Toward transnational identity? The reconstruction of Hakka identity in Thailand

The Hakka people (Hakkas) are a global cultural ethnic group. This article explored the experiences of the Hakkas in Thailand. One major ethnic minority in Thailand is the Chinese people (14 percent of the total population) who engage in businesses and commerce throughout the country. Fifty-six percent of the Chinese are Chaozhounese, and 16 percent are Hakkas. This article argued that the Thai-Hakka identity is a transnational construction mobilized by multiple agencies at the local, national, and global levels. This identity is a result of the negotiation from the common motherland (China) in the past, the new modern Hakka discourse and the multicultural policy (Taiwan), and the complex ethnic experiences and interactions in everyday life (Thailand). Compared to the traditional diaspora viewpoint (pluri-locally distributed, with a strong identity to the motherland), the Thai-Hakka identity has gravitated towards a new path of transnational identity (pluri-locally distributed, without a clear centre–periphery relation).     

Reflections on Strangeness in Context: The Case of Russian–Jewish Immigrants in the Kibbutz

This article elucidates and elaborates upon the contextualized meaning of strangeness and the experience of being a stranger. Our empirical study of strangeness embarks simultaneously from the three leading theories of the stranger—as cultural reader (Schuetz 1944), as demarcator of social boundaries (Simmel 1950), and as trespasser of social categories (Bauman 1990, 1991)—and at the same time criticizes these theories for artificially divesting strangeness of social context. Our thesis about strangeness-in-context is grounded in in-depth interviews we conducted with Jewish–Russian immigrants (twenty-one university students) who have lived in kibbutzim. Our assumption is that the kibbutz as a communal home is a suitable case study to illuminate the manyfold dimensions of strangeness, as it intensifies the tension between insiders and outsiders. In explicating the immigrant's sense of strangeness we claim the local context of the kibbutz interacts with the Israeli national definition of the immigrant as a homecomer.     

The sinfulness of unwanted conception∗

The prevalence rates of unwanted sexual activity indicate that a substantial proportion of both men and women are at risk for experiencing unwanted (nonconsensual) sexual activity. However, little is known about the extent to which men and women consent to unwanted sexual activity, such as when a person indicates willingness to engage in a sexual activity at a time when he or she experiences no sexual desire. In the current study, 80 male and 80 female U.S. college students involved in committed dating relationships kept diaries of their sexual interactions for two weeks. More than one third (38%) of the participants reported consenting to unwanted sexual activity during this period. The most common motives for engaging in this behavior were to satisfy a partner's needs, to promote intimacy, and to avoid relationship tension. Most participants reported positive outcomes associated with these motives. The results indicate that previous estimates of the prevalence of unwanted (nonconsensual) sexual experiences may actually represent a confound of nonconsensual and consensual forms.     

The “Pilgrim Question”: Regulating the Hajj in Late Imperial Russia

The goal of this article is to complicate the existing scholarly account of Russian policies toward the hajj, which heretofore have been studied primarily as an aspect of the tsarist state’s relations with Islam and empire building. This article demonstrates that in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the hajj came to be understood by many educated Russians within and outside the government as a highly complex and contested “pilgrim question” which engaged a broad range of difficult issues: problems of governance, such as an aspiration for more effective regulation of increased mass mobility, identification of border-crossers and sanitary control, as well as issues of empire, socio-political and confessional order, and economic development. The essence of the “question” was how to order the travel of Muslim pilgrims to the holy places outside of the empire’s borders. Imperial expansion, the growth of the empire’s Muslim population, and the development of long-distance transportation all contributed to an increasing number of Muslim pilgrims from Russia. In response, and inspired by new conceptualizations of the role of a modern state in relation to its subjects, some Russian officials sought to take greater control of the hajj. By focusing on the Russian government and public debate on how to regulate the hajj, this article examines why and how educated Russians increasingly came to see the annual Muslim pilgrimage as a “question.” It discusses the different dimensions of this problem and what the proposed regulation entailed. Finally, the article suggests why the “pilgrim question” remained a contested issue in late imperial Russia.     

The Jewish community in Iraq, 1920–50: A failed attempt at integration

At the end of the First World War, the Iraqi Jewish community numbered about 85,000. With the establishment of the Arab Iraqi state in 1920, the leaders of the community advocated the integration of Iraqi Jewry into the national Arab society. Jews held important positions in all fields ‐ economic, social and cultural. Compared to Israel, Iraq was for them a paradise. There they hoped to build their future, which then promised to be bright. Arab Iraqi society, too, expected the Jewish minority to become a part of it and to contribute its talents to the consolidation and strengthening of the state.

The pogrom of 1941 was a turning point in the history of Iraqi Jewry, leading to the establishment of a Jewish underground. The worsening situation in Palestine prompted the Iraqi government to adopt a policy of repression and discrimination against the Jews, putting an end to the attempt by the Jewish minority to integrate into Arab Iraqi society. Jews began to seek ways to leave the country. The underground proved instrumental in helping some 121,000 Jews to flee Iraq and make their way to Israel.     

Who’s missing out? The impact of digital networking behavior & social identity on PR job search outcomes

This study investigates how different aspects of social identity correlated with online networking and job search success. Undergraduates and recent graduates seeking public relations roles between 2020 and 2021 were surveyed (N = 355) for their early career job-seeking practices. The pre-existing lack of diversity in PR and the tendency to favor job candidates who are similar to the decision-maker means that the move to virtual relationship building and vetting may be especially impactful for diverse applicants. The results showed that networking was extremely important as over 94% of respondents found their position via networking of some sort. Respondents found roles most commonly via LinkedIn (57.5%), followed by other social media (49.9%). LinkedIn network size was positively correlated with more job offers, whereas Twitter and Facebook network sizes were insignificant. Those who identified as white used LinkedIn more and had more job offers than those who identified as BIPOC. Veterans and those receiving need-based assistance also reported having fewer job offers. This paper extends the strength of weak ties theory by demonstrating the importance of weak ties in digital networking in the PR industry. This research suggests that maintaining weak ties via LinkedIn is valuable for success in digital networking, particularly by growing a robust LinkedIn network and maintaining an active profile. Practical advice for PR educators and students illustrates how to enhance LinkedIn use to promote equity in digital networking. Moreover, the PR field may promote diversity among applicants and hires through mentoring, recruiting, and growing their own diverse digital network.     

Jewish studies underground in Leningrad in the 1980s†

ABSTRACT

This article is a first-hand report of a participant and leader of a number of underground initiatives within the “refuseniks’” community which aimed to encourage Jewish studies. These underground initiatives involved seminars (scholarly as well as public), excursions through Jewish historical sites, and the publication of a samizdat journal. In short, these initiatives sought to recover and disseminate knowledge of Jewish history and culture.     

A Christian identity for the liberal state?

It seems to be impossible for the liberal state to embrace a Christian identity, because ‘liberalism’ is exactly a device for separating state and religion. Discussing the implications of a recent decision of the European Court of Human Rights, Lautsi v. Italy (2011), I argue that this is not necessarily so. If paired with a liberal commitment to pluralism, a Christian identity might even be more inclusive of minority religions than a narrowly ‘liberal’ state identity, which has been the dominant response in Western Europe to the challenge of immigrant diversity, especially that of Muslim origins.     

Peers/strangers/others? The youth of Dagestan in search of group identities

The article discusses the map of youth cultural scenes in Makhachkala, the capital of the Republic of Dagestan, and the third largest city in the North Caucasus region of the Russian Federation. The uniqueness of Makhachkala’s youth space is associated with the specific geopolitical and cultural circumstances of the history of the republic. This is set against the context of post-Soviet transformation: rising unemployment and severe inequality; the revival of Islam; radical changes in the gender regime, the ethnic and religious composition of Dagestanis; and a complicated political agenda involving the struggle with radicalization, and the growth of a terrorist threat. Thus, we consider it important and timely to study the local youth socialities, which exist in such a contradictory context. The research that underpins the article is focused on two opposing youth scenes in Makhachkala: street workout (inscribed in the context of the local patriarchal regime), and the anime community (symbolically resisting the pressure of social ‘normativity’). Using the theoretical concept of cultural scenes and a case-study approach (in-depth interviews, participant observation, community mapping), the potential to categorize youth that are not centred (that is, who are outside the ‘core’ of the capitalist world-system) is critically considered through the opposition between subcultural and mainstream groups. The key aim of the article is to demonstrate the importance of using the construct of the ‘other’ (that which is alien or dangerous) as the main way to define the more subtle (often latent) structure of group identity and cultural capital of a community. This also describes the intra- and inter-group solidarities and the value conflicts of youth in a complex and contradictory local urban environment. In this case, the process of growing up and the socialization of youth involve the selection of different strategies of acceptance and resistance to the social order, the structure of normativity and images of success.     

Russian Jews in exile from Bolshevik Russia: the case of Lev Shestov as an example of Russian‐Jewish existential compromise

Lev Shestov (born Leib Jehuda Shvartsman in Kiev in 1866) was a product of his times and entangled cultural roots. His destiny became closely related to the Russian Diaspora in Europe (he fled Bolshevik Russia in 1920). He was also linked to the local (especially French and German) intellectual life. However, being a Jew made Shestov stand out from the purely Russian emigration, for although he connected himself first and foremost with Russian culture, he could not be integrated without reservations into the purely Russian Diaspora. On the other hand mapping him in relation to the diverse Russian‐Jewish émigré milieu in Europe is not a straightforward task because his attitude to his Jewish roots was rather ambivalent. The case of self‐identification, in varying degrees, was similarly ambiguous with many Russian Jews who left Russia after the revolution. Shestov’s activities in emigration were diverse. Apart from teaching he published regularly in the outlets of the émigré press as well as in major French literary journals and gave lectures in Germany (in particular, addressing such different audiences as the Union of Russian Jews and the Nietzschean Society). In brief, his way of coping with the experience of exile was to become a multicultural conductor of sorts. This article aims to analyse Shestov’s life path in the framework of the Russian‐Jewish Diaspora in Europe at the time in the context of both cultural and ethnic repudiation and appropriation. This in turn should shed some new light on the cultural life of this Diaspora.     

The behavioural relevance of ethnic attitude studies∗

The assumption implicit in many ethnic attitude studies that attitudes influence behaviour and that knowledge of ethnic attitudes permits socially and politically important behavioural predictions is critically evaluated. Four main arguments are elaborated on to question the validity of the claim of a simple causal link from attitudes to behaviour: (a) situational variance of attitude effects (b) the problematic of an isomorphism between cognitive and behavioural phenomena, (c) empirical evidence indicating an influence from behaviour to attitudes, and (d) the question of valid self‐perception in attitude measurement. It is argued that the question of an attitude behaviour link cannot be meaningfully answered when the social context within which attitudes are learned and behaviour is shaped is neglected in the analysis. The social context and a corresponding reinforcement pattern are seen to provide social meaning to both attitudes and behaviour and secondly to determine the particular relationship between these variables, i.e. consistency, inconsistency, or irrelevance.     

Disability,pain and love in Jewish cosmology?

Individuals with disabilities face numerous barriers that limit their inclusion within the Jewish community (Trieschmann 2001 Trieschmann, R. B. 2001. “Spirituality and Energy Medicine.” Journal of Rehabilitation 67 (1): 26–32.[Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). While many Jewish communities have progressed and moved towards an attitude of ‘acceptance’ and ‘tolerance’ for people with disabilities out of religious obligation, it is often a practice without the spiritual ethical governing force and guiding principles of respect, equality, and human rights (Shatz and Wolowelsky 2004 Shatz, D., and J. B. Wolowelsky. 2004. Mind, Body, and Judaism: The Interaction of Jewish Law with Psychology and Biology. Ktav Publishing House: Yeshiva University Press. [Google Scholar]). People with disabilities are stereotyped as dependent, draining, incompetent, pitiful, victims, freaks, angels, embarrassments, innocent, pathetic, and asexual social burdens (Nario-Redmond 2010 Nario-Redmond, M. R. 2010. “Cultural Stereotypes of Disabled and Non-Disabled Men and Women: Consensus for Global Category Representations and Diagnostic Domains.” British Journal of Social Psychology 49: 471–488.10.1348/014466609X468411 [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). What is lacking is the consideration of people with disabilities as human beings. This injustice is most evident, painful, and damaging at an individual and communal level when it comes to Jewish singles and their pursuit of intimate relationships. A central Jewish value, right, and goal, one that is strongly promoted in Israeli society, is that of committed intimate relationships. However, this value does not apply to people with disabilities