Citizenship studies: An introduction

About the book: From women's rights, civil rights, and sexual rights for gays and lesbians to disability rights and language rights, we have experienced in the past few decades a major trend in Western nation-states towards new claims for inclusion. This trend has echoed around the world: from the Zapatistas to Chechen and Kurdish nationalists, social and political movements are framing their struggles in the languages of rights and recognition, and hence, of citizenship. Citizenship has thus become an increasingly important axis in the social sciences. Social scientists have been rethinking the role of political agent or subject. Not only are the rights and obligations of citizens being redefined, but also what it means to be a citizen has become an issue of central concern. As the process of globalization produces multiple diasporas, we can expect increasingly complex relationships between homeland and host societies that will make the traditional idea of national citizenship problematic. As societies are forced to manage cultural difference and associated tensions and conflict, there will be changes in the processes by which states allocate citizenship and a differentiation of the category of citizen. This book constitutes the most authoritative and comprehensive guide to the terrain. Drawing on a wealth of interdisciplinary knowledge, and including some of the leading commentators of the day, it is an essential guide to understanding modern citizenship

Simple Waves in Ideal Radiation Hydrodynamics

In the dynamic diffusion limit of radiation hydrodynamics, advection dominates diffusion; the latter primarily affects small scales and has negligible impact on the large scale flow. The radiation can thus be accurately regarded as an ideal fluid, i.e., radiative diffusion can be neglected along with other forms of dissipation. This viewpoint is applied here to an analysis of simple waves in an ideal radiating fluid. It is shown that much of the hydrodynamic analysis carries over by simply replacing the material sound speed, pressure and index with the values appropriate for a radiating fluid. A complete analysis is performed for a centered rarefaction wave, and expressions are provided for the Riemann invariants and characteristic curves of the one-dimensional system of equations. The analytical solution is checked for consistency against a finite difference numerical integration, and the validity of neglecting the diffusion operator is demonstrated. An interesting physical result is that for a material component with a large number of internal degrees of freedom and an internal energy greater than that of the radiation, the sound speed increases as the fluid is rarefied. These solutions are an excellent test for radiation hydrodynamic codes operating in the dynamic diffusion regime. The general approach may be useful in the development of Godunov numerical schemes for radiation hydrodynamics.Comment: 16 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journa

Statistical Mechanics of 2+1 Gravity From Riemann Zeta Function and Alexander Polynomial:Exact Results

In the recent publication (Journal of Geometry and Physics,33(2000)23-102) we demonstrated that dynamics of 2+1 gravity can be described in terms of train tracks. Train tracks were introduced by Thurston in connection with description of dynamics of surface automorphisms. In this work we provide an example of utilization of general formalism developed earlier. The complete exact solution of the model problem describing equilibrium dynamics of train tracks on the punctured torus is obtained. Being guided by similarities between the dynamics of 2d liquid crystals and 2+1 gravity the partition function for gravity is mapped into that for the Farey spin chain. The Farey spin chain partition function, fortunately, is known exactly and has been thoroughly investigated recently. Accordingly, the transition between the pseudo-Anosov and the periodic dynamic regime (in Thurston's terminology) in the case of gravity is being reinterpreted in terms of phase transitions in the Farey spin chain whose partition function is just a ratio of two Riemann zeta functions. The mapping into the spin chain is facilitated by recognition of a special role of the Alexander polynomial for knots/links in study of dynamics of self homeomorphisms of surfaces. At the end of paper, using some facts from the theory of arithmetic hyperbolic 3-manifolds (initiated by Bianchi in 1892), we develop systematic extension of the obtained results to noncompact Riemannian surfaces of higher genus. Some of the obtained results are also useful for 3+1 gravity. In particular, using the theorem of Margulis, we provide new reasons for the black hole existence in the Universe: black holes make our Universe arithmetic. That is the discrete Lie groups of motion are arithmetic.Comment: 69 pages,11 figures. Journal of Geometry and Physics (in press

Religion and the modernization of the body

Discourse analysis, social constructionism, rhetorical studies, literary studies and in general the linguistic turn have hijacked the actual, living breathing, recalcitrant and difficult body for research on texts. Of course, bodies are open for interpretation, but there is an important difference for example between age and ageing. In this discussion Bryan S. Turner looks at actual bio-medico-technical changes to the body and the consequences for religions

Contemporary Citizenship: Four Types

The paper begins with an examination of three ideal types citizenship which are not necessarily mutual exclusive. The first type is national citizenship, typically associated with ethno-nationalism. The second form is social citizenship or ‘welfare citizenship’ refers to the creation of social rights and is closely connected to civil-society institutions rather than to the state or market. The third form of citizenship identifies the citizen with participation in the work force emphasizing self-reliance and autonomy. In this discussion, I argue that with economic globalization and the development of neo-liberal strategies the various forms of citizenship have converged towards a new model of passive citizenship in which the state is or has withdrawn from commitment to full employment and the provision of social security, especially universal provision of welfare services, and civil-society institutions have been eroded. The result is the emergence of the apolitical,isolated citizen as consumer. The fourth model of citizenship presupposes a consumer society, a weak state and the decline of civic institutions, where the passive citizen becomes a consumer of privatized goods and services. The rise of a fourth model of citizenship – the consumer-citizen – can be interpreted as a logical consequence of financialization.1 1 Some aspects of this chapter first appeared in Bryan S. Turner (2010), ‘Ralf Dahrendorf on Citizenship and Life Chances’, Citizenship Studies, 14 (2): 237–43

Vulnerability and entitlements

The article examines the merits of both human rights and citizenship as systems to protect vulnerable individuals. The idea of vulnerability is presented as a more reliable concept than the dignity of the individual in comparative research. The body is basic to vulnerability

PRODUCT DIFFERENTIATION PROTECTION: DEVELOPING A STRATEGY FOR MULTIPLE PRODUCERS OF REGIONAL SPECIALTY CROPS

Specialty crops grown by multiple producers are often viewed by consumers as differentiated products that command a price premium. Since price premiums are dependent upon differentiation of an item from generic counterparts, specialty crops must have distinctive identities that cannot be copied or mimicked by others. Trademarks are normally employed to differentiate and protect products, but the limitation of trademarks to products from a single source means that differentiation of specialty crops grown by multiple producers may involve difficulties in precluding free riders from adopting the same name. Through a case study of Georgia's Vidalia Onions and an examination of producer price data, this article explores the problem of the protection of product differentiation of regional specialty crops grown by multiple producers.Agribusiness,

Histone deacetylase inhibitors for cancer therapy: An evolutionarily ancient resistance response may explain their limited success

Histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACi) are in clinical trials against a variety of cancers. Despite early successes, results against the more common solid tumors have been mixed. How is it that so many cancers, and most normal cells, tolerate the disruption caused by HDACi‐induced protein hyperacetylation? And why are a few cancers so sensitive? Here we discuss recent results showing that human cells mount a coordinated transcriptional response to HDACi that mitigates their toxic effects. We present a hypothetical signaling system that could trigger and mediate this response. To account for the existence of such a response, we note that HDACi of various chemical types are made by a variety of organisms to kill or suppress competitors. We suggest that the resistance response in human cells is a necessary evolutionary consequence of exposure to environmental HDACi. We speculate that cancers sensitive to HDACi are those in which the resistance response has been compromised by mutation. Identifying such mutations will allow targeting of HDACi therapy to potentially susceptible cancers. Also see the video abstract here