Liberal Practices Research Articles

The Personal and the Political in Roger Scruton's Conservatism

ABSTRACTRoger Scruton's philosophical enterprise is an effort to “save the appearances” of value in the human world that elude scientific explanation. The meaning of the human things appears only to a first-person perspective, which is incommensurable with the objective perspective of cause and effect. To make sense of our experience requires a “cognitive dualism” that can account for the human or “lifeworld” as well as physical reality. Ranging rather indiscriminately over Scruton's diverse writings, I expound the unifying conception of personhood that makes them a coherent whole and also serves as the touchstone for Scruton's conservative critique of liberal theory and practice. Some questions are raised about that two-dimensional critique, about its separation into “metaphysical” and “empirical” components, and about whether the latter does or doesn't “operationalize” the former.

Exile, Refuge and the Greek Polis: Between Justice and Humanity

This paper addresses the place of exiles and refugees in the Greek poleis (city-states), with a focus on the later Classical and Hellenistic periods (c. 400–100 BC). It examines the different forms of protection and aid granted by Greek poleis and their citizens to people displaced through war and civil strife. Its main focus is the range of arguments and ideals advanced by ancient Greeks as grounds for granting these forms of protection and aid to exiles and refugees. Displaced Greeks and their hosts could, for example, present aid to displaced groups as guided or inspired by justice, law, freedom and shared Greek identity. Alternatively, in a move which became increasingly prominent in formal political contexts in the period considered here, they could present help to the displaced principally as a matter of respecting unconditional ethical ties binding together all humans, or all ‘citizens of the world’. This paper argues that the diverse range of relevant Greek practices and values both reflected and helped to shape complex and shifting ancient Greek ideas about the city, citizenship, democracy, justice, freedom, virtue and gender. Throughout its argument, the paper draws connections and contrasts between ancient Greek and modern liberal practices and ideology, and their underpinnings in broader ethical and political ideals. Modern liberal practices and values concerning aid to refugees draw on, and combine, the approaches and traditions evident in the ancient Greek world, as well as diverging from them in revealing ways.

AMERICAN AND SOUTH AFRICAN SODIO-HISTORICAL LIBERATION THEOLOGY RECIPROCATIVE INFLUENCES

The paper meanders through American and South African liberation theology. Underlining the thoughts and influences of charismatic leaders like Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, James Cone, and Allan Boesak are the historical sociology of two distinct religious spaces, South Africa and the United States of America. Each region had an influence on the other, sometimes both implicitly and deliberately, but most times inadvertently. Christianity was joined by Islam in both regions in establishing a praxis. But more so in America where James Cone suggests his liberation theology to have been a direct response to the Nation of Islam's Malcolm X. In the end, it was the synthesis and influences of a number of religious ideas including Mohandas Gandhi's Hinduism / Jainism, Islam, Christianity, Nation of Islam and Garveyism that were used in whatever form necessary to socialize a liberating praxis or rational study.

Intraoperative Fluid Resuscitation Strategies in Pancreatectomy: Results from 38 Hospitals in Michigan.

Fluid administration practices may affect complication rates in some abdominal surgeries, but effects in patients undergoing pancreatectomy are not understood well. We sought to determine whether amount of intraoperative fluid administered to patients undergoing pancreatectomy is associated with postoperative complication rates and to determine whether hospitals vary in their fluid administration practices. Data for 504 patients undergoing pancreatectomy at 38 hospitals between 2012 and 2015 were evaluated. The main exposure was intraoperative fluid administration (≤10, 10-15, >15mL/kg/h). Mortality, complications, and length of stay were the main outcomes of interest. Patient-level associations between exposure and outcome were tested, with adjustment for potentially confounding patient and surgical factors, using random intercept, mixed-effects linear or logistic regression models. Hospitals were then categorized as having a restrictive, intermediate, or liberal resuscitation practice, and adjusted outcomes were compared. A total of 167 (33.1%), 185 (36.7%) and 152 (30.2%) patients received restrictive, intermediate, or liberal fluid administration, respectively. Hospitals with more restrictive practices had significantly lower adjusted 30-day mortality than those with more liberal practices (2.7 vs. 6.6%; P<0.001). Hospitals with more restrictive practices had the lowest rates of severe (Grade 2 and 3) complications (15.4% restrictive vs. 25.3% intermediate vs. 44.3% liberal; P<0.001). More restrictive hospitals had decreased adjusted mean length of stay (9.5days vs. 12.7days intermediate vs. 11.6days liberal; P<0.001). More restrictive intraoperative resuscitation practices in pancreatectomy are associated with decreased hospital-level mortality, severe complications, and length of stay.

Portraits of the Poor in Early Nineteenth-Century Radical Journalism

AbstractThis paper compares the social-exploration literature of radical, mostly Owenite and Chartist, and liberal journalism in the first half of the nineteenth century, though the focus is on the less known ‘portraits of the poor’ in radical papers. In the paper I argue that against the developing liberal practice of intricately mapping poverty and categorizing the poor, radical papers under-represented particular cases of poverty, using an obfuscating syntax to document the poor. In doing so, radicals differentiated themselves from their middle-class counterparts, primarily as a way to challenge the assumption that poverty was a function of individual error and to turn the public’s gaze onto the social causes of poverty. Highlighting the political dimensions of poverty and minimizing the language of ‘personal responsibility’, radicals demonstrated that the activist agenda concerned itself with the economic and social as much as with the political, even while offering political solutions to economic and...

Political reconciliation in Timor Leste, Solomon Islands and Bougainville: the dark side of hybridity

ABSTRACTIn recent years, the study and practice of political reconciliation has experienced a turn to hybridity. This turn has been defined by the increased rate at which liberal international and local peacebuilding practices, and their underlying ideas, have become merged, integrated or co-located in time and space. While hybrid approaches to reconciliation have been praised as an effective means of engaging local populations in peacebuilding operations, little attention has been paid to examining whether or not they also bring unintended negative consequences. Drawing on the cases of Timor Leste, Solomon Islands and Bougainville, this article examines the potentially dark side of hybridity. It demonstrates that, in each of these cases, hybrid approaches to political reconciliation have brought both positive and negative consequences. On the positive side of the equation, hybridity has seen imported international approaches to reconciliation adapted to meet local demands and ensure resonance with local populations. On the negative side, however, the misappropriation and instrumentalisation of local practices within hybrid approaches has served to damage their legitimacy and to jeopardise their contributions to reconciliation. The article thus concludes that the existence and extent of this dark side necessitates a re-evaluation of how hybrid approaches to political reconciliation are planned and implemented.

MODERNIDADE, DESCOLONIALIDADE E EDUCAÇÃO POPULAR: PERSPECTIVAS DA PEDAGOGIA DA ESPERANÇA DE PAULO FREIRE

This paper inserts itself on the debate about the Descolonial reflection, which has been carrying out a fundamental epistemological movement for a critical and utopic renovation of social sciences in Latin America in the twentieth-first century. This scenario composes the context which includes Popular Education as a pedagogical proposal in the twentieth century as opposed to the processes of domination inaugurated in Latin America from its 'discovery'. The contemporaneity of Paulo Freire thought as an epistemological reference for the construction of a liberating praxis and its articulation with the Descolonial reflection will be our analysis axis so as to promote a dialogue between them in order to seek a conection between their educational proposals / policies / organizational empowerment in the Eurocentric mirror.

The Transformation of the Higher Education System in Turkey after 2002: A Game Theoretic Analysis

The higher education system in Turkey suffered from capacity problem during the 1980s and the 1990s. After the election in 2002, to solve the problem, the Justice and Development Party governments have invested in higher education through opening new universities, increasing the total capacity in higher education, and sending more students abroad especially for graduate studies. In this paper, noting the conservative structure of the Justice and Development Party, we determine whether a dilemma exists between these liberal practices and the party’s conservatism. By constructing a one-period sequential game, we show that heavy investment in higher education by the Justice and Development Party is not contradictory and, in fact, inevitable, as long as it tries to maximize its vote in the short-medium run.

Sisterhood in Movement: Feminist Solidarity in France and the United States

Sisterhood in MovementFeminist Solidarity in France and the United States Kelli Zaytoun (bio) and Judith Ezekiel (bio) A poignant letter was published several years ago in off our backs: a young woman, Amy Johnson, tells of her quest to break the isolation of living in what she referred to as her ultraconservative, sexist hometown. She goes to college and makes it to a Women’s Studies department, only to be taught that the bonds of sisterhood she sought were illusory because “women” don’t exist, and the notion of sisterhood is retrograde.1 How can we, as feminists, respond to her sense of isolation and demobilization? How can we build and maintain a social movement without our sense of connection to, and belief in, one another? To have a movement, social movement theorists around the world agree, a group needs to pull together and have some form of bond. French and US labor movements called for solidarity; the US Civil Rights movement had its beloved community. The Women’s Liberation movement was predicated upon the idea of solidarity among women, once commonly referred to as “sisterhood.” Yet in no other movement has this notion been so dissected and criticized. Today the very term sisterhood seems somehow quaint, viewed by some as naïve or anachronistic, by others as ethnocentric and dogmatic. Not only is sisterhood in mothballs; so is the term solidarity. Providing basic necessities to all has been reframed in US society as “entitlement,” justified by even so-called liberals with the argument that citizens have paid for them; that is, the state is just keeping guard over a collection of piggy banks for individuals. Those who wish to go beyond the “piggy bank model,” like old-school Christians, often do so via acts of “charity” or, as some French put it, “générosité.” To the contrary, with solidarity or sisterhood, we do not “get what we pay for,” nor do we know who the “good Samaritans” are; in fact, it should not be known. We decide collectively what is needed for the common good, and we provide it through systemic means. It works horizontally, as a meeting among equals with shared vision. [End Page 195] The critiques of sisterhood have come not just from antifeminists and neo-conservatives but also from within the feminist movement, indeed since the beginning of the contemporary movement. Radical feminists saw sisterhood contradicted by emotional violence within the movement. Socialist, Marxist, and materialist feminists rejected any essentialization of “woman.” Feminists of color on both sides of the Atlantic have argued that assumptions of commonality, seemingly necessary for sisterhood, negated the antagonistic situations and interests of white women and women of color. More recently, Queer and Trans Studies have gone beyond the challenge of dualities to deconstruct and reconceptualize sex and gender as nonlinear and conditional. However, despite these historical, political, and philosophical critiques, we question whether feminism can exist without “women” and the deep bonding that “sisterhood” was meant to represent. Using a Franco-American perspective, we advocate a sisterhood not rooted in the physical classifications or identity of its participants but conceptualized as a political process, project, and struggle, built around lived experiences and consciousness and traversed by multiple social relations. Such a sisterhood would be a part of broad liberatory practices. This article reflects upon the post–World War II history and concept of feminist sisterhood, as distinct from female solidarity, in the United States and France, Judith’s country of adoption for nearly forty years. France and the United States, both wealthy Western nations, may seem similar on a global scale. Both feminist movements have international resonance, not least through theoretical writings, beginning with the foundational influence of Simone de Beauvoir. Representations and misrepresentations of French and US feminism are interwoven into the other nation’s social movement’s narrative.2 Actually, much transatlantic dialogue and cross-fertilization have occurred throughout feminism’s Second Wave. To give just a few early examples, the first French feminist demonstration, Women’s Strike Day on August 26, 1970, corresponded to the fiftieth anniversary of US women’s suffrage, and that same year the first French anthology contained many translations from early...

El derecho a la salud y la política social precarizada: desafíos de la dimensión terapéutica en el trabajo social

In Puerto Rico there are a series of changes occurringin Social Work (SW), among these, the proliferationof Clinical Social Work (CSW), and related to this, the therapeutic dimension of the profession, whichrequires an analysis of the context. In this paper we propose that these changes are related to the delegitimization and rupture of Social Work, and the functionality that CSW offers to the NeoliberalState. The dismantling of the Welfare State, led by the financial capital, has shifted the human rights guaranteed by the State to the market, to be sold through services offered by the private sector. Thus, drawing social policy away from its universal character, to be focused and precarized for low income or unemployed working class populations. In the health field, it involves the transformation of public services to be purchased through private health insurance. These new capitalist regulatory mechanisms are driving the liberal practice of the profession, the increase in self-help approachesand coaching, and the strong emphasis on the psychologizing of the “social question”.

PARADOKS SOM MOGLEGHEITSKAPANDE RESSURS I KRIMINALOMSORGA

Can music be a liberating practice in prison? Can release from prison still lead to imprisonment in a ‘prison of freedom’? Can a past as a criminal become a resource? Can exclusion from society imply inclusion in a culture of rock music? If one rejects to be a group of self-help does it nevertheless imply that one receives help and support from each other in a rock band? In this article these paradoxes are discussed based on the doctoral theses Innanfor og utanfor – Rockens rolle innan kriminalomsorg og ettervern (Tuastad 2014a). The thesis is based on experiences from the Norwegian project ”Music in Custody and Liberty”, and on an action research project with the rock band Me and the BAND’its. In addition to the findings in the thesis, the topic is analyzed with theory from community music therapy and socio-cultural perspectives.

Nothing in This World Is Indifferent to Us': The Primacy of Encounter and the Intersubjectivity of Nature

“We’re moving from one plane of reality to another,” says Terry Tempest Williams in an interview with Yes! Magazine, “and what is required of us is spiritual.” Many people alive in the United States today have grown up bombarded by the seemingly futile refrain that if we don’t cut back on x (activity) in y (years), z (catastrophe) will ensue – with x becoming broader in scope, y becoming smaller in number, and z becoming more horrific with each passing year. Among the natural responses to such daunting and repetitive premonitions are anxiety and anguish: “Accept the anxiety, embrace the deeper anguish,” suggests Robert Jensen, “and then get apocalyptic.” Drawing upon Laudato si, liberation theology, and eco psychology, this paper argues for the importance of encounters (increasingly scarce) with the natural world, human and other-than-human, as a necessary spiritual practice grounding a commitment to ecojustice in times which are indeed end times of sorts. In a consideration of theological anthropology, I suggest, along with ecopsychologist Will Adams, that our subjectivity is indeed an intersubjectivity, arising out of our ethical response to not only the human other but also the other-than-human. We are by nature relational beings, and we must remember that this relation is not only relevant in human-human relationships. Liberation theologians have articulated the foundational nature of the encounter with poor – an experience which at once inspires awe, evokes mercy, and demands action – in grounding liberative praxis. Likewise, the encounter with nature, when its intersubjectivity is considered, grounds a praxis of ecojustice. Finally, understanding apocalypse in its etymological sense as “unveiling,” I argue for the role of the apocalyptic imagination, in making possible sustained exposure to such encounters, which entail both joy and despair. “Expect the end of the world,” writes Wendell Berry, “Be joyful though you have considered all the facts…Practice resurrection.”

Reviewing State-Owned Entities’ Governance Landscape in South Africa

The current state-owned entities’ governance landscape ranges from fragmented accountability frameworks to convoluted array of parent entities, subsidiaries and sub-subsidiaries. The article reviews the state-owned entities’ governance landscape to unravel underlying inconsistencies and contradictions and thereby provides a compelling argument for opting to create an overarching state-owned entities’ governance and seamless legislative framework. As the proposed overarching option is not an absolute resolve, the study tests whether the option could assist in arriving at a liberating praxis that would straddle though fulfilling corporate and developmental aspirations of the state. The study perused research reports and literature review applying qualitative methods.

Palestinian Liberation Theology: Creative Resistance to Occupation

The ongoing Israeli occupation of the Palestinian Territories has widely affected the Christian population in the region. This study focuses narrowly on the diminishing minority of Palestinian Christians, and how their position under occupation has led to the development of Palestinian Liberation Theology and practices of creative resistance. It begins by acknowledging the unique position of Palestinian Christians as liminal yet indigenous members of society. It then explores their complex collective identity, demonstrating how specific facets of their historic identity (i.e. denominationalism, Arabism, and political station) have been preserved, and how these inform their theological and practical responses to the changing socio-political landscape. It goes on to probe the degree of consensus around Palestinian Liberation Theology, as well as prominent manifestations of the ideology in response to occupation. Ultimately, this study finds that Palestinian Liberation Theology represents a creative and valuable contribution to the national struggle for liberation, providing a shared ideology and culturally specific blueprint for revolutionary collective action guided by plurality, nonviolence, and collaboration.

Decolonizing Liberation: Toward a Transnational Feminist Psychology

This paper engages the theme of “decolonizing psychological science” in the context of a perspective on psychological theory and research—namely, feminist psychology—that shares an emphasis on broad liberation. Although conceived as a universal theory and practice of liberation, scholars across diverse sites have suggested that feminism—perhaps especially as it manifests in psychological science—is not always compatible with and at times is even contradictory to global struggles for decolonization. The liberatory impulse of feminist psychology falls short of its potential not only because of its grounding in neocolonial legacies of hegemonic feminisms, but also because of its complicity with neocolonial tendencies of hegemonic psychological science. In response to these concerns, we draw upon on perspectives of transnational feminisms and cultural psychology as tools to decolonize (feminist) psychology. We then propose the possibility of a (transnational) feminist psychology that takes the epistemological position of people in various marginalized majority-world settings as a resource to rethink conventional scientific wisdom and liberate “liberation”. Rather than freeing some women to better participate in global domination, a transnational feminist psychology illuminates sustainable ways of being that are consistent with broader liberation of humanity in general.

English

The developmental history of today’s liberal democratic states demonstrates a clear parallel between liberal state practice and functioning local government institutions. This simple fact has implications for today’s policymakers interested in the political liberalization of sub-Saharan Africa’s newly declared “democracies.” Yet, among the many debates taking place in developmental politics, local governance remains – at best – a niche area that is usually brought up within the context of decentralization policy. Largely due to the recent history of Cold War patronage that focused on central over local government relations, the newly declared democracies of sub-Saharan Africa consistently rank among the lowest in the world in the yearly indexes on freedom compiled by Freedom House. Here it is argued that, if political liberalism is to be realized within these newly declared democracies of sub-Saharan Africa, a renewed emphasis on the role of local government institutions must take place. Emphasis is placed on the recent experience of Zambia, which demonstrates the kinds of internal and external policy challenges proponents of local governance have faced. Key words: Illiberal democracy, local government, sub-Saharan Africa, Zambia.

Variation in Transfusion Practices and the Effect on Outcomes After Noncardiac Surgery

To identify the patient-level effects of blood transfusion on postoperative outcomes and to estimate the effects of different transfusion practices on hospital-level risk-adjusted outcomes. Postoperative transfusion practices and their effects on short-term outcomes in patients undergoing noncardiac surgery are not well understood. Demographic, operative, and outcomes data for 48,720 patients undergoing general or vascular surgery at 52 hospitals between July 2012 and April 2014 were obtained. The main exposure variable was receipt of any blood transfusion within 72 hours after surgery. Thirty-day mortality, any morbidity, infectious complications, and postoperative myocardial infarction were the outcomes of interest. Propensity score matching was used to minimize confounding by indication. Hospitals were categorized as having a restrictive, average, or liberal transfusion practice based on average trigger hemoglobin values. A total of 2243 (4.6%) patients received a postoperative blood transfusion. After propensity matching, a postoperative transfusion was associated with increased 30-day mortality (3.6% excess absolute risk), any morbidity (4.4% excess absolute risk), and infectious morbidity (1.0% excess absolute risk). However, a transfusion was associated with 3.5% absolute risk reduction in postoperative myocardial infarction. At the hospital level, there was a wide variation in transfusion practices. Hospitals with liberal practices were twice as likely to transfuse patients and had higher risk-adjusted mortality rates than restrictive hospitals (3.1% vs 2.2%; P = 0.002). Postoperative transfusions after noncardiac surgery are associated with increased adverse postoperative outcomes, with the exception of postoperative myocardial infarction. Hospitals that are liberal in their transfusion practices have higher 30-day mortality rates, suggesting potential interventions for quality improvement.

Interaction of Outdoor Advertising Improved by Innovative Methods with Digital Art

Today, along with the “Neo-Liberal” globalization in the world economy markets, cities are beginning to gain identity and new textures. Throughout the world, especially the cultural, economic and social changes after 1980 have facilitated the transition to free market and implementation of the liberal policies in 1990's. These sort of liberal practices performed on behalf of globalization (hiving off, foreign expansion of freedom, etc.) in the last quarter of the twentieth century, have gained momentum with the beginning of the transition to digital life. Thus, the rapid development of information and communication technologies as a result of increased production, begins to create new marketing models for itself. The advertising agencies desiring to go different directions other than conventional methods, that had been constantly after new medias until the 1990s. The rediscovery of activities by Outdoor Advertising, provides opportunities to different marketing techniques supported by digital technology and those who want artistic applications to reach a wide audience. Art produced in an electronic environment that can be described briefly as” Digital Art”, with the format of multiple artistic or technical applications, in this new face of Outdoor Advertising has created itself important exhibition areas. When the digital designs, fed with images reflected from the city's cultural heritage, silhouette and citizens meets with the recipient is being absorbed more fruitfully. Especially in the 2000s, the system called ‘Digital Outdoor Network’ has been observed to have developed. The analysis of ‘Next Generation Advertising’ makes serious awareness and difference, over access in urban furniture and also individual social networks. In this context, this article will investigate the coexistence of the expression of digital art applications with the virtual or real public spaces in the sense of the new advertising based on bytes.

Global governmentality: Biosecurity in the era of infectious diseases

This paper uses Foucault’s concept of governmentality to examine relationships between globalisation, the threat of infectious diseases and biosecurity. It draws attention to forms of calculated practices which Foucault notes as technologies of power that aim to foster positive demographic and economic trends in societies through the apparatus of security. These practices are employed at the global level with similar ambitions; hence, we adopt the term global governmentality. We discuss the applications of global governmentality by actors in the global core through the apparatus of security and (neo)liberal economic practices. We then provide examples of resistance/contestation from actors mainly in the global periphery through discussions of viral sovereignty; access to essential medicines, including HIV drugs; and health for all as a human right. We conclude that despite the core-periphery power asymmetry and competing paradigms, these developments tend to complement and/or regulate the phenomenon termed global governmentality, which is made evident by the tremendous successes in global health.

Mo1165 Prediction for Mortality in Patients With Non-Variceal Upper Gastrointestinal Bleeding: Novel DGSG Score

Background: Acute upper gastrointestinal bleeding (UGIB) is a common medical emergency resulting in significant morbidity, mortality and cost of care. Whilst red blood cell (RBC) transfusion may be life-saving in massive UGIB, recent controlled trials suggest that a liberal transfusion practice is associated with increased re-bleeding rates and reduced survival after UGIB. 1 Aim: To determine the association between transfusion and rebleeding, mortality at 30 days and at one year after acute non-variceal UGIB. Methods: A retrospective, cohort study of patients who underwent endoscopy at three Western Australian tertiary hospitals for a suspected acute non-variceal UGIB in the period 2008-2010. A detailed chart review and linkage to hospital morbidity, emergency department, death registration and patient blood management data was performed. Logistic regression models were used to investigate factors associated with odds of an early rebleed. Cox models were used to identify factors associated with mortality outcomes. Results: There were 2,238 individuals with a total of 2,370 UGIB admission records. The median age at presentation for first UGIB was 70 years (range 19 to 99 years) and 63% of the cohort was male. Increasing volumes of early RBC transfusion was associated with increased odds of an early rebleed in a dose response trend but only in patients who presented with an Hb >90g/dl (OR 1.5; 95% CI 1.3-1.8; p=0.001). 30-day mortality was 4.9% (n=109). An increased rate of 30 day mortality was observed with increasing number of units of FFP (HR 2.3; 95% CI 1.1-4.6; p=0.02) and platelets (HR 3.7; 95% CI 1.8-7.7; p=0.001) transfused during the UGIB admission after adjusting for other patient and treatment related covariates. There were a further 200 deaths (9%) that occurred after 30 days but within one year of UGIB admission. Transfusion of greater than five units of FFP during the UGIB admission was associated with increased one year mortality (HR 6.7; 95% CI 3.3-13.4; p=0.001) but only for patients who had an INR 150,000 and after adjusting for other covariates. RBC transfusion was not associated with mortality outcomes. Conclusion: In this large, multicentre study, early RBC transfusion was associated with increased rebleeding in patients who presented with Hb > 90g/dl. FFP transfusion and not RBC transfusion was associated with increased mortality outcomes for patients, particularly those with a normal coagulation profile. Reference: 1. Villanueva et al, NEJM 2013; 368: 11-21.