Black monument matters: Place-based commemoration and abolitionist memory work

Discrete monuments remain in the domain of the symbolic, land as mnemonic shifts to a more materialist commemorative praxis. This paper proposes a turn toward land as mnemonic of Black freedom struggle and place-making. Reviewing the scholarship on memoryscapes, I show that the critical insights of Black ecologies and geographies scholarship has moved further than traditional scholarship and offers multiple openings for new monuments and commemorative practices in honor of Black life. Black socio-ecologies scholarship centralizes the place-based epistemologies, spatial histories, and experiences of Black communities and clarifies the form and function of land or plots as mnemonics of the Black freedom struggle, place-making practices, and spatial epistemologies. Black plots are, therefore, ideal for orienting a new mode of Black commemoration. While much of the paper centers monuments to Black people, if Black commemoration is foregrounded in abolitionists thinking and practices, such memorialization must grapple with the histories of Indigenous dispossession and settler-colonialism. The paper concludes with a consideration of what the argument for land as mnemonic of Black freedom struggle and place-making might mean for future avenues of research.     

CRITIQUING THE NEW EPISTEMOLOGIES: TOWARDMINIMUM REQUIREMENTS FOR A SCIENTIFIC THEORY OF FAMILY THERAPY*

The purpose of this paper is to critically analyze the structures of the new epistemologies. Epistemology is a technical term within the field of scientific philosophy. When it is used looselyby family therapists, confusion results. The central argument of the present author is that the new epistemologies are, in fact, weak theories. It is suggested that the practice of using the term “epistemology” to denote theory or paradigm, be discontinued. A more limited and narrowly defined use for the term “epistemology” is proposed. Specifically, this paper presents: (a) a discussion ofthree areas of philosophy that serve as foundations for the construction of scientific theory, (b)a critical analysis of the new epistemologies, (c) a logical structure for scientific family therapy theory, and (d) minimum requirements for a scientific theory of family therapy.     

An Indigenous Feminist's Take On The Ontological Turn: ‘Ontology’ Is Just Another Word For Colonialism

In this article, I ask how anthropology can adopt a decolonial approach that incorporates and acknowledges the critical scholarship of Indigenous thinkers whose work and labour informs many current trends in Euro-Western scholarship, activism and socio-political discourse. I also query how to address ongoing structural colonialism within the academy in order to ensure that marginalised voices are heard within academic discourses.     

Hegemonic irrationalities and psychoanalytic cultural critique

‘Whiteness’ is no longer an invisible or marginal racial category. Within the last decade, ‘whiteness’ has become increasingly understood as an ideological, racial and political marker in both the rhetoric of right-wing conservatives and in the ‘new’ critical scholarship on ‘whiteness’. This article analyses both of these discourses while focusing on the strengths and limitations of the ‘new’ critical scholarship on ‘whiteness’. Finally, it raises the pedagogical and political issue of what it means to rearticulate ‘whiteness’ in oppositional terms in order to enable white students to have a stake in anti-racist and democratic struggles being waged by other groups.     

"Victims" and "Survivors": Emerging Vocabularies of Motive for "Battered Women Who Stay"*

This paper reviews the literature providing reasons for why battered women "stay" in abusive relationships and examines the emergence of images of battered women as "survivors" in early and contemporary activists' discourses, drawing on ideas from social constructionist approaches to social problems, identity, and deviance to explore this phenomenon. Most of the early representations of battered women I analyze emphasize their emotionality and their victimization, while the more recent constructions of this collective identity discussed here emphasize their rationality and their agency. Both "victim" and "survivor" typifications provide accounts for why battered women stay in violent relationships, thus providing a vocabulary of motive for this oft-imputed "deviance." Constructing battered women as survivors, however, may also remediate some of the stigma that can attach to victimization more generally. After situating victim and survivor discourses and considering how the image of a survivor may meet normative expectations that a victim image perhaps violates, I briefly discuss some implications of these alternate collective identities.     

Defining Māori language revitalisation: A project in folk linguistics

The postmodern and critical movements in language policy, with their redefinition of governmentality and attention to power structures, call for localised perspectives on language arrangements. In this way, a polity, in its social and cultural context, can be understood as much as the policies it operates. In the case of Indigenous languages undergoing revitalisation, this allows us to define language revitalisation, and the vitality it should deliver, not through western scholarship but for local purposes with local ideas by examining local knowledge and preferences. To do this, a folk linguistic approach was applied to language policy research. A quantitative and qualitative survey investigated how around 1,300 Indigenous and non‐Indigenous youth in New Zealand define Māori language revitalisation from their own perspective and how they perceive the revitalisation processes and outcomes proposed in scholarship and local discourses. The paper shows that claimed linguistic knowledge not only exists parallel to language attitudes, but informs local policy ideas. The findings indicate that these youth define language revitalisation and vitality in terms contextualised by local ontology, knowledge, ideologies and values, therefore challenging the local applicability of universal theories.     

Making Space at the Nations' Table: Mapping the transformative geographies of the international indigenous peoples' movement

Social movement scholarship has focused increasingly upon the roles played by symbolic resources and movement discourses in the process of social transformation. Current socio-political approaches, often characterized by an excessive focus on movement structure to the exclusion of larger cultural considerations, still struggle to address adequately the process of transmutation from idea to form, from symbolic shift to material change. Through an examination of the international indigenous peoples' movement, this article illustrates the ways that space constitutes a mediating dimension of the transformative processes through which the symbolic potential of movement discourses may be manifested. The alternative spatialities and new geographies generated, deployed and legitimized by this movement have provided critical locations for indigenous peoples to enact the creative work of mobilization. It is argued that incorporating the work of critical geographers into existing sociological and political perspectives will contribute to the better apprehension of these transformative processes as well as those associated with the particularly spatialized phenomena related to globalization, development, nationalism and geopolitics.     

Eating heritage: caste,colonialism, and the contestation of adivasi creativity

ABSTRACT

This paper uses a multiple colonialisms approach to study cultural production in India and argue that coloniality is not a casteless structure of violence. In discursive and planning rhetoric, ‘creativity is in India’s DNA.’ This discourse incites the poor to harness and develop their tangible and intangible cultural heritage in order to feed themselves. Foregrounding anti-caste, Dalit scholarship in conversation with extant formulations of decolonial aesthetics focuses urgent attention on the fact that caste domination and violence structure inter-state political systems of development planning and post/colonial state discourses of heritage that claim to feed the caste-oppressed poor with their own creativity. This article attends to the political histories and critiques of Indigenous Chhara performance artists because their expressive cultures foreground anti-caste struggles against simultaneous state erasure and capture of Indigenous creativity. Against planning’s compensatory solution of eating heritage, anti-caste scholarship and the creative politics of Budhan Theatre refute the apparent castelessness of what counts as creativity and heritage, demonstrating that optimistic global creative economy discourses actually rely upon caste and colonial histories to entrench caste-based definitions of heritage within international and national development regimes. Budhan Theatre’s decolonizing cultural production avoids the mistakes of postcolonial scholarship and its erasure of caste histories. They prompt a multiple colonialisms approach which refuses labels of postcolonial or settler colonial states to privilege instead attention to the actually existing contemporary ways in which caste violence structures inter-state systems of violence, policies, and discourses.     

Locating Gender in Environmental Sociology

Environmental sociology is premised on the inseparability of humans and nature and involves an analytical focus on the place of power and social inequality in shaping human/nonhuman interactions. Our purpose here is to conduct a broad overview of the place of gender in environmental sociology. We review gender‐relevant scholarship within environmental sociology and argue that to date, critical gender theorizing in the sub‐discipline is relatively undeveloped, as evidenced by theory that examines gender without considering power relations. We argue that this represents a shortcoming that should be addressed by future scholarship. In order to inform future critical gender–environment theorizing, we provide a brief review of ecofeminism and note promising examples of scholarship that takes power and inequality seriously when accounting for phenomena of relevance to women and the environment. It is likely that theorizing at the intersection of gender and the environment will become more prevalent given a growing consensus that social justice and equity are precursors to ecological sustainability; environmental sociologists could be the vanguard of critical gender–environment theory.     

Encyclopaedia,genealogy, tradition: a sociocultural critique of MacIntyre's three moral discourses

The paper provides a critical account of Alasdair MacIntyre's moral theory. It argues that, contrary to his position, the three discourses that he examines, as attempts to provide moral guidelines to one's life trajectory are complementary, under late‐modern conditions, rather than contradictory.     

An overview of Middle East public relations practice,education, and research from isolation to globalization

ABSTRACT

Public relations has a critical role in addressing culture difference and enhancing research outreach. An analysis of practice, education and research in Middle East provides an exemplar of the need to move the discipline’s scholarship from global isolation to cultural inclusivity. A review of current scholarship in the discipline's journals documents the preeminence of “Western” theory. Research with culturally collaborative studies of media, culture, technology, and society is needed to provide global perspectives. The paper argues five initiatives are needed next steps for the discipline to achieve global inclusivity: * Enhance research collaboration – Culturally collaborative studies of media, culture, technology, and society are needed to provide global perspectives in our discipline. *Address bilingual scholarship – Public relations theory needs to acknowledge varied traditions and methodologies. Research journals need Middle Eastern faculty editorial board members and need to explore translation options. *Align research with the profession – Globally, public relations research needs qualitative understanding. Cultural differences often regress quantitative analysis to meaningless implications for both theory and practice. *Assess curriculum globalization – Educators need to increase cultural content in courses. Textbooks are needed that reflect the globalization of the field from multiple perspectives. *Develop international accreditation standards – An accreditation model based on bilingual, global, and contemporary careers in the discipline is needed. International accreditation site teams must include bilingual members.     

The Political Lives of Girls

Girls are increasingly being publically celebrated as community leaders, models for ideal citizenship, and central to economic development. Contemporary girlhood is rich with political implications and significance. In this essay, I outline some of the scholarship on the public discourses that idealize girls as model neoliberal citizens and address important findings and contributions from empirical research on the political lives of girls: girls' political beliefs, political socialization, political identities, and their practices of political and civic engagement. There is a growing body of scholarship that suggests that studying the political lives of girls enables and requires a re‐thinking of some key concepts in political sociology, including the meaning of politics, of engagement, and of citizenship for different populations.     

Towards a Critical Global Race Theory

The meanings attached to “race” across the globe are myriad, particularly as anti‐Islamic discourse once again links race and religion. Yet scholars lack a common terminology to discuss this phenomenon. This article hopes to expand critical race theory and scholarship across national lines. This critical examination of recent race‐related scholarship provides scholars with empirical suggestions to uncover and document the different processes, mechanisms, trajectories and outcomes of potentially racialized practices that essentialize, dehumanize, “other,” and oppress minority groups while imbuing privileged groups with power and resources in nations across the globe. Ten empirical indicators will allow international researchers to assess the particular situation of different groups in different nations to determine whether, and the extent to which, they are subject to racialization. Specifically, this paper calls for a unified terminology that can accurately account for and address race when and where it occurs and a global broadening of a critical comparative dialogue of racial practices.     

Transgressive sexualities: politics of pleasure and desire in Kamasutra: a tale of love and fire

Utilizing feminist film theory, critical reviews, and viewer responses, this article examines visual representations of transgressive sexuality in two diasporic Indian women's films: Kamasutra: A Tale of Love by Mira Nair, and Fire by Deepa Mehta. The article draws from research on ancient discourses on sexuality in India to argue that contemporary constructions of women's sexuality in South Asia are not devoid of patriarchal and fundamentalist cultural politics of representation.     

Digital survivance and Trickster humor: exploring visual and digital Indigenous epistemologies in the #NoDAPL movement

ABSTRACT

The decolonizing turn in the humanities and social sciences calls for scholarship that analyzes social media practices through the lens of Indigenous epistemologies. In this article, we model the ways that Indigenous epistemologies might contribute to theories of social media practices as we explore ways that the digital image can drive identification with and engagement in political acts. The article analyzes social media tropes circulated across various platforms among Indigenous communities and allies in relation to the #NoDAPL movement. We argue that attempting to analyze Native American traditions through Western theory will only work towards colonizing these Indigenous texts. Thus, whereas we employ insights from digital and visual methods of analysis (Highfield, T., & Leaver, T. (2016). Instagrammatics and digital methods: Studying visual social media, from selfies and GIFs to memes and emoji. Communication Research and Practice, 2(1), 47–62), we also highlight the strategic use of humor in the visual materials shared through various social media platforms utilizing the framework of the Trickster. We argue that the visual and digital phenomena we studied might best be understood as a form of digital survivance, drawing upon Anishinaabe scholar Gerald Vizenor [(1994). Manifest manners: Postindian warriors of survivance. Hanover, CT: Wesleyan University Press]. term ‘survivance’ as a portmanteau that combines ‘survival’ and ‘resistance’ in its characterization of Indigenous storytelling traditions. Whereas centering the Indigenous figure of the Trickster might suggest that social media has failed to live up to its promises, this epistemological approach also explains the hope that Indigenous communities hold in uniting via social media for what has been and continues to be a long-term battle for sovereignty and for the protection of the earth and all of its beings.     

Historical institutional child abuse: Activist mobilisation and public inquiries

The abuse of children in institutional settings is an issue of ongoing social, public, and political concern internationally. While societal responses to historical abuse have been the subject of considerable scholarship in recent years, conceptualisation of the role of activism remains limited. This article aims to advance sociological and interdisciplinary perspectives on nonrecent institutional child abuse through a conceptualisation of activist mobilisation. The article begins by providing context for the emergence of institutional child abuse as a social issue. A brief overview of key themes and debates in the interdisciplinary literature is then offered, and a critical gap in current scholarship is identified in relation to activism. Drawing on illustrative examples of activist mobilisation, both in the form of survivor narratives and strategies aimed at influencing policy, the article sets out how a sociology of activism in the field of historical institutional child abuse might proceed. Through attention to the social dynamics of activism, and conceptualisation of collective action in this domain as a social movement, the article provides new insights for the field and an alternative to sociological theorisation of responses to historical institutional child abuse as simply constituting a public scandal or moral panic.     

Confronting “Victim” Discourses: The Identity Work of Battered Women

In this article I explore how battered women both draw from and reject victim discourses in their processes of self‐construction and self‐representation. Data gathered from semistructured interviews with forty women who experienced violence from an intimate partner in a heterosexual relationship demonstrate that available “victim” discourses are both enabling and constraining. Four common representations of a victim emerged as most influential to women's identity work: as someone who suffers a harm she cannot control; as someone who deserves sympathy and/or requires some type of action be taken against the victimizer; as someone who is culpable for her experiences; and as someone who is powerless and weak. “Victim empowerment” and “survivor” discourses also played a role in how women understood and made sense of their experiences. In their attempts to construct identities for themselves, battered women become caught between notions of victimization, agency, and responsibility.     

Exploring African American Masculinities: An Integrative Model

To date, African American masculinity has been explored from several perspectives and across many disciplines. Much of the work on Black masculinity derives from scholarly fields and paradigmatic approaches that are seldom in conversation with one another. This review explores the applications and critiques of deficit, Afrocentric, gender/sex role, and identity paradigms commonly applied to discourses on African American manhood across various disciplines. Additionally, this paper concludes with a call for paradigmatic triangulation in Black gender scholarship towards creating a comprehensive notion of African American masculinity.     

The Trouble With Triumph: Discourses of Governmentality in Mainstream Media Representations of Urban Youth

The Assets Coming Together for Youth project conducted a critical discourse analysis of mainstream media depictions of Jane-Finch to better understand the discursive strategies used to constitute urban youth. Although a substantive body of literature investigates the negative discourses, little analysis interrogates the nominally positive discourses deployed by mainstream media. The findings suggest that the sociopolitical significance of these nominally positive discourses may go uncontested and pose a challenge to communities advocating for policies to support urban youth development. These discourses are examined using governmentality theory to reveal how racialized narratives of individual triumph re/produce troubled communities.