Brazilians in Portugal,Portuguese in Brazil: Constructions of sameness and Difference 1

In this essay, I seek to understand the contradictions, ambiguities, and accommodations underlying the remodeling of Portugal from an imperial metropolis to an European postcolonial nation. From this perspective, I examine the reconfigurations of sameness and difference between Portugal and Brazil, in the present conjuncture of global capitalism, in two acts. The first discloses a historical conjuncture of intense ideological disputes on “what the Portuguese nation should be” and, the second indicates that the present configuration of Portuguese nationalism increasingly intersects with the politics of investments and the marketing of Portuguese high culture. Both acts bring to the fore the reconfigurations of the Portuguese empire and of the Portuguese “imperial mentality” in this present juncture of global capitalism.     

The power of Section 301: the Reagan tariffs in an age of economic globalization

ABSTRACT

Economic globalization is an important aspect of the ideology of the United States. The US has long been championing notions of a global free-market system, free of trade barriers. One of the ways in which the US has tried to challenge these trade barriers is through economic sanctions under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974. Section 301 gives broad powers to the President to combat unfair foreign trade practices. However, these broad powers have also been used for protectionist measures themselves. This paper examines the power of Section 301 and whether it undermines economic globalization, using the Reagan tariffs on semiconductors as a case study. This paper argues that Section 301, instead of promoting economic globalization, undermines it by its own protectionist nature.     

Two dynamics of globalization in the context of a sports mega-event: the case of UEFA EURO 2012 in Poland

ABSTRACT

The article uses the theoretical framework of Saskia Sassen’s two dynamics of globalization in order to analyse the relations between a nation-state and a non-state global actor when applying and preparing for a sports mega-event, namely UEFA Euro 2012 in Poland. The first dynamic of globalization is created by global institutions, organizations – such as global sport organizations, regimes, and processes. UEFA used the application process, and preparation, to confirm and consolidate its role as a global governor of an increasingly important area of globalization. The way Polish public institutions accommodated the UEFA requirements illustrates the second dynamic of globalization. The context of sports mega-events – ‘organized’ by global sports organizations and ‘hosted’ by nation-states – merges the two dynamics and makes it possible to emphasize the mechanisms involved in forming the new global order, defined by the complex interplay between the nation-state and non-state actors.     

Accelerated Contagion and Response: Understanding the Relationships among Globalization,Time, and Disease

Abstract

The rapid global transmission of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in 2003 raises questions about the intersections of globalization, time, and diseases. Viewing it as a disease of speed, this article examines SARS as a case of emerging infectious diseases in the context of contemporary globalization. We contend that the SARS crisis exposed the limitations of traditional spatiality-based approaches to infectious diseases, disease control, and health governance. When the advances in information and communication technologies (ICTs) in recent decades have accelerated the diffusion of pathogens, actors at all levels of global public health are pressed to keep up with the new temporalities. While cognitive and organizational innovations arising from technological changes show some hope for addressing these issues on a global level, other temporality-related challenges—such as differential capacities of the affected countries to respond to the simultaneity of the crisis—are yet to be tackled.     

Making Space at the Nations' Table: Mapping the transformative geographies of the international indigenous peoples' movement

Social movement scholarship has focused increasingly upon the roles played by symbolic resources and movement discourses in the process of social transformation. Current socio-political approaches, often characterized by an excessive focus on movement structure to the exclusion of larger cultural considerations, still struggle to address adequately the process of transmutation from idea to form, from symbolic shift to material change. Through an examination of the international indigenous peoples' movement, this article illustrates the ways that space constitutes a mediating dimension of the transformative processes through which the symbolic potential of movement discourses may be manifested. The alternative spatialities and new geographies generated, deployed and legitimized by this movement have provided critical locations for indigenous peoples to enact the creative work of mobilization. It is argued that incorporating the work of critical geographers into existing sociological and political perspectives will contribute to the better apprehension of these transformative processes as well as those associated with the particularly spatialized phenomena related to globalization, development, nationalism and geopolitics.     

A Brief History of the Theory of Evolution

Abstract

A brief history of evolutionary theory illustrates its long development and sociopolitical context. Major theoretical concepts in evolutionary theory are introduced that lay the groundwork for more detailed discussion in later texts. Two incarnations of evolutionary theory—sociobiology and evolutionary psychology—are described in some detail. Criticisms of these ideas are reviewed and evaluated. Evolutionary psychology, with its emphasis on sexual selection theory, has proven to be a rich approach, generating many new insights into human sexuality.     

Demystifying the use of mail survey in developing countries: a case of Nepal

ABSTRACT

The mail survey is a popular data collection tool in developed countries, but little is known about its use and efficacy in developing countries. Grounded on social exchange and diffusion of innovations theories, this study sought to ascertain whether the mail survey works in Nepal – one of the developing countries, by looking at how long respondents take to respond to mail surveys, and what the determinants are of the response time. A mail survey was conducted in June–September 2012 among 863 village animal health workers. Analysis of the data derived from 500 usable surveys shows that if properly planned and executed, the mail survey will perfectly work in developing countries as well. However, response period greatly varied by respondent’s home region, program sponsor, income groups, but not by gender, age, and education. The paper concludes by outlining suggestions to improve the mail survey.     

Sexology as a Profession in Portugal: Sociographical Composition and Self-nomination of Portuguese Sexologists

ABSTRACT

Objectives: The objective of this study was to describe the socio-demographic characteristics, the initial profession and training in sexology, sex therapy and psychotherapeutic techniques of Portuguese sexologists. Methods: As part of an European survey on sexology as a profession (Euro-Sexo), a questionnaire was mailed to all Portuguese sexologists. Results: Portuguese sexologist is in average 43 years old, is mainly female, a non-physician, and has training in sexology. Age, gender, profession, clinical practice and educational background in sexology, research practice in sexology and sexual education made a significant contribution to the prediction of self-nomination as a sexologist. Conclusions: An interesting diversity of sexology professions, from medical to non-medical fields was identified, and its influence on the practice of sexual medicine was discussed.     

Epilogue of empire: East Timor and the Portuguese postcolonial catharsis

The demonstrations of solidarity with East Timor that occurred in Lisbon in September 1999 were the first major political demonstrations since the fall of the dictatorship in 1974. Solidarity with East Timor demonstrated the importance to the Portuguese of emotional and cultural ties to people whom they saw as sharing their language and Catholic religion. These commonalities have a clear colonial history and are now being reconstructed around the idea of Lusophony, which is taken to be the core of a Portuguese postcolonial identity. East Timor, a Portuguese colony that was occupied by Indonesia after the Portuguese revolution of 1974, used diacritical signs such as Portuguese and Catholicism in its nationalist struggle against Indonesia. These signs are the cultural patrimony of a local creole elite and are exaggerated in Portuguese perceptions of East Timor. The colonial and postcolonial ironies of this case of mutual constitution of identity are analyzed.     

Understanding innovation in health program planning and development

IntroductionA need for innovative public health programs is evident as the field adapts to address changes in health priorities and target populations. The Innovative Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program (iTP₃) was created to support and enable innovation in teenage pregnancy prevention, developing programs to reach the most at risk youth.MethodsA formative evaluation was conducted to understand what innovation means in the context of program development, and examine the process of innovation. Qualitative data was collected through baseline interviews with program development teams, referred to as Innovators, prior to the start of the project period and follow-up interviews conducted at the end of a 12-month funding period. Additional open-ended written responses were collected in the middle of the funding cycle. A thematic analysis with an open-coding scheme was used to identify emergent themes.ResultsInnovators considered programs innovative because of the target population of focus, program delivery mechanism, and/or program development approach. They specifically identified that a “culture” of innovation must be present if new programs are to be developed. Over time, Innovators began to shift their definition of innovation toward unique design processes and ecological approaches.DiscussionThrough creating a culture of innovation and utilizing systems thinking, this project provides important insights in how to develop innovations in public health.     

Reinventing the international approaches to globalization: The Helsinki Process

Abstract

In the last ten years we have been witnessing an essential change within what we might call the ‘international approaches towards globalization’. This change is not to be considered only as being incremental but rather fundamental as it consists not merely in a strategy-oriented shift but in one of principle. From the ‘worst enemy of the poor’, globalization turned into a ‘phenomenon that we all have to take profit of’. This essay will analyze the turning point in the anti-globalization attitudes by using the study of one of the most recent and important international programmes on globalization, the Helsinki Process on Globalization and Democracy, under the aspects of the historical reform of the international approaches towards globalization.     

The globalization of care work: Neoliberal economic restructuring and migration policy

Abstract

Significant scholarly research has focused on the ‘globalization of care work’, or how care has been distributed and redistributed in an international system where immigrant workers provide care in wealthier countries. We argue that nation-states, through a range of contradictory policies and bilateral agreements, explicitly create and reinforce the redistribution and internationalization of care work. We show how economic restructuring has helped create both demand for and a supply of immigrant care workers, while migration policies have played a key role in shaping migration flows. We examine two dyads of sending and receiving flows: Morocco/France and Poland/Germany. These cases share both similarities and differences, which allows us to consider how the global political and economic processes shaping the international division of care work play out in different contexts.     

Will evolutionary psychology become extinct? Evolutionary psychology as the Leaning Tower of Pisa

ABSTRACT

Evolutionary psychology has as its foundation the classical Darwinian-Wallace theory of evolution. Using this theory as a guideline, evolutionary psychologists have interpreted human behaviors from an adaptationist outlook using a circular logic wherein no matter what the behavior is being looked at it is always given an evolutionary rationale. Additionally, there is much speculation as to evolutionary effects in the past and these speculations are seen as factual. Furthermore, there is evidence that the classical theory is flawed in that the emphasis on adaptation as the basis for evolution is incorrect. In that there is no actual evidence that Natural Selection (i.e., adaptation) has led to speciation. Previous scientists who have criticized the classical theory are cited, who made the case for speciation having occurred through a sudden “saltationist” process rather than the classical gradual process. As such, the author predicts that evolutionary psychology may ultimately become extinct as a subdiscipline.     

De-Americanizing the global?: Overcoming fundamentalism in a volatile world

Abstract

This article discusses the role of different fundamentalisms in the dramatic escalation of the desire to 'de-Americanize' the global in the post-September 11 world. I argue that the line between fundamentalist and non-fundamentalist tendencies in world views is blurred, and that fundamentalism should not be dismissed as something totally alien from the life of liberal-democratic societies. In particular, the current process of US-dominated globalization has tended to produce a rise in fundamentalist ways of thinking in different parts of the world, as people resort to defending their embattled traditions and identities as a mode of resistance against the unsettling forces of globalization. And as the US mode of dominating the world is couched in an American fundamentalist frame, it will inevitably engender and reinforce new anti-American fundamentalisms.     

From Vagrancy Heterotopias to the Proximity of Homelessness. A Historical Ethnography of the State's Moral Dilemmas in the Management of Unease

This paper discusses the tension between the criminal justice system and the welfare state as expressed through practices focused on populations who are perceived as being ‘at risk’ and constituting ‘a danger’ to society, therefore challenging the national governance of social precariousness and public (in)security. The analysis of a paradigmatic institution of Portuguese Fascism has brought to light how the contradictions between the long‐term subjectivation of vagrancy processes and the uses of anti‐vagrancy policies promoted by the dictatorial state to arrest and punish a significant part of his citizens may justify the moral dilemmas underlying the current Portuguese State's response to homelessness and urban marginality.     

Is this the end of globalization (as we know it)?

ABSTRACT

According to different media and analysts, globalization could be in a phase of ‘slowbalization’, de-globalization or even secular stagnation. After surveying academic proposals for defining, classifying and measuring globalization, by means of the Elcano Global Presence Index, this paper explores to what extent globalization has stagnated and/or whether it has changed its nature. Our results show that globalization has slowed down, but not retrenched. However, economic globalization has lost traction (something that probably explains the general perception on de-globalization) while soft projection has become the main driver of globalization.     

Freedom ossified: Political culture and the public use of history in Jamaica 1

The basic thesis of this paper addresses three distinct, yet related, historical developments. Firstly, the democratic promise of freedom for Caribbean people was not fulfilled, as the planter class was not prepared to renounce its power. Secondly, when it was no longer able to hold on to its power, political responsibilities were given to the middle classes, which celebrated this transition as a major achievement. However, the actual arrangements that were made still kept the majority of the people from meaningful participation in the political process and from access to economic resources. Nevertheless, the middle classes introduced the celebratory notion of freedom, although freedom continued to be denied to the majority. Thirdly, in the current period of globalization and neoliberal economics, this ethos has now attained a quasi‐mythical status in many Anglophone Caribbean countries and, at the very same time, the notion of freedom has been emptied of its practical meaning and has in many instances become counter‐productive. In short, Caribbean freedom has become ossified.     

Diversity in Canada: Predictors of the perceptions of social interactions

ABSTRACT

Language is an important characteristic of culture. Importantly, with the ever-present migration of persons across countries and cultures, physical boundaries of language have been blurred creating a robust area of study: language brokering in the context of globalization. Migration and immigration often necessitate the learning of a new language and in immigrant families, open an opportunity for language skill differences and language brokering. Language brokering is a process by which a bilingual individual, often the children of immigrants, assists in communication between two parties speaking distinct languages. This common practice has generated an increased focus and body of research on the current and aftereffects of language brokering on individuals who broker. The present article provides a brief review of the literature on language brokering including identified antecedents and select outcomes such as family, academic, and psychological outcomes. Overall, the literature shows the associations among language brokering, the contexts in which it may occur, and the outcomes (family, academic, and psychological) for language brokers remain less than clearly understood, although inroads are being made as researchers delve more deeply into specific areas such as parentification, age, child development, and family dynamics.     

Resisting terror,resisting empire The evolving ethos of American Studies

Abstract

The internationalization of American Studies is a reflection of its evolution from provincialism into a new regionalism. This raises the question of coping with the transnational while problematizing the national, thus landing American Studies in the welter of globalization both as a process and as a discourse. The global engagements of the US have produced global anti-Americanism. Terror in conjunction with globalization appears to have subsumed all other discourses in our times. To pursue American Studies in an environment of terror becomes more complicated by the fact that America itself is perceived by many as a source of global terrorism, evoking the chimera of the return of empire as envisaged in the recent work of Hardt and Negri. Resistance to the global reach of the American Empire and a global percolation of terror appear to be the two most crucial intellectual concerns of American Studies at the moment.