中亚东干人文化变迁与民族认同

今天生活在中亚吉尔吉斯斯坦、哈萨克斯坦、乌兹别克斯坦的东干人大约有13万,他们原本是清朝末年我国西北回民起义失败后,在白彦虎等几位首领带领下逃亡中亚的陕甘回民后裔。由于他们迁徙到一个完全陌生的异域环境,并与内地回族在完全隔离的状态下生活了130多年,其语言、文化等受到相邻民族文化影响,发生了许多变化,但他们仍有较强的回...     

美国瑶族的国家认同与文化认同

本文通过叙述美国瑶族的国家认同与文化认同过程,分析了美国瑶族国家认同与文化认同的特点。认为与一般的美国人及其他民族的认同发展历程不同,美国瑶族的认同发展历程没有遵循文化认同——民族认同——国家认同的发展规律,而是从国家认同到文化认同。     

How Dresses Can Make You Mentally Ill: Examining Gender Identity Disorder in Children

This paper examines the diagnostic category of Gender Identity Disorder in Children (GIDC) and its evolution. It also critiques the continued use of GIDC on conceptual, psychometric, and ethical grounds. Gender atypicality is a social construction that varies over time according to culture and social class and therefore should not be pathologized.     

Negotiating the Digital Closet: Online Pseudonymity and the Politics of Sexual Identity

Online surveillance interferes with the individual's ability to control their expressive identity - to determine the scope of the social context in which their activities are to be seen and interpreted. Entrepreneurs have responded to these concerns by offering pseudonymizers, which employ cryptographic techniques to allow users to create several unlinkable personae and choose among them when engaging in various online interactions. This article investigates the tension between pseudonymity as a design paradigm for privacy technologies and as a lived practice for users. Because coming out - strategic revelation and the claiming of identity - has been at the core of the gay liberation movement, this article posits a politically and sexually active gay professional man as an ideal user of pseudonymity software, and places the design logic of pseudonymity within that particular set of social understandings. It reveals the conflicts, contradictions and trade-offs inherent in that use. Pseudonymity permits a very strong control of identity. It permits the user to segregate his public performances, and to engage in public debate without fear of bodily retribution. However, it is all but useless as a means of controlling the social context of those performances. It requires that decisions about self-presentation in certain contexts be made in ignorance of who is sharing that context, and with what resources or purpose. While it promotes the production of multiple selves, those selves are not easily lent to practices of intimacy or community. Pseudonymity also facilitates profiling practices that define and reify classes of people, even as it protects the individual from some of the repercussions of being defined as part of that class. In short, pseudonymity software is informed by a politics of heroics rather than of community.     

Sources of Resilience Among Chicano/a Youth: Forging Identities in the Borderlands

This ethnographic study explores the relationship between ethnic identity, particularly identification with traditional Mexican values and beliefs, and contemporary Chicano/a adolescents' perceptions of life challenges. Findings suggest that identification with core values and beliefs rooted in traditional Mexican American culture may be a protective factor contributing to resilience among second generation Mexican American adolescents. The authors discuss implications for practice and research based on the respondents' narratives.     

(In)visibility: accounts of embodiment of women with physical disabilities and differences

This qualitative study explored relationships between contemporary western cultural representations of bodies and the experiences of women born with physical disabilities and differences. In multiple, in-depth interviews, 14 women described the ways their embodiments are shaped by cultural discourses of disability, difference and gender. The findings indicated myriad ways in which the participating women experienced their embodied selves, paradoxically as both invisible and visible across sociomaterial places. Given the narrow range of normative appearances and capacities of 'acceptable' bodies, the women's bodies were frequently seen as undesirable whereas their subjectivities and lives were rendered invisible. The women articulated accounts of imposed ways of being seen by others and how these views structured and delimited their agency and resistances. This article highlights the fluid and multiple ways embodiment is produced, seen and experienced, and the importance of taking into account the interplay of gender with experiences of physical disability and difference.     

关于斯大林民族定义及其相关理论问题的思考

斯大林民族定义是中国民族理论中最广为人知又最富争议的定义,科学解读该定义对于准确运用该定义认识民族的发展过程具有重要意义.本文通过对斯大林民族定义在运用于汉民族形成问题上时引起的矛盾进行分析,指出造成该定义本身科学性和特定指向性矛盾的客观原因,提出民族形成的关键在于民族文化认同的形成.同时在梳理东西方民族不同发展轨迹的过程中,提出文化民族概念,分析政治民族形成,归纳出作为人们共同体的民族发展的一般过程.     

Appropriate Therapeutic Care for Families with Pre-Pubescent Transgender/Gender-Dissonant Children

In recent years, a new phenomenon has been observed in U.S. culture, that of pre-pubescent children transitioning socially from one gender role to another, with the support of their families. As this phenomenon becomes more widespread, families, schools and other institutions will turn to mental health care professionals for guidance in navigating new territory. Such children have often been assessed for gender identity disorder; the traditional treatment plan for those so diagnosed included attempts to steer their gender behavior in more “gender-appropriate” directions. Allowing such children to self-actualize, viewing their behavior as indicative of innate identity, is a relatively new approach. This paper will focus on the social worker’s or therapist’s role in helping pre-pubescent children and their families, should the families decide identity actualization is the path they would prefer.     

A “Jewish Study Hall” Influenced Approach to Social Work Professional Identity Development: A Qualitative Study

The article presents the findings of a qualitative research study focused on the ancient “Jewish study hall” (Beit Midrash in Hebrew) approach. The research was conducted in the context of the Beit Midrash for Social Work and Judaism established at one school of social work in Israel. Twenty participants were included in the study. Content analysis of transcribed Beit Midrash sessions revealed four central themes: reflection on participant identities; expansion, stabilisation, and acceptance of one’s personal identity; clarification of professional identity; and convergence between Jewish and professional identity. Study results raise questions as to both the place and the space for exploration of religious and spiritual identity in social work education. Findings suggest that alternative learning spaces such as the Beit Midrash can enable social work students and practitioners to reflect honestly and profoundly on their religious and spiritual identity, helping them to integrate their different identities towards becoming “whole persons” better prepared to meet the challenges of the social work profession.     

Happiness and Identities

Previous sociological research has focused on macro forces that are associated with overall happiness with one's life, but it has neglected an analysis of happiness in immediate situations and the micro forces that may shape it. In this study, we examine social structural as well as individual factors that may influence happiness in situations that are morally challenging. Data are examined from an experiment in which satisfying self-interests may involve cheating to get ahead. The results reveal that while distal, structural factors influence happiness for those who do not cheat, proximal, individual factors influence happiness for those who cheat. We discuss how both macro and micro forces may shape happiness in situations.