bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Symbolic-Consequences Argument in the Sex Robot Debate
Authors: Danaher John
Published: May 2018

This chapter examines a common objection to sex robots: the symbolic-consequences argument. According to this argument sex robots are problematic because they symbolise something disturbing about our attitude to sex-related norms such as consent and the status of our sex partners, and because of the potential consequences of this symbolism. After formalising this objection and considering several real-world uses of it, the chapter subjects it to critical scrutiny. It argues that while there are grounds for thinking that sex robots could symbolically represent a troubling attitude toward women (and maybe children) and the norms of interpersonal sexual relationships, the troubling symbolism is going to be removable in many instances and reformable in others. What will ultimately matter are the consequences of the symbolism but these consequences are likely to be difficult to ascertain. This may warrant an explicitly experimental approach to the development of this technology.
Legal and Moral Implications of Child Sex Robots
Authors: Strikwerda Litska
Published: May 2018

This chapter considers the legal and moral implications of creating sex robots that look and act like children. It does so by addressing the analogy between child sex robots and virtual child pornography. Entirely computer-generated child pornographic images are prohibited in many countries on the ground that (the majority of) people find them morally objectionable (legal moralism). If child sex robots were to be developed, they would (likely) be banned for the same reasons. Virtue ethics and (anti-porn) feminism explain why people find entirely computer-generated child pornography morally objectionable and why they would think the same about child sex robots. Both flout our sexual mentality based on equality, because they are respectively incomplete representations and replica of sexual relations between adults and children, which can never be considered equal.
Deus Sex Machina: Loving Robot Sex Workers and the Allure of an Insincere Kiss
Authors: Carpenter Julie
Published: May 2018

This chapter projects possible human futures with robot sex workers (RSWs). These are models of robots with integrated capabilities designed to enhance human sexual pleasure. Using attachment theory as a framework, concrete questions about what might constitute human-robot sexual and emotionally intimate relationships are presented for discussion, including design and cultural issues. Mori’s Uncanny Valley theory is used as a springboard for a new model to include temporal and cultural influences on people who interact with robots, the Robot Accommodation Process Theory (RAPT). Finally, the ideas of how RSW will be normalized into individual human-robot relationships as well as how the relationships will be valued by culture over time are used as a premise for building theory in the areas of meaningful and affectionate human-robot relationships.
Computational Models of Learning Mechanisms in Psychosis
Authors: Heinz Andreas
Published: May 2018

Psychotic experiences may best be described as an alteration in the self-ascription of thoughts and actions, which is associated with a profoundly altered experience of oneself and the surrounding world. Computational models of key symptoms of psychiatric disorders are discussed with respect to the attribution of salience and self-relatedness to otherwise irrelevant stimuli and the role of top-down modelling in the generation of delusions. Top-down and bottom-up approaches in understanding mental disorders and their computational models are compared and critically reflected.
The Evolution of Primate Attachment
Authors: Myowa Masako , Butler David L.
Published: May 2018

Bowlby’s theory of attachment has been hugely influential, yet his proposal and its subsequent support derives heavily from research involving rhesus macaques, the most extensively studied nonhuman primate in attachment research. Does his theory apply to other primates? A substantial amount of data concerning primate (including human) child care now challenges Bowlby’s original proposal, particularly as it relates to the notion of the mother being the sole continuous care-and-contact provider: caring can be shared by various individuals, the father can serve as the primary attachment figure, and infants can form multiple attachments. This chapter focuses on the phylogenetic history of attachment among primates, identifies features of attachment that are shared or which differ between humans and nonhuman primates, and considers the possible cognitive, social, and ecological factors associated with these similarities and/or differences in attachment among primates. Current evidence suggests that the human attachment system appears to be uniquely characterized by (a) social interactions based on combined visual, tactile, and auditory modalities, (b) the use of positive cognitive empathy, and (c) certain contextual elements typically contained in human social environments.
Primate Infancies
Authors: Hawkes Kristen , Chisholm James S. , Fairbanks Lynn A. , Johow Johannes , Kalcher-Sommersguter Elfriede , Liebal Katja , Myowa Masako , Sommer Volker , Thierry Bernard , Finlay Barbara L.
Published: May 2018

Bowlby recognized that studying other primates could help identify the needs of human infants; his evolutionary perspective has had a wide impact on understanding of human development. Much more is now known about evolutionary processes and variation, within and between species. This chapter reviews aspects of evolutionary theory and primatology relevant to Bowlby’s theory of attachment. Beginning with primate phylogeny, ecological and social forces that contribute to the varieties of primate sociality are considered and some reasons canvassed that explain why primatologists do not all agree on the choice of words to describe the relationships between animals, including use of the term “attachment.” Variations and commonalities are identified and used to explore how development in human infants can be understood in terms of social relationships and maturational state at birth and weaning compared to other primates. Infant experience has long-term effects in primates other than humans. Some of that evidence is summarized and special attention is given to interactions between particular chimpanzee mothers and infants in an unusual setting, where trusting relationships between mothers and human researchers reveal variations in mothering style that appear to result from early life events, recent experience, and social context.
Meaning and Methods in the Study and Assessment of Attachment
Authors: Gaskins Suzanne , Beeghly Marjorie , Bard Kim A. , Gernhardt Ariane , Liu Cindy H. , Teti Douglas M. , Thompson Ross A. , Weisner Thomas S. , Yovsi Relindis D.
Published: May 2018

As originally conceived and still practiced today, attachment theory is limited in its ability to recognize and understand cross-cultural variations in human attachment systems, and it is restrictive in its inclusion of cross-species comparisons. This chapter argues that attachment must be reconceived to account for and include cross-cultural and cross-species perspectives. To provide a foundation for rethinking attachment, two universal functions of attachment systems are proposed: they provide (a) socially organized resources for the infant’s protection and psychobiological regulation and (b) a privileged entry point for social learning. Ways of understanding the nature of the cultural and ecological contexts that organize attachment systems are suggested, so that they can be recognized as culturally specific, normative behavior. Culturally valid methods for describing children’s attachment systems are also discussed. In conclusion, a wide range of research strategies are proposed to facilitate the extension and contextual validity of measures of attachment across cultures and species.
Neural Consequences of Infant Attachment
Authors: Sheridan Margaret A. , Bard Kim A.
Published: May 2018

Typical studies of the impact of the quality and presence of attachment relationships on child development have focused on the child’s safe-base behavior. In terms of neurobiology, this has primarily led to investigations of the child’s control over negative affect. In nonhuman primates, early investigations into the neurobiological consequences of attachment used models where attachment relationships were absent or severely curtailed. Institutionalization of infants, a common practice, mirrors these early primate studies since attachment relationships are limited or absent. These investigations are based on models of disruptions in attachment and used here to illustrate the impact of attachment relationships on two neural systems not typically considered: the neural substrates of reward learning and the neural substrates supporting complex cognitive function such as executive function. While attachment is central to the development of negative affect regulation, it is argued that the context in which the brain develops can also serve as an additional focus of early attachment relationships. This offers insight into the multiple functions served by attachment, and thus the role it plays in the development of other neural systems.
Twenty-First Century Attachment Theory
Authors: Thompson Ross A.
Published: May 2018

Attachment theory is the focus of considerable contemporary developmental research. Formulated by Bowlby more than fifty years ago, it has been the subject of ongoing critique, particularly in terms of its relevance in non-Western settings. Attachment theorists have modified the theory in response to empirical findings, advances in allied fields, and further ideas. Yet, as evidenced by this Forum, work still remains. This chapter summarizes changes to some of the central areas of attachment theory as well as remaining points of contention: To whom do infants become attached? How should differences in attachment relationships be characterized? What influences lead to differences in attachment relationships? What are the outcomes of differences in attachment? Its intent is to sharpen the ways that culturally informed research can contribute to a better understanding of the attachment process and its consequences. Discussion concludes with broad reflections on attachment and culture.
Why We Need a New Kind of Higher Education
Authors: Kosslyn Stephen M. , Nelson Ben
Published: May 2018

Minerva is a response to problems that beset higher education writ large. We focus in large part on the most significant problem, which centers on the value of higher education. We address this problem by teaching “practical knowledge,” which is knowledge the students can use to achieve their goals. Practical knowledge is rooted in critical thinking, creative thinking, effective communication and effective interaction. We also have considered in depth how to teach this material effectively; all of our pedagogy is informed by the science of learning, which has led us to develop new forms of active learning. In addition, we have developed a software platform that supports our unique pedagogical and curricular model. This platform provides tools that not only facilitate teaching but also--and more importantly--enhance student learning. Furthermore, we believe that the future is increasingly international and thus our students learn to use practical knowledge in a global context. To achieve this, no one nationality is a majority—so students learn from each other—and students live and study together in up to seven different cities around the world. Finally, the Minerva talent agency supports our students from the beginning of their tenure through their post-graduate career, helping them succeed for many years to come.
Formal Analyses and Critical Thinking
Authors: Levitt John , Holman Richard , Levitt Rena , Bonabeau Eric
Published: May 2018

What treatments should be used for prostate cancer? How likely are people to vote Democratic or Republican in the next U.S. presidential election? How should scarce resources be deployed to help feed the world? These are just a few of the questions that various segments of the populace face daily. Yet, most of us are unable to analyse the available data pertaining to these and other questions in a logical or quantitative fashion in order to make informed decisions. These issues shape how and what we teach in Formal Analyses. An engaged citizenry needs tools such as an understanding of how to identify and unravel logical fallacies, how statistics can both clarify and obfuscate issues and how tools such as risk analysis and game theory can aid in decision making. Our Formal Analyses course arms students with techniques such as logical thinking, formal representation of problems, algorithms and simulations, probability and statistics, and tools for effective decision-making to create discerning consumers of information.
A New Look at Majors and Concentrations
Authors: Chandler Vicki , Kosslyn Stephen M. , Genone James
Published: May 2018

In most universities, majors are determined largely by tradition. The main engine for change is new interdisciplinary fields that emerge in research, which subsequently may be converted to fields of study. At Minerva, we start from scratch, building a highly structured, flexible curriculum that enables students to obtain interdisciplinary, cross-disciplinary, and transdisciplinary training that is on the cutting-edge of knowledge. However, we treat these fields as sources of practical knowledge and treat them primarily as good starting points, not ends in-and-of-themselves. We assume that these fields will continue to evolve and aim to give students the intellectual foundations to adapt to the future.
The Active Learning Forum
Authors: Katzman Jonathan , Regan Matt , Bader-Natal Ari
Published: May 2018

When we set out to design the Active Learning Forum we had three aspirational goals in mind. First, we wanted every student to feel as though he or she is sitting next to the professor. Students are constantly engaged in “fully active learning.” Second, we wanted the technology to disappear. We ensure that the focus is on the interactions and discussion among students and the professor; the technology fades into the background. Third, we wanted to bring the seminar back from the ether. Because we record each class, faculty can provide students with feedback on every class (and vice versa!). Students can see the history of how they do over the course of a semester, a year and eventually their entire time at Minerva. The combined result of meeting these three goals is that we can have seminars that surpass what’s possible in a traditional classroom and create better learning
Building Lesson Plans for Twenty-First-Century Active Learning
Authors: Bader-Natal Ari , Fost Joshua , Genone James
Published: May 2018

When we initially created and refined the first-year Cornerstone courses at Minerva, we evolved a set of shared processes, conventions, and templates to support the process of developing lesson plans for active learning. After devoting two full years of curriculum design effort exclusively to these four courses, we faced the challenge of scaling our course development process to simultaneously design a much larger number of upper-division courses. In order to consistently and efficiently create extraordinary active learning experiences, we started to develop a software-based lesson plan authoring tool that would encapsulate and codify our previously-validated templates and processes. This tool, Course Builder, grew to also support the management and iterative improvement of our full curriculum. By the end of its first semester in use, the combined functionality of Course Builder and the Active Learning Forum allowed us to move beyond the need for a Learning Management System entirely. In this chapter, we introduce the Course Builder curriculum design system. We take a close look at how this technology allows us to collaboratively design, systematically coordinate, and iteratively improve on courses and lesson plans built specifically for active learning.
Building a New Brand
Authors: Seligman Ayo , Goldberg Robin B.
Published: May 2018

If you were to go back just three years, the name “Minerva” was most commonly associated with the mythological Roman goddess of wisdom. Today, it is a registered trademark and refers to the most selective university program on the planet. How did that happen? In this chapter, we describe the journey of building a prestigious brand from scratch—how we got started with just a name and developed brand meaning, values, visual and verbal identity, and a set of principles that has become a foundation of the institution today. The key has been to take this well beyond a name and logo, turning the brand concepts into a working framework for every single person at Minerva, regardless of role.
An Admissions Process for the Twenty-First Century
Authors: Homaifar Neagheen , Nelson Ben , Kosslyn Stephen M.
Published: May 2018

When we started Minerva, we had the opportunity to define the type of students we wanted to accept and also the unique privilege and challenge of creating an admissions process to identify these pioneering students. Rather than inherit a legacy system of standardized tests (e.g., the SAT), resumes and cookie-cutter essays that distort student profiles and reward wealth over merit, we built our process from the ground up. We created a holistic admissions process that values a combination of curiosity and intelligence, passion and humility, open-mindedness and cultural awareness, and persistence and hard work. This chapter reviews how we built a technologically innovative, globally accessible and algorithmically guided admissions process that has now been used to evaluate nearly 50,000 applicants from over 160 countries. This process has resulted in the most diverse student body of any American institution of higher education without giving any institutionalized advantage to diversity in the process.
The Minerva Professional Development Agency
Authors: Goldberg Robin B. , Kauth Anne
Published: May 2018

Just as we have re-imagined every aspect of the educational experience, Minerva’s Professional Development Agency takes what universities call Career Services to a whole new level. The goal of the Agency is to improve the career trajectory for those who are and have been students, both while in school and for the rest of their lives. This chapter focuses on the initial vision and strategy for the agency model, and then explains how the Agency is structured into three distinct areas: coaching and advising, employer network and job placement, and ongoing professional development support by providing opportunities and training for exposure on public platforms.
How Reform Worked in China
Authors: Qian Yingyi
Published: May 2018

China’s reform worked and produced one of the most impressive growth in the largest developing and transition economy in the world in the past twenty-two years. That China has managed to grow so rapidly despite the absence of many conventional institutions such as rule of law and secure private property rights is puzzling. To understand how reform works in a developing and transition economy that has great growth potential, it is not enough to study the conventional “best-practice institutions” as a desirable goal. One should also study how feasible, imperfect institutions have evolved to complement the initial conditions and to function as stepping stones in the transition toward the goal. Underlying China’s reform is a serial of institutional changes concerning the market, firms, and the government in the novel form of “transitional institutions.” These institutions succeed when they achieve two objectives at the same time: to improve economic efficiency by unleashing the standard forces of incentives and competition on the one hand, and to make the reform a win-win game and thus interest compatible for those in power on the other.
Pareto-Improving Economic Reforms through Dual-Track Liberalization
Authors: Qian Yingyi
Published: May 2018

Pareto-improving economic reforms that also simultaneously achieve efficiency can be implemented through a strategy of “dual-track” liberalization. Its success requires the feasibility of the original plan and its continued enforcement by the state. The Chinese experience demonstrates that such a strategy works.
Public vs. Private Ownership of Firms: Evidence from Rural China
Authors: Qian Yingyi
Published: May 2018

Why are many of China’s successful rural enterprises publically owned by local communities? Using a set of provincial data, we find that the share of community public firms (Township-Village Enterprises, or TVEs) relative to private enterprises is higher where the central government’s influence is greater, the community government’s power is stronger, and the level of market development is lower. We also find that TVEs help achieve the community government’s goals of increasing government revenue, rural nonfarm employment, and rural income. However, TVEs do not increase rural income given the levels of non-farm employment and/or local public goods provision, indicating possible inefficiency as compared to private enterprises.
Coordinating Reforms in Transition Economies
Authors: Qian Yingyi
Published: May 2018

This paper analyzes how differences in organizational forms of centralized economies in the Soviet Union and China affected their reforms and transition paths. It addresses the question of why China succeeded in applying the experimental approach to reform whereas Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union economies failed. Our answer is based on how government organizations are structured and the effect it has on their coordination capacity. We model the coordination of specialized tasks inside an organization as "attribute matching" and compare organizational forms (U-form in the Soviet Union and M-form in China) in coordinating reforms. Compared to the U-form, the M-form has a distinctive advantage in carrying out experimentation and thus is more flexible in reforms, although it suffers from higher costs due to a lack of scale economies.
Increasing plant diversity with border crops reduces insecticide use and increases crop yield in urban agriculture
Authors: Wan Nian-Feng , Cai You-Ming , Shen Yan-Jun , Ji Xiang-Yun , Wu Xiang-Wen , Zheng Xiang-Rong , Cheng Wei , Li Jun , Jiang Yao-Pei , Chen Xin , Weiner Jacob , Jiang Jie-Xian , Nie Ming , Ju Rui-Ting , Yuan Tao , Tang Jian-Jun , Tian Wei-Dong , Zhang Hao , Li Bo
Published: May 2018

Urban agriculture is making an increasing contribution to food security in large cities around the world. The potential contribution of biodiversity to ecological intensification in urban agricultural systems has not been investigated. We present monitoring data collected from rice fields in 34 community farms in mega-urban Shanghai, China, from 2001 to 2015, and show that the presence of a border crop of soybeans and neighboring crops (maize, eggplant and Chinese cabbage), both without weed control, increased invertebrate predator abundance, decreased the abundance of pests and dependence on insecticides, and increased grain yield and economic profits. Two 2 year randomized experiments with the low and high diversity practices in the same locations confirmed these results. Our study shows that diversifying farming practices can make an important contribution to ecological intensification and the sustainable use of associated ecosystem services in an urban ecosystem.
Audience-Based Authority in Politics
Authors: Stroup Sarah S. , Wong Wendy H.
Published: May 2018

Our conclusion revisits the main findings in this study, but since we are hopeful that our authority framework travels to other parts of IR, we discuss extensions of and exceptions to the authority trap. For this, we both bring forth the example of the International Criminal Court, which, if anything, was not a vanilla victory. We also explore how the authority trap might work differently for non-INGOs, specifically non-state groups that use violence, and for global governance generally. What we show is that while the authority trap may be difficult to escape, it is not ironclad.
Tenuous Ties
Authors: Goodier Susan , Pastorello Karen
Published: May 2018

This chapter details the development of a woman suffrage movement in New York State as it positions the state in the broad historical context of the national woman suffrage movement. Some rural upstate New Yorkers demanded social and political reforms for women well before the Civil War. As a result of controversy sparked by the Fifteenth Amendment, which granted African American men the right to vote, women founded two national organizations and the New York State Woman Suffrage Association. State leaders dominated the movement in terms of strategy and tactics, and several of them rose to national prominence. By the last decade of the nineteenth century, suffragists had come to recognize the importance of fluidity and pliability in addressing their appeals to the broadest possible audiences. The divergent groups advocating for women's enfranchisement disagreed with each other over specific strategies, tactics, and whom to include, but they unfailingly agreed that women needed the vote.
“We are the 99%”
Authors: Heldman Caroline
Published: May 2018

This chapter examines the contemporary era of consumer activism in the U.S. that started in the mid-2000s with the advent of social media. Contemporary consumer activism is distinct in its ease of use, transnational focus, effectiveness, and popularity. Americans have become more politically active through the marketplace in the past decade, and this has altered the way companies do business. The chapter concludes that the current era of marketplace activism strengthens democracy through higher rates of participation in the marketplace for political ends.
Adapting to Bazaar Ownership through Diplomacy
Authors: Spector Regine A.
Published: May 2018

This chapter shifts the focus from the previous chapter on the work of traders at Dordoi bazaar to that of the main owner. The chapter discusses how, in light of some in society who viewed bazaar owners as oligarchs, he actively sought to reframe his role as a bazaar founder, job provider, and guarantor of honorable work in an otherwise corrupt society. He described his own approach as “business diplomacy,” and collaborated with the trade union, got elected to political office, and decided when to engage in protest (and when not to). Instead of perspectives that view him as a predatory, stationary bandit, the chapter argues instead that we must take seriously how he sought to survive and adapt in an inauspicious political context by building relationships within the state and among different businesses, societal groups, and constituents to increase possibilities for action in challenging situations.
January
Authors: Pretty Jules
Published: May 2018

This introductory chapter details winter in the east country, a time when pressure dropped, winds rushed from afar, and temperature fell to minus 10 °C. It was also a time when a midwinter gale came on land and sea, knocking down trees. It had been a genial winter, until then, of light winds and squally rain. The chapter then claims that, each year, carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increases by two parts per million and now has passed 400. To protect the planet from disruption, it has to be reduced to 350. However, such a return is improbable, given converging consumption patterns and worldwide appetite for energy-intensive economies. The chapter also looks at the river Alde, which rises in farmland and flowed to meet the sea at Aldeburgh.
May
Authors: Pretty Jules
Published: May 2018

This chapter details the east country in May, when officials declared drought. Hosepipes were banned, and water anxiety grew. However, a shift came without warning. Dry heat dissolved to fronts and storms. A month's rain fell in a few hours, the rivers gushing fast with raging water. It was the wettest month in a hundred years; for the southeast, there was 65 percent more rain than average. However, average seems antiquated when weather patterns have been augmented with industrial unpredictability. As with transport infrastructure today, local interests rarely prevailed against trade and growth. For 150 years, industrialists ran river barges up- and down-valley, then came a rail century until Beeching's hurried cuts, and now the age of motorcar.
August
Authors: Pretty Jules
Published: May 2018

This chapter describes the east country in August, beginning with a discussion of ragwort. This bright Compositae is related to chamomile and feverfew, medicinal and good plants. However, it is a notifiable weed and toxic. The ministry has a Ragwort Code: all landowners must cut, spray, or pull all ragwort. Yet thirty species of insect depend exclusively on ragwort, another twenty-two eat much in their diet. Back in the slow vale, the scent of harvested field filled the valley. It was a grand moment of the year, when food flows from the land. Yet it was also a wistful time. Soon swift will drift and swallow gather on the wires.
The War against the Far-Left Extremists
Authors: Orsini Alessandro
Published: May 2018

This chapter studies the role of the young anti-Fascists in the construction of the parallel world. The young anarchists and the young W La Rivoluzione members play different roles. The W La Rivoluzione militants avoid any type of behavior that could create problems with the police. They want everyone to see that they oppose Sacrifice in the hope of attracting political support. In addition, the young people of W La Rivoluzione have a strong sense of hierarchies within the party. Everything they do has to be approved first by the older people who are their leaders. The young anarchists are in a different position. They do not belong to any organization and have to finance themselves, but they reject any type of hierarchy and do whatever they want. Moreover, the communist anarchists have a political culture based on common ownership, free trade, and propaganda that requires them to be willing to speak to others.
From a Fascist Perspective
Authors: Orsini Alessandro
Published: May 2018

This chapter provides an additional perspective on the Lenintown militia and their values. According to the reasoning of Leonidas—the leader of the Lenintown Sacrifice cell—influenced by revolutionary Gnosticism, the Lenintown militia was the “drop of lead” that for him signified the essence of truth. Thanks to their books on revolutionary Fascism, the Lenintown comrades were the only ones who understood the ultimate meaning of historical development. The history of a civilization, Leonidas explained, develops as long as a warrior race exists capable of fighting, because war is the mainspring of historical development. Bourgeois society, with its pacifism, is creating the conditions for the destruction of European civilization. The only people who can stop this disaster are Sacrifice militants, but they cannot broadcast their ideas because if they were to do so, they could provoke a revolution that would lead to the fall of bourgeois society and capitalism.
My Expulsion
Authors: Orsini Alessandro
Published: May 2018

This concluding chapter recounts the author's expulsion from Sacrifice. The author's research was divided into three stages: approach, entry, and departure. During the approach stage, the author became friendly with some important Sacrifice militants after taking out a membership at a gym that they own. During the entry stage, the author played the part of a militant day in and day out, including weekends. This stage ended with the author's expulsion from the group and an explicit warning not to approach any comrade in the future. The chapter then addresses the question of why the Sacrifice allowed a sociologist to live inside its militias as well as the reasons why the author decided to carry out ethnographic research into the Fascist world.
The First Socialist Generation
Authors: Bernstein Seth
Published: May 2018

The introduction presents the main arguments in the work. It places Stalinist youth culture in the context of the Soviet revolutionary youth movements and youth organizations in the modern world. It argues that the pre-war context of the 1930s and the wartime situation in the 1940s was a foundational influence on Stalinist youth culture and socialism more broadly. Soviet youth organizations founded during the Russian Revolution of 1917 enjoyed relative autonomy and youth in the USSR played a crucial role in establishing the Soviet regime. The introduction asserts that the threat of war and its reality militarized Stalinist conceptions of youth culture.
The Great Terror as a Moral Panic
Authors: Bernstein Seth
Published: May 2018

During the Great Terror, youth faced suspicion not only for their connections with supposed enemies of the people but because of alleged acts of degeneracy like drinking. Thousands of young people found themselves accused of hooliganism, a malleable crime that encompassed various forms of social disorder. In the Komsomol, the arrest of youth leaders as Trotskyist degenerates impressed upon young communists that their social behavior was part of their political identity. The older cohort of Komsomol members, the pererostki, also fell under suspicion for subscribing to the old norms of youth activism. Among youth, the Great Terror became a moral panic that aimed to shape young people’s behaviour.
Origins and Consequences of the Real Estate Turn
Authors: Shatkin Gavin
Published: May 2018

This chapter traces the most significant factors that have led to dramatic increases in land values across Asia, and analyzes government responses to these increases in different countries. The emergence of urban real estate megaprojects as an ideal began in the late 1980s in three cities—Jakarta, Bangkok, and Metro Manila—as these cities experienced rapidly increasing land values as they became targets for Japanese foreign direct investment. The model emerged in other cities in China, India, and elsewhere at specific moments when these countries experienced rapid influxes of foreign capital, driving up land values and creating massive rent gaps that foreign and domestic investors sought to monetize through development. The chapter details a common set of reforms to the financial sector, land management, property rights, and urban governance and politics, that mark the common manifestations of the ‘real estate turn’ in urban policy in different cities at different moments.
The Elusive Origins of a Colonial Scandal
Authors: Agmon Danna
Published: May 2018

This chapter delves into the details of the Nayiniyappa Affair, the scandalous event at the center of this microhistorical book. It provides multiple answers to a deceptively simple question: Why was Nayiniyappa, a commercial broker employed by French merchants, arrested, and how does his arrest illuminate the conflict between traders and missionaries in French India?
Between Paris and Pondichéry
Authors: Agmon Danna
Published: May 2018

This chapter focuses on mobility in the Indian Ocean and between France and India. Reveals how intermediaries of different kinds, both commercial brokers and religious catechists, enjoyed opportunities to travel and in doing so cemented their position in Pondichéry.
Epilogue
Authors: Agmon Danna
Published: May 2018

The book’s epilogue reflects on how Nayiniyappa’s role in the imperial project in Pondichéry and the conflict surrounding his arrest shaped his life and in turn shaped the politics of the colony and French authority in the region. In other words, it inquires into the effect of empire on individual lives and the impact of individuals on the development of empires and of colonial governance.
Introduction
Authors: Belodubrovskaya Maria
Published: May 2018

The goal of the Stalinist state was to use Soviet cinema as its “mighty weapon of mass propaganda.” Yet during the Stalin years, Soviet cinema saw its output plummet, its filmmakers underemployed, and up to a third of its new films banned. The Introduction outlines this book’s central argument about the failures of Stalinist control over cinema. In contrast to existing explanations, Not According to Plan employs an archival, comparative, and industry-focused approach and shows that it was impossible to build a controlled mass propaganda cinema while working with artisanal production methods, weak control institutions, and an entitled artistic workforce.
Templan
Authors: Belodubrovskaya Maria
Published: May 2018

Chapter Two addresses thematic planning, which is often seen as the Stalinist party-state’s primary tool of content control in cinema. It shows that thematic plans were compiled out of studio proposals and never satisfied their top-down function. Thematic planning did not work as expected because studios operated under the director-centered mode of production and had to accommodate the interests of their directors. No effective system to develop screenplays on party-required themes was ever created, and the plans reflected the regime’s thematic imperatives only in the most general sense. The director, not the theme, was the primary planning unit.
Introduction
Authors: Harris Joseph
Published: May 2018

This chapter focuses our attention on an unexplained puzzle: how parts of the developing world transitioned from a moment characterized by exclusion from healthcare access (“aristocratic healthcare”) to an altogether different moment characterized by “health universalism.” Grounded in a study of Thailand, Brazil, and South Africa, it highlights the surprising role played by elites from esteemed professions who, rationally speaking, aren’t in need of healthcare or medicine themselves and who would otherwise seem to have little to gain from such policies. The chapter points to the relative success of these “professional movements” in expanding access to healthcare and AIDS treatment in Thailand and Brazil and their relative failure in South Africa. And it draws attention to the importance of holding privileged positions in the state and legal expertise in the respective policy domains during moments of heightened political competition.
Thailand: Chasing the Dream of Free Medical Care for the Sick
Authors: Harris Joseph
Published: May 2018

Set against existing explanations for Thailand’s landmark universal coverage policy, this chapter traces the historical rise of a movement of progressive physicians in Thailand (the Rural Doctors’ Movement). After establishing their origins, it explores the critical role they played in institutionalizing universal healthcare over powerful opposition forces. In the absence of the strategic actions of this professional movement, the evidence presented here suggests that there is little reason to believe that Thailand’s universal coverage policy would ever have become a major issue in the 2001 election, much less a policy that would have been implemented and gone on to receive international acclaim. It points to the knowledge, social networks, and privileged positions in the state that allowed the movement to have an outsized role in the policy process following democratic transition in 1992.
South Africa: Contesting the Luxury of Aids Dissidence
Authors: Harris Joseph
Published: May 2018

Although South Africa has the largest AIDS treatment program in the world, the ANC’s mishandling of the epidemic post-apartheid nevertheless contributed significantly to the spread of the disease. Unlike in Thailand or Brazil – where in many instances professional movements partnered with the state to respond to citizen needs and expand access to antiretroviral therapy – legal movements in South Africa however confronted a remarkably different dynamic: an intransigent government that, by virtue of unrivaled electoral majority, enjoyed the luxury of entertaining dissident AIDS science and experimenting with charlatan AIDS policy. While the strategic actions of the AIDS Law Project and the Treatment Action Campaign would eventually compel government action, initial government intransigence and the long and drawn-out nature of the legal process would prove to have horrific consequences, measured in hundreds of thousands of lost lives.
Conclusion
Authors: Harris Joseph
Published: May 2018

This chapter summarizes the overall argument and points to the influential role that elites from esteemed professions played in the institutionalization of policy in the three cases. While in all cases democratization provided new opportunities for professional movements in medicine to use the organizational vehicle of the state to advance universal health coverage and the power of the law to deepen commitments to essential medicine, The chapters relate how the differences in outcomes between Thailand and Brazil, on one hand, and South Africa, on the other, hinged on dramatically different political dynamics. I consider the contemporary state of professional movements and health reforms in the three countries; why health has remained a minor concern to mass movements; the durability of professional movements; the influence of professional movements in other policy domains and cases; and their relevance to the United States and other countries in the industrializing world.
Walmart in Chile
Authors: Bank Muñoz Carolina
Published: May 2018

Chapter 2 situates Chile historically and lays out the importance of institutional context in Walmart’s global expansion. Walmart has not effectively been able to replicate its model wholesale across countries and continents. It has had to adapt to culture, politics, and regulatory climate. The chapter explores the history and contemporary nature of the Chilean labor movement and labor code and explains their role in Walmart’s particular model in Chile today. As in many of Walmart’s global operations, Walmart operates four different store types and under different names. I draw comparisons to Walmart in the United States and Walmart’s other global operations.
Looking Back and Going Forward
Authors: Bank Muñoz Carolina
Published: May 2018

Chapter 6 argues that Walmart is in fact organizable and that the Chilean case study gives us some insights as to how to organize the transnational giant. Despite neoliberal policies, and weak labor law, Chilean workers have been able to beat the odds to successfully win ‘bread and roses.’ The Chapter also addresses the global implications of the Chilean case, in particular, thinking through the challenges and opportunities for global solidarity. Walmart must be organized transnationally, but much care must be taken in how to approach workers and unions across the world.
Banished to the Great Northern Wilderness
Authors: Wang Ning
Published: May 2018

After Mao Zedong's Anti-Rightist Campaign of 1957–58, Chinese intellectuals were subjected to “re-education” by the state. This book draws on labor farm archives, interviews, and memoirs to provide a remarkable look at the suffering and complex psychological world of these banished Beijing intellectuals. The book's use of newly uncovered Chinese-language sources challenges the concept of the intellectual as renegade martyr, showing how exiles often declared allegiance to the state for self-preservation. While Mao's campaign victimized the banished, many of those same people also turned against their comrades. The book describes the ways in which the state sought to remold the intellectuals, and it illuminates the strategies the exiles used to deal with camp officials and improve their chances of survival.
End without End
Authors: Wang Ning
Published: May 2018

This chapter talks about the suspension of banishment to the Great Northern Wilderness and the post-banishment experiences of political exiles, showing that the mass deaths in the borderlands and countryside prompted the central government to evacuate rightists. In the early 1960s, the majority of Beijing rightists were allowed to leave the army farms, and the ultra-rightists in Xingkaihu were also transferred to the interior. These ex-inmates, however, still bore the stigma foisted upon them as a result of consciously designed state policies; consequently, they were discriminated against and were unable to resume their normal lives until they were finally rehabilitated in the post-Mao political thaw.
Youth and Trailer-Park Life
Authors: Salamon Sonya , MacTavish Katherine
Published: May 2018

This chapter examines the potential neighborhood effects of trailer park residence on child and youth development. Using parents’ aspirations that their children have broader life chances than they themselves had, this chapter documents the range of developmental trajectories among children and youth growing up in a rural trailer park. While a few flourish, most often, young people seem set on a course to reproduce their parents working poor class status. Increasingly in adolescence, as the social stigma of park residence emerges, there are developmental costs of park residence that compromises life chances.
Reforming the Mobile Home Industrial Complex
Authors: Salamon Sonya , MacTavish Katherine
Published: May 2018

This chapter provides an overview of policy strategies intended to curb, or balance financial and social aspects of homeownership and park life with the structure and profitability of the mobile-home industrial complex. Strategies at the federal, state and local levels are considered.
Citizen engagement towards making democracy work
Authors: Balasubramaniam Dr. R , Venkatachaliah M N
Published: May 2018

This chapter explores experiences and reflections of having engaged with citizens towards ensuring greater and responsible participation in the electoral processes before and during elections at different levels. In 2013 and 2014, these efforts took shape of a formal campaign in and around Mysuru in India, but received recognition and appreciation in forums across the country. Making participatory democracy work is in the hands of citizens, and exercising their electoral franchise is the first step towards this. A ‘vote’ in the world's largest democracy is however a complex phenomenon given how it is sought, and how people respond to it. Collectively, people ought to put an end to unhealthy trends in the Indian electorate by voting responsibly, by being politically more conscious, by demanding accountability, by participating, or by resisting.
An unending movement
Authors: Balasubramaniam Dr. R , Venkatachaliah M N
Published: May 2018

This chapter reflects on the development journey of the Swami Vivekananda Youth Movement (SVYM), which is dotted with actions and interventions that have gone beyond addressing local issues to setting precedence, engaging communities in ways hitherto unexplored, and helping evolve new perspectives of how the voice of the communities can find more scope and space in the development paradigm. At a personal level as well, there have been defining moments in the author's journey of development activism, institution building, leadership training, writing, and policy advocacy that have helped grow and evolve a worldview. Every one of those moments, the people behind them, and the accompanying reflections and realizations have taught the author more about the world and engagement with it in an ever-maturing manner. The chapter then delves into some handpicked milestones and explores how citizen engagement has rendered them meaningful and impactful while being an unending movement itself.