From neoliberalism to neocommunitarianism: opposing justifications in a dispute over privatized electricity infrastructure

It is becoming increasingly clear that neoliberal ideological efforts to depoliticize politics have come to incorporate arguments once associated with radical communitarian, localist and existential critiques of capitalism. This article contributes to cross-disciplinary discussion of how and on what terms this process of assimilation has taken place. It first describes the rise of neocommunitarian politics and policy-making in the privatized electricity system of a “first-mover” neoliberal state, Australia. It then examines in detail a dispute over a proposed upgrade to a piece of electricity system infrastructure in a formerly industrial, working-class and immigrant, now post-industrial, bourgeois-bohemian and gentrified suburb of inner-Melbourne, Victoria. The study reveals a shift over time in the strategy of the protest group convened to resist the proposed upgrade. Originally using NIMBY-like arguments to oppose the upgrade, the group gradually transformed its strategy into a more general critique of privatization and marketization, and of the use of neocommunitarianism by state and market interests to promote economic growth. Generalizing from this case study, we suggest that such a transformation in protest strategy signals the possibility of a new culture of awareness that neocommunitarianism is little more than a response by states and markets to public rejection of free-market reforms. Moreover, the transformation of the protesters' strategy heralds the possibility of a renewal in critical thought and practice, one that is repoliticizing politics by challenging the marketizing and privatizing of public goods.     

‘I am an American’: protesting advertised ‘Americanness’

How are citizenships and nationalisms constructed, connected, and contested in the post-9/11 USA – performatively, affectively, and visually – and how do their relationships figure ‘Americanness’? This article takes up this question (1) by tracking how Americanness was advertised in the American Ad Council's ‘I am an American’ campaign and (2) by introducing the multimedia project ‘I am an American’: Video Portraits of Unsafe US Citizens, which engages the Ad Council's campaign as a practice-based protest of the Ad Council's advertised ‘Americanness’. The article traces how the Ad Council's campaign advertises what Evelyn Alsultany calls ‘diversity patriotism’. It also constructs a complex, mobile system of differentiation that marks some citizens as ‘safe’ and others as ‘unsafe’, which runs counter to the idealized notion of a unified ‘Americanness’ that it advertises. The article then examines how the practice-based protest project ‘I am an American’ takes these ‘unsafe citizens’ – US citizens who either will not or cannot make their differences normatively conform to the national ideal of the ‘One’ composed of the ‘Many’ propagated by the Ad Council's campaign – as its point of departure to reflect upon how citizenship protests function for and against citizenship, nationalisms, and various figurations of Americanness.     

The Identification of Spiromesifen,a Recently Introduced Pesticide,Using Approaches to Chemical Unknown Analysis

An unknown, viscous, opaque, white liquid with a strong, unpleasant odor was submitted with a request for identification. It was analyzed using infrared (IR) spectroscopy, gas chromatography–mass spectrometry, and X‐ray fluorescence spectroscopy. It was found to contain glycerin as well as another compound. IR and mass spectral data were readily obtained for this second component, but it was not easily identified as common instrument libraries had no matching spectra. After an extensive literature search, the unknown compound was identified as spiromesifen, a recently introduced pesticide. The IR spectrum and electron impact mass spectrum of spiromesifen are presented here as these are not available in the published literature. This case report also provides useful approaches for searching for and identifying an unknown compound when it is not found in a laboratory's spectral libraries.     

Proactive Policing: a Summary of the Report of the National Academies of Sciences,Engineering, and Medicine

This paper provides a summary of our report for the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine on proactive policing. We find that there is sufficient scientific evidence to support the adoption of many proactive policing practices if the primary goal is to reduce crime, though the evidence base generally does not provide long-term or jurisdictional estimates. In turn, we conclude that crime prevention outcomes can often be obtained without producing negative community reactions. However, the most effective proactive policing strategies do not appear to have strong positive impacts on citizen perceptions of the police. At the same time, some community-based strategies have begun to show evidence of improving the relations between the police and public. We conclude that there are likely to be large racial disparities in the volume and nature of police–citizen encounters when police target high-risk people or high-risk places, as is common in many proactive policing programs. We could not conclude whether such disparities are due to statistical prediction, racial animus, implicit bias, or other causes.

     

Investigating the leaders' state of readiness in the Department of Telecommunications and Postal Services in South Africa to develop policy for the fourth industrial revolution

The study investigated the state of leadership readiness in the Department of Telecommunications and Postal Services (DTPS) to develop policy for the fourth industrial revolution (4IR). The DTPS is the lead Department in terms of 4IR within the Public Service and there are specific skills that are required within the DTPS to effectively lead in this regard. This study investigated the perceived gap between current skills and required skills in DTPS. The study adopted a qualitative method to obtain leaders' views and opinions by conducting structured and semi-structured interviews. The nature of the study is exploratory. A total of 10 DTPS employees, both female and male on a 50/50 basis were interviewed on the skills of the leaders' state of readiness in developing policy for 4IR. The study findings identified an absence of problem-solving, analytical, creative, technical, conflict management, collaboration and artificial intelligence, innovation and change management skills. It recommends that these competencies be included in the current Public Service Competency Assessment Framework that ensures that leaders are ready for policy development for 4IR.     

Providing Foster Care for Adolescents: Barriers and Opportunities

This study used quantitative and qualitative data from a larger research project regarding foster parent experiences to examine the characteristics that predict a parent’s willingness to foster an adolescent. Data collected from closed- and open-ended items related to reasons for not fostering a teen were also analyzed. Findings suggest parents who are older and were a foster child themselves, increased the likelihood they would foster a teen. When discussing reasons for not fostering an adolescent, parents identified fears of problem behaviors and concerns about negative impact on other children; findings that were corroborated in responses to the open-ended comments.     

what became of ‘frontline feminism’? a retro-perspective on post-conflict Belfast

A feminist stock-taking on ‘post-conflict’, this paper revisits a study made by the author in 1996–1997, when the women’s community sector was a lively actor in the processes leading to the Good Friday Peace Agreement of 1998. Refusing to observe sectarian conflict lines, women’s centres were re-writing official ‘community development’ policy as community empowerment and political challenge. The author draws on new interviews conducted in 2012 with feminist community activists of that earlier period of ‘frontline feminism’, associated with the Belfast Women’s Support Network. The women reveal how continuing poverty, discrimination, violence and unhealed trauma still characterise working-class life in the post-conflict period, and impede the integration of Protestant and Catholic communities. Official provisions for gender equality have been interpreted in gender-neutral ways, and in some cases turned against women. The demilitarisation of masculinity has been painfully slow. The women’s community sector has experienced a loss of political drive as women’s centres have become service providers, dependent on state funding. Feminism is renewing itself, but in fresh forms with different priorities. Will it recover a voice that ‘speaks truth to power’?