Against Understanding: The Techniques of Shock and Awe in Jesuit Theology,Neoliberal Thought and Timothy Morton’s Philosophy of Hyperobjects

Revolving around three examples - Jesuit missionary activities in 17th century North America, Friedrich von Hayek’s neoliberal thought and Timothy Morton’s theory of hyperobjects - our paper discusses the notions of “distance” and “pointing out” which are subterraneously at work in today’s critical spirit and its tendency to align itself with the “affirmation turn”. Our investigation of the distances between subject and object and the role of the critic’s pointing at diverse “hyperobjects” (god, the market and global warming), helps us excavate a mode of critique that we call “presentist persuasion”. “Presentist persuasion” works as a form of critique that reveals the truth by pointing out hyperobjects’ encompassing presence for the sake of an overarching ethical or political goal instead of initiating a process of understanding them.     

Voices on Paper: Multimodal Texts and Indigenous Literacy in Brazil

This paper focuses on the recent production of multimodal writing in an indigenous community in Brazil, resulting from the equally recent introduction of literacy. Seeing this form of writing as part of the process of intercultural semiosis and cultural translation, the paper discusses how concepts of local indigenous oral culture and received wisdom interact with the Western concept of writing as the ‘record’ or ‘representation’ of speech, bringing to writing the indigenous notion of cultural ‘enactment’ or ‘performativity’. In an effort to overcome a view of alphabetic writing as semantically only propositional, mimetic and decontextualized, the Kashinawa´ community, by adding visual components to alphabetic texts, appear to transform writing into contextualized performative ‘poiesis’, which simul taneously inaugurates a complex process of semiosis inseparable and only comprehensible from their local cultural perspective.     

Jagdrecht von Bund und Ländern – Ausgewählte Bereiche der Landesjagdgesetze Brandenburgs, Mecklenburg-Vorpommerns und Sachsen-Anhalts unter der Lupe

Zusammenfassung  In Bund und L?ndern gibt es insgesamt 17 Jagdgesetze. Dazu kommen zahlreiche Rechtsverordnungen auf Bundes- und Landesebene, mannig faltige naturschutz-, tierschutz- und waffenrechtliche Regelungen, die das Jagdrecht beeinflussen oder aber durch das Jagdrecht selbst beeinflusst werden. Eine solche “Regelungsflut” hat selbstverst?ndlich auch auf die t?gliche Jagdpraxis nicht zu untersch?tzende Auswirkungen. Hierzu ein Beispiel: Ein Revierinhaber bewirtschaftet ein Jagdrevier, dass sich über die Grenzen zweier Bundesl?nder erstreckt. In jedem dieser L?nder gelten unterschiedliche gesetzliche Bestimmungen. Dies kann dazu führen, dass in jedem der zwei L?nder andere Tierarten zu verschiedenen Jahreszeiten bejagt werden dürfen, es kann unterschiedliche Regelungen zu sachlichen Verboten, verschiedenartige Bestimmungen zur Wildfolge und Nachsuche sowie anders geartete Verpflichtungen des Revierinhabers bei t?glichen Arbeiten im Revier (z.B. Jagdliche Einrichtungen, Kirrungen, Fütterungen etc.) geben. Für uns Grund genug, das Jagdrecht des Bundes und der L?nder (hier: Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern und Sachsen-Anhalt) etwas n?her zu beleuchten und anhand weniger beispielhaft herausgegriffener Regelungen, sowohl Unterschiede als auch Gemeinsamkeiten darzustellen. Nach einer kurzen Einleitung zu den Gesetzgebungskompetenzen im Bereich des Jagdwesens (A.), werden schwerpunktartig drei Themengebiete untersucht, die nicht nur für den am Jagdrecht interessierten Leser spannend, sondern auch in der jagdlichen Praxis relevant sind. Zun?chst widmen wir uns den nach Landesrecht jagdbaren Tierarten und ihren Jagd- und Schonzeiten (B.), danach betrachten wir die sog. “befriedeten Bezirke” (C.). Im Anschluss daran nehmen wir die unterschiedlichen L?nderregelungen zu Fütterungen und Kirrungen unter die Lupe (D.). Der Aufsatz endet mit einem Appell an die Legislative und Exekutive (E.).     

Commotio cordis as a result of a fight: Report of a case considered to be imprudent homicide

Commotio cordis is a clinic-pathological syndrome related to sudden death in young people involved in sports activities. It has been described, mainly, in athletes without previous cardiac anomalies who received a minor blow to the chest which produces ventricular fibrillation and cardiac arrest in the absence of structural damage to the ribs, sternum, or heart. There are few reported cases of commotio cordis associated with violent, non-sports related actions, which are commonly considered to be imprudent homicides. We present the case of a 20-year-old man, who was kicked in the chest during a fight; he suddenly collapsed although advanced cardio-respiratory resuscitation started shortly. Autopsy showed no cardiac lesions concluding that death was due to commotio cordis (blunt trauma to the chest). Toxicological analysis determined the presence of 5.14 mg/L benzoylecgonine in blood. On the basis of medico-legal investigation, the official prosecution considered the death to be imprudent homicide and the aggressor was sentenced to 4 years in prison. We emphasize the importance of the knowledge of the death circumstances through the witnesses’ testimony, prior to beginning the autopsy, to confirm this important medico-legal diagnosis. Arrhythmogenic effects of cocaine and its contribution in the production of these deaths are also exposed.     

Politicized U.S. Intelligence Polluted the World

On October 29, the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) released a declassified version of its report on the origins of the novel coronavirus. It continues to imply the Chinese Government or a Wuhan lab is hiding something and not cooperating, while vilifying the World Health Organization (WHO) for telling the truth from the very beginning at that fateful first press conference.     

Logrolling under fragmented authoritarianism: theory and evidence from China

This paper provides a rigorous theoretical and empirical analysis of the effect of logrolling between interest groups on social welfare in a non-democratic political system. In particular, we focus on China, where bureaucratic interest groups are separate vertical organizations reaching down from Beijing to the provinces and cities. The key question in this paper is: what are the effects of the logrolling of parochial interest groups on state policies and social welfare in autocracies? We address this question both theoretically and empirically. The theory predicts a specific distortion in resource allocation because of logrolling, while the empirical results confirm the theoretical prediction. We find policy outcomes under logrolling are characterized by excessive spending on all the interest groups’ preferred goods and insufficient spending on public goods. We test the existence of logrolling between the Ministry of Civil Affairs and Ministry of Health in China. Our result shows logrolling between the two ministries lead to inefficiencies in social security and health care policies.     

The 1984 Luxembourg election

The emergence of new interest groups and social movements in the 1960s and 1970s facilitated a participation explosion in Western democracies. With increased levels of education and improved understanding of the workings of the political process, modern citizens are now faced with a vibrant and growing market for political activism. Political parties face an especially strong challenge in this market‐place as it appears that citizens now make a succession of participatory decision, akin to impulse buying in a supermarket. It is not surprising that the market share which traditional parties retain is apparently in decline. Whether this is problematic for democracy is more open to debate than conventional models of participation would suggest.     

Subnational Governments in the Negotiation of the Multiannual Financial Framework 2014–2020: The Case of Spain

The negotiation of the Multiannual Financial Framework 2014–2020 has been an outstanding topic on the agenda of the EU during the past few years, on which subnational units also tried to have a say. In this article we analyse the formal institutional framework available for the Spanish Autonomous Communities to participate in the negotiation of the Cohesion Policy 2014–2020 and the Common Agriculture Policy 2014–2020. By analysing this participation, this text explores how this institutional framework has evolved during the past few years and how the Autonomous Communities could represent their interests at the domestic and supranational level within these crucial negotiations.