Conducting Research on Muslims in the Age of Dichotomies: Ethics, Politics and Responsibilities

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-9
Author(s):  
Ahmet Erdi Özturk ◽  
Deina Abdelkader
Keyword(s):  
Natural Disasters ◽  
Central Element ◽  
The State ◽  
Global Politics ◽  
Normative Values ◽  
The World ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Conducting Research ◽  
Do So

Global politics has always existed in an environment brimming with intricacies and transformations. Wars, natural disasters and treaties have both directly and indirectly impacted the state of global politics in addition to societies and individuals. These interactions certainly influence the flow of history while concurrently dictating the relationships between societies. Identity and its constitutive elements have consistently occupied a determinant position in this context and continue to do so (Gellner 1987;  Gurses and Ozturk 2020; Douglas 2003; Daniel 2017). And pre-eminent among these and, no doubt, one of the most primal codes of identity is religion (Lybarger 2018; Ozturk 2021; Cassese and Holman 2017). Contrary to arguments that the world is becoming secularised, and that secularisation is an inevitable phenomenon, religion has persistently once more that it is more durable relative to various other normative values, and it persistently emphasises its presence in individuals, societies and politics (Saeed 2017; Fox 2019; Haynes and Wilson 2019). This indicates that religion will maintain this degree of influence for a very long time. We have both witnessed numerous incidents in which religion was a central element and, it seems, will continue to observe myriad instances demonstrating religion’s influence as an auxiliary actor.

scholarly journals Tribes, Government and History in Yemen

1997 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 105-109
Author(s):  
William C. Young
Keyword(s):  
Special Interest ◽  
Mutual Recognition ◽  
The State ◽  
Political Organization ◽  
The World ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Violent Conflicts ◽  
Do So

This book is complex and, at points, obscure. Yet it is also an exceptionallyrich collection of information about trihal identity and ethos in Yemen and, forscholars with a special interest in Yemeni society, can be a valuable resource.The author orients much of his material toward two main questions, neither ofwhich I formulated explicitly: How can tribal political organization and statelegal institutions co-exist, not only for brief moments but for over 1,000 years?and How have the names and boundaries of tribal territories been preserved withlittle change for such a long time?The answer to the first question is on p. 165: " ... the hijrah [in YemeniArabic: a protected space or person] provided the point around which both statesof the world turned: strong Imams fheads of state] and weak. It could do so because it meant different things to different people.” The first 150 pages of thebook, especially chapters 2 (“The Language of Honour”), 3 (“Tribes andCollective Action”) and 4 (“Estates of Society within the Tribal Peace”), lead upto and persuaded us to accept the conclusion that the mutual recognition by thestate and by the tribes of neutral zones and people in tribal territories facilitatedtrade, tribe-state communication, and contact between literate Islamic specialistsand illiterate farmers and stock-breeders. Even when the interests of the tribesand the state were directly opposed (for instance, in controlling roads and determiningrates of taxation), violent conflicts between tribe and state were keptpartly in check by tribal custom, just as they were when tribe clashed with tribe(see pp. 267, 268, 379-387) ...

Esther Simpson: A Correspondence

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Broda
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
Human Retina ◽  
Academic Assistance ◽  
The World ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Vital Component ◽  
Selection Of ◽  
Musical Activities

Among the hundreds of Austrian refugees who arrived in Britain in 1938 after Hitler annexed Austria was the author's father, Engelbert Broda, who shortly afterwards was joined by his wife Hildegard. Engelbert Broda later made contact with the Society for the Protection of Science and Learning (SPSL), and it was through Esther Simpson, the long-time Secretary of the SPSL, that Charles Goodeve took him on to work on visual purple (rhodopsin), a vital component of the human retina. This chapter presents a selection of letters between Esther Simpson and Engelbert Broda. The extracts given here relate to the foundation of the Academic Assistance Council, Esther Simpson's beliefs, Engelbert Broda's memories much later of what her help had meant to him personally, and the state of the world. Other regular topics are their work, her musical activities, and the comings and goings of mutual friends including L. Kowarski, J. Guéron, and O. R. Frisch, all of whom they knew from Cambridge days. The emphasis in this selection is in representing Esther Simpson's own attitudes and achievements in her own words.

Windstorm and storm surges in Europe: loss trends and possible counter-actions from the viewpoint of an international reinsurer

2005 ◽  
Vol 363 (1831) ◽  
pp. 1431-1440 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerhard Berz
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Land Use ◽  
Natural Disasters ◽  
Insurance Industry ◽  
Storm Surges ◽  
The State ◽  
Economic Losses ◽  
Policy Options ◽  
Design Code ◽  
The World

Windstorm disasters (including storm surges) account for about one-third of all natural disasters throughout the world (by number, fatalities and economic losses), but for more than two-thirds of the corresponding insured losses. Trend analyses reveal that major windstorm disasters and the losses generated by them have increased drastically in recent decades. Risk partnership between the state, the affected population and the insurance industry assumes a key role with regard to the windstorm hazard. Scientists, engineers and insurers must work together in formulating their requirements and shaping them in such a way that politicians can derive clearly recognizable policy options (e.g. land-use, restrictions, design-code adjustments) from them. Another important aspect is stepping up the efforts being made towards curbing climate change, which will, otherwise, exacerbate the risk in the future.

Hezbollah, A Social Entrepreneur?

Hezbollah ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 95-126
Author(s):  
Aurélie Daher
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Social Welfare ◽  
The State ◽  
Social Entrepreneur ◽  
Welfare Institutions ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Governmental Institutions ◽  
Welfare Institution ◽  
Do So

It seems to be a universally accepted thesis that Hezbollah's mobilization derives its strength from the party's vast clientelist network of social and welfare institutions that are woven through the Shiite community. However, calling Hezbollah an employer and welfare organization, or even a "state within the state", overstates the case. There is no question that the party to some extent performs the functions of a state that for all intents and purposes is largely missing from the Shiite areas of the country. But Hezbollah does not have exclusive pride of place in this regard, since most Lebanese political parties, as well as many prominent political figures, for a long time have operated networks of social welfare associations, and continue to do so, quite dynamically in some cases. It is true that among all Lebanese extra-governmental institutions active in Shiite areas, Hezbollah ranks near the top, when it is not ranked first, but a careful reading of its performance relative to the community's size proves that the party cannot boast of being its welfare institution.

scholarly journals Research and Statistics

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nasir Mustafa
Keyword(s):  
South Korea ◽  
Natural Disasters ◽  
Child Mortality ◽  
Global Problem ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
The World ◽  
Long Time

A newly identified coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, is spreading across the globe. Most of our work focuses on large problems that humanity has faced for a long time, such as child mortality, natural disasters, poverty, and almost 100 other problems. This article focuses on a new, emerging global problem: the ongoing outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). The outbreak started in China in late 2019, and by March 2020 the disease has spread to countries around the world. The number of infections appearing each day has since plummeted in China, owing in large part to containment efforts, but the outbreak is now a global pandemic. Large outbreaks in South Korea, Iran, Italy, and elsewhere have propelled a spike in international cases across more than 180 countries.

scholarly journals A Kantian Account of Emotions as Feelings1

Mind ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 129 (514) ◽  
pp. 429-460 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alix Cohen
Keyword(s):  
Moral Agency ◽  
Mental States ◽  
The State ◽  
Systematic Treatment ◽  
Cognitive States ◽  
The World ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Distinct Role ◽  
Do So

Abstract The aim of this paper is to extract from Kant's writings an account of the nature of the emotions and their function – and to do so despite the fact that Kant neither uses the term ‘emotion’ nor offers a systematic treatment of it. Kant's position, as I interpret it, challenges the contemporary trends that define emotions in terms of other mental states and defines them instead first and foremost as ‘feelings’. Although Kant's views on the nature of feelings have drawn surprisingly little attention, I argue that the faculty of feeling has the distinct role of making us aware of the way our faculties relate to each other and to the world. As I show, feelings are affective appraisals of our activity, and as such they play an indispensable orientational function in the Kantian mind. After spelling out Kant's distinction between feeling and desire (§2), I turn to the distinction between feeling and cognition (§3) and show that while feelings are non-cognitive states, they have a form of derived-intentionality. §4 argues that what feelings are about, in this derived sense, is our relationship to ourselves and the world: they function as affective appraisals of the state of our agency. §5 shows that this function is necessary to the activity of the mind insofar as it is orientational. Finally, §6 discusses the examples of epistemic pleasure and moral contentment and argues that they manifest the conditions of cognitive and moral agency respectively.

Washing Away the Sins of Debt: The Nineteenth-Century Eradication of the Debtors' Prison

2013 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 701-724 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gustav Peebles
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Moral Values ◽  
The State ◽  
Economic Practices ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
To Come ◽  
Critical Discourses ◽  
Do So ◽  
Reform Debate

AbstractThis article seeks to come to terms with the extraordinarily swift demise of the debtors' prison in multiple countries during the nineteenth century. While focusing primarily on the reform debate in England, I argue that the debtors' prison quickly came to be seen as a barbaric aberration within the expanding commercial life of the nineteenth century. By turning to a copious pamphletic literature from the era of its demise, I show how pamphleteers and eye-witnesses described the debtors' prison in the idiom of ritual; it was seen as a dangerous sanctuary that radically inverted all capitalistic economic practices and moral values of the world outside its walls. Reformers claimed that, inside these shrines of debt, citizens were ritually guided and transformed from active members of society into “knaves” or “idlers,” or both. As such, the debtors' prison needed to be eradicated. To do so, reformers mobilized at least three critical discourses, all of which sought to mark the debtors' prison as a zone of barbarism that threatened the civility of the state and its citizenry. By focusing on the debtors' prison as a powerful and transformative ritual zone, the article provides a counterintuitive history of this institution that was so crucial to the regulation of credit and debt relations for centuries. In so doing, the article contributes to a broader literature on the spatiality of debt.

scholarly journals A New Assessment to Measure the Risk Levels Between Natural Disasters and SocioEconomic-Political Disasters

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mario Arturo Ruiz Estrada ◽  
Donghyun Park ◽  
Peter Moug
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Methods ◽  
Natural Disasters ◽  
Analytical Tool ◽  
Risk Levels ◽  
The World ◽  
Quantitative And Qualitative Methods ◽  
Final Impact ◽  
Do So

In this paper, we attempt to analyse and compare the magnitudes of destruction caused by natural disasters versus socio-economic-political disasters around the world. To do so, we deploy a multi-disciplinary approach that encompasses history, politics, sociology, and<br>economics (Ruiz Estrada, 2011 and 2017). In the methodological discussion, we propose using<br>quantitative and qualitative methods simultaneously to systematically evaluate different type of disasters. In this context, we propose a new analytical tool: “The General Disasters Final Impact Simulator” (GDFI-Simulator). Finally, we apply the GDFI-Simulator to Africa, America, Asia, Europe and Oceania in the 19th and 20th centuries. <br>

The State of State Authority

2020 ◽  
pp. 17-45
Author(s):  
Melissa M. Lee
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
Spatial Extent ◽  
State Control ◽  
Weak State ◽  
Full Extent ◽  
The World ◽  
State Authority ◽  
Original Measure ◽  
Accurate Reporting ◽  
Do So

This chapter defines state authority. To exercise state authority is to govern: to make and enforce rules and regulations, and to provide services. Today’s states are expected to regulate, enforce, tax, protect, and provide, and to do so evenly across the full extent of their territories. When the state governs all of its territory, its authority is consolidated. When the state’s authority is limited, contested, or absent altogether in particular parts of its territory, those spaces are undergoverned or ungoverned from the perspective of the state. The chapter then offers an empirical window into the state of state authority in the world, introducing an original measure of state authority. This measure proxies for state authority by estimating the accuracy of age information collected in population censuses. The accurate reporting of age data depends crucially on state authority and state presence; inaccuracies are therefore indicative of state weakness. This measure is used to examine variation in the spatial extent of state authority over territory both within countries and across countries in the developing world. The chapter also illustrates conditions in ungoverned and undergoverned spaces and contrasts the welfare consequences of weak state authority with consolidated state control.

Bio-Hegemony: The Political Economy of Agricultural Biotechnology in Argentina

2009 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
PETER NEWELL
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Agricultural Biotechnology ◽  
Genetically Modified ◽  
The State ◽  
Global Politics ◽  
Gm Crops ◽  
The Political ◽  
The World

AbstractThis paper examines relations between the state and capital in Argentina with respect to agricultural biotechnology. Argentina is one of the world's leading exporters of genetically modified (GM) crops and is a key player in the global politics of biotechnology. Whereas in other parts of the world, including other countries in Latin America, active civil societies and some governments have rejected the technology, Argentina has adopted it as a central accumulation strategy. The desirability of this strategy has been secured in material, institutional and discursive arenas of power, producing a particular expression of ‘bio-hegemony’. Looking at the role of business in the political economy of agricultural biotechnology is revealing both of the extent and forms of corporate power and contributes to an understanding of hegemony in practice.

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