When Opportunity Structure Knocks: Social Movements in the Soviet Union and Russian Federation

The notion of an opportunity structure has become both popular and confusing for social movement research. This paper attempts to clarify how opportunity structures are understood through a discussion of separatism in two cases: the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation. Instead of being treated as a collective whole, opportunity structures are broken into three factors: A) constitutional rules and rights; B) elite control; and C) the state's capacity and propensity for repression. Factor A represents formal restrictions on potentially insurgent groups while factors B and C are informal restrictions. In the Soviet and Russian settings, four distinct opportunity structures are identified. The first, established under Stalin, was narrow, constraining potentially insurgent groups. But the second, which emerged under Gorbachev, was relatively wide and contributed to the willingness of various republics to declare independence. The third, established at the founding of the Russian Federation, was medium in width, but did not permit the types of activity found in the second. And lastly, the fourth can be dated to Putin's reforms of the early twenty-first century, and is narrow in character. Although future research is necessary for confirmation, this disaggregated model is intended to be generally applicable in other contexts.     

Fighting the Opposition: Lack and Excess in Cuban and Cuban-American Narratives of Selfhood

This essay presents a comparative discussion of two novels — one Cuban, one Cuban-American and both by women writers — that examines the roles played by the oppositional tropes of lack and excess in their respective portrayals of post-revolutionary Cuban female identities. Zoé Valdés’ La nada cotidiana (1995) and Dreaming in Cuban by are examined here via three shared thematic concerns — food, the female gendered body, and artistic expression — in which portrayals of lack and excess serve as vehicles for revealing and negotiating the oppositions often identified as inherent to the ‘Cuban condition’. Ultimately, I argue, these two literary works challenge the simplistic dualisms often used as paradigms for demarcating female Cuban identities in the post-1959 context, both within the national border and throughout the Cuban-American diaspora.     

The Ukrainian reading public in the 1920s: real,implied, and ideal

The reading public was discussed in the Soviet Ukrainian press during the 1920s, at a time when the drive to eliminate illiteracy and implement Ukrainization was scoring increasing successes. Sociological studies of the “real” reader indicated strong preferences for pre-revolutionary authors and foreign writers in translation. Under pressure from Moscow, in the late 1920s Mykola Skrypnyk, the Commissar for Education, and the literary theorist Kost' Dovhan' changed the rhetoric advocating Ukrainization, stressing its proletarian content. They supported the concept of an “implied” working-class reader who read Ukrainian and was simultaneously committed to developing socialism and a “proletarian” culture. However, many sophisticated writers pitched their work to an “ideal” reader, whom they imagined as the end-product of Ukrainization – a culturally literate, urban, and critically thinking consumer. The three ways of conceptualizing the consumer clashed, as the Ukrainization policy went through two major shifts during the period of the first five-year plan (1928–33). Ideologists, educators, and writers adapted to these shifts by redefining the way they conceptualized the reader.     

Black Gold and Blue Gold: The Importance of Energy in the New Power Policy of the Russian Federation

After having been forced to face a decade of economic and political difficulties, the Russian Federation is regaining a position of prestige on the international stage thanks to an astute utilization of its huge reserves of oil and natural gas. With the coming to power of Vladimir Putin—and in particular from 2004—the State has changed its policy in the energy field, aiming to come back to exert a strict control over the main companies and assets. One of the most significant consequences of this change has been the outbreak of disputes with Ukraine and Belarus about the selling price of gas, which caused fears among the entire Europe about the reliability of Russia as a supplier of that resource. Moreover, the quarrels forced many Western analysts to condemn the way Moscow is acting to try and become an “energy superpower”.

Wearing your Politics on your Sleeve: The Role of Political Colours in Social Movements

This article provides evidence of the significance of political colours and associated emblems in the repertoires of social movements and related political parties. It argues that political colours play an important role not only as visual symbols of the cause but also in the emotional life of social movements. Political colours help to create and sustain collective identities and illustrate the role of affect in political life. The article includes a case study of the role of colours in the women's movement, showing how one set of first-wave organizational colours took on much broader symbolic meanings during the second wave of the women's movement. It provides evidence from both the first and second waves of the women's movement of the emotional meaning of the colours for activists. The case study also illustrates the contestation over public memory that occurs in relation to powerful symbols.     

Social Movement,Action and Change: The Influence of Women's Movements on City Government in Mumbai and London

This article reports on a research investigation into gender and local government in Mumbai in India and London in England. In both these cities female representation at the political level stands at around one third, achieved in London slowly in recent years and in Mumbai more rapidly through the adoption of a quota, or seat reservation system, implemented in 1992. In considering the experience of the women concerned it is argued that their presence and aspirations have been influenced through the networks of their respective women's movements, operating through civil society and the local state. In considering the ways in which they organize and manage the duties of office and their gendered identities, as well as in their focus on the most disadvantaged in their communities and in their dealings with others, the part played by social movements in influencing change is examined.     

Human smuggling in Austria: a comparative analysis of data on smuggled migrants from former Yugoslavia and the Russian Federation

This article provides a summary of the author’s research on human smuggling in Austria comparing migrants from Former Yugoslavia and the Russian Federation. The project’s primary intent was to collect more detailed information on migrants seeking asylum in Austria and their use of smuggling services to leave their home countries, including detailed information on demographics, force or threat of force by smugglers, routes and methods of transportation, costs of smuggling, payment methods, and deeper perceptual questions regarding the flight. Another central premise of the article discusses how current distinctions between human smuggling and human trafficking are arbitrary in many regards.     

阿拉伯语在阿尔及利亚的发展及现状调查

马格里布地区在历史上历经复杂的社会生活变化,阿拉伯语在马格里布的历史发展现状是一个需要研究的问题,阿尔及利亚是其中最具代表性的国家之一。本文通过纵向历史回顾,综述了古代、近代和当代阿拉伯语在阿尔及利亚的发展历程,并通过问卷调查的形式,研究阿拉伯语在阿尔及利亚的发展现状和特点,分析了阿拉伯语的使用在阿尔及利亚所面临的问题及未来的发展趋势。     

Designed for Patience: The Significance of Internal Factors in the Ukrainian and Belarusian Transitions

This paper focuses on Belarus in order to find explanation as to why Alexander Lukashenko was able remain the authoritarian leader of Belarus, while in Ukraine the position of the political elite had proved less stable and collapsed in 2004. We seek to determine whether the internal factors (macroeconomic conditions, standard of living, the oppressive nature of the political system) play a significant role in the operation of the domino effect. This article emphasises the determining role of immanent internal factors, thus the political stability in Belarus can be explained by the role of the suppressing political regime, the hindrance of democratic rights and the relatively good living conditions that followed the transformational recession. Whilst in Ukraine, the markedly different circumstances brought forth the success of the Orange Revolution.      

The Movements of Working Children and the International Labour Organization. A Lesson on Enforced Silence

Relations between the International Labour Organization (ILO) and grassroots movements of working children are characterised by tensions. Working children's claim to participate in conceptualising child labour policy is increasingly rejected. Most recently, in November 2017, the Latin American Movement of Working Children and Adolescents (MOLACNATs) lodged a complaint with the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child over violations of rights enshrined in the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. This article reconstructs the history of working children's movements and their communication with ILO since the 1990s.     

Popular Literature,the City and the Memory of Vanished Others in Poland and Ukraine: The Cases of Marek Krajewski and Iurii Vynnychuk

Abstract

A comparative analysis is made of the evocation of urban memory in the work of the Polish author of detective fiction Marek Krajewski and the leading Ukrainian writer of postmodernist fiction and popular historical publications Iurii Vynnchyuk. The cities that form the focus of the work of these writers, Wroc^/law for Krajewski and L′viv for Vynnychuk, both experienced massive population shifts after World War II, meaning that the postwar populations had little or no memory of the pre-war cities. The legacy of this disjunction can be felt to this day. This study demonstrates how both writers re-create a sense of memory through a number of similar memory strategies and concludes that the recreation of memory in these writers’ work can be understood as what Marianne Hirsch calls postmemory, yet that this is postmemory removed from the traumatic context of Hirsch’s original concept. It is also argued that these writers demonstrate that an effective ‘cultural memory’ can be produced in a situation when ‘communicative memory’ is lacking, through an imaginative and accessible representation of the ostensibly inaccessible past. This is achieved through the utilization of mass cultural forms, which some theorists of urban memory see as conducive only to forgetting.     

A Different Take on the Big Bang Theory: Examining the Influence of Asperger Traits on the Perception and Attributional Confidence of a Fictional TV Character Portraying Characteristics of Asperger Syndrome

Research shows that media figures can influence the construction of one’s personal and social identity. However, there are few studies that examine representations of stigmatized groups with developmental disorders, such as those with autism spectrum disorders. This research examines the effect of a viewer’s scores on the autism quotient (AQ) and their relationship with homophily and attributional confidence towards Sheldon on The Big Bang Theory, who is suspected of having Asperger’s syndrome (AS). Guided by uncertainty reduction theory the results indicated a positive relationship between the dimensions of the AQ and homophily with Sheldon, and a positive relationship between higher scores on the AQ and attributional confidence towards Sheldon. The implications of identification with fictional television characters for individuals with AS, and the application of the AQ in future research are discussed relative to the current findings.     

Representing Children of Prisoners in the Public Domain: Comparing Children’s Views and Policy Documents

ABSTRACT

Australian adult prisoner numbers continue to rise to what have been described as unprecedented and unsustainable levels. Research highlights that there are wide-ranging consequences of incarceration for families, and particularly for children. Despite the available research describing the negative impact of parental incarceration on children, it has been argued that these children remain virtually invisible to policy makers and social programs. Using a combination of policy analyses and findings from a research project undertaken in the Australian Capital Territory aimed at identifying the needs of children who have a parent in prison, we examine how this group of children is constructed and responded to by the systems that surround the children. It is argued that it is only when children are seen in a more holistic way that systems can respond more collaboratively to effectively support children.

IMPLICATIONS

• Children of prisoners have needed to rely on adults to recognise the problem of parental incarceration and petition for them.

• It is time for those who inform and develop social policy to consider the impact of current policies on children.

• It is only when children are seen in a more holistic way that systems can respond more collaboratively to effectively support them.

     

Work-based learning in social work education: the challenges and opportunities for the identities of work-based learners on university-based programs

This article explores the experiences of work-based learners undertaking social work degrees in the UK. The article is based on research of work-based learners on undergraduate social work degrees based in two universities, a local face-to-face university and a national distance learning university. Based on narrative inquiry methods for data collection, the article presents two case studies from the wider study which provide narratives of ‘becoming’ and ‘being’ a student. Drawing on identity theory, the article analyses how identity is an important concept in understanding the challenges and opportunities for this group of students on their journeys into and through higher education. The paper concludes by considering the implications for current provision of social work education.     

中国在中东的风险分析:以海湾地区为例

极具地缘战略价值的中东特别是海湾地区是中国"大周边"战略的重要组成部分。中国在中东存在政治、经济、贸易、安全、文化等多方面利益。在"无政府状态"的国际体系中,中国获取中东利益时面临外部较为严峻的挑战。因此,在纷争四起、矛盾错综复杂的中东,中国需要具备强烈的风险意识,对其认知必须充分,分析必须深入,规避务必得当,以期把预期风险化解到最小,也只有这样,中国才能比较顺利地实现自己在中东尤其是海湾地区的利益最大化。     

Qualitative Analysis of the Short-Term and Long-Term Impact of Family Breakdown on Children: Case Study

This article analyzes the impact of divorce on the members of a family by doing a retrospective case study, comparing a mother’s perception of the effects of this experience on her children with their personal report of them. Both short-term and long-term effects are examined. Children suffered from sleep disorders, confusion, aggressiveness, behavioral problems, academic problems, resentment, and fear of abandonment. However, the personal experience of the separated parents did not lead to inevitable negative consequences in the long term, as is clear from the self-reports included here.     

The Remains of the Workday: Impact of Job Stress and Exhaustion on Marital Interaction in Police Couples

We examined the impact of job stress and physical exhaustion on the physiological and subjective components of emotional responding during marital interactions between 19 male police officers and their spouses. Couples completed 30‐day stress diaries and participated in 4 weekly laboratory interaction sessions. During interactions on days of greater stress, both spouses were more physiologically aroused, husbands reported less positive and more negative emotion, and wives reported less emotion (both positive and negative). On days of greater exhaustion, husbands were more physiologically aroused. All of these findings are indicators of heightened risk for poor marital outcomes and thus document an emotional mechanism by which job stress and exhaustion can negatively impact marriage.     

Social Movements and Rights Claims: The Case of Action Groups in the Niger Delta of Nigeria

This article examines how the various claims to, and demands for, rights have enabled and shaped the various equity and justice seeking social movements that have emerged in the Niger Delta of Nigeria, the key point being that claims to rights are fundamental of the logic and coherence of social movements. The article is divided into three sections. The first sets the conceptual and analytical frame by elaborating on the rights–social movements nexus. This is followed by a discussion of the historical and conceptual location of the Niger Delta. The rest of the article interrogates the contexts of relative deprivation, rights denial, and injustice within which social movements have emerged in the Niger Delta. A major objective is to account for why the social movements have been largely ethnic and most recently generational and to analyze the dynamics and outcomes of the rights struggles waged by the various social movements.