Food Citizenship and Governmentality: Neo-Communitarian Food Governance in The Hague

This article presents an account of food citizenship based on a governmentality framework. Moving beyond the dichotomy of democratic or neoliberal accounts of food citizenship, a food governmentality framework is presented. This Foucaultian inspired framework conceptualises food citizenship as identity formation in relation to various modes of power that govern food systems and subjects in significantly different ways. The article empirically illustrates how food citizenship relates to food governmentality by focussing on the food-related activities of a Transition Town initiative in the Netherlands (The Hague) called Den Haag In Transitie (DHIT). By defining food as a community issue, and employing holistic-spiritual and collaborative knowledge, food citizens in the DHIT case render sustainable food systems governable in radically new ways. I argue that this type of citizenship can be considered neo-communitarian food citizenship and moves beyond democratic or neoliberal accounts. Finally, the article reflects on neo-communitarian citizenship and argues for a nuanced understanding of food citizenship, moving away from either democratic romanticism or neoliberal criticism

Data on the move: How household energy data travel and empower

Even though Science and Technology Studies has highlighted how things and publics participate in energy assemblages, the specific role of big data has received relatively little attention. This paper examines the politics of energy data in relation to residential grid management. Informed by the concept ‘data journey’, developed by Bates et al. (2016), it proposes an ‘energy data journey’ approach and focusses on two questions: how are big data of smart homes produced and how do they travel? And who is empowered by this energy data production and movement? The paper addresses these questions in the empirical context of a Dutch-Belgian pilot project that has designed and tested energy management of a smart home. The empirical analysis shows how energy data and household profiles are created and travel through different cyber-physical locations to serve different purposes. The use of specific ‘home energy profiles’ is crucial and contributes to neoliberal energy management as it focusses on self-monitoring tools and users’ responsibility, while empowering commercial tech-companies and high income groups. The final section reflects on the cyber-materiality of energy data and the techno-politics of energy data more broadly. The paper argues that an energy data journey approach is productive for STS researchers when critically reflecting on the agency and politics of energy data

The Politics of Sustainability Transitions

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

“Get those voices at the table!”: Interview with Deborah Stone

__Abstract__ Deborah Stone’s work on political reasoning, storytelling and metaphors has been a longstanding contribution to the development of public administration, political and policy sciences. In her book Policy Paradox and Political Reason published in 1988, she focuses on policy and politics as cultural bargaining over values and ideas, instead of a rational process of decision-making. In addition to this book, which was retitled Policy Paradox, The Art of Political Decision Making in later editions, she has published widely on societal paradoxes, political reasoning and professional dilemmas in many aspects of social policy. The newest edition (published in 2012 and called the third edition, but really the fourth) incorporates major revisions to the literature, theories and policy illustrations, including more examples from international relations and countries besides the USA. Due to this key contribution and the longstanding relevance of her book, we talked with Deborah Stone in Vienna on 5 July 2013. We had a dialogue about this book, her theoretical ideas and how policy sciences could improve in the future

Kritisch bestuurskundig onderwijs. Een pleidooi voor productieve subversiviteit

Welke rol speelt kritiek binnen het bestuurskundig onderwijs? In dit artikel worden de genormaliseerde opvattingen van het huidige beleidsbestuurskundig onderwijs bevraagd. Door de zelfpresentatie van bestuurskundige opleidingen te problemati‐ seren bespreken de auteurs de dominantie van instrumentele kennis. Het artikel benadrukt het belang van kritische kennis en kritische methoden en de rol van ‘pro‐ ductieve subversiviteit’, om bestuurskundige opleidingen te herbronnen. ‘The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think criti‐ cally.’ In dit artikel gaan we na in hoeverre bestuurskundig onderwijs functioneert volgens deze stelling van Martin Luther King. Want hoe is het gesteld met het kri‐ tische potentieel van bestuurskundig onderwijs? Meer specifiek: wat zijn de bete‐ kenis, positie en potentie van ‘kritiek’ in bestuurskundig onderwijs? Daarbij ver‐ trekken we vanuit de assumptie dat kritisch denkvermogen in onderwijs, en dus in een pedagogische setting, geen aardige bijkomstigheid maar didactisch noodza‐ kelijk is. In dit artikel verkennen we de belangrijkste uitdagingen. We bespreken dominante opvattingen van het huidige beleidsbestuurskundig onderwijs en benadrukken het belang van kritisch bestuurskundige kennis en methoden

Histopathological evaluation of thrombus in patients presenting with stent thrombosis. A multicenter European study: a report of the prevention of late stent thrombosis by an interdisciplinary global European effort consortium

Background Stent thrombosis (ST) is a rare but serious complication following percutaneous coronary intervention. Analysis of thrombus composition from patients undergoing catheter thrombectomy may provide important insights into the pathological processes leading to thrombus formation. We performed a large-scale multicentre study to evaluate thrombus specimens in patients with ST across Europe. Methods Patients presenting with ST and undergoing thrombus aspiration were eligible for inclusion. Thrombus collection was performed according to a standardized protocol and specimens were analysed histologically at a core laboratory. Serial tissue cross sections were stained with haematoxylin–eosin (H&E), Carstairs and Luna. Immunohistochemistry was performed to identify leukocyte subsets, prothrombotic neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs), erythrocytes, platelets, and fibrinogen. Results Overall 253 thrombus specimens were analysed; 79 (31.2%) from patients presenting with early ST, 174 (68.8%) from late ST; 79 (31.2%) were from bare metal stents, 166 (65.6%) from drug-eluting stents, 8 (3.2%) were from stents of unknown type. Thrombus specimens displayed heterogeneous morphology with platelet-rich thrombus and fibrin/fibrinogen fragments most abundant; mean platelet coverage was 57% of thrombus area. Leukocyte infiltrations were hallmarks of both early and late ST (early: 2260 ± 1550 per mm2 vs. late: 2485 ± 1778 per mm2; P = 0.44); neutrophils represented the most prominent subset (early: 1364 ± 923 per mm2 vs. late: 1428 ± 1023 per mm2; P = 0.81). Leukocyte counts were significantly higher compared with a control group of patients with thrombus aspiration in spontaneous myocardial infarction. Neutrophil extracellular traps were observed in 23% of samples. Eosinophils were present in all stent types, with higher numbers in patients with late ST in sirolimus-and everolimus-eluting stents. Conclusion In a large-scale study of histological thrombus analysis from patients presenting with ST, thrombus specimens displayed heterogeneous morphology. Recruitment of leukocytes, particularly neutrophils, appears to be a hallmark of ST. The presence of NETs supports their pathophysiological relevance. Eosinophil recruitment suggests an allergic component to the process of ST

Comparing nuclear power trajectories in Germany and the UK: from ‘regimes' to ‘democracies’ in sociotechnical transitions and Discontinuities

This paper focuses on arguably the single most striking contrast in contemporary major energy politics in Europe (and even the developed world as a whole): the starkly differing civil nuclear policies of Germany and the UK. Germany is seeking entirely to phase out nuclear power by 2022. Yet the UK advocates a ‘nuclear renaissance’, promoting the most ambitious new nuclear construction programme in Western Europe.Here,this paper poses a simple yet quite fundamental question: what are the particular divergent conditions most strongly implicated in the contrasting developments in these two countries. With nuclear playing such an iconic role in historical discussions over technological continuity and transformation, answering this may assist in wider understandings of sociotechnical incumbency and discontinuity in the burgeoning field of‘sustainability transitions’. To this end, an ‘abductive’ approach is taken: deploying nine potentially relevant criteria for understanding the different directions pursued in Germany and the UK. Together constituted by 30 parameters spanning literatures related to socio-technical regimes in general as well as nuclear technology in particular, the criteria are divided into those that are ‘internal’ and ‘external’ to the ‘focal regime configuration’ of nuclear power and associated ‘challenger technologies’ like renewables. It is ‘internal’ criteria that are emphasised in conventional sociotechnical regime theory, with ‘external’ criteria relatively less well explored. Asking under each criterion whether attempted discontinuation of nuclear power would be more likely in Germany or the UK, a clear picture emerges. ‘Internal’ criteria suggest attempted nuclear discontinuation should be more likely in the UK than in Germany– the reverse of what is occurring. ‘External’ criteria are more aligned with observed dynamics –especially those relating to military nuclear commitments and broader ‘qualities of democracy’. Despite many differences of framing concerning exactly what constitutes ‘democracy’, a rich political science literature on this point is unanimous in characterising Germany more positively than the UK. Although based only on a single case,a potentially important question is nonetheless raised as to whether sociotechnical regime theory might usefully give greater attention to the general importance of various aspects of democracy in constituting conditions for significant technological discontinuities and transformations. If so, the policy implications are significant. A number of important areas are identified for future research, including the roles of diverse understandings and specific aspects of democracy and the particular relevance of military nuclear commitments– whose under-discussion in civil nuclear policy literatures raises its own questions of democratic accountability

Assemblage-democracy: Reconceptualising democracy through material resource governance

This article furthers political geographic thinking on democracy by generating and employing a conceptualisation of ‘assemblage-democracy’. Bringing an assemblage perspective to democratic thinking brings to the fore three key dimensions: the co-constitution of material and non-material connections; connectivity and associations, in particular engagement with multiple heterogeneous ‘minoritarian’ publics; and the (re)construction of spatial configurations such as scale. We employ these three dimensions of materiality, publics, and scale, in combination with the concept of (de)territorialisation to produce a geographic conceptualisation of democracy as emergent, precarious, and plural. We operationalise and refine the concept of assemblage-democracy through an empirical analysis of democratic experiments with energy resources. Specifically, we analyse negotiations involved in emergent democratic energy experiments through in-depth qualitative empirical study of community-owned energy projects in the UK, asking what kind of democracy emerges with new technologies and how? In answering this question, we demonstrate the fragile, contingent, and contested nature of democratic practices and connections produced in the (re)enactment of energy infrastructures. In doing so, this article also shows how an assemblage lens can offer a renewed understanding of how democratic politics is configured through material resource governance

Policy mixes for incumbency: the destructive recreation of renewable energy, shale gas 'fracking,' and nuclear power in the United Kingdom

The notion of a ‘policy mix’ can describe interactions across a wide range of innovation policies, including ‘motors for creation’ as well as for ‘destruction’. This paper focuses on the United Kingdom’s (UK) ‘new policy direction’ that has weakened support for renewables and energy efficiency schemes while strengthening promotion of nuclear power and hydraulic fracturing for natural gas (‘fracking’). The paper argues that a ‘policy apparatus for incumbency’ is emerging which strengthens key regimebased technologies while arguably damaging emerging niche innovations. Basing the discussion around the three technology-based cases of renewable energy and efficiency, fracking, and nuclear power, this paper refers to this process as “destructive recreation”. Our study raises questions over the extent to which policymaking in the energy field is not so much driven by stated aims around sustainability transitions, as by other policy drivers. It investigates different ‘strategies of incumbency’ including ‘securitization’, ‘masking’, ‘reinvention’, and ‘capture.’ It suggests that analytical frameworks should extend beyond the particular sectors in focus, with notions of what counts as a relevant ‘policy maker’ correspondingly also expanded, in order to explore a wider range of nodes and critical junctures as entry points for understanding how relations of incumbency are forged and reproduced