The Work of Art in the Age of Digital Fragility

Impermanence and fragility have become the defining conditions of the digital age. Technologies that were ubiquitous barely a decade ago, like floppy disks, now look like archaeological relics. It takes only a few years, if not months, before software environments are replaced by newer versions, often with limited backward compatibility. At the same time, digital technologies rely on hardware that has short life expectancy. The radical obsolescence of this new digital register raises a number of important questions. How are we going to prevent the fragile memories of contemporary digital cultures from receding into oblivion? This essay answers this question by looking at one of the institutions in which the problems associated with digital fragility are most especially felt, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), and by exploring the ontological displacements that digital objects are operating at the heart of the museum

Le FORUM, Vol. 39 No. 3

https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/francoamericain_forum/1046/thumbnail.jp

"The authority of the steam" : power dynamics of digital production in the Bitcoin blockchain

This thesis offers a critical investigation of the Bitcoin currency and the operation of its technical structure, i.e. blockchain technology. The main objective of the research is to identify and describe the specific power dynamics performed by and through this digital phenomenon. “Power dynamics” are framed in this work largely in terms of authority and sovereignty. To structure an exploration of such dynamics, the narrative is overarched by four different notions of “utopia” —as paradox, ideal, no-place, and imagined governance— that address the following main questions always underpinned by the general inquiry on power: What is the Bitcoin Blockchain? Where is it located? How are power relations performed in it? And how are power relations modified in relation with previous institutional systems? The thesis addresses distinct notions of authority in Bitcoin through the observation of its historical, spatial, and organizational characteristics. It maps the techno-political emergence of the blockchain system, the geographical distribution of Bitcoin’s infrastructural network, and the strategies for governance involved in its development as software. Based on the observation of these settings, this thesis argues that Bitcoin posits a restructuration of power dynamics through the automation of code, in particular, through its process of production. In order to develop this restructuration, the power dynamics of the Bitcoin blockchain are weighted against authority models of the state’s institutions. The thesis builds upon existing political theories of Empire (Hardt and Negri), protocol (Galloway), and the Stack (Bratton) to develop a critical account of Bitcoin’s power dynamics. The work sits in between the disciplines of Media Theory, Software Studies, Political Theory, and Digital Methods, and makes use of qualitative and quantitative methods to empirically support the former argument

The politics of Burden-Sharing : three essays on NATO, Canada, and fair-share

La présente thèse analyse les premiers débats liés au partage de fardeau au sein de l’Organisation du Traité de l’Atlantique Nord (OTAN) durant ses années formatives. En privilégiant une approche qualitative, la thèse vise à démontrer que la racine normative du problème du partage de fardeau otanien est d’ordre politique. À l’inverse des approches systémiques, rationalistes et hypothético-déductives dominantes dans le domaine, cette thèse adresse les dimensions politique, éthique et pratique du partage de fardeau au niveau des élites nationales. Cette étude conceptuelle axée sur la méthode et orientée vers les politiques entreprend comme stratégie de recherche une interprétation qualitative dont le fondement est à la fois politique, normatif et historique. L’analyse contextuelle exhaustive des matériaux d’archives reconstruit la manière dont les acteurs ont eux-mêmes compris et cadré le problème du partage de fardeau au sein de l’OTAN dans leurs discours à la fois publics et privés. Aussi, cette étude mobilise les usages de l’éthique normative en tant qu’outils analytiques afin de saisir les différentes stratégies de contributions nationales, et d’interpréter le problème du partage de fardeau à l’aune du concept de justice distributive. The Politics of Burden-Sharing consiste en trois différents articles reliés entre eux par le thème du partage de fardeau dans l’OTAN. Alors qu’elle se concentre sur le rôle des élites politiques, bureaucratiques et militaires sous le gouvernement de St-Laurent (1948-1957) au Canada, la thèse relie ce débat à la situation suivant le sommet de l’OTAN de 2014 afin d’enrichir les récentes polémiques d’équité au sein de l’Alliance.This dissertation analyses the original burden-sharing debates in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) during its formative years. In calling for a qualitative approach to studying NATO burden-sharing, this dissertation demonstrates that the NATO burden-sharing problem was normatively rooted in politics. In contrast to the dominant systemic, rationalist, and hypothetical-deductive studies, this dissertation explores the political, ethical, and practical dimension of burden-sharing at the level of national leaders. This conceptual, method-driven, and policy-oriented dissertation uses interpretation as its research strategy and develops a qualitative approach with a political, normative, and historical focus of inquiry. The in-depth and context-sensitive analysis of archival materials reconstructs how the practitioners themselves made sense of, and discursively framed, the NATO burden-sharing problem in both their public and private discourse. Furthermore, this doctoral research employs the traditions of normative ethics as analytical tools to better grasp national contribution strategies and to interpret the burden-sharing problem through the lenses of distributive justice. The Politics of Burden-Sharing consists of three separate articles connected through the common theme of NATO burden-sharing. While focusing primarily on the Canadian political, bureaucratic, and senior military leaders under the St. Laurent Premiership (1948-1957), the dissertation links these traditional burden-sharing debates with the contemporary post-2014 NATO discussions to draw some lessons learned for a fairer burden-sharing within the Alliance

Selling Sex in the City

Selling Sex in the City offers a worldwide analysis of prostitution that takes a long historical approach which covers a time period from 1600 to the 2000s. The overviews in this volume examine sex work in more than twenty notorious “sin cities” around the world, ranging from Sydney to Singapore and from Casablanca to Chicago. Situated within a comparative framework of local developments, the book takes up themes such as labour relations, coercion, agency, gender, and living and working conditions. Selling Sex in the City thus reveals how prostitution and societal reactions to the trade have been influenced by colonization, industrialization, urbanization, the rise of nation states, imperialism, and war, as well as by revolutions in politics, transport, and communication. Contributors are: Pascale Absi, Dlila Amir, Deborah Bernstein, Francesca Biancani, Thaddeus Gregory Blanchette, Amalia L. Cabezas, Susan P. Conner, Satarupa Dasgupta, Mfon Umoren Ekpootu, Raelene Frances, Pamela Fuentes, Sue Gronewold, Hanan Hammad, Shawna Herzog, Philippa Hetherington, Nicole Keusch, Liat Kozma, Julia Laite, Nomi Levenkron, Mary Linehan, Maja Mechant, Fernanda Nuñez, Marion Pluskota, Cristiana Schettini, Hila Shamir, Yvonne Svanström, Isabelle Tracol-Huynh, Michela Turno, Elise van Nederveen Meerkerk, and Mark David Wyers

From Aspiration to Actuality under Xi Jinping: Reinterpreting the Outcome-driven Debate towards the Role of Historical Materialism in China’s Rise, 1949–2021

DOES THE REVOLUTIONARY IDEOLOGY of socialist rising powers influence their rise to power? If so, how, when, and why? The literature on rising powers works on a set of historical assumptions which, when applied to China’s rise, predict an inevitable rise to power. In this literature, a new world order is imagined with China as a new kind of leading great power. For some, this development represents the correction of imperial China’s historical position in the world. This thesis disagrees with this outcome-based analytical approach to China’s rise. It instead posits another argument: in understanding the dynamics of a socialist rising power, the role of ideology matters more than the rising power literature suggests. In the Chinese context, this means bringing the Communist Party of China back into the story of its rise. This Party- state builds on a genuine belief in historical materialism and a teleology of success which it, presumably, represents. Treating the Xi Jinping era (2012 to the present) as a pivotal moment, this thesis understands the Chinese Dream of Great Rejuvenation as promethean. While it fits within the Chinese tradition of organising China in its own image, as a political actor it is entirely new. China’s rise, then, becomes much more than simply ensuring the Party’s self- perpetuation of its political rule. It is a grand historical narrative which may only be understood, and problema

Le FORUM, Vol. 39 No. 1

https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/francoamericain_forum/1044/thumbnail.jp

Of law and land and the scope of Charter rights

L’application extraterritoriale de la Charte canadienne des droits et libertés soulève la question du rôle du principe de territorialité dans la détermination de l’étendue des droits constitutionnels. De façon plus générale, elle soulève la question du rapport entre territoire et droit. Cette thèse explore, dans un premier temps, les jalons de la méthodologie territorialiste en abordant les prémisses qui sous-tendent l’ascension du principe de territorialité comme paradigme juridique dominant. Les anomalies de ce paradigme sont par la suite présentées, de façon à illustrer un affaiblissement du principe de territorialité. Par la suite, l’auteure entreprend de déterminer le rôle du principe de territorialité dans l’établissement de l’espace occupé par la Charte canadienne des droits et libertés en situation d’extraterritorialité. Les développements jurisprudentiels récents attestent de la prédominance du paradigme territorial, mais de nombreuses difficultés d’application sont rencontrées. Après avoir testé la viabilité de ce paradigme, l’auteure entreprend de définir un nouveau cadre analytique permettant de répondre à la question de l’application de la Charte en situation d’extraterritorialité sans se référer à la position géographique du demandeur, ni à son appartenance à une certaine communauté politique pré-déterminée. Ce cadre repose sur une conceptualisation de la notion d’autorité étatique transcendant l’exercice d’un pouvoir coercitif de l’État fixé à l’intérieur de ses limites territoriales. Une autorité relationnelle, qui s’appuie sur l’idée que tout pouvoir étatique tire sa source de la Constitution et, conséquemment, doit être assujetti à son contrôle.This thesis is about the relationship between law and territory, and more particularly, about the relationship between the principle of territoriality and the scope of Charter rights. The author first introduces territoriality as dominant legal paradigm and analyses its underlying premises. The challenges that territoriality and methodological territorialism have recently faced are also examined. The purpose of the first part of this thesis is to show that the territorial paradigm is not immune to challenge, and to provide conceptual tools to get out of the “territorial trap”. The author then looks at how, and to what extent, territoriality currently shapes the scope of Charter rights. By analysing cases on point, the author concludes that although territoriality is, officially, the answer to the question of the scope of Charter rights, in practice, the principle does not provide sufficient guidance to the judiciary. The territorial principle’s normative weaknesses are added to its practical inability to determine the scope of Charter rights. In order to examine potential alternatives to the territorial principle, the author examines the parallel debate regarding the extraterritorial scope of American constitutional rights. American courts, rather than endorsing strict territoriaity, emphasize either the membership of the claimant (the subject of constitutional litigation), the limitations on state actions (the object of constitutional litigation), or pragmatic concerns in order to determine whether a constitutional protection applies in an extraterritorial context. The author then proceeds to examining how an alternative model could be developed in Canada in the context of extraterritorial Charter cases. She argues that the personal entitlement approach, when superimposed on the territorial paradigm, brings more injustice, not less, in that people can be sufficiently related to Canada to trigger a state action, but insufficiently connected to trigger Charter protection, hence creating a state of asymmetry. She also argues that territoriality, if understood in Westphalian terms, leads to the belief that a state action is not an action within the authority of the Canadian government if it is conducted outside of Canada, hence shielding these actions from constitutional srcutiny. The model the author advocates is based on a notion of relational authority and it seeks to emphasize not the place where a government act is performed, nor the identity of the persons subject to it, but the idea that any exercise of government power is potentially amenable to constitutional scrutiny

Does locating pets qualify as processing of personal data?

One noteworthy and unconventional form of data processing is accessing location information on an electronic collar worn by a pet. Technically, this kind of data collection is conducted within a mobile application operated on a mobile device. The collected location data closely connects to the location of the pet owner or another individual residing close to the pet. Therefore, the app developer operating the mobile application must comply with all relevant data protection legislation. The first part of this thesis explains, why a pet’s location qualifies as personal data, how this information is technically accessed, and which legal instruments regulate the use of this data. In addition, the first part addresses how the basic data protection principles and the obligation to acquire an individual’s consent create limitations regarding the use of the collected data. Furthermore, it is argued in the second part of this thesis that the real value of personal data to an enterprise is connected to the possibilities of third party data disclosure. In addition, it is argued that the European data protection rights, specifically the right to be forgotten and the right to data portability, significantly limit the app developer’s potential to economically benefit from the collected location data. In this regard, the second part also includes forming a model to transfer location data in a private corporate acquisition process. The main research method used in this thesis is problem-oriented legal dogmatics and the main legal context is the European data protection framework. The findings of this research are divided into two distinct arguments. Firstly, it is concluded that while rendering the collection of pets’ location data lawful, the app developer should not over-value an end user’s consent by considering it the sole sufficient basis to protect the fundamental rights and freedoms of the individual. Secondly, in the modern personal data economy, the app developer should treat personal information as a hybrid legal concept which effectively adapts itself to changing data protection situations. By including the end users to the data collection operations, the app developer als

Yves Congar, O.P.: Ecumenist of the Twentieth Century

While the name Yves Congar is recognizable by theologians and others there is a gap between recognition and familiarity: awareness that there was an Yves Congar is distinguished from knowing what he stood for and what he did. Eight years before Vatican II Congar was so distrusted by the Church that he was distanced from France for almost two years. Yet, several years after Vatican II he was elevated from priest to Cardinal in one day. Congar\u27s nouvelle théologie of ecumenism and unity, ressourcement and reform, changed the face of the Church to the world. In this, Congar had an impact on countless human beings. Many of his works, however, required translation from French, some for the first time. In this dissertation, Congar\u27s Principles of Ecumenism were systematically organized. Charges that the nouvelle théologie would lead back to Modernism were tested by inductive methodology, generally adapted at Vatican II over the more restrictive Neo-Scholastic deductive methodology. In this work, inductive methodology proved such claims to be meritless. The contrast between deductive and inductive methodology resulted in clashes between the Vatican Curia and the progressive majority of Council fathers. Appointed to one preparatory subcommission at Vatican II, Congar actually served on five. In his works, Congar was always situated historically. An examination of the pertinent language of Vatican II documents which were integrated with Alberigo\u27s extensive History of Vatican II, Congar\u27s Vatican II journals and his statements to interviewers, confirmed Yves Congar\u27s substantial contribution to Vatican II and his influence on nine of the sixteen Vatican documents. Congar contributed to the actualization of his Church and imbued it with a theology truly committed to ecumenism and unity, ressourcement and reform. Yves Congar was easily among the great theologians of Vatican II and one of the great theologians of the twentieth century