21,091 research outputs found
The place where curses are manufactured : four poets of the Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was unique among American wars. To pinpoint its uniqueness, it was necessary to look for a non-American voice that would enable me to articulate its distinctiveness and explore the American character as observed by an Asian. Takeshi Kaiko proved to be most helpful. From his novel, Into a Black Sun, I was able to establish a working pair of 'bookends' from which to approach the poetry of Walter McDonald, Bruce Weigl, Basil T. Paquet and Steve Mason. Chapter One is devoted to those seemingly mismatched 'bookends,' Walt Whitman and General William C. Westmoreland, and their respective anthropocentric and technocentric visions of progress and the peculiarly American concept of the "open road" as they manifest themselves in Vietnam. In Chapter, Two, I analyze the war poems of Walter McDonald. As a pilot, writing primarily about flying, his poetry manifests General Westmoreland's technocentric vision of the 'road' as determined by and manifest through technology. Chapter Three focuses on the poems of Bruce Weigl. The poems analyzed portray the literal and metaphorical descent from the technocentric, 'numbed' distance of aerial warfare to the world of ground warfare, and the initiation of a 'fucking new guy,' who discovers the contours of the self's interior through a set of experiences that lead from from aerial insertion into the jungle to the degradation of burning human
feces. Chapter Four, devoted to the thirteen poems of Basil T. Paquet, focuses on the continuation of the descent begun in Chapter Two. In his capacity as a medic, Paquet's entire body of poems details his quotidian tasks which entail tending the maimed, the mortally wounded and the dead. The final chapter deals with Steve Mason's JohnnY's Song, and his depiction of the plight of Vietnam veterans back in "The World" who are still trapped inside the interior landscape of their individual "ghettoes" of the soul created by their war-time experiences
The Right to Exist: The Position of Universal Basic Income in the Works of the Most Influential Contemporary Philosophers
Universal Basic Income has become a popular idea in the last few decades even though one can find its roots in the earlier centuries. In this thesis, I have examined the position of UBI in the works of the most influential contemporary philosophers. By connecting the idea of UBI with some certain concepts from different philosophers, I aimed to improve the overall understanding of UBI. I have mentioned the concepts such as "labor", "leisure", "idleness", "boredom", "poverty", "inequality", "distribution", "happiness", "power", "needs", "truth", "alienation", etc. I have used a literature methodology for my research. I have tried to read and relate the concept of UBI with the works of 10 philosophers: Arthur Schopenhauer, Karl Marx, William James, Bertrand Russell, Michel Foucault, John Rawls, Robert Nozick, Noam Chomsky, Slavoj Zizek, Peter Singer
Animating potential for intensities and becoming in writing: challenging discursively constructed structures and writing conventions in academia through the use of storying and other post qualitative inquiries
Written for everyone ever denied the opportunity of fulfilling their academic potential, this is ‘Chloe’s story’. Using composite selves, a phrase chosen to indicate multiplicities and movement, to story both the initial event leading to ‘Chloe’s’ immediate withdrawal from a Further Education college and an imaginary second chance to support her whilst at university, this Deleuzo-Guattarian (2015a) ‘assemblage’ of post qualitative inquiries offers challenge to discursively constructed structures and writing conventions in academia. Adopting a posthuman approach to theorising to shift attention towards affects and intensities always relationally in action in multiple ‘assemblages’, these inquiries aim to decentre individual ‘lecturer’ and ‘student’ identities. Illuminating movements and moments quivering with potential for change, then, hoping thereby to generate second chances for all, different approaches to writing are exemplified which trouble those academic constraints by fostering inquiry and speculation: moving away from ‘what is’ towards ‘what if’.
With the formatting of this thesis itself also always troubling the rigid Deleuzo-Guattarian (2015a) ‘segmentary lines’ structuring orthodox academic practice, imbricated in these inquiries are attempts to exemplify Manning’s (2015; 2016) ‘artfulness’ through shifts in thinking within and around an emerging PhD thesis. As writing resists organising, the verb thesisising comes into play to describe the processes involved in creating this always-moving thesis. Using ‘landing sites’ (Arakawa and Gins, 2009) as a landscaping device, freely creating emerging ‘lines of flight’ (Deleuze and Guattari, 2015a) so often denied to students forced to adhere to strict academic conventions, this ‘movement-moving’ (Manning, 2014) opens up opportunities for change as in Manning’s (2016) ‘research-creation’. Arguing for a moving away from writing-representing towards writing-inquiring, towards a writing ‘that does’ (Wyatt and Gale, 2018: 127), and toward writing as immanent doing, it is hoped to animate potential for intensities and becoming in writing, offering opportunities and glimmerings of the not-yet-known
The capacity of Scotland’s community right to buy legislation to contribute to ecological sustainability
The principal aim of this thesis is to contribute to sustainability debates. Specifically, this thesis aims to assess the capacity of the statutory community rights to buy – part of Scotland’s wider land reform framework – to contribute to ecological sustainability. ‘Ecological sustainability’, in context of this thesis, is the ultimate goal of humanity successfully living within the ecological limits of the Earth. This thesis outlines that these community rights to buy are defined and affected by both sustainable development and property law. Therefore, it seeks to interrogate the extent to which both of these aspects are influenced by anthropocentrism, rather than ecocentrism, and the impact this has on the capacity of the community rights to buy to contribute to the achievement of ecological sustainability.
Three central arguments are important in this regard: the spectrum between anthropocentric and ecocentric understandings of sustainable development; how imbuing responsibilities in ownership can help to bridge the gap between these two understandings; and how the structuring effect of property law resists placing responsibilities on ownership, thus impeding the ability to find a more appropriate point between anthropocentrism and ecocentrism. The cumulative effect of these themes on the capacity of the community rights to buy in Scotland to contribute to ecological sustainability will be the focus of the conclusion of this thesis.
Chapter 1 introduces and explores these three central themes. It will be argued that global interpretations of sustainable development have tended to adopt an anthropocentric approach within the spectrum of anthropocentrism/ecocentrism, and that this is mirrored in Scotland’s approach to sustainable development. The nature and culture dualism will then be explored as a potential explanation for the anthropocentric focus of both sustainable development and property law. This chapter will conclude that, whilst responsibilities can bridge the gap between anthropocentrism and ecocentrism, the structural effect of Western property law norms resists this, which is problematic for ecological sustainability.
Against this background, Chapter 2 is concerned with situating Scotland within these debates. It will assess the concentrated ownership patterns seen today, arguing that an emphasis on individual ownership rights has facilitated this; an example of property law’s structural effects eschewing responsibilities in ownership. These factors have anthropocentric outcomes. This chapter will argue that an increasing focus on responsibilities within land policy in Scotland shows an implicit recognition of the need to move beyond the existing rights paradigm. However, this is stymied by property law’s structural emphasis on rights. Against this background, the chapter will conclude with a brief outline of what the community rights to buy are, their significance, and their adoption of sustainable development, before engaging in a deeper evaluative exercise in Chapter 3.
Chapter 3 will assess what kind of sustainable development is being envisaged in the community right to buy legislation, and whether this is suitable for the achievement of ecological sustainability. It will be argued that, whilst showing signs of ecocentrism, given the structural effects of property law in Scotland and the concomitant focus on individual rights the community rights to buy find themselves at the anthropocentric end of the sustainable development spectrum identified in Chapter 1. However, the backdrop of Scottish land policy signifies a will to incorporate responsibilities, as well as rights, into ownership. In this regard, it is argued that the community rights to buy, in their incorporation of sustainable development, signify a form of incremental change when viewed in tandem with other policy in Scotland, which can better integrate ecocentric approaches and which could incite progress towards ecological sustainability
Coloniality and the Courtroom: Understanding Pre-trial Judicial Decision Making in Brazil
This thesis focuses on judicial decision making during custody hearings in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The impetus for the study is that while national and international protocols mandate the use of pre-trial detention only as a last resort, judges continue to detain people pre-trial in large numbers. Custody hearings were introduced in 2015, but the initiative has not produced the reduction in pre-trial detention that was hoped. This study aims to understand what informs judicial decision making at this stage. The research is approached through a decolonial lens to foreground legacies of colonialism, overlooked in mainstream criminological scholarship. This is an interview-based study, where key court actors (judges, prosecutors, and public defenders) and subject matter specialists were asked about influences on judicial decision making. Interview data is complemented by non-participatory observation of custody hearings. The research responds directly to Aliverti et al.'s (2021) call to ‘decolonize the criminal question’ by exposing and explaining how colonialism informs criminal justice practices. Answering the call in relation to judicial decision making, findings provide evidence that colonial-era assumptions, dynamics, and hierarchies were evident in the practice of custody hearings and continue to inform judges’ decisions, thus demonstrating the coloniality of justice. This study is significant for the new empirical data presented and theoretical innovation is also offered via the introduction of the ‘anticitizen’. The concept builds on Souza’s (2007) ‘subcitizen’ to account for the active pursuit of dangerous Others by judges casting themselves as crime fighters in a modern moral crusade. The findings point to the limited utility of human rights discourse – the normative approach to influencing judicial decision making around pre-trial detention – as a plurality of conceptualisations compete for dominance. This study has important implications for all actors aiming to reduce pre-trial detention in Brazil because unless underpinning colonial logics are addressed, every innovation risks becoming the next lei para inglês ver (law [just] for the English to see)
Towards a more just refuge regime: quotas, markets and a fair share
The international refugee regime is beset by two problems: Responsibility for refuge falls
disproportionately on a few states and many owed refuge do not get it. In this work, I explore
remedies to these problems. One is a quota distribution wherein states are distributed
responsibilities via allotment. Another is a marketized quota system wherein states are free to buy
and sell their allotments with others. I explore these in three parts. In Part 1, I develop the prime
principles upon which a just regime is built and with which alternatives can be adjudicated. The
first and most important principle – ‘Justice for Refugees’ – stipulates that a just regime provides
refuge for all who have a basic interest in it. The second principle – ‘Justice for States’ – stipulates
that a just distribution of refuge responsibilities among states is one that is capacity considerate. In
Part 2, I take up several vexing questions regarding the distribution of refuge responsibilities
among states in a collective effort. First, what is a state’s ‘fair share’? The answer requires the
determination of some logic – some metric – with which a distribution is determined. I argue that
one popular method in the political theory literature – a GDP-based distribution – is normatively
unsatisfactory. In its place, I posit several alternative metrics that are more attuned with the
principles of justice but absent in the political theory literature: GDP adjusted for Purchasing
Power Parity and the Human Development Index. I offer an exploration of both these. Second,
are states required to ‘take up the slack’ left by defaulting peers? Here, I argue that duties of help
remain intact in cases of partial compliance among states in the refuge regime, but that political
concerns may require that such duties be applied with caution. I submit that a market instrument
offers one practical solution to this problem, as well as other advantages. In Part 3, I take aim at
marketization and grapple with its many pitfalls: That marketization is commodifying, that it is
corrupting, and that it offers little advantage in providing quality protection for refugees. In
addition to these, I apply a framework of moral markets developed by Debra Satz. I argue that a
refuge market may satisfy Justice Among States, but that it is violative of the refugees’ welfare
interest in remaining free of degrading and discriminatory treatment
Hepatic and Endocrine Aspects of Heart Transplantation
End-organ dysfunction is a progression that can often develop in patients with end-stage heart failure. Hepatic abnormalities in advanced systolic heart failure may affect several aspects of the liver function. Hepatic function is dependent on age, nutrition, previous hepatic diseases, and drugs. The hepatic dysfunction can have metabolic, synthetic, and vascular consequences, which strongly influence the short- and long-term results of the transplantation. In this chapter, the diagnostic and treatment modalities of the transplanted patient will be discussed. On the other hand, endocrine abnormalities, particularly thyroid dysfunction, are also frequently detected in patients on the waiting list. Endocrine supplementation during donor management after brain death is crucial. Inappropriate management of central diabetes insipidus, hyperglycemia, or adrenal insufficiency can lead to circulatory failure and graft dysfunction during procurement. Thyroid dysfunction in donors and recipients is conversely discussed
A review of the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control Certificate of Need Program
This report evaluates the certificate of need program administered by the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control. The objectives for this audit were: Examine potential areas for reform of the certificate of need program ; Review the certificate of need process ; Review the role of staff in administering the certificate of need program ; Review COVID-19 pandemic related issue pertaining to the certificate of need program ; Review the role providers play in the certificate of need process
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