The First Quarantine: How the Plague Became a Political Disease

2021 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 127-142

The great plague of 1665-1666 is one of the starting points for the birth of biopolitics in its modern form. The quarantine measures introduced by the government have been considered effective from the medical point of view since the middle of the 18th century. However, many of those contemporary with the plague were convinced that the state was only worsening matters for London’s inhabitants. The author examines why the plague elicited such an ambivalent response in England and how the disease stopped being a composite object and turned into a “comfortable, domesticated” concept. The article investigates why the moral assessment of those measures has become so different over the past hundred years and shows how the quarantine in London influenced the “hygienic revolution.” Apart from its historical interest, this case is a suitable topic for the use of STS methodology because it illustrates the impossibility providing a complete description of the quarantine process and subsequent medical treatment in terms of a conflict between different actors. In order to understand why these measures have subsequently been perceived in this fashion, the author applies the concept of Lovecraftian horror, which offers a way to describe the situation of “collisions” with the plague. By describing how biopolitics released the moral tension built up by the co-existence of different interpretations of the causes of the epidemic, the author reconstructs the retrospective creation of the myth about the success of the quarantine. He contrasts the logic of “multiplicity” with the unifying descriptions and shows the kind of problems a “blurred” ontology can bring on during a crisis in everyday life. This leads to a discussion of the difficulty of holding onto unstable objects that have the potential for liberation from the logic of paternalistic care.

Author(s):  
Angela Dranishnikova

In the article, the author reflects the existing problems of the fight against corruption in the Russian Federation. He focuses on the opacity of the work of state bodies, leading to an increase in bribery and corruption. The topic we have chosen is socially exciting in our days, since its significance is growing on a large scale at all levels of the investigated aspect of our modern life. Democratic institutions are being jeopardized, the difference in the position of social strata of society in society’s access to material goods is growing, and the state of society is suffering from the moral point of view, citizens are losing confidence in the government, and in the top officials of the state.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2019 (4) ◽  
pp. 277-294
Author(s):  
Yong Huang

AbstractIt has been widely observed that virtue ethics, regarded as an ethics of the ancient, in contrast to deontology and consequentialism, seen as an ethics of the modern (Larmore 1996: 19–23), is experiencing an impressive revival and is becoming a strong rival to utilitarianism and deontology in the English-speaking world in the last a few decades. Despite this, it has been perceived as having an obvious weakness in comparison with its two major rivals. While both utilitarianism and deontology can at the same time serve as an ethical theory, providing guidance for individual persons and a political philosophy, offering ways to structure social institutions, virtue ethics, as it is concerned with character traits of individual persons, seems to be ill-equipped to be politically useful. In recent years, some attempts have been made to develop the so-called virtue politics, but most of them, including my own (see Huang 2014: Chapter 5), are limited to arguing for the perfectionist view that the state has the obligation to do things to help its members develop their virtues, and so the focus is still on the character traits of individual persons. However important those attempts are, such a notion of virtue politics is clearly too narrow, unless one thinks that the only job the state is supposed to do is to cultivate its people’s virtues. Yet obviously the government has many other jobs to do such as making laws and social policies, many if not most of which are not for the purpose of making people virtuous. The question is then in what sense such laws and social policies are moral in general and just in particular. Utilitarianism and deontology have their ready answers in the light of utility or moral principles respectively. Can virtue ethics provide its own answer? This paper attempts to argue for an affirmative answer to this question from the Confucian point of view, as represented by Mencius. It does so with a focus on the virtue of justice, as it is a central concept in both virtue ethics and political philosophy.


2021 ◽  
pp. 125-133
Author(s):  
A. V. Yaschenko

The article attempts to assess the results of the development of the Russian economy from the moment of privatization to the present. The urgency of the problem lies in the fact that, despite significant resources, including human capital, the economy is stagnating, there are no structural reforms, and high-tech companies do not appear. The main thing is not creating conditions for business development on the principles of self-organization: entrepreneurship, initiative, personal competence and investment. Reforming the socio-economic system of the USSR has no historical analogue, and is perceived as a unique practice of testing some theoretical positions and hypotheses that guided researchers and entrepreneurs in the framework of a market economy, for example, the theory of market equilibrium, theory of the firm, theory of preferences, and others. Russia has demonstrated a kind of phenomenon, both from the point of view of theory and practice of market transformations, when it is not entrepreneurship, not the investment activity of business and the population, but the narrowly selfish interests of persons affiliated with the government, began to determine market processes, such an economy was called the «economy of individuals», And in the case of a direct focus on the state budget,» the economy of the distribution». The transformations could be based on the market experience of a large number of countries, both developed and developing (China), this has not been done. Time was lost on the creation of new jobs; in the industrial orientation of the state, there were no priorities for the development of important industries for national competitiveness. As a result, the economic growth was lost.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 121-141
Author(s):  
Osama Sami AL-Nsour

The concept of citizenship is one of the pillars upon which the modern civil state was built. The concept of citizenship can be considered as the basic guarantee for both the government and individuals to clarify the relationship between them, since under this right individuals can acquire and apply their rights freely and also based on this right the state can regulate how society members perform the duties imposed on them, which will contributes to the development of the state and society .The term citizenship has been used in a wider perspective, itimplies the nationality of the State where the citizen obtains his civil, political, economic, social, cultural and religious rights and is free to exercise these rights in accordance with the Constitution of the State and the laws governing thereof and without prejudice to the interest. In return, he has an obligation to perform duties vis-à-vis the state so that the state can give him his rights that have been agreed and contracted.This paper seeks to explore firstly, the modern connotation of citizenship where it is based on the idea of rights and duties. Thus the modern ideal of citizenship is based on the relationship between the individual and the state. The Islamic civilization was spanned over fourteen centuries and there were certain laws and regulations governing the relationship between the citizens and the state, this research will try to discover the main differences between the classical concept of citizenship and the modern one, also this research will show us the results of this change in this concept . The research concludes that the new concept of citizenship is correct one and the one that can fit to our contemporary life and the past concept was appropriate for their time but the changes in the world force us to apply and to rethink again about this concept.


1958 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sol Tax

Picture a piece of land on the Iowa River in Central Iowa. Some of it is bottomland that floods over. Some of it is wooded hillside. Some is useful for farming. For the past 100 years this has been the home of a growing community of American Indians who call themselves Mesquakies. They are commonly known as Fox Indians. After the Blackhawk War they were removed from Illinois and Iowa to Kansas. They defied the government, however, and in 1857 a few of them sought and received permission from the state of Iowa to buy 80 acres of land on which to settle. The 80 acres have grown to 3300. The population has grown to some 600 persons who think of this settlement as home even though many work and live in the towns and the cities of the white world—which in the meantime has surrounded their land and their lives.


Author(s):  
Opeyemi Ademola Olayiwola

The Middle Belt region of Nigeria, comprising significant parts of Benue, Nasarawa, Taraba, Adamawa, Plateau, Kogi, and Kwara, has been a battle ground for the nomadic terrorism in the past few years. Through the inspiration of Boko Haram, the nomadic terrorists have been able to infiltrate this part of the country impossible for the conventional Boko Haram to penetrate, leading to destruction of lives and livelihood, and displacement of thousands of people, with Benue State, referred to as the “Food Basket of the Nation,” the worst affected in the zone. While much attention is given to its impacts on human insecurity, what has been less observed, at least from an academic point of view, is its food insecurity impacts. Using phenomenological qualitative research, the study examined the impacts of nomadic terrorism on food insecurity in the Food Basket of the Nation in Nigeria. The study has implications for policymaking to address the state of IDPs in new location and militate against nomadic terrorism and conflicts in the Food Basket of the Nation and tackle food insecurity.


2012 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 71
Author(s):  
Baakile Motshegwa ◽  
Keratilwe Bodilenyane

Botswana has in the past received accolades of being the most peaceful country in Southern Africa. Any disturbance of this peace is either shunned or seen as a departure from the norm. The advent of trade unions in Botswana has always been looked at with suspicion and they have been seen as militant, which is contrary to the peaceful existence the country has enjoyed regardless of the fact that it is surrounded by countries that have been to war at some point in their history. Therefore, the state has made it a point that any sign of unrest is severely dealt with by the government. Some employees were dismissed un-procedurally as disciplinary procedures were not followed and the court ruled in the employee’s favour in 2012. The majority of those dismissed were from the essential services sections of government even though at the beginning some were released through the strike rules agreement between government and unions. Laid down disciplinary rules and procedures of having a hearing were not followed. 


Oryx ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 115-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean-Christophe Vié

AbstractMany wildlife rescues have been carried out over the past few decades but most were not documented and were controversial. However, such operations can be useful, providing risks are evaluated and elementary guidelines are followed. In addition to saving lives and being desirable from an ethical point of view, such operations can be very valuable for both biological research and conservation, and are certainly preferable than the alternative: to do nothing. Previous rescues are reviewed and the operation conducted in French Guiana during the filling of the Petit Saut reservoir is described. Objectives, methods, results and financial aspects are discussed. Around 5500 mammals and reptiles were captured, sampled and translocated to a protected area. The successful results of the translocation, the large amount of original data obtained, the interest shown by scientists in our samples and the subsequent new conservation impetus that appeared in the government corroborate our initial conviction that the operation was worthwhile.


1988 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 432-452 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariko Asano-Tamanoi

Farmers used to grow, process, store, and merchandise food and fiber. Such “agriculture as an industry in and of itself or as a distinct phase of our economy,” however, has long become a legacy of the past (Davis and Goldberg 1957:1). Farmers today stand in relations of growing complexity with various “others” for the purpose of agricultural production, i.e. farm suppliers, banks, research centers, processors, storage operators, distributors, and the government. In other words, farmers work in the complex web of relationships created by all these individuals and institutions. In this context, “contract farming,” a topic of growing interest among social scientists, seems to epitomize, perhaps most clearly, such complex production relations maintained by many farmers today in various corners of the world.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-53
Author(s):  
Denis Kislov

The article examines the period from the end of the 17th century to the beginning of the 19th century, when on the basis of deep philosophical concepts, a new vision of the development of statehood and human values raised. At this time, a certain re-thinking of the management and communication ideas of Antiquity and the Renaissance took place, which outlined the main promising trends in the statehood evolution, which to one degree or another were embodied in practice in the 19th and 20th centuries. A systematic approach and a comparative analysis of the causes and consequences of those years achievements for the present and the immediate future of the 21st century served as the methodological basis for a comprehensive review of the studies of that period. The scientific novelty of this study is the demonstration of the theoretical heritage complexity of the Enlightenment for the general history of management and communication ideas. The article presents an analysis of the views and concepts of the late 17th – early 18th century thinkers Thomas Hobbes and John Locke, who defend the right to freedom of communication and liberalization of relationships in the system: “person – society – state”, associated with their own understanding of the government role. French enlighteners François Voltaire, Denis Diderot, Jean d'Alembert, Etienne Condillac were much smaller theorists in management and communication issues, but their successful epistolary and encyclopedic communication practice, starting from the third decade of the XVIII century significantly increased the self-awareness of the masses. The influence of their ideas on the possibility of progressive development of social relations, on improving the national states manageability and on how of a new type scientists were able not only to popularize knowledge, but also to practically make it an object of public communication is shown. In this context, the author considers the importance of political and legal communication problems in the vision of Charles Louis Montesquieu and analyzes the republican governance ideas by Jean-Jacques Rousseau as an outstanding figure of the Enlightenment, who attached great importance to the forms and methods of forming of the state governance structures. At the end of the historical period under consideration, a comparative historical analysis of the most significant statements of such thinkers as Immanuel Kant and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel is presented. These founders of the scientific discourse around the problems of power and state, war and peace, the effectiveness of government and communication in relations with the people laid the enduring foundations of the theoretical argumentation of two opposing views on the cardinal problem of our time – the possibility or impossibility of achieving mutually acceptable foundations of a new world order peacefully, excluding all types of hybrid wars. The general picture of the scientific and technological achievements of this period, influencing the level of understanding of the management and communication functions of the state of that time, is given in comparison with the present.


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