Disciplining the sex ratio: exploring the governmentality of female foeticide in India

The ‘girl child’ has attracted a considerable amount of attention in India as an object of policy addressing gender discrimination. This article examines the field of campaigns seeking to address female foeticide and positions the public discourse on the ‘girl child’ and sex selective abortion in India within a broad cultural backdrop of son preference. The article argues that anti-female foeticide campaigns exist within a disciplinary domain of female foeticide which both generates a discourse of saving the ‘girl child’ and also shows attempts to utilise both incentives and punitive measures in carving out a female foeticide carceral space.     

Coming together and pulling apart: Exploring the influence of functional status on co-resident relationships in assisted living

Social relationships can have considerable influence on physical and mental well-being in later life, particularly for those in long-term care settings such as assisted living (AL). Research set in AL suggests that other residents are among the most available social contacts and that co-resident relationships can affect life satisfaction, quality of life, and well-being. Functional status is a major factor influencing relationships, yet AL research has not studied in-depth or systematically considered the role it plays in residents' relationships. This study examines the influences of physical and mental function on co-resident relationships in AL and identifies the factors shaping the influence of functional status. We present an analysis of qualitative data collected over a one-year period in two distinct AL settings. Data collection included: participant observation, informal interviews, and formal in-depth interviews with staff, residents, administrators and visitors, as well as surveys with residents. Grounded theory methods guided our data collection and analysis. Our analysis identified the core category, “coming together and pulling apart”, which signifies that functional status is multi-directional, fluid, and operates in different ways in various situations and across time. Key facility- (e.g., admission and retention practices, staff intervention) and resident-level (e.g., personal and situational characteristics) factors shape the influence of functional status on co-resident relationships. Based on our findings, we suggest strategies for promoting positive relationships among residents in AL, including the need to educate staff, families, and residents.     

Effects of mobile information-seeking on the intention to obtain reproductive cancer screening among chinese women: testing an integrative model

Because the cognitive perspective has often been used in health behavior research, the influence of information and communication technology has been neglected although it plays a significant role in healthcare in the increasingly mobile age. The aim of this study is to test an integrative model including technological and cognitive variables to demonstrate that perceived usefulness and ease of mobile media use, health consciousness, and risk perception predict reproductive cancer information-seeking through mobile media and the intention to obtain cancer screening. The analyses of data collected in a survey of 1,065 young and middle-aged women in Nanjing, China showed that the cognitive variables of health consciousness and risk perception directly predicted cancer screening. In addition, the cognitive variables and the technological variables (i.e., perceived usefulness and ease of mobile media use, respectively) indirectly predicted cancer screening through mobile information-seeking. The implications of these results are discussed.     

Matching deprivation mapping to urban governance in three Indian mega-cities

Recent discussions of poverty recognize its multi-dimensional character, focusing on multiple sources of deprivation that poor households experience. However, for urban planners and politicians to implement intervention programs effectively in mega-cities, knowledge on sources and spatial patterns of multiple deprivations is needed. Disaggregated analysis potentially allows them to target programs to specific locations, set priorities in line with local needs, and be efficient in the use of funding. This article maps multiple deprivations of households in three Indian mega-cities, at the electoral ward level. It uses the livelihoods approach to address the following questions: 1) Is there a spatial concentration of deprivations within cities and do poverty levels differ between them? 2) Do cities differ in the types of deprivations? and 3) do these cluster within the city? The paper compares Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai, using a multi-criteria model within a geographical information system developed for identifying hotspots of multiple deprivation. It further links the results of deprivation mapping to questions of urban governance by comparing deprivation results with data on slums currently used to target anti-poverty programs. Finally, the opportunities of using spatial data for improving priorities and efficient use of funds in poverty programs are analyzed.