Sex, ‘race’ and riot in Liverpool, 1919

Racist violence which occurred in Liverpool in 1919 is analyzed in this article, and it is argued that three main themes can be identified in media, policing and political debates which followed. These are fears of sexual relations between different ‘races’, competition for employment, and questions relating to citizenship occasioned by a scheme of assisted repatriation introduced to remove black migrant workers from the ‘mother country’. The article argues that the issue of ‘racial’ difference between the communities involved in the disorders should not be treated as a straightforward variable in its own right. Instead recognition of the articulation between racialised discourse and other factors, such as sexual relations, is central to a full understanding of the events.     

Inside the Revolution: Power,Sex, and Technique in Freud’s “‘Wild’ Analysis”

ABSTRACT

This essay situates Freud’s “‘Wild’ Analysis” in its local and global histories, even while reading it for what it can tell us about psychoanalysis now. Even as it is taken on its own terms, this essay serves also as a means to consider psychoanalysis as host to crucial tensions, its ideas and their relation to technique, its traffic in power, and sexuality and the primal crime. Using a clinical vignette, the essay argues the heterogeneity and multiplicity inherent to psychoanalysis are a gift to later generations, even if they made trouble for Freud. In celebration and critique, it examines, in effect, where Freud was and where psychoanalysis is now.     

‘A frog in a well’: the exclusion of disabled people from work in Cambodia

Based on ethnographic research conducted in north‐west Cambodia in 2000–2001, this paper examines why disabled people experience systematic marginalisation in the labour market. Although there are no official data on the relationship between disability and employment status in Cambodia, this research suggests that disabled people are more likely than their able‐bodied counterparts to be unemployed, in low status occupations, earn less or be out of the labour market altogether. Consequently, disabled people are more likely to live in poverty, experience social isolation and poor mental health. I argue that disabled people’s social status effectively shapes their work patterns through (mis)conceptions that associate ‘disability’ with ‘inability’ to work and to be employable. This paper illustrates how geographical processes fix disabled people in their socio‐spatial place, which together with ideological and structural inequalities distinguish and entrench their poverty from that of other social groups.     

Researchers Behind Policy Development: Comparing ‘Age-Friendly Cities’ Models in Quebec and Wallonia

Based on a reflexive method, this article explores the roles of researchers behind Age-Friendly Cities and Environments. Referring to Michael Burawoy's division of sociological work (professional, critical, policy and public sociology), it is structured around the international comparison of two empirical case studies: Walloon region (Belgium) and Quebec (a province of Canada). While the first case shows some difficulties faced by a limited policy sociology perspective with little room for research, the latter presents a more developed public sociology approach with larger involvement from research. If both cases started with policy links, the latter presents a special interest for praxis, through knowledge transfer as an ongoing public dialogue. Based on this comparison, the article concludes with a twofold use of praxis: on one side – knowledge in action – a public sociology position offers an original perspective on what AFC/AFE may mean and produce to avoid a limited field of actions focusing only on some stakeholders or advocates for older people. On the other side – action in knowledge – policy and public sociology question professional and critical sociology facing AFC/AFE programmes: is a purely academic knowledge of such a programme epistemologically realistic or should it necessarily be empirically fuelled?     

Sex,Drugs, Rock ‘n’ Roll…and Children

Abstract

In this article we identify some of the challenges for gay men who desire to create more intimate relationships and more stable families in the evolving and potentially more conducive socio-political environment of the 21st century in the United States. Secondly, we delineate a multi-systemic structural model of working with male couples and families that addresses the interplay of the couple's interactional system with larger religious, civil and social systems. Finally, we demonstrate systemic interventions with a case example of a male couple and their family coping with 21st century challenges.     

Contested Concepts in Violence Against Women: ‘Intimate’, ‘Domestic’ or ‘Torture’?

Abstract

Ritualistic, overwhelmingly violent bikie gang or cult-inflicted abuse of women, entrenched by co-opting third party cult or gang members, has been referred to as ‘domestic violence’, ‘intimate violence’ or ‘intimate partner violence’. The present article questions the aptitude of these terms to convey the realities of this violence, in light of the experiences of women attending a South Australian domestic violence service, all of whom were escaping violent partners who were members or associates of bikie gangs and cults. The paper asks, ‘is torture an appropriate term for such violence?’ and discusses the impact of social, legal, organisational and human rights parallel states that collaborate to make it almost impossible for these women to escape this violence and make it difficult for social workers to work effectively with them. The paper concludes that the State needs to adopt a human rights rather than legal focus when addressing the issue of violence against women.     

‘Education for All’ in Cambodia: Democratic Educational and Children’s Empowerment Global Values Facing State Patronage

Among countries in Southeast Asia, Cambodia hosts the most NGOs per inhabitant and is particularly influenced by international education policies. To this extent, Cambodia constitutes a pertinent fieldwork location for reflection upon the role of global governance of education in the ‘global South’. Grounded in long-term fieldwork in a village and primary school, and multi-sited fieldwork with education technocrats and functionaries at the national and provincial levels, this article examines the cooperation between the state and the ‘global-politic’ in the way that it is polarised around the development of the policy ‘Education for All’ (EFA) in Cambodia. I argue that the global actors in education are promoting a kind of ‘moral economy’ of education and that their different programmes, however diverse they may be, are underpinned by common democratic and empowerment values. These values remain fairly ‘silent’, buried beneath technocratic demands, and clash with the informal economy of patronage grafted onto the Ministry of Education. This is an informal economy to which I give some empirical depth. I defend the fact that this moral confrontation is part of the context in which a paradoxical situation has emerged and that some light needs to be shed on this paradox in a country where the post-colonial state of education agrees, to a certain extent, to delegate part of its sovereignty for the benefit of the ‘global-politic’ of education.     

Chinese,Japanese or ‘Oriental’?: Vietnamese-passing in ‘super-diverse’ London

The young British-born Vietnamese are a relatively invisible group in ‘super-diverse’ London who are often misidentified in their everyday encounters. Eluding more straightforward processes of ethnic or racial assignment, the young Vietnamese ‘pass’ in various different ways as Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai or ‘Oriental’. Drawing upon primary interview data and participant observation, this article traces ‘passive’ and ‘deliberate’ forms of passing to highlight how intersecting processes of class, gender and place enable/engender different kinds of passing. It is argued that Vietnamese-passing challenges more ‘celebratory’ readings of (super-) diversity by concealing (and depoliticising) difference and erasing Vietnamese voices rather than allowing for their proliferation. It is suggested that practices of passing may become more common in super-diverse societies, as markers of visible difference become increasingly complex and less determinable, especially among newer, non-colonial migrant groups who are more ambiguously positioned within existing identity regimes.     

Workers’ participation in wage setting: A gift-exchange experiment

This study analyzes the consequences of workers’ participation in the wage setting process on effort exertion. The experimental design is based on a modified gift-exchange game with firms specifying contract alternatives and workers deciding about the finally implemented alternative. The experimental data reveals that workers with participation rights are more sensitive to differences in wage offers: Low wage offers trigger negative reciprocity which dominates the positive incentive effects from high wage offers. On average, participation in the wage setting process leads to a decline in effort exertion.     

Sex work: constructing ‘families’ with community of practice theory

This article examines the construction and maintenance of fictive kinships within a street-level sex work community. The analysis is supported by interviews of 14 street-level sex workers regarding everyday language use within their community. Utilizing community of practice theory to demonstrate how peripheral participants of the sex work community are socialized to understand and participate in fictive kinships, a primary finding is that language use within this community operates as a discursive framework which creates a metaphorical family where kin terms are used as an identity-making strategy. The implications of this research suggest that familial structures impact sex workers' sense of agency in relation to other members of the community. Finally, this article discusses the implications for understanding the discourse of a street-level sex worker community in the context of relationship formation and maintenance.     

Let’s Talk About Sex: Family Communication Predicting Sexual Attitude,Sexual Experience,and Safe Sex Behaviors in Malaysia

Abstract

Objectives: This study examined whether family sexual communication (FSC) can predict sexual attitude, initiation of sexual experience, and practice of safe sex behaviors among unmarried Malaysian young adults. Method: Three hundred eighty Malaysians aged between 18 and 30 years completed an anonymous online survey. Results: Multiple regressions and logistic regression were used in the data analysis. FSC was a significant predictor of sexual attitude, experience, and behaviors. Among the 3 dimensions of FSC, comfort significantly predicted sexual experience, information significantly predicted sexual attitude, and value significantly predicted sexual attitude and behaviors. Conclusion: Parents play a significant role in influencing their children’s sexual attitude, experience, and behaviors.     

Rooted in relative privilege: US ‘expats’ in Granada,Nicaragua

This article investigates how US citizens living in Granada, Nicaragua, negotiate transnational belonging. Best known for a revolution and covert US intervention, Nicaragua, and in particular, the colonial town of Granada, has become a popular site for settlers from the Global North. Similar to other cases of ‘lifestyle migration’, these migrants enjoy spacious homes, maids, and upscale restaurants in a country ranked second poorest in Latin America, and governed by none other than El Comandante Ortega himself. They do not sever ties with their homeland, and form strong attachments in their new land. Fieldwork conducted in 2016 reveals that despite their international mobility, cosmopolitanism does not characterize how these migrants belong in the world. Instead, they practice privileged transnationalism in which their economic, political, and cultural power relative to that of their hosts facilitates both their mobility and their comfortable sense of rootedness in their sites of origin and settlement.     

‘They More or Less Blended in with Society’: Changing Attitudes to European Migrant Workers in Post-war Lancashire

European volunteer workers have received comparatively little attention in the history of British post-war immigration, with greater coverage given to, for example, demobilised members of the Polish Resettlement Corps. This paper is based upon oral history interviews with a group of European immigrants, predominantly European volunteer workers, and local Lancastrians who started work in the Lancashire cotton industry between 1946 and 1951, and examines perceptions of how they integrated into British life in a variety of domains. The paper emphasises that ‘blending-in’ was context-dependent, with a sense of being welcomed and fitting-in applying to certain domains and in certain situations but not necessarily in others. It argues that migration fosters particular cultural attitudes and practices amongst both migrants and hosts as social identities are produced and reproduced, changed and challenged.     

Uprisings in ‘Arab Streets’, Revolutions in ‘Arab Minds’! A Provocation

The uprisings sweeping the Arab world are already transformative even if in the end they fail to bring about fundamental changes. They have already articulated a globalist outlook showing that it is possible to move in step with the world without alienating indigenous political and philosophical anchors. They have already energized an attitude that is not afraid of or embarrassed about the multiple legacies that shape the modern Middle East, including Islamic legacies. They have shown that those legacies need not be shunned in contemporary political projects but can be deployed critically in support of transformative political solidarities. Orientalism that has long maligned the Middle East and its people is now practically unsustainable. However, a genuinely cosmopolitan horizon demands conscious cultivation of diverse thought-worlds beyond the familiar civilizational discourses.

Los levantamientos que recorren el mundo árabe ya son en sí transformadores, aun si a la final fallan en producir cambios fundamentales. Han planteado una perspectiva globalista que muestra que es posible cambiar al paso del mundo, sin alienar los polos políticos autóctonos y filosóficos. Ya han energizado una actitud que no le teme ni se avergüenza a los múltiples legados que dan forma al moderno Oriente Medio, que incluye el patrimonio islámico. Los levantamientos han demostrado que esos legados no deben ser rechazados en proyectos políticos contemporáneos, mas pueden ser utilizados fundamentalmente en apoyo a solidaridades políticas transformadoras. La difamación del orientalismo por largo rato en el Oriente Medio y su gente, ya está prácticamente insostenible. Sin embargo, un horizonte cosmopolita genuino exige un cultivo consciente de mundos de pensamientos diversos, que va más allá de los discursos familiares sobre civilización.

横扫阿拉伯世界的起义已经产生了改变作用,即使最终它们不能导致根本的变化。它们已清晰展示了一个全球主义的前景,表明与未疏远本土政治和哲学依托的世界保持步调一致是可能的。它们已给这样一种态度注入了活力,即不害怕或不窘困于塑造现代中东的多重遗产,包括伊斯兰遗产。它们已表明,人们不必在当代政治规划中回避这些遗产,而是可被批判性地有效利用,以支持转型中的政治团结。长期中伤中东及其人民的东方主义现在实际上已不可持续。然而,一个真正世界性的视野要求在所熟知文明的话语之外进行不同思想世界的有意识培育。     

Older Workers: The ‘Unavoidable Obligation’ of Extending Our Working Lives?

Older workers are becoming an increasing topic of research interest and policy concern as the populations of Europe, the United States and many other countries age. Some commentators argue that living longer means that there will be an ‘unavoidable obligation’ to work for longer as well. This article considers the reasons for concern about an ageing workforce. It then looks at the different literatures, which seek to research and understand the position of older workers. It provides a snapshot of the work that those over 50 years of age in the UK currently do and poses the question of whether we want to work for longer or whether a culture of early retirement prevails. It concludes by arguing for a more fine grained understanding of the composition of the older worker cohort, differentiated by class, gender and race and for more research on flexible work, gradual retirement and managing health at work.     

‘If You Could Change One Thing’: Social Service Workers and Restructuring

Robert R. Carkhuff and Bernard G. Berenson¹ boldly state that: “When we look at the data, we find that troubled people, both children and adults, are as likely to be rehabilitated if they are left alone as if they are treated in professional counselling and psychotherapy.”     

Left Behind by Parents in China: Internal Migration and Adolescents’ Well-Being

This study investigates how growing up as a left-behind child due to parents’ labor migration in China is associated with adolescents’ cognitive and socioemotional development, based on data from the China Family Panel Studies. We find that adolescents do worst when both parents are absent in all developmental indicators we examined: short-term and long-term word recall tests, numeracy test, self-concept, and self-expectation of educational attainment. However, the differences between left-behind children and those in rural two-parent families are not statistically significant. Left-behind adolescents do have significantly lower well-being than those in urban two-parent families. These differences can largely be accounted for by father's education, family spending on the adolescent's education, quality of parenting, and the social support available to an adolescent. The gap in Chinese adolescents' development is, thus, not so much related directly to how many parents one grows up with as it is to whether one grows up in a rural or urban environment.     

Rowing ‘at home’ and ‘away’: sport,heritage and identity in the Malay world

This paper is grounded in a comparison of the cultural identifications that accompany Sambas Malays’ participation in rowing competitions ‘at home’ and ‘away’. Sambas Malays are Indonesian citizens from the regency of Sambas, who ethnically identify as Malay. There, rowing competitions provide the sociocultural infrastructure for developing local and translocal cultural identifications. Two related, yet distinguishable, cultural identifications are evident, each associated with a specific rowing infrastructure. When contests occur ‘at home’, rowing is steeped in local Sambas Malay culture and heritage. However, contests ‘away’, in areas loosely identified as ‘Malay’, generate identifications with a regionally based Malay culture and consociality. Utilizing a non-positivistic conceptualization of ‘border’, this paper considers the intersection of culture, politics, economy, geography and mobility in everyday bordering practices producing two overlapping cultural identifications.