Social Justice in the EU – Index Report 2017 Social Inclusion Monitor Europe. Bertelsmann Stiftung Social Inclusion Monitor Europe 2017

1. Europe is recovering not only economically, but also in the domain of social justice After years of downward movement, an upward trend in the domain of social justice is evident in the broad majority of EU member states. Although far from all member states have regained their pre-crisis levels, the most recent EU Social Justice Index data give cause for hope that the worst is over not just in economic terms, but also from a social perspective. At the top of this year’s Social Justice Index are the northern European states of Denmark, Sweden and Finland. Rounding out the top group are the Czech Republic, Slovenia, the Netherlands, Austria and Germany, while Greece, despite again posting slight gains this year, remains clearly in last place

Beyond the nation-state and its units of analysis: towards a new research agenda for migration studies: essentials of migration theory ; paper presented at the conference on ‘Transnationalisation and Development(s): Towards a North-South Perspective’, Center for Interdisciplinary Research, Bielefeld, Germany, May 31 - June 01, 2007

Migranten sind nationale und internationale Akteure. Einerseits tragen sie in ihren Herkunftsländern u.a. durch ihre Heimatüberweisungen zur Entwicklung bei, andererseits wird ihnen oftmals vorgeworfen, sich nicht in ihr Gastland zu integrieren und letztendlich eine Bedrohung für die nationale Sicherheit darzustellen. Der vorliegende Beitrag befasst sich mit der Frage, wie die Migrationstheorie mit diesen Widersprüchlichkeiten umgeht. Die Autorin weist nach, dass Migrationstheoretiker die Perspektiven ihrer jeweiligen Nationalstaaten übernommen haben, und kritisiert diesen methodologischen Nationalismus. Als Alternative plädiert sie für eine globale Perspektive auf Migration, die die Analyse sozialer Prozesse erleichtern würde und darüber hinaus internationale Machtfaktoren mit einbeziehen könnte. (ICD)Contents: Introduction; The Methodological Nationalism of Migration Studies: Rooted Concepts; (a) Migration research as projects situated in national territories; (b) From national origins to national stocks - developing the “scientific essentialism” of migration studies; (c) National stocks, national territories, and the development of assimilationist theory; (d) The Ethnic Lens; Transnational community studies: Haunted by the spirit of methodological nationalism; Global cities literature: Speaking Global and Reinforcing the National; Migration, Development and Scalar Perspectives on Locality; Transnational Fields of Power; Conclusions

Refugee resettlement in New Hampshire: pathways and barriers to building community

This report discusses a study on New Hampshire refugee perspectives and responses to the resettlement process after the first eight months of federal assistance

Singing a New Song? Transnational Migration, Methodological Nationalism and Cosmopolitan Perspectives

The question posed by this article is how all of us - scholars, musicians, citizens of the world can step out of the migrant/native divide and still leave room to study and theorize creative processes that bring together the intertwining of cultural influences. How can we discard a concept of hybridity with its implications of a prior state of native purity and address the ongoing mutual interactions that unfold within migration processes? This is an ever pressing question for cultural theory in a world in which there is widespread migration and a cyberspace environment of multiple interconnections. Migration provides a base for theorizing cultural processes that extend beyond the specificity of people crossing borders. In order to begin answering this question it is useful to ask when and why do we see a migrant/ foreigner vs. native divide in the first place. This divide reflects and reinforces a tendency in various disciplines to equate nation-state boundaries with the concept of society. In the first section of this article, we will explore the nature and implications of methodological nationalism and place it within a historical context. In its stead we will offer what Glick Schiller has called “a global power perspective on migration” (Glick Schiller, 2009, 2010b). In the second part of the paper we will apply this perspective to case studies of the transnational social field of musical creation that stretches between Europe and localities of artistic production in Africa. Focusing on the movements and interconnections of musicians of Malagasy origin, we will illustrate the ways in which transnational networking can give rise to substantial ‘transcultural capital’, (Kiwan and Meinhof, 2011; Meinhof, 2009; Meinhof and Triandafyllidou, 2006b) and thus underpin the professionalization of some artists, but can also reflect the inequalities and multiple pressures for authenticity in the world music market

Metodologický nacionalismus a pohled za jeho hranice: budování národního státu, migrace a společenské vědy

Metodologický nacionalismus je chápán jako předpoklad, že národ/stát/společnost je přirozenou sociální a politickou formou moderního světa. Nejprve rozlišujeme tři druhy metodologického nacionalismu příznačné pro hlavní proud sociální vědy a poté ukazujeme, jak ovlivnily výzkum migrace. Odkrýváme paralely mezi nacionalistickým myšlením a konceptualizací migrace v poválečných společenských vědách. V historickém tour d’horizon ukazujeme, že tato koncepce hlavního proudu se rozvinula v úzké interakci s procesy budování západních národních států a s rolí, již v nich sehrály imigrační a integrační politiky. Posun směrem k výzkumu „trasnacionálních komunit“, což je poslední fáze tohoto procesu, vyplynul spíše z epistemického opuštění metodologického nacionalismu než ze vzniku nových předmětů pozorování. V závěru článku doporučujeme nové analytické koncepty, které nejsou zabarvené metodologickým nacionalismem a současně překračují fluidismus značné části současné sociální teorie

Az egyidejűség konceptualizálása: a társadalom a transznacionális társadalmi mező perspektívájából

A tanulmány a transznacionális migrációval foglalkozó kutatásokat alátámasztó társadalmi elméletet és az abból következő módszertant vizsgálja. Elsőként javaslatot teszünk a migrációkutatás társadalmi mező alapú megközelítésére, különbséget téve a ‘létezés’ és a ‘valahova tartozás’ módjai között. Ezt követően amellett érvelünk, hogy az asszimiláció és a tartós transznacionális kötődések nem összeegyeztethetetlenek egymással, és nem is egymás bináris ellentétei. A harmadik lépésben olyan társadalmi folyamatokat és intézményeket világítunk meg, amelyek a hagyományos migrációs szakirodalomban csak homályosan látszódnak, de amelyek egyből világossá válnak, ha transznacionális szemüvegen keresztül vizsgálódunk. Végezetül elhelyezzük migrációkutató megközelítésünket egy olyan nagyobb intellektuális projektben, amelyet számos tudományterületen alkalmaznak a transznacionális folyamatokkal foglalkozó kutatók abból a célból, hogy újragondolják és újraalkossák a társadalom fogalmát egy olyan keretben, ahol a társadalom határai nem érnek véget automatikusan a nemzetállam határainál

Structural and mutational analysis of the ribosome-arresting human XBP1u

XBP1u, a central component of the unfolded protein response (UPR), is a mammalian protein containing a functionally critical translational arrest peptide (AP). Here, we present a 3 angstrom cryo-EM structure of the stalled human XBP1u AP. It forms a unique turn in the ribosomal exit tunnel proximal to the peptidyl transferase center where it causes a subtle distortion, thereby explaining the temporary translational arrest induced by XBP1u. During ribosomal pausing the hydrophobic region 2 (HR2) of XBP1u is recognized by SRP, but fails to efficiently gate the Sec61 translocon. An exhaustive mutagenesis scan of the XBP1u AP revealed that only 8 out of 20 mutagenized positions are optimal;in the remaining 12 positions, we identify 55 different mutations increase the level of translational arrest. Thus, the wildtype XBP1u AP induces only an intermediate level of translational arrest, allowing efficient targeting by SRP without activating the Sec61 channel

The maximum standardized uptake value in patients with recurrent or persistent prostate cancer after radical prostatectomy and PSMA-PET-guided salvage radiotherapy-a multicenter retrospective analysis

Purpose This study aims to evaluate the association of the maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) in positron-emission tomography targeting prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA-PET) prior to salvage radiotherapy (sRT) on biochemical recurrence free survival (BRFS) in a large multicenter cohort.Methods Patients who underwent (68) Ga-PSMA11-PET prior to sRT were enrolled in four high-volume centers in this retrospective multicenter study. Only patients with PET-positive local recurrence (LR) and/or nodal recurrence (NR) within the pelvis were included. Patients were treated with intensity-modulated-sRT to the prostatic fossa and elective lymphatics in case of nodal disease. Dose escalation was delivered to PET-positive LR and NR. Androgen deprivation therapy was administered at the discretion of the treating physician. LR and NR were manually delineated and SUVmax was extracted for LR and NR. Cox-regression was performed to analyze the impact of clinical parameters and the SUVmax-derived values on BRFS.Results Two hundred thirty-five patients with a median follow-up (FU) of 24 months were included in the final cohort. Two-year and 4-year BRFS for all patients were 68% and 56%. The presence of LR was associated with favorable BRFS (p = 0.016). Presence of NR was associated with unfavorable BRFS (p = 0.007). While there was a trend for SUVmax values >= median (p = 0.071), SUVmax values >= 75% quartile in LR were significantly associated with unfavorable BRFS (p = 0.022, HR: 2.1, 95%CI 1.1-4.6). SUVmax value in NR was not significantly associated with BRFS. SUVmax in LR stayed significant in multivariate analysis (p = 0.030). Sensitivity analysis with patients for who had a FU of > 12 months (n = 197) confirmed these results.Conclusion The non-invasive biomarker SUVmax can prognosticate outcome in patients undergoing sRT and recurrence confined to the prostatic fossa in PSMA-PET. Its addition might contribute to improve risk stratification of patients with recurrent PCa and to guide personalized treatment decisions in terms of treatment intensification or de-intensification. This article is part of the Topical Collection on Oncology-Genitourinary

Téa Obreht’s Transnational Disremembering within the Mythical Realism of The Tiger’s Wife

This paper discusses Téa Obreht's 2010 novel The Tiger's Wife within the context of transmigrations and post-national conceptions of both the real and mythical translocality. Through analysis of Obreht’s discourse of disremembering, which is in Aleksandar Hemon’s definition a recognition of one’s own experience under the new narrative, the paper will explore the transnational dimensions of the Slavic-American identity of The Tiger’s Wife. The aim of this paper is to focus on the new understanding of transnational relationality as well as on a reconception of reality that disremembers Obreht’s or, on a larger scale, human experience within the mythical realism of The Tiger’s Wife.Keywords: transnationalism, the Slavic-American identity, disremembering, Aleksandar Hemon, Téa Obreht, The Tiger’s Wife, mythical realismTo disremember, according to Aleksandar Hemon, a celebrated Bosnian-American writer with an immigrant experience, is to recognize one’s own experience under the new narrative. He points out that it especially refers to the “people who have come through a form of actual, physical slaughter, and to the extent the construction of narrative is memory, then the narrative, for them, has to involve a quantity of amnesia. More amnesia that is involved in most narrative” (Interview by Richard Wirick). Disremembering blends non-fiction and fiction, genocide documentation and utopian imagery, and implies an alternative interpretation of reality. Hemon’s 2008 novel The Lazarus Project is a transnational project of disremembering. In The Lazarus Project, Hemon intertwines a double narrative of the multilayered parallel universes of the past and the present by following the narrator Vladimir Brik, a post-war Bosnian who lives in the United States, as he questions his life. Brik traces the story of Lazarus Averbuch, a young Jewish immigrant who is a survivor of the Kishinev pogrom in what is now Moldova, and an alleged anarchist. At the same time, Brik questions both the inner and outer aspects of his reality. In the first-person narrative, he explains that he needs to re-imagine what he could not retrieve, and to see what he could not imagine. For this reason, he disremembers his own experience within the story of Lazarus that also implies resurrection and a new birth story. This paper will analyze Téa Obreht’s evocative 2010 novel The Tiger's Wife from the point of view of a Hemonesque narrative concept of disremembering and, within the discourse, an Obrehtesque interaction of myth and truth