Financialization and Welfare Surveillance: Regulating the Poor in Technological Times

In light of concerns that the technologies employed by the digital welfare state exacerbate inequality and oppression, this article considers contemporary shifts in the administration of social assistance. Specifically, it examines the surveillance of recipients of government income support focusing on marginalized peoples in two jurisdictions: social security recipients subject to the Cashless Debit Card (CDC) in Australia, many of whom are Indigenous, and persons under the purview of the Lebanon One Unified Inter-Organizational System for E-Cards (LOUISE) in Lebanon, many of whom are Syrian refugees. Taken together, the cases illuminate embedded ideologies and adverse experiences associated with the financialization of social assistance and the digitization of cash. Through a dual case study approach, this analysis draws out patterns as well as contextual distinctions to illustrate how technological changes reflect financialization trends and attempt neoliberal assimilation of social welfare recipients through intensive surveillance, albeit with disparate outcomes. After considering how these dynamics play out in each case, the article concludes by reflecting on the contradictions that emerge in relation to the promises of empowerment and individual responsibility through financialized logics and technologies.

The Politics of a Memory Wound: Norwegian Exceptionalism and the Trauma of July 22, 2011

Following the July 22, 2011, Oslo bombing and shootings at the Utøya youth camp Norway became embroiled in a conflict over commemorative ethics. The memorial initially selected in an international contest, Memory Wound by Jonas Dahlgren, drew opposition from victims’ families and local residents for its severe impact on the natural landscape. Plans for installation were cancelled in 2017. This controversy, we submit, must be contextualized in relation to the Norwegian justice system’s handling of Anders Breivik, the perpetrator whose criminal proceedings were kept relatively secluded. We demonstrate how the design of Memory Wound and the suppression of Breivik’s publicity reflect a symbolic logic traceable to a national imaginary of Norwegian exceptionalism. By interpretively aligning the use of negative space in Memory Wound with the muting of Breivik as a media event, we investigate the prescriptive force of symbols to inculcate world views. Specifically, we attend to the foreclosure of “prosthetic memory,” which through media circulation allows people to engage with memory that is not primarily theirs. We acknowledge the possibility of empathy across difference that Landsberg ascribes to prosthetic memory; however, we insist that the circumstances under which solidarity might be rejected must be considered. With a dual case study, we offer a perspective on enduring assumptions about cultural identity and the rise of rightwing extremism in Northern Europe.

Heterotopic Ossification in Guillain-Barre ́ Syndrome- A Dual Case Report

Heterotopic Ossification (HO) is formation of atypical, lamellar bone within a soft tissue surrounding major joints. It is well documented as a complication following spinal cord injury and traumatic brain injury; however, it is quite rarely seen in lower motor neuron conditions like Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS). Here, we present two cases of GBS (both young males) with Bilateral hip pain who were diagnosed HO on the basis of radiological study while still admitted in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Both of them had history of mechanical ventilation, tetraparesis and prolonged immobilisation. There are very few reports of HO in GBS and if detected early, it improves the functional outcome.

Dyonic and Magnetic Black Holes with Rational Nonlinear Electrodynamics

The principles of causality and unitarity are studied within rational nonlinear electrodynamics proposed earlier. We investigate dyonic and magnetized black holes and show that in the self-dual case, when the electric charge equals the magnetic charge, corrections to Coulomb's law and Reissner-Nordstrom solutions are absent. In the case of the magnetic black hole, the Hawking temperature, the heat capacity and the Helmholtz free energy are calculated. It is shown that there are second-order phase transitions and it was demonstrated that at some range of parameters the black holes are stable.