RAGS AND REFUSE

This article asks what an analysis of nineteenth century English newspapers can tell us about the developing commodity culture, and what an understanding of the newspaper as commodity can reveal about the evolving nature of the newspaper. Using Walter Benjamin's work on commodities and temporality, and focusing on issues of empire, I argue that newspapers such as The Manchester Guardian constituted a ‘technology of possession’: alongside their status as commodities and commercial enterprises, such newspapers formed a lens for perceiving the world in terms of capitalist principles of ownership and exchange, and constituted a kind of early intellectual property rights. Establishing particular commodity-rhythms of production and consumption, the newspaper tapped into and rearticulated the temporalities of modernity, shaping and being shaped by a culture of commodities.     

Exploring Community Levels of Lead (Pb) and Youth Violence

An emergent body of literature has documented a relationship between the lead (Pb) pollution (a structural form of violence) and crime (including interpersonal forms of violence) at the aggregate level. This study contributes to the lead and crime literature by exploring the relationship between lead and youth violence at the community level. To explore this association, data on lead, concentrated disadvantage, residential mobility, racial and ethnic heterogeneity, percentage divorced, and youth violence were obtained across the city of Chicago’s Community Areas (n?=?77). Results from hot spot analyses, Ordinary Least Squares regressions, and a Geographically Weighted Regression suggest that not only do lead and youth violence appear to concentrate in the same communities, but increases in community lead level are associated with corresponding increases in youth violence 10 years after exposure. This study concludes with a discussion of theoretical and policy implications.     

Towards a Diagnostic Toolkit for the Language of Agency

Agency—broadly, the capacity to produce effects—is a critical aspect of human activity, yet its multifaceted character makes analysis difficult. Drawing from functional linguistics, we propose a linguistic toolkit for analyzing the degree to which and manner in which speakers represent themselves as acting intentionally and autonomously. After a brief review of relevant agency literature, we propose three sets of grammatical tools, demonstrating their efficacy with a brief case study of 4 adult secondary learners’ educational narratives. We find that our toolkit offers insight both across contexts within an individual and across individuals in a single context.     

Preparing Black and Latinx children for police encounters: Caregiver response profiles and child self-regulation

We hypothesized that the goodness-of-fit between profiles of observed, caregiver-provided ethnic–racial socialization (ERS), and child self-regulation (i.e., inhibitory control) would differentially associate with child behavioral outcomes. Conversations between 80 caregivers (45% Latinx; 55% Black) and their children (M _age  = 11.09; 46% female) were rated for ERS. Measures included an inhibitory control composite (ages 2.5–3.5) and the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL; age 12). Three profiles were determined: Comprehensive (n  = 34), Reactive (n  = 8), and Pragmatic (n  = 38). Only youth with low inhibitory control in preschool appeared to benefit from Pragmatic ERS, whereas youth with normative or high inhibitory control in early childhood displayed lower internalizing and externalizing behaviors when they had Comprehensive or Reactive rather than Pragmatic caregivers.     

Indigenous data sovereignty and COVID-19 data issues for American Indian and Alaska Native Tribes and populations

Journal of Population Research - Indigenous Peoples in the United States have been experiencing disproportionate impacts of COVID-19. American Indian and Alaska Native persons are more likely to be...