Alasdair MacIntyre’s After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory presents a complex argument that spans numerous academic disciplines and combines empirical and theoretical analyses. Its radical conclusion has inspired activists and social critics from all sides of the ideological spectrum. Critics and commentators have questioned MacIntyre’s critique of modern moral philosophy and the plausibility of the concluding prescription, concerning the need to create new forms of community. But it has less often been asked in what sense the book presents a unified perspective. In other words, how do the premises of MacIntyre’s argument, presented and defended throughout the text, warrant the conclusion? In this article, I partially formalize the main argument of After Virtue, discussing the grounds for each premise, and explaining how they ground the book’s radical conclusion. In doing this, I argue that economic sociology, specifically Karl Polanyi’s theory of the modern market economy, plays a large role in supporting MacIntyre’s claims. After presenting the main argument of the text, I draw upon the social theory elaborated in Dependent Rational Animals: Why Human Beings Need the Virtues, specifically its theory of the relationship between vulnerability, dependence, and virtuous networks of giving and receiving, while briefly noting recent sociological criticisms of Polanyi, to argue that we have reason to be skeptical of MacIntyre’s empirical claims concerning the vicious character of modern social structures in After Virtue.
Landslides are destructive geological processes that have globally caused deaths and destruction to property worth billion dollars. Landslide occurrences are widespread and prolific in India covering more than 15 per cent of the total area. These are mostly concentrated in the Himalayan belt, parts of Meghalaya Plateau, Nilgiri Hills, Western and Eastern Ghats. The slope failure in the hilly terrain is due to geological processes and events. The frequency and magnitude of slope failure also increased due to anthropogenic activities such as road construction, deforestation and urban expansion. Keeping all these problems in mind research focuses on the Lesser Himalaya of Himachal Himalaya as it falls under very high risk zone in case of landslides and comprise of three objectives. They are: a) to analyse the spatial pattern of landslides in the Lesser Himalaya, b) to assess the causes of landslides vulnerability in the study region and c) to suggests some preventive measures to mitigate landslides. In this work an attempt has been made to collect data on landslides incidences and damage from the secondary sources like Geological Survey of India, Building Material and Technology Promotion council from Ministry of Urban Affairs. The methodologies adopted for data analysis are simple tabulations, bar diagrams, statistical and mapping techniques to represent the Landslide vulnerability of the Lesser Himalaya. The analysis of the study reveals that there is increase in the number of landslides. The spatial pattern of landslide shows linear patterns, viz. along roads, rivers or lineaments/ faults. Besides, heavy rainfall, floods and earthquakes enhance the vulnerability condition. The landslides may be part and parcel of the Himalayan landscape, but they can be mitigated by some suitable measures. Few methods of landslide prevention in the study region have been suggested.
Der Artikel enthält das Abstract ausschließlich in englischer Sprache.
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The paper analyzes a recent experiment in the collaborative production of ethnographic knowledge and the use of the graphic novel form as an alternative to the conventional academic monograph. Lissa: A Story about Medical Promise, Friendship, and Revolution (2017) is discussed here as a useful tool in the age of globalization for building recognition of the need to protect the lives of people other than our immediate kin, tribe, race, or nation. The paper argues that both the collaborative research behind the story and the formal experimentation stem from the authors’ sense of accountability to their informants. By telling a story about distant others who are given names and faces, Lissa’s authors encourage readers to develop empathy across borders.
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L'article contient uniquement le résumé en anglais.
This paper draws on ethnographic fieldwork to present an account of the current situation of one of the indigenous villages of Taiwan in the face of a natural disaster related interference of the state and non-government organisations, and the struggle of its inhabitants to maintain cultural integrity and socio-political independence. After Morakot typhoon hit the island of Taiwan in August 2009 causing numerous landslides, several indigenous villages including those situated in the mountains' interior, were permanently relocated to the vicinity of the plains and mainstream Han Chinese society. In the process of relocation the government as well as non-government organizations were involved. To the villagers who took an active part in the negotiations process, the new relocation site became an opportunity to unite most of the previously scattered members of the community However the conflicts instigated during the negotiations led several families to refuse relocation. In order to survive in the abandoned village they have returned to traditional mode of subsistence. In their eyes they have become the protectors of their group's traditional territory and sole guardians of the village. Hence by the means of traditional and state provided socio-political structures the villagers have successfully blocked government as well as non-government projects regarding the village, which led to shift of internal authority Through this experience the villagers came to realize increasing sociocultural differences between the mainstream Han Chinese society and their own heritage as well as growing distance between the inhabitants of the original village and the residents of the relocated settlement. Their experience led them to a firm conviction about traditional knowledge to be the guarantor of prosperity and solution to any problems.
Enslaving and victimising the poor by criminals within and outside governments of underdeveloped countries is gaining attention of academics in the social sciences. This article clarifies inter-relationships among modern slavery and trafficking in girls/women for sexual exploitation. It also shows how vulnerability of people victimised by the crime has been increased by policies deriving from neo-liberalism. To facilitate explication of the variables/issues, the study was based on the theoretical/doctrinal and political aspects of neo-liberalism, coinciding with scenarios of declining welfare, increasing susceptibility/vulnerability of Nigeria’s poor (non-elite) and massive unemployed youth to out-migration and traffickers in persons. The explicated issues include modern slavery (generally and trafficking in Nigerian girls/women for sexual exploitation abroad) as well as the relationships among treasury looting and stashing of the loot in the banks of the global North. It is explained how declining welfare (i.e. multiple-dimensional adversities e.g. unemployment) provokes desires in the unemployed to out-migrate and increases their susceptibility to trafficking in persons. Finally, the article is concluded.
The 2019 PBC document views relationships between parents and children, masters and servants, “shepherds” and “the flock,” civil authority and citizens as asymmetric. The structure of the document suggests that these relationship systems are based on shared human experience and a common theological foundation: they appear to repeat the pattern of the parent-child relationship and originate in the obligation to obey God. Using the document as a starting point, I would like to outline what the concept of asymmetric relationships can mean today. In search of common perspectives, I will compare New Testament texts with the interpretation of asymmetry in today’s social ethics discourse. The inequality and asymmetry of different persons and groups seem to be an undeniable fact, causing tension that can be resolved fruitfully by parties who take responsibility for each other in the presence of a “third.”
The aim of this article is to present and investigate the main concepts of supply chain vulnerability and resilience. Thus, the fundamental differences between vulnerability and resilience definitions are discussed. The main issues on vulnerability and resilience assessment are investigated, and the case study of footwear retail supply chain disruption problems is analysed.
The article highlights the importance of the influence a product itself has on the broadly understood logistics-related issues, referred to as the logistical efficiency of a product. It constitutes the foundation for the concept of design vulnerability of a product, along with its determinants. The paper shows the impact these determinants have on logistics processes on selected examples from the market. The authors of the article also suggest what actions might be undertaken in the strategic and operational sphere of the company logistics, depending on the design vulnerability of a product.
It is well known that Hume excluded inferior rational beings, who are incapable of resistance and weak resentment, from his concept of justice. This resulted in a critique of Hume’s theory of justice, as it would not protect those who were the most vulnerable against ill treatment. The typical answer to this critique is that Hume excluded inferior rational beings from the concept of justice, but not from that of morality, and that he considered their protection to be the task of humanity. The subject of this text is the range of Hume’s humanity. What manner of protection does Hume’s humanity truly offer? Despite the conclusion that this manner of protection of the vulnerable is insufficient, Hume’s humanity contains valuable characteristics worthy of re-evaluation in modern debate — both on the limits of humanity and on the conditions and models of protecting the vulnerable.
Over the past decade, several climate extreme events have caused considerable economic damage and hardship in the Brazilian Amazon region, especially for small-scale producers. Based on household surveys and focus group interviews in the Municipality of Alenquer as well as secondary data analyses and a literature review at the regional level, this study seeks to assess rural small-scale producers’ vulnerability to climate and non-climate related shocks and identify entry points for government action to support adaptation at the local level. In our case study area, small-scale producers with similar wealth, self-sufficiency, and resource use specialisation levels exhibited stark variation in levels of sensitivity and adaptive capacity to climate and nonclimate related shocks. Our findings indicate that this variation is partly driven by cultural, historical, and environmental resource use specialisation strategies and partly by differences in local governance capacity and the level of social organisation. Emerging governmentled initiatives to promote climate change adaptation in the region would benefit from taking these factors into account when designing local implementation strategies and priorities.
This autoethnographic essay shares my experience as a teaching assistant, desiring to be more self aware of how my race informed my pedagogy in the classroom. Set in „Race and Cultural Diversity,“ an advanced undergrad writing course, I examine my commitments to racial and social justice within classroom happenings. Using critical performance pedagogy, this study explores my identity performance to identify and create effective strategies that further dialogue on the often charged and sensitive topic of race. Moreover, this essay reveals what I learned about myself and clarified my teaching/learning philosophy.
The changes that have been taking place in Cuba in recent years, especially after its resumption of relations with the United States, have lead us to view this insular society as vulnerable. The opening of the economy and the growing importance of the private sector are creating social changes both positive and negative. This article seeks to identify the elements that are weakening Cuban society and making it vulnerable, as well as analyze the conditions that reinforce the stability on the Island. This article is the result of more than three years of research, thanks to the project Quo Vadis Cuba? Implications for Europe and Poland (2011-2013).
Vulnerability assessment is a crucial aspect for the development of methodologies to define the levels of protection in critical infrastructures. Throughout this research, we discussed the concept of vulnerability and methodologies and processes for its assessment in critical infrastructures due to a terrorist threat. The research focused on the development of an analysis model, exploring a multi-criteria decision method, in order to limit the risks to the maximum extent possible. Through a qualitative research methodology, in which we applied an analysis model based on the Threat and Infrastructure dimensions and their respective factors, we verified that the vulnerability of a critical infrastructure consists in the probability of the success of an attack, conducted by a threat - properly identifi ed, characterised, analysed and categorised - against an infrastructure with certain characteristics, which value is defi ned by the user and aggressor’s point of view. The construction of an algorithmic model for vulnerability assessment, complemented by tools to support the calculations and records, allows, through a rational, scientific and algebraic process, a qualitative analysis of factors to be transformed into measurable and quantifi able values, whose algebraic operation integrates them into a final result that expresses, as a percentage, the degree of vulnerability of a critical infrastructure facing a terrorist threat.
This article addresses Pamela Sue Anderson’s philosophy of capability and vulnerability as an important contribution to the advancement of today’s feminist ethics. Following Paul Ricœur’s hermeneutics of l’homme capable, Anderson extends the phenomenological perspective of the capable human subject to embrace the distinctly feminine capability. She advocates for women’s recognizing and re-inventing of themselves as capable subjects, and claims that the perturbing initial loss of confidence in their reflective capacities can be redeemed via the transformations in women’s emotional and religious lives, as well as through their creative impulse. Locating in hermeneutics’ openness to ambiguity, incompleteness and insecurity a potential to unveil the non-transparent aspects of the assumed male-female equality, Anderson focuses on the interlocking aspect of human capability and vulnerability. She calls for transforming an ignorance of vulnerability into an ethical avowal of it. In reconfiguring patriarchal culture myths, Anderson sees the possibility of re-shaping our approach to vulnerability and capability, especially the human capacity for love.
In the paper we introduce a general approach to wildland fire risk management that we applied for the Slovensky raj territory. The risk management concept is based on assessment of several risk components: susceptibility in the form of calculation of a priori probability of forest destroying by fire, vulnerability based on calculation of posteriori probability of forest destroying by fire and based on modelling the fire behaviour in FARSITE environment. We also briefly introduce an approach to set the measures to prevent the forest fire occurrence and to manage it to minimize its impacts on human, environment and property (resilience).
Different conceptions of narcissism exist within the literature such as grandiose, vulnerable, pathological, collective, and communal, each of which can be measured using self-report measures. Within the current paper, we review and discuss most of the existing measures of these different trait (i.e., non-clinical) narcissism constructs. This includes an examination of their underlying theoretical foundations and an evaluation of the scale construction process. We start our review from the one-dimensional measures of grandiose and vulnerable narcissism such as the Narcissistic Personality Inventory, the Hypersensitive Narcissism Scale, the Dark Triad Dirty Dozen, the Short Dark Triad, the Narcissistic Grandiosity Scale, the Narcissistic Vulnerability Scale, and the Single Item Narcissism Scale. Then, we introduce the multidimensional measures to study narcissism such as the Narcissistic Admiration and Rivalry Questionnaire, the Five Factor Narcissism Inventory, and the Pathological Narcissism Inventory. The r view concludes by presenting measures of understudied narcissistic constructs such as the Communal Narcissism Inventory and the Collective Narcissism Scale. In general, using one-dimensional scales might provide important insights into the general underpinnings of narcissistic personality, however assessment via multi-dimensional tools better reflects its complex nature.
This paper is intended to consider whether human vulnerability as manifested in the situation of being ill can be accepted as a profound human limitation in life that contributes to a deeper understanding of what it ultimately means to be human—to learn not only to live with suffering but to live through it. Also a further horizon, which is looked at more closely from philosophical and theological points of view, is drawn by understanding one’s own being as gift.
Because youths are particularly vulnerable to social problems, philosophers since Plato to date have continued to show interest in developing, empowering, and protecting the youths. African youths are particularly far more than ordinarily vulnerable to various social problems including racism especially from outside the continent, mainly because of the shortfall in youth development and empowerment strategies in most African countries. Consequently, young people are pulled to countries with resources and infrastructures that provide them with opportunities to enlarge their capabilities and improve their quality of life, where they are also faced with discriminatory, prejudicial, and antagonistic treatments simply because of their skin colour. So, one way to look at racism and reduce its effects is to examine those socio-political as well as economic structures that constitute obstacles to youth development and empowerment, and which push and expose the young in Africa to the ill-treatments emanating from racism.
Empirical research into social vulnerability - and into strategies that allow people to persist or secure their existence - has most often concerned itself with peripheral, poorly-developed regions with a long history of shortages; frequently even ones in which a failure to solve socio-political problems over decades or even centuries, manifests itself in a permanent crisis. One such region is north-western Peru, presented in this article by the authors who have proceeded on the assumption that the socioeconomic development of the country's mountainous areas (including Frías, the district selected for study) not only reflects a peripheral location as regards central areas of Peru and the department of Piura, but is also an outcome of the workings of political and environmental factors that do not help sustain (or in many cases even obstruct) processes of development. *This article is based on work carried out within the project entitled: “Strategies for promoting sustainable rural development in regions with high levels of poverty. The concept of research methodology applied to mountain region in Northwestern Peru”: NCN 2012/04/M/HS4/00317
The livelihood approach aims at the analysis, understanding and restrictions that the poorest people have to face in order to recover from difficult situations. The Department for International Development model is applied to an urban zone with the purpose of making an assessment of the livelihood of the district ’la Comuna 1’ in Medellin, Colombia, which has been recognised as the poorest and one of the most dangerous districts of the city. The case study presents both a quantitative analysis (macro) and qualitative (micro) analysis, as a mixed method that allows a more complete analysis and understanding of livelihood, and providing a deeper understanding of the district from the livelihood approach. The results indicate a stable growth of livelihood during the period of analysis.
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