Youth perceptions of violence in Western Honduras

Abstract

Youth violence is a growing challenge worldwide, particularly in countries that are experiencing extreme social disorganisation. This is exemplified in Honduras which has been one of the top five countries in the world for intentional homicides for over 20 years. While many studies have examined youth violence in urban cities, few have researched youth violence in rural zones. This study presents a case study using social disorganisation theory to investigate the perceptions of 40 youth in rural and peri-urban Santa Rosa de Copán, Honduras, regarding what drives violence and the potential solutions. Consistent with social disorganisation theory, our results demonstrate that youth view violence as an opportunity pathway resulting from economic deprivation, disruptions to the family and neighbourhood, lack of or poorly functioning external agencies and conflicting moral values. There are significant gender differences in the results, with young men pointing to several issues that challenge masculine hegemonic gender norms such as the desire for love and belonging, participation in education and the role of policing.     

Locating black feminist resistance through diaspora and post-diaspora in Edwidge Danticat’s and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s short stories

ABSTRACT

Migrating to the US is transformative in the short stories in Edwidge Danticat's Krik? Krak! and Chimamanda Adichie's The Thing Around Your Neck. The currents of Blackness, gender and class alter their characters' experiences of the world, shaped by the global flows of migration taking place under neoliberal capitalism. This essay explores the nuanced and conflicting ways diaspora and post-diaspora spaces can facilitate Black feminist resistance in Danticat's ‘Caroline's Wedding' and Adichie's ‘Imitation'. I offer a Black feminist analysis, paying attention to the literary body as the site where tensions are dramatised. My reading of Danticat's and Adichie’s short stories leads to a progressive reconsideration of diaspora.     

THE CHALLENGES TO TEACHERS,TEACHING, AND POST-SECONDARY TEACHING INSTITUTIONS: ASSUMPTIONS,PREDILECTIONS, PROCESSES,AND PROJECTIONS

ABSTRACT

The contemporary forces impacting teachers and teaching are capable of becoming an overwhelming, uncontrollable wave of disaster or an opportunity for proactively redesigning teaching at a higher level of commitment, performance, and relevance to make and shape critically important intellectual and societal contributions for the future. This symposium aims to galvanize the teachers in post-secondary education to reject the deadly viruses of reactive fear, credentialed complacency, and intellectual rigidity in their current stages and replace them with proactive options, alternatives, and designs.

More specifically, this Introduction clarifies why the respective articles were commissioned to appear in this symposium based on the reasons, concerns, and observations that stimulated the Editor to pursue and design a symposium on teaching in the social sciences.

The concluding contention of this Introduction is that all teachers can, and must, influence the events in both their personal and professional lives by actively immersing themselves in the values, visions, and cultural anchors of their profession, discipline, craft, society, and belief systems. There is no doubt in the Editor's mind that the symposium presentations will add much substance that will help make all of us great teachers.

“What in context beguiles, out of context mortifies.”

David Wayne     

Perceptions of the Teacher–Leader in Modern Society: Insights from the Master Teacher's Pedagogy

Abstract

Meeting the challenges of a modern era, including corporate scandal, government gridlock, and societal turmoil, requires a high level of effective leadership. In such an environment, the teacher–leader plays a critical role in cultivating the knowledge worker and learning organization. After all, the teacher–leader leverages the human resource by challenging and inspiring people to bring forth their best efforts and ideas in the quest to identify and implement creative solutions to society's dilemmas. To understand the opportunities and challenges encountered in the teacher–leader paradigm, the pedagogy of a prototypical teacher was modeled and evaluated. As the ideal model of the teacher–leader, the authors selected Jesus Christ, a historical figure whose acumen and influence earned him the title of “Master Teacher.” Jesus Christ was selected because he has repeatedly been recognized as a great leader; a great teacher; and one of the most influential people who has ever lived. Using the biblical record, Jesus’ teaching style was examined and a survey instrument developed and administered to students and faculty at a major university. Three core constructs that underlie Jesus's approach to teaching were identified: 1) empathy and motivation, 2) rigor and internalization, and 3) accountability and measurement. While students and faculty evaluate the techniques that comprise the empathy-and-motivation construct favorably, the other two constructs elicit student evaluations that would be too low for Jesus to obtain tenure. Ultimately, providing the rigor and accountability needed to cultivate personal growth and competitive skills is an unpopular task that professors tend to avoid by teaching to student expectations. Thus, the leadership conundrum—there is little incentive for teachers to lead or to help cultivate tomorrow's leaders.

The world we have created today has problems which cannot be solved by thinking the way we thought when we created them.

– Albert Einstein

     

Opting out for Getting in: Existential Mobility in European Graduates’ Migration to Asia

Abstract

This article examines young Europeans’ emigration from Europe. Qualitative interviews with mostly white Europeans in Singapore and Tokyo reveal how these young migrants’ motility, or “potential to move”, enables them to migrate through largely overlooked channels. Fear of immobility in Europe triggers these highly-educated Europeans’ existential and physical mobility to Asia where they compete with host-country nationals and non-white migrants for jobs. Categorization into three types of access to employment unpacks the complexity behind graduates’ mobility trajectories out of the European labor market and demonstrates their rising precariousness in post-Lehman shock Europe and their changing bargaining power in the world.     

Migration,gender, and mobility: Ethiopian–Israeli women's narratives of career trajectories

ABSTRACT

Most studies on the Ethiopian community in Israel discuss the difficulties in its social, cultural, occupational, and educational integration. Too little attention has been paid to the young professionals in the community who are experiencing upward mobility and to the women in particular. As opposed to stereotypes of Ethiopian–Israelis as poor, uneducated, and marginalized, this article explores socio-economic advancement of Ethiopian–Israeli women in Israel. We look at their integration in the labour market and their professional mobility in the areas of arts, business, religion, the army, and education by analysing the factors that play a role in their success. This study allows us to explore Ethiopian women's worlds by looking at their background and the steps they have taken to succeed in their careers.     

From public action to public administration: where does it lead?

Minnowbrook I and Minnowbrook II differ in one important way. Minnowbrook I involved mostly scholars who came to the field primarily through formal academic training. Several of those who participated in Minnowbrook II are products of comrnunity-based applied revisions of so-called new public administration in the 1960s. Radin served as a union employee and then a staff member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. Cooper worked as a minister at several inner-city churches. Both Radin and Cooper took their doctorates later in their careers, after extensive street level experience. From this perspective they focus on the unique political setting of public administration, on the field's publicness, on the salience of theories of change, on a process perspective, and on “soft” research methodologies.

Through much of its history, the field of public administration in the United States has been punctuated by figures who moved from the arena of action to opportunities for reflection, either through writing or teaching or both. A review of the literature of the field up to the 1960s provides strong evidence of this pattern and is particularly illustrated by two important eras of public administration—the municipal reform period and the post-New Deal period.⁽¹⁾ The decade of he 1960s was one of the few periods of the twentieth century in which action was not the predominant pathway to concern about administrative issues. In contrast to this earlier pattern, the generation of public administration academics in the 1960s focused on writing and teaching as a goal unto itself, rather than as a way of searching for the meaning of action in which one was previously engaged.

Indeed, the original group of participants in the Minnowbrook conference came to the field of public administration through formal academic training; their quest for values, relevancy, and meaning developed as they looked out of the windows of the academy to the turbulent society of which they were a part.⁽²⁾

While some were on the inside looking out during the 1960s, others were attempting to define meaning and relevancy within the world of action rather than the world of the academy. This paper is an attempt to explore the influence of that action experience on the public administration field. The authors of this paper spent the 1960s engaged in a part of the social action that spawned the “new” public administration movement.

We believe that our involvements in the 1960s led to the development of perspectives on public administration which are somewhat different from those of individuals who were primarily involved in academe during those turbulent times. This paper begins with a short autobiographical account which provides the personal context for our perspectives. It then contrasts our views with those of the Minnowbrook group and focuses on those elements that make up our perspective on the field.     

‘Saving the Congo’: transnational social fields and politics of home in the Congolese diaspora

Abstract

This paper explores the diasporic ‘politics of home’ of Congolese migrants in Europe, in particular in the UK, and to a lesser extent in Belgium. We focus on the fragmentation and heterogeneity of the diasporic political sphere by examining the role of first generation activists, religious groups, as well as youth and women's organisations. Within the transnational political field, first generation leaders are in a dominant position and the involvement of other groups, such as women and young people is marginalised by their control of the diasporic ‘rules of the game’ in the Bourdieusan sense. However, the increasing involvement of Congolese women in the field of women's rights advocacy has opened up new paths of political action which can, in certain occasions, lead to transnational forms of engagement. Similarly, second generation Congolese activists are constructing a space of autonomous engagement, relying heavily on the Internet and especially on social media, some attempting to link up with wider social movements. The paper provides an understanding of the social and political construction of these different fields of diasporic engagement as well as their intersectional and dialogical relations.     

Improving organisational performance—some thoughts on the role of management development

This article addresses the issue of local citizenship in the context of shifting urban structures. Drawing on the literature on modes of responses to local public policy based on Hirschman's (1970) model of Exit, Voice and Loyalty, the study offers the concept of urban civic worlds as an explanatory concept for local citizenship behavioural manifestations. The hypotheses regarding urban civic worlds are tested in a survey in the city of Tel Aviv. Eight types of urban civic worlds are examined. The implications of the multiplicity of urban civic world on the governance in localities is discussed.     

Writers from Anhui and provinciality in modern China

Abstract

This article discusses the problems of Chinese local and national identity in relation to Anhui province in the twentieth century. It begins with Anhui's contradictory image as both the location of some of the country's most esteemed cultural sites and a place currently perceived as backward and impoverished. After explaining the social uses of local affiliation in the Republican era, it then focuses on the attempts of aspiring young writers from Anhui to join the national literary scene in Beijing during the early 1920s, and analyzes their subsequent reception. It looks at the personal and professional choices that these writers made and, following a selective survey of developments in Anhui since the establishment of the People's Republic of China (PRC), concludes with a consideration of the evolving self-image and changing realities in the province today.     

‘The new Europeans’: the image of the African refugee in European literature

Abstract

This essay examines the representation of African refugees and asylum seekers in European literature in general, as well recent life writings and literature for young adults in particular. Examples will be drawn from writers as diverse as Benjamin Zephaniah and Senait G. Mehari. It is argued that the selected refugee stories invest in narrating an imagined community of ‘the new Europeans’ and thus invite readers to a plural reading of history. Following this train of thought, I am particularly interested in the interplay between images and motifs that evoke and shape various nation-states while illuminating an imagined European community. I therefore seek to excavate a transcultural imagery that characterizes refugee and asylum seekers as the ‘new Europeans’ by utilizing narrative strategies which reflect Paul Ricoeur's ideas about a new ethos for Europe.     

Emigrants and the state in Ethiopia: transnationalism and the challenges of political antagonism

ABSTRACT

Since the fall of military-socialist government in 1991 in Ethiopia, the Ethiopian Peoples' Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) has embarked on the total restructuring of the state. It has presented ‘Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples’ as an ‘organizing principle’ and it has been working towards the rebuilding of the Ethiopian state along this line. The focus of this paper is EPRDF's policies and practices of engagement of Ethiopian emigrants. The analysis is based on information and interviews with government officials in Addis Ababa and with Ethiopian migrants in Washington DC during February–May 2013. This study indicates that the EPRDF government gradually started to focus its attention on Ethiopian migrants around the world, mainly due to the growing economic significance of their transnational engagement in Ethiopia. The study also shows the circumstances in which political debates about the conditions in Ethiopia has been permeating interactions within Ethiopians emigrants.     

Young Married Women in the Russian Countryside: Women's Networks,Communication and Power

This essay explores the experiences of recently married young women living in rural Russia in the village of Karsun in the Ul’yanovsk Oblast’. It analyses the connections between women in rural communities looking at social networks and the power relations inherent within them. The ways in which forms of power among and between women (as well as between women and men) impact on young women's agency are critically appraised through an analysis of what this essay terms forms of ‘women's power’. The essay also shows how women's discussions of their experiences reflect the problems that the perceived physical and emotional absences of men present for younger married women and their attempts to develop forms of autonomy.     

Some Aspects of Management Training in Romania and American Assistance in its Development

Abstract

Romania emerged from 40 plus years of communism with little understanding of management under free market conditions. The country's managers have been scrambling to catch up to the western world so that it can compete on an international basis. Romania has rich resources and untapped capabilities that are slowly being developed in the post communist era. Assistance from western nations has helped to fill the gap left by the socialist mentality. The United States has been noteworthy in its management training assistance. This article is a survey of the programs attempted over the past thirteen years plus some reflections of earlier programs from the west.     

An East-West Approach to Serving Chinese Immigrants in a Mental Health Setting

Abstract

This article discusses the unique design of a community day treatment program that addresses the issues of loss and acculturation for a Chinese American immigrant population who suffers from chronic mental illness. The program utilizes an integrated, multi-cultural milieu of staff and clients to create a microcosm of the diversity of American society, and reflects the agency's belief in the affirmation of the clients' cultural heritage as a more effective way of supporting clients in their recovery process. Case vignettes are used to illustrate the importance of helping immigrant clients who are marginalized in society to feel accepted, empowered and hopeful in their lives in a new country.     

Teaching about terrorism: Notes on methods and materials

Abstract

That terrorism presents scholars and policymakers alike with new challenges is well documented. But the fact that transnational terrorism and societal responses to it have also placed new demands on those who teach international affairs in the undergraduate classroom is less widely discussed. This article identifies a basic set of educational objectives for teaching about terrorism as well as materials and methods for achieving those objectives with a reasonable degree of success. Through a discussion of the uses of library research exercises, films, role playing and simulation, and values clarification approaches, the article provides a scheme for educating a nucleus of future citizens who will better understand the policy and value choices confronting them in a world beset by terrorism.     

Resurgent religious terrorism: A study of some of the Lebanese Shi'a contemporary terrorism

Abstract

This study introduces the concept of geocultural immobility. A minority's geocultural immobility is identified as an imposed low geographic mobility within a nation with low cultural pluralism. It establishes the Lebanese Shi'a geocultural immobility, to which it attributes their religious resurgence. This Lebanese Shi'a religious resurgence is proven in this research to produce the zealots needed by religious terrorist organizations. This study also introduces and defines religious terrorism as violent acts performed by elements of religious organizations or sects, growing out of a commitment to communicate a divine message. It makes distinctions among religious terrorism, secular terrorism, and fighters for religious freedom, which are based on the actors' motives, affinities, and consciousness of the maliciousness of their acts. The primary and secondary data and the quasiexperiment in this research support its special hypotheses. They indicate a statistical correlation between eight Lebanese Shi ‘a cultural and religious attributes.     

The Identity of Turkey: Muslim and secular

Abstract

This article analyses the rise of political Islam in Turkey in the context of the akp's tenure in power with reference to complex social, economic, historical and ideational factors. It aims to answer one of the key questions, which has wider implications for the West and Islamic world: ‘having experienced the bad and good of the West in secularism and democracy’, as claimed by Samuel Huntington's ‘clash of civilisations’ thesis, is Turkey in transition from a secular to an Islamic state? The article first questions Turkey's ‘bridge’ or ‘torn-country’ status and then explains the akp's ambivalent policies towards religious and identity issues in relation to the increased public visibility of Islam and a ‘performative reflexivity’ of ‘Muslim-selves’. It concludes that the real issue at stake is not the assumed clash of secular and Muslim identities but the complex of interdependence between Islam, secularism and democratisation in Turkey.     

Exile and globalization in the poetry of Tanure Ojaide: a case study of When it no longer matters where you live

Abstract

The twin concepts of exile and globalization are of great significance to contemporary African literature, as some African writers live and write in exile, while others deploy themes and styles that they believe make their works relevant to the global community. Since the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and the end of the cold war at the end of the twentieth century, there has been a triumphalism of liberal democracy, free-market economy and other norms of the capitalist world order. Consequently there appears to be an increasing tendency among scholars to homogenize or globalize the practices and values canvassed by the advanced countries of the West.

In Ojaide's When It No Longer Matters Where You Live, the poet acknowledges the inevitability of some African elites living in exile in Western cosmopolitan centers, but rejects the uncritical notion inherent in globalization that western culture and values were synonymous with universal norms or superior to those of the Africans.     

TEACHING LEADERSHIP AS ENGAGED 21ST CENTURY SOCIAL SCIENCE: A PORTFOLI O OF TRANSITION LEARNING ECOLOGIES

ABSTRACT

This article explores four questions: (1) What are common themes in meaning among the terms social science, engaged social science, leadership, and teaching? (2) What forces are driving the need to make progress teaching leadership as engaged social science? (3) What examples in the author's portfolio illustrate a search for such progress? (4) What lessons do we draw for a future scholarship of teaching? A conclusion from experience in three recent courses (congressional, naval, and private sector-virtual) is a hypothesis that leadership is an important integrative concept in the 21st century social and behavioral sciences, and that the need for leadership practices of a high order is increasing under conditions of hyperturbulent change. Such leadership can be facilitated through problem-based, student-centered learning ecologies that model requirements to deal with the complex demands of changing boundary conditions. These “courses as transition learning ecologies” will be key mechanisms for future diffusion and increase of knowledge. An implication is to question the impact of this reasoning on the status of the public administration field as a social science. We are at the very early stages of learning how to fulfill these requirements.