The Body in the Pool: Reflections on David Cronenberg’s Maps to the Stars

Placing David Cronenberg’s Maps to the Stars (2014) in the Gothic tradition reveals the ghostly and often overlooked mother-daughter dynamics at play in that genre, veering between the internalized fears of Gothic terror and the externalized evil of Gothic horror.     

Urban and peri-urban agriculture and its implication on food and nutrition insecurity in northern Ghana: a socio-spatial analysis along the urban–rural continuum

Food and nutrition insecurity remains a challenge in sub-Saharan Africa. Several studies have examined food and nutrition insecurity in urban or rural areas but have not captured the whole continuum. Between November and December 2013, 240 households were surveyed along the urban–rural continuum in Northern Ghana. The study objective was to understand the socio-spatial dynamics of household food and nutrition insecurity and to investigate the role played by urban, peri-urban and rural agriculture. The study found that there was more involvement in agriculture in rural areas compared to peri-urban areas and urban areas. Households from urban areas were more food insecure (HFIAS >?11) compared to their counterparts in peri-urban and the rural areas. Stunting increased by 3.4 times (p?=?0.048) among households located in the peri-urban area. Wasting was reduced by 0.16 times among household that produced staple food or vegetables (p?=?0.011). Overweight was reduced by 0.04 times among households that produced livestock (p?=?0.031). The results reveal a socio-spatial dimension of food and nutrition insecurity that is related to agricultural activities.     

Nominal comparability is not enough: (In-)equivalence of construct validity of cross-national measures of educational attainment in the European Social Survey

Educational attainment is a core social background variable covered in each and every survey of individuals. Since educational institutions and qualifications are difficult to compare across countries, cross-national surveys pose a particular challenge to the measurement of educational attainment. This study performs a comparative construct validation of a number of cross-national measures of education using the European Social Survey. The measures comprise two versions of the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED), the education scheme developed in the project ‘Comparative Analysis of Social Mobility in Industrial Nations’ (CASMIN) and hypothetical as well as actual years of education. The first ISCED measure corresponds to the well-known main ISCED levels. The second one, the European Survey Version of ISCED (ES-ISCED) developed for this study, represents an effort to reflect different types of education within levels of education by considering ISCED sub-dimensions, most importantly ‘programme orientation’. Using linear regression models, it is shown how much explanatory power educational attainment loses when different cross-national variables are used, as compared to country-specific educational attainment variables (CSEVs), and how these losses vary across measures and countries. The dependent variable used for the construct validation is social status as measured by the International Socio-Economic Index (ISEI). Results suggest that harmonisation always entails some loss of explanatory power for at least a few countries. However, there are clear performance differences between the comparable measures in terms of both the average amount of losses as well as the distribution of losses across countries. The use of actual years of education as well as the levels-only ISCED strongly attenuates the education-social status association on average, but also to very different degrees across countries. CASMIN and ES-ISCED fare considerably better: they show the lowest losses of explanatory power and the lowest variation of losses across countries. Hypothetical years of education lie in between. Some practical implications are then proposed, e.g. on how to implement cross-national measures of educational attainment in international surveys.     

Coaching für Habilitand/innen am Beispiel der LMU München

This practice report describes coachings for junior faculty members at LMU Munich. First, we describe the challenges junior faculty members are faced with at German universities and the HR development undertaken at LMU to help junior faculty cope with these challenges. In particular, we elaborate on coachings, i. e. we describe the process and topics most frequently mentioned therein. These include the sandwich position junior faculty members find themselves in, the oftentimes informal nature of their leadership position, and the requirement to react to conflicts. Finally, we present the various ways of responding to these challenges developed within the coaching process.     

The slaving capital of the world: Liverpool and national opinion in the age of abolition

Cultural Power, Resistance and Pluralism: Colonial Guyana, 1838–1900. Brian L. Moore. Kingston, Jamaica: The Press, University of the West Indies, 1995. xiii, 376pp. £12.50. ISBN 976–640–006–7     

Zentrum und Peripherie im globalen Wissenschaftssystem

We use an experimental design to analyse the effect of symbolic capital of a nation’s higher education system and of single universities on students’ opportunities for international mobility. Fake applications of international doctoral students were sent to German sociology professors, who were asked to serve as supervisors during a research visit in Germany. Our fake applicants come from four different universities: Yale, Pennsylvania State University, National University Singapore, and Vietnam National University Hanoi. The results show that applicants from both US institutions get more positive, more informative and more personal feedback than applicants from Singapore and Vietnam. Moreover, the symbolic capital of a university seems more important than the quality of a specific department, which is problematic in normative terms.     

Why we are bored: towards a sociological approach to boredom

Abstract

The experience of boredom is strongly connected to our well-being. It can be a powerful driver toward a meaningful life and a great source of creativity. However, it can also pose a severe risk to our health. In recognition of its importance, in recent years, more and more researchers have begun to investigate the topic of boredom. However, while the psychological factors influencing boredom have been studied extensively, its social conditions are still poorly understood. The article aims to fill this research gap by providing a synthesized literature review of explicitly sociologically-inclined boredom research as well as implicit sociological ideas in the interdisciplinary field of boredom studies. On the basis of this data, we argue that boredom is not an interpersonal state, but a social emotion which is influenced by (1) cultural and (2) organizational norms/rules, (3) the individual’s position in the social structure, and (4) interaction processes.     

Gender dysphoric/gender variant (GD/GV) children and adolescents: summarizing what we know and what we have yet to learn

The optimal approach to treating minors with gender dysphoria/gender variance (GD/GV) is much more controversial than treating these phenomena in adults. This is because children have limited capacity to participate in decision making regarding their own treatment, and even adolescents have no legal ability to provide informed consent. Minors must, therefore, depend on parents or other caregivers to make treatment decisions on their behalf, including those that will influence the course of their lives in the long term. Presently, the highest level of evidence available for selecting among the various approaches to treatment is best characterized as "expert opinion." Yet, opinions vary widely among experts and are influenced by theoretical orientation and assumptions and beliefs regarding the origins of gender identity, as well as its perceived malleability at particular stages of development. This article outlines some of the more salient points raised by the clinicians who treat GD/GV and their discussants. This article summarizes what the editors believe is known and what has yet to be learned about minors with GD/GV, their families, their treatment, and their surrounding cultures.