Native Scholarship: The Enigma of Self-Definition Among Jewish and Mennonite Scholars

Abstract The perennial search for a way to bridge the gap between human experience (both past and present) and academic discourse has produced an impressive array of theoretical perspectives and research strategies. However, despite attempts to depict the relationship between the self and other, few have considered the impact of native scholarship on the construction of knowledge. This paper examines Mennonite and Jewish scholarly efforts to represent and/or invent their own particular traditions and proposes that their frequent appeals to particularistic sentiments, which often offend academic sensibilities, raise crucial questions and offer unique insights into historical and sociological analysis.     

A Combined Approach to Parental Coping

Summary The development of coping strategies by a combination of behaviourmodification, casework and milieu therapy is discussed withreference to the case of a nine-year-old boy admitted to a childpsychiatric in-patient unit. Admission had been precipitatedby his violent and uncontrollable behaviour at home. The plannedreturn of the child to his family is stressed as an importantpart of the treatment.     

Differences in Work-to-Family and Family-to-Work Spillover Among Professional and Nonprofessional Workers

We examine work-to-family and family-to-work spillover for professional and nonprofessional members of dual-earner couples. Separate analyses (multiple analysis of variance [MANOVA]) are conducted for men and women. We include variables in our model that help us understand differences between workers, including age of respondent, number of children, occupational status, employment status, and an interaction effect between children and work hours. To determine whether particular work benefits are influential, we add work flexibility as a covariate in a second model. Our findings do not support the assertion made in the literature that nonprofessional workers are less likely than professional workers to feel pressures from work to family.     

The quest for Mennonite peoplehood: ethno-religious identity and the dilemma of definitions*

La relation entre la convention et la tradition, d'une part, et l'innovation, d'autre part, est un aspect essentiel de la notion d'identité collective en tant que processus dynamique de (re)construction et de (re)présentation. Cette communication aborde dans cette optique ce que les Mennonites appellent aujourd'hui leur «crise d'identité». L'auteur insiste plus particulièrement sur l'ambiguïté et parfois le conflit qui caractérisent les tentatives des Mennonites de se donner une vision renouvelée de leur «spécificité,» empruntant à Pierre Bourdieu le concept d'habitus comme cadre d'analyse théorique des causes et des manifestations de cette lutte contemporaine pour définir la principale caractéristique distinctive de l'identité mennonite. The relationship between convention/tradition and innovation is indispensable to the notion of group identity as a dynamic process of (re)construction and (re)presentation. This paper applies this perspective to what Mennonites currently refer to as the Mennonite ‘identity crisis’ by focussing on the ambiguity and, at times, conflict which surrounds Mennonite efforts to articulate a renewed vision of peoplehood. Pierre Bourdieu's concept of Habitus provides the theoretical basis for understanding the causes and manifestations of this contemporary struggle to isolate the key defining feature of Mennonite identity.     

PRESSURE GROUPS AND PUBLIC EXPENDITURES: THE FLYPAPER EFFECT RECONSIDERED

A model of government budgeting is developed in which lobbying by interest groups can divert the allocation of funds away from the one preferred by the median voter. The model is applied to state and local governments to show that the "flypaper effect"–the tendency for lump-sum grants to increase public expenditures by more than an equivalent increase in the community's pretax income–can be explained without the customary assumption of voter fiscal illusion. Furthermore, the model predicts variation in the extent of the flypaper effect among expenditure categories, as found in previous empirical studies.