Imperial algorithms: Contemporary manifestations of racism and colonialism.

In this special issue, we invited contributions that critically examined issues of imperialism, colonialism, power, justice, etc. to expand the canon of anticolonial scholarship and critical scholarship in community psychology. Our two objectives were: (1) to build on the canon of anticolonial and critical race scholarship to cultivate an empirical and theoretical body of work and conceptual frameworks about racism and colonialism within the field of community psychology and (2) to unpack the different manifestations of racism in society from the lens of community psychology and reflect on the implications of these varied forms of injustice in the contemporary moment. Rooted in African epistemology and methodology (Martin, 2012), we find the concept of the algorithm to serve as a potent metaphor for the ways in which these oppressive structures operate given the prevalence of algorithms in our daily lives and the algorithm is symbolic of the information age and predictive powers that seem to govern society beyond conscious control. In this sense, imperial algorithms are these structures, patterns, processes, and procedures that perpetuate imperialism. These imperial algorithms manifest as neo-colonialism, surveillance, social engineering, carcerality, reality warping of contemporary racism, health disparities exacerbated by COVID-19, and environmental grids of oppression.

Looted artifacts and museums' perpetuation of imperialism and racism: Implications for the importance of preserving cultural heritage.

In the midst of recent protests and antiracism movements following the death of George Floyd in May of 2020 and other Black, Indigenous, and people of Color (BIPOC) murdered in the United States by police violence, protestors and advocates around the world recognized the need for Western governments and other institutions to reckon with their own imperial history-to acknowledge the linkage between the slave trade, colonialism, and racism in their countries. This recognition led to the tearing down of statues depicting racist colonial leaders and calling for museums who have perpetuated imperialism and racism through their acceptance and display of looted artifacts to return them. This article sought to answer the question posed in the call for papers, can the many manifestations of racism be effectively dealt with in our society if the status quo is unwilling to engage with the issues, address them, and relinquish power. Further the author argues that cultural looting has its roots in colonialism and racism and discusses implications of the linkage between one's stolen cultural heritage and individual and community well-being. Answers to the question include both yes, manifestations of racism can be addressed, and no, they cannot be addressed when institutions and governments refuse to engage, address the issue and do not relinquish power. The article also includes the author's thoughts on using a living heritage approach to preserve cultural heritage and offers suggestions that community psychologists, advocates and activists can help to decolonize museums as part of the broader social and racial justice movement.

A community psychology for migrant justice: Critically examining border violence and resistance during the COVID-19 syndemic.

This article explores the magnifying lenses of the COVID-19 syndemic to highlight how people racialized as migrants and refugees have been-and continue to be-disproportionally harmed. We use empirical evidence collected in our scholarly/activist work in Europe, Africa, South Asia, and the United States to examine migrant injustice as being produced by a combination of power structures and relations working to maintain colonial global orders and inequalities. This is what has been defined as "border imperialism." Our data, complemented by evidence from transnational solidarity groups, show that border imperialism has further intersected with the hygienic-sanitary logics of social control at play during the COVID-19 period. This intersection has resulted in increasingly coercive methods of restraining people on the move, as well as in increased-and new-forms of degradation of their lives, that is, an overall multiplication of border violences. At the same time, however, COVID-19 has provided a unique opportunity for grassroot solidarity initiatives and resistance led by people on the move to be amplified and extended. We conclude by emphasizing the need for community psychologists to take a more vigorous stance against oppressive border imperialist regimes and the related forms of violence they re/enact.

"When there is no money, that is when I vomit blood": the domino effect and the unfettered lethal exploitation of Black labor on Dominican sugar plantations.

BACKGROUND: In this article, I utilize the concept of the Plantationocene as an analytical framework to generate a holistic and historical understanding of the present-day struggles of a mostly Haitian migrant workforce on sugar plantations in the Dominican Republic. METHODS: Inspired by Paul Farmer's methodology, I combine political economy, history, and ethnography approaches to interpret the experiences of sugarcane cutters across historical and contemporary iterations of colonial, post-colonial, and neo-colonial practices over the course of five centuries. RESULTS: My findings elucidate the enduring power of capitalism, implicating corporate and state elites, as the structural scaffolding for acts of racialized violence that condition the life-and-death circumstances of Black laborers on Caribbean plantations to this day. Although today's sugarcane cutters may suffer differently than their enslaved or wage labor ancestors on the plantation, I argue that an unfettered racialized pattern of lethal exploitation is sustained through the structural violence of neoliberalism that links present conditions with the colonial past. CONCLUSIONS: Ultimately, this paper contributes understandings of the plantationocene's enduring effects in the global south by demonstrating how imperialist arrangements of capitalism are not a distant memory from the colonial past but instead are present yet hidden and obscured while relocated and reanimated overseas to countries like the Dominican Republic, where American capitalists still exploit Black bodies for profit and power.

No Pass Laws Here! Internal Border Controls and the Global 'Hostile Environment'.

This article explores internal border controls in 1980s Britain, examining how they were conceptualised and resisted by a group of activists, the No Pass Laws Here! Group. Drawing on archival research conducted at the Hull History Centre and the Institute of Race Relations and focusing analysis on the Group's public-facing information leaflets and bulletins, this article explores how internal border controls created differentiated access to employment and the welfare state, targeting migrant and racialised residents and citizens. The No Pass Laws Here! Group's framing and analysis, in particular their use of pass laws as a frame through which to apprehend the spread of internal border controls, this article argues, allows us to draw out the continuities between policies developed to maintain colonial rule and those present in the metropole.

Thinking against empire: Anticolonial thought as social theory.

Sociology was born in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as a project in, of, and for empire. This essay excavates a tradition of social thought that grew alongside metropolitan sociology but has been marginalized by it: anticolonial thought. Emerging from anticolonial movements, writers and thinkers, anticolonial thought in 19th and 20th centuries emerged from a variety of thinkers (from indigenous activists in the Americas to educated elites in the American, Francophone and British colonies). I argue that this body of thought offers distinct visions of society, social relations, and social structure, along with generative analytic approaches to the social self, social solidarity and global relations-among other themes. Anticolonial thought offers the basis for an alternative canon and corpus of sociological thinking to which we might turn as we seek to revitalize and decolonize sociology.

Octavio Ocampo, Mexican painter: a metamorphic look at the discourse between the local and the global.

Art and science is an area of research that has strengthened recently, mainly due to the impact of interdisciplinary work. At the same time, approaches between the humanities and the sciences have succeeded in re-signifying traditional views towards critical positions such as postcolonialism, especially in the colonially so-called "Global South". In this paper, we want to review the case of the work of the Mexican artist Octavio Ocampo through works that present the case of biological and cultural evolution. From this, we want to reflect on the public perception of science in Mexico, the tensions between social and natural sciences, and the urgent need to strengthen the postcolonial discourse in scientific practice.

A new Tuskegee? Unethical human experimentation and Western neocolonialism in the mass circumcision of African men.

Campaigns to circumcise millions of boys and men to reduce HIV transmission are being conducted throughout eastern and southern Africa, recommended by the World Health Organization and implemented by the United States government and Western NGOs. In the United States, proposals to mass-circumcise African and African American men are longstanding, and have historically relied on racist beliefs and stereotypes. The present campaigns were started in haste, without adequate contextual research, and the manner in which they have been carried out implies troubling assumptions about culture, health, and sexuality in Africa, as well as a failure to properly consider the economic determinants of HIV prevalence. This critical appraisal examines the history and politics of these circumcision campaigns while highlighting the relevance of race and colonialism. It argues that the "circumcision solution" to African HIV epidemics has more to do with cultural imperialism than with sound health policy, and concludes that African communities need a means of robust representation within the regime.

Disaster, Debt, and 'Underdevelopment': The Cunning of Colonial-Capitalism in the Caribbean.

This article provides a critical overview of the structural forces exacerbating risk related to disasters in the Caribbean. It focuses on the historical antecedents and socio-environmental consequences of extreme weather events across the region via an anti-colonial analysis of Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017 and Dorian in 2019. The authors contend that the logics, practices and debts of colonial-capitalist development, neoliberal exploitation and post-independence corruption continue to reduce resilience and threaten public health in the region. They also detail the role that political economy and social geography play in the face of disasters. They end by proposing that future critiques of and solutions to vulnerability, disaster, and catastrophe in the Caribbean be more attentive to the historical trajectories of imperialism, debt and 'underdevelopment'.

Global bioethics and respect for cultural diversity: how do we avoid moral relativism and moral imperialism?

One of the major concerns of advocates of common morality is that respect for cultural diversity may result in moral relativism. On their part, proponents of culturally responsive bioethics are concerned that common morality may result in moral imperialism because of the asymmetry of power in the world. It is in this context that critics argue that global bioethics is impossible because of the difficulties to address these two theoretical concerns. In this paper, I argue that global bioethics is possible if we adopt a culturally responsive and self-critical attitude towards our moral values and those of others. I use the example of women's reproductive autonomy in indigenous African culture to show that the difference between the leading Euro-American and indigenous African construal of autonomy is that the former ascribes greater weight on individual self-determination while the latter emphasizes responsibilities towards the community. One develops dignity in virtue of their capacity for communing with others. Hence, women have rights, but as members of the community, they also have obligations including the duty to procreate. The involvement of the family in reproductive decisions does not contravene women's dignity and human rights. In applying the principle of autonomy in this communitarian context, one has to be sensitive to these ontological and moral specificities. The aim of global bioethics should not be to reach common grounds at all costs; any common norms should be the result of a negotiated democratic dialogue between cultures and not the result of imposition by the preponderant culture(s).

'Bioethical Realism': A Framework for Implementing Universal Research Ethics.

Implementation of existing ethical guidelines for international collaborative medical and health research is still largely controversial in sub-Saharan Africa for two major reasons: One, they are seen as foreign and allegedly inconsistent with what has been described as an 'African worldview', hence, demand for their strict implementations reeks of 'bioethical imperialism'. Two, they have other discernible inadequacies - lack of sufficient detail, apparent as well as real ambiguities, vagueness and contradictions. Similar charges exist(ed) in other non-Western societies. Consequently, these guidelines have been correctly judged as an inadequate response to the complex and ever shifting dilemmas met by researchers and research regulators in the field. This paper proposes a framework for effective implementation of existing guidelines without much worry about bioethical imperialism and other inadequacies. This framework is proposed using an analogy of Legal Realism, specifically its key assertions on how, in reality, judicial systems operate using general legal rules to settle specific cases. Legal realists assert that in judicial decision-making, general legal rules do not totally dictate court decisions in specific cases. This analogy is used to coin a new term, 'Bioethical Realism.' The framework suggests that local Research Ethics Committees ought to be construed as analogues of judicial courts with the resulting implications. Consequently, just like legal rules are general rules that do not always dictate court decisions, similarly international bioethical guidelines are general ethical rules that should not always dictate local RECs' decisions and such decisions (ought to) enjoy considerable immunity from outsiders.

Stable isotope analysis of a pre-Hispanic Andean community: Reconstructing pre-Wari and Wari era diets in the hinterland of the Wari empire, Peru.

OBJECTIVES: Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis is used to reconstruct diet among a pre-Hispanic population from the Peruvian Andes to evaluate whether local foodways changed with Wari imperial influence in the region. This study also compares local diet to other Wari-era sites. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Samples derive from the site of Beringa in Peru and correspond primarily to pre-Wari (200-600 CE) and Wari (600-1,000 CE). We examine stable carbon isotopes from enamel (n = 29) and bone apatite (n = 22), and stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes from bone collagen (n = 29), and we present stable carbon and nitrogen isotope data on archaeological and modern fauna (n = 37) and plants (n = 19) from the region. RESULTS: There were no significant differences in either δ13 C or δ15 N from the pre-Wari to Wari era, indicating that those measurable aspects of diet did not change with Wari influence. There were no sex-based differences among juveniles (as inferred from δ13 C from enamel carbonates) nor among adults (based on δ13 C and δ15 N from adult bone collagen). Comparisons to other Wari era sites show that Beringa individuals exhibited significantly lower δ13 C values, suggesting that they consumed significantly less maize, a socially valued food. Further, the Froehle et al. (2012) stable isotope model suggests that the majority of the Beringa individuals consumed more C3 than C4 plants, and dietary protein was derived primarily from terrestrial animals and some marine resources. CONCLUSIONS: The similar diets from pre-Wari to Wari times hint at strong local dietary traditions and durable food trade networks during the period of Wari imperial influence. The presence of limited marine foods in the diet suggests a trade network with coastal groups or sojourns to the coast to gather marine resources.

African bioethics: methodological doubts and insights.

BACKGROUND: A trend called 'African bioethics' is growing on the continent due to perceptions of existing bioethics, especially guidelines for international collaborative research, as 'ethical imperialism'. As a potential alternative to 'Western Principlism,' 'African bioethics' is supposed to be indigenous to Africa and reflective of African identity. However, despite many positive insights in the on-going discussions, it is feared that the growth of bioethics in Africa lacks a clear direction. Some of the views threaten to distort the essence of bioethics and its development on the continent. MAIN TEXT: This paper presents some of the dominant views on 'African bioethics', an examination of which reveals some valuable insights into the direction bioethics in Africa ought to take, but at the same time confirms some methodological challenges in some contributions to the discussion. On top of acknowledging critical insights in the discussion, the paper reveals that some views are characterized by arbitrariness and rhetorical discussions based on a strong negative and yet hard-to-accept assumption; doubtful designation; lack of a clearer problem being addressed and consequently obscure question(s) and aim(s) of the discourse. Finally, some methodological insights are proposed to guide bioethics research and scholarship in Africa. Specifically, the paper proposes that in search for the legitimacy of bioethics in Africa, we ought to protect the essence of bioethics by giving considerable attention to the utility of subsequent bioethics. To achieve this we need to specify the problem and proper designation for the discourse; focus on principles qua principles with impartiality and how to ensure their strict implementation; and encourage critical thinking as part of bioethics. CONCLUSION: In cultivating bioethics in Africa, the pursuit of identity is legitimate but must be conditional in light of other competing considerations. We should focus on an objective search for bioethical principles that can be effective in responding to African and global health challenges of moral significance, irrespective of the origin of the principles and at the same time focus more on strategies for ensuring compliance with resulting principles.

Erasmus Mundus Master of Bioethics: a case for an effective model for international bioethics education.

Designing bioethics curriculum for international postgraduate students is a challenging task. There are at least two main questions, which have to be resolved in advance: (1) what is a purpose of a particular teaching program and (2) how to respectfully arrange a classroom for students coming from different cultural and professional backgrounds. In our paper we analyze the case of the Erasmus Mundus Master of Bioethics program and provide recommendations for international bioethics education. In our opinion teaching bioethics to postgraduate international students goes beyond curriculum. It means that such a program requires not only well-defined goals, including equipping students with necessary skills and knowledge, but also it should first and foremost facilitate positive group dynamics among students and enables them to engage in dialogue to learn from one another.

A Question of Social Justice: How Policies of Profit Negate Engagement of Developing World Bioethicists and Undermine Global Bioethics.

We identify the ways the policies of leading international bioethics journals limit the participation of researchers working in the resource-constrained settings of low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) in the development of the field of bioethics. Lack of access to essential scholarly resources makes it extremely difficult, if not impossible, for many LMIC bioethicists to learn from, meaningfully engage in, and further contribute to the global bioethics discourse. Underrepresentation of LMIC perspectives in leading journals sustains the hegemony of Western bioethics, limits the presentation of diverse moral visions of life, health, and medicine, and undermines aspirations to create a truly "global" bioethics. Limited attention to this problem indicates a lack of empathy and moral imagination on the part of bioethicists in high-income countries, raises questions about the ethics of bioethics, and highlights the urgent need to find ways to remedy this social injustice.

Vom richtigen Reisen und Beobachten: Ratgeberliteratur für Forschungsreisende nach Übersee im 19. Jahrhundert.

How to Travel and Observe: Manuals for Scientific Travelers beyond in the 19th Century. The article deals with manuals for travelers who went to Africa and Asia for the sake of geographic exploration. These are widely neglected sources for the history of European exploration and the emergence of geography as an academic discipline. The article argues that these manuals are essential for an understanding of the travelers' socialization as members of the scientific project of geography and their contributions to geographical knowledge production.

Saying 'No' to PrEP research in Malawi: what constitutes 'failure' in offshored HIV prevention research?

Between 2004 and 2005, the first multi-sited clinical trial tested whether an existing, marketed antiretroviral drug, Tenofovir (TDF), could prevent HIV transmission. Referred to as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), most of these trial sites prematurely closed down. Two sites located in Cambodia and Cameroon received international media attention. But little attention was drawn to sites in Malawi and Nigeria, where university ethicists and research scientists extensively debated PrEP. This article focuses on events that took place in Malawi where there was a prolonged dispute over the scientific rationales of PrEP and not trial specific ethics referred to as 'bioethics'. Specifically, the article discusses debates pertaining to three PrEP trial protocols that were refused ethics approval in Malawi between 2004 and 2009. It is argued that HIV science debates in Malawi are embedded in postcolonial politics--geopolitical histories and state and household economic dispossessions that have created the structural possibilities for Malawi to become an offshore destination for HIV clinical research. As such, ethics in this case does not pertain to trial or bioethical 'failures'. Rather, ethics is located at the scale of imperial relations that give rise to multiple, often invisible, research concerns and constraints.

Colonialism versus Imperialism.

Contemporary scholars routinely argue colonialism and imperialism are indistinguishable. In this essay, I challenge this argument. While it is true the "colonial" and "imperial" overlap and intersect historically, I argue there is a central thread of modern colonialism as an ideology that can be traced from the seventeenth century to mid-twentieth century that was not only distinct from-but often championed in explicit opposition to-imperialism. I advance my argument in four parts. First, I identify key ways in which the colonial can be distinguished from the imperial, including most importantly the specific kind of productive power inherent in colonialism. Second, I examine how colonialism and imperialism evolve in meaning and are redefined by both champions and critics, in relation to each other in the late nineteenth/early twentieth centuries. Third, I examine the historical moment when colonialism and imperialism fully conflate after WWII through the UN process of decolonization as the "salt water thesis" delimits colonialism to mean foreign racialized domination, and it thus becomes synonymous with imperialism. I conclude with an analysis of why the distinction still matters in both theory and practice.

Material History, Historied Materials and the Question of Epistemic Freedom in Ghana's Medical Schools.

Medical schools rely on a wide range of tools, technologies and materials for their teaching, on books, and bodies, and on the buildings which house them. This article considers the histories of this material culture in the three oldest medical schools operating in Ghana today. Borrowing theoretical concepts from Science and Technology Studies, medical anthropology and postcolonial political economy, this article takes that the material culture of modern medical education often binds contemporary pedagogy to outdated ideas and faraway places. The agential, proselytising nature of these historied materials agitates against the localisation of biomedicine and contributes to a distracting scientific imaginary which remains centred around historical, often imperial centres of knowledge production in Europe and North America.