20 research outputs found

    Bioscience and the Good Life

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    This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. The field of biotechnology has provided us with radical revisions and reappraisals of the nature and possibilities of our biological existence. Yet beyond its immediate utility, does a life that is healthier, longer, or freer from disease make us 'better' or more moral people? Bioscience and the Good Life explores the complex relationship between modern biosciences and human flourishing, their sympathies and schisms, and the instances of their reconciliation. Here cognitive enhancement, longevity, and the spectacle of excellence in sports, are examined within the context of what constitutes a life well lived. Framing biotechnological innovation in the discourse of duty and ethics, Brassington advances an insightful and involved response to the existing debates between bioscientific optimists and pessimists, one which mediates their differences, and expands the traditional scope of their arguments

    Globalization and Labour in the Twenty-First Century

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    Globalisation has adversely affected working-class organisation and mobilisation; but international labour movement demobilisation is not necessarily an irreversible trend. Globalisation has prompted workers and their organisations to find new ways to mobilise. This book examines international labour movement opposition to globalisation. It chronicles and critically scrutinizes the emergence of distinctively new forms of labour movement organisation and mobilisation that constitute creative initiatives on the part of labour, which present capitalism with fresh challenges. The author identifies eight characteristics of globalisation that have proven problematic to workers and their organisations and describes and analyses how they have responded to these challenges since 1990 and especially in the past decade. In particular, it focuses attention on new types of labour movement organisation and mobilisation that are not simply defensive reactions but are offensive and innovative responses that compel corporations to behave more responsively and responsibly towards employees and society at large. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of globalisation, political economy, labour politics, economics, Marxism and sociology of work

    Becoming fully human in community: a critical theology of Ubuntu

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    This thesis argues that it is time for a critical theology of Ubuntu. The basic contours of the theology of Ubuntu represent a now well-worn path in Black and African theologies. It starts with a critique of the western conception of the human being, which is held to be fundamentally flawed, because of its emphasis on an individualism premised on Cartesian dualism and rationalism. A more authentic understanding of the human being is to be found in the African world-view, which stresses that persons are constituted through community. This is given particular expression through Ubuntu, which – according to the definition popularised by Desmond Tutu – means ‘a person is a person through other persons’. The contention of this thesis is that – while many elements of this analysis remain valid and are substantially true - Ubuntu has up to now been placed beyond critical gaze, with potentially damaging consequences. In particular, when reflecting on it theologically, we need to be cognisant of the following dangers within Ubuntu, as it has traditionally been defined: 1) Ubuntu equates community with moral virtue, 2) Ubuntu is premised on idealised notions of community and consensus, 3) the problem of personhood is unresolved in Ubuntu, and 4) Ubuntu can legitimise patriarchy and homophobia in the name of African culture. Furthermore, this thesis argues that it is neither epistemologically possible, nor theologically desirable, to attempt to construct an ‘essentially’ African conception of the human being. Moreover, claiming an idea as ‘African’ does not in and of itself constitute theological or moral legitimacy, any more than labelling it as ‘western’ makes it illegitimate per se. We must also recognise that western theological and philosophical anthropologies are far more complex and nuanced than the Cartesian straw man which is often deployed to represent them. For example, there are many voices within the western canon which converge in important respects with the theology of Ubuntu’s critique of Descartes. Other western traditions – and the thesis pays particular attention to existentialism in this regard – provide a necessary critique of Ubuntu in their emphasis on the freedom and agency of the human subject. Thus, our argument is that if it is understood as ‘a person is a person through other persons’, Ubuntu becomes open to the distortion of collectivism. Instead, it is better defined as ‘becoming fully human in community’, a definition which will enable us to develop a theology of Ubuntu that retains the relationality at its core, while giving expression to the agency and freedom at the heart of personhood. This will facilitate a theology of Ubuntu which is in continuity with the best traditions of African humanism. Such a theology of Ubuntu expresses the truth that personhood is characterised by subjectivity, as well as a way of being that is developed and fulfilled in community; it allows for a vision of communities characterised and indeed strengthened by difference, dissent, protest and challenge, rather than Community characterised by conformity and homogeneity. Such a reformulated theology of Ubuntu has much to offer Africa, and indeed the wider world

    New approaches in empirical animal ethics - using experimental philosophy to challenge intuitions regarding the moral status of nonhuman animals

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    There are few people who would claim they do not like animals or at least care about them in one way or another. Yet, human-animal relations are ambivalent, coined by partiality and ignorance, fascination and fear, scientific curiosity and abuse, closeness and carelessness. For this doctoral project moral intuitions regarding animals have been investigated with an innovative mixed methods approach. With the help of narratives from qualitative interviews, light is shed on complex personal attitudes and judgements, revealing individual intuitions regarding the animals’ moral status. Furthermore, three quantitative studies with the novel tools of experimental philosophy contribute pivotal insights into crucial factors for moral decisions and actions related to nonhuman animals. As a complementary approach, an empirical pilot study with toy figurines is introduced. The built scenarios present an entirely new angle on human-animal relations based on three-dimensional, non-verbal data. Empirical results are discussed against the background of different ethics concepts in animal philosophy with a special focus on different accounts of the animals’ moral status. Finally, application contexts for the results on the topical question how to deal with (different kinds of) nonhuman animals are shown

    Individual rights and property rights in human genetic databases: a common-law perspective

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    The chapter discusses the conflict between individual rights in genetic information and intellectual property rights arising from human genetic databases. It shows how Anglo-American jurisprudence has addressed the issue of individuals’ control over the use genetic information, in particular when this use exceeds the scope of the initial consent given by the individual with respect to their own genetic information and other medical data. The main conflicts arise when the information has been initially released for therapeutic or research aims and then is used for commercial purposes or to develop patented inventions. Despite severe criticism by legal scholars, Anglo-American jurisprudence tends to allow secondary uses of biological material and medical information even when they are incompatible with the initial consent, on the sole condition that no harm is done to the individual’s right to privacy. The chapter examines the legal mechanisms that have been adopted by government authorities to regulate the use of human genetic databases and to ensure that research on those databases is consistent with individuals’ expectation and public interest

    Smashing the crystal ball: post-structural insights associated with contemporary anarchism and the revision of blueprint utopianism

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    This thesis is an exploration of the images which define revolution's meaning. It suggests a possible shifting of emphasis from the scientific imaginary which centres on identifying the correct way to totalising revolution, towards a post-structuralist-anarchistic imaginary which privileges prefigurative radicalisations of social relations in the here and now. It looks specifically at how the field of post-structuralism intertwines with historically anarchist concepts to generate an horizon of social change animated by experimental and open-ended transformations. While the thesis offers positive characterisations of the types of contemporary movements, tactics and principles which embody the change from closed to open utopianism, it is chiefly a commentary on the role of theory in depicting the complexity of relations on the ground and the danger of proposing one totalising pathway from one state of society to another. It asks the reader to consider, given the achievements of movements and given the insights of post-structuralism, whether it is still worthwhile to proclaim certainty when sketching the possibilities for transcendence toward emancipation, an aim, which in itself, is always under construction. I engage this by firstly establishing a practical foundation for the critique of endpoints in theory by exploring the horizontal and prefigurative nature of a few autonomous movements today. Secondly I propose the contemporary theory of post-structuralist anarchism as concomitant with conclusions about transformation made in the first chapter. Finally I recommend a few initial concepts to start debate about the way forward from old objectivist models of transformation. The uncertainties of daily life, crumbling of economic powers and rapid pace of change in the twenty-first century have opened up fantastic spaces for innovative thought. Reconsidering old consensus around what constitutes a desirable image of revolution is of considerable importance given today's burgeoning bottom-up political energy and the global debate surrounding the possibilities for bottom-up revolutionisation of society. I submit that theories which portray stories of permanent, pure and natural end-points to revolution are deficient justifications for radical action

    Escape and "struggle": routes of women's liberation in Bihar

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    Making of a British 'underclass' in the 1990s : a geography of power/knowledge

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