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).     

The nature of racial conflict in South Africa∗

This paper examines the bases of racial conflict in its various dimensions. Historical material from American experience is employed in an effort to reach a conceptual framework that accommodates more variables than economic ones. The distinction between class and ethnicity is discussed and an attempt is made to resolve some of the difficulties in relating the one to the other, without losing the explanatory power of either. Certain implications for conflict resolution in South Africa are drawn.     

The arrival of Jewish refugee children in England, 1938–1939

Between December 1938 and the outbreak of World War II in the following September over 9,300 children were brought to England from Nazi occupied territories, under the auspices of the Movement for the Care of Children from Germany. The event which precipitated this exodus was Kristallnacht (9–10 November 1938). This paper examines the background to the formation of this organization, how it operated, and the problems which it faced. Attention is also given to the disquiet which was voiced in various quarters about the Movement's work.     

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 political economy of South Africa in the interwar period∗

Economic policy in South Africa in the interwar period is discussed in the context of differences between the economic power and political influence of Afrikaner as opposed to mining capital. Previous analyses have been limited by overgeneralisation, narrowness of scope and analytical methodologies which have overemphasised class agencies at the expense of actual and potential economic linkages. State economic interventions are shown to have differed in influence and in impact by area of application. No coherent policy was followed for the development of industry based on agricultural products. Instead, policies were subordinated to devolving central power to fragmented agricultural interests. Industrial policy is shown to have been confined to protection, other forms of subsidy and the creation of a state sector around heavy industry rather than being linked to a strategy of diversification out of the base provided by the activities associated with mining. Despite this lack of a conducive framework, preliminary research reveals that constrained industrial diversification did occur in isolated cases, including chemical and industrial diamond products, suggesting that other development trajectories were possible.     

The Jewish dead in the great war as an indicator for the location,size and social structure of Anglo‐Jewry in 1914

Use of statistics of Jewish war dead from the Great War throws some light on the Jewish community in Great Britain at a time when the mass immigration from Eastern Europe had more or less run its course. The statistics show some discrepancies with commonly quoted figures from the ‘Jewish Year Book’, as Year Book data outside the smaller immigrant communities were often little more than guesses and had sharp underestimates for more anglicized communities. The picture at 1916 shows a similar distribution to the Jewish population today.     

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 myth of the surrogate∗

There is as yet no method in general use comparable to couple sex therapy for the treatment of individuals. It is proposed that the development of such a method is impeded not only by the stressful nature of newly‐created treatment relationships, but also by the age‐old belief that this stress can be eliminated by finding the right substitute partner. This belief has sustained inappropriately simple strategies for the treatment of individuals despite negative findings, giving it the status of a myth. Although Masters and Johnson recognize that the stress cannot be so easily eliminated, in their reliance on the surrogate to bypass this stress, they have lent indirect support to the myth. As a consequence, we now have the myth of the surrogate, a treatment conception that creates performance pressure in the surrogate and thus is likely to reinforce performance anxiety in the patient. Guidelines for alternative methods are suggested, including the use of a co‐therapy structure, with body‐work a potential rather than a requirement and with more attention paid to the subjective experiences of the participants.