Future Analysis of Nation State

Future Analysis of The Nation-State System Introduction: It is common to hear of the threats to the nation-state system in the contemporary world. Such threats seem to originate from many different quarters, at different level of the global system. This impending sense that the nation-state is somehow in â€Å"crisis† led to analyze the question of â€Å"the contemporary crisis of the nation-state? † But before we go into the analysis, it is important to look into the ideas that would help to understand the case, under discussion, in a better way.To begin with, let’s see the definition of nation, state and the nation-state system, according to the context under discussion. Nation According to the Oxford English dictionary, the word nation literally means, community of people having mainly common descent, history, language, etc or forming sovereign state or inhabiting territory. From the above definition, there are two kinds of nations, the ethnic nation (communit y with common descent) and demotic nation (community with common territorial boundaries). E. K.Francis draws a distinction between ‘ethnic’ nations that are based on belief in common descent and a sense of solidarity and common identity, and ‘demotic’ nations that are based on shared administrative and military institutions, common territorial boundaries for protection and the mobility of goods and people. This is similar to the distinction often made between ‘cultural nations’, based on criteria such as language, customs, religion and the ‘political nations’, that are more contractual and derive from shared institutions, shared citizenship and a sense of shared history.State According to Oxford English dictionary, state literally means, political community under one government. This means a community which is coherent with the government of the state obeys the government with its own will, making government responsible for it. It is the political organization of the people under one government. Nation-State System The nation-state system is traditionally, an amalgamation of ‘nation’ (one people) with ‘state’ (one government). If one were to imagine an abstract image of the globe one would see gridlines.These lines mark off different nation-states. Each one is separate from the others and sovereign inside its defined and unmoving borders. These nation-states interact with each other, be it through war or trade in a relationship that is theoretically simple. Each nation-state is ‘equal’ in terms of having sovereignty (self-determination) and the sole right to use legitimate force inside its own borders. This modern nation-state system came into existence with the treaty of Westphalia, 1648.In international system, ‘low’ politics of trade and business and temporary agreement of MNCs, IGO and INGOs are less important than that of ‘high’ politics th e nation-state, with its role of protecting its sovereignty from the attack and of maintaining stability inside its borders. Today, there are more than 200 nation-states in the world. Nation-State as a Historical-Political Form The ideal articulation of ‘nation’ as a form of cultural community and the‘State’ as a territorial, political unit is now widely accepted and often taken as unproblematic.Yet scholars of nationalism point out that that was not alwaysthe case. That every nation deserves its autonomy and identity through its ownsovereign state (even though many may not demand it) is an ideal that manytrace to the French Revolution. As Cobban points out, whereas before the FrenchRevolution there had been no necessary connection between the state as a political unit and the nation as a cultural one, it became possible and desirablesince then to think of a combination of these two in a single conception of the nation-state.That this still remains an †˜ideal’ and one vastly unrealized, as inthe existence of several â€Å"multi-national’’ states, is also largely recognized, although much of international relations theory fails to follow through on the implications of that ‘reality’. Concept of Sovereignty The meaning and concept of sovereignty has assumed many different shapes. Moreover, it has frequently changed its content,its laws and even its functions during the modern period. Hugo Grotius, in his famous work De Jure Belli ac Pacis: Sovereignty is ‘that power whose acts †¦ may not be void by the acts of other human will. Other political theorists have, in general, given similar definitions. Oppenheim: ‘Sovereignty is supreme authority, an authority which is independent of any other earthly authority. ’ Willoughby:‘Sovereignty is the supreme will of the state. ’ Various writers on political theory have insisted that every legally recognized state by defin ition is sovereign. It is simply a reminder that just as every state is legally equal to any other, so it is legally sovereign. But if we see the contemporary interaction of states with reference to above definition, we would definitely conclude that the concept of sovereignty has again changed.The concept of absolute sovereignty has become obsolete and has been replaced by the concept of relative sovereignty/authority and interdependence. Just as in real world, some states are bigger in size, power and influence than others just like that sovereignty of the states has become relative. It must be recognized that there are now degrees of sovereignty and self-determination. Only sovereignty left with states is legal sovereignty. Except it every other aspect of the state is relative or dependent on intrastate and interstate factors. Concept of NationalismNationalism is the patriotic feeling for one’s nation or country. Professor Louis L. Snyder defines nationalism as ‘a pr oduct of political, economic, social and intellectual factors at a certain stage in history, is a condition of mind, feeling or sentiment of a group of people living in a well-define geographical area, speaking a common language, possessing a literature in which the aspirations of the nation have been expressed, attached to common traditions and common customs, venerating its own heroes, and in some cases having a common religion. Some point out that the political nations are based more on ‘civic’ nationalism, as opposed to the ‘ethnic’ nationalism characteristic of the cultural nations. These observations are based on two popular theories of nationalism. Primordialists’ approach the extent to which culture exists as a given resource for the constitution of nationsand instrumentalist’ approach, the extent to which culture has to be invented by nationalist elites.The primordialist approach, evident in the early work of Geertz, Shils and in the socio-biological theory of Van den Berghe, argues that ethnic and cultural attachments are pre-givens, or at least assumed givens, and appear ‘natural’ to members of a group. As against this, the instrumentalist approach, evidenced to varying degrees in the works of Brass, Hobsbawm and Nairn, argues that ethnic attachments are often invented and manipulated by elites to construct the nation as a privileged source of a group’s loyalty.I’m of the view that all national identities are constructed as dictated by the instrumentalist theory. In other words, there are no ‘natural’ nationalities. There is no a priori manner in which peoples can be made into nations. It is the work ofnationalism to construct or produce a ‘nation’. In the words of BenedictAnderson, the nation has to be ‘imagined’. Nations are imagined ‘because themembers of even the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow members,meet them, o r even hear of them, yet in the minds of each livesthe image of their communion. It is through nationalist ideology that thiscommunion is constructed. Anderson traces the development of nationalism to the development of print-capitalism, which helped to produce and disseminatea common culture to ground the national imagination. 18 Regardless of what basisis used to ground this communion, nations are ultimately based on what EtienneBalibar has called `’fictive ethnicities’. It is the work of nationalist ideology to ‘ethnicize’’ a community.It is through the representational labor of nationalist ideology that a community is constructed as if it formed a natural communionwith its unique and singular origin and destiny. ‘Nation building’ hasalways been a project of the state as well and the widespread existence of globalnorms on sovereignty and self-determination (and the continuing appeal of theideal of the ‘nation-state’) now ensure that existing states themselves have toengage to some extent in attempts at nation building. In other words, it is notsimply that nations often seek and demand states, but states need nations as well.These efforts of nation building are more evident and stark at times of crisis such as war,but in reality are always in existence in more subtle ways through various statepolicies and programs, as well as through the ideological state apparatusesin civil society. In that sense state building and nation building have become simultaneousand symbiotic processes. Yet for analytical purposes it is perhaps better not toconfuse these two processes because, even if the ends they seek are somewhatsimilar or complementary, the processes remain somewhat different.State buildingoccurs through the penetration and integration of the territorial economy,polity and society and speaks to questions of political authority and effectivegovernance. Nation building is the construction of a cohesive c ultural communitythat can demand citizen loyalty and commitment. As it is shownin the nextsection, the fragmentation of nation-states refers tonation building, and inparticular to the inability of the state to build cohesive nations, while those that point to the effects of globalization on weakening the nation-state often (but notexclusively) refer to problems with state building.Challenges to The Nation-State Forces of Fragmentation The authority of the nation-state depends to a large extent on its consistency,unity and stability in the eyes of its public or, in other words, of the ability ofthe state to project a united nation. The imagined nations, as Anderson pointsout, present themselves as ‘communities’,‘because regardless of the actualinequality and exploitation that may prevail in each, the nation is alwaysconceived as a deep, horizontal comradeship’’.Part of the project of the state is to seekconsent from its citizens as to the depth and eq uality of that comradeship. Yetthe national space has many differences and conflicts – among ethnicities, races, religious groups, classes, genders, etc. Each of those differences threatens the coherence and unity of the national fabric. Most of the literature on fragmentation focuses on ethnic (and religious) conflicts within existing states. Nationbuilding requires that such ethnic and religious conflicts are effectively controlledby the state.Even though ‘assimilation’ has been an acknowledged goal of many states historically, Talal Asad has pointed out that hegemonic power worksnot so much through suppressing differences by homogenization, as throughdifferentiating and marginalizing. The ‘nation’ in projects of the state does notrepresent a singular cultural space so much as a hierarchy of cultural spaces. What RudolfoStavenhagen calls an ‘ethnocratic state’- a nation-state controlledessentially by a majority or dominant ethnie, able to exercise cultural hegemonyover the rest of the ation – is the rule rather than the exception in the modernsystem of nation-states. The success of nation-building depends on the extentto which the state is able to secure a broad measure of ‘consent’ on thishierarchy. The national project requires the construction of what Asad calls a‘cultural core’ that becomes the ‘essence’ of ‘the nation’. At the most basiclevel, fragmentation occurs when the state is no longer (if ever) able to effectivelysecure consent on this cultural core.States have a variety of available means to meet the demands of ethnic and religious groups within their borders. To the extent that assimilation is no longerconsidered possible or effective, or even desirable, states can and do makeattempts to accommodate such demands through various political and institutionalmechanisms. Regardless of how determined and well organized thosedemands are, which migh t make a polity quite unstable in certain situations,fragmentation refers more specifically to situations where such demands arelinked with claims to territory.Or using Oomen’s definition, it is when an ethnic group establishes a moral claim to territory within a state thatone can speak of sub nationalisms, or what are sometimes called ethno nationalisms. Many states that are classified as nation-states within international relationshave always been such multi-national states – like in India where different ethnicand linguistic groups are regionally organized on the basis of claims to territory,or as in the case of the Scots and Welsh within Britain. Such moral claims toterritory might not necessarily generate separatist movements.But it is the existence of such sub nationalisms thatcreates the possibility of the fragmentation of the nation-state. Ultimately, thiscan be a crisis of the nation-state because such nationalisms threaten to fragmentone of the central bases of state sovereignty -the territorial integrity of the existingnation-state. Or maybe the civic (more than the cultural) nationalism of manymodern states makes the nation-state (unlike ethnicity or religion), simply toolarge, amorphous and psychically distant to be the object of intimate affection.The point here is that fragmentation occurs and is occurring rapidly in theworld, as evidenced in Bosnia, Rwanda, Spain, Ethiopia, Sri Lanka, Canada, toname a very few geographically diverse examples. Fragmentation occurs whenthere is a disarticulation between the state as a spatial unit (with fixed territory)with the spatial claims of the nation(s) in whose name(s) it speaks. The ultimate concern with fragmentation, as I mentioned above, is that itthreatens the territorial integrity of existing nation-states.But as IstvanHont points out, even though there might be legitimate grounds for concern over theterritorial integrity of contemporary states devolving into smaller territorialunits, t his should be seen as a ‘triumph’ rather than a ‘crisis’of the nation-state. Fragmentation is a threat to the existence of particular states, rather thanthe system of nation-states. It represents the failure of particular states to holdon to the ‘spatiality’ (both geopolitically and culturally) of their claims toauthority.But in more general terms, fragmentation represents the success ofthe ideal of the nation-state – that every nation deserves its own state. This seemsmore obvious in the case of the end of empire and its dissolution into independentpolities each claiming the title of nation-state, first in the post-World War II eraof decolonization, and more recently in the break-up of the Soviet Union andthe Eastern bloc countries. Forces of Globalization The effects of globalization on the nation-state are a bit more complex.Forces outside the nation-state can hold back, enable and influence the nation-state in a variety of ways. For the purposes of this discussion, I classify theseforces into two groups – forces of economic globalization and forces of culturalglobalization, although the two are quite closely related in many ways. Economic Globalization The development of thefield of international political economy (IPE) has pointedout thatexclusive focus on the nation-state as a unit of analysis can be inadequate inunderstanding the dimensions of economic activity in the modern world.Some approaches within IPE, such as Interdependence, Regime and HegemonicStability Theories continue to be state-centric. But that is not the case with anumber of other approaches. Marxist approaches in particular have been dividedover the question of the role of the state. This division has been over thequestion of the extent to which the supranational character of the capitalistmode of production restricts all modern state structures versus the extent to which the state plays a direct role in promoting the internationaliza tion ofcapital.Exemplifying the former perspective, Wallerstein’s World Systems Theory was based on the ontological dominance of the world capitalist system,based on a single division of labor between the core, peripheral and semi peripheralregions of the world. Even though Wallerstein recognized the significance of nation-states in the modern world, in his analysis the essentials ofmarket exchange at the international level reduced state autonomy so much sothat nation-states were but super structuralattachments helping in the reproductionof the modern global capitalist system.But other scholars who have lookedat the internationalization of capital have stressed how the state continues toplay a role in the reproduction of capitalism. Robin Murray has pointed out thatas capital extends beyond its national borders, the historical link that bound itto its particular domestic state no longer necessarily holds. But the domestic stateis not territorially limited in its activities, and it might well ‘follow’ its capital and perform the critical ‘economic roles’ that it has always played in thereproduction of capitalism.The gradual shift from multinational corporations towards more transnational corporations or from the internationalization of economic activity (aseconomic activity spreads across state borders) towards the globalization ofeconomic activity (which involves a more purposefulcombination of economicactivity spread globally) also limits state capacity to control and influencedomestic national economies and thus weakens state authority over its nationalspace.This is what Mittelman has called ‘the spatial reorganization of production, the interpenetration of industries across borders [and] the spread of financial markets’. The spatial reorganization of production has been accompanied by changes in the international division of labor, which has includedamong other changes the feminization of certain kinds of labor . The globalization of international finance has led to the enormous ‘flow of capital andcurrencies with increasing rapidity, huge rowth of global currency speculation,offshoots trading and currency instability, and has increasingly reduced the ability of the state to control monetary and fiscal policy. In general, it hasbeen argued that in the face of economic globalization, state autonomy isconsiderably reduced, as the state becomes simply a facilitator of globalization. In particular, it is the weakening of the welfare state occurring in the wake of the globalization of economic liberalization that is seen to limit state competenceand authority all over the world.If the origins of the state had been in theprovision of security, the growth of the ‘welfare state’ in post-World War IIindustrial societies has now been well known. But the decreasing appealof Keynesian macroeconomic management in post-industrial societies (and theshift to supply-side economics) and t he accompanied reduction in public provision of social services threatens the legitimacy of the state as it increasingly fundsitself with little control over the economy (as jobs, investment migrate) andunable to meet the expectations of the people for securing their prosperity.Inpost-colonial societies, the disintegration of the ‘developmentalist state’ with the increasing adoption of IMF- and World Bank-sponsored market liberalization,is also a potential threat to state legitimacy as the state is unable to deliver onpromises of basic needs provisions, as the vehicle for social justice and equalityand as the symbol of national resistance to external pressures.In many ways, this sense of the declining ‘political effectiveness’ of the contemporary state is not entirely baseless. Even if the state cannot, and perhaps nevercould, totally or effectively control economic activity within its borders, itsability to regulate such activity to an extent and its willi ngness to undertakeredistributive measures that raged some of the more socially evileffects of the market brought it a certain amount of legitimacy and approvalfrom large sections of the population.This expression of the nation-state, not simply as a provider of order and security, but as a provider of social (andeconomic) needs (as in education, health care, nutrition, housing as well as inensuring a certain level of employment, minimum wages, price stability, etc. )has been an important and significant development of the second half of the20th century. Even if there is increasing consensus in policy-making circlesaround the world of the efficiency of market forces and the need for marketliberalization and cut-backs in state activity in the economic kingdom, the expectationsof the population from the state tend to be more complex.Even wheremany sections of the population might be dissatisfied with the functioning ofexisting states, the initial impact of market reforms on large sect ions of thepopulation can be quite adverse and severe. This is evidenced, for instance, inthe cut-back of social welfare programs in advanced industrial societies on minority groups and women, as also in the adoption of IMF-imposed structuraladjustments programs on poor people and especially women in the lowereconomic classes in the developing world.The internationalization and globalization of economic activity, combined with the global spread of economic liberalization can in that sense certainly weaken the ability of the state to meet theexpectations of sections of the population, and possibly create news kinds of‘legitimacy crises’. This is not simply a practical problem for particular states, which of course it is. John Dunn points out that while the immediate appeal of the nation derives much more from the subjective force of being born in a particular setof social relations, the appeal of the state lies in its efficiency or competence, whichis much more objective .To the extent that the idea of the modern nation-stateis so closely linked to the idea of the welfare state or the developmentalist state, the effectiveness of the contemporary state depends on the ability of thestate to deliver on ‘welfare’ or ‘development’. To that extent, the decreasedcompetency of the state to deliver on those promises could create the kindsof legitimacy crises that might call into question the durability of the nation-state. Perhaps, over time, expectations of what the state can or should do willchange. Decline of a particular form of the modern state does not indicate theend of the nation-state form.As David Armstrong argues, since states are ‘social actors’ and indeed become states through ‘international socialization’,new conceptualizations of the state’s role in the national economy that emergeas a consequence of globalization may become ‘statefied’ as states reach‘ intersubjecti ve understandings of how to restructure themselves and how tostrengthen the institutions of international society to accommodate globalization’. Nation-state legitimacy will depend on the extent on which ‘consent’coheres around new constructions of ‘national/state identity’ more in tunewith the new roles of the state.To some extent, states that have recognized the impossibility of enjoyingpolitical autonomy over economic issues have increasingly turned to non-stateentities for performing these functions more effectively. For instance, Alan Milward has argued that post-war European integration, in particular the launchof monetary union, was an attempt by many European nation-states to increasethe capacity of the state to meet the expectations of its citizens, and in doing soto ‘rescue the nation-state’ from its demise.Transfer of political authority overmonetary decision making to a supranational entity, hence losing fiscal andmonetary so vereignty, was perhaps the only way for states to ensure a certainamount of economic stability in many of the states racked by huge currencyfluctuations. In this somewhat personal analysis, the creation of supranationalentities like the European Union could in contradiction make the nation-statestronger rather than weaker. But even if the role of the state can be reduced to being the ‘agent’ ofglobalization, the state remains important for a number of other reasons.Despitethe rise of various forms of terrorism, including ‘state terrorism’, the stateretains significantmonopoly on the use of legitimate violence. The state continuesto have monopoly on taxation, is still seen as the ultimate negotiator of socialconflict, is expected to provide ‘security’ from external threats, and to performa variety of other functions. Perhaps most importantly, in the face of globalization, the state continues to be seen as the site for many to seek protection fro msome of the effects of global corporate capitalism.As Panitch points out, ‘[n]otonly is the world still very much composed of states, but insofar as there is anyeffective democracy at all in relation to the power of capitalists and bureaucratsit is still embedded in political structures that are national or sub national inscope’. The exercise of democratic control over capital takes on an even greaterimportance for Southern countries increasingly subject to IMF pressures, where the state is sometimes the only refuge against eo-imperialism. The point is that even though state legitimacy is potentially threatened by economic globalization, much depends on how state roles are reconfigured inthe face of globalization. Even if the economic limits to national politics is not anew problem for state legitimacy, the qualitative shift in economic globalization in late 20th-century capitalism, as well as the development of the nature of thecontemporary state, does change somewhat the implications for state legitimacy.In itself, the distribution of some of the functions of state to other non-state entities,whether supranational or sub national (micro-management rather than macro-managementby the state), does not threaten state legitimacy, but can in factstrengthen it. Economic globalization certainly requires different state roles, changingexpectations from the people, and new measures of state competency, butdoes not necessarily threaten the existence of the nation-state. Cultural Globalization There is also a cultural dimension to globalization that has implications for thenation-state and its future.This has more to do with issues of identity. RolandRobertson defines globalization as both ‘the compression of the world and theintensification of consciousness of the world as a whole’. While the process ofthis compression might have been occurring over a very long time, the recentgrowth of communications technology (cheap and fast air travel, te lephonic andtelegraphic services, satellite media transmissions, the Internet and cyberspace)has both accelerated and deepened this process. This is a process that both brings the world together and splits the world apart simultaneously.As Stuart Hall points out, globalization at the cultural level has led to both the universalisation and the fragmentation and multiplication of identities. Robertson explainsglobalization leads to the simultaneity of ‘the particularizationof universalism (the rendering of the world as a single place) and theuniversalization of particularism (the globalized expectation that societies . . . should have distinct identities)’. In his more recent work, Robertson has offered the concept of â€Å"glocalization’’ to emphasize the simultaneity of the homogenizing and eterogenizing forces of globalization in the late 20th-century world. Keeping in mind that these two processes are simultaneous, following are theirdifferent implicati ons for nation-states. The homogenization forces of globalization, in one sense is, the universalisation of the demand of the nation-state as an ideal cultural – political form of collective identity is itself a product of globalization. The now globalised belief that nations exist and deserve their states is fairlywell accepted and forms the normative foundation for most contemporaryinternational organizations.In addition, these international organizations have served to institutionalize the form of the nation-state, and enforce a certain amount of standardization in the nation-state system. John Meyer has shown globalization in this sense serves to strengthen the nation-state. Meyer pointsout that despite the vast economic inequalities among states, there is a worldculture that creates significant isomorphism among nation-states and helpskeep this dispersed world polity together.The global system of nation-statesis based on global norms that define external and internal sov ereignty, and is exemplified and reproduced through the similarity of the goals of‘equality’ and ‘progress’pursued by all nation-states. In other words, worldlevelcultural and organizationalinstructions for development and progress haveresulted in nation-state uniformity as all states follow similar objectives, policiesand programs.Connie McNeely elaborateson this concept of world culture by showing international organizations like the UN set normative and rigid standards of behavior for statepractices (increasingly conformed to by nation-states around the world), andin doing so play a role in institutionalizing the nation-state system. She specifically shows the nation-state system has been standardized and reproducedthrough the invention and spread of national income statistics, resulting fromthe efforts of UN statisticians and from the UN collection and distribution of comparative tables.At least in this sense, the homogenization force ofglobalization re produces and continues the nation-state system, rather thanthreatens its existence. Another implication of homogenization is on globalized identities in terms of global consumer capitalism. Benjamin Barber describesthe homogenizing drives of ‘McWorld’ (or what has also been called the‘MacDonaldization’ of the world) which has created ‘commercialized’ and‘depoliticized’ world. Kenichi Ohmae describes a consumerist world in whichbrand loyalty replaces national loyalty.But this world that is homogenized by the globalization of consumption can’t erase the troublesomeness of national commitments. Corporate icons can’t provide the kind of collectiveunity that national identities provide, and this is perhaps one reason for the‘global localization’ that Ohmae points to, in which product marketing adaptsto local (often interpreted as national) conditions, or what has come to be knownas ‘micro-marketingâ€⠄¢. But it is these depoliticized identities that also create thedrive to ‘resecure narrow identities’ so as to ‘escape McWorld’s monotonously firm essentials’.The heterogenising forces of globalization, or what Robertsondescribes as the ‘universalization of particularism’claims, in which not only has the ‘expectation of uniqueness’ become institutionalized and globally widespread, but the local and the particular itself isproduced on the basis of global norms. In other words, globalization of cultural norms has produced not just the legitimacy of the idea of the nation-state, butalso the expectation that such nation-states should embody unique and distinctidentities.This once again represents the globalization of the nationalist idea,the idea thatnation-states are legitimate because the nation is a unique, authenticcultural entity, with its singular and distinct identity. Beyer, in describingRobertson’s work, calls t his the ’relativization of particularisms’, which leads to a search for particularistic identities. The globalization of this idea createsthe potential for declarations of national identity, and can ultimately create themomentum for fragmentation of existing nation-states that are somehow seen as‘inauthentic’and hence illegitimate.To the extent that such differentiationalso occurs as a response to certainhomogenizing drives of globalization,thisalso represents a success of the nationalist idea. Assertions of collective identityboth as an element of, as well as in response to, globalization is then more‘nation-producing’ than ‘nation-destroying’. This certainly is an effect of globalization that, in keeping with the argument of the last section on fragmentation,is not a threat to the nation-state but a measure of its success.The Altered Nation-State Panitch in Mittelman says, ‘globalization is authored by states and is primar ily aboutreorganizing rather than bypassing them. ’ Rather than suggesting that the nation-state is fated to dissolve in the face of globalization, or that it will remainthe primary unaltered unit of international relations, there is a postulation of an ‘alteredstate’. The nation-state is said to exist now in one form, to have existed in the past inanother, and to be transforming itself actively into a third.This is a proposition that assumes a resilient but elastic nation-state, one that evolves over time, and whichbecomes more or less influential in different spheres depending on the utility of thatinfluence. One example of this ‘altered state’ thesis is that proposed by Philip Cerny, who suggests that ‘the nation-state is not dead’, although its role has changed. He envisages the transformation of the nation-state from being agoverning system concerned with welfare to being a system concerned with competition. Unsurprisingly he calls this the ‘competition state’.The competition state exists in aworld of increased fragmentation and globalization, and is characterized by a decrease ofpublic services and an increase of private services or industry. The competition state is amix of civil and business organization, and is concerned with effective returns oninvestment or effort. In the long run the ‘state is developing into an enterpriseassociation, with key civic, public and constitutional functions [†¦] subordinate to theglobal marketplace. ’ Another example of the ‘altered state’ is envisioned by Leo Panitch.Panitch thinks that ‘globalizing pressures even on advanced industrial states has led to a reorganization of the structural power relations within states [but has] not diminished therole of the state. ’ The nation-state is changing, but is not facing adisempowerment or loss of sovereignty. Indeed, Panitch would understand globalization as being written by nation-states, and the role of the state in collecting taxation,providing security, and having the monopoly of legitimate violence inside its sovereignborders as being unchanged.Globalization and alteration of the state role is an attempt to secure ‘global and domestic rights of capital’, and not aneo-medieval dissolution of the state apparatus. Conclusion There are, no doubt, a number of threats to the coherence and durability of particular existing nation-states, but that doesn’t weaken the nation-state as a historical form, as a contemporary organizing principle for collective cultural and political identity. Certainly, the severe crisis of particular nation-states, such as Afghanistan,Bosnia, Rwanda and Somalia, can generate a sense of anxiety about thefuture of the nation-state itself.Yet this sense of crisis has not seeped into acrossthe globe and most existing nation-states remain relatively stable and viabledespite the existence of various ethno-national ist movements within them. The graph given above shows the trend of nation-state over a period of 100 years. The graph is the statistical evidence of the appeal and continuance of the nation-state system as a dominant cultural-political system. In the article which was the basis of this analysis, Saquib Karamat indicates economic globalization, cultural globalization and blurring of the national ideologies as threat to the existence of nation-states.Furthermore, he says global issues also question the sovereignty of nation-states. But as analyzed above, economic globalization and cultural globalization in fact strengthen the nation-state than weakening it. While blurring of national ideology is the contemporary issue of weak states, who in some way need to put into work a national project of nation-building to keep their territories intact. The global issues like global warming don’t question the authority of the state rather they implicate that all nations need to work in su ch a framework of communication which enables to reach a solution of common consent.Now, the analysis on the future of nation-state has made some points clear, that a nation need not to be only one with common descent (ethnic nations), there can also be nations who share common boundaries (demotic nation). A state, which has either ethnic nation or demotic nation, needs to be coherent in order to remain legitimate. The historical-political form of nation-state was based on one nation – one state rule. The concept of sovereignty has changed from absolute sovereignty to degrees of sovereignty and interdependence. The process of nation-building or nationalism is a tate’s tool to keep it coherent. All national identities are constructed by national elites and weak states which are facing the threat of territorial disintegration should consciously employ national labor in nation-building. The forces of fragmentation and forces of globalization which seems to put at risk the existence of nation-state system, actually strengthen nation-state as a historical form and are driving forces in the evolution of the nation-state as discusses above in the respective sections. So, nation-state needs to alter itself in order to remain competent system for the years to come.The necessity is evident from the change in the conceptof sovereignty. Since it has changed, nation-state should also be restructured in the face of globalization and fragmentation. Transferring some kinds of authority tosupranational entities, or devolving power downwards through decentralization are ways of coping with these changes, and can help retain state legitimacyrather than threaten it. Bibliography 1. E. K. Francis, Interethnic Relations: An Essay in Sociological Theory (New York: Elsevier, 1976). 2. Alfred Cobban, the Nation State and National Self Determination (London: HarperCollins, 1969). 3.Clifford Geertz, Old Societies and New States (New York: The Free Press, 1963); Edward Shil s, â€Å"Primordial, Personal, Sacred and Civil Ties’’ , British Journal of Sociology, Vol. VIII, No. 2, (1957); Pierre Van den Berghe, â€Å"Race and Ethnicity: A Sociological Perspective’’ , Ethnic and Racial Studies, Vol. 1, No. 4 (1978). 4. Paul Brass, â€Å"Elite Groups, Symbol Manipulation and Ethnic Identity among the Muslims of South Asia’’ , in D. Taylor and M. Yapp (eds. ), Political Identity in South Asia (London: Curzon Press,b1979); Eric Hobsbawm, â€Å"Introduction: Inventing Traditions’’ and â€Å"Mass-producing Traditions: Europen1870 – 1914’’ , in E.Hobsbawm and T. Ranger (eds. ), The Invention of Tradition (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1983), pp. 1 ± 14; Tom Nairn, The Break-up of Britain: Crisis and Neo-nationalism, 2ndedn (London: Verso, 1977). 5. Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (London: Verso, 1983) 6. Kathryn A. Manzo, Creating Boundaries: The Politics of Race and Nation (London: Lynne Rienner, 1996) 7. TalalAsad, Genealogies of Religion (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993). 8.Robin Cohen, â€Å"Diasporas and the Nation-state: From Victims to Challengers’’ , International Affairs, Vol. 72, No. 3 (1996) 9. Ernest Mandel, Late Capitalism, Joris De Bres (trans. ) (London: NLB, 1972). 10. Andrew Linklater, Beyond Realism and Marxism: Critical Theory and International Relations New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1990). 11. Immanuel Wallerstein, The Capitalist World Economy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979 12. Immanuel Wallerstein, The Politics of the World Economy: The States, the Movements and the Civilizations (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984). 3. Robin Murray, â€Å"The Internationalization of Capital and the Nation-state’’ , New Left Review, Vol. 67 (1971), 14. Peter Dicken, Global Shift: The Internationalization of Econ omic Activity, 2nd edn (New York: Guilford Press, 1992). 15. James H. Mittelman (ed. ), Globalization: Critical Reflections (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 1996) 16. R. O’Brien, Global Financial Integration: The End of Geography (London: Sage, 1990 17. John Dunn (ed. ), The Economic Limits to Politics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990). 18. John Dunn, â€Å"Introduction: Crisis of the Nation State? ’ , Political Studies, Vol. 42, Special Issue (1994) 19. Helen Thompson, â€Å"The Nation-state and International Capital in Historical Perspective’’ , Government and Opposition, Vol. 32, No. 1 (1997) 20. Leo Panitch, â€Å"Rethinking the Role of the State’’, (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 1996) 21. Roland Robertson, Globalization: Social Theory and Global Culture (London: Sage, 1992) 22. Roland Robertson as quoted in Peter Beyer, Religion and Globalization (London: Sage, 1994) 23. Stuart Hall, â€Å"Cultural Identity and Diaspora’â€℠¢, in Jonathan Rutherford (ed. , Identity: Community, Culture, Difference (London: Lawrence &Wishart, 1990). 24. Connie L. McNeely, Constructing the Nation-state (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1995). 25. Benjamin R. Barber, â€Å"Jihad Vs. McWorld’’ , The Atlantic Monthly (March 1992) 26. KemichiOhmae, The Borderless World (London: Harper Business, 1990). 27. Kofman, E. and Young, G. Globalization: Theory and Practice, (London: Pinter,1996) 28. ShampaBiswas, W(h)ither the Nation-state? National and State identity in the Face of Fragmentation and Globalization, Global society, (16 (2), Abingdon: Carfax. , 2002).

Business School Plan

Leslie Marion CEO of JCW Inc. has identified she will need $125,850 to open a Reference School Center in Houston, Texas. The funds will cover the purchase and installation of the equipment and machinery, leasehold improvements, inventory, office equipment, and working capital to start the business. Leslie Marion will contribute $20,000 to the project from personal funds. The remainder of $105,850 is requested to be a SBA loan at 6. 00% interest amortized over 5 years. The loan is to be secured by the equipment, and inventory, as well as the personal guarantee of Leslie Marion. JCW is a company investing in educational field for a learning center that caters to families with children who needs academic support. The Reference School Center at Houston will be a very attractive school for those who need special attention on preschool through high school difficulties. The program is based on the brain research that has accumulated in the last decade. This research suggests that stimulating the mind with mental exercise may cause brain cells, called neurons, to branch widely. This branching causes millions of additional connections between brain cells. Studies demonstrate that our brains develop throughout our lives and that they are constantly being modified and that training and practice can stimulate brain development in targeted areas. This is known as neuroplasticity. JCW company based on neuroplasticity studies created a special program to help the students to learn more from their works and solv their difficulties on memorization and getting knowledgement. We believe in our success and in our investment in the educational area.

Yes or No to Mandatory Vaccinations

Yes or No to Mandatory Vaccinations Should vaccinations be mandatory for children entering school? At the present time, all fifty states in the United States require children entering public school to be vaccinated. However, no federal vaccination laws exist (ProCon. org, Children Vaccinations, Did you know? ). Many parents hold religious beliefs against vaccination. Forcing such parents to vaccinate their children would violate the First Amendment, which guarantees citizens the right to the free exercise of their religion.Others believe that common childhood vaccinations may cause rare, yet serious reactions. Proponents of mandatory vaccination argue that the risk of not being vaccinated far outweighs the small risk associated with vaccination. Preventable diseases like measles and mumps can cause permanent disability and death. In 1991, an outbreak of measles in an unvaccinated group of children in Philadelphia caused seven deaths (ProCon. org, Children Vaccinations, Pro). Children infected with mumps can become permanently deaf.Although a very small number of deaths from the MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) vaccine have been reported, the most common adverse reactions are minor soreness and or fever. Vaccines can eradicate disease and prevent serious illness and death. Mandatory vaccination has eliminated disease that once killed thousands of children, such as polio and smallpox. According to the researchers at the Pediatric Academic Society, childhood vaccinations in the United States prevent about 10. million cases of infectious illness and 33,000 deaths per year (ProCon. org, Children Vaccinations, Did you know? ). They believe that most childhood vaccines are 90-99% effective in preventing disease (ProCon. org, Children Vaccinations, Pro). When children who have been vaccinated do contract a disease, despite being vaccinated against it, they usually have milder symptoms with less serious complications than an un-vaccinated child who gets the same diseas e.Since some individuals who have been vaccinated may still get sick when exposed to infected individuals, 75%-94% of the population (depending on the disease) must be vaccinated to achieve â€Å"herd immunity† (ProCon. org, Children Vaccinations, Pro). When herd immunity is achieved, the number of immunized individuals is high enough to prevent the spread of disease through the population. Even when diseases seem to no longer exist, outbreaks can still occur if children are not vaccinated.In Boulder, Colorado, fear over possible side effects of the whooping-cough (pertussis) vaccine led many parents to refuse vaccination for their children, causing Boulder to have the lowest school-wide vaccination rate in Colorado for whooping-cough, and one of the highest rates of whooping-cough in the United States as of 2002 (ProCon. org, Children Vaccinations, Pro). However there are certainly concerns about vaccinations. According to a 2010 survey by the University of Michigan, 31% of parents believe that they should have the right to refuse mandated school entry vaccinations for their children (ProCon. rg, Children Vaccinations, Con). They believe that vaccines are often unnecessary in many cases where the threat of death from the disease is small. During the early nineteenth century, death from childhood diseases, such as, whooping-cough, measles, and scarlet fever, fell dramatically even before immunization became available (ProCon. org, Children Vaccinations, Con). This decreased mortality has been attributed to improve personal hygiene, water purification, effective sewage disposal, and better food hygiene and nutrition, not immunization.Many against mandatory vaccination believe that vaccinations interfere with natural law and God’s plan for humanity. They believe that disease is a natural occurrence and humans should not interfere. Vaccines can trigger autoimmune disorders. An un-vaccinated child can build and strengthen his immune system through fi ghting off infection and can develop a natural immunity to diseases like measles and chickenpox. Vaccines could create an artificial immunity which weakens the immune system, leaving the child more vulnerable to other diseases and infections.Opponents of mandatory vaccination believe that vaccines are created for primarily to generate profit for manufacturers and medical organizations that endorse vaccinations. While the economic slant is bothersome to those opposing mandatory vaccines, their side of the argument is fueled by claims paid under the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program in the United States Court of Federal Claims between 1988 and 2009, which has awarded compensation to 1,322 families whose children suffered brain damage from vaccines (ProCon. org, Children Vaccinations, Did you know? . About 30,000 cases of adverse reactions to vaccines have been reported to the federal government since 1990 (ProCon. org, Children Vaccinations, Did you know? ). Only 13% of tho se cases were classified as serious, i. e. permanent disability, hospitalization, life-threatening illness, or death (ProCon. org, Children Vaccinations, Did you know? ). Should parents have the right to determine whether their child should have mandatory vaccinations, or should the government have the right to decide whether vaccinations are in the best interest of national health?It has been proven that vaccinations can help eliminate diseases that once killed thousands of children. There is still the thought that any risk to a child from immunization is not worth taking, especially considering that most diseases vaccinated against are not necessarily life threatening. The â€Å"slippery slope† seems to be whether the government should have the right to interfere with First Amendment rights.

Promotion of diversity and equality Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Promotion of diversity and equality - Essay Example Its main aim was to minimize if not entirely eliminate, discrimination against individuals, by changing the perceptions of people who may be different in any manner, as coined by cultural inheritance; and to give more rights to each category of individuals (Equality Act 2010). Professional practice is a function of power Influence, as has been witnessed in both contemporary and traditional societies. At every level of relationships, there is at least some power exerting force against individuals treated as its subjects (Sweeney, Lewis & Etherington, 2003). Professional practice is undermined by misuse of power, and the performance of individuals goes down, thus affecting service delivery. Care values have been on constant transition overtime. This change has not been devoid of results. Among the many advantages of positive transition of care values are improved performance of individuals; delivery of proper and more advance care to patients and people with unique needs; more liberal performance of individuals without discrimination among others. When fairness and diversity are not exercised in any given setup, social exclusion could set in, which brings with it damaging effects. Depression, anxiety, and insecurity are just but a tip of the iceberg. This can be passed from one generation to another; thus equality and diversity have to be promoted to annul the effects of discrimination and prejudice (Social exclusion unit, 2004). Lisa faces various problems in her life, and she falls as a direct victim of social barriers. She has no right to exercise her freedom, develop her full potential and finds herself in a most unwarranted position of a caregiver at a juvenile age. As discussed earlier, equality and diversity are strong terms that provide for an individual the opportunity to participate in daily life activities, develop full potential and mingle easily with the rest of the society members without facing

Santorini, Greece Architecture Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Santorini, Greece Architecture - Research Paper Example This volcanic eruption destroyed the center of the island, causing it to sink and to create today’s caldera. The caldera is circular in shape and it is entirely filled with water. In fact, it is the only sunken caldera in the world. The inner coast around the caldera is a precipice of nearly 300-meter drop; it has many layers of solidified layers of lava on top of each other. The outer beaches are very smooth and shallow. Sand color of beaches is different depending upon which geographic layer is exposed; it could be white, red, grey or black sand. The climate of Santorini is affected by its volcanic location. It is generally fair with pleasant temperature throughout the year. The summers are marked by drought. The temperature in the summer months e.g. July and August range from 30 -32 degrees centigrade during the day to 20- 23 degrees at night. Spring and autumn are perfect. The winters are generally humid with mild temperatures. Rain is almost nonexistent, but some showers are expected at the end of April and September. Snow is also very rare. The climate in the Santorini is also affected by the winds rushing in the region. The ‘meltimi’ wind is present in July-August while ‘sirocco’ wind blows here in the spring. The history of Santorini is closely linked with the geophysical characteristics of the region. Santorini and its caldera have been formed due to volcanic activity in the area. Santorini volcano has played an important role in the existence of an island from the prehistoric times to the present date. The island was named Callisto, strongly and Thera before it became Santorini. The name "Santorini" derives from the Crusaders who in their way stood for rest near the Church of St. Irene, so they called the island Santa Irene (Santorini). According to the known Santorini history, its first inhabitants were the pre-Hellenistic in the Bronze Age. After the Phoenicians, Dorians and the Minoans followed.  Ã‚  

The movie Thank you for Smoking Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Thank you for Smoking - Movie Review Example On a deeper level, the movie also explores the world of corruption in politics and the government. In one scene, Nick mentions to his son that his â€Å"job calls for a moral flexibility that goes beyond most individuals.† It shows Nick, as a lobbyist, is required to disregard any real concern for the stakeholders as he drifts into the world of propaganda. Though the genre of the movie is satire, viewers may wonder if it is founded on facts. It may be unnerving to imagine that corporate PR depends on the lobbyist’s lack of moral accountability to support their cause and win the case. This could mean that lobbyists are expected to exhaust all means to create successful publicity, with the end justifying the means. The way Nick circumvents the truth to preserve public opinion unfortunately typifies the uncaring way these people do they jobs to achieve their objectives. For example, Nick’s company implements a corporate citizenship project intended to create a facad e of public concern by giving back to society. However, the anti-teen smoking campaign is merely done to avoid bad publicity. Additionally, the company’s monetary gift to the dying Marlboro man is to keep him silent from attacking the tobacco industry.

Critical Analysis of Tourism Websites Assignment

Critical Analysis of Tourism Websites - Assignment Example With that said, I found the official tourist website for Greece and took a look around. The website is mediocre and the web designer must have used a strange layout code because mousing around causes weird changes to the layout. The header has four tabs: Home, Site Map, Newsletter Subscribe, and Contact. The homepage itself offers additional tabs: Greece (which expands to include links to History, Civilisation[sic], Geography, General Info, and Before You Travel), Explore (which expands to include links to Destinations, Culture, Sea, Nature, and Religion), Enjoy (which expands to include links to Activities, Leisure, Touring, and Gastronomy), Specials (which expands to include links to You in Greece, Downloads, and Newsletters), and GNTO (which expands to include links to About Us, Business Newsletter, Links, and Competitions). There is so much information, at first the website can seem a bit daunting. There are all kinds of related links, a plethora of historical information, most w ith links to outside websites that offer tourist trips, and an events calendar (though it didn’t seem to be functioning on the several visits I made to the website). Most notably, the website offers a large column of social networks that they hope you â€Å"like† them on—which seemed distracting, actually. I came to the site to learn more about Greece, not worry about their Google +1 or Twitter status. The website does include some photos of Greece and its monuments, though I was severely disappointed in quality, number, and size. Essentially, this website looked like they took their â€Å"Travel Greece† brochures and turned them into a website. Nothing special, too many choices that lead to the same places, and a distracting layout that makes choosing a tab to visit next confusing. Most frustrating, is that getting into the culture of Greece is nearly impossible, simply from the lack of visual evidence. Over and over I second-guessed this choice as the m ain tourism website for Greece, but GTNO stands for Greek National Tourism Organisation[sic], which is supervised by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. Overall, if I hadn’t seen Greece in movies and literature previously, I wouldn’t want to visit there if this were the only site available. The lack of visual evidence is frustrating, and though they offer a large amount of historical information about the cities and monuments, the information is not, ironically, very informative. At just about every opportunity, the website links you away from the main site to give the real information. From this tourism website, I’ve gotten a sick feeling about Greece. I’ll keep it as my destination because I believe the country is far more beautiful than the tourist site lets on, but I was highly disappointed because it seems—at least it should be this way—that the main tourism site’s only function is to attract tourists and visitors to their landm arks. Nightmare Excursion: Israel Sure, it may be the fount of the world’s oldest and most prominent holy site; but it’s guaranteed to be wrought with civil war and unfathomable dangers to the average tourist. With that said, I took a gander at Israel’s official tourism site which bears the promise, â€Å"Israel: Come find the Israel in You.† The Ministry of Tourism’s site is actually quite impressive, not at all what I expected. Obviously, their website wouldn’t be openly promoting their thousand-year-old holy wars, but the aesthetic was far more pleasing than imagined.

As I lay dying Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

As I lay dying - Essay Example Darl is not only a deep thinker, but very observant youth.(Wagner 1973) He immediately emerges as a unique character with what might amount to clairvoyance . Early on the reader is aware of this when Darl describes his younger brother Jewel who is behind him. He is able to discern that: â€Å"Jewel, fifteen feet behind me, looking straight ahead, steps in a single stride through the window. Still staring straight ahead, his pale eyes like wood set into his wooden face, he crosses the floor in four strides.’†(Faulkner 2000 p3) Be that as it may, Darl appears to be the sharper of the Bundrens and his philosophical nature may have confined him to a somewhat dreamy existence. While he says little, he is often times engaged in deep thought. It is indeed ironic that for a boy who has little to say, Darl conducts at least nineteen monologues throughout Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying. ‘†What you want, Darl?† Dewey Dell said, not stopping the fan, speaking up quick, keeping even him from her. He didnt answer. He just stood and looked at his dying mother, his heart too full for words†. (Faulkner 2000 p 26). It is the fear of the power associated with Darl’s clairvoyance that ultimately accounts for his family’s decision to send him to a mental institution. Darl alienates himself from the community and others fear getting too close to him. The fear is grounded in their knowledge that he will learn some ugly, hidden truth. A truth they do not wish to share with others. It is ultimately this fear that drives his family to have him committed to an institution for the mentally impaired by the end of the novel. Darl’s detachment and estrangement from his family after his mother’s death is explained by Darl in the following passage: "It is as though the space between us were time: an irrevocable quality. It is as though time, no longer running straight before us in a diminishing line, now runs

Organisational Behaviour Theories and Modern Learning Organisation Essay

Organisational Behaviour Theories and Modern Learning Organisation - Essay Example Specifically, it offers a wide-ranging tactical support within which abilities, instructing and growth strategies can be placed, thus providing teaching and HRM professionals with a tactic for advertising their products to higher management. Instead of training and capabilities being a bolt-on extra, learning transfers to centre stage and grows to be the principal organisational standard around which business policy and viable gain can be developed. Put plainly, there are said to be 3 different shapes of learning within an association: folks within an organisation learning belongings; organisational learning - where the organisation as a unit begins to develop means in which it can learn lectures in a group; and lastly the learning organisation - where the vital organisational objective is complete learning. The nature of the amendments needed becomes understandable as we look at the five-step prototype of development of a learning organisation submitted by Johnson (2002, pp. 241-249 ). The initial three steps of the model (Foundation, Formation and Prolongation) are taken to characterise a state of organisational learning. Phases 4 and 5 (Renovation and Transfiguration) represent evolution and conversion to becoming an entirely driven learning organisation. Foundation: Essential talents development, plus providing beginners with practices and eagerness to learn further. Basic human resources development plans to stimulate and put up self-belief for advance knowledge. Formation: Organisation promotes and develops skills for self-studying and self-development assists individual discover about the organisation and their position in it. Likelihoods and resources are set aside to meet requirement for learning. Renovation: An absolute transform in the form, look and traits or traditions of the organisation.

Cyber Crimes Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Cyber Crimes - Research Paper Example Other than these crimes, there is also a breach of privacy in which a person’s confidential information becomes compromised, which in legal parameters is unlawful. A majority of those found to engage in cyber crimes is normally between the age of fifteen and twenty-fivein which they find themselves serving time at correctional facilities when found guilty of the offense. Cyber crimes have both international and local engagements in which a government may choose to do so through spying on other governments or by non-state actors who may use these avenues to conduct financial theft (Girard 399). In essence, cyber crimes may also be an inter border in which the efforts to apprehend those involved in this economic crippling activity may spread across international boundaries hence becoming cyber warfare. With this, this essay will delve into cyber crimes and the laws that are in existence surrounding cyber crimes. The emphasis will also be on various cyber crimes that have gained international recognition across nations that have a direct correlation to business organizations. Description of Cyber crimes Ideally, cyber crimes have attracted immense costs to institutions and individuals alike in recent times making it to be of the most expensive crimes to exist for the current generation. On the contrary, cyber crimes is a term that serves as an umbrella to a wider range of activities that may include those that target computers and those that target computer networks and devices (Brenner 39). Principally, cyber crimes that target computer devices or their networks include viruses, malicious software (Malware) while those that may originate from computer devices or networks include fraud, information warfare, and identity theft among a list of other documented crimes (Turrini & Ghosh 51). On the contrary, the Department of Justice in the USA recognizes computer crime to exist in a category of three in which a computer may be the prime target for cybercrime or as a tool for conducting the offense. Thirdly, a computer or its network may be applicable in executing the crime as a tool for storing stolen information making it an accessory to these crimes. According to research, those that conduct cyber crimes who happen to be teenagers do not have to have manyskills in order to do this because the tools used in hacking into computer systems are readily available on the internet. Most of these crimes begin as pranks in which these youngsters may view the shutting down of websites as a joke without having the knowledge that these activities are illegal. Other than being hackers, people and children that fall within the 15-24 age brackets also find themselves engaging with crooks online who give out information to them about the ways of shutting down the online operations of certain companies. Therefore, those that commit cyber crimes may either download the software that are essential in committing these crimes or may acquire links to sites th at may offer them pointers on how to commit the crimes effectively. On the other hand, some sections of the media have also praised cyber crimes portraying computer criminals as people that can liberate society from oppression similar to the legendary story of Robin Hood. According to the Interpol, cyber crimes have been on an increasing trend in recent years as compared to other intellectual crimes across the globe. With the increase in internet speed options, anonymity

How are women represented in the Ramayana story Essay

How are women represented in the Ramayana story - Essay Example The epic, in totality, describes victory of goodness over evil through the virtues of love, honesty, truth, respect, and dignity. Ramayana has been translated, rewritten and reinterpreted by many scholars in various Indian languages. The author, R.K.Narayan, has followed the work of Kamban, a famous Tamil poet of the 11th century A.D, in his narration of The Ramayana (p.xii). While the Ramayana describes the greatness of Rama, son of King Dasaratha, the epic highlights depth of every relation; for example, that of the son, the teacher, the father, the mother, the brother, the sister, the daughter, the King, the Soldier, and the servant. Parallely, it also describes the role of the man and woman on this earth. Ever since history was discovered, the Hindu mythology always regarded woman with great respect and dignity, next to the Almighty, himself. Scholars have also stated that even God, himself, bows down only in front of this mother. Even Ramayana describes woman with the same dignity and respect. The author’s narration of the story of Thataka, a ferocious female demon, depicts Rama’s hesitation to kill her on the orders of teacher Vishwamitra because killing a woman was against his principles. Then the author refers to the teacher’s statement made to Rama, ‘a woman of demoniac tendencies loses all consideration to be treated as a woman’ (p.13). This explains that woman is considered to be a life-giver and deserves the ultimate position of respect that any human being can ever receive. Any woman that cannot personify that ideal figure and causes destruction, is not worthy of living. In the context of power and control, the author refers to Vishwamitra’s narration of the story of Ganga to Rama. In this context, Ganga, the holy river is gendered as female (p.16). In his narration Ganga is all powerful, and convincing Ganga for a cause

Bring Back Flogging Essay Example for Free

Bring Back Flogging Essay First off, I believe we should bring back flogging. We have a problem with prisons now days and I believe flogging can help. Prisons just don’t work. They’re overcrowded, violent, and cost way too much money. They are completely ineffective! I remember back in high school, if we got in trouble we would be suspended or either have ISS. For most people, ISS wasn’t anything but fun; just another regular day at school. That’s how I feel prisons have become. Some criminals will tell you straight up that prison is just a walk in the park, and it shouldn’t be that way! People should dread going to prison instead of not worrying about it. If we brought back flogging, I believe people would be quicker to change their ways rather than spending time in a prison cell. Flogging is humiliating and painful yet quick and cheap! We would see a decline in prisons offering up billions of dollars. Just think what we could do with those billions of dollars. If someone were to be flogged, I think it should be behind closed doors; because if not, that’s where the controversy would start. Although it would be very embarrassing to the criminal to be flogged in front of the public, he/she has rights too. Also, for those who think flogging is cruel, do you not know that prisoners get beat, raped, burned, and assaulted on a daily basis. I think a criminal would take a back ache over being beat, raped, burned, or assaulted any day. I also think flogging should be brought back for the simple idea that criminals can get on with their life and don’t have to completely start all over!

The Contingency Of Identity In Trainspotting Philosophy Essay

The Contingency Of Identity In Trainspotting Philosophy Essay The perimeters of someones body are often thought to signify the enclosure of a stable perception of the world. For example, mainstream Western society perceives corporeal limits as the impenetrable barrier between subjectivity and external forces. This model emphasizes the subject as regulator over what external forces influence their subjectivity, and in turn implies that the subject is autonomous in choosing or being her own identity. Philosophical projects such as the Enlightenment and the American dream expound on the Cartesian Isi assertion that anyone has the agency to construct an original, autonomous identity. These philosophies have helped bind Western ontology to a concept of mind over matter. However, 20th century thinkers have challenged this notion. Philosopher and sociologist Michael Foucault posits the body is transformed into an instrument for political power, and that conceptualizing subjectivity as a stable construct is crucial to the preservation of the state For Foucault, any notion of autonomy is an articulation of political agenda. Correspondingly, Psychoanalyst Julia Kristeva shows that restricting subjectivity to an epidermal container oppresses an entire means of understanding subjectivity. Kristeva asks the reader to consider a perception of subjectivity that contingently and provisionally fluctuates in its relation to the bodys perceived borders. She claims subjectivity and the body are entwined in an ontology based on the transgression of borders, not the establishment of them. Instead of agreeing with the Wests claim that citizens conduct their selfhood within epidermal boundaries, Kristeva argues that subjectivity is unstable, fragmented, and dispersed across various relations with the body. Therefore, subjectivity has the capacity to transform and be transformed through engagement with the body. Toward this end, I will investigate the ever-fluctuating bodies and identities in Irvine Welshs multimedia text Trainspotting (Boyle, 1996; Welsh, 1996). The film and novel epitomize the permeable, fluctuating nature of subjectivity as conceived by Kristeva, and thus highlight the fact that selfhood depends on a transgression rather than an establishment of borders. Foucault and Doeile Bodies Michael Foucaults term body politics refers to the practices and policies through which powers of society regulate the human body, as well as the struggle over the degree of individual and social control of the body. Institutional power expressed in government and laws is the power at play in body politics (Body Politics). Foucault says that Western societys false ontology makes citizens think they have stable identities because of the governments regulation of the physical body through institutions and laws. In short, citizens perceive themselves as autonomous subjects because of the states emphasis on hygiene and cleanliness. Foucault says this ontology is the effect of political power, and that any selfhood a proper citizen assumes is an articulation of this power. Associate Professor Nick Mansfield, head of the cultural studies department at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, specializes in Foucaultian theory, and his book on subjectivity lends a nice segue as to how body politics and self-hood coincide: Our philosophies of science, our theories of the organization of society, our sense of morality, purpose and truth all partake of the same emphasis on the individual not only as a social quantity, but as the point where all meaning and value can be judged. This individuality is described as freedom, and we still direct our most serious political ambitions towards perfecting that freedom. It also operates as a duty, however. (60) Foucault focuses on the implicit sense of duty that is entailed with citizenship. He sees civic duty as the submission of ones body to forces of political power. Critically acclaimed Italian political philosopher Giorgio Agamben has stated that one of the most persistent features of Foucaults work is its decisive abandonment of the traditional approach to the problem of power, which is based on juridico-institutional models (the definition of sovereignty, the theory of the State), in favor of an unprejudiced analysis of the concrete ways in which power penetrates subjects very bodies and forms of life (5). Foucaults critical studies of social institutions reveal that institutional surveillance of the body-specifically in delineating what is the clean and proper body-designates citizens corporal existence as a docile state. Foucault supports this claim with his concept of processes of subjectivization, These processes under-thematize and universalize the body until it can be treated as inert or disordered; in other words, until physicality obtains a docile classification. Similarly, as cultural theorist Elizabeth Grosz argues, the body historically has been conceived of as a vehicle for the expression of an otherwise sealed and self-contained, incommunicable psyche. It is through the body that [people] _ .. can receive, code, and translate the inputs of the external world (9). Once I established how a favorable perception of the docility is impressed upon populations, I will discuss how Trainspotting characters refute this platform with their own counter-culture philosophies and behavior. The characters struggle with the implications of properness and duty that Foucault sees as essential to the function of a citizen. They are good examples of the insight that Julia Kristeva gleans from Foucaults work: a society and state that glorifies corporeal purity is thus dependent on sources of misery and degradation in order to have a standard to judge what is clean or unclean, appropriate or unfitting. But first, I will establish how body hygiene becomes such an important factor for citizens to view themselves as autonomous subjects. As mentioned, Foucault points to state institutions that enact processes of subjectivization. Processes of subjectivization refer to government programs that exemplify epidermal perimeters as impenetrable borders that contain the supposed autonomous nature of citizens These processes bring the individual to bind himself to his own identity and consciousness, and, at the same time, to an external power (Agamben 5). Mansield elucidates, in our fantasy of autonomous selfhood, we normally imagine our subjectivity to be identified with the uniqueness and separateness of our individual bodies. We draw an imaginary line around the perimeters of our bodies and define our subjectivity as the unique density of matter contained within that line. When we operate in society as voters, taxpayers, welfare recipients and consumers, our identity seems to be married to this autonomy: we front up for interviews, check ups and interrogations as the content of our bodies. (82) The tangible presence bodies provide people with is taken to be absolute and final validation of who they are. When someone appears for a doctors appointment or a cotut trial she ceases being a name on a paper and appears as herself These processes of subjectivization imply not only the notion that someones tangible borders give them a real identity, but also that that identity maintains its own agency. When analyzing state systems from Foucaults perspective, it becomes apparent that citizenship designates citizens as autonomous. Foucault insists that when institutions seek to control and know the subject, they manipulate the body, fixing it strictly in place, watching and measuring it; this in turn gives citizens the sense that they are anything but a carefully monitored, social denomination. But in reality, the state has a vested interest in its citizens health that is expressed by institutional programs emphasis on autonomy. Through subjectivization processes, an inherent notion of cleanliness is attached in the definition of citizen, and the upkeep of clean borders is expected to entail some sort of autonomy. In contrast, Foucault claims that institutions endorsing corporeal cleanliness ensures a specific type of docility in the citizenry. If citizens believe that they are the agents merely because of their hygiene, then the institutions have succeeded in transforming its citizens bodies into inert entities that can be prescribed or delineating in any way the state sees fit. The sense of autonomy is therefore revealed to preserve state power. Foucaults second example of subjectivization processes, that of policing strategies, explains this more explicitly. Foucault states that the laws of the penal system, which were once isolated in the form of a public event (e.g.: a criminal dismembered in the marketplace), have become instilled into normative ontology with the creation of prisons. Firstly, the prison does not simply incarcerate people arbitrarily. It depends on a system of proper proceedings that in turn must be justified by codes of law or legal precedent. When someone is convicted of a crime, she or he goes from being a person to being a phenomenon. As a type, the individual becomes subject to analysis according to scientific models. Questions begin to be asked, like, what personality traits make this person a criminal? What social conditions lead to his or her crime? Here, the individual is not free and autonomous, but the focal point of larger forces, analyzed by systems of knowledge in what they claim is impartial truth (Lyon 7). Foucault uses the prison model of liberal economist and social reformer Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) to help explain the casual yet compulsory paranoid lifestyle that is instilled in prisons and reflected in society. According to Foucault, the panopticon is typical of the processes of subjectivization that govern modern life. A panopticon is a circular prison with an empty area in the middle where a guard tower is placed. All of the prisoners cell face inward, and one guard can effectively keep survelliance over all the inmates at once. Furthermore, is an opaque sheet of one-way visible glass is installed in the guard tower, the guard herself would not have to necessarily be present to enact a monitoring system. Likewise, state power organizes the population into individual units that are then subject to monitoring in a system of maximum visibility through implicit accountability. This works most effectively in institutions where schools, hospitals, banks, and departments of social security and tax all keep files on us. People forget about these records, or accept them as a necessary and inevitable part of institutions operations (Lyon 8-9). However, these files are our effective social reality, and contain truths about us that can be manipulated outside of our control. These files and the truth they contain are not our property, and they enhance the state of docility imposed on citizens bodies. Foucault believes that power and the knowledge coincide to ensure the state maintains its docile influence, and in turn preserves its efficiency. Therefore, every institution operates according to its own theories of peoples subjectivity: the unruly adolescent, the remedial reader, the hysterical patient, the credit risk-these are all types of subjectivity that people may or may not occupy, sometimes without even knowing it. Every institution has classes of persons into which everyone who deals with them is distributed. The apparently simple and necessary logic of this categorisation-it is not a conspiracy to oppress us, our common sense says, how could these institutions operate otherwise?- already separates us from one another, isolating us, opening up and closing off opportunities, destining us for certain rewards and punishments. The system of truth on which each institution depends is always already a power at work on us. (Mansfield 62) Thus, individuality is not the highest expression of human life, but the thing social institutions need people to feel they are, so that people remain vulnerable to the truths the state has contrived for its own efficiency. As a result, the self constantly problematizes its place in the world and its relationship to others and to inherited codes of behavior. Therefore, the subject does not simply rely on some unknowable of pure natural subjectivity, but rather produces itself endlessly as a response to its relationship to other and to its cultural and historical context (Mansfield 63). Foucaults ideas encourage an earnestly skeptical attitude towards subjectivity, one that is embodied in Trainspottings main character, Mark Renton. Renton can be seen as anti- subjective because he sees any statement that claims to speak the truth about human subjectivity as an imposition, a technique of power and social administration. Renton voices his reservations: Society invents spurious convoluted logic tae absorb and change people whaes behaviour is outside its mainstream. Suppose that ah knew the pros and cons, know that ahm gaunnae hav a short life, am ay sotmd mind, etcetera, etcetera, but still want tae use smack? They wont let ya dae it. They wont let ye dae it, because its seen as a sign of thair ain failure. The fact is ye jist simply choose tae reject whit they huv tae offer. Choose us. Choose life. Choose mortgage payments; choose washing machines; choose cars; choose sitting on a couch watching mind-numbing and spirit-crushing game shows, stufting fuckin junk food intae yir mooth. Choose rotting away, pishing and shiteing yersel in a home, a total fuckin embarrassment tae the selfish, fucked-up brats yeve produced. Choose life. Well, ah choose no tae choose life. If the cunts cant handle that, its thair fuckin problem (Welsh 187-9). Renton, like Foucault, sees subjectivity as a mode of social organization and administration. For Renton, the state is inherently dependent on its citizens to cultivate a notion of sanctity regarding their lives. Upon this foundation of natural life, the State builds concepts of morality and truth that are articulations of power structures (Agamben 2). Therefore, Renton and his mates seek a subjectivity that does not privilege the sanctity of life. As actor and critic Lewis MacLeod puts it, Welshs characters are not at all interested in the rule of parasite politicians (Welsh 228). Instead they operate on a highly idiosyncratic cultural logic that frequently inverts conventional values (90). The characters experimental subjectivity prioritizes desire and addiction as the most important achievements in life, and the screenplays adaptation of the above quote l elucidates this point. ln the theatrical version, Renton explains: Choose rotting away, pishing and shiteing yersel in a home, a total fuckin embarrassment tae the selfish, fucked up brats that youve spawned to replace yourselves . But why would I want to do a thing like that? I chose not to choose life. I chose somethin else. And the reasons? There are no reasons. Who needs reasons when youve got heroin? Renton has lost faith in any type of subjectivity, and considers a life on heroin just as pointless as a life of gainful employment. From a Foucaultian perspective his reasoning can obtain some credence in that institutions will inevitably wrest all agency away from its citizens. It is interesting to note Welshs novels title describes a pointless exercise enacted within societys establishments. Renton can clearly see the absurdity of society and the meaninglessness of his life, yet his choice is ultimately self-defeating, for as the title of the book suggests, heroin addiction, like trainspotting grown men watching locomotives and noting their identification numbers -is effectively a pointless exercise (Bishop 221-22). Similarly, in Peter Corliss review of the cinematic adaptation of Trainspotting, Welsh and John Hodge explain the importance of the metaphor: Trainspotting, Welsh explains, is the compulsive collection of locomotive engine numbers from the British railway system. But you cant do anything with the numbers once youve collected them. Says Hodge, who culled the brilliant screenplay from Welshs anecdotal novel. Its a nice metaphor for doing something that gives your life a bit of structure but its ultimately pointless. So is the intravenous injection of drugs a palpable pleasure that wastes time, and often, life (85). In his PhD Doctorate entitled The Diminished Subject, Professor Geoffrey Bishop looks at the T rainspotting texts to see how the characters attempt to exercise a new type of subjectivity. Bishop writes, For Renton, heroin use is a determinedly philosophical decision to adopt a counter-discursive practice in order to retreat from a society that makes him an outsider, and threatens his attempts to simplify his existence (ZI9). As I shall show in the following analysis, through the selfish pleasure of drug use Renton attempts to avoid the docility that Foucault talks about In an interview with film critic Andrew OHagan, it is apparent that T rainspotting s director and screenwriter were not attempting to display Kristevas theories in their film. But, as I will discuss, the filmic adaptation of the novel lends itself very well to Kristevian philosophy. Kristeva, Posthumanist Practice, and Trainspotting Julia Kristeva argues that subjectivity depends on someones relation to outside forces. Kristevas ontology is based on a transgression, rather than an establishment, of borders. Likewise, the bodies in Trainsporting illustrate a significant alternative to traditional conceptions of the body as stable and self-contained. I propose that the film calls for a critical approach that attends to bodies as products and producers of posthuman discourses. Posthumanist practice questions the genealogy of moral norms rather than accepting and perpetuating them, and much of Kristevas theory is an enactment of posthuman discourse. In critical theory, the posthuman is a speculative being that represents or seeks to enact a re-writing of what is generally conceived of as human. Posthumanist criticism critically questions Renaissance humanism, which is a branch of humanist philosophy that claims human nature is a universal state from which the human being emerges, and it stresses that human nature is autonomous, rational, capable of free will, and unified in itself as the apex of existence. Thus, the posthuman recognizes imperfectability and disunity within him or herself Instead of a humanist perspective, a posthuman perception understands the world through context and heterogeneous perspectives while maintaining intellectual rigor and a dedication to objective observations of the world. Key to this posthuman practice is the ability to fluidly change perspectives and manifest oneself through different identities. The posthuman, for critical theorists of the subject, has an emergent ontology rather than a stable one; in other words, the posthuman is not a singular, defined individual, but rather one who can become or embody different identities and understand the world from multiple, heterogeneous perspectives (Haraway 3). In what follows, I discuss how body fluids in the film illustrate the instability of corporeal limits as conceived by Julia Kristeva and Judith Butler. Through the lens of these theorists, the characters in Trainspotting can become producers of posthurnan discourses. But tirst, I will briefly discuss the critical reception of the film, inasmuch as responses to it characterize the kind of moralizing judgment that so often I denies another perception like Kristevas. _ In 1996, Danny Boyles film adaptation of Irvine Welshs bestselling novel became the highest grossing British-made film in the United Kingdom in history (Callahan 39). Although other films have addressed the subject of heroin addiction most have done so from a stance of such moral disdain that the characters became little more than exaggerations of an addicted underclass that remains safely Other to mainstream film audiences. In contrast, Trainspotting, even though it portrays the desperation and horrors of drug addiction, the film never grants its audience the privilege of certain moral judgment. It invites audiences to engage with its characters in their own world as they struggle between the desperate need and the always- temporary satisfaction that characterizes life on heroin. The cinematic release of Trainspozling came right after a controversial trend in the fashion industry known as heroin chic, a trend that earned its name by popularizing images of thin, glassy-eyed models who were apparently strung-out in dirty bathrooms or cheap, dingy motels (Craik 19). President Clinton even raised the issue in a widely reported address to magazine editors, charging that the glorification of heroin is not creative Its destructive. Its not beautiful. It is ugly. And this is not about art. Its about life and death. And glorifying death is not good for any society (Clinton). Cultural critic Henry Giroux describes the images associated with heroin chic as nothing more than inspiration for a type of cultural slumming that produces attitudes and actions in which well-to-do yuppies aestheticize the pain and suffering of underprivileged youths (27). Some critics have made similar claims about Trainspotting. One reviewer, for example, said the film belongs to an unoriginal, voyeuristic genre that caters to an addiction to addiction- watching (Kauffmann 38). Other critics dismiss the film and other such films as mere slumfests for the bored upper classes, virtual petting zoos they can visit anytime they want to feel like theyre down with the kids (Callahan 39). Although the films graphic portrayal of self- depravation and misery is at times difficult to watch, other critics claim that the films uncritical, even sympathetic portrayal of junkies overtly glamorizes heroin use. Despite the fact that such arguments allude to possible real world dangers of drug culture and the celebration of its images, they remain anchored in a discourse of negativity. They designate the rhetorical critic to the psychoanalytic position of searching for a lack, whether it is of morals, health, or life. In other words, such arguments can only analyze the  ¬Ã‚ lm based on its failure to do something it presumably should do: adhere to moral norms. A moral argument based on whether Trainspotting does or does not glamorize heroin useand whether or not that is good or badneglects a compelling line of analysis: how the pervasive physicality of the  ¬Ã‚ lm functions rhetorically. The  ¬Ã‚ lmmakers are careful to illustrate both the pain and the pleasure of heroin use, but this evenhandedness seems less the depiction of a moral judgment than an investigation or even a meditation on the transgression of boundaries. Indeed, in an interview, director Damiy Boyle says that the  ¬Ã‚ lm is about being a transgressor Its about doing something that everybody says will kill youyou will kill yourself And the thing that nobody understands is, its not that you dont hear that message, its just that its irrelevant. The  ¬Ã‚ lm isnt about heroin. Its about an attitude, and thats why we wanted the  ¬Ã‚ lm to pulse, to pulse like you do in your twenties (Callahan 39). This pulsing, or this incessant transgressing that Boyle refers to provides a key metaphor for this discussion of corporeality in Trainspotting. A pulse is not characterized by stability or even an interplay between opposite forces. Rather, a pulse is a constant  ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å¡uctuation, what William Burroughs describes as an interdependent relationship between systolic and diastolic movement (Naked Lunch iii). It is in this sense that I conceive of transgression not as an eradication or a crossing of boundaries, but as a recon ¬Ã‚ guration that occurs through continual engagement and response. Bodies connecting and expanding within an economy of bodily  ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å¡uids enact the pulse of the  ¬Ã‚ lm. Bodily Refuse and Identity Julia Kristevas theoretical work on the concept of abj ection has done much to trouble a humanist conception of the discrete, autonomous individual. According to the Oxford Dictionary and Thesaurus, abjection means a state of misery or degradation. Kristeva develops this de ¬Ã‚ nition of the abject by arguing that the signi ¬Ã‚ cance of abj ection lies in its role as an operation through which we continually distinguish ourselves as individuals. She describes abject as a jettisoned object that is opposed to 1 and is radically excluded; the abject draws me toward the place where meaning collapses (Powers 1-2). For example, an image of the emaciated body of a person living with AIDS may evoke sympathy, or in, in some cases, fear, but it also ful ¬Ã‚ lls the role of the abject, infected Other that enables the healthy to feel clean, vital, and even morally superior. Similarly, the starving bodies of third-world countries serve as boundaries or limits that contribute to this countrys sense of nationhood. According to this logic, American identity depends on what America precisely is not (Debrix 1 158). Kristevas notion of a disorganized, abject body challenging the concept of order itself aids to an understanding of Trainspotting in which the characters experiment with a unique ontology based on the transgression of corporeal terms. Rather than quietly remaining outside of the mainstream at designated margins, the abject, as the heroin bodies exhibited in Trainspotting, breaks apart the sanctity and homogeneity of rational public space. Kristeva indicates that bodily boundaries are never  ¬Ã‚ nal and neither are the identities that depend on them. She argues that the self depends on the abject to constitute its border, to be that which lies outside, beyond the set (Powers 2). But she also notes that from its place of banishment, the abject does not cease challenging its master (Powers 2). In this sense, the abject Other never remains at the margins. The abject never remains stagnant, creating stable boundaries for the self. Kristeva thus introduces a dynamism into the concept of identity that depends on a subjects ability to recognize and reject the abject asit gets articulated and rearticulated through the selfs interaction with the Other. In other words, the Cartesian I becomes destabilized to the extent that the humanist emphasis on the mind/body split has been sufficiently troubled with regard to how we construct or acquire a sense of self. Foucault shows how someones perceived autonomy is often merely an extension of state power, and this is important when observing how the characters in Trainspotting both celebrate and struggle for the release of moral or hygienic ideologies that treat them as docile bodies. As Bishop has recently noted, Although Trainspotting was attacked for romanticising drug use, glamorising heroin chic, and over the validity of Welshs description of heroin addiction, such literalist readings not only failed to see past the subject matter, they ignored the possibility of political and philosophical content (219). Kristeva suggests an ontology that is grounded in relations to others rather than in the conscious mind, and when her theories are used in an analysis of Trainspotting they can certainly produce philosophical insight into the concept of subjectivity. Judith Butler links much of her work in Bodies that Matter to Kristevas consideration of the abject. Our self-identi ¬Ã‚ cation, Butler argues, operates within what she calls an exclusionary matrix that relates subjects and necessitates a simultaneous production of a domain of abject beings, those who are not yet subjects, but who form the constitutive outside to the domain of the subject (3 ). She agrees with Kristeva that the abject zone of uninhabitability that de ¬Ã‚ nes the boundaries of the subject will constitute that site of dreaded identi ¬Ã‚ cation against which and by virtue of whichthe domain of the subject will circumscribe its own claim to autonomy and to life (3). However, Butler builds upon Kristevas argument with a point that is essential for this discussion of the abject bodies in Trainspotting. According to Butler, the abjected through abj ection instead of inherently possessing autonomy. Therefore, Renton can be seen as existential explorer of subjectivity, and there are no guarantees in this novel, no happy endings, and no transcendence of the characters into holistic self-present subjects (Bishop 223). g Although Butlers introduction of permeability is helpful, I want to offer another important perspective before continuing. Butler posits a concept of subjectivity based on the repudiation of abj ection. As I have suggested and will explore further throughout this discussion, subjects in the  ¬Ã‚ lm do not and cannot sufficiently negate the abject. Rather, the abject is integral to pulsing-or, what William S. Burroughs might call a constant state of kicking-on which subjectivity depends (Junky xvi). Trainspotting s Alternative Subjectivity The cinematic adaptation of Trainspotting has some key scenes that should elucidate the ontological force of abjection. Depictions of body  ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å¡uids in the  ¬Ã‚ lm illustrate the  ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å¡uctuating, permeable corporeality that Butler describes. The  ¬Ã‚ lm seems to attack any trace of morality or cleanliness inherent in Foucaults analysis, as images abound of body  ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å¡uids contaminating spaces in the most inappropriate of manners. Film critic Andrew OHagan notes that for the young characters shi