Ethnic Conflict within a Fractured Belgian Nation-State The Case of the Trouble in Brussels (May 1991)

1996 ◽  
Vol 4 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 289-300 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Ethnic Conflict ◽  
Alternative Explanation ◽  
The State ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Citizenship Rights ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Ethnic Labels

AbstractThis paper analyses clashes which took place between Belgian police and young people mainly from 'immigrant' backgrounds in Brussels during 1991. Four models were developed in the Belgian press for understanding the violence, but a deeper understanding of the public confrontations requires an alternative explanation which places local events in a wider context of power and state. The conflict should more properly be understood as the reaction of a relatively powerless community to its disadvantaged situation. The young people were acting not as victims but as active agents questioning dominant notions and policies concerning 'integration', challenging the ethnic labels applied to them and asserting a desire for citizenship rights. Despite these positive reactions the relationship between minorities and the state has not radically changed and violence could easily break out again as more recent events have demonstrated.

scholarly journals Political Islam and the State in Africa

2009 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 128-131
Author(s):  
Muhammed Haron
Keyword(s):  
Religion And Politics ◽  
Political Islam ◽  
The State ◽  
Nation State ◽  
African Continent ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Arena ◽  
The Relationship

Political Islam has been under the scholarly spotlight for over two decades.The events in the Muslim heartlands and beyond have caused scholars tocritically investigate the relationship between religion and politics throughoutthe era of secularism; some arguing that religion is on its way out, andothers stating that it is gradually gaining ground in the public arena. For thewestern-trained scholar, the religion-politics divide is a sine qua non; however,for those outside the scholarly circles, religion has always been connectedto and intertwined with politics. This has been the case with Islam.The editors of this text, which focuses on the nature of political Islam andthe nation-state on the African continent, have brought together a crop ofscholars with divergent views. It consists of nine chapters, an introductioncoauthored by Hussein Solomon and Akeem Fadare, and a conclusion coauthoredby Solomon and Firoza Butler ...

scholarly journals Preparedness of Young People for a Sustainable Lifestyle: Awareness and Willingness

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (13) ◽  
pp. 7204
Author(s):  
Anastazija Dimitrova ◽  
Antonín Vaishar ◽  
Milada Šťastná
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Environmental Issues ◽  
Financial Resources ◽  
Specific Information ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
The Public ◽  
Global Problem ◽  
Sustainable Lifestyle ◽  
Local Companies ◽  
The Relationship

This article discusses the relationship between a consumer lifestyle and the environment. The willingness to adapt to a sustainable lifestyle was tested through a questionnaire among students of Mendel University in Brno, who are theoretically well-informed people. Overall, 417 students answered, i.e., 19% of the respondents. The students generally recognised the need to address environmental issues, and 90.6% intended to change their lifestyle in this direction. Among the barriers, they mentioned in particular lack of time, lack of financial resources, lack of specific information and insufficient conditions. Addressing this issue requires close co-operation in education between governmental and non-governmental organisations in both the public and private sectors. The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the situation in that it has drawn attention to the response of local companies to the global problem.

State and religion in a revolutionary era: perspectives and demands of the Islamic awakening†

2013 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 325-340
Author(s):  
Ridwan Al-Sayyid
Keyword(s):  
Political Islam ◽  
The State ◽  
The Other ◽  
Revolutionary Era ◽  
The Public ◽  
Major Threat ◽  
Arab Uprisings ◽  
Holding Power ◽  
Main Disadvantage ◽  
The Relationship

This paper tackles the relationship between Islam and the state in light of the ongoing revolutions. It focuses on two perspectives: the Islamists' claim that the Shari'a and not the umma (community) are the source of legitimacy in the evolving regimes; and that it is the duty of the state to protect religion and apply the Shari'a. The main disadvantage of these propositions is that they preclude the Umma both from political power and Shari'a, thus pitting it against these two assets which become manipulated to its disadvantage by those holding power. On the other hand, an open-minded and reformist Islamic perspective believes in people regaining the prerogative to rule themselves, guided by their intellect and the public good. The main call for the Arab uprisings is to quit political Islam, which seems to be the major threat to religion, and dangerously divisive for societies.

Jainism in Danger? Temple entry and the rhetoric of religion and reform in post-colonial India

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-37
Author(s):  
MANISHA SETHI
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
The State ◽  
The Other ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Colonial India ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Debates ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Open The Doors ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract A bitter debate broke out in the Digambar Jain community in the middle of the twentieth century following the passage of the Bombay Harijan Temple Entry Act in 1947, which continued until well after the promulgation of the Untouchability (Offences) Act 1955. These laws included Jains in the definition of ‘Hindu’, and thus threw open the doors of Jain temples to formerly Untouchable castes. In the eyes of its Jain opponents, this was a frontal and terrible assault on the integrity and sanctity of the Jain dharma. Those who called themselves reformists, on the other hand, insisted on the closeness between Jainism and Hinduism. Temple entry laws and the public debates over caste became occasions for the Jains not only to examine their distance—or closeness—to Hinduism, but also the relationship between their community and the state, which came to be imagined as predominantly Hindu. This article, by focusing on the Jains and this forgotten episode, hopes to illuminate the civilizational categories underlying state practices and the fraught relationship between nationalism and minorities.

Partnerships, Power, and Scale in Rural Governance

10.1068/c12m ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 289-310 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bill Edwards ◽  
Mark Goodwin ◽  
Simon Pemberton ◽  
Michael Woods
Keyword(s):  
Development Policy ◽  
The State ◽  
State Agencies ◽  
Working Relationships ◽  
Politics Of Scale ◽  
The Public ◽  
Rural Governance ◽  
Local Actors ◽  
Rural Development Policy ◽  
The Relationship

Partnerships have become established as a significant vehicle for the implementation of rural development policy in Britain. In promoting new working relationships between different state agencies and between the public, private, and voluntary sectors, partnerships have arguably contributed to a reconfiguration of the scalar hierarchy of the state. In this paper we draw on recent debates about the ‘politics of scale’ and on empirical examples from Mid Wales and Shropshire to explore the scalar implications of partnerships. We investigate how discursive constructs of partnership are translated into practice, how official discourses are mediated by local actors, the relationship between partnerships and existing scales of governance, and the particular ‘geometry of power’ being constructed through partnerships. We argue that the existing scalar hierarchy of the state has been influential in structuring the scales and territories of partnerships, and that, despite an apparent devolution of the public face of governance, the state remains crucial in governing the process of governance through partnerships.

scholarly journals The Sphere of Critical Thinking in a Post-Epistemic World

1994 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Steve Fuller
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
The State ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Big Science ◽  
The Public ◽  
Critical Attitude

Just as political theorists have long argued that democracy is viable only in communities of certain sizes and shapes, perhaps epistemologists should also entertain the idea that knowledge is possible only within certain social parameters-ones which today's world may have exceeded. This is what I mean by the "postepistemic" society. I understand an "epistemic society" in Popperian terms as an environment that fosters the spirit of conjectures and refutations. After castigating analytic philosophers for their failure to see this point, I show how Rousseau and Feyerabend occupy analogous positions as critics of, respectively, the nation-state and Big Science. Rather than endorsing the disestablishment of the state, however, I offer a proposal for reinjecting the critical attitude into Big Science. It involves heightening the sporting character of scientific disputes, perhaps even to the point of enabling the public to bet on their outcomes.

scholarly journals Economics, Politics, and Ethnicity in Balochistan's Transport Industry

1995 ◽  
Vol 34 (4II) ◽  
pp. 619-626 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Titus
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Ethnic Conflict ◽  
Political Power ◽  
Political Leadership ◽  
The State ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Distribution Of Wealth ◽  
Contemporary World ◽  
Transport Industry ◽  
The Creation

Because of its potential to disrupt economic development, it is necessary to understand the dynamics of ethnic conflict in the contemporary world. A prevalent trend in the study of ethnicity is to focus on the creation and/or maintenance of ethnic identities and mobilisation on the basis of those identities as groups compete for resources, opportunities, or political power in the context of the nation-state [Barth (1969); Brass (1985); Comaroff (1987); Mumtaz (1990)]. In this approach, an ethnic group's distinguishing markers-language, custom, dress, etc.-are treated less as manifestations of tradition which define or create the group and more as arenas of negotiation and contestation in which people strive to realise their practical and symbolic interests. This happens as individuals or families, pursuing their livelihoods with the skills and resources available to them, find (or create) opportunities or obstacles which appear to be based on' ethnic criteria. The state can intensify this process as it uses positive or negative discrimination in order to achieve some desired distribution of wealth and opportunity. In turn, political leadership becomes a key in realising the experience of shared ethnic interests. Leadership develops as a kind of dual legitimation process, i.e., as individuals or organisations seek to be accepted as spokesmen both by members of the group itself and by outsiders.

Concluding Remarks to Part 3

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Preminger
Keyword(s):  
Government Policy ◽  
The State ◽  
Political Community ◽  
Individual Responsibility ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Third ◽  
Third Sphere ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

Chapter 15 summarizes the chapters which addressed the third sphere, the relationship of labor to the political community. It reiterates that since Israel was established, the labor market’s borders have become ever more porous, while the borders of the national (Jewish) political community have remained firm: the Jewish nationalism which guides government policy is as strong as ever. NGOs, drawing on a discourse of human rights, are able to assist some non-citizens but this discourse also resonates with the idea of individual responsibility: the State is no longer willing to support “non-productive” populations, who are now being shoehorned into a labor market which offers few opportunities for meaningful employment, and is saturated by cheaper labor intentionally imported by the State in response to powerful employer lobbies. These trends suggest a partial reorientation of organized labor’s “battlefront”, from a face-off with capital to an appeal to the public and state.

Basic Income as a Human Right?

2019 ◽  
pp. 541-552
Author(s):  
Daniel J. Hemel
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Public Goods ◽  
The State ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Basic Income ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Global Commons ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter suggests a human rights–based justification for national basic income schemes, contrasting it with justifications based on welfarist principles or notions of entitlement to a share of the global commons. Starting from the premise that a state is a collective enterprise that generates a surplus, it contends that any human being who is an “obedient” member of that state has a right to some share of the surplus. That right—which arises from the relationship between the individual and the state, and is independent of need—could justify the entitlement to a basic income. Such income should be provided in cash, not in kind, because the latter risks depriving the individual of the enjoyment of his share of the surplus—in effect, forcing him to forfeit or transfer it to others if he does not use the public goods or services provided by the state.

C. N. Yang on Teaching and Research in Physics

2016 ◽  
Vol 31 (12) ◽  
pp. 1630016
Author(s):  
Yu Shi ◽  
David Waxman
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
The State ◽  
Teaching And Research ◽  
Yang Mills ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Relationship

This document is based on five conversations between Prof. C. N. Yang and others in Beijing in 1986. In the conversations, Yang gave his views on the state and development of physics at that time, and the relationship between physics and philosophy. The conversations also contain Yang’s reminiscences on the creation of Yang–Mills theory and his advice to young people, especially those in China.

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