Karen Youth transitions at the Thai-Myanmar border

This article examines youth transitions within a context of forced migration including rural areas in Eastern Myanmar and temporary shelters for displaced persons at the Thai-Myanmar border, as well as a Jesuit education project in Chiang Mai province. The study is informed by a life course approach that emphasizes the interlinkage between individual biographies and socio-political developments. Drawing on qualitative research methods such as participant observation, participatory research methods, essay writing and informal interviews, research data highlight the pivotal role of formal education even in a context of war and displacement. Making the vertical transition from one school stage to the next gives meaning and structure to the lives of the displaced youth who participated in this study and shapes their horizontal transitions between different geographical and social spaces along the Thai-Myanmar border. In this respect the study suggests that within the continuum of displacement at the Thai-Myanmar border ethnicity and citizenship status, coupled with social relations and individual skills for institutional networking, predominantly shape young Karen womeńs and meńs pursuit for education, as well as their decisions to interrupt their studies for transition to work.     

NARRATIVES AND THE CONSTITUTION OF A COMMON IDENTITY: THE KAREN IN BURMA

This research was conducted in an informal school located in Thailand at the border with Myanmar (Burma) and supervised by the Karen National Union (KNU). The KNU has claimed and fought for political autonomy and independence from the Burmese government for more than a half century. The authors examine how, in their narratives about what it means to be Karen, future Karen leaders try to deal with challenges to a sense of Karen unity and “groupness,” and to the legitimacy of the Karen struggle. One important challenge is the substantial cultural, religious, linguistic, and geographical internal diversity. Establishing a coherent Karen identity among the different subgroups is a continuing struggle for Karen leaders. Another is the negative labeling of the KNU as stubborn people and violent terrorists. These labels endanger the political project, the international reputation, and the local attractiveness of the KNU.     

Karen cultural capital and the political economy of symbolic power

For the Karen of northern Thailand, constructing the image of Karen as forest guardians and conservationists has produced an instrument of struggle against the official hegemonic discourse. This image construction is the accumulation of cultural capital and its transformation into symbolic power. The Karen cultural producers promote this strategy by investing their local knowledge and cultural resources into political action and alliances that reinforce their identification as ‘children of the forest’, in their own eyes and in the eyes of others. Through image construction, the largely negative identities embodied in ‘Karen’ and their communities—as denigrated ‘hill‐tribes’, forest‐destroyers and illiterate peasants—are transformed into a single social and political category defined as the ‘indigenous’ forest managers.     

Karen Horney and Psychotherapy in the 21st Century

Many ideas currently circulating in the psychological and psychoanalytic communities have correspondence with the theories put forth by Karen Horney during the first half of the twentieth century. This paper provides an overview of Horney’s theoretical departures from Freud and an introduction to her then controversial views of motivation and relationship. Compatibility between Horney’s ideas and attachment theory, self-psychology, intersubjectivity, and the person in the environment is discussed. Two clinical cases are presented, illustrating Horney’s theory and approach. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 2004 National Meeting of the Committee on Psychoanalysis of the Federation of Societies for Clinical Social Work in New York.     

Contesting Isan‐ness: discourses of politics and identity in Northeast Thailand

This paper discusses the idea of Isan (Northeastern Thai) ethnoregional identity, and its relationship with two major alternative ideas: Thai identity and Lao identity. Drawing on ethnolinguistic research, the paper argues that Isan identity is a problematic political construct, reflecting ambiguous self‐understandings and self‐representations on the part of Northeasterners. Northeasterners are engaged in a negotiation process about their relationships with Thai and Lao identities, relationships fraught with cultural, social and political ramifications. The study suggests a more nuanced appreciation of the ambiguities of Isan identity than has yet been proposed.     

Response to Fugard and Hines

ABSTRACT

This article replies to the responses to my article on “Sex and the Census: Why surveys should not conflate sex and gender identity“. Fugard conflates sex itself with the characteristics associated with sex, such as finger length ratios, leading to the erroneous implication that binary sex is not a useful explanatory variable. Hines fundamentally misrepresents my article, claiming that I have argued against asking respondents to the 2021 Census about their gender identity. In fact I make clear that information on gender identity is useful, but cannot replace data on sex. Muddling gender identity and sex will lead to the collection of inaccurate data on both. Hines resorts to a series of ad hominem attacks rather than engaging with the substance of the argument. Neither Fugard nor Hines is able to give a reason why we should not seek to collect accurate data on sex in the census or elsewhere.     

Hybrid identities: juxtaposing multiple identities against the ‘authentic’ Moken

The Moken and Moklen are an indigenous population residing along the Andaman coast of Thailand. They have been represented, both in popular and academic discourse, as seafaring nomads living in traditional boats and small temporal coastal communities. The overwhelmingly precept of the existing literature about the Moken is one of vulnerability and of stemming the erosion of ‘authentic’ Moken cultural identities. Identification of Moken as being under threat transpired as a consequence of the 2004 Asian tsunami, in which many Moken were killed and the plight of others who had their houses and sources of livelihood destroyed was propelled onto an international stage. This paper critically discusses how Moken identities and associated discourses of vulnerability have been depicted in media and academic literature as fixed and traditional. We argue that such rigid identity narratives contrast sharply to the contemporary realities of the Moken identities as articulated by the Moken we interviewed.     

Coping and Psychological Distress Among Genderqueer Individuals: The Moderating Effect of Social Support

This study examined the relationships between social support, coping, depression, and anxiety in a sample of genderqueer individuals (n = 64). Genderqueer is a label used within the broader transgender community and is defined as a gender identity that is outside the binary construct of male and female. Findings indicate that 53% (n = 34) of participants reported clinical levels of depression and 39% (n = 25) reported clinical levels of anxiety. There was a direct relationship between social support and depression and anxiety, indicating that more social support is associated with less depression and anxiety when statistically excluding coping factors. In addition, more facilitative coping (e.g., seeking help) was related to less anxiety, whereas more avoidant coping (e.g., avoiding emotions) was related to more anxiety and depression. There was a significant interaction between social support and coping factors when predicting anxiety, such that individuals who reported higher social support used more facilitative coping which was associated with less anxiety and those who reported less social support used more avoidant coping which was associated with more anxiety. Clinical implications for working with genderqueer-identified clients are discussed.     

Enacting Morality on Shifting Moral Ground: Young Plong Karen Women in Southeastern Myanmar

This article examines the ways in which young Plong Karen Buddhist women enact morality in southeastern Myanmar. Focusing on how one young Plong Karen woman navigates her own moral status, I draw out the highly performative and experimental aspects of ethical subject making which simultaneously coheres with and transgresses Plong Karen moral ideals. Drawing from recent work from the ‘ethical turn’ in anthropology (Keane, Webb. 2015. Ethical Life: Its Natural and Social Histories. Princeton: Princeton University Press), I emphasise the freedom of young women to enact a moral register of their own making as they navigate multiple and sometimes conflicting social worlds. I argue that while outsiders may perceive inconsistencies and incompatibilities within the various moral registers enacted by young women, they themselves experience little contradiction moving within and between them.     

Evidence of Global Civil Society

This paper considers the relationship between Seoul's growing status as a world city and the practices of urban destruction and development which are being used to construct it as a world city in the age of neoliberal globalisation. The urbicide approach is often used to explain the reasons for urban destruction and the cultural and social implications of urban restructuring. The paper questions the novelty and substantive nature of the South Korean government's soft-power ‘global Korea’ rhetoric of Seoul as a world city of cultural diversity. The paper uses the South Korean case to show how urbicide as a western concept can be developed within non-western urban processes, and identifies conceptual limits and how these limits might be overcome.

Este artículo considera la relación entre el estado creciente de Seúl como una ciudad mundial y las prácticas de destrucción y desarrollo urbano que se han utilizado para construir a Seúl como una ciudad mundial en la era de la globalización neoliberal. El enfoque de urbicidio se usa frecuentemente para explicar las razones por la destrucción urbana y las implicaciones culturales y sociales de la reestructuración urbana. El artículo cuestiona la novedad y naturaleza substantiva del poder blando del gobierno de Corea del Sur, sobre la retórica de ‘Corea global’ de Seúl como una ciudad mundial de diversidad cultural. El artículo usa el caso de Corea del Sur para mostrar cómo el ubicidio como un concepto de occidente puede desarrollarse dentro de procesos urbanos no occidentales, e identifica límites conceptuales y cómo esos límites pueden sobreponerse.

本文考察首尔作为世界都市日益增长的地位同在新自由主义的全球化时代为把首尔建设为世界都市而带来的都市破坏、开发之行为之间的关系。都市自我毁灭方式 (urbicide approach）一词 经常被用来解释都市大破坏的原因,以及都市重组的社会和文化影响。本文质疑南韩政府把首尔打造为具有文化多样性的世界城市“全球的首尔”这一软实力之奇思异想及其实质。本文运用南韩的案例以图说明,作为一个西方概念的都市自我毁灭如何能够在（南韩这样的）非西方的都市化进程中再现,并试图探讨概念上的局限,以及如何克服这些局限。

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? ?? ???? ?? ????? ??? ??? ????? ??? ??? ??? ?? ???? ??? ??? ???? ?? ??? ?? ???? ??? ???. ????(urbicide) ??? ?? ??? ??? ?? ???? ??? ??? ??? ???? ?? ?? ?????. ? ?? ??? ??? ???? ?? ?????? ?? ??? ??? ?? ‘??? ???’ ??? ???? ???? ??? ??? ????. ? ?? ???? ??? ????? ??? ??? ?? ???? ??? ? ???? ???? ??? ??? ??? ??? ???? ? ??? ??? ??? ? ???? ???? ?? ?? ??? ????

В работе рассматривается взаимосвязь между растущим статусом Сеула как города мира и методами городского уничтожения и развития, которые используются для построения Сеула как мирового города в эпоху неолиберальной глобализации. “Urbicide” подход часто используется, чтобы объяснить причины городского разрушения, культурные и социальные последствия городской реструктуризации. Статья подвергает сомнению новизну и независимую природу “мягкой силы” “Глобальной Кореи”, исповедуемой южнокорейским правительством, как и Сеула как города мирового культурного многообразия. Статья использует южнокорейский случай, чтобы показать, что “urbicide” как западная концепция может быть развита в рамках не-западных городских процессов, а так же определяет концептуальные ограничения и как эти ограничения могут быть преодолены.     

Ecological modernisation and discourses on rural non-wood bioenergy production in Finland from 1980 to 2005

Rural bioenergy production is currently a much debated question worldwide. It is closely connected to questions of environmental protection and rural development in both developing and industrial world. In Finland, rural bioenergy production has traditionally meant the production of wood fuels for heating purposes. The utilisation of forest biomasses is undiminished even today, and other biomasses are scarcely used for energy production. The purpose of this article is to discuss the possibility of widening the bioenergy production palette to include biomasses other than forest-based woody ones. This matter is approached from an environmental aspect using the concept of ecological modernisation. Empirical data is collected from two Finnish rural periodicals. The central analytical tool used in the analysis is discourse analysis. Four different periods of discursive variety, based on the contents of the analysed articles, could be identified from the data. In the first periods bioenergy talk was expert-driven and questions on non-wood bioenergy were dealt with varyingly. During the last period, a broad interest in rural bioenergy production evolved and more recognition was given to farmers' role as real energy producers. This raises hopes for a better future for rural non-wood bioenergy production in Finland.     

Effects of Social Anxiety on Nonverbal Accuracy and Response Time I: Facial Expressions

Cognitive models of social anxiety provide a basis for predicting that the ability to process nonverbal information accurately and quickly should be impaired during the experience of state anxiety. To test this hypothesis, we assigned participants to threatening and non-threatening conditions and asked them to label the emotions expressed in a series of faces. It was predicted that social anxiety would be positively associated with errors and response times in threatening conditions, but not in a non-threatening condition. It was also predicted that high social anxiety would be associated with more errors and longer response times when identifying similar expressions such as sadness, anger, and fear. The results indicate that social anxiety was not associated with errors in identifying facial expressions of emotion, regardless of the level of state anxiety experienced. However, social anxiety scores were found to be significantly related to response times to identify facial expressions, but the relationship varied depending on the level of state anxiety experienced. Methodological and theoretical implications of using response time data when assessing nonverbal ability are discussed.     

Biracial Americans' Experience with Identity,Gender Roles,and Anxiety

The current study aims to shed light on the experiences of a small but growing group, biracial Americans with one African American and one European American birth parent. Prior results suggest that it would be useful to study ethnic identity and its correlates among members of this group. Additionally, although research to date suggests different gender role norms for African Americans and European Americans, and that anxiety level differs across gender role categories, apparently no research so far has looked at these factors among biracial Americans. The measures used in the study were the Revised Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure (R-MEIM), the Personal Attributes Questionnaire (PAQ), and the Inventory of Depression and Anxiety Scale (IDAS). Results from the Well-being scale of the IDAS show low levels for biracial participants with feminine/undifferentiated gender roles and high levels for those with masculine/androgynous roles. Additional findings, implications, and study limitations are further discussed.     

Bologna – a utopy of harmony for European higher education

20 years have passed since the Bologna declaration which has deeply changed the Higher Education System not only in Europe but worldwide. This introduction gives a tour of the contributions contained in the special issue of the journal “innovation”. It argues that soft policies proved to be a mighty instrument for catching and focussing societal change and speeding it up. The worldwide shift towards policies of national interest might therefore also slow down processes of change and modernisation.     

Playing with materiality: an agential-realist reading of SethBling's Super Mario World code-injection

ABSTRACT

This article takes inspiration from Youtuber and software developer ‘SethBling’ and his 2016 ‘code-injection’ (Bling, 2016), in which, using only a standard Super Nintendo Entertainment System controller and in-depth knowledge of the console, he ‘injected’ and executed the code of popular mobile game Flappy Bird (Nguyen, 2013) into a running instance of Super Mario World (Miyamoto, 1990), effectively transforming one game into another through play. Drawing from this I propose a performative understanding of videogames (and software in general) to reinvigorate discussions of software's materiality. Though it is possible to contrast Wendy Chun's (2008a) suggestion that one can view software as ‘vaporous’ against Friedrich Kittler's (1995) assertion that ‘there is no software’, I propose a more holistic approach. Academics and users alike should attempt to see software as living a double-life: as simultaneously solid as it is (metaphorically) gaseous. It then becomes possible to embrace software(s) as performative examples of the entangled ‘phenomena’, suggested by Barad (2007), that produce everyday reality through quantum activity. I explore SethBling's code-injection suggesting that actions clearly reveal software's double existence as both tangible ‘thing’, locatable on magnetic memory, and as a vaporous non-entity. Accepting these propositions together, software can be understood as continuously re-emerging through shared activities. Following Barad, I conclude that this quality is not unique to software, but software – and videogames above all – are a useful tool for understanding a vision of reality that favours activity over materiality as the basis of our existence.     

Children and Young Adults' Recognition of Anxiety

Previous research has shown that decoders (judges) accurately identified state anxiety in peers when provided with brief, single channel (audio-only, video-only) stimuli, and appropriately differentiated trait anxiety. Using a similar approach in the present study with decoders and encoders from three distinct age groups, we discovered that the ability to detect state anxiety transcended age. Children and young adults showed an ability to identify level of state anxiety in young adult and elder encoders. Young adults differentiated levels of state and trait anxiety in young adult and elder encoders. Discussion is focused on the adaptive and practical value of cross-generational identification of state anxiety and trait anxiety, and the difficulty of inferring personality traits in individuals from different peer groups.     

Integrating Religious and Sexual Identities: The Case of Religious Homosexual Men in Singapore

Abstract

The sexual and religious ecosystem in Singapore represents an intricate interplay of factors that religious homosexuals navigate to attain a well-adjusted personal identity. A qualitative research project was conducted to understand how Christian and Muslim homosexual men in Singapore integrate their religious and sexual identities. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine religious homosexuals to elicit responses on their dual-identity experience, and coping strategies. Narrative analysis revealed three themes (and a number of subthemes): (1) Intrapersonal factors (a personal journey, knowledge seeking, reinterpreting belief system, redemption by good deeds, and love prevails over sin), (2) Interpersonal factors (segregating social circles, involvement in the gay community, role models, and social support), and (3) Sociopolitical factors (state and societal tolerance of homosexuals, and homosexual events). Interestingly, the participants assigned positive attributes to being both religious and homosexual, and reported that embodying both identities was enriching than if they had possessed just one of the two identities. This suggests that integrating positive psychological frameworks (e.g., stress-related growth) to existing ones may provide a more holistic account of identity integration among religious homosexuals.     

From interpersonal to extended fusion: relationships between fusion with siblings and fusion with the country / Desde la fusión interpersonal a la fusión extendida: Relaciones entre la fusión con los hermanos y la fusión con el país

Abstract

Identity fusion is a visceral feeling of oneness with a group. Although research on identity fusion focuses on the alignment of individuals with groups, we propose that fusion can develop between two individuals. In particular, we explore for the first time identity fusion between siblings and its relation with endorsement of extreme behaviour to protect the sibling. In a study conducted with 761 couples of siblings we found that fusion with the sibling is positively associated with willingness to fight and die for the sibling. Additionally, we address the relation between interpersonal and extended fusion. Specifically, a positive association between fusion with the sibling and fusion with the country emerged. The hypothesis that extended fusion might require the projection of interpersonal ties to a large category is discussed.     

Personal identity and social identity: two different processes or a single one? / Identidad personal e identidad social. ¿Dos procesos diferentes o uno solo?

Abstract

Personal identity, or the definition of oneself in terms of personal idiosyncratic attributes, and social identity, or the definition of oneself in terms of affiliations with different categories or groups, have often been examined as two separate phenomena in the psychosocial literature. However, there are at least two theories which have deliberately researched the relationship between the two. One of these theories has done so for almost five decades (Social Identity Theory), while the alternative approach (Identity Fusion, or the visceral sense of oneness with the group) began to be developed less than one decade ago. The purpose of this special issue is to survey how approaches grounded upon both theories have attempted to explain some individuals’ extreme behaviours for their group. It also includes studies that examine the origins of identity fusion, the processes that relate it with extreme behaviour (such as the extension of familial ties to groups or the acceptance of violence), as well as a subtle demonstration of how group identity can affect interpersonal relationships.     

Identity and the developmental origins of fusion: an exploratory approach / La identidad y los orígenes de la fusión en el desarrollo: un enfoque exploratorio

Abstract

Identity fusion involves a visceral feeling of oneness with a group, despite personal and social selves remaining differentiated. Previous research on identity fusion has focused on samples of adults and adolescents. The present studies aim at exploring how and when identity fusion develops in childhood. Our first goal was to find out to what extent personal and social identities must be developed for fusion to become possible. We conducted two exploratory studies where school-age children (six to 12 years old) participated in either focus group sessions or individual interviews. Our results show that although children are able to feel strongly connected with a group and express willingness to make significant personal sacrifices for the group, they fail to show fusion as it is found in adults, since their personal identity is not fully developed yet. Instead, these findings suggest the existence of a prior feeling that we called ‘protofusion’, the core of which is the strength of the relational ties with the members of the group.