The Body that Does Not Diminish Itself: Fat Acceptance in Israel's Lesbian Queer Communities

This article follows Charlotte Cooper's call to widen fat studies scholarship to contexts outside the United States, and Adrianne Hill's call to locate historically specific connections between lesbian communities and promotion of fat acceptance. Three in-depth interviews were conducted with Jewish-Israeli fat women. Through the development of their ability to appreciate their fat body and the fat bodies of other women, participants employed a mixture of disparate feminist-lesbian and queer discourses, in a similar, albeit not identical manner to the one used in the U.S. context. One of the major differences is that queer/lesbian communities in Israel are not in contact with the Israeli fat acceptance movement.     

‘Do I Still Belong Here?’ The Body's Boundary Work in the Israeli Fat Acceptance Movement

Boundary work is important in all social movements, but the instability of bodily-based categories makes boundary work particularly complicated in movements where bodily attributes are key to identity formation. Many Anglo-American fat acceptance groups have attempted to draw boundaries on the basis of two ‘ideal fat subjects’: one with a stable, unitary ‘resisting’ consciousness and/or one based on excluding those who are not ‘really’ fat or fat ‘enough.’ The former excludes members who display ambiguity or ambivalence in relation to accepting their bodies, while the latter excludes members seen as not fat enough to participate. In contrast, the Israeli fat acceptance community establishes its boundaries based on shared negative social reactions to body size. This increases its ability to tolerate ambiguity and contradictions among members, and to accept members who do not fit into fixed bodily identity categories. Simultaneously, this collective identity poses other problems, like reducing members to their identity as fat and encouraging constant preoccupation with weight or social oppression based on body size.     

The Master's Voice: Authenticity,Nostalgia, and the Refusal of Irony in Postsocialist Hungary

In 2000, Benedek Uhrin—an elderly man with no apparent musical talent—became an internet phenomenon and later one of the unlikely hit performances at the yearly summer music festival in Hungary. Although local commentators argued that his popularity with youth audiences derived from his kitsch appeal, this article argues to the contrary. Uhrin rose to fame because his performance enabled his audience to refuse irony as rhetorical tool, ethical stance, and reading practice in postsocialist mass culture. Inspiring nostalgia rather than mockery, his much-vaunted sincerity offered an alternative to crises of authenticity created by postsocialism.     

Emotions and their management during a merger in Brunei

Studies have shown that the emotional impact of mergers influences employees' attitudes to change as well as more distal post-merger outcomes such as job satisfaction, organizational commitment and withdrawal. Understanding the role of emotions during mergers can therefore provide insights into why major change produces varying outcomes. This study presents findings from a qualitative study examining the emotional impact of a merger between two banking institutions on managers in Brunei. The distinctive national culture representing a fusion of Malay and Islamic values was found to influence the emotional impact of this merger. These values place less emphasis on personal control as a means for dealing with uncertainty. The findings suggest that Western transactional models of perceived control to explain how people manage change may have far more limited application within a Bruneian context.     

Positive Adult Support and Depression Symptoms in Adolescent Females: The Partially Mediating Role of Eating Disturbances

This study examined linkages between depression symptoms (DEP) and positive adult support (PAS) in female adolescents and the partially mediating influence of eating disturbances (ED). Structural equation modeling was used to establish measurement models for each of the latent constructs, determine the relationships among the latent constructs, and examine the overall model fit of the data. The relationships among the latent constructs of ED, PAS, and DEP were tested using a mediation model. Results indicate that there is a significant, positive relationship between DEP and PAS and that ED are a partial mediator of this relationship. This study provides evidence for the importance of evaluating how ED can influence the trajectory of depression in the lives of adolescent females.     

The Trajectory of Post-communist Welfare State Development: The Cases of Bulgaria and Romania

Governments of countries undergoing a post‐communist transition face the dilemma of balancing conflicting demands for greater economic efficiency (to achieve a successful transition to a market system) with demands for enhanced social protection (to legitimize regime change through a visible improvement in living standards which includes vulnerable groups). This paper analyses the transition in Bulgaria and Romania. Unlike other European countries, these countries did not embark on retrenchment policies until the mid‐ to late 1990s, so convergence with policies of spending constraint elsewhere in Europe was belated and partial. The social problems created by strict economic policies, exacerbated by a determination to reorganize the post‐communist welfare states along the lines promoted by international organizations, are now being recognized. Post‐communist governments in South‐eastern Europe have belatedly started to address the social aspects of transition to democracy and the market. This probably reflects the process of regime change in Bulgaria and Romania, which has been characterized as a “two‐step transition to democracy”, with liberal governments only succeeding transformed communist elites in power after a protracted transition.     

Modeling fetal-growth biometry with Response Modeling Methodology (RMM) and comparison to current models

Monitoring fetal growth via ultrasound requires modeling fetal biometry in terms of gestation age. In this study, we compare Response Modeling Methodology (RMM) to current models, in three stages. First, RMM is used to approximate 47 empirical mean models that have appeared in the literature resulting in models with negligible loss in accuracy (unlike two other commonly applied models). Next, RMM models are fitted to sample averages of the Singaporean population and compared to a formerly published model. A similar simulation-based analysis is performed in the last stage for raw data of the British population. Altogether over 70 comparisons had been performed resulting in RMM consistently delivering better performing models.     

Comparing Transnational and Communal Diaspora Philanthropies Among Temporary Migrant Workers: The Case of the Filipino Community in Israel

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - Diaspora philanthropy, sending donations to the homeland, has evolved with worldwide migration. While scholars have...     

Racial capitalism

Theory and Society - “Racial capitalism” has surfaced during the past few decades in projects that highlight the production of difference in tandem with the production of...