scholarly journals In Defense of Privacy: The Concept and the Regime

2011 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 485-496 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin J Bennett
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Privacy Protection ◽  
Policy Instruments ◽  
Privacy Issue ◽  
Surveillance Studies ◽  
Spatial Metaphors ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Sorting ◽  
Scholarly Inquiry

It has recently become fashionable within the surveillance studies community to subject the concept and regime of “privacy protection” to some very rigorous criticism.   “Privacy” and all that it entails is argued to be too narrow, too based on liberal assumptions of subjectivity, too implicated in rights-based theory and discourse, insufficiently sensitive to the social sorting and discriminatory aspects of surveillance, and overly embroiled in spatial metaphors about “invasion” and “intrusion.”  As a concept, and as a way to frame the various social and political challenges encountered within “surveillance societies,” it is inadequate.   These critiques are important, and to some extent, have set scholarly inquiry on a new, exciting and broader, trajectory than that offered by privacy scholars. On closer examination, however, these critiques are often based on some faulty assumptions about the contemporary framing of the privacy issue, and about the governance of the issue.  Privacy, as a concept, regime, a set of policy instruments, and as a way to frame civil society activism, shows an extraordinary resilience. Surveillance scholars must learn to live with it.  

The Failed Campaign Against Prostitution

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. C. Kemeny
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Red Light ◽  
Public Support ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Traditional Gender Roles ◽  
The Social ◽  
Cult Of Domesticity ◽  
The Family ◽  
Late Nineteenth ◽  
Reform Organizations

Protestants criticized prostitution because it threatened the family and ultimately civil society, and the Watch and Ward Society devised a campaign to shut down Boston’s red-light districts. These Protestant elites espoused traditional gender roles and Victorian sexual mores and endorsed the “cult of domesticity.” In the late nineteenth century, a number of reform organizations turned their attention to the “social evil,” as it was popularly called. The Watch and Ward Society’s quest to reduce prostitution placed it squarely within the larger international anti-prostitution movement. Moral reformers resisted all forms of policy that officially sanctioned or tacitly tolerated prostitution, instead arguing for its abolition. Their attempt to suppress commercialized sex eventually collapsed because of the lack of public support.

Rescuing Migrants in the Central Mediterranean: The Emergence of a New Civil Humanitarianism at the Maritime Border

2019 ◽  
Vol 64 (4) ◽  
pp. 436-455
Author(s):  
Marta Esperti
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Research Methodology ◽  
Search And Rescue ◽  
International Organization ◽  
Central Mediterranean ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Meanings ◽  
Humanitarian Space ◽  
First Arrival

The Central Mediterranean is the most deadly body of water in the Mediterranean Sea with at least 15,062 fatalities recorded by International Organization of Migration between 2014 and 2018. This article aims at highlighting the rise of a variety of new civil society actors engaged in the rescue of people undertaking dangerous journeys across the sea in the attempt of reaching the southern European shores. The peculiarity of the humanitarian space at sea and its political relevance are pointed out to illustrate the unfolding of the maritime border management on the Central Mediterranean route and its relation with the activity of the civil society rescue vessels. The theoretical aspiration of the article is to question the role of a proactive civil humanitarianism at sea, discussing the emergence of different political and social meanings around humanitarianism at the EU’s southern maritime border. In recent years, the increasing presence of new citizens-based organizations at sea challenges the nexus between humanitarian and emergency approaches adopted to implement security-oriented policies. This essay draws on the findings of a broader comparative work on a variety of civil society actors engaged in the search and rescue operations on the maritime route between Libya and Europe, focusing in particular on Italy as country of first arrival. The fieldwork covers a period of time going between 2016 and 2018. The research methodology is built on a multisited ethnography, the conduct of semidirective and informal interviews with both state and nonstate actors, and the analysis of various reports unraveling the social and political tensions around rescue at sea on the Central Mediterranean route.

scholarly journals The Construction of Peace in the Chiapas Highlands: Indigenous Resistance to Structural Violence

2020 ◽  
pp. 0094582X2097501
Author(s):  
Efrén Orozco López ◽  
Leonardo Nicolás González Torres
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Food Production ◽  
Structural Violence ◽  
Volunteer Work ◽  
Civil Society Organization ◽  
Solidarity Economy ◽  
Social Fabric ◽  
Indigenous Resistance ◽  
The Social ◽  
Sociedad Civil

The indigenous community of Acteal in the highlands of Chiapas, Mexico, has been subject to both direct and structural violence in the form of the massacre that took place there in 1997 and the impunity that has persisted ever since. In response to the violence, the community has constructed political, social, and cultural alternatives through the movement known as the Las Abejas of Acteal Civil Society Organization. Its reconstruction of the social fabric has included participation in assembies, volunteer work for the collective, exchange of experiences, food production for subsistence, a solidarity economy, and the systematization and sharing of experiences. La comunidad indígena de Acteal en las tierras altas de Chiapas, México, ha sido objeto de violencia tanto directa y estructural a partir de la masacre que tuvo lugar allí en 1997, así como la impunidad que ha persistido desde entonces. En respuesta a la violencia, la comunidad ha construido alternativas políticas, sociales y culturales a través del movimiento conocido como Organización Sociedad Civil Las Abejas de Acteal. Su reconstrucción del tejido social ha incluido la participación en asambleas, el voluntariado para el colectivo, el intercambio de experiencias, la producción de alimentos para subsistencia, una economía solidaria, y la sistematización e intercambio de experiencias.

Civil society and the nature of urbanism: Britain, 1750–1850

Urban History ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 289-301 ◽  
Author(s):  
R.J. Morris
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Free Market ◽  
Central Place ◽  
Historical Evidence ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Political Relationships ◽  
The Social ◽  
Making Choices ◽  
Urban Places

ABSTRACTThe concept of civil society provides a useful means of evaluating the social and political relationships of British towns. Civil society refers to the non-prescriptive relationships that lie between the state and kin. Such relationships are associated with the existence of the free market, the rule of law and a strong voluntary associational culture. Both theoretical analysis and historical evidence link civil society with the nature of urban places, their complexity, their function as a central place and their operation as a focus for flows of information. Between 1780 and 1820 the agencies of civil society in Britain provided an arena for making choices, for reasoned informed debate and for the collective provision and consumption of services in an open and pluralist manner.

Mechanisms and Obstacles of Investing Social Capital of Retired Saudi Woman

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 200
Author(s):  
Asma Abdullah Alzakari
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Return To Work ◽  
Human Development ◽  
Analytical Approach ◽  
Voluntary Work ◽  
The Social ◽  
External Evaluators

The present research aims to identify the mechanisms required for investing the social capital of retired Saudi woman and the relevant obstacles. To achieve the research objectives, the author adopted the descriptive analytical approach. A questionnaire was used to identify the major mechanisms and obstacles of investing the social capital of retired Saudi woman. The results showed that the mechanism of (the inclusion of retired holders of master or doctorate degrees in the membership of evaluation committees instead of the external evaluators) was ranked the most required one, whereas the mechanism of (providing good allowances and benefits for the retired women to encourage them to return to work and rearranging their life requirements according to the relevant studies and papers) was ranked the least required.  Furthermore, it indicated the substantial obstacles that prevent investing the social capital of retired Saudi woman. The paper recommends collaboration among civil society institutions to reinforce and disseminate volunteering culture, especially among the retired women because they constitute the foundations of the community that adopts the fundamentals ​​of social capital, which achieve human development by setting the regulations that organize and protect voluntary work.   Received: 4 October 2020 / Accepted: 30 November 2020 / Published: 17 January 2021

Local Institutions at the Crossroads of Environmental Regionalism in Southeast Asia: State-Civil Society Interplays and Tensions

2007 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-54
Author(s):  
Antonio P. Contreras
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
The State ◽  
Local Institutions ◽  
The Social ◽  
International Interactions ◽  
Civil Societies

This paper inquires into the implications of the different discursive imaginations on civil societies and the state from the perspective of the social sciences, particularly political science and international relations. It focuses on some interfaces and tensions that exist between civil society on one hand, and the state and its bureaucratic instrumentalities on the other, particularly in the domain of environment and natural resources governance in the context of new regionalisms and of alternative concepts of human security. There is now a new context for regionalism in Southeast Asia, not only among state structures, such as the ASEAN and the various Mekong bodies, but also among local civil societies coming from the region. It is in this context that issues confronting local communities are given a new sphere for interaction, as well as a new platform for engaging state structures and processes. This paper illustrates how dynamic are the possibilities for non-state domains for transnational interactions, particularly in the context of the emerging environmental regionalism. This occurs despite the dominance of neo-realist political theorizing, and the state-centric nature of international interactions.

scholarly journals Selected Social Policy Instruments in Relation to Tax Policy

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (11) ◽  
pp. 241 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vladimíra Žofčinová ◽  
Zuzana Horváthová ◽  
Andrea Čajková
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Minimum Wage ◽  
Tax Policy ◽  
Slovak Republic ◽  
Policy Instruments ◽  
Social Function ◽  
The State ◽  
Tax Collection ◽  
Subsistence Minimum ◽  
The Social

Tax sovereignty is now an expression of the phenomenon of state power. In general, there is a widespread but also accepted view that a citizen is dependent on the state and the state is dependent on tax resources. The social status of a citizen in the state is of great importance; it affects the development of personality and, last but not least, reflects the degree of democracy acquired in a particular state. Various tax law measures for the benefit of the citizen are important for the identification of social behavior and are an attempt to improve certain ways of life. The aim and ambition of this article is to emphasize the tools of social policy (e.g., minimum wage, subsistence minimum, social right to work) that are related to the social function of taxing income. In this context, the authors deal with a social function of tax collection and imposing of taxes, justice in taxation, and point out social aspects of the system of taxes in the Slovak Republic. In this article, the authors present the attitudes of both critics and proponents. It also deals with tax justice, which is often a category subjective to the evaluator. The benchmarking attribute of tax collection should be that citizens will have the certainty of social justice in the state and will therefore pay attention to the minimum wage and subsistence minimum as an integral part of tax policy under the legal conditions of the Slovak Republic. All tax legislation, especially tax reform, is perceived with a certain sensitivity regarding tax subjects.

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