Language proficiency and health status: are bilingual immigrants healthier?

Bilingual immigrants appear to have a health advantage, and identifying the mechanisms responsible for this is of increasing interest to scholars and policy makers in the United States. Utilizing the National Latino and Asian American Study (NLAAS; n = 3,264), we investigate the associations between English and native-language proficiency and usage and self-rated health for Asian and Latino U.S. immigrants from China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Mexico, Cuba, and Puerto Rico. The findings demonstrate that across immigrant ethnic groups, being bilingual is associated with better self-rated physical and mental health relative to being proficient in only English or only a native language, and moreover, these associations are partially mediated by socioeconomic status and family support but not by acculturation, stress and discrimination, or health access and behaviors.     

What are museums for? The enduring friction between nationalism and cosmopolitanism

This response to Peggy Levitt’s book Artifacts and Allegiances argues that, as cultural institutions, museums are too deeply embedded within the nation state to be able to present cosmopolitan narratives that go beyond the biased particularities of the nation. Rather than conceiving nationalism and cosmopolitanism as a continuum, the relationship between the two should be seen as one of enduring friction, creating a major challenge for museums around the world to tell stories suited for our mobile, global times.     

Agency,reflexivity and risk: cosmopolitan,neurotic or prudential citizen?

The purpose of this paper is to critically examine the turn to risk within sociology and to survey the relationship between structure and agency as conceived by popular strands of risk theorizing. To this end, we appraise the risk society, culture of fear and governmentality perspectives and we consider the different imaginings of the citizen constructed by each of these approaches. The paper goes on to explore what each of these visions of citizenship implies for understandings of the structure/agency dynamic as it pertains to the question of reflexivity. In order to transcend uni‐dimensional notions of citizenship and to reinvigorate sociological debates about risk, we call for conceptual analyses that are contextually rooted. Exampling the importance of knowledge contests around contemporary security threats and warnings of the deleterious effects of pre‐emptive modes of regulation that derive from the ‘risk turn’ within social science, we argue for a more nuanced embrace of reflexivity within risk theorising in order to facilitate a more dynamic critique of the images of citizenship that such theorizing promotes.     

Brexit and precarity: Polish female workers in the UK as second-class citizens?

Immigration was a decisive factor in pre-Brexit-vote debates and it remains one of the most divisive topics globally; therefore, it is worthy of attention. Whilst the British people had an opportunity to have their say on Brexit, EU migrant workers have not. This article gives them a voice as it is based on original data from 40 qualitative interviews with female EU citizens to the UK, conducted before and after the Brexit-vote. This article further develops the notion of precarity in relation to EU migrants to the UK in light of Brexit and adds to debates on gender in migration. This paper provides wider policy implications for the British and other EU countries' authorities as it engages with debates on Brexit from the point of view of the UK labour force as voices of economic women migrants from Poland are presented.     

From cosmopolitan convergences to situated religious cosmopolitanism: The early spread of the Bahá’í Faith in Singapore and Malaya (1950–1975)

This paper contributes to the debate on cosmopolitanism by examining the spread of the Bahá’í Faith in Singapore and Malaya (1950–1975). The Bahá’í Faith is a significant case as its followers came to span the globe in 150 years. This paper probes into the relationship between the faith's transnational spread and its religious cosmopolitanism in three parts. First, I outline the inseparability of ‘world citizenship’ from Bahá’í teachings. Second, I trace its spread in Singapore and Malaya – a process that initially relied on serendipitous encounters between travellers and migrants, one that I call ‘cosmopolitan convergences’. Third, I explore the expansion of the Bahá’í Faith among Malaya's Semai tribe. Here, Bahá’í world citizenship became grounded in collective cultural practices, facilitating what I call ‘situated religious cosmopolitanism’. The connection between the contrasting populations discussed in this paper demonstrates the potential of grounding religious networks within normative cosmopolitan ideals and practices.     

Hegemonic Masculinity and Globalization: ‘Transnational Business Masculinities’ and Beyond

In recent years masculinity studies writers, in particular R. W. Connell, have focused on the relationship between globalization and ‘hegemonic’ forms of masculinity. This paper provides an assessment of this scholarship and argues that whilst Connell and others have usefully identified the gendered nature of globalization, masculinity scholars have also provided a somewhat limiting account of the global hegemonic role of a monolithic top-down ‘transnational business masculinity’. By contrast, we suggest a demassification of this notion of hegemonic masculinity. Such a demassification enables the opening up of a dialogue between masculinity studies and feminist and other critical globalization scholars, allowing for a more nuanced analysis that can attend to both the unevenness of globalization in different settings and more detailed awareness of interactions between global and local/cultural/state imperatives. Our aim here is to move away from conceptualizations of globalization and hegemonic masculinity that are exceptionally top-down towards an analysis of the contested and shifting nature of gender identity at the global as well as the local level, to highlight the ways in which different hegemonic masculinities are negotiated, and even resisted. We argue that by understanding ‘transnational business masculinity’ as a discursive ideal that legitimates the workings of global capitalism, there is scope for a greater level of engagement between critical globalization scholarship and gender studies. This might also open the door to an account of globalization that entails more detailed reference to women and femininities.

En años recientes, los escritores sobre Los Estudios de la Masculinidad, y en particular R.W. Connell, se han enfocado en la relación entre la globalización y las formas ‘hegemónicas’ de la masculinidad. Este artículo proporciona una evaluación de esta beca y sostiene que mientras Connell y otros han identificado de manera útil la naturaleza del género de la globalización, los académicos sobre la masculinidad también suministraron un reporte de cierta manera limitado, sobre el rol hegemónico global monolítico del más alto al más bajo, de ‘una masculinidad en los negocios transnacionales’. Por el contrario, nosotros sugerimos una desmasificación de esta noción de masculinidad hegemónica. Tal desmasificación hace posible la apertura de un diálogo entre Los Estudios de la Masculinidad y de Feministas y otros académicos críticos de la globalización, permitiendo un análisis más matizado que puede acudir tanto a la disparidad de la globalización en diferentes escenarios como a una mayor conciencia detallada sobre las interacciones entre los imperativos locales/culturales/estatales. Nuestra meta es separarnos de las conceptualizaciones de la globalización y de la masculinidad hegemónica que son excepcionalmente jerárquicas hacia un análisis de los controvertidos y trasladar la naturaleza de la identidad del género tanto a nivel global como al local, para resaltar las formas como las masculinidades hegemónicas diferentes han negociado, e incluso resistido. Sostenemos que al entender ‘la masculinidad en los negocios transnacionales’ como un ideal discursivo que legitimiza el funcionamiento del capitalismo global, existe un propósito para un nivel mayor de participación entre la investigación crítica de la globalización y los estudios del género. Esto también puede abrir la puerta a un informe de globalización que conlleve una referencia más detallada de mujeres y feminidades.

     

City diplomacy and “glocal” governance: revitalizing cosmopolitan democracy

Diplomacy is in trouble. With globalization come global problems. While we live in a twenty-first-century world of interdependence, we face seventeenth-century Westphalian political institutions with defined boundaries and separated responsibilities of nation-states. When we think of diplomacy, we are thinking of state-to-state relations; however, with sovereign obligation and national interest obsession, state-to-state negotiations often fall into “gridlocks”; international policy-making also suffers from “democratic deficits”. David Held offered cosmopolitan democracy as the answer, but his “world government” thesis provides no realistic policy implications.

In very recent years, city-to-city (“trans-municipal”) networks have received significant international recognition as cities are able to cooperate, with concrete actions, on a range of global issues. Surprisingly, scholars of international relations have largely neglected the role of cities in global governance. This paper argues for city diplomacy and “glocal” governance to fill the theoretical gap. It has two purposes: (1) to break the “conceptual jail” of regarding nation-states as the legitimate subject to manage world affairs, and open the door for cities and (2) to revisit the condition of cosmopolitan democracy, and offer a realistic model to revitalize the concept while bypassing the infeasibility of world government. In Part I, as I revisit Confucian philosophy da-tong (great unity), Rosenau's “sovereignty-free” actors and Athenian democracy, I argue that cities are our best hope to transcend nationality for the common well-being of humanity, connect local citizens to global public policy, and move towards cosmopolitan democracy. In Part II, drawing on Dahl's democratic criteria and DeBúrca's “democratic-striving approach”, I will develop two “building blocks” of democracy at the global level – —equal participation and popular control. In Part III, with reference to the “building blocks”, I will conduct a qualitative analysis to evaluate the cosmopolitan characteristics of C40 and develop political justifications for “trans-municipal networks”.     

Psychological distress and mortality: are women more vulnerable?

Does psychological distress increase mortality risk? If it does, are women more vulnerable than men to the effect of distress on mortality? Drawing from cumulative disadvantage theory, these questions are addressed with data from a 20-year follow-up of a national sample of adults ages 25-74. Event history analyses were performed to examine mortality from general and specific causes for men and women. Findings reveal that the effect of psychological distress on all-cause mortality was nonlinear for men. Moderate amounts of distress were associated with lower mortality risk, but high levels of distress raised men's mortality risk. Moreover the curvilinear relationship between distress and mortality varied by cause of death for men and women. Men with high levels of psychological distress were more vulnerable to ischemic heart disease mortality. Women with high levels of distress were more vulnerable to cancer mortality.     

An emergent cosmopolitan paradigm? Asylum,welfare and human rights1

This paper addresses the recognition in cosmopolitan debate of a possible disjuncture between the normative ideal of cosmopolitanism and its realization in practice. Taking as its focus the potential conflict between human rights commitments and national concern about immigration control, it reflects on a series of legal challenges to UK government attempts to withdraw support from asylum seekers who do not claim on entry into the country. Set in the context of socio‐legal theory, these cases are analysed for signs of a ‘national’ or ‘cosmopolitan’ paradigm in judicial interpretation, and considered as a possible instance of reflexive judgment, espoused as a feature of cosmopolitanism.     

Transnational Debt Movements: Challenging States and International Decision-Makers,or Intermeshed with These?

A new wave of transnational civil society campaigning has emerged since the last quarter of the twentieth century. Major changes in world order occurred over this period, which impacted on the context for transnational campaigning. These changes include the end of the Cold War, followed by the embedding of the concept of global governance, including the norm of civil society participation. This article examines the strategies of transnational debt campaigns against this background. It describes the shifts in strategies over time between more consensual engagement approaches and those seeking fundamental transformation, and considers the implications for the relationship between civil society campaigns and states/international decision-makers. It concludes that transnational debt movements fit better with a Gramscian perspective on civil society as containing consensual, and counter-systemic elements, than with a view of civil society as independent of official decision-making structures. It highlights, however, the need to grasp the on-going dynamic between these different elements within civil society.     

Work-family culture and job satisfaction: does gender and parenting status alter the relationship?

Previous studies on work-family culture have examined its relationship with different employee outcomes (e.g., work-family conflict, job satisfaction, commitment) but neglected one important question; namely, who are most likely to benefit from a supportive work-family culture in terms of positive employee outcomes? The aim of this study was to shed new light on the work-family culture–job satisfaction linkage by examining the moderator effects of gender and parenting status in this relationship. Specifically, we asked whether gender and parenting status would alter the association between work-family culture and job satisfaction. We hypothesized – on the basis of traditional gender roles – that women, and especially mothers, would benefit most from a family supportive organizational culture. We utilized three divergent samples gathered from male (N=768) and female (N=1364) employees in Finland: (1) a female-dominated sample from social and health care; (2) a male-dominated sample from paper industry; and (3) more gender-mixed sample from the ICT company. Work-family culture was described through its positive (work-family support) and negative facets (work-family barriers), whereas job satisfaction was operationalized via a facet-based scale. Hierarchical moderated regression analyses performed separately for the three different organizations revealed that the results for mothers and fathers under the condition of high work-family support differed in the paper mill and the information and communication technology (ICT) company. Thus, in addition to gender, the type of organization also moderated the relationship. Specifically, in the paper mill, mothers benefited more from high work-family support than fathers, whereas in the ICT company the reverse situation held: fathers benefited more than mothers. Thus, high work-family support was associated with higher job satisfaction among mothers in the paper mill and among fathers in the ICT company.     

Is discrimination an equal opportunity risk?: racial experiences, socioeconomic status, and health status among black and white adults

Using the 2004 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, we explore the relationship between racial awareness, perceived discrimination, and self-rated health among black (n = 5,902) and white (n = 28,451) adults. We find that adjusting for group differences in racial awareness and discrimination, in addition to socioeconomic status, explains the black-white gap in self-rated health. However, logistic regression models also find evidence for differential vulnerability among black and whites adults, based on socioeconomic status. While both groups are equally harmed by emotional and/or physical reactions to race-based treatment, the negative consequences of discriminatory experiences for black adults are exacerbated by their poorer socioeconomic standing. In contrast, the association between racial awareness and self-rated health is more sensitive to socioeconomic standing among whites. Poorer health is more likely to occur among whites when they reflect at least daily on their own racial status-but only when it happens in tandem with mid-range educational achievement, or among homemakers.     

The Rana Plaza disaster seven years on: Transnational experiments and perhaps a new treaty?

This article examines several noteworthy initiatives that were implemented following the deadly 2013 Rana Plaza disaster in Bangladesh. They broke new ground in transnational labour law. The ILO-backed initiatives were largely successful but remain insufficient to achieve lasting change in the ready-made garment industry, where global brands’ supply chain buying practices constrain investment in occupational safety and health. A proposed United Nations treaty on business and human rights now seeks to enhance corporate accountability. Although promising, as part of a smart mix of multi-level public and private solutions, the treaty needs fine-tuning in the light of lessons learned from post-Rana Plaza experiments.     

What does it mean to be cosmopolitan? An examination of the varying meaningfulness and commensurability of everyday ‘cosmopolitan’ practices

The literature on cosmopolitanism has mushroomed in the past decade or more as attempts are made to theorise new patterns of mobility, interactions between previously distant social groups and the emergence of institutions to manage these processes. In this paper, I build on the arguments of those who have emphasised the strategic aspects and temporal dimensions of cosmopolitan expressions and practices, by focusing on the resources and constraints that different actors operate with, or under, and, as a result, the varying commitments they have to different ‘others’. Using this type of grounded approach, a number of Illustrative examples from a study of social identities in England are then analysed and used to theorise cosmopolitanism, as a perspective that is periodically articulated, in relation to specific needs, contexts or prompts, rather than being an inherent property of particular individuals, groups or situations.     

Ableism in academia: where are the disabled and ill academics?

Recent coverage in higher education newspapers and social media platforms implies that chronic conditions, illnesses and disabilities are becoming more prominent amongst academics. Changes to funding structures, increased globalisation, marketisation and bureaucratisation of higher education have resulted in a performance-driven working environment where teaching workload and pressures to publish are further intensified due to excellence exercises in teaching and research. The result is low morale and an ever-rising number of reported mental health issues, burnout and stress-related illnesses within academia. This article explores some of these issues in the context of higher education institutions in the United Kingdom. We draw on our research and our experiences as speakers regarding ableism in academia to provide food for thought, stimulate a debate and raise awareness of those academics experiencing chronic illness, disability or neurodiversity, whose voices are not heard.     

The Self-Employment of Men and Women: What are their Motivations?

Do men and women carry different motivations for entering self-employment? Earlier researchers have suggested that, as primary care givers for children and families, women face a more stringent time constraint relative to men. Thus, where men see self-employment as a chance for greater financial opportunity, women see a chance to take work that allows more time at home. This paper investigates this hypothesis using unique data that allow analysis of individual self-employment as a function of traditional economic and demographic variables as well as variables that partially capture individuals’ opinions and perceptions of pecuniary and nonpecuniary aspects of entrepreneurism. Results suggest that men who choose self-employment are influenced principally by pecuniary concerns, while women are influenced principally by family concerns and by the opinions of their family, friends, and peers.     

Using english as a foreign language in international and multicultural consulting: Asset or hindrance?

When it comes to an encounter of people of mixed national and ethnical backgrounds, one of the major challenges is undoubtedly the linguistic diversity. Given the widely acknowledged status of English as the world language, English has also become the most widely used language when it comes to professional counselling in intercultural contexts. Due to the growing demand of counselling processes in English, a certain command of the English language has also become indispensible for consultants. It has to be noted, however, that it??s rarely English native speakers who prompt a ??multilingual?? group to speak English. In most working contexts it is speakers, for ??none of whom is the mother tongue?? (House 1999: 74), who agree to use English as common code of understanding, i.e. English as a lingua franca (ELF). Current researches strongly question the status of native English norms as the only point of reference for ??correct?? usage of English (cf. e.g. Seidlhofer et al. 2006). Based on empirical data, this contribution chooses an interdisciplinary approach at the interface between linguistics and other social sciences to examine some implications of the use of ELF in professional counselling processes with a strong focus on supervision. It is meant to show that consulting processes in English, among non-native speakers, can be carried out successfully despite clear linguistic deviations from native speaker norms.     

What cultural hierarchy? Cultural tastes,status and inequality

Research on cultural stratification often draws on Bourdieu's misrecognition model to interpret socioeconomic gradients in cultural tastes and participation. In this model, an assumed cultural hierarchy leads individuals to adopt cultural tastes and behaviours whose status is congruent with that of their socioeconomic position (SEP). Yet, this assumed cultural hierarchy remains opaque. In this paper, we derive and test three empirical implications of the cultural hierarchy: (1) cultural activities have different status (recognition); (2) individuals in high and low SEPs have similar perceptions of the status of cultural activities (necessary condition for misrecognition); and (3) individuals prefer and engage in cultural activities whose status matches that of their SEP (status congruence). We collected survey data in Denmark and find that cultural activities differ in terms of perceived status (e.g., opera has higher perceived status than flea market), status perceptions are similar in high- and low-SEP groups and individuals prefer activities whose status matches that of their SEP. These results are consistent with the idea that a cultural hierarchy exists that sustains SEP gradients in cultural tastes and participation.     

“Empowered Criminals and Global Subjects”: Transnational Norms and Sexual Minorities in India

In this paper, I comparatively examine the influence of transnational advocacy on legal struggles around sex work and homosexuality in contemporary India. While transnational scholars of sexuality understand globalization as a contradictory and uneven process, there has been little attention to how this unevenness is manifest in the realm of sexual rights and law. Based on qualitative research, I show how transnational discourses on health—in particular, HIV/AIDS interventions—and on human rights interact unevenly with national discourses on sexuality. Whereas discourses regarding HIV/AIDS enable sex workers to mobilize at the national level, global anti-trafficking discourses effectively reduce sex workers to “victims.” For Indian LGBTQ groups, discourses regarding the HIV/AIDS epidemic and global human rights enable these groups to problematize the anti-sodomy law in national politics. However, national legal discourses effectively reduce LGBQ individuals to “criminals,” and legal advancements in this arena are uneven. Focusing on this unevenness produced by transnational advocacy this paper highlights how sexual rights are articulated in context of asymmetric and uneven globalizations.