An alternative to farmer age as an indicator of life-cycle stage: The case for a farm family age index

In studies of farming, the age of the principal decision-maker (PDM) has been associated with numerous farm structural and managerial features and has been widely accepted as a good indicator of the influence of life-cycle factors on decision-making. As such, it has become an important aspect of many quantitative studies of agricultural change. However, contemporary studies of family farming demonstrate that the concept of a single PDM in family farms is becoming an anachronism as alternative enterprises, pluriactivity and the scale of family farms force more diffuse management/operating systems. This raises questions concerning whether the age of the PDM can still be taken as representative of farm structure, strategy or life-cycle stage? Using a study conducted in the Grampian Mountains region of Scotland in 2003 this note investigates the impact of using an alternative index—compiled by averaging the age of family members working on the farm. It suggests that PDM age is a relatively poor indicator of farm structural and managerial features compared to a family age index and calls for researchers to think about alternative approaches to measuring ‘age’ as an indicator.     

Refugee life,refugee space: Ankara as a bottom-up alternative

During research conducted in the summer of 2020, I observed the advanced marginality of the refugees in Ankara, Turkey. While some authors have examined this precarity, and some others have examined how refugees have begun to live in a spatially distinct section of certain cities, the combination of these two phenomena demands further investigation. If the underpinning truly is spatial as claimed by Lefebvre (The production of space. Oxford and Cambridge: Blackwell, 1991), then the precarious subject and the precarious space co-produce each other. What this paper intends to do is to combine space and precarity using the observations of Wacquant (Urban poverty and the underclass: a reader. Oxford and Cambridge: Blackwell, 1996, Urban Studies, 2016, 53, 1077) in his various analyses on the ghetto in France and the United States. In Wacquant's work, we can begin to see a spatial conception of precarity, and we can further extend this to the point that as space is a production and its subjects are also a co-constitution of that space. Nevertheless, Sampson (Ethnic & Racial Studies, 2014, 37, 1732) points out a certain state centrism in Wacquant's analysis. Building upon this, as well as the work of Roy (International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 2011, 35, 223 and Territories of poverty: rethinking north and south. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2015), we can offer the refugee neighbourhood in Ankara as an example of “bottom-up” agency, alternative to Wacquant's original state-centric analysis. In the course of this paper, this possibility of a “bottom-up” refugee solidarity and related refugee space will be analysed.     

Rehumanising the university for an alternative future: decolonisation,alternative epistemologies and cognitive justice

ABSTRACT

Reflecting on the shifting landscape of higher education, this discussion highlights how inequality is entrenched within the university, largely as a result of Western-inspired, commodified knowledge production processes. The article grapples with scholarship on cognitive justice and builds a case for transformative resistance that is simultaneously anti-colonial and anti-neoliberal, within, against and beyond the Westernised university. The discussion concentrates specifically on epistemic hegemonies and internationalisation, and argues that substantive decolonisation as a counterhegemonic project must entail an intellectual element that is aimed at transforming the knowledge structures that facilitate dehumanisation. The pursuit of more equitable, anti-racist futures must thus involve the identification and obliteration of deeply embedded epistemic hegemonies, which have been created through the dehumanising processes of capital expansion and colonisation. This article offers a hopeful approach that encourages the collaborative creation of a counter-university that actively pursues epistemic diversity as a pathway to alternative futures.     

Beyond privacy: bodily integrity as an alternative framework for understanding non-consensual pornography

ABSTRACT

Activists and legal scholars seeking remedies to non-consensual pornography (known colloquially as ‘revenge porn’) have generally framed it as a violation of privacy; however, the concept of privacy a fraught history, linked to women’s exclusion from the public sphere, denial of their sexual expression, and impunity for abusers. I argue that the concept of body integrity better maps onto the experiences described by victims, who seldom distinguish between digital representations of their body and the body itself and who often liken non-consensual pornography to sexual assault. However, a feminist approach to bodily integrity (rather than one rooted in classical liberalism) is require in order to account for the disproportionately negative consequences non-consensual pornography has for women.     

The midwife in Taiwan: an alternative model for maternity care

While more than 99% of all American babies are delivered by obstetricians, the majority of Taiwanese babies are delivered by midwives. The history of traditional and professional midwives in Taiwan is reviewed. Taiwanese midwives operate their businesses according to the principles of client-centered health service. They also serve many social and religious, as well as health, needs of their clients. This system contrasts with that in operation in the U.S. where pregnant women utilize physician-centered, not client-centered, maternity care. The role of the Taiwanese midwife in the management of childbirth is described. Postpartum care provided by the midwife includes nutrition information and initial care of the infant once the mother returns home. The role of the midwife in relation to abortion, adoption and other obstetric and gynecologic services is explained. The American system of childbirth might be made more flexible and acceptable if the client-centered features of the Taiwanese system could be incorporated into the modern American health care system.     

The model of human occupation: a return to work case study

This paper presents a case example which illustrates application of the model of human occupation along with the biomechanical model in the treatment of a patient with hand injury, which resulted in inability to work. The case illustrates application of the model of human occupation's concepts in assessing and treating the client. By combining the two models, a more holistic and effective approach to treatment was developed. Treatment resulted in a positive employment outcome.     

Two Generations, Two Strategies: The Fate of Bare English–origin Nouns in Ukrainian

The status of lone nouns of one language in discourse of another is often ambiguous, since they typically provide few indications of their language membership. Making use of the facts of linguistic variability in each of Ukrainian and English, we examine the quantitative conditioning of such forms in bilingual performance data. Results yield a synchronic portrait of the integrated loanword, even when it bears no surface indication of that integration, is neither recurrent nor widespread, and has no history of attestation or other status in the language. Distinguishing the languages involved in the contact situation (Canada) as produced by the first generation (G₁) or the second generation (G₂), further reveals that G₁ speakers incorporate borrowed items – nonce or established – into recipient language discourse by applying to them the fine details of their native language constraints on linguistic variability. In contrast, G₂ speakers' treatment of English-origin nouns coincides neither with their own treatment of Ukrainian nouns nor with G₁ speakers' treatment of Ukrainian or English–origin nouns.     

Designed for Patience: The Significance of Internal Factors in the Ukrainian and Belarusian Transitions

This paper focuses on Belarus in order to find explanation as to why Alexander Lukashenko was able remain the authoritarian leader of Belarus, while in Ukraine the position of the political elite had proved less stable and collapsed in 2004. We seek to determine whether the internal factors (macroeconomic conditions, standard of living, the oppressive nature of the political system) play a significant role in the operation of the domino effect. This article emphasises the determining role of immanent internal factors, thus the political stability in Belarus can be explained by the role of the suppressing political regime, the hindrance of democratic rights and the relatively good living conditions that followed the transformational recession. Whilst in Ukraine, the markedly different circumstances brought forth the success of the Orange Revolution.      

Fell runners and walking walls: towards a sociology of living landscapes and aesthetic atmospheres as an alternative to a Lakeland picturesque

This article draws on analysis of data generated by way of an ethnography of fell running in the English Lake District and suggests that participants who have lived and run in the area for many years experience a particular mode of aesthetic. The Lake District has long been valued for its outstanding scenery represented in the aesthetic of the picturesque comprising relatively static landscapes that should be conserved. Established fell runners who have run in the area for many decades apprehend and appreciate the landscape in more complex, rooted and situated ways. The anthropologist Ingold, distinguishes between landscape and landsceppan, and this insight is instructive for grasping the way in which the runners do not simply scope scenery but work with the land: they shape it and are shaped by it. Fell runners are elements within the living environment and along with walls, sheep, becks, sun, rain – what Ingold evocatively calls the ‘weather‐world’ – are mobile. Movement is central to their aesthetic, they enjoy not so much the scenic but rather a fellsceppan and do so through their fast eye‐gait‐footwork and their lively, variable occupation with the terrain. The fells infiltrate and interpenetrate the runners and movement through the fells generates a somatic aesthetic. The pleasure in turn breeds existential capital an embodied gratification that serves as an attractor that binds those who appreciate feelings of being alive with and in the fells.     

Class inequality and meritocracy: a critique of Saunders and an alternative analysis

Saunders' recent work claiming that contemporary British society is to a large extent 'meritocratic' is criticized on conceptual and technical grounds. A reanalysis of the National Child Development Study data-set, used by Saunders, is presented. This reveals that while merit, defined in terms of ability and effort, does play a part in determining individuals' class destinations, the effect of class origins remains strong. Children of less advantaged class origins need to show substantially more merit than children from more advantaged origins in order to gain similar class positions. These differences in findings to some extent arise from the correction of biases introduced by Saunders; but there are also features of his own results, consistent with those reported in the reanalysis, which he appears not to have fully appreciated.     

In search of a liberal polity: the Rukh Council of Nationalities,the Jewish question,and Ukrainian independence

By circumstances of history The Popular Movement of Ukraine, more frequently referred to simply as Rukh, became a critical part of the effort to consolidate Ukraine's early independence. A broad, grassroots coalition established in 1989 to support Gorbachev's policies to revitalize Soviet society, Rukh's original appeal called for respect and friendship among ethnic and national groups and the development of deep understanding between them, values that guided the work of Rukh's Council of Nationalities. This account focuses particular attention on the Council's involvement with the nascent Jewish revival in Ukraine. The original strength of Rukh was its emphasis on inclusion. However, competing interests intervened and Rukh was transformed from a popular coalition into a center-right political party. By 1993, the Council of Nationalities had ceased to exit. This firsthand account by the former chair of the Council of Nationalities recounts the interplay from 1989 to 1993 between the aspirations of Rukh, its Council of Nationalities, the Jewish community, the rapidly developing events that led to Ukraine's independence and their immediate aftermath for Rukh and the Council.     

The House as a Place of Work in Early Modern Rural England

ABSTRACT

This article examines patterns of work in rural early modern English households, looking particularly at the early seventeenth century. It relates models of architectural change and gendered work to the experience of three case-study households and their houses, belonging respectively to a gentleman, a rural craftsman of middling wealth, and a wage laborer. It concludes that there was a trend to separate work from living space well before industrialization but, importantly, this trend did not apply to elements of women's work, which remained located within the house, or to laborers' houses, which have often been omitted from discussions.     

The various forms,reasons and motivations for return migration of persons who voluntarily decide to return to their countries of origin

In the Federal Republic of Germany, the government's efforts to integrate foreigners wishing to stay in the country have as a precondition that the number of foreigners taken as a whole will remain at approximately the same level. In September 1974, the foreign resident population in the Federal Republic of Germany amounted to about 4.127 million; by September 1985 it had risen to 4.365 million. Behind this slight increase is hidden a considerable flow of migrants in both directions. During the period 1974-1984, there were a record 4.774 million arrivals and 5.124 million departures. Thus, the increase in the foreign resident population is attributable entirely to the foreign children born. Since 1% of foreigners are expelled, the 5.1 million departures were almost exclusively voluntary decisions to return to their countries of origin. A bill adopted by the Federal Government in 1983, and which expired in 1984, promoted the willingness of migrants in the Federal Republic of Germany to return to their countries of origin. 2 of its particularly strong incentives follow: 1) Return assistance for all foreigners who had become unemployed as a result of bankruptcy and the closing down of a factory or firm for foreigners who had worked at least 6 months on shortened hours was covered. If a foreigner and his family permanently left the Republic before September 30, 1984, he received DM 10,500 plus DM 1500 for each dependent child. About 39,000 foreigners together with their families returned to their home countries with this incentive. 2) Payment of the employers' contribution to the official social security fund was made. More than 250,000 foreigners together with their families left the Republic under this scheme. Another bill to provide returning foreigners with building savings loans for housing construction is expected to go into effect at the beginning of 1986. Foreigners from other than the European Community member states are entitled to benefit from this plan. Loans are not to exceed DM 60,000 and will be paid out up to the end of 1993.     

Articulating influence: Toward a research agenda for interpreting the evaluation of soft power,public diplomacy and nation brands

While the terms soft power, public diplomacy (PD) and nation brands have cemented their place in academic discourse during the early 21st century, the evaluation of these activities has not been given anywhere near the same level of attention. When describing how campaigns are evaluated, scholars tend to make assumptions based on the goals or outputs of an initiative rather than on the basis of reliable, empirical data on its results. Strong positivist tendencies within current scholarship usually lead to evaluation being considered in terms of methodology and best practice, typically with the assumption that certain preferred outcomes will be demonstrable if an ideal model is followed. Most significantly, such approaches seem to underplay the interests and objectives that inform and constrain choices surrounding modes of communication and evaluation. I argue here that PD activities are rarely the product of rational choices about communication options, and nor is PD evaluation the result of applying the “best” methodology. Rather, questions of PD and evaluation practices are bound together in complex organizational and power structures that generate pragmatic responses both to the “problem of influence” and the reporting of results. Through use of the concept of articulation, this article outlines a framework for interpreting evaluation practices from a contextualized perspective, which grasps how and why soft power practices assume certain forms.     

The racial canons of American sociology: Identity across the lifespan as biracial alternative

The utilization of racial canons in American sociology has dictated traditional models of identity. Biracial Americans are consistently identified based upon the presumed race category of their African heritage. The result is that biracial Americans are ambiguous pertaining to racial identity without consideration of their lifespan experience, i.e.: social, cultural, and familial. To enable a more applicable model of identity will require that sociologists terminale the use of racial canons as a dictate of identity. Accordingly, development across the lifespan is heretofore both commensurate with biracial identity and the unique biracial experience. He has published numerous articles on the subject of race identity issues and is currently working on a book Beyond Black and White: Racism Among People of Color.