Bringing the border to baby: birth registration as bordering practice for migrant women’s children

ABSTRACT

Babies born ‘out of place’ to migrant mothers pose a challenge to states seeking to restrict access to migration and citizenship. In places as diverse as Texas, Tel Aviv, and Santo Domingo, policymakers have been modifying administrative requirements to limit access to birth certificates for babies born to migrant women with temporary or irregular status as a measure aimed at discouraging their permanent settlement. This raises concerns regarding the gendered ways in which women can be controlled via their reproductive lives when childbirth is made a juncture of migration enforcement, and children’s right to an identity and a nationality violated as a result. Rights advocates are pushing back against this practice using existing human rights frameworks. This article provides an overview of what birth registration as a bordering practice looks like so that scholars, policymakers, and practitioners around the world can recognise and resist it. It focuses on the case of the Dominican Republic’s denial of birth certificates for people of Haitian descent, and an action-research project aiming to facilitate access to the Dominican civil registry for children of mixed couples (migrant mother and Dominican father). It concludes by highlighting the implications for the babies born ‘in between’ – who are at risk of statelessness and other rights violations – and pointing to international frameworks for upholding children’s right to a nationality.     

Precious,Pure, Uncivilised,Vulnerable: Infant Embodiment in Australian Popular Media

This article describes how infants' bodies were portrayed in a range of Australian popular media texts. Four main discourses on infant embodiment were identified: the infant as ‘precious’, ‘pure’, ‘uncivilised’ and ‘vulnerable’. While, on the one hand, infants were positioned as the most valuable and affectively appealing of humans, they were alternatively represented as uncivilised. Infant bodies were portrayed as appropriately inhabiting the domestic sphere of the home and as barely tolerated or even as excluded in the public sphere. The discussion looks at how concepts of ‘nature’, civility and Self and Otherness underpinned the identified discourses.     

DUALISM AND DESIRE IN THE LANDSCAPE OF THE DIVINE

Through depictions of the landscape in the literary works of contemporary Jewish national-religious poets and writers, ambivalence in their relationship towards their natural and man-made surroundings is laid bare. The implementation of the Israeli occupation on the West Bank has rendered a profound impact on the landscape; yet for religious Jewish settlers who subscribe to the promise of redemption that will mark the unification of Jews, God and the land – such unity is desired yet unattainable. In the reading of these texts, the landscape takes on many of the qualities of Jacques Lacan's ‘objet a’ that is both a surplus of the Real and testimony to its absence. Coveted and resented, pure and profane, inclusive and alienating – the portrayed spaces and places of the Israeli occupation allude to binary poles that can be read through Bruno Latour's investigation on the nature of ‘factishes’; these render the depiction of the landscape a unison between what its dwellers are, and what they desire. Through the prism of these two approaches, the depicted landscape of the Israeli occupation that emerges from these texts is one that borrows from Zionist ideology, and yet carves for itself its own niche. In its relationship with the land and the landscape, religious-national sentiment is not yet another manifestation of a national ideology (though it both feeds from and is fed by it), but is propelled by the desire to lay claim to the Lacanian notion of a longed-for Real. In these as yet relatively unstudied texts, the landscape of occupation maps the landscape of its writers’ pleasures and pains, and that of continuous desire.     

Bad breeders and monstrosities: racializing childlessness and congenital disabilities in slavery and freedom

ABSTRACT

By the antebellum years, popular and professional thinking about infertility and the birth of children with congenital disabilities followed a racialized pattern that hewed to the familiar contours of the United States’ larger racial and gender ideologies that legitimized slavery. Whites routinely blamed enslaved women for these conditions through toxic, intersecting discourses about race, gender, and disability that trafficked in racist stereotypes of black women’s supposed lasciviousness and immorality. At the same time, white women of elite or middling social stature were absolved of any imagined responsibility for these very same conditions on the grounds that their pure, delicate physicality left them vulnerable and susceptible to these ‘afflictions.’     

Seeking identity: the transborder lives of mainland Chinese families with children born in Hong Kong

Between 2001 and 2013, Hong Kong regulations permitted pregnant women from mainland China to travel to Hong Kong to deliver their babies. In this article, based on 30 in‐depth interviews, I explore the transborder lives and identities of these mainland Chinese families who, motivated by cost considerations, citizenship and anticipated benefits for their children, chose to give birth to their babies in Hong Kong. In some cases, family networks providing flexible residential practices and family care, supported these transborder activities. However, the complexities of transborder life reveal the diverse ‘identifications’ within Hong Kong society and mainland families. Because neither administration totally accepts them, they are not full members of either society and so the identities they form are both plural and fragmented.     

Beyond bureaucracy and entrepreneurialism: Examining the multiple discursive codes informing the work,careers and subjectivities of management graduates

This paper examines how discursive codes and demands associated with ‘bureaucratic and entrepreneurial regimes’ of work and career organization shape the work, careers and subjectivities of management graduates. The study is based on an analysis of 30 narratives of management professionals who graduated from an Austrian business school in the early 1970s or 2000s. Its insights suggest that variegated discursive codes manifest in the graduates’ articulated professional practices and subjectivities, thereby challenging established assumptions regarding the organization of work and careers. While the practices and subjectivities of the 1970s graduates are often informed by codes and demands ascribed to ‘entrepreneurialism’, those of the 2000s graduates are infused with several codes commonly portrayed as ‘bureaucratic’.     

Abjection and self‐identity: towards a revised account of purity and impurity

Kristeva describes abjection as ‘the repugnance, the retching that thrusts me to the side and turns me away from defilement, sewage, and muck’. Her account of the ‘abject’ has received a great deal of attention since the 1980s, in part due to high demand for theoretical attention to themes of purity and impurity, which remain important in contemporary society. Yet Kristeva herself has noted that ‘my investigation into abjection, violence and horror … picks up on a certain vacuum’, and other scholars have agreed that there is need for further work on what Campkin has described as an ‘under theorized’ topic. This article will begin by exploring the central line of criticism that has been made of Kristeva's concept of abjection, before then considering an attempt by Goodnow to address these concerns through a re‐reading of Kristeva. Goodnow's re‐reading of Kristeva, together with some conceptual clarifications from Hegel, will point the way towards a more precise account of purity and impurity. I shall contend that Kristeva's work on social abjection sometimes hits upon a pattern, which greater conceptual precision will be able to revise into a new social theory of when and why themes of purity and impurity are invoked in Western societies. It will be argued that impure phenomena are those in which heterogeneity is seen to disturb a qualitative homogeneity, taken to be basic; pure phenomena are those understood to be all‐of‐a‐piece and as a result identical with their essence.     

A Fit Person to Run a Home: Registered Homes Tribunal Interpretations of the ‘Fit Person’ Concept in the United Kingdom

ABSTRACT

The abuse of people living in residential care in the UK is well documented. A further wealth of information is available in the form of anecdotal accounts of those who have been employed in this sector but who, in a climate which is still somewhat hostile to ‘whistle blowers,’ are not prepared to formally report their concerns. A small but significant amount of hard evidence of abuse exists in the reports of the Registered Homes Tribunal decisions. This body has the jurisdiction to hear appeals concerning the running of registered and nursing homes in the UK. The circumstances portrayed range from issues of ‘bad practice’ to abuse which may be physical, psychological, or sexual, perpetrated by staff, home owners, residents, or visitors. Many of the cases which concern the tribunal focus on whether a given individual is a ‘fit person’ to run a home. It is the aim of this article to consider and reflect on the tribunals’ interpretation of that term, in relation to the operation and decisions of the tribunal.     

Children Born of Wartime Rape: Rights and Representations

The ongoing conflict in Darfur has once again served to highlight the threat of sexual violence that women face during times of war. Yet, although sexual violence in wartime has existed probably for as long as war itself, it is only in more recent times that its recognition as a crime under international humanitarian law has taken place. Moreover, although it is recognized that women may conceive as a result of such wartime rape, largely missing from the international rights framework, and from the discourse that surrounds it, is a consideration of the children – or ‘war babies’ – who are born as a result. This article places the focus upon ‘war babies’ by considering the reasons for their current marginalization as a category in international discourse. In addition to examining such marginalization within existing theoretical analyses, this article also analyses the potential for their incorporation within the wider rights framework: first, in terms of international legal practice and; second, in terms of the actions of civil society. The final section concludes.     

‘Keeping it real’: tryhards,clones and youth discourses of authentic identity from Hollywood to high school

Authenticity is a key cultural rubric for youth in the contemporary West. Texts aimed at young people frequently direct viewers to ‘keep it real’, to ‘be themselves’ and to avoid ‘putting up a front’. ‘Being yourself’ is portrayed as a moral achievement, yet also as something subjects should ‘naturally’ be. This article examines how students at an urban high school in Aotearoa/New Zealand conceive of being ‘real’, exploring what they deem to be authentic identity and its expressions. This article considers the students' use of both constructionist ‘surface’ and essentialist ‘depth’ discourses of identity. It examines how the students conceive of authentic identity as both stable and fluid, anchored in bodily experience and produced at the moment of recognition by others. It argues that through the production of the figures of the ‘clone’ and the ‘tryhard’, the students resolve the tension created by their positioning of identity as inseparable from the gaze of others and their view that to live for others is inauthentic. The students distance themselves from the behaviour of these Others, who they conceive as presenting themselves inauthentically. The students' conceptualisation of authenticity and use of the figures of the clone and the tryhard provides impetus for the positioning of authentic identity as performative, produced through its enactment.     

Case history discourse: a rhetoric of troublesome youngsters and faceless treatment

In numerous social control settings, staff routinely write case histories on clients to assist colleagues and authorities in treatment decisions. In this article, we examine how such institutional writing constructs ‘working versions’ of youngsters, portraying their objects of care as personally troublesome. Simultaneously, the institution is portrayed as facelessly, uniformly and collectively remedying their behaviour. Using material from a centre for juvenile delinquents in Sweden, we analyse three discursive techniques that accomplish this documentary reality: (1) trouble zooming, (2) mood notes and (3) deflecting staff agency. We also reflect on the social conditions for the recurrent rhetoric.     

Movements post-hegemony: how contemporary collective action transforms hegemonic politics

‘Post-hegemony’ is a critical notion introduced by theorists who take issue with the modern politics of hierarchical organization, representation, unification, the state and ideology: the politics of ‘hegemony’ according to A. Gramsci and E. Laclau. Post-hegemonic thinkers tend to celebrate, by contrast, contemporary social movements which appear to be horizontal, leaderless, participatory, diverse, networked and opposed to the state, global capitalism and ideological closures. Critical responses to the ‘post-hegemonic’ thesis object that contemporary democratic resistances do not attain, in effect, a full rupture with hegemony or they should not attain it. The paper offers, first, an illuminating, up-to-date map of the different positions in the debate over post-hegemony. It seeks to demonstrate, then, that diverse figures of contemporary activism are indeed post-hegemonic not as this has been understood in most post-hegemonic accounts till now, but in the sense of the ‘post-’ which implies an impure, ongoing development: a time and a space in-between. The second half of the paper is devoted, thus, to recasting and reformulating the conception of post-hegemony, tracing it out in the values, the practices and the logics which inform recent democratic movements, as these craft new modes of unification, leadership and representation beyond the hegemonic mould.     

The right to be different: Implications for child protection

This paper traces the historical emphasis of defining the disabled child or adult as ‘abnormal’—to be made ‘normal’! Such an emphasis disempowers the child, who comes to believe that his or her difference is as ‘bad’, ‘unacceptable’, and readily allows him or her to be viewed as ‘useless’. Such disabilist attitudes have fostered the belief that child protection services would not be relevant for this child population. The experiences of disabled women are explored, and clear messages emerge that can help us consider the environment of disabilism and the effects of this on disabled children. It helps us to see that, even before the disabled child is abused, his or her experience is one of oppression.     

Social identity and alcohol in young adolescence: the perceived difference between youthful and adult drinking

This paper examines the evolving social identities of young adolescents in regard to alcohol and drinking culture in Norway. Detailed analysis of 29 focus group interviews and 32 individual interviews with 12–13-year-olds reveal a thorough negative attitude towards alcohol, especially when enjoyed by young people. Young adolescents found young people to be too irresponsible and immature to drink, while adults were portrayed as capable of enjoying alcohol without losing control or experiencing other negative effects. Through symbolic boundary work, they distanced themselves from adolescents who drank. The young adolescents rejected the idea that drinking alcohol was a sign of maturity; instead, they exhibited maturity by distancing themselves from drunk adolescents. We discuss how these findings reflect the participants’ socio-cognitive development, and how symbolic boundaries are often drawn against those closest in social distance. We conclude that boundaries between ‘adolescents’ and ‘adults’ are fundamental when understanding emerging adolescent social identities, especially when it comes to drinking and drinking culture.     

Reflecting on participatory methodologies: research with parents of babies requiring neonatal care

This article concerns a study that examines the attitudes of parents, who have had babies in neonatal care, to sharing their babies’ routinely collected health data for research purposes. A participatory methodology was applied to the design of the study; a group of eleven parents who had all previously had babies in neonatal care were involved in designing a large-scale questionnaire survey. The article addresses the rationale for taking this approach, highlighting how it differs from the more common models of patient and public involvement. It presents the five themes that emerged from parents’ discussion in the course of engaging in the questionnaire design: legitimation, expertise, experiential knowledge, a different epistemology, power and control. How these shaped the design of the survey is employed in this article as a means of providing a commentary on the participatory research process itself. The article concludes by reflecting on whether participatory research can achieve its aims of promoting social justice when used for instrumental purposes such as the refinement of a data collection tool.     

The electronic eye: emerging surveillant practices in social work with children and families

Given the rise of a ‘surveillance society’ or ‘surveillance state’, this article examines the evolution of new surveillant practices which are targeted at children in general, but also particular groups of children who are frequently seen as ‘troublesome’, even threats to the social order. In England for example, there has been an emerging preoccupation with ‘identifying’, ‘profiling’, and ‘tracking’ the potentially criminal young. Furthermore, other major changes are likely to be introduced in the area of child welfare and child protection. Important here is the New Labour administration’s plan to introduce ‘information hubs’ which will electronically log details on children and families. It is argued that social work and the social professions, throughout Europe, need to critically analyse developments such as this and have their responses informed by international discourses founded on civil and human rights.     

Cross‐examination,sexual abuse and child witness identity

This paper presents extracts from cross‐examinations with child witnesses who are alleged victims of child sexual abuse. The manner in which cross‐examination may present a challenge to the child's identity as child, victim and witness is discussed. Specifically, the child may be portrayed as ‘unchildlike’, for example in their experience of sexual relationships or in their sexual knowledge. They may be portrayed as less than innocent, through references to previous contacts with social services or to other behaviours such as delinquency. Child witnesses may be depicted as instigators rather than victims, seducing the adult or seeking revenge through sexual allegations. Finally, children are easily accused of being poor witnesses, as being confused, untruthful and having fallible memories. The paper considers the dynamics and potential impact of such cross‐examination practice within Finkelhor's framework of four traumagenics of sexual abuse: traumatic sexualization, betrayal, powerlessness and stigmatization. The potential for poorly conducted cross‐examinations to create further problems for child witnesses, particularly in the area of identity, is highlighted, and it is suggested traumagenic factors in such cross‐examinations may resemble those of abuse. The paper discusses practice implications for cross‐examination, judicial intervention and witness support following implementation of the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999 in England and Wales. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Advancing careers through ‘merit’: a rationalized-sensemaking narrative in hierarchical organizations

ABSTRACT

This contribution provides an in-context exploration of how middle-managers make sense of their career progress, and particularly focuses on ‘merit’ to understand how careers are driven in a hierarchical organization. The study exposes ‘merit’ as a fragmented and individualized construction that links back to the participants’ broader life ambitions and identity footprint. It also shows a tendency for maintaining trust in ‘merit’ above other circumstantial and opportunity factors, even in face of events which undermine the application of the merit-based principle. ‘Merit’ is hence portrayed to be a rationalized narrative in careers’ trajectory; a marker used by participants to make sense of events in a coherent manner, consequently experiencing self-efficacy and reducing uncertainty. The findings add complexity to the ‘meritocracy’ debate, calling for new critiques which address its underlying inequality dimension while also contemplating the individual psychological purpose driving ‘merit’ beliefs.     

Gendered gambling domains and changes in Sweden

Pachinko is an ‘amusement arcade’ type machine that is popular throughout Japan, with an estimated 17.1 million ‘players’ providing an enormous annual revenue of 2.87 trillion yen (US$250 billion). It is simple and easy to play and has all the hallmarks and structural features of gaming machines worldwide. While academic discourses on the addictive potential of gaming machines are well developed, their application to pachinko is very limited. This is, perhaps, due to a number of factors. First, pachinko is portrayed as a game rather than as gambling in Japan, so that addiction issues are ignored or downplayed. Second, most accounts of ‘playing’ pachinko are journalistic rather than academic. Third, academics tend to focus on police corruption and organized crime rather than addiction. Here, we take the approach that pachinko represents ‘gambling by proxy’ and explore its addictive potential. We conclude that unless pachinko is recognized as a form of gambling, present changes in Japanese legislation will be of limited value in tackling addiction.     

The UEFA European Football Championship 2012 and pop nationalism in Poland: between confirmation and contestation

Poland and Ukraine jointly hosted the European Football Championship in 2012. The Polish media and government portrayed Euro 2012 as the culmination of the post-communist transformation that started in 1989, a great national celebration and proof that Poland belonged to the family of ‘modern’ nations. Drawing on ethnographic research, we look beyond the official discourse and analyse Euro 2012 ‘from below’ in our paper. We focus on analysing the different meanings attributed to Euro 2012 in Poland in the context of the dominant discourse. Referring to Stuart Hall, we distinguish and analyse three readings of Euro 2012, namely the dominant (‘celebrators’), negotiated (‘indifferentists’, ‘modernisers’) and oppositional (‘radical nationalist’, ‘rebels’) readings.