Beyond Stateless Democracy

Pierre Bourdieu began his posthumously published lectures “On the State” by highlighting the three dominant traditions that have framed most thinking about the state in Western social science and modern social theory. On the one hand, he highlighted what he termed the “initial definition” of the state as a “neutral site” designed to regulate conflict and “serve the common good.” Bourdieu traced this essentially classical liberal conception of the state back to the pioneering political treatises of Thomas Hobbes and John Locke.1 In direct response to this “optimistic functionalism,” Bourdieu noted the rise of a critical and more “pessimistic” alternative—something of a diametric opposite

Social Freedom, Democracy and the Political: Three Reflections on Axel Honneth\u27s Idea of Socialism

Axel Honneth’s Idea of Socialism is an important clarion call for an urgent rethinking of the possibilities of a socialism for the twenty-first century. One of the most surprising and satisfying aspects of Axel Honneth’s timely new book is its recovery of the continued vitality of John Dewey’s pragmatic democratic philosophy. These reflections on Honneth’s use of John Dewey for democratizing social freedom, take stock of and explore the political limits of Honneth’s social reconstruction

Democratic States of Unexception: Towards a New Genealogy of the American Political

This chapter takes issue with the history and theory of exception along these three lines. The first section offers a critique of the idea of law at the heart of the theory of exception. By taking a closer look at the history and theory of law in early nineteenth-century America, it offers an alternative reading of the role of exception in Emerson’s America – a place and time in which the exception in law was anything but exceptional. The second section offers a critique of the idea of state and sovereignty at the heart of the theory of exception in the early twentieth century. In place of Schmitt’s concept of the political, it offers a reconsideration of John Dewey’s more democratic conception of “the public” and its problems, where again the exception is an unexceptional part of an everyday and agonistic democratic politics. The third section moves us further into the twentieth century, challenging the suzerainty of both liberal and neoliberal characterizations of exception and totalitarianism in that ideologically charged period. Here, Charles Merriam’s ideas about new democracy and new despotism provide an alternative reference point for thinking about the exception, its antidemocratic dangers, and its democratic possibilities. In the context of a revitalized theory of the nature of power in democratic states, the exception does not appear so exceptional. Indeed, when viewed from the perspective of democratic state history, the exception may be one of the most common ways that democratic states exercise power every day. Evaluating the state of exception from the critical perspective of the modern democratic state exposes the limits of the notions of formal law, bureaucratic statecraft, and liberal politics that so frequently preoccupy discussions of exception and emergency governance. Those rather profound limitations suggest the need for an alternative genealogy of the political. In the theories of law, state, and politics in the writings of Emerson, Dewey, and Merriam, this essay proposes a tentative new genealogy of the modern American political – where democracy is not a problem but a solution and where the exception is not exceptional but one of the most quotidian ways of exercising power in agonistic modes of self-government

Toward a History of the Democratic State

Over the past generation, the history of the state has been experiencing a much-noted renaissance, especially in France and the United States. In the United States as late as 1986, Morton Keller complained to William Leuchtenburg in the Journal of American History: “To say that ‘there is much still to be learned about the nature of the State in America’ is … a major understatement. There is close to everything to be learned about the State.” In France as late as 1990, Pierre Rosanvallon’s powerful introduction to L’État en France suggested that an ambitious history of the state could not yet be written because of the lack of works focused specifically on the state. As he put it, “L’État comme problème politique, ou comme phénomène bureaucratique, est au coeur des passions partisanes et des débats philosophiques tout en restant une sorte de non-objet historique.” As the essays in this volume attest, much has changed in the historiography of the American and French states in the intervening 25 years. The state has indeed been brought “back in” in Theda Skocpol’s influential words. In fact, the return of the state in history, theory, and the social sciences in both France and the United States has been so strong and successful, that the subject of “the state/l’État” has again itself become an intellectual crossroads—and a contested terrain—for new important debates and controversies concerning the French and American past more generally

Toward System Change to Tackle Antimicrobial Resistance: Improving the Voluntary Stewardship of Antimicrobials in US Agriculture

From Executive Summary:This report presents the details of a research study looking at the potential for improving voluntary stewardship of antimicrobials in US agriculture, in the interests of tackling antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Failure to address AMR could lead to significant impacts on both human and animal health. Voluntary stewardship is an approach that relies on the willingness of food-animal producers and supportive industries (e.g., veterinary services and pharmaceutical companies), as well as broader stakeholders (e.g., public health policymakers and consumer advocates), to ensure the judicious use of antimicrobials without the need for regulation, legislation, mandatory compliance or statutory enforcement

看護学部教官業績目録 ; 2003年1月～12月

Acinetobacter baumannii ATCC 19606 tolerates loss of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) caused by inactivation of early LPS pathway genes. However, mutations in pathway genes encoding steps downstream of LpxD have not been reported, implying that later biosynthetic steps may be essential for viability. Here, we determined if LpxH, the UDP-2,3-diacylglucosamine hydrolase that generates UMP-2,3-diacylglucosamine 1-phosphate (lipid X), was essential in A. baumannii ATCC 19606. Multiple attempts to disrupt lpxH on the genome were unsuccessful. When expression of LpxH was placed under control of an isopropyl β-D-1-thiogalactopyranoside (IPTG) inducible promoter, the cells failed to grow under standard laboratory conditions without IPTG induction. Growth under LpxH depletion conditions (-IPTG) was rescued by chemical inhibition of LpxC, upstream of LpxH, indicating that toxic accumulation of LPS pathway intermediates underlies LpxH essentiality. Consistent with this, the levels of LpxH substrate (product of LpxD) and a C14:0(3-OH) acyl variant of the LpxD substrate had accumulated in cells that were depleted of LpxH causing a growth defect. Intriguingly, under these partial depletion conditions, there was also a smaller but reproducible accumulation of the downstream pathway intermediates disaccharide 1-monophosphate and lipid IVA suggesting a complex downstream response to LpxH depletion

Substance abuse, treatment needs and access among female sex workers and non-sex workers in Pretoria, South Africa

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>This study examined cross-sectional data collected from substance-using female sex workers (FSW) and non-sex workers (non-SW) in Pretoria, South Africa, who entered a randomized controlled trial.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Women who reported alcohol use and recently engaging in sex work or unprotected sex were recruited for a randomized study. The study sample (N = 506) comprised 335 FSW and 171 female non-SW from Pretoria and surrounding areas. Self-reported data about alcohol and other drug use as well as treatment needs and access were collected from participants before they entered a brief intervention.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>As compared with female non-SW, FSW were found to have a greater likelihood of having a past year diagnosis of alcohol or other drug abuse or dependence, having a family member with a history of alcohol or other drug abuse, having been physically abused, having used alcohol before age 18, and having a history of marijuana use. In addition, the FSW were more likely to perceive that they had alcohol or other drug problems, and that they had a need for treatment and a desire to go for treatment. Less than 20% of participants in either group had any awareness of alcohol and drug treatment programs, with only 3% of the FSW and 2% of the non-SW reporting that they tried but were unable to enter treatment in the past year.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>FSW need and want substance abuse treatment services but they often have difficulty accessing services. The study findings suggest that barriers within the South African treatment system need to be addressed to facilitate access for substance-using FSW. Ongoing research is needed to inform policy change that fosters widespread educational efforts and sustainable, accessible, woman-sensitive services to ultimately break the cycle for current and future generations of at-risk South African women.</p

Species-Specific Activity of SIV Nef and HIV-1 Vpu in Overcoming Restriction by Tetherin/BST2

Tetherin, also known as BST2, CD317 or HM1.24, was recently identified as an interferon-inducible host–cell factor that interferes with the detachment of virus particles from infected cells. HIV-1 overcomes this restriction by expressing an accessory protein, Vpu, which counteracts tetherin. Since lentiviruses of the SIVsmm/mac/HIV-2 lineage do not have a vpu gene, this activity has likely been assumed by other viral gene products. We found that deletion of the SIVmac239 nef gene significantly impaired virus release in cells expressing rhesus macaque tetherin. Virus release could be restored by expressing Nef in trans. However, Nef was unable to facilitate virus release in the presence of human tetherin. Conversely, Vpu enhanced virus release in the presence of human tetherin, but not in the presence of rhesus tetherin. In accordance with the species-specificity of Nef in mediating virus release, SIV Nef downregulated cell-surface expression of rhesus tetherin, but did not downregulate human tetherin. The specificity of SIV Nef for rhesus tetherin mapped to four amino acids in the cytoplasmic domain of the molecule that are missing from human tetherin, whereas the specificity of Vpu for human tetherin mapped to amino acid differences in the transmembrane domain. Nef alleles of SIVsmm, HIV-2 and HIV-1 were also able to rescue virus release in the presence of both rhesus macaque and sooty mangabey tetherin, but were generally ineffective against human tetherin. Thus, the ability of Nef to antagonize tetherin from these Old World primates appears to be conserved among the primate lentiviruses. These results identify Nef as the viral gene product of SIV that opposes restriction by tetherin in rhesus macaques and sooty mangabeys, and reveal species-specificity in the activities of both Nef and Vpu in overcoming tetherin in their respective hosts

Molecular Mechanism of the Constitutive Activation of the L250Q Human Melanocortin-4 Receptor Polymorphism †

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/65471/1/j.1747-0285.2006.00362.x.pd