Analysing Biopower And Agency Linked To Euthanasia Philosophy Essay

Analysing Biopower And Agency Linked To Euthanasia Philosophy Essay Human life can be perceived as a way of being that ensures autonomy upon the physical body. However, state authority, surveillance and law are moderating this individual freedom and moral decision-making. Nowadays, euthanasia remains a highly controversial and sensitive medical and ethical issue. My research and final thesis for the master will focus on the narratives of people, residing in houses for the elderly in Antwerp, Belgium. Emphasis is placed on whether upcoming media interest in euthanasia influences elderly thoughts and decision making regarding assisted suicide. Wishes about end-of-life decisions, opinions of relatives and law interpretations of medical practitioners are being investigated in this study. And finally the way government’s authority influences people’s agency in end-of-life decision making. With this paper, I intend to widen my knowledge of two main anthropological topics linked to the subject of euthanasia, namely biopower and agency. Biopol itics concern the political implications of social and biological facts and phenomena, with political choice and action directly afflicting all aspects of human life. Agency, on the other hand, can be seen as an alternative attempt to maintain autonomy in one’s own life and death, under the influence of the state’s disciplining interference. Both forms of power are studied in this paper, and their interrelationship is critically viewed. Keywords: Biopolitics, Agency, Power, Health, Ethics 2. The history of biopower In Foucault’s The Birth of Biopolitics (Lectures at the College de France, 1978-1979), an analysis of liberalism and neoliberalism as forms of biopolitics is presented. According to Foucault, biopower can be perceived as a technology of power, intending to manage individuals as a group. This political technology differentiates because of its ability to control populations as a whole, and is thus essential to the development of modern capitalism (Fouca ult, 2008). This shift from the managing and micro-controlling of individuals to disciplining a population emerged in the eighteenth-century. Even though this seems as an opportunity to gain more natural rights and liberty for individuals, this liberal government no longer limits state power because of the incompatible tension between freedom and security (Foucault, 2008, McSweeney, 2010). As Foucault argued, liberalism concerns the biopolitical. For liberalism promotes an imagined self-governing of life through a certain capture and disciplining of natural forces of aggression and desire within the framework of a cultural game, governed by civil conventions and instituted laws (Foucault, 2004). In this conception, ‘life is as much of a cultural construct as is law, although the naturalness of life, thought of as innately self-regulating, is always insinuated. Both in economics and in politics, liberalism rejoice in an order that is supposed to emerge naturally from the clash of passions themselves (Milbank, 2008: 2).’ Rabinow and Rose seek to enlighten the developments in Foucault’s concept of biopower, which ‘serves to bring into view a field comprised of more or less rationalized attempts to intervene upon the vital characteristics of human existence (Rabinow, 2006: 196-197).’ Foucault distinguishes two poles of biopower: the first one focuses on an anatomo-politics of the human body, seeking to maximize its forces and integrate it into efficient systems. The second pole entails biopolitics of the population, focusing on the species body, the body imbued with the mechanisms of life: birth, morbidity, mortality and longevity (Rose, 2007: 53). Thus, according to Rabinow and Rose, ‘we can use the term ‘biopolitics’ to embrace all the specific strategies and contestations over problematizations of collective human vitality, morbidity and mortality; over the forms of knowledge, regimes of authority and practice s of intervention that are desirable, legitimate and efficacious (Rabinow, 2006: 197).’

Final Exam Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 2

Final Exam - Coursework Example Since the northern states had more private wealth of their own, the southern government had to borrow money from them and help restore their economy (Knowles & Healey, 2006). By the time the civil war was coming to an end, the value of the Confederate dollar had really dropped in comparison to the Union money. Life became so expensive in the south and people started starving due the inflation of the price of even basic needs including food commodities. Slavery was also legalized with most slaves being African Americans who worked nonstop in their employers’ cotton. With the slaves no longer available, it meant that no more cotton was being produced hence no income from it (Harris, 2008). In the political realm, southern leaders came back to the Washington capital and the federal government controlled each of the southern sates one by one. Abraham Lincoln initialized strategic plans for reconstructing the southern states. In the year 1865, he introduced a bureau that gave the once slaves a right to get educated, be employed with better jobs and get good healthcare. An amendment was also introduced that totally did away with the once legalized slavery. On my own individual account, I would have liked to live from the years 1866 onwards due to the good leadership implemented by Lincoln because there were job opportunities, good healthcare facilities and also the southern and northern states were united (Gillman, 2002). In the 20th century, the U.S historical course changed whereby a great industrial revolution took place, to the extent of becoming the best in the world in terms of industrial management and output. Availability of land, labour, natural resources, capital and good transport networks lead to production and transport of many goods and services that increased the annual income of the citizens after the previous inflation. The present-day America has got large and

Sustainability as a source of competitive advantage in the hospitality Dissertation

Sustainability as a source of competitive advantage in the hospitality industry - Dissertation Example This is not to say that hotel patronage is solely determined by tourist take-up rates, because there is a significant amount of business that is generated by customers whose trips are related to business. Good examples of these are regional conventions or other such gatherings where a good number of participants come from distant locations, and need to stay over at hotels. Other than these, however, tourists typically stay for longer periods of time and more benefited from the hotel’s services and amenities. Because of the contracting revenues as a result of the economic crisis, hotels feel the need to develop new, non-traditional sources of competitive advantage. Simultaneous with this need is the challenge posed to business and industry to reduce emission levels as well as their environmental footprints. 1.2 Statement of the problem The tourism and hospitality industry is one of those industries particularly suited to usher in economic progress for most developing countries. It is also poised to be the industry that jumpstarts the ailing economies for those developed countries severely impacted by the global recession. Since sustainability is a major issue in the selection of hotels by visiting tourists, and inasmuch as travellers’ first act in booking a hotel is to learn about it from its website, the projection of sustainability through the website gains paramount importance for the business. The problem this research seeks to address may thus be stated as: How does sustainability applied by hotel companies impact on customer satisfaction? 1.3 Purpose of the study The purpose of undertaking the research is to discover and analyse the predominant environmental sustainability policies and practices disclosed by hotel companies as experienced by their customers. Since visitors to hotels are diverse and ha ve different needs and expectations, the current â€Å"greening† of hotel accommodations and amenities would tend to impact them in different ways, some favourably and some unfavourably. Those customers who understand and support the global need for sustainability will tend to approve of and support the present efforts in the hotel industry to install more environment-friendly amenities. However, those for whom sustainability is not an important consideration may be indifferent to the changes, and maybe even resentful of the added costs entailed, or the feeling of displacement due to the adoption of more efficient, cost-saving features. This study is informed by academic literature on customer acceptance and preferences for sustainable hotel services, and elements of customer satisfaction in the hotel industry. The study by Millar and Baloglu (2008) on hotel guests’ preferences for green hotel attributes, and that of Dominici and Guzzo (2010) on customer satisfaction i n the hotel industry in general, provided the theoretical framework for the study. 1.4 Objectives of the study In order to provide the best possible conclusion to the research problem, the following objectives have been identified which the study hopes to attain: 1.4.1 To identify the elements of sustainability relevant to hotel companies; 1.4.2 To analyse the sustainability attributes of hotel companies’ services as perceived and experienced by hotel guests; 1.4.3 To analyse elements of sustainability that impact upon customer satisfaction in the hotel industry; and 1.4.4 To determine market directions in the demand for