Becoming a Good Welfare Manager: Paternalistic Oppressive Othering and Neoliberal Boundary Maintenance

Using data from telephone interviews with 69 county welfare-to-work program managers in Ohio, we examine how individuals rely on paternalism and neoliberal ideology to construct themselves as “good workers” through two processes of identity work: oppressive othering and boundary maintenance. Program managers construct themselves as good workers through a process we call “paternalistic oppressive othering” in which managers draw on the dominant oppressive ideology of paternalism to present themselves as helpful. We also find managers draw on neoliberal ideology to legitimate the program and their work through a process we call “neoliberal boundary maintenance.”     

Decolonial strategies in world politics: C.L.R. James and the writing and playing of cricket

Discussions of decolonizing world politics have flourished in international studies recently but few of these engage with popular culture, especially sports. In this paper, I address this gap and consider sports – specifically the sport of cricket – as a global phenomenon, useful for discussing key decolonizing strategies. This paper argues that cricket, as a form of popular culture, offers language and practices to critique oppressive sociopolitical norms and global hierarchies. It draws upon the cricket-writing of C.L.R. James, specifically his book Beyond a Boundary, as well as on the experiences of playing cricket to outline some decolonial strategies. These strategies include shifting perspectives on world politics, the role of biography and autobiography as critique, and the relevance of positionality in describing global processes and in the construction of knowledge. Overall, this paper claims that popular culture, especially those which are popular in the Global South, offers ways to rethink and rework relations between the powerful and less powerful. Cricket provides examples of ways in which these various decolonial strategies can be enacted in practice.     

Building on the original strengths of direct payments to create a better future for social care

Confidence in the prevailing In Control model of personal budgets in the United Kingdom is beginning to waver. This raises the question of ‘where to next?’ for social care. Will we be returning to the monolithic system that typified services at the turn of the millennium – a system that is deeply oppressive for the great majority who lack the support and confidence to escape it by accessing a direct payment to manage their own support system? The Care Act has made no change to the basic process whereby it is councils that will decide what a person’s needs are, which will be met and with what resource. However, we argue here that the situation is far from hopeless. In Control’s analysis, while attractive to a neo-liberal political ideology, was based on a serious failure to understand the reasons for the success of direct payments. Whilst policy-makers saw it as a triumph for consumerist notions of choice, it is better understood as a triumph for needs-based planning, but carried out in a person-centred way. Learning the right lessons offers a new way forward to deliver a respectful and flexible service within the context of the Care Act.     

Anti-Oppressive Social Work Research: Reflections on Power in the Creation of Knowledge

This paper is based on the development of a framework that conceptualises forms of power in social work research. Its aim is to encourage readers to critically reflect on potentially oppressive manifestations of power in social work research. The article draws on Lukes' model of power and Gould's subsequent framework which contributed to anti-racist teaching in social work education. Gould's framework is reinterpreted and applied to a differing context: social work research. The field of social work research is explored through this framework, highlighting potentially oppressive manifestations of power and suggesting anti-oppressive strategies. The model is then applied to social work education and specifically the teaching of research methods. The paper concludes by suggesting curriculum guidelines that promote the teaching of anti-oppressive social work research methods.     

Social psychology of a learning environment and the acquisition of critical thinking skills

The research reported in this paper was designed to examine whether or not a group of mature students studying for the Higher National Certificate (Social Care) could be encouraged to acquire critical thinking skills through an attempt to create a non-oppressive teaching/learning environment. The research took place over a series of nine weekly sociology lectures; each student's written assessment at the conclusion of teaching was examined for evidence of critical thinking skills as were their client-focussed studies which required integration of theory and practice. In addition the students were interviewed regarding their experiences of the teaching environment. The focus of discussion was the oppressive nature of a classroom environment and ways in which lecturers affect that oppression. A fundamental assumption is that critical thinking skills are not best achieved in an oppressive environment. If students are encouraged to be critical thinkers, not only should they take responsibility for their own learning but for the focus and content of the curriculum as well.     

Regulation of migrant entrepreneurship: The strained conjunction of laws,policies and practices

We are struck by a curious paradox: the flourishing discourse on migrant entrepreneurship is replete with references to the regulatory environment; yet the precise ways in which regulations exert influence is rarely spelt out. This task is all the more urgent because policymakers are alighting on the fact that migrants often turn to self-employment to make their way in destination societies. Yet, the extent to which regulations – comprising laws and governmental and non-governmental policy measures and practices – is poorly understood. This special section aims at filling this gap by adopting a theoretically informed analytical perspective to understand the role of regulation in migrant entrepreneurship. Articles in this special section analyse the nature of laws, policies and practices, the factors of success/failure of these, the role of governmental and non-governmental actors, and the effect of different welfare regimes and governance conditions.     

Living on the edge? Professional anxieties at work in academia and veterinary practice

ABSTRACT

Through empirical research on academics and veterinary surgeons, this article focuses on identity and how it is reflected in, and reproduced by, anxiety and insecurity at work. Three analytical themes – perfection, performativity and commodified service – each of which generates anxiety indicates a loss of autonomy as academics and vets are subjected to competitive market forces as well as an intensification of masculine managerial controls of assessment, audit and accountability. We see these pressures and their effects as reflecting a commodification of service provision where the consumer (student or client) begins to redefine the relationship between those offering some expertise and those who are its recipients, partly achieved through the performative gaze of constant and visible rating mechanisms. Our empirical research also identifies sources of anxiety concerns in their attempts to achieve perfection against this background of uncertain knowledge and precarious contexts of the performative nature of professional expertise.     

Between Control and Assistance: The Problem of European Accommodation Centres for Asylum Seekers

Accommodation centres are much more than means of securing asylum seekers’ housing needs. They are an embodiment of asylum and immigration policies. To understand these policies and their effects on asylum seekers, we need to ask what interests different institutional actors have in keeping asylum seekers in the centres. Based on the study of accommodation centres in the Czech Republic, in this paper I argue that the centres serve as tools of migration control. The prolonged confinement of a highly diverse group of people produced by the interconnectedness between asylum and immigration policies leads to asylum seekers’ disillusionment about the asylum procedure and nourishes various illicit activities. The centres enable state institutions to determine the nature of assistance available to asylum seekers, including legal aid provided by non-governmental organizations. By actively promoting the image of accommodation centres as benign places, the state also controls the dominant representation of refugee reception. In everyday practices in the centres, control and assistance are closely intertwined and produce an oppressive environment that engenders asylum seekers’ dependency.     

Why does patriotism prevail? Contextual explanations of patriotism across countries

Addressing the normative and empirical debate regarding the nature of patriotism, this paper examines the social contexts in which patriotism – defined here as an expression of national pride – thrives. Combining diverse theoretical explanations, it investigates whether expressions of patriotism are related to globalization, state function, social fractionalization and conflict. A multilevel regression analysis of data from 93 countries led to three principal findings. First, citizens of more developed and globalized countries are less likely to be proud of their country. Second, citizens are more likely to be patriotic in countries characterized by higher levels of income inequality and religiously homogeneity. Third, citizens of countries exposed to direct conflict – that is, suffering terror and causalities from external conflict – tend to exhibit higher levels of national pride. Patriotism frequently being identified as a mandatory political commodity, these results suggest that, overall, patriotism forms part of a less attractive matrix than its advocates tend to assume.     

The Andean Catch-22: ethnicity,class and resource governance in Bolivia and Ecuador

This study deals with the tensions and contradictions between resource governance, welfare policies, and the constitutionally recognized rights of nature and the indigenous peoples in Bolivia and Ecuador. We have identified a certain reductionism in current debates on these issues and propose a more systematic analytical focus on class and the class-ethnicity duality, as expressed in historical and contemporary indigenous struggles, and also confirmed via our ethnographic material. Drawing on the double bind as expressed in Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 wherein the protagonists face situations in which they do not have any choice to achieve a net gain, this article centres on how national governments have to choose between the protections of rights – in this case ethnic and environmental rights – and welfare provision financed by extractive revenues. From the perspective of ecologically concerned indigenous actors, the Catch-22 is articulated in the choice or compromise between universal welfarism on the one hand, and ethno-environmental concerns on the other hand. The article draws primarily on ecosocialist arguments and on indigenous-culturalist perspectives on Good Life (Sumak Kawsay or Vivir Bien). A central finding is the existence of awareness among involved actors – oppositional movements and government authorities – that the Catch-22 quandary and joint class-ethnic concerns are unavoidable ingredients in their discourses, struggles, and understandings of Good Life.     

‘We took a bath with the chickens’: memories of childhood visits to the homeland by second‐generation Greek and Greek Cypriot ‘returnees’

Drawing on a wider study of 90 second‐generation Greeks and Greek Cypriots who have relocated to their ancestral homeland, in this article we focus on the significance of childhood visits to the homeland. Freedom – how children were allowed to roam free and stay up late – is the key trope of such memories, in contrast with the strict spatio‐temporal parenting they received in the host country. Different, sometimes less pleasant memories, however, emerge when the visits took place during later, teenage years. We explore the connections between childhood visits and adult relocation. Adult returnees find that settlement in the homeland produces a new set of challenges and reactions that differ markedly from childhood experiences and memories. They engage a second narrative trope, nostalgia, reflecting on the loss of the ‘authentic’ nature of the homeland and its customs and values. Instead, they highlight the materialism and xenophobia of Greek and Cypriot society nowadays. However, they see the ‘homeland’ as a safer place in which to raise their own children.     

RELATIVE ADVANTAGE

A concept of relative advantage is outlined in this article. Based on an oppressed group's selective assessment of their circumstances or character or values in comparison with either those of another group or at different points of time for their own group, the consensual image that they are relatively better off or relatively superior in some way is constructed. Drawing on the experiences of three oppressed groups, it is suggested in this article that the reality construction process occurs in various circumstances, and that the shape of relative advantage is defined differently, possibly in accord with this. It is concluded that this perception might help to engender a sense of group honor and also serve as a strategic factor in the tamping down of discontent and in the maintenance of the oppressive social order.     

Asian American Identification with African Americans,Latinos, and Whites: The Roles of Discrimination and Self-Identified Skin Tone

ABSTRACT

Using a sample of up to 1,208 Asian Americans, we examine the effects of skin tone on perceived commonality with African Americans, Latinos, and whites. Overall, we find that Asian Americans are more likely to identify with whites than with African Americans or Latinos. When we account for skin tone, we find that Asian Americans with a medium skin tone experience increased odds of perceiving a commonality with African Americans and Latinos. While we expected the relationship between skin tone and perceived commonality to be mediated by experiences of discrimination, this was not the case. We conclude that Asian Americans occupy a position toward the top of the black-white binary and the oppressive racial hierarchy that exists within the United States. Like previous scholars, we suggest that Asian Americans can use their relative standing to disrupt the oppressive racial hierarchy. However, we recognize that whites, holding a position at the top of the racial hierarchy, must also be responsible for dismantling it.     

Like Everest: defamiliarization and uncanniness in media representations of inaccessibility

This paper uses phenomenology to explore recent representations of inaccessible architectural environment featured on major Bulgarian television channels. It is argued that by exposing the environmental restrictions faced by disabled people in their everyday activities, Bulgarian media unwittingly engage in an operation described by formalist literary critics as ‘defamiliarization’. As a result, familiar elements of the everyday, lived world are illuminated as strange. In phenomenological terms, this brings about the experience of ‘uncanniness’. The paper concludes by highlighting the transformative potential inherent in this experience; that is, its power to illuminate as artificial and oppressive the taken-for-granted aspects of the world we inhabit.     

Arab school principals in Israel – between conformity and moral courage

ABSTRACT

The Arab-Israeli education system is a separate but not autonomous system serving Israel’s inhabitants whose first language is Arabic. These include the Muslim and Bedouin majority communities and smaller Christian, Druze and others, whose children attend schools in which the curriculum is determined by a Zionist perspective, taught in Arabic. Thus, in the context of a system established according to the Israeli cultural/national narrative, this study brings to light the voice of ten principals who, through open, in-depth interviews – ‘small stories’ – reveal their prospective and management of issues-in-conflict to formulate and present their professional identity according to their own sense of self. It presents the conflicts their position confronts vis-à-vis both the formal education authorities and the unique situation their society and culture pose in executing their educational/administrative and moral responsibilities. The findings reveal situations ranging from active acceptance of the institutional dictates of a conformist nature, through passive acceptance, (‘conformity’) to attempts at promoting autonomous activities within the defined limitations (‘moral courage’).     

Citing history

ABSTRACT

Although rarely considered within the existing scholarship on social movements, even a cursory analysis of protest activity suggests that movements regularly invoke historical citations (whether consciously or not) while working to clarify aims and mobilize constituencies. In order to make sense of this process, and to account for the variations that arise among the different citation modalities favored by movements on opposite ends of the political spectrum, I draw upon the theoretical contributions of Marxist cultural critic Walter Benjamin and, in particular, on his exploration of ‘wish images’ and ‘dialectical images,’ their attributes, and their interrelationship. According to Benjamin, such images summoned the past either to project visions of future happiness (as with the wish image) or to deposit the witness before a moment of decisive, present-tense reckoning. After outlining the role of historical citation in social movements and in the broader cultural field through which these movements find expression, I analyze two recent protest events – the ‘Unite the Right’ rally in Charlottesville, VA, in which wish images were actively deployed, and the 2017 Women’s Strike in New York City, where a dialectical image arose from the constellated nodes of the march’s route – to consider the relationship between citation modality and protest outcome. Following from this analysis, and in keeping with the unapologetically partisan nature of my investigation, I conclude by advancing some strategic recommendations for movements seeking – as Benjamin once enjoined – to ‘improve our position in the struggle against Fascism.’     

Responsive expression in living bodies: The power of invisible ‘real presences’ within our everyday lives together

In the past, in our talk of meanings, we have been used to thinking of them as working in terms of inner mental representations, and to thinking of such representations as passive objects of thought requiring interpretation in terms of shared rules, conventions or principles if their meaning is to be understood. This view of communication and understanding as ‘information processing’ has been hegemonic in social theory now for quite some time. Here, however, this paper will explore an alternative to it: the realm of expressive-responsive bodily activities occurring spontaneously between people in their meetings with each other. The spontaneous understandings occurring in this sphere ‘pre-date’, so to speak, the more self-conscious understandings we have as autonomous individuals. In this realm, in such meetings, direct and immediate, non-interpretational physiognomic or gestural forms of understanding can occur. Indeed, central to activities occurring between us in this sphere, is the emergence of dynamically unfolding structures of activity – ‘real presences’ in Steiner’s terms – in which all involved participate in ‘shaping’, and to all involved must be responsive in giving shape to their own actions. It is the agentic influence of these invisible but nonetheless felt presences that is explored in the paper. Their influence can be felt as acting upon us in a way similar to the expressions of more visible, and authoritative beings – in that they can directly ‘call’ us into action, issue us with ‘action guiding advisories’ and judge our subsequent actions accordingly with their ‘facial’ expressions or ‘tones’ of voice. This paper will explore how this form of participatory thought and understanding can help us to understand the ‘inner’ nature of our social lives together and the part played by our expressive-responsive activities in their creation.     

Conductive Education and the Politics of Disablement

Conductive Education has been characterised by some disabled academics as an intervention that is oppressive to disabled people. One of the most notable of these is Oliver. This paper describes the practice of Conductive Education and its development in the United Kingdom and explores why it came to be perceived by some from within the disabled people's movement as contrary to their interests. Oliver's position on Conductive Education is critiqued and located within the wider debate on the adequacy of the social model of disablement.     

“Why Would Our Heavenly Father Do that to Anyone”: Oppressive Othering through Sexual Classification Schemes in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter‐Day Saints

In this article, we examine how leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter‐Day Saints (LDS or LDS Church) responded to the emergence of homosexuality as a prominent social issue by engaging in “oppressive othering” (Schwalbe et al. 2000 ), which refers to the process whereby elites classify members of other groups as morally inferior. On the basis of LDS archival materials, we analyze how LDS elites accomplished “oppressive othering” by constructing sexual classification schemes defining homosexuality as the result of (1) familial, (2) gendered, and (3) sexual dysfunctions. In conclusion, we draw out implications for understanding (1) how elites, religious, or otherwise, construct sexual classification schemes that facilitate the ongoing subordination of sexual minorities, (2) the importance of taking an intersectional approach to oppressive othering, and (3) the ways elites revise institutional doctrines in response to shifting societal issues and concerns.