Coexistence not Reconciliation: From Communal Violence to Non-Violence in North Maluku,Eastern Indonesia

Cultural approaches to reconciliation, those based on ‘traditional’ practices for peacemaking, have attracted the attention of scholars looking at post-conflict regions in Indonesia. Numerous observers have pointed to the revitalisation of the Tobelo adat notion of hibualamo in the province of North Maluku as a successful example of this approach. This paper disputes those conclusions and explores local strategies for peacebuilding and reactions to these strategies in post-conflict North Halmahera. I compare grassroots understandings of ‘reconciliation’ with those of the local elite behind this revitalisation effort. I also debate the concept of reconciliation as it has been applied to the region. Applying the concept of reconciliation, with its connotations of a positive peace, to the post-conflict situation in North Maluku is more of an idealistic view of the potentialities for peace than an actual reflection of reality. I suggest it is more appropriate to describe the situation as one of coexistence or negative peace.     

Transforming the Springboks: Re-imagining the South African Nation through Sport

Abstract

Nation-building occurs not only through the creation of formal institutions, but also through struggles in cultural and symbolic contexts. In apartheid South Africa, the rugby union Springboks both symbolised and institutionalised a racially based form of ‘bounded citizenship’. In post-apartheid South Africa, the Springboks have emerged as a contested and significant site in the attempt to build a non-racial nation through reconciliation. To explore these contests, we undertook a qualitative thematic analysis of newspaper discourses around the Springboks, reconciliation and nation-building in the contexts of the 1995 and 1999 Rugby World Cups. Our research suggests, first, that the Springboks have been re-imagined in newspaper discourses as a symbol of the non-racial nation-building process in South Africa, especially in ‘media events’ such as the World Cup. Second, we find that there are significant limitations in translating this symbolism into institutionalised practice, as exemplified by newspaper debates over the place of ‘merit’ in international team selection processes. We conclude that the media framing of the role of the Springboks in nation-building indicates that unless the re-imagination of the Springboks is accompanied by a transformation in who is selected to represent the team, and symbolically the nation, the Springboks' contribution to South African nation-building will be over.     

Schools as “Really Dangerous Places” for Indigenous Children and Youth: Schools,Child Welfare,and Contemporary Challenges to Reconciliation

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) final report called attention to the damage induced by government policies and practices and outlined a pathway toward reconciliation in which education and child welfare system reforms play a central role. Drawing from 61 interviews with teachers and parents of Indigenous children in Alberta, this paper addresses the question: what do intersections between schooling and child welfare systems contribute to prospects for meaningful reconciliation between Indigenous and non‐Indigenous people in Canada? Findings suggest that, despite formal commitments to acknowledge and address colonial legacies of residential schooling, obligations to fulfill state child welfare and educational objectives continue to situate schools, for many Indigenous families, as “dangerous places.”     

Resistance,Ritual Purification and Mediation: Tracing a Dayak Community's Sixteen-Year Search for Justice in East Kalimantan

In recent discussions on access to justice in Indonesia, little work has been done that illuminates the processes of conflict which inevitably arise in attempts to obtain justice based on informal actions and results, rather than on recourse to institutions. While many scholars and donor agencies tend to create the impression that non-institutional processes of justice-seeking are entirely unpredictable or ungoverned by regularities, in this article I seek to fill this gap by exploring patterns of conflict in East Kalimantan that are associated with Amartya Sen's realisation approach to justice-seeking. I will look into a conflict between a group of Dayak villagers and an oil palm company in East Kalimantan which started sixteen years ago with the establishment of three oil palm estates on customary land, causing complex changes to local people's lives as well as several injustices. The villagers pursued a variety of strategies to gain redress, which I describe as active resistance, ritual purification and mediation. In the analysis I draw upon Turner's concept of social dramas. I show that considering the long-lasting conflict in East Kalimantan as social drama helps to refine socio-legal approaches to conflict and access to justice as processual. The article will contribute to models of justice-seeking that can be associated with Amartya Sen's model of justice as realisational.     

Juggling three life spheres: reconciling work,family and politics

In the field of work–life balance, most research focuses on the reconciliation of role-related expectations that derive from the work and family spheres. This article aims to identify coping strategies that reconcile life spheres in situations that go beyond the classic two-sphere framework. We analyze the actual coping behavior of individuals juggling three life spheres by studying local Flemish politicians. The strategies that were found in this study were communication with family, recognizing priorities within the political sphere, consciously creating time for family moments, downsizing and segregating the life spheres. The results suggest that women usually remain the manager of the household, which reinforces traditional gender roles.     

Understanding the High Rates of Employment among Low‐educated Women in Portugal: A Comparatively Oriented Case Study

This article addresses the question of why Portugal is an exception among southern European countries in having a high rate of female employment. Cross‐national data show an even greater gap between Portugal and its southern European neighbours in the employment rates for low‐educated women. This article presents case‐based evidence on the work orientations, gender relations and reconciliation strategies of low‐educated women working in the clothing industry in Portugal. The analysis reveals that while economic need plays an important role in their attachment to employment, their work decisions are forged by a complex set of attitudes regarding employment and the family. Traditional values regarding the role of women in the family co‐exist with more modern values regarding their employment participation. Moreover, the institutional arrangements of childcare and reconciliation also appear to be more supportive than might be expected in a southern Europe welfare state. By focusing on a particular group of low‐educated women, the findings suggest that the same welfare policies may have different impacts on the reconciliation strategies of women of different socioeconomic groups.     

Migration,development and inequality: Eastern Punjabi transnationalism

Abstract Drawing on original, ethnographic research in India and the UK, in this article we discuss the impact of transnational activity on the Doaba region of East Punjab, India. We argue that some recent studies have underplayed some of the less progressive consequences of Indian transnationalism. In particular, we contend that they have underestimated the extent of division between transnational migrants and Indian non‐migrants and downplayed the relationship between transnationalism and caste inequality. This empirical study of transnationalism, when placed in the context of the dynamic caste relations of East Punjab, supports those who contend that access to international migration is becoming an increasingly significant component of contemporary global social stratification, with the ‘broad’ transnational processes of capitalist globalization driving the ‘narrow’ transnationalism studied here. In this article, we question any straightforwardly progressive relationship between transnationalism and ‘development’ within East Punjab, and suggest that the arguments presented have a resonance beyond northwest India.     

论“大规模杀伤性武器”与中东地区安全

本文通过对大规模杀伤性武器的概念及其政治意涵的考察,关注中东地区的军备竞赛,分析了利比亚、以色列、埃及、叙利亚和伊朗等国的核计划和核政策,以及外部大国对中东地区核扩散的基本立场,指出在当前局势下中东地区无核区的提出和建设,不能从本质上改变该地区日趋恶化的安全形势。公正解决历史遗留问题和地区冲突,真正实现阿以和解,在有关国家间确立相互信任,才是解决问题的关键所在。     

Re-authoring to Reconcile Religious Beliefs with Affectional Orientation: A Narrative Study

Narrative qualitative research design was used to understand the processes of three lesbians with Oneness Pentecostal backgrounds who reconciled their religious beliefs with their affectional orientation. The central question for this study was “How do lesbians with Oneness Pentecostal backgrounds describe their coming out processes, and how did they reconcile their religious beliefs and sexual orientations?” Participants’ stories revealed that reconciliation processes are unique and complicated. The narrative therapy reauthoring technique was combined with a feminist theoretical framework and used to analyze participants’ stories. Three unifying themes of reconciliation were the process of redefining (a) religious beliefs, (b) family, and (c) self.     

The changing national policy system: complexity, Medicare, and implications for aging groups

Changes in congressional processes, health agendas, and competitive positions of physician and hospital groups in the 1980s have produced important setbacks for such group interests within Medicare. Though united and successful in opposing Carter's 1977-79 hospital cost-containment proposals, these groups were subjected to severe new limits on hospital reimbursements under the 1982 budget reconciliation act. Thereafter, problems in protecting their interests continued or increased. Disagreements among hospital groups (e.g., the American Hospital Association and the former Federation of American Hospitals) surfaced over the Prospective Payment System introduced in 1983. In 1984, Congress instituted a freeze on physicians' Medicare fees despite AMA opposition. This projected narrow self-interest, thus decreasing the AMA's credibility. Further cost restrictions were imposed in 1985-86 budget acts. The problems of these organizations indicate that if aging groups are to protect their own stake in Medicare in the new political context, they must be particularly concerned with unity, credibility, and long-term perspectives.     

The Federal Budget Process

As diminishing government funding becomes a major American preoccupation, federal social policies are often evaluated more in terms of their impact on the deficit than their effectiveness. This article discusses the current state and future projections of the budget and the two processes that affect fiscal policy: authorization and appropriation measures and budget resolution/reconciliation. Knowledge of the federal budget process shows social work students how budget restraints have been used as weapons against social welfare programs. In addition, this knowledge allows the policy practitioner to recognize certain “decision points,” or places in these processes, at which social workers can intervene.     

The regeneration games: purity and security in the Olympic city

This paper examines the wider social impacts of hosting the London 2012 Olympic Games and its 'legacy' ambitions in East London, emphasizing securitization as an inbuilt feature of the urban regeneration project. Drawing on extensive original empirical research, the paper analyses the modalities of Olympic safety and security practices within the Olympic Park itself and their wider impact, while also connecting this research to theorization and debates in urban sociology and criminology. In this complex setting, a raft of formal and informal, often subtle, regulatory mechanisms have emerged, especially as visions of social ordering focused on 'cleansing' and 'purifying' have 'leaked out' from the hyper-securitized 'sterilized' environment of the Olympic Park and become embedded within the Olympic neighbourhood. In such complex circumstances, applying Douglas' (1966) work on purity and danger to the spatial realm provides a key conceptual framework to understand the form and impact of such processes. The imposition of order can be seen to not only perform 'cleansing' functions, but also articulate multiple symbolic, expressive and instrumental roles.     

An Examination of Ever-Divorced Women Who Attempted a Marital Reconciliation Before Becoming Divorced

Using 1987-88 National Survey of Families and Household data, this study provides some insight as to the prevalence and characteristics of ever-divorced white women who attempted a marital reconciliation before becoming divorced. In about 30% of the first marriages that end in divorce in the United States, a period of separation and reconciliation has preceded the woman's divorce. Using multivariate analysis, we find that age at first separation and duration between marriage and first separation have a significant negative relationship with attempting a reconciliation before becoming divorced. Education and age homogamy between the spouses are also significantly related to attempting a reconciliation. The implications of these results are discussed.     

Babies, Budgets, and Birthrates: Work/Family Policy in Australia 1996-2006

Work/family reconciliation policies can be harnessed to diversepolitical agendas, ranging from feminist-inspired equality strategiesto coercive, neo-liberal programs. In Australia, such policieshave served a range of ends under different governments. Thisarticle focuses on developments since 1996 when the conservativecoalition parties led by John Howard were elected to government.It explores three policy domains that are central to Australia'swork/family agenda: family payments, maternity/parental leave,and child care. Changes in these areas are situated in the contextof the government's broader strategies concerning labor marketflexibility, tax reform, and declining fertility. The articleargues that there has been a substantial retreat from the "femocrat"strategies adopted under Labor in the 1980s and early 1990s.The general thrust of the Howard government has been to discouragelabor force participation of mothers of young children, withthe important exception of sole parents. In a number of areaspolicies are inconsistent, reflecting the government's ambivalenceabout whether to support women as home-based carers, wage earners,or both.     

Historians as rooted cosmopolitans: their potentials and limitations

In the 1990s, the so‐called ‘history problem’ began to escalate in East Asia as the result of mutually reinforcing nationalist commemorations in Japan, South Korea and China. In response, historians from the three countries organized joint historical research and textbook projects. In this article, I examine the extent to which these joint projects succeeded in promoting the cosmopolitan logic of historiography that challenged nationalist commemorations. Specifically, I compare governmental and non‐governmental projects and illustrate structural and dispositional mechanisms that facilitated the cosmopolitan logic of historiography. However, at the same time, I show that the joint projects have had only a limited impact on official and public commemorations because of the absence of any formal institutional links between historians' activities, governments and the public. Thus, while historians have the potential to act as rooted cosmopolitans and to mobilize transnational epistemic networks in East Asia, they have been unable effectively to counteract nationalist commemorations.     

Marriage and gender inequality: work–family arrangements of Portuguese and British highly qualified women

This article examines work–family reconciliation processes in order to understand if, over the course of marital life, women become socially closer or further away from their partner. Drawing on work–life interviews with highly qualified women in Portugal and Britain, we compare these processes in two societies with different historical and social backgrounds. Findings reveal three main configurations of social (in)equality which emerge during married life: growing inequality in favour of the man, in favour of the woman or equality between spouses. With due attention to the importance of national specific factors, we present three main conclusions. First, (in) equality is built up over the course of marital life and female strategies for reconciling family and work are at the core of this process. Second, the national specificities can mould the effects of cross-national gender mechanisms. Third, the intersection between cross-cultural phenomena such as conservative attitudes towards domestic work and national specificities (such as the availability of part-time options) is a rather complex process which needs further research.     

Work Discrimination and Coping Strategies: Conceptual Frameworks for Counseling Lesbian,Gay, and Bisexual Clients

Two conceptual models are proposed in this article—one for work discrimination and the other for discrimination coping strategies pertaining to lesbian, gay, and bisexual workers. The work discrimination model includes 3 dimensions (formal vs. informal, potential vs. encountered, and perceived vs. real). The coping strategies model outlines methods that deal with potential and encountered discriminations. It includes vocational choice and work adjustment strategies; the latter are further categorized under identity management or discrimination management strategies.     

Shame,Realisation and Restitution: The Ethics of Restorative Practice

In this article, I want to highlight the ethics of restorative practice in therapeutic intervention with men who have abused family members. The term restorative action is commonly evoked in the aftermath of abuse, especially in the context of attempts to re‐establish respectful relationships between family members. I will critique popular ideas concerning remorse, forgiveness, pardoning and reconciliation, and pose possibilities for ethical practices of restorative action.     

Toward a DuBoisian theorization of school curricula

After a near century of mainstream academic exclusion, recent efforts in sociology have centered Du Bois as a foundational figure. However, these efforts have overlooked his contributions to theorizing K-12 and college/university formal curricula. Moreover, curricula, teaching, and learning scholarship, already marginalized within mainstream sociology of education, have typically overlooked Du Bois’ theorizations, thus reproducing his marginalization. As a correction, this article centers Du Bois as a key figure in critical curricula theory. Specifically, Du Bois theorized that schools institutionalize formal curricula imbued with race-class ideologies and that said ideologies shape peoples’ subjectivities, identities, and consciousness of social processes. However, Du Bois also theorized how Black schools can serve as meso-level sites for challenging hegemonic ideologies and producing transformative ideologies. In articulating these processes, Du Bois identifies how ideological propaganda, organizational structures, and interpretations of temporal processes maintain and perpetuate racism and capitalism. This article concludes with suggestions for future research in educational sociology that incorporates these insights.     

Globalisation,informalisation and the state in the Indian garment industry

Globalisation has affected the industrial trajectories of developing countries, producing an increasing disarticulation between the management of production and regimes of labour control. While production regimes have been projected into the global arena, labour regimes have remained apparently anchored to regulatory mechanisms provided by local social structures, and gone through increasing processes of informalisation. Examining the case of the Indian garment sector, this paper argues that the informalisation of labour should not be conceived as necessarily taking place ‘in the shadow of the state’. In fact, in the case presented here, the state was a strong active agency behind the process of informalisation, which it supported through formal policies and through its progressive alignment with the interests of capital.