A Marx for the Managerial Revolution: Habermas on Law and Democracy

The early work of Jïrgen Habermas stressed the corrosive effects of the state and the market on the socio-cultural life-world. There could be no administrative creation of meaning. His more recent work argues that the system can redeem itself without sacrificing the emancipatory interests of humanity. However, this shift does not represent an abandonment of the revolutionary project of critical theory. On the contrary, the communicative model of proceduralist law-making is designed to promote the revolutionary transformation of Western civilization under the auspices of managerial and administrative elites. The radical ideal of cosmopolitan democracy becomes an essential ingredient in the effective management of a complex socio-economic system operating on a global scale. The demos in Habermas's vision of radical democracy is not the people of any particular nation but humanity at large. As a consequence, the proceduralist model of law-making provides the philosophical justification for a bizarre social experiment which aims to dissociate Western nation-states from their core ethno-cultural identities.     

Canada's GBA+ framework in a (post)pandemic world: Issues,tensions and paths forward

This article traces the theoretical foundations, evolution, and limitations of Gender-Based Analysis Plus (GBA+), which is the Government of Canada's primary framework for attending to diversity and inclusion in public policy. We argue that GBA+ is, in its current form, inadequate to guide ambitious and transformative policy in the post-pandemic years given four interlocking issues: (1) a weak integration of intersectionality; (2) insufficient attention to the power structures and socio-political context undergirding social relations and policymaking; (3) an instrumental understanding of policy; and (4) a misreading of identity. Drawing on feminist, intersectional and post-structuralist methods, we adjust the GBA+ framework with the aim of addressing the conceptual shortcomings identified in our analysis. Ultimately, we demonstrate how a more explicit engagement with notions of intersectionality, power and policy's instrumental and productive aspects can enrich the ways we think about public policy as both a mechanism and a venue for transformative change.     

Visualisation of fingermarks and grab impressions on fabrics. Part 1: gold/zinc vacuum metal deposition

Vacuum metal deposition (VMD) is a highly sensitive technique originally introduced for detecting latent fingermarks on smooth non-porous surfaces such as carrier bags, plastics and glass. The current study explores whether VMD can be used in the examination of clothing from physical and sexual assault cases in order to visualise identifiable fingermark ridge detail and/or palmar flexion crease detail, thus allowing potential areas to be indicated for DNA swabbing and/or to determine the sequence of events. Four different fabrics were utilised during this study - nylon, polyester, polycotton and cotton, along with 15 donors who ranged in their age and propensity to leave fingermarks, from good to medium to poor as determined by results obtained from test runs using paper and plastic carrier bags processed with VMD. Once samples were collected they were kept for a determined time (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 14, 21 or 28 days) and then treated using the gold/zinc metal VMD process. From the results, it appears that greater ridge detail is visible on the smoother non-porous fabrics, such as nylon whereas on rougher porous fabrics, such as cotton, only empty prints and impressions, rather than any ridge details, were visible. All fabrics did however allow the development of touch marks that could be targeted for DNA taping thus potentially leading to a DNA profile and possible identification of a suspect.     

Evaluation of pediatric skull fracture imaging techniques

Radiologic imaging is crucial in the diagnosis of skull fracture, but there is some doubt as to whether different imaging modalities can accurately identify fractures present on a human skull. While studies have been performed to evaluate the efficacy of radiologic imaging at other anatomical locations, there have been no systematic studies comparing various CT techniques, including high resolution imaging with and without 3D reconstructions to conventional radiologic imaging in children, we investigated which imaging modalities: high-resolution CT scan with 3D projections, clinical-resolution CT scans or X-rays, best showed fracture occurrence in a pediatric human cadaver skull by having an expert pediatric radiologist examine radiologic images from fractured skulls. The skulls used were taken from pediatric cadavers ranging in age from 5 months to 16 years. We evaluated the sensitivity and specificity for the imaging modalities using dissection findings as the gold standard. We found that high-resolution CT scans with 3D projections and conventional CT provided the most accurate fracture diagnosis (single-fracture sensitivity of 71%) followed by X-rays (single-fracture sensitivity of 63%). Linear fractures outsider the region of the sutures were more identifiable than diastatic fractures, though the incidence of false positives was greater for linear fractures. In the two cases where multiple fractures were present on the same anatomical skull location, the radiologist was less likely to identify the presence of additional fractures than a single fracture. Overall, the high-resolution and clinical-resolution CT scans had the similar accuracy for detecting skull fractures while the use of the X-ray was both less accurate and had a lower specificity.