Autore: Peter Herrmann's Blog

Dr. Peter Herrmann is a sociologist of German origin -- well, he was, before moving forward, being now ..., well, some say: social philosopher, permanently crossing borders between arts, economics, jurisprudence, philosophy, political science and .., yes, still sociology ... and having lost many links to the origins as fasr as nationality is concerned, trying to imagine that there is no border ...

Die Letze Reise/Last Journey

da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in academic life - living in academia, contemporary socio-economic situation, thoughts on life and its philosophy

Hans Jürgen Krysmanski, ….

… hat mit seiner Umwälzungswissenschaft unseren Blick auf Imperien, auf ihre Kriege, auf Richistan und ihre Geschichte verändert – neugierig, spöttisch, lachend, skurril, charmant, klug, tückisch, gebildet, nachdenklich und auf alle Fälle in Schwarz, meistens mit Rundgläserbrille und manchmal als Irrläufer, in Cowboystiefeln, der durch alle Praxen, Theorien und Imaginationen zappte und surfte, die er kriegen konnte. „Une autre fin du monde est possible“ stellte jüngst ein Nuit Debout-Graffiti richtig. Ein Ende ohne ein Vorleben in einem Imperium der Milliardäre wäre ein guter Anfang – auch für eine letzte Reise.

Ein Nachruf, geschrieben von Rainer Rilling.

The other dimension

da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in academic life - living in academia, general, thoughts on life and its philosophy

The other day I was sitting together with a friend, chatting about human and artificial intelligence and the calculability of everything. We talked about Her and life emerging Ex Machina. Emotions – they play a role, and we have, can, should simply enjoy them. That moment, I could not agree more, did not want to think about rationalising every single step, did not want to stop enjoying the moments, loving the people when they are lovable and showing the anger  when anger is appropriate … – Isn’t it finally true?: Wer denkt, ist nicht wütend.  Here for the first part of the Docu in Theodor W Adorno, Der Bürger als Revolutionär.

The less revolutionary version coming to mind is the one we know from Einstein:

Falling in love is not at all the most stupid thing that people do — but gravitation cannot be held responsible for it.

wisely popularised as “You can’t blame gravity for falling in love”.

Love or show anger …, carpe diem and give the answer …

****

Anyway, a few days later a headline hits the news, informing that a

Tesla driver dies in first fatal crash while using autopilot mode

Surely a sad occurrence, but what makes it remarkable for me here is a sentence I find in the article, saying that

America’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has opened an inquiry into the accident.

It leaves  me with a silly question. As sociologist I know that that NHTSA is an institution, following administrative and juridical rules, without “human intelligence”, reflecting law that is without consideration of right. As driver of a car I know that there is no point in asking the truck and trailer; and the sky …, it does have as many answers as it lacks having limits. So, at the end it may then be the driver of the truck who may be be blamed for being, for taking the freedom of being in the way of artificial rules …

****

Part of the limitations of artificial intelligence, in its excess child of bourgeois enlightenment, is surely that it established a certain inability to think unity as matter of contradiction. To take it from Adorno’s Dialectic of Enlightenment

Bourgeois society is ruled by equivalence. It makes the dissimilar comparable by reducing it to abstract quantities. To the enlightenment, that which does not reduce to numbers, and ultimately to the one, becomes illusion.

There is surely some Madness of Sincerity of which I learned again – finally

Men are never convinced of your reasons, of your sincerity, of the seriousness of your sufferings, except by your death. So long as you are alive, your case is doubtful; you have a right only to their skepticism.”

It may then be that The Fall comes before The Stranger.

… and frequently overlooked

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After saying yesterday Easily Condemned, it may be time to think about what is easily overlooked, especially while sliding apparently elegantly on the surface.

The title in the Huffington Post says

Deutsche Bank è maggior fonte di rischi sistemici al mondo

and A FT-briefing tells us

Deutsche Bank hit by IMF hazard warning A report has branded the German lender as the riskiest globally significant bank on the back of its failure to pass another US Federal Reserve stress test.

Sure, there are good reasons to distrust these rankings and stress tests. But on the other hand, what comes to mind is the obvious failure of German (misled EU-) policy of externalisation. The exsanguination especially of Greece (though we should not forget Ireland, Portugal,  Spain) is not a limited strategy against one (or a few countries), but it is part of a systematic bloc-building: strengthening the centre in order to  establish and tighten a fortress that finally culminates in a complex network of systematically fostered “unequal development” (in line with TISA etc.). Andre Gunder Frank’s thesis of the “Development of Underdevelopment” finds a new confirmation, now on the changed global scale.

What Britain actually did is not so different from the EU- and German strategy: a strategy of externalisation, aiming on limiting the cost (which had been very small when considering the increasing strangulation of arms of social EUrope), while redistributing the resources as it already started, considering (so the FT-briefing) that

companies with overseas earnings or in haven sectors have benefited most, while others have announced job cuts and profit warnings

and the chancellor announcing a new easing, while Cameron now pleads for “looking beyond”, aiming on big business for big business: China, India, US and Commonwealth as fields for new harvest.

– And it still is the old story: never tidy up your own places as long as there are fields that can be devastated, i.e. fields that allow you to dump your waste. Will it work? Well, coming back to the article in the Huffington Post it is remarkable to see that

Secondo l’istituto di Washington, inoltre, il sistema bancario tedesco pone il maggior grado di rischi di contagio esterni in proporzione ai rischi interni (seguono Francia, Regno Unito e Usa).

In other words, the supposedly strong economies are not only the culprits in terms of being a danger to solidarity, but they are also the real hazard when it comes to global economic disintegration. An interesting measure that is different, seemingly of national scope only, can be found in India:

India’s 10m civil servants The government has approved a 23 per cent rise in salaries, allowances and pensions for current and former civil servants. The once-in-a-decade increase will cost about $15bn and is aimed at boosting private consumption.

Such step is likely to be globally more responsible than the European and British and American fortress building.

Easily condemned …

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It is easy to condemn the Brits for exiting – though it had been only part of them anyway. But is also easy that one overlooks the fundamental flaws of the formation to which they are turning the back. While writing on CSR, i.e. Corporate Social Responsibility, I found this definition on the Commission’s website:

What is CSR?

The Commission has defined CSR as the responsibility of enterprises for their impact on society. CSR should be company led. Public authorities can play a supporting role through a smart mix of voluntary policy measures and, where necessary, complementary regulation.

Companies can become socially responsible by:

  • following the law;

  • integrating social, environmental, ethical, consumer, and human rights concerns into their business strategy and operations.

So, the European Union is a place where respecting the law is not an obligation, but a “bonus”?

There is surely much that the “remainers” have to think about in more serious terms: not the lack of legitimacy but the lack of legitime claims of being a legitimate integrative and integrating force.

There may be something to be learned from two contributions I wrote a while back:

… It is easy to chastise the children, and it likely to forget the failure of the parents …

The Next Round?

da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in academic life - living in academia, contemporary socio-economic situation, general

I just heard/read the news from Istanbul. Sounds like another terrible round …, and still it is the old story? So they write:

— Ataturk Airport is “one of the most secure airports in the world,” CNN senior law enforcement analyst Tom Fuentes says. But the airport has been “very overwhelmed for several decades with terrorism from PKK.”

— The White House issued a statement: “Ataturk International Airport, like Brussels Airport which was attacked earlier this year, is a symbol of international connections and the ties that bind us together.

It is difficult to make any “negative” comments in face of what is just a human tragedy. But still I am wondering if what I read should be easily translated into:
White House and Erdogan together against PKK and the others … – it is a worrying constellation and is a worrying constellation looking at it in the wider perspective of BREXIT, and some “progressives” now claiming we should habe more exits, return to localism …
And we in academia follow, pretending excellence, striving for rankings and serving leisure interests?

Looking back: 教授给学生开设Workshop

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为了让学生学习更多的经济学知识及研究方法，提高学生自主学习能力，我院Peter Herrmann教授针对2014级金融学、会计学两个专业特别开设Workshop。经过面试并遴选40名学生后，Peter Herrmann教授围绕经济学开展一系列专题讨论，包括“大学与市场 (University and Markets)”，“金砖五国与薄荷四国 (From BRICS to MINT)”，“知识产权的维度 (Dimensions of Intellectual Property Rights – Economics and Property)”等。在专题讨论中，Peter Herrmann教授引出话题，学生对各个话题进行深入讨论、发表见解，最后Peter Herrmann教授对主题进行总结，并提出一些问题留给学生课后思考。这种教学模式鼓励学生进行独立思考、自主研究。学生们纷纷表示受益匪浅。更令学生欣喜的是，Peter Herrmann教授给他们颁发了有他和学院教学副院长签名的结业证书。

(from: http://www.bangor.edu.cn/xydt/201606/t20160622_50616.html)

Churchill: This is not the end, it is not even the beginning of the end, but it is perhaps the end of the beginning.

da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in contemporary socio-economic situation, thoughts on life and its philosophy

While many are still ventilating the meaning of the BREXIT, doing the statistical analysis and presenting them more legible form, and reflecting on perspectives from Finish to Slovakout, the next decisive step in terms of global des-integration is on today’s agenda and we have to look at Spain.

You may also look back a few days, to look forward.

The first reaction from Paris.

BREXIT – is that actually the real topic

da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in academic life - living in academia, contemporary socio-economic situation, general, thoughts on life and its philosophy

I was just approached by Yang Yuhan, asking for my opinion on the results in the UK.

I mentioned in a brief note some of the problems, e.g. that the result may be just the date of preparing a new referendum (as it happened so often), that the claimed economic strength by the “leavers” may be just another illusion but also that it is a strategy of one country to look for advantage on the back of others.
And then I said, “as it had been the case with (in particular) the German-Greek relationship.
As Yang said she would not know about Germany-Greece-relationships
 I answered in a nutshell – more is barely possible via QQ:
Perhaps we meet at some stage again, and we can chat. Too much to write …: Germany forced Greece to take loans, knowing that they would not be able to repay. Germany also kept the economy of Greece down, not allowing them to develop – we talked about world-systems, center-periphery etc. in the workshop. After a while the Germans said: now you have to return the money. And because you cannot do it “easily”, we dictate the conditions under which you do it. In consequnece, for instance, the social security systems had been dismantled (people getting 60 % of the retirement they expected, and it must in many cases serve the entire family; the health system is deteriorating; children cannot go to school, or they cannot concentrate because they are hungry …), the ariports had been “bought” by the German FRAPORT (Frankfurt airport), without proper pay …
Of course, the Germans could rely o their “European supporters” and the IMF and the World Bank but still they had been the main drivers.
And I directed her to things I wrote earlier – about Two Dreams and One Nightmare, there looking in particular at the second dream. Indeed, many things had been not known to the public, they had been veiled in populist disguises, hiding the
 And so we may even take up on people like Churchill who said, in a different context:
This is not the end, it is not even the beginning of the end, but it is perhaps the end of the beginning.
And as Henry added in the mail he sent a few minutes ago:
the beginning of the complete disintegration of the EU….
Cunning of unreason – including the unreason of populist movements back in the other home? There was one star in Bethlehem, now there are five in Rome …
Just received another mail . actually taking up on the point I alluded to in the blog entry:
“The triumph of malign populism and a betrayal of the younger generation.”
Yes, there had been some betrayal, and my generation is guilty, if not directly betraying, allowing those others they dirty business …
Seeing all this in a wider context, I just feel miserable, actually since a couple of days already, the BREXIT is only a small part. It is about “us” – the elderly, the Europeans, the “better Europeans” … all these … “superiors” who claim to know everything and know everything better, and in which way ever, it is differ difficult to “escape”, difficult to remain sane and honest, and the only thing ome can do is to talk to some students, encouraging them …, to do what we cannot do anymore to the extent to which we want: move on and be honest …. – but also considered, not following the populist tendencies that lurk around everywhere, making education to a fun-park.

Searching for a new way of Thinking Society for Today

da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in contemporary socio-economic situation, social quality, thoughts on life and its philosophy, works, works, projects, publications

A new piece, written together with Vyacheslav N. Bobkov, is titled

Searching for a new way of Thinking Society for Today—Noospheric Social quality

It is published in Volume 12, Issue 2 of the journal Ekonomika regiona [Economy of Region], on pages 451-462 (doi 10.17059/2016–2–11)

The abstract states:

Obviously, we face an economic crisis that dominates the headlines of daily newspapers, academic journals and features as the title of TV-and-radio casts alike. And, not withstanding political differences, there is widespread consensus that the economic crisis is only the tip of an iceberg. However, there is little readiness to go beyond the inherited fundamental assumptions of a “modern industrial capitalist market society”.
The article argues that all the categories are increasingly under threat. The social quality, the quality of life and the noosphere paradigm of global social development offer space for considerations that question societal developments not only on the phenomenological level. Instead, the authors ventilate gnoseological, ontological and axiological prerequisites of sustainable global social development. The noosphere paradigm is
enriched with the theories of social quality and the quality of life, thus contributing to the wider and diverse debates on what can be called people’s humanistic socialism. In view of the complexity of the impending transition from the present to a future global society with people’s humanistic socialism, it is necessary to plan it thoroughly, beginning with the support of the processes and institutions that currently provide a seedbed;
developing new transformational forms of the future features of global society has to go hand in hand with this. It makes sense to carry on with the conceptualization of questions bearing on the formation of nooshpheric social quality and its design.

Further information cane found on the researchgate site – https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Peter_Herrmann

Un manifiesto de 177 economistas pide el voto para Unidos Podemos

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ELECCIONES GENERALES

Un manifiesto de 177 economistas pide el voto para Unidos Podemos

Académicos como Thomas Piketty o Vicenç Navarro apoyan el texto

[… y también algunas luces más pequeñas ;-)]

Un total de 177 economistas de universidades españolas e internacionales ha suscrito un manifiesto que reclama el fin de las políticas de austeridad en España y en Europa, y pide el voto para la candidatura de Unidos Podemos a las elecciones generales del próximo 26 de junio. El texto —que firman expertos como Thomas Piketty, de la Escuela de Economía de París; Viçenc Navarro, de la Universidad Pompeu Fabra (ambos asesoraron a Podemos con su programa); o Ann Pettifor, asesora del líder laborista Jeremy Corbyn— asegura que el programa de la coalición “servirá para poner punto final a las políticas de austeridad en España y, con ello, servirá también para abrir un nuevo tiempo en Europa”. ….