Browsing by Supervisor "Leeuwen van, Bart"
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Item From centralization to decentralization: analyzing power distribution patterns for achieving just policies and equitable resource distribution(2023-06-23) Gijsen, FleurThis master’s thesis investigates the optimal distribution of political power between multiple governmental levels to achieve just policy and a just division of resources. Drawing on the theories of John Rawls, Iris Marion Young, and Murray Bookchin, the research focuses on the complexities of power distribution within governance structures as a result of diversifying societies. The authors are put on a spectrum of decentralization to centralization linked to their preference for a certain power distribution. The research critically evaluates the authors’ theories and proposes a “regional governance alliance” as a concrete power allocation framework. Rawls’s theory of distributive justice emphasizes a fair distribution of resources with a focus on benefiting the least advantaged members of society, which is called the maximin principle. His idea of the basic structure represents his preference for one central government. Furthermore, Young highlights pluralism, diversity, and the elimination of institutionalized domination and oppression as the basis for justice. She favors multiple large regional governments as the lowest level of governance. Bookchin’s conception of justice centers on freedom, ecological sustainability, and decentralized self-governance at the municipal level. Bookchin prefers assemblies on the neighborhood level to gain the most power. Through a critical evaluation, the thesis formulates a power allocation framework based on the contributions of the three authors. The conclusion identifies the “regional governance alliance” as a just governmental power distribution. This system involves a regional parliamentary government responsible for multiple aspects.Item Homelessness and teh Role of Self-Responibility: A luck Egalitarian and Democratic Egalitarian Assessment(2019-07-02) Broeke ten, PIn this urban political theoretical study, homelessness is analyzed from a continental normative perspective. Current contributions in political theory do not account for a dominant discourse in society, namely that help should be dependent on the question of self-responsibility. This research therefore analyzed homelessness from a luck egalitarian and democratic equalitarian perspective. It shows that the difference between option luck and brute bad luck cannot morally and empirically be used on homelessness. Democratic equality and the capabilities approach offer a sound alternative to it. In the end, this research pleads for a paradigm switch from a etymological perspective towards a more personal perspective.Item Inhumane Deviancy: A normative assessment of the challenge of homelessness(2021-07-13) Stubbe, LauriensThis thesis discusses two fundamentally opposing normative approaches to homelessness in order to assess whether the challenge of homelessness is a problem of care or a problem of deviancy. On the one hand, there is the difference approach which argues that current society is not respecting the alternative way of living of the homeless which is problematic since this wrongly reduces the homeless to less worthy individuals. On the other hand, there is the care approach which argues that fundamental needs of the homeless are in jeopardy – most importantly the lack of a home – which is problematic since this leads to an unworthy life. Whilst the difference approach attempts to solve the challenge by offering a new interpretation of citizenship which is more accommodating for different lifestyles, the care approach focusses on the provision of care in order to meet a minimal threshold of basic human needs. Although the difference approach tries to work around the stigmatization of the homeless, this thesis argues that this is not sufficiently solving the challenge since it rather helps the homeless dwelling which leads to both the lagging behind on the provision of basic needs and unavoidable normalization (‘looking down upon’). However, this thesis also argues that the care approach is not completely free from problems due to the use of coercion. Concludingly, both approaches cannot truly ‘end’ homelessness but do help the homeless to some extent. Therefore, society should no longer be indecisive of divided concerning what approach to support and commit to one of both. This thesis argues that the care approach is better suited in assessing and solving the challenge of homelessness as a first step since it offers an immediate solution to the challenge.Item Poverty, Pauperism and Homelessness(2021-06-24) Hofland, TobiasIn this genealogical case study of homelessness, I will trace how marginalized subject positions, analogous to homelessness, have been produced and justified by different social formations. Hereby, I hope to show how the existence of marginalized subject positions such as homelessness is the consequence of a social formation’s unwillingness to support some of its members, whom are for one reason or another excluded from (full) participation. I will detail three different social arrangements, governed by three systems of thought (epistemes). The first episteme is the ‘pastoral’ episteme. This episteme is characterized by a religious and communal orientation towards social life. The second episteme is the ‘moral’ episteme. Here religion functions in a more disciplinary fashion, so as to control and transform the poor, a process that coincides with the rise of society, the public realm and the nation state. The third episteme is the ‘material’ episteme. Here poverty is increasingly considered to be a societal problem that implicates the whole of society. Materially productive demands are increasingly made on the subject that ensure the betterment and improvement of all of society, inclusive of the marginalized subject itself. At the end of this analysis, I will reflect on the relevance of this case study for our present situation. Here, I will argue that social policy emphasizing the self-sufficiency of people, in the face of growing inequality, threatens to push an increasing number of people into marginality.