Copyright (c) 2009 All rights reserved. http://works.bepress.com/bmartin Recent documents in Assoc. Prof. Brian Martin en-us Sun, 31 May 2009 03:51:01 PDT 3600 http://works.bepress.com/bmartin/31 http://works.bepress.com/bmartin/31 Wed, 28 May 2008 12:06:02 PDT For critics of the Disney Corporation, the World Wide Web is a convenient medium for providing information and expressing concern. The majority of anti-Disney Web sites are run by either Christian or labour rights organisations as utilitarian adjuncts to offline campaigns. In contrast are a number of idiosyncratic individual anti-Disney sites that provide links to criticism from a variety of perspectives. The Web appears to facilitate this type of cross-issue critique. On the other hand, some forms of opposition to Disney, such as by employees and corporate competitors, are largely absent from the Web. Assessing challenges to a corporation by examining Web sites is likely to give a partial picture. B. Martin http://works.bepress.com/bmartin/30 http://works.bepress.com/bmartin/30 Wed, 28 May 2008 12:05:58 PDT Communication is central to the effectiveness of nonviolent action: methods of protest and persuasion are essentially means of communication, while methods of noncooperation and nonviolent intervention have crucial communicative dimensions. As a mode of political communication, nonviolence can be contrasted with rational dialogue, electoral politics and violence, and stands out from them in combining high transformative potential with dialogue and participation. The more well studied dimensions of nonviolence as communication are dialogue with opponents, power equalization to prepare for dialogue, and mobilization of third parties. To these should be added two further dimensions, collective and individual empowerment. Two cases of nonviolent resistance in the Soviet Union - the 1991 coup and the 1953 prison camp strikes at Norilsk and Vorkuta - are used to illustrate the dimensions of nonviolence as communication in practice. These examples reveal the importance of communication in nonviolent action. They also suggest the difficulty in gaining information on empowerment, especially individual empowerment, which may be one reason why these dimensions have been neglected. The five-dimension framework of nonviolence as communication has the limitation that many actions mix two or more dimensions. Examining the communicative dimensions of nonviolence can alert both activists and researchers to the fact that nonviolent actions do not 'speak for themselves'. B. Martin http://works.bepress.com/bmartin/29 http://works.bepress.com/bmartin/29 Wed, 28 May 2008 12:05:53 PDT In September 2005, the Australian government arrested and deported Scott Parkin, a visiting US peace activist. This caused a storm of protest and greatly stimulated community interest in nonviolent action and threats to civil liberties. The Parkin case shows how an injustice can backfire and how activists can use an understanding of backfire dynamics to be more effective. B. Martin http://works.bepress.com/bmartin/28 http://works.bepress.com/bmartin/28 Wed, 28 May 2008 12:05:50 PDT The theory that AIDS originated from contaminated polio vaccines raises a number of challenging issues with ethical dimensions. The Journal of Medical Ethics dealt with a submission about the theory a decade ago; subsequent developments have raised further issues. Four areas of contention are addressed: whether the theory should be investigated, whether anyone should be blamed, whether defamation actions are appropriate and whether the scientific community has a responsibility to examine unorthodox theories. B. Martin http://works.bepress.com/bmartin/27 http://works.bepress.com/bmartin/27 Wed, 28 May 2008 12:05:47 PDT Censorship can backfire because it is usually viewed as a violation of the right to free expression, which is widely valued as an ideal; under the Charter of the United Nations, freedom of expression is a universal human right. Backfire occurs, for example, when censorious attacks on a film or book cultivate increased demand for the forbidden work rather than restrict access to it. Censors can inhibit this backfire effect in various ways, including covering up the censorship, devaluing the target, reinterpreting the action, using official channels, and using intimidation and bribery. These five methods to inhibit backfire from attacks on free speech are illustrated by a variety of cases, including attacks that backfired and ones that did not. This analysis provides guidance for effectively opposing attacks on free expression. S. Curry Jansen http://works.bepress.com/bmartin/26 http://works.bepress.com/bmartin/26 Wed, 28 May 2008 12:05:44 PDT Aged care provision is a burning issue in Japan due to the country's unparalleled longevity and a fraying tradition of children caring for parents. Use of technology offers one approach to helping ease the increasing burden of aged care. Ways of using technology can be conveniently classified into three options. The first is to rely on well-tested technologies developed outside Japan. The second option is for significant Japanese investment in high-technology aged care supports, including robotics. The third option is for significant Japanese development in barrier-free technology, a low-technology direction. Articulating these options and spelling out their likely consequences helps to highlight some of the implicit value judgements involved in Japanese technology policy for aged care. N. Dethlefs http://works.bepress.com/bmartin/25 http://works.bepress.com/bmartin/25 Wed, 28 May 2008 12:05:41 PDT When confronted by terrorism, governments normally respond with repression, which can aggravate the problem. But there are alternatives for dealing with terrorism, including social justice, technological resilience, communication choking, civilian counterterrorism and nonviolent action. B. Martin http://works.bepress.com/bmartin/24 http://works.bepress.com/bmartin/24 Wed, 28 May 2008 12:05:38 PDT Electroshock, stun and restraint technologies are often used for torture and as tools of repression. There is much information available exposing the problems with such technologies but little about how to be effective in challenging their use. The concept of political jiu-jitsu - the process by which an attack on a nonviolent resister can backfire on the attackers - is introduced and adapted to examine challenges to electroshock weapons. In order to make these weapons backfire, it is important to emphasise the value of potential targets, to expose secret dealings, to reveal the harm caused by the weapons and to communicate clearly to a wide audience. A longer-term goal is policy change to deny access by torturing states to such repressive tools. Countershock strategies and methodologies are introduced here as potential tools to create ever-expanding torture-technology-free zones. B. Martin http://works.bepress.com/bmartin/23 http://works.bepress.com/bmartin/23 Wed, 28 May 2008 12:05:35 PDT There are many well-qualified scientists who question long-established physics theories even when paradigms are not in crisis. Challenging scientific orthodoxy is difficult because most scientists are educated and work within current paradigms and have little career incentive to examine unconventional ideas. Dissidence is a strategic site for learning about the dynamics of science. Dozens of well-qualified scientists who challenge dominant physics paradigms were contacted to determine how they try to overcome resistance to their ideas. Some such challengers obtain funding in the usual ways; others tap unconventional sources or use their own funds. For publishing, many challengers use alternative journals and attend conferences dedicated to alternative viewpoints; publishing on the web is of special importance. Only a few physics dissidents come under attack, probably because they have not achieved enough prominence to be seen as a threat. Physics could benefit from greater openness to challenges; one way to promote this is to expose students to unconventional views. J. M. Campanario http://works.bepress.com/bmartin/22 http://works.bepress.com/bmartin/22 Wed, 28 May 2008 12:05:32 PDT There is a distinct difference in the way that different theories about the origin of AIDS have been treated, with the widely supported cut-hunter theory given relatively little scrutiny while the oral-polio-vaccine theory has been subject to intense criticism. This difference in treatment cannot be explained as application of the scientific method. A better explanation is that the burden of proof is put on all contenders to the cut-hunter theory, giving it an unfair advantage, especially given that this assignment of the burden of proof appears to reflect nonscientific factors. B. Martin