scholarly journals Cast Aside: Boredom, Downward Mobility, and Homelessness in Post-Communist Bucharest

2014 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 8-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce O'Neill

The homeless, in post-Communist Bucharest, Romania, are bored. They describe themselves as bored all of the time. Drawing upon nearly three years of ethnographic fieldwork that moves between Bucharest’s homeless shelters and squatter camps, day centers and public parks, this article approaches the homeless’s boredom as an everyday affect structured by the politics of consumption in post-communist Bucharest. At the center of this study sits not simply the inability to consume but also the feeling of being cast aside, of being downwardly mobile in a neoliberal era of supposed ascent. In an increasingly consumer-driven society, boredom, I argue, is an affective state that registers within the modality of time the newly homeless’s expulsion to the margins of the city. In this sense, boredom is a persistent form of social suffering made possible by a crisis-generated shift in the global economy, one that has forced tens of millions of people the world over to come to terms with diminished economic capacities.

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-51
Author(s):  
Simon Turner

Based on ethnographic fieldwork among Burundian refugees living clandestinely in Nairobi and living in a refugee camp in Tanzania, the article argues that displacement can be about staying out of place in order to find a place in the world in the future. I suggest that the term displacement describes this sense of not only being out of place but also being en route to a future. Burundians in the camp and the city are doing their best to remain out of place, in transition between a lost past and a future yet to come, and the temporary nature of their sojourn is maintained in everyday practices. Such everyday practices are policed by powerful actors in the camp and are ingrained in practices of self-discipline in Nairobi. Comparing the two settings demonstrates that remaining out of place can take on different forms, according to context.


Author(s):  
Stephen Stephen ◽  
Franky Liauw

At present the activity of buying and selling/trading has been developing rapidly for decades. The growth of new malls spread throughout Jakarta. Making Jakarta the city with the largest and most shopping center in the world, with more than 173 malls. Coupled with the help of technology, an online shop platform has emerged that makes it easy for visitors to shop without having to come to the store. With the help of electronic media tools such as tablets or Smartphones. Nowadays, malls are not only a place to shop but also a place for recreation, socializing, or just for a walk alone. The progress of technology and human culture is changing. It's one of the factors that influence the impact of the decline in visitors at the old shopping center, every year such as a Pasar Baru shopping center. Re-Imagine Pasar Baru is a project that aims as a motor/propeller for Pasar Baru Community. Inviting the local people and Shop Owners to take part in making a change. Through a new program that strengthens unity and diversity to bring the conciseness cooperation (Gotong-royong) attitude that has been lost with the development of the times. Creating a place where people can socialize and interact, get closer, get to know each other, and also as a means of recreation for residents, visitors, shop owners, and also this project hopes to bring the Pasar Baru shopping area to life. Through the Urban Acupuncture method by analyzing the needs, potentials, deficiencies, demographics, ecology, etc. that characterize the Pasar Baru area. Where it can present a new program, and produce small-scale changes, but social catalytic intervention into the urban spatial structure. In physical and social-culture in Pasar Baru. Keywords: Community; Gotong Royong; Pasar Baru; Recreation; Urban Acupuncture  AbstrakSaat ini aktivitas Jual-beli/perdagangan sudah berkembang pesat selama beberapa dekade. Tumbuhnya mall-mall baru tersebar di seluruh Jakarta. Menjadikan Jakarta sebagai kota dengan pusat perbelanjaan terbanyak dan terbesar di dunia, dengan lebih dari 173 mall. Ditambah dengan bantuan teknologi, platform online shop memudahkan pengunjung untuk berbelanja tanpa perlu datang ke toko. Dengan bantuan alat media elektronik seperti tablet atau Smartphones. Saat ini, mall bukan hanya menjadi tempat untuk berbelanja melainkan menjadi tempat rekreasi, bersosialisasi, atau hanya sekedar untuk jalan-jalan semata. Kemajuan teknologi serta budaya manusia yang berubah, merupakan salah satu faktor yang berpengaruh terhadap dampak penurunan pengunjung di pusat perbelanjaan lama setiap tahunnya, seperti pusat perbelanjaan Pasar Baru. Re-Imagine Pasar Baru Merupakan proyek yang bertujuan sebagai motor / pengerak daerah Pasar Baru. Mengajak masyarakat dan para pedagang untuk ikut andil dalam melakukan suatu perubahan. Lewat program yang mempererat kesatuan dan persatuan guna memunculkan sikap gotong royong yang sudah hilang seiring berkembangnya zaman. Menciptakan tempat dimana warga dapat bersosialisasi dan berinteraksi, mendekatkan, saling mengenal satu sama lain dan juga sebagai sarana rekreasi warga lokal, dan proyek ini berharap dapat menghidupkan kawasan perbelanjaan Pasar Baru. Lewat metode Urban Acupunture yaitu dengan menganalisis kebutuhan, potensi, kekurangan, demografi, ekologi yang menjadi ciri khas dari kawasan Pasar Baru. Dimana dapat menghadirkan suatu program baru, dan menghasilkan perubahan skala kecil, tetapi intervensi katalitik sosial ke dalam tatanan ruang kota. Bukan hanya sekedar bentuk fisik, tetapi juga berdampak pada sosial dan budaya Kawasan Pasar Baru sendiri. 


Ensemble ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol SP-1 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-34
Author(s):  
Somenath Halder ◽  
◽  
Sourav Paul ◽  

The present study seeks to find a reliant philosophy of development in the post COVID-19 times to come. Since being contiguous, the Novelcoronavirus has switched almost every human activity uncertain all over the world. Rather the health emergency in this pandemic has strangled human existence on this planet which every country and government are fighting against. Like many others, global economy and development are under severe threat that tend us to chalk out a theorem to be mechanized for bringing the global village back into normalcy. The paper delves deeper to establish a connection of development with wellbeing, keeping human resource at the center of significance. It also measures the interrelation of wealth, economy and development with human resource and suggests a balanced prioritization of the same in terms of accelerating Gross Domestic Product (GDP). As the future after COVID 19 will not be the same like before, even after the pandemic being over, the proposed theorem tries to contemplate the global economy with a new outlook of long-term development.


2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Magnus Marsden

This article explores the relevance of the concept of Silk Road for understanding the patterns of trade and exchange between China, Eurasia and the Middle East. It is based on ethnographic fieldwork in the city of Yiwu, in China's Zhejiang Province. Yiwu is a node in the global distribution of Chinese ‘small commodities’ and home to merchants and traders from across Asia and beyond. The article explores the role played by traders from Afghanistan in connecting the city of Yiwu to markets and trading posts in the world beyond. It seeks to bring attention to the diverse types of networks involved in such forms of trade, as well as their emergence and development over the past thirty years.


In 2015, one hundred years passed since Robert Park penned his seminal article “The City: Suggestions for the investigation of human behaviour in the city environment” in the American Journal of Sociology. It provided an agenda for the Chicago school of urban sociology, which came to shape urban research for decades to come. Since 1915 much has changed, both in the urban world itself and in the urban research that reflects on those transformations. In today’s world of global cities, cities around the world have undergone dramatic development, and nowhere as dramatic as in China. In the world of urban research, Park’s human ecology approach has lost the appeal that it once had. Against this background, in this book specialists on urban China reflect on the relevance of Park’s article on “The City” – for cities in China, for urban research, and for questions about studying the social life of the city. The aim of the book is to take Park’s article as a point of departure for critical reflection on both the research on urban China and on the issues that Chinese cities face. The book offers readers a timely respite from the eruption of urban China research, to reflect on what the city in China contributes to urban studies more generally. Despite the shared starting point, the contributors represent a range of perspectives that would disrupt any notion of monolithic “Chinese school” while also pointing the way towards recurrent challenges, topics and approaches relevant for a contemporary urbanism.


Author(s):  
Eugenio Trías

This essay tries to think with Plato (not against nor from him) the idea of justice, which structures the city and the human soul in the Republic, and the platonic self-critique displayed in several late dialogues, viewed as a basis for a philosophy that can make sense of human existence in the bordering city. The bordering city –itself a metaphor of Limit–, inhabited by intermediary characters (love and creation, reminiscence and reason, halfway between the Ideal city and the cave), is what makes possible the interchange between transcendent Being (the Good, Beauty, Truth) and Becoming (which characterizes human existence). The bordering city is Plato’s greatest discovery, through which we can think an alternative city and the corresponding human condition, and even the world (cosmos). Plato gave the necessary clues to come to this alternative conception, and his recourse to myth can be seen as a symbolic addition that allows access to truth. What is, what exists and happens, is an unceasing return of “archetypes” (ideas joined with symbols). This gives consistency to what is, what exists and what we ourselves are. Philosophical truth is the awareness of the fact that we live within these archetypes, relatively to which we determine and decide our existence. Still, Plato’s thought, as a philosophy of limit, remains distant from the sensible and changing individual, which can be recreated by Limit and the being of Limit. In fact, what is recreated in Limit is a being (perceptible by the senses, singular, and in change): a being of limit which, through ideas and symbols can become accessible to understanding.


Eos ◽  
2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Randy Showstack

HSH Prince Albert II cautioned that the world has to come to terms with the fact that we are facing severe challenges if we don’t move toward a low-carbon global economy.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 191-200
Author(s):  
Guy Bäckman

The focus is on the outbreak of covid-19 and the patterns inherent in it as they appear in valid statistics and current research. The approach relies on overall goals and strategies in combating the spread of the virus. The examination is placed within an interdisciplinary frame of reference, particularly social policy and economics. A primary and crucial goal of social policy is to ensure, within prevailing economic frames, equity and social justice in the pursuit of sustainable development. The new coronavirus (COVID-19), which was first detected in December 2019 in Wuhan, China, has been declared a global emergency by the World Health Organization, as the outbreak continues to spread outside China. As of the beginning of October 2020, the number of reported covid-19 cases around the world is about 34 million, and the number of deaths amounts to 860 thousand. The worldwide spread of coronavirus is severely affecting the global economy; millions of the global population are under some form of lockdown. The coronavirus pandemic, experienced as a severe shock, has caused not only economic difficulties but also social suffering and concerns for the infected individuals and their families, relatives and closest acquaintances. Increased concern, in connection with the economic slowdown, have given rise to new policies to combat the spread of the new coronavirus never before seen in humans. The policy actions range from social distancing that allow people to work online at home to the closing of borders. In the new emergency conditions, the values and goal orientations emphasize life and health as fundamental human rights. In addition to increased care provisions, other policy actions, such as relief package designed to ensure economic activities and the welfare and well-being of individuals and families, telemedicine, remote work and smart devices are used to enable visiting other people in order to return to normal. Although science guided by humanistic principles, has provided the knowledge to portray the state of the world and human conditions, the preparedness for combating the coronavirus pandemic and the treatment of people infected with the virus, have been found to vary among nations. Significant access barriers remain, especially in remote areas, including the cost of data as well as lack of understanding of foreign languages to manipulate devices and understand internet content. International responsibility and solidarity appear as primary guiding principles in connecting all policy actions to combat coronavirus. Keywords: Advanced technology, global economy, relief package, social distancing, access to data, social suffering, solidarity.


2022 ◽  
Vol 2022 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Youssef Miyah ◽  
Mohammed Benjelloun ◽  
Sanae Lairini ◽  
Anissa Lahrichi

The end of the year 2019 was marked by the introduction of a third highly pathogenic coronavirus, after SARS-CoV (2003) and MERS-CoV (2012), in the human population which was officially declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11, 2020. Indeed, the pandemic of COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease 19) has evolved at an unprecedented rate: after its emergence in Wuhan, the capital of the province of Hubei of the People's Republic of China, in December 2019, the total number of confirmed cases did not cease growing very quickly in the world. In this manuscript, we have provided an overview of the impact of COVID-19 on health, and we have proposed different nutrients suitable for infected patients to boost their immune systems. On the other hand, we have described the advantages and disadvantages of COVID-19 on the environment including the quality of water, air, waste management, and energy consumption, as well as the impact of this pandemic on human psychology, the educational system, and the global economy. In addition, we have tried to come up with some solutions to counter the negative repercussions of the pandemic.


2008 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
IDO ISRAELOWICH

IntroductionThe reign of Marcus Aurelius, although he was acclaimed by ancient and modern commentators as an exemplary ruler, saw many calamities. Marcus was preoccupied with wars for the better part of his reign; the pestilence brought back to Rome from the east by Verus and the Roman army remained endemic in the city for many years to come, and the German wars from the late 160s well into the next decade posed great danger to Rome and caused great anxiety. In addition, a coup was executed. The usurper, Avidius Cassius, was the ruler of the Roman East for three months, enjoying support amongst the local population. After Verus’ death, the emperor embarked on war against the German tribes, but not before summoning priests and magicians from all over the world to help him, many of whom came from provinces far and wide. This attentiveness of Marcus Aurelius to religious issues (the representation of religious themes on his coins and monuments and his religious policy as a whole) introduced some changes to the Roman imperial tradition. Moreover his adaptation of policies that reflected new beliefs and the abandonment of old ones, was indicative of the political, social, and cultural developments during his reign. The desperation of the emperor is made most visible in the pages of Lucian’s Alexander.


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