The Social and Political Dimensions of Co-operative Enterprises

Author(s):  
Victor A. Pestoff

The role of co-operatives as providers of goods and services, as in the industrial age, more recently became overshadowed by their potential as providers of social services. In the post-industrial or service society, co-operatives are found in a growing number of countries. Co-operative enterprises have a unique capacity to mobilize social capital and provide relational goods that neither public nor private for-profit providers demonstrate. This brings co-operative enterprises full-circle in terms of their historical political role as democratic pioneers, since they can now also contribute to reducing the growing democratic deficit. This chapter explores the political and social dimensions of co-operative enterprises that pursue multiple goals. It also introduces a dynamic model of co-operative development that can be fruitfully employed for analysing the social and political dilemmas faced by co-operative enterprises.

Author(s):  
István Hoffman

In the modern post-industrial societies services are becoming the greatest part of the economy, and through the reallocating role of state – even after the millennium changes – the role of the services organised by the communities is exceptionally high. One of these services is the social care granted by the state and (its parts) the local governments. In my article I summarise the roles of local communities and local governments of some European and non-European states in the organisation of social care. The practical and theoretical legal terms of social assistance and personal social services are presented as well as the general characteristics of models (settlement or regional municipality based) of the organisation of the services. There is also a short description of general financing issues.


Author(s):  
S.A. Kirillina ◽  
A.L. Safronova ◽  
V.V. Orlov

Аннотация В статье изучены общие и специфические черты идейных воззрений, пропагандистской риторики и политических действий представителей халифатистского движения на Ближнем Востоке и в Южной Азии. В ретроспективном ключе прослеживается эволюция представлений о сущности и необходимости возрождения института халифата в трудах исламских идеологов, реформаторов и политиков Джамал ад-Дина ал-Афгани, Абд ар-Рахмана ал-Кавакиби, Мухаммада Рашида Риды, Абул Калама Азада. Внимание авторов сосредоточено на общественно-политических дискуссиях 2030-х годов XX столетия, а также на повестке дня халифатистских конгрессов и конференций этого периода. На них вырабатывались первые представления современников о пост-османском формате мусульманского единства и идейно-политической роли будущего халифата. Авторы демонстрируют различие между моделями реакции мусульман Ближнего Востока и Южной Азии на упразднение османского халифата республиканским руководством Турции. Установлена многоаспектная взаимосвязь между халифатистскими ценностями, проосманскими настроениями и формами самоотождествления, которые сложились в арабских и южноазиатских обществах. Отдельно намечено соотношение между подъемом халифатистских настроений и радикализацией антиколониальных действий мусульман Индостана.Abstract The article deals with analysis of common and specific features of ideas, propaganda, rhetoric and political actions taken by representatives of the movement for defense of the Caliphate in the Middle East and South Asia. The retrospection showing the transformation of conception of the Caliphate and the necessity of its revival in the works of eminent ideologists and politicians of the Muslim world Jamal al-Din al-Afghani, Abd al-Rahman al-Kawakibi, Muhammad Rashid Rida and Abul Kalam Azad, is also given in the article. The authors also focus on the social and political discussions of the 1920s 1930s, as well as on the agenda of Caliphatist congresses and conferences of this period. They helped to elaborate the early representations of post-Ottoman pattern of the Muslim unity and the ideological and political role of the future Caliphate. The authors demonstrate the difference between the forms of reaction of Muslims in the Middle East and South Asia to the repudiation of the Caliphate by the Republican leaders of Turkey. The article establishes a multi-aspect interaction between the Caliphatist values and forms of self-identification, emerged in Arab and South Asian societies. The correlation between the rise of Caliphatist attitudes and radicalization of anti-colonial actions of South Asian Muslims is also outlined.


Author(s):  
Ketil Slagstad

AbstractThis article analyzes how trans health was negotiated on the margins of psychiatry from the late 1970s and early 1980s. In this period, a new model of medical transition was established for trans people in Norway. Psychiatrists and other medical doctors as well as psychologists and social workers with a special interest and training in social medicine created a new diagnostic and therapeutic regime in which the social aspects of transitioning took center stage. The article situates this regime in a long Norwegian tradition of social medicine, including the important political role of social medicine in the creation of the postwar welfare state and its scope of addressing and changing the societal structures involved in disease. By using archival material, medical records and oral history interviews with former patients and health professionals, I demonstrate how social aspects not only underpinned diagnostic evaluations but were an integral component of the entire therapeutic regime. Sex reassignment became an integrative way of imagining and practicing psychiatry as social medicine. The article specifically unpacks the social element of these diagnostic and therapeutic approaches in trans medicine. Because the locus of intervention and treatment remained the individual, an approach with subversive potential ended up reproducing the norms that caused illness in the first place: “the social” became a conformist tool to help the patient integrate, adjust to and transform the pathology-producing forces of society.


2021 ◽  
Vol 27 ◽  
pp. 514-543
Author(s):  
HIBA KAREEM ◽  

The issue of empowering women has been and still is the preoccupation of various humanitarian organizations, especially human rights organizations. Regarding the issue of human rights in Iraq, it is extremely difficult, because of the exceptional circumstances ordered by Iraq, which made it an arena for human rights violations. Vulnerable groups, they are more affected by the surrounding circumstances, such as violence, displacement, terrorism, displacement, widowhood, and others ... especially with regard to measures to empower women, because what women suffer in our society is a heap of discriminatory traditional culture against them and their lack of awareness of themselves and Their legitimate rights, in addition to weak government policies, and the lack of resources and opportunities, and herein lies the problem. The importance of the research stems from the importance of the role of women in society and the social, economic, health and political dimensions that this role represents, and the extent of its impact on the development process in Iraq. As for its objectives, it is to stand on the role of human rights organizations in empowering women in all social, economic, political and health fields, from which we have deduced most of them marginalization and discrimination on the basis of gender, and then we proposed some enabling measures, hoping through them to integrate women in all levels of development . Key words : role, organizations, human rights, empowerment, women .


2011 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 9-16
Author(s):  
Mayo Fuster Morell

In order for online communities to assemble and grow, some basic infrastructure is necessary that makes possible the aggregation of the collective action. There is a very intimate and complex relationship between the technological infrastructure and the social character of the community which uses it. Today, most infrastructure is provided by corporations and the contrast between community and corporate dynamics is becoming increasingly pronounced. But rather than address the issues, the corporations are actively obfuscating it. Wikiwashing refers to a strategy of corporate infrastructure providers where practices associated to their role of profit seeking corporations (such as abusive terms of use, privacy violation, censorship, and use of voluntary work for profit purposes, among others) that would be seen as unethical by the communities they enable are concealed by promoting a misleading image of themselves associated with the general values of wikis and Wikipedia (such as sharing and collaboration, openness and transparency). The empirical analysis is based on case studies (Facebook , Yahoo! and Google) and triangulation of several methods.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-76
Author(s):  
Barbara Máté-Szabó ◽  
Dorina Anna Tóth

Abstract Introduction: This article examines the first level of the European higher education system, namely the short-cycle higher education trainings related to the ISCED 5 whose Hungarian characteristics, and its historical changes were described. Methods: We examined participation rates among OECD countries. As there are large differences in the short-cycle higher education trainings in Europe, we have relied on data that makes the different systems comparable. Results and discussion: The interpretation, definition and practical orientation of the trainings varies from country to country, we presented the Hungarian form in connection with the results of international comparative studies and data. To understand the role of trainings, it is essential to get to know their history, especially because short-term higher educational trainings were transformed in several European countries. Conclusions: Prioritising or effacing the social-political role of short-cycle higher education trainings depending on the political orientation of the government and as a part of this, prioritising the disadvantaged regions instead of the disadvantaged students.


2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 86
Author(s):  
Eljana Brahja

The purpose of this study is to determine the role of high school in managing conflicts between teenagers in the rural areas between Tirana and Elbasan. Conflicts among teenagers are always present. They can happen in families, at school, and in the community, but our focus will be the conflicts generated in school premises. It is concerning that teenagers are seeing school as a battlefield where they can fight away from their parents' eyes. The research will shed light on how the aid offered by the high school social services, impact teenagers’ conflict management. This study uses Psychoanalytic, Humanist and Behavioral Directions to explain the source of violent behavior among students in schools located in rural areas. The study is based on the Positive Paradigm. The research method used for collecting data is the quantitative one. The population of this study is the teenagers of high schools located in rural areas between Tirana and Elbasan. The sample of the study is the students of "Krrabë" and "Ibrahim Hasmema" high schools and the instrument used is the sociological questionnaire. Data analysis will show whether teenage conflicts exist and how schools located in rural area manage these conflict cases. The document argues that conflicts between teenagers are present at school premises and the latest rarely use the social services provided at their school. The teachers' staff should be trained on identifying young people who tend to conflict and to have violent behavior. Teachers should be also trained on the ways to treat those teenagers who are victims of violence.


Author(s):  
I Gusti Ayu Stefani Ratna Maharani

This research is focused to identify and analyze the role of the expert information as evidence in the case of corruption. One of the criminal acts of corruption that often occurs in the government is the criminal act of corruption in goods and services procurement, in which the perpetrators have abused the social aid fund from the government. There was the case of criminal act of corruption in goods and services procurement for social aid fund that occurred in Tabanan -Bali, which committed by I Wayan Sukaja, who had corrupted the State’s financial or social aid fund. Within the process of verification in the trial, the public prosecutors submit 2 (two) experts who provided information to assist in terms of verification. This study uses normative research methods. The purpose of this study is to analyze the role of expert information as evidence in criminal act of corruption. The role of an expert cannot be ignored because it will help the judges, prosecutors and lawyers who have limited knowledge. If the expert’s information is contrary, it could be ruled out by the judges but the expert’s information that excluded must be based on clear reason, and the judges must have strong base in assess the role of the expert’s information.


Author(s):  
Guillaume Heuguet

This exploratory text starts from a doctoral-unemployed experience and was triggered by the discussions within a collective of doctoral students on this particularly ambiguous status since it is situated between student, unemployed, worker, self-entrepreneur, citizen-subject of social rights or user-commuter in offices and forms. These discussions motivated the reading and commentary of a heterogeneous set of texts on unemployment, precariousness and the functioning of the institutions of the social state. This article thus focuses on the relationship between knowledge and unemployment, as embodied in the public space, in the relationship with Pôle Emploi, and in the academic literature. It articulates a threefold problematic : what is known and said publicly about unemployment? What can we learn from the very experience of the relationship with an institution like Pôle Emploi? How can these observations contribute to an understanding of social science inquiry and the political role of knowledge fromm precariousness?


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