In search of cultural identity factors: a comparison of ethnic students*

L'analyse factorielle d'items de type Likert administrés à des étudiants sousgradués suggère que six facteurs peuvent décrire les modalités d'identification ethnique: la religion, l'endogamie, la langue utilisée, les organisations ethniques, l'éducation paroissiale et le choix d'amis à 1'intérieur du groupe. Une comparaison des profils factoriels de sept groupes ethniques révèle plusieurs variations. Les étudiants juifs s'identifient fortement avec l'endogamie et les choix d'amis à 1'intérieur du groupe, mais donnent relativement peu d'importance à la religion et à l'utilisation de la langue ethnique. Les étudiants français sont fortement identifiés à leur langue et à leur religion. Les étudiants français et juifs attachent de la valeur à l'éducation paroissiale. L'identification au groupe ethnique est la plus faible chez les Scandinaves et les Polonais. Les modalités d'identification tendent á varier avec les expériences qui ont une importance historique pour le groupe ethnique. C'est pourquoi les mesures de ces modalités révèlent une structure à facteurs multiples. Factor analysis of Likert-type items administered to undergraduate students suggests that modes of ethnic identification can be described in terms of six factors: religion, endogamy, language use, ethnic organizations, parochial education, and choice of ingroup friends. A comparison of the factor profiles of seven ethnic groups revealed considerable variations. For example, the Jewish students identified strongly with endogamy and ingroup choice of friends but ranked low on the importance of religion and the use of their ethnic language. The French students' identification with their language and religion was high. Both the French and the Jewish students valued parochial education. Scandinavian and Polish ethnic ingroup identification was the lowest of all seven groups compared. The modes of identification tended to vary with the historically important experiences of ethnic groups. Therefore the measures of the modes exhibited a multifactor structure.     

Southern African social movements at the 2007 Nairobi World Social Forum

How relevant is the anti‐globalization movement to the ideas and activities of social movements seeking to achieve economic justice and greater democratic accountability in southern Africa? Case study research in four southern African countries (Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi and Swaziland) indicates that, while aspects of the anti‐globalization approach resonate with civil society and social movement actors (for example, an emphasis on mass participation and the internationalization of campaigning), the global social justice movement frequently displays the characteristics of globalization. These include: unaccountable decision‐making; profound (yet largely unacknowledged) inequality of access to resources; and an imposed and uniform organizational form that fails to consider local conditions. The World Social Forum (WSF) held in Nairobi in January 2007 provided many southern African social movement actors with their first opportunity to participate in the global manifestation of the anti‐globalization movement. The authors interviewed social movement activists across southern Africa before and during the Nairobi WSF about their experiences of the anti‐globalization movement and the Social Forum. An assessment of the effectiveness of this participation leads to the conclusion that the WSF is severely limited in its capacity to provide an effective forum for these actors to express their grievances and aspirations. However, hosting national social forums, their precise form adapted to reflect widely varied conditions in southern African states that are affected by globalization in diverse ways, appears to provide an important new form of mobilization that draws on particular elements of anti‐globalization praxis.     

The Public's Use and Perception of Newspapers

Although a widely held viewpoint is that "the majority of thepeople get their news from television", a national survey showsequal proportions of the population reading newspapers and watchingtelevision news on a typical weekday. The study examines thepublic's attitudes toward the press in general and toward thespecific papers most often read. It also reports on the mostcommonly read elements of newspaper content and notes the changingcharacter of local news.     

Bridges to learning: international student mobilities,education agencies and inter‐personal networks

International education is a fundamentally transnational project. It relies on the movement of individuals or knowledge across national borders, disturbs the centrality of the nation‐state in educational reproduction, and is facilitated by economic and social networks that act as bridges between countries of origin and education. In this article, I address this latter point through reference to research conducted with South Korean international students in Auckland, New Zealand. In particular, I discuss the emergence of transnational social and economic activities that are facilitating the movement of international students from South Korea to Auckland — activities that might usefully be understood as forming ‘bridges to learning’. These include the activities of education agencies, immigrant entrepreneurs and the interpersonal relationships with which many students engage in the negotiation of their transnational lives. In a broader sense I illustrate how the emerging mobilities of international students cannot be viewed as independent of other phenomena but must be seen as embedded within transnational processes that take place at different geographic and social scales.     

Interviewing Changes Attitudes--Sometimes

To examine the effects of interviewing respondents were questionedabout either cancer or burglary prevention in an interview,and later they received either relevant information or no information.Changes in attitudes were measured in a second interview, andthe results showed that asking questions about cancer changedrespondents' attitudes toward cancer, but interviewing aboutburglary prevention did not change attitudes toward crime. Theevidence suggests that interview effects will occur when therespondent's attitudes and information are unfocused or ambiguousand the topic is important. Theoretically, this can be attributedto competence motivation and a postulated desire to maintainself-esteem in the interview situation     

Interpersonal ties and alcohol use among Mennonites

Les divergences significatives au sujet de l'usage de l'alcool entre les peuples de pays différents et entre différents groupes, à l'intérieur de ces pays, montrent que les facteurs culturels sont des déterminants importants de l'usage de l'alcool. La recherche faite sur ces relations suggère que c'est le milieu social auquel un individu appartient qui fournit le mécanisme à travers lequel les normes culturelles au sujet de l'usage de l'alcool influencent le comportement de l'individu. Ce texte, examine l'effet des liens interpersonnels sur le comportement d'un échantillon national de Ménnonites canadiens vis-à-vis de l'usage de l'alcool en se servant d'un modèle théorique combine le contrôle social avec les théories d'association différentielle. On a découvert que l'usage de la boisson est relié aux préférences de comportement des personnes de référence. Ces effets ont semblé varier selon l'intimité de la relation avec cette personne particulièrement et selon la visibilité de l'acteur par rapport à chaque associé. The widely different patterns of alcohol use among people of different countries and among different groups within countries make it apparent that cultural factors are important determinants of alcohol use. Research on this relationship suggests that it is the social groups to which an individual belongs that provide the mechanism through which the cultural norms regarding alcohol use influence the individual's behaviour. This paper examines the effect of interpersonal ties on the drinking behaviour of a national sample of Canadian Mennonites, using a theoretical model which combines social control and differential association theories. Drinking was found to be related to the behavioural preferences of reference others. These effects varied with the closeness of the relationship with that particular associate, and with the visibility of the actor to each associate.     

Identity and social distance: towards understanding Simmel's ‘The Stranger’*

On fait répandre dans cette étude le concept de Simmel de ‘Der Fremde’ (c'est-à-dire, l'Etranger), même jusqu'aux communautés du type ‘étranger’ que développent les minorités dans leurs enclaves ethniques. Lorsqu'il introduit l'ideé générale de ‘distance sociale,’ Simmel pose, parmi d'autres rapports, l'existence d'une association positive entre, d'une part, l'identification avec la solidarité du groupe primaire et, d'autre part, l'augmentation de la distance sociale d'avec les groupes secondaires. On démontre dans cette étude que, plus l'identité du groupe primaire ethnique s'accroît, plus s'accroît également la distance sociale d'avec les groupes secondaires. Pourtant il en existe des variations. Quand on essayait d'expliquer ce phénomène de distance sociale on trouvait que l'identité ethnique en était, elle, une mesure plus significative qu'était celle du rang socioéconomique. Lorsque l'on comparait, les uns aux autres, les individus que l'on pourrait appeler ‘high identifiers’ (c'est-à-dire, ceux ayant tendance à s' identifier étroitement avec l'identité ethnique du groupe) dans chacun des groupes ethniques, on constatait que l'origine ethnique elle-même existait comme facteur pour expliquer la distance sociale. C'étaient surtout les FranGais qui, eux, ne se conformaient pas au modèle du type ‘identification agrandie’ (menant à une) ‘distance sociale agrandie.’ Ces étudiants français démontraient très peu de distance sociale; et l'on trouvait bien peu d'évidence pour faire révéler des préjugés chez eux, - quoiqu'ils préférassent se marier avec les Européens plutôt qu'avec les non-Européens. Plusieurs parties de cette étude viennent à l'appui, dans leur fond, de l'affiirmation de Simmel: la solidarité du groupe primaire se rapporte, en fait, à la distance sociale d'avec les groupes secondaires. D'ailleurs celui-ci reste un phénomène complexe qui exige: une conceptualisation bien plus précise; des moyens de mesure plus sensibles; et enfin, une classification en plus, et de l' ‘identité’ et de la ‘distance,’ ces deux variables que l'on considère dans la présence étude. This paper extends Simmel's concept ‘Der Fremde’ (the stranger) to stranger-type communities which minorities develop in ethnic enclaves. When Simmel introduced the concept of social distance, he posed, among other relationships, the existence of a positive association between identification with ingroup solidarity and an increase in social distance from outgroups. This study of Canadian university students demonstrates that as ethnic ingroup identity increases social distance from outgroups also increases. There are some variations, however. Ethnic identity was more important in explaining social distance than was socioeconomic status. When high identifiers within each ethnic group were compared it was found that ethnic origin was a factor. The French especially did not conform to the high-identity-high-distance pattern. The students demonstrated relatively little social distance, and there was little evidence that students were prejudiced, although they preferred to marry Europeans rather than non-Europeans. Some parts of the study support Simmel's contention that ingroup solidarity is associated with social distance from outgroups, but it is a complex phenomenon which requires more precise conceptualization, more sensitive means of measurement, and further sorting out of nearness and farness (identity and distance) factors to which this study addresses itself.