scholarly journals The Montoya Case: How Neoliberalism Has Impacted Medical Inadmissibility in Canada and Transformed Individuals with Disabilities into "Citizens Minus"

2018 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Valentina Capurri

In this paper, I read the narrative developed by mainstream media in the Montoya case in the context of a dominant neoliberal understanding of the worth of persons with disabilities in Canadian society. I argue that the way newspapers framed the story of the Montoya family feeds into the neoliberal script of who counts as a human being, and thus results in a disservice to individuals with disabilities. I also situate the case in a broader historical context as I examine a few court cases, all including dependents, related to the medical admissibility provision. My goal is to demonstrate how the courts have validated the state argument that distinguishes between valuable (read economically profitable) and non-valuable immigrants, further entrenching the neoliberal discourse of who counts and who is disposable in our society. This is a concerning trend that results in the commodification and layering of citizenship and should be resisted.

Human Affairs ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Viera Bilasová

AbstractThe paper explores how the ethos in Slovakia has been shaped and “matured” in the context of the values, principles and norms inherent in the European ethos. The presence of this ethos, including its sources and forms, can be considered in the Slovak historical context to be a moral phenomenon and an integral part of human being, encoded in the moral values held by individuals and society. By seeking out its ties and analysing the way it is intertwined with the evolution of the European ethos, it provides us with the space to understand and resolve many of today’s issues and conflicts in an ethical manner. The author considers moral consciousness to be an important part of the culture of civilization today, which faces the challenge of finding new forms of human coexistence and a life in peace. It attests to the importance of ethics and morality in the life of individual and society, and the utility of ethical reflection in solving moral issues in life and in searching for one’s own way through it.


2021 ◽  
pp. 109-132
Author(s):  
Macario Alemany

This article addresses "political correctness" (PC) regarding the rights of people with disabilities and specifically the state of the question in Spain. First, we focus on the expression itself and clarify what is understood by PC. This implies reviewing, albeit briefly, the main conceptual and ideological framework PC is grounded in. Second, we describe the new conceptualisation of disability given by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, tasked with ensuring compliance with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. In Spain, this Convention is about to give rise to substantial legislative reforms in civil and procedural matters, leading to a turnaround in the way the matter has been traditionally treated. Thirdly, we expose a critique of the demands to turn "functional diversity" into the sole politically correct expression to refer to the condition of people with disabilities. To finish, I come back to the question of PC and present my position on the effects of this doctrine on the prevention of discrimination against marginalised groups.


2004 ◽  
pp. 114-128
Author(s):  
V. Nimushin

In the framework of broad philosophic and historical context the author conducts comparative analysis of the conditions for assimilating liberal values in leading countries of the modern world and in Russia. He defends the idea of inevitable forward movement of Russia on the way of rationalization and cultivation of all aspects of life, but, to his opinion, it will occur not so fast as the "first wave" reformers thought and in other ideological and sociocultural forms than in Europe and America. The author sees the main task of the reformist forces in Russia in consolidation of the society and inplementation of socially responsible economic policy.


2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-45
Author(s):  
Akihiko Shimizu

This essay explores the discourse of law that constitutes the controversial apprehension of Cicero's issuing of the ultimate decree of the Senate (senatus consultum ultimum) in Catiline. The play juxtaposes the struggle of Cicero, whose moral character and legitimacy are at stake in regards to the extra-legal uses of espionage, with the supposedly mischievous Catilinarians who appear to observe legal procedures more carefully throughout their plot. To mitigate this ambivalence, the play defends Cicero's actions by depicting the way in which Cicero establishes the rhetoric of public counsel to convince the citizens of his legitimacy in his unprecedented dealing with Catiline. To understand the contemporaneousness of Catiline, I will explore the way the play integrates the early modern discourses of counsel and the legal maxim of ‘better to suffer an inconvenience than mischief,’ suggesting Jonson's subtle sensibility towards King James's legal reformation which aimed to establish and deploy monarchical authority in the state of emergency (such as the Gunpowder Plot of 1605). The play's climactic trial scene highlights the display of the collected evidence, such as hand-written letters and the testimonies obtained through Cicero's spies, the Allbroges, as proof of Catiline's mischievous character. I argue that the tactical negotiating skills of the virtuous and vicious characters rely heavily on the effective use of rhetoric exemplified by both the political discourse of classical Rome and the legal discourse of Tudor and Jacobean England.


2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-75 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine Jenness

This paper explores the way American intellectuals depicted Sigmund Freud during the peak of popularity and prestige of psychoanalysis in the US, roughly the decade and a half following World War II. These intellectuals insisted upon the unassailability of Freud's mind and personality. He was depicted as unsusceptible to any external force or influence, a trait which was thought to account for Freud's admirable comportment as a scientist, colleague and human being. This post-war image of Freud was shaped in part by the Cold War anxiety that modern individuality was imperilled by totalitarian forces, which could only be resisted by the most rugged of selves. It was also shaped by the unique situation of the intellectuals themselves, who were eager to position themselves, like the Freud they imagined, as steadfastly independent and critical thinkers who would, through the very clarity of their thought, lead America to a more robust democracy.


2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 102-110
Author(s):  
N. P. Molchanova

The paper deals with the methodology and practice of the state regulation of the regional economy based on the legislative framework and works of Russian scientists in the historical context with account for the specifics of the current period of market transformation. The subject of research is organizational and economic relations, aimed at improving the management efficiency of regional socio-economic development. The purpose of research was to identify the key problems of the regional economy regulation preventing the balanced functioning of administrative-territorial entities and substantiate the need to boost measures of state support. Based on the dialectical cognition method and the system approach, the positions of leading scientists and scientific schools on topical issues of the regional economy as a scientific discipline were analyzed, which made it possible to identify the main reasons hampering socio-economic transformations and justify measures for running a more active regional policy. It is concluded that consistent improvement of methodological and organizational approaches creates prerequisites for improving the results of the socio-economic development at the regional level; however, in the current situation of the macroeconomic instability serious problems may arise to be resolved primarily by the state regulation.


Author(s):  
Alex J. Bellamy

This chapter demonstrates that the downwards pressure that state consolidation placed on mass violence was amplified by the type of state that emerged. Across East Asia, governments came to define themselves as “developmental” or “trading” states whose principal purpose was to grow the national economy and thereby improve the economic wellbeing of their citizens. Governments with different ideologies came to embrace economic growth and growing the prosperity of their populations as the principal function of the state and its core source of legitimacy. Despite some significant glitches along the way the adoption of the developmental trading state model has proven successful. Not only have East Asian governments succeeded in lifting hundreds of millions of people out of poverty, the practices and policy orientations dictated by this model helped shift governments and societies away from belligerent practices towards postures that prioritized peace and stability. This reinforced the trend towards greater peacefulness.


Author(s):  
Nancy M. Wingfield

This chapter explores a variety of issues central to the turn-of-the-century Austrian panic over trafficking. They include anti-Semitism, Jews as protagonists and victims, and mass migration in an urbanizing world, as well as why particular Austrian cities were associated with the trade in women. The chapter analyzes the government’s domestic and international efforts to combat trafficking, as well as the role bourgeois reform organizations played. It explores the relationship between the trafficker and the trafficked, arguing that these women and girls were not simply victims, but sometimes willing participants, or something in between, in order to sketch a more nuanced picture of turn-of-the-century “white slaving.” The term “trafficker” is employed to reflect the way sources (the state, journalists, reform groups) viewed the issue, not because it can be proved that the problem was as widespread as they claimed.


Author(s):  
Eugenia Roldán Vera ◽  
Susana Quintanilla

The Mexican policy of state provision of standardized textbooks for all was instituted in 1959 and still ongoing. This is an overview of the previous history of state intervention in the production and distribution of school textbooks, an examination of the particular circumstances in which the 1959 policy was figured and implemented, and a description of the characteristics of the different generations of textbooks that have since been published, corresponding with several educational reforms. The arguments for and against standardized textbooks mobilized by different sectors of society throughout sixty years are discussed in their historical context. Far from this being a debate about the authoritarian intervention of the state in education, issues of social equality and teaching quality have been central.


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