Dealing with Disasters in an Age of Globalized Sentiment: Testing the Boundaries of the Cosmopolitan Ideal?

2013 ◽  
Vol 12 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 283-297 ◽  
Author(s):  
Darren O’Byrne
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Natural Disasters ◽  
Global Civil Society ◽  
Political Context ◽  
The Political ◽  
Capitalist System ◽  
Global Response ◽  
The World ◽  
Per Se

AbstractNatural disasters, such as the Japanese earthquake and tsunami of March 2011, have not only tested the fragility of the world capitalist system, but have asked questions of the ‘cosmopolitan ideal’ that underpins the discourse on global civil society prevalent in much literature on globalization. In this article I consider why the global response to such tragedies is markedly different to the more muted response to more overtly political tragedies, such as atrocities committed by states, and suggests that what it demonstrates is not a full cosmopolitanismper se, but a ‘selective cosmopolitanism’ grounded in a ‘de-politicization of feeling’. As a result, the political context of these natural disasters is often ignored and this calls for a repositioning of such disasters within a human rights framework and for an analysis of them informed by a critical globalization studies.

The Role of Global Civil Society in Promoting Human Rights

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anwar Faraj ◽  
Narmeen Ahmed
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
Global Civil Society ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
Global Issues ◽  
Global Institutions ◽  
Political Conflicts ◽  
The World ◽  
Effective Role

The tolerance is one of the issues that have aroused the interest of specialists and activists in political and cultural affairs in various countries of the world. Especially those countries whose societies have suffered from: societal crises, national or religious differences, and civil wars or internal or external political conflicts. Because of the developments in the human rights movement and the activities of international organizations and their role in alleviating conflicts and building peace in many countries, the issue of tolerance has become one of the global issues that receive the attention of global institutions, including global civil society organizations, which have witnessed an expansion in their activities by developments in Information and communication technology, to contribute an effective role in the cause of tolerance in various countries of the world, and is attracting interaction at the level of the international community.

6 Successes, Problems, and Potential

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nussberger Angelika
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Political Context ◽  
The Political ◽  
Direct Impact ◽  
Member States ◽  
European Court ◽  
Military Conflicts ◽  
The World ◽  
Bona Fide ◽  
Political Success

This concluding chapter explores how far the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and the Commission have influenced politics in the forty-seven Member States, created common standards in Europe, and set a model for other parts of the world. The assessment of political success or failure of the Convention model will depend on the expectancies. Undoubtedly, the Court’s jurisprudence reflects the new political tensions and provides answers. Three factors, however, cannot but reduce the direct impact of the Court’s advocacy for ‘bona fide democracy’. First, the Court can only decide on cases brought before it. Second, the Court can only play a subsidiary role. Third, the whole Convention system is dependent on the good will of the Member States. If they do not execute politically important judgments that do not ‘please’ them, the Court's means in forcing them are rather restricted. Despite all these difficulties, whenever it could and within the framework provided by the Convention, the Court has identified the relevant violations and assessed them within the political context. Ultimately, the Court is a ‘European’ court and can speak only for its European Member States. Nevertheless, its voice is not only heard in Europe, but also beyond its borders. This is especially true when the challenges it has to deal with are universal, such as terrorism, migration, and military conflicts.

Introduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Dapo Akande ◽  
Jaakko Kuosmanen ◽  
Helen McDermott ◽  
Dominic Roser
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Environmental Degradation ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Political Context ◽  
First Century ◽  
The Political ◽  
The World ◽  
High Regard ◽  
Twenty First Century

The interlocking threats of armed conflict, environmental degradation, and poverty constitute a central part of the political and moral challenges facing the world in the twenty-first century. However, anyone who considers that these challenges should be confronted with approaches that incorporate and are built upon human rights faces a difficult task. High regard for human rights seems to have developed in a particular and bygone political context. The rise of populism and nationalism in recent years may be seen as having created myriad novel and complex realities. These developments suggest that work now needs to be done to apply human rights to new realities but may also indicate that we need to adapt our understanding of human rights in light of them....

Atypical Presentation of Neurobrucellosis as Infection of Ventriculoperitoneal Shunt

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raul-Ciprian Covrig ◽  
Jasmina Petridou ◽  
Ulrich J. Knappe
Keyword(s):  
Case Report ◽  
Abdominal Surgery ◽  
Ventriculoperitoneal Shunt ◽  
Political Context ◽  
European Countries ◽  
The Political ◽  
Atypical Presentation ◽  
The World ◽  
Surgery First ◽  
Endemic Areas

AbstractBrucellosis is a frequent zoonosis in some regions of the world and may cause various symptoms. Neurobrucellosis is a rare but serious complication of the infection. Our case report describes the course of neurobrucellosis in a patient who had received a ventriculoperitoneal shunt in his native country 13 years prior to diagnosis of brucellosis. He initially presented to us with symptoms of peritonitis, which misled us to perform abdominal surgery first. After the diagnosis of neurobrucellosis was confirmed and appropriate antibiotics were initiated, the symptoms soon disappeared. Although the ventriculoperitoneal shunt was subsequently removed, the patient did not develop a symptomatic hydrocephalus further on. This case displays the challenges in diagnosing an infection that occurred sporadically in Europe and may be missed by currently applied routine microbiological workup. Considering the political context, with increasing relocation from endemic areas to European countries, it is to be expected that the cases of brucellosis and neurobrucellosis will rise. Brucellosis should be considered and adequate investigations should be performed.

The Role of Religious Force in the Wukan Incident

2013 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 155-175 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hou Yuxin
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
The Political ◽  
The People ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Media ◽  
Social Management ◽  
The Village

Abstract The Wukan Incident attracted extensive attention both in China and around the world, and has been interpreted from many different perspectives. In both the media and academia, the focus has very much been on the temporal level of the Incident. The political and legal dimensions, as well as the implications of the Incident in terms of human rights have all been pored over. However, what all of these discussions have overlooked is the role played by religious force during the Incident. The village of Wukan has a history of over four hundred years, and is deeply influenced by the religious beliefs of its people. Within both the system of religious beliefs and in everyday life in the village, the divine immortal Zhenxiu Xianweng and the religious rite of casting shengbei have a powerful influence. In times of peace, Xianweng and casting shengbei work to bestow good fortune, wealth and longevity on both the village itself, and the individuals who live there. During the Wukan Incident, they had a harmonizing influence, and helped to unify and protect the people. Looking at the specific roles played by religion throughout the Wukan Incident will not only enable us to develop a more meaningful understanding of the cultural nature and the complexity of the Incident itself, it will also enrich our understanding, on a divine level, of innovations in social management.

scholarly journals The Party’s Turn to Public Repression: An Analysis of the ‘709’ Crackdown on Human Rights Lawyers in China

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eva Pils
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
The Political ◽  
Rational Argument ◽  
Political Emotions ◽  
Legal Advocacy ◽  
Human Rights Advocacy ◽  
Party State

The intensified and more public repression of civil society in China is part of a global shift toward deepened and technologically smarter dictatorship. This article uses the example of the ‘709’ government campaign against Chinese human rights lawyers to discuss this shift. It argues that the Party-State adopted more public and sophisticated forms of repression in reaction to smarter forms and techniques of human rights advocacy. In contrast to liberal legal advocacy, however, the Party-State’s authoritarian (or neo-totalitarian) propaganda is not bounded by rational argument. It can more fully exploit the potential of the political emotions it creates. Along with other forms of public repression, the crackdown indicates a rise of anti-liberal and anti-rationalist conceptions of law and governance and a return to the romanticisation of power.

scholarly journals The Mediterranean Region: between terrorism, tourism and security

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 135-148
Author(s):  
Nicoletta Varani ◽  
Enrico Bernardini
Keyword(s):  
Natural Disasters ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Mediterranean Region ◽  
Tourism Industry ◽  
Terrorist Attacks ◽  
The Political ◽  
International Conflicts ◽  
Tourist Destinations ◽  
The World ◽  
The Mediterranean

Abstract Tourism remains a very vulnerable sector and sensitive to both internal and external impacts, such as economic and social crises, natural disasters, epidemics and diseases, national and international conflicts. Among these, the most alarming threat in the 21st century remains terrorism. In this sense, this paper aims to study the effects of the increasingly frequent terrorist attacks by the extremist factions of Al-Qaeda and ISIL on the tourism industry in the Mediterranean Region. The contribution, after having discussed in general the tourism market in the Mediterranean Region, intends to highlight the impacts and repercussions of the terrorist attacks on tourism, presenting the example of Egypt and one of its best-known tourist destinations, Sharm el-Sheikh. In this sense, it is shown how, in a few years, the political instability of the country and the attacks of 2005 and 2016 have significantly reduced the influx of tourists, transforming it from one of the most visited destinations in the world in a place of increasing abandonment.

Locating civil society in Foucault

2020 ◽  
pp. 137-152
Author(s):  
Bob Jessop
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
World Market ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Economic Democracy ◽  
Work Time ◽  
Paris Commune ◽  
Political Sphere ◽  
The World ◽  
The Masses

For both Marx and Gramsci, the separation between the economic and political spheres was a key feature of bourgeois societies. Marx saw the conflict between bourgeois and citoyen as requiring resistance to this separation as crucial to democratic emancipation and wrote that the Paris Commune realized this. He also saw social emancipation in terms of the expansion of free time rather than work time. Gramsci argued that civil society became more important in the 1870s as the masses gained the vote in political rights. They both argued that democracy could not be restricted to the political sphere but should also involve economic democracy. This is undermined by the expansion of the world market and survival of national states.

A liberal narrative

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tamas Wells
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Capacity Building ◽  
Future Orientation ◽  
International Aid ◽  
Aid Workers ◽  
Transitional Countries ◽  
The World ◽  
Formal Procedure ◽  
International Aid Agencies

This chapter unpacks a liberal narrative of democracy. It grounds and locates the ways that many aid workers in Myanmar understood and communicated about democracy. The chapter outlines three elements of this narrative. First, most international aid workers involved in the research pointed toward the challenge of ethnic and religious divisions in the country. These aid workers described how divisions in Myanmar were perpetuated by a personalised political culture where formal institutions of democracy were insufficiently embedded. Second, aid agency representatives often expressed a vision of a formal procedure-based democracy supported by liberal values of human rights, pluralism and the protection of minorities. This vision also had a future orientation, where proponents of this narrative saw Myanmar’s democratisation as being set within the context of other transitional countries around the world – moving away from traditional systems toward a democratic future. Third, many aid workers emphasised a strategy of government and civil society capacity building led by international aid agencies.

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