Military procurement as rational myth: Notes on the social construction of weapons proliferation

This paper outlines four theoretical approaches to the sociology of weapons proliferation: strategic-functional theories, factional theories, geopolitical theories, and institutional theories. Although rarely formulated explicitly, the first three approaches are implicit in the existing literature on proliferation. All three see proliferation as the result of rational decision making, although they differ as to the locus of these decisions, with strategic-functional theories focusing on the nation-state, factional theories on subnational interests, and geopolitical theories on global superpowers. In contrast, the institutional approach disputes the rationality of procurement, arguing instead that weapons purchases are structured and driven by institutionalized normative structures that link advanced weaponry with modernization and sovereignty. The policy implications of this perspective are discussed, and parallels to recent developments in organizational theory are highlighted.     

Cross-cultural perspectives on illness and wellness: Implications for depression

The purpose of this research is to determine the relationships among race, socioeconomic status (SES) and depressive symptomatology. Contrary to the findings of over 20 years of psychiatric epidemiology, two research teams have recently reported that Blacks, primarily those of low SES, are significantly more depressed than Whites occupying the same status. Using the same epidemiologic field survey data as one of these research groups (Whites=1,648; Blacks=450), the issues of race, SES, and depression are reopened for examination. Depressive symptomatology was measured by the Florida Health Study Depression Scale. The findings indicated that, in general, Blacks had significantly higher levels of depressive symptomatology than Whites. However, these differences were eliminated once SES, a composite of occupational status, education, and household income, was statistically controlled. Race, in other words, was not found to be an independent predictor of depression. The author concludes that poverty is hazardous to one's psychological well-being and that race, by itself, is merely a proxy for socioeconomic status. In addition, methodological issues associated with the conceptualization and operationalization of socioeconomic status and mental health constructs such as depression are explored.Paper presented at the Conference on Multicultural Perspectives on Mental Illness, May 1994, St. John's University.     

A critical disjuncture? The culmination of post-World War II socio-demographic and economic trends in the United States

This essay examines the consequences of major social, demographic and economic trends in the United States since World War II. These include rising women’s employment, the ‘Baby Boom’, the outlines of the so-called ‘new’ immigration, the increasing racial and ethnic diversity deriving from that immigration, the economic contexts in which recent US immigration has occurred, and recent technologically-induced features of global work flows that will condition immigration’s future reception and effects. Women’s wartime work experiences, together with their economic opportunities in the ensuing decades, boosted married women’s autonomy and domestic leverage. Rising economic prosperity encouraged marriage and family formation even as growing employment among married women of childbearing age made having and taking care of large families more difficult. World War II also spawned the expansion of migration to the United States, which in turn converted the country from a largely biracial society with a sizable white majority and a small black minority into a multiracial, multiethnic society with greater racial and ethnic boundary crossing and increasingly blurred colour lines. A major issue is whether currently changing economic conditions and social institutions will support and strengthen such tendencies or instead weaken them. Without robust job growth, the demographic legacy of the baby boom, which now involves ever-rising numbers of retired people, will be more difficult to support, especially given the country’s current fiscal deficits. Greater earnings inequality and weak job growth may also poison the climate for further immigration to the US, thus diminishing the chance that newcomers can continue contributing to the dissolution of fault lines among racial-ethnic groups and to the resolution of periodic labour shortages.     

无序的狂欢轮回的耻辱--库切和他的《耻》

南非作家库切在<耻>这部作品中以简朴写实而又深刻犀利,不加藻饰而又震撼人心的笔调向读者呈现了后现代世界中人类不同种族之间交往及同种族内部人与人之间交往所面临的种种困境,及人们在困境中所表现出的无序的生活状态.     

湛江海上龙舟邀请赛的旅游开发研究

为更好的保护和传承湛江海上龙舟竞渡,本研究以湛江海上龙舟邀请赛为研究对象,主要采用文献资料法、专家访谈法等对该赛事的现状、文化内涵进行了探讨;进而重点研究了其旅游开发策略.最后得出加强理论研究、重视人才培养和引进、树立赛事经营理念、注重体育赛事市场中介及以龙舟为载体开发水上休闲体育旅游产业的开发策略.     

Hispanic Immigration and Black Violence at the Macro‐Level: Examining the Conditioning Effect of Victim Race/Ethnicity

Much attention has been devoted to the relationship between Hispanic immigration and violent offending at the macro‐level, including how it varies across racial and ethnic groups. Unfortunately, little attention has been paid to the conditioning effect of the race/ethnicity of the victim, or how Hispanic immigration is associated with crime by one racial/ethnic group against members of the same or different groups. Using National Incident‐Based Reporting System offending estimates and American Community Survey data, we examine the association between Hispanic immigration and black intra‐ and intergroup (black‐on‐white and black‐on‐Hispanic) homicide, robbery, and serious index violence in over 350 U.S. communities. We employ advanced imputation methods to address missing data that have constrained much prior research, as well as utilize crime measures adjusted for the likelihood of random contact between groups. Findings suggest that (1) Hispanic immigration has a positive association with black violence on the whole, but that (2) this association is conditioned by the race/ethnicity of the victim. Our results reinforce the importance of distinguishing across offender–victim dyads in research on the immigration–crime nexus, particularly in light of competing theoretical expectations. Directions for future research and policy are discussed.     

The necessity of an attention to Eurocentrism and colonial technologies: an addition to critical mental health literature

Critical perspectives in mental health and the highly influential contributions of those who identify with and/or ally with the psychiatric-survivor, consumer-survivor, ex-patient, or mad movements have provoked an appreciation of the many exposed epistemological, methodological, and ethical issues that (re)produce violence within biomedical psychiatry. What is often left uninterrogated is the reliance on a Eurocentric conceptualization of history within articulations of struggle and when attending to the political and social contexts of critique. The effect of this enduring Eurocentrism is often an inattention to the complicit influences of colonial and imperial projects on the practices and technologies of dehumanization, taxonomization, and the establishment of human hierarchies to rationalize violence through the implementation of racial and eugenic rationale. The imperative of this attention to Eurocentrism is suggested from a synthesis of contributions from critical mental health, postcolonial, and critical race literature.     

American Indians’ Response to Physical Pain: Functional Limitations and Help-Seeking Behaviors

Seventy-five American Indians, ages 25 to 84, representing 14 tribal nations, participated in this study. The historical, cultural, and behavioral responses to physical pain were examined. Data were collected over a 7-month period with a survey instrument that included the Universal Pain Scale, activities of daily living, causes of pain, cultural beliefs, and self-help-seeking behaviors. Also, recommendations for Western biomedical health care professionals are offered to improve services for the American Indian population. Findings demonstrate that culture plays a crucial role in wellness and significantly affects help-seeking behaviors, treatment regimens, responses to pain, and pain management.     

(Re)-migration: Indonesians of mixed descent and the journey ‘home’

ABSTRACT

Indonesia has a long history of outward migration, with the result that many children have been born outside Indonesia but consider it, through a parent, a ‘homeland’ in an emotive sense. This article examines the experiences of a number of different groups of people of ‘mixed descent’ (termed ‘Indo’ in Indonesian) who returned to Indonesia and found that they did not feel that they belonged, whether because they experienced a sense of disjuncture upon discovering that their memories did not match reality, or because they had never lived in Indonesia previously and only imagined it through a parent's stories. I closely examine the interconnectedness in the popular imagination of nationality with race and appearance in the Indonesian context, and argue that Indonesian national identity is strongly predicated upon anti-foreign sentiment, thereby making attempts of Indos who grew up outside Indonesia to describe themselves as Indonesian contentious. I also draw out the historical development of contemporary understandings about who can claim to be a ‘real’ or ‘pure’ Indonesian, which are based on colonial categories that in practice were different to how they have been portrayed in historical consciousness. The strong links between nationality and appearance/race and the complexities of the lives of individuals who choose to call several places home because of ancestral links complicate simplistic narratives of ‘local’ and ‘foreign’, ‘exile’ and ‘return’ to a homeland.     

Hebcrit: a new dimension of critical race theory

ABSTRACT

I believe that it is essential to identify a new facet of Critical Race Theory that specifically addresses the needs of the Jewish people. Often overlooked and ignored in multicultural, diversity, and ethnic studies, Jews continue to face specific concerns and obstacles in the both the United States and around the world. In this article, I outline the foundational structure of this new critical theory that investigates issues affecting Jewish people in American society. HebCrit (pronounced ‘heeb’) is rooted in Critical Race Theory, History, Social Psychology, Education, and Jewish Studies. This new theoretical framework provides a way to address the complicated positionality that many American Jews navigate on a daily basis.