Nationality swapping in the Olympic field: towards the marketization of citizenship?

Nationality swapping in sports is commonly assumed to be a rapidly expanding practice that is indicative of the marketization of citizenship. Sports are said to have become wholesale markets in which talent is being traded for citizenship. In this article, we seek to empirically explore such claims by analysing 167 athletes who have competed for two different countries in the Summer Olympic Games. It seems that most switches occurred after the 1990s. Then, following a citizenship as a claims-making approach, we introduce the work of Bourdieu so as to connect citizenship as both legal status and practice with normative claims. The analysis reveals that the practice of nationality switching is shaped by structural conditions of the Olympic field. First, a complex realm of citizenship laws and regulations produces conditions under which athletes make legitimate claims to citizenship. Second, through a mechanism of reverberative causation, prior migrations are often echoed in contemporary nationality swapping. Only a limited number of athletes acquired citizenship via the explicit market principle we call jus talenti. Claiming that instrumental nationality swapping is indicative of the marketization of citizenship obscures the complex interplay between structures of and practices within the Olympic field

Racism and anti-racism in Europe: a critical analysis of concepts and frameworks

The targets and expressions of racism vary across Europe. This article discusses the relevance of different descriptions and analyses of racism despite the different terms used in different countries such as ‘ethnic minority’, ‘foreigner’ or ‘black’ and different interpretations of which differences matter. It shows the significance of a cross-national European perspective on racism. There are important convergences across European countries in the discourses and practices of racism, particularly the distinction between ‘useful’ and ‘abusive’ migrants. A cross-European perspective can be an important inspiration for anti-racist struggles

Lessen van de coronacrisis voor het sociaal domein: van impact naar transformatie

The politics and administration of institutional chang

Crime among irregular immigrants and the influence of internal border control

Both the number of crime suspects without legal status and the number of irregular or undocumented immigrants held in detention facilities increased substantially in theNetherlands between 1997 and 2003. In this period, theDutch state increasingly attempted to exclude irregular immigrants from the formal labour market and public provisions. At the same time the registered crime among irregular migrants rose. The 'marginalisation thesis' asserts that a larger number of migrants have become involved in crime in response to a decrease in conventional life chances. Using police and administrative data, the present study takes four alternative interpretations into consideration based on: 1) reclassification of immigrant statuses by the state and redefinition of the law, 2) criminal migration and crossborder crime, 3) changes in policing, and 4) demographic changes. A combination of factors is found to have caused the rise in crime, but the marginalisation thesis still accounts for at least 28%. These findings accentuate the need for a more thorough discussion on the intended and unintended consequences of border control for immigrant crime

Supramolecular materials: molecular packing of tetranitrotetrapropoxycalix[4]arene in highly stable films with second-order nonlinear optical properties

Highly stable films of tetranitrotetrapropoxycalix[4]arene (9) with second-order nonlinear optical (NLO) properties and a noncentrosymmetric structure were obtained by a novel crystallization process at 130-140 degrees C in a de electric field. The packing of 9 in these films was elucidated by a combination of X-ray diffraction, angle-dependent second- harmonic generation, and scanning force microscopy (SFM). The experimental results agree well with solid-state molecular dynamics calculations for these films. No crystalline phase was observed for nitrocalix[4]arene derivatives with longer or branched alkyl chains; this explains the limited NLO stability of films of these calixarenes. Scanning force microscopy o­n the aligned films of 9 showed two distinct surface lattice structures: a rectangular lattice (a = 9.3, b = 11.7 Angstrom) and a pseudohexagonal lattice (d approximate to 11.4 Angstrom). The combination of these data with the interlayer distance of 8.9 Angstrom (X-ray diffraction) allowed the packing of molecules of 9 in these structures to be fully elucidated at the molecular level

Methodological Note

AbstractThe second part of the book will present the results of an empirical study of the experience of Ecuadorian irregular migrants in the cities of Amsterdam and Madrid. While the general overview of the methodological conceptualization that is the backbone of the whole research work has already been outlined in the introduction, in this brief chapter the focus will be centred on the specific methodological issues concerning the empirical study