tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15368071675734142012024-03-21T17:05:13.678-07:00Seeking the Principles of Power and DangerMathew Tollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00226147446376244981noreply@blogger.comBlogger146125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1536807167573414201.post-91112441013697329232023-11-09T18:05:00.007-08:002023-11-09T18:11:21.773-08:00Social Vulnerability, Climate Change and Health: Scoping review. <p><span style="font-family: times;"> <span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9)" style="background-color: white;">Very happy to see this <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(23)00216-4" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">new scoping review published in The Lancet Plenatary Health</span></a>.</span></span></p><span style="font-family: times;"><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9)" style="background-color: white;">The recent IPCC assessment report argued that lack of ability to identify social vulnerability at a local and urban level was a critical barrier to climate adaptation planning.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); line-height: inherit;" /><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); line-height: inherit;" /><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9)" style="background-color: white;">We conducted a scoping review of 230 studies that examined social vulnerability to the health effects of climate change in order to understand the main foci of the literature and potential gaps.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); line-height: inherit;" /><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); line-height: inherit;" /><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9)" style="background-color: white;">We found that the main share of the research focused on high-income settings – the United States, Western Europe, Australia, Japan etc. China was the exception to that rule being the most researched country after the United States. The most vulnerable countries are lest studied. This is an issue for climate justice.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); line-height: inherit;" /><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); line-height: inherit;" /><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9)" style="background-color: white;">We found that most research focuses on a narrow set of socio-demographic variables. Age, sex, ethnicity, education, income being amongst the most used indicators of social vulnerability.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); line-height: inherit;" /><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); line-height: inherit;" /><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9)" style="background-color: white;">We found a relative paucity in the number of studies that address or measure broader structural dimensions of social vulnerability – issues of housing, access to community facilities beyond health services, governance are less researched.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); line-height: inherit;" /><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); line-height: inherit;" /><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9)" style="background-color: white;">We argued that a lot of the research is very descriptive rather than explanatory. Drawing on more social science understandings of vulnerability and a broader range of indicators could help explain how group membership/social category translates to vulnerability and help identify leverage points for interventions.</span></span><div><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9)" style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9)" style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: times;">Here is the abstract for the <span style="color: #2b00fe;"><a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanplh/article/PIIS2542-5196(23)00216-4/fulltext" target="_blank">paper</a>: </span></span></span></div><div><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9)" face="-apple-system, system-ui, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></div><div><blockquote><section style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #505050; margin-bottom: 3.4375rem;"><div class="section-paragraph" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.125rem; margin-top: 0.625rem;"><div class="section-paragraph" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.125rem; margin-top: 0.625rem;"><span style="font-family: times;">The need to assess and measure how social vulnerability influences the health impacts of climate change has resulted in a rapidly growing body of research literature. To date, there has been no overarching, systematic examination of where this evidence is concentrated and what inferences can be made. This scoping review provides an overview of studies published between 2012 and 2022 on social vulnerability to the negative health effects of climate change. Of the 2115 studies identified from four bibliographic databases (Scopus, Web of Science, PubMed, and CAB Direct), 230 that considered indicators of social vulnerability to climate change impacts on health outcomes were selected for review. Frequency and thematic analyses were conducted to establish the scope of the social vulnerability indicators, climate change impacts, and health conditions studied, and the substantive themes and findings of this research. 113 indicators of social vulnerability covering 15 themes were identified, with a small set of indicators receiving most of the research attention, including age, sex, ethnicity, education, income, poverty, unemployment, access to green and blue spaces, access to health services, social isolation, and population density. The results reveal an undertheorisation and few indicators that conceptualise and operationalise social vulnerability beyond individual sociodemographic characteristics by identifying structural and institutional dimensions of vulnerability, and a preponderance of social vulnerability research in high-income countries. This Review highlights the need for future research, data infrastructure, and policy attention to address structural, institutional, and sociopolitical conditions, which will better support climate resilience and adaptation planning.</span><span style="background-color: transparent;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent;"> </span></div></div></section></blockquote><blockquote><section style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #505050; margin-bottom: 3.4375rem;"><div class="section-paragraph" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.125rem; margin-top: 0.625rem;"><div class="section-paragraph" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.125rem; margin-top: 0.625rem;"><blockquote><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: times;"></span></blockquote><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: times;"></span></div></div></section></blockquote></div>Mathew Tollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00226147446376244981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1536807167573414201.post-44668376830491743832022-06-30T19:36:00.004-07:002022-06-30T19:40:35.841-07:00Do Vaccine Mandates on Childcare Services Work? <p><span style="font-family: times;">Here is the latest paper I have published with <a href="https://findanexpert.unimelb.edu.au/profile/888653-ang-li" target="_blank">Ang Li</a> that provides an evaluation of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2022.03.071" target="_blank"><i>No Jab No Play</i><b style="font-style: italic;"> </b>policies</a> that have been enacted in a series of Australian states. Here is the title and abstract: </span></p><p></p><blockquote> <b><u>Title</u></b>: </blockquote><blockquote><a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2022.03.071" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Vaccine mandates on childcare entry without conscientious objection exemptions: A quasi-experimental panel study</span></a></blockquote><p></p><blockquote><p> <b><u>Abstract</u></b>: </p><div class="Abstracts u-font-serif" id="abstracts" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #2e2e2e; font-size: 18px; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div class="abstract author" id="ab005" lang="en" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 8px; padding: 0px;"><div id="as005" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: NexusSerif, Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, STIXGeneral, "Cambria Math", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Microsoft Sans Serif", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Arial Unicode MS", serif; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><h3 class="u-h4 u-margin-m-top u-margin-xs-bottom" id="st010" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #505050; font-size: 1rem; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.4; margin-bottom: 8px !important; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 24px !important; margin: 24px 0px 8px; padding: 0px;"></h3></div><blockquote><div id="as005" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><h3 class="u-h4 u-margin-m-top u-margin-xs-bottom" id="st010" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #505050; font-size: 1rem; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.4; margin-bottom: 8px !important; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 24px !important; margin: 24px 0px 8px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;">Objectives</span></h3><p id="sp0005" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;">Examine the effect of No Jab No Play policies, which linked vaccine status to childcare service entry without allowing for personal belief exemptions, on <a class="topic-link" href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/vaccination-coverage" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #2e2e2e; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-color: rgb(46, 46, 46); text-decoration-thickness: 1px; text-underline-offset: 1px; word-break: break-word;" title="Learn more about immunisation coverage from ScienceDirect's AI-generated Topic Pages">immunisation coverage</a>.</span></p></div><div id="as010" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><h3 class="u-h4 u-margin-m-top u-margin-xs-bottom" id="st015" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #505050; font-size: 1rem; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.4; margin-bottom: 8px !important; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 24px !important; margin: 24px 0px 8px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;">Study design</span></h3><p id="sp0010" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;">Immunisation coverage rates from the Australian Immunisation Register were linked to regional level covariates from the Australian Bureau of Statistics between January 2016 and December 2019. Differential timings of policy rollouts across states were used to assess changes in coverage with the implementation of policies with generalised linear models. Quantile regression and subgroup analysis were also conducted to explore the variation in policy responses.</span></p></div><div id="as015" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><h3 class="u-h4 u-margin-m-top u-margin-xs-bottom" id="st020" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #505050; font-size: 1rem; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.4; margin-bottom: 8px !important; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 24px !important; margin: 24px 0px 8px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;">Results</span></h3><p id="sp0015" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;">Baseline mean vaccination rates in 2016 were 93.4% for one-year-olds, 91.2% for two-year-olds and 93.2% for five-year-olds. Increases in coverage post-policy were significant but small, at around 1% across age groups, with larger increases in two and five-year-olds. Accounting for aggregate time trends and regional characteristics, implementation of the policies was associated with improved full immunisation coverage rates for age one (post-year 1: 0.15% [95 %CI–0.23; 0.52]; post-year 2: 0.56% [95 %CI 0.05; 1.07]), age two (post-year 1: 0.49 [95 %CI: 0.00; 0.97]; post-year 2: 1.15% [95 %CI: 0.53; 1.77], and age five (post-year 1: 0.38% [95 %CI 0.08; 0.67]; post-year 2: 0.71% [95 %CI 0.25; 1.16]. The policy effect was dispersed and insignificant at the lowest quantiles of the distribution of immunisation coverage, and smaller and insignificant in the highest socioeconomic areas.</span></p></div><div id="as020" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><h3 class="u-h4 u-margin-m-top u-margin-xs-bottom" id="st025" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #505050; font-size: 1rem; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.4; margin-bottom: 8px !important; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 24px !important; margin: 24px 0px 8px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;">Conclusion</span></h3><p id="sp0020" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;">Findings suggest that No Jab No Play policies had a small positive impact on immunisation coverage. This policy effect varied according to prior distribution of coverage and socio-economic status. Childcare access equity and unresponsiveness in high socioeconomic areas remain concerns.</span></p></div></blockquote><div id="as020" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p id="sp0020" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px;"></p></div></div></div><div class="Keywords u-font-serif" style="border-bottom: 2px solid rgb(235, 235, 235); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2e2e2e; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px 0px 32px; padding: 0px 0px 32px;"><div class="keywords-section" id="kg005" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><h2 class="section-title u-h3 u-margin-l-top u-margin-xs-bottom" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #505050; font-size: 24px; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.333; margin-bottom: 8px !important; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 16px; margin: 16px 0px 8px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;"> </span></h2></div></div></blockquote>Mathew Tollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00226147446376244981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1536807167573414201.post-85598893173765142732022-02-15T19:07:00.001-08:002022-02-15T19:08:31.538-08:00What are the mental health benefits of stable housing for private renters? <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">New paper by <a href="https://scholar.google.com.au/citations?user=Ej1KIgsAAAAJ&hl=en" target="_blank">Ang Li</a>, Emma Baker, and Rebecca Bentley has been published in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.114778" style="font-style: italic;" target="_blank">Social Science and Medicine</a>, looking at how stable and secure tenancy affects the mental health and level of psychological distress of private renters compared to home owners. The results suggest that stability helps to close the mental health gap between those two groups by increasing renters well being at a faster rate overtime. This is interesting to me for two reasons: 1) it suggests that ontological security is more important than tenure type. It isn't necessarily homeownership that is protective of mental health. 2) it underscores the relationship between housing and mental health, and that the rights of tenants should be considered a public health issue. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">Here is the abstract for '</span><span style="font-family: times; text-align: left;"><a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.114778" target="_blank">Understanding the mental health effects of instability in the private rental sector: A longitudinal analysis of a national cohort</a>': </span></p><div class="Banner" id="banner" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px 0px 8px; padding: 0px;"><div class="wrapper truncated" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div class="AuthorGroups text-xs" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 0.7rem; line-height: 1.57; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div class="author-group" id="author-group" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"></div></div></div></div><blockquote><p><span style="font-family: times;"></span></p><blockquote style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">Using a population-based longitudinal dataset in Australia over nearly 20 years, this study examines the impact of tenure instability on mental health and <a class="topic-link" href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/psychology/psychological-distress" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-color: rgb(46, 46, 46); text-decoration-thickness: 1px; text-underline-offset: 1px; word-break: break-word;" title="Learn more about psychological distress from ScienceDirect's AI-generated Topic Pages">psychological distress</a> among a low-income working-age population. The analysis compares private renters (who are notable for their relative tenure insecurity in the Australian context) and homeowners with similar sociodemographic characteristics. To enhance group comparability and address the presence of time-varying covariates that confound and mediate the relationship between tenure exposure and mental health, marginal structural models were used applying weights estimated cumulatively over time. The results show that while private rental tenants report worse mental health than homeowners initially (mental health difference: Beta = −5.29, 95%CI −7.61 to −2.97; psychological distress difference: Beta = 1.77, 95%CI 0.55 to 2.99), this difference diminishes to become statistically indistinguishable by 5–6 years of occupancy (mental health difference at year 6: Beta = −2.09, 95%CI −4.31 to 0.13, predicted mental health increases: from 65.06 to 69.83 for private renters and from 70.46 to 72.02 for homeowners; psychological distress difference at year 5: Beta = 0.81, 95%CI −0.09 to 1.71, predicted psychological distress decreases: from 19.85 to 18.04 for private renters and from 17.95 to 17.10 for homeowners). Residential stability is particularly beneficial for private renters in early middle adulthood (35–44 years), with each additional year of stable occupancy for private renters correlated with a 0.99 (95%CI 0.46 to 1.53) increase in mental health and a −0.47 (95%CI −0.69 to −0.24) decrease in psychological distress. The findings provide evidence that stable and secure rental tenure is protective of mental health, and the mental health of stable renters becomes comparable to that of homeowners over time. This adds support for housing policies that promote and improve the stability and security of rental tenure.</span></blockquote><p></p></blockquote><p><span style="font-family: times;">This demonstrates another dimension to how the <a href="http://dostoevskiansmiles.blogspot.com/2021/10/do-house-price-increases-negatively.html" target="_blank">housing system effects our life chances and health outcomes</a>. </span></p>Mathew Tollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00226147446376244981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1536807167573414201.post-50465604490321471902021-10-02T20:27:00.005-07:002021-10-23T19:42:13.872-07:00Do house price increases negatively affect fertility intentions and fertility?
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhe.2021.101787" style="text-align: justify;" target="_blank">New paper</a><span style="text-align: justify;"> by <a href="https://scholar.google.com.au/citations?hl=en&user=Ej1KIgsAAAAJ&view_op=list_works" target="_blank">Ang Li</a> (and co-authors <a href="https://www.sydney.edu.au/arts/about/our-people/academic-staff/kadir-atalay.html" target="_blank">Kadir Atalay</a> & <a href="https://www.sydney.edu.au/arts/about/our-people/academic-staff/stephen-whelan.html" target="_blank">Stephen Whelan</a> from the University of Sydney) looks at the effect of house price increases on renters and homeowners fertility intentions and fertility outcomes in Australia. Housing affordability has been a big issue in Australia for some time and the impact of decreasing affordability has been linked to declining fertility rates. Atalay, Li and Whelan using data from the HILDA survey find that increasing house prices have different effects for homeowners and renters. Here is the abstract: </span></p><blockquote style="text-align: justify;">There is increasing evidence that housing and housing markets impact a variety of behaviors and outcomes. Using a rich panel of Australian microlevel data, we estimated the effect of housing price changes on both fertility intentions and fertility outcomes. The analysis indicates that the likelihood of having a child among homeowners is positively related to an increase in housing wealth. The positive housing wealth effect has the greatest impact on the fertility and fertility intentions of Australian homeowners who are young and mortgage holders. In comparison, there is evidence that increases in housing prices decrease the fertility intentions of private renters with children.</blockquote><p>The full paper can be viewed here: <a aria-label="Persistent link using digital object identifier" class="doi" href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhe.2021.101787" rel="noreferrer noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #0c7dbb; font-family: NexusSans, Arial, Helvetica, "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Microsoft Sans Serif", "Segoe UI Symbol", STIXGeneral, "Cambria Math", "Arial Unicode MS", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word;" target="_blank" title="Persistent link using digital object identifier">https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhe.2021.101787</a></p><div style="text-align: left;">This paper is based on a chapter of Ang Li's PhD thesis which can be found here:<span style="color: #2b00fe;"> <a class="word-break" href="http://hdl.handle.net/2123/18877" style="background-color: white; border-radius: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Apercu, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, sans-serif; hyphens: auto; outline: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; word-break: break-word;">http://hdl.handle.net/2123/18877</a></span></div>Mathew Tollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00226147446376244981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1536807167573414201.post-17566159243216340252021-08-12T08:21:00.004-07:002021-08-12T08:21:43.513-07:00Blur under the Sandridge bridge<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqVKHxqu3igkDAPftzJCGRlV_DbVbi3J0oXqNXHgBHDrBEr5y8SFN4POWwRvMKQTdmRphPHOtan6-LVvn3EvfYxmOiqbsbQE4yDgus4LPlg-O4NsBBnpHKuk1ONqpDhp1yoA5rHiiiGrM/s2048/Blur+under+the+Sandridge+bridge.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="600" data-original-height="1185" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqVKHxqu3igkDAPftzJCGRlV_DbVbi3J0oXqNXHgBHDrBEr5y8SFN4POWwRvMKQTdmRphPHOtan6-LVvn3EvfYxmOiqbsbQE4yDgus4LPlg-O4NsBBnpHKuk1ONqpDhp1yoA5rHiiiGrM/s600/Blur+under+the+Sandridge+bridge.jpg"/></a></div>
I recently starting posting to <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/mathewtoll/with/51294281894/" target="_blank">my Flickr account</a>, which I've had for the longest time but never really used. Above is something I posted.Mathew Tollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00226147446376244981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1536807167573414201.post-12603851263324442972021-01-19T00:03:00.064-08:002021-11-03T23:30:22.892-07:00'Removing conscientious objection: the impact of ‘no jab no pay’ and ‘no jab no play’ vaccine policies in australia': New Paper<p><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://ars.els-cdn.com/content/image/1-s2.0-S0091743520304370-gr3.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="524" data-original-width="800" height="421" src="https://ars.els-cdn.com/content/image/1-s2.0-S0091743520304370-gr3.jpg" width="548" /></a></span></div><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9)" style="background-color: white; font-family: Garamond; text-align: justify;"><div style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div><p style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 12pt;">I have a new paper with </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Ej1KIgsAAAAJ&hl=en" target="_blank">Ang Li</a></span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"> (<span><a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ang_Li165" target="_blank">reseachgate here</a></span>) just published in <i>Preventive
Medicine </i>on the impact of <i>No Jab, No Pay </i>and <i>No
Jab, No Play</i> on vaccine coverage rates.</span></span></p><div style="text-align: left;">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;">We found that these policies,
which removed non-medical exemptions from government benefits and childcare
enrolments, were occasioned by an increase in vaccination coverage across
states between 2-4% for one-year olds, 1-1.5% for two-year olds, and 1-3.5% for
five-year-olds.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;">
<br />
We also found that the effect of the policy differed significantly depending on
characteristics of the area.<br />
<br />
Areas that were characterised by either: lower socio-economic status, lower median income, more Family Tax Benefit recipients, or higher pre-intervention coverage had
greater responsiveness to the policy changes.<br />
<br />
Variation in response to the policy changes across areas suggest the effect was largely
led by lower-socioeconomic status parents who were nudged towards full
vaccination, while more affluent parents were relatively unaffected.</span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><b><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;">Title:</span></b><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;"> <i><span style="color: blue;"><a href="https://authors.elsevier.com/c/1cR7yKt2py2po" target="_blank">Removing conscientious objection: The impact of ‘No Jab NoPay’and ‘No Jab No Play’vaccine policies in Australia</a></span></i></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><b><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;">Hightlights: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<ul type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Removing conscientious objection
increased overall childhood vaccination coverage.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The policy responses were
heterogeneous.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Socioeconomically advantaged areas
were less responsive to policy changes.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Benefit-dependent and lower-income
areas were more responsive to policy changes.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Areas with pre-existing low
coverage were more persistent and less responsive.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></li>
</ul>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><b><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;">Abstract: </span></b><span style="color: #2e2e2e; font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Vaccine
refusal and hesitancy pose a significant public health threat to communities.
Public health authorities have been developing a range of strategies to improve
childhood vaccination coverage. This study examines the effect of removing
conscientious objection on immunisation coverage for one, two and five year
olds in Australia. Conscientious objection was removed from immunisation
requirement exemptions for receipt of family assistance payments
(national <i>No Jab No Pay</i>) and enrolment in childcare (state <i>No
Jab No Play</i>). The impact of these national and state-level policies is
evaluated using quarterly coverage data from the Australian Immunisation
Register linked with regional data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics at
the statistical area level between 2014 and 2018. Results suggest that there
have been overall improvements in coverage associated with <i>No Jab No
Pay</i>, and states that implemented additional <i>No Jab No Play</i> and
tightened documentation requirement policies tended to show more significant
increases. However, policy responses were heterogeneous. The improvement in
coverage was largest in areas with greater socioeconomic disadvantage, lower
median income, more benefit dependency, and higher pre-policy baseline
coverage. Overall, while immunisation coverage has increased post removal of
conscientious objection, the policies have disproportionally affected lower
income families whereas socioeconomically advantaged areas with lower baseline
coverage were less responsive. More effective strategies require investigation
of differential policy effects on vaccine hesitancy, refusal and access
barriers, and diagnosis of causes for unresponsiveness and under-vaccination in
areas with persistently low coverage, to better address areas with persistent non-compliance
with accordant interventions.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #2e2e2e; font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Here is link for access: </span><a aria-label="Persistent link using digital object identifier" class="doi" href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2020.106406" rel="noreferrer noopener" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0c7dbb; font-family: NexusSans, Arial, Helvetica, "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Microsoft Sans Serif", "Segoe UI Symbol", STIXGeneral, "Cambria Math", "Arial Unicode MS", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word;" target="_blank" title="Persistent link using digital object identifier">https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2020.106406</a>. </p></div></span><p></p>
<b></b><p></p>Mathew Tollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00226147446376244981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1536807167573414201.post-13892466677271501272021-01-14T17:31:00.006-08:002021-10-02T20:54:53.068-07:00Effects of Graduating during Economic Downturns on Mental Health: New paper<div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9)" style="background-color: white; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 14px;">I have a new paper with </span><span style="font-family: Garamond;"><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Ej1KIgsAAAAJ&hl=en" target="_blank">Ang Li</a></span><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9)" style="background-color: white; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 14px;"> (<a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ang_Li165" target="_blank">reseachgate here</a>) just published in </span><span style="font-family: Garamond;"><i>Annals of Epidemiology<span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></i></span><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9)" style="background-color: white; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 14px;">looking at the </span><a href="https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1cOsO3k7xFjOxS" style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 14px;" target="_blank">effects of graduating during economic downturns on mental health</a><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9)" style="background-color: white; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 14px;">.</span></div><span style="font-family: Garamond;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9)" style="font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></div><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9)" style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">We found that graduating during a time of increased unemployment is not good for either short-term mental health or long-term mental health. The scarring effect is particularly pronounced for men, people who don't receive government payments, and people with only vocational or secondary qualification.</div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9)" style="font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></div><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9)" style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">People with higher education seem to do better and graduating during downturns had less of a lasting effect.</div></span></span></div><span style="font-family: Garamond;"><b><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Title</b>: <a href="https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1cOsO3k7xFjOxS" target="_blank">Effects of graduating during economic downturns on mental health </a></div></b></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #505050; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 1.2rem;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #505050; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 1.2rem;"><b>Abstract</b></span></div><div><div id="abssec0010" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #2e2e2e; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><h3 class="u-h4 u-margin-m-top u-margin-xs-bottom" id="sectitle0015" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #505050; font-size: 1rem; line-height: 1.4; margin-bottom: 8px !important; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 24px !important; margin: 24px 0px 8px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;">Purpose</span></h3><p id="abspara0010" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;">This study examined the effects of economic downturns at the time of graduation on short-term and long-term mental health of graduates.</span></p></div><div id="abssec0015" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #2e2e2e; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><h3 class="u-h4 u-margin-m-top u-margin-xs-bottom" id="sectitle0020" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #505050; font-size: 1rem; line-height: 1.4; margin-bottom: 8px !important; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 24px !important; margin: 24px 0px 8px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;">Methods</span></h3><p id="abspara0015" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;">Using a large longitudinal dataset whose respondents graduated from their highest level of education between 2001 and 2018 in Australia, the study investigated the effects of initial labor market conditions on psychological distress measures, quality-of-life mental health scales, and diagnoses of depression or anxiety since graduation.</span></p></div><div id="abssec0020" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #2e2e2e; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><h3 class="u-h4 u-margin-m-top u-margin-xs-bottom" id="sectitle0025" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #505050; font-size: 1rem; line-height: 1.4; margin-bottom: 8px !important; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 24px !important; margin: 24px 0px 8px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;">Results</span></h3><p id="abspara0020" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;">Evidence suggests the presence of a scarring effect of graduating during a recession on the mental health of young adults, particularly significant and persistent for men. Higher unemployment rates at graduation were associated with increased risks of high psychological distress and diagnoses of depression or anxiety, and lower levels of social functioning and mental well-being among men lasting over a decade. The psychological effect was largely driven by young adults with vocational or secondary qualifications or receiving no government allowance at graduation.</span></p></div><div id="abssec0025" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #2e2e2e; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><h3 class="u-h4 u-margin-m-top u-margin-xs-bottom" id="sectitle0030" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #505050; font-size: 1rem; line-height: 1.4; margin-bottom: 8px !important; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 24px !important; margin: 24px 0px 8px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;">Conclusions</span></h3><p id="abspara0025" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;">Policies should consider the psychological effect of graduating during recessions and focus particularly on vulnerable groups who are susceptible to adverse labor market conditions, such as graduates who are in cyclically sensitive occupations and have less or no work benefits and social protection. </span></p><p id="abspara0025" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;">The full article can be found <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annepidem.2020.12.005" target="_blank">here</a>: </span><a class="oajrlxb2 g5ia77u1 qu0x051f esr5mh6w e9989ue4 r7d6kgcz rq0escxv nhd2j8a9 nc684nl6 p7hjln8o kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x jb3vyjys rz4wbd8a qt6c0cv9 a8nywdso i1ao9s8h esuyzwwr f1sip0of lzcic4wl py34i1dx gpro0wi8" href="https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1cOsO3k7xFjOxS?fbclid=IwAR3beTc0yZAvlqrkzYzviKJqANQwyAZtphUzea61ip1Evg16nxVcU7JpXdE" rel="nofollow" role="link" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: white; border-color: initial; border-style: initial; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; white-space: pre-wrap;" tabindex="0" target="_blank">https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1cOsO3k7xFjOxS</a></p></div></div>Mathew Tollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00226147446376244981noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1536807167573414201.post-84052760349230001922020-11-19T14:05:00.008-08:002021-06-01T23:29:27.380-07:00Vaccine Sentiments and Under-vaccination: New Paper<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">.<a href="https://twitter.com/ANGLIhere?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ANGLIhere</a> and my paper "Vaccine sentiments and under-vaccination" is now out about in the world and online for everyone to see: <a href="https://t.co/bEn4HBE75w">https://t.co/bEn4HBE75w</a></p>— Mathew Toll (@MGHToll) <a href="https://twitter.com/MGHToll/status/1328851340135518211?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 18, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">New paper out co-authored with <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ang_Li165" target="_blank">Ang
Li</a> on the issue of vaccine hesitancy and under-vaccination that looks
at the factors associated with vaccine attitudes (very strongly agree with
vaccines to very strongly disagree with vaccines) and vaccine behaviours around
the MMR vaccine (full dosage, partial dosage, no dosage). And the
consistency between factors associated with attitudes and behaviours, showing
when practical barriers impede the translation of positive vaccine attitudes
into full uptake. <o:p></o:p></span><u1:p></u1:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Title: “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2020.11.021" target="_blank">Vaccinesentiments
and under-vaccination: Attitudes and behaviour around Measles,Mumps, and
Rubella vaccine (MMR) in an Australian cohort</a>”<o:p></o:p></span><u1:p></u1:p></p>
<h3 style="line-height: 24pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><b>Abstract: </b></span></h3>
<h3 id="st010" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1rem; line-height: 19.5pt;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #505050; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Objective<o:p></o:p></span></h3>
<p id="sp0005" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 19.5pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 12pt;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #2e2e2e; mso-ansi-language: EN;">The study aimed to examine the
consistency in factors associated with attitudes towards vaccination and MMR
vaccination status.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<h3 id="st015" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1rem; line-height: 19.5pt;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #505050; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Methods<o:p></o:p></span></h3>
<p id="sp0010" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 19.5pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 12pt;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #2e2e2e; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Using the nationally representative
Longitudinal Study of Australian Children matched with the Australian Childhood
Immunisation Register, 4,779 children were included from 2004-2005 to 2010–11.
Different MMR vaccine dosages and general attitude towards vaccination were
modelled individually with multinomial logit regressions, controlling for
demographic, socioeconomic, and health related factors of the children and
their primary carers.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<h3 id="st020" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1rem; line-height: 19.5pt;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #505050; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Results<o:p></o:p></span></h3>
<p id="sp0015" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 19.5pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 12pt;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #2e2e2e; mso-ansi-language: EN;">The group with non-vaccination and
negative attitudes was characterised by more siblings and older parents; the
group with under-vaccination but positive attitudes was characterised by younger
parental age; and the group with under-vaccination and neutral attitudes was
characterised by less socioeconomically advantaged areas. The presence of
parental medical condition(s), being private or public renters, and higher
parental education were associated with under-vaccination but not with
attitudes towards vaccination, whilst parental religion was associated with
attitudes towards vaccination but not reflected in the vaccine uptake.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<h3 id="st025" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1rem; line-height: 19.5pt;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #505050; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Conclusions<o:p></o:p></span></h3>
<p id="sp0020" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 19.5pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 12pt;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #2e2e2e; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Vaccine attitudes were largely
consistent with MRR vaccine outcomes. However, there was variation in the
associations of factors with vaccine attitudes and uptake. The results have
implications for different policy designs that target subgroups with consistent
or inconsistent vaccination attitudes and behaviour. Parents with intentional
and unintentional under-vaccination are of policy concern and require different
policy solutions.<o:p></o:p></span></p>------<p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">Here is a share link that allows free access for the first 50 days: <a href="https://t.co/XJlSK3Jcix?amp=1">https://t.co/XJlSK3Jcix?amp=1</a></p><p></p> Mathew Tollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00226147446376244981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1536807167573414201.post-28461252965786992732020-09-15T05:34:00.001-07:002020-09-15T18:03:46.448-07:00Review: Sun and Steel <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg86l9DLPe1Urn1Cmx4BtiPRx3g_OyYiqHpTwDi-hDQWGU3W_9HUbb9Ly2FOX9OmjIpmIFkNEqX-ZHXI7AFCaDtcYIHnH9Nb8mPDD6ZV-_GM3rT3MEWqs-FM5ytoZBS3oHA2tGms_4TGYc/s1514/91og4Jniz%252BL.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1514" data-original-width="1185" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg86l9DLPe1Urn1Cmx4BtiPRx3g_OyYiqHpTwDi-hDQWGU3W_9HUbb9Ly2FOX9OmjIpmIFkNEqX-ZHXI7AFCaDtcYIHnH9Nb8mPDD6ZV-_GM3rT3MEWqs-FM5ytoZBS3oHA2tGms_4TGYc/s320/91og4Jniz%252BL.jpg" /></a></span></div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>A short <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3510501770" target="_blank">Goodreads Review</a> of Sun and Steel </i></span><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>by Yukio Mishima that I wrote a little while ago.</i></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">I have to say – I do not quite get the adoration that people have for this book on YouTube.</span></p><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">People talk about it as a kind of masculine self-help book about mastering the “discipline of the steel”, weightlifting and weapons, and embracing your physical being and physical experience.</div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">The book does detail Mishima's journey to leave his room and transform himself through lifting steel, running, and fencing. Flirtations with the military, etc. Yet it isnt simply that, as the subtitle suggests "Art, Action and Ritual Death", it presents a worldview on relationship between word (spirit) and action (body) and their reconciliation in death.</div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">One of the notions that I was sympathetic to is that there is a problem of overindulging in introspection and the idea that the ‘surface’ of things might contain its own kind of depths (of experience) and that the ‘depth’ within oneself are a series of eddies that lead nowhere. Mishima writes near the beginning of the book:</div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">“Yet why must it be that men always seek out the depths, the abyss? Why must thought, like a plumb line, concern itself exclusively with vertical descent? Why was it not feasible for thought to change direction and climb vertically up, ever up, towards the surface? […] I could not understand the laws governing the motion of thought – the way it was liable to get stuck in unseen chams whenever it set out to go deep; or, whenever it aimed at the heights, to soar away into boundless and equally invisible heavens, leaving the corporeal form undeservedly neglected.”</div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">That idea is somewhat appealing to me, which is probably why I read the book, that and as an insight into the author’s suicide. And there is a lot of insight into the latter – the book would seem in retrospect to be a manifesto for his eventual death by seppuku.</div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">There is a long critique of the intellectualist’s neglect of bodily experience and embrace of ‘nocturnal thought’ – which seems to be why there is a focus on the ‘corrosive’ nature of thought and words.</div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">There is a lot of ontological speculation about the relation or tension between words and action and the spirit and the body, which in the epilogue he suggests need to be balanced. This speculation is interesting at times, and sometimes rather vague.</div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">A lot of the book is about embracing the discipline of the steel and the sense of power and efficacy that one gains from this. Yet, the aim is not a better quality of life, but a better quality of death. To attain a beautiful body required for a noble death.</div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">The underlying fixation on self-annihilation in service of the group and attaining a beautiful death that clearly resonates with fascistic ideals that are deeply odious.</div></span>Mathew Tollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00226147446376244981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1536807167573414201.post-18048322769976489852020-02-26T22:19:00.001-08:002023-01-01T21:46:53.172-08:00Review: The New Authoritarianism: Trump, Populism, and the Tyranny of Experts<br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;"><i><span style="background-color: white;">This post is a review I wrote of </span><span style="background-color: white;"><a href="https://twitter.com/sbabones">Salvatore Babones</a>'s book 'The New Authoritarianism' for <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2528623770?book_show_action=true&from_review_page=1">Good reads</a> a couple of years ago. I intended to write an extended post on the book for the blog but never did. So here is the original review:</span></i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Babones offers an account of a “new authoritarianism”: an illiberal transformation of liberalism from the classical philosophy of individual freedom to a rights-based discourse that ‘empowers’ people on their behalf and removes rights from the realm of democratic contestation.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">This transformation of liberalism is underpinned by the authority (or rather tyranny) of a new liberal expert class of professionals and managers that control liberal institutions, nationally and globally, and filter the range of policy options presented to the voting population.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">This is an intriguing thesis – elements of the argument ring true. Garrett Hardin suggested that human right frameworks that enshrined freedom to breed forbade policy action that could save the world from overpopulation and Malthusian crisis.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Not that many people would forgo that right and it seems that the demographic transformation will not render it a necessity. It is obvious that constructing a universal right is at least an attempt to put it beyond the realm of political contestation – or at least makes political challenge harder and less legitimate. And supernational institutions, when conceded too, explicitly shift the site of control.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Babones sees this as limiting the sovereignty of the demos and establishing a sovereignty of experts. And It is this that Babones sees as the relevant background for understanding nativist and populist discontent.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The rhetoric of global elites, liberal elites, EU apparatchiks concentrated in liberal enclaves that pervades political discourse would suggest that there is something to this account – at least as far as it reflects the populist imagination.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Babones provides a description of the sociological basis for the support of both new authoritarianism and populism. Socio-economic class, occupational order, and migration status are the axes that predispose groups towards the liberal consensus or an attempt to break this through populist strategies.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">It is not hard to see, in the years following the breakdown of the ‘great moderation’ supposedly ensured by the management of neo-liberal economic experts and the financial crisis, that groups most hurt by these economic changes have a distrust of experts and mainstream institutions.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Babones’ account of the 2016 US election had an interesting discussion of the divergent class trajectories among American woman and the split between those who could imagine themselves running for office themselves one day and those more concerned with stagnate real wages and underemployment.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">It was this latter group, among white women, that were more likely to side with Trump.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Elements of a political economy of the rise of populism and new authoritarianism thread throughout the book and I would have liked to read more about this. And the relationship between these political economic shifts and neoliberalism.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Another quibble is the lose use of the term 'liberalism' throughout the book. Babones talks about the linguistic confusion that arose when F.D.R. developed a more 'progressive' interpretation of classical liberalism without acknowledging that he was changing the meaning of the term. It isn't always clear what version of the term he is employing and therefore talking about a generic liberalism obscures the extent to which other political traditions have help establish modern political systems, including international human rights frameworks.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Babones' suggestion for dealing with these two political trends is to more fully engage with a democratic politics that puts real policy options in front of the voters -- trusting the demos to run the polis and moving beyond the consensus of the expert class.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">This book, offering an account of populism, could be seen as a justification of Brexit and Trump. It isn't hard to see that an account of 'new authoritarianism' that identities liberal experts as limiting democratic processes could be seen to embolden right-populists.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Yet, understanding these concerns is extremely important. Why do people challenge experts and the elites of the global cities? How do we get people to invest in their democracy and keep it strong? - I think those who read this book, especially those of a certain occupational order, should remember this quote by Robert Louis Stevenson: "the truth that is suppressed by friends is the readiest weapon of the enemy".</span></div>
</span>Mathew Tollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00226147446376244981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1536807167573414201.post-58834816248399757502019-09-18T23:09:00.001-07:002020-06-03T03:50:19.666-07:00An Examination of the Violence of Abjection and Suffering During the Holocaust<br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; text-indent: 36pt;">Society is underpinned by standards and
expectations as to what social worlds should resemble and operate. But when the
very foundations of that world are rocky and open to misuse and abuse, the
society is left in a destabilized position. What remains is the question of how
these worlds are tolerated in this destabilized form? Can they continue
indefinitely in such a way? This place of discomfort is the abject, that which
is contrary to everyday harmony. Often the locus of the abject can be expressed
in violence. In the case of the Holocaust the abject impacted the individual
Jewish people and the wider community of Germany and the world. The meaning
that was derived to spark the violence and the meaning that remains are in
stark contrast.</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="line-height: 200%;">Prior to the Holocaust the Jewish people were not
abject to their community, but with a little guidance and propaganda they were
led to a mass hysteria that the world hopes to never witness again. During
Europe’s enlightened period the annihilation of over 5 million Jews and Gypsies
occurred in Europe without a blink of an eye. It was tolerated, accepted and
some leaders such as the Vichy government of France contributed to the Nazi
effort by gathering their Jews and handing them over to the German’s to protect
themselves as best they could from the German occupational army. The fear that
gripped Europe and strangled the very humanity out of those in power validated
and added meaning to the Nazi ideology. As their power increased through the
pain and suffering of individuals within those social worlds their domination
over the region continued to surge. If violence is triadic in generating
meaning it requires a victim, perpetrator and witness, thus in having the
people of Europe witness the demise of the vile cancerous Jew they saw the
power of the Nazi’s in ability to control and strip the rights of its own
population and later other parts of Europe. As Foucault states “...public
execution did not re- establish justice; it reactivated power” (1977: 49). </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="line-height: 200%;">The purpose behind the Nazi violence was the establishment
of control over its people with a goal of world domination. Violence as
abjection is something contrary to the human condition, it impacts individuals
and the community in the sense that it cannot be tolerated, but what happens
when it is tolerated as in Nazi Germany. How does a community bear witness to
suffering and pain of the Jewish people and accept it as normal? How does
meaning produced by violence make it acceptable on any terms? The use of
abjection by Hitler to create distinctions and validate the actions taken
against the European Jews, through propaganda and unsubstantiated claims marked
the period. Violence that creates meaning rarely does so for those that it
violates, typically the impetus is to incite fear and terror. In the case of the
holocaust, the violence served as a means of creating fear in the hearts of the
Jews throughout Europe and their sympathizers, so that no one would stand in
the way of what Hitler viewed as a necessary task to remove the impurities from
his nation. The violence impacted both the Jews and Gypsies and the worlds in
which they both belong and are outcast. </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="line-height: 200%;">Hitler’s use of “transcendental genocide...is based on theories of the
absolute need to eliminate all members of a category, because of their
intractable vileness, wickedness, dangerousness or opposition” (Preez 1994:
11). Hitler portrayed the Jews as the root cause of all that was wrong with
Germany and the only means of recreating all that was once great in their
national identity and nation through the elimination of that which contaminated
the German State and world alike. Jews were described to be “a cancer within
the German social body” (Appagurai 1998: 913) this statement highlights this
use of the abject to discredit the Jew’s as people with rights that belong
within society. Here they are likened to disease which is always to be
eradicated. They are the parasites taking jobs and the livelihood for the
German people; hence the governments created this state of emergency whereby
the suspension of rational though and disgust at the policies that strip people
of their dignity and identity. This served as a further means of creating the
Jew as the ‘other’, so that good German folk did not have a problem bearing
witness to their mass annihilation. As Kristeva (1982: 31) states “the
abjection of Nazi crime reaches its apex when death, which, in any case kills
me, interferes with what, in my living universe, is supposed to save me from
death: childhood, science, among other things.”. This is what makes the Holocaust
so difficult a pill to swallow. </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">During this period perhaps for the German people and especially those in
powerful positions perhaps the fact that they did not view Jews in the same
vein as themselves, it was easier to carry out the task. As Bauman (1989: 21) asserts
“...moral inhibitions against violent atrocities tend to be eroded once three
conditions are met...violence is authorized, actions are reutilized, and the
victims are dehumanized”. In creating images of the Jews as subhuman, cancerous
and abject to the German people it became “...the arbitrary termination of life
against the will of the individual and on behalf of the collective will of the
state” (Horowitz 1976: 33), for its own protection. As in all types of ethnic
cleansing the imagery of the stain or blemish on society that needs to be
efficiently removed so as not to impact on the national identity, so too did
“...the Nazi theory demanded the elimination of all Jews and many other
‘impurities’ from the nation” (Preez 1994: 11). <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="line-height: 200%;">If the mass annihilation of the Jew “is unimaginable...its
representation must be fit into existing, acceptable discourses: patriotism,
retaliation for real and imagined past injustices, separatism, terrorism,
communism, subversion, anarchy, the need to preserve the states and territorial
integrity, the need to protect the nation from subversion through ethnic
cleansing...” (Nagengast: 120; citing Lyotard: 172). This is what the Nazi
party did by making the Jew a distinguishable difference to the German national
identity by forcing them to wear the Star of David, by tattooing prisoners of
concentration camps with numbers. It created a lasting difference that would
forever be recognized a Jewish within that culture. The very fact that each Jew
in the concentration camp was numbered dehumanized and removed them as a
valuable commodity within that society. They no longer had an identity other
than the fact that they were Jewish, similar to that of branding cattle. In
this same way “what kept the murdering machine going then was solely its own
routine and impetus. The skills of mass murder had to be used simply because
they were there” (Bauman 1989: 106) and they were a part of the bureaucracy
that failed to see the collective pain of the individuals it destroyed. </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="line-height: 200%;">The Jewish people were “...shot, hung, electrocuted, gassed to death by
[the state]...for political misdeeds: criticism of the state, membership banned
political parties or groups, or for adherence to the “wrong” religion; for
moral deeds...homosexuality” (Nagengast, 1994: 120). They were no longer
accepted as part of the German state hence they were not protected by it. As is
typically utilized by certain powers wanting to grasp control of populations,
part of that control can involve forcibly removing groups from that national
identity that they view as not cohesive. This violence can take the form of
genocide against a race or peoples, as they may be classed as outsiders to that
nation’s identity. Alternatively, as in the case of Germany, the Jews were seen
to be a threat or stain to the national identity. For example, the state of
emergency that was created by the Nazi government is highlighted in Article 48
of the Weimar constitution which states: </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 2.0cm; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="line-height: 200%;">The president of the
Reich may, in the case of a grave disturbance or threat to public security and
order, make decisions necessary to re-establish public security, if necessary
with the aid of armed forces. To this end he may provisionally suspend the
fundamental rights...(Cited by Agamben 1998: 167). </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 2.0cm; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="line-height: 200%;">This section of the constitution created a legal loophole for the Reich
to decide that those deemed to be ‘threats to public security to have all
fundamental rights revoked and “taken into custody”, i.e. concentration camps
without question. It is not hard to envisage how easy it was to take advantage
of this power within the German constitution. It allowed for rights to be
stripped with the wave of a pen. </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="line-height: 200%;">Through the use of abjection, it became simple to turn the pain of the
Jewish people into a silent cry that the German people could not here, it was
the ‘other’. As Scarry (1985: 29) affirms “for the torturers, the sheer and
simple fact of human agony is made invisible, and the moral fact of inflicting
that agony is made neutral by the feigned urgency and significance of the
question. For the prisoner, the sheer, simple, overwhelming fact of the world
to which the question refers. Intense pain is world destroying”. In the Jewish
context it is clear that the Jews had found themselves in an intolerable state in
which they were not welcome and were stripped of their very identity for the
purpose of mass extermination. Their worlds were forcibly destroyed before
their eyes as step by step their identity and rights were forcibly removed,
until they had no control or power and were bound off together to be
slaughtered and removed from the life and world that they had once known. Their
friends and neighbour became enemies, the fear of the unknown and who was a spy
for the government, this fear and paranoia is another essence of abjection. The
fear that paralyses you to the point where you don’t run you can’t. </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="line-height: 200%;">The use of abjection to produce meaning in violence that is committed
against the ‘other’ can be different from the various viewpoints that people
hold. Hitler’s use of the abject and their being likened to a cancerous disease
allowed them to be separated and created a collective meaning within the German
identity. It reactivated the power of the German government. It reduced the
pain and suffering of Europe’s Jews and Gypsies to a silent voice of the
powerless. For those that bore witness to the atrocity and found it abject it
holds different meaning. The Holocaust is an event in history that will forever
plague the world; it was mass murder on a scale never envisioned previously.
The meaning derived from this mass atrocity today is very different to its
purpose. </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">It is abject to the very human soul that a society could allow men,
women and children to be dehumanized and murdered through a bureaucratic
process that belied their human value. As Kristeva states “the abjection of
Nazi crime reaches its apex when death which, in any case kills me, interferes
with what, in my living universe, is supposed to save me from death: childhood,
science, among other things” (1982: 31). This is what made the Holocaust so
difficult a pill to swallow. These people were held in various work camps,
concentration camps and marked for death, for no crime other than having the
wrong identity. For the Jewish people that have been impacted personally or by
a family member, their response is to commemorate it so that the world never
forgets what it did. Various films have depicted the abject nature of this
atrocity, perhaps to create a new meaning, ‘absolute power absolutely corrupts’
and we should not stand by and allow mass atrocities to occur as we are as
guilty as the perpetrators. The one message that should be taken from their
harrowing experiences is that no human should ever go through that and that
there is now meaning in the world that can excuse it.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">by </span></span><b style="font-size: 14.6667px;">Natalia Maystorovich Chulio</b><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;">, written 2009. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<b style="font-size: 14.6667px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i><span style="font-family: "cambria" , serif;">Bibliography
</span></i></b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; line-height: 200%;">
</span></div>
<ol start="1" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">Appadurai, Arjun (1998) ‘Dead Certainty: Ethnic Violence in the Era
of Globalization’ in <i>Develop and Change</i>, 29: 905-925. <o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">Agamben, Giorgio (1995) The Camp as the ‘Nomos’ of the Modern in
Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power & Bare Life, Stanford University Press
(Chapter 7) pp166-180. <o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">Bauman, Zygmunt (1989) ‘Social Production of moral indifference’ in
<i>Modernity and the Holocaust</i>, Cornell University Press, New York,
pp18-23. <o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">Bauman, Zygmunt (1989) ‘The role of Bureaucracy in the Holocaust’
in <i>Modernity and the Holocaust</i>, Cornell University Press, New York,
pp104-106. <o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">Du Preez, Peter (1994) <i>Genocide: The Psychology of Mass Murder</i>,
Bowerdean Publishing Co. Ltd, London. <o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">Engel, David (2000) <i>The Holocaust: The Third Reich and the Jews</i>,
Longman Press, Essex, UK. <o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">Horowitz, Irving (1976) <i>Genocide: State Power and Mass Murder</i>,
Transaction Books, New Jersey <o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">Kristeva, Julia (1982) ‘Approaching Abjection’ Powers of Horror: An
Essay on Abjection, new York Columbia University Press, pp1-31. <o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">Nagengast, Carol (1994) ‘Violence, Terror and the Crisis of the
State’. <i>Annual Review of Anthropology </i>23:109-36. <o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">Scarry, Elaine (1985) ‘The Structure of Torture’, in <i>The Body in
Pain</i>, pp27-59. <o:p></o:p></span></li>
</ol>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="border: 0px none currentcolor; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #201f1e;">Author biography: </span> </span><span style="border: 0px none currentcolor; font-size: 11pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><a href="https://sydney.academia.edu/NataliaMaystorovichChulio">Natalia Maystorovich Chulio</a></b></span></span><span style="border: 0px none currentcolor; font-size: 11pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> recently was awarded her PhD and works in the Department of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Sydney. Her research interests include humanitarian and human rights law; transitional justice; the archaeological recovery of mass graves; and the capacity of social movements to elicit social, political and legal change as they seek justice for victims. Her focus is on socio-legal research and qualitative methods in an attempt to merge her political and social interests with a scholarship which may enact social change. Since 2012 she has worked with the <i>Asociación para la Recuperación de la Memoria Histórica</i> (ARMH – Association for the Recovery of Historic Memory) in an attempt to draw attention to the difficulties experienced by victims and their relatives in the recuperation of their missing.</span></span></div>
Mathew Tollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00226147446376244981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1536807167573414201.post-62284358820508728672019-03-06T21:33:00.001-08:002019-03-06T21:50:45.942-08:00Teaching@Sydney post: Integrating Text and Data Mining into a History Course<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://sydney.edu.au/education-portfolio/ei/teaching@sydney/integrating-text-and-data-mining-into-a-history-course/"><img border="0" data-original-height="270" data-original-width="433" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9mDu7D8QeQOao2GPB7vXcum-B6ys27iF0FZNxpTEYqs_4_XB-Z433OiQRn2-ufLifZlB8EBXtQuMMYM42xVUgBXnajs_TYLkzZcVLoclLzY9xagMxhLgb7RRLQ_A1CohPIBE_K98si-Q/s1600/53268217_1222769224554386_3087197216482263040_n.png" /></a></div>
<br />
I co-wrote a short piece on using computational methods in a history course. If you're interested in teaching text and data mining, digital humanities, and digital methods - you might be interested in <a href="https://sydney.edu.au/education-portfolio/ei/teaching@sydney/integrating-text-and-data-mining-into-a-history-course/">this</a>.Mathew Tollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00226147446376244981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1536807167573414201.post-43616736349094126512019-01-29T21:31:00.000-08:002020-05-31T21:53:04.920-07:00Third Legitimation Code Theory Conference, Abstract: Knowledge and Rhetoric<div style="text-align: justify;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVL8G6UJiy1j01FwcwzaGvdjSgg33cd7alar3e1V74Co2Npj7gNu1eEjP7gdf5h9LPDrYtfYETgr28EpRpyHFdzghYOgfnguOnuwYJ6i8x06rKZowVdktBEisBG0w7QbznGOfRE8DXrs0/s1600/D-SDCwJW4AA6A-z.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVL8G6UJiy1j01FwcwzaGvdjSgg33cd7alar3e1V74Co2Npj7gNu1eEjP7gdf5h9LPDrYtfYETgr28EpRpyHFdzghYOgfnguOnuwYJ6i8x06rKZowVdktBEisBG0w7QbznGOfRE8DXrs0/s320/D-SDCwJW4AA6A-z.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Title slide for the talk.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The </span><a href="http://lctconferences.com/" style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">Third Legitimation Code Theory Conference</a><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> (#LCT3 on twitter) is coming up this year and I have submitted a paper co-authored with </span><a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Chunxu_Shi" style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">Shi Chunxu</a><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><u style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">(</u><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">who runs the </span><a href="http://legitimationcodetheory.com/home/community/groups/" style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">LCT Research Group in China</a><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> & works on legal discourse with LCT and Systemic Functional Linguistics). We have a couple of manuscripts in the works - so hopfully they will be published soon. For now here is the abstract for our conference paper:</span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #494848; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></b></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #494848; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></b></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #494848; text-align: justify;"><b>Title</b>: </span><span style="color: #494848;"><a href="https://www.academia.edu/38246717/Knowledge_and_Rhetoric_A_Specialization_Analysis_of_Courtroom_Argumentation">Knowledge and Rhetoric: A Specialization Analysis of Courtroom Argumentation</a></span></span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #494848; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #494848; text-align: justify;"><b>Abstract</b>: Legal cultures grounded on abstract principles or rhetorical appeals to moral feelings would seem to be diametrically opposed. Yet, in courtroom argumentation, there is a balance between interpreting events with legal statutes; and moral evaluations of character and intentions (Shi, 2017). The mix of epistemic and social elements suggests a problem: what is the basis of legitimation in courtroom argumentation and what stance-taking strategies do defence lawyers and prosecutors use to influence the outcome of court cases? These problems are not merely of theoretical interest. The judicial field is a key arena of struggle closely related to the field of politics (Bourdieu, 1986: 815) – legitimation within the courtroom is a fulcrum for the operation of power. This operation also has important pedagogic implications for legal education as understanding the social practices of the judicial field is crucial for aligning graduate qualities with the professional standards of legal practice. The rapid transformation of China’s legal system since 1979 and the corresponding expansion of legal education, credentialism, and tightening professional standard bring these issues to the fore (Zhou, 2009; Ji, 2017). </span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #494848; text-align: justify;" /><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #494848; text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #494848; text-align: justify;">To address this question, this paper employs the Specialization dimension of Legitimation Code Theory (LCT) to analyse transcripts of 20 court cases from the People’s Republic of China that involve several different types of criminal offenses. Specialization codes allow for insight into the basis of courtroom strategies, differentiating between claims that emphasize or deemphasize relations between knowledge and the object or method of study (epistemic relations) or claims that stress or downplay the importance of relations between knowledge and the author of the claim, either because of their ways of knowing or subjective characteristics (social relations) (Maton 2014:29). We apply these concepts to courtroom discourse and develop a translation device (Chen and Maton, 2016) to facilitate the Specialization analysis. We operationalize epistemic relations in terms of appeals to legal principles, processes of fact construction and interpretation; and social relations in terms of evaluation of moral character and the subjective intention of defendants. </span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #494848; text-align: justify;" /><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #494848; text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #494848; text-align: justify;">Courtroom argumentation is orientated towards legal principles and the supremacy of the law. However, the law allows a range of strategies and the specialization analysis reveals code shifts and clashes occur in such institutional contexts. Defence lawyers and prosecutors both engage in strategies that emphasis epistemic relations and social relations, depending on the affordances of the relevant legal statutes and range symbolic resources available. Statutes that define a crime and the criteria to judge if a crime has been committed provide relatively stable technical meanings; while statutes that outline grounds for the mitigation of sentences leave more latitude for the interpretation of people. This legal context and the facts of the case provide the constraints and resources that lawyers exploit to enact different argumentative strategies. Emphasis of the law and rhetorical appeals to moral feeling are two potential paths to follow. </span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #494848; text-align: justify;" /><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #494848; text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #494848; text-align: justify;">Despite the objectivity characteristic of legal language and judicial ideology (Bourdieu, 1986), Specialization analysis also reveals the social and axiological aspects of legal practice that are often concealed. This study offers an operational understanding of Specialization codes in legal discourse and provides a case study of social relations within a field that obscures or downplays these relations in its self-representation. These findings have implications for understanding the ideology of the judicial field in China and pedagogy that neglects the rhetorical aspects of courtroom argumentation.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #494848; text-align: justify;" /><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #494848; text-align: justify;" /><u><span style="background-color: white; color: #494848; text-align: justify;">References</span></u><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #494848; text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #494848; text-align: justify;">Bourdieu, P. (1986). “The force of law: Toward a sociology of the juridical field”. Hastings Law Journal, 38, p.805.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #494848; text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #494848; text-align: justify;">Ji, W. (2017). “The ideal and path of legal education reform in China”, Legal Education in the Global Context: Opportunities and Challenges, London: Routledge, pp. 267-78. </span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #494848; text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #494848; text-align: justify;">Maton, K. and Chen, R.T, (2016) “LCT in qualitative research: creating a translation device for studying constructivist pedagogy”, Knowledge building: Educational studies in legitimation code theory, London: Routledge, pp.27-48.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #494848; text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #494848; text-align: justify;">Maton, K. (2014). Knowledge and Knowers: Towards a Realist Sociology of Education. London: Routledge.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #494848; text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #494848; text-align: justify;">Shi, C. (2017) Affiliation Through Value Negotiation in Chinese Criminal Courtroom Argumentation, PhD Thesis, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #494848; text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #494848; text-align: justify;">Zhou, S. (2009). “The Reform Strategy of Legal Education in China”, Global Business & Development Law Journal, 22, pp. 69-73.</span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5rjAfLZY1ZOqHbDU9PPJflL9raojYHjvgzMcbsoUAg-DXvVlZHaDHVmGXp5uJaorkGfMIUakWIdv991oBTzvrGzcCgqpE2mnYCknYcg7oJ8WI821E-myNvL_Nz5Fsvds7DFyFlS8qrAw/s1600/D-s_jIeWsAE32mg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1200" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5rjAfLZY1ZOqHbDU9PPJflL9raojYHjvgzMcbsoUAg-DXvVlZHaDHVmGXp5uJaorkGfMIUakWIdv991oBTzvrGzcCgqpE2mnYCknYcg7oJ8WI821E-myNvL_Nz5Fsvds7DFyFlS8qrAw/s320/D-s_jIeWsAE32mg.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Presenting the talk at LCT3, Wits University.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />Mathew Tollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00226147446376244981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1536807167573414201.post-3133574720694515722019-01-28T21:45:00.002-08:002019-01-29T02:38:00.458-08:00Wayback Machine: Essays from High School<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD7lgaLRHaB_8nvP0uTQIxFELpEayjJ66MuOr8SIMjSh2wlphFqwy951FBlUuTKjxvnfCU_nitwJhGLpNWMszCq2HGJWC9-9_IHnwCc_Nv-wStu0vFtzd7-otWj81Qo0Aox-Hlkck7Zeo/s1600/51290780_403665200381360_993411135107497984_n.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="313" data-original-width="391" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD7lgaLRHaB_8nvP0uTQIxFELpEayjJ66MuOr8SIMjSh2wlphFqwy951FBlUuTKjxvnfCU_nitwJhGLpNWMszCq2HGJWC9-9_IHnwCc_Nv-wStu0vFtzd7-otWj81Qo0Aox-Hlkck7Zeo/s320/51290780_403665200381360_993411135107497984_n.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">I did some digging and I found a series of old essays I wrote during High School and just after published on the che-lives.com e-zine (i.e. a blog, but we were going for a digital analog of zines put out by activists and anarchist collectives). One of the last ones, "<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20061026165248/http://www.che-lives.com/home/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=217">The Concepts of Alienation and Surplus value, A brief look</a>", was my first or second sociology essay for Open Foundation at Newcastle Uni (alternative pathway into Uni). I seemed to have liked situationlists, <a href="https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/smith-cyril/index.htm">Cyril Smith</a>, and Non-leninist Marxists. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20061026203336/http://www.che-lives.com/home/modules.php?name=Your_Account&op=userinfo&username=euripidies">Here</a> is my ealiest collection, under the pseudonym euripidies. And <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20061026171317/http://www.che-lives.com/home/modules.php?name=Your_Account&op=userinfo&username=Monty%20Cantsin">here</a> is a second collection, later, under the name Monty Cantsin.</span></div>
Mathew Tollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00226147446376244981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1536807167573414201.post-64946406828120324892018-07-03T17:25:00.004-07:002018-07-03T17:25:57.476-07:00SSPS Magazine article on S-Club I had short article for the SSPS Magazine published about S-Club, a data analysis workshop with the LCT Centre for Knowledge-Building. You can find it: <a href="https://www.academia.edu/36938379/There_ain_t_no_party_like_an_S-Club_party">here</a>.Mathew Tollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00226147446376244981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1536807167573414201.post-20790203379488969952018-04-29T04:59:00.000-07:002020-06-02T01:06:04.752-07:00Department Talk: Flyer<img height="640" src="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DbhPYDpVMAEr5d7.jpg:large" width="529" />Mathew Tollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00226147446376244981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1536807167573414201.post-57422026544441012402018-04-20T16:23:00.000-07:002020-06-02T01:04:09.999-07:00Next Talk: Department of Sociology and Social Policy, Seminar Series<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUC5d9riIxjgKx_NEO5qq9Or57lj84eheYqYWlxSdJYZ6x0KP2IlsyUZoMntVsPUxLeXm-QOyaUPQBnxK2u-4msS-8ES7sd9ChdGdnxFua0dwWluadjYD_ZzIYOzeqKWYvYhHJXYBmaNw/s1600/Orion_constellation_Hevelius.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="238" data-original-width="286" height="330" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUC5d9riIxjgKx_NEO5qq9Or57lj84eheYqYWlxSdJYZ6x0KP2IlsyUZoMntVsPUxLeXm-QOyaUPQBnxK2u-4msS-8ES7sd9ChdGdnxFua0dwWluadjYD_ZzIYOzeqKWYvYhHJXYBmaNw/s400/Orion_constellation_Hevelius.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Next talk is the USYD's Department of Sociology and Social Policy Seminar Series. Details </span><a href="http://sydney.edu.au/arts/sociology_social_policy/about/seminars/seminars_series.shtml" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">here</a><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">.</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; line-height: 107%;">Title</span></b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; line-height: 107%;">:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; line-height: 107%;">Constellations
of Scepticism: Contesting Climate Science and Scientists on the Blogosphere. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; line-height: 107%;">Abstract<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; line-height: 107%;">Discussions
of the role of social media in spreading ‘alternative facts’ and ‘fake news’
often centre on misinformation. Falsehoods and conspiracy theories need to be
debunked. Yet, focus on misinformation alone can suggest an arena without rules
or evaluative logics. This talk engages with the case study of the climate
sceptic blogosphere and how they construe, construct, and contest knowledge.
Analysis of the climate sceptic blogosphere, one of the first arenas of online
alternative facts, suggests that there are rules that organise legitimate
knowledge. The organisation of knowledge claims in this sphere hints towards an
underlying worldview that makes the arrangement of some claims and stances
valued and others devalued. Missing this logic leads to an analysis that falls
back into a deficit model of pubic misunderstanding of science and policy that
assumes high information costs underlie rejection of stabilised facts. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This case study suggests that it is the
willingness to select certain facts and misinterpret others that sociology
needs to explain to understand the spread and reception of alternative facts
online. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Mathew Tollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00226147446376244981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1536807167573414201.post-90607773412802030382018-03-16T02:11:00.002-07:002021-01-14T23:30:17.167-08:00LCT Roundtable: Explanatory or Axiological Power? Determining the Basis of Cosmologies in Janus-Faced Discourses<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBy9Mr3lmzK7dXVKSzxUmpWF15_j7ynzsp-M9JO56QSWtCNDjJ2ht3xRr92CoBX2vBwGAgGQw5KuvICCGEpGrw7vG7WWn4bQcocoZbpwBv6LCWIgaecZGacuY2aBo15ZYlQ0xjA2Stg3s/s1600/LCT+roundtable_March+2018_second+photo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBy9Mr3lmzK7dXVKSzxUmpWF15_j7ynzsp-M9JO56QSWtCNDjJ2ht3xRr92CoBX2vBwGAgGQw5KuvICCGEpGrw7vG7WWn4bQcocoZbpwBv6LCWIgaecZGacuY2aBo15ZYlQ0xjA2Stg3s/s320/LCT+roundtable_March+2018_second+photo.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Day of the talk. (Photo credit: <a href="https://sydney.academia.edu/KirstinWilmot">Kirstin WIlmont</a>)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br />I have another LCT roundtable coming on - 23rd of March, 2018. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Title</span></b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">:
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Explanatory or Axiological Power?
Determining the Basis of Cosmologies in Janus-Faced Discourses</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><br /></i></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Abstract: </span></b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">This roundtable will explore
criteria to determine if explanatory power or axiological power is the finial
basis for the selection and organization of knowledge practices on the climate
sceptic blogosphere.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Climate sceptic
bloggers frequently engage in political and policy discussion yet insist that
the core problem of climate science and policy is the weakness of the empirical
and conceptual underpinnings of the anthropogenic global warming
hypothesis.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Explanatory power is
presented as the basis for legitimacy in climate science and climate politics,
yet there is a case that the code matching of contrarian position with the
mainstream position on climate science serves as a basis to contest
knowledge-building and delay policy action (Toll, 2017). Glenn (2016) found
that representatives from think-thanks who opposed carbon pricing did so on
explicitly for ideological reasons – free market and libertarian ideals.
Climate sceptics bloggers explicitly engage with the social science literature
and reject these kinds of ideology driven explanations of their position and
knowledge practices. On the blogosphere, the organizing principles of the climate
sceptic cosmology are obscured and sensitivity needs to be paid to the
construction of their epistemological and axiological constellations and how
various elements are selected and evaluated. </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Constellation analysis reveals tendencies that
suggest axiological power and not explanatory power is the basis of climate
sceptic bloggers’ cosmologies.</span></div>
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<b>References. </b><br />
<b><br /></b></div>
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.16px; line-height: 15.8px;">Glenn, E. (PhD, 2016) </span><em style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12.16px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 15.77px; text-indent: -37.79px;"><a href="http://www.legitimationcodetheory.com/pdf/2016Glenn_PhD.pdf" style="color: #cc0000;" target="_blank">From Clashing to Matching: Examining the legitimation codes that underpin shifting views about climate change</a></em><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.16px; line-height: 15.8px;">, Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney, Australia.</span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Toll, M. (2017) <a href="https://www.academia.edu/32234567/Hyper-Knowledge_Codes_Contesting_Knowledge-Building_on_the_Climate_Sceptic_Blogosphere">Hyper-knowledge codes: Contesting knowledge-building on the climate sceptic blogosphere</a>, </span><em style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Second International Legitimation Code Theory Conference</em><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">, Sydney, Australia, July.</span>Mathew Tollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00226147446376244981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1536807167573414201.post-70214479520130927332017-08-25T01:02:00.001-07:002017-09-10T06:02:28.679-07:00Essay Writing Workshop<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="570px" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" mozallowfullscreen="" scrolling="no" src="https://www.slideshare.net/MathewToll/slideshelf" style="border: none;" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="760px"></iframe><br />
Workshop that Alexander Page and I put together for undergraduate students - also <a href="https://www.academia.edu/34509856/Essay_Writing_and_Research_Workshop">here</a>.<br />
<br />Mathew Tollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00226147446376244981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1536807167573414201.post-83808545400200828002017-08-25T00:49:00.000-07:002020-06-02T01:05:40.297-07:00LCT Roundtable<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinPMWb0re9QPXqcAIr4uQCDOhB2v6EsNrVtzHHUwMWKZskrF0zo1yhckF_TqKVNhY5Jth8-yltjLV7lrf76rUaCFbIqxjRhYX0KHy6hrl4K8CsXTQOzjv0ZQNVdBCgajBG1l4hmZMn7dw/s1600/924385_345671105590005_1469407802_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="640" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinPMWb0re9QPXqcAIr4uQCDOhB2v6EsNrVtzHHUwMWKZskrF0zo1yhckF_TqKVNhY5Jth8-yltjLV7lrf76rUaCFbIqxjRhYX0KHy6hrl4K8CsXTQOzjv0ZQNVdBCgajBG1l4hmZMn7dw/s400/924385_345671105590005_1469407802_n.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
Title: <a href="https://www.academia.edu/34404584/Constellations_of_Scepticism_Contesting_Climate_Science_with_Hyper-Knowledge_Codes">Constellations of Scepticism: Contesting Climate Science with Hyper-Knowledge Codes</a><br />
<br />
Mathew Toll, PhD Candidate, LCT Centre for Knowledge-Building<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Abstract: Report after report assessing climate science details a growing mountain of evidence that climate change is indeed happening and that it is human caused. Considering this: how do climate sceptics maintain their scepticism? What can the LCT concept of constellations reveal about their belief systems and inform strategies of engagement with climate sceptics? This roundtable will employ constellations analysis to three central climate sceptic blogs and propose an extreme form of knowledge code that impedes knowledge-building. The climate sceptic blogosphere is a key venue for the development and distribution of climate misinformation. Recent political events have underscored the importance of understanding how climate denial is cultivated and legitimated online. Malcom Robert’s maiden speech to the Australian Senate, for instance, acknowledged the contribution to the public debate made by climate sceptic bloggers. While in the U.S. the election of Donald Trump has seen a concern with a new ‘post-truth’ politics online and an embracing of climate denial.
Rather than a rejection of truth or science, central climate sceptic blogs position themselves as ‘auditors’ of climate science and demand technical competence as the basis of legitimacy, while the presence of any social features that deviate from an idealized conception of scientists is condemned. They therefore construct a form of knowledge code that establishes idealized – and potentially unattainable – standards of legitimate knowledge and knowers which provide a basis to contest knowledge without providing alternative explanatory power. Climate sceptics construct a constellation in which climate scientists are alarmist who fail to meet the norms of science, while climate sceptics defend these displaced norms with a hyper-knowledge code.</div>
Mathew Tollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00226147446376244981noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1536807167573414201.post-28666382141572755112017-07-07T21:59:00.000-07:002017-07-17T22:54:07.617-07:00Tweeting #LCTC2<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs-2fH8AnZUgWEXGGbau7MucnOcmLvUOMeH9xiFLb_I10YNWx5gwz3DFWoia0-Sksh_j_Rmi_oIWof8RV08nyzMjWxXbI7j2c4SLIUEl90kz8s-DrELtYXvz6my1dTH9TKesKkNudyUkk/s1600/19732014_1452936084788596_1440226321285822918_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="558" data-original-width="960" height="371" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs-2fH8AnZUgWEXGGbau7MucnOcmLvUOMeH9xiFLb_I10YNWx5gwz3DFWoia0-Sksh_j_Rmi_oIWof8RV08nyzMjWxXbI7j2c4SLIUEl90kz8s-DrELtYXvz6my1dTH9TKesKkNudyUkk/s640/19732014_1452936084788596_1440226321285822918_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">#LCTC2 on the final day</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The <a href="https://sites.google.com/site/lctheoryconf/home">Second Legitimation Code Theory Conference</a> finished yesterday - for those who weren't there, here is the social media buzz on Twitter and Instagram around the conference (& <a href="https://storify.com/MGHToll/tweetinglctc2">here</a>):
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<div class="storify">
<iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="no" height="750" src="//storify.com/MGHToll/tweetinglctc2/embed?header=false&border=false" width="100%"></iframe><script src="//storify.com/MGHToll/tweetinglctc2.js?header=false&border=false"></script><noscript>[<a href="//storify.com/MGHToll/tweetinglctc2" target="_blank">View the story "Tweeting LCTC2" on Storify</a>]</noscript></div>
Mathew Tollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00226147446376244981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1536807167573414201.post-13796418459885141712017-06-20T23:46:00.000-07:002018-04-26T01:21:25.975-07:00Sociology of Deviance and Difference<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuirZu68lIEDVD1zCWPCqWNdTQgNrbf6-VFYs1kHTw9deuBbmGq3OzVzIMFNunISUric8cIDulPZGxmGM7DJkfVkwADNiuXsjZnvroYcKH5kW_MNkMZfgLnC73AKwoh7J5PzvvG0pttWU/s1600/File_000.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuirZu68lIEDVD1zCWPCqWNdTQgNrbf6-VFYs1kHTw9deuBbmGq3OzVzIMFNunISUric8cIDulPZGxmGM7DJkfVkwADNiuXsjZnvroYcKH5kW_MNkMZfgLnC73AKwoh7J5PzvvG0pttWU/s400/File_000.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Camperdown Memorial Rest Park, Church St Newtown, Sydney. (14th, June,2017)</span></td></tr>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="https://sydney.academia.edu/AlexPage">Alex Page</a> and <a href="https://sydney.academia.edu/MathewToll">I</a> are coordinating a Unit for Winter School, the <i>Sociology of Deviance and Difference</i>, and we wrote a brief note for the Unit of Study to convey the ethos and importance of such a topic. </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Here it is:</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<i><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">A
Brief Note From Your Course Coordinators:</span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">We would both
like to formally welcome you to the Winter School version of Sociology of
Deviance and Difference for 2017! </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; text-align: justify;">In this intensive unit over the next two and half
weeks we – Mathew Toll and Alex Page – will be working with you to unpack the
nature of deviance and difference and ask questions like: </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; text-align: justify;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; text-align: justify;">what is deviance? Is it socially constructed?
And if so, how and why is it constructed in certain ways? Who gets to set the
rules? Who gets to label someone a deviant? How is deviance and difference
experienced? And, what are the relations of power at play that determine
constructions of normalcy? Why this way and not another? These questions will
inform the discussion of various social fields of practice to see who wins and
who is deemed bad/mad/different and in need of sanction, disciplining, or
exclusion.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; text-align: justify;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">From the outset, we want you to understand the
direction this course through three kinds of stories:</span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; text-indent: -18pt;">Kinds of People Stories: deviance as rooted in the
biological and psychological attributes of people.</span><span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; text-indent: -18pt;">Kinds of Society Stories: deviance as
norm-breaking, labelling processes, and the social construction of deviance and
difference.</span><span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: -18pt;">Kinds of Power Stories: deviance and difference as
an operation of power and struggle over who is considered normal.</span></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Durkheim established a sociological understanding
of deviance, kinds of society stories, and argues that norm-breaking rather
than being a pathological aspect of society serve a set of key functions, not
least norm-making. We always need to think about how the construction of
deviance and difference are integral to a society, because even in a society of
stains there are deviants: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 8.0pt; margin-left: 2.0cm; margin-right: 71.1pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“Imagine
a community of saints in an exemplary and perfect monastery. In it crime as
such will be unknown, but faults that appear venial to the ordinary person will
arouse the same scandal as does normal crime in ordinary consciences. If
therefore that the community has the power to judge and punish, it will term
such acts criminal and deal with them as such. It is for the same reason that
the completely honourable man judges his slightest moral failings with a
severity that the mass of people reserves for acts that are truly criminal. In
former times acts of violence against the person were more frequent than they
are today because respect for individual dignity was weaker. As it has
increased, such crimes have become less frequent, but many acts which offended
against that sentiment have been incorporated into the penal code, which did
not previously include them.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 8.0pt; margin-left: 2.0cm; margin-right: 71.1pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">-
Emile Durkheim (1983, 100), <i>Rules for a
Sociological Method</i>.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Foucault
takes us further and argues that the disciplinary powers that act on people who
are deviant or different are found in many institutions in modern society beyond
formally punitive institutions. He
makes us think about how disciplinary and normalizing power spreads throughout
the social body and impacts everyone: power is in all relations, forming and
reforming people’s bodies and souls:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">“The
judges of normality are present everywhere. We are in the society of the
teacher-judge, the doctor-judge, the educator-judge, the ‘social worker’-judge;
it is on them that the universal reign of the normative is based; and each
individual, wherever he may find himself, subjects to it his body, his
gestures, his behaviour, his aptitudes, his achievements. The carceral network,
in its compact or disseminated forms, with its systems of insertion,
distribution, surveillance, observation, has been the greatest support, in
modem society, of the normalizing power.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 2.0cm; margin-right: 71.1pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> – Michel Foucault (1995, 304), <i>Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the
Prison</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Our
final quote comes from Vaneigem, who pushes us beyond the textbooks and into
the reality of our own worlds:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 2.0cm; margin-right: 71.1pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">“People
who talk about revolution and class struggle without referring explicitly to
everyday life, without understanding what is subversive about love and what is
positive in the refusal of constraints - such people have a corpse in their
mouth.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 2.0cm; margin-right: 71.1pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">- Raoul
Vaneigem (2001, 26), <i>The Revolution of
Everyday Life</i>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">This sentiment is vital for the Sociology of
Deviance and Difference – vital for sociology. Vaneigem demands of us to
connect theoretical tools and frameworks down to the social realities of lived
experience. Not only is this a good use of your sociological imagination, we
strive to do this because it also means you develop the skills to pull apart
complex social phenomena in your own day-to-day lives! We believe is this the
very foundation of a good sociological education. Maintaining norms and
sectioning ‘deviants’ is a key way we ourselves exert power over others and
this course aims to make us conscious of our own use of power. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">We would like to acknowledge <a href="http://sydney.edu.au/arts/staff/profiles/karl.maton.php">Prof Karl Maton</a>, <a href="http://sydney.edu.au/arts/ssps/staff/profiles/nadine.ehlers.php">Dr Nadine Ehlers</a>, and <a href="https://sydney.academia.edu/FadiBaghdadi">Fadi Baghdadi</a> for their help in constructing this course. </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Finally, we wish you the best throughout Winter
School 2017, and are here to assist you in any way we can.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Mathew Toll and
Alex Page</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Mathew Tollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00226147446376244981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1536807167573414201.post-69949502901178372402017-05-31T18:11:00.000-07:002017-05-31T23:18:35.052-07:00Lecture on Foucault<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHqGr2_7u_xVN1wR_uDc1wn0Vz6MP2gkBMvyBKZ05Flk5t7MgEL2E7MW707GmHRNxjBwjleDb6PvniXYm50lOOHasrjUz1L3PxWzHSPmtr2g8o_AwMR5Vc6_00gk4UeRbfyyazoUCUW_c/s1600/-IMG_8618.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHqGr2_7u_xVN1wR_uDc1wn0Vz6MP2gkBMvyBKZ05Flk5t7MgEL2E7MW707GmHRNxjBwjleDb6PvniXYm50lOOHasrjUz1L3PxWzHSPmtr2g8o_AwMR5Vc6_00gk4UeRbfyyazoUCUW_c/s640/-IMG_8618.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">This week I did a lecture in Sociological Theory on Michel Foucault - </span><a href="https://sydney.academia.edu/FadiBaghdadi" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Fadi</a><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> and </span><a href="https://sydney.academia.edu/AlexPage" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Alex </a><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">did me a favour and filmed it for me. And Fadi has posted it on his youtube channel - if you are interested in an introduction to Foucault: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4NWUnq4pb0&t=1933s">here it is</a>. I have also uploaded the audio to s<a href="https://soundcloud.com/mathew-toll/lecture-on-michel-foucault-power-knowledge-subjectivity">oundcloud</a>. </span></div>
Mathew Tollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00226147446376244981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1536807167573414201.post-70167806877771949452017-05-21T03:37:00.002-07:002017-05-23T21:58:54.298-07:00Way too Nice<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">University of Sydney's </span><a href="http://sydney.edu.au/stuserv/learning_centre/eszterszenes.shtml" style="font-size: 12.8px;">Eszter Szenes</a><span style="font-size: 12.8px;"> being way too nice. (I really wish I could have been more help). </span></span></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZdK2kCMeij1GVF4U8xeeYo-17LGgVUIWefmLg-CrF_MUvnUPQKeWOxqp5qJdZ52ax4_GCUJxbVPDiLOQZO1gSLkTAzfdIwaMH3nyDgf8amapXDv8niVTWCiSNJWVWhe4DsBChJKvwUUo/s1600/Learning+Centre_Acknowledgements.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="208" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZdK2kCMeij1GVF4U8xeeYo-17LGgVUIWefmLg-CrF_MUvnUPQKeWOxqp5qJdZ52ax4_GCUJxbVPDiLOQZO1gSLkTAzfdIwaMH3nyDgf8amapXDv8niVTWCiSNJWVWhe4DsBChJKvwUUo/s640/Learning+Centre_Acknowledgements.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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<br />Mathew Tollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00226147446376244981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1536807167573414201.post-14542880941371169142017-05-14T20:59:00.001-07:002020-06-02T01:02:46.451-07:00Second International Legitimation Code Theory Conference: Paper<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1TH-cOT_0tJyRCVQBpt6XztzuvDd7Ik7wA5312gxCt15JI5tYbhgZY8T3Tz8OCX6BMeeAap_KcOd6rpaUawGx9EmK3Ye9xLYb63sk6ODAc0V1BFgaU260KLXUZ3anC4MUm9i6dXlrpSY/s1600/Knowledge-code.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="288" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1TH-cOT_0tJyRCVQBpt6XztzuvDd7Ik7wA5312gxCt15JI5tYbhgZY8T3Tz8OCX6BMeeAap_KcOd6rpaUawGx9EmK3Ye9xLYb63sk6ODAc0V1BFgaU260KLXUZ3anC4MUm9i6dXlrpSY/s320/Knowledge-code.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The </span><a href="https://sites.google.com/site/lctheoryconf/home" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Second International Legitimation Code Theory Conference</a><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> is happening at the University of Sydney, July 2017. I have a paper in the conference: </span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #494848; font-size: 14px; text-align: justify;"><b><u>Title: </u></b></span><span style="color: #494848; font-family: "roboto" , "roboto" , "helvetica neue" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><b><u><a href="https://www.academia.edu/32234567/Hyper-Knowledge_Codes_Contesting_Knowledge-Building_on_the_Climate_Sceptic_Blogosphere">Hyper-Knowledge Codes: Contesting Knowledge-Building on the Climate Sceptic Blogosphere</a>.</u></b></span></span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; color: #494848; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Knowledge codes are
not guarantees of knowledge-building; in fact, some may hinder it. This paper
explores a ‘hyper-knowledge codes’ through a cosmological analysis of climate
sceptic blogs. Studies of the field of production that employ <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legitimation_Code_Theory">Legitimation Code Theory</a> (LCT) have principally focused on disciplines where the basis of
legitimation is a knower code. Maton (2014: 38) identifies the potential of
social knower codes to fragment disciplines and undermine knowledge-building.
While studies of knowledge code disciplines, e.g. physics, chemistry and
biology, have focused on impediments students face to educational attainment
and the realization of legitimate knowledge and not the field of
production. Yet, outside knower code disciplines, LCT suggests that the
relative emphasis on relations between knowledge practices and the known (ontic
relations) or relations between knowledge practices and other knowledges
(discursive relations) can produce divergent trajectories in knowledge code
fields and impose costs on knowledge-building (Maton 2014: 175, 182). As
Maton (2014: 182) notes “knowledge codes are neither homogeneous nor royal
roads to cumulative knowledge-building: stronger epistemic relations do
not by themselves guarantee intellectual progress.” Here a form of knowledge
code is proposed that destabilizes knowledge-building by establishing idealized
standards of legitimate knowledge and legitimate knowers which are difficult
for actors to approximate. </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; color: #494848; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt;">The substantive case
study for this theorization is the construal and contestation of legitimate
knowledge and knowers on the climate sceptic blogosphere. Bloggers
question the core-set of experts, the assessment reports and statements of
leading scientific institutions. Normative literature on the blogosphere either
positions it as a positive intervention into the climate change debate as an
“extended peer community” (Ravetz 2011: 149) or, more typically, a component of
the “denial machine” (Dunlap and McCright 2011: 147) that echoes doubt and
misinformation about climate science. This raises the question of how to
describe the knowledge practices of the climate sceptic blogosphere and how
bloggers construct, construe and contest knowledge around climate change.
While the importance of the blogosphere for the circulation of climate
scepticism is widely acknowledged, and the discourses of the blogosphere have
affected the public debate on climate change, there has been comparatively
little empirical examination of this sphere (Dunlap 2013). LCT provides a
language of description to unpack the knowledge practices of these actors and
assess their engagement in processes of legitimation. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; color: #494848; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt;">To address this, a
cosmological analysis and analysis of the Specialization codes was conducted.
Cosmological analysis provides a means to see how, form a standpoint, the
different practices or stances of a field can be arranged, condensed with
meaning, and positively charged or negatively charged (Maton 2014: 149-150) and
thus allows for an analysis of what knowledge and knowers climate sceptic
construe as legitimate. Blogposts from high-value climate sceptic blogs
identified through their centrality in the hyperlink network of the blogosphere
are used as the primary data in this paper. Thematic analysis was first
conducted to identify the reoccurring patterns of the climate sceptic discourse
after which a constellation analysis and an analysis of the Specialization
codes was applied to the themes generated from the data. The analysis
reveals a constellation of stances, from the positively charged climate
sceptics, to lukewarmers, and negatively charged alarmists. Evaluation of
these relative positions in the field is based on an idealized conception of
science and scientists as disinterested, sceptical and falsificationist.
Technical competence is emphasised as the basis of achievement (ER +) and
indications of the gaze of scientists or potential axiology is negative
evaluated (SR-). Open puzzles, interpretative latitude, semantic density
or tight social networks of scientists can become the basis of
contestation. From this idealized conception of science, bloggers
critique mainstream climatologists, scientific institutions, and boundary
organisations that deviate from their ideal of a hyper-knowledge code.
The trouble of maintaining this ideal, provides a basis to contest knowledge
without providing alternative explanatory power, and thus aims to impedes
knowledge-building. </span></div>
</div>
<br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #494848; font-family: Roboto, Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: justify;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #494848; font-family: "roboto" , "roboto" , "helvetica neue" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: justify;"><u>References. </u></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #494848; font-family: "roboto" , "roboto" , "helvetica neue" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: justify;">Dunlap, R. (2013). "Climate Change Skepticism and Denial: An Introduction." <i>American Behavioral Scientist</i> 20(10): 1-8.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #494848; font-family: "roboto" , "roboto" , "helvetica neue" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: justify;">Dunlap, R. E. and A. M. McCright (2011). “Organized Climate Change Denial.”, <i>The Oxford Handbooks of Climate Change</i>. J. S. Dryzek, R. B. Norgaard and D. Schlosberg. London, Oxford University Press: 144-160.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #494848; font-family: "roboto" , "roboto" , "helvetica neue" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: justify;">Maton, K. (2014).<i> Knowledge and Knowers: Towards a Realist Sociology of Education</i>. London, Routledge.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #494848; font-family: "roboto" , "roboto" , "helvetica neue" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: justify;">Ravetz, J. (2011). "‘Climategate’ and the maturing of post-normal science." <i>Futures </i>43(2): 149-157.</span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnRU6v286rriNTiRf2X08tt6dJ9wN02IjT1YgiQfxPVJCOXkt1qmSDEpOlI5FrIl7trHHl78oOoydlRv2KmgWdU4Axe6wFGVQe9dKyVqKEdXjMzwRviJqpsqyAB6lkOi_Vjoamim9w45A/s1600/Hyper_Knolwedge_Code+LCTC2+Talk.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnRU6v286rriNTiRf2X08tt6dJ9wN02IjT1YgiQfxPVJCOXkt1qmSDEpOlI5FrIl7trHHl78oOoydlRv2KmgWdU4Axe6wFGVQe9dKyVqKEdXjMzwRviJqpsqyAB6lkOi_Vjoamim9w45A/s400/Hyper_Knolwedge_Code+LCTC2+Talk.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Giving the talk at #LCTC2, 7th of July, 2017</span></td></tr>
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<br />Mathew Tollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00226147446376244981noreply@blogger.com0