Waste and postsocialism in Estonia: Becoming European through the management of rubbish

2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (7-8) ◽  
pp. 1348-1366
Author(s):  
Francisco Martínez ◽  
Kaia Beilmann

This article explores notions of postsocialism and waste in relation to each other. The research approaches waste as a means of considering changing orders of knowledge, scripts and standards, which in our view is a key element of postsocialist societies. The research offers important information in relation to the ways in which waste practices have changed (or not) in accordance to EU regulations and standards in Estonia, and provides significant data to highlight the emergence of controversies and negotiations around this issue across different scales. It therefore aims to make an important contribution to future cross-cultural comparisons of the political implications of rubbish management; also to ongoing discussions about processes of Europeanization and how transnational socio-technical arrangements are assembled with local practices. After examining waste politics in Estonia, the article concludes that for this country, postsocialist transformations implied a break in orders of knowledge, as part of an intensive social negotiation within the framework of the EU. Nonetheless, it also foregrounds that waste practices show relevant continuities and complex scale effects in the new chain of connections and legislation.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriel Goodliffe

<p>Numerous studies attribute the Eurozone crisis and the failure to resolve it to German elites’ and voters’ fealty to Ordoliberalism. This interpretation is shared by the otherwise antagonistic historical institutionalist and ideational schools of comparative political economy, which both hold that it was German policy institutions’ or leaders’ ordoliberal principles that brought them to blame the crisis in the Eurozone’s periphery on fiscal profligacy and to intervene “too little, too late” for fear of violating Ordoliberalism’s central liability principle. This article posits that this ordoliberal interpretive and prescriptive framework is inadequate to explain Germany’s response to the Eurozone crisis. Deploying a neoclassical realist framework, the article argues that Ordoliberalism was pursued as a strategic idea when it was consistent with core German economic and political interests, notably the preservation of the country’s export-led growth model and leadership of the European Union (EU), as well as the principal institutions, such as the Single Market and European Monetary Union (EMU), advancing these interests. Conversely, when a strict application of its principles ran counter to the latter, German decisionmakers demurred from pursuing Ordoliberalism. The article considers the political implications of Germany’s selective pursuit of Ordoliberalism for the EU. It concludes that this strategy may be undermining the functional basis and political legitimacy of German hegemonic governance in Europe.</p>


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriel Goodliffe

<p>Numerous studies attribute the Eurozone crisis and the failure to resolve it to German elites’ and voters’ fealty to Ordoliberalism. This interpretation is shared by the otherwise antagonistic historical institutionalist and ideational schools of comparative political economy, which both hold that it was German policy institutions’ or leaders’ ordoliberal principles that brought them to blame the crisis in the Eurozone’s periphery on fiscal profligacy and to intervene “too little, too late” for fear of violating Ordoliberalism’s central liability principle. This article posits that this ordoliberal interpretive and prescriptive framework is inadequate to explain Germany’s response to the Eurozone crisis. Deploying a neoclassical realist framework, the article argues that Ordoliberalism was pursued as a strategic idea when it was consistent with core German economic and political interests, notably the preservation of the country’s export-led growth model and leadership of the European Union (EU), as well as the principal institutions, such as the Single Market and European Monetary Union (EMU), advancing these interests. Conversely, when a strict application of its principles ran counter to the latter, German decisionmakers demurred from pursuing Ordoliberalism. The article considers the political implications of Germany’s selective pursuit of Ordoliberalism for the EU. It concludes that this strategy may be undermining the functional basis and political legitimacy of German hegemonic governance in Europe.</p>


2020 ◽  
Vol 61 (3) ◽  
pp. 503-524
Author(s):  
Jürgen Gerhards ◽  
Clara Dilger

Abstract European law requires member states of the European Union (EU) to accept refugees. It also allows them to return refugees to their countries of origin if the reason for asylum no longer exists. Both the reception and return of refugees has become a widely debated and controversial issue in many member states of the EU. Based on a survey conducted in 13 EU member states, we analysed whether citizens support the return of refugees when the cause for their displacement has become obsolete and how differences in attitudes toward the return of refugees can be explained. A clear majority of Europeans (70%) support the return of refugees. This is also the case for those who believe that their country should accept refugees in the first place. These results mean that existing law—the acceptance of refugees in need and the return when the cause becomes obsolete—is being supported by a majority of Europeans. However, there are considerable differences in approval rates among the countries. The results of multivariate analysis show that ideational factors—both on the micro and the macro level—influence attitudes toward the return of refugees, whereas structural factors, recurring to economic interest, do not contribute substantially to the explanation of attitudes toward the return. The political implications of these findings are discussed in the last section of the article.


Author(s):  
Emil Souleimanov ◽  
Maya Ehrmann ◽  
Vincenc Kopeček

The issue whether to legally recognize the tragic events of 1915 in Eastern Anatolia as a genocide remains a key  political issue which drives an edge between Armenia and the Republic of Turkey. Through their European diaspora communities, the issue has also entered the domain of the European Union (EU), becoming even more controversial as Turkey is in the process of hotly contested EU accession talks. The present article uses the instruments of discourse analysis to focus on the current perceptions of the Armenian genocide in the various countries involved, specifically within the EU, Armenia and Turkey, in order to explore the political rationale behind the commitment of various states to recognize or deny the aforementioned historical events as an act of genocide. After providing a brief historical overview of the 1915 events, we analyse internal EU perceptions of the “reality” of the Armenian genocide recognition, primarily in relation to Turkey's accession efforts. We then focus on the domestic discourses in Armenia and Turkey, with the goal of shedding light on the rationale behind both Yerevan's encouragement of genocide recognition and Ankara's unwillingness to recognize the genocide, as well as on the political implications of recognition and denial.


2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Octaviana I. P. Hemmy Asamsama ◽  
Leesa V. Huang ◽  
R. Brett Nelson ◽  
Naoko Kadoma ◽  
Kyongboon Kwon ◽  
...  

Professare ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 109
Author(s):  
Claudemir Aparecido Lopes

<p class="resumoabstract">O professor Giorgio Agamben tem elaborado críticas à engenhosa estrutura política ocidental moderna. Avalia os mecanismos de controle estatal, nos quais os denomina ‘dispositivos’, cuja força está na imbricação às normas jurídico-teológicas com seus similares ritos e liturgias. Suas ocorrências e legitimidade preponderam no tecido social cuja organização sistêmica se põe quase como elemento natural e não cultural. O texto tem por objetivo explorar a concepção política de Agamben sobre a política contemporânea, especialmente considerando seu livro: ‘Estado de Exceção’, cuja investigação apresenta a possibilidade de atenuação dos direitos de cidadania e o enfraquecimento da prática da liberdade política e o processo de relação dos indivíduos no meio social através da redução das subjetividades ‘autênticas’. Analisamos ainda a transferência do mundo sacro elaborado pelos teólogos católicos presente na modernidade à política cuja democracia moderna faz do homem (sujeito) tornar-se objeto do poder político. Faz também, reflexão dos conceitos de subjetivação e dessubjetivação relacionando-os às implicações políticas do homem moderno. A pesquisa é bibliográfica com ênfase na análise dos conceitos elaborados por Agamben, especialmente quanto ao ‘dispositivo’. Conclui que o indivíduo ocidental, de modo geral, sofre o processo de dessubjetivação e está ‘nu’, indefeso e alienado politicamente. Ele precisa voltar-se ao processo de ‘profanação’ dos dispositivos para libertar-se das vinculações orientadoras que forçosamente o descaracteriza enquanto ser ativo e livre.</p><p class="resumoabstract"><strong>Palavras-chave</strong>: Política. Liberdade. Subjetivação.</p><h3>ABSTRACT</h3><p class="resumoabstract">Professor Giorgio Agamben has been criticizing the ingenious modern Western political structure. It evaluates the mechanisms of state control, in which it calls them 'devices', whose strength lies in the overlap with legal-theological norms with their similar rites and liturgies. Its occurrences and legitimacy preponderate in the social fabric whose systemic organization is almost as a natural and not a cultural element. The text aims to explore Agamben's political conception of contemporary politics, especially considering his book 'State of Exception', whose research presents the possibility of attenuating citizenship rights and weakening the practice of political freedom and the individuals in the social environment through the reduction of 'authentic' subjectivities. We also analyze the transfer of the sacred world elaborated by the Catholic theologians present in the modernity to the politics whose modern democracy makes of the man - subject - to become object of the political power. It also reflects on the concepts of subjectivation and desubjectivation, relating them to the political implications of modern man. The research is bibliographical with emphasis in the analysis of the concepts elaborated by Agamben, especially with regard to the 'device'. He concludes that the Western individual, in general, suffers the process of desubjectivation and is 'naked', defenseless and politically alienated. He must turn to the process of 'desecration' of devices to free himself from the guiding bindings that forcibly demeanes him while being active and free.</p><p class="resumoabstract"><strong>Keywords</strong>: Politics. Freedom. Subjectivity. </p><p> </p>


Oikos ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 14 (29) ◽  
pp. 13
Author(s):  
Olga María Cerqueira Torres

RESUMENEn el presente artículo el análisis se ha centrado en determinar cuáles de las funciones del interregionalismo, sistematizadas en los trabajos de Jürgen Rüland, han sido desarrolladas en la relación Unión Europea-Comunidad Andina de Naciones, ya que ello ha permitido evidenciar si el estado del proceso de integración de la CAN ha condicionado la racionalidad política del comportamiento de la Unión Europea hacia la región andina (civil power o soft imperialism); esto posibilitará establecer la viabilidad de la firma del Acuerdo de Asociación Unión Europea-Comunidad Andina de Naciones.Palabras clave: Unión Europea, Comunidad Andina, interregionalismo, funciones, acuerdo de asociación. Interregionalism functions in the EU-ANDEAN community relationsABSTRACTIn the present article analysis has focused on which functions of interregionalism, systematized by Jürgen Rüland, have been developed in the European Union-Andean Community birregional relation, that allowed demonstrate if the state of the integration process in the Andean Community has conditioned the political rationality of the European Union towards the Andean region (civil power or soft imperialism); with all these elements will be possible to establish the viability of the Association Agreement signature between the European Union and the Andean Community.Keywords: European Union, Andean Community, interregionalism, functions, association agreement.


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