Platform NHS: Reconfiguring a Public Service in the Age of Digital Capitalism

The platform is emerging as a key organizational form and operational logic of contemporary capitalism, intimately tied to financialization and assetization. However, discussions to date have focused on platforms and platformization in the context of the private, corporate, and technology sectors. In this paper, we develop an analysis of how platformization operates in the context of public policy. Using the UK’s National Health Service as a case study, we explore how platformization is altering the form and function of the state. The platformization of the NHS has its roots in the UK government’s strategic interest in the development of the bioeconomy. This led to the creation of a research infrastructure within the health service. Subsequently, the NHS has leveraged various assets into a range of data- and technology-focused initiatives. We argue that platformization has been a major form of neoliberalization within the NHS. The paper concludes with a discussion of what an analysis of public platformization can teach us about ongoing transformations of the state.

Criminalizing Unto Death as Act of Judgment, Act of War: The Suicidal Rationality of the Death Penalty

This paper attempts to establish that capital punishment is not rational and cannot be rationalized without suicidally destroying the very ground on which lawful and rational punishment bases itself. It argues that in capital punishment, just as in any lawful punishment, the criminal is both held (humanly) rational and therefore culpable. But, unlike other forms of punishment, in capital punishment, the condemned is at the same time, held as irrational and irredeemable, beyond reform, and therein outside the ambit of rationality and humanity. In this sense a fundamental aporia is reached in rationalizing capital punishment because of the contradiction between the basis of punishment (the human as rational) and its operational logic (the condemned person as beyond reform therein irrational). Expressed another way, the judge proclaims a form of infallibility in their reasoning where the incorrigibility of the judgment is horrifically demonstrated and ironically reflected (and projected) in the incorrigibility of the condemned. This broad argument is pursued in two parts; one part interprets canonical texts such as Hobbes, Hegel and Foucault, while the second part interprets the Supreme Court of India’s jurisprudence around the death penalty. While these are very different discourses it will be shown that they share much common ground in their expressing—and negotiating—the fundamental problem as described above.

The barrier between irresponsibility and responsibility. considerations regarding the forensic psychiatric expertisein criminal law

The irresponsibility from a medico-legal point of view is supported by the following criteria: non-formation of critical discernment; severe psycho-sensory or mental disability; altering the levels of elementary consciousness and operational logic; the psychopathological motivation of the moment of committing the antisocial act and of the deviant behavior in general; there is a direct causal link between the pathological personality traits and the crime committed; the forensic onset of mental illness; mental incapacity Analyzing all the above and referring to the topic studied in this paper, we can not fail to refer to how it contributes to the mental illness of a person who has committed a crime on determining his state of responsibility or irresponsibility, because this state determines whether or not the person is liable to criminal liability and, respectively, the punishment to be applied. In order to determine whether a person acted with discernment, ie he realized the degree of social danger posed by the act committed and was able to distinguish between what is permitted and what is not permitted by law, it is necessary the conclusions of some specialists.

Development of an application tool to support returnees in Fukushima

To promote radiation protection and health promotion among returning residents (returnees) in coastal areas of Fukushima, eHealth principles were used to develop a new application tool (app) that can record radiation exposure and health status while providing comprehensive support to returnees. Intended users are returnees and health and welfare workers. After assessing their needs, a flowchart and prototype for operational logic were created using commercially available software tools. Professional developers will focus on improving the user interface and ensuring data security. The finished app will be compatible with mobile telephones and tablets. Utility and ease of use are paramount to serve returnees of all ages effectively.

‘Breathful’ design in breathless times

This position paper seeks to address the operational logic that created the conditions for the pandemic to take hold. Grasping the crisis as an opportunity for an anthropological inquiry across disciplines, this exploration firmly anchors design inside the social commitment required by breathing bodies and life-enabling atmospheres. By infusing the self-understanding of design with experiences and conceptions from Eastern and Western ‘breathwork’ practices the adaptation strategy in uncertainty shifts from perpetuating the status quo towards the creative reinterpretation of internal priorities. It also changes the nature of our projects, from making to enacting, from preprogrammed solutions to earthly engagement, from interfacing with inert matter to caring for living matters. Taking our universally shared breath as the resounding call for action, ‘breathful’ design is about the never-finished, perpetually opening task of persisting through bodily vigilance, diligence, and self-critical forsight for ‘knowing what to do when no one knows what to do’.

The Conceptualization of Constitutional Supremacy: Global Discourse and Legal Tradition

This Article argues that a) constitutional supremacy is affected by the legal tradition, which implies that it is a concept largely shaped by the legal context in which it is elaborated, and b) the common law version of constitutional supremacy determines a sort of cultural resistance to constitutional imperialism. In making its argument, this Article begins with the doctrine of sources of law with a view to unpack its operational logic within the common law and, therefore, to understand how the supremacy of constitutions is conceptualized. It then examines the embryonic conceptualization of constitutional supremacy in the British legal culture by addressing the “constitutional statutes.” It goes on to analyse how constitutional supremacy is safeguarded in jurisdictions that are affected by the British tradition and equipped with written constitutions, to show how constitutions concretely established themselves as supreme laws without neglecting the relevance of traditions pre-dating the constitutional texts. It then shows how the common law finds its way to be applied alongside or even instead of the constitution. Eventually, this Article offers some conclusions as to the implications of such a conceptualization of constitutional supremacy for comparative and global constitutional studies.

Comics Jam: Creating healthcare and science communication comics ‐ A sprint co-design methodology

Educational and public information messages can be enlivened through the medium of comics, engaging readers not simply through the content, but through careful application of the attributes of the form. The creative and oftentimes collaborative processes used to create such comics benefit from the blending of different perspectives and expertise in order to ensure that the educational message is precisely calibrated. This article elucidates this argument in light of a suite of educational and public information comics produced by the authors as part of a multidisciplinary team from the Scottish Centre for Comics Studies (SCCS) at the University of Dundee, working with various external partners, and reflects on the methodological and pedagogical approaches embedded in this project. We argue that by using a participatory and iterative process that draws on some of the key elements of Jake Knapp’s concept of the design sprint, a prototype comic can be quickly developed that is informed by relevant scholarship and engages a diverse range of partners as co-designers, which can then be moved quickly to the final version. This process creates a feedback loop between research, practice and the various stakeholders, each of whom is empowered within the co-design methodology to contribute to the comic based on their expertise. This is driven by the operational logic of such projects, which bring together participants from diverse backgrounds and areas of expertise, to collaborate and co-design outputs at the interface between critical and creative investigation. In many cases, the comics that we have produced have been to a tight deadline, where the need for the comic is pressing, so the process partly emerged due to necessity, but became refined over the course of several years, evolving into a practice research approach combined with a sprint co-design methodology that embeds learning outcomes in the process as well as the output. Given the nature of this process, we took to describing this activity as a ‘Comics Jam’, and due to the city’s association with the three J’s of ‘jute’, ‘jam’ and ‘journalism’, the name sort of... stuck.

Comics Jam: Creating healthcare and science communication comics – A sprint co-design methodology

Educational and public information messages can be enlivened through the medium of comics, engaging readers not simply through the content, but through careful application of the attributes of the form. The creative and oftentimes collaborative processes used to create such comics benefit from the blending of different perspectives and expertise in order to ensure that the educational message is precisely calibrated. This article elucidates this argument in light of a suite of educational and public information comics produced by the authors as part of a multidisciplinary team from the Scottish Centre for Comics Studies (SCCS) at the University of Dundee, working with various external partners, and reflects on the methodological and pedagogical approaches embedded in this project. We argue that by using a participatory and iterative process that draws on some of the key elements of Jake Knapp’s concept of the design sprint, a prototype comic can be quickly developed that is informed by relevant scholarship and engages a diverse range of partners as co-designers, which can then be moved quickly to the final version. This process creates a feedback loop between research, practice and the various stakeholders, each of whom is empowered within the co-design methodology to contribute to the comic based on their expertise. This is driven by the operational logic of such projects, which bring together participants from diverse backgrounds and areas of expertise, to collaborate and co-design outputs at the interface between critical and creative investigation. In many cases, the comics that we have produced have been to a tight deadline, where the need for the comic is pressing, so the process partly emerged due to necessity, but became refined over the course of several years, evolving into a practice research approach combined with a sprint co-design methodology that embeds learning outcomes in the process as well as the output. Given the nature of this process, we took to describing this activity as a ‘Comics Jam’, and due to the city’s association with the three J’s of ‘jute’, ‘jam’ and ‘journalism’, the name sort of... stuck.

Collective Autonomy and the Politicization of the Land: The Practices of the Land System under Rural Collective Ownership

This article explores the process and mechanism of the politicization of the land in order to understand the operational logic of the collective land system and the deep structure of the rural political order. The actual process of land politics functions to facilitate the political integration of rural communities and reshape the mode of resource allocation between the state and the rural population. While the politicization of the land manifests the autonomy of rural collective organizations, the rights-based attributes of the land function to undermine the autonomy and disrupt the political links among the state, the collective, and rural residents, hence the depoliticization of the land. The effective governance of rural society entails more room for experiments in the rural collective land system.

Employer Branding Implementation and Human Resource Management in Greek Telecommunication Industry

Even though employer branding has its origins back to the 1990s, only after 2001 did it become a hot topic for human resource (HR) management. Ever since, a series of researchers and professionals have made an effort to understand how the image that job seekers have about employers is shaped and what benefits arise from this bilateral relationship. The Greek business environment delayed adoption of the most recently developed HR techniques, as a result of the economic crisis, and resulting decrease in working manpower, as well as budget reductions for HR. Only in the past few years have some of the leading companies in several business sectors started to implement employer branding as part of their corporate strategy. The current study aims to present how employer branding is actually under implementation in one of the most dynamic, national sectors—the telecommunication industry. Interviews in HR departments were conducted in order to collect (a) qualitative information regarding how employer branding is perceived and what results are expected from its implementation, as well as (b) quantitative data regarding its usefulness on attracting and choosing candidates, as well as evaluating existing employees. Results indicate that even though employer branding implementation is still an ongoing procedure, it has already started to transform HR departments’ operational logic.