Authors:Ekaterina Muhl, Roberto Andorno Abstract: The use of neurotechnologies for surveillance in the workplace have the potential to impact the entire working population of the world. Currently, with the help of neurodevices, employers could analyze the brain data from employees to assess their cognitive functions (such as mental capacity and efficiency), cognitive patterns (such as response to stress), and even detect neuropathologies. The workers brain data obtained with wearable neurodevices could serve employers for purposes such as promotion, hiring, or dismissal. Neurodevices could also be used as new micromanagement tools, aimed at monitoring employees' attention at work. Additionally, they can be implemented as tools for self-control for workers, as the feedback provided about their current cognitive state can help improve the outcomes of ongoing tasks and ensure safety. Recent studies have shown that while employees may recognize the potential benefits of using such technology for self-monitoring purposes, they have a negative perception toward its implementation in the workplace. Surprisingly, only a few scientific papers specifically address the issues of neurosurveillance in the workplace, while international frameworks have not yet provided precise responses to these new intrusive methods of monitoring workers. The overall goal of this paper is to discuss whether employers should be allowed to use neurosurveillance technologies in the workplace to monitor their employees' minds and, if so, under what circumstances. The authors take a hypothetical scenario of neurosurveillance in the workplace using EEG-based devices as a starting point for their analysis. On this basis, three key ethical issues are identified: an increasing power imbalance in the employment relationship; a new threat to employees' privacy, and a risk of neurodiscrimination. PubDate: 2023-09-19T00:00:00Z
Authors:Nick Munn, Dan Weijers Abstract: Many philosophers hold that the human risks associated with the development and use of metaverses arise primarily from their status–they are unreal in ways that make the experiences within them meaningless and thereby less prudentially valuable. This purported unreality is not merely a result of the virtual or intangible nature of metaverses. Rather, it arises from the idea that, regardless of the experiences, interactions, and affordances of metaverses, what we do in these spaces is somehow different and impoverished compared to what we do in the physical world. Those who think this believe that our behavior and interactions within metaverses are inferior to our behaviors and interactions in the physical world in a way that confers less value on the lives of those engaging regularly within metaverses. Some commentators worry that repeated exposure to these impoverished virtual experiences will somehow dehumanize us or make us worse at offline interactions, and certainly reduce the amount of time we have for more meaningful real-world pursuits. If true, this would be a serious concern for metaverse-evangelists and users. However, in this article we will argue that it is not so— in fact, metaverses are morally relevantly similar to the physical world, and capable of providing most of the experiences and interactions we find in the physical world – whether positive or negative. However, metaverses are not without risks. We claim that the real ethical problem with metaverses arises, in their current instantiation, from the risks involved in their development as commercial enterprises, locking users into particular infrastructures and placing power over the continuation or termination of the metaverse in the hands of a corporate entity that has goals and motivations independent of those of the users of the metaverse. PubDate: 2023-09-14T00:00:00Z
Authors:Ruth Kasdorf Abstract: The representation of mental illness is part of many video games; however, it is often accompanied by stigmatization of and discrimination against those who are affected. Recently, a more positive approach has been found, including a dimensional representation of mental disorders such as depression or anxiety, especially in games developed by independent developers. The study examined the most popular video games of 2018 and 2019 based on their representation of mental illness in a mixed-methods approach. A quantitative coding process examining general aspects of the games, the characters affected, and the illness representation is followed by a qualitative video game analysis of the games in the sample with a dimensional representation of mental illness. It was found that 16 of the 74 games examined included characters who were affected by mental illnesses. For the most part, mental illness is an essential aspect of the games analyzed in the sample represented by the main characters. However, the depiction of mental illness often lacks depth and dimensionality. Two examples in the study offer a dimensional representation that includes mental illness as characters, as part of the environment and atmosphere, and provides illness-related advice as part of the gameplay. These findings can be helpful for developing games with the potential to reduce discrimination and stigmatization of mental illness and those affected in the future by pointing out aspects leading to a more dimensional and empathetic portrayal of mental illness in existing games. Additionally, the category system used in this study is adaptable to future qualitative research on mental illness representation in video games. PubDate: 2023-09-01T00:00:00Z
Authors:Trevor Watkins Abstract: Permanent settlement began in southwest Asia across the end of the Pleistocene (the Epipalaeolithic) and the beginning of the Holocene (the Neolithic). Aggregation represents a transformation of the cultural niche, involving major social and cultural innovations and profound developments of the strategies of subsistence. At first, the scalar stress of living in large, permanent communities was diffused through corporate effort in the construction and maintenance of monumental communal buildings, a complex material symbolism, and increasing intensity of communal rituals; participation demonstrated commitment and conformity to community norms. As cultivated crops and managed herds of sheep and goat gradually became the predominant source of subsistence, the old sharing ethos was overtaken by the household as the central socio-economic unit; the household became the focus for ritual and symbolism. As population aggregations grew larger, their supra-regional networks of socio-economic sharing and exchange also became more complex, extensive and intensive. The new cultural niche based on networked aggregations produced a marked acceleration in both the rate of cultural accumulation and the rate of demographic growth. At the end of the Neolithic, plow-agriculture began in place of horticulture; there are the first signs of mixed agro-pastoral economies, the marking of private property, new technologies (ceramics and copper metallurgy), and, in southern Iraq, irrigation agriculture. At this time, too, the accelerating expansion of the population of farmers is marked by the appearance of their new settlements in all directions. PubDate: 2023-08-14T00:00:00Z
Authors:Janwillem Liebrand Abstract: To challenge the masculinity of the professional water sector, I take in this paper one of the core questions of feminist technology studies as the starting point: why are there so few expert women in technology' By means of a critical feminist reading of policy and research documents, from the 1950s onwards, focusing on Nepal's history of rural development and technology transfer, I trace the origins of expert women's limited participation in politically relevant processes of water decision making. The analysis reveals that both technology-and-development—and women/gender-and-development policy narratives have validated, and continue to validate, women expert's subordinate position in the Nepali water sector. This is partially so, because donors and national governments insufficiently recognize the racial and sexist assumptions that are historically rooted into these policy narratives. PubDate: 2023-07-31T00:00:00Z
Authors:James C. Simeon Abstract: It is undeniable that forced migration and displacement is a “weapon of war.” To understand the ever-escalating refugee crisis in the world today and how it might be addressed, it is necessary to examine its “root cause(s).” Organized political violence in the form of either war or protracted armed conflict or oppressive dictatorial authoritarianism or totalitarianism are the prime drivers of forced migration and displacement in the world today. The most recent statistics on the world's forcibly displaced demonstrates their direct correlation to war and protracted armed conflict. The vast bulk of the world's forcibly displaced come from war torn countries. What is too often ignored in the academic literature on refugees and forced migration is that civilian non-combatants are often used as “weapons of war.” Mary Kaldor's “new wars” thesis is premised on the notion that wars and protracted armed conflicts defy solution because it is in the interest of the opposing combatants to continue the fighting, consequently, wars are characterized as “endless.” This has obvious implications for the continuous increase in the number of forced migrants in the world today. And, further, the “new wars” thesis postulates that civilian non-combatants are deliberately targeted during protracted armed conflicts or wars. Kelly Greenhill has presented evidence that “coercive engineered migration” is utilized to a State's advantage over another State. The weaponization of civilian non-combatants is a trigger for mass forced migration. Three recent cases dealing with genocide are offered as illustrations: Bosnia; Rwanda; and the Syria Civil War, with the Sieges at Homs and Aleppo. The article concludes with the consideration of the “endless cycle of war” that includes forced migration, smuggling, human trafficking, and other international crimes such as dealing in drugs and arms. All these elements are inter-connected and feed off each other and to be able to break this “endless cycle of war,” there must be a concerted and simultaneous effort to address all these things together. Only by doing so can we ever hope to achieve a “sustainable peace” and thereby end the use and abuse of forced migration and displacement as a “weapon of war.” PubDate: 2023-07-06T00:00:00Z
Authors:Francesca Cimino, Paola Degani Abstract: According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugee (UNHCR) data, approximately 8 million people, mostly women and children, entered and registered in Europe since the beginning of the war on the 24th of February, 2022. It is well-known that human trafficking tends to increase during conflicts and humanitarian crises due to the spread of impunity, destruction of institutions, and breakdown of law. The EU and many international organizations have warned those fleeing Ukraine about the high risk of trafficking and adopted policies to prevent and detect trafficking. The EU anti-trafficking coordinator along with other EU agencies have developed the Common Anti-Trafficking Plan to specifically address this risk and support the potential victims fleeing the war in Ukraine meeting one of the goals set in the 10 Point Action Plan issued by the European Council in March to better coordinate EU actions for people leaving Ukraine. Among other goals, the 10 Point Action Plan aims to improve early identification of the victims of human trafficking as provided by the 2021–2025 Strategy on Combatting Trafficking and the 2011 Anti-trafficking Directive. This paper investigates the actions which the Italian government has put in place to detect and prevent the trafficking of women among the Ukrainians fleeing the war from the beginning of the conflict until September 2022, with a focus on the identification process. More specifically we explored the perceptions of front-line workers and street-level bureaucrats at the Slovenian and Austrian borders, where Ukrainians cross to enter Italy. Through interviews we collected data to shed light on the identification procedures adopted. The need to learn more about the current war in Ukraine corroborates this study. The proposed qualitative analysis has identified three main findings: (1) conflicts create increased opportunities for trafficking that in the case of Ukraine are greater due to the scale of those fleeing; (2) temporary Italian residence permit reveals some criticalities that could lead to greater vulnerability; (3) gaps in the identification process can increase the risks of trafficking, especially in the absence of longer-term assistance programs. PubDate: 2023-06-30T00:00:00Z
Authors:Lytton Smith Abstract: This essay explores a set of poetic texts—the Transborder Immigrant Tool (TBT); Amy Sara Carroll's “The Desert Survival Series/La serie de sobrevivencia del desierto”; and Claudia Rankine and John Lucas's video poem “Zidane” and the version of that poem included in Rankine's book Citizen—against the backdrop of recent United States Customs and Border Protection investment in autonomous surveillance towers, the development of the “100 mile” expanded border region, and 2022 practices by Republican governors to relocate migrants to the U.S. to Democrat states. I argue for the existence in the poetry of what I term “the expectation of the border”: the moment when we name the border not as a graspable and unchangeable line in physical space and legal jurisdiction, but as a conceptual reckoning with definitions of community, including but not limited to citizenship status. Drawing on citizenship theorist Engin Isin's argument that “poetic articulation” especially “captures the essence of the political,” this study suggests poetry as a specialized intervention in border politics and definitions of citizenship, including the conditions of the “hostile environment”. PubDate: 2023-06-29T00:00:00Z
Authors:Natalia Sánchez-Querubín Abstract: The paper proposes “technological haunting” as a concept in migration and transnational death studies. Existing theory and empirical work in media studies explore connections between new media and grieving practices and how affordances of co-presence and portability shape how people maintain bonds with the deceased. The unique considerations that “technological haunting” brings to the study of transnational families and death still need to be addressed by both media scholars and researchers within digital migration studies. PubDate: 2023-06-28T00:00:00Z
Authors:Mahanam Bhattacharjee Mithun Abstract: Rohingya refugees from Myanmar have been living in Bangladesh since the 1970s. Although some successful negotiations with the Myanmar government resulted in repatriation in the 1970s and 1990s, some refugees remained in Bangladesh. In 2017, after their large-scale exodus from Myanmar, Rohingya refugees have been living in Bangladesh for nearly 6 years. So far, none of the refugees have had a chance to go back to their motherland. This study constitutes an exploratory research endeavor using qualitative research methodologies. It explores resettlement as a durable solution option and provides a set of recommendations for ensuring the protection and upholding the dignity of refugees. It argues that any solution options should be based on consultations with the refugee population. The findings of this research also illustrate why resettlement pathways for the vulnerable members of the refugee community should be open to ensure protection and for providing opportunities in a third country in the absence of a viable repatriation process. PubDate: 2023-06-21T00:00:00Z
Authors:Goran Miladinov Abstract: Attention to addressing undernourishment in low-and middle-income countries has expanded notably since the beginning of the 21st century. Population growth increases the overall demand for food, while income growth affects consumption patterns. Using annual aggregate data from the World Bank in 2001–2020 and econometric approaches, this research investigates the changes in the growth rates in rural and urban populations and GDP per capita and the prevalence of undernourishment as % of the population in low-income countries, lower-middle-income countries, and upper-middle income countries. The main goal of the study is to convey a deeper understanding by quantifying the impacts of rural and urban population growth as well as GDP per capita growth on the prevalence of undernourishment. The robust regression models showed that the prevalence of undernourishment in these countries was strongly associated with rural and urban population growth. A positive impact of rural population growth on undernutrition was found in all three groups of countries, with the most significant positive effects found in upper-middle-income countries. The negative effect of urban population growth on undernourishment was largest for the upper middle-income countries. Furthermore, fully modified ordinary least squares results revealed that the changes in the prevalence of undernourishment are mostly associated with long-term changes in the rural and urban population growth. The Difference in Difference (DiD) estimation confirmed only the causal effect of rural population growth on the prevalence of undernourishment in the panel of these countries. The findings of this study have both methodological and policy implications. PubDate: 2023-06-19T00:00:00Z
Authors:Elspeth Guild, Kees Groenendijk Abstract: When the Russian Federation invaded Ukraine on 24 February 2022, one of the most immediate and dramatic reactions of the European Union (EU) was to open a special protection scheme for Ukrainians and non-Ukrainians who were resident in the country on the date of the invasion to enter the EU and remain with extensive rights (All EU states are part of the scheme with the exception of Denmark which because of particularities in its constitutional position in the EU opened a parallel national scheme rather than join the EU scheme). The legal basis of the scheme is a directive adopted in 2001, on Temporary Protection which had been slated for repeal but which had not yet occurred at the date of the invasion and is now on hold. Since then, according to UNHCR, 8,046,560 Ukrainians (or persons who were resident in Ukraine at the relevant date) have been recorded across Europe. In this article we examine the status and rights of TP beneficiaries in the EU and the challenges ahead for them and the EU as the war continues. PubDate: 2023-06-02T00:00:00Z
Authors:Stephanie E. Rap Abstract: IntroductionThe UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) accords children the right to give their views on all important decisions in their life (art.12 CRC). In the past decades increased awareness has risen among professionals who work with children in judicial and administrative proceedings, to hear their voices. The key question guiding this research was whether refugee children have the possibility to meaningfully participate in asylum proceedings, as required by international children's rights law and standards' Asylum application procedures are highly complex administrative procedures, that are often not adapted to the capacities and level of maturity of children. Recent studies suggest that the right to participation and information is insufficiently safeguarded for children involved in asylum procedures. Unaccompanied children seeking asylum as young as 6 years of age have to go through the asylum procedure in the Netherlands. Efforts have been put in making this procedure more child-friendly, by designing a child-friendly interview room and training immigration officers. The aim of this study was to explore to what extent the immigration authority takes into account children's voice, age and development, in line with international children's rights.MethodsObservations have been conducted of first instance asylum application interviews with children held by immigration officers. In total 13 interviews with children aged 7–11 have been observed, that were held between 2012 and 2019.ResultsThe results show that child-friendly conversation techniques and tools are used to some extent, however, immigration officers should be trained more extensively in order to enhance the effective participation of young children.DiscussionIt is concluded that interviews with children could be improved by giving children more information and using techniques to communicate with young children. In order to truly hear the child's voice the interviews should be better adapted to the age and level of development of unaccompanied children. PubDate: 2023-05-31T00:00:00Z
Authors:Halvor Dannevig, Janne E. Søreide, Anna G. Sveinsdóttir, Julia Olsen, Grete K. Hovelsrud, Tone Rusdal, Ragnhild F. Dale Abstract: Tourism has been booming in Svalbard and has almost returned to pre-pandemic levels. At the same time, the island is a hotspot of rapid and cascading climate and environmental changes, which are already placing natural and social systems under stress. There is more precipitation, less sea ice, and glaciers are shrinking at an increasing rate. Presently, sweeping legislative changes are underway in Svalbard that hold the potential to change the scope and conditions of tourism in multiple ways. Drawing on a review of literature presenting recent projections for climate and environmental change and interviews with tourism actors (n=25), this article outlines how climate and environmental changes are currently impacting nature-based tourism actors in the archipelago and discusses opportunities and barriers for their adaptation to current and projected changes. We define impacts in three broad categories: increased vulnerability of ecosystems; climate risks to tourism; and climate change benefits to tourism. We find that tourism actors have a high adaptive capacity to said changes, taking advantage of increased access due to shrinking ice in the fjords and extending the summer season into the autumn months due to higher temperatures. Avalanches and other natural hazard risks are increasing, causing a higher frequency of disruptions to organized tours and excursions. This article contributes to ongoing discussions about how the tourism industry and residents will be impacted by the cascading and cumulative effects of climatic and environmental changes on Svalbard. PubDate: 2023-05-18T00:00:00Z
Authors:Lucy Williams Abstract: An extensive, and growing, global literature on the experience of people subject to migration control shows how state actions to “manage” migration and human mobility results in poverty and destitution. There is also a large body of evidence indicating how neo-liberal policy, alongside deeply embedded structures of privilege and inequality lead to the economic deprivation of fully entitled, “citizen” populations. Despite the commonality of disadvantage between these two groups—migrants and citizens—the parallels in experience of structures that create and maintain their impoverishment have rarely been explored. Close attention to the stories told by people with lived experience of poverty, as citizens or as migrants, challenges the normative assumptions about belonging and entitlement, deservingness and opportunity that underpin policy-making on both migration and social inequality. This essay argues that listening to, and engaging with, the stories of people in poverty is an important corrective to normative ideas about who can benefit from state support. Focusing on the UK, my aim is to explore the position of people subject to migration control alongside others living in poverty—marginalized and made precarious not by displacement but by deprivation, stigma and punitive welfare systems. Paying close attention to the stories people tell cuts through the official, normative positioning of people as outsiders whether as foreigners or as marginalized citizens. Stories thus reveal the technologies of power and oppression at work in everyday settings. Drawing on concepts including Butler's ideas of grievability and Mbembe's necropolitics I reflect on how welfare management systems and the “so-called” hostile environment, reduce the capacity of migrants and others to act as purposeful human beings. I hope to reveal the technologies of power and oppression at work in everyday settings and will argue that careful, attentive listening to human stories can challenge the imposition of normative discourses on the voiceless and encourage narratives that embrace complexity. PubDate: 2023-05-17T00:00:00Z
Authors:Cynthia T. Fowler Abstract: This article explores the dynamic links between transformations in freshwater ecosystems and social changes in the Kodi region of Sumba (Indonesia). Insights into the politics surrounding changing hydrosocial systems are generated by using a feminist anthropology approach together with critical development studies and intersectionality theory. In aligning with fellow feminists whose advocacy sometimes takes the form of scholarship, I lay out a five-prong strategy for collecting empirical evidence from persons who are vulnerable when hydrological systems change and offer eight principles for future development interventions. The argument related to the five-prong toolkit is that by conducting intensive, extensive, opportunistic, and longitudinal research and by allying with grassroots interlocutors, interventions into water systems can be based on better evidence and can be socially just. Three stories about Kodinese interactions with water and experiences with change are at the heart of this article and lead to the formulation of consequential conclusions. In the first story, birth, death, and relocation intersect with changes in the type of reservoir and the tools and vehicles used to manage water. In the second story—the origin for “tyranny” in the subtitle—vulnerability to food and water scarcity emerges and is politicized when a river's flow is altered. In the third story—the basis for “abolition” in the subtitle—hydrological interventions perpetrated by extrinsic governments correlate to surveillance and incarceration by the military and paramilitary. One research finding is that interventions by extrinsic agencies into the hydrology of four connected watersheds have altered hydrosocial relationships. Another finding is that as water's routes shift, people adjust to new conditions with mixed outcomes. A third conclusion is water utilities have differential benefits within the Kodi community. Fourth, benefits from water development have dispersed along already existing lines within the social structure. Finally, intracultural differences related to intersectional identities coincide with variations in access to natural and developed sources of water. PubDate: 2023-05-17T00:00:00Z
Authors:Bruno Abegg, Marius Mayer Abstract: The summer of 2022 in the European Alps was characterized by extremely warm and dry conditions which led to a record ice melt on Alpine glaciers, also due to the preceding winter season with below average snow cover. Given its dependence on natural conditions, glacier summer skiing was highly affected. We compare the number of glacier ski operating days across the Alps for 2011, 2018 and 2022 and roll forward existing time series data from Austria to include the last three seasons (i.e., 2020–2022). Results show considerable decreases in the summer half-year ski operation all over the Alps (−45.1% compared to 2011). Summer ski operation in the meteorological (−63.3%) and astronomical summer (−69.7%) declined even more. In Austria, the decline trend of summer ski operating days continues and reaches all-time lows in 2022. We sum up the impacts of the extreme summer of 2022 on Alpine glacier ski areas and discuss its short- to mid-term repercussions. In combination with demand shifts like the potential change of national ski teams' training patterns ongoing climate change induced glacier shrinkage might lead to the definite end of Alpine summer skiing in the near future. PubDate: 2023-05-05T00:00:00Z
Authors:Matthew Whittle Abstract: This article contributes to research into the importance of storytelling in asylum practice by examining the narratives used to promote and justify Hostile Environment policies. The two narrative practices identified are the “story of the nation-as-family”, which defines national belonging predominantly by markers of race and ethnicity, and the “story of security”, whereby racialized refugees are framed as potential threats to the nation's socio-economic stability. The former propagates a notion of consanguinity that works to exclude and silence people seeking asylum from non-European nations. The latter sees the rhetoric of a “clash of civilisations” so central to the “War on Terror” taken up in policy debates about climate-induced migration. An analysis of the way in which these stories are staged and critiqued in the writing of Abdulrazak Gurnah and Stephen Collis reveals how they elide the relationship between forced migration and the history of European colonialism. In exploring this elision, this article insists on the significance of literary texts as spaces where monocultural conceptions of belonging can be confronted, and where understanding Europe's colonial past is established as an integral part of hearing the stories of refugees in the present. PubDate: 2023-04-21T00:00:00Z
Authors:Joseph Rikhof Abstract: This article will discuss the relationship between International Criminal Law (ICL) and refugee law. The emphasis will be on the interplay between concepts developed in ICL with respect to war crimes and crimes against humanity, as well as the notion of extended liability on one hand and the exclusion provision in the 1951 Refugee Convention (Refugee Convention) on the other. PubDate: 2023-04-11T00:00:00Z
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