Doing good when times are bad: volunteering behaviour in economic hard times

This paper examines how the 2008–9 recession has affected volunteering behaviours in the UK. Using a large survey dataset, we assess the recession effects on both formal volunteering and informal helping behaviours. Whilst both formal volunteering and informal helping have been in decline in the UK since 2008, the size of the decline is significantly larger for informal helping than for formal volunteering. The decline is more salient in regions that experienced a higher level of unemployment during the recession and also in socially and economically disadvantaged communities. However, we find that a growing number of people who personally experienced financial insecurity and hardship do not explain the decline. We argue that the decline has more to do with community‐level factors such as civic organizational infrastructure and cultural norms of trust and engagement than personal experiences of economic hardship.     

Enfleshing temporal insurgencies and decolonial times

ABSTRACT

Time and temporality often remain the unthought in our spaces, moments, and movements of radical political imagination and practice. In this contribution, we aim to open a dialogue between current queer/feminist/black/decolonial scholarship on time, and the praxis of feminist movements and women in movement in Cali, Colombia. We hope to nurture, in this way, a systematization of the role of decolonial times and insurgent temporalities in our anti-capitalist praxis and deepen the theorization of decolonial emancipation and/as healing. We develop this systematization through exploration of three moments of encounter; the first a women-only workshop ‘Finding Voice’, the second a workshop that was part of a diálogo de saberes between feminist/peace movements in the region, and the final a public talk-performance at the International Conference in Mental Health and Well-Being, all held in Cali. Exploration and excavation of these moments suggest-enflesh that embracing our untimely rhythms and that which is out-of-time in our subjectivities, excavating together the epistemological possibilities of silence and the pauses in-between speech, as well as reconfiguring ‘failure’ as a moment of possibility, open embodied pathways to decolonising and feminising the revolutionary political.     

Persistent marriage regimes in changing times

Marriage among women in Latin America occurs early in life and is nearly universal in spite of the social and economic changes and instability in the region. We use demographic measures to illustrate the precociousness, persistence, and universality of marriage during the past 50 years. We argue that marriage is central to social life because families serve as an important cultural institution for countering the vicissitudes of the economy. Women's roles within families and households are key, as has been illustrated by the growth of literature on household survival strategies during the 1980s and 1990s, when the region experienced widespread economic crisis and restructuring.     

Nonprofit sustainability during times of uncertainty

Nonprofit organizations in the United States depend on a diverse set of funding streams to sustain their operations. This study examines the ability of nonprofits to leverage funds from the private sector during the current economic downturn within four areas receiving federal funding for community and economic development. Both survey research and individual interviews were used to examine how nonprofits within these areas are incorporating their board members and community leaders to continue services during a time of resource scarcity.     

Sport in changing times and places

Bale, J. 2003 Sports Geography London : Routledge 196 pp. £ 21.99
Eitzen, S. 2003 Fair and Foul: Beyond the Myths and Paradoxes of Sport Oxford : Rowan & Littlefield Publishers 187 pp. £ 17.95
Hill, J. 2002 Sport, Leisure & Culture in Twentieth Century Britain Basingstoke , Palgrave 232 pp. £ 15.99
Houlihan, B. 2003 Sport & Society, A Student Introduction London : Sage Publications 379 pp. £ 19.99
Sugden, J. and Tomlinson, A. 2002 Power Games: A Critical Sociology of Sport London : Routledge 304 pp. £ 21.99     

贾希利叶时代阿拉伯人月神考述

在伊斯兰教兴起以前的贾希利亚时期,阿拉伯半岛的北方居民大多囿于原始的万物有灵和神力至上的观念,他们尊奉的主要神祗从语源上考察,与阿卡德语、阿拉米语、希伯来语、阿拉伯语等都相近.这一现象实际上反映了闪米特诸民族内在本质上的一致性.其次,奈巴特人神殿中最重要的女神拉特在罗马时期兼指金星维纳斯是受希腊-罗马神话影响的结果,而公元3世纪帕尔米拉神殿中盛行的三联神体与上古时期的苏美尔-阿卡德神谱一脉相承,则体现了鲜明的西亚星辰崇拜个性.至于阿拉伯人至今仍对新月特别钟情,则包含了一定的月神崇拜痕迹.     

Best of times,worst of times,and occupational mobility: the case of Soviet immigrants in Israel

This article compares the incorporation of two groups of immigrants from the former Soviet Union into the Israeli labour market.
The first group arrived in Israel in 1979 and the second group arrived in 1990. The first period was characterized by a small number of immigrants (best of times), and the second period was characterized by mass migration (worst of times).
Using data sets assembled by the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, labour force status of the two groups in Israel were examined four years after arrival (1983 and 1994, respectively). We found no difference in rate of labour force participation but considerable differences in the rate of occupational mobility between the two groups of immigrants.
Specifically, the data reveal that immigrants were able to find employment in both periods. However, during periods of mass migration, recent immigrants had experienced higher rates of downward occupational mobility and greater loss of occupational status.