Bourdieu the Ethnographer: Grounding the Habitus of the ‘Far-Right’ Voter

This paper pushes the work of Bourdieu into more ethnographic directions within international social sciences, particularly studies of everyday (in)security. Thematically, it looks at how transformations in global politics towards increased xenophobia and the normalisation of ‘far-right’ politics can be examined through mobilising ‘Bourdieu the ethnographer’ (Blommaert 2005). Using the example of Sweden, and an ethnography of everyday life around a refugee resettlement facility in 2013 and 2014, the paper argues that Bourdieu the ethnographer provides important conceptual tools for understanding the way in which logics of (in)security shifted ever further into everyday life. This thus offers an interesting way to think about the normalisation of far-right and xenophobic politics more broadly. Through conducting this specific type of Bourdieu-inspired ethnography, the paper empirically grounds the ‘habitus’ of the so-called ‘far-right’ voter. Taking seriously the temporal dimension of habitus, Bourdieu the ethnographer orients analysis towards transformation, evolution and flux, allowing ‘far-right’ to be conceived relationally. In the Swedish case, we are thus able to trace the shift from a ‘welcoming’ to an ‘exclusionary’ type of politics

Mass flow in the interacting binary TX Ursae Majoris

Twenty-two far-ultraviolet and 23 near-ultraviolet high resolution IUE spectra of the interactive Algol-type binary TX Ursae Majoris (B8 V + F-K III-IV) were analyzed in order to determine the nature of the mass flow occurring in this system. Absorption features due to high-temperature ions of Si IV, C IV, and N V are always present. The resonance lines of Al III, Fe II, Mg II and Si IV show strong phase and secular variations indicative of gas streaming and circumstellar/circumbinary material. Radial velocities as high as 500 to 600 km/sec are present. The gas flow is particularly prominent in 1985 between phases 0.7 and 0.0. The system is more active than U Sagittae and as active as U Cephei

Critical fault patterns determination in fault-tolerant computer systems

The method proposed tries to enumerate all the critical fault-patterns (successive occurrences of failures) without analyzing every single possible fault. The conditions for the system to be operating in a given mode can be expressed in terms of the static states. Thus, one can find all the system states that correspond to a given critical mode of operation. The next step consists in analyzing the fault-detection mechanisms, the diagnosis algorithm and the process of switch control. From them, one can find all the possible system configurations that can result from a failure occurrence. Thus, one can list all the characteristics, with respect to detection, diagnosis, and switch control, that failures must have to constitute critical fault-patterns. Such an enumeration of the critical fault-patterns can be directly used to evaluate the overall system tolerance to failures. Present research is focused on how to efficiently make use of these system-level characteristics to enumerate all the failures that verify these characteristics

Development of a flight software testing methodology

The research to develop a testing methodology for flight software is described. An experiment was conducted in using assertions to dynamically test digital flight control software. The experiment showed that 87% of typical errors introduced into the program would be detected by assertions. Detailed analysis of the test data showed that the number of assertions needed to detect those errors could be reduced to a minimal set. The analysis also revealed that the most effective assertions tested program parameters that provided greater indirect (collateral) testing of other parameters. In addition, a prototype watchdog task system was built to evaluate the effectiveness of executing assertions in parallel by using the multitasking features of Ada

From abuse to trust and back again

oai:westminsterresearch.westminster.ac.uk:w7qv

Making Digital Surveillance Unacceptable? Security, Democracy, and the Political Sociology of Disputes

Despite extensive criticisms of mass surveillance and mobilization by civil liberties and digital rights activists, surveillance has paradoxically been extended and legalized in the name of security. How do some democratic claims against surveillance appear to be normal and common-sense, whereas others are deemed unacceptable, even outlandish? Instead of starting from particular “logics” of either security or democracy, this paper proposes to develop a political sociology of disputes to trace how the relation between security and democracy is shaped by critique in practice. Disputes entail critique and demands for justification. They allow us to account for the constraints which govern whether an argument is deemed acceptable or improper; commonsensical or peculiar. We mobilize disputes in conjunction with Arjun Appadurai’s reflections on “small numbers” in democracies in order to understand how justifications of surveillance for security enact a “rise in generality,” whereas critiques of digital surveillance that mobilize democratic claims enact a “descent into singularity.” To this purpose, we analyze public mobilizations against mass surveillance and challenges brought before the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). We draw on interviews with a range of actors involved in the disputes, the parties’ submissions, oral hearings, judgments, and public reports

OAO-2 observations of beta Lyrae and a provisional interpretation

Six-color ultraviolet photoelectric observations of beta Lyrae obtained with OAO-2 are presented. These observations, made at 1380, 1500, 1920, 2460, 2980 and 3330 A, represent the first truly continual coverage of the light changes of beta Lyrae during one orbital revolution and were obtained in November 1970. The photometric data are supplemented by spectral scans in the wavelength intervals 3800-1800 A and 2000-1050 A; the latter interval was scanned at 10 A resolution once during every OAO-2 orbit, i.e., about 100 minutes. Anomalous features, such as asymmetries and short and long term variations, are present in the light curves. A tentative discussion of solutions of the light curves is given

A methodology for testing fault-tolerant software

A methodology for testing fault tolerant software is presented. There are problems associated with testing fault tolerant software because many errors are masked or corrected by voters, limiter, or automatic channel synchronization. This methodology illustrates how the same strategies used for testing fault tolerant hardware can be applied to testing fault tolerant software. For example, one strategy used in testing fault tolerant hardware is to disable the redundancy during testing. A similar testing strategy is proposed for software, namely, to move the major emphasis on testing earlier in the development cycle (before the redundancy is in place) thus reducing the possibility that undetected errors will be masked when limiters and voters are added

Executable assertions and flight software

Executable assertions are used to test flight control software. The techniques used for testing flight software; however, are different from the techniques used to test other kinds of software. This is because of the redundant nature of flight software. An experimental setup for testing flight software using executable assertions is described. Techniques for writing and using executable assertions to test flight software are presented. The error detection capability of assertions is studied and many examples of assertions are given. The issues of placement and complexity of assertions and the language features to support efficient use of assertions are discussed