The politics of counting and reporting conflict-related sexual and gender-based violence: the case of Myanmar

ABSTRACT

Scholars, states and international organizations have begun to systematically count, document and compare sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) in conflict-affected countries. Qualitative and quantitative studies point to a “tip of the iceberg” phenomenon, where there is a high prevalence but low level of actual reporting of SGBV. We investigate the conditions in which SGBV is reported or, more significantly, is not reported to discover the trends of reporting in politically oppressive environments where SGBV is thought to be occurring. We ask how the power to report in local conflict-affected areas is affected by national political tensions and pervasive gender discrimination. Reporting of SGBV in Myanmar, a country that has experienced multiple, protracted conflicts since independence, is examined. Analysis of open-access reports over a fifteen-year period reveals a pattern of silence that we argue is rooted in pervasive discriminatory civil and physical practices against women. Engaging with the deeply politicized and gender discriminatory context of conflict-affected societies enables us to see the anomalies of SGBV data and to highlight significant gaps in our knowledge about SGBV.     

The politics of sexual citizenship: commercial sex and disability

This paper breaks a long silence by bringing together two areas of literature that have generally been considered separately: that of sexuality and disability with findings from studies on sex work. Presenting empirical findings from two studies, one with sex workers who work from indoor sex markets and the other with men who buy sex, this paper exposes the existing relationships and practices between men with physical and sensory impairments who seek out commercial sexual services from female sex workers. In the discussion the politics surrounding sexual rights and commercial sex will be addressed. In the context of commercial sex, quality of life issues, complex power dynamics and the common ground between disabled people and sex workers rights are discussed. This paper considers the negative aspects of promoting commercial sex for people with impairments, as well as the positive aspects regarding the wider campaign for sexual citizenship. Finally, I set out recommendations and a new research and policy agenda that investigates the complexities of commercial and facilitated sex.     

The emergence of a health insurance system in a developing country: the case of South Korea

In an attempt to understand the social forces and the economic and political conditions under which new social policies emerge in developing countries, this study outlines factors affecting the introduction of the health insurance system in South Korea. The emergence of the South Korean health insurance system was influenced by changing labor needs of the industrial sector, increasing social expectations, external and international pressures, increasing medical costs, and class conflict. These pressures compelled the South Korean government to respond to demands for the introduction of new social welfare policies in the 1970s. In the case of South Korea, the new health insurance system resulted from the government's attempts to cope with political, economic, and social pressures rather than from an ideological commitment to the well-being of the population. The resulting insurance system was a way to maintain the social order and legitimacy of the regime, and a means to promote the health of groups important to defense or production.     

Dimensions of style: Context,politics and motivation in gay Israeli speech1

Sociolinguistic research has traditionally examined stylistic variation as a way of understanding how speakers may use language indexically. Quantitatively, research has sought to correlate observed patterns of variation across such external parameters as context or topic with the ways in which speakers linguistically orient themselves to their immediate surroundings or to some other socially‐salient reference group. Recently, this approach has been criticized for being too mechanistic. In this paper, I present a new method for examining stylistic variation that addresses this critique, and demonstrate how an attention to speakers' motivations and interactional goals can be reconciled with a quantitative analysis of variation. I illustrate the proposed method with a quantitative examination of systematic patterns of prosodic variation in the speech of a group of Israeli men who are all members of various lesbian and gay political‐activist groups.     

A reconceptualization of state transnationalism: South Korea as an illustrative case

Our reconceptualization of state transnationalism underlines the active role that states can play in generating and sustaining cross‐border flows between a nation's homeland and its diasporic communities. This represents a sort of ‘middle ground’ between formerly hegemonic state centric’ approaches to global processes (focusing heavily on the ‘international’) and more recent ones emphasizing ‘transnational’ dynamics (which primarily arise through the agency of cross‐border migrants). We discuss a typology of approaches and avoid the tendency to set nation‐states against global and transnational processes. In fact, we highlight the various ways in which states often initiate key transnational flows, such as migration and the integration of diasporic communities into the sending nation, as well as maintain and regulate various processes instigated by immigrants. As an iconic case, we present an illustrative study of the South Korean government and Korean diasporic communities in the USA. Finally, in a brief conclusion, we outline some challenges for future research.     

韩国青少年校园暴力情况及相关政策

近年来,韩国校园暴力问题凸显,在家庭、学校及社会诸多方面因素的影响下,校园暴力事件呈现出逐年上升的趋势,对青少年身心健康及社会和谐发展造成了极其恶劣的影响。目前,韩国校园暴力的产生呈现出受害青少年心理创伤问题严重、小学高年级校园暴力的发生率极高及校园暴力类型多样化三大特点。为了预防及根治校园暴力,韩国历届政府相继制订并颁布了专项法律条例及各类应对举措。2014年,朴槿惠政府宣布实施"以学校现场为中心"校园暴力应对政策,主要内容包括在校园内开展丰富多样的校园暴力预防活动,根据暴力类型、发生地域以及学生年级的不同而推行有针对性的应对策略等。     

Effective strategies for responding to rumors about risks: The case of radiation-contaminated food in South Korea

This experimental study explores how governments should respond to rumors about national-level risk issues. Informed by research in rumor psychology and risk/crisis communication, it investigates whether type of rumor and rumor response strategy have main and interaction effects on reducing rumor beliefs and intention to disseminate rumor. The two featured rumor types are the bogie rumor, which highlights feared outcomes, and the wedge rumor, which aims to reinforce differences between rival groups. Derived from Situational Crisis Communication Theory, the three response strategies examined are refuting the rumor, denying it, and attacking its source. Data were drawn from part of a large-scale online experiment, and the sample of the analysis was 942 South Korean adults. The experiment had a between-subjects design of 2 rumor type (wedge vs. bogie) x 3 government response strategies (refutation, denial, attack the attacker). Results show that all three rumor response strategies significantly reduced rumor beliefs, but only the refutation strategy significantly reduced intention to disseminate the rumor. Rumor type (bogie) and response strategies (refutation) had main, but not interaction, effects on reduction of intention to disseminate the rumor.     

The politics of health: the case of smoking control

The policy of the United Kingdom government towards the control of smoking has been characterized by a non-interventionist approach such as persuasion and industrial self-regulation, as opposed to more direct intervention through fiscal policy or control over tobacco production and sales. The effectiveness of the policies adopted by the UK government is difficult to assess, although there has been a reduction over the last ten years in the proportion of smokers in the population. However, evidence from other countries shows that a more comprehensive programme including direct legislation controlling tobacco advertising has a much stronger impact on tobacco consumption. The determinants of the UK government's policy position are analysed and the evidence suggests that this policy position is determined in part by the power of the vested interests in the maintenance of tobacco production, as well as the confusion of interests within the government itself.     

Interviewing victims of sexual abuse with an intellectual disability: a dutch single case study

The approaching to use with people with an intellectual disability who are (suspected) victims of sexual abuse is a challenge for social professionals. Being at the mercy of professional facilities, the victims are in a vulnerable position. They have limited capacities to defend themselves against the intimidations of perpetrators and to deal with the consequences of the terrifying happenings. Finally, sexual abuse is a criminal offence. Much depends on the quality of the interviews. In the Dutch practice of forensic reactions to (suspected) sexual abuse of people with an intellectual disability, experience has been acquired with different types of interviewing.

With the help of a single case study between a health professional and a victim, these forms of interviewing are demonstrated. The professional pursuit is to let the client disclose what has happened in their own words. The study shows that in social health and welfare practices the professional task is to navigate between, on the one hand, the communicative space for the client to provide free recall and, on the other hand, the need to provide help to clients with an intellectual disability to verbalize inner cognitions and emotions.     

Bonuses,unions, and labor productivity in South Korea

Using a set of time-series (1972–1989) and cross-sectional data on eight two-digit Korean manufacturing industries, we examine the variability of South Korea’s employee bonus system and the effect of the employee bonus on productivity. A test of the variability of the bonus showed that the bonus rate (ratio of the bonus to the wage) was positively influenced by industrial output, so the bonus is not merely a disguised wage. An augmented Cobb-Douglas production function estimation shows that the bonus has a positive and significant productivity effect. Capital-intensive and laborintensive industries did not have significantly different productivity effects due to the bonus. Lastly, Korean unions reduced labor productivity and negatively affected the productivity effect of the bonus. Also, compared with the previous period, the productivity effect of the bonus has become negative since the1987 Great Labor Offensive.     

Secularization and the politics of traditionalism: The case of the right-to-life movement

Research on the traditionalist movement against abortion needs alignment with currents in historical sociology, the theory of social movements and the sociology of politics. The religious (specifically, Christian) basis of the right-to-life movement has attracted considerable attention in the literature. The movement is seen as a traditionalist bloc claiming to oppose secularization and return to customary restrictions. However the tradition in question appears to be a recent social construction. There is slim warrant in the actual traditions of Western religion for asserting a categorical right to life. As a result, the movement's ideology is best approached as the product of—rather than the antidote to—secularizing processes (including the demographic transition, discourse about rights, markets for symbolic entrepreneurs and the separation of church and state) and possibly as an unintended import from non-Western religion. Implications for traditionalism, the functions of religion, and the study of countermovements are explored. This case illustrates the value of attending to historical sequences and the external cultural environments of social movements.