Disability in Somaliland

Civil war lasting into the 1990s destroyed much of Somalia's economic, political and social structures, and conflict still continues in the southern areas of the country. In 1991, the northwest region declared itself the Independent Republic of Somaliland, established a government in Hargeisa and is struggling to rebuild an infrastructure. It is one of the poorest countries in the world, ranking high on the UN hunger index, and is the third most heavily land-mined country. One of the most disadvantaged groups of people are the disabled, although there is little general information about numbers and kinds of disability, and few social and medical services. This article presents some limited information about the extent of the nature of disability, and local efforts to improve the lives of disabled children and adults. It reports projects funded by non-government organisations, and concentrates on a seminar held in early 2002 attended by a group of disabled people who made their voices heard.     

Empty Looks or Paying Attention? Exploring Infants' Visual Behavior during Encoding of an Elicited Imitation Task

Recently, there has been an increased interest in the relationship between looking time during encoding and subsequent memory performance in imitation tasks. Hitherto, the results have been inconclusive: one line of research supporting the link between looking time and performance and another line finding no relation. The existing studies may, however, have been restricted by using small samples, limited looking time measures, and short retention intervals. We here examined the relationship between the encoding process by means of looking time as well as pupil dilation (by means of eye‐tracking technology) in sixty‐eight 20‐month‐old infants participating in an elicited imitation task and their subsequent memory performance (at an encoding test and at a 2‐week delayed recall test). Additional twenty‐two infants provided baseline measures. Simple looking time (assessed as fixation duration) did not correlate consistently with subsequent memory measures. In some cases, however, looking time correlated negatively with imitation scores. In contrast, positive correlations were found between pupil dilation and some of the memory measures, suggesting that pupil dilation may be a more sensitive tool compared to looking time measures.     

Predicting perceptions of sexual harassment based on type of resistance and belief in token resistance

This study examined perceptions of sexual harassment based on belief in women's use of token resistance and a victim's physical or verbal resistance to unwanted sexual attention, described in experimentally manipulated vignettes. Findings from 541 undergraduates revealed that a stronger belief in token resistance was associated with weaker perceptions of sexual harassment. Results showed that any type of resistance led to stronger perceptions of sexual harassment than no resistance at all, except for those with a stronger belief in women's use of token resistance. Perceptions among those with a stronger belief strengthened only when there were two forms of resistance offered simultaneously. These findings extend the literature by investigating the influence of physical resistance on sexual harassment perceptions.     

Possibilities towards a socially just pedagogy: New tasks and challenges

This paper contributes to an emerging debate on what it means to transform teaching and learning in higher education and to renew the social justice mission of universities. By focusing on the teaching and learning environment, we set the stage for the special issue, exploring the idea of socially just pedagogy, where it comes from and what it means in the present day. The social justice-pedagogy nexus as taken up in this paper aims at using pedagogy as a change process to transform higher education. We offer new considerations arguing that to adopt socially just pedagogies it is important that teachers consider the personal dimensions of pedagogy, the politics of difference, and the relationship between pedagogy and agency. In doing this, the chance that universities remain places of possibility, rather than turning into divisive spaces, becomes more plausible.     

On the <Emphasis Type="Italic">m</Emphasis>-clique free interval subgraphs polytope: polyhedral analysis and applications

In this paper we study the m-clique free interval subgraphs. We investigate the facial structure of the polytope defined as the convex hull of the incidence vectors associated with these subgraphs. We also present some facet-defining inequalities to strengthen the associated linear relaxation. As an application, the generalized open-shop problem with disjunctive constraints (GOSDC) is considered. Indeed, by a projection on a set of variables, the m-clique free interval subgraphs represent the solution of an integer linear program solving the GOSDC presented in this paper. Moreover, we propose exact and heuristic separation algorithms, which are exploited into a Branch-and-cut algorithm for solving the GOSDC. Finally, we present and discuss some computational results.     

A New Malaysian Quality of Life Index Based on Fuzzy Sets and Hierarchical Needs

The Malaysian Quality of Life Index (MQLI) released by the Economic Planning Unit (EPU), has led authors to search for alternative method of expressing this index. One of the limitations in MQLI computations is the failure to recognise unequal weights for each accounted component. This paper offers a new way of expressing the quality of life index using a mathematical modelling based on fuzzy sets theory and the proposed weights based on Maslow’s theory of hierarchical human needs. The indices of 11 components that were used to compute MQLI, again be gathered as a basis in expressing a new Malaysian Fuzzy Quality of Life Index (MFQLI). The new indices for each component yielded through a normalisation process prior weighting and aggregation to compose a new MFQLI. It was found that a fuzzy sets approach with the inclusion of weights based on human needs yielded a better index of quality of life than the MQLI.     

An Economic Approach to Achievement and Improvement Indexes

This study proposes a usefulalternative to the ``aggregate deprivationindex' which is used to measure the well-beingsof individuals in different countries orgeographic locations. Furthermore, we alsopropose an improvement index which alleviateswell known difficulties associated withovertime comparisons of ``aggregate deprivationindex'. While deriving our indexes, we pursuedan economic approach to index numbers theoryand relied on the assumptions of optimizingbehavior. The proposed achievement index hasits roots in the theory of quantity indexeswhose axiomatic properties are wellestablished. The roots of our improvement indexon the other hand, is well grounded in theproductivity growth literature. The study alsoprovides a numerical example.     

Intra‐ and Inter‐generational Perspectives on Youth Participation in Sweden: A Study with Young People as Research Partners

In this study, intra‐ and inter‐generational perspectives on youth participation are combined and compared. Young people were invited to participate as research partners in an interactive research circle and conducted a survey about participation with other young people as respondents. The discussion concerns how an interactive methodology contributes to the understanding of the concept of participation. It is suggested that political definitions of participation be amended to include having a sense of being recognised in a communicative context, taking responsibility and share with other people one's experiences. This is based on the perspectives of young people.     

Transnational Turkish–German community in limbo. Consequences of political tensions between migrant receiving and sending countries

A profound political tension between Turkey and Germany has gained an overall dimension on the political agenda of the intra-European migration discussion since 2016. As close trade partners, Turkey and Germany became gradually political adversaries on different issues. 2016 and the following years marked a turnover in the already worsened mutual relations. A series of political issues such as recognising the Armenian genocide in 1915, open allegations and critical views against the Turkish President and prohibition of election campaigns for Turkish government politicians in Germany had driven political relations between the two countries to nadir. This obscure situation led the Turks of Germany (The phrases “Turks of Germany” or “Turkish migrants” are persons with migration background from Turkey who still bear Turkish citizenship or formerly were Turkish citizens. This group's ethnic or confessional identity is not recognised; their legal status and country of origin are preponderant.), who have close ties to their ancestors’ homeland and consider Germany as the centre of their lives, nolens volens into a limbo situation. Within the “guest-worker program” framework in the second part of the 20th century, highly industrialised countries of Western Europe recruited migrant workers from different countries. This workforce should perform mostly blue-collar labour in the receiving countries. After six decades of Turkish presence in Germany, the grandsons and granddaughters of the former guest workers are well-represented in almost every sector of the society. However, their loyalty and integrability to the receiving country are challenged by German politics, especially by the governments of conservative chancellor Angela Merkel (2005–2021). If Turks of Germany feel closely connected to Turkey and Turkish culture (Workers from Turkey brought with them to the country of immigration their own “cultural assets”. Those are, language, religious and customary beliefs, social habits, dress, music, literature, social codes and manners, shared history, food, etc. However, migrants in the receiving country undergo a process of hybridity under the influence of the new cultural environment. (Please see: Bhabha [The location of culture, New York, NY: Routledge, 1994]) Culture within the framework of post-colonialism has also been discussed in Edward W. Said's book “Culture and Imperialism” (Said [Kültür ve Emperyalizm. Kapsamlı Bir Düşünsel ve Siyasal Sorgulama Çalışması. Hil Yayın: İstanbul, 1998]). If Turks of Germany feel closely connected to Turkey and Turkish culture, they are not recognised as integrable members of the society. Identity-based and culture-oriented policies inexorably influence the willingness of migrants to feel like equal members in the host society, and it applies even to the new generations with migration backgrounds. The question of migrant integration is the most emotionally debated issue in Germany and seems to be the greatest challenge in the political agenda. Beyond the bilateral Turkish–German issues, the growing xenophobic sentiments, islamophobia and Europe-wide political populism may cause a persistent bilateral tension in the medium term between the countries and among the transnational and native communities. Anti-Turkish rhetoric in the media alienates the Turkish community and has a value to jeopardise integration efforts more and more.