Enduring Resilience of Capitalist Power: The Role of Capitalist Education as a Technology of Governance

Capitalism has experienced several crises since its emergence but its present global dominance apparently remains unassailable. This paper argues that capitalism’s resilience is grounded in the systemic hegemony of capitalist individuality—an individuality, committed to freedom as an ultimate end and seeking abundance in this world. It has been argued that the successful manufacturing of capitalist subjectivity is significantly dependent on the inculcation of capitalist values to the subject of capital through capitalist education. Section one focuses on freedom as capitalism’s telos and sketches the historical emergence of capitalist subjectivity formed by processes of capitalist governance. Section two investigates the formational role of capitalist education as a technology of capitalist governance. It analyzes capitalist education as a means for the construction of capitalist individuality. Section three argues that capitalism’s main antagonists, especially Marxist socialism, cannot effectively challenge capitalist hegemony in the lifeworld or at the level of the state because they (i.e. main antagonists) endorse freedom (the core capitalist value) as an ultimate end in itself. Socialism does not propose to alter the subjectivity of an individual that the capitalist education constructs

Entrepreneurs, institutional entrepreneurship and institutional change

The intersection of entrepreneurship research and institutional theory has begun to attract increasing scholarly attention. While much recent research has studied "institutional entrepreneurs" credited with creating new or transforming existing institutions to support their projects, less attention has been paid to the institutions that constitute the menus from which cho

Overcoming inaction through collective institutional entrepreneurship

Studies on institutional change generally pertain to the agency-structure paradox or the ability of institutional entrepreneurs to spearhead change despite constraints. In many complex fields, however, change also needs cooperation from numerous dispersed actors. This presents the additional paradox of ensuring that these actors engage in collective action when individual interests favor lack of cooperation. We draw on complementary insights from institutional and regime theories to identify drivers of collective institutional entrepreneurship and develop an analytical framework. This is applied to the field of global climate policy to illustrate how collective inaction was overcome to realize a global regulatory institution, the Kyoto Protocol

Text me! New consumer practices and change in organizational fields

While scholars have provided increasingly well-developed theoretical frameworks for understanding the role of institutional entrepreneurs and other purposeful actors in bringing about change in organizational fields, much less attention has been paid to the role of unorganized, nonstrategic actors in catalyzing change. In particular, the role of consumers remains largely uninvestigated. In this article, we draw on a case of the introduction of text messaging in the United Kingdom to explore the role of consumers in catalyzing change in organizational fields. Text messaging has become a widely diffused and institutionalized communication practice, in part changing mobile telephony from a voice-based, aural, and synchronous experience to a text-based, visual, and asynchronous experience. As consumers innovated and diffused new practices around this product, their actions led to significant changes in the field. We suggest how and under what conditions consumers are likely to innovate at the micro level and, with the subsequent involvement of other actors, catalyze change at the field level. Our primary contribution is to show how the cumulative effect of the spontaneous activities of one important and particularly dispersed and unorganized group can lead to changes in a field. By showing how change can result from the uncoordinated actions of consumers accumulating and converging over time, we provide an alternative explanation of change in organizational fields that does not privilege purposeful actors such as institutional entrepreneurs

Chemically cross-linked poly(acrylic-co-vinylsulfonic) acid hydrogel for the delivery of isosorbide mononitrate.

We report synthesis, characterization, and drug release attributes of a series of novel pH-sensitive poly(acrylic-co-vinylsulfonic) acid hydrogels. These hydrogels were prepared by employing free radical polymerization using ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EGDMA) and benzyl peroxide (BPO) as cross-linker and initiator, respectively. Effect of acrylic acid (AA), polyvinylsulfonic acid (PVSA), and EGDMA on prepared hydrogels was investigated. All formulations showed higher swelling at high pHs and vice versa. Formulations containing higher content of AA and EGDMA show reduced swelling, but one with higher content of PVSA showed increased swelling. Hydrogel network was characterized by determining structural parameters and loaded with isosorbide mononitrate. FTIR confirmed absence of drug polymer interaction while DSC and TGA demonstrated molecular dispersion of drug in a thermally stable polymeric network. All the hydrogel formulations exhibited a pH dependent release of isosorbide mononitrate which was found to be directly proportional to pH of the medium and PVSA content and inversely proportional to the AA contents. Drug release data were fitted to various kinetics models. Results indicated that release of isosorbide mononitrate from poly(AA-co-VSA) hydrogels was non-Fickian and that the mechanism was diffusion-controlled

Inter-Generational Transitions in Technological Ecosystems: The Case of Mobile Telephony

Many technology studies have conceptualized transitions between technological generations as a series of S-curve performance improvements over time. Surprisingly, the interregnum between successive technological generations has received little attention. To understand what happens in the interregnum, we build upon a framework of technological change as happening within an ecosystem that is characterized by both momentum and inertia. Applying this framework to study the mobile communications ecosystem, we found that the transition between 2G to 3G wireless was far from sequential. Different parts of the ecosystem evolved at different rates exerting both inertia and momentum with 'collateral technologies' playing an important role in shaping the transition path that unfolded. Based on this study we suggest that, rather than a distinct or unitary shift from an old to a new technology, transitions proceed in a zigzag manner resulting in the emergence of hybrid technologies. These processes hold implications for both theory and practice that we explore in this paper

EVALUATION OF EFFICACY AND SAFETY OF NIGELLA SATIVA OIL SUPPLEMENTATION IN PATIENTS OF CHRONIC KIDNEY DISEASE

ABSTRACTObjective: To evaluate efficacy and safety of add-on therapy of Nigella sativa oil in patients of stage 3 and 4 of chronic kidney disease (CKD).Materials and Methods: The study was conducted in a tertiary care center of north India in stage 3 and 4 patients of CKD. It was a prospective,comparative, and open label study. Patients were randomly divided into two interventional groups. Group I (Control) received conservativemanagement of CKD while Group II (Test) received conservative management along with N. sativa oil (2.5 mL, per orally, once daily) for 12 weeks.Hemogram and renal function tests were done, and adverse events were recorded at 0, 6, and 12 weeks of treatment.Results: After 12 weeks of treatment, there was a progressive improvement in clinical features and biochemical parameters in both the groups, but itwas more marked in the test group compared to control group. Both groups showed gradual improvement in the biochemical parameters as comparedto their pre-treated values which were more marked in N. sativa oil supplemented group. There was a reduction in blood glucose, blood urea, serumcreatinine, and 24-hr total urine protein. There was an increase in hemoglobin, 24-hr total urine volume, and glomerular filtration rate.Conclusion: N. sativa oil supplementation along with conservative management is efficacious and safe in averting the progression of disease in stage 3and 4 patients of CKD.Keywords: Chronic kidney disease, Nigella sativa oil, End-stage renal disease, Glomerular filtration rate

From Patañjali to the “Gospel of Sweat”: Yoga’s Remarkable Transformation from a Sacred Movement into a Thriving Global Market

Movements seeking to infuse markets with moral values often end up utilizing the market mechanism and support from mainstream actors to scale up, even if it comes at the cost of diluting their founding ethos. But this process can be particularly challenging for movements that are explicitly opposed to using a market mechanism as a means of scaling up. Our analysis of yoga between 1975 and 2016 reveals how a countercultural movement fundamentally opposed to a capitalist market economy but seeking to grow can paradoxically become syncretic with or infiltrated by concepts and beliefs that are core to the market system but incompatible with the movement’s original ethos. We show how, before such a movement can be commodified, it must be de-essentialized, a process that requires stripping away key aspects of its history, context, and religious commitments and transforming collective goals into individual ones. This process involves not only external entrepreneurs looking to mine the movement but also movement leaders seeking wider enrollment of resource-rich actors to scale the movement up. We show how codes borrowed from parallel movements and templates borrowed from markets can be instrumental in driving such a movement’s transformation. Through this extreme case of the yoga movement, we advance understandings of how movements can become syncretic with values and practices they fundamentally oppose

Assessment of Spatio-Temporal Dynamics of Food Security Based on Food Security Index Analysis: A Case from Vaishali District, India

The paper has generated Food Security Index as a composite index of its three component indexes and analyzed spatio-temporal variation in food security at block level in Vaishali district of a backward state in India during 2000-03 and 2007-10. FSI identified not only the blocks requiring immediate attention but also the specific priority areas in which the efforts could be focused to attain long term sustainability of food security. The composite FSI using time series data could help in identifying the priority components and analyzing the progress of development interventions over a period of time aimed at sustainable food security

Fistulotomy versus fistulectomy for simple fistula in ano: a retrospective cohort study

OBJECTIVE: To compare fistulotomy with fistulectomy for wound healing, duration of surgery, post-operative pain, incontinence and recurrence in patients with fistula in ano. METHODS: This retrospective cohort study was conducted at the Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi, and comprised data of adults who had undergone fistulotomy/fistulectomy for simple fistula in ano from January 2007 to August 2012. Data collection was done in August 2013 using questionnaire and telephonic interviews. Outcome variables like duration of wound healing, recurrence, incontinence, duration of surgery and post-operative pain were compared in both the groups. SPSS 19 was used for data analysis. RESULTS: Of the 192 cases, there were 96(50%) in each group. The mean age was 40.51 years (range: 21-72 years) in the fistulotomy group and 41.14 years (range: 21-66 years) in the fistulectomy group (p=0.66). Both groups were comparable for baseline demographic variables. The median duration of wound healing was shorter in the fistulotomy group 15 days (Interquartile range: 7-20 days) compared to the fistulectomy group 30 days (Interquartile range: 15-42 days) (p\u3c0.001). The incidence of recurrence was comparable in fistulotomy vs. fistulectomy (3[3.12%] vs. 4[4.16%]; p=0.70). The incidence of incontinence was higher in fistulotomy compared to fistulectomy (5[5.3%] vs. 12[12.5%]; p=0.07). The severity of incontinence was also compared but the difference was insignificant (p=0.06). The median duration of surgery was significantly shorter in fistulotomy group 17 minutes (Interquartile range: 12-25 minutes) compared to fistulectomy group 25 minutes Interquartile range: 20-35 minutes (p\u3c0.001). The median post-operative pain in the surgical day care unit and at the first follow-up in clinic was zero for both groups. CONCLUSIONS: Fistulotomy yielded better results than fistulectomy since it significantly decreased the duration of wound healing and duration of surgery without increasing the incidence of recurrence, incontinence and post-operative pain