Democratization and the Diffusion of Shari'a Law: Comparative Insights from Indonesia

The democratization of politics has been accompanied by a rise of Islamic laws in many Muslim-majority countries. Despite a growing interest in the phenomenon, the Islamization of politics in democratizing Muslim-majority countries is rarely understood as a process that unfolds across space and time. Based on an original dataset established during years of field research in Indonesia, this article analyzes the spread of shari’a regulations across the world’s largest Muslim-majority democracy since 1998. The article shows that shari’a regulations in Indonesia diffused unevenly across space and time. Explanations put forward in the literature on the diffusion of morality policies in other countries such as geographic proximity, institutions, intergovernmental relations and economic conditions did not explain the patterns in the diffusion of shari’a regulations in Indonesia well. Instead, shari’a regulations in Indonesia were most likely to spread across jurisdictions where local Islamist groups situated outside the party system had an established presence. In short, the Islamization of politics was highly contingent on local conditions. Future research will need to pay more attention to local Islamist activists and networks situated outside formal politics as potential causes for the diffusion of shari’a law in democratizing Muslim-majority countries

Оценка надежности высоконадежных систем с учетом ЗИП

Предложены приближенные верхние и нижние оценки коэффициента готовности высоконадежной восстанавливаемой системы со структурной избыточностью. Полученные расчетные соотношения могут использоваться для оценки надежности высоконадежных систем с учетом различных стратегий пополнения ЗИП

Introducing personalised self-management to support physical activity in elderly: a case study.

Our population is aging, leading to great challenges in healthcare. A transformation to a pro-active system, support through technology, and self-management are regularly mentioned as potential solutions. In this context, the self-management program LIFE (“living independently functioning elderly”) was started to promote physical activity in seniors. A technology-supported personalized self-management program was developed. The aim of the program is to contribute to a physically active life style. LIFE offers various modules to elderly who are at risk of functional decline. These modules contain personalized advice, recommendations and suggestions how seniors can develop or maintain a healthy behaviour and prevent functional deterioration. To restrict functional decline, activities of the program are tailored to the needs of the user. The activities are delivered preventive instead of after the functional decline has been progressed to the extent that elderly have to be institutionalised. A main aspect of the concept of the program is that elderly can choose between the various provided services, making their own decisions. LIFE offers this in an easily implementable self-management program. In this paper, the program is presented, the care pathway of operationalizing the program is described, and evaluation results are discussed. As such, this paper demonstrates the feasibility of introducing an ict-mediated self-management program in elderly care. (aut. ref.

The bifurcated trajectory of nation formation in Kurdistan: Democratic confederalism, nationalism, and the crisis of capitalist modernity

Sunca Y. The bifurcated trajectory of nation formation in Kurdistan: Democratic confederalism, nationalism, and the crisis of capitalist modernity. Nations and Nationalism. 2020;26(4):979-993.Two different sociopolitical projects of nation formation seem to be in praxis in Kurdistan simultaneously: The Kurdistan Region of Iraq aspires to be an independent nation-state, while the movement led by the Kurdistan Workers' Party advocates a democratic confederal project. How did this bifurcation arise? By putting Abdullah ocalan's interpretation of nationalism and capitalist modernity in dialogue with existing theories of nationalism, I argue that this bifurcation resulted from a difference in scaling the root causes of the Kurdish question: The former project imagines emancipation through state formation within capitalist modernity, while the latter problematises capitalist modernity itself. The modular and hegemonic expansion of nationalism and the nation-state along with capitalist modernity has been countered in Mesopotamia by politico-social multiplicity. This has given rise to the particular structural dynamics that underlie a "recurring failure" in state formation. The bifurcation in question here has emerged interactively against this background