Revisiting IR in a Time of Crisis

Abstract

The sense of crisis, fueled by military conflicts, the failures of neoliberal globalization and ecological degradation, is everywhere. Neoconservative agendas and cuts in educational spending are shrinking space for critical thinking necessary for understanding the impacts of these crises on ordinary people's lives. This article examines some indigenous responses to these various crises. It reexamines IR's Westphalia triumphalist narrative about the origins of the nation-state system from the perspective of those who suffered the consequences of European expansion. Emphasizing the importance of rewriting their histories, indigenous peoples are offering very different models of world order and ways of life that are more sensitive to resource and ecological constraints. Although indigenous women have a complex relationship with feminism, indigenous knowledge is strikingly similar to certain feminist thinking. Indigenous epistemologies are hermeneutic and reflexive, seeking to uncover hidden histories and new knowledge from those whose voices have rarely been heard. The article outlines some visions of world order and national sovereignty offered by indigenous peoples in Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Central and North America, demonstrating parallels with feminist thought. It concludes by reflecting on obstacles, similar to those faced by feminists, standing in the way of alternative forms of knowledge being taken seriously by the discipline of International Relations.     

A personalised approach in activation. Workfare volunteers’ experiences with activation practitioners

ABSTRACT

In activation work – supporting jobless people to perform activities that are supposed to lead them back to paid work – a personalised approach is deemed crucial. What a personalised approach entails, however, remains unclear. In this article, we try to further develop the notion of a personalised approach in activation work, by analysing Dutch workfare volunteers’ experiences with activation. Our interviews show that a personalised approach appears as a process with three stages. In the first stage, personalised means paying attention to welfare clients’ personal histories, particularly their ‘violated life story’. In the second stage, personalised means being sensitive to the new reality of them being volunteers. In the third stage, personalised means paying attention to the future, especially to the prospect of paid work. Our findings contribute to the theorisation of a personalised approach in activation work to which time turns out to be a crucial dimension.     

Nordic cultural studies — An introduction

ABSTRACT

Histories of representation of Blackness are quite distinct in Australia and in America. Indigenous Australian identities have been consistently ‘fatal’, in Baudrillard's use of that term. So, while Black American representation includes intensely banal images of middle-class, materialistic individuals, such histories are largely absent in the Australian context. This implies that the few such representations which do occur — and particularly those of everyday game shows such as Sale of the Century and Family Feud — are particularly important for presenting a trivial, unexciting version of Aboriginality. This also clarifies the distinction between American and Australian versions of Blackness, and suggests that the latter set of representations might be more usefully viewed in relation to Native American rather than Black American images. The status of indigeneity might prove to be more relevant to Australian Aboriginal representation than the previously favoured identity of skin colour (Blackness).     

Creating a Therapeutic Garden That Works for People Living with Alzheimer's

Abstract

Therapeutic gardens specially designed for people living with Alzheimer's disease can improve the quality of life of those who use them, and can be helpful in reducing what are called “problem behaviors.” This article explores this statement and describes how the design process can best achieve a garden that is truly therapeutic. The article is in three parts, each of which represents a critical step in design: image, present, test. The last section presents eight basic design criteria to apply in therapeutic garden design review. The article is intended to leave the reader with the big idea that inside and outside environments must be designed as one to respond to the needs of the Alzheimer's mind.     

Cultural Identity and Place in Adult Korean-American Intercountry Adoptees

ABSTRACT

This study explores the interrelationship between cultural identity and place in the lives of adult Korean adoptees living primarily in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota. Using life histories derived through multiple semi-structured interviews, a web of related themes emerged which reveal the interplay between ethnicity, identity, gender, and place. From childhood to adulthood, most Korean adoptees followed a similar developmental trajectory of denial, self-awareness, and emerging cultural consciousness about their Korean heritage, particularly upon their departure from their adoptive homes after high school. These journeys were mediated and nuanced by environmental factors including -but not limited to -places adoptees lived or visited in Korea, the U.S. or elsewhere abroad. This study highlights the limitations of previous studies that focused only on adoptive parents or adoptees as children, an approach which loses the life course perspective of inter-country adoptees' search for identity, belonging, and a sense of home.     

Narrating marriage: negotiating practices and politics of belonging of Afghan return migrants

ABSTRACT

This article explores Afghan return migrants’ strategies and constraints to identify with the different spaces of belonging they encountered, through their expressions and practices of marriage. We take an in-depth approach to the life histories of 35 voluntary and involuntary Afghan returnees from European countries. We find that in narrating and performing different marriage practices, some Afghan return migrants construct fixed boundaries between different spaces of belonging, while others try to construct these boundaries as permeable and hybrid. Gender and mobility strongly define the way in which return migrants narrate and perform marriage as a cultural practice that determines who belongs, who wants to belong and who is able to belong. We conclude that while openly negotiating hybrid practices within a delicate theme such as marriage requires careful negotiation of boundaries, mobility can improve the extent to which return migrants can apply inventive and hybrid identifications for their personal needs and desires.     

Assessing the Effectiveness of a Capacity Building Intervention in Empowering Hard-to-Reach Communities

ABSTRACT

This article focuses on hard-to-reach communities with weak histories of engagement and it explores whether facilitated community interventions can empower and develop community resilience. Drawing on data from 6 communities, the article indicates a need for tailored and context-specific support that matches local needs. Implementation of community projects is not linear and the delivery of interventions in hard-to-reach communities is associated with the risk of failure. Developing community resilience among communities that do not engage requires long-term interventions, on-going input, and a collaborative approach to working with communities to support equal and harmonized development.     

Comfort Women: Enhancing Students’ Global Awareness through Human Right Education

Abstract

Teaching about the comfort women of World War II offers a compelling case study for the social studies classroom and human rights education. The topic will educate students to become knowledgeable about the larger world and its dark histories that have been omitted or scarcely mentioned in U.S. history textbooks. This article provides high school social studies teachers with the historical background of comfort women, rationales for including this topic in social studies curriculum, and teaching strategies and resources that teachers can use in their classrooms.     

Collaborative Family Work in Youth Justice

ABSTRACT

A number of studies have found that working with family groups can be successful in improving outcomes for young people and their families. This article reports on a study in New South Wales in which juvenile justice staff offered collaborative family work interventions to young people as part of the routine offerings of a juvenile justice service. The primary objective of this study was to examine the extent to which young people who completed the family work had lower recidivism rates compared to three control groups. The methods included a comparison of recidivism rates between young people who completed the intervention, those who failed to complete, those who declined, and a matched sample of young people who were not offered the intervention. The results of the study indicated that many young people and their families were agreeable to be involved in the intervention and the completion rates were high, particularly if the work was undertaken in the family home. The young people who completed the intervention also had lower recidivism rates than young people in each of the control groups.

IMPLICATIONS

• Collaborative family work can be offered successfully by juvenile justice services to young offenders and their families.

• Collaborative family work can reduce recidivism rates for those who complete the intervention.

• It is preferable to conduct the work in the family home where completion rates are likely to be higher.

     

The Life Course: A Sociological Introduction

Abstract

Recognition of the deleterious effects of domestic violence on women's mental health has highlighted the potential benefits for women of collaboration between mental health and domestic violence services. Yet the different histories, knowledge bases, and organisational cultures of the mental health and domestic violence sectors present formidable challenges to the development of effective collaborative work. This article draws on a large research enquiry, involving four separate but related studies, which explored aspects of collaboration between these two service sectors. It focuses particularly on data collected in interviews with practitioners from mental health and domestic violence services who were participants in an action research study (one of the four studies), which was aimed at discovering the factors that contributed to enhanced collaboration and the benefits of this for women who experience both domestic violence and mental health issues.     

Truth or Consequences: Dishonesty in Dating and HIV/AIDS-Related Issues in a College-Age Population

Abstract

This article examines the issue of dishonesty in dating among college students as it relates to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the United States. The authors surveyed 171 undergraduates at a large midwestern university in January 1991. They conducted an analysis by gender and found significant differences in responses of male and female students. Of those students involved in monogamous relationships, 36% of the men and 21% of the women reported being sexually unfaithful to their current partner or to any of their previous partners. A greater percentage of women than of men inquired about past sexual histories before engaging in sexual activity. In addition, men admitted they had lied to their sexual partner or partners more often than did women. Because a large portion of HIV/AIDS and STD education involves teaching students to inquire about previous sexual histories, the results of this study should influence the direction and content of behaviorally focused educational programs. The authors also address implications for health educators and clinicians.     

A Feminist Approach to Exploring the Intersections of Individuals,Families, and Communities

Abstract

It is important for social workers to use contextual understandings to guide their work with client systems, particularly those whose life experiences fall under the umbrella of diversity. Thus, integrating women's perspectives/voices directly into the study of their lives is one way to more accurately understand lesbians, whose experiences as women, as partners, and as mothers may be misinterpreted without their own perspectives to guide understanding. This paper presents a model for research that utilizes an eco-systemic perspective, including eco maps and genograms, to collect and organize data. This model is a natural extension of social work interview and assessment techniques, and can illuminate respondents' diverse experiences as well as the socio-cultural environments in which these experiences are embedded.     

Beyond Home: Forging the Domestic in Shared Housing

ABSTRACT

This article examines how connections between intimacy and the realm of the domestic are propelled by conditions of shared residence. Informed by research among low-income families in Buenos Aires who organize to attain collectively owned housing, I depict how the propinquity provided by common social activism and co-residence creates both a political and an affective community. The groups in question organize their cohabitation and everyday life according to a set of explicit and collectively sanctioned rules and regulations concerning distribution and uses of space, maintenance, etc. However, living together also implies embracing a myriad of norms regarding aspects of intimacy and the body—particularly those related to sexuality—which, although alluded to by written rules, can only gain voice in the more nuanced, semi-public idioms of gossip and rumor. The article explores these assertions by considering several instances where rules and gossip intersected in deliberations about (im)proper attire in common areas, and the making of decisions about kinship and care. I describe the emotional undertones that emerge around these issues—such as jealousy, modesty, or suspicion—in order to examine how they articulate a domestic domain.

These reflections are based on extended interviews. In order to preserve my informants' anonymity I used pseudonyms in all cases.     

Black Edens,country Eves: Listening,performance, and black queer longing in country music

ABSTRACT

This article explores Black queer country music listening, performance, and fandom as a source of pleasure, nostalgia, and longing for Black listeners. Country music can be a space for alliance and community, as well as a way of accessing sometimes repressed cultural and personal histories of violence: lynching and other forms of racial terror, gender surveillance and disciplining, and continued racial and economic segregation. For many Black country music listeners and performers, the experience of being a closeted fan also fosters an experience of ideological hailing, as well as queer world-making. Royster suggests that through Black queer country music fandom and performance, fans construct risky and soulful identities. The article uses Tina Turner's solo album, Tina Turns the Country On! (1974) as an example of country music's power as a tool for resistance to racial, sexual, and class disciplining.     

Sexual Self-Concept and Sexually Abused Males: Early Data on the Development of a Scale

ABSTRACT

This article describes the early development and psychometric piloting of the Sexual Self-Concept Scale for Sexually Abused Males, a one-dimensional measure assessing the gender-based self-perceptions of males with histories of childhood sexual abuse (CSA). A sample of 459 males with histories of CSA completed a demographic survey and responded to a pool of items using a Likert-type scale. Strong and promising evidence was rendered for face validity, content validity, convergent validity, criterion validity, discriminant validity, test-retest reliability, split-half reliability, internal consistency and item-total correlations. The scale may be used by helping professionals and clients to identify beliefs, emotions and behavior emanating from CSA with respect to gender-based sexual self-concept, design interventions to modify or ameliorate such effects, and to mark progress across phases of treatment.     

The Impact of the Social Environment on Nursing Home Residents

ABSTRACT

This study contrasted the experienced quality of life of residents living on one of two nursing home units: a unit for those considered socially intact and a unit combining residents who had moderately impaired cognition or physical function with those requiring skilled nursing or therapy. Qualitative interviews were held with residents of both units. The findings indicate that the social environment of each of the units played a fundamental role in the residents' quality of life. The social environment affected the residents' conceptions of self, their interactions with other residents and their interactions with the nursing staff. The article suggests the processes behind the social environment of each floor that may have resulted in different perceptions of the quality of life.     

A framework for polyvictimization in later life

ABSTRACT

This article provides a context and overview for what is known about polyvictimization in later life. Drawing from previous literature, the article includes a definition of the phenomenon, as well as theoretical constructs by which it may be understood. We place other forms of polyvictimization within the context of elder abuse, recognize frameworks for conceptualizing polyvictimization in later life, and distinguish between polyvictimization at younger ages and polyvictimization in later life. The paper concludes with implications of the framework for research, practice, and policy.     

Who Controls Whom? History and Educational Technologies

Abstract

Considering the lack of research on the historisation of educational technologies, the current study attempts to fill this void. To do so, the following research question is posed: To what extent have educational technologies and local histories controlled one another? Data for this question came from a naturalistic enquiry into a university in the Saudi Arabian public sector. Having analysed documents, interviews, and observations by means of the grounded theory technique, two key themes emerged: local histories controlling educational technologies and educational technologies controlling local histories. The consideration of both themes brought forth a theoretical proposition — that there are political dynamics between educational technologies and micro histories, with one continuously directing and driving the other. The recommendation is therefore that policymakers, scholars, and commentators should be more cognisant of the political tensions between local histories and educational technologies.     

Perceived consequences of hazing exposure during the first year of college: Associations with childhood victimization

Objective: This study investigates the association between histories of childhood victimization and perceived consequences of college hazing. Participants: First-year college students at four US universities (N?=?120). Method: Participants completed Web-based surveys asking about childhood victimization (eg, child maltreatment), peer victimization, and perceived consequences of hazing during college. Results: Results indicated that college students with childhood victimization histories perceived hazing to be negative. In particular, physical dating violence and a greater total number of childhood victimization exposures were related to a higher number of perceived negative consequences. Conclusion: Past victimization exposures confer risk on college students who experience hazing, in that these students are more likely to perceive negative consequences of hazing. Hazing-related policies and outreach efforts should consider these potential negative consequences, and counselors should be aware of the link between past victimization and how hazing might be experienced.     

Religion,spirituality & chronic illness: A scoping review and implications for health care practitioners

ABSTRACT

While the influence of institutional religion has decreased over the last 40–50 years, research suggests that a substantial proportion of those not attending religious services continue to engage in religious and spiritual practices on their own and refer to religion as a very important aspect in their lives, and as linked to more positive health outcomes, particularly for those living with chronic conditions. This article provides a scoping review to not only highlight the research that views religion and spirituality as valuable tools for coping with chronic illness conditions, but also to highlight research that explores those who may experience some religious/spiritual doubts or a gradual loss of religiosity or spirituality with the diagnosis of chronic conditions. Regardless of a clinician’s beliefs, the authors argue that some awareness training of the value of religion and spirituality for some patients, can be beneficial. In a society facing an increasing plurality of faiths, this is deemed to be an invaluable discussion. In the end, clinical implications will be discussed.