Abject Cosmopolitanism: the politics of protection in the anti-deportation movement

This paper argues for an approach to researching citizenship and democracy that begins not from normative convictions but from everyday experiences in particular social, cultural and historical contexts. The paper starts with a consideration of the ways in which the terms ‘democracy’ and ‘citizenship’ have been used in the discourses and approaches taken within mainstream studies of citizenship and democracy, drawing attention to some of the conceptual blind spots that arise. We call for more attention to be paid to contextual understandings of the politics of everyday life, and to locating state, ngo and donor rhetorics and programmes promoting ‘active citizenship’ and ‘participatory governance’ within that politics. It is this kind of understanding, we suggest, that, by revealing the limits of the normativities embedded in these discourses, can provide a more substantive basis for rethinking citizenship from the perspectives of citizens themselves.     

Naturalist Law and Japan's Legitimization of Empire in Manchuria: Thomas Baty and Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Thomas Baty (1869–1954), a prolific, British international law scholar, achieved prominence in diplomatic affairs by serving as Japan's Foreign Legal Adviser in the years spanning two world wars. Baty's advice to the Japanese government was rooted in the non-mainstream natural law philosophy of international legal theory. Baty's law became the defence of the Japanese government before the League of Nations with Japan's occupation of Manchuria in the early 1930s. Baty contended that China's objections to Japanese actions had no basis in the natural fabric of the nation-state system since China was a non-state.     

BENCHMARKING IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR: A CRITICAL CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

How can we critically address benchmarking? By conceptualizing benchmarking as a normalizing governing technology, a space is cleared for analysing some of the power relations brought into play in benchmarking activities. As a device of power, benchmarking depends upon the production of normalizing knowledge and the freedom or self‐governing capacities of those who are benchmarked. The fruitfulness of this conception is illustrated through an example from the Danish hospital system.