Reply to Tomlinson and Bisschop

The notion of the devolution of power from central to regional and local levels is gaining popularity across a wide front as a point of departure ‐ a rudimentary strategy ‐ to conceptualise ways in which South African society can be transformed. The South African government has contributed to this exercise by launching a process of establishing Regional Services Councils, new multi‐racial metropolitan and ‘areawide’ bodies outside South African ‘homelands’. This article identifies and analyses the stances of the most important opposition political actors operating legally on the South African stage to the establishment of these new bodies. These actors range from the right‐wing white parties ‐ the CP and the HNP‐to AZAPO and the UDF. Three general stances to this government‐initiated process are identified, and its chances for success are assessed.     

Leonard Barnes and South Africa (1)

The Dutch East and West India Companies established colonies in the Caribbean, Brazil and at the Cape of Good Hope. The resulting townscapes can be read as artefacts of domination ‐ attempts to stamp order on the chaos of newly‐colonized lands. But at the same time, such built forms incorporated knowledge of the “low‐other” ‐ the underclasses in highly hierarchical colonial worlds. As a result, the experience of resistance (rarely directly visible in such public constructions as street grids and building fagades) was incorporated into the symbolic language of dominance, setting up a dialectical relationship between the High and the Low.     

State‐Space beyond Territory: Wormholes,Gravitational Fields,and Entanglement

Neo‐Weberian historical sociology and political science establishes that territory is a defining feature of the modern state. Drawing on insights from political geography, I argue that ‘territory’ is not a pre‐existing physical location, but an effect produced by state practices and technologies. The spatial fetish of territory, moreover, distracts analytical attention from the equally important non‐territorial dimensions of the state. To map these new and unfamiliar dimensions, I propose three analogies from the study of physics ‐ wormholes, gravitational fields, and quantum entanglement ‐ as powerful conceptual devices with the potential to reorient social scientists towards a fuller understanding of state‐space.     

A critical evaluation of the commodification thesis

A recurring theme across the social sciences is that non‐capitalist production is disappearing albeit slowly and unevenly, and is being replaced by a commodified economy in which goods and services are produced by capitalist firms for a profit under conditions of market exchange. In this paper, however, I evaluate critically this commodification thesis. Even in the heartland of commoditisation ‐ the advanced economies. Large economic spaces are identified where alternative economic relations and motives prevail. Rather than view them as leftovers of pre‐capitalist formations, this paper argues that they are the result of both the contradictions inherent in the structural shifts associated with the pursuit of commodification as well as the existence of‘cultures of resistance’, As such, they are viewed as 'spaces of hope’which highlight the demonstrable construction and practice of alternative social relations and logic's of work outside profit‐motivated market‐oriented exchange.     

Toward an ethnography of lotto

Abstract

Lotto ‐ a state‐sanctioned lottery in New Zealand ‐ is a pervasive socio‐cultural phenomenon. Every week more than one‐third of the adult population purchase lottery tickets and in doing so replicate the promotion of Lotto as a form of benign gambling which is fun and entertaining to play. Within a model of constructive gambling Lotto may be cast as a site of normative or ideal gambling within the New Zealand context. Moreover, Lotto promotions and participation reaffirms the nationalistic ideals of the New Zealand ‘good life’, while simultaneously articulating some of the key narratives of transnational economics.     

Innovations to Make Markets More Inclusive for the Poor

Market failures, government failures and some of the characteristics of both the poor and business actors as well as their environment can act as barriers preventing the poor from participating more actively in markets, both as consumers and as producers. Private actors ‐ including for‐profit and not‐for‐profit entities, often in partnership with the public sector ‐ have been able to mitigate some of these constraints through innovations that have helped to make markets more inclusive for the poor, enabling them not just to gain access, but also to participate in ways that enhance their economic empowerment and human development. This article identifies the strategies and innovations used and devises a possible typology for them.     

Rethinking Caribbean transnational connections: conceptual itineraries

Abstract In academic debates across the social sciences, transnationalism has increasingly come to denote the cross‐border networks developed by migrants and the ways in which these link geographically distinct places into a single social field. At the same time, the intense focus on linkages between origin and destination groups frequently ends up privileging this binary ‐ home/away ‐ as the only way to map enduring cross‐border linkages. Drawing on two examples of Caribbean practices connecting Toronto and New York, in this article I suggest the traversing of a different spatial terrain and consider the implications of expanding our conceptual itineraries to include these other journeys that so far have tended to fly under the radar in discussions of transnational migration.     

Does Selective Migration Matter? Explaining Ethnic Disparities in Educational Attainment among Immigrants’Children1

Understanding why some national‐origin groups excel in school while others do not is an enduring sociological puzzle. This paper examines whether the degree of immigrants’educational selectivity ‐ that is, how immigrants differ educationally from non‐migrants in the home country ‐ influences educational outcomes among groups of immigrants’children. This study uses published international data and U. S. Census and Current Population Survey data on 32 immigrant groups to show that as immigrants’educational selectivity increases, the college attainment of the second generation also increases. Moreover, the more positive selection of Asian immigrants helps explain their second generations’higher college attendance rates as compared to Europeans, Afro‐Caribbeans, and Latinos. Thus, the findings suggest that inequalities in relative pre‐migration educational attainments among immigrants are often reproduced among the next generation in the United States.     

Eurocentrism: a worldwide phenomenon with regional peculiarities

In this article I will heuristically remove the term Eurocentrism from its negative connotations. I describe Eurocentrism as a structure of, and for, cognition, whose constituent components of rational logic and objectivity continue to have validity for gaining scientific knowledge. Such a view of Eurocentrism starts with the origin of the phenomenon, not with its effects. Further, its driving forces can be detailed, as they ‐ until the present ‐ have been interpreted mostly phenomenologically and not analytically. Here, Eurocentrism shall be defined as a phenomenon that, across space and time, has become a productive force for the development of man and nature from the Enlightenment to the present day.     

Mobile Livelihoods: The Sociocultural Practices of Circular Migrants between Puerto Rico and the United States1

This article focuses on the bilateral flow of people between Puerto Rico and the United States ‐ what has come to be known as circular, commuter, or revolving‐door migration. It documents the migrants' livelihood practices based on a recent field study of population flows between Puerto Rico and the mainland. Specifically, the basic characteristics of multiple movers, one‐time movers and nonmovers residing in Puerto Rico are compared. More broadly, the article assesses the implications of circular migration for Puerto Rican communities on and off the island. The author's basic argument is that the constant displacement of people ‐ both to and from the island ‐ blurs the territorial, linguistic, and juridical boundaries of the Puerto Rican nation. As people expand their means of subsistence across space, they develop multiple attachments to various localities. In the Puerto Rican situation, such mobile livelihoods are easier to establish than in other places because of the free movement of labor and capital between the island and the mainland. The author hypothesizes that circulation does not entail major losses in human capital for most Puerto Ricans, but rather often constitutes an occupational, educational, and linguistic asset.     

‘Does your granny eat grass?’ On mass migration,care drain and the fate of older people in rural Albania

Older people have been the main social casualties of the collapse of the Albanian communist system and the ensuing mass emigration of younger generations since 1990. Some have had to forage for survival on a near‐starvation diet, making broth from grass and weeds. For others, remittances from emigrant children ensure adequate material well‐being, but a loss of locally‐based trans‐generational care and of intimate family relations occurs. Rates of emigration have been highest in the southern uplands, where our fieldwork took place. Migration has been mainly to Greece, but also to Italy and elsewhere. Interviews with elderly ‘residual households’ ‐ single people and couples ‐ reveal stories of loneliness and abandonment; cross‐generational rupture of hitherto tight family structures is seen as emotionally painful because of the impossibility of enjoying mutual benefits of care sustained by geographical proximity. Profoundly upsetting is the denial of the practice of grand‐parenting, which the older generation see as their raison d'être. Cost of travel, visa regimes and emigrants’ irregular status conspire to prevent international visits. Finally, we examine various strategies of overcoming the ‘care drain’ produced by this situation, one of which is for older people to try to join their migrant children and grandchildren abroad.     

Working the Project: Research Proposals and Everyday Practices for Emerging Feminist Researchers

Seeking to support graduate students in engaging in feminist sociological research, we provide guidance on “working the project”—working collaboratively and creatively to foster compassion and solidarity as we bring diverse research projects to fruition. We offer reflections on our everyday experiences and struggles as emerging feminist researchers, including with writing research proposals. We also include four condensed research proposals ‐ on the social organization of care work, sex work, criminal justice, and abortion care ‐ to support fellow students in the process. Spurring collaborative, fun and inclusive ways of working, we speak to feminist scholar‐activists who may require additional support in navigating the social relations of academe, while contributing to collective projects of investigating and remaking the social organization of everyday life.     

The Social and Spatial Stratification of Vaccinal Patterns in Berlin Following Re‐Unification

Efforts by health authorities to stress the importance of herd immunity in the light of a resurgence of seemingly vanquished childhood diseases have frequently met with poor response rates. Investigating whether reunified Berlin can achieve a desirable herd immunity of 80% ‐ 85% against diphtheria, this paper examines the potential influence of socio‐demographic variables (age, gender, social circumstances, migration background) on vaccine‐uptake. Secondly, it investigates historically diverging vaccinal policies in Berlin as well as recent changes to monitoring coverage in their effect on immunisation‐related behaviour.     

Marriage Migration Policy in South Korea: Social Investment beyond the Nation State

This article seeks to contribute to understandings of South Korea's approach to marriage migration. Situating our analysis of marriage migration policy specifically within the recent emergence of a social investment approach to welfare, we bring together two bodies of literature that due to the methodological nationalism of much welfare state scholarship are usually treated separately. Through an examination of the policy framework governing marriage migration ‐ so‐called ‘multicultural family policies’ ‐ we find that successive Korean governments have actively sought female marriage migrants to perform various social reproductive roles as a means to secure the reproductive capacity of the nation, just as feminist scholars have argued the care work of citizen‐mothers can be understood. Our analysis also suggests that marriage migration policy in Korea constitutes a distinctly transnational dimension to its overall social investment approach, which is strongly motivated by concerns to reproduce the next generation of human capital.     

Legal Marriage,Unequal Recognition,and Mental Health Among Same‐Sex Couples

The authors examined whether the perception of unequal relationship recognition ‐ a novel couple‐level minority stressor ‐ has negative consequences for mental health among same‐sex couples. Data were analyzed from a dyadic study of 100 same‐sex couples (200 individuals) in the United States. Being in a legal marriage was associated with lower perceived unequal recognition and better mental health; being in a registered domestic partnership or civil union—but not also legally married—was associated with greater perceived unequal recognition and worse mental health. Actor partner interdependence models tested associations between legal relationship status, unequal relationship recognition, and mental health (nonspecific psychological distress, depressive symptomatology, and problematic drinking), net controls (age, gender, race and ethnicity, education, and income). Unequal recognition was consistently associated with worse mental health, independent of legal relationship status. Legal changes affecting relationship recognition should not be seen as simple remedies for addressing the mental health effects of institutionalized discrimination.     

Development,the state,and transnational political connections: state and subject formations in Latin America

Focusing on the processes of making and sustaining transnational political ties between actors, international actors and states, this paper reviews recent work from a number of disciplines on globalization and politics, and outlines an agenda for future research. Rather than seeing transnational political linkages merely as forerunners to the loss of local sovereignty, the paper argues for a wider conceptualization of transnational connections, embedded within processes of state formation in Latin America. Using a variety of examples, it is argued that transnational networks are associated with a wide range of meanings and a variety of responses by diverse actors. Drawing on recent work in political science, post‐structuralism and anthropology, it is suggested that geographical concepts ‐ related to scale, process and networks ‐ offer a means through which to analyze and ‘map out’ these transnational political processes.     

Horns and dilemmas: Jewish evacuees in Britain during the second world war

Although only a short‐lived experience, evacuation during the Second World War has left a profound impact on millions of people in Britain. In some ways British Jewry shared the common problems of evacuation created by class differences and a fundamental clash between town and country. Nevertheless, Jews, because of their particular religious needs and a strong tradition of anti‐Semitism in Britain, had unique experiences as evacuees during the war. Indeed evacuation had a profound importance for the shaping of post‐war British Jewry ‐ scarring those who suffered anti‐Semitic hostility but also assimilating many at the cost of their religious and cultural identity.     

European Youth Gang Policy in Comparative Context

The past decade has seen increased reports of street gangs across a range of contexts. In Europe, anxieties over street‐based youth has led to the development of gang‐specific policies across a range of jurisdictions, most notably the UK. Following a similar pattern of policy mobility in criminal justice, many of these policies have origins in the US system. In this review of international gang policy developments, we critically examine a number of these policies in a comparative context ‐ including gang policing units and intelligence databases ‐ and interrogate their efficacy. Drawing on cogent examples from the UK, we argue for caution in adopting US gang intervention tactics due to the lack of empirical evidence relating to their applicability or efficacy, and the corresponding potential for discrimination toward the most marginalised and socially excluded children and young people in society.     

Beyond cheap labour: trade unions and development in the Turkish metal industry

The ability of developing countries to export to more developed parts of the world is often associated with cheap labour. But such very obvious economic advantage is not always the end of the story. A fuller account needs to consider the wider institutional context. In some instances trade unionism can be an important part of this. This paper addresses trade unionism with specific reference to workers employed in large firms in Turkey that are significant exporters of consumer goods to the European market. The union examined is the largest union in the metal industry, an industry that is a driving force in the Turkish economy, and a major centre of trade unionism with over half a million of Turkey's three million trade unionists. The particular ‐ autocratic ‐ character of this union is critically examined and located with reference to wider forces of political economy and the specific constraints and difficulties to which its members are subject. Finally, the significance of this sort of trade unionism for economic ‐ and socio‐political ‐ development is discussed.