Seeing Like an Orientalist State: The Three Deaths of Neda Agha-Soltan

On June 20, 2009 one image became a symbol of violence, as well as a rallying cry for a movement that contested the disputed election of hardline Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The image captured the murder of a 26 year old protester named Neda Agha-Soltan, and showed a first-hand account, in bloody detail, of the savagery of state killing. With the help of social media, the video received mass attention from news organizations in the United States by June 22, 2009. Cursory analysis of the New York Times and The Washington Post, representation of Neda’s death, reveals an Iranian government that was unafraid to violently repress a democratic movement. It is my contention here that such a construction was framed by an Orientalist discourse which helped to fabricate three distinct deaths of this murdered protester. First the lasting images of death became a symbol of freedom; Neda’s second death showed a grievable life, one that provided an emotional space for a US audience; and finally her third death which became a means of defining and (re)stabilizing Orientalized perceptions of Iran as violent and barbaric. Ultimately, these three deaths became an instrument that would help justify the call for US intervention on behalf of Western morality and humanitarian aid.     

Ökonomisches Kapital der Eltern und Medizinstudium im Ausland. Wie Europäisierungs- und Globalisierungsprozesse die Reproduktion sozialer Ungleichheiten verändern

The fact that university degrees are accepted throughout Europe has led to the founding of medical faculties, especially in Central and Eastern Europe, that offer medical studies in German or English and thus attracting students from richer Western European countries like Germany. Unlike medical studies in Germany, access to these foreign universities is not dependent on the final school exam grade, but on the ability to pay high tuition fees. The article compares the social class background of medicine students in Germany with German medicine students in Hungary. The analysis shows that the percentage of medicine students who come from higher social classes is even higher in Hungary than it already is in Germany. Studying medicine in Hungary primarily serves as an immediate reproduction of the parents’ profession as many of German medicine students in Hungary have a parent who belongs to the medical profession. The case of German students studying medicine abroad illustrates how Europeanization and Globalization have changed the reproduction of social inequalities; upper classes profit most from the new opportunities.     

Konsekrationsinstanzen im digitalen Wandel – Beiträge zur Erweiterung des feldanalytischen Forschungsprogramms am Beispiel populärer Musik

The article has two objectives: First, pursuant to the recent papers on a “sociology of (e)valuation,” an extension of Bourdieusian field theory will be presented, which reacts to three problems with this theory that were expressed in the critical reception: the immanent tendency to emphasize reproduction more strongly than transformation; the disregarding of technology; and the simple dualism of cultural and economic logic. To begin with, a dynamization of the research program will be undertaken, in that fault lines and transformation dynamics will be revealed that could lead to the invalidation of Pierre Bourdieu’s strict homological assumptions. Following up on that, it will be shown how technology, which was neglected by Bourdieu, can become an (external) factor that causes fundamental changes in fields. Finally, in connection with Jörn Lamla’s reflections on “cultural capitalism” and through a differentiation of the concept of the instance of consecration, a level of analysis will be specified on which the transformation dynamics under discussion can be observed. Secondly, the successful integration of technology in new forms of consecration in the field of pop music will be examined. On the basis of the reaction of classical pop-music journalism to the new value assignment instances that have arisen through digitalization, it can be shown that the challenge arising from new forms of consecration results in negotiatory processes in the field of pop music journalism in which various repositionings in the relationship of cultural and economic logics appear.     

711例道路交通事故死亡案例分析

目的分析711例道路交通事故死亡案例,探讨道路交通死亡事故的特点。方法收集相关市区711例道路交通事故死亡案例,按照死者性别、年龄、死亡原因、死者交通方式等项目分类进行统计分析。结果 711例死者中男性多于女性(2.18∶1),21~60岁占70.6%,气温较低的季节发生交通事故较多,一天中高发时间段为6~8、18~20及23~1时,死者中以非机动车驾乘者和步行者居多,分别占41.4%和29.1%;肇事车辆主要为货车和轿车,分别占38.2%和25.1%;交通事故造成颅脑损伤导致死亡的占损伤致死亡的比例最高(54.7%),联合损伤致死的其次(30.9%)。结论本文数据来源地交通事故造成人员死亡案例的特点,与沿海其他较发达城市的相关调查数据相符,需综合治理以减少相关事故的发生。     

Governance in der politischen Ökonomie — zum Stand der Debatte

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