Working together as culture brokers by building trusting alliances with bilingual and bicultural newcomer paraprofessionals

The authors' reflect on the challenges and rewards of partnering as casework supervisors with bilingual and bicultural newcomer paraprofessionals in resettlement work with refugee youth. Such individuals are generally recruited for their linguistic abilities and cultural knowledge, but they can lack formal clinical training or licensing credentials. Drawing on their own experience as supervisors of bilingual and bicultural newcomer paraprofessionals from Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam, the authors compare their early attempts to establish trust and communication with insights gained in more recent supervisory experiences. Recommendations are offered that promote mutual understanding between newcomer paraprofessionals and their Western-trained supervisors.     

Identities beyond ethnic-based subordination or conflict in the Southeast Asian borderlands: a case study of Lao villagers in northeast Cambodia

This paper explores everyday expressions of identity by Lao villagers living in northeast Cambodia near the border with Laos, and uses this to reflect on trends in studies of identity in the remote borderlands of Southeast Asia. I argue that while ethnicity is certainly crucial, discipline-specific emphases – ethnic-based subordination or conflict for social studies and political studies, respectively – result in less attention to other important dynamics shaping identity. Furthermore, I suggest that low-profile case studies not strongly linked to ethnic-based subordination or conflict – such as the Lao in Cambodia – require study for a more comprehensive view of identity in the borderlands. The case study from northeast Cambodia identifies four key dynamics shaping identity: inter-state relations, ethno-national identities, cross-border livelihoods and social status. I show how minimal inter-state tensions and varied personal connections to Laos were important in facilitating villagers’ involvement in lucrative illegal cross-border logging in Laos, but the latter were never used to justify this practice. Instead in this everyday setting, villagers emphasised their sense of marginalisation within Cambodia and thus demonstrate their regular prioritisation of status.     

Community development projects and the status of ethnic minority women in the Moksuk-Tafa area, Bokeo province, Laos

Since the late 1990s, gender issues have been a critical partof community development in Laos. However, there has often confusion,based on misinformation, in the application of gender and women'sperspectives. This article analyzes three projects in the Bokeoprovince of Laos aimed at improving the living standards inrural communities by raising the status of women. The studyfound that the traditional village patriarchal system remainedintact and that the projects failed to improve both the statusof women and the community's livelihood. It found that successfulcommunity development projects must undertake a careful analysisof local conditions and consider whether a gender or women'sperspective should be applied.     

Hmong demographic changes in Laos: causes and ecological consequences

This study of the Hmong in Laos is based on ethnographic research conducted during a three week stay in the Nong Het district of Xieng Khouang province. Information was collected on the household agricultural economy, village and household movement, family composition and change, cropping and animal husbandry, and environmental resources. The study area east of the Mekong River and near the Vietnamese border is an infrequently studied area. Findings differ from the ethnographic literature that portrays the Hmong as migrating frequently as swidden fields are exhausted, as living in large extended families, and as polygynous. The Hmong are the second largest minority in Laos (231,000), but are only 0.1% of Thailand's total population (90,000). There are 558,000 Hmong in Vietnam, but 5 million in China. Most rural Hmong in Laos produce opium as a necessary crop for sustaining their household farming economy. Although areas near the study area were involved in major military action during 1960-73, the study area received minimal disruption. Four studies of the Hmong in Laos and Thailand indicated that the Hmong stayed at one residence about 7 years, that residence varied from 6-16 years, and that settlements were short-lived. Household size ranged from 4 to 47 households. The Hmong in this study were more sedentary. In 1990, the villages averaged about 45 households. The population ranged in age from 19 years to 87 years. The Hmong had a high birth rate and a high mortality rate due to poor diet and lack of adequate medical care. 45% of the Nong Het population were aged under 14 years, which suggests a baby boom after the war. The dependency ratio was very high. Polygyny was uncommon. Of the 154 households, the average size was small at 7.40 persons. 71% were nuclear families. Patrilocal residence after marriage was still practiced, but the time spent in the father's home was reduced. The findings suggest that the Hmong are likely to become sedentary due to limits on expansion of swidden farming and government controls. It is unlikely that the Hmong will become landless and depend upon wage labor.     

Book reviews/Comptes rendus

Book reviewed in this article:
BERNARD ARCAND, The Jaguar and the Anteater: Pornography in the Modern World
JUNE NASH, I Spent my Life in the Mines: The Story of Juan Rojas, Bolivian Tin Miner
SVEIN JENTOFT, Dangling Lines: The Fisheries Crisis and the Future of Coastal Communities - The Norwegian Experience
T.R. BALAKRISHNAN, EVELYNE LAPIERRE-ADAMCZYK and KAROL K. KROTKI, Family and Childbearing in Canada: A Demographic Analysis
DAVID CORSON, Language, Minority Education and Gender: Linking Social Justice and Power
ING-BRITT TRANKELL, On the Road in Laos: An anthropological Study of Road Construction and Rural Communities
JAN OVESEN, Anthropological Reconnaissance in Central Laos: A Survey of Local Communities in a Hydropower Project Area     

Report on a workshop on early South Sulawesi, 18-19 August, 2000

In this article, I explore the new forms of people's mobility in the borderlands of the upper Mekong, where China meets Myanmar and Laos. In particular, I examine a way in which returned exiles, restoring their senses of place, focused on their life stories after returning to their motherland in southwest China. Ethnographically, I investigate a Thai restaurant run by a returned exile family and the daily activities in and through this social space, read as ‘a transnational place’. Situating these returned exiles, the Chinese Dai minority, as members of the Tai-speaking peoples of the upper Mekong, who have dispersed across the national borders of China, Myanmar, Laos and Thailand, I show that transnational mobility and connectivity, old and new, can be utilised by them to mobilise themselves into the contexts of modernisation, dislocation and regionalisation, re-emplacing their homeland, making their locality visible and sensible.     

Social policy and population growth in South-East Asia

Social and population policies are considered for the 10 countries comprising Southeast Asia--Burma, Indonesia, the Khmer Republic, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, North Vietnam, and South Vietnam. All but Singapore have high fertility rates and Burma, Indonesia, the Khmer Republic, Laos and the two Vietnams have high mortality rates also. Government expenditures for education and social security systems is expanding throughout the region and it is hoped that their continued growth will contribute substantially to the effective implementation of population policies. Population policies in the 5 countries which have them are discussed. These are Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand. It is noted, however, that declaration of policy is but the first step. Strategies and programs differ from one country to the next and depend very much on the stage of development, level of literacy, degree of urbanization, and other factors. Family planning activities generally are endogenous to urban social systems but exogenous to rural social systems. Thus, the rural elite has a large role to play in making population policies an integral part of rural life. The possibility is considered of developing workable incentive packages integrating health, education, and social security benefits with suitable emphasis on fertility reduction.     

A Diaclectic Approach to Family Therapy and Practice: Selectivity and Synthesis

In this article, a case is made for transcending any one model or theory, or any reliance on particular techniques as a panacea. Instead, new integrations of intuitive understanding, which represent the artistry of healing, and of scientific knowledge of various theories, in a spontaneous and therefore unique responsiveness to the specific family requesting help are sought. In this way, the most growth oriented and change producing therapeutic environment is created.     

Nation/Representation: Ethnic Classification and Mapping Nationhood in Contemporary Laos

In this article, I analyse ethnic classifications in contemporary Laos, starting with a brief review of previous policies. I first look at the ideologies that have influenced the Lao ethnic classification, namely those of the former Soviet Union, China and Vietnam. Through an analysis of the construction of the latest official census (August 2000), I suggest a close relationship between ethnic categorisation and the government's nationalist discourse, still strongly influenced by guidelines on the concept of the nation disseminated by Kaysone Phomvihane--the first President of the Lao PDR, now deceased but celebrated at present in Laos as the inspirational figure of the regime. My intention is thus to demonstrate how one technology of power in particular--the Lao population census based on ethnic criteria--attempts to map the nation's 'invisible' ethnicity through a dual process, namely the objectification of the Other ethnic groups' arbitrarily defined cultural features on the one hand, and the erasure of the dominant ethnic group's ethnicity (the ethnicity of the ethnic Lao) on the other. But this technology of power is limited, as the names and the lists of ethnic groups have remained subject to alteration every few years. Twenty years after Kaysone Phomvihane urged for a change in ethnic terminology and classification, the regime has yet to legitimise definitively the total number of ethnic groups in the Lao PDR.     

Mentoring the Hmong: A Practice Outlet for Teaching Faculty and a Possible Community Development Tool

This brief article summarizes the personal experiences of a social work educator who became a mentor for an immigrant Hmong family. The Hmong family came to the United States from the Highlands of Laos and a culture that was vastly different from American culture. The mentoring experience had multiple and continuing benefits for the educator, the curriculum, the learning climate, the Hmong, and the majority community.     

Handling mountain minorities in China,Vietnam and Laos: from history to current concerns

This paper is an overview of issues pertaining to highland minorities in the three socialist countries sharing portions of the Southeast Asian Massif, namely China, Vietnam and Laos. It presents the historical complexity of highland minority policy in these countries. The paper thus depicts prevalent state strategies that aimed, and largely still aim, to handle highland minorities in the most effective and economical way, to ensure that the nation will progress steadily forward. The six current issues of borders and transnationality, taxonomy, indigenous peoples' status, customary land tenure, tourism and environmental issues are then explored critically.     

Teaching social work is teaching to ask questions: an inter-subjective approach to social work practice

Abstract

This paper sets out to provide examples of how quotations from literature can come to and work on a therapist's mind when engaged with clients. A consideration of Sylvia Plath's poetry and writings provide a number of examples of how some knowledge and understanding of her material has contributed to and enhanced work with distressed and disturbed clients. Work with a woman who had made allegations of Satanist abuse is then discussed with particular reference to the relevance of Hamlet to the work. Examples from a therapeutic group are provided which illustrate how literature can function as a communicator of feeling at an unconscious level. Consideration is then given to the wider social and political relevance of subjective feeling with reference to the work of Franz Kafka. There is also acknowledgement of how recourse to literature could be used as a defence against painful material rather than contributing to an understanding of it. The paper concludes with an attempt to understand why it is that claims are made for the healing value of literature and the arts and how these healing processes can operate in the therapeutic encounter.     

‘This is American get punished’: unpacking narratives of Southeast Asian refugees in the US

This paper explores acculturative experiences and perceptions of Southeast Asian refugees residing in the Midwestern US through analysis of oral history narratives of Southeast Asian refugees representing the countries and/or cultures of Burma, Laos, the Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam. Through this paper, I seek to add to the sparse research base on Southeast Asians residing in the US, to shed light on the experiences of young refugees' attempts to negotiate identities in the host society, and to inform educators and others who work with refugee populations.     

Weapons of penile smooth muscle destruction: Androgen deficiency promotes accumulation of adipocytes in the corpus cavernosum

In men with erectile dysfunction, venous leakage is a common condition among non-responders to medical management and is attributed to penile smooth muscle atrophy. Androgens play a role in regulating trabecular smooth muscle growth and function. Further, androgens stimulate differentiation of progenitor cells into smooth muscle cells and inhibit their differentiation into adipocytes. We postulate that androgens exert a direct effect on penile tissue to maintain erectile function, and that androgen deficiency produces metabolic and structural imbalances in the corpus cavernosum, resulting in venous leakage and erectile dysfunction. To date, research efforts on the mechanisms by which androgens regulate penile erectile physiology have mainly focused on investigating the role of the NO/cGMP pathway. However, androgen-dependent mechanisms that regulate tissue remodeling have been poorly defined. Characterization of the molecular and cellular mechanisms by which androgens regulate corpus cavernosum structural and functional integrity would provide significant gains in knowledge and understanding of an important pathogenic process. In this review, we discuss the potential role of androgen in maintaining differentiation of progenitor cells into smooth muscle lineage and inhibition of differentiation into adipocytes. Androgen deficiency promotes differentiation into adipogenic lineage, and accumulation of adipocytes in the corpus cavernosum may contribute to erectile dysfunction.     

Making devices

Between 2003 and 2007 photographer Ellen Garvens made a series of photographs in prosthetics and orthotics laboratories and clinics in the United States, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand. The photographs explore the materials and processes of prosthetic making, and the environment within which this work takes place; a space too of encounter between patients and their new prosthetic limbs. Although made during quiet moments when these spaces were devoid of human activity, the viewer is nevertheless aware of the indexical relationship between the objects and spaces and the situations of violence and conflict or human misfortune that give them their purpose.     

Exploring the absolutist vs relativist perception of poverty using a cross-country questionnaire survey

Questionnaires eliciting the absolutist vs relativist perception of poverty are administered to 1941 undergraduate students in eight countries - Bolivia, Brazil, Italy, Kenya, Laos, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK. We find that the perception of poverty expressed by a large fraction of respondents exhibits both absolutist and relativist concerns, with the former components prevailing over the latter. High-income countries exhibit a significantly more pronounced relativist attitude. Personal characteristics such as past experience of material hardship and relative standard of living play a germane role in shaping respondents’ views.     

Vedanta and social work practice

Spirituality holds an important place in the lives of social workers and their clients. It informs our understanding of the world, our morals and values, and our conduct. Spirituality is a powerful tool of guidance and healing. Recognizing its importance, efforts have been made to integrate spirituality into social work practice. A gap in these efforts is the inclusion of epistemological foundations of key Eastern religions and spiritual practice. Concepts such as yoga and meditation have been adapted as healing methods; however, the knowledge base that informs them has been neglected. This article addresses this gap with an exploration of Vedanta and how it can be integrated into social work practice. Vedanta is the body of knowledge that informs the traditions of yoga, Ayurveda, and Hinduism. This article explains key concepts of Vedanta including Advaita Vedanta, the five sheaths (ways of knowing), pathways to Vedanta (methods of obtaining knowledge), dharma, karma/reincarnation, the nature of reality, and the lineage of Gurus. The second part of the article focuses on the application of Vedanta to social work practice within existing literature and identifies areas for further research.     

An analysis of donor engagement with education policy development in Lao PDR from 1991 to 2000

This paper describes the relationship between donor agencies and government during the development of Lao basic education policy in the post‐Cold War period, 1991‐2000. We argue that Laos had only recently been ‘re‐ born’ from colonial regimes, and was thus unable to resist or mediate donor policy agendas and donors who acted on behalf of economically developed nations. The nature of the power relationship between donor and government is explored through an analysis of policy developed at that time as well as the perceptions of aid conditionalities, as recalled by government officials and those working in the aid sector at that time. These perceptions were gathered through interviews conducted by one of the authors.     

The third therapeutic system: faith healing strategies in the context of a generalized AIDS epidemic

Faith healing in sub-Saharan Africa has primarily been studied qualitatively among Pentecostal-Charismatic groups, and considered as its own phenomenon with little attention to its relationship to other modes of healing. Using data from Malawi, a religiously diverse African country with high HIV prevalence, we find that faith healing is pervasive across multiple religious traditions. For individuals, attending a faith healing congregation is associated with lower levels of generalized worry about AIDS, and this association is driven by those who switched churches before AIDS became widespread in rural areas. Use of condoms and traditional medicine are, on the other hand, positively associated with worry about AIDS. We argue that faith healing can be understood as a third therapeutic system that coexists with the well-documented biomedical and traditional systems. The success of faith healing approaches lies in their unique ability to combine individual-pragmatic and communal-ritualized aspects of healing to inform interpretations of the AIDS epidemic and its consequences.     

Working with Narratives

ABSTRACT

This article will discuss healing across cultures and describe narrative practice as a means of access to coping strategies in African American folk beliefs and traditional healing practices. Four elements were found in empirical research on folk healing among African Americans: spirituality, ritual, the power of words, and dreams. These culture-specific healing elements often emerge as themes in personal narratives about coping in response to stress, crisis, and trauma. Viewing healing elements as themes is a useful framework for construing meanings from clients' experiences of stress, trauma, and crisis and coping strategies embedded in folk beliefs and traditional healing practices.

Additionally, the author presents a structured interview questionnaire for identifying folk healing themes, illustrates narrative practice as an approach for integrating folk beliefs and healing practices, and discusses implications for clinical training.