Based on the author's thesis, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, 1971. / Includes indexes. Bibliography: p. 280-286.

Based on the author's thesis, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, 1971. / Includes indexes. Bibliography: p. 280-286.

This thesis takes as its point of departure the debate on federalism that emerged in Italy in the years preceding the unification of 1861 and that resumed in the early 1990s, a debate mainly revolving around the profound socio-economic differences between the North and the South of the country. Torn between continuous centripetal and centrifugal forces, but not characterized by ethnic connotations, the Italian regional model implemented with the 1948 constitution and strengthened in 2001 elicits questions that intersect with topical debates engaging scholars across the globe, and displays features that have the potential to stimulate fruitful discussions both inside and outside Italian borders. While the present state of Italian regionalism remains ambiguous, the Italian regional model distils lessons coming from different theoretical experiences, including federalism, sub-state nationalism, and the European unification process. Therefore, it can be seen as an innovative experiment crafted by those who were looking for a compromise between unitary and federal schemes. Adopting a theoretical framework combining literature on federalism, regionalism and sub-state national theory, this thesis addresses a number of questions that help fill a gap in scholarship. The thesis discusses the relationship between federalism and regionalism, arguing that regionalism is an overarching term that incorporates diverse experiences; consequently, the regional state paradigm to which Italy is usually associated is just one of the many shapes that regionalism can take. The research also identifies the elements enabling us to differentiate between a federal and a regional model, as well as the advantages of opting for a regional scheme (as opposed to a federal one). The socio-economic tensions between the North and the South of Italy offer the ideal basis to discuss non-national differences, an expression used to indicate political and socio-economic communities located within a geographical territory displaying some de facto asymmetries compared to the state-wide community, seeking some form of acknowledgement of their specificity. The thesis argues that national differences (e.g. differences based on linguistic, religious or other cultural issues) are not the only ones requiring attention, and it identifies a number of legal and constitutional stratagems that could be used to address non-national difference. Also, the recognition of non-national difference may also help find a solution to issues regarding sub-state national recognition. Finally, the thesis tries to find a point of reconciliation between federalism and solidarity, particularly in the context of non-national difference. The Italian regional experience serves once again as the point of departure to discuss whether federalism and solidarity are conflicting ideas, and to open a discussion regarding the exact contours of solidarity, especially in its horizontal understanding.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Influenza pandemics are a fact of nature. Our human history is marked by global influenza outbreaks that have stricken large numbers of people with illness, caused many deaths, and disrupted the social and economic life of many communities, states, and nations. A novel influenza virus spreading efficiently human to human and causing severe illness causes an influenza pandemic. In the last three hundred years there have been at least ten influenza pandemics (IOM 2005; Osterholm 2005a). The twentieth century alone experienced three pandemics in 1918, 1957, and 1968 (HHS 2005). There is no single ethical framework robust enough to adequately address the various issues that arise in pandemic planning and response. Pandemic influenza is a social problem that requires a social effort in planning, preparedness, and response. The values of participation, loyalty, and solidarity are fundamental social values that are critical to sustain the life of communities. The study of these values will assist local officials with an ethical approach for developing pandemic response plans that ensures community participation, incorporates fundamental values, and minimizes conflicting obligations in the planning stages, which in turn inspires loyalty to the response effort and fosters an attitude of solidarity in the community during the pandemic.

When a Black person sees a display on stage of a fellow Black person getting killed by a White person, why do they not intervene to stop that killing from happening? One would answer, ‘Because it is just a performance. That Black person is not literally getting killed. It is all an act'. Fair enough. Then why does that spectating Black person get a heavy heart when he sees that killing being portrayed on stage? Is it because it is an experience he is familiar to? He has seen his fellow Blacks getting killed in front of his eyes. What does he do about what he sees on stage? What does the play do to his psyche? Richard Schechner, using Goffman's words, argues that the events on stage must be experienced as, what he deems, ‘actual realization': meaning that “the reality of performance is in the performing” (Bennet, 1997:11). Because the violence taking place on stage is only a performance, the spectator does not intervene as he might in an actual violence he would see taking place outside the theatre hall. However, that does not, as Schechner puts it, make the violence ‘less real' but ‘different real' (Bennet, 1997:11). The imaginary world of theatre is not an entirely ‘unreal' world, it is a world based on real occurrences. These real occurrences are taken to the imaginary world with hopes that when they are returned to the real world they will impact it in different ways, in ways set to transform it.

The thesis explores how European social movements have actively contested that there is no alternative to capitalism by constructing alternative trading practices in solidarity with marginalized peoples in the global South. The study adopts the example of the European Zapatista solidarity network (Redprozapa) to examine the nature of organizations involved in radical political practices. One organization Ya Basta-Milano is focused on to examine in detail the operation of, and challenges faced by, an autonomous political group that engages in solidarity trade. Solidarity and autonomy are the key conceptual themes, which the investigation revolves around. The research dwells upon the potential importance as well as the limitations of solidarity trade as an emerging form of constructive resistance. It concentrates upon the subject of autonomous spaces that embodies the physical and political context in which autonomous social movements promote their practices. It questions the contradictions met in this environment despite the romanticized idea promoted by some academic literature. Finally, it provides methodological insights about solidarity action research and personal implications of working with radical groups as an activist academic.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Agricultural Economics / Allen M. Featherstone / A solidarity nuanced economy has the potential to be an antagonist to inequality and poverty. Solidaric features in an economy can serve development initiatives in that solidarity fosters cooperation and promotes self-help. Exchange is one of the most ubiquitous of all human behaviors. A principle of exchange is that both parties, either individuals or groups, must derive greater benefit than sacrifice for the exchange to occur. Exchange enhances an economic agent’s utility. Solidarity informs utility; thus, solidarity impacts exchange. Solidarity can be tersely defined as “social cooperation.” Utility maximization unwrought is based on the premise of self-regarding behavior. Solidarity, on the other hand, is other-regarding behavior. These two elements in exchange need not be in discord; quite the opposite, they act in concord. Solidarity is articulated as being distinct from large group collective action. Collective action can incorporate features of revenge and punishment. Solidarity, as a specialized form of collective action, is strictly associated with cooperation and charity. Solidarity is a process of other-regarding mutual exchange. The inescapability of living out solidarity is described and the case is presented that solidarity is of individual initiative. Because incentives (dis-incentives) are felt at the individual level, it is here that other-regarding behavior (i.e., solidarity) is incubated. The Inequality Predicament suggests that economic inequality is the most pressing issue hindering development (United Nations, 2005). The inequality phenomenon calls for more attention to the role of economic solidarity. The inequality predicament may not be so much a matter of wealth inequality as it is inequality of access to resources and markets. Solidarity is an implement of engagement in gaining access to markets. Few studies in collective action literature are addressing how rural households are affected by changes in property rights and how land policies impact incentives to engage in solidarity. Land rights can only be properly understood in the context of their development. The uniqueness of land rights is informed by past and present culture. This dissertation presents a conceptual framework for examining the relationship between solidarity (i.e., cooperation) and access to land markets. The focus of this study is on the interplay between property rights and solidaric utility decisions of individuals or small groups. The arena of research is land fragmentation and agricultural development in the Republic of Moldova.

Interpersonal conflict poses a serious threat to social justice activism. In the context of multi-racial solidarity activism in southern Arizona, conflicts are often born of the challenges accompanying differentials in social privilege due to differences in race and ethnicity relative to white supremacist settler colonialism. We can see these tensions topologically through the very different relationships white, Latin@, Chican@, and indigenous activists have to on-going processes of white supremacy. This dissertation explores the factors contributing to successes and failures of multi-racial activist ventures in the context of the Arizona/Sonora borderlands, particularly the challenges of negotiating social difference among communities of activists. Arizona occupies a contentious position with regard to securitization practices on the US/Mexico border. Social justice activists come to southern Arizona to involve themselves in humanitarian aid projects that address human rights issues emerging from border securitization processes. Over time, many of these activists connect with other social justice work in southern Arizona, leading to the existence of particularly rich and dedicated networks of activists in Tucson, southern Arizona’s largest city. Subsequently, we see the development of a diverse array of activist ventures deliberately orienting themselves around racial justice. This dissertation examines the paradox of becoming anti-racist for white activists, through which white activists work to address problematic aspects of their socialization as white subjects within the hierarchy of white supremacist society, a process that must co-exist with the knowledge that one cannot ‘unwhiten’ oneself. Tucson has a rich history of social justice activism that contributes to a particularly diverse activist landscape. Since the early 2000s, the primary concern of grassroots political activism in the city has been migrant justice and opposition to the militarization of the US/Mexico border. In the aftermath of Arizona’s notorious 2010 racial profiling legislation, SB 1070, The Protection Network Action Fund (ProNet) was founded as a collaboration between undocumented migrant activists and white allies, with the express goal of fundraising to support migrant led activism in Tucson. Much of ProNet’s success is rooted in the long-term relationship building between migrant activists and white allies, and intentional commitments to bridging gaps between the humanitarian aid and migrant justice communities. Members of ProNet challenge the spatial dynamics of activist networks Tucson, connecting Latin@ and Chican@ activist communities in and surrounding Spanish speaking South Tucson with activists in parts of the city where the effects of the militarized border are less present, and where residents are predominantly white.

Thesis advisor: David Hollenbach / What is the relationship between solidarity and human rights? In answering this question, this dissertation argues that human rights and solidarity are mutually dependent upon one another; and second, that the virtue of solidarity is habituated and cultivated through the practicing respect for human rights. In order to make this argument, this dissertation follows in three main parts. First, it examines recent Catholic social teachings (John XXIII to John Paul II) on the themes of human rights and solidarity. The purpose is to detail the development of teaching on human rights and solidarity and begin to examine the relationship between the two. Second, it seeks to provide a normative argument for a clearer relationship between solidarity and human rights through a deeper investigation of the human person as participatory in philosophical and theological anthropology. To accomplish this, I use the philosophical anthropology of Charles Taylor and a theological anthropology grounded in the imago dei, contemporary Trinitarian theologies and covenantal theology. Finally, it shows that understanding human rights and solidarity as foundational for the person has implications for ethical policy concerning human rights, through engagement with developmental economist and human rights theorist Amartya Sen. From this, I argue that human rights and solidarity are mutually dependent. It is my assertion that human rights cannot be realized without solidarity, and vice versa. Furthermore, one cannot acquire the virtue of solidarity, as a second nature, except through the praxis of respect for human rights. In this relationship between human rights and solidarity, I contend that Catholic social thought can offer an important contribution to the philosophical and political debates about moral obligations for human rights and the emerging responsibility to protect doctrine. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2009. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Theology.

Thesis advisor: Devin O. Pendas / This dissertation shifts our understanding of 1970s human rights activism from a minimalist politics of salvation to a maximalist commitment to kindred spirits. Scholars see the 1970s as the time when the internationalist dreams of the 1960s disappeared to be supplanted by the salvation of a few over the transformation of the root causes of society's ills. By contrast, this dissertation examines West German activism on behalf of Latin Americans chaffing under military rule in the 1970s as a campaign of international political solidarity by different means. Faced with an environment hostile to transnational solidarity at home and abroad, West Germans of varying political doctrines and Christian confessions, as well as exiles from Latin America, embraced a common language of human rights as they pursued their political agendas. Its neutralist and humanitarian overtones made "human rights" discourses appealing to activists with diverging political goals. This dissertation reinterprets human rights activism as a continuation of internationalist commitments at a time when the foundations for transnational solidarity eroded. Grassroots embrace of human rights occurred during a tense state of securitization provoked by left-wing terrorism in West Germany. With the West German state increasingly unwilling to stand up for human rights on the international stage, especially for leftist victims, or accept them as refugees, grassroots solidarity activists were compelled to embrace a discourse that the state would accept. The Chilean and Argentinean cases--the most prominent instances of state-perpetrated abuses in 1970s Latin America--prompted leftists, left liberals, trade unionists, and Christians to advocate for the admission of political refugees and the imposition of economic embargoes and sanctions. Chilean and Argentinean exiles advocated for political change in their countries, but were forced to utilize human rights rhetoric to escape the stigma accorded to left-wing politics. Conservatives embraced human rights argumentation against the military regime in Chile when the wave of repression reached their political partners of the Christian Democratic Party in Chile. Lacking similar partners in Argentina, West German Christian Democracy did not demonstrate interest in conditions there. The West German government responded to grassroots advocacy with a minimalist vision for human rights protection that emphasized private negotiations on behalf of select individuals, which was abhorrent to many grassroots activists. The embrace of human rights by grassroots activists occurred in a highly contested process of political defeats and realignments. It was not a turn to a new utopia. Drawing on research in state and civil society repositories in Europe and the Americas, as well as oral interviews, this dissertation offers a window into transnational political activism between West Germany and Latin America in the 1970s. It shows how activists from the left and the right, as well as government officials, arrived at different definitions of human rights and diverging strategies for protecting them. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2018. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: History.