Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity

Recent interest in aspects common to quantum information and condensed matter has prompted a flurry of activity at the border of these disciplines that were far distant until a few years ago. Numerous interesting questions have been addressed so far. Here an important part of this field, the properties of the entanglement in many-body systems, are reviewed. The zero and finite temperature properties of entanglement in interacting spin, fermion, and boson model systems are discussed. Both bipartite and multipartite entanglement will be considered. In equilibrium entanglement is shown tightly connected to the characteristics of the phase diagram. The behavior of entanglement can be related, via certain witnesses, to thermodynamic quantities thus offering interesting possibilities for an experimental test. Out of equilibrium entangled states are generated and manipulated by means of many-body Hamiltonians.

/pdf/entanglement-in-many-body-systems-sqpatuxt14.pdf

Entanglement in many-body systems

/pdf/the-precariat-the-new-dangerous-class-3tq7b7h7fg.pdf

The Precariat. The New Dangerous Class

The biological existence of human beings has become political in novel ways. The object, target and stake of this new 'vital' politics are human life itself. The contemporary state does not 'nationalize' the corporeality of its subjects into a body politic on which it works en masse, in relation to the body politics of other states competing in similar terms. Biopolitics addresses human existence at the molecular level: it is waged about molecules, amongst molecules, and where the molecules themselves are at stake. Human beings in contemporary Western culture are increasingly coming to understand themselves in somatic terms – corporeality has become of the most important sites for ethical judgements and techniques. Biopolitics was inextricably bound up with the rise of the life sciences, the human sciences, clinical medicine. It has given birth to techniques, technologies, experts and apparatuses for the care and administration of the life of each and all, from town planning to health services.

/pdf/the-politics-of-life-itself-4278mv6s8b.pdf

The Politics of Life Itself

This article explores contemporary biopolitics in the light of Michel Foucault's oft quoted suggestion that contemporary politics calls `life itself' into question. It suggests that recent developm...

This is the fi rst of a two-part paper on penal exceptionalism in Scandinavia — that is, low rates of imprisonment and humane prison conditions. Part I examines the roots of this exceptionalism in Finland, Norway and Sweden, arguing that it emerges from the cultures of equality that existed in these countries which were then embedded in their social fabrics through the universalism of the Scandinavian welfare state.

/pdf/scandinavian-exceptionalism-in-an-era-of-penal-excess-part-i-2ihwtalffe.pdf

SCANDINAVIAN EXCEPTIONALISM IN AN ERA OF PENAL EXCESS Part I : The Nature and Roots of Scandinavian Exceptionalism

Part II of this paper examines the current for prospects for Scandinavian exceptionalism. It argues that Finland, Norway and Sweden have all experienced, to a degree, declines in earlier levels of social solidarity, security and homogeneity, jeopardizing the future of their low levels of imprisonment and humane prison conditions. These experiences have not, though, been uniform—Sweden is now most at risk, the other two less so. The paper goes on to discuss the broader political and sociological implications of Scandinavian exceptionalism in the contemporary era of penal excess.

/pdf/scandinavian-exceptionalism-in-an-era-of-penal-excess-part-5edl21antl.pdf

Scandinavian Exceptionalism in an Era of Penal Excess: Part II: Does Scandinavian Exceptionalism Have a Future?

1 Introduction, the editors Part 1: Punitive Trends 2. The great leap backward: imprisonment in America from Nixon to Clinton, Loic Wacquant 3. Crime control in western countries, 1970 to 2000, Lyn Hinds 4. Continuity, rupture or just more of the 'volatile and contradictory'?: glimpses of New South Wales' penal practice behind and through the discursive, David Brown 5. Supermax meets death row: legal struggles around the new punitiveness in the USA, Mona Lynch 6. The liberal veil: revisiting Canadian penality, Dawn Moore and Kelly Hannah-Moffat 7. Contemporary statecraft and the 'punitive obsession': a critique of the new penology thesis, Roy Coleman and Joe Sim Part 2: Globalisation, Technology and Surveillance 8. Globalisation and the new punitiveness, Estella Baker and Julian V. Roberts 9. Engaging with punitive attitudes towards crime and punishment: some strategic lessons from England and Wales, Mick Ryan 10. The ad and the form: punitiveness and technological culture, Katjo Franko Aaas 11. Electronic monitoring, satellite tracking and the new punitiveness in England and Wales, Mike Nellis Part 3: Non-Punitive Societies 12. Levels of punitiveness in Scandinavia: description and explanation, Ulla Bondeson 13. Missing the punitive turn? Canadian criminal justice, 'balance' and penal modernism, Jeffrey Meyer and Pat O'Malley 14. When is a society non-punitive? The Italian case, David Nelken Part 4: Explanations 15. Modernity and the punitive, Simon Hallsworth 16. Elias, punishment and civilisation, John Pratt 17. Liberal exclusions and the new punitiveness, Mark Brown 18. Rethinking narratives of penal change in global context, Wayne Morrison

The new punitiveness : trends, theories, perspectives

Over the course of the last decade or so, it has become increasingly apparent that modern penality is undergoing significant change. One aspect of this refiguring of the penal spectrum involves a g...

Emotive and Ostentatious Punishment: Its Decline and Resurgence in Modern Society

This article examines the growth, influence and limits of penal populism in New Zealand. In this country, it argues, there were four crucial factors associated with this: disenchantment with the ex...

John Pratt

Papers

SCANDINAVIAN EXCEPTIONALISM IN AN ERA OF PENAL EXCESS Part I : The Nature and Roots of Scandinavian Exceptionalism

Scandinavian Exceptionalism in an Era of Penal Excess: Part II: Does Scandinavian Exceptionalism Have a Future?

The new punitiveness : trends, theories, perspectives

Emotive and Ostentatious Punishment: Its Decline and Resurgence in Modern Society

Penal populism in New Zealand