” susceptible to the rule of exception.

The Noise Abatement Campaign in Industrializing Japan, 1923–37

Resonance ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 298-327
Author(s):  
Shuhei Hosokawa
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Legal Regulation ◽  
Public Realm ◽  
Political Responsibility ◽  
Noise Abatement ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
The Public ◽  
Causal Responsibility ◽  
Kanto Earthquake ◽  
Definition Of

Drawing on Karin Bijsterveld’s triple definition of noise as ownership, political responsibility, and causal responsibility, this article traces how modern Japan problematized noise, and how noise represented both the aspirational discourse of Western civilization and the experiential nuisance accompanying rapid changes in living conditions in 1920s Japan. Primarily based on newspaper archives, the analysis will approach the problematic of noise as it was manifested in different ways in the public and private realms. In the public realm, the mid-1920s marked a turning point due to the reconstruction work after the Great Kantô Earthquake (1923) and the spread of the use of radios, phonographs, and loudspeakers. Within a few years, public opinion against noise had been formed by a coalition of journalists, police, the judiciary, engineers, academics, and municipal officials. This section will also address the legal regulation of noise and its failure; because public opinion was “owned” by middle-class (sub)urbanites, factory noises in downtown areas were hardly included in noise abatement discourse. Around 1930, the sounds of radios became a social problem, but the police and the courts hesitated to intervene in a “private” conflict, partly because they valued radio as a tool for encouraging nationalist mobilization and transmitting announcements from above. In sum, this article investigates the diverse contexts in which noise was perceived and interpreted as such, as noise became an integral part of modern life in early 20th-century Japan.

The public and the private: reconfiguring the interrelationship during a civil act

2019 ◽  
pp. 53-69
Author(s):  
Natalia Kostenko
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Rapid Development ◽  
Online Communication ◽  
Decisive Role ◽  
Physical Interaction ◽  
Bare Life ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Public Sphere

The subject matter of research interest here is the movement of sociological reflection concerning the interplay of public and private realms in social, political and individual life. The focus is on the boundary constructs embodying publicity, which are, first of all, classical models of the space of appearance for free citizens of the polis (H. Arendt) and the public sphere organised by communicative rationality (Ju. Habermas). Alternative patterns are present in modern ideas pertaining to the significance of biological component in public space in the context of biopolitics (M. Foucault), “inclusive exclusion of bare life” (G. Agamben), as well as performativity of corporeal and linguistic experience related to the right to participate in civil acts such as popular assembly (J. Butler), where the established distinctions between the public and the private are levelled, and the interrelationship of these two realms becomes reconfigured. Once the new media have come into play, both the structure and nature of the public sphere becomes modified. What assumes a decisive role is people’s physical interaction with online communication gadgets, which instantly connect information networks along various trajectories. However, the rapid development of information technology produces particular risks related to the control of communications industry, leaving both public and private realms unprotected and deforming them. This also urges us to rethink the issue of congruence of the two ideas such as transparency of societies and security.

scholarly journals Global Challenges of Social Policy on the Example of the Labor Market: The Experience of Kazakhstan

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 87
Author(s):  
G. Jussupova
Keyword(s):  
Labor Market ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
Business And Society ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
The Public ◽  
Global Challenges ◽  
Demographic Processes ◽  
Political Economic

The processes of globalization affect many economic and social processes, and the labor market is no exception. The situation in the labor market is always the center of attention for the state, business, and society as a whole. It determines the economic development of the country, social policy, the competitiveness of enterprises, and human capital. This article discusses global challenges such as the fourth industrial revolution, the digital transformation of society and industry, migration processes and informal employment, the problems of identifying social status for the population, and the system of accounting for social benefits. Because the labor market is experiencing the strongest impact of political, economic, social, and demographic processes, it has its own characteristics in each country, and this article discusses the internal problems of the Kazakhstan labor market. In addition, the article provides suggestions for improving social policy issues, employment through the automation of social processes and services, the digitalization of the public and private sectors, and the creation and development of information infrastructure of the labor market.

scholarly journals The Public and Private Lives of Mennonite Kolkhoz Chairmen in the Khortytsia and Molochansk German National Raĭony in Ukraine (1928-1934)

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin P. Neufeldt
Keyword(s):  
Nazi Germany ◽  
Local Authorities ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
The Public ◽  
Daily Routines ◽  
Private Lives ◽  
The Social ◽  
Political Economic

This article examines the role that Mennonites played in the establishment and management of kolkhozy in the two largest Mennonite settlements (Khortytsia and Molochansk) in Soviet Ukraine during dekulakization and collectivization (1928-1934).  More specifically, it investigates the social and ethnic criteria used in selecting Mennonites to be kolkhoz chairmen; the duties and daily routines of chairmen; the conflicted relationships that chairmen had with local authorities and kolkhoz members; the numerous challenges that chairmen encountered during the 1932-33 famines; and the mechanisms that local authorities and kolkhoz members used to control, embarrass, and discipline chairmen.  It also discusses the negative repercussions that the rise of Nazi Germany had for Mennonite chairmen, and how political, economic, agricultural, social, and ethnic policies and conditions made it impossible for Mennonite chairmen to succeed.

scholarly journals In Praise of Sharing as a Strategy for Sustainable Housing

2010 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 155-163 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacqueline McIntosh ◽  
John Gray ◽  
Sasha Maher
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Blind Spot ◽  
Theoretical Principle ◽  
Cultural Issues ◽  
Equity Issues ◽  
Housing Design ◽  
Sustainable Housing ◽  
Planning And Design ◽  
Core Idea ◽  
Political Economic

A central theoretical principle of sustainability is the interdependence of economic, socio-cultural, environmental, and equity issues. The core idea is that sustainability is achieved only by balancing these elements. In practice, however, this balance is rarely evidenced in the design and production of housing, despite the mass of research into sustainable housing. This paper discusses some of the political, economic and socio-cultural issues at work in sustainable housing typologies. It illustrates how the notion of sustainability has come to be represented by ecologically-focused models, while other approaches to sustainable housing design, such as shared housing models, are barely mentioned in the literature. The paper argues that modernist imperatives, such as demands for speed and status undermine sustainable housing design and obscure its meaning. The authors suggest that in the planning and design of sustainable housing attention should be given to the sharing of resources and space as an added method of conservation, and conclude that current imbalances in research agendas and socio-cultural practices create a blind spot in the sustainable housing debate.

Public and Private Citizenship: From Gender Invisibility to Feminist Inclusiveness

1998 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
pp. 84-104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raia Prokhovnik
Keyword(s):  
Political Participation ◽  
Specific Activity ◽  
Political Community ◽  
The Political ◽  
Public Realm ◽  
Social Citizenship ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
The Public ◽  
Private Realm ◽  
The Individual

Conceptions of citizenship which rest on an abstract and universal notion of the individual founder on their inability to recognize the political relevance of gender. Such conceptions, because their ‘gender-neutrality’ has the effect of excluding women, are not helpful to the project of promoting the full citizenship of women. The question of citizenship is often reduced to either political citizenship, in terms of an instrumental notion of political participation, or social citizenship, in terms of an instrumental notion of economic (in)dependence. The paper argues for the recognition of citizenship as gendered, and as an ethical, that is non-instrumental, social status which is distinct from both political participation and economic (in)dependence. What unites us as citizens, in our equal membership of the political community, need not rely on a conception of us as ‘neutral’ (abstract, universalized, genderless) individuals undertaking one specific activity located in the public realm, but can take account of the diverse ways in which we engage in ethically-grounded activities on the basis of our different genders, ethnic and cultural backgrounds and other differences, in both the public and private realms. A convincing feminist conception of citizenship necessarily involves a radical redefinition of the public/private distinction to accommodate the recognition of citizenship practices in the private realm. The paper builds on the observation that the concept of ‘citizenship’ is broader than the concept of ‘the political’ (or ‘the social/economic’), and contends that feminism provides us with the emancipatory potential of gendered subjectivity, which applies to both men and women. The recognition of gendered subjectivity opens the way to the recognition of the diversity of citizenship practices. It is not that women need to be liberated from the private realm, in order to take part in the public realm as equal citizens, but that women – and men – already undertake responsibilities of citizenship in both the public and the private realms.

The Code of Silence across the Hong Kong Eurasian Community(ies)

Meeting Place ◽  
2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vicky Lee
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Ethnic Group ◽  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Sense Of Community ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
The Public ◽  
Code Of Silence ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The City

This chapter examines the dynamics of Hong Kong’s Eurasian community (from the 1860s to the 1960s) in terms of the community’s perception of its own members, the attitudes of its members towards their own European and Chinese heritage, and the mutual perceptions and interactions with other ethnic groups in the city during the period in question. Despite the fact that many Eurasians have served in various roles in Hong Kong, in both the public and private sectors, from doctors and lawyers to nurses, teachers, clerks and stenographers, particularly since the late 1800s, not much is known about this community. Unlike other ethnic groups such as the Parsee and the Portuguese communities, who shared a common religion common cultural practices identity, the sense of community among Eurasians was nebulous and sporadic. Ironically, one common practice shared by members of this community was a conscious attempt to de-emphasize their membership of this ethnic group and a reluctance to acknowledge their Eurasian heritage both on an individual and collective level.

scholarly journals Challenges, Cooperation and Paradoxes in the Coca Cocaine Complex

2013 ◽  
Vol 19 ◽  
pp. 3-14
Author(s):  
Mariá De Los Ángeles Lasa
Keyword(s):  
Social Institutions ◽  
The United States ◽  
South American ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
The Public ◽  
American States ◽  
The World ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
The Eu

The coca-cocaine complex in South America is one of the most serious threats to the region’s political, economic and social institutions. It has infected the public and private sectors with the virus of corruption and violence, and it has brought about the intervention of extra-regional actors that have contributed to worsening the situation. In the fight against this threat since the 1970s, South American countries have had the support of the United States (US) and the European Union (EU) which, these being the world’s largest consumers of cocaine in the world, has become the source of a vicious paradox: the challenges for South American states arise not only from the coca-cocaine complex itself, but also from the cooperation of those world superpowers in the fight against it. This paper analyses both the cooperation among drug actors –an issue that has historically been overlooked–, and the previously mentioned paradox in the case of South American states and the EU.

The Janus Face of Governance Theory

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eva Sørensen ◽  
Jacob Torfing
Keyword(s):  
Political Science ◽  
Public Management ◽  
Blind Spot ◽  
The Political ◽  
Public Governance ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
The Public ◽  
Management Perspective ◽  
Political Choices ◽  
Private Actors

While the main current in the growing research on governance has praised its virtues, a critical undertow has insisted that governance carries the danger of depoliticization and democratic decline. Chapter 2 aims to complicate things by arguing that interactive forms of governance intending to involve a plethora of public and private actors in the governing of society and the economy are not in themselves depoliticizing or repoliticizing public governance. Much depends on how we talk about governance. Hence, while the public management perspective tends to depoliticize governance, the political science perspective has a sharper eye for the political choices, conflicts, and power struggles. If the political science perspective has a blind spot, it concerns the role of elected politicians in the exercise of political meta-governance. That role is further developed towards the end of the chapter, which also reflects on the limits of repoliticization.

Public-private partnerships in developing countries

2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 334-351 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seong Kang ◽  
Dhanakorn Mulaphong ◽  
Eunjin Hwang ◽  
Chih-Kai Chang
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Public Works ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Systematic Assessment ◽  
Fiscal Constraints ◽  
The Public ◽  
Adoption And Implementation ◽  
Cooperative Relationship ◽  
Political Economic

Purpose Mounting fiscal constraints and increasing complexity of public services have led governments to search for alternative service delivery mechanisms. The public–private partnership (PPP) is one type of service arrangement in which the public and private sectors enter into a long-term cooperative relationship for the purpose of delivering a public good or service. Despite increasing private sector participation in developing nations, there is a need for more systematic assessment of PPPs in such countries. The purpose of this paper is to explore the factors that affect the adoption and implementation of projects in the context of developing countries. Design/methodology/approach A multiple case holistic design is employed to analyze 19 select projects across several developing countries to identify and pool clusters of variables that facilitate or impede PPPs. Findings The results indicate five broad categories of political, economic, legislative, financial and management requisites. Research limitations/implications A limitation of this research is that the cases were not selected at random. However, the projects are spread across several areas such as public health, public utilities, public works, transportation and water/wastewater infrastructure in different countries. This allows the authors to examine how the common factors apply across different contextual settings. Originality/value This paper seeks to contribute to the literature by examining several developing countries to identify and pool clusters of variables that facilitate or impede the effective implementation of PPP projects in the context of such regions.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document