Roland Benedikter

Social Banking and Social Finance

This small volume provides a concise introduction to contemporary social banking and social finance. Written in a short and easily understandable manner, it explains the history, the philosophy, the current state, and the perspectives of social banking and social finance. It describes their place within the global economy and the visions of their “global alliances” for the years to come. The focus is on the basic mindset that gave birth to social banks about a century ago, and that still constitutes their main driving force in the age of globalization, and on the comparison of the current state of social banking in the United States and Europe. Since most social banks are found on both sides of the Atlantic, their interplay can be considered as instructive also regarding the worldwide development of social finance.

Culture, subjectivity, and the ethics of patient-centered pain care

Even the most scientifically reductionist view of the individual reveals that we are complex systems nested within complex systems. These interactions within and among systems are based and depend on numerous variables of our (internal and external) environment(s). If we define ethics as a system of moral decision making, then it becomes clear that these decisions ultimately affect the situation(s) of managing our activities and relationships with others in our environment (in essence, our being in the world). Given that ecology literally means “a study or system of wisdom and reasoning about the interrelation of organisms in their environment or place of inhabitance,” Owen Flanagans description of ethics as “human ecology” takes on considerable relevance and importance.

Der Machttransfer 2012-13 und die Perspektiven: Demokratisierung oder Rechtsstaat?

Die Zukunft Chinas erscheint im Gefolge des 18. Parteitags der Kommunistischen Partei Chinas vom November 2012 und nach dem Abschluss des Machtubergangsprozesses an die Generation Xi Jinping im April 2013 unsicherer, als viele Beobachter erwartet hatten, und damit auch offener als noch vor Jahren. Das weckt nicht nur Angste, sondern auch Hoffnungen auf gesellschaftspolitischen Fortschritt, und zwar sowohl innerhalb wie auserhalb des Landes. Die Machtubergabe von einer im vergangenen Jahrzehnt erfolgreichen, aber zuletzt von zahlreichen Skandalen erschutterte Generation von Eliten an eine noch wenig bekannte neue Fuhrungsriege fuhrte sogar zu Traumen einer moglichen „metakommunistischen“ Liberalisierung, wenn nicht gar Demokratisierung. Der Optimismus von Dissidenten, Zivilgesellschaftern und westlichen Politikern schien im Gefolge der Machtubergabe so gros wie selten an neueren historischen Ubergangspunkten des Landes.

The global imaginary, new media and sociopolitical innovation in the periphery: the practical case of an Internet-based empowerment project in Palestine and Israel

This paper is concerned with a description of the way in which a particular group of marginalized peoples in Palestine are using digital network technologies as part of a campaign of non-violent resistance to their conditions. It is an engaging story of what is a case study in the way communications technologies are becoming part of broader struggles for liberation not just in the ‘connected’ centres, but also in more isolated areas. The aims of the international empowerment project called ‘Nonviolence 2.0’ are to serve as a forum for developing peace, understanding and tolerance between groups engaged in a long and ongoing conflict. What is significant in it is the use of personal narratives that humanize both sides of the conflict, as well as of mobile technologies to record and reflect conflict by general citizens. The paper deploys some theoretical constructs (such as imagination actions) to frame its – purposefully in large parts rather descriptive than analytic – presentation of this ongoing project.

Der chinesische Geist und seine politischen Wirkungen. Kulturelle Grundgesten des Reichs der Mitte – und ihre Folgen für zu erwartende strategische Grundhaltungen

Der chinesische Geist hat zu allen Zeiten das Handeln der politischen Eliten informiert und ausgerichtet. Vielleicht sogar starker – und sicher kontinuierlicher und uber die Zeiten unveranderlicher – als das Christentum im Westen. Welche Rolle spielen Konfuzianismus und Taoismus, das nicht immer konfliktfreie Paar, im heutigen Ubergangs-China unter Xi Jinping? Und wie werden sie die Politiken der neuen Fuhrung beeinflussen?