Sen's capability approach and the many spaces of human well-being

Following Amartya Sen, this paper contends that the capability approach provides a better framework for thinking about human well-being and development than more traditional approaches which typically focus on utility or resources. This is illustrated by drawing on the results of a survey which investigated how ordinary people in South Africa view human well-being (a ‘good’ form of life). However, the results of this exercise indicate that the capability approach overlaps with both utility (happiness, pleasure, etc) and resource-based concepts of well-being. The distinctions between commodities (and their characteristics), human functioning and utility is less robust than Sen implies. In particular, the capability approach needs to make more space for the role of utility (defined broadly to include all valuable mental states) and say more about the material basis of well-being.     

Awareness Campaigns as a Response to Piracy off the Coast of Somalia

In 2012 the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) began implementing an awareness campaign to influence public opinion in Somalia against piracy. The campaign aimed to deter individuals from joining piracy by highlighting the dangers and problems associated with piracy. Despite the hype surrounding its commencement, the UNODC campaign was met with various challenges that resulted in minimal implementation and left a trail of angry donors, staff members and Somali government officials. This article examines awareness campaigns as a response to piracy. It provides a first-hand account of the actors and politics involved in shaping the design and implementation of the UNODC anti-piracy awareness campaign. It explores the implied and developed knowledges embedded within campaign messages and analyses how objects of intervention were produced and reproduced throughout the campaign.     

"神六"游太空当惊世界殊

10月12日,我国自主研制的神舟六号载人航天飞船发射升空,经过五昼夜的太空飞行,于17日凌晨顺利着陆。神舟六号载人航天飞行圆满成功,标志着我国在发展载人航天技术、进行有人参与的空间试验活动方面取得了又一个具有里程碑意义的重大胜利,是中国人民攀登世界科技高峰的又一伟大壮举,是我国改革开放和现代化建设取得的又一骄人成就,是中国人民自强不息、     

Changing Municipalities in the Information age

Abstract

Political leadership at the local level has attracted growing attention in recent years in parallel with reforms of local government and of the municipal administration, as well as the debate on a shift from government to governance. Considering the power triangle of (i) the mayor, (ii) the municipal administration (executive officers) and (iii) the council, it is surprising that the latter has gained little interest so far. This article analyses how the roles of local councils as representative bodies are assessed by mayors from seventeen European countries and how differences in the perception of councils can be explained. Can differences be explained by institutional settings, the notion of the mayor towards the role of political parties or by the kind of interaction between the mayor and the council – or are specific local conditions and idiosyncratic personal factors crucial?     

Terrorism and security in the Caribbean: The 1976 Cubana disaster off Barbados

Abstract

This study is an attempt to examine the Cubana airline crash in the light of political terrorism in the Caribbean. With respect to the selected case, the research endeavor will analyze the activities of the terrorists. In so doing, the writer will determine the category within which the Cubana airline disaster falls within Mickolus’ typology.¹ In addition, the motivation of the terrorists as well as limited aspects of some of the legal issues that arose with regard to the Cubana crash are discussed. Finally, there is some attempt to determine the effects of the Cubana disaster on the Caribbean and on Barbados in particular.     

网络时代青少年违法犯罪现象的分析与思考

随着网络技术的不断发展,与网络有关的各类犯罪活动也层出不穷。本文从网络特征与青少年违法犯罪的关系入手,通过调查研究,分析了网络时代青少年违法犯罪现象的各种表现形式,并在此基础上提出了预防青少年违法犯罪现象产生的几点思考。     

The health care state in the information age

The computerization of the medical record has important implications for the governance of health care, and the importance of health care means that changes wrought there are indicative of changes in government as a whole. This paper draws on work in public policy, medical sociology and studies of science and technology, as well as on cross–national empirical research in Britain and France. It describes the recent development of information policy in health care as an exercise in state–building, realized specifically in the governance of the health professions. The paper concludes with a discussion of what is both new and not so new in the form and extent of state power which emerges.