Unsettling research versus activism: how might critical disability studies disrupt traditional research boundaries?

Abstract

This article responds to the call for producing activist-oriented scholarship by engaging with theoretical and methodological approaches that explore the inclusion of women and girls with disabilities in Vietnam. We consider possibilities for connecting different forms of knowledge and activism by reflecting on research practices designed to foster social change. Specifically, we ask: how can critical disability studies be more reflexive about knowledge which privileges particular ways of knowing from the Global North? What alternative possibilities can exist to foster more inclusive and transformative knowledge that tackles systemic forms of oppressions in colonial and postcolonial contexts? Reflecting on an ongoing collaborative project in Vietnam, we argue that critical disability studies which engages with different forms of activism through critical reflections on our privileges can tackle exclusion by opening a new platform for debating social justice transnationally.     

Discrimination Hurts: The Academic,Psychological, and Physical Well‐Being of Adolescents

Little is known about the frequency of ethnic or racial discrimination and its implications for Latin American and Asian youths' development. In this study, we examined if there were ethnic and generation differences among 601 12th graders from Latin American (36%), Asian (43%), and European (19%) backgrounds in the frequency of peer, adult, and daily discrimination, and whether discrimination predicted their well‐being. Adolescents from Latin American and Asian backgrounds reported more adult and peer discrimination than their peers from European backgrounds. Latin American youth reported more adult discrimination than their Asian peers. Discrimination predicted lower grade point averages and self‐esteem, and more depressive symptoms, distress, and physical complaints. Ethnic identity, ethnic socialization, and race rejection sensitivity did not moderate the associations between discrimination and well‐being.     

Performance of traditional f tests in repeated measures designs under covariance heterogeneity

This study investigates the performance of two traditional F tests, one for main effects and the other for interaction in repeated measures designs under several conditions of covariance heterogeneity. Overall, the test for interaction is more vulnerable than the one for main effects. Distortion in the level of significance is less serious for the case of equal group size.     

On metrically conservative societies

In this paper, social choice theory is considered from the standpoint of social change. Various metrics (in a discrete setting) are introduced to measure changes in individual and collective preferences, and a society is said to be metrically conservative if social change does not exceed total individual changes. Arrow's IIA Axiom is found to be intimately related to a very restrictive metrical condition called metrical ultraconservatism. Strong characterization theorems are proved for metrically ultraconservative societies. A natural relaxation is the condition of metrical conservatism. We show that metrically conservative societies exist, and the number of possibilities can in fact grow exponentially with the population. But when the metrical condition is placed into the more specific socio-economic context of strict preference orderings, normative restrictions appear. One is the constitutional protection against the election of a dictator; another is the nonexistence of metrically conservative stable matchings, in the sense of Gale-Shapley. Some similar questions have been raised in continuous social choice theory, but the conclusions are quite different. We also consider the effect of an increasing population on the average rate of social change.The author is grateful to Dr. T.M. Tang for first drawing his attention to Arrow's General Possibility Theorem, to Professors Robert M. Anderson, Kenneth J. Arrow, and an anonymous referee for many valuable suggestions, and to Dr. W.Y. Poon for pointing out an important reference. This work was done when the author was at the University of California at Berkeley and formed part of his Berkeley Ph.D. dissertation. The views expressed here are the author's, and not necessarily those of AT&T Bell Laboratories.     

Problem Gambling Within a Chinese Speaking Community

The purpose of this study was to obtain preliminary data on pathological gambling rates within a metropolitan Chinese community to determine if more costly extensive epidemiological surveys were justified. Two thousand survey questionnaires were distributed to parents through children attending a local Chinese speaking school. A response rate of 27.4% was obtained. Over a quarter of respondents were born overseas in either Mainland China or Hong Kong. Results indicated that gambling was not a popular activity with 60.0% of respondents stating that they never gambled. Of those who gambled, a third of respondents identified lotto as the preferred form. Using a Chinese translation version of the SOGS and a cut-off score of 10, a prevalence estimate of 2.9% for pathological gambling was found with males showing a higher rate (4.3%) as compared to females (1.6%). Respondents reporting a prior history of gambling in their country of origin were more likely to be classified as probable pathological gamblers. Despite the use of a sample of convenience, changes to the wording of two items in the Chinese translation of the SOGS and the possibility of false positive cases in the present study, it is concluded that further research into problem gambling in this community should be undertaken.     

The Job Demands-Resources Model in emergency service volunteers: Examining the mediating roles of exhaustion,work engagement and organizational connectedness

Using a sample of 887 volunteer emergency service workers in South Australia, we conducted a study based on the JD-R framework to examine the roles of three mediators in the relationship between job characteristics and volunteer well-being. These were (i) exhaustion as a mediator in the relationships between job demands and both poor mental health and turnover intentions; and (ii) work engagement and organizational connectedness as mediators in the relationships of job resources (training and organizational support) with happiness and turnover intentions. Organizational connectedness, a relatively new construct, is a positive state of well-being that involves an emotional connection with other workers, with service recipients and with aspects of the task and the organization's values. Results indicated that all three mediators were important in explaining volunteer well-being. Specifically, job demands were positively related to exhaustion, which, in turn, was linked to ill-health and turnover intentions. Job resources were positively related to work engagement and organizational connectedness, which were, in turn, negatively related to turnover intentions. However, while organizational connectedness mediated the relationship between job resources and happiness, this was not the case for work engagement. The roles of these variables in future research in paid and voluntary work are discussed.     

Resident interaction and social well-being in an oil boomtown in western North Dakota

Previous studies on the social well-being of residents living in energy boomtowns focus primarily on demographic characteristics of residents. These studies do not consider that there could be a relationship between residents’ social well-being and whether they interact with new residents moving into their community. The current study includes a measure of interaction with new residents as it examines five dimensions of the social well-being of residents living in an oil boomtown in western North Dakota. Surveys were distributed door-to-door to residents living in Williston North Dakota during the fall of 2015. Research findings show that people who reported that they interact with new residents moving into their community felt safe from crime and violence in their community; felt more socially integrated in their community; had high levels of community trust and community satisfaction, and believed that they could count on their neighbors. These findings are important because they highlight the significance of social interaction in communities that experience rapid population growth resulting from increased energy production.     

Examining Skin Color and Discrimination Among Ethnic Minority Adolescents

Discrimination based on skin color is illegal, yet preferential treatment based on skin color persists and there is less clarity on how one’s nativity and parents play a role between skin color and discrimination. This study examined the associations among skin color and subtle discrimination (i.e., microaggressions) among Latina/o (63.5%) and Asian American (36.5%) adolescents (N?=?244; M_age?=?17.12, SD?=?.73; 55% female). This study also examined whether nativity status, parent ethnic racial socialization, and parental acculturation (via parent language proficiency) moderated the association between skin color and microaggressions. Adolescents with darker skin color reported more microaggressions. In addition, the association between skin color and microaggressions was found among foreign-born adolescents, but not US-born adolescents. Neither parental acculturation or parent ethnic racial socialization moderated the association between skin color and microaggressions. These results suggest that, like race and ethnicity, skin color may be a marker for adolescents receiving subtle discrimination, particularly among foreign-born youth.