Populist and ‘Post-Truth’ Border Politics

2021 ◽  
pp. 60-95
Author(s):  
Nick Vaughan-Williams
Keyword(s):  
Significant Proportion ◽  
Visual Representations ◽  
Border Security ◽  
Opinion Poll ◽  
Loss Of Control ◽  
Security Measures ◽  
Cultural Contexts ◽  
Border Politics ◽  
Opinion Polls

Chapter 3 investigates the role of populist and ‘post-truth’ narratives of migration and border crises propagated by governmental and non-governmental elites in fuelling widespread notions of a ‘loss of control’, despite the intensification of walling and deterrent security measures. In order to contextualize findings in subsequent chapters, a significant proportion of the discussion is devoted to the five national political and cultural contexts in which focus groups were held (Germany, Greece, Hungary, Spain, United Kingdom). First, a close examination of the methodologies used to produce several prominent opinion poll findings on migration reveals that they were produced by surveys whose design often worked within and thereby reproduced the dominant securitizing frame. Second, with reference to populist discursive and visual representations of mobile populations and a loss of control over border security, it is shown how the rise of ‘post-truth’ communication over the same timeframe produced multiple competing realities of the situation in the EU, which simultaneously entrenched the crisis narrative and deprived audiences of detailed and reliable information. Third, it is demonstrated how leading opinion polls, used by governmental elites as ‘evidence’ of EU citizens’ pro-border and anti-immigration stance, were unable to grasp the performativity of their own role in perpetuating the dynamics of crisis that they purported merely to capture. Alternative modes of engaging with the politics of ‘public opinion’ are thus urgently required. A vernacular approach offers a series of disruptive counter-points to existing sources of elite knowledge and understanding about EU citizens’ views on migration and border security.

Border Security and Cooperative Initiatives to Counter Illicit Drug Trafficking

2017 ◽  
pp. 104-120
Author(s):  
Suzette A. Haughton
Keyword(s):  
Homeland Security ◽  
Border Security ◽  
Western Hemisphere ◽  
Secondary Source ◽  
Security Measures ◽  
Security Challenges ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Container Security ◽  
Illicit Drug Trafficking

The illegal flow of drugs continues to undermine states border security. The chapter utilizes a document analysis of secondary source data from the USA Homeland Security and border security agencies in Jamaica. It aims to assess the security challenges posed by the Jamaica-USA trafficking of drugs and explores how border security measures function in reducing this problem. The Container Security Initiative, Customs Trade Partnership against Terrorism, the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, the Jamaica-USA Maritime Counter Drug Agreement (Shiprider Agreement) and the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative will be explored to assess how these border security initiatives aid in curtailing drug flows to the USA. The chapter discusses the role of border security in detection, deterrence and apprehension via coordinated intelligence driven strategies. It concludes that the trans-border nature of illegal drug flows necessitate increased state-to-state sustained future cooperation especially within the context of globalisation.

Vernacular Border Security

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nick Vaughan-Williams
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Border Security ◽  
Loss Of Control ◽  
Cultural Meanings ◽  
Top Down ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Migration Crisis ◽  
Governmental Response ◽  
Opinion Polls ◽  
The Eu

Since the peak of Europe’s so-called 2015 ‘migration crisis’, the dominant governmental response has been to turn to deterrent border security across the Mediterranean and construct border walls throughout the EU. During the same timeframe, EU citizens are widely represented—by politicians, by media sources, and by opinion polls—as fearing a loss of control over national and EU borders. Despite the intensification of EU border security with visibly violent effects, EU citizens are nevertheless said to be ‘threatened majorities’. These dynamics beg the question: Why is it that tougher deterrent border security and walling appear to have heightened rather than diminished border anxieties among EU citizens? While the populist mantra of ‘taking back control’ purports to speak on behalf of EU citizens, little is known about how diverse EU citizens conceptualize, understand, and talk about the so-called ‘crisis’. Yet, if social and cultural meanings of ‘migration’ and ‘border security’ are constructed intersubjectively and contested politically, then EU citizens—as well as governmental elites and people on the move—are significant in shaping dominant framings of and responses to the ‘crisis’. This book argues that, in order to address the overarching puzzle, a conceptual and methodological shift is required in the way that border security is understood: a new approach is urgently required that complements ‘top-down’ analyses of elite governmental practices with ‘bottom-up’ vernacular studies of how those practices are both reproduced and contested in everyday life.

Exceptional Times, Emergency Borders

2021 ◽  
pp. 26-59
Author(s):  
Nick Vaughan-Williams
Keyword(s):  
Border Security ◽  
Security Measures ◽  
Liberal Democracies ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
Take Back ◽  
Key Press ◽  
Migration Crisis ◽  
The Eu

Chapter 2 examines the role of elite governmental actors in producing the narrative of the so-called 2015 ‘migration crisis’ and creating the conditions under which walling and deterrent border security policies flourished. The first part of the chapter draws on key press releases, speeches, and policy documents issued by the EU Commission and its agencies in order to map the emergence and trajectory of this elite ‘crisis’ narrative from the so-called ‘ghost ship’ arrivals to the height of ‘irregular’ arrivals that year. The second part shows how this ahistorical, Euro-centric, and (post)colonial governmental frame—with its reductionist depiction of mobile populations and sanitized one-sided view of border-related violence—has been problematized and disaggregated by research that documents the experiences of those seeking entry to the EU. The third part draws on theoretical literatures on the politics of crisis in order to argue that, irrespective of its empirical accuracy, the so-called ‘crisis’ narrative has enabled the intensification of deterrent border security measures on- and off-shore and the re-emergence of disciplinary walling techniques among EU Member States in ways that would be otherwise unpalatable in liberal democracies during ‘non-crisis’ times. But while extant work on crisis enables a critical analysis of the politics of ‘crisis bordering’ that is essential for any attempt to grapple with the book’s overarching puzzle, ultimately it falls short of explaining why populist calls to ‘take back control’ have been stoked rather than satiated by such bordering and therefore it is necessary to investigate those calls—and their reception—among diverse publics in closer detail.

Border Security and Cooperative Initiatives to Counter Illicit Drug Trafficking

2019 ◽  
pp. 898-915
Author(s):  
Suzette A. Haughton
Keyword(s):  
Homeland Security ◽  
Border Security ◽  
Western Hemisphere ◽  
Secondary Source ◽  
Security Measures ◽  
Security Challenges ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Container Security ◽  
Illicit Drug Trafficking

The illegal flow of drugs continues to undermine states border security. The chapter utilizes a document analysis of secondary source data from the USA Homeland Security and border security agencies in Jamaica. It aims to assess the security challenges posed by the Jamaica-USA trafficking of drugs and explores how border security measures function in reducing this problem. The Container Security Initiative, Customs Trade Partnership against Terrorism, the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, the Jamaica-USA Maritime Counter Drug Agreement (Shiprider Agreement) and the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative will be explored to assess how these border security initiatives aid in curtailing drug flows to the USA. The chapter discusses the role of border security in detection, deterrence and apprehension via coordinated intelligence driven strategies. It concludes that the trans-border nature of illegal drug flows necessitate increased state-to-state sustained future cooperation especially within the context of globalisation.

Everybody Follows the Crowd?

2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Magdalena Obermaier ◽  
Thomas Koch ◽  
Christian Baden
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Design ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
Personal Characteristics ◽  
Election Campaigns ◽  
Bandwagon Effect ◽  
Political News ◽  
Election Results ◽  
Opinion Polls ◽  
Electoral Preferences

Abstract. Opinion polls are a well-established part of political news coverage, especially during election campaigns. At the same time, there has been controversial debate over the possible influences of such polls on voters’ electoral choices. The most prominent influence discussed is the bandwagon effect: It states that voters tend to support the expected winner of an upcoming election, and use polls to determine who the likely winner will be. This study investigated the mechanisms underlying the effect. In addition, we inquired into the role of past electoral performances of a candidate and analyzed how these (as well as polls) are used as heuristic cues for the assessment of a candidate’s personal characteristics. Using an experimental design, we found that both polls and past election results influence participants’ expectations regarding which candidate will succeed. Moreover, higher competence was attributed to a candidate, if recipients believe that the majority of voters favor that candidate. Through this attribution of competence, both information about prior elections and current polls shaped voters’ electoral preferences.

Update regarding anemia in heart failure

Medic ro ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 8-13
Author(s):  
Roxana Marcela Sânpălean ◽  
Dorina Nastasia Petra
Keyword(s):  
Heart Failure ◽  
Iron Deficiency ◽  
Multidisciplinary Team ◽  
Significant Proportion ◽  
Life Quality ◽  
Lower Number ◽  
Nutritional Deficiencies ◽  
Cardiac Morbidity ◽  
Appropriate Treatment

Heart failure (HF) is a burden for the healthcare system. The incidence will increase significantly due to the aging of po­pu­la­tion, which is associated with multiple comorbidities. Ane­mia and iron deficiency are common in patients with HF, their etiology being often multifactorial. The screening for anemia and iron deficiency is recommended as soon as pos­si­ble. There are often no targeted investigations, therefore a significant proportion of cases are underdiagnosed. The ma­nagement of patients may focus on identifying and correcting the cause. Anemia can occur due to nutritional deficiencies, infla­m­mation, renal failure, bone marrow dysfunction, neuro­hor­mo­nal activity, treatment and hemodilution. The appropriate the­ra­py for the patients with anemia and HF will contribute to the improvement of life quality. The only recommended iron product is ferric carboxymalose administered by in­tra­venous infusion. Under the appropriate treatment, the pa­tients showed an increase in effort tolerance, with an im­prove­ment in symptomatology and a lower number of hos­pi­ta­li­za­tion days. The management of these cases is handled by a multidisciplinary team consisting of a general prac­ti­tio­ner, a cardiologist and other specialists if the patient has other comorbidities. The role of the general practitioner is essential, as he can perform proper screening, prevention and management, developed by a multidisciplinary team, in order to reduce the cardiac morbidity and mortality.  

Stories from Ultrasonographic Abyss

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matylda Szewczyk
Keyword(s):  
Prenatal Care ◽  
New Media ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Prenatal Ultrasound ◽  
Cultural Contexts ◽  
Media Technologies ◽  
Medical Imagery ◽  
The Future ◽  
Different Cultures

The article presents a reflection on the experience of prenatal ultrasound and on the nature of cultural beings, it creates. It exploits chosen ethnographic and cultural descriptions of prenatal ultrasounds in different cultures, as well as documentary and artistic reflections on medical imagery and new media technologies. It discusses different ways of defining the role of ultrasound in prenatal care and the cultural contexts build around it. Although the prenatal ultrasounds often function in the space of enormous tensions (although they are also supposed to give pleasure), it seems they will accompany us further in the future. It is worthwhile to find some new ways of describing them and to invent new cultural practices to deal with them.

An Author as Literature. (Visual) Autofiction of Dorota Masłowska

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Michalak
Keyword(s):  
New Media ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Conceptual Art ◽  
Visual Representations ◽  
The Creation

Using the promotional meeting of Dorota Masłowska’s book "More than you can eat" (16 April 2015 in the Bar Studio, Warsaw), as a case study, the article examines the role author plays in it and try to show how the author itself can become the literature. As a result of the transformation of cultural practices associated with the new media, the author’s figure has gained much greater visibility which consequently changed its meaning. In the article, Masłowska’s artistic strategy is compared to visual autofiction in conceptual art and interpreted through the role of the performance and visual representations in the creation of the image or author’s brand.

Finding the Enemy

2013 ◽  
pp. 473-492
Author(s):  
Frank Russell
Keyword(s):  
Fourth Century ◽  
Border Security ◽  
First Century ◽  
Military Intelligence ◽  
Hellenistic Greece

This chapter analyzes tactical intelligence, following a division by posture: offensive and mobile, and defensive or localized. There was an increase in the use of vanguards among the Greeks after the fourth century BC and among the Romans in the first. Cavalry widely used in this role. The role of reconnaissance in border security is then evaluated. It is noted that the speculatores who accompanied the legions left the field for the office sometime in the first century AD. Greek military intelligence never became professionalized, and did not ponder the sophistication of the prototypical organizations fielded by the tyrants of Cyprus and Sicily in the fourth century. Professionalism and unit identification in intelligence came neither to the poleis nor the kingdoms of Classical or Hellenistic Greece, and came finally to the Romans at least a century after they had pervaded the legions.

scholarly journals Efficacy of Phytocannabinoids in Epilepsy Treatment: Novel Approaches and Recent Advances

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (8) ◽  
pp. 3993
Author(s):  
Aaron M. Farrelly ◽  
Styliani Vlachou ◽  
Konstantinos Grintzalis
Keyword(s):  
Therapeutic Potential ◽  
Significant Proportion ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Specific Reference ◽  
Undesirable Side Effect ◽  
Treatment Resistant ◽  
Current Review ◽  
Epilepsy Treatment ◽  
Clinical Environments

Epilepsy is a neurological disorder mainly characterised by recurrent seizures that affect the entire population diagnosed with the condition. Currently, there is no cure for the disease and a significant proportion of patients have been deemed to have treatment-resistant epilepsy (TRE). A patient is deemed to have TRE if two or more antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) fail to bring about seizure remission. This inefficacy of traditional AEDs, coupled with their undesirable side effect profile, has led to researchers considering alternative forms of treatment. Phytocannabinoids have long served as therapeutics with delta-9-THC (Δ9-THC) receiving extensive focus to determine its therapeutic potential. This focus on Δ9-THC has been to the detriment of analysing the plethora of other phytocannabinoids found in the cannabis plant. The overall aim of this review is to explore other novel phytocannabinoids and their place in epilepsy treatment. The current review intends to achieve this aim via an exploration of the molecular targets underlying the anticonvulsant capabilities of cannabidiol (CBD), cannabidavarin (CBDV), delta-9-tetrahydrocannabivarin (Δ9-THCV) and cannabigerol (CBG). Further, this review will provide an exploration of current pre-clinical and clinical data as it relates to the aforementioned phytocannabinoids and the treatment of epilepsy symptoms. With specific reference to epilepsy in young adult and adolescent populations, the exploration of CBD, CBDV, Δ9-THCV and CBG in both preclinical and clinical environments can guide future research and aid in the further understanding of the role of phytocannabinoids in epilepsy treatment. Currently, much more research is warranted in this area to be conclusive.

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