Corruption in migration management: a network perspective

This paper explores the relation between networks as an emerging mode of public governance and corruption. Adopting the theoretical lens of actor-network theory (ANT), the paper investigates an Italian episode of corruption related to the awarding of government contracts for the management of the Mineo’s CARA, the Europe's largest reception centre for migrants. The analysis shows that a governance network may turn corruption itself into a network where abuse of power can proliferate thanks to the opacity resulting from the multiplicity of actors, interactions, and fragmentation characterizing the governance system

Charisma and the Clinic

Here we argue that ‘charisma’, a concept widely taken up within geography and the environmental humanities, is of utility to the social studies of medicine. Charisma, we suggest, draws attention to the affective dimensions of medical work, the ways in which these affective relations are structured, and the manner in which they are intimately tied to particular material-discursive contexts. The paper differentiates this notion of charisma from Weber’s analyses of the ‘charismatic leader’ before detailing three forms of charisma - ecological (which relates to the affordances an entity has), corporeal (related to bodily interaction) and aesthetic (pertaining to an entity’s initial visual and emotional impact). Drawing on interview data we then show how this framework can be used to understand the manner in which psychologists and neuroscientists have come to see and act on autism. We conclude the article by suggesting that examining charisma within healthcare settings furthers the concept, in particular by drawing attention to the discursive features of ecologies and the ‘non-innocence’ of charisma

Skp is a multivalent chaperone of outer membrane proteins

The trimeric chaperone Skp sequesters outer-membrane proteins (OMPs) within a hydrophobic cage, thereby preventing their aggregation during transport across the periplasm in Gram-negative bacteria. Here, we studied the interaction between Escherichia coli Skp and five OMPs of varying size. Investigations of the kinetics of OMP folding revealed that higher Skp/OMP ratios are required to prevent the folding of 16-stranded OMPs compared with their 8-stranded counterparts. Ion mobility spectrometry–mass spectrometry (IMS–MS) data, computer modeling and molecular dynamics simulations provided evidence that 10- to 16-stranded OMPs are encapsulated within an expanded Skp substrate cage. For OMPs that cannot be fully accommodated in the expanded cavity, sequestration is achieved by binding of an additional Skp trimer. The results suggest a new mechanism for Skp chaperone activity involving the coordination of multiple copies of Skp in protecting a single substrate from aggregation

Outer membrane protein folding from an energy landscape perspective

The cell envelope is essential for the survival of Gram-negative bacteria. This specialised membrane is densely packed with outer membrane proteins (OMPs), which perform a variety of functions. How OMPs fold into this crowded environment remains an open question. Here, we review current knowledge about OFMP folding mechanisms in vitro and discuss how the need to fold to a stable native state has shaped their folding energy landscapes. We also highlight the role of chaperones and the β-barrel assembly machinery (BAM) in assisting OMP folding in vivo and discuss proposed mechanisms by which this fascinating machinery may catalyse OMP folding

From ‘politics of numbers’ to ‘politics of singularisation’:Patients’ activism and engagement in research on rare diseases in France and Portugal

This article investigates how the engagement of patients/' organisations (POs) in research relates to the dynamics of their activism in the area of rare diseases. It traces back how certain concerned families and groups elaborated rareness as an issue of equity and social justice, gave shape to what we call a /`politics of numbers/' for stating the fact of rare diseases as a major public health problem, and promoted patients/' critical involvement in biomedical and therapeutic research as a solution for mainstreaming rare diseases in regular health systems. It then studies three Portuguese and three French POs, which point to the limits of the epidemiological notion of rareness for capturing the compounded and intersecting nature of the bio-psycho-social make-up of their conditions. It finally shows how these critics progressively lead to the emergence of an alternative politics, which we call a /`politics of singularisation/'. At the core of this politics stands a collective and ongoing profiling of conditions and patients, whose similarities and differences relates to the ubiquity of biological pathways and diseases categories. Our contention is that this /`politics of singularisation/' not only pictures a politics of illnesses which questions the rationale for nosological classifications, but also, and consequently, affects the making of social links by suggesting the simultaneous identification of individual patients and constitution of collectives to which they partake while asserting their specificities

Battle of the Bands: Toxic Dust, Active Citizenship and Science Education

Humanity is facing many serious realized and predicted problems for the wellbeing of individuals, societies and environments associated with influences of powerful people and groups on fields of science and technology (and, likely, engineering and mathematics). While a plethora of problems are linked to fossil fuel uses, with particular concerns relating to climate change, excessive promotion of production and consumption is threatening a range of habitats and species and harmful substances in many manufactured goods — such as fats, sugars, salts, food colourings and preservatives in food products, combustion products in cigarettes and a range of untested chemicals in everyday household cleansers and hygiene products — are associated with various preventable diseases, like cardiovascular illnesses, diabetes and cancer. Given that many of these problems seem tied to global economic systems, which — in their neoliberal form — depend on cooperation of governments and transnational governing bodies and agreements, it seems clear that more citizens must take active roles in analyzing and evaluating products and services of fields of science and technology (and other related fields) and, where problems are identified, be prepared to take informed actions to bring about a better world. Given roles of fields of science and technology (and others) in contributing to harms like those identified above, a logical place for helping to develop more activist citizens is through school science and technology (and related subjects). To do so, however, it seems essential to base such education on authentic situations of citizen engagement in such socio-political controversies. In this paper, we describe an ongoing case of citizen data-informed actions to address what they perceived to be toxic metal dust pollution (including nickel, arsenic, lead, cadmium, cobalt, manganese and zinc) accumulating on objects in their community that they claim is emanating from the city’s inland ocean port. Our analyses suggest that rectifying responses from the city and, perhaps, resistance to such responses can be explained using Foucault’s concept of dispositif (an aggregate of actants serving certain purposes). A key to this conclusion was activists’ discovery of decades-old reports commissioned by the city that, if they had been made part of public discourse, may have increased levels of public consciousness to the point that earlier corrective actions might have been taken. With this case and analyses of it, we suggest that it could serve as an excellent model to be included in apprenticeships for helping students to develop expertise, confidence and motivation for self-directing research-informed actions to address socioscientific problems of their choice — including in terms of working to develop dispositifs to support their causes. Moreover, the dispositif concept could be used to help mobilize such approaches across numerous educational contexts — with, for example, educators working to initiate a network of cooperating stakeholders (e.g., governments, businesses, media outlets, teacher associations, school districts, etc.)

Scientific Practices as an Actor-Network of Literacy Events: Forging a Convergence Between Disciplinary Literacy and Scientific Practices

Researchers working in the intersection of literacy and science education have increasingly acknowledged and emphasised the convergence between disciplinary literacy and scientific practices. Although there is a need to connect disciplinary literacy and scientific practices, there has been little theoretical development that bridges the two areas with a common conceptual frame of reference. In this chapter, I explore several key ideas that inform recent developments in disciplinary literacy and scientific practices and subsequently develop an approach based on actor-network theory to link those ideas. In particular, I conceptualise scientific practices as an actor-network of literacy events distributed across human and non-human actors over time and space. Using examples from classroom events, I illustrate how this approach provides a way to analyse the enactment and characteristic of scientific practices in terms of the network configuration of literacy events that are observable and interactionally constructed through language