Restorative justice: deliberative democracy in action?

This paper examines the emergence of restorative justice meetings—in which victims come face to face with offenders—and asks whether they provide an example of deliberative democracy in action. The article analyses some restorative justice initiatives from the United States and Australasia and finds that they exhibit inclusiveness, and create more scope for democratic control, but are less strong on the equality criterion. Accountability has also been identified as a weakness of restorative meetings but, drawing on deliberative democratic theory, the authors suggest a possible solution. In their ability to transform preferences of both victims and offenders, restorative meetings offer both a vivid example to deliberative democrats and a powerful challenge to justice systems that rely heavily on incarceration.     

Neurognostics Answer

Although many individuals contributed to the development of the science of cerebral localization, its conceptual framework is the work of a single man—John Hughlings Jackson (1835–1911), a Victorian physician practicing in London. Hughlings Jackson's formulation of a neurological science consisted of an axiomatic basis, an experimental methodology, and a clinical neurophysiology. His axiom—that the brain is an exclusively sensorimotor machine—separated neurology from psychiatry and established a rigorous and sophisticated structure for the brain and mind. Hughlings Jackson's experimental method utilized the focal lesion as a probe of brain function and created an evolutionary structure of somatotopic representation to explain clinical neurophysiology. His scientific theory of cerebral localization can be described as a weighted ordinal representation. Hughlings Jackson's theory of weighted ordinal representation forms the scientific basis for modern neurology. Though this science is utilized daily by every neurologist and forms the basis of neuroscience, the consequences of Hughlings Jackson's ideas are still not generally appreciated. For example, they imply the intrinsic inconsistency of some modern fields of neuroscience and neurology. Thus, “cognitive imaging” and the “neurology of art”—two topics of modern interest—are fundamentally oxymoronic according to the science of cerebral localization. Neuroscientists, therefore, still have much to learn from John Hughlings Jackson.     

The historical origins of the vegetative state: Received wisdom and the utility of the text

The persistent vegetative state (PVS) is one of the most iconic and misunderstood phrases in clinical neuroscience. Coined as a diagnostic category by Scottish neurosurgeon Bryan Jennett and American neurologist Fred Plum in 1972, the phrase “vegetative” first appeared in Aristotle’s treatise On the Soul (circa mid-fourth century BCE). Aristotle influenced neuroscientists of the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, Xavier Bichat and Walter Timme, and informed their conceptions of the vegetative nervous system. Plum credits Bichat and Timme in his use of the phrase, thus putting the ancient and modern in dialogue. In addition to exploring Aristotle’s definition of the “vegetative” in the original Greek, we put Aristotle in conversation with his contemporaries—Plato and the Hippocratics—to better apprehend theories of mind and consciousness in antiquity. Utilizing the discipline of reception studies in classics scholarship, we demonstrate the importance of etymology and historical origin when considering modern medical nosology.     

Kakadu National Park World Heritage Site: Deconstructing the Debate, 1997–2003

The case of Kakadu National Park has had an unusually large amount of time and expense devoted to it in meetings of the World Heritage Bureau and the World Heritage Committee since 1997. Major controversy arose following the announcement that a new uranium mine would be developed at Jabiluka, located in an enclave surrounded by the World Heritage property, but not legally part of it. The explosive juxtaposition of issues concerning the trio of conservation of heritage values, uranium mining, and Aboriginal land rights inevitably led to strong reactions against the Federal Government's decision to allow mining, not least on the part of Australian and international non‐government organisations. It was felt that the mining development would jeopardise the integrity of the key values for which Kakadu had been inscribed on the World Heritage List. This paper attempts to unravel some of the strands of the ensuing debate — to at least begin to deconstruct the debate — that saw Kakadu almost placed on the List of World Heritage in Danger. This is an important task to attempt because there were many undercurrents to the publicly reported debate, and a large degree of ‘reading between the lines’ is needed to interpret official records of meetings adequately. The paper also attempts to throw some light on the forceful opposition to such a move on the part of the Australian Government, based in large part on its underlying developmentalist philosophy, and at a time when it was giving less than wholehearted support to many international agreements to which Australia is a signatory. Finally, it is hoped that an insight into the workings of the World Heritage Convention and its supporting bodies will be gained.     

Women and the History of the Neurosciences

Since the closing decades of the nineteenth century, women have been contributing in a significant way to the neurosciences. This article looks at the contributions of some of the leading women pioneers in this field. It also deals with women who have written on the history of the neurosciences and the representation of women in the International Society for the History of the Neurosciences, the largest neuroscience history organization. Trends suggest that books and articles from and about women in the history of the neurosciences will increase markedly in the future.     

Women and the history of the neurosciences

Since the closing decades of the nineteenth century, women have been contributing in a significant way to the neurosciences. This article looks at the contributions of some of the leading women pioneers in this field. It also deals with women who have written on the history of the neurosciences and the representation of women in the International Society for the History of the Neurosciences, the largest neuroscience history organization. Trends suggest that books and articles from and about women in the history of the neurosciences will increase markedly in the future.     

Paths of Erasure and Trails of Resistance in a Neo-Settler-Colonial City

Urban displacement is receiving growing visibility within urban studies. However, most literature centres on the logic of late capitalism and tends to neglect colonial history and local resistance to displacement. This paper takes an alternative path: it relates (a) the history of colonialism and ethnic cleansing of the city of Jaffa with (b) the present-day gentrification and displacement caused by neoliberal urbanism. To unpack this entanglement, the article focuses on political city walking tours led by Internally Displaced Palestinians in Jaffa, alongside a broader repertoire of urban subaltern tactics to reclaim it—ranging from community meetings to more overtly politicised acts of protest and initiatives to disrupt gentrification. The article therefore advances debates on urban displacement and urban citizenship mobilisation through the lens of post-colonial theories, and by adopting a participatory interdisciplinary approach—from a novel perspective that centres local knowledge, lived experiences, and grassroots activism.     

Creativity in 3D: Poets and Scientists Converge on Writerly Invention

Abstract

Data from interviews with accomplished poets is used alongside findings from neuroscience, to examine three aspects of writerly invention: automaticity, emotional knowledge, and the social dimension. Writerly invention references the creative process writers use to originate ideas via writing. It is shown that a three-dimensional view of writerly invention becomes tenable when scientific findings are viewed in a consilient manner with the introspections of poets. In addition, a call is made for the sciences to help elucidate a mind-state found to be germane to writerly invention — the receptive stance.     

Emigrated neuroscientists from Berlin to North America

ABSTRACT

The highest number of German scholars and physicians, forced by the National Socialist regime to emigrate for “race” or political reasons, were from Berlin. Language and medical exams were requested differently in their new host country—the United States—leading to a concentration of immigrants in the New York and Boston areas. Very early Emergency Committees in Aid of German Scholars and Physicians were established. Undergraduate students (like F. A. Freyhan, H. Lehmann, and H.-L. Teuber) from Berlin seemed to integrate easily, in contrast to colleagues of more advanced age. Some of the former chiefs and senior assistants of Berlin’s neurological departments could achieve a successful resettlement (C. E. Benda, E. Haase, C. F. List, and F. Quadfasel) and some a minor degree of success (F. H. Lewy and K. Goldstein). A group of neuropsychiatrists from Bonhoeffer’s staff at the Berlin Charité Hospital could rely on the forceful intercession of their former chief. The impact of the émigré colleagues on North American neuroscience is traced in some cases. Apart from the influential field of psychoanalysis, a more diffuse infiltration of German and European neuropsychiatry may be assumed. The contribution to the postwar blossoming of neuropsychology by the émigré neuroscientists K. Goldstein, F. Quadfasel, and H.-L. Teuber is demonstrated in this article.     

Nikolai V. Konovalov (1900-1966): his role in the development of neurology and the creation of the Institute of Neurology of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences

Nikolai V. Konovalov (1900-1966) has left a significant imprint in the history of Russian neuroscience. He was among the coryphaei of international and national neurology. Along with the large number of fundamental scientific papers that have determined several aspects of the development of neuroscience, his contribution has been equally important to the establishment and development of one of the distinguished Russian scientific centers - the Institute of Neurology of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, which he headed from 1948 until 1966.     

Isabella Bird Bishop (1831–1904) and Her Travels in Persia and Kurdistan in 1890

Isabella Bird Bishop was one of the remarkable Victorian women who traveled independently in both Persia and the neighboring countries of the Ottoman Empire. She came to Persia as a very experienced and respected travel writer who had journeyed alone and adventurously in the Americas, Australia, Japan and Malaya. Her travels in Persia in 1890 were possibly the hardest and most challenging of her life. She meticulously observed, recorded and finally published all that she saw—the terrain, meetings with the Qajar court, Bakhtiari and Kurdish tribal chiefs and the families, and the daily life and customs of the people.     

Neurocinematography in Pre-World War II Netherlands: The Magnus-Rademaker Collection

Historical films made by neuroscientists have shown up in several countries during past years. Although originally supposed to have been lost, we recently found a collection of films produced between 1909 and 1940 by Rudolf Magnus (1873–1927), professor of pharmacology (Utrecht) and his student Gysbertus Rademaker (1887–1957), professor of physiology (1928, succeeding Willem Einthoven) and neurology (1945, both in Leiden). Both collections deal with the physiology of body posture by the equilibrium of reflex musculature contractions for which experimental studies were done with animals (labyrinthectomies, cerebellectomies, and brainstem sections) and observations on patients. The films demonstrate the results of these studies. Moreover, there are films with babies showing tonic neck reflexes and moving images capturing adults with cerebellar symptoms following cerebellectomies for tumors and several other conditions. Magnus’ studies resulted in his well-known Körperstellung (1924, “Body Posture”) and Rademaker’s research in his Das Stehen (1931, “Standing”). The films probably had an educative and scientific purpose. Magnus demonstrated his films at congresses, including the Eighth International Congress of Physiologists (Vienna, 1910) and Rademaker screened his moving images at meetings of the Amsterdam Neurologists Society (at several occasions as reflected in the Winkler-Monakow correspondence and the Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Geneeskunde). Next to these purposes, the films were used to analyze movement and a series of images from the films were published in articles and books. The films are important historical sources that provide a portrait of the pre-World War II era in neuroscience, partly answering questions on how physicians dealt with patients and researchers with their laboratory animals. Moreover, the films confirm that cinematography was an important scientific tool in neuroscience research.     

Inclusiveness and Coherency in the History of the Neurosciences

The International Society for the History of the Neurosciences (ISHN) defines “neurosciences” broadly, and we want to encourage the widest possible range of scholarly approaches to our subject. However, this deliberate inclusiveness could potentially cause problems with internal coherency in our organization and in the scholarship that we are trying to create. In other words, we need to avoid the pitfalls of the internalistexternalist tension without losing the benefits of both perspectives. In fact, I think that there is a large and interesting “gray zone,” where the boundary between these supposedly separate approaches is both artificial and porous. This should be one of the most rewarding intellectual domains for the study of neuroscience history, because our subject is always culturally loaded by the mind/body problem and by the assumptions that it entails. Of course, neuroscience history is also influenced by all of the other cultural and scientific aspects of the milieus in which it is conducted. Understanding neuroscience history in all of its multiple historical contexts will require the participation of a wide range of scholarly viewpoints. To keep ourselves coherent in the process, we will have to educate each other.     

Democracy without Certainty: Derek Malone-France and the Virtue of Anxiety

Abstract

Globalization rocks the world, perhaps even rules it. Whatever the perception, the impact it has on the world's population means it cannot be ignored. A recent development has been the introduction of religious terminology into the debate about the phenomenon. Some commentators have described globalization itself as a ‘new religion’; others refer to new gods, and to the concepts of redemption, salvation and sacrifice. This paper picks up the religious theme by analyzing and critiquing globalization in terms analogous to Christianity. It then assesses the November 2001 meeting of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Doha, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB) gathering in Ottawa—which were taking place at the time of writing and were the first such meetings after the terrorist attacks in the USA on 11 September 2001. A final section considers 9/11 and how the idea of countering terror with trade might work in practice.     

Gender as national interest at the UN Security Council

The United Nations Security Council has often been identified as a key actor responsible for the uneven trajectory of the international Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda. It is, however, the Council members—who also seek to advance their national interest at this intergovernmental forum—that are pivotal in the Council's deliberations and shape its policies. Yet, little attention has been paid to this aspect of deliberative politics at the Council in feminist scholarship on WPS. This article seeks to address this gap in the literature. It notes that gender has increasingly become part of foreign policy interests of UN member states, as evidenced by practices such as invocation of ‘women's rights’ and ‘gender equality’ in broader international security policy discourse. The article demonstrates that this national interest in gender has featured in WPS‐related developments at the Security Council. Using specific illustrations, it examines three sets of member states: the permanent and non‐permanent members as well as non‐members invited to take part in Council meetings. The main argument of this article relates to highlighting member states’ interests underpinning their diplomatic activities around WPS issues in the Security Council, with the aim to present a fuller understanding of political engagements with UNSCR 1325, the first WPS resolution, in its institutional home.     

Neuroscience in the Nobel perspective

The Nobel Prizes for Physiology or Medicine have included a relatively large number of awards for work in the neurosciences, or for work construed to have made a contribution to neuroscience. These are recognized in this article by brief explanations of the particular contribution that warranted this magnificent (and munificent) award. The first prizes in neuroscience were awarded five years after the initiation of the Nobel Foundation's program. Up to 2005, 28 prizes have been awarded for achievements in neuroscience to 52 individuals.     

Inclusiveness and coherency in the history of the neurosciences

The International Society for the History of the Neurosciences (ISHN) defines "neurosciences" broadly, and we want to encourage the widest possible range of scholarly approaches to our subject. However, this deliberate inclusiveness could potentially cause problems with internal coherency in our organization and in the scholarship that we are trying to create. In other words, we need to avoid the pitfalls of the internalist-externalist tension without losing the benefits of both perspectives. In fact, I think that there is a large and interesting "gray zone," where the boundary between these supposedly separate approaches is both artificial and porous. This should be one of the most rewarding intellectual domains for the study of neuroscience history, because our subject is always culturally loaded by the mind/body problem and by the assumptions that it entails. Of course, neuroscience history is also influenced by all of the other cultural and scientific aspects of the milieus in which it is conducted. Understanding neuroscience history in all of its multiple historical contexts will require the participation of a wide range of scholarly viewpoints. To keep ourselves coherent in the process, we will have to educate each other.     

Revolutionary possibilities of love in a time of disaster,decolonisation, and diffraction

Representations of love appear across many disciplines and discursive fields that are and should be in conversation with geography. It is imperative that geographers engage in formidable but worthy tasks to distil diverse renderings of love into the regenerative interventions we urgently need. Those interventions require geographically minded interpretations of love to drive radical research, pedagogies, policies, and practices in ways that have direct and indirect effects across the life course and life worlds. Such labours are mediated by state and law, by intersectional relations, or by neuroscience, and involve asking how love underwrites critical infrastructures—of place (making), care and entanglements, colonialism, and human-nature relations in the Anthropocene and posthuman—that lead to the flourishing futures we seek. Rich geographical studies oriented to those tasks still face charges of flattening difference. This commentary picks up one aspect of this agenda: a blind spot in geographical research relating to the ethical imperative to love based on benevolence. Instead, I champion the revolutionary possibilities for geography to inform policies, pedagogies, and practices by using a love based on alterity aligned with social weight, reasserting accessible science as an effective driver of social and system transformative changes. Specifically, I argue for a regenerative socio-political analytic of love in a time of disaster, decolonisation, and diffraction.     

Pioneers of Affective Neuroscience and Early Concepts of the Emotional Brain

Views on the representation of emotion in the brain, as formulated about a century ago, are described, with a focus on the Vienna physiologist and psychologist Sigmund Exner, the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, and the French physician Israel Waynbaum. All three can be characterized as forerunners in the field of “affective neuroscience”. By the turn of the century, they had developed a neural network theory of emotion which included a stage of pre-cortical processing. In spite of their otherwise very diverse theoretical backgrounds, their concepts of parallel processing routes were highly similar. It is interesting to note that their ideas were on line with present-day views on the neural substrates and physiological characteristics of emotional processing, although none of the three scientists could rely on the refined anatomical knowledge available nowadays.     

Current density models of the eastward electrojet derived from ground-based magnetic field and radar measurements

Correlated studies of the eastward auroral electrojet using EISCAT radar data and groundbased magnetic field observations from a meridional chain of five stations have been performed during the years 1987 and 1988. Three different models of current distributions—the line-type, the current sheet and the parabolic model—have been tested for their applicability in estimating the current density of the electrojet. The model employing a parabolic cross-section of the current density provides the best results, both from the magnetic profile and from the comparison of magnetic field and radar current density estimates. Current estimates from magnetic field observations are systematically 15% higher than those from EISCAT readings. This discrepancy has been attributed to the induction effect.