(Dis)locating nations in the World Cup: football fandom and the global geopolitics of affect

The World Cup, as a tournament that pits national teams against one another, initially seems to be a site where support for sports is tied to nations. However, situating this sporting event at the intersection of discourses of globalization, transnational circulation of capital and populations, and theories of fandom, our examination of diasporic populations found that the choice is not a simple one between ‘origin nation’ and ‘residence nation.’ Instead, the decision of which team to support relies much more on an attenuated, complex notion that we call transnational affinity. We examine this concept in relation to the context of transnational flow of players, media, spectators, and capital, contending that locating nations or national preference in the World Cup requires understanding the contemporary de- or trans-nationalization of not only sports but identity itself beyond the binary of national and global.     

The social model of disability as an oppositional device

This article engages with debates about the UK Disabled People’s Movement’s ‘Big Idea’ – the social model of disability – positioning this as an ‘oppositional device’. This concept is adapted from the work of the art theorist and activist Brian Holmes, elaborated using insights from Foucault and others. The model’s primary operation is introducing contingency into the present, facilitating disabled people’s resistance-practices. We recognise, however, that the device can operate in a disciplinary manner when adopted by a machinery of government. Whilst our primary goal is to understand the character and operation of the social model, by providing a more general definition of an oppositional device as the concrete operation of technologies of power, we also propose a concept potentially useful for the analysis of the resistance-practices of activists involved in a wide variety of struggles. This concept may thus have implications for wider social and political analysis.     

Allegories of white masculinity in Damon Galgut’s The Good Doctor

Urban residents across Africa are neither simply the subjugated nor the purveyors of skilled survival. Rather they continuously navigate a world where no one set of assumptions or clearly delineated trajectory of efficacy and livelihood applies. In some Central African cities, such as Kinshasa, notions of economy concern practices of taking discrete people and things and interweaving them with others in relations that often have little familiarity, make little sense. Things that don't readily belong are assembled into provisional bundles. In this essay on an important retail market, urban agriculture, and a superblock development in Kinshasa, economy is demonstrated to be a way of keeping the value of things open to new uses and sites. Thus, to grasp the fierce ambivalence of many clearly impoverished urban districts requires an appreciation of the oscillations of value.     

The Initial Qualifications,Induction and In‐Service Needs of Education Social Workers in Wales1

This paper presents an analytical evaluation of the initial entry qualifications, induction and in‐service requirements of education welfare officers (EWO)/education social workers (ESW) in Wales. These data were obtained from a sponsored research project funded by the Welsh Assembly Government conducted on a pan‐Wales basis. The findings indicate that only five local education authorities (LEAs) in Wales presently require social work qualifications for entry to the service. A majority of staff in the remaining LEAs tend to hold low level qualifications. Whilst induction practices vary between LEAs, better and improved practice is beginning to emerge. Similarly, the in‐service needs of ESW/EWS staff are not normally analysed systematically. Therefore, a variety of different approaches are used within LEAs to meet the in‐service needs of education welfare/social work staff. Some examples of good practice are postulated. Recommendations to improve the induction, initial training and in‐service requirements of staff in Wales are made alongside the need for further research.     

STEREOTYPE OR TRANSGRESSION?

Through a four-pronged methodology which includes textual analyses of the films, film reviews, and interviews with Rosie Perez as well as possible spectatorship positions to Rosie Perez films, the author examines the construction of Latinas in Hollywood film, especially in regard to traditional ethnic stereotypes. In addition, the author ventures into an understudied area of scholarship—namely the consideration of active audience and Latinas/Latinos. This combined methodology which examines both representation and interpretations—that is the production of meaning both at the sending and reception of popular culture—allows for a complicated reading of what Rosie Perez might mean to different segments of the audience.     

Listening to Bloke Modisane: Considering acoustic regimes in colonial and postcolonial writing

This paper defends the relevance of materials pertaining to auditory perception in the analysis of colonial and postcolonial texts. It considers the orientation of the subject in an acoustic domain and, through the work of Jacques Attali in particular, theorises the relation between dissonance and political dissidence as this distinction circulates in the social imaginary. Having suggested what is to be gained in analytical terms by analysing the relation between sound, place and identity, the argument proceeds to consider a specific instance: the representation of music and the configuration of 'noise' in the highly influential South African autobiography, Bloke Modisane's Blame Me on History (1963). A close reading of sections of the text demonstrates some of the ways in which literary acoustics sound out power relations and enable significantly different modes of the social, political and literary imaginary. The argument concludes, though, on a somewhat pessimistic note, suggesting ways in which theories of dissonant dissent can be complicit in the systems of meaning they are taken to oppose.     

Navigating Parenthood as Two Women; The Positive Aspects and Strengths of Female Same-sex Parenting

This study investigated the positive aspects of female same-sex parenting, and the strengths that these couples may exhibit. We recruited 13 female same-sex couples (n = 26) who participated in in-depth interviews, framed by a hermeneutic approach. Participants described a number of positive factors, which included negotiating a coparenting relationship in the absence of socially prescribed roles, characterized by shared, collaborative parenting. They also described their varying reactions to a heteronormative context, at times advocating for social change in their communities and at other times accepting the social difficulties they face while managing the emotional impact of these for themselves and their children. Their resilience was promoted by the gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, transgender and queer (GLBTQ) community and by the efforts of organizations such as schools and hospitals to promote inclusion. The findings are helpful for clinicians working to facilitate positive coping in same-sex parents as well as institutions looking to provide sensitive, relevant and inclusive practice to same-sex parents and their children.