This groundbreaking collection on global leadership features innovative and critical perspectives by scholars from international relations, political economy, medicine, law and philosophy, from North and South. The book's novel theorization of global leadership is situated historically within the classics of modern political theory and sociology, relating it to the crisis of global capitalism today. Contributors reflect on the multiple political, economic, social, ecological and ethical crises that constitute our current global predicament. The book suggests that (...) there is an overarching condition of global organic crisis, which shapes the political and organizational responses of the dominant global leadership and of various subaltern forces. Contributors argue that to meaningfully address the challenges of the global crisis will require far more effective, inclusive and legitimate forms of global leadership and global governance than have characterized the neoliberal era. (shrink)

This seventeen issue of DIALOGO [2023] is dedicated to the multi-theme `Freedom, Human Rights, Global Crises, Solidarity & Values ` - addressing several actual issues with a central focus on human rights, seen in our society nowadays concerning globalization amid global crises that occurred in the latest years, and beyond towards a holistic approach of private vs universal values. Finally, DIALOGO collates several articles relating to the empirical measurement of religion and health—an increasingly important area of (...) research. We start our endeavor with the inquiry, “What can we do to preserve human rights and values amid social changes?”. (shrink)

Sometimes, we see crises coming. Sometimes, we can muster the resources we need to respond effectively. Sometimes, we can acquire the information we need to respond effectively.

Crises, defined as a period of acute stress on social systems of all kinds, are a recurrent feature of history. As such, they are best approached and understood from a comparative historical perspective. We can distinguish between those caused or precipitated by an exogenous shock and those that derive from an endogenous process that culminates in the crisis. Crises can be of short or long duration and range from local to global. The most severe are ones that (...) lead to a civilizational collapse or radical simplification process. Historically, severe crises have been localized to specific parts of the planet, even when several occur simultaneously because of global natural phenomena, but in the modern world we have truly global crises. Evidence suggests that such a global crisis is imminent or has already commenced. This raises practical and normative pressing issues. (shrink)

The purpose of this document is to outline why and how universities must both transform and mobilise to avert the worst impacts of the global crises faced by humanity. The first section addresses the justification for transformation and how academia can and must transform. In the second section, the document highlights the need for a peaceful mobilisation of student and staff bodies to make effective the transformation advocated for. The document then outlines a blueprint as to action that (...) must be taken in order to initiate the required transformation and mobilisation. (2020). (shrink)

First published in 1995. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

This book offers and affirms an innovative governance approach, arguing that it holds promise as a universal framework that is not colonizing in nature due to its grounding in relational process assumptions and practices.

Global crises such as the climate crisis require fast concerted action, but individual and structural barriers prevent a socio-ecological transformation in crucial areas such as the mobility sector. An identification with people all over the world and an openness toward less consumption may represent psychological drivers of a socio-ecological transformation. We examined the compatibility of both concepts as well as their relation to people’s support of a decarbonised mobility system and their flight mobility behaviour – a CO2-intensive behaviour (...) that may be particularly difficult to refrain from for globally identified people, but less so for sufficiency-oriented people. In an online study conducted in Germany, we found that global identity and sufficiency orientation were positively related. Both were negatively related to past flight-related CO2 emissions and positively related to refraining from flying and the support of decarbonised mobility policies. Accounting for both showed that sufficiency orientation in particular was related to fewer flight-related CO2 emissions and refraining from flying. Furthermore, we examined people’s travel experiences. While global identity was unrelated to the frequency and duration of international travelling, it was positively related to the frequency and quality of contact with local people met on journeys. An experimental variation of whether participants first answered questions on global identity or on travel experiences revealed that remembering past international travelling led to higher reported levels of global identity. Taken together, global identity seems to profit from in-depth international contact with people, but can be decoupled from resource-intensive travel behaviour. Globally identified and sufficiency-oriented people may support a socio-ecological transformation. Our results indicate a compatibility of global identity and sufficiency orientation. Experimental and longitudinal research should examine causal links to foster our understanding of the conditions under which both can be strengthened. (shrink)

This essay considers whether the model of conscience operative in Christian ethics, what I call the “reflexive conscience,” is adequate to meet the global moral challenges we face today, problems such as gun violence, climate change, and the Zika virus. Drawing primarily on the work of Willis Jenkins, I argue that conscience has not yet caught up to the scale and interconnectedness of our global moral challenges. A truly “engaged conscience” must be focused not primarily on the self (...) but on the other, and must be active. I conclude by turning to Elisabeth Vasko’s criticisms of the victim/perpetrator binary to suggest that conscience must call us to greater responsibility for the systemic injustices in which particular moral challenges are embedded. (shrink)

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifi cally the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfi lms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this (...) publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specifi c statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. (shrink)

C’est une évidence : on ne parle plus aujourd’hui d’une crise succédant à d’autres crises – et préludant à d’autres encore –, mais de « la crise », qui plus est d’une crise globale qui touche aussi bien la finance que l’éducation, la culture, le couple ou l’environnement. Ce constat témoigne d’une véritable mutation : si à l’origine le concept de krisis désignait le moment décisif dans l’évolution d’un processus incertain permettant d’énoncer le diagnostic (et donc la sortie de (...) crise), nous vivons actuellement précisément l’inverse – le moment où surgissent les incertitudes quant aux causes, aux effets, à la possibilité même d’une issue. Afin d’éclairer ce renversement, Myriam Revault d’Allonnes se penche sur le mouvement d’arrachement au passé et à la tradition qui caractérise la modernité, et qui dissout d’un même élan les anciens repères de la certitude qui balisaient la compréhension du monde. Privé de toute forme de transcendance, l’homme moderne se trouve face à un monde redoutablement ambigu et auto-référentiel, qui a vu s’évanouir tour à tour l’idée de temps nouveaux, la croyance au progrès et l’esprit de conquête, modifiant profondément le rapport de l’homme à son vécu et à ses attentes. C’est à partir de cette expérience du temps d’un nouveau genre, à la fois coupée de ses référents passés et dépourvue de lendemains qui chantent, que cet essai stimulant nous invite à reconsidérer de façon inédite la « crise » dans laquelle nous sommes plongés et à y puiser de quoi aller de l’avant. (shrink)

As the EU implements measures to tackle the climate emergency on a continental scale, national governmental and economic actors haste to claim better positions in an eco-friendly low carbon market of goods and resources. With this gradual change, surprising factors hinder local community support for the de-carbonized promised future. In order to understand what inspires rural communities to contest and negate green economic action, I investigate a case of local unrest against the erection of an RES plant on public non-arable (...) agricultural land. Drawing upon in-depth interviews with local villagers, rebelling against the photovoltaic plant and municipal representatives, deciding the fate of the land, I outline three main axes of exclusion. These, I argue, fuel the opposition to the EU’s green acts: the symbolic exclusion of differing types of greenness (natural vs political); the geopolitical political exclusion of the local human for the benefit of the global one; the local exclusion, depriving some citizens of legitimate instruments for social claims-making. (shrink)

We are in a state of impending crisis. And the fault lies in part with academia. For two centuries or so, academia has been devoted to the pursuit of knowledge and technological know-how. This has enormously increased our power to act which has, in turn, brought us both all the great benefits of the modern world and the crises we now face. Modern science and technology have made possible modern industry and agriculture, the explosive growth of the world’s population, (...) global warming, modern armaments and the lethal character of modern warfare, destruction of natural habitats and rapid extinction of species, immense inequalities of wealth and power across the globe, pollution of earth, sea and air, even the aids epidemic (aids being spread by modern travel). All these global problems have arisen because some of us have acquired unprecedented powers to act, via science and technology, without also acquiring the capacity to act wisely. We urgently need to bring about a revolution in universities so that the basic intellectual aim becomes, not knowledge merely, but rather wisdom – wisdom being the capacity to realize what is of value in life, for oneself and others, thus including knowledge and technological know-how, but much else besides. (shrink)

This essay revisits the metanormative version of the motivational critique of contemporary conceptions of cosmopolitan justice. I distinguish two ways of understanding this critique as leveling the charge of infeasibility against cosmopolitanism. Cosmopolitan motivation can be understood to be infeasible because it is impossible or because it is not reasonably likely to be achieved if tried. The possibilistic understanding is not persuasive, given that examples show that cosmopolitan motivation is possible. The conditional probabilistic understanding is more compelling, by contrast, because (...) under certain social conditions it may not be reasonably likely that cosmopolitan motivation is achieved if tried. I argue, however, that whether cosmopolitan motivation is infeasible in the conditional probabilistic sense depends on malleable social conditions, given that, according to a plastic account of the human moral mind developed by Allen Buchanan, social conditions can undermine or favor the formation of cosmopolitan motivation. I illustrate this plastic account by showing how it can explain recent anticosmopolitan orientations as “tribalistic” reflexes to global crises, like the COVID-19 pandemic, which involved competition for survival resources and (existential) threats. I conclude that cosmopolitan motivation is not infeasible under all social conditions and that cosmopolitanism therefore requires bringing about and maintaining those social conditions under which cosmopolitan motivation is feasible. (shrink)

L’Union européenne est devenue l’un des centres névralgiques de la crise en cours au niveau mondial. « Crise » financière et de la dette, « crise des migrants », « crise » démocratique sur fonds de menace du « Grexit », puis du « Brexit », etc. Les caractères spécifiques de cette crise multiple peuvent s’expliquer par l’échafaudage institutionnel qui a été mis en place au sein de l’UE, lequel doit toutefois être considéré à l’intérieur de coordonnées historiques et géopolitiques (...) plus amples. Ces facteurs dépendent des diverses tendances du développement du capitalisme global, mais aussi de l’importance maintenue des spécificités des assises institutionnelles et des rapports socio-politiques nationaux. Cet article essaie tout d’abord de revenir sur la logique d’ensemble qui a présidé à la construction européenne, en examinant l’élaboration d’un « ordre concurrentiel » inscrit dans le cadre d’une « constitution économique ». Dans un deuxième temps, il analyse les dimensions économiques et financières, commerciales et monétaires de la crise actuelle. Et il aborde enfin la question des scénarios de « sortie de crise » au prisme des récentes initiatives prises par les institutions européennes, puis de la politique migratoire répressive de l’UE, dont l’abandon pourrait constituer l’une des principales voies vers un projet européen progressiste, démocratique et internationaliste. (shrink)

The Global Financial Crisis is acknowledged to be the most severe economic downturn since the 1930s, and one that is unique in its underlying causes, its scope, and its wider social, political and economic implications. This volume explores some of the ethical issues that it has raised.

Complex crises like the coronavirus pandemic are showing us that modern societies are becoming increasingly unable to live in equilibrium with nature. These crises are the result of multiple causes, which interact at different scales and across different domains. Therefore, investigating their proximate causes is not enough to fully understand them. It is also crucial to take into account the structural factors involved. As concerns the global pandemic, I suggest four levels of analysis: (i) the surface or (...) “proximate” level of the crisis; (ii) the human–environment–animal interface, as pointed out by the One Health approach; (iii) the broader socioeconomic context; and (iv) the deeper or worldview level. Furthermore, I argue that there is the need for a mindset shift if we want to properly trace causality. Much more attention must be given to the study of multilevel connecting patterns and nonlinear mechanisms as the producers of emergent global effects. (shrink)

Nous allons revenir en détail sur certaines des « mesures de sauvetage » déjà mises en œuvre et faire un tour d’horizon des déboires de ce monde de crise 2.0, dans lequel gouvernements, ménages et acteurs de la finance s’efforcent tous de réduire leur niveau d’endettement. Les résultats de cette situation sont sans appel : stagnation, chômage, démantèlement de l’État-providence et arrivée de coalitions de technocrates sans mandat électoral. Des stratégies de résistance doivent être mises en œuvre pour traiter efficacement (...) les causes sous-jacentes de la crise. Nous appelons de nos vœux une expansion de la demande globale rendue possible par la hausse des rémunérations dans les pays à bas salaires, des annulations de dettes dans les pays pauvres comme dans les plus riches, de nouveaux mécanismes de protection sociale et des structures financières mises au service de l’intérêt public. (shrink)

Ethical reflection has always considered how it is we should live together. That task must now be addressed amid a time of unprecedented and concatenating global crises. Efforts to comprehend the situation have generated new analytical approaches to crisis analysis – among them, the polycrisis. Missing from much of this work however is critical engagement with the normative dimensions of the various crises and reflection on the ethical frames required to navigate our way forward together. Addressing this (...) deficit in both theoretical and practical work is a critical contribution to be made by future oriented scholars of global ethics. (shrink)

The ongoing series of global financial crises offers some important philosophical lessons and insights for educators. The epistemological lesson is stark: we should beware of certainty and all claims to it. Were the disposition of generic skepticism in place at all levels of schooling, then the intellectual rigidity that has characterized economics as a “discipline” would be balanced by demands to consider possible alternatives. The ethical lessons to be learned include ensuring that ethics, as a form of rigorous (...) but openended inquiry into key questions about the kind of world in which we want to live, be included in every classroom and curriculum. At the center of this inquiry are relationships, most notably those between and among individual persons, on the one hand, and those between persons and the groups to which they belong and on which they are often said to depend, on the other. Such relationships also have an aesthetic dimension, in terms of their place in building, not just an ethically better world, but a more wholesome, integrated and harmonious world. (shrink)

In his postapocalyptic novel, Those Who Remain, G. Michael Hopf (2016) makes an important observation about the effect crises can have on human psychology by noting that "hard times create strong [humans]" (loc. 200). While the catastrophic effects of the recent COVID-19 outbreak are incontestable, there are arguments to be made that the situation itself could be materia prima of a more grounded, and authentic generation of humanity, at least in theory. In this article I draw on Heidegger's early, (...) implicit ethic of finitude as well as his later work surrounding the nature of technology, and place them into dialogue with a global milieu contextualized by worldwide pandemic. I approach this discussion from two different angles: in the first part, I explicate the ethic of finitude, and use it as a framework to describe the observable behavior of communities worldwide in order to better understand how global crises impact the psychical welfare of individual human beings. In the second part, I apply lessons given to us by the later Heidegger, specifically those oriented around the movement away from calculative thinking, in an effort to define a loose, albeit fundamentally ennobling prescriptive aimed at easing the existential strain of the situation we have found ourselves in. *This is a pre-print of an article published in Human Arenas. The final authenticated version is available at DOI: 10.1007/s42087-020-00142-6. (shrink)

Since the declaration of financial crisis in 2008, and the imposition of austerity measures in 2011, Greece has become an epicentre—or a “laboratory”—of multiple, successively declared crises, including the humanitarian crisis induced by the devastating effects of neoliberal structural adjustment policies. In this paper, I approach the explosion of crisis discourse as a medium for ideological negotiations of nation-state borders in relation to a continental project of securitisation. I suggest that ‘crisis’ functions as a lexicon through which sovereignty can (...) be reasserted in relation to supranational institutional interference in ostensibly democratic governance. Specifically, I examine how the refugee crisis and the debt crisis converge in nationalised space in Greece; that is, how in state discourse, ‘crises’ serve as a conduit through which the borders of an embattled nation are redrawn and hardened against threats from a political space conceptualised as ‘outside’ the nation. My point of entry is the declaration of the Greek government by the end of the summer of 2015, that it was “experiencing a crisis within a crisis,” dually victimised by migration ‘flows’ and failed European solidarity in a context of ongoing austerity measures required by its institutional lenders. The figure of ‘a crisis within a crisis’ functioned to delineate the boundaries of national space and time and to distinguish the normative victims of what are seen as distinct, if overlapping political phenomena (debt and migration), from those who parasitically share in, or indeed by their very illicit presence cause or contribute to the suffering of the national subject. If the global economic crisis had already been made ‘ours’ by being constructed as a problem inherent in the national economy, the global war on migration became reinvented as 'Europe’s crisis,’ and then ‘Greece’s.’ The nationalisation of ‘crisis’ then, has a triple function: first, to conceal the systemic and structural underpinnings of violent processes of dispossession and displacement; second, to authorise the imposition of regimes of management and securitisation; and third, to reify borders that simultaneously fortify the agencies of state sovereignties while containing those of embodied human beings. The figure of ‘nesting crises’—‘a crisis within a crisis’—emerges through gestures of ownership or territorialisation of crisis: that is, in the conditions under which, affectively and politically a ‘crisis’ becomes ‘ours’ rather than ‘theirs’ and, indeed, constitutes the ‘we’ and the ‘they.’ ‘Nesting crises’ discourse can be read as a vocabulary through which national sovereignty is reasserted and national unity reconstituted. (shrink)

This paper analyses the main perceptions of capitalism and crises from a mainstream and heterodox perspective. Broadly defined within the neoclassical structure, the mainstream approaches support the idea of long-term stability of capitalism and describe crises as exogenous events. The heterodox perceptions, on the contrary, perceive crises as an internal feature of capitalism and propose to reframe the global economy within the limits of the socio-environmental systems. Despite the historical recurrence of crises, the neoclassic capitalist (...) framework and the related mainstream perceptions are still dominating the international economic debate. Most of the crises have then been addressed with reforms oriented to adjust some elements of the system without changing the overall economic structure. On the contrary, limited numbers of initiatives have been implemented to reorganise the economy according to the heterodox perspectives. Within this context, further analysis would be needed to investigate the feasibility of the proposed heterodox solutions. By discussing the main perceptions of capitalism and crises and by considering the ethical implications of the mainstream and the heterodox approaches, the present paper contributes to the existing debate around stability of capitalism and provides a starting point for analysis oriented to investigate the feasibility of alternative economic structures. (shrink)

The ‘new normality’ of food crises requires nuanced understandings of emergent responses. Through an exploratory analysis of public-facing reports from major food governance actors, this study empirically outlines mainstream solution frames for addressing the contemporary food crisis and the ways in which these differ from the 2008 food crisis. Using food regime theory as the theoretical underpinning, four con­sistently used solution frames are identified that provide insight into the organizing principles of the third food regime: promoting trade liberalization, emphasizing (...) agricultural productivism, mobilizing private finance, and leveraging data. The latter two involve recent shifts in governance responses that shape global food governance and impact global food insecurity in novel ways. (shrink)

In this topical book, Boudewijn de Bruin examines the ethical 'blind spots' that lay at the heart of the global financial crisis. He argues that the most important moral problem in finance is not the 'greed is good' culture, but rather the epistemic shortcomings of bankers, clients, rating agencies and regulators. Drawing on insights from economics, psychology and philosophy, de Bruin develops a novel theory of epistemic virtue and applies it to racist and sexist lending practices, subprime mortgages, CEO (...) hubris, the Madoff scandal, professionalism in accountancy and regulatory outsourcing of epistemic responsibility. With its multidisciplinary reach, Ethics and the Global Financial Crisis will appeal to scholars working in philosophy, business ethics, economics, psychology and the sociology of finance. The many concrete examples and case studies mean that this book will also prove useful to policy-makers and regulators. (shrink)

O objetivo do presente artigo é examinar os desdobramentos que as determinações das crises econômicas no nível do capital em geral adquirem no processo global da produção capitalista tratada no Livro III d’O capital de Karl Marx, passando pelas compreensões relativas à lei tendencial da queda da taxa de lucro e à sobreacumulação cíclica de capital, bem como pelas figuras do capital portador de juros e do capital fictício, a fim de culminar na compreensão da dinâmica exercida pelas (...) formas jurídicas nesse contexto. (shrink)

ABSTRACT According to Kohlberg, a moral teacher is an independent moral agent capable of addressing moral dilemmas based on general principles of justice. In addition to moral reasoning, teachers require competencies in moral sensitivity, moral motivation, and the implementation of morality. In the current period of global transition, moral sensitivity in teaching is particularly emphasized along with the skills to identify culture-invariant and culture-dependent moral factors. In this lecture, the role of the moral teacher is explored in the context (...) of current global crises and everyday moral dilemmas in teaching. Purposefulness and professional ethics are identified as important assets for a moral teacher during the current global transition. (shrink)

Against the backdrop of a global pandemic, this study investigates how U.S. higher education leaders have centered their crisis management on values and guiding ethical principles. We conducted 55 in-depth interviews with leaders from 30 U.S. higher education institutions, with most leaders participating in two interviews. We found that crisis plans created prior to the COVID-19 pandemic were inadequate due to the long duration and highly uncertain nature of the crisis. Instead, higher education leaders applied guiding principles on the (...) fly to support their decision-making. If colleges and universities infuse shared values into their future crisis plans, they will not have to develop a moral compass on the fly for the next pandemic. This paper suggests the following somewhat universal shared values: engage in accuracy, transparency, and accountability; foster deliberative dialog; prioritize safety; support justice, fairness, and equity; and engage in an ethic of care. To navigate ethics tensions, leaders need to possess crisis-relevant expertise or ensure that such expertise is present among crisis management team members. Standing up formal ethics committees composed of diverse stakeholders also is instrumental in navigating tensions inherent in crises. The next pandemic is already on the horizon according to experts. Through infusing values into future crisis plans, higher education leaders can be confident that their responses will be grounded in their communities’ shared values. (shrink)

Shows how we must make deep changes to complete our paradigm shift from the old mechanistic worldview to the new organic worldview • Reveals the distinct stages of paradigm shifts through the ages, including the 18th-century Enlightenment and the critical stage of our current shift • Explains how the new organic worldview began with Goethe and Kant • Offers solutions for each of us to be able to realize and make the deep changes needed for global regeneration In (...) class='Hi'>Global Awakening, Michael Schacker shows that hidden within our global crises is a positive future for the planet. Sharing his 30 years of intensive research into the history of change as well as the evolution of consciousness and regenerative science, Schacker explains how our current shift from the old mechanistic worldview to a new organic worldview based on biological models follows the same pattern as other paradigm shifts across history, including the 18th-century Enlightenment and the American Revolution. He reveals the creative geniuses who have contributed to the birth of the organic worldview, beginning with Goethe, Kant, and Hahnemann. Exposing the scientific and social forces that drive paradigm shifts, he details the stages every paradigm shift progresses through: the early Enlightenment, the conservative backlash, the intensive phase, and and the transformational phase leading to the Organic Shift. Explaining that we are currently in the throes of the paradigm flip, the critical last phase of our paradigm shift, Schacker shows how the mechanistic worldview is crumbling around us and nothing but a complete transformation in the way we think will keep us from the path of total self-destruction. Providing a map to overcome the allure of the simplistic mechanical model that has spawned countless unsustainable practices and problems--from global warming to intense economic disparities--the author offers concrete solutions showing how each of us can use our talents, skills, and time to make the deep changes needed for global regeneration. (shrink)

How has the international community responded to humanitarian crises after the end of the Cold War? While optimistic ideational perspectives on global governance stress the importance of humanitarian norms and argue that humanitarian crises have been increasingly addressed, more skeptical realist accounts point to material interests and maintain that these responses have remained highly selective. In empirical terms, however, we know very little about the actual extent of selectivity since, so far, the international community’s reaction to humanitarian (...) crises has not been systematically examined. This article addresses this gap by empirically examining the extent and the nature of the selectivity of humanitarian crises. To do so, the most severe humanitarian crises in the post-Cold War era are identified and examined for whether and how the international community responded. This study considers different modes of crisis response (ranging from inaction to military intervention) and different actors (including states, international institutions, and nonstate actors), yielding a more precise picture of the alleged “selectivity gap” and a number of theoretical implications for contemporary global security governance. (shrink)

This paper examines the prospects for global order in an environment of globalization. It analyzes the current practice in which globalization crystallizes in the universalization of Western cultural values, and identifies in this practice, a major source of all the conflicts currently plaguing the contemporary world. It argues that acts of terrorism and other similar acts are reactions to the perceived injustices of the present globalization phenomenon. This paper studies these crises because of their cultural underpinnings.Drawing on the (...) postmodernist philosophy, which not only rejects a single over-arching scheme by which all societies could be judged and advocates a thoroughgoing cultural pluralism in which alternative cultures are free to plot their own future courses, the essay believes that acts of terrorism, like similar other reactions to the present conception of global reality, can be mitigated if efforts are directed at understanding, appreciating, and respecting the traditions and cultural values of distinct societies, rather than submerging them under one dominant culture. (shrink)

After the global economic collapse triggered by the Great Recession, there has been an increased interest in the potential psychological implications of periods of economic decline. Recent evidence suggests that negative personal experiences linked to the economic crisis may lead to diminished generalized trust (i.e., the belief that most of the people of the society are honest and can be trusted). Adding to the growing literature on the psychological consequences of the economic crisis, we propose that the perceived personal (...) impact of the economic crisis not only would undermine generalized trust but also may lead to increased interpersonal trust (i.e., directed to specific and close people) and depersonalized in-group trust (i.e., directed to individuals who, while strangers, belong to the same group [e.g., social class]). Across three studies (N = 1379), we tested these central hypotheses and ascertained whether the perceived personal impact of the crisis would predict these types of trust (assessed using questionnaire and behavioral measures) independent of individuals’ socioeconomic status. Non-experimental data from Study 1 revealed that a higher perceived personal impact of the crisis is related to lower levels of generalized trust and higher levels of interpersonal trust. These effects were independent of participants’ socioeconomic status. Non-experimental data from Study 2 replicated the findings obtained in Study 1 and also showed a positive association between the perceived personal impact of the crisis and depersonalized in-group trust. This pattern of results emerged even after controlling for socioeconomic status, gender, age, political orientation, religiosity, and unemployment status. In Study 3, using an experimental design, we found that the salience of a possible economic downturn led to decreased generalized trust and increased interpersonal and depersonalized in-group trust—independently of socioeconomic status—compared with the control condition. These results challenge the conventional wisdom that economic crises invariably undermine trust in others. The implications of the present research as well as future research directions are discussed. (shrink)

In the face of impending global crises and stubborn conflicts, a conventional view of politics risks leaving us confused and fatalistic, feeling powerless because we are unaware of all that can be achieved by political means. By contrast, a variety of recent social movements, ranging from those of women, gays and lesbians and anti-racists, to environmentalists, the Occupy movement and the Arab Spring, demonstrate the enormous potential of political action beyond the institutional sphere of politics. At the same (...) time, religious fundamentalists, racial supremacists and ultra-nationalists make clear that movements are not necessarily progressive and are often at odds with one another. -/- West highlights the many ways in which national and global institutions depend on a broader context of extra-institutional action or what is, in effect, the formative dimension of politics. He explores some of the major contributions of social movements: from the genealogy of liberal democratic nation-states, sixties’ radicalism and the ‘new social movements’ to the politics of sexuality, gender and identity, the politicization of nature and climate, and alter-globalization. The book also considers current theoretical approaches and sets out the basis for a critical theory of social movements. This is a fresh and original account of social movements in politics and will be essential reading for any students and scholars interested in the challenges and the unpredictable potential of political action. (shrink)

Widening disparities in health within and between nations reflect a trajectory of ‘progress’ that has ‘run its course’ and needs to be significantly modified if progress is to be sustainable. Values and a value system that have enabled progress are now being distorted to the point where they undermine the future of global health by generating multiple crises that perpetuate injustice. Reliance on philanthropy for rectification, while necessary in the short and medium terms, is insufficient to address the (...) challenge of economic and other systems spinning out of control. Innovative approaches are required and it is suggested that these could best emerge from in-depth multidisciplinary research supported by endeavours to promote a ‘global mind-set.’. (shrink)

The unreduced many-body interaction problem solution, absent in usual science framework, reveals a new quality of emerging multiple, equally real but mutually incompatible system configurations, or “realisations”, giving rise to the universal concept of dynamic complexity and chaoticity. Their imitation by a single, “average” realisation or trajectory in usual theory (corresponding to postulated “exact” or perturbative problem solutions) is a rough simplification of reality underlying all stagnating and emerging problems of conventional (unitary) science, often in the form of missing, or (...) “dark”, entities and “hidden variables”. We show how the application of unreduced interaction problem solution and the ensuing concept of dynamic complexity provides the desired causally complete and intrinsically unified solutions to respective unitary science problems in the entire range of complexity levels, from elementary particles and cosmology to emergent consciousness and modern development crisis, implying real, essential and urgently needed progress. (shrink)

The year 2020 has yielded twin crises in the United States: a global pandemic and a public reckoning with racism brought about by a series of publicized instances of police violence toward Black men and women. Current data indicate that nationally, Black Americans are three times more likely than White Americans to contract Covid-19, a pattern that underscores the more general phenomenon of health disparity among Black and White Americans. Once exposed, Black Americans are twice as likely to (...) die of the virus. Unsurprisingly, Black Americans report higher levels of fear of Covid-19 than their White peers, but they also report higher levels of hesitancy toward a Covid-19 vaccine. This paper explores why this apparent discrepancy exists. It also provides practical recommendations for how government and public health leaders might address vaccine hesitancy in the context of the twin crises of 2020. (shrink)