PERFORMING VIRTUAL WHITENESS: GEORGE GILDER'S TECHNO-THEOCRACY

Over the past twenty years, US conservatism has achieved a dominance by symbolically reconciling two historical strains that are, in reality, marked by contradictions: the social gospel of traditional values and the economic gospel of the free market. While this movement has often been characterized as irrational because of its emotional language, in fact, conservative activists were brilliantly rational in their deployment of a symbolic logic organized by the metaphor of Spirit. Drawing on resources already available from the history of religion in the USA, Spirit was also directly reconnected with the imperialist Spirit of Enterprise. But though its terms are drawn from nineteenth-century white supremacist hierarchies, this constellation is resolutely postmodern in its use of media and technology; as a result, whiteness is displayed so overtly that it has become all the more difficult to counter precisely because of that display. This essay will show how white masculinity has been translated into the language of the digitalized frontier by the cyberspace guru, George Gilder, who hails from an old New England family but reconnects the North to a strong Southern theocratic belief in the natural law of God and the markets. Next, the essay analyses a talk by George Will, in which white supremacy comes to be defined as meritocracy in a rebuttal to Toni Morrison. And finally, the display of whiteness will be analysed in terms of appearances on cable TV talk shows of The Blondes: the right-wing political commentators Laura Ingraham, Kellyanne Fitzpatrick, Ann Coulter and the late Barbara Olson.     

The New Challenge to Academic Freedom1

Academics have developed principles and policies ofacademic freedom during the last century in order to protect intellectual inquiry from ideological and political interference. One recent academic freedom case is compared to several earlier in the century in order to illustrate how threats to academic freedom have changed in recent decades. Most importantly, threats now come primarily from within rather than outside academe. Even the best academic freedom policies provide scant protection when an institution fails to enforce them and when the professorate fails to insist that they be enforced. Threatened individuals must then tum to external parties for protection. However, such appeals for outside assistance invite the very political interference that academic freedom policies were originally developed to deter. Academics thus risk losing what they collectively fail to protect.     

Efficacy of Co-Parenting for Successful Kids: A Longitudinal Pilot Investigation

ABSTRACT

With a sample of 155 divorcing parents, this study examined the efficacy of a co-parenting program titled Co-Parenting for Successful Kids (CPSK). A prospective longitudinal cohort study was used to assess parental outcomes at multiple time points (i.e., pre-test, post-test, and three-month follow-up). Using validated scales, we measured parenting stress, parenting self-efficacy, and parental anger over time. The results indicated that the participants experienced reduced parenting stress and parental anger, and increased parenting self-efficacy after completion of the co-parenting program. Co-parenting interventions to help divorcing parents with stress management, and continuously work together collaboratively in raising their children should be encouraged.     

HIV/AIDS and Homelessness

This article describes the results of research on the demographic, housing, psychosocial characteristics, and service needs of a sample of homeless people with HIV disease_ Results show that respondents are similar in demographic and housing characteristics to the general homeless population. On average, respondents report high levels of stress and depression, moderate satisfaction with perceived social support availability, moderate beliefs in their ability to influence health related outcomes, moderate levels of self-efficacy, and low levels ofphysical and psychosocial disability. A range of services was identified as both helpful and useful in supporting a stable living arrangement. Implications for social policy, service provision, and research are discussed.     

Domestic Violence in Nusa Tenggara Barat,Indonesia: Married Women's Definitions and Experiences of Violence in the Home

This article contributes to cross-cultural understandings of gender-based violence by examining women's definitions and experiences of domestic violence in Eastern Indonesia. The research was part of a larger study of human rights in maternal and neonatal health and involved a survey that integrated common anthropological practices in its development and delivery. This survey measured the prevalence of emotional and physical abuse, violence during pregnancy, unwanted sex and fear of violence among a sub-sample of 504 married Muslim women. Standard human rights definitions of violence were adapted to create locally appropriate definitions of economic violence, husband infidelity and unwanted sex within marriage. Survey responses indicated that the majority of women believed verbal abuse, threats of harm, economic violence, physical violence, control of women's mobility and a husband's public infidelity to constitute domestic violence. Our exploration of how Indonesian women understand domestic violence reinforces the salience of cultural specificity for different women's definitions of violence, as well as the applicability of internationally recognised definitions of gender-based violence.     

Application Review of Mindjet Mindmanager Pro 7

Mindjet's MindManager is an intuitive project management software with advanced information capture, organization, and sharing capabilities. New users can be up and running in minutes, creatings highly visual documents with this software to manage meeting agendas, to brainstorm, to schedule equipment and resources, to plan projects, and track project progress. MindManager readily links to common software applications, the internet, and MS Outlook calendar functions. Mindjet's website offers plenty of support including webinars, a newsletter, and a user forum.     

The Emergence and Stability of the Attentional Bias to Fearful Faces in Infancy

Several studies have shown that at 7 months of age, infants display an attentional bias toward fearful facial expressions. In this study, we analyzed visual attention and heart rate data from a cross‐sectional study with 5‐, 7‐, 9‐, and 11‐month‐old infants (Experiment 1) and visual attention from a longitudinal study with 5‐ and 7‐month‐old infants (Experiment 2) to examine the emergence and stability of the attentional bias to fearful facial expressions. In both experiments, the attentional bias to fearful faces appeared to emerge between 5 and 7 months of age: 5‐month‐olds did not show a difference in disengaging attention from fearful and nonfearful faces, whereas 7‐ and 9‐month‐old infants had a lower probability of disengaging attention from fearful than nonfearful faces. Across the age groups, heart rate (HR) data (Experiment 1) showed a more pronounced and longer‐lasting HR deceleration to fearful than nonfearful expressions. The results are discussed in relation to the development of the perception and experience of fear and the interaction between emotional and attentional processes.     

Couples in Great Marriages Who Considered Divorcing

This study used a strengths-based perspective to examine the experiences of 25 couples who self-identified as having great marriages yet had considered divorcing at some point during their marriage. Data for this study came from a larger qualitative study examining the multiple aspects of what makes marriages great. Various reasons were cited for considering divorce, including difficulties with communication, spending time apart for work or other reasons, stressors from other family members, and infidelity. Participants discussed multiple reasons for overcoming thoughts of divorce, including resolving conflicts in communication, turning to and relying on each other, seeking professional help, and religion. A detailed case study examination of one couple's experience is included as well as discussion and implications for family life educators and practitioners.     

Exploring Professional Stereotypes and Learning for Inter-professional Practice: An Example from UK Qualifying Level Social Work Education

This paper explores the concept of stereotyping from UK social work students' and educators' perspectives. It discusses findings from an exploration of inter-professional practice with two cohorts of final year social work students in a UK university. The authors adapted a questionnaire to initiate discussion about inter-professional working with BA and MA students participating in a specialist child and family social work module. This paper analyses students' responses to the questionnaire and explores wider issues relating to professional stereotyping and identity, discussing the usefulness of these concepts for social work education and collaborative practice. Results suggest that student social workers held both positive and negative assumptions about specific occupations/professions (such as medicine), and that these acted as a mirror or tool for reflecting back their own views of social work identity/ies. We argue that this pedagogic exercise in identifying stereotypical assumptions about ‘others’ may encourage the building of a positive sense of ‘own’ professional identity. We further suggest that students should be encouraged to construct a core social work identity that is dynamic and responsive to changing contexts.