Socio-economic determinants of the family history of pulmonary tuberculosis patients in Pakistan

This article aims to assess the role of important socio-economic factors in the family history of tuberculosis patients in Pakistan. Data were collected from 269 patients, and a logistic regression was used to determine the association between risk factors and the vicious circle of TB. Results of the logistic model show that significant risk factors associated with TB history in patients were education, household size, house structure, rooms in the home, room ventilation, monthly income, income food sufficiency, smoking, diabetes, and heart disease. The current TB control programme needs to formulate strategies to target specific risk factors and poverty reduction simultaneously to break the vicious circle of tuberculosis.     

Articulating the threatened suffragette body: suffragette embroidered cloths worked in Holloway Prison, 1911–1912

ABSTRACT

In public archives there are a number of hand-embroidered cloths worked by suffragettes incarcerated in Holloway Prison between 1911 and 1912. Denied political status, some of the embroiderers used the hunger strike as a political tool and were forcibly fed. In this paper the embroideries are reframed as material and discursive evidence of suffragette prison experiences. The material narratives of the embroidered cloths are traced, drawing on a dialogue between critical theory, material object enquiry, practice as research and the work of contemporary textile practitioners. Embroidering by suffragettes is explored as an embodied and situated ‘thread act’ that materialised the making of networks, the need for protection of the body and mind, the powers and dangers of boundary crossing, and proto-political thinking.     

孝女与虎患--以明清长三角地区方志记载为中心的讨论

明清时期长三角地区方志中的遇虎孝女给人以女德化身的印象。然而细细考量,可以发现虽然国家话语体系认同此孝,但因为统治阶层(男性)对典范女性的塑成寄予更多期待,女孝的边界亦随之延展。本文通过对相关文献的钩沉与梳理,着重分析女性遇虎行孝的数量、类型及对象,进而对这一特殊女孝文本所隐涵的教化目的与性别含义进行探讨。文章指出,兼具凶猛和灵性的"山兽之君"不过是检验女德的一剂良方,以身代亲的行为不仅被着上了道德和功利的双重色彩,而且被用来移孝作忠、移孝守节甚至是移孝替孝,女性只能也必须依赖自己在家庭中所扮演的角色获得更多的道德肯定。     

Reproductive health services: “Business-in-a-Box” as a model social innovation

Access to reproductive health services and products in remote and rural communities is a critical area of concern for developing countries. This article considers a pilot intervention in three districts of Pakistan where “Business-in-a-Box” as a model of place-based social innovation is used to improve the socio-economic conditions of women in remote rural settings through socially responsible micro-franchising. It finds that such programmes help build a sense of community, ownership and grassroots capabilities and skills. The article also discusses the impacts of such actions on the individual and community life, and the need to upscale and sustain these initiatives.     

Socio-political tensions in Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) development in low-income Asian cities

International development agencies, with the help of the central government, support building state of art Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) in low-income Asian cities. However, BRT investment over indigenous modes of mobility is creating socio-political tensions at the local level. This article uses multi-level governance as a theoretical lens to examine the relationships among actors in BRT investment decisions in Bandung and Surabaya, Indonesia. The research finds that local stakeholders can distort national and supranational policy initiatives totally or in a way that while projects are delivered, they are of limited use to the local communities they intended to help.     

Pursuing the allure of combat: an ethnography of violence amongst Iraqi Shi’I combatants fighting ISIS

The social sciences speak of violence through its meaning, performances, manifestations and representations; however, the inner workings of violence are less explored. In order to suggest a different mode of seeing violence, I explore the inner workings of violence through the pleasures of and fun among Shi’i volunteer combatants. I apply Walter Benjamin’s motion of pure means to explain how violence becomes self-referential and non-representational via combat-zone ethnography amongst Iraqi Shi’i militants who fought against ISIS in Iraq. I address the fine line between pleasure and fun in order to highlight the inner workings of violence during combat and to encourage a fresh bottom-up anthropological perspective in assessing the parameters of the persistence and resilience of volunteer combatants. My approach advocates moving beyond recruitment and ideological interpolation by questioning the allure of combat through an ontological framework that includes combatants’ perspectives and narratives.     

Facilitating industrial symbiosis programmes in developing countries: reflections from Gauteng,South Africa

This viewpoint reflects on how to improve the process of introducing facilitated industrial symbiosis programmes (FISPs) to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in developing countries. Although FISPs are a long-established industrial practice, their formal introduction to SMEs in developing countries has only recently begun, mostly through support from international development agencies. Based partly on anecdotal evidence from Gauteng, South Africa, we identify six key questions which need to be addressed to improve the process of facilitating FISPs.     

仪式与暴力——论卡夫卡《在流放地》

卡夫卡的《在流放地》展示了新旧时代交替过程中，仪式与暴力的运行方式的变迁。在古旧的刑罚体系中，绘制仪、耙等工具以不同的功能在十二个小时的行刑仪式中展演暴力；而人则在仪式化的暴力下，被降级为动物性、工具性的存在，丧失反抗能力，臣服于暴力。作品中新指挥官上任后的新时代，仪式式微，权力空间从公共景观转向封闭场所，惩罚对象从肉体转向灵魂，暴力隐匿。但是，式微的仪式仍有着潜在的力量，暴力终会以某种形式复归。