Locating black mixed-raced males in the black supplementary school movement

This article draws upon data from semi-structured interviews conducted with black mixed-race males in the UK and the US, to argue that a revival of the black supplementary school movement could play an important role in the education of black mixed-race males. The article contends that a strong identification with blackness, and a concomitant rejection of the values of mainstream schooling, make black supplementary education a viable intervention for raising the attainment and improving the experiences of black mixed-race males. Whilst blackness was important to participants’ understandings of their lived experiences, this did not engender a disregard for their mixedness. Supplementary schools must therefore find ways of recognising black mixedness within their practice.     

ON THE AMBIGUITIES OF A SOCIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF THE CULTURE OF NARCISSISM

This article is devoted to an analysis of three sets of ambiguities underlying sociological analyses of the new culture of narcissism. The first set concerns the differential importance of childhood experiences and the contradictory cultural norms that regulate the placement of the adult self in time and space. The second set concerns the problem of whether these contradictions result from the structural characteristics of post-industrial societies or, alternatively, from the transition from a system of stratification based on production skills to one based on consumption patterns. Because we argue that narcissism is produced by such a transition and by concomitant anomic processes, the third set concerns the universal, unintentional and invarant properties attributed to sociopsychological responses to anomie. Examination of these ambiguities enables us to specify the additional analyses needed for a sociological understanding of narcissism, as well as the methodologies that such analyses require.     

Somerville Youth Council

In fall 2004, after many years of discussion, the Somerville Youth Council started. Its mission is to create an ongoing process of discussion, critical thinking, and problem solving to develop solutions to the challenges that youth encounter. In order to be an effective voice for youth, the Somerville Youth Council will have a diverse membership, develop expectations of mutual understanding and respect, and ensure that the means of communication builds bridges between youth, decision makers, and all others in Somerville. Owadokun, one of the council founders, has since moved to Nigeria, where she is forming a youth council in her community. Avilés is an active Youth Council youth member.     

Wrangling with the Black monster: young Black mixed‐race men and masculinities

In recent times there has been a proliferation of scholarship exploring ‘mixedness’ and mixed‐race people. This is evidenced by the emergence of Critical Mixed Race Studies (CMRS) as a distinct field of academic inquiry. However, despite the growth of CMRS, there remains a scarcity of scholarship that considers mixed‐race experiences from a disaggregated, intersectional perspective. Where CMRS has been attentive to the intersection of gender, the focus has largely been on women and femininity. By way of a response, in this article I draw upon data from semi‐structured interviews with Black mixed‐race men in the UK and the US in order to explore how Black mixed‐race men negotiate their raced and gendered identities, particularly in the context of schooling. Drawing upon George Yancy’s (2017) theorizations of the Black monster, I argue that a sense of double consciousness (and even multiple consciousness) means Black mixed‐race men are acutely aware of how the white gaze threatens to fragment and erase them. Yet rather than being passive victims of racism, I show that, through hybridity, the imposition of the Black monster stereotype is something that Black mixed‐race men are able to resist, modify and manipulate for their own ends.     

Civil Society Efficacy,Citizenship and Empowerment in Africa

This paper contributes to the debate on the limited efficacy of civil society in Africa. It examines the complex interface between notions of civil society and citizenship within the context of the postcolonial state in Africa. It argues that the bifurcated character of citizenship is implicated in the inefficacy of civil society. This is underlined by the limited achievements in social citizenship, aggravated by the economic crisis and neoliberal reforms of the 1980s and 1990s as well as the politics of regime sustenance. Political disengagement, drain on the moral content of public life and diminished collective orientation of citizens, aggravated conflicts within society, thereby, promoting a democratisation of disempowerment and a disorganised civil society.