Global Studies

This honor’s thesis analyzes the role of experts in East and West Germany following the nuclear reactor accident at Chernobyl in 1986. By looking at the role of experts in newspaper articles following the incident, the analysis reveals the dependence of technological societies upon expertise in order to quell the fear of an obtuse menace. A comparison between the articles in East and West Germany illustrates the strain upon the legitimacy of experts and their relationship to the prevailing political attitude towards nuclear energy.

The increasing presence of the People's Republic of China's in sub-Saharan Africa is one of the most significant phenomena in the political economy of development since the end of the Cold War. This same period has been characterised by the dominance of Western politico-economic norms within development. As a 'normative power' within this hegemonic development discourse, the European Union has had a position of asymmetric power (soft imperialism) with ability to impose norms upon sub-Saharan Africa through political conditionalities. This thesis therefore asks if the EU's position of relative power is compromised by the alternative political approach of Chinese development assistance. Using a social constructivist approach, EU and China development policies are traced to their domestic origins. Actor-specific approaches to soft power are also included. Culture is incorporated into the analysis to overcome Eurocentrism by contextualising European cultural universa...

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a widely discussed topic in many fields including law. Legal studies scholars, particularly in the domain of technology and internet law, have expressed their hopes and concerns regarding AI. This project aims to study how Canada's courts have referred to AI, given the importance of the reasonings of justices to the policy makers who determine society's rules for the usage of AI in the future. Decisions from all levels of both Canada's provincial and federal courts are used as the data sources for this research. The findings indicate that there are four legal contexts in which AI has been referred to in the Canadian caselaw including: legal research, investment tax credits, trademarks and access to government records. In this article the authors use these findings to make suggestions for legal information management professionals on how to develop collections and reference services that are in line with the new information needs of their u...

This article consists of two parts. The first part is a review of the book entitled, ‘The Ethical Algorithm: The Science of Socially Aware Algorithm Design’, written by Professors Michael Kearns and Aaron Roth of the Computer and Information Science Department, University of Pennsylvania. The book was published in 2019 by Oxford University Press. The second part consists of thoughts learned from the book and how they could be applied to the work of legal information management professionals when facing tasks related to the ethical algorithms in artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics. How online privacy continues to be the main concern in the AI and robot era will be discussed, as well as the rise of concerns over AI and robots and how they might make unfair decisions toward vulnerable populations which could then become acts of discrimination. Examples of real-world problems of AI and robotics are also noted in this article.

This opinion article, by Channarong Intahchomphoo and Christian Tschirhart, explains the evolution of data and how it becomes useful information and then insightful knowledge. In the current era we are witnessing a high increase in the development and adaptation of artificial intelligence (AI) in society. AI technologies have the ability to process large volumes of data and information to help in finding insightful knowledge. However, AI is not perfect and there are ethical concerns, particularly when unintended negative consequences result from it; this paper also discusses ethical concerns currently confronting our society related to the freedom of expression and hate speech issues with AI. Importantly, this paper notes that governments are working to find ways to regulate social media and internet companies through legal channels as governments are no longer confident in the ability of social media and internet companies to self-regulate and thereby to guide society on what conte...

International labour migration flows to the Arab Gulf are among the largest in the world and, as a result, the Gulf region has the highest proportion of non-citizens in any country or region in the world. In the labour force, this percentage is even higher. Migrants make up between 70 and 85 percent of the workforce; in Qatar and the UAE this proportion rises to 95 and 93 percent. Migrant labour is typically male, single and temporary and mostly concentrated in the private sector and low- and semi-skilled jobs.

This paper contributes to recent literature researching the systemic role of this migrant labour regime to the political economy of the Gulf. Drawing on feminist political economy, this study examines the social reproduction of Gulf migrant labour, primarily occurring at the home site in the countries of origin. This paper also contributes to the rising engagement in migration studies with the concept of social reproduction. In contrast to most studies analysing how migrant labour contributes to the ‘social reproduction’ of ‘people’ in the countries of destination (often in the Global North) (for example, nurses, nannies, maids, cleaners), our study centres on the social reproduction of migrant labour itself. Our analysis focuses specifically on India, the most important origin country in the Gulf’s migrant population (an estimated 7.3 million individuals).

This research is based in part on primary fieldwork conducted in Sultanpur district in eastern Uttar Pradesh in collaboration with a local construction workers union (BNKMU). This fieldwork consists of twelve semi-structured interviews with Gulf migrants and their families.

Our research shows that Gulf migrant labour is sustained by the labours of social reproduction performed by wives and kin at the home site. Similar to other places in the Global South characterised by semi-proletarianization, these labours of social reproduction next to uncommodified domestic and care work also crucially consist of simple commodity production and subsistence agriculture. These labours of social reproduction do not only reproduce Gulf migrant labour, but also contribute to its exploitation. The unique transnational configuration of the Gulf migrant family contributes to the formation of a transient, precarious and exploitable labour force. Gulf migrant labour is cheapened due to the spatial externalisation of the costs of social reproduction by Gulf capital and state onto the families back home.

This essay discusses the novel in three main parts. First, this study discusses the themes of labor and development centered around the lives of the humans/characters in the story, focusing primarily on Ben and Ocholla. In the second part, it analyzes the themes of motherhood and childhood and their relation with prostitution. Finally, this study shall briefly discuss the social spaces in the Development House building site and the New Eden nightclub.

This essay explores the relationship between the artist the authoritarian state by introducing the concept of "art and counter-art". While art is simply defined as the artist's 'power of performance', in the words of Ngugi wa Thiong'o, counter-art is defined as the state's 'performance of power'.

This chapter begins by discussing the views of Ngugi wa Thiong'o and Chinua Achebe regarding the role of English language in African literature. Next, it studies the role of language within the performance space. Finally, it examines the role of translation as a means of intercultural communication and the call for a global literature.

By using critical discourse analysis, this thesis analyses the Disability Rights Movement (DRM) in the period of 1960-1981. This time frame was chosen, as it constitutes the emerging phase of this ‘new social movement, in which Disabled Peoples Organizations (DPOs) had a leading role in the developments surrounding the emerging DRM.
I have analyzed the central DPOs within the United Kingdom, the United States and an actor in the ‘international sphere’ concerning their conception of disability. The alignments of these DPOs are subsumed in identifying tenets of the most important organizations/movements of the emerging DRM. The analysis of the alignments of these organizations based on identifying specific tenets forms the basis of this thesis. The fact that the alignment of these actors of the emerging DRM were constituted along two lines is the central finding of this thesis. These lines were situated among organizations of persons with physical disabilities and of persons with intellectual disabilities.
This insight is taken as an incentive to discuss the role of intellectual disability in the wider DRM. In highlighting the role of the social model of disability, the most important conceptual tool of the DRM will be utilized to evaluate whether the possibilities of treating intellectual disability in an inclusive social model of disability are given.
The thesis will end by stating the status quo of ‘disability rights politics’ the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which has been adopted by the United Nations in 2006 and continue to apply the thesis’ special emphasis of intellectual disability within this treaty.

Das Ende des Kommunismus in Polen setzte das Land auf einen Kurs gleichzeitiger Veränderung des politischen und wirtschaftlichen Systems. Trotz schmerzhafter Erfahrungen dieser Zeit wurde Polen bald zu einem Paradebeispiel der postkommunistischen Transformation. Jedoch seit die “Recht und Gerechtigkeit Partei 2015 an die Macht kam, wandelt sich das Land zunehmend in eine “illiberale“ Demokratie. Wie ist es dazu gekommen und wie resistent sind die demokratischen Institutionen und die Zivilgesellschaft in Polen? Wie verlief der Demoraktisierungsprozess?

Vortragende: Malwina Talik

03.11.2022 | 18:30 | Online-Panel (Zoom)

Free elections, freedom of the press and the rule of law were hard-won in Poland in the 1980s. In recent years, the country has repeatedly come under international criticism for dismantling the rule of law. Are the hard-won democratic freedoms of that time currently in danger, and what is the state of democratic and political awareness in Polish civil society?

Katarzyna Batko-Tołuć (Member of the Board at Watchdog Poland)

Dr. Jacek Kołtan (Director’s Representative for Research at the European Solidarity Centre)

Filip Pazderski (Senior Policy Analyst and Director of the Democracy and Civil Society Program of the Institute of Public Affairs )

Malwina Talik (Research Associate at the Institute for the Danube Region and Central Europe)

The panel will take place at Zoom and will be in English. To participate, please email us at: internationalroundtable@revolutionale.de and we will send you the login details.

The event is part of the series “Regional Perspectives on Remembrance”.



Katarzyna Batko-Tołuć is a Programme Director and a Board Member of the Citizens Network Watchdog Poland. Through litigation, advocacy and building a grass-root social movement, the organisation aims at enforcing freedom of information, freedom of speech, transparency of governments and accountability of decision-making. Katarzyna is also a member of the EU-Russia Civil Society Forum’s Solidarity Group, International Advisory Board of Access Info Europe and an Asoka Fellow. In 2022 she graduated from RARE – Re-Charging Advocacy for Rights in Europe by Hertie School, Hungarian Helsinki Committee and the Netherlands Helsinki Committee.

Dr. Jacek Kołtan,PhD, philosopher and political scientist, Director’s Representative for Research at the European Solidarity Centre in Gdańsk, Poland. He studied at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan (Poland), Humboldt-Universität and Freie Universität in Berlin (Germany). He has been a fellow of the KAAD scholarship fund in Berlin (2001–2007) and a visiting scholar of the Catholic University of America in Washington DC (2012). His research interests cover social and political theory, history of solidarity idea, social movements, hermeneutics as well as social design and anthropology. He is author of Solidarity, Democracy, Europe (co-ed. 2021), Solidarity and the Crisis of Trust (ed., 2016), Anthology. European Solidarity Centre Permanent Exhibition (ed., 2015), Solidarność. A Peaceful Revolution (ed., 2009), Der Mitmensch. Zur Identitätsproblematik des sozialen Selbst ausgehend von der Frühphilosophie Martin Heideggers und Karl Löwiths (2012). He teaches at the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdansk and the Collegium Artes Liberales at the Warsaw University. Further Information: https://europeansolidaritycentre.academia.edu/JacekKoltan
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jacek_Koltan

Filip Pazderski –A lawyer and sociologist after studies at University of Warsaw, he has also graduated from European Master’s Degree Program in Human Rights and Democratization (E.MA) in Venice. Senior Policy Analyst and Director of the Democracy and Civil Society Program of the Institute of Public Affairs (Warsaw based non-partisan think tank organisation), where he works on civil society, civic education, public participation, quality of democracy, elections and rule of law. His academic interests also include social and cultural memory in the German-Polish borderland. He carried out research and wrote reports for such institutions as OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, European Economic and Social Committee, International IDEA, Open Society European Policy Institute (OSEPI), National Democratic Institute (NDI), Office of the Senate of the Republic of Poland, Polish Ministry of Labour and Social Policy and Educational Research Institute. He is also a vice-President of the European Civic Forum (ECF), a European network of over 100 civic organisations and a consultant to the Council of Europe in the field of civic education and participation.

Malwina Talikis a research associate at the Institute for the Danube Region and Central Europe (IDM) in Vienna, where she specializes in democratic transitions in CEE, Polish politics, women’s leadership and political participation. Previously she has worked at the Polish Academy of Sciences – Scientific Center in Vienna and at the Polish Embassy in Vienna where she conceptualized and managed projects and events on the Austrian, German and Polish cultures of remembrance. She holds a European Master’s degree in Global Studies and Global History (EMGS) from the University of Leipzig and University of Vienna.
Further information: https://www.idm.at/en/malwina-talik/