The Cypriot Issue in the Current European Geopolitical Order: Towards a Final Resolution?

The island of Cyprus was divided more than 40 years ago, in 1964, and until now a UN peace-keeping force, the UNFICYP, has been present on the territory to facilitate contacts between both communities, the Greek Cypriots and the Turkish Cypriots. All the attempts of negotiations during these 40 years have failed, but the newly elected Greek Cypriot President Christofias has reopened a peace dialogue with the Turkish leader Talat, a first step towards reunification. The solution of the Cypriot issue is strictly tied to Turkey’s accession to European Union and it will continue to be an obstacle until its resolution that could actually be reached within 2008. In this way, Turkey will increase its role in the region, creating a new asset in the balance of power of the Central Asian-Mediterranean region.      

Intergenerational Transmission of Fathering Roles in At Risk Families

SUMMARY

The purpose of this article is to examine the long-term consequences of paternal involvement for a sample of young men, with the intent being to examine whether patterns of fatherhood are transmitted across generations. Initially, a theoretical framework is discussed that has led researchers to expect that patterns of fatherhood will be produced across generations. Data from the Baltimore Parenthood Study were used, a 30-year longitudinal study that has followed the reproductive patterns of teenage parents and their children. A subsample of 110 males were examined with an occasional reference made to a subsample of females. Results indicated that a strong link existed between the stable presence of a biological father in the histories of the young men and the timing of their own family formation. Early fatherhood, both during the teen years and early twenties, is much more likely to occur if young men did not grow up living with their own fathers. Moreover, early fatherhood is somewhat more likely to occur if the young men did not have a stepfather in the past who was a stable presence in the home. Young fathers also were less likely to be living with their children if their own fathers had not lived in residence with them throughout childhood.     

Attainment gap and responsible factors: a quantitative study in secondary schools in Cyprus

The population in Cyprus, a recent European Union member, has become much more heterogeneous during the past decade. Here, we examine the attainment patterns of minority and native students enrolled in six secondary schools from different cities in Cyprus, and identify factors responsible for these patterns. The combination of examined factors has not, to our knowledge, taken place in previous studies. Findings confirm that ethnic minority groups perform significantly lower than native students. In terms of aetiology, we show that ethnic background, gender, parental education, parental occupation, generation status, absenteeism and school minority concentration have a significant effect on student attainment.     

Political Violence and Legitimation: The Episode of Colonial Cyprus

Guerrilla warfare often becomes popular despite the fact that many aspects of it are morally objectionable. Guerrilla groups too, instead of being considered terrorists, often become legitimate political actors. How does this happen? How does the process of legitimation of political violence work? I argue that this process is social and cognitive at the same time, and that a framework for its explanation must be able to account for this dualism. I build such an analytical framework on McAdam, Tarrow, and Tilly’s approach to social movement studies and on the general sociology of Pierre Boudieu. I use it to analyze the legitimation process of the guerilla anti-colonial campaign in Cyprus. In the legitimation process of Cyprus, two social mechanisms proposed by McAdam et al. played a critical role at an early stage—the mechanisms of certification and of boundary-drawing. Later, a social mechanism that I term “valorization” was central as well. To appreciate the effectiveness of these mechanisms, however, I argue that the dispositional facet of the legitimation process must be accounted for as well. I do this through field analysis, focusing in particular on positions of social and symbolic power. The analysis of the legitimation process in Cyprus offers lessons for the study of other similar processes. By showing how the three mechanisms worked effectively, and also showing the limits of their effectiveness, this analysis offers readily comparable causal analogies     

‘Inching’ towards interculturalism: ambiguities and tensions in teachers’ ideologies and practices in the context of Cyprus

ABSTRACT

This research examines teachers’ conceptualisations of diversity and intercultural education. It also investigates the teaching approaches adopted by teachers within their culturally diverse classrooms. More specifically, the current project investigates the following research questions: how do teachers define and understand the concept of intercultural education; what practices do they adopt (or not) to promote intercultural education in their classrooms; what barriers do they perceive in their efforts to teach in more intercultural ways; what are their suggestions for implementing intercultural education in more successful ways? Observations and interviews took place with twenty teachers from ten schools in Cyprus. Our data shows that two ideological positions co-existed in teachers’ discourses, namely: the monocultural approach (cultural-deficiency perspective), and the multicultural approach (cultural-celebratory perspective). We also examined how the ambiguities and contradictions in teachers’ ideologies influenced their teaching and practices. In their daily routines, teachers seemed to adopt a teaching-as-usual approach, while occasionally engaging in ‘intercultural moments’, which included their rare attempts to differentiate or add cultural content to their teaching.     

The accelerative and integrative use of marketing public relations in Cyprus

This paper concerns the development of marketing public relations (MPR) and its usage, relevance and significance in Cyprus. By case and interview research, the findings show movement, toward and emphasis upon MPR which is perceived to be more cost effective and efficient in achieving campaign objectives.     

Food,Memories, and Identities in Hong Kong

This article adopts a processual and relational approach to study food remembrance and investigates how different ways of appropriating food reveal the politics of identities in Hong Kong. It examines how food memories reveal relationships between the past and the present, reflect epochal transformation, and mark changing identities of various groups of people through new ways of appropriations. It takes the case study of pancai, a special banquet food for the villagers in the New Territories of Hong Kong, to examine the relationships between food and identities. This article investigates how pancai is remembered, popularized, and reinvented with different variations and embodies shifting meanings for the New Territories inhabitants as well as other Hong Kong people in changing socioeconomic and political environments. Pancai has been imbued with multiple layers of significance, involving linkages between local and national, emigration and Chineseness, urbanization and rural heritage, as well as decolonization and identity politics. As identities are by nature negotiable, situational, and fluidic, pancai's multiple layers of meanings correspond to different levels of identities—identities of the New Territories inhabitants, the rest of the Hong Kong people, and the mainland Chinese.     

Keeping the Past Alive: Memories of Israeli Jews at the Turn of the Millennium

We asked in an open-ended way in 1999–2000 what national and world events Israeli Jews consider most important from the past 60 years. Ten events were identified as foremost, including three from the time of independence and one that was quite recent. All the major memories are associated with efforts of the state through commemorations and in other ways to create a unitary collective memory. Five social background variables help account for which events are mentioned as most important: birth cohort, education, gender, ethnic origin, and religiosity. Other specific factors such as personal Holocaust experience and voting preferences are also considered.     

Reflections on Intergenerational Policy in Europe: The Past Twenty Years and Looking into the Future

This article will start from a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)-sponsored meeting on intergenerational programs in Dortmund, Germany, in 1999, as this was an awareness-raising moment for intergenerational programs in Europe. The connection between lifelong learning and intergenerational learning as one reason for the increased interest for intergenerational programs in the creation of European policy are discussed and connected to demography, health, aging, and well-being in policy. Therefore recent actions and reports from a European perspective are analyzed in order to reflect over the social and cultural factors that can have an impact and influence the intergenerational field in Europe in the future.     

Institutionalizing Counter‐Memories of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement: The National Civil Rights Museum and an Application of the Interest‐Convergence Principle

During the post–Reconstruction era in the United States, white southerners marked the cultural landscape with monuments and memorials honoring the Confederate cause and its heroes. These racialized symbols enjoyed an undisputed claim to public squares and parks throughout the South. It was not until the late twentieth century that commemorations to the black freedom struggle were publicly supported. This analysis examines the institutionalization of counter‐memories of the civil rights movement in Memphis, Tennessee at the Lorraine Motel, the site of the assassination of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The author draws on collective memory, cultural trauma, and social movements research as well as critical race theory to explain the creation of the National Civil Rights Museum. Using primary and secondary data sources the author examines how social memory agents, a changing political culture, and the passage of time mediated the cultural trauma of King's assassination and influenced the institutionalization of oppositional collective memories. Relying on Derrick Bell's interest‐convergence principle, the author concludes that the creation of this major memorial museum was a result of the convergence of white and black interests, specifically the economic and political interests of white elites and the cultural and political interests of black symbolic entrepreneurs.     

Cast from the Past: Using Screencasting in the Social Studies Classroom

This action research study followed a social studies educator as he developed and implemented screencasts in three ninth-grade world history classes. He focused on ways to increase student-centered learning and meeting the needs of broad ranges of learners. The study revealed an increase in student engagement, instruction in career and college technological skills, and facilitation of special education students’ needs. Few studies investigate the use of screencasting in social studies education. This study reveals the benefits and some of the drawbacks to using this technology in the social studies classroom.     

Heavy metal in Turkey: Tracking the tensions of democratization in the 1990s

Music, as a form of public discourse, invariably becomes a social science field that is considered more in the postmodern era when the boundaries are blurred. This study examines the political and cultural links between the emergence of the heavy metal genre and Turkish democracy. There are correlations between the prevalence of heavy metal in Turkey and the country's social and political transition in the 1990s and the search for a new path. The main argument here is that, among the country's tense democratization efforts and social problems, the heavy metal genre also indirectly carries the distinct traces of a different political search for the youth of the 1990s, although not directly. Democratic politics is a process established by daily life with the direct influence of societal interactions, and Turkish politics, and cultural life, in this case, heavy metal, include important notions in this remarkable manner. The main point symbolized by metal music in Turkey was its lyrical and artistic ability to express different points of view loudly enough against the uniform religious and nationalist culture that could be offensive, while other mainstream ranges such as pop and arabesque music didn't mind this issue.     

Bridging the gaps: Intergenerational findings from the substance use disorder and recovery field

The substance use disorder and recovery field has undergone rapid transformation over the last 40 years. It currently has a workforce that includes three generations—Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Millennials. The current study sought to identify generational differences among those involved in the substance-use disorder and recovery profession using an embedded design and grounded theory approach. Findings suggest that generational differences do exist across the three generations in regard to ideologies, value of formal and informal knowledge, training, and education. Results from the current study provide a further understanding of how we may bridge perceived contentious ideologies and knowledge gaps between generations to better develop current and future professionals within the field.     

From Generation to Generation: Intergenerational Relations in the Kibbutz

The first kibbutzim were established at the beginning of the twenetieth century. This short history allows us to trace the outline of generations. The second generation followed the practices of the founders, but without their ideological dedication. The third generation did not accept the kibbutz lifestyle, and many left. Those who stayed implemented changes, which ensured the continuity of the community, but at the cost of abandoning some original kibbutz values. Since the turn of the century, the youngest generation has been returning, but now to a different kibbutz, one based on principles that meet their needs while ensuring the sustainability of the community.     

Lesbians Leaping Out of the Intergenerational Contract:

Changing demographics and economic models in modern industrial countries have led to changes in the nature of the intergenerational contract, repositioning of the family as the site for care, and increasing privatization of welfare, housing and health services for the aged. These shifts have important implications for access to services for lesbians and gays as they age and enter their third age, often in the absence of traditional family support. The needs and desires of some older lesbians in Australia in relation to housing and health care were explored via focus group interviews. The results are discussed in relation to the intergenerational contract, policy shifts and the social organization of aged care in Australia.     

Bridging the Intergenerational Gap: Reflections for the Field

In this paper, the authors describe the first year of a project and the process undertaken to implement intergenerational (IG) programs in two sites: a continuing care retirement community and an early care and education center, which are located geographically close to one another in a small Midwestern town in the United States. The authors discuss the application and results based on the management framework for IG programming articulated by Jarrot and colleagues (2006) and its utility for planning and implementing IG programming in both sites. Reflections about the planning and implementation and outcomes of IG programs are also included.     

Reasons That Could Lead People to Divorce in an Evolutionary Perspective: Evidence from Cyprus

In the current research, we aimed to identify the reasons that could drive people to get a divorce. In Study 1, we employed qualitative research methods, and we identified 62 reasons that could potentially drive people to get a divorce. Using quantitative research methods, in Study 2 we classified these reasons into 7 broader factors. We found that being a harmful spouse was the most important factor for divorce, followed by incompatibility and in-law problems. We also found significant sex differences in several factors such as women indicating a higher willingness than men to divorce a harmful spouse. In addition, participants with children were less willing to divorce a harmful spouse than those who had no children. Finally, using second-order principal components analysis, we classified the 7 factors into 2 broader domains of reasons for getting a divorce.