Burden of Womanhood: Tamil Women’s Perceptions of Coping with Intimate Partner Violence

Helping women victimized by intimate partner violence (IPV) is a challenge, particularly when the women belong to diverse ethnic groups. The objective of our study was to collect information on perceptions of coping with IPV from the perspective of a specific immigrant group of women. Sixty-three women from the Tamil community in Toronto representing different generations and experiences of IPV were interviewed in focus group settings about their views of coping with IPV. Study findings suggested that their views were deeply embedded in their sociocultural context and influenced by the gender-role expectations from the community. The women showed a marked preference for “passive” modes of coping rather than “active.” Study findings have implications for the development of alternative approaches to helping ethnically diverse women deal with IPV.     

Decomposition and Arthropod Succession in Whitehorse,Yukon Territory,Canada

Forensic arthropod succession patterns are known to vary between regions. However, the northern habitats of the globe have been largely left unstudied. Three pig carcasses were studied outdoors in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory. Adult and immature insects were collected for identification and comparison. The dominant Diptera and Coleoptera species at all carcasses were Protophormia terraneovae (R‐D) (Fam: Calliphoridae) and Thanatophilus lapponicus (Herbst) (Fam: Silphidae), respectively. Rate of decomposition, patterns of Diptera and Coleoptera succession, and species dominance were shown to differ from previous studies in temperate regions, particularly as P. terraenovae showed complete dominance among blowfly species. Rate of decomposition through the first four stages was generally slow, and the last stage of decomposition was not observed at any carcass due to time constraints. It is concluded that biogeoclimatic range has a significant effect on insect presence and rate of decomposition, making it an important factor to consider when calculating a postmortem interval.     

What do Parties Want? Policy versus Office

What parties want – policy, office or votes – affects how they represent their voters, make strategic decisions and respond to external changes in society. What parties strive to accomplish is crucially important for what they do. Moreover, our knowledge of what parties want affects what we expect them to do. For instance, coalition theory assumes that parties have homogeneous goals, and hence are equally likely to join coalitions given the same circumstances. However, this article investigates this basic assumption of party goal homogeneity and finds that party goals do indeed diverge. The article demonstrates that party goals are influenced by party-specific factors such as party size, policy position and intra-party politics. It therefore suggests, further, that intra-party politics should be included more systematically in future studies of party behaviour.     

Between Labour and Love: The Re‐erotization of Home‐making in Egalitarian Couples within a Nordic Context

This article addresses a proposed rupture between duty and desire in late modern intimacy: the optimistic account of liberated love propagated by Anthony Giddens (1991 Giddens, Anthony. 1991. Self and Society in the Late Modern Age, Cambridge: Polity Press.  [Google Scholar], 1992 Giddens, Anthony. 1992. The Transformation of Intimacy: Sexuality, Love and Eroticism in Modern Societies, Cambridge: Polity Press.  [Google Scholar]) on the one hand, and the feminist critique, among others presented by Lynn Jamieson (1998 Jamieson, Lynn. 1998. Intimacy. Personal Relationships in Modern Societies, Cambridge: Polity Press.  [Google Scholar], 1999 Jamieson, Lynn. 1999. Intimacy transformed? A critical look at the “pure relationship”. Sociology, 33(3): 477–494.  [Google Scholar]) on the other, that emphasizes a widened gap between ideals of pure love and a persistent gendered division of work. Drawing on a longitudinal study of egalitarian couples in Norwegian society, the article outlines an alternative picture. Faced with a noticeable erotization of work and an accentuated focus on the child as a project, neither negotiations for a fair distribution of practical duties nor the mutual disclosure and passion seem to provide the glue in these couples. Instead, the tensions between domestic responsibilities, heavy work requirements, and high expectations on emotional closeness seem to produce new configurations of commitment and desire. Rather than untying domestic necessities from passionate love, these couples transform the timebind into a narrative about shared projects. The achievements of these shared projects are twofold: they liberate the process of home‐making from the gendered narratives, and they permeate these de‐gendered narratives with a romantic spirit. By making these joint projects a focal point in their everyday lives, these couples have managed to reformulate both love and home‐making in a way that produces a committed “in‐between” in their intimate relationship, the overarching principle that is missing in Giddens' concept of confluent love.