Substantive Demands Research Articles

From Victims to Contributors: A Human Rights Approach to Climate Change for the Indigenous Peoples of the Arctic

Abstract A human rights approach to climate change, which has been claimed by the Indigenous peoples, consisted of procedural and substantive demands. Their procedural demands have mostly been realized in establishing the Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples Platform and the LCIP Platform Facilitative Working Group (FWG), where they can participate on equal footing with state parties. It could be argued that the LCIP Platform and the FWG have empowered Indigenous peoples who have hitherto been perceived as mere victims of climate change by making them contributors who provide their traditional knowledge related to addressing and responding to climate change. By contrast, their substantive demands have been imperfectly accepted. This might be improved in the Platform’s future activities. In doing so, the Inuit leader has pointed out that it is important to distinguish between local communities and Indigenous peoples in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) processes. This article will argue its feasibility depends on Indigenous peoples’ further efforts to convince state parties to accept such distinctions based on the applicability of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Thin entities

AbstractOystein Linnebo's book Thin Objects is partly devoted to defending the view that some objects are “thin” in that their existence does not impose any substantive demands on the world. In this paper, I discuss the concern that the defense relies on there being entities that serve as the referents of predicates. Linnebo thus seems to assume the thinness of those entities. In the course of my discussion, I also discuss what Linnebo says about the role of criteria of identity in his discussion of reference and existence.

Police officer or social media star? Live PD and microcelebrity

This article examines the rhetorical strategies of microcelebrity in the reality TV show Live PD. Live PD is an important text for understanding how police work with the entertainment industry to create selective strategies of self-presentation in the wake of the media challenges posed by the Black Lives Matter movement. It shows how police draw on new media and social media to shape public discourse about police and promote alternative images of police officers. It also shows how police mobilize the techniques of reality TV, fan engagement and social media to respond to emergent crises of police credibility. This article argues that Live PD’s rhetorics of microcelebrity use intimate visual access and fan engagement to create new modes of cultural attachment to police power while also substituting affective sensations of intimacy for substantive demands of police accountability.

DEPENDENT INDEPENDENCE: REFRAMING AGING AND CAREGIVING AFTER CHINA’S ONE-CHILD POLICY

Global aging has led to substantive demands for caregiving. In China, the country’s birth control policy and recent economic downturn have exacerbated the situation. Given the decreasing care they have received, older Chinese online users 65-74 years of age from single-child families, however, have demonstrated more positive attitudes than negative ones—expressing satisfaction and speaking highly of their adult children’s filial care. Why older Chinese come to appreciate their adult children’s filial performance? Building upon the concept of “regeneration” (Cole and Durham, 2007), I propose the term “dependent independence” to highlight the mutually constitutive parent-adult children relations in China’s single-child families. Employing a relational approach to aging and care in China, I analyze online posts from China’s most populous information-sharing platform, Zhihu. As the major cause of the care crisis in China, the One-Child Policy, I argue, creates the solution at the same time by modernizing Chinese families such that new care values and preference, specifically affective bonds and independence, have become dominant. I first demonstrate that this sample of older Chinese adults have shifted care preferences from physical support to affective bonds. I then analyze their reformulation of care values from servility to older adults to adult children’s independence and individual success. Revealing the changing values and preference of caregiving and family relations in China, this paper reminds us of what kind of future we aspire to, and what kind of values we cling to no matter as an adult child or an older adult.

Towards a Moral Division of Labour between IHL and IHRL during the Conduct of Hostilities

When should International Humanitarian Law (IHL) prevail over, when give way to International Human Rights Law (IHRL)? IHL and IHRL give diverging answers to the crucial question of when it is permissible to kill during an armed confrontation. This paper contends that when two bodies of law make diverging substantive demands – as IHRL and IHL do – that which better discharges the law’s moral tasks should displace the other. The law’s two moral tasks, the paper argues, are to guide its subjects’ conduct, as often as possible, towards the course of action that conforms to their moral obligations (task one) and to secure the fullest feasible protection of rights in the outcome of conduct (task two). IHL permits conduct that further diverges from our fundamental moral obligations of non-interference with the individual right to life. Yet, the law that more faithfully reflects underlying moral principles is not always the law that better discharges its moral tasks. Epistemic barriers to identifying the morally right course of action account for why a law that further diverges from moral principles might better guide the individual towards what is typically the morally right course of action (task one). Volitional defects may mean that a law that asks for a course of action other than the morally right one, generates better aggregate moral consequences (task two). Whether IHRL or IHL should prevail, depends on the epistemic and volitional context of decision-making during the conduct of hostilities. The paper raises the question of whether IHL or IHRL should govern the conduct of hostilities for six types of non-international and international armed conflicts (NIACs and IACs). One of two characteristics distinguishes them from confrontations that do not count as armed conflicts: either the intensity of hostilities or a state’s (non-authorised) use of armed force outside its own territory. The paper analyses how the intensity and territorial scope of hostilities affect the epistemic and volitional context of decision-making on the battlefield and thereby IHRL’s and IHL’s respective ability to discharge the law’s two moral tasks. This analysis leads to the following proposal for a moral division of labour between IHRL and IHL: As the morally prima facie better law IHRL should govern the conduct of hostilities in law enforcement operations. In non-protracted IACs, ‘symmetrical IHRL’ – applied as if both parties had a lawful aim - should govern the permissibility of killing. Above the threshold of intensity at which hostilities count as protracted, hence during NIACs and protracted IACs, we face a choice between affording individuals a guide towards what is typically the course of action that conforms to their moral obligations (task one) and reducing individual rights violations in the outcome of warfare (task two). ‘Symmetrical IHRL’ better discharges task one; IHL better discharges task two. It depends on the relative moral costs of prioritizing one task over the other, which body of law should prevail. I argue that IHL currently offers a better, but far from morally ideal law for governing the permissibility of killing during the conduct of hostilities, once these hostilities reach the crucial threshold of being protracted. From a moral point of view, IHL should therefore displace IHRL and govern, on its own, the conduct of hostilities during NIACs and protracted IACs.

A House of Our Own: Diaspora Politics Among Koreans in the Russian Far East

This paper discusses the newly formed public space that exists for Koreans in the Russian Far East (RFE). It shows that the notion of diaspora is a fluctuating political subjectivity in Russia that is largely defined and regulated by the state. It examines the changes that have taken place in the local politics surrounding the Korean diaspora in the RFE resulting from their experience of the Stalinist purge and their return from Central Asia during the post-socialist transition. Central to this research is a building called Koreiskii Dom and the conflicts surrounding its ownership and use. By examining these conflicts, this paper explores how the focus of community for Russian Koreans has shifted from national rehabilitation to cultural recognition influenced by the increasing prominence of businessmen in local politics, and the substantive demands made on public spaces for practices of cultural reconsolidation.

CORPORATE HUMAN RIGHTS ACCOUNTABILITY: THE OBJECTIONS OF WESTERN GOVERNMENTS TO THE ALIEN TORT STATUTE

AbstractThe almost two decade-long bonanza of civil litigation concerning gross human rights violations committed by corporations under the US Alien Tort Statute 1789 was scaled back by the US Supreme Court in Kiobel v Royal Dutch Petroleum in April 2013. The court restricted the territorial reach of human rights claims against transnational corporations by holding that the presumption against extra-territoriality applied to the Act. Thus Shell, the Dutch/British defendant, and the role it played in the brutal suppression by the Nigerian military of the Ogoni peoples' protest movement against the environmental devastation caused by oil exploration, lay outside the territorial scope of the Act. Legal accountability must lie in a State with a stronger connection with the dispute. While this article briefly engages with the Supreme Court decision, its main focus is on the attitude of Western governments to the corporate human rights litigation under the ATS as articulated in their amicus briefs. In these briefs they objected to the statute's excessive extraterritoriality and horizontal application of human rights to artificial non-State actors. In these two respects corporate ATS litigation created significant inroads into the conventional State-centric approach to human rights and thus provided an opportunity for more effective human rights enjoyment. This article tests the validity of the objections of Western governments to corporate human rights obligations under the ATS against the norms of public international law and against the substantive demands arising out of the shortfalls of the international human rights enforcement.

Justice, Institutions, and Luck: The Site, Ground, and Scope of Equality, by Kok-Chor Tan

In this illuminating, and commendably readable, book Kok-Chor Tan defends global, institutional luck egalitarianism. This view comprises three claims: Global, institutional luck egalitarianism differs: (i) From trans-institutionalist luck egalitarianism, which holds that principles of distributive justice apply to individuals’ actions in the ‘thick of daily life’ also; (ii) from democratic egalitarianism which says the ground of whatever degree of distributive equality justice requires is the ideal of equal, democratic citizenship; and (iii) From statist luck egalitarianism, which implies that the scope of principles of distributive justice stops at state borders. These issues of contention between Tan and other egalitarians are centrally located in the discussion of distributive justice over the last twenty years. The first of the book’s three parts defends institutionalism. According to Tan, it is reasonable given value pluralism. Individuals are committed to ends that are not defined by justice, and the value of their pursuit of these ends is one value along with the value of justice. Institutionalism reconciles these ‘two potentially competing demands … persons have the duty to establish and support just institutions, but within the rules of these institutions persons may freely pursue their ends’ (p. 28). This raises two questions. First, suppose one holds that justice requires that the worst-off be made as well off as possible. Suppose, moreover, that this requires, Cohen-style, that people seek to benefit the worse off in their everyday life. It is unclear why the institutional approach is not then simply a way of weighing justice against a competing, non-justice value, that is, the value of personal pursuit of ends. Admittedly, for Tan, the goal of the institutional approach is not ‘to maximize social equality … Its purpose is to make it possible for persons to live meaningful and worthwhile separate lives consistent with the demands of social justice given the assumption of value pluralism’ (p. 34). However, a response to the present question that appeals to this fact assumes that the substantive demands of social justice cannot be determined independently of which institutions can accommodate individuals’ pursuit of their ends. But some luck egalitarian value pluralists reject this assumption, and it would have been good to know more about Tan’s reasons for rejecting their view.

Still Seeking Recognition: Mapuche Demands, State Violence, and Discrimination in Democratic Chile

As recent research demonstrates that recognition-based reforms have not addressed many of the substantive demands of indigenous movements, many scholars claim that the movements have moved beyond recognition to focus now on the effects of neoliberal capitalism and material claims. However, setting aside formal recognition of indigenous peoples as a focus of analytic concern may have the unintended effect of drawing attention away from two issues: first, recognition continues to be a pertinent concern for some indigenous movements; and second, recognition and redistribution are understood by many indigenous people as inherently linked. Our analysis focuses on the case of the Mapuche in Chile, showing that they are not ‘after’ recognition or redistribution; their ongoing struggle for justice entails demands that lie at the intersection of the two. The import as well as the contested character of recognition can be seen in state policy, the Mapuche’s own demands, local elites’ narratives of exclusion, and the transborder goals of the movement. We argue that combating the ongoing harms faced by indigenous peoples requires developing an understanding of recognition and redistribution that views them as inherently linked rather than as different types of claims.

Walk together children with no wasted steps: community-academic partnering for equal power in NIH proposal development.

Community-based participatory research (CBPR) approaches equitably involve community members and researchers throughout the research process. A developing literature examines problems in CBPR partnerships, but less is written about community groups using CBPR to access university resources to address community-prioritized health concerns. We sought to examine issues in two stages of a National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded CBPR partnership: (1) joint proposal preparation, and (2) grant administration. We used a case study approach to analyze data (partner dialogs, meeting notes, interviews, and press coverage) from a longstanding community-academic partnership. The partnership received NIH Partners in Research Program funding. During joint proposal preparation, issues included (1) learning to practice operating principles, such as "talking in ways that all people can understand," (2) streamlining proposal design to facilitate communication with community members, and (3) addressing inequities inherent in community-academic budget sharing. During the administration phase, issues included (1) community partner struggles with administrative requirements, (2) inequities in indirect cost (IDC) allocations, and (3) the impact of a natural disaster. Separately funded CBPR grants can contribute to community partner development, but make substantive demands on small, grassroots community organizations. Funders should consider taking more responsibility in developing community resources and infrastructure to ensure that grassroots community groups have the power to be equal partners. More accurate accounting of costs and benefits of CBPR to vulnerable communities should be in place to ensure communities receive adequate return on the time they invest in partnering with universities.

Photosynthetic and respiratory changes in leaves of poplar elicited by rust infection

Poplars are challenged by a wide range of pathogens during their lifespan, and have an innate immunity system that activates defence responses to restrict pathogen growth. Large-scale expression studies of poplar-rust interactions have shown concerted transcriptional changes during defence responses, as in other plant pathosystems. Detailed analysis of expression profiles of metabolic pathways in these studies indicates that photosynthesis and respiration are also important components of the poplar response to rust infection. This is consistent with our current understanding of plant pathogen interactions as defence responses impose substantive demands for resources and energy that are met by reorganization of primary metabolism. This review applies the results of poplar transcriptome analyses to current research describing how plants divert energy from plant primary metabolism for resistance mechanisms.

Regional Perspectives and Domestic Imperatives

The Taiwan Strait dilemma is usually posed as a clash between unification and independence. However, few Taiwanese support either of these options. Instead, about 90% of Taiwan residents want to maintain the status quo. Why do so many Taiwanese prefer to delay resolution of the island's status? Can efforts to find a resolution accommodate their substantive demands? A unification model that allowed Taiwan to retain its political autonomy and international personality could win the support of a majority of Taiwanese. If Taiwanese suspect Beijing's goal is to establish political control in Taiwan, peaceful unification is unlikely.

Social Work Management in Emerging Health Care Systems

An overview of the health care industry's trend toward multihealth systems is presented and specific adaptive strategies for social work managers in health care are suggested. The challenges to social work leaders during this transition from largely free-standing, privately owned health care institutions to corporately owned, horizontally and vertically integrated delivery systems are discussed in terms of identity, style, and substance. Directors of social work departments in multihealth corporations will need to resolve issues of institutional versus corporate identity as well as those of corporate versus professional identity. A multioptional management style that incorporates networking and political expertise should be cultivated. Substantive demands in the areas of management information systems, productivity, quality assurance, and budgeting also must be addressed. The emergence of multihealth systems poses major challenges and unique opportunities to the social work profession. Awareness of managerial strategies and critical content areas can help social work leaders enhance the role and contribution of social work in these exciting and complex health care delivery systems.