Interrupted stories, interrupted lives

In attempting to manage their practices efficiently, doctors may not allow seriously ill patients enough time to sort out their feelings and raise important questions. What is at stake here is not information about prognosis and treatments but the very survival of the soul.     

Czechoslovakia’s Interrupted Revolution

Russia’s transition to a market economy has been accompanied by serious, and in some ways unanticipated, disruptions of the existing social welfare system. The social policy dilemma has become a contentious issue in the national political arena. This paper examines the debate on the relationship between social welfare and democratization in post-communist Russia, exploring the case of pensions for the elderly. Although the causes of the pension crisis are complex and rooted in institutional difficulties, the state’s fiscal weakness alone does not explain the difficulties and controversies associated with Russia’s pension crisis. Analysis of the assumptions and principles of pension policy during the Soviet era and perestroika reveals that Russia today is caught between contradictory and competing discourses over citizens’ entitlement to pensions: Is an old-age pension to be considered a reward distributed by a prosperous society, or a basic and inviolable human right? Although the Russian government has used an argument that in effect makes pensions conditional on government resources, citizen and opposition protest has to some extent compelled the Russian government to be increasingly sensitive to demands for guaranteed pensions.     

The Myth of Bodily Perfection

The paper identifies the myth of bodily perfection as one that permeates the dominant culture of late 20th century Western civilization, and points to ways in which the myth supports the creation of an illusory category of people called 'the disabled'. Grounded in an understanding of disability as socially constructed, and drawing on the experiences of women with disabilities, the paper further points to important differences in social expectations depending on whether one has disabilities that are visible or invisible. In discussions of disability, however, disabilities that are not visible are often ignored. It is concluded that this contributes to the widespread denial of disability and is oppressive.     

Myth,Play, And Alchemy

UNTAET and the East Timorese have pursued formal reconciliation processes as part of the nation-building effort in newly independent East Timor. These formal reconciliation processes aim for closure and operate in the realm of national politics. In the meantime local communities have been dealing with the issues of reintegrating refugees and rebuilding social relationships through an inventive adaptation of traditional practices of reconciliation. In contrast to the formal elite-level strategies, the grassroots strategies are more concerned with process than formal outcomes.     

The Myth of the Computer Hacker

The seriousness of computer hacking is not exaggerated, it is far worse than that. The computer hacker has attained the status of myth; society associates all computer crime with a mythical perpetrator that bears no resemblance to reality. This paper will argue that in the early stages of the myth the computer hacker was regarded as a highly skilled but mentally disturbed youth who has an unhealthy association with computers. The new reality of electronic commerce resulted in pressures that culminated in the computer hacker becoming regarded as a dangerous criminal. A thorough analysis of the statistics will demonstrate that the majority of computer intruders are neither dangerous nor highly skilled, and thus nothing like the mythical hacker.     

Partnership: Myth or reality?

The author examines the conditions for a viable and equitablepartnership between public and voluntary services for elderlypeople living at home; examples researched in Quebec (Canada)are referred to and two models of collaboration are identified:paternalism and real partnership. The burden of caring fallingon women is briefly discussed.     

Delinquency Interrupted: Research into and Inside of Juvenile Correctional Facilities

Incarcerated juveniles are a largely invisible population in the United States. Research into training schools and other juvenile correctional facilities has uncovered a sordid history of good intentions and bad practices. Juvenile correctional facilities are generally considered a less harmful environment for serious delinquents than adult prisons but a much more severe sanction than alternative community programs or treatment would be. Studies have shown that juveniles in confinement face similar deprivation and many of the same pains of imprisonment ( Sykes 1958 ) as adult prisoners, but the more pressing threat to adolescent inmates may be to their psychological selves rather than their physical being. New research on adolescent brain development is garnering attention and sparking questions about the culpability and punishment of juvenile offenders, even as public opinion research suggests that there is fairly widespread support for rehabilitation and a social‐welfare oriented juvenile justice system. By listening and giving voice to incarcerated youth and their “keepers,” investigating the conditions of confinement, and continuing to evaluate programs and outcomes, researchers are positioned to play a key role in the future of juvenile justice and juvenile correctional facilities.     

Dutch Immigration Policy and the Myth of Return

A primera vista hay una buena concordancia formidable que se manifiesta por un lado entre el esfuerzo en general de imigrantcs recién Ilegados a Holanda, Surinamenos y los obreros visitantes natural de los paises alrededores del Mcditeraneo y por otro lajo el punto de vista del gobierno holandés cuando se trata de la oportunidad de la rémigración. Eso sin embargo es aparentemente porque los motivos a este fin diferencian absolutamente entre ambos particos. Tratándose especialmente de una ideologia con poca fuerza profética por parte de los migrantes mismos, por parte del gobierno holandés el deseo para hacer repatriar a los imigrantes procede más bien de consideraciones politicas en cuanto a intolerancia hacia las minorias étnicas. En efecto la reémigración se realiza muy pocas veces, las condiciones a este fin a penas existen. Hay que vonfrontarse con la realidad, a pesar de las declaraciones repetidas de parte del gobierbo para demonstrar lo contrario Holanda se ha vuelto en un pais de imigracion.     

Myth of symmetry: Public relations as cultural styles

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Motherhood,Myth and Gendered Agency in Political Violence

By building on theoretical insights from poststructuralist feminism and Roland Barthes' mythology framework, this article is offering a nuanced understanding of female agency in political violence by engaging with the visual and the cultural, by using a broader definition of agency in political violence and by analysing what gendered representations of war mean at the domestic level. In the first part of the article, the Myth of Motherhood is conceptualized as a meta-discourse disciplining representations of female agency in political violence. The article then focuses on two specific discourses within the meta-discourse, the Vacant Womb and the Deviant Womb, that inform understandings of gender, agency and political violence in one particular cultural artefact: the British television drama, Britz. The main argument is that motherhood is ‘everywhere’ in representations of female agency in political violence and that it is useful to think about motherhood as a myth. Only this way can we confront underlying norms, values and ideas believed to be common sense and think differently about gender, agency and political violence.