Anti‐semitism and the Jewish community of Newcastle‐upon‐Tyne

After briefly outlining the historical development of the Jewish community in Newcastle‐upon‐Tyne, this article examines the extent to which anti‐Semitism was a major concern in the life of modern North‐East Jewry. The focus of this discussion is on the 1930s and 1940s, a period when anti‐Semitism assumed greater significance. What this artcle revals is that on Tyneside, even though the fear of anti‐Semitism gave rise to active responses from within the local Jewish community, anti‐Semitism remained small scale. The experience of Newcastle's Jewish community should caution us against overstating the prevalence of anti‐Semitism in British society.     

The sexuality scale: An instrument to measure sexual‐esteem,sexual‐depression,and sexual‐preoccupation

This article describes the development of the Sexuality Scale, an instrument designed to measure three aspects of human sexuality: sexual‐esteem, defined as positive regard for and confidence in the capacity to experience one's sexuality in a satisfying and enjoyable way; sexual‐depression, defined as the experience of feelings of depression regarding one's sex life; and sexual‐preoccupation, defined as the tendency to think about sex to an excessive degree. The procedure involved (a) item construction, selection and subsequent validation through item analysis; and (b) a factor analysis of the items on the Sexuality Scale and the establishment of factorial validity. The results indicated that the three subscales were psychometrically sound, that males reported more sexual‐preoccupation than did females, and that the three subscales have unique intercorrelation patterns. The exploratory nature of these findings are discussed.     

Gambling and the family: From the stress‐coping‐support Perspective 1

Abstract

Aims: To apply the stress‐coping‐support perspective to the study of the effects of problem gambling in the family. Specifically, to examine the ways in which family members cope and the nature and sources of support they receive. To compare coping strategies of family members of gamblers with those of individuals living with other addictive behaviour in the family. Design: Cross‐sectional interview and questionnaire study of close relatives of problem gamblers. Participants: Sixteen close family members of gamblers from separate families, mainly parents and partners. Data: Semi‐structured interview; adapted version of the Coping Questionnaire (CQ). Findings: Data from the CQ and qualitative analysis of interview data suggested considerable use of ‘engaged’ (specifically controlling) ways of attempting to cope with such problems, comparable to the use of such strategies by relatives of people with alcohol or drug problems, but little use of ‘tolerant‐accepting’ and ‘withdrawal’ ways. Interview data on the support received (or not) by family members confirmed previous research showing that relatives of people with addiction problems often feel unsupported, but particularly appreciate positive emotional and practical support for themselves and their problem gambling relatives. Conclusions: The stress‐coping‐support perspective, previously applied to families with alcohol and drug problems, also offers an appropriate framework for understanding problem gambling and the family.     

Youth research on video self‐productions reflections on a social‐aesthetic approach

This article advances my thoughts on a social‐aesthetic approach within the field of youth and social research. These reflections are not primarily grounded in traditional approaches of visual sociology and anthropology but emerged from the context of media‐educational youth research in Germany. The main assumption of this article is that qualitative youth and social research in particular, which has audio‐visual self‐productions as the object, should—in view of the increasing influence media has on our perception and the way how the reality is experienced—be open to concepts of subject‐related self‐presentations. First I make an attempt to formulate a social‐aesthetic theory which focuses on the media‐ethnographical exploration of symbolic milieus. Next, I introduce projects run by media‐educational youth researchers in Germany, emphasizing the question of conceptions and methods when working with adolescent video self‐productions. The final section reflects upon the quality, the validity and the hermeneutics of self‐produced videos.     

Developing a Low‐Cost Technique for Parallel Cross‐Cultural Instrument Development: The Question Appraisal System (QAS‐04)

Many approaches are used to prepare instruments for multicultural administration, depending on the scope, schedule and budget of the study. Sequential questionnaire development, the most common approach to developing cross‐cultural instruments, is also the most affordable. Designers formulate and pretest an instrument in the source language, then translate it into the target language(s) using culture‐specific tailoring. In contrast, parallel development incorporates target cultures throughout the design and pretesting process. The disadvantages to parallel development are that it is expensive, time‐consuming and subject to version control problems. Question Appraisal System (QAS) is a coding tool for pretesting instruments. The QAS is supported by an item taxonomy of the cognitive demands of a question and documents the features that may lead to response error. Results of the appraisal are used to revise question wording, response wording, questionnaire format and question ordering. This article describes research conducted to update the QAS to identify problems due to cross‐cultural and cross‐linguistic application of questions.     

Inter‐ethnic conflict: a role for social work in sub‐Saharan Africa

African social work educators have consistently argued that conventional social work tasks and practice fail to address the critical socio‐economic needs of communities living in the sub‐Saharan region. This paper identifies inter‐ethnic conflict in Africa as both cause and symptom of the inequitable distribution of natural resources and public goods between ethnic groups in conditions of pressing material need. Reporting on results from a survey of social work students at the University of Ghana which explored their own experiences of inter‐ethnic conflict, this article considers alternative strategies for training in anti‐discriminatory practice. Training approaches developed in the United States of America and the United Kingdom are critically examined and the problems of their direct applicability in an African context discussed. In conclusion the need for a distinctively African approach to conflict management and anti‐discriminatory training is advanced.     

Developing a Common Language in Children's Services through Research‐based Inter‐disciplinary Training

Two sources of inertia to improving services for children in need are the difficulties of getting evidence into practice and the complications of inter‐agency working. Current training arrangements in social work and disparities between children's services professions as regards training requirements are contributory factors. The Common Language project is a work in progress, adopting a research‐based, inter‐disciplinary approach to working with social workers and other children's services professionals. It comprises core ideas and methods to complement the more specialist knowledge and skills required in each profession. Underpinned by a child development perspective and a scientific development cycle, it rests on a conceptual framework including need, threshold, service and outcome. The approach has three components (each of which includes training): (1) the implementation of practice tools; (2) the planning and development of integrated services; and (3) supporting materials, including practitioner‐orientated modules and a curriculum for PhD students. Distinguishing features include research utilisation, notably a focus on inculcating research‐mindedness as opposed to imparting findings, and also collaborative professional working, in particular via practical connections between different agencies, stakeholders and countries. The project is being evaluated in terms of uptake, change in professional thinking and practice and effects on child well‐being. Next steps for the project relate to broader lessons for social work training emerging from research and development elsewhere.     

Why not co‐operate?

The circumstances in which social scientists work are, of course, different in many countries. Those countries outside the EU and are not eligible for Framework Programme funding. There are some different intellectual traditions and certainly many different structures and levels of financial support in research funding agencies that need to be examined and understood.     

Ethnic,gender, and length‐of‐residency influences on sexual knowledge and attitudes

We examined potential differences in sexual knowledge and attitudes between 702 Canadian undergraduates of Asian (n = 356) and European (n = 346) ancestry. We also examined potential influences of length of residency in Canada on these variables among Asians, and the role of gender both across and within ethnic groups. The primary purpose was to examine whether length of exposure to North American sexual values influences sexual knowledge or attitudes among Asians living in Canada. Results revealed that compared to Europeans, Asians held more conservative sexual attitudes and demonstrated significantly less sexual knowledge. Recent Asian immigrants were significantly more likely than Canadian‐born or long‐term Canadian residents to hold conservative sexual attitudes on a number of sexuality items. Among Asians and Non‐Asians, males reported more negative attitudes toward homosexuals than did females; females held more conservative sexual attitudes toward uncommitted sexual relations than did males. The findings provide partial support for a cultural explanation of the frequently reported finding that, compared with North Americans, Asians are more restricted in their expression of sexuality.     

A cross‐cultural study of the phasic progression of self‐esteem in teen challenge

An attempt is made to analyze the effects of the Teen Challenge program in the self‐esteem of rehabilitants, and to determine if, indeed, any relationship exists. The importance of self‐esteem as a psycho‐social concept has emerged in recognition of man's needs for feelings of self‐worth. Central to this concept are the seminal formulations of White, Cooley, Coopersmith, Goffmann, and Harris. Additionally, Maslow's “hierarchy of needs” brings this concept into focus. Cooley notes that self‐concept emerges as a result of a series of interactions and appraisals of other people. The self‐concept, as it relates to self‐esteem, is also of major concern to the Teen Challenge program, the subject of this research. Teen Challenge is a therapeutic community seeking the resocialization of drug addicts, criminals, juvenile delinquents, prostitutes, alcoholics and other deviant types. This program is a three‐phase (orientation; training; re‐entry), one‐year residential program which uses the soteriological approach (conversation‐catharsis) as the starter‐mechanism to resocialization. According to a recent, federally funded, follow‐up study, 86 per cent of those who graduated from this program seven years previously had not recidivated. If indeed these statistics are valid, this would merit further research to determine variables significant to the resocialization process. This research assumes that self‐esteem is one such variable, though perhaps only one of many. It is further assumed that this would be low upon entry, and would progress consistently in a positive direction throughout one's stay in the program. Data was collected from centers in six different countries for a cross‐cultural comparison. To avoid contamination, all residents immediately upon entry into the Teen Challenge program in 1975 were tested using the Rosenberg “Self‐Esteem Scale.” Residents were tested again at the mid‐point of their stay using the S.E.S., and retested again when eligible for graduation one year later. Although an analysis of variance did not indicate a consistant increase in self‐esteem as hypothesized, low scores upon induction zoomed up in phase one, dipped slightly during the second phase, then resumed their climb in phase three, reaching an apex at the time of graduation. The over‐all trend for all centers, however, from low to high was highly significant. These results have heuristic potential.     

The U‐turn phenomenon among South American‐Japanese descendants: From emigrants to migrants

About a decade has passed since the problem of foreign migrant workers became serious in Japan. The Japanese government has been reluctant to formalize the introduction of migrant workers in the unskilled job sectors, yet, with the revision of the Immigration Control Law in 1990, has decided to formalize the status of residence of South American‐Japanese descendants, or Nikkeijin. This article focuses on the issue of the Nikkeijin in Japan. The article details the current position of the Nikkeijin and reviews their impact on Japanese society as well as on their home countries. The article further discusses the possibility of Nikkeijin settlement in Japan in the context of the government's attempts to preserve the notion of lineage as the basis for Japanese nationality.     

Palimpsest African urbanity: connecting pre‐colonial and post‐apartheid urban narratives in Durban

Durban, a city situated on the east coast of South Africa in the province of KwaZulu‐Natal, has always been marked by layered, imbricative and intricate meanings. Through narrative slices, this paper considers the interwoven relationships between identity and urbanity and presents Durban as a palimpsest space. The paper illustrates the co‐constituting nature of pre‐colonial Durban's form and society, highlighting the manner in which the context of contact left an impression on identity, urbanity and cultural memory. It thereafter suggests that contemporary attempts, through arts and culture, to contour the city in a more inclusive manner, have a long embedded precedent and history.     

A conference on Polish‐Jewish relations

A Special Skill. V. V. Chepko, Goroda Byelorussii v pervoy polovine XIX veka. Ekonomicheskoe razvitie (The Economic Development of the Towns of Byelorussia in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century). Minsk: Byelorussian State University, 1981. 144pp. 1.20 roubles.

Jewish Anti‐Fascist Committee. Shimon Redlich. Propaganda and Nationalism in Wartime Russia: The Jewish Antifascist Committee in the USSR, 1941–1948. Boulder, Col.: East European Quarterly, 1982.236 pp. (East European Monographs, 58).

Unwelcome Guests David Prital (ed.). In Search of Self: The Soviet Jewish Intelligentsia and the Exodus. Jerusalem: Mount Scopus Publications, 1982. 262pp.

Antisemitic Classic. Lev Aleksandrovich Korneev. Klassovaya sushchnost sionizma (The Class Essence of Zionism). Kiev. Politizdat Ukrainy, 1982. 263 pp. (Critique of the Ideology and Policies of Anti‐Communism Series). 10,000 copies. 1.20 roubles.

The Super‐Powers in the Middle East. Adeed Dawisha and Karen Dawisha (eds.). The Soviet Union in the Middle East: Policies and Perspectives. London: Heinemann Educational Books for the Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1982. 172 pp. Tables. Index. (Political Science/World Affairs). £5.50; and R.V. Borisov, SShA. Blizhnevostochnaya politika v 70‐e gody (United States Policy Towards the Middle East in the 1970s). Moscow: Nauka, 1982. 216 pp.     

Putting the Post‐Human in the Loop: Future Combat Systems and Post‐Disciplinary Training

The US Army’s Future Combat Systems (FCS) is a large‐scale procurement program that will introduce a number of “manned” and “unmanned” platforms, all of which will be completely interconnected into one layered network. Hailed as revolutionary, all of the FCS platforms, in addition to being networked, will include on‐board or embedded training systems. This article contends that the integration of embedded training systems into the US Army’s Future Combat Systems exemplifies a form of Deleuzean post‐disciplinary control that is endemic to contemporary discourses of strategic virtuosity.     

Philosophy as juris‐fiction: Jean‐Luc Nancy and the “philosophy of right”

This article proposes that the “philosophy of right” deserves deconstruction at the juncture of philosophy and the politics of the state. It maintains the thesis that Jean‐Luc Nancy is correct to regard the “philosophy of right” as an unfounded, situationist exercise of “juris‐fictioning”, the activity of juridically reading cases as if they were accidents as such that befall the law. It argues that philosophy’s inability to provide rationale that justify its own juris‐fictioning renders it vulnerable to influence by political requirements and even confers a vestige of legitimacy on them. This influence reinforces the “theologicopolitics” that support the state and is in turn informed by the values of the “juridico‐commerical” model of contemporary “market democracy”. Therefore, on the one hand, philosophy is open to influence by non‐philosophical criteria that endow its notion of rationality with unfounded presuppositions; on the other hand, however, the politics of the state is given an artificial legitimacy through philosophy’s inability to provide foundations for juridical rationality.     

The making of African‐American Protestantism

Come Shouting to Zion: African American Protestantism in the American South and British Caribbean to 1830. SYLVIA R. FREY and BETTY WOOD. Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press, 1998. xiv, 285pp. $37.95 (cloth); $12.95 (paper). ISBN 0–8078–2375–9; 0–8078–4681–3.

A Separate Canaan: The Making of an Afro‐Moravian World in North Carolina, 1763–1840. JON SENSBACH. Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press, 1998. xxiii, 342pp. $45.00. ISBN 0–8078–2394–5.     

Tuning‐in to Teenagers! Using Radio Phone‐in Discussions in Research with Young People

Since the 1990s, research with children has witnessed epistemological changes which have challenged traditional research methods and have attempted to deconstruct notions of children as passive and incompetent. Such changes, epitomized by children‐centred research methods, aim to redress power imbalances by encouraging participants to select their own forms of communication. Participation and innovation are central to this approach. Simultaneously, but quite distinct from research methodology, community radio has become an important mechanism in promoting social inclusion. Globally, this means of community participation has been advocated by organizations that have utilized radio as an educational tool for promoting children’s rights. This paper suggests that the synthesis of radio phone‐in discussions with the ‘New Social Studies of Childhood’ forms a constructive basis for developing a participatory research method. Methodological issues arising from a teenage‐centred radio phone‐in will be explored. The paper concludes by discussing the viability of the radio phone‐in as a meaningful method for promoting teenagers’, often unheard, voices.