Winyann and Affective Performance among Female Thai Flight Attendants

Building on Hochschild's concept of emotional work and Sarah Ahmed's theory of affective economy, this paper examines the ways in which female Thai flight attendants mobilise winyann—a Buddhist notion of soul, but applied to airline professionalism—to perform their duties and manage work-related crises. Ethnographic evidence shows that Buddhist concepts of soul and suffering are used to transcend difficult situations in the air, paradoxically creating value for the corporation while still allowing women to experience personal integrity through embodied performances of affect in their professional lives.     

Sources of parenting support in early fatherhood: Perspectives of United States Air Force members

We conducted semi-structured focus groups with men in the United States Air Force (N = 39) to examine fathers' access to parenting information during the transition to parenthood, and to determine methods for engaging fathers in intervention. Results of content analysis highlight fathers' motivation to develop and maintain positive relationships with their partners and children despite substantial challenges, including multiple deployments, family moves, and demanding work responsibilities. Fathers emphasize the importance of information in facilitating the transition to parenthood, especially in the key domains of effective co-parenting and communication, children's developmental milestones, and appropriate use of discipline. Results underscore that men tend to rely more on informal sources of parenting information (e.g., spouse/partner, family members, friends) than on formal sources of information (e.g., pediatricians, social workers).     

The new dependency: Technological change and socioeconomic restructuring in Latin America

This article analyzes the implications for the Latin American societies of the ongoing restructuring of the world economy, which is driven by the accelerated application of science and technology to the production process. After a short review of the current developments at the regional level, the article focuses on Mexico and Bolivia. These two extreme cases, ranging from high-technology industries on the United States-Mexico border to the growth of an underground economy based in the production of coca and cocaine, allow the analysis of new forms of dependency that are already constraining the economic adjustment and the democratization process in Latin America.     

Images of Romania and America in early twentieth-century Romanian-Jewish immigrant life stories in the United States

This paper focuses on ethnic life stories written by early twentieth-century Romanian-Jewish immigrants to the US, and attempts to determine to what extent these narratives correspond to the generalised pattern of ethnic life writing at the time, as well as what particularises their texts. I analyse the memoirs of M.E. Ravage, Konrad Bercovici, Maurice Samuel and Edward G. Robinson, all of them born at the close of the nineteenth century but publishing their memoirs at different moments in history. I first trace the images of Romania that spring from these texts, ranging from the legal and educational discrimination portrayed by M.E. Ravage and Edward G. Robinson, to the existence of pogroms and other anti-Jewish feelings foregrounded by Konrad Bercovici, and to the nostalgic shtetl atmosphere evoked in Maurice Samuel's books. I then consider the place of the US in these authors' writings, starting from its utopian image prior to emigration to its more complex image after settlement in the new location. Finally, I show how their return journeys to Romania at different moments in time and the persisting prejudiced atmosphere they found there contributed in all cases to these authors becoming strong supporters of American democracy and its openness to critical debate.     

Not Just a Matter of Criminal Justice: States,Institutions, and North American Drug Policy

This article proposes a theoretical approach to illicit-drug policy that emphasizes politics and institutions, as an alternative to dominant perspectives emphasizing social control. After revealing conceptual links between drug-control policies and those of social provision, I describe a typology of drug policies based on the division of labor among the institutions responsible for implementing the legislated agenda. I then develop a theoretical argument that approaches drug policy as social policy, employing concepts of institutional reach and policy linkages. In the concluding section I use this approach to compare drug policies in the United States and Canada after 1980.     

Pity and pragmatism: understandings of disability in northeast Thailand

Cultural models of illness causation and treatment inform community understandings of and responses to disability. Data collected as part of a multi‐country study, conducted in 2002–2007, illustrate how villagers from northeastern Thailand conceptualise disability (pikarn). Local understandings of causality are shaped by Buddhist beliefs in accumulated demerit, and this significantly influences attitudes towards illness, adversity and bodily states. Buddhist notions of love and compassion (metta and kurana) inform appropriate responses to people living with disabilities, while local distinctions of ability and disability inform expressions of sympathy and/or pity (songsarn), with implications for the social participation of people with a disability.     

Understanding Racial Differences in Marital Disruption: Recent Trends and Explanations

We use data from the Current Population Survey to investigate racial differences in recent patterns of marital disruption. Although a leveling in the trend of disruption has occurred for White women since 1980, our results suggest less stabilization in rates of disruption among Black women. We also observe significant differences by race in the effects of key compositional factors on the risk of marital disruption, including age at marriage, education, premarital childbearing, and region of residence. Differences in population composition with respect to these characteristics, however, cannot alone explain the overall racial gap in disruption.     

Contesting Isan‐ness: discourses of politics and identity in Northeast Thailand

This paper discusses the idea of Isan (Northeastern Thai) ethnoregional identity, and its relationship with two major alternative ideas: Thai identity and Lao identity. Drawing on ethnolinguistic research, the paper argues that Isan identity is a problematic political construct, reflecting ambiguous self‐understandings and self‐representations on the part of Northeasterners. Northeasterners are engaged in a negotiation process about their relationships with Thai and Lao identities, relationships fraught with cultural, social and political ramifications. The study suggests a more nuanced appreciation of the ambiguities of Isan identity than has yet been proposed.     

Helping Women and Protecting the Self: The Challenge of Emotional Labor in an Abortion Clinic

One of the central problems in the performance of emotional labor at work revolves around how workers balance the needs of the job with those of the self. Drawing on data collected through participant observation and from in-depth, loosely structured interviews with nine clinic employees, this study analyzes how one group of abortion clinic workers negotiated the difficulties associated with emotional labor in ways that allowed them to achieve this balance. More specifically, we examine the interactive processes by which workers categorized patients into distinct types and developed specific strategies, along a continuum from investment to detachment, that enabled them to cope effectively with each type of patient. The implications of these strategies for understanding the connections between self, emotion, and authenticity are also discussed.     

Social Enterprise in the United States and Europe: Understanding and Learning from the Differences

Since the 1980s both the United States and Europe have experienced a simultaneous expansion in social enterprise. However, little has been written comparing and contrasting American and European conceptions of social enterprise resulting in difficulty communicating on the topic and missed opportunities to learn and build on foreign experience. To address this need, this paper compares and contrasts American and European social enterprise through an extensive review of literature from the two regions and discussions with social enterprise researchers on both sides of the Atlantic. It outlines the definitions of social enterprise used by American and European academics and practitioners, identifies historical factors promoting and shaping different conceptions of social enterprise, and highlights the differing institutional and legal environments in which it operates. It concludes by identifying what Americans and Europeans can learn from each others’ experience with social enterprise.

Adult-child activities and child development outcomes in developing countries: an empirical investigation in Thailand

ABSTRACT

Is doing activities with young children important for their development? This study aims to examine the effects of adult-child activities on cognitive and non-cognitive development in pre-school children in developing countries by using Thailand as a case study. The adult-child activities of interest are reading, storytelling, singing, outings, and playing. Using national representative secondary data on children aged 3–4 years from the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS4) of Thailand, our results show that while the level of children‘s participation in these activities is relatively high compared to other developing countries, the proportion of children with “normal” cognitive and non-cognitive development is still low. We find that only singing, outings, and playing have positive statistical effects for children who live with both parents (with playing having the highest positive effect), but for children who do not live with both parents or live with others, the positive effect remains only for singing. On the other hand, storytelling, singing, and outings seems to have statistically significant positive effects for non-cognitive outcomes among children who live with both parents (with outings having the highest positive effect). No activities have statistically significant effects on non-cognitive development of children who do not live with both parents. The recommendations call for greater attention on advocating adult-child activities in the context of developing countries.     

Religion and spirituality in social work practice and education in a cross-cultural context: findings from a Norwegian and UK study

As service populations have changed, social workers in Norway and the UK have responded to the needs of diverse cultures, which often include issues of religion and spirituality. Members of the Norwegian Union of Social Educators and Social Workers (FO) and the British Association of Social Workers (BASW) were sampled to explore attitudes regarding the placement of religion and spirituality in practice and education. UK workers were generally more accepting of religion and spirituality than their Norwegian colleagues. Factors such as secularism, differences in the educational systems, and different historical trajectories in the profession's development may contribute to differences between the UK and Norway. The authors recommend additional research in each country regarding the role of religion and spirituality in social work education and practice, the general culture, the bureaucratic delivery of social services, client and social worker interactions, and in the stratification of social class.     

Buddhist Wisdom and Modernization: Finding the Balance in Globalized Thailand

This paper examines the relationship between wisdom and knowledge under globalization and the potential in Thailand to balance old knowledge traditions, Buddhist and rural, with new Thai and imported knowledge. It investigates the Theravadan Buddhist approach to the cultivation of wisdom and, in parallel, the engagement of the Kingdom of Thailand in its bringing of modern knowledge and capitalist economic practices into Thailand, and its efforts to find balance between the old and the new.

Consideration of the findings has facilitated the development of a theoretical understanding of how old and new knowledge regimes co-exist in Thailand. The findings suggest that there has been a shift in understanding of panjaathaangloog (worldly wisdom) and the various types of knowledge that supports it, from being strongly shaped by the religious framework of Buddhism to becoming a secular framework supported by a secular Thai education system and an unmediated influx of imported knowledge. The challenge for Thai people is how to negotiate such a shift. The pressing concern is that these newer understandings are, as yet, ‘unsettled’ as reliable signposts to enlightenment and to becoming a wise person, and the knowledge of the old pathway is in danger of being forgotten.

Este artículo examina la relación entre la sabiduría y el conocimiento bajo la globalización y el potencial en Tailandia para equilibrar las tradiciones del conocimiento antiguo, budista y rural, con el nuevo e importado conocimiento tailandés. Investiga el enfoque budista Theravadan al cultivo de la sabiduría y paralelamente, el compromiso del reino de Tailandia para traer el conocimiento moderno y las prácticas económicas capitalistas a Tailandia, y sus esfuerzos para encontrar el equilibrio entre lo antiguo y lo nuevo.

La consideración de los hallazgos ha facilitado el desarrollo de un entendimiento teórico, de cómo los regímenes del conocimiento antiguo y nuevo coexisten en Tailandia. Los hallazgos de que allí se ha dado un cambio en el entendimiento del panjaathaangloog (sabiduría mundana) y de varios tipos de conocimiento que lo soportan, de haber sido fuertemente configurados por el marco religioso del budismo, para llegar a un marco secular soportado por un sistema de educación secular de Tailandia y una entrada de conocimiento importado. El reto para la gente tailandesa es cómo negociar semejante cambio. La mayor preocupación es que estos nuevos entendimientos, por ahora, están ‘indeterminados’ como punto de referencia confiable para el esclarecimiento y para llegar a ser una persona sabia y el conocimiento de la senda antigua está en peligro de pasar al olvido.

本文检讨全球化下的智慧和知识之间的关系,即在泰国的旧的知识传统,即佛教的和乡村的,平衡新的泰国的和进口的知识的潜在努力。我们调查智慧开发的Theravadan 佛教方式,并平行地研究泰国引进现代知识和资本主义的经济实践 ,以及其寻求旧的和新的之间的平衡的努力。本文的发现有助于在理论上理解泰国新旧知识规制的共生,已经有一种理解panjaathaangloog （智慧）,加强各种支持其的知识类型的转向,原来这些知识主要是由宗教性的佛教框架塑造的,现在则变成了由世俗的泰国教育体系以及不可阻挡的外来知识来支撑。对泰国人民的挑战是如何中和这种转变。迫切的关切是,如果一个人要变成智者的话,这些相对来说新的理解“不容分说”（unsettled）被认为对启蒙来说是可靠的知识,而那些旧的获取知识的方式则陷入了被遗忘的危险之中。

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Статья рассматривает взаимосвязь между мудростью и знаниями в

глобализации и потенциалом Таиланда в сбалансировании старых традиций и знаний, буддийского и сельского, нового Тай и импортных знаний. Она исследует буддийский подход к культивированию мудрости - тхераваду и, параллельно, участие Королевства Таиланд в привлечении современных знаний и капиталистической экономической практики в страну, и его усилия в поиске баланса между старым и новым. Рассмотрение результатов способствовало развитию теоретического понимания того, как в Таиланде сосуществуют старые и новые режимы знаний. Полученные данные свидетельствуют о том, что произошел сдвиг в понимании panjaathaangloog (житейская(мирская) мудрость) и различных видах знаний, которые ее поддерживают: от формирования строгих религиозных рамок буддизма к становлению светского государства, поддерживаемого светской системой образования, и непосредственному притоку импортных знаний. Задача тайского народа состоит в том, чтобы понять как вести переговоры о таких изменениях. Актуальной проблемой является то, что эти договоренности новые, пока еще «неурегулированны» как надежные указатели к просветлению и становлению мудрого человека, и знание о старых путях в опасности быть забытым.     

Exploring variation in active network size: Constraints and ego characteristics

Studies of active personal networks have primarily focused on providing reliable estimates of the size of the network. In this study, we examine how compositional properties of the network and ego characteristics are related to variation in network size. There was a negative relationship between mean emotional closeness and network size, for both related and unrelated networks. Further, there was a distinct upper bound on total network size. These results suggest that there are constraints both on the absolute number of individuals that ego can maintain in the network, and also on the emotional intensity of the relationships that ego can maintain with those individuals.     

Dilemmas in International Social Work Education in the United Arab Emirates: Islam,Localization and Social Need

This paper discusses emerging dilemmas in social work education and practice in the United Arab Emirates. Here social work education is primarily based on Westernized curricula; however localized cultural sensitivities require that some mainstream issues, particularly in relation to issues of abuse, are not engaged with. Nevertheless research findings show that social problems such as these are clearly present in UAE society. Therefore it is argued that what is required is an accountable, effective social work education that retains cultural congruity whilst empowering practitioners with the knowledge needed to engage with contemporary social problems. Finally, to contextualize the dichotomy between local culture and the wider community of Islam in relation to social work, some comparisons are drawn with other Muslim nations, specifically Malaysia.     

Diglossia and identity in Northeast Thailand: Linguistic,social, and political hierarchy

The paper explores diglossic relations between Central Thai and phasa isan, a variety officially known as a dialect of Thai, but linguistically close to Lao. Phasa isan is spoken by almost one‐third of Thailand's population but its speakers in the Northeast are often stigmatized as uneducated and backward. We conducted field research mainly among university students in Ubon Ratchathani, a northeastern border province, by drawing upon data from survey questionnaires, reflective essays, interviews, and field observations. The findings suggest a transitional diglossic relationship in which Central Thai is the High and phasa isan the Low variety. These relationships are discussed in terms of nationalism, social hierarchy, and language maintenance and shift.     

Thailand's Khmer as ‘invisible minority’: Language,ethnicity and cultural politics in north-eastern Thailand

Ethnic Khmer speakers in Thailand number over a million. Yet, despite their large numbers, they are regarded as an ‘invisible minority’, largely inconspicuous in the nation's arena of cultural politics. Their invisibility has, to some extent, to do with their overall cultural similarity with surrounding ethnic Lao speakers of Thailand's north-eastern ‘Isan’ region; like Isan Lao, they are syncretic Theravada Buddhists, and their village life revolves around wet rice agriculture. Such similarity contrasts with the conspicuous differences marking other minorities of Thailand, such as the Muslims in the south, or highlanders in the north. But Khmer invisibility is also the result of cultural politics at the national level, and with the specific histories of these nation-states in the modern period. This paper examines the apathy towards Khmer identity in Thailand, both in the historical context of Thai nation-building and in specific language policies and practices.     

Birth cohort and sex differences in the age of gambling initiation in the United States: evidence from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication

Youth gambling has become a significant public health concern, and it appears that individuals are gambling at younger ages than they did in earlier generations. We tested this question by examining birth cohort differences in the age of onset of gambling in a national epidemiologic survey. Data were drawn from the United States National Comorbidity Survey Replication, a nationally representative general population survey of adults born 1904–84. Individuals were divided into four birth cohorts. The cohorts were compared on their lifetime gambling involvement and age of onset of gambling. Significant birth cohort and sex differences were found in the age of gambling initiation, with more recently born cohorts starting to gamble at progressively earlier ages, and men starting to gamble at younger ages than women. The mean age of onset of gambling for individuals born before 1942 was 32.9 years, and for those born between 1973 and 1984 it was 16.9 years. The overall mean ages of onset of gambling were 20.8 for men and 26.4 for women, but more recently born women appear to be ‘catching up’ with their male counterparts. This decreasing age of gambling initiation may help explain the increasing prevalence of disordered gambling in the United States.     

Culture and language promotion in Thailand: implications for the Thai Lao minority of introducing multilingual signage

This article examines the introduction of multilingual Thai/Thai Lao/English signage in commercial areas of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at Khon Kaen University, the principal tertiary university for the 19 million citizens of Northeast Thailand, the majority of whom are of the minority ‘Thai Lao’ ethnicity, an ideological construction that is presented in some detail. This introduction of signage followed a previous study to introduce officially sanctioned multilingual direction-giving signage, including the main faculty sign, in three prominent areas of the Faculty. The survey employed a complex methodology to survey the opinions of 300 students together with observation of students and interviews with members of the faculty. The research type is therefore a mixed-methodology investigation of identity and language policy planning, cultural promotion, glocalization, Gal and Irvine’s semiotic ideology structuration process, the (urban) linguistic landscape and Bourdieu’s theories of social reality. The study found high levels of support for the signage from the student body, members of the faculty and the stallholders themselves.     

Breast cancer coverage in China and the United States: a comparative analysis of wire service news stories

The incidence rate of breast cancer is relatively high but declining in the United States whereas it is relatively low but increasing in China. This study analyzes coverage from the Associated Press (AP) and the Xinhua News Agency (Xinhua) to compare how news media in each nation have covered breast cancer. The results indicate that the AP was more likely to cover treatment and personal stories whereas Xinhua was more likely to cover risk reduction and prevention and to cover early detection and diagnosis. Subtler differences also emerged in coverage of breast cancer. The patterns observed may reflect not only differences between the two nations in incidence rates and efforts to address the disease but also broader differences in their news and medical values, practices, and institutions. News coverage of breast cancer, in turn, may influence how citizens of each nation will form perceptions regarding the disease.