Hannah Arendt

Peer reviewe

Arendt and political realism: towards a realist account of political judgement

This article argues that Hannah Arendt’s thought can offer significant insights on political judgement for realism in political theory. We identify a realist position which emphasises the need to account for how humans judge politically, contra moralist tendencies to limit its exercise to rational standards, but which fails to provide a sufficient conception of its structure and potential. Limited appeals to political judgement render the realist defence of the political elusive, and compromise the endeavour to offer a meaningful alternative to the moralist tendency to displace politics. The potential and limitations of realist discussions on judgement are made visible in relation to proto-realists Judith Shklar and Isaiah Berlin. In seeking to enrich the realist conception of the political, the article introduces the displacement critique found in the neglected Arendtian ‘realism’. It also provides the foundations for a distinctly realist account of political judgement which, we argue, requires elaboration along two dimensions: the social coding of political judgement and the political capacities that help judgement build a suitable political sphere

The international origins of Hannah Arendt’s historical method

This article examines the multiple ways in which Hannah Arendt’s thought arose historically and in international context, but also how we might think about history and theory in new ways with Arendt. It is commonplace to situate Arendt’s political and historical thought as a response to totalitarianism. However, far less attention has been paid to the significance of other specifically and irreducibly international experiences and events. Virtually all of her singular contributions to political and international thought were influenced by her lived experiences of and historical reflections on statelessness and exile, imperialism, transnational totalitarianism, world wars, the nuclear revolution, the founding of Israel, war crimes trials, and the war in Vietnam. Yet we currently lack a comprehensive reconstruction of the extent to which Arendt’s thought was shaped by the fact of political multiplicity, that there are not one but many polities existing on earth and inhabiting the world. This neglect is surprising in light of the significant ‘international turn’ in the history of thought and intellectual history; the growing interest in Arendt’s thought within international theory; and, above all, Arendt’s own unwavering commitment to plurality not simply as a characteristic of individuals but as an essential and intrinsically valuable effect of distinct territorial entities. The article examines the historical and international context of Arendt’s historical method, including her critique of process- and development-oriented histories that remain current in different social science fields, setting out and evaluating her alternative approach to historical writing

Angular dependent vortex pinning mechanisms in YBCO coated conductors and thin films

We present a comparative study of the angular dependent critical current density in YBa2Cu3O7 films deposited on IBAD MgO and on single crystal MgO and SrTiO3 substrates. We identify three angular regimes where pinning is dominated by different types of correlated and uncorrelated defects. We show that those regimes are present in all cases, indicating that the pinning mechanisms are the same, but their extension and characteristics are sample dependent, reflecting the quantitative differences in texture and defect density. In particular, the more defective nature of the films on IBAD turns into an advantage as it results in stronger vortex pinning, demonstrating that the critical current density of the films on single crystals is not an upper limit for the performance of the IBAD coated conductors.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figures. Submitted to AP

Children, family and the state : revisiting public and private realms

The state is often viewed as part of the impersonal public sphere in opposition to the private family as a locus of warmth and intimacy. In recent years this modernist dichotomy has been challenged by theoretical and institutional trends which have altered the relationship between state and family. This paper explores changes to both elements of the dichotomy that challenge this relationship: a more fragmented family structure and more individualised and networked support for children. It will also examine two new elements that further disrupt any clear mapping between state/family and public/private dichotomies: the third party role of the child in family/state affairs and children's application of virtual technology that locates the private within new cultural and social spaces. The paper concludes by examining the rise of the 'individual child' hitherto hidden within the family/state dichotomy and the implications this has for intergenerational relations at personal and institutional levels

Practice-Focused, Constructivist Grounded Theory Methodology In Higher Education Leadership Research

A growing body of education research considers practices, however there is less focus on a methodology that enables practical analysis of practices. Use of practice theory is growing, particularly in work and organisational studies, but practice focused studies more frequently address theoretical than methodological agenda. This chapter proposes a practice-focused, constructivist grounded theory methodology as one approach which can address this gap. After first considering the ways in which, separately and in combination, practice-theory and constructivist grounded theory can support higher education leadership and management research, the chapter considers implementation of this methodology by drawing on a study into the practice of authority in higher education leadership. It concludes by considering some implications for the ways in which practices can be understood and the affordances and limitations of this methodology.Peer reviewe

Well-Posedness and Symmetries of Strongly Coupled Network Equations

We consider a diffusion process on the edges of a finite network and allow for feedback effects between different, possibly non-adjacent edges. This generalizes the setting that is common in the literature, where the only considered interactions take place at the boundary, i. e., in the nodes of the network. We discuss well-posedness of the associated initial value problem as well as contractivity and positivity properties of its solutions. Finally, we discuss qualitative properties that can be formulated in terms of invariance of linear subspaces of the state space, i. e., of symmetries of the associated physical system. Applications to a neurobiological model as well as to a system of linear Schroedinger equations on a quantum graph are discussed.Comment: 25 pages. Corrected typos and minor change

Itch sensitization?:A systematic review of studies using quantitative sensory testing in patients with chronic itch

As well established for patients with chronic pain, patients suffering from chronic itch also exhibit signs of peripheral and central sensitization. This has been linked to parallel neuroplastic sensitization processes. However, for chronic itch, sensitization has not yet been systematically assessed, studied, and hence validated. This review (Prospero CRD42016043002) summarizes and meta-analytically evaluates whether sensory aberrations including sensitization for itch occur in chronic itch. Databases PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Library were searched for studies investigating somatosensory sensitivity assessment by quantitative sensory testing stimuli, including experimental cutaneous chemical pruritic provocations, in patients with chronic itch from skin/neurological conditions and compared with healthy controls. Outcomes were extracted for lesional and nonlesional skin, and risk of biases were assessed. Meta-analyses were performed when sufficient quantitative data were available. Of 4667 identified articles, 46 were included and 25 were eligible for meta-analyses. Patients (66% atopic dermatitis [AD]) were found more sensitive than the controls to histamine-evoked itch in lesional skin (standardized mean difference [SMD]: 0.66 confidence interval [CI]: 0.16-1.15), but not nonlesionally (SMD: −0.26 [CI: −0.58 to 0.06]). Cowhage did not evoke more itch in nonlesional skin of patients as compared to the controls (SMD: 0.38 [CI: −0.04 to 0.81]). For numerous other chemical provocations as well as for mechanical, thermal, and electrical stimulation paradigms, results were ambiguous or based on few studies. Patients with chronic itch are only robustly sensitized to various chemical pruritic stimuli when applied lesionally. More studies on somatosensory aberrations in chronic itch conditions other than AD are needed to establish whether sensitization is robustly present across chronic itch conditions.Health and self-regulatio