RE: Reections and Explorations A Forum for Deliberative Dialogue Edited by Max O. Stephenson Jr. and Lyusyena Kirakosyan RE: Reflections and Explorations Volume II in the “RE: Reflections and Explorations” series In 2013, the Virginia Tech Institute for Policy and Governance (VTIPG) launched an edited online essay series, RE: Reflections and Explorations, for Virginia Tech graduate students to share articles and commentaries about their evolving research, interests and experiences on topics relevant to the VTIPG mission. The “RE: Reflections and Explorations” book series features essays from the online platform selected and edited by VTIPG Director Max Stephenson Jr. and affiliated research faculty member Lyusyena Kirakosyan. Volume I of the series was published in 2015. RE: REFLECTIONS AND EXPLORATIONS A Forum for Deliberative Dialogue Virginia Tech Blacksburg, Virginia Copyright © 2017 Virginia Tech Individual chapters copyright © 2017 respective authors First Published 2017 by Virginia Tech Institute for Policy and Governance in association with VT Publishing. Virginia Tech Institute for Policy and Governance 201 West Roanoke St. Blacksburg, VA 24061 VT Publishing Virginia Tech University Libraries 560 Drillfield Drive Blacksburg, VA 24061 This collection and its individual chapters are covered by the following Creative Commons License: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) Youare free to: Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format. The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms. Under the following terms: Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. Specifically, you must state that the work was originally published in RE: Reflections and Explorations A Forum for Deliberative Dialogue (2017), Max O. Stephenson Jr. and Lyusyena Kirakosyan, eds., and you must attribute the individual authors. NonCommercial — You may not use the material for commercial purposes. NoDerivatives — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you may not distribute the modified material. No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits. The above is a summary of the full license, which is available at the following URL: https://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Series enumeration supplied by publisher. ISBN: 978-0-9963838-3-7 (PDF) ISBN: 978-0-9963838-4-4 (ePub) ISBN: 978-0-9963838-5-1 (paperback) DOI: http://doi.org/10.21061/vtipg.re.v2 Every effort has been made to contact and acknowledge copyright owners, but the editors would be pleased to have any errors or omissions brought to their attention, so that corrections may be published in future editions. Book cover images by Andrew Morikawa. Photo editing by Valquiria Alves Zorzan. ContentsContents Acknowledgments x Foreword xi Editor's Preface xv I. Neoliberalism and its Implications for Governance 1. Public vs. Private Good: How Neoliberalism has Changed the Role 3 of Higher Education and Created Issues of Access Chris Davidson 2. Alternative Agrifood, as a Social Movement, as a Community of 9 Practice and as One Voice Lorien MacAuley 3. Beyond (internal) Colonization, Blame and Binaries: Towards a 14 Relational Economy Jordan Laney 4. The Youth Bulge in the Middle East and North Africa is Breaking 21 Higher Education in the Region: How to Address the Challenge? Donald Back 5. Biopiracy and the Threat to Indigenous Knowledge 27 Ashleigh Breske 6. Hashtag Revolutions, Spectacles and Politics 31 Johannes Grow 7. The Land-Crisis Nexus: Commodification of Nature as a Means of 36 Crisis Management Vera Smirnova 8. Evaluating the Meaning of Consent in the Gig-economy 43 Putu D. Apriliani II. Foreign Policy and International Relations 9. What the Eurozone Crisis Can Tell us about Sino-American 51 Relations Sascha Engel 10. Shifting Signals in the “Two” Chinas 56 Jamie Sanchez 11. Korean Comfort Women: Bargaining Chips in East-Asian 62 International Relations D’Elia Chandler 12. Migrant Crises: The Cosmopolitan Imperative 71 Jake Keyel 13. America’s Recent Military Actions in the Middle East 76 Joseph Karle 14. Protecting Cultural Property and Heritage Sites during Conflict 81 Ashleigh Breske 15. Empires and Barbarians: The EU and Violence at its Margins 86 Johannes Grow III. Intricacies of Interest Politics 16. Academic Freedom for Whom: Institutions or Individuals? 93 Jerald H. Walz 17. The Challenge of Heterogeneity: The Frailty of the Pan-Africanist 99 Ideal Saul N’Jie 18. Extending an Olive Branch: The Oath Keepers and the Paranoid 103 Style in American Politics Alex Stubberfield 19. The Unaccounted Risks of Public Private Partnerships 111 Priscila Izar 20. Theorizing Technological Change and Participatory Practices in 118 Workplaces Luis Felipe Camacho 21. 4’33” at the Edge of Intelligibility 122 Sascha Engel 22. Reflections on Social Norms, Women and Public Space 130 Natalie Patterson 23. Politics, Prediction and the Rise of Donald Trump 134 Amiel Bernal IV. Grassroots Activism and Social Change 24. The "Ban the Box" Movement: What it Says about Local Power 141 Sarah Halvorson-Fried 25. Faith Communities and Food Security: A Match Made in Heaven? 144 Rebecca Landis 26. Keeping our Hands on the Plow: A Personal Reflection on 148 Organizing and Empowering Mountain Youth Jordan Laney 27. Trends in the Nonprofit Sector: A Fresh Call for Change 155 Sarah Hanks 28. Understanding the Green Economy 160 Vanessa Guerra 29. Social Movements, Neoliberal Policy and Indian Democracy 167 Pallavi Raonka 30. What Machine Kills Fascists? A Critical Reflection on the Political 173 Power of Sound in the Trump Era Jordan Laney 31. Is Climate Change Real? Climate Science and the Human Outlook 181 Kannikha Kolandaivelu V. Social, Political and Community Agendas in Development 32. Pondering the Nexus of Poverty, Human Dignity and Development 187 Danny White 33. The Effects of Greenbelt Policy in Seoul, Korea 192 Yehyun An 34. Ontological Reflections on the Quest for Rural Sustainability 201 Anna Erwin 35. "Bouncing Back" to Poverty: Exploring the Meaning of Resilience in 205 a Time of Capitalist Crisis Vera Smirnova 36. Roma in Romania—Of Expectation and Agency 209 Rebecca Powell Doherty 37. The Unnoticed Contextual Realities of Hillbilly Elegy 213 Jordan Laney 38. Globalization and Sustainable Development 223 Vanessa Guerra 39. "Hogra" and Youth Exclusion in the MENA region 227 Nada Berrada VI. Participatory Democratic Practices 40. Accountability in the Nonprofit Sector: The Donor’s Role in 235 Financing and Monitoring Social Change Sarah Hanks 41. Academic Freedom: Anarchistic Brouhaha or Ordered Liberty? 239 Jerald H. Walz 42. Beyond Interests: Symbiogenic Resonance and the Democratic 246 Subject Alex Stubberfield 43. Surveilling to Remember: The Impact of Technology on American 255 Democracy Mary Ryan 44. A Latent Resilience Capacity: Public Libraries and Community 261 Emergency Response Michal Linder-Zarankin 45. What is Special about Paralympic Volunteering? 267 Lyusyena Kirakosyan 46. Cooperatives and an Ongoing Practice of Democracy 271 Jake Keyel 47. “Fake News” in Informational Ecology 277 Alex Stubberfield VII. Dimensions of Social In(Ex)clusion 48. Where the Wild Things Grow: Nature, Politics and Indigenous 285 Ontologies Rachael Kennedy 49. Why Motivations Matter in Addressing Discriminatory Hiring 289 Practices Sarah Halvorson-Fried 50. Good Government, Community and Policing: Police Brutality and 293 Civic Peace Mary Ryan 51. The Act of Killing: Reckoning with the Violence of the Past and the 299 Stories We Tell Robert Flahive 52. Who is Talking? Paradigm Shifts, Knowledge-Power and the Aquatic 305 Ape Lorien MacAuley 53. Musings on the Human-Ecology Imaginary 312 Rachael Kennedy 54. Ethics Versus Efficiency in Global Healthcare 317 Rebecca Powell-Doherty 55. Academic Freedom and Shared Governance: Does One Protect the 322 Other? Jerald H. Walz Contributors 333 Editors 351 Index 352 For Jessica who is daily an inspiration and catalyst for hope. MOS For Mauricio who has been a constant source of love, motivation, support and insight. LK Acknowledgments We wish foremost to thank the graduate students who share their imagination and talent in this volume’s essays. RE: Reflections and Explorations is their series and an impressive testimony to their intellectual reach and prodigious energy. Thank you, too, to Regina Naff, of the Institute for Policy and Governance, for her enthusiastic support of this book. In ways large and small, we know we could not have brought it to fruition without her good will and many efforts. We also wish to acknowledge Peter Potter and Robert Browder of the Virginia Tech libraries for assistance in navigating today’s emerging publishing world. They were always available and always willing to provide needed guidance, and we thank them. Finally, Max Stephenson Jr. wishes to thank his co-editor Lyusyena Kirakosyan for her imagination, energy and thoughtfulness. Her collaboration made this enterprise not only intellectually fascinating, but a pleasure to undertake at every turn. In turn, Lyusyena Kirakosyan wishes to thank Max Stephenson Jr. for his leadership and mentorship that has ensured the continuity of the RE: Reflections and Explorations graduate student essay series and this