The Domestic Use of Drones: An Ethical Analysis of Surveillance Issues

Drone surveillance can be regarded either as a justifiable, impartial practice serving the interests of all or as an oppressive technique catering to the interests of some at the expense of others. This analysis is an effort to weigh the ethical prospects and problems in the use of unmanned aerial vehicles by asking whether surveillance of civilians is ethical. To address this question, classical philosophical and modern behavioral approaches to ethics are used. The inquiry begins with the importance of the issue, followed by its evolution and current status. After describing the method of analysis, the article examines arguments for and against domestic monitoring. The unique utility of drones can accomplish much in the public interest while simultaneously creating moral hazards. The conclusion discusses accountability standards, model legislation provisions, and regulatory criteria for aerial vehicle surveillance.     

The Unfulfillable Promise of Meritocracy: Three Lessons and Their Implications for Justice in Education

This paper draws on a literature in sociology, psychology and economics that has extensively documented the unfulfilled promise of meritocracy in education. I argue that the lesson learned from this literature is threefold: (1) educational institutions in practice significantly distort the ideal meritocratic process; (2) opportunities for merit are themselves determined by non-meritocratic factors; (3) any definition of merit must favor some groups in society while putting others at a disadvantage. Taken together, these conclusions give reason to understand meritocracy not just as an unfulfilled promise, but as an unfulfillable promise. Having problematized meritocracy as an ideal worth striving for, I argue that the pervasiveness of meritocratic policies in education threatens to crowd out as principles of justice, need and equality. As such, it may pose a barrier rather than a route to equality of opportunity. Furthermore, meritocratic discourse legitimates societal inequalities as justly deserved such as when misfortune is understood as personal failure. The paper concludes by setting a research agenda that asks how citizens come to hold meritocratic beliefs; addresses the persistence of (unintended) meritocratic imperfections in schools; analyzes the construction of a legitimizing discourse in educational policy; and investigates how education selects and labels winners and losers.     

Rushing for Gold: Life and Commerce on the Goldfields of New Zealand and Australia

Rushing for Gold: Life and Commerce on the Goldfields of New Zealand and Australia. Edited by Lloyd Carpenter and Lyndon Fraser (Dunedin: Otago University Press, 2016), 396 pp. ISBN 978‐1‐877578‐54‐0, NZ$45.00 (pb).     

The Leverage of the Gatekeeper: Power and Interdependence in the Migration Nexus between the EU and Turkey

In March 2016, the European Union and Turkey reached an agreement seeking to end the refugee flows from Turkey to Greece. This agreement is the outcome of a bargaining process in which Turkey gained considerable leverage from its position as a ‘gatekeeper’ situated between Syria and an increasingly ‘immigration-averse’ and securitised EU. More importantly, this bargaining process might have broader implications for the EU and its relations with its periphery, since Turkey has progressively reversed the asymmetries of power by demonstrating the indispensability of its continued commitment to act as gatekeeper vis-à-vis an increasingly fragmented and anxious EU.     

The learning organisation: conditions of possibility in a feminist NGO

Amidst criticism of the concept of “the learning organisation” there is a perspective which is both critical of, and open to, innovative ways of developing the notion of a learning organisation. This article contributes to this perspective by examining the learning practices of a feminist NGO which operates across Southern Africa. The ways in which this NGO has interpreted the idea of a learning organisation and put it into practice are an example of a bottom-up approach which is informed by humanism. The findings of this qualitative study demonstrate both innovative possibilities for organisational learning and potential pitfalls.     

Securing the New Silk Road

The renewed Chinese ambitions to develop trade along the different branches of the Silk Road bring several new traditional and non-traditional security challenges. The Chinese government has vowed to address them with new security concepts. Yet, these concepts might not be adequate to advance China’s security interests. Moreover, China seems to have difficulties overcoming the contradictions between different security interests: the quest for prosperity and the safeguarding of security; China’s economic aspirations and their consequence of becoming the largest economy; peaceful development and unification with Taiwan and the regain of lost territories; and the dilemma in the guiding diplomatic principles. As a result of these contradictions, Europe faces three uncertainties: How will the tensions in the Pacific develop? How will China seek to defend its interests along the New Silk Road? How will the tensions in the Pacific affect China’s behavior in the common Eurafrasian interface? These uncertainties bring about two more strategic choices for Europe: trying to continue its work with China along the Silk Road and balancing; prioritizing the huge challenges in the wedge of hardship and Europe’s immediate neighbourhood and responding calls to join the United States in its rebalancing to the Pacific. This will make it difficult to establish meaningful cooperation and to work towards burden sharing with the European Union at the other end of the Silk Road.     

Understanding a Period of Policy Change: The Case of Hydraulic Fracturing Disclosure Policy in Colorado

This paper investigates the beliefs and framing strategies of interest groups during a period of policy change and the factors explaining policy change. We develop propositions to explore questions concerning policy change primarily from the advocacy coalition framework as well as from other theorie. The propositions are tested by examining the promulgation of a Colorado regulation requiring the disclosure of chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing. Using coded data of documents published by organizations involved in the rulemaking process, we find divergence between industry and environmental groups on their beliefs concerning hydraulic fracturing, as well as their portraying themselves and each other as heroes, victims, and villains, but some convergence on their more specific beliefs concerning disclosure of chemicals. Interviews point to the importance of policy entrepreneurs, timing, a negotiated agreement, and learning for explaining policy change. The findings provide both theoretical and methodological insights into how and why policy changes.