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This book addresses two interrelated discourses of crisis in contemporary Europe: the migrant crisis vs. the economic crisis. The chapters shed light on the thread that links these two issues by first examining immigration and the transformations regarding its control and administration via border technologies, as well as on the centrality of the body as a means and carrier of border within contemporary biopolitical societies. In a second step, the authors proceed to a genealogy of the current discourses regarding the financial and political crisis through a Foucauldian and Lacanian perspective, focusing on the co-articulation of scientific knowledge and biopolitical power in Western societies.
This book explores the emergence of epilepsy as a purely neurological disorder, in the second half of the nineteenth century. It focuses on the world’s first neurological hospital, the National Hospital for the Paralysed and Epileptic in London, and on its leading figure, John Hughlings Jackson (1835-1911). Through an analysis of the National Hospital’s medical records and a historical account of the course of epilepsy until our time, this book presents the nineteenth-century turn towards the scientific study of the human brain and the various political, social, ideological and epistemological implications of this major change. In spite of the recent trend of describing the history of mental illness, mental patients and psychiatric institutions, so far, neurology, epilepsy and epileptic patients have largely remained outside the scope of social historians, historians of medicine and social scientists. This book has the ambition to fill that gap.
The term "open borders" refers to a policy of allowing free movement between countries without restrictions or border control. In an era characterized by the Brexit referendum and the Trump administration's policy of restricting immigration in the U.S., the prospect of borders being open may seem improbable. A number of politicians, policymakers, economists, and citizens assert that referendums and restrictions are the best way to address the economic and social issues that the international community faces today. This volume helps readers examine the issue of open borders from a variety of angles, examining its economic, social, political, moral, and legal aspects.
This volume provides information and analyses to better grasp the social implications of geographical borders as well as the individuals who travel between them and those who live in border regions. Sociologists, anthropologists, philosophers, linguists, and scholars of international relations and public health are just some of the authors contributing to Rethinking Borders. The diversity in the authors’ disciplines and the topics they focus on exemplify the intricacies of borders and their manifold effects. This openness to so many schools of thought stands in contrast to the solidification of stricter borders across the globe. The contributions range from case studies of migrants’ sens...
The publication of Thomas S. Kuhn's "Structure of Scientific Revolutions" in 1962 stands for a turning point in the history and philosophy of science. The repercussions of this work have rearticulated the theoretical framework of history and philosophy of science and have also generated discussions that contributed to the formation of the communities of historians as well as philosophers of science in many parts of the world. Different approaches to history of science have since emerged and most of them have the "Structure" as their reference point. In October 2012, a conference at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science brought together some of the historians of science whose wo...
Stimulated by the development of childhood studies and the social history of medicine, this book lays out the historical circumstances that led to the medicalization of childhood in Greece from the end of the nineteenth century until World War Two. For this span of fifty years, the authors explore how the national question was bound up with concerns raised about the health of children. They also investigate the various connotations of child health and maternity care in the context of liberal and authoritarian governments, as well as the wider social and cultural changes that took place in this period. Drawing on a wide array of primary and secondary sources, the authors look into the role of doctors, social thinkers and civil servants in the shaping of health policy; the impact of the medical paradigm from Western Europe; and the gradual professionalization of health care in Greece. Theodorou and Karakatsani describe an increasing intervention of the state in the medical supervision of childhood, the relationship between the philanthropic organizations and the state, as well as the impact of the national rivalries and wars on efforts to improve child health.
Malaria has existed in Greece since prehistoric times. Its prevalence fluctuated depending on climatic, socioeconomic and political changes. The book focuses on the factors that contributed to the spreading of the disease in the years between independent statehood in 1830 and the elimination of malaria in the 1970s. By the nineteenth century, Greece was the most malarious country in Europe and the one most heavily infected with its lethal form, falciparum malaria. Owing to pressures on the environment from economic development, agrarian colonization and heightened mobility, the situation became so serious that malaria became a routine part of everyday life for practically all Greek families,...
These fourteen essays by leading historians and philosophers of science introduce the reader to the work of Albert Einstein. Following an introduction that places Einstein's work in the context of his life and times, the essays explain his main contributions to physics in terms that are accessible to a general audience, including special and general relativity, quantum physics, statistical physics, and unified field theory. The closing essays explore the relation between Einstein's work and twentieth-century philosophy, as well as his political writings.
Robert Musil's The Man without Qualities is perhaps the most important novel in German written in the twentieth century - certainly it is among the most brilliant, puzzling and profound. This, the first comprehensive study of the work to appear in English, guides the reader towards Musil's central concerns. It examines how Musil laboured through draft after draft to produce material that would pass his own strict literary 'quality control' and traces major themes through different layers of narrative with the aid of close textual analysis. It details how Musil subjects leading figures of fin-de-siecle Vienna to intense ironic scrutiny and how, by drawing on his extensive knowledge of philosophy, psychology, politics, sociology and science, he works into his novel essayistic statements which record the state of contemporary European civilisation. Through a disturbing and deeply serious liaison with his sister, Musil's hero Ulrich, is shown to struggle through to the brink of self-discovery and enlightenment.
But today normality itself is open to medical modification.