Thomas Project. A Border Journal for Utopian Thoughts

Thomas Project. A Border Journal for Utopian Thoughts

Article submission date: 10^th May 2021

Issue: June / July 2021

Languages: english, portuguese, italian, french, spanish

Invited paper: Prof. dr. José Eduardo Franco

Throughout history, many utopian visions and theories have claimed to take a “global” or “universalist” approach, i.e. to speak for the whole of humankind. As such, utopian thought, like all spiritual, political and artistic configurations, is based on anthropological premises that are directly concerned with the worldview of an age – a worldview that some authors, many situated at the borders of their own age, consider worth pursuing for the sake of humankind as a whole.

The “global” scope of utopian visions gives rise to utopian plans that, if realized, could radically undermine the authors’ purposes, transforming the happy form of life they envisage into a totalitarian reality. Here we face the risk, run by many utopias, of creating dystopias.

Nevertheless, precisely through this approach, we find – within explicitly critical and satirical forms – a focus on the liberation of the weaker parts of society and an inclusive understanding of human problems. After all, political and spiritual movements – as well as many of the declarations on whose premises human rights are based, such as the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen (1789) and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) – are children of both the utopian spirit and the historical tragedies of their age.

Studying the universalistic focus of the history of utopia thus involves studying the many forms through which a society conceives of itself beyond itself, its boundaries and its weaknesses. In this sense, our globalized age is also a child of global, philosophical, political, spiritual and technological utopias.

One of the most recent fields of research in this area focuses on “globalization” as a key consequence of modernity. The last thirty years have witnessed a series of phenomena the rapidity and innovativeness of which are far from being completely understood: on the one hand, the incredible digital, technological acceleration of the past few decades and the transformation of the capitalistic economy; on the other hand, the apparent creation of a world characterized by forms of living and challenges that are increasingly common to the whole of humankind.

Globalization taken in itself and the global phenomena that characterize our contemporary civilization embody images from past global utopian endeavors while producing their own global utopian visions.

For this issue, we are seeking articles that examine this theme in general, and the following sub-themes in particular:

• forms and images of global utopia:
• contemporary global utopias;
• global utopias throughout modern utopian thought;
• globalization as utopia and dystopia;
• the forms and history of the global city.

We welcome submissions that take a philosophical, literary, artistic, theological or political approach and that are written in one of the journal’s five languages: English, Italian, Portuguese, French or Spanish.

Editorial rules: here

For the full CfA, please follow this link: http://www.thomasproject.net/global-utopias/

Send your article to: redazionethomasproject AT gmail.com

My source:

Philos-L "The Liverpool List" is run by the Department of Philosophy, University of Liverpool 

https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/philosophy/philos-l/

Book: The Great Convergence ( ...within Hodges' model)

"His [Baldwin's] framework posits three "cascading constraints" that hold back the globalisation of markets, namely the cost of moving goods, ideas and people. Initially, all were bundled together: early societies stayed where they were, passed down information to the next generation and ate what they grew. The first wave of globalisation that created the Great Divergence expanded markets via the falling cost of transporting physical goods, thanks to the steamship and the railway. ..." p.10.

individual

|

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic -------------------------------------------  mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

|

group-population

The cost of moving:  IDEAS	GOODS
PEOPLE	Book: The Great Divergence

Richard Baldwin (2016). The Great Convergence: Information Technology and the New Globalization.  Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.


Beattie, A. (2016). Movement politics. FT Weekend, Life&Arts, Books. November 26-27. p.10.

Book: The Looting Machine

individual

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic ------------------------------------------- mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

group

rarefied      oil                diamonds           copper        zinc      iron gold     nickel          platinum        silver...

"The products come through to London on planes and boats, and great oil tankers carry the fuel that drives our cars. The tankers are carrying valuable cargo and are kept to high standards. On the same seas approaching Europe, thousands upon thousands of African refugees in ramshackle boats sink and drown. There could not be a crueller contrast, and Burgis has the good sense not to present it in an alarmist way, but with an understatement that is far more powerful." Stephen Chan, Poverty amid plenty, Life & Arts, FT Weekend, 7-8 March 2015. p.9

The Looting Machine

Book image:
http://www.harpercollins.co.uk/

Additional link:
Transparency International:
http://www.transparency.org/

Trade winds and time: The Clock of the South

S
INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

E --------------------------------------- W

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

N
G7
G8
 ..

Alt	trade-winds
Socio- (political)	Clock of the South

individual
INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic ------------------------------------------- mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

group

C/o BBC: Bolivian Congress clock changed to turn anti-clockwise

The clock displayed on the Bolivian Congress building, located in the city of La Paz, has been re-set to run in reverse.

Its hands turn left and the numbers have been inverted to go from one to twelve to the left.

It's the latest measure taken by the government of President Evo Morales to promote the indigenous identity of the Andean country. ...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-28040065


updated 26 August 2014
BBC Radio 4 20:00: Whatever Happened to Global Governance?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04f9rdr

Original image source:
http://bubblear.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/clock1-1110x400.jpg

Gender models role models and cognitive models... Discuss?

As a male nurse I have been aware of gender throughout my career ever since my student days (late 1970s-early 80s) - mental health - and then as a student again for two years general nurse training. The cultural, professional and global changes over the past three decades and more have been quite profound all influencing the perspectives and realities of gender in nursing today.

Since 1987-88, when I discovered Hodges' model I was also bound to wonder about gender in terms of:

• the number of male nurse theorists and their contribution (should this matter!)?; 
• other male nurse theorists globally and the influence of other cultural perspectives;
• the need to consider gender of course in terms of 'standpoint' within research;
• Is Hodges' model gender biased as its structure and basis comprised of categories of care concepts is a very masculine activity? (Even though the intention in identifying the boxes is to transcend and integrate them.) Please see below (and no pun intended).
• Therefore nursing (still primarily a female profession) may ignore/discredit the potential of the model?

Possibly, the stand-out feature of Hodges' model is its invitation to categorise and typify. There could be gender-based consequences in how the model is perceived and received, which in turn could affect interest and participation in research on this subject? In designing studies of the model the feminist standpoint might be useful?:

“What, then, about the further charge that making clear-cut classifications of this kind is a very masculine thing to do? … It reaches its peak in empirical science as we know it, itself a very male affair, and it embodies the desire to have control of things and to know what is likely to happen. It issues in the kind of binary opposites we have found feminists, especially postmodernist feminists, decrying so vigorously-antimonies such as thought/language, nature/culture, reason/emotion, theory/practice, white/black, and especially men/women.” Crotty, (1998) p.171.

Crotty, M. (1998) The Foundations of Social Research: Meaning and Perspective in the Research Process. SAGE Publications Ltd.

This post was prompted by an item on GANM (Global Alliance for Nursing and Midwifery)

MEMO: .health as a top-level domain

m e m o r a n d u m

Date:	20 May 2014
To:	ICANN
From:	PETER JONES
Subject:

Please do not try to put a full stop to ongoing efforts to utilise the internet to benefit the true health and well-being of the world's citizens.

The work is a challenge, much has been achieved and there is great promise for the future and not merely through the quantified self, personalised medicine, biotechnology and the virtual healthcare market. ...

The self, indeed this whole effort must be assured, integrated and qualified.

This means of course that the provenance, standards and values vested in health related data, information and knowledge must be of the highest quality.

Then - we can start to think about -




Yours sincerely,

Peter Jones

Additional link:
http://www.jmir.org/2014/3/e73/

[hifa2015] World Medical Association calls for a moratorium on the sale of the .health top-level domain

Dear colleagues,

The World Medical Association has called for a moratorium on the sale of the .health top-level domain (TLD). This is significant as the WMA 'is an international organization representing approximately 9 million physicians of all specialties and sectors.'

Below are extracts from a letter from the WMA Secretary-General dated 8th March to ICANN (the body that administers internet domains). The full letter is available here:

http://www.icann.org/en/news/correspondence/kloiber-to-chehade-et-al-11mar14-en.pdf

'By now the ICANN Board is aware that .health is one of the ten most opposed new gTLDs...'

'... We, the World Medical Association (WMA), add our voice to recommend that the auction of the .health gTLD not go forward.'

Best wishes,
Neil
-----
[ c/o Neil Pakenham-Walsh ]

Let's build a future where people are no longer dying for lack of healthcare knowledge: Join HIFA www.hifa2015.org

Angling for Ideas

The Angler by Paul Klee (1879-1940, Switzerland)

This is just a rock pool I reflect	So is this, even before Pollock just a single drip in the ocean
Fishing for praise	Here we trawl, as we do we maul. Why owns the holistic ocean? Does it bleed, does it leak? Abs-orbs all angles? just?

Image source: http://en.wahooart.com/@@/8LT48X-Paul-Klee-The-Angler

From local field to global arena: the rough and tumble of conceptual sport

Jo hit the deck. it was a foul tackle, an apt description for a move that Jo did not see coming.

Talk about a change of perspective!! Sheesh! Was it bone crunching, did I hear something?

It could have been worse. At least the ground knows it’s March and not January.

There was no anticipation, no reflex adjustment, no ability to shift, just in time, no poetry in motion this time.

The coach and physio dashed on to the field. Jo looked up and said “OK, tell me straight, what’s the damage?”

Coach looked down. "Well you're talking that's a start." Assessing rapidly though and through gritted teeth he replied:

“It’s not looking good Jo.”
“Wha..?

[Silence]

Oh come on tell me…”

“Well, kid it’s bad, yes, really bad.

You’ve got an academic detachment.”

Jo groaned, "Oh no, not that! What about the future!!"

<->

OK, sorry about that and I do realise that a great many world class athletes are very well educated people.

The tendency of young and promising athletes to relinquish contact with their academic side and really be the best they can be - remains a challenge for some, but this post concerns academic detachment as in - educational institutions and students with the world.

Call it a paradox, a contradiction in this hyper-connected world, what with gap years, travel opportunities.... that there seem so many examples of a lack of awareness of the bigger picture that is the international stage. Not just in students, in education, but the wider citizenry.

Does this matter. Well it does, at least according to the 2012 Conference of The Association of International Education Administrators (AIEA) which included:

Academic detachment is not an option in the 21st Century

on the theme “Building a Secure World through International Education.”

The point I’d like to make is that Hodges’ model is fit to assist in some of the objectives that the AIEA outlines in this context:

Keynote speaker Abiodan Williams, Senior Vice ‐ President of the US Institute for Peace, offered remarks at the opening plenary. Mr. Williams said that his own international education began with post ‐ secondary level study at the Lester B. Pearson College, United World College of the Pacific, in Victoria, BC. To develop graduates committed to peace and security, he urged educational institutions to teach:

• Knowledge – including greater interdisciplinarity and learning about conflict prevention
• International outlook – to shape the attitudes and outlook of a new generation, encourage all students to spend at least six months studying abroad, learn at least one new language and take at least one course about another country
• Sensibility – alluding to Fielding’s definition of ‘good nature’, developing people of benevolent and amiable temper of mind, who sympathize with the problems of others and who enjoy the happiness of others

“Academic detachment from the world is not an option in the 21st Century,” he said. Globalization is here to stay, and international education is playing a key role in contributing positive answers to many of the challenges that it presents.

Many institutions are actively engaged in programs that further environmental and energy sustainability, broader access to health care and education, resolution of conflicts, pursuit of fundamental human rights, economic development, and greater cross‐cultural understanding around the world. Harnessing the collective effort, and lessons learned, from each of these individual initiatives is important in moving internationalization forward. [AIEA conference website]

With thanks to Katy Rosenbaum:

27 March 2014:
Good morning,
Thank you for your email. I will check with my colleagues to see if they have any suggestions for someone who might be able to provide more information on work within this theme, and if they have any insights on this, I will certainly forward these on to you.
In the meantime, all conference session materials that presenters made available to download are available at the link below. The zip files include multiple presentations and handouts; underneath are links to these materials hosted on other websites: http://www.aieaworld.org/2012-conference#Presentations
The article you referred to mentioned Abiodan Williams' keynote address, which is available here: http://www.aieaworld.org/assets/docs/Conference_Materials/2012/abiodunwilliamsspeech2012.pdf
Thank you for your interest; I hope this information is useful. If my colleagues have other suggestions, I will certainly pass them on.

Best,
Katy Rosenbaum
Program Associate - AIEA
Association of International Education Administrators
www.aieaworld.org
kathryn.rosenbaum AT duke.edu

Additional link:
http://www.ruthnestvold.com/tomjones.htm
Thanks Dad.

'P' is for Philippines

In addition to the USA and EU for several years now it appears that many of our website's visitors come from the Philippines. Brian and I greatly appreciate the interest of our virtual Filipino guests, so welcome one and all...

Over recent decades the global migration of nurses has become a much needed phenomenon, but one that can also quickly become a newspaper headline depending on where nurses are moving from and going to....

Given the (relatively) high profile of Hodges' model as a model of nursing on the web, I wonder if these visits reflect:

1. An assumption by potential nurse migrants that Hodges' model is de rigueur here in the UK?
2. There are tutors/lecturers teaching the model in the Philippines and directing their students to the site?
3. They use a curriculum that is suited to, or finds merit in Hodges' model?
4. With more than 180 languages and dialects perhaps Hodges' model is also helpful in this multi-cultural and ethnically rich country?
5. Perhaps the visitors are not primarily nurses?

Whether or not any of the above apply, I would love to hear from our Filipino visitors? How is Hodges' model being used in the Philippines?

I don't want to put any visitors off, but of course the website and this blog represent a call for research in global conceptual frameworks for health and social care and general education too. Wherever you are - you can make a difference...

All the best.

h2cmng AT yahoo.co.uk

(My PC's off-line at present - power supply?).
Image source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Phillanguages.jpg

To follow - another 'p'.

Soc. Philosophy & Technology Conf: Charleston, S.C. 8-11 July 2007

Home - safe and sound and really pleased I travelled despite the air-miles.

Charleston is beautiful and the heat was actually refreshing given June in the UK. I passed by New York in the day going, and at night coming home - it was an amazing sight.

The Society conference is biennial and alternates between the USA and Europe.

So, if jet-lag has not fogged my recall the 2009 conference will be at the University of Twente and I certainly plan to attend, even if I don't present.

The organisers, session chairs and assistants did a great job. I really do hope to meet again the fellow delegates I managed to speak to and share ideas - China, Netherlands, South Korea, UK, USA, Portugal...

I did not get to meet everyone and while I wish more people attended my presentation that's par for the course. I was prepared for that. You learn patience if not anything else riding the h2cm quad bike. Those who did attend appreciated the content and more people are aware of Hodges' model. I'm really grateful to Hugh the session Chair and the assistant for their help.

What did I learn?

Well, it was the 1980s when I first studied philosophy, so the conf-vocab was a good reminder and prompt (get the books out).

While a lot of effort had obviously been put into all the presentations, the plenary sessions stood out for me as a learning experience:

1. Friedman's The World Is Flat: The Globalized World in the Twenty-first Century (noticed new updated copy at Newark airport).
2. Repo-Tech - Reproductive Technologies and Risks of Commodification in the Global Context

The morning session on Aesthetic Computing - infovis was also of particular interest. I've many notes to reflect upon and follow up from the whole event. It was gratifying that I was able to ensure that some issues for older adults and memory loss were represented.

The Society members were all very friendly and supportive. This certainly isn't surprising, but as acknowledged at the conference close there was a real collegiate atmosphere.

Deliberations at the conference close included whether to publish Techné: Research in Philosophy and Technology - the Society journal as a paper journal as well as electronic.

As an independent scholar I gather you can currently join the Society for $15. Yet another sub, but it's high time I rationalised. I'm at a crossroads and looking at and pursuing other avenues. And who knows - might meet you in 2009!

P.S. Coming home and reading of the U-turn regards the UK supercasino struck a cord with good vibrations - thanks Prime Minister!