works – COMMEDIA DELLA VITA OR PÁNTA RÊI'S FIRM GROUND

Political Economy, Macroeconomics and Political System

11 settembre 202310 settembre 2023 da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in publications, works, works, projects, publications

Recently sent to the publisher, waiting for proof prints now – it will be published in the series

Human Rights – Looking towards the Future – NOVA Science

Setting the Scene

The first part of this book is based on various seminars during summer schools, in particular those organised by the network attac – the idea behind those seminars and now the reason for the publication of the short compilation is given by the fact that questions of political economy and economics are frequently raised and (political-)economic reasoning is put forward in many debates that are centrally concerned with other topics, these may be matters of current economic and labour market development or we may see political economic arguments being brought up in debates on human behaviour or societal development. Furthermore, economic topics and issues are again and again popping up in daily conversations on all levels. However, references made are too often limited, referring to some catch-words, referring to single sentences or ideas while overlooking that political economy as well as economics cannot be understood or applied by decontextualization individual statements and arbitrary use in general debates.

It is important to consider the selective nature and the highly condensed presentation of the following – only slow reading, detailed follow-up studies and ideally ventilation of the topics in group discussions make it possible to arrive at a thorough understanding. Three essential general points must be emphasised right at the beginning:

The approaches presented and also their critique can only be understood in the respective historical context. Even if, and precisely because, science is biased, it must recognise that ‘progressiveness’ cannot be understood without placing issues in their respective framework – the individualisation of road transport was at the time, from a technical and technological point of view as well as from an economic and social point of view, by and large an undisputed advance – it remains to be discussed whether it was also undisputed at the time as there had been critique from what we may call by and large ‘conservative positions’, sticking to the traditional means, accepting the limited speed and also social inequality as well as limited supply with goods. In any case, today things look quite different: There are more advanced possibilities of transportation, which should not only be seen in the light of increased ecological sensitivities.
Much has far more fundamental significance than is apparent at first glance. This is meaningful, for example, in connection with individualism, because it is not just the emphasis on the individual and the note on personality – this was ultimately only true for a limited elite; much more significant is the other and for the overall structure more meaningful aspect: individualism as a general ‘guiding principle’, which has nothing to do with personalities and their recognition, but with the cutting-off of individuals and their modes of action from the respective social contexts. It also means that one must be careful, avoiding a shortened presentation of the criticised paradigms – for example, the view of the often-mentioned invisible hand in liberalism. Also, there – and even among the neo-liberals – the state is seen as active and constitutive factor, shaping economy and society, and it is important to look closely at the mode of intervention, instead of claiming that it is simply a matter of ‘deregulation’, in which there is no role for the state. – One may well say: it is in fact much worse … .
Even more significant is the fact that initial topics, such as individualisation and transport, must be understood in a broader context, which then, however, at first glance, appears to be an independent topic: thus, non-transportation as part of a fundamental change in the way of economy and life can certainly be an answer to the problems discussed with regard to individual transport and the problems of individualism. In the scientific and political discussion, however, local and regional economies can certainly be addressed as well without referring to individual transport and hyper-individualism.

*****

The present compilation can in no way claim to be exhaustive, to provide a general overview of political economy and economics. To some extent, it provides not more than a general framework and some core quotes and with this hopefully a stimulus to further studies; at the same time, however, it is a handout that serves as background for other topics, for example, ecological-economic activity, precariousness and precarisation, or also working conditions and resulting burdens for individuals, their social environment and society in large, including considerations of legal systems and justice. Again, the historical character must be considered: Reception and critique of individual approaches are not necessarily absolute, they also result from the historical constellations, existing as background for the reappraisal of theoretical approaches of the past.

Pandemics … a publication and the afterthought …

8 settembre 20238 settembre 2023 da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in academic life - living in academia, contemporary socio-economic situation, publications, works, works, projects, publications

Just signed a contract, a book titled

Pandemics as a Matter of a System Crisis – Precarity of Society

Springer Nature is the publisher, Prekarisierung und sociale Entkopplung the title of the series, edited by Rolf Hepp and others.

The following are some thoughts, arguing that the topic is still relevant, whatever the next news concerning the virus will be:

Afterthought

While finalising the script, already answering some questions after having submitted a first version, and thus with some time having passed since first taking up the work, it becomes clear to me that than pandemics helped to highlight part of the polity-virus but even without such an extreme and extremely manifest threat the Precarity of Society as System Crisis is sadly obvious.

Sure, Corona is still occasionally issued as threat, new variants striking – but by and large the pandemics are not a topic on the political agenda anymore. This does not mean that the socio-economic consequences are solved. Going together with other major economic crises and hazards small shops are under severe pressure; social provisions and services – be it health care, child care, education and also the capacities of municipal administrations – are overburdened and even standard obligatory acts are hugely delayed, offices closed for the public, allowing staff to catch up with the growing piles of files; the housing situation a matter of serious concern – and the government trying to cushion the problems by occasional grants to relieve the burden on certain groups.

The hopes for a fundamental change, however, burst like soap bubbles: While climate activists are blocking roads and motor highways, highlighting the dangers of global warming, asking for roundtables and negotiations, they are in many cases criminalised and/or met by aggressive measures. At the same time, private transport is fostered, now focusing on electromobility while negotiating the reform of public transport and the relevant pricing systems are suffering from the same weakness as they had been shown above in relation to Covid 19. In Berlin, after a successful referendum I support of the socialisation of the property of large housing corporations according article 15 Basic Law, there are again and again new hurdles erected: socialisation cannot become real, if it goes beyond ruinous payment of selective relief funds …

The emperor’s new dress showing that the ruler is still trapped in the structures of the small princedoms. He only reacts with fear, but without strategy, to the fact that the people have turned their backs on him. In the ‘positive’ case, it is addicted to individualism and withdraws more or less depressively into itself or the family as own little princedom; in the negative case, it follows the populist pied pipers (although such an allusion to the fairy tale of the Pied Piper of Hamlinneeds some qualification). – Still, a certain loyalty to the system is, of course, still maintained by the fact that the powers – be it in business, government and the mass media – still succeed in building up an external enemy. If, though, today’s challenges are global, not knowing any borders, it would be wiser to focus on real cooperation.

Not the Grand Finale … – … Yet

31 ottobre 202231 ottobre 2022 da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in academic life - living in academia, Peter's Log, thoughts on life and its philosophy, works

Not even in terms of work – remember Engels’ remark on labour and work, qualifying work as the activity that is paid for by wages, labour a (specific) physical activity.

Still, it is time to say another time good-bye as done earlier (and here)

– this time from a sideline activity, I could without much exaggeration say: a kind of voluntary work, i.e. the casual teaching at a German third level institution.

It is difficult to present in a note of reasonable length – difficult as reality, this part of reality is full of contradictions. I try to be reasonably correct by putting some poles in the ground, some stumbling blocks – each of them on its own more or less ‘harmless’, ‘right’, ‘correct’, good by way of harmony of its tiny part of the world. Each of these poles is linked to another pole, or some other poles, striking a balance for some time, and collapsing like a house of cards when a butterfly passes, the palace crumbling as result of the stroke of the butterfly.

What are these activities about, how can they be characterised in general terms, leaving aside that each case is different:

* they are securing income – as such privilege and often gratefully accepted; • one may be beneficiary of a colleague’s engagement by which one (= a person like me) gets the job, • just a matter of being at the right time in then right place, e.g. an institution is recruiting people with some specific expertise, • people who like teaching, supplementing their PhD-work …

* it is about securing teaching – one may debate how many students are really “deserving students” = curious, mostly young people – sponging knowledge from A (as in ante portas, the state when the world as we know it only existed as Big Bang) to Z (as in zombie, ultimate part of the current culture which is itself somewhat zombie-like) it is the keen interest of those who are claiming on the many shoulders of great WoMen and the too often forgotten great work of their assistants). Sure, many of the students are more or even only interested in passing exams, answering the guiding question: “What do you want to do with your life” with the succinct wish: “making money, more than I actually need” … – but what can we expect if the main self-advertisement of such institutions is about careers and higher education for the sake of developing critical thinking emerges too often as unwanted side-effect

* — this (kind of) securing third level education by casual teaching (in several cases of third level institutions of the Western educational system a matter of app[roximately] 40 to 50 % – a matter of disencumber the public budget; a budget that for instance had been temporarily ramped by measures of privatisation: selling public goods means in the long run a deprivation of sources of public income

* furthermore, this kind of new division of labour has to be seen as twofold disqualification:

qualified admin work is disqualified – it is suggested that no qualification is needed and everybody, including academics can do it (yes, academics, this species that is for good reason often a welcome object for cartoons presenting the absent-minded, quixotic academic
qualified academic thinking is disqualified as it is overburdened by activities outside of their expertise – leaving aside that it is usually additional and non-remunerated activity, it is also depending on and supporting a specific understanding of the field and we can well speak of “taskification” of the work, defining the substance of teaching in tendency as solely task-oriented – evidenced by the knowledge society being shifted to a skills society ^[1]

* not least, being busy – with admin work; many colleagues also busy as they are in need of chasing for another job, or we may even say task

Yes, it is said that it is easy to find a job; but probably it is more correct to say: it is easy to find work, but still difficult to find work that allows to make a living. Little payment …, or actually highly qualified, if remunerated jobs that many citizens cannot afford. The societal consequences are often disastrous as the following quote from the Berlin Tagesspiegel (Tagesspiegel Checkpoint vom Dienstag, 11.10.2022; own translation P.H.) shows

Equally disturbing are the reports from the health offices, which, according to the president of the medical association, are short of 60 doctors. The erosion is extreme in Neukölln, where the quarrel between the city councillor and the current medical officer has escalated and the social psychiatric service has practically collapsed. In addition, the public health officers are outraged by the city councillor’s idea of having the health offices run by administrative professionals instead of doctors. In Treptow-Köpenick, a lawyer (specialised in medical law) has just started as head of the office.

* Yes, then the polis is a romping place for ruled behaviour … – everything is given, no progress, not even movement its possible anymore: legitimation is a matter of entering rule-abiding processes, an ideal field for “how-to-research”, a cemetery for “why- and-what and what- and why-research” – the place where the past is only known as nightmare.

App – the abbreviation of approximately, used earlier – is today more known as abbreviation of application: application of rules, individual orders or complex systems of standards, regulations and their implementation in single acts or “behavioural standards” – be they meaningful or not, in any case a matter of boxing humans

****

von Jhering, in bis little book on the Trinkgeld, written end of the 19th century, states

It is blamed on us Germans that we leave a stone lying quietly in the path that we bump into – everyone curses it, but no one takes the trouble to move it out of the way or, if it is too heavy for him alone, to call in others to help. … ; everyone complains about it, but everyone leaves it there (to be added: continues doing so, P.H.). The reproach which we raise against the stone is directed against ourselves; he who merely curses a bad habit, instead of helping to eliminate it for his part, accuses himself – everyone who does not have the courage to oppose it is himself jointly responsible for the existence of a bad habit. No one has the right to complain about it but he who can give himself the testimony of having done everything in his power to put an end to it.

It is time then to say good-bye, not now and immediately; not without the famous “crying eye”, looking at those students who are really keen to study: for life and – where necessary – changing its conditions, not for a dull life of excessive self-presentation.^[2]

^[1] can teaching actually be booked via task rabbit – if so, the next step may be ordering it online, YouTube emerging as liferando of the educational system

^[2] “… the twenty-first century is full of people who are full of themselves … a half-hour’s trawl through the online ocean of blogs, tweets … brings up thousands of individuals, fascinated by their own personalities and shouting for attention.” (Sarah Bakewell, 2010: How to live: A Life of Montaigne; London: Chatto and Windus: 1)

The origins and Impacts of Structural Racism in the Western Countries. China Side Event of the UN Human Rights Council’s 50th Session

23 giugno 2022 da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in works, works, projects, publications

会议概要

2022年6月22日下午，联合国人权理事会第50届会议中方边会“美西方结构性种族主义的根源与影响”在长沙召开。本次边会由中国人权研究会主办，中南大学人权研究中心、中南大学法学院承办。来自美国、德国、南非、土耳其、阿根廷、爱尔兰、墨西哥、中国、也门等国家的近三十位专家学者通过线上线下方式参会。与会学者围绕美西方国家结构性种族主义的根源与影响这一主题开展讨论，从不同文化视角审视结构性种族主义的各种根源及其所带来的严峻挑战，探索消除一切形式种族主义的可行路径。

… https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/wauhn-su1U6mT_dvqb72JQ …

coming together

31 gennaio 202226 Maggio 2022 da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in projects, publications, thoughts on life and its philosophy, works, works, projects, publications

Take it together

There is no such thing as society

– the infamous sentence used by Margret Thatcher, now understanding them analytically and the notion of the human being as social being.

Does it suggest the end of humankind?

credentials: https://www.il-faro.com/wp/evoluzione-degli-uffici-arredati/

At least it is problematique to blame Digitisation and Artificial Intelligence for developments of capitalist societies for which they are welcome tools but not origins. This is an argument I presented in a reflection paper titled

DAIS (Digitisation – Artificial Intelligence – Society) – Economy of Every day’s life

中心研究员Peter Herrmann受邀参加“全球经济政策反思：政治经济学的考量—世界政治经济学学会第15届论坛”

20 dicembre 202120 dicembre 2021 da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in academic life - living in academia, contemporary socio-economic situation, thoughts on life and its philosophy, works, works, projects, publications

From https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/yS7gTuJnBpwjVJPUuF5BwQ

2021年12月18至19日，由世界政治经济学学会与上海外国语大学联合举办的“全球经济政策反思：政治经济学的考量—世界政治经济学学会第15届论坛”在上海召开，来自40多个国家近300名学者通过线上或线下方式对诸多议题进行了充分研讨。

欧洲科学与艺术学院院士、中南大学人权研究中心研究员Peter Herrmann受邀参加会议。

在本届论坛第一次全体会议上，Peter Herrmann询问政治经济学如何失去其重点，而将其能力赋予到作为肯定性学科的微观经济学和宏观经济学之中。他强调为了人类发展全球视野所必须解决的五个领域：

政府的复杂性和有限的治理范围；

问题的个性化及其作为社会威胁的出现；

丰富的知识及其对技能的误导；

社会富裕与获取不平等；

商品生产过剩和商品变成“坏品”

更重要的是，Peter Herrmann强调 “经济 “只是对规范的反映和实施，也就是说，它只是一套规则。这也意味着，争取人权的斗争必须被看作是为经济活动制定框架的问题。

Only Data?

27 settembre 2021 da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in projects, thoughts on life and its philosophy, works, works, projects, publications

Datafication, Digitisation, Artificial Intelligence, (New) Singularity … – there are different terms used, as much as there are different terms used to to grasp the character of our societies: burocratisation, red tape, administered society, alienated structures. And we find different metaphors and phenomona: the age-old gaming machine

and the android, nearly impossible to make out as different from the human.

But …, well, there may be a but. Recently a small group of members of the European Academy of Science and Arts met with the aim of establishing a working group on Digitisation, Artificial Intelligence and Ethics, bringing colleagues from different disciplins together. I put some initial ideas together which may also be of general interst and can be found here. There is a good reason to think what it means to exist as human being.

In the shadow of the German elections

27 settembre 2021 da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in contemporary socio-economic situation, general, thoughts on life and its philosophy, works, works, projects, publications

It had been a major day in terms of elections in Germany, going far beyond the elections to the German parliament, which marked the stepping down of Angela Merkel after 16 years as Chancellor. In Berlin there had been four votes, three for the different levels of the federate system, and one that is especially outside of Berlin perhaps not even known: the referendum concerning the expropriation of the Deutsche Wohnen& Co, i.e. major real estate groups. Looking at the figures, it had been a referendum about more than 200.000 flats. As the rbb-website knows:

Everyone who was also allowed to vote in the elections to the House of Representatives was allowed to vote in the referendum. That was around 2.47 million Berliners. The referendum is successful if the majority of those voting ticked “yes”.

And this is what happened: though the final results are not yet available, there had been a clear majority.The vote had not been about the expropriation as such, but about forcing the senate (the Parliament of Berlin) to elaborate a plan for the expropriation. In legal terms a more or less tricky thing, as the referendum referred to article 15, not 14 of the German Basic law – and the term expropriation is far from being clear (— at the end of this blog-post I paste a passage from a text I wrote in a completely different context, to be published soonish).

Here and now I only want to make the vote, or even the fact of the referendum known, and congratulate the initiators.What is going to happen? It is far from being clear; and that means that major work, including campaigning for accommodation as Human Right — this is standing at the bottom line as affordable housing does not exist, not least due to speculation – will be necessary. Not least, if we look at the results of the election. – Again, the rbb-website

Since the referendum “Expropriate Deutsche Wohnen & Co.” will also elect a new House of Representatives, the result of the vote is more or less a basis for consultation for the parties that will negotiate a coalition after the election – probably led by Franziska Giffey (SPD), who recently clearly opposed the referendum.

**********

Interesting aspects had been discussed in the early 1950s by German public and constitutional law. Helmut K.J. Ridder, in a prominent presentation during the annual conference of the public policy and international law academics, engaged in the topic expropriation and socialisation, aiming on specifying the terms.[1] Although his contribution had been very much of the employed by discussing specific issues of the German basic law and it it’s articles 14 and 15, it is of general interest. Summarising the highly differentiated analysis, we have to point on two fundamentally different forms: the one aims on specifying the use of property, without actually changing the legal title whereas the other changes the property title. However, this is only part of the difference. Another, and more important, aspect becomes clear when we follow Ridder’s reflection on the motives. The following quote marks the fundamental difference:

In the case of expropriation, the de-privatisation of property is also seen on the part of the expropriating state or the state granting the right of expropriation, as it were, with an expression of regret for the affected party, necessary for the sake of the administrative project, because a free contractual settlement was or would be rejected by the affected party or would be practically impossible to implement for other reasons.

In the case of social devaluation, the de-privatisation of the assets of the person effected is decisive, because the private character of the assets is thought to be currently or potentially harmful to society. Compared to this negative purpose of social devaluation, the positive aspects of a general nature (new impulses for the national economy, raising the standard of living of broad strata, etc.) are at most of secondary importance and those of a special nature (increasing the profitability in a certain branch of the economy, etc.) are almost insignificant … .[2]

In short, we see in the one case a measure, that intervenes in an individual case, thus making a specific ‘project’ possible; in the other case we are witnessing a kind of system change that is independent of an individual case, aiming on a change of a structural issue. It may be in one case, the intervention allowing to build a road, in the other case it would an intervention that allows to structurally influence the availability of accommodation. Another aspect is occasionally added, also in some way proposed by Ridder: the latter case is distinct from nationalisation, transferring ownership – responsibility for care and use – directly to citizens.

Finally, he suggests that subsequently the social devaluation – unlike expropriation is not a legal institution but a legal form, as such part of a fundamental change:

Cases, regulated by expropriation, can recur randomly. The state uses expropriation ad hoc. That is why its focus is also … on the individual act.

The social devaluation has a unique aim; it fulfils the mission of socialisation. The Basic Law expressly permits, as is appropriate to the matter, only the legislative path for social devaluation according to Article 15. And it is a condition that these laws are not only applied do not only cover a part of the enterprises of a certain branch of industry.[3]

As much as all this is crucially a matter of the economy, it is important to note, that with this the establishment of a mindset is going hand in hand. We can easily see that for instance health related behaviour, health services, and related issues are influenced by this mindset: the question would then be, if health is considered as something that is secured by society or that must be secured by individuals themselves; the question is also, if the individual has in case of transmittable diseases main responsibility towards others.

To conclude, we may say that appropriation should in its definition be linked to an elaborated understanding of appropriateness. Politically this can only be realised by developing a multilateral and global approach towards democracy, on the one hand referring to the fact that we are dealing with the global economy, on the other hand equally accepting the diversity when it comes to the mode of production.

[1] Ridder, Helmut, 1951: Enteignung und Sozialisierung; in: Ungeschriebenes Verfassungsrecht. Enteignung und Sozialisierung. Verhandlungen der Tagung der Deutschen Staatsrechtslehrer zu Göttingen am 18. und 19. Oktober 1951. Mit einem Auszug aus der Aussprache. With contributions by: Ernst von Hippel, Alfred Voigt, Hans P. Ipsen and Helmut K. Ridder Volume 10 in the series Veröffentlichungen der Vereinigung der Deutschen Staatsrechtslehrer; 124-147; https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110900750; 22.09.21

[2] Supra 14: 140

[3] Supra 14: 142

Flying to the Moon

19 luglio 2021 da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in contemporary socio-economic situation, works, works, projects, publications

Work in Progress, together with Maria Yudina

While Sir Richard and JB entered a fierce competition, presumably standing every day in front of a mirror, asking themselves “mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the biggest smartass in the world”, I thought it may be worthwhile to publish the abstract of an article to come.

SOCIAL NARCISSISM – HOW SOCIETY PUSHES US TO OVERESTIMATE OUR CAPACITIES, LEAVING MANY BEHIND

Abstract

Truth is stranger than fiction.

Old Saying (taklen from E.A. Poe: THE THOUSAND-AND-SECOND TALE OF SCHEHERAZADE

The following introduces the concept of overlife, not claiming that it is an entirely new idea, however suggesting that it is a suitable term to bring different problems of contemporary societal development together. Broadly speaking, overload is defined as simultaneously condensing patterns of life and the actual living, i.e. intensifying living by establishing patterns of multitasking; however, doing so occurs for the price of a shallowed concept of life by a differentiated system of standardization. Simplification of cognition and education, not least in the context of digitization, are important factors: The apparently increasing control, everybody experiences, goes hand-in-hand with increasing difficulties of understanding – and enjoying – the complexity with which we are confronted. Still, although this seems to be a secular process concerning humanity and humans in general, control and power remains in the hands of a few who, as individuals and corporations, design life and society. Paradoxically, the theoretically gained possibility to answer complex questions and develop long-term perspectives, turns, at least under capitalist conditions, into narcistic idiosyncrasies, making people fly to outer space for 1.5 hours and wasting huge amounts of monies for the thrill of egos instead of strategically developing socio-economic strategies addressing major challenges as poverty, environmental threats, digitisation and new forms of stupidification.

Categoria: works