bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Meanings and Global Externalities of China’s Economic Emergence
Authors: Monga Célestin
Published: June 2019

The Chinese economy has become a multifaceted global public good. Even as China carefully and gradually rebalances its growth model from export-led to domestic consumption, it will also help address issues of global imbalances. Still, during that internal adjustment process, China will absorb increasingly large quantities of exports from around the world—including from developing countries that can strategically position themselves to competitively supply goods and services in light manufacturing and low-skilled industries which China dominated at earlier stages of its economic take-off. China’s industrial upgrading strategies, which reflect changes in its endowment structure, have defied mainstream economic prescriptions. The country’s stubbornness in designing and implementing steadfastly policy frameworks that identify potentially competitive industries and facilitate their emergence (while accounting for social and political constraints and realities) could provide useful blueprints for other developing countries. This chapter highlights several global externalities of China’s economy, and examines the opportunities and challenges they present. It also discusses some of China’s major macroeconomic risks and possible negative externalities to the world economy.
China–Africa Ties in Historical Context
Authors: Shinn David H.
Published: June 2019

From Mao Zedong’s seizure of power in 1949 until the early 1990s, China focused more intensely on its political relationship with Africa than its economic ties. During this period China was more concerned about support for African liberation movements, competition with Taiwan, the ‘One China’ principle, and dealing with internal challenges such as the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. The Deng Xiaoping era witnessed a reduction of China’s engagement in Africa while the Jiang Zemin period set the stage for significant advancement. By Hu Jintao’s arrival early in the twenty-first century, the China–Africa relationship had become based predominantly on economic interests, especially China’s desire to access African raw materials. It began with trade and expanded into Chinese outward investment in Africa. By 2009, China had overtaken the United States as Africa’s largest trading partner. So far, the Xi Jinping era has resulted in a greater focus on protection of Chinese interests in Africa, security cooperation, and a levelling off and even decline in China’s economic engagement.
Introduction
Authors: Birkhold Matthew H.
Published: June 2019

The Introduction raises the main questions answered by the book: how were characters regulated before the existence of intellectual property laws? Why does fan fiction proliferate after 1750? And how did fan fiction and its rules affect authorship and the law? It further provides a brief history of fan fiction from Homer to Goethe and offers an explanation of the methodology used in this text, combining legal anthropology, literary criticism, and historical analysis based on archival work. The Introduction places the work within existing scholarship on legal history, studies of eighteenth-century literature and the book trade, and intellectual property law.
The Stakes of Fan Fiction
Authors: Birkhold Matthew H.
Published: June 2019

Chapter 2 analyzes the legal landscape within which books were printed and sold to show that existing laws could not regulate the rapidly expanding corpus of fan fiction. It provides a detailed look at the book trade and the ways in which authors were compensated. The chapter then investigates the range of arguments made to justify and condemn fan fiction, highlighting the competing personal, artistic, economic, and public interests in the production and dissemination of these works. Identifying the stakes of the debate exposes the complexity of the relationship between readers, authors, and publishers vis-à-vis literary characters, and reveals the difficulty of devising an intellectual property scheme that could effectively balance these competing interests.
Being and Reason
Authors: Lin Martin
Published: June 2019

In Being and Reason, Martin Lin offers a new interpretation of Spinoza’s core metaphysical doctrines with attention to how and why, in Spinoza, metaphysical notions are entangled with cognitive, logical, and epistemic ones. For example, according to Spinoza, a substance is that which can be conceived through itself, and a mode is that which is conceived through another. Thus, metaphysical notions, substance and mode, appear to be defined through a notion that is either cognitive or logical, being conceived through. What are we to make of the intimate connections that Spinoza sees between metaphysical, cognitive, logical, and epistemic notions? Or between being and reason? Lin argues against idealist readings according to which the metaphysical is reducible to or grounded in something epistemic, logical, or psychological. He maintains that Spinoza sees the order of being and the order of reason as two independent structures that mirror one another. In the course of making this argument, he develops new interpretations of Spinoza’s notions of attribute and mode, and of Spinoza’s claim that all things strive for self-preservation. Lin also argues against prominent idealist readings of Spinoza according to which the Principle of Sufficient Reason is absolutely unrestricted for Spinoza and is the key to his system. He contends, rather, that Spinoza’s metaphysical rationalism is a diverse phenomenon and that the Principle of Sufficient Reason is limited to claims about existence and nonexistence which are applied only once by Spinoza to the case of the necessary existence of God.
God
Authors: Lin Martin
Published: June 2019

This chapter offers reconstructions of Spinoza’s four arguments for the existence of God. Among the lessons learned from these reconstructions is that, although Spinoza’s first argument is often described as ontological, it relies on many substantive premises that go beyond the definition of God and it is not vulnerable to standard objections to ontological arguments. Additionally, the second argument introduces Spinoza’s Principle of Sufficient Reason, and seeing how Spinoza applies it to the existence of God sheds light on how he understands both the PSR and causation and explanation more generally. The chapter concludes by arguing that the third and fourth arguments pave the way for Spinoza’s claim that, besides God, no substance can be or be conceived and consideration of them shows why Spinoza’s argument for monism does not beg the question against the orthodox Cartesian.
A Garland of Freshly Grown Flowers
Authors: Höschele Regina
Published: June 2019

Chapter 4 challenges the common view that Philip of Thessalonica was a second-rate editor in comparison to Meleager and illustrates, on the basis of select examples, the intricacy of his design. The alphabetical organization of his Garland, long thought to be purely mechanical, is shown to be a technical constraint that the author imposed upon himself so as to outdo the achievements of his predecessor: Within this external framework, Philip employed subtler modes of arrangement similar to Meleager’s editorial technique: juxtaposition of model and variation; interweaving of epigrams anchored in thematic, structural, verbal, or intertextual links; epigrammatic pairs or series on the same topic distributed across the collection; and clusters on key themes within individual letter groups.
Tears and Emotions in Greek Literary Epitaphs
Authors: Doris Meyer
Published: June 2019

Chapter 11 examines emotions in literary epigrams that employ the motifs of grief and weeping, starting with selected funerary epigrams by Callimachus and Posidippus and concluding with subversive and renewed uses in Lucillius and Gregory of Nazianzus. The investigation is based on ancient philosophical and rhetorical theories and modern studies on emotions, including the sociocultural approach of ‘emotional history’. As a result, we can see how much Hellenistic poets were influenced by philosophical concepts of the fourth and third centuries BCE and how they reinterpreted their literary models to suit the requirements of their own times. The literary epitaphs of Lucillius, the satirist, condemn false emotions of presumptuous intellectuals in Rome during the first century CE, while the Christian epigrams of Gregory are shown to be inspired by bucolic and biblical motifs.
Sea and Land
Authors: Michael A. Tueller
Published: June 2019

Chapter 12 examines literary sepulchral epigrams where the themes of boundaries and death are intermingled in intriguing and complex ways. The chapter illustrates how these poems bridge, strengthen, or obscure these topics, which originate in inscribed epigram in the form of separation of the dead from the living or of the body from one’s soul. As this theme develops, the boundary between sea and land emerges prominently, sometimes mapping onto, and sometimes attempting to resolve, these other separations; this theme spills out into further divisions, between flesh and bone, or between man and fish. Even epigrams seemingly unrelated, such as Agathias’s poem (AP 7.204) on a caged partridge eaten by a pet cat, can be seen as clever variations of this scheme, in a never-ending game of poetic debt and competition.
Dreadful Eros, before and after Meleager
Authors: Kathryn Gutzwiller
Published: June 2019

Chapter 14 exemplifies how Greek epigrams, despite their small size, develop larger topics, especially when interacting with one another in an epigrammatic series. The chapter argues, further, that Hellenistic epigrams influenced not only imperial epigram but Greek and Latin literature more generally. It examines a sequence of Meleager’s epigrams, AP 5.176–80, which represent a discourse on the nature of love. Meleager draws on Greek poetry, philosophy, and art and personalizes and focalizes earlier philosophical ideas about Eros through the lover’s figure. In turn, Meleager’s reshaping of philosophical ideas about Eros served as a model for representing the lover’s emotions in the later Greek and Latin tradition, including for Vergil, Propertius, and Ovid.
Ecphrasis and Iconoclasm
Authors: Bing Peter
Published: June 2019

Chapter 19 examines how Palladas in his epigrams turned ecphrasis into a medium for contemplating the tension between the Greek literary and cultural heritage and the sociopolitical and religious environment of his own turbulent times; in the hands of Palladas, ecphrastic modes are adapted to describe the dire realities of an age when statues of Greek gods were defaced, demolished, recast, or reconfigured by Christians. While ecphrases traditionally evoke the stable and essential features of the images they describe and interpret, Palladas’ ecphrastic epigrams pointedly focus on their enforced transformation and altered circumstances. His ecphrases thus become melancholy reflections on change.
Authoritarian Regionalism in the World of International Organizations
Authors: Obydenkova Anastassia V. , Libman Alexander
Published: June 2019

The post-Cold War world has witnessed the extensive development of regional international organizations world-wide. The realtionship between their membership and democratization remains a topic of intense scholarly debate. This book opens up a new aspect of the debate by examining regional organization as set up by autocracies (e.g. Iran, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Russia, and China)—referring to them as “non-democratic regional organizations.” How do these newly emerged organizations counteract and confront the democratization process in their own member states and beyond their borders? How and why do the political regimes, the economic development and the cultures of their member states impac the foundation and development of these organizations? What influence do these organizations have on migration, trade, conflicts, and democratization? The book addresses these questions by developing a new theory of authoritarian regionalism. Employing quantitative analysis of authoritarian regionalism world-wide and its historical development since the 1950s, as well as analysing case studies of post-Soviet Eurasia, the book argues that authoritarian regionalism is a new phenomenon in world politics and that modern non-democratic organizations differ from their historical predecessors and that their influence has radically increased in terms of geographic scope and intensity in the last few years. As such, authoritarian regionalism is an important addition to studies of comparative regionalism and the international dimension of authoritarianism. From the policy perspective, non-democratic regional organizations pose a challenge for Western actors in promoting democracy around the world.
Authoritarian Regionalism
Authors: Obydenkova Anastassia V. , Libman Alexander
Published: June 2019

The goal of this chapter is to present the main elements of our theoretical argument. Departing from existing studies, the chapter introduces a new theory called “authoritarian regionalism” and derives hypotheses from this. The chapter provides a definition of the NDROs (authoritarian regionalism) and then identifies several areas where these organizations should be different from their democratic counterparts: heterogeneity of membership, power distribution, and governance. This chapter also discusses the most important argument of the book: authoritarian regionalisms’ ability to contribute to the consolidation of autocracies. The chapter presents the main mechanisms which can be used for this purpose, discusses whether NDROs possess their own actorness, and analyzes the limits for autocracy promotion by authoritarian regional organizations.
Impact on World Politics and Economy
Authors: Obydenkova Anastassia V. , Libman Alexander
Published: June 2019

This chapter studies the different impacts of DROs and NDROs on economic and political development, finding that NDROs are less successful than DROs at liberalizing foreign trade among member states. The chapter focus on actual trade ties and trade flows is in line with the existing literature. In terms of the impact on migration, NDROs exhibit larger within-region migration flows than DROs (with some caveats concerning the statistical analysis). To consider impact of NDRO on political regimes, the chapter looks at whether membership in an NDRO affects the duration of tenure of authoritarian leaders. The analysis shows that the tenure of leaders of NDRO member states was significantly longer than that of leaders whose countries did not belong to an NDRO. The findings indicate that membership of an NDRO has a significant political impact; in the subsequent case studies we trace the particular mechanisms explaining this effect.
Economic Regionalism
Authors: Obydenkova Anastassia V. , Libman Alexander
Published: June 2019

Unlike the CIS, the Eurasian Economic Union, which was set up in 2015, but follows a long line of regional organizations which existed since 1995, focuses exclusively on economic affairs. The chapter discusses the governance and the membership of the EAEU, as well as its economic and political implications. It analyzes possible influences of the EAEU on the political regimes of the member countries, and concludes that the EAEU itself does not seem to exercise autocracy-promoting influences. However, the chapter shows that, by studying the EAEU, it is important to take into account an indirect effect: the existence of the EAEU triggers changes in Russian foreign policy, which in turn can contribute to the stabilization of authoritarian regimes.
Security Regionalism
Authors: Obydenkova Anastassia V. , Libman Alexander
Published: June 2019

Unlike the EAEU and the CIS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization includes two key actors—Russia and China. The chapter reviews the specifics of the organization and the functioning of the SCO, and also develops an argument about how SCO could contribute to the longevity of autocratic rulers. It tests whether autocracies which belong to the SCO are characterized by longer tenure of the rulers than those which do not belong to the SCO. Through the trust building between nations, the SCO enables more intensive economic cooperation of authoritarian regimes. Apart from economic support through the SCO, the chapter investigates another potential explanation of autocracy consolidation of the region related to the SCO’s role.
The Internet and the Global Reach of EU Law
Authors: Kuner Christopher
Published: June 2019

The internet has had a significant influence on how EU law applies beyond EU borders, and has enabled the EU to extend the application of its fundamental values to third countries. There are many examples of the EU exerting its global reach regarding the internet, particularly in data protection and privacy law. The EU’s actions in exercising its global reach with regard to the internet implicate important normative issues, such as distinguishing between the furtherance of core EU legal values and the advancement of the EU’s political interests; promoting the principles of EU law as universal values; ensuring that EU legal values are upheld in practice; and determining the territorial boundaries of EU law. The influence exercised by the EU carries responsibilities towards third countries, particularly those in the developing world. The internet may itself also be influencing EU law.
Conceptual Conspectus
Authors: O’Leary Brendan
Published: June 2019

This chapter contrasts the colonial and “sectarianized peoples” interpretations of modern Irish history, defining and defending the former while noting that the latter frequently displays “observational equivalence” with the former. Jürgen Osterhammel’s conception of colonialism is shown to be applicable and apposite, as are those of a range of thinkers from Machiavelli to Michael Hechter. A political rather than an economic or cultural conception of colonialism is defended. An overview of the influential “ancient-régime” reading of Irish history by Sean Connolly is shown to have significant limitations. The curious absence of decolonization from much Irish historiography is noted. The reason that matters is that it is important to date the end of colonization in the South and the North respectively and precisely.
Overlooked by the Tall Kingdom before Dying of Political Economy
Authors: O’Leary Brendan
Published: June 2019

This chapter examines Ireland’s political experience during the first half of the Union. Among the subjects surveyed are the long delay in Catholic emancipation, the continuation of administrative colonialism, and the emergence of fiscal dependence and highly uneven economic development that culminated in the Great Famine. The latter’s significance is assessed. The author argues that, just as manslaughter should be distinguished from homicide, so “geno-slaughter” better accounts for what occurred than genocide. The limitations of efforts to make Ireland British are assessed, and the development of state–church relations critically evaluated. Protestant Ulster’s resistance to O’Connell’s movement for Repeal of the Union is assessed, as is the return of Presbyterians toward a pan-Protestant coalition against reenergized Irish Catholicism.
Crying Aloud for Vengeance and the Power of a Colonial Caste
Authors: O’Leary Brendan
Published: June 2019

In the latter half of the Union, participation crises occurred across the institutional spectrum, with many Irish men and women choosing exit rather than voice or loyalty. That, however, produced a better-resourced Irish diaspora in an emergent great power. Catholics achieved some limited social mobility, but experienced regression in some occupations; by contrast, Presbyterians more clearly benefited from pan-Protestantism. The churches deepened their institutional strength in education, including higher education. The undemocratic character of the Union is emphasized in this chapter, but the secret ballot and the eventual widening of the male franchise made more visible what had long been evident: most Irish Catholics preferred repeal of the Union, home rule, or independence, or some variant thereof. The expanded electorate, in conjunction with modernization, underpinned the electoral solidification of nationalism and unionism, respectively supported by cultural Catholics and cultural Protestants, especially in Ulster, where polarization was deepest. The formation of Irish nationalism and republicanism in party formats, initially focused on land rights and home rule, and the countermovement of Irish and Ulster unionism are treated. The First World War postponed conflict in a newly para-militarized Ireland.
Introduction
Authors: O’Leary Brendan
Published: June 2019

This chapter sets the scene for the three volumes that follow. It provides an introduction to the conflict, and debates over its nature. It defends defining the conflict as primarily national and ethnic, rooted in the English and British colonial past. The meaning(s) of national and ethnic groups are defined. The chapter summarizes the history of the collective names of the groups in question, and provides an account of how cultural Catholics and cultural Protestants recognize one another through names, places, and schools. The plan of the book is set out in relation to Political Science and Irish historiography, indicating how the concepts of colonialism, control, and consociation will be used to order the subsequent exposition.
Introduction, Overview, and Policies
Authors: Rana Pradumna B. , Chia Wai-Mun
Published: June 2019

This chapter analyses macroeconomic trends in South Asian countries. It argues that the high economic growth rate that these countries had achieved due to macroeconomic reforms of the 1980s and 1990s has started to soften once again. A major reason for this is the slowing pace of economic reforms in these countries. The chapter then highlights the key objectives of the book. The first objective is to argue that in order to jumpstart economic growth and deepen economic integration, South Asian countries need to adopt a two-pronged strategy. First, South Asian countries need to complete the economic reform process that they had begun. Second, they need to implement the second round of ‘Look East’ policies (LEP2). The second objective of the book is to identify the unfinished policy reform agenda for South Asian countries and the components of LEP2 that they should implement. The chapter also summarizes the major findings of the book.
Policies to Increase Production Network Participation Rates
Authors: Rana Pradumna B. , Chia Wai-Mun
Published: June 2019

This chapter identifies the production network participation gap of the ‘PNP gap’ between South Asia and East Asia and within South Asia. It argues that although the newer theories of international trade associated with production networks and supply chains have both costs as well as benefits, the latter outweigh the former and there are significant dynamic network externalities associated with participating in supply chain trade. The chapter then argues that South Asian countries should implement the second round of ‘Look East’ Policies (LEP2) to (i) link themselves to production networks in East Asia and (ii) develop production networks in manufacturing and services within their region. An econometric analysis performed in this chapter helps us to identify the key determinants of supply chain trade and the components of the LEP2 that South Asian countries should implement. These are (i) improving the business environment by completing the reform process begun in the early 1990s, (ii) reducing logistics cost including promoting trade facilitation, (iii) joining and participating in various ongoing regional trade and financial cooperation efforts in East Asia, (iv) reducing communication and coordination costs in managing supply chains by improving Information Communication Technology (ICT), and (v) enhancing regional physical connectivity mainly through transport hardware.
Democracy, Privatization, and the Rise of Non-state Regulatory Power
Authors: Katrougalos George
Published: June 2019

This chapter emphasizes the deliberate political decision by which countries like the United States initially established a liberal state, which adopted the welfare state model in the twentieth century, while the European countries establish a social state within the liberal tradition as a deliberate democratic political decision supporting economic equality and individual well-being. The European model, which was later adopted by non-Western countries such as India and South Africa, is, however, being reversed by the process of globalization of trade and internationalization of economy without democratic legitimization because the demos are not part of these decisions. To that extent these decisions, besides reversing the European process of social state, also fail to satisfy the principle of democratic decision making.
Establishing Judicial Review in China
Authors: Zhang Qianfan
Published: June 2019

This chapter analyses China’s existing mechanism of reviewing the constitutionality and legality of legislations and its deficiencies. The first part of the chapter describes the Qi Yuling case and the failure to maintain and advance a judicial review mechanism in China. The second part discusses some of the constitutional cases, mostly on equality without reference to the Constitution. The third and fourth parts explore the political and legal context for the existing review mechanism, in which the role of the judiciary is minimized and the limitations that inhere in the legislative review mechanism. The final part discusses the theoretical and practical impediments at establishing judicial review in China, and proposes several reforms aimed at evolving a suitable mechanism for ensuring conformity of state action to China’s Constitution and the laws.
Three Models of Affirmative Action through the Lens of Separation of Powers
Authors: Sarkar Arpita
Published: June 2019

Comparing three jurisdictions of India, South Africa, and Canada, this chapter argues that all of them are fighting historical injustices done to certain sections of their people through robust institutional mechanisms for appropriate implementation of affirmative action programmes and their effective judicial review. The chapter studies the issue not from the perspective of identification of designated groups with the objective of claiming the superiority of one model over the others, but rather aims at showing how history, structure of the constitutional set-up, and constitutional practices encourage different institutional mechanisms for implementation of affirmative action programmes in these countries.
World Conference on Human Rights
Authors: Singhvi L.M.
Published: June 2019

In Chapter 7, the editors have highlighted the human rights issues addressed by Dr Singhvi on different levels. Protection of human rights is necessary for human excellence. Human rights, like peace are indivisible and universal, but selectivity and discrimination have to be avoided, states Dr Singhvi. Conditionalities are frequently in danger of becoming political weapons. What is required is a constructive approach to the concept of development and strategies of development, Dr Singhvi asserts.
Kashmir in the Changing International Environment
Authors: Singhvi L.M.
Published: June 2019

Dr Singhvi’s views on Kashmir keeping in view the international challenges to the Kashmir problem. He says that the so called demand for independent Kashmir and the so-called third option is historically and legally without any basis, and politically it would be a source of endless intrigue, perpetual unrest, and calculated destabilization of one or the other country, and the exploitation of J&K as a pawn on the international chessboard. Dr Singhvi asserts that those who speak for the third option on the basis of principle of self-determination do not appear to understand the concept which is confined in international law to decolonization and cannot be used as a tool for disintegrating multicultural sovereign, democratic states.
Rotary Foundation Lecture
Authors: Singhvi L.M.
Published: June 2019

This chapter deals with Dr Singhvi’s observations on Rotary Club and its contribution for the humanity. He states that in the mission of translating the vision of human growth and dream of our world and our common future, all the peoples of the world have a contribution to make, Rotary has a role to play, Rotary Foundation has ideas, programmes, and human resources to offer. Such a mission has to be a part of the movement of the global human society. The Rotary can be a catalyst to make the dream come true, states Dr Singhvi in his oration.
Educational Reforms in India
Authors: Singhvi L.M.
Published: June 2019

Dr Singhvi’s views reflected on the occasion of Delhi University convocation on educational reforms are presented in this chapter. He states that the Indian universities need to address the basic issue of what they are expected to achieve and what they are actually producing. Universities and the teaching communities have to be judged by the quality of their product; they have to be judged by the quality of their research. Quality has become increasingly marginal and that is not merely because of the resource crunch. Sometimes I feel that Indian universities today are really neither competitive nor creative. They seem to have lost their way because they have lost their vitality of the universal ethos of all educational systems.
Horizons of Healthcare
Authors: Singhvi L.M.
Published: June 2019

In Chapter 22, we have covered his views on healthcare system in the country. He has expressed his concerns on the healthcare infrastructure in the country. He states that the people should be provided affordable healthcare by the state. The healthcare infrastructure needs to be strengthened in our country. I would like to congratulate Sir Ganga Ram hospital for putting in place a scheme of Substantial donations from the doctors and the staff in the cause of health orientated philanthropy and the improvement of the hospital facilities. Sir Ganga Ram Hospital also provides free medical facilities in a substantial measure.
Indology and the Future of Our Past
Authors: Singhvi L.M.
Published: June 2019

Indian society retains its vitality and is keen to comprehend and nurture its identity for identity finds its anchors in time and space and Indology is the key to our identity in time and space. He asserts that there is no reason to believe that Indian antiquity will be pushed into oblivion or be discarded and cast away for the past lasts much longer than the time in which it was and the time in which we reflect upon it. Nor is Indology entirely of the past. It is also the past as we perceive it and therefore it is the past in the present and future tense, and today is the yesterday of tomorrow and tomorrow is the yesterday of day after.
Biocultural Rights
Authors: Sajeva Giulia
Published: June 2019

Chapter 5 explores the difficult and challenging questions that arise from the sui generis nature of biocultural rights: they carry certain characteristics that are typical of human rights discourse as well as others that are difficult to fit into its categories. A reflection is provided on the potential positive and negative implications biocultural rights entail from political and practical points of view, stressing the different status of indigenous peoples and local communities in international law, and pointing out how this influences the potential dangers and advantages of biocultural rights. In order to explore how biocultural rights could be valuable, albeit to be handled with care, the chapter provides the analysis of the case of the Khwe indigenous peoples of Bwabwata National Park, investigating their struggles and claims through the lens of biocultural rights.
Gender and Anti-Discrimination Laws in India
Authors: Verma Vidhu
Published: June 2019

The Constitution of India guarantees not only formal equality but also promises that entrenched power structures will gradually dissolve. However, forms of discrimination faced by women are not just a feature of our social fabric but are supported by the ambiguities of the legal-juridical framework that reinforce unjust gender norms. The persistence of gender discrimination as it exists in the wider societal sphere is expressed by the unevenness that marks women’s access to the legal system. The chapter reviews the contestations, the changing categories, and terms of feminist analysis in law. It turns to address the problem of equal rights in understanding the protection against vulnerability, and various forms the loss of liberty takes in different contexts of marginality about gender discrimination. In what follows, I begin by presenting some methodological concerns. Then I discuss the Indian jurisprudence on sexual harassment and assault. I then focus briefly on the right to temple entry and ‘honour’ crimes in recent years and the legal responses to them. In the last section, I address three strong challenges to my account of gender discrimination. My main argument is that the doctrinal history of harassment and rape in the Indian context points to the power and limitations of legal rights as a strategy for social change. Establishing a basis for legal liability can reshape consciousness about working environments, but this has not deterred those who harass, from using less formal means of attacking women rights. For legal feminists, the law remains a site of discursive struggle where dominant meanings come to inform not only juridical categories but also the social world that define our concepts and practices. The dilemma of preserving difference in law and yet not having disadvantageous effects to unequal parties remain.
Securing South Asia
Authors: Chatterjee Shibashis
Published: June 2019

The chapter accounts for the growth of territorial nationalism and realism undergirding India’s security thinking in South Asian. The author concentrates here on the political and security narratives of Indian elites and shows how they have thought about India’s security primarily in realist, geopolitical terms. He also shows that while the perspectives differ on certain issues across India’s major political parties, when entrusted with actual policymaking, these differences lessen quite remarkably. The chapter also discusses the perspectives of the strategic elites in India who legitimate the narrative of space as power. While these experts are not a part of the ‘ruling elite’, their role in package legitimation of a realist or power-centric reading of the neighbourhood influences the official narratives to a great extent. The accessibility and privileging of certain discourses over others is an excellent indicator of the spatial thinking of the state.
Imageries of Space
Authors: Chatterjee Shibashis
Published: June 2019

Spatial imaginations evolve. One such major spatial experiment has been India’s Look East/Act East policy that is the subject of this chapter. This chapter reads the genesis of India’s Look East policy in two spatial registers. First, this policy was reflected in India’s urge to redefine its neighbourhood as it finds itself bogged down in its immediate vicinity. The second register has to do with India’s efforts to find a solution to chronic economic underdevelopment of India’s turbulent and fraught northeastern region by bringing the advantages of scale to this geographically locked-in area. The author also discusses how the Look East policy has increasingly veered towards the new articulation of ‘Indo-Pacific’ as a geo-political theatre for a rising power that needs to balance against China.
Imag(in)ing Indian Muslims in Post-liberalization Hindi Cinema
Authors: Islam Maidul
Published: June 2019

This chapter depicts the nature of image constructions of Indian Muslims by the ideological state apparatus of popular Bollywood cinema. It argues that a constant process of vilification of Muslims in Hindi cinema has produced the image of a ‘Muslim Other’, which is contradictory to the image of a law-abiding citizen. Such a cultural process of homogenization via a stereotyped image of Muslims in Hindi movies creates a suspicious mind-set towards Muslims. This chapter argues that the mythical imagination about Muslims as represented in popular Hindi cinema has labelled certain cultural fixations of the Muslim community. In effect, Hindi cinema has been continuously propagating a stereotyped model of Muslims in both foreign territories and different parts of the country. This chapter shows that Bollywood films have not significantly dealt with the livelihood problems of Indian Muslims arising out of the economic and educational backwardness of the community.
Indian Muslims and the Politics of Affirmative Action
Authors: Islam Maidul
Published: June 2019

Chapter 3 assesses the underlying political logic of community-based affirmative action and reservation that is promoted as the new ameliorative policy, addressing the deprivation of Indian Muslims under conditions of economic reforms. It does so by engaging with the findings and policy prescriptions of the Sachar Committee Report, the Ranganath Misra Commission Report, and the post-Sachar Evaluation Committee Report. Besides, the chapter points out the missing links of the Sachar Committee Report and presents a host of other suggestions that the committee did not recommend for the socio-economic development of Indian Muslims. While evaluating the merits of the Sachar and Misra Commission reports along with defending the ethical grounds for the affirmative action for Muslims in India, this chapter also tries to unearth the limitations of the approach of the government towards Muslim minorities in the context of neoliberal dispensation.
Epilogue
Authors: Islam Maidul
Published: June 2019

The Epilogue argues that a politics of social justice with core democratic demands for affirmative action and representation needs to be complemented with a politics of distributive justice that has a concern with equity. Thus, to address the issue of marginalization, a progressive politics needs to articulate the arguments of both ‘redistribution’ and ‘recognition’. The chapter suggests that a radical democratic politics needs to be constructed in such a way that its political appeal is relevant for the marginalized groups, including the Muslims, by emphasizing both social justice and distributive justice with a vision of transcending neoliberal capitalism. In response to the hegemonic presence of neoliberal regime in India, a radical democratic project of creating a platform for articulating the demands of various marginalized sectors of the population namely, workers, peasants, Dalits, Adivasis, women, and Muslims are being proposed in this chapter.
Human Development in an Unequal World
Authors: Prabhu K. Seeta , Iyer Sandhya S.
Published: June 2019

This book is about the human development paradigm that is assuming renewed importance at a time when global dialogue is preoccupied with discussing pathways for achieving the 2030 agenda of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It deals with the knowledge of human development in an unequal world and examines a range of issues of contemporary relevance, such as social sectors, poverty, gender inequality, social exclusion, and sustainability. Arguments in favour of human freedoms and flourishing are pertinent as societies in contemporary times are getting increasing broken into multiple identities and social categories. The ‘Unequal World’ represents the conjunction of human unfreedoms due to deprivations and inequalities in multiple realms. It argues for a paradigmatic shift in analysis, policy, and methodology towards a people-centered approach rooted in human flourishing and freedoms. This book seeks to bring back people to the forefront, and refocus on the centrality of peoples’ choices and freedoms. It is anchored in the human development paradigm and examines a range of issues that reflect the dimensions of an unequal world. Set within the broader framework that includes processes, institutions, and actors, the book explores both analytical and empirical realms. The ten chapters of the book weave together the numerous concepts, methods, and evidence. The comprehensive coverage and the integrated framework presented will enable readers across the globe to arrive at a thorough understanding of the human development approach and apply these frameworks in development practice with a fresh and more relevant perspective.
Social Sectors in Human Development
Authors: Prabhu K. Seeta , Iyer Sandhya S.
Published: June 2019

This chapter critically examines the role of social sector policies in enhancing human freedoms against the backdrop of the globalization process and the SDGs that are anchored in the human development ethos. We argue that the agenda of human development policy-making is of identifying and promoting ‘public goods’ that enhance basic capabilities and thereby human well-being. Drawing from the empirical experience of countries, four stylized facts that contribute to the effectiveness of social sector policies are presented. The stylized facts emphasize the role of initial conditions, redistributive measures, and reaping the synergies of integrated policies. Select innovative measures across countries that address human development challenges are discussed with a view to identifying unique policy initiatives. The chapter highlights the need to distinguish between the pathways of policy-making that enhance comprehensive outcomes vis-a-vis those that lead only to culmination outcomes.
Epilogue
Authors: Prabhu K. Seeta , Iyer Sandhya S.
Published: June 2019

Discussing human development issues at the national level, without being mindful of the global architecture that can enable or hinder the same, is an exercise in futility. In recognition, this chapter reflects on the broader engagement of global policy-making in influencing pathways to human progress. The chapter puts forth the argument that the ‘unequal world’ today is gearing towards fostering notions of equity and justice, which are key to the human development paradigm. The rejuvenation of the global architecture is imperative as the onslaught of economic crisis, environmental fragility, and worsening of social inequities are cutting across economies in both the developed as well as the developing world. In such a milieu, it may be worthwhile to revive the dialogue process beyond the SDG mandate to encompass economic and political issues—a la the North–South Roundtables platform of yore.
Enforcement
Authors: Gerner-Beuerle Carsten , Schillig Michael
Published: June 2019

This chapter explores whether the lower level of investor protection that some commentators associate with the civil law can be explained with deficiencies in the enforcement mechanisms that investors, and in particular minority shareholders, have at their disposal. It starts with a discussion of the so-called ‘contracwetualisation of responsibility’. It then analyses how the claims that a company has against its own directors can be enforced, in particular, by minority shareholders. The last part of the chapter gives an overview of substitute enforcement mechanisms for the minority shareholder lawsuit that are of great practical importance in some jurisdictions. In contrast to litigation by the company (acting through its authorized organ or minority shareholders), these substitute mechanisms are predominantly of a public law nature. Thus, this final section will illustrate how some legal systems have a preference for public enforcement, while others rely extensively on private enforcement.
Legal Capital
Authors: Gerner-Beuerle Carsten , Schillig Michael
Published: June 2019

This chapter discusses the doctrine of legal capital. In the second half of the nineteenth century, legal systems developed the doctrine of ‘legal capital’ to ensure the corporate creditors’ preferential access to the corporation’s assets, and in order to prevent shirking and inter-shareholder wealth transfers. The core of the concept of ‘legal capital’ is that an amount of capital is fixed in the company’s articles of association. This amount can be changed only by formal reduction or increase in capital. The basic starting points for the development of the doctrine of legal capital were remarkably similar on both sides of the Atlantic. However, early in the twentieth century developments in the United States and Europe parted ways.
Exploring the relationship between housing concerns, mental health and wellbeing: a qualitative study of social housing tenants
Authors: Holding Eleanor , Blank Lindsay , Crowder Mary , Ferrari Edward , Goyder Elizabeth
Published: June 2019

Background

The rising prevalence of mental health problems is a growing public health issue. Poor mental health is not equally distributed across social groups and is associated with poverty and insecure housing. An evaluation of a social housing intervention provided an opportunity to explore the connections between housing and wider determinants of health and wellbeing.

Methods

We undertook 44 interviews with social housing tenants over a two-year period to explore their views on housing, health and wellbeing.

Results

Poor mental health was common. The results suggest that perceptions of housing quality, service responsiveness, community safety, benefit changes and low income all have a detrimental effect on tenants’ mental health.

Conclusions

Social housing providers who wish to have a positive impact on the mental health of their tenants need to consider how to best support or mitigate the impact of these stresses. Addressing traditional housing officer functions such as reporting or monitoring home repairs alongside holistic support remains an important area where social housing departments can have substantial health impact. Tackling the complex nature of mental health requires a joined up approach between housing and a number of services.
A combined panel of circulating microRNA as a diagnostic tool for detection of the non-small cell lung cancer
Authors: Abdollahi A , Rahmati S , Ghaderi B , Sigari N , Nikkhoo B , Sharifi K , Abdi M
Published: June 2019

Background

Recently, much attention has been paid to use circulating microRNAs (miRs) as a non-invasive tumor marker. The present study for the first time was designed to evaluate concurrent use of miR-21, miR-638, miR148 and miR-152 as putative diagnostic tool for detection of non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC).

Methods

Forty-three patients diagnosed as primary NSCLC was included in this study. The level of selected miRs was measured in whole blood specimens of patients and controls. The corresponding values were also obtained in stages I–IV. We also assessed possible correlation between selected miRs and the clinicopathological findings of studied individuals.

Results

miR-21 was increased in patients compared to controls (P = 0.004). In contrast, circulating miR-638, miR-148 and miR-152 was observed to be down-regulated in NSCLC patients than controls (P = 0.001, 0.003, 0.053, respectively). Rise in miR-21-5p expression and decreased blood level of miR-148a-3p was associated with higher stage of NSCLC. The highest sensitivity (90%) was observed for miR-21 while miR-148 had the highest specificity (71%). The corresponding sensitivity and specificity for combined-miRs-panel was 96.4% and 86.67%, respectively.

Conclusion

In summary, our data suggested the diagnostic importance of combined-miR-panel including miR-21, miR-638, miR148 and miR-152 for effective discrimination of NSCLC from non-cancerous subjects.
How Much Do Directors Influence Firm Value?
Authors: Burt Aaron , Hrdlicka Christopher , Harford Jarrad
Published: June 2019

The value a director provides to a firm is empirically difficult to establish. We estimate that value by exploiting the commonality in idiosyncratic returns of firms linked by a director and show that, on average, a director’s influence causes variation in firm value of almost 1% per year. The return commonality is not due to industry or other observable economic links. Variation in the availability of information on shared directors and a placebo test exploiting the timing of shared directors provide further identification. The results also imply that the directorial labor market does not fully assess directors in real time. (JEL G34, G14)