The Legal Trial And/In Documentary Film

This article proposes to extend the work of law and film scholars, such as Carol Clover and Jennifer Mnookin, by looking at how juridically themed documentary films use the legal trial as both a platform and a structuring device to contest the evidentiary value of testimony, bear witness to the performance of law in our culture and engage in a social debate about flaws in contemporary jurisprudence. Because non-fiction film – with its presumed indexical relationship to reality and its attendant claims to authenticity – is often seen as having a privileged relationship to truth, the ethical and epistemological stakes of these visual representations are heightened. Consequently, the expectations we bring to the juridical documentary (in terms of its truth-telling responsibilities) make it a particularly loaded space for analysing the ethical and epistemological responsibilities of documentary representation as well as for revealing truths about the legal process and the ordering of a just society. Thinking through the ways in which contemporary trial documentaries differently approach the question of their subjects' guilt allows us to reflect on how the juridical documentary refracts the legal trial's own truth claims. These documentary films demonstrate that, while the documentary and the legal trial might share an epistemological affinity based on shared principles of evidence, narrative and argument, the way in which the trial itself is thematized as both a discourse and a practical purveyor of justice in documentary influences how we come to understand the law in action.     

Do Workplace Gender Transitions Make Gender Trouble?

This article examines what happens when an employee makes the transition from one recognized gender category to another and remains in the same job. Drawing on in‐depth interviews with transmen and transwomen in Texas and California, we illustrate how a new social gender identity is interactionally achieved in these open workplace transitions. While transgender people often are represented as purposefully adopting hyper‐feminine or masculine gender identities post‐transition, we find that our respondents strive to craft alternative femininities and masculinities. However, regardless of their personal gender ideologies, their men and women co‐workers often enlist their transitioning colleague into gender rituals designed to repatriate them into a rigid gender binary. This enlistment limits the political possibilities of making gender trouble in the workplace, as transgender people have little leeway for resistance if they wish to maintain job security and friendly workplace relationships.     

The Influence of Volunteer Recruitment Practices and Expectations on the Development of Volunteers’ Psychological Contracts

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - Volunteer recruitment and retention continue to be important issues for not-for-profit organisations. A theoretical...     

Nano Risk Analysis: Advancing the Science for Nanomaterials Risk Management

Scientists, activists, industry, and governments have raised concerns about health and environmental risks of nanoscale materials. The Society for Risk Analysis convened experts in September 2008 in Washington, DC to deliberate on issues relating to the unique attributes of nanoscale materials that raise novel concerns about health risks. This article reports on the overall themes and findings of the workshop, uncovering the underlying issues for each of these topics that become recurring themes. The attributes of nanoscale particles and other nanomaterials that present novel issues for risk analysis are evaluated in a risk analysis framework, identifying challenges and opportunities for risk analysts and others seeking to assess and manage the risks from emerging nanoscale materials and nanotechnologies. Workshop deliberations and recommendations for advancing the risk analysis and management of nanotechnologies are presented.     

‘No Power on Earth can Remove his Liability’: Emperor Haile Selassie and the Foreign Office,a Documentary Essay

Using the newly released unregistered files of the Foreign Office Permanent Under Secretary's Department (PUSD) Macklin's documentary article examines an interesting, if somewhat arcane, ‘missing dimension’ in the history of Abyssinian Emperor Ras Tafari Makonnen, more commonly known as Haile Selassie, and his covert financial relationship with the British government following his exile to Britain in 1936 after the conquest of his country by Mussolini's Fascists, until his return in 1941. By examining how the Foreign Office employed covert politics in order to obviate disruption to its ‘official’ diplomatic strategy Macklin examines how the British government set about ‘neutralising’ the Emperor's diplomatically awkward presence in England in their pursuit of rapprochement with Mussolini through which to drive a wedge between Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany.     

Situational Crime Prevention and Its Discontents: Rational Choice and Harm Reduction versus 'Cultural Criminology'

In this journal, in 2007, Keith Hayward criticized situational crime prevention (SCP) and rational choice. The main thesis was that SCP cannot tackle expressive crimes of anger, hostility and excitement. The secondary thesis was that this was because the rational choice perspective cannot account for intangible aspects of offender decision-making. Hayward's cultural criminology was offered as better explaining expressive and other crimes. The present article suggests fundamental issues may have been overlooked. Some of the many ways SCP applies to expressive and irrational crimes, and how readily they fit into the choice framework, are outlined, and a preliminary critique of Hayward's cultural criminology is offered.     

The SDR Aid Link: It's Now or Never

The international community, in the form of the United Nations and, more recently, the G20, has committed itself to the Millennium Development Goals. The global financial crisis of 2008/9 served to increase the economic problems faced by low‐income countries, making it much less likely that the goals will be attained. At the same time, the decision has been made to reactivate the SDR scheme by making a new allocation of SDRs in order to create additional international liquidity. This article explores the idea of linking SDR creation with the provision of development assistance. Although the idea of a link is not original, contemporary global economic and political circumstances may generate an environment particularly conducive to the acceptance of the proposal.     

Risk Characterization for Nanotechnology

Nanotechnology is a broad term that encompasses materials, structures, or processes that utilize engineered nanomaterials, which can be defined as materials intentionally designed to have one or more dimensions between 1 and 100 nm. Historically, risk characterization has been viewed as the final phase of a risk assessment process that integrates hazard identification, dose‐response assessment, and exposure assessment. The novelty and diversity of materials, structures, and tools that are covered by above‐defined “nanotechnology” raise substantial methodological issues and pose significant challenges for each of these phases of risk assessment. These issues and challenges culminate in the risk characterization phase of the risk assessment process, and this article discusses several of these key issues and approaches to developing risk characterization results and their implications for risk management decision making that are specific to nanotechnology.     

Postdrinking sexual perceptions and behaviors toward another person: Alcohol expectancy set and gender differences

Based on research showing that alcohol expectancy and gender both play a role in sexual perceptions, we factorially crossed the apparent drinking status of yoked pairs consisting of a participant and a target person (a confederate posing as co‐participant). Alcohol expectancy interacted with gender in complex ways to influence sexual perceptions. We also found behavioral effects: men showed more erotic material to both male and female targets than women did. Men perceived the target as more sexually aroused by erotic material than women did. Men also showed more erotic material to drinking targets than to non‐drinking targets. Sexual perceptions and erotica‐showing behavior were correlated significantly and positively. We discuss these findings in terms of implications for postdrinking heterosexual encounters.