What do we do now? Examining civilian masculinity/ies in contemporary liberal civil-military relations

In contemporary Western, liberal democratic societies, the soldier is frequently regarded as “the best of us”, taking on the unlimited liability for the protection and betterment of the whole. In the context of volunteer militaries and distant conflicts, the construction of men (and the universalized masculine citizen) as “always-already” soldiers (or potential soldiers) poses a substantial obstacle to the identification or performance of “good” civilian masculinity – particularly during wartime. The theorization and articulation of a positive, substantive civilian masculinity, or masculinities, rather than one defined simply by an absence of military service and implication in the collective use of violence, is a central challenge of contemporary politics. As a means of illuminating the complex dynamics of this challenge, this article examines contemporary charitable practices of civilian support for the military, and corresponding constructions of masculinity, in the UK during the “war on terror”. In doing so, the article demonstrates the ways in which gendered “civilian anxiety”, through its connection to citizenship, comes to condition the political possibilities and subjectivities of all those who seek belonging in the liberal political community. The article concludes by arguing for the essentiality of a research programme oriented around “civilianness”, and civilian masculinity/ies

Do we measure what we get?

Performance measures shall enhance the performance of companies by directing the attention of decision makers towards the achievement of organizational goals. Therefore, goal congruence is regarded in literature as a major factor in the quality of such measures. As reality is affected by many variables, in practice one has tried to achieve a high degree of goal congruence by incorporating an increasing number of these variables into performance measures. However, a goal congruent measure does not lead automatically to superior decisions, because decision makers’ restricted cognitive abilities can counteract the intended effects. This paper addresses the interplay between goal congruence and complexity of performance measures considering cognitively-restricted decision makers. Two types of decision quality are derived which allow a differentiated view on the influence of this interplay on decision quality and learning. The simulation experiments based on this differentiation provide results which allow a critical reflection on costs and benefits of goal congruence and the assumptions regarding the goal congruence of incentive systems

Usable Security: Why Do We Need It? How Do We Get It?

Security experts frequently refer to people as “the weakest link in the chain” of system security. Famed hacker Kevin Mitnick revealed that he hardly ever cracked a password, because it “was easier to dupe people into revealing it” by employing a range of social engineering techniques. Often, such failures are attributed to users’ carelessness and ignorance. However, more enlightened researchers have pointed out that current security tools are simply too complex for many users, and they have made efforts to improve user interfaces to security tools. In this chapter, we aim to broaden the current perspective, focusing on the usability of security tools (or products) and the process of designing secure systems for the real-world context (the panorama) in which they have to operate. Here we demonstrate how current human factors knowledge and user-centered design principles can help security designers produce security solutions that are effective in practice

High-Energy Neutrino Astronomy: where do we stand, where do we go?

With the identification of a diffuse flux of astrophysical ("cosmic") neutrinos in the TeV-PeV energy range, IceCube has opened a new window to the Universe. However, the corresponding cosmic landscape is still uncharted: so far, the observed flux does not show any clear association with known source classes. In the present talk, I sketch the way from Baikal-NT200 to IceCube and summarize IceCube's recent astrophysics results. Finally, I describe the present projects to build even larger detectors: GVD in Lake Baikal, KM3NeT in the Mediterranean Sea and IceCube-Gen2 at the South Pole. These detectors will allow studying the high-energy neutrino sky in much more detail than the present arrays permit.Comment: Talk given at the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Baksan Laborator

Donor Retention: What Do We Know & What Can We Do About It?

Donor retention is key to a sustainable base of individual giving. What drives customers to stay, and what affects their behavior? This paper outlines the actions nonprofits can take to improve donor loyalty

What We Do When We Do What We Do and Why We Do It

But what exactly am I talking about when I speak of symmetry and asymmetry in law and ethics? It may be clear enough what those notions mean in geometry, but how are they to be understood in law, or for that matter in ethics, more generally? Let me start with symmetry- its meaning and the benefits of exploring it. Rather than try to define the term, however, I will offer what I think is a pretty self-explanatory example of the phenomenon as it arises in law and ethics. It is an example that has fascinated me for quite some time: the symmetry between the principles by which we dispense praise and those by which we dispense blame

How do we live? Understanding poverty in post-war Sri Lanka

While poverty in Sri Lanka's post war economy appears to be reducing, this does not give the whole picture, argues Anupama Ranawana, who claims that there is a wall of silence around the poverty and inequality experienced by many. To address this she writes, the government must not only consider more inclusive means of growth, but also deconstruct and decolonise neoliberal narratives of hope