The strength of pushback collective identity in a fragmented mass movement

This article examines how social movement actors can forge and sustain a collective identity despite heterogeneous backgrounds and the absence of pre-existing commonalities and networks. Based on an ethnography of the French yellow vest movement, we build on the concept of reactive identity to describe two key mechanisms. First, we show this movement’s collective identity crystallized through the actors’ shared reactions to the broader sociopolitical environment. Then, we describe how identification processes are reinforced when social movement actors feel rejected, stigmatized, and repressed in their interactions with national institutions, civil society, and individuals. We explain how these mechanisms are useful for understanding the development of collective identities within mass movements, which encompass individuals with various and fragmented identities. Exploring new dimensions of reaction beyond the us-versus-them mechanisms of identity formation, we show how collective identity can coalesce for groups who became stigmatized as they mobilize to oppose their environment

Lymphomatoid Granulomatosis Treated Successfully with Rituximab in a Renal Transplant Patient

Lymphomatoid granulomatosis (LYG) in renal transplant recipients is rare multisystemic angiocentric lymphoproliferative disorder with significant malignant potential. Here, we describe LYG in a 70-year-old renal allograft recipient who, 4 years after transplantation, on tacrolimus and mycophenolate mofetil and prednisone maintenance immunosuppression, complained of low-grade fever, persistent headache and gait disturbance. The MRI of the brain revealed diffuse periventricular cerebral and cerebellar contrast-enhanced lesions. The CT scan of the thorax showed multiple pulmonary nodular opacities in both lung fields. The patient was diagnosed LYG based on the cerebral biopsy showing perivascular infiltration of CD20-positive B-lymphocytes with granulomatous lesions and immunofluorescence staining with anti-EBV antibodies. With careful reduction of the immunossuppression combined with the use of rituximab, our patient showed a complete disappearance of LYG, and she is clinically well more than 4 years after the diagnosis, with good kidney function. No recurrence has been observed by radiological imaging until now. This is the first report of a durable (>4 years) complete remission of LYG after treatment with rituximab in renal transplantation

Paradise lost?: Understanding social embeddedness through crisis and violence in the Neapolitan “Land of Fires”

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from IGI Global via the DOI in this recordSince the mid-90s three million people living in the metropolitan area of Naples (Italy) have been facing one of the most dramatic socio-ecological crisis witnessed in Western Europe. This is a crisis orchestrated by Mafia-like organizations (e.g. the Neapolitan Mafia also known as Camorra) and their interest in the illegal management of waste disposal and incineration in the shadow of a weak state, a phenomenon often referred to as the ‘Land of Fires’. Using evidence from this prolonged socio-ecological crisis, in this chapter, we attempt to inductively mobilise the Polanyian notion of embeddedness, to understand the establishment and expansion of a waste economy in diffused violent social and economic relations. We particularly attempt to extend the notion of ‘embedded economy’, building on the work of Karl Polanyi (1944). We argue that the process of social embeddedness through illegal and violent practices are particularly intense in contexts of socio-ecological crises, where the expropriation of land and destruction of nature is coupled with the disarticulation of the role of the state by criminal organizations.ECOREME

Availability of assisted peritoneal dialysis in Europe : call for increased and equal access

Background Availability of assisted PD (asPD) increases access to dialysis at home, particularly for the increasing numbers of older and frail people with advanced kidney disease. Although asPD has been widely used in some European countries for many years, it remains unavailable or poorly utilized in others. A group of leading European nephrologists have therefore formed a group to drive increased availability of asPD in Europe and in their own countries. Methods Members of the group filled in a proforma with the following headings: personal experience, country experience, who are the assistants, funding of asPD, barriers to growth, what is needed to grow and their top three priorities. Results Only 5 of the 13 countries surveyed provided publicly funded reimbursement for asPD. The use of asPD depends on overall attitudes to PD, with all respondents mentioning the need for nephrology team education and/or patient education and involvement in dialysis modality decision making. Conclusions and call to action Many people with advanced kidney disease would prefer to have their dialysis at home, yet if the frail patient chooses PD most healthcare systems cannot provide their choice. AsPD should be available in all countries in Europe and in all renal centres. The top priorities to make this happen are education of renal healthcare teams about the advantages of PD, education of and discussion with patients and their families as they approach the need for dialysis, and engagement with policymakers and healthcare providers to develop and support assistance for PD.Peer reviewe

Disease recurrence in paediatric renal transplantation

Renal transplantation (Tx) is the treatment of choice for end-stage renal disease. The incidence of acute rejection after renal Tx has decreased because of improving early immunosuppression, but the risk of disease recurrence (DR) is becoming relatively high, with a greater prevalence in children than in adults, thereby increasing patient morbidity, graft loss (GL) and, sometimes, mortality rate. The current overall graft loss to DR is 7–8%, mainly due to primary glomerulonephritis (70–80%) and inherited metabolic diseases. The more typical presentation is a recurrence of the full disease, either with a high risk of GL (focal and segmental glomerulosclerosis 14–50% DR, 40–60% GL; atypical haemolytic uraemic syndrome 20–80% DR, 10–83% GL; membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis 30–100% DR, 17–61% GL; membranous nephropathy ∼30% DR, ∼50% GL; lipoprotein glomerulopathy ∼100% DR and GL; primary hyperoxaluria type 1 80–100% DR and GL) or with a low risk of GL [immunoglobulin (Ig)A nephropathy 36–60% DR, 7–10% GL; systemic lupus erythematosus 0–30% DR, 0–5% GL; anti-neutrophilic cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA)-associated glomerulonephritis]. Recurrence may also occur with a delayed risk of GL, such as insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, sickle cell disease, endemic nephropathy, and sarcoidosis. In other primary diseases, the post-Tx course may be complicated by specific events that are different from overt recurrence: proteinuria or cancer in some genetic forms of nephrotic syndrome, anti-glomerular basement membrane antibodies-associated glomerulonephritis (Alport syndrome, Goodpasture syndrome), and graft involvement as a consequence of lower urinary tract abnormality or human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) nephropathy. Some other post-Tx conditions may mimic recurrence, such as de novo membranous glomerulonephritis, IgA nephropathy, microangiopathy, or isolated specific deposits (cystinosis, Fabry disease). Adequate strategies should therefore be added to kidney Tx, such as donor selection, associated liver Tx, plasmatherapy, specific immunosuppression protocols. In such conditions, very few patients may be excluded from kidney Tx only because of a major risk of DR and repeated GL. In the near future the issue of DR after kidney Tx may benefit from alternatives to organ Tx, such as recombinant proteins, specific monoclonal antibodies, cell/gene therapy, and chaperone molecules