Securitizing America: Strategic Incapacitation and the Policing of Protest Since the 11 September 2001 Terrorist Attacks

During the 1970s, the predominant strategy of protest policing shifted from ‘escalated force’ and repression of protesters to one of ‘negotiated management’ and mutual cooperation with protesters. Following the failures of negotiated management at the 1999 World Trade Organization demonstrations in Seattle, law enforcement quickly developed a new social control strategy, referred to here as ‘strategic incapacitation’. The US police response to the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks quickened the pace of police adoption of this new strategy, which emphasizes the goals of ‘securitizing society’ and isolating or neutralizing the sources of potential disruption. These goals are accomplished through (1) the use of surveillance and information sharing as a way to assess and monitor risks, (2) the use of pre‐emptive arrests and less‐lethal weapons to selectively disrupt or incapacitate protesters that engage in disruptive protest tactics or might do so, and (3) the extensive control of space in order to isolate and contain disruptive protesters actual or potential. In a comparative fashion, this paper examines the shifts in United States policing strategies over the last 50 years and uses illustrative cases from national conventions, the global justice movement and the anti‐war movement to show how strategic incapacitation has become a leading social control strategy used in the policing of protests since 9/11. It concludes by identifying promising questions for future research.     

Education and racial-ethnic differences in types of exercise in the United States

Epidemiological research typically focuses on the intensity, frequency, or duration of physical activity, without consideration of the socially meaningful dimensions of exercise. The authors use data from the 1998 National Health Interview Survey (N = 17,455) and information on participation in 15 exercise behaviors to examine educational differences in exercise among non-Hispanic whites, non-Hispanic blacks, and Mexican Americans. Factor analysis identifies three types of exercise: team sports (e.g., basketball, football), fitness activities (e.g., running, weight lifting), and activities that require the use of specialized facilities (e.g., golf, tennis). Cultural capital and human capital perspectives offer insight into different dimensions of the relationship between education and exercise. Whites disproportionately undertake facility-based exercise, blacks tend toward team and fitness activities, and Mexican Americans gravitate toward team sports. Our findings offer insight into the social stratification of health and can aid the design of public health interventions.     

Understanding and knowledge of credit cost and duration: Effects on credit judgements and decisions

Financial capability requires understanding measures of consumer credit cost and using them appropriately in credit judgements and decisions. In three studies, UK adults’ understanding and use of credit cost and duration information were investigated from a bounded rationality perspective. Study 1, part of a representative survey of UK adults (N = 1000), found that when presented with annual percentage rate (APR) participants significantly overestimated the total cost (TC) of a 12-month loan. In Study 2, loan duration and APR were varied in an independent groups experiment (N = 242). Bank customers’ TC estimates were sensitive to both loan duration and APR but TC was again substantially overestimated. Study 3 was an independent groups experiment investigating the effect of APR and TC information on credit decisions (N = 241). APR often influenced decisions between loans varying in duration and monthly repayment, but this effect was moderated by TC information. It was concluded that: (1) people generally misunderstand the relation between APR and TC; and (2) although APR information can have a large effect on credit decisions, its effect is either attenuated or amplified by TC information. The findings are interpreted in terms of a ‘take the best APR’ heuristic and a dual mental account model of instalment credit. Recommendations for improving credit information provision and financial education are offered.     

Contextualizing ethnic educational inequality: the role of stability and quality of neighborhoods and ethnic density in second-generation attainment

This study examines the joint impact of neighborhood structure and ethnic density on the educational attainment of the second generation. Using second-generation samples and a majority reference sample from the Belgian Census, multi-level analysis yields the expected positive effects of neighborhood stability and quality and ethnic density on second-generation school completion. Reflecting the ethnic stratification of the Belgian housing market, majority residential concentration tends to coincide with high neighborhood stability and quality and high completion rates, whereas Moroccan concentrations overlap with low neighborhood quality, and low completion rates. For the Turkish and Italian second generation, neighborhood structure moderates ethnic density effects on school completion, in line with segmented assimilation. Our findings suggest distinct Moroccan, Turkish and Italian incorporation modes which reflect differential access to, and investments in ethnic versus mainstream social networks.     

The Relationship Between Sustained Success and Donations for an Athletic Department with a Premier Football Program

Anecdotal discussions regarding donor contributions to athletic departments have long placed considerable emphasis on the success of the departments’ athletic programs. Among the most visible sports is football. The purpose of this study was to explore one high profile athletic department’s level of financial gifts and donations related to the performance of the university’s prestigious football program. The following data were collected for each year over an 11 year period (1998 thru 2008): the football team’s winning percentage; total money raised from donors; number of donors making contributions; number of contributions; and average size of each contribution. The researchers found that the only linier relationship that existed with the team’s winning percentage was a negative relationship between winning and the average size of each contribution (p < .05; R ² = .682).     

Knowledge dissemination in operations management: Published perceptions versus academic reality

The channels for knowledge generation and dissemination in the business disciplines are many: presenting research at conferences, writing books, distributing working papers, offering insights in society newsletters, giving invited talks, publishing studies in academic journals, and many other venues, including even blogs and perhaps Facebook^®. But the most important venue is probably published research in “top-level” academic journals. In the discipline of Operations Management, many studies and lists have been published that attempt to determine which of these journals are supposedly the “top” according to either citation analyses, the opinion of recognized experts, author affiliations, bibliometric studies, and other approaches. These lists may then, in turn, be used in different degrees to evaluate research. However, what really counts is what the academic institutions actually use for guidance in evaluating faculty research. Based on a new source of ranking data from AACSB-accredited schools, we compare published journal-ranking studies against that of academe to determine the degree to which the studies reflect academic “reality”. We present rankings of OM journals based on this new source of data and on an aggregate of the stream of published studies, and evaluate their consistency.     

‘To lie down to death for days’

On 20 October 2000, the longest and most deadly hunger strike in modern history began in prisons throughout Turkey. Organized as a response to the government's plans to develop and construct new so-called ‘F-type’ prisons – in which prisoners are isolated from one another, from legal advocates and from family members – the strike was also intended to challenge several recently-enacted ‘anti-terrorism’ policies that have resulted in thousands of arrests. In a country where political prisoners make up roughly one-sixth of the total prison population, and where a long history of prison torture has been criticized by a wide range of outside human rights groups, the hunger strike sees little chance of achieving its goals: convincing government officials to repeal the official legislation and to reconsider its shift to the F-type prison system. Nonetheless, the Strike has continued for well over two years, and has claimed at least 107 lives. This essay is intended to explore the political effects and performative value of a mode of resistance (1) founded on the eventual death of many, if not all, of its practitioners and (2) ineffective in eventuating its desired changes. By definition, hunger striking is an unsustainable form of resistance; and yet, the Turkish strikers have continued to fast far longer than anticipated, and seem to be willing and able to continue indefinitely. How are cultural meanings and political currencies of Hunger Striking reformulated in such a radically changed temporal context? In a practice that so dramatically fuses the subject and object of state violence into a single body (and at the behest of such a maligned community), what kind of political subject is produced, and how is her/his relationship to the state redefined? And finally, how might political efficacy be redefined in the case of the Turkish strike, and by the performative value of various attempts to represent the strike in the context of European assimilation?     

Addressing the Issue of Psychiatric Disability in Social Work Interns: The Need for a Problem-Solving Framework

Abstract

This article examines the issues that arise when field instructors encounter social work interns with psychiatric problems. The authors discuss how legal decisions and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) provide the organizing framework for developing appropriate policies for addressing these situations. Findings from a survey that asked 61 field instructors about their experiences with such students and their knowledge of ADA guidelines provide additional information for policy development. Based on the survey and the legal guidelines, the authors present a problem-solving framework and recommendations to guide academic programs toward an approach that protects the rights of all parties involved.     

Inequalities and financial globalization: A timely report

Following the launch of the World of Work Report, the new annual report of the ILO's International Institute for Labour Studies, this note presents the contents of the first report in this series, subtitled “Income inequalities in the age of financial globalization”. Its timely release at the end of October 2008 came amidst mounting concern over the extent, duration and economic and social consequences of the financial crisis. The report examines the determinants of widening income inequalities and how inequality relates to financial globalization, labour market institutions, employment – job creation and characteristics – and redistributive policies.