Checkpoint urbanism: Violent infrastructures and border stigmas in the Juárez border region

As Popitz (2017) argues, violence is one component of the great economy of world history, an option permanently open to human activity. In Ciudad Juárez, right at the border between the United States and Mexico, this notion explains the fundamental incongruity that characterises the region: a booming industrial productive model operating in parallel with an international crime and violence hotspot that is also a coveted criminal passageway. This paper will argue that official and criminal checkpoints designed for border-crossing, have had a transformative spatial role when considered across the dimensions of infrastructure and stigma, triggering a material/symbolic tension. We argue that their location and accessibility determine the exposure of nearby communities to economic growth but also violent entrepreneurship – the illegal crossing of goods and people still remains a constant characteristic of the region, not only as part of a criminal enterprise but as a viable livelihood. The ways in which the region of Juárez develops and grows also determines how trafficking and illegal practices are established; rules and regulations that provide territorial parameters for what is open and transparent are equally referential to what is clandestine and devious. The tensions brought by the border’s geopolitical value have amplified the value of infrastructure and its practical ownership. The international border operates as a line that is barrier, social divider, landmark, policy-bridge, filtering mechanism and trafficking obstacle. Under this permanent state of tension, the checkpoints provide a physical structure to the transit flows and a sovereign interruption. Across this urbanism, the checkpoint surroundings acquire a magnetic significance, due to the resulting transit dynamics and the surveillance deterrents at the core of their function. Furthermore, their dual nature – official and criminal – has branded the region as a criminal outpost, stigmatising the people inhabiting it, and perpetuating the idea that Juárez is defined by its violent infrastructures.

The Islamic Reformist Mosaic in Muslim Southeast Asia

This chapter amplifies John Esposito’s emphasis on the rich diversity of approaches to Islamic thought, focusing attention on Southeast Asia, often considered marginal to Islam’s Arab heartlands but which is in reality the home of the most populous Muslim country, Indonesia. It argues that several Muslim intellectuals have been especially influential in giving rise to what the author terms the “Islamic reformist mosaic” in twentieth-century Muslim Southeast Asia. The term captures the various strands of reformist thinking in Muslim Southeast Asia, each viewing its message of reform as most urgent and important. Even though these strands are diverse, they have coexisted, sometimes in a state of tension, and at other times in dialogue and mutual agreement. Put differently, while differing in their visions and aims, when viewed as a whole, these strands of Islamic reformism form a unified and coherent frame of thought that distinguishes itself from the ultra-traditionalist and ultra-secularist leanings in Southeast Asian Islam. From this vantage point, Islamic reformism is thus a sum of seemingly discordant parts that in its entirety has shaped and pushed the boundaries of Islamic thought in Muslim Southeast Asia in novel directions.

Intensified Liminal Legality: The Impact of the DACA Rescission for Undocumented Young Adults in Colorado

The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program provides qualifying undocumented immigrant youth with significant benefits. These benefits exist in a state of tension because they are temporary, making the status of DACA recipients precarious. In this article we draw on survey and interview data collected with DACA recipients in Colorado, along with community stakeholder interviews and observations to examine the liminally legal experience of recipients, both before and after Donald Trump’s announced intention to terminate the program. Focusing on their experiences of precarity across educational, economic, and emotional spheres, we document the negative and lasting consequences that the loss of DACA status would have for them. Given the rapidly shifting legal context of the DACA program, we argue that liminal legality varies in intensity based on political context and place. While undocumented young adults are acutely aware of the uncertainty of this moment, we also show how they are demonstrating resilience in the face of increasingly harmful immigration policies. The liminal legality of DACA status, which has worsened in the recent political context, underscores the urgent need for a permanent legislative solution.

Pluralism versus Separation: Tension in the Australian Church-State Relationship

The relationship between the state and religion in Australia exists in a state of tension. On the one hand the “non-establishment” clause in section 116 of the Australian Constitution points to the separation of religion and state. On the other hand there is a high level of cooperation between the state and religion in the public sphere, most visible in the funding of religious schools by the federal government. These two visions of the Australian state-religion relationship are in tension. One requiring the removal of religion from the public sphere while the other calls for a plurality of religions to be accommodated in public spaces. This article seeks to resolve this tension by proposing a new way to understand the Australian state-religion relationship as non-establishment pluralism. Non-establishment in the sense that the Australian Constitution prohibits the establishment of any religion—be that a single state church, multiple state religions, or religion generally. Pluralism in that the state via ordinary legislation, public policy, and government action cooperates with religion in numerous areas of state and religious interest in the public sphere.

Marketing Strategies Used by Hospitality Businesses in Times of Crisis of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Case Study

A crisis is a state of tension that occurs at an unexpected time and significantly affects business continuity. The tourism sector is susceptible to being impacted by its multi-purpose structure—natural disasters, terrorist incidents, epidemics, political tensions, economic fluctuations, etc. By creating a problem, it can cause the accommodation business to lose tourists at any time. Developing new products, shifting to alternative tourism markets, and reducing costs may be options for businesses. However, because every crisis is different, managers must determine the most appropriate strategy for the problem. Effective crisis management is made possible by strategic control. With the application of smart strategic management, crises can be turned into opportunities. With the Covid-19 outbreak, many hotel businesses have had to reconsider their marketing strategies. In this research, a case study was conducted at the four-star Prime Park Hotel in Bandung. This study aims to determine how hotels are affected by the Pandemic and determine what kind of marketing strategies they employ in dealing with this crisis. It has been observed that Hotel Prime Park, whose customer base consists of foreign tourists arriving from the Far East on package tours before the Pandemic, was negatively affected by domestic and international travel restrictions that started with the Pandemic. Hotel management has mostly followed a market share strategy and cost reduction, and customer acquisition.

Contracting for Health Care under the New Philippine UHC Act

The 2019 Philippine UHC Act provides one of the most recent examples of contractualization of health care. Despite the significant change it brings, it regulates contracting only marginally, so that the purpose and deployment of this mechanism remain largely unclear. This study examines how contracting under the new law can contribute to achieving the reform goals and, to this end, subjects the UHC Act and its Implementing Rules and Regulations to a socio-legal analysis. In the process, it becomes apparent that, contrary to the general trend, the law adheres to a decidedly hierarchical form of contracting, which is in a certain state of tension with the network-like organization it promotes and the use of contracting to realize development-oriented goals. To effectively implement the law's contracting concept, the authors suggest underpinning it with a more relational approach, a stronger management orientation of the executing entities, and the development of appropriate network governance concepts.

Psychological States of Students under the Quarantine Regime during Covid-19 Outbreak Period

The pandemic caused by Covid-19 has had a significant impact on all areas of people’s lives, including education. The aim of this study was to identify the impact of social and gender factors on the psychological state of students facing a situation of uncertainty, changing conditions of activity and communication caused by the quarantine regime. The article includes a theoretical review and the results of a study conducted during the period of social exclusion introduced in the country to contain the spread of Covid-19 in April 2020. The data collection took the form of an online survey in which students from the Ural Federal University and the Ural Technological College in Yekaterinburg participated. A total of 81 students (38 females and 43 males) took part in the study. The methods used were a sociodemographic questionnaire (Aurelio Olmedilla, 2020) and an adapted Russian-language version of the Profile of Psychological States (McNair, Lorr, Droppleman, 1971). Mathematical processing of the results was carried out with use of the Student’s t-criterion. The results of the study revealed a slight increase in negative states in most students, above all an increase in the state of tension. At the same time, the obtained results revealed statistically significant differences in the psychological states of students depending on the extent of their involvement in sport, gender and the number of people living together. Further research could focus on the role of personal determinants in influencing students’ psychological states.

Experimental Evaluation of Combined Effect of Flexure, Shear and Tension on SFRC Beams

Short discrete fiber reinforcement is the right choice in the concrete matrix. De-bounding and pulling out of fibers requires more force, thereby increasing the durability and confrontation to repeat and dynamics loads. Fibers substantially decrease the fragility of concrete and advance its engineering characteristics, like load bearing capacity, resistance against impact load, flexural, tensile and fatigue etc. Behavior of SFRC in tension, compression, flexure and shear has already been studied separately but no or very little work has been done on combined state flexure, tension, shear, torsion etc. Present study involves the investigation of the behavior of SFRC composite M20 beams with varying percentage fiber content (0.0, 0.50, 0.75 & 1.0%) by volume under the combined state of tension and shear and flexure. The testing beam size was taken as100 mm × 100 mm × 500 mm. Straight fibers 28 mm long and 0.28 mm diameter were castoff. The specimen beams were tested applying direct tension of 0, 5, 7 and 10kN. For different fiber percent by weight beams were tested, all the direct tension values were applied to each of the three beams i.e. total of 48 beams were casted and tested accordingly. For the beam under combined effect of tension, flexure and shear, when tested it was observed that ultimate central deflection and ultimate bending stress were found to decrease for a particular percentage increment of fiber added along with increase of tension. It was also observed that for a specific tension value, deflection increases with increase of fiber percentage at ultimate load in beams. Bending stress increases at tension 10 KN for all percentages of fiber content.