The Imagined Immunities of Defense Nationalism

This article examines the narratives, imaginaries, and subjectivities that underpin the far-right, ethnic nationalist “defense leagues” that have emerged in Australia (and across Europe) in the past decade. Referencing three, interrelated nationalist events in Australia—the Cronulla Riots, Cronulla Memorial Day, and the “race-riot” that occurred in Melbourne on January 5, 2019—I argue that defense leagues resist conceptualization through existing theories of nationalism and community, including those articulated by Anderson, Hage, and Esposito. Drawing on Lacanian psychoanalytic theory, I argue that unlike other nationalists, defense nationalists are not primarily concerned with realizing their avowed political projects (such as fortifying national borders, halting immigration, and preserving so-called national values). Instead, they are focused on constructing and enjoying themselves as the privileged national subjects who get to do the nation's defending. As I elaborate, the enjoyment they derive from defending the nation—which is approximate to the Lacanian concept of jouissance—means that paradoxically, that which threatens the nation legitimizes and fortifies the nationalist, because the more the nation is threatened, the more the nationalist's perceived role within it is secured. Ultimately, I argue this jouissance salvages a symbolic life within the nation that is always-already dead.     

Differentiated perceptions of exertion: part II. relationship to local and central physiological responses

Differentiated ratings of perceived exertion in the legs and chest were compared to local and central physiological adjustments during submaximal cycle ergometer exercise. 50 male subjects performed three separate cycle ergometer tests. Power output was held constant at 840 kpm/min., while pedalling rate was randomly set at 40, 60, or 80 rpm. Differentiated reports of exertion from the legs were considered to be local signals and reports from the chest to be central signals. Ratings of exertion for the legs, chest and over-all body were each significantly higher at 40 rpm than 60 or 80 rpm. Heart rate, oxygen uptake, ventilation and respiratory rate were also higher at 40 rpm. Lactic acid, pH, and pCO2 were similar between pedalling rates. Lactic acid did not operate differentially to influence local perceptual signals from the legs. Central measures of respiratory and aerobic metabolic adjustments were consistent with the more intense regional report of chest exertion at 40 rpm.     

I’ll just watch: Do the pro-social effects of coordination really generalize to non-actors?

ABSTRACT

Moving in time together has been shown to cultivate pro-social effects in co-actors, such as cooperation and helping. But less is known about who these effects apply to – whether they are restricted only to co-actors, or whether they generalize to those not involved in the coordination. One difference between past work finding generalized vs. restricted effects is whether these “outsiders” were present for the coordination or not. The present study explores whether the pro-social effects of coordination are seen towards observers as well as co-actors, and whether the absence or presence of observers during the coordination is a determining factor. Results show that greater cooperation following coordination is only seen amongst co- actors, regardless of whether the observers were present during the task or not. Findings are discussed in the context of the literature and alternative explanations for research showing generalized effects are suggested.     

Campus conspiracies: security and intelligence engagement with universities from Kent State to counter-terrorism

ABSTRACT

Security and intelligence agency concerns with universities range from the commissioning and protection of security-sensitive research, the ongoing recruitment of staff and students for covert security and intelligence work, as well as prominent counter-terrorist concerns. This is an ethically charged terrain of moral ambiguity which raises issues not only of academic freedom and freedom of speech but a less explored, cross-disciplinary complex of intelligence-led interactions from protection of campus property and personnel to ideological battles at the heart of the Academy itself. Current-day counterterrorism on campus agendas is, then, only an intensified aspect of an historical but ongoing and likely future interface between universities and security and intelligence agencies. Drawing on exemplars from the Kent State University shootings on 4 May 1970 at the height of the Vietnam War to the present era of globalised counter-terrorism, the article uses securitisation theory to conceptualise the historical, contemporary and future parameters of university engagements with the security and intelligence agencies as ‘Incidental’, ‘Incendiary’, and ‘Inevitable’.     

Comparing Zoos and the Media as Conservation Educators

ABSTRACT

Resident non-participation is a major contemporary issue for the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center (Udvar-Hazy Center), a recently opened companion facility to the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum on the National Mall. The current study investigates the motivations and characteristics of local non-visitors. Residents from three surrounding counties comprised the study population and, as part of the larger study, responded to statements pertaining to reasons for non-visitation to the Udvar-Hazy Center, derived and modified for a museum context from the leisure constraints literature. Analysis of non-visitors, about one-half of the sample, resulted in the identification of relatively homogenous minimally-constrained, awareness-constrained, time-constrained, and access-constrained clusters. Managerial implications of these findings are considered.