Contemporary South African Jazz and the Politics of Place

Abstract

Drawing on popular music scholarship on music and place, as well as interviews with jazz musicians, scholars, and journalists active on the jazz scenes in Durban and Johannesburg, this article considers how locales are perceived to uniquely influence music-making. Extending Bakhtin's notion of “utterance” to music, it argues that the musical character of recent South African jazz subtly registers demographic, political, economic, and environmental specificities peculiar to contemporary Durban and Johannesburg. It is argued that contemporary South African jazz, as it is experienced by its performers and listeners, may be profitably conceptualised as speaker and addressee of locale.     

Black women’s experience of colorist microaggressions

ABSTRACT

This paper reports the findings of a study that investigated Black women’s experiences of colorism. The authors introduce a new framework, “colorist microaggressions”, which highlight the microaggressions experienced by Black women. The results indicate that colorist microaggressions impacted the social, relational, emotional, and relational aspects of Black women’s lives and their well-being. The results also showed that like racial microaggressions, the “colorist microaggressions” that Black women encountered in their community, family, and in society, were pervasive. We conclude with a discussion of the implications for social work research, education, and practice.     

Entering Youth Justice: Comparing the Views of Human Services and Criminology Students

Abstract

The present paper explores how undergraduate students who are relatively new to the field of youth justice conceptualise their possible future work roles. The research compared the views of students who were commencing two undergraduate courses (subjects) concerned with working with young people. One course was taken by human services students and the other was taken by criminology students. Findings indicated that there were significant differences between these two groups in terms of their views about crime causation, as well as how they see the roles of youth justice workers. Students entered their respective programs and youth courses with differing professional orientations. The findings raise some intriguing questions at a time when universities and employers look to the potential benefits of “double degrees” and “joint degrees” that span supposedly complementary professional areas. However, contrasting beliefs about “troubled and troublesome” young people may resist easy accommodation within the same program of professional preparation.     

A Beginner’s Mind: On Beginning Psychoanalytic Schooling … Bion,Keith Jarrett,and the Primal Scene

ABSTRACT

Free associations structure … and loosen … what follows. In midair, having sprung from a high dive of 20-plus years of psychoanalytically informed professional work, the author free-falls into formal psychoanalytic training—meditating on the memory that his father was a jazz musician. The meditation strays to the author’s own jazz education … then wanders to a consideration of a primal scene interpretation emerging from Bion after he listened endlessly to a psychotic patient’s vamp—”I don’t know what I mean.” Bion’s (2013) stance of waiting for O links associatively to jazz pianist Keith Jarrett’s solo improvisations, what Jarrett calls his “epic journeys into the unknown.” The author hears a fugue in Bion’s primal scene interpretation—back to Freud and Klein and forward to Bion’s psychoanalytic students invited to compose using Bion’s unsaturated concepts. The author worries how he will communicate with his new psychoanalytic colleagues and considers the usefulness of origin myths (such as the primal scene) in such lateral communications. And, finally, the author loops back again to consider repetition when listening to Jarrett … repetition when listening to Bion … and repetition when listening to patients.     

Brewing Coffee Party Activism in Tea Party Territory: Faith and Politics in Rural America

Abstract

How do people remain politically active in hostile or seemingly hopeless contexts? We apply Jack Barbalet’s theory of “confidence” as a necessary precursor to “action” to understand how members of a liberal, local “Coffee Party” movement confront powerful political and religious opposition in a conservative, rural, midwestern city. Barbalet’s grounding of “confidence” in “acceptance and recognition” in social relationships improves upon the popular “political efficacy” concept because it is not contingent on successful outcomes. We find that as members of the Coffee Party develop confidence to speak up and “go their own way,” their faith and political participation become more meaningful, which helps to explain how people remain in congregations despite disagreements with co-congregants, seek new congregations late in life when their activism results in expulsion, and remain politically active despite powerful opposition. Our findings contribute significantly to recent research on the interaction between politics and religion.     

Accumulation of cultural and social capital: The differing college careers of prep school and public school graduates

Beginning in the 1920s, and continuing through the 1950s, research indicated that in college (and especially at Harvard) public school graduates were higher academic achievers than were prep school graduates. After the Second World War, however, admissions to prestigious colleges became much more competitive; graduates of the most elite boarding schools were no longer assured entry to the college of their choice. Therefore, this series of three studies was designed to update and extend the earlier research. It was found that at Wesleyan University, Yale University, Mount Holyoke College, and Smith College, public school graduates were significantly more likely than prep school graduates to be elected to Phi Beta Kappa. In contrast, the private school graduates were significantly more likely than the public school graduates to be selected as members of the two most prestigious senior societies at Wesleyan and Yale (The Mystical Seven at Wesleyan and Skull and Bones at Yale). Pierre Bourdieu's (1977) theory of social reproduction and his concepts of “cultural capital” and “social capital” are used to interpret both the earlier findings and the findings reported in these three studies.     

An Examination of Drinkers’ Consequences by Sexual Orientation

Abstract

Objective: This study examined college student drinkers by sexual orientation (SO), alcohol use, and negative consequences in a national sample that self-identified gender and SO. Participants: Students completing the Spring 2005 National College Health Assessment (N = 54,111). Methods: A secondary analysis was conducted examining student responses by SO to items regarding negative consequences associated with alcohol. Results: Bisexual students had the highest mean scores on an index of alcohol-related harm. Significant differences were found by SO among male high-risk drinkers for alcohol-related consequences of “fighting” and “injuring another,” and females for “injuring another” and “unprotected sex.” Bisexual students had significantly greater than expected cell counts for significant results, including a significant finding for bisexual low-risk female students for alcohol-related “regret.” Conclusion: These findings suggest that more research is necessary to discern real differences in alcohol-related risk among college students by sexual orientation.     

Expanding “Irish Family” Repertoires: Exploring Gay Men's Experiences as Parents in the Republic of Ireland

ABSTRACT

This article explores gay men's parenting experiences and practices in order to seek insight into how gay men accept or challenge heterosexual family norms and how “family” is understood in the Irish context. It is based on small-scale qualitative research (interviews) with seven gay fathers. Despite the limited routes to parenthood for gay men in Ireland, the research findings indicate that the participants enjoy parenting and that they are motivated in their parenting practices. The gay fathers in this study are participative parents who have made significant decisions in their lives in order to prioritize their children's welfare. The diversity of family constellations and care arrangements that surround gay fathering in Ireland can expand family and care repertoires beyond the traditional biparent heterosexual norm. Gay fathers in Ireland appear to enjoy some security at the private familial level and in the responses from their families and communities, but they are keenly aware that nontraditional families are given less status in Irish society. Unlike other jurisdictions, gay parenting is not articulated by the gay fathers in this research as a rights-based argument. Instead, these Irish gay fathers are de facto activists who seek to “humanize” gay parenting.     

Between Money,Morality and Masculinity

Abstract

This paper focuses on the supply-side of Chiang Mai's gay bars, that is, the male sex workers called dek bar or “bar boys”¹ in Thai. I formulate some explanations why these young men -more than half of whom do not consider themselves to be “homosexual” -take on a job as a male sex worker. In this analysis I focus on certain notions in traditional Thai society, trends in contemporary urban Thai society, the economics of work in a gay bar, as well as the sexual behaviour of male sex workers and the concepts they use to describe their work.     

Place attachment and political orientation: The case of localists in Hong Kong

This study extends the application of place attachment, which is widely used in environmental science research, to the field of political and civic studies. It compares place attachment between citizens with different political orientations and citizenship identities. In addition to its “cognitive” aspect, this study includes an “affective” dimension that has rarely been featured in the extant literature. Our findings, based on a telephone survey of 607 Hong Kong residents, confirm that place attachment is composed of both cognitive and affective dimensions. Besides, the mean score of self-identified “localists” and “Hong Kongers” on place attachment was significantly lower than that of “centrists” and those with no political orientation, as well as those who identified themselves as “Chinese Hong Kongers,” respectively. The weak place attachment among the localists amid Hong Kong's tremendous social and political challenges is most alarming, which highlights the need for policy makers to quickly address the issue.     

A Qualitative Sociological Approach to Address Issues of Diversity for Social Work

ABSTRACT

This article identifies prevailing conceptual approaches employed to formulate issues of diversity for social work research and practice. It argues that the notions of “welfare” and “diversity” are customarily defined within unduly narrow realms. “Welfare” is normally defined from the ideological perspective of modern mainstream society, even though competing minority ideologies of “welfare” are both possible and evident. “Diversity” is normally organized around the central concept of “ethnicity,” even though the universality of this notion is questionable. In response a research approach to address these limitations is proposed which employs a sociological perspective and qualitative methodology to discern appropriate conceptual frameworks.     

Adelina Anthony Interview with Aimee Carrillo Rowe

ABSTRACT

This interview explores how performing artist, activist, writer, director, performer Adelina Anthony stages queer women of color affects as a complex terrain to mobilize a decolonial imaginary. Anthony's characters are complex, contradictory, surly, and resilient with whom audience members connect and feel deeply. Especially for queer women of color, who rarely get to see their own experiences on film or on stage, Anthony's work provides a critical forum for discussing, imagining, naming, and envisioning the connections between our personal struggles and broader forces of imperialism, heterosexual capitalism, and settler colonialism. Through the “medicina” of gritty truth-telling and side-splitting laughter, Anthony discusses her own positionality as a coyote curandera. Through the exploratory genre of the interview, Anthony helps readers palpably engage a queer woman of color “theory in the flesh” to imagine their own creative potentialities through a compassionate lens of humility and humor.     

Bioactive compounds of the Mediterranean diet and prostate cancer

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this review is to examine the evidence on the effects of bioactive constituents of the Mediterranean diet (MeDi) on prostate cancer (PCa) risk.

Methods: The search for articles came from extensive research in the following databases: PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science. We used the search terms “Mediterranean diet,” “lycopene,” “vitamin E,” “vitamin C,” “Selenium,” “resveratrol,” “prostate cancer,” and combinations, such as “lycopene and prostate cancer” or “resveratrol and prostate cancer.”

Results: Numerous studies investigating the effect of various dietary nutrients on PCa have suggested that selenium is probably the most promising. Several studies reported reduced PCa risk associated with vitamin C and E intake, while other studies reported no association. Lycopene inhibits cell proliferation and inducts apoptosis, thus protecting against cancer. Also, it has been found in various in vivo and in vitro studies that resveratrol, inhibits PCa development.

Conclusions: The high content of bioactive phytochemicals in the MeDi is of particular interest in the prevention of PCa. Further large-scale studies are required to clarify the effect of MeDi bioactive compounds on prostate health, in order to establish the role of this diet in the prevention of PCa.     

Religion and Women's Sex Role Traditionalism

Abstract

The relationship between religion and sex role orientations is examined in a 1964 NORC sample of white, married college graduate women. The analysis finds substantial differences among religious groups. Baptists, Catholics, and fundamentalist Protestants have the most traditional sex role attitudes, followed by mainline Protestants, Jews, and religious “nones.” These differences are not explained by controls for social characteristics or religious involvement. It is argued that many of these differences would still exist in a contemporary, more representative sample. Some alternative explanations of the findings are discussed.     

Conceptions of Gay Male Life-Span Development

Abstract

Four of Erikson's eight psychosocial crises were used in this qualitative, exploratory study as an organizing framework. Using a semi-structured questionnaire, seven men were interviewed with the goal of understanding how they have navigated Erikson's life stages. Significant results included: an early sense of being different and a period of time between “coming out to self” and “coming out to another person,” both complicating Erikson's sense of “social trust.” The men also described finding non-biological ways of achieving generativity as well as the development of a strong internal sense of authority or locus of control. Other strengths gained included: achieving a broad base of social support or a “family of choice,” and becoming role models themselves in response to a clear absence of positive role models during their own adolescence, which many identified as delaying their coming out. Finally, AIDS was discussed by many as a critical factor affecting how these men navigate each of Erikson's stages. Implications of these tentative findings are suggested for research, teaching, practice, and for psychosocial theory itself.     

“Running as Women”?

Abstract

This article compares the campaign brochures of female and male candidates who ran for the Pennsylvania State Assembly in 1996 and 1998. The photographs and statements made in the brochures were content analyzed to see if female candidates advertise themselves in ways identified in the literature as “running as a woman.” Specifically, the issues, traits, qualifications, and group associations mentioned in the brochures were coded as “male,” “female,” or “other.” The findings indicated that while women present a mix of messages in their brochures, they are more likely than men to identify “female issues” and “female qualifications.” These differences were greatest among Republicans and challengers.     

Japanese Contributions to Theory and Practice in Developmental Psychology

ABSTRACT

Despite the potential of digitally enhanced learning environments for supporting twenty-first-century learning and educational change, there is a dearth of research knowledge on students’ transformative agency in their use of digital technologies and media within these contexts. Transformative agency accounts for young people’s initiative and commitment to transform their activity and its context(s) for personal and/or academic ends. This paper reports an investigation of students’ transformative agency in a novel, student-centered design and learning environment, referred to as a makerspace. We present our empirical findings as a narrative, illustrating how transformative agency emerged and developed via three intertwined discursive and action-level manifestations of such agency, namely “deviating”, “switching”, and “transfiguring”, in the social activity of a group of four 5th grade students participating in the makerspace environment over one school semester. Our study makes an original contribution to the research on students’ transformative agency and its temporal unfolding in a novel digitally enhanced learning environment.     

Dimensions of Lesbian Identity During Adolescence and Young Adulthood

Abstract

As knowledge about gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people continues to mature, social work research must address the complexity of key issues, including sexual identity. The present study examined dimensions of sexual identity among young women who identify as questioning or lesbian, and it illustrates the progress being made in conceptualization and measurement in this area.

Three distinct dimensions of lesbian identity were found: “New Identity Possibilities,” “Consolidation and Fulfillment,” and “Stigma and Mistreatment Management.” For these young women, individual and social dimensions of identity development were not distinct as had been previously hypothesized. These findings are discussed in relation to theory and future research that attends to the intersection of gender, age, and sexual identity.     

Community Participation Reconsidered

ABSTRACT

This paper describes the process of planning, developing, and implementing a community-based project with Hmong women in a large Midwestern city. Combining action and research to forge relationships, identify common goals and garner resources, the Hmong Women's Project applied principles of both feminist and participatory action research (PAR). In light of the successes and challenges of this ongoing project, we critically evaluate the oft-encouraged goal of “maximum community participation” in PAR projects by questioning common definitions of “community” and “participation.” We argue that the parameters of what constitutes a “community” and what counts for “participation” are inherently unstable, requiring constant negotiation of ideas, values, identities and interests among all who participate in a PAR project.     

Waterpipe Smoking Among College Students in the United States: A Review of the Literature

Abstract

Objective: To review the literature on college student waterpipe use with a focus on undergraduates in the United States. Participants: Undergraduate students. Methods: Studies were accessed using the databases PubMed, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, and Academic Search Premier. Searches included combinations of the following keywords: “waterpipe,” “hookah,” “shisha,” “nargila,” “argileh,” “hubble bubble,” “college,” “university,” and “student.” Results: Results demonstrate that approximately 1 in 5 American college students report past-year waterpipe use. Results also suggest that there are a number of established correlates of waterpipe smoking, including male gender, Arab ethnicity, cigarette smoking, and the belief that waterpipe smoking is less harmful than cigarette smoking. Conclusions: Despite its harmful health effects, waterpipe smoking is quite common among college students. Future research with better methodologies and theoretical frameworks are needed to advance the field.