Posttraumatic stress disorder among foster care alumni: the role of race, gender, and foster care context

Little is known about the prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in adult alumni of foster care and its demographic and contextual correlates. This is one of the first studies to report on racial/ethnic and gender differences and the influence of foster care experiences (i.e., revictimization during foster care, placement change rate, and placement in kinship care) on past year PTSD. Findings revealed significant gender disparities and a moderating influence of kinship care on the relationship between gender and PTSD, as well as increased risk associated with a history of emotional and sexual abuse. Recommendations are made for clinical and systemic intervention.     

Mexican immigration and health care: a political economy perspective.

This paper examines the case of Mexican immigrants in the United States and their access to medical services within a political economy of health framework. Such an approach stresses that the provision of health care is independent of health factors per se and that access to health care is not equally distributed throughout a population. The first section reviews the three major concepts influencing medical anthropologists working within a political economy framework: the social origins of illness; the allocation of health resources; and fieldwork in Third World countries. The analysis then focuses upon the reasons for limiting immigrants' access to health care, followed by an examination of the socioeconomic characteristics of Mexican immigrants, including an undocumented immigration status, which limit their access to health care. Finally, the consequences of limited access to health services are suggested, including a low utilization of preventive health services resulting from the high cost of care combined with the immigrants' generally low income, lack of medical insurance and fear of using U.S. health services.     

Anger in black and white: race, alienation, and anger

Using data from the 1996 General Social Survey and the 1973 Chicago Crowding Study, we test the hypotheses that African Americans feel and express more anger than whites, that sense of control (versus powerlessness) lessens anger and mistrust increases anger, and that these indicators of alienation affect anger differently for African Americans and whites. We find that when age and gender are controlled, African Americans neither feel nor express more anger than whites, despite having a lower average sense of control and higher mistrust. This is partly because the effects of sense of control and mistrust on anger differ by race. Sense of control reduces feelings of anger and anger expression more for African Americans than whites. Mistrust increases feelings of anger for whites, but not African Americans. The results provide further evidence that, in the stress process, social structural location may moderate the effects of "detriments" and "resources" on emotional upset.     

Sexuality and gender identity: from a discursive to a relational analysis

This paper concentrates on the recent controversy over the division between sex and gender and the troubling of the binary distinctions between gender identities and sexualities, such as man and woman, heterosexual and homosexual. While supporting the troubling of such categories, I argue against the approach of Judith Butler which claims that these dualities are primarily discursive constructions that can be regarded as fictions. Instead, I trace the emergence of such categories to changing forms of power relations in a more sociological reading of Foucault's conceptualization of power, and argue that the social formation of identity has to be understood as emergent within socio-historical relations. I then consider what implications this has for a politics based in notions of identity centred on questions of sexuality and gender.     

Examining the impact of gender, race/ethnicity, and family factors on mental health issues in a sample of court-involved youth

Faced with anywhere between one half and two thirds of its youth having a diagnosable mental illness, the identification and treatment of mental health concerns is a critically important endeavor for professionals working with youth who have contact with the juvenile justice system. In addition, the literature suggests that factors related to both the family and to the gender of the adolescent must be incorporated into any approach to assessment and intervention within this special population. Further, prior work that has documented the interaction of gender and family issues with adolescent race/ethnicity warrants further empirical attention, as does the intermediary role that the family may play in the development of both internalizing and externalizing behaviors. The present study extends this literature by examining factors related to gender, race/ethnicity, family factors, and mental health issues in a sample of 2,549 Caucasian and African American youth coming to the attention of juvenile courts. Multivariate analysis of variance results indicated significant main effects for gender and race/ethnicity, as well as a significant gender x race/ethnicity interaction for the family and externalizing variables. A multiple group structural equation modeling procedure was employed in order to test the hypothesis that family environment mediates the relationship between gender and mental health problems, as well as to test for potential differences in these relationships as a function of race/ethnicity. Results indicated support for the mediation model in the sample of African American youth but not in the sample of Caucasian youth.     

AIDS: developing a primary health care task force

As the number of people with AIDS increases, the number of people impacted by the AIDS crisis will also increase. Larger metropolitan areas have already responded to the crisis with various services (Deuchar, 1984); but the disease has yet to fully impact on smaller cities and towns. The formation of community service groups to cope with the AIDS crisis is a virtual necessity in health care preparation for persons with AIDS. The experience of the Fort Wayne AIDS Task Force reflects the potential of any community to utilize the existing resources in the gay and lesbian community, health and social service professions, and among family and friends of persons with AIDS. Consultation and resources are available through local and state boards of health, as well as local social service and health personnel currently dealing with the AIDS crisis.     

Chains and networks,territories and scales: towards a relational framework for analysing the global economy

A vast and continually expanding literature on economic globalization continues to generate a miasma of conflicting viewpoints and alternative discourses. This article argues that any understanding of the global economy must be sensitive to four considerations: (a) conceptual categories and labels carry with them the discursive power to shape material processes; (b) multiple scales of analysis must be incorporated in recognition of the contemporary ‘relativization of scale’; (c) no single institutional or organizational locus of analysis should be privileged; and (d) extrapolations from specific case studies and instances must be treated with caution, but this should not preclude the option of discussing the global economy, and power relations within it, as a structural whole. This paper advocates a network methodology as a potential framework to incorporate these concerns. Such a methodology requires us to identify actors in networks, their ongoing relations and the structural outcomes of these relations. Networks thus become the foundational unit of analysis for our understanding of the global economy, rather than individuals, firms or nation states. In presenting this argument we critically examine two examples of network methodology that have been used to provide frameworks for analysing the global economy: global commodity chains and actor‐network theory. We suggest that while they fall short of fulfilling the promise of a network methodology in some respects, they do provide indications of the utility of such a methodology as a basis for understanding the global economy.     

Critical race theory in England: impact and opposition

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the development of Critical Race Theory (CRT) in England, in terms of impact and opposition. Since the early 2000s CRT has become a significant intellectual space for race-conscious scholars and activists in England. The current paper traces the growth of CRT in the field of education (where it has had the greatest impact since its arrival). It identifies the academic research, writing, networks and events that have established CRT in England. It discusses the substantive concerns of English CRT and how these are both similar to and distinct from CRT as developed in the USA. In England, CRT has also met with opposition. This paper examines the discourses of derision voiced by its antagonists, arguing that much of this antagonism has an atavistic quality, being rooted in long-standing antipathy towards race-conscious social analyses.     

Group differentiation in a metropolitan high school: The influence of race,class, gender and culture

A three month field study of informal student interaction within a lunch court was conducted in a city high school in Southern California. Attention was focused on the easily observed factors of student appearance, behavior and the use of space. Considerable group diversity differentiated the students. The principal cleavage was by race and ethnicity with whites, Blacks, and Chicanos segregating themselves. Within each group further subgroups were observed to cluster separately. Whites were the most differentiated with five subgroups, Blacks had two, and Chicanos had three. Whites and Chicanos differentiated themselves principally on the basis of cultural differences, while Blacks made distinctions amongst themselves on the basis of class. Each of the main groups, however, had their own anti-mainstream counter-culture. The implications of group diversity and the differential role of culture and class in subgroup interaction are also considered.The authors wish to acknowledge the extensive help received from several anonymous reviewers and the editors of this journal in earlier versions of this paper.     

Nennu and Shunu: gender, body politics, and the beauty economy in China

This essay analyzes recent discourse on two emerging representations of women in China, "tender" women (nennu) and "ripe" women (shunu), in order to examine the relationships among gender, body politics, and consumerism. The discourse of nennu and shunu suggests that older, ripe women become younger and more tender by consuming fashions, cosmetic surgery technologies, and beauty and health care products and services because tender women represent the ideal active consumership that celebrates beauty, sexuality, and individuality. This discourse serves to enhance consumers' desire for beauty and health and to ensure the continued growth of China's beauty economy and consumer capitalism. Highlighting the role of the female body, feminine beauty, and feminine youth in developing consumerism, this discourse downplays the contributions of millions of beauty and health care providers (predominantly laid-off female workers and rural migrant women) and new forms of gender exploitation. Such an overemphasis on gender masks intensified class division. This essay suggests that women and their bodies become new terrains from which post-Mao China can draw its power and enact consumerism. Gender constitutes both an economic multiplier to boost China's consumer capitalism and a biopolitical strategy to regulate and remold women and their bodies into subjects that are identified with the state's political and economic objectives. Since consumerism has been incorporated into China's nation-building project, gender thus becomes a vital resource for both consumer capitalist development and nation building. This essay shows that both gender and the body are useful analytic categories for the study of postsocialism.     

Between butch/femme: On the performance of race,gender, and sexuality in a YouTube web series

Drawing on a legacy of Black television and film production, Black web series remediate earlier media forms in order to usher in a twenty-first-century revival of indie Black cultural production. Specifically, video sharing and social media platforms operate as a sphere in which content creators and users are afforded unique opportunities to engage with video content and each other on a variety of levels. Focusing on the YouTube media sphere, one can also observe the myriad ways in which the performance of race, gender, and sexuality influences the types of discourse that circulate within these sites. In watching and analyzing Black queer web series on YouTube, I examine how the performance of gender and sexuality by Black queer women within and outside of web series are policed and protected by both community insiders and outsiders. Utilizing an ethnographic framework, which includes a critical discourse analysis of the YouTube comments for the series Between Women, as well as a textual analysis of series content, this project draws conclusions about the role that the politics of pleasure, performance, and the public sphere play in the recognition and/or refusal of queer sexuality within Black communities.     

An African-American woman with disabilities: the intersection of gender, race and disability

This qualitative study explores the educational experiences of an African‐American adult woman with disabilities. The intersections of gender, race and disability are theorized through the lenses of disability, feminist and critical theory. Specifically, I address the following three questions. What are the experiences of an African‐American woman with disabilities in schools? How might these experiences be theorized? Do these experiences offer new ways of understanding oppression that may contribute to empowering individuals labeled with multiple, intersecting identities?     

Nonlethal intimate partner violence: examining race, gender, and income patterns

The correlation between race of victim and intimate partner violence (IPV) is examined. Previous research showing a relationship between Black victims and higher levels of violence were based on uni-variate examinations and often do not consider other important factors. This paper presents national estimates of IPV by victim's race using the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), 1993-1999. The estimates based only on race are then disaggregated to account for the victim's gender and household income. Uni-variate findings demonstrate that victim's race is significantly related to rates of intimate partner violence. However, after controlling for both victim's gender and annual household income, the victim's race is no longer significant. The importance of understanding intimate partner violence through a person's socioeconomic status rather than race is discussed.