Delivering development? Evidence on self‐help groups as development intermediaries in South Asia and Africa

Donors and governments increasingly seek to deliver development projects through community‐based organizations such as self‐help groups (SHGs), but little is known about the effectiveness of such arrangements. This article briefly summarizes hypotheses regarding the effectiveness of interventions using SHGs and presents the results of an evidence review on the impacts of interventions delivered through SHGs on health, finance, agriculture and empowerment outcomes in South Asia and sub‐Saharan Africa. Though the impacts of SHG‐based interventions are generally positive, the evidence base is limited and does not generally test whether alternative delivery mechanisms might be more effective.     

From Poverty Reduction to Mutual Interests? The Debate on Differentiation in EU Development Policy

Aid to middle‐income countries has become one of the most discussed issues among development researchers and in the current modernisation of the development policy of the European Union. This article argues that the question needs to be dealt with in the context of two interlinked challenges: (i) the need to reconceptualise dominant approaches to global poverty reduction beyond national income, and (ii) the growing range of global challenges and the strategically important role of middle‐income countries. For EU development policy, the implications are twofold: (i) a better‐co‐ordinated cross‐country division of labour, and (ii) a diversification of objectives towards a global rationale of development policy involving closer co‐ordination with other EU external policies.     

Khmer Potent Places: Pāramī and the Localisation of Buddhism and Monarchy in Cambodia

Cambodia is strewn with places of national, local or, most frequently, village importance, considered as potent places, that is to say, places that are said to have agency and a positive or negative power of interaction with human beings. This paper emphasises the constituent principles of potency using case studies based on ethnographic research conducted between 2007 and 2015 in Pursat province, western Cambodia. Beginning with the analysis of the sanctuary of a powerful land guardian spirit called Khleang Muang, the author progressively guides the reader to all the potent places that form a network which spatially tells the legend of the sixteenth-century Khmer King Ang Chan who passed by Pursat, coming from Angkor and settled in Lovek (south of Tonle Sap Lake). Violent death and sacrifices, rituals, spiritual energy called paramī, old buildings, monasteries, precious tableware kept in the soil, trees, stones, termite mounds?…?all those constituents of the potency of the places are analysed. The author’s discussion of the core of potency (pāramī and paramī) enables her to show how Buddhism and land guardian spirit cults are entangled in a single still hierarchical religious system. Finally, the author analyses how potent places in Cambodia embody a process of localisation of the nation-level institution of monarchy.     

Veiling in Fear or in Faith? Meanings of the Hijab to Practicing Muslim Wives and Husbands in USA

This article examines the Muslim practice of wearing the hijab—the veiling and covering of a woman’s head and body. More specifically, this study aims to present insiders’ perspectives regarding the personal understandings of the hijab among 20 wives and 20 husbands (n?=?40) in religious Shia and Sunni Muslim families living in USA. Qualitative analysis yielded three emergent themes: (1) The hijab as a symbol of religious commitment; (2) the hijab as a tool of protection, rather than oppression, for women and families; and (3) two different views of Muslims’ reasoning behind the hijab. These data suggest that, as perceived by “insider” participants, the hijab has perceived benefits for religious Muslim families, although counterexamples and concerns are also expressed.     

The Body in the Pool: Reflections on David Cronenberg’s Maps to the Stars

Placing David Cronenberg’s Maps to the Stars (2014) in the Gothic tradition reveals the ghostly and often overlooked mother-daughter dynamics at play in that genre, veering between the internalized fears of Gothic terror and the externalized evil of Gothic horror.     

‘Ghost in the Shell’: Reflections on Fieldwork in Kazakhstan

After independence from the Soviet Union, Kazakhstan proclaimed Kazakhs the title ethnic group, and the Kazakh language the national language. This deprived the Russian-speaking population of its former dominant social position. Being a Russian-speaking citizen of Kazakhstan, the daughter of a half-Korean half-Russian father and a half-Kazakh half-German mother, I did my field work as a presumed ‘native’ anthropologist at Kazakhstan State University with linguistically divided groups of students. The relations between the field and the researcher disclosed different geopolitical realities of knowledge production and challenged the legacy of relativist methodology. I reflect on this experience and examine different conceptualisations of the native positionality in the post-Soviet context. Reflections in this paper raise new questions about nation-building in post-socialist states and about ‘nativeness’ itself, and contribute to the criticism of postmodern theory.     

Is It a Pleasure to Eat Together? Theoretical Reflections on Conviviality and the Mediterranean Diet

In 2013 the Mediterranean Diet was recognized by UNESCO as an intangible cultural heritage of Spain, Greece, Italy and Morocco. Conviviality – the pleasure of eating together – was recognized as the cornerstone of food culture in the region. Although the concept of commensality has been explored widely in the literature, studies on conviviality and convivial dining are almost non‐existent. This review explores the concept of conviviality and its significance in relation to the Mediterranean Diet. It draws on sociological and anthropological literature to define conviviality and to address the perceived benefits of eating together as well as the social constraints on pleasurable meals. The paper draws upon the work of French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu and his ideas of Habitus, Field and Cultural Capital, examining how these concepts relate to pleasurable eating and conviviality. It offers an interdisciplinary perspective on who and what makes conviviality happen and the potential obstacles to the experience and promotion of convivial dining.     

Lacan Meets Freud? Patho-Analytic Reflections on the Status of the Perversions in Lacanian Metapsychology

This article analyzes the first edition of Freud’s (1905b) “Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality” and more particularly the status of the perversions as it appears in that book, demonstrating how this seminal text contains a radical critique of a “psychiatric style of reasoning” (Davidson, 2001a) that turns the perversions into a separate identity fundamentally different from other ?identities?. Freud’s insights are then confronted with the Lacanian idea of a “perverse structure.” It is argued that Lacan’s theories on perversion remain deeply influenced by the French psychiatric tradition on the topic (Dupré, 1925) and that they imply a return to the “psychiatric style of reasoning” that Freud tried to overcome. Finally, I formulate some suggestions with regard to a re-thinking of sexuality in psychoanalytic metapsychology.     

From Source to Evidence? Teachers' Use of Historical Sources in Their Classrooms

To explore questions in history and to construct historical narratives, historians work with evidence from the past. This approach to teaching history (inquiry involving the use of evidence) is an accepted part of the research on history teaching and is promoted widely in standards frameworks and practitioner publications as “good history instruction.” What happens in a standards-based setting where teachers are covering large bodies of content? Do teachers use sources as part of their daily instruction? If so, how? We were afforded the unique opportunity to spend time observing what 35 teachers do by analyzing 352 videos submitted over a 4-year time span. We observed a spectrum of source use within and across teacher practice. In this article we share what we noticed.     

Longitudinal Pathways From Shyness in Early Childhood to Personality in Adolescence: Do Peers Matter?

Temperamental shyness in childhood is theorized to be an important contributor for adolescent personality. However, empirical evidence for such pathways is scarce. Using longitudinal data (N = 939 children, 51% boys) across 17 years, the aim of this study was to examine how shyness development throughout childhood predicted personality traits in adolescence, and the role of peers in these associations. Results from piecewise latent growth curve modeling showed early shyness levels to predict lower emotional stability and openness in adolescence, whereas early shyness levels and growth across childhood predicted lower extraversion. Peer problems in early adolescence accounted for these associations. This study is the first to demonstrate the role of childhood shyness and peer relations for adolescents’ personality development.     

From control to autonomy? Journalism awards and the changing journalistic profession in Taiwan

In most professional fields, award giving often symbolizes the establishment of professional standards by acknowledging and promoting exemplary practices. Theoretically, awards also serve as an important indicator of the level of professional autonomy in a specific field. In Taiwan, numerous journalism awards have been established over the last 50 years under the claim of enhancing news quality. Yet these awards do not necessarily signify a high level of journalistic autonomy in Taiwan; instead, they have become an implicit control mechanism through which the government operates to shape news production to further its political agenda. Previous studies on Taiwan's news media during the Martial Law era often focused on the restrictions imposed on the media, analyzing the oppressive methods employed by the government to undermine the freedom of the press. This study, however, examines how the government uses award giving to establish and exemplify its journalistic preferences and thus control news production. Specifically, this study reviews the history of the major journalism awards established in Taiwan since the 1950s with a focus on three aspects in each historical period: (1) the characteristics of the award organizers; (2) the objectives of establishing the awards; and (3) the genre of the winning works.     

‘It's capitalism on coke!’: From temporary to permanent liminality in organization studies

In recent years, organization studies have become increasingly aware of the concept of liminality. In our review and critique of this reception of liminality in organization studies, we emphasize that liminality involves a fundamental suspension of ordinary social structures. Although the prevailing use of the concept in anthropology as well as in organization studies has conceptualized liminality as a temporary state, we focus on permanent liminality. Yet the idea of permanent liminality leads to an inevitable paradox, because the concept, by definition, is a temporary state. Conceptualizing liminality as a constant state of social limbo, we show that the paradox in permanent liminality stems from the impossibility of drawing clear distinctions between different social spheres, especially as they apply to modern work–life. Examining a case study about a management consultant, we illustrate the paradox of liminality in terms of a zone of indistinction between work and life as it is reflected in an empirical self-narrative about a consultancy ‘lifestyle’. We further link these findings to a possible transition from disciplinary societies to societies of control.