“It’s not even the leaders out here who have any say at all in how long they’re gonna have to wait”: A study of waiting time, power, and acceptance

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 1128-1149
Author(s):  
Lasse S Hansen

Waiting time is an exercise of power. When citizens such as welfare clients, asylum seekers, or inmates encounter the state, they experience lengthy waiting time. Their cases are often delayed; their appointments are postponed or canceled. This creates uncertainty, and studies on the lived experiences of waiting time show that this makes citizens accept that they have to wait. In this study, I argue that citizens accept that they have to wait because they believe that frontline workers have no power to reduce waiting time. I explore this through an ethnographic study of citizens on social assistance at an activation site in Denmark where they perform labor to receive their benefits. The study makes three contributions to the existing scholarship on waiting time. First, it combines observations of both frontline workers’ decisions about waiting time and how citizens experience these decisions. I explore how the frontline workers make citizens wait to perform labor and leave at the end of the day. The length of waiting changes daily, and citizens are rarely informed about how long they have to wait. I observe that citizens accept the waiting time even though they associate it with frustration, demotivation, and uncertainty. Second, what engenders this acceptance is the frontline workers’ tendency to deflect “blame away” from their power to impose waiting time. When they justify their decisions, they deflect blame either “upwards” (toward the rules or their management) or “downwards” (toward troublesome citizens). Third, the study shows that waiting time do not only reflect structural asymmetries between the citizens and the frontline workers. Citizens accept that they have to wait, because they build trust with the frontline workers and believe that the reduction of waiting time is beyond their control. This shows that the power of waiting time is also relationally produced.

The urgency of this topic is unmistakable and due to the fact that it is undergoing significant changes to date. Namely, the provision of a housing subsidy today has a new form. The article determines what kind of social assistance it offers, such as state aid for the payment of housing and communal services, discloses and justifies the procedure for receiving citizens of this type of state social assistance provided by the state, which cares for the needy citizens and their family members. Article 46 of the Constitution of Ukraine specifies the right of a person to social protection at the expense of budgetary funds. In accordance with the Law of Ukraine “On Housing and Communal Services”, adopted in 2017 by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, it noted that the benefits and subsidies for the payment of housing and communal services from January 1, 2019 are paid to the consumer in cash and in the manner determined by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. The important issue, in this case, is that such assistance for the payment of housing and communal services should have targeted use and was directed specifically to pay for such services. The article analyzes the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine No. 1176 in which we can see the mechanism of the targeted use of budgetary funds provided by the state to provide subsidies to the population. Therefore, a fair decision is that if the family has conscientiously referred to the use of residential communications and saved energy resources, water, heat energy, gas, by the results of the heating season, it can use at its own discretion and for its own purposes the balance of funds remaining as a result of economical use and savings of housing the subsidy that is on her account. Such a form of savings is interesting primarily for the family itself, which should stimulate an individual, who has a right to receive such a subsidy, reasonable and rational use of residential communications provided by the state. From 2019, subsidies were provided to citizens for the payment of housing and communal services in cash in two models of monetization, which operate simultaneously: 1) transfer of funds at the central level to a bank account in state bank “Oschadbank” with a special regime of use, followed by their referral for payment of housing and communal services; 2) the provision of housing subsidies in cash directly to the recipient. It reveals an understanding of monetization the concept. Monetization is a process of transition from the transfer of subsidies in the cashless form to the accounts of providers of housing and communal services to the provision of subsidies to citizens in cash. The purpose of such monetization is to create a transparent mechanism for providing housing subsidies and to encourage citizens to make economical, reasonable consumption. It is determined that today two models of monetization are introduced: cashless money form and cash form. Upon receipt of any information related to the appointment of a housing subsidy, the recipients of the subsidy should apply to the social protection bodies of citizens.


2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (6) ◽  
pp. 1128-1145
Author(s):  
Kari Anne Drangsland

The past decades of inquiry into the “what, where, and who” of borders have more recently been followed by an interest in borders’ temporal dimensions. In this article, I contribute to this research by analyzing how border temporalities operate on the scale of the lived experiences of rejected asylum seekers in Germany. My point of departure is the so-called Ausbildungsduldung, which since 2016 has permitted the suspension of deportation for rejected asylum seekers who start vocational training. After three years of training glimmers a promised residency permit. I approach the Ausbildungsduldung as a biopolitical technique of bordering and focus on its temporal aspects. Based on ethnographic fieldwork, I investigate how young Afghan asylum seekers negotiate the Ausbildungsduldung and how they can make its promised future their own. I show how the state deploys techniques of “future giving,” suspension, and deportability to produce skilled workers, and argue that the Ausbildungsduldung works as a bordering technique by producing affective attachments to a particular future trajectory, and by elevating certain ways of dealing with suspension and deportability in support of this trajectory. Showing how migrants are compelled to “wait well” while confined to a condition of deportability, the paper highlights how migrants’ experiences and practices of time become central to processes of bordering.


2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 213
Author(s):  
Budi Suhariyanto

Diskresi sebagai wewenang bebas, keberadaannya rentan akan disalahgunakan. Penyalahgunaan diskresi yang berimplikasi merugikan keuangan negara dapat dituntutkan pertanggungjawabannya secara hukum administrasi maupun hukum pidana. Mengingat selama ini peraturan perundang-undangan tentang pemberantasan tindak pidana korupsi tidak merumuskan secara rinci yang dimaksudkan unsur menyalahgunakan kewenangan maka para hakim menggunakan konsep penyalahgunaan wewenang dari hukum administrasi. Problema muncul saat diberlakukannya Undang-Undang Nomor 30 Tahun 2014 dimana telah memicu persinggungan dalam hal kewenangan mengadili penyalahgunaan wewenang (termasuk diskresi) antara Pengadilan Tata Usaha Negara dengan Pengadilan Tindak Pidana Korupsi. Pada perkembangannya, persinggungan kewenangan mengadili tersebut ditegaskan oleh Peraturan Mahkamah Agung Nomor 4 Tahun 2015 bahwa PTUN berwenang menerima, memeriksa, dan memutus permohonan penilaian ada atau tidak ada penyalahgunaan wewenang (termasuk diskresi) dalam Keputusan dan/atau Tindakan Pejabat Pemerintahan sebelum adanya proses pidana. Sehubungan tidak dijelaskan tentang definisi dan batasan proses pidana yang dimaksud, maka timbul penafsiran yang berbeda. Perlu diadakan kesepakatan bersama dan dituangkan dalam regulasi tentang tapal batas persinggungan yang jelas tanpa meniadakan kewenangan pengujian penyalahgunaan wewenang diskresi pada Pengadilan TUN.Discretion as free authority is vulnerable to being misused. The abuse of discretion implicating the state finance may be prosecuted by both administrative and criminal law. In view of the fact that the law on corruption eradication does not formulate in detail the intended element of authority abuse, the judges use the concept of authority abuse from administrative law. Problems arise when the enactment of Law No. 30 of 2014 triggered an interception in terms of justice/ adjudicate authority on authority abuse (including discretion) between the Administrative Court and Corruption Court. In its development, the interception of justice authority is affirmed by Regulation of the Supreme Court Number 4 of 2015 that the Administrative Court has the authority to receive, examine and decide upon the appeal there is or there is no misuse of authority in the Decision and / or Action of Government Officials prior to the criminal process. That is, shortly before the commencement of the criminal process then that's when the authority of PTUN decides to judge the misuse of authority over the case. In this context, Perma No. 4 of 2015 has imposed restrictions on the authority of the TUN Court in prosecuting the abuse of discretionary authority.


Author(s):  
Leonardo Cardoso

This book is an ethnographic study of controversial sounds and noise control debates in Latin America’s most populous city. It discusses the politics of collective living by following several threads linking sound-making practices to governance issues. Rather than discussing sound within a self-enclosed “cultural” field, I examine it as a point of entry for analyzing the state. At the same time, rather than portraying the state as a self-enclosed “apparatus” with seemingly inexhaustible homogeneous power, I describe it as a collection of unstable (and often contradictory) sectors, personnel, strategies, discourses, documents, and agencies. My goal is to approach sound as an analytical category that allows us to access citizenship issues. As I show, environmental noise in São Paulo has been entangled in a wide range of debates, including public health, religious intolerance, crime control, urban planning, cultural rights, and economic growth. The book’s guiding question can be summarized as follows: how do sounds enter and leave the sphere of state control? I answer this question by examining a multifaceted process I define as “sound-politics.” The term refers to sounds as objects that are susceptible to state intervention through specific regulatory, disciplinary, and punishment mechanisms. Both “sound” and “politics” in “sound-politics” are nouns, with the hyphen serving as a bridge that expresses the instability that each concept inserts into the other.


2021 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-85
Author(s):  
Marina Svensson

This article analyses the visions, careers, and companies of Jack Ma of Alibaba and Geng Le of Blue City. Jack Ma is a well-known business leader and visionary, whereas the less well-known Geng Le only began to receive more attention since launching a successful gay dating app in 2012. The article focuses on the personal narratives and visions of these two IT entrepreneurs. It provides new perspectives on the role of individual entrepreneurs in relation to the Chinese state’s global ambitions and vision of creating a “strong internet country.” It argues that the commercialisation and platformisation of the Chinese internet, and the growing transnational nature of Chinese IT companies, serve to make them more, not less, co-dependent of the state and its visions. The internet’s emancipatory potential is today increasingly conflated with consumption, and online spaces and social relations are subject to both commodification and datafication.


2021 ◽  
pp. 003802612110097
Author(s):  
Magali Peyrefitte

Embracing the manifesto for a ‘live’ sociology, I included portraiture into the research design of an ethnographic study into women’s lived experiences of French suburbia and organised an exhibition entitled Habitantes d’Hier and d’Aujourd’hui: exposition sociologique et photographique. This was a personal project in the neighbourhood of my youth and was motivated by the intention to shine some light on the invisible stories of women living in lower-middle and middle-income suburbs in France. In this article, I reflect on the use of portraiture for the possibility it offers in capturing the ethnographic encounter as well as in giving saliency and offering a visual representation of the sociological analysis. I also discuss the exhibition of these portraits as a moment of conviviality grounded in the endeavour of writing differently from hegemonic modes of academic communication and dissemination allowing for a sharing and sharpening of the sociological imagination. It represents an opportunity to think beyond some of the more neoliberal imperatives that govern academia today and shape our sociological craft. I argue for the value of creating a moment of conviviality, that is a space challenging modes of dissemination, engagement and even impact to some extent, as well as modes of knowledge production: broadly opening up more possibilities for a truly public sociology to continue to exist.


2020 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nina Sivunen ◽  
Elina Tapio

AbstractIn this paper we explore the use of multimodal and multilingual semiotic resources in interactions between two deaf signing participants, a researcher and an asylum seeker. The focus is on the use of gaze and environmentally coupled gestures. Drawing on multimodal analysis and linguistic ethnography, we demonstrate how gaze and environmentally coupled gestures are effective semiotic resources for reaching mutual understanding. The study provides insight into the challenges and opportunities (deaf) asylum seekers, researchers, and employees of reception centres or the state may encounter because of the asymmetrical language competencies. Our concern is that such asymmetrical situations may be created and maintained by ignoring visual and embodied resources in interaction and, in the case of deaf asylum seekers, by unrealistic expectations towards conventionalized forms of international sign.


2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Clark

Abstract In 66 CE, the emperor Nero crowned the Parthian prince Tiridates I king of Armenia before the Roman people in the Forum Romanum. Much scholarship on Roman interactions with Parthia or Armenia focuses on histories of military conflict or diplomatic negotiation. Ritual and ceremonial evidence, however, is often taken for granted. This article uses the coronation to highlight a different way in which Rome articulated its relations with Parthia and Armenia to domestic and foreign audiences. It will show how Nero and his regime used the art of public spectacle to project an image of Roman superiority over Parthia and Armenia in spite of Roman military losses in the recent Armenian war. Tiridates, a Parthian prince and a brother of the Parthian king of kings, traveled to Rome to be crowned the first king of Armenia from the Parthian royal family. To receive this title, Tiridates passed by several monuments to Augustan triumphs over Parthia and Armenia in the Forum. He was also surrounded by a group of Roman citizens, who watched him as they would have watched a defeated foreign leader in a triumph. At the culmination of the ceremony, Tiridates performed proskynesis before Nero at the rostra Augusti and was granted his crown. Through Augustus’ monuments, the collective viewing of Tiridates, and his acts of public submission and deference to Nero, the crowning intimated a new narrative about the state of Roman-Parthian/Armenian relations. While Augustus had represented Parthian and Armenian defeat in art, Nero had compelled a representative of both Parthia and Armenia to come to Rome and kneel before the emperor. Both states were now subservient to Rome, which remained the dominant power in the East.


2021 ◽  
Vol 100 (4) ◽  
pp. 198-207
Author(s):  
R.N. Terletskaya ◽  
◽  
I.V. Vinyarskaya ◽  
E.V. Antonova ◽  
A.P. Fisenko ◽  
...  

Despite the positive developments in the sphere of ensuring the special needs of disabled children, a comprehensive socio-hygienic assessment of the conditions and lifestyles, as well as of their families, has not been carried out in the recent years. The purpose of the study is to identify, through a sociological survey, the problems that a disabled child encounters in his life, in order to further improve the provision of medical and social assistance to him. Materials and methods of research: 506 legal representatives of minors (aged 0–17 years) with the status of a disabled child were interviewed. Study design: single-center, non-randomized, uncontrolled. Results: the study of the living conditions of a disabled child in the family, the assessment by the parents of the state of his health, the problems arising during the registration of disability, in the provision of medical and rehabilitation assistance, and issues of medical and social support, made it possible to determine the position of this part of the child population in modern legal and medical and social conditions. The main problems were the large number of documents required for the registration of a disability, the long wait for the day of the examination, the remoteness of the location of the medical and social examination bureau, the shortage of specialist doctors, the problem with subsidized drugs, the lack of taking into account the individual needs of the child when carrying out rehabilitation programs, the need to contact different organizations and departments, lack of medical and social assistance, violation of rights in the provision of medical services to a disabled child. Conclusion: The acquired information is important for the further improvement of the provision of medical and social assistance to handicapped children and children with disabilities. The main task today is to develop mechanisms for fulfilling the declared rights and freedoms of persons with disabilities and the obligations undertaken by the state in relation to them. The principle of individualization of the provision of various benefits, depending on the condition of a disabled child, his needs, material security, remains relevant.


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