Reflections on conducting research on the ‘war on terror’: religious identity,subjectivity and emotions

In recent years there has been an increase in literature which has explored the insider/outsider position through ethnic identities. However, there remains a neglect of religious identities, even though it could be argued that religious identities have become increasingly important through being prominent in international issues such as the ‘war on terror’ and the Middle East conflict. Through drawing on the concept of subjectivity, I reflect on research I conducted on the impact of the ‘war on terror’ on British Muslims. I explore the space between the insider/outsider position demonstrating how my various subjectivities – the ‘non-Islamic appearance I’, the ‘Muslim I’, the ‘personal I’, the ‘exploring I’, the ‘Kashmiri I’ or the ‘Pakistani I’, the ‘status I’ and the ‘outsider I’ – assisted in establishing trust, openness and commonality. I conclude by demonstrating how the ‘emotional I’ allowed me to manage my own emotions and participants emotions.     

Re-Figuring Marked Bodies on the Borders: Breast Cancer and “Femininity”

The author discusses writings by Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Kathleen Martindale, Audre Lorde, and Barbara Rosenblum on their experiences with breast cancer, and explores their articulations of the impact mastectomy has had on their sense of femininity in relation to their own identities and body images, and in relation to cultural expectations, and how others perceive them. Their identification of the body as socially produced, and as a site of contestation and multiple struggles, offers a strategic site from which to engage with the violent gender-inflected notion of the ideal female body. Themes addressed include: the process of writing embodied experience to make it real, the body's role in the process of identity formation, the culturally constructed significance of appearance to the individual's sense of femininity, the value of the female body in a capitalistic society, and heterosexism in society and in the health care system.     

Debating,obfuscating and disciplining the Holocaust: post-Soviet historical discourses on the OUN–UPA and other nationalist movements

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union the archives of the former republics and satellite states of this multiethnic empire were opened. This allowed historians to investigate the history of nationalist and radical right organisations and armies that, during the Second World War, had been involved in the Holocaust and other atrocities. Among them was the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists. For a long time the history of these movements was unknown or distorted by Soviet propaganda and propagandist publications written during the Cold War by veterans of these movements living in the West and cooperating with Western intelligence services. The dissolution of the Soviet Union was simultaneously accompanied by the “rebirth” of nationalism that was not free from antisemitism and racism, and which triggered different types of nationalist distortions of history and obfuscations of the Holocaust. Post-Soviet historical discourses were shaped not only by journalists or political activists, but also by radical right historians. These discourses impacted as well on historians who in general were critical of the post-Soviet rehabilitation of nationalism, war criminality or East Central European fascism. Concentrating on Ukrainian and Polish history, this article explores how the radical right historical discourses appeared in the post-Soviet space, what types of historians were involved in them and what kinds of distortions and obfuscations have predominated.     

Museums,scholarly enterprise and global assemblages: a response to ‘Artifacts and allegiances: how museums put the nation and the world on display’

This discussion of ‘Artifacts and Allegiances: how museums put the nation and the world on display’ by Peggy Levitt shows the efficacy of the cosmopolitan–national continuum as an analysis of the conditions of museums in a globalized world. It suggests that nationalism and cosmopolitanism, whilst posed as alternatives, are not seriously in tension within the liberal global museum. It finds that the book is useful in proposing the museum as a complex cultural assemblage, but that the lack of theoretical integration into the body of the narrative limits the scope for examination of what is entailed. The review suggests that a new progressive discourse of the museum of the 21st century would need to consider and include the participation and engagement of the museum’s audiences, both present and online.     

Austerity plan announcements and the impact on the employees’ wellbeing

This study investigates the impact of austerity plan announcements on employees’ wellbeing. We exploit the unexpected announcement of a drastic wage cut (25%) related to public sector employees in Romania. Using data from the Eurobarometer Surveys and the European Quality of Life Survey, we employ a difference-in-difference research design combined with matching, based on entropy balancing, to identify the causal effects. Our results reveal that the mere announcement of austerity measures leads to an overall drop in life satisfaction among those working in the public sector. We also show that men, and especially married individuals, are most affected by the substantial wage cut announcement. Contrary to previous research, we find that public sector employees with higher levels of education are more likely to be affected by this policy communication compared to those with only secondary or primary levels of education. Our results also suggest that the negative effect of the announcement is not persisting over time.     

Par for the course: A study of gambling on the links and a commentary on physical skill‐based gambling formats

Abstract

A widely practiced but understudied gambling activity is the wagering that occurs between participants in games of physical skill. Little is known about what draws players to this form of gambling, the sub‐groups involved or their social dynamics, the strategies employed, and whether, and to what extent, this activity is associated with disordered gambling.

Gamblers were studied in their natural environment at two private golf clubs. Prominent themes emerging from the research include: motivations for gambling on golf, socialisation into golf course gambling, the golf course betting hierarchy, deceptive practices and evidence of disordered gambling. In general, the golf course wagering we investigated embraced several unique features and traditions that generally make it a salutary gambling experience, largely free of the destructive elements associated with luck‐based gambling formats. The study's findings are utilised to make observations about other gambling formats and gamblers in general.     

Maritime disputes and seafood regimes: a broader perspective on fishing and the Philippines–China relationship

ABSTRACT

In much discussion surrounding the relationship between maritime disputes and fisheries resources, emphasis is given to the role of fisheries resources as a driver of the dispute or how states use fishing to further their interests through territoriality. Yet a narrow focus on maritime disputes obscures the broader ways in which fishing contributes to interstate relationships. This paper uses a political ecology and food regimes approach to demonstrate how seafood flows between the Philippines and China represent power relations. China exports a significant volume of low-value small fish and molluscs from its distant water fishery. The Philippines exports low numbers of high-value reef fish. Current Chinese aquaculture investments are minimal. Poaching forms another component of this seafood regime, which is marked by environmental unsustainability and unequal relations between the Philippines and China. This analysis highlights the value of seeing fishing and fishery resources as constitutive of a broader politicized environment.     

Disability welfare reform and the chav threat: a reflection on social class and ‘contested disabilities’

The recent UK media clash between Katie Hopkins and Katie Price in the reality TV show Celebrity Big Brother 2015 regarding Price’s receipt of welfare benefits for her son, Harvey, has reopened old debates about welfare support for the so-called deserving and undeserving poor. Nowhere is this more evident than in the classed moralities of motherhood with the harshest criticisms aimed at the ‘chav’ poor and working-class families and their children whose lifestyles and moral respectability may be called into question for causing or even fabricating particular disabilities in the first place. Alongside these characterisations of parental deficits and immorality associated with working-class and poor parents, connections between ‘invisible’ disability, poverty and poor parenting continue.     

Parent Marital Quality and the Parent–Adolescent Relationship: Effects on Adolescent and Young Adult Health Outcomes

Although a number of studies examined the implications of marital disruption for adolescent well-being, few studied the implications of marital relationship quality on health outcomes for children in married-couple families. The present study examines how parent marital quality among intact families interacts with the quality of parent–adolescent relationships to predict physical health, mental health, and substance use in middle adolescence and early adulthood. The study uses data from the NLSY97 cohort, a nationally representative sample of adolescents who are being followed into adulthood. Predictors include the quality of the parent marital relationship, the quality of the parent–adolescent relationship, marital structure, and a number of contextual covariates and control variables. Combined parent marital quality and parent–adolescent relationship groups were developed using latent class analyses and were used to predict positive and negative health behaviors during the teen and early adult years. Results indicate that adolescents in families experiencing poor marital quality fared worse on physical health, mental health, and substance use outcomes. In addition, adolescents who reported poor relationships with at least one of their parents fared worse on outcomes. Adolescents whose parents have low-quality relationships and also have poor parent–adolescent relationships tended to fare least well across health measures. Adolescents whose parents have a high-quality relationship and who have a good parent–adolescent relationship with both parents consistently had the best outcomes. Overall, poor relationships consistently undermine mental health, physical health, and substance use. Family religious activities also consistently predict better health outcomes.     

Global Actions:Following Up on the World Gonference on Women

TWO and a half years after the UN Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing once again embraced women from all over the world. This time, the mission was to exchange experiences on implementation of the "Beijing Declaration" and the "Platform for Action" formulated at the Conference; to see how the governments had put into action the commitments that they made then.     

Parent Marital Quality and the Parent–Adolescent Relationship: Effects on Sexual Activity among Adolescents and Youth

The link between growing up outside of an intact family and the likelihood of engaging in risky sexual behaviors as an adolescent has been explored extensively. However, fewer studies examined the likelihood of risky sexual behaviors among adolescents within intact families and what elements of those married-parent families seem to function as protective factors for adolescents. This study looks at relationships within married-parent families—that is, the parent marital relationship, the youth–parent relationship, and the interaction of the two—to identify potential sources of resilience for adolescents that influence their sexual activity. Overall, the youths' relationship with their parents matters more than the parents' relationship with each other, particularly for male youth and youth in stepparent families. Other covariates with notable influence on youths' risky sexual behaviors include parents' marital disruption and religious activity during the teen years. Analyses are based on data from the NLSY97 cohort.     

Voluntas Symposium: Comments on Salamon and Sokolowski’s Re-conceptualization of the Third Sector

With their “Beyond Nonprofits: Re-conceptualizing the Third Sector”, Salamon and Sokolowski have made an important contribution to the ongoing debate on how to define the third sector. This Voluntas symposium brings together the comments of five leading scholars both supportive and critical of the new definition. The comments are based on a debate held at the conference of the International Society for Third Sector Research, in Stockholm in 2016.     

Gamblers’ Habits: Empirical Evidence on the Behavior of Regulars, Newcomers and Dropouts

Electronic gambling offers the opportunity to analyze huge and unbiased data sets of automatically recorded actual gambling behavior. This study refers to data on 2,127,887 poker playing identities from the Online Poker Database of the University of Hamburg (OPD-UHH) to analyze three subgroups of gamblers: regulars, newcomers, and dropouts. Their gambling habits over 6 months are analyzed in total, as well as over time. Regulars show a much higher involvement than non-regulars and increase their playing volume slightly over the observation period. Newcomers have a lower involvement than non-newcomers and most of them decrease their playing volume over time. Still, there is a small group of newcomers which increases their playing volume sharply and is, hence, very interesting for the industry as well as for the early prevention of pathological gambling. Dropouts have a higher gambling involvement than newcomers but play less than players who have not stopped stop gambling. Most dropouts also show a decreasing playing volume before dropping out. An analysis of the correlations between different variables of gambling habits shows that most of them reinforce each other, for example: gamblers with a higher total playing time tend to play at more tables simultaneously. Only playing frequency is a moderating variable of gambling involvement.     

A Note on the Protomental System and “Groupishness”: Bion's Basic Assumptions Revisited

In identifying the unconscious basicassumption behavior of groups, Bion made asignificant discovery. Although he toyed with explainingthis behavior as instinctive, he ultimately postulatedthat it was a postnatal defense. However, there is astrong case for the biogenetic explanation. Thissharpens our understanding of some group andorganizational processes that have been hithertodescribed in terms of psychoanalytic concepts. It may also haveimplications for management of, and interventions in,groups and larger systems.     

“Everyone was Pounding on Us”: Front Porch Politics and the American Farm Crisis of the 1970s and 1980s

This essay analyzes agricultural politics and activism in the United States during the farm crisis of the 1970s and 1980s. Although journalists and social scientists studied farm activism at the time, historians have neglected it. As this article demonstrates, however, the farm crisis is valuable for analyzing why ordinary Americans mobilized as citizens and activists in a period of economic dislocation. Informed by the recent “emotional turn” in social movement studies, the essay frames farm organizing as an archetypal example of “front porch politics”. Mostly, farmers organized out of a sense of being wronged; the resulting sense of injustice fueled a rural uprising.     

Respect and Protection:A Review of the Implementation of the Law of the P.R.C. on the Protection of Rights and Interests of Women

JIANG Zemin, President of the People's Republic of China, once said: "Respecting women and protecting women is an important sign of social progress. It should become a civilized society's legal provision and moral concept." On October 1, 1992 the Law of the P.R.C. on the Protection of Rights and Interests of Women was put into effect, which was considered a major accomplishment for China and Chinese women. More than two years have passed since the implementation of the law. How well has the law been     

Rural development and urban migration: can we keep them down on the farm?

This study tests the hypothesis that rural development projects and programs reduce rural-urban migration. The author presents various factors in the social theories of migration, including those relating to origin and destination, intervening obstacles such as distance, and personal factors. 3 economic models of migration are the human capital or cost-benefit approach, the expected income model, and the intersectoral linkage model. Empirical studies of migration indicate that: 1) rural areas with high rates of out-migration tend to have high population densities or high ratios of labor to arable land, 2) distance inhibits migration, 3) rural-urban migration is positively correlated with family income level, and 4) selectivity differences in socioeconomic status between migrants and nonmigrants often are grouped into development packages which might include irrigation, new varieties of seed, subsidized credit, increased extension, and improved marketing arrangements. The migration impacts of some of these efforts are described: 1) land reform usually is expected to slow rural out-migration because it normally increases labor utilization in rural areas, but this is a limited effect, 2) migration effects of the Green Revolution technology are mainly in rural-rural migration, and 3) agricultural mechanization may stimulate rural-urban migration in the long run. Development of rural social services migh have various effects on rural-urban migration. Better rural education, which improves the chances of urban employment, will stimulate rural-urban migration, while successful rural family planning programs will have a negative effect in the long run as there will be reduced population pressure on arable land. Better rural health services might reduce the incentive for rural-urban migration as well. It is suggested that governments reconsider policies which rely on rural development to curb rural-urban migration and alleviate problems of urban poverty and underemployment.     

Framing the Women’s March on Washington: Media coverage and organizational messaging alignment

Half a million citizens participated in the Women’s March on Washington the day after President Trump’s inauguration, starting a political movement. The march communicated key messages to the public directly and via the media. This study explores how media coverage framed those key messages through content analysis. Media frames mentioned all key messages, emphasizing solidarity and activation at the grassroots, and in a way that both supported and challenged organizational messages. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Empowerment through work: the cases of disabled individuals and low-skilled women workers on the US–Mexican border

This article discusses workers at two organizations: one employing disabled individuals and another employing low-skilled Mexican-American women. Workers at both organizations show positive effects from employment, including having increased self-efficacy and self-esteem, valuing work as a source of income and personal growth, as well as developing a sense of community. These perceptions contrast sharply with statements presented about how they viewed themselves and their abilities before working in these organizations. Through comparisons between these two sets of experiences, we show how individuals draw meaning, dignity, self-esteem, and empowerment from work.