FROM SINGING GIRL TO REVOLUTIONARY ARTIST: FEMALE ENTERTAINERS REMEMBERING CHINA’S SOCIALIST PAST (1949–THE PRESENT)

Abstract

This article explores a unique aspect of gendered socialism by examining the competing narratives of the state and individuals’ oral accounts, particularly the stories of former singing girls and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) cadres. During the socialist transformation of the 1950s, singing girls-turned-revolutionary artists, as popular performers and new socialist women, found mutual interests with the CCP: political propaganda for the Party, making profit for the troupe, and self-transformation for the girls. This article argues that the Party and former singing girls enacted a uniquely gendered socialism by continuously deploying the singing girls’ cultural and financial influence colored with their erotic image. In addition, this essay treats oral history as a process of identity and history construction rather than as “fact.”     

Peer Relations,Violence and School Attendance: Analyses of Bullying in Senior High Schools in Ghana

Abstract

This article focuses on bullying among students and explores the ways it affects the attendance of senior high school students in Ghana. It explores whether having emotional problems, in addition to being bullied, incrementally affects the relationship between bullying and school attendance and the mitigating influence of peer friendships on these relationships. The results show gender differences in which absenteeism associated with bullying was mitigated by the support of friends for boys but not to the same degree for girls, especially those girls who had reported being psychologically bullied. Our findings suggest a school environment in which peer friendship and emotional wellbeing are intertwined in complex ways.     

Informal borrowing sources and uses: insights from the North West Region,Cameroon

Abstract

This article seeks to analyse the informal borrowing sources of the poor as well as the purposes for borrowing. The obsession on characterising the poor as financially excluded fails to grasp their active financial lives. This article emphasises how relations of credit/debt are rooted in complex social and cultural forces. It is precisely because of the social embeddedness of credit that family finance, though interest-free, is not a first resort. Similarly, credit in kind from shopkeepers, though critical to consumption smoothing, is detested by some people. Also, it is argued that the involvement of the traditional leader in repayment enforcement in informal financial groups challenges the economistic narrative that attempts to separate credit from cultural norms.     

Cultural associations,clothing and food as markers of cultural identity in testimonies of Cameroonian forced migrants in Johannesburg

Abstract

The article examines the construction of cultural identity and the expression of cultural exclusivity in the testimonies of Cameroonian forced migrants in the metropolitan city of Johannesburg. It also explores the way the social conditions of Cameroonians have forged a process of culture integration as a survival mechanism, subverting their impassioned attachment to cultural roots and claims of cultural exclusivity. Here, the article addresses three mediums for the formation of cultural identity, namely cultural associations, clothing and traditional cuisine and one main signifier of integration – intermarriage. It draws on the premise that because of the discrepant political ideologies of Cameroonians in Johannesburg, the construction of identity within this community of migrants has tended to fracture along cultural lines. It also draws on the theoretical underpinning that the upsurge in global migration has increased the chances of culture hybridization.     

Lessons from Experiences of Syrian Civil Society in Refugee Education of Turkey

Abstract

Turkey arranges for the protection of about 1.7 million Syrian refugee children on its territory. This article addresses initiatives and policies towards Syrian children in Turkey, considering characteristics and paradigm shift of refugee education in which hosting large refugee populations. It focuses on experiences of refugee community organizations (RCOs) working on the matter of education. Drawing on an exploratory case study with purposively selected Syrian RCOs in Istanbul, it particularly investigates to explore activities of “Temporary Education Centers” emerging in the emergency-based perspective in early times of Syrian refugee migration and radically disappearing in the integration-based interventions of the State. We will discuss handicaps of making schools refugee places linking with the socio-political conditions of post-displacement and possibilities of cultural orientation of the refugee agency.     

Sing,eat, pray: transmission of tradition in Lemba communities in Southern Africa

ABSTRACT

Most Lemba traditions and customs are transmitted by means of songs, chants, recitations, praises, proverbs, and prayers, in addition to written documents. Songs, recitations, and certain prayers could be described as poems or set speech; they form part of everyday language and are memorised. Others are sung, chanted, or prayed only on special occasions, such as the ritual slaughter of animals or during circumcision rites. The way the Lemba sing, eat, and pray expresses their unity and their conscious transferal and reinforcement of cultural and religious identity. It also reflects their understanding of their origin and the belief that their religious-cultural practices (embedded in an African culture) have been handed down to them from their Hebrew ancestors.     

Globalization,governance, and Administrative Culture

ABSTRACT

Globalization forces are colliding with international and national systems of governance, giving rise to a limited sovereignty of the nation-state. Globalization has also negatively affected poor countries and, in its wake, contributed to violence, hunger, and deprivation despite its powerful technological innovations and new economic, cultural, administrative, and political initiatives. This study conceives globalization, good governance, and the culture of governing as inextricably connected. After reviewing positions by proponents and opponents, the authors conclude that the dysfunctions of globalization are threatening the very foundation of developing nations’ systems of effective governance. Based on a review of developments in countries of the Middle East and South Asia, the authors believe that to serve the transformative process, leading to good governance and democratic development, globalization has to take account of important indigenous value systems.     

Regional Modernization in China: Project Concept and Organization

Abstract

During the May Fourth Culture Movement, Chen Duxiu from New Youth and Du Yaquan of Eastern Miscellany engaged in a series of heated exchanges in their common search for a solution to the Republican crisis and an understanding of World War I. Du argued that nation-states are founded on the cultural and civilizational orientation of its people, therefore the essence of war and the source of political conflict are functions of the thoughts of the people. This insight shifted the debate from the political to the cultural arena, and allowed the May Fourth intellectuals to examine the attributes of Eastern and Western civilizations as a way to counter the threats of Hongxian monarchism, China’s political and social fragmentation, as well as the inadequacies of Western nation-statehood. Du predicted that the future master of the twentieth century would be a scientific laborer with a cultural outlook derived from the mediation of the traditional Chinese and twentieth-century European civilizations.¹     

Girls as “Weapons of Terror” in Northern Uganda and Sierra Leonean Rebel Fighting Forces

Girls—both willingly and unwillingly—participate in terrorist acts within the context of contemporary wars. These acts range from targeting civilians for torture and killing to destroying community infrastructures so that people's physical and psychological health and survival are affected. Girls witness or participate in acts such as mutilation, human sacrifice, forced cannibalism, drug use, and physical and psychological deprivation. This article focuses upon girls in two fighting forces: the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in Northern Uganda and the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in Sierra Leone and their roles as combatants whose primary strategy is perpetrating terrorist acts against civilians. In analyses of gender and terrorism, girls are typically subsumed under the larger category of female, which marginalizes their experiences and fails to recognize that they possess agency and power.     

From global workers to local entrepreneurs: Sri Lanka’s former global factory workers in rural Sri Lanka

Abstract

Working in Sri Lanka’s urban free trade zones (FTZs) introduces Sri Lanka’s rural women to neoliberal ways of fashioning selves, which subsequently not only shape village entrepreneurial activities but also initiate negotiations in kinship, marriage, domestic arrangements, and community relations. The knowledges and networks that they develop while at the FTZ allow former workers to connect with global production networks as subcontractors, making them part of the cascading system of subcontracting that furthers the precarity of regular FTZ work. This article explores how these former workers manipulate varied forms of capital – social, cultural and monetary – to become local entrepreneurs and community leaders, while simultaneously initiating changes in rural social hierarchies and gender norms. When neoliberal economic restructuring manifests within local contexts it results in new articulations of what it is to be an entrepreneur and what it is to be a worthy, young, married woman. Overall, the paper sheds light on the fragmented and uneven manner in which neoliberal ethos take root in rural South Asia.     

The Challenge of Providing Culturally and Linguistically Accessible Human Services in Rural and Increasingly Diverse Communities

Abstract

This paper uses a case study of one small rural community in New England to educate social workers, other human service professionals on linguistic, cultural accessibility issues with clients who have Limited English Proficiency (LEP). The relevant civil rights law, case law, federal guidelines, which form a framework of protection for persons with LEP are presented, used as a mirror to which human service efforts to meet linguistic, cultural accessibility are held. Finally, strategies for small rural communities with multiple small populations of persons with LEP are presented.     

Immigration to Egypt

Abstract

With more than three million Egyptians abroad, Egypt is always regarded in the migration literature as a labor-sending country. Hundreds of articles and books were written on Egypt as a sending country, while few articles regarded Egypt as a receiving country. This paper is an attempt to shed light on the role of Egypt as a country of immigration, rather than emigration. Since most of the immigrant populations in Egypt are refugees, the main focus of this paper is the exploration of refugee communities in Egypt and their socioeconomic, juridical, and political situation. Key gaps in the literature are also identified.     

A psychological perspective on moral reasoning,processes of decision-making,and moral resistance

ABSTRACT

This article presents a psychological approach on the development of social and moral judgments that has relevance for the topics of public justification and world politics. In contrast with approaches assuming that morality is primarily determined by emotions and non-rational, the research discussed shows that moral development involves the construction of thinking about welfare, justice, and rights. In parallel with judgments in the moral domain, individuals construct judgments about conventions in the social system and areas of personal jurisdiction. Research documents that moral and social decisions involve processes of coordination, or weighing and balancing, moral and non-moral considerations and goals, as well as different moral goals. Processes of coordination are also involved in decisions about cultural practices that include social inequalities and relationships between those in dominant and subordinate positions in social hierarchies. Judgments about the fairness of practices entailing inequalities produce social opposition and moral resistance.     

The politics of return: exploring the future of Syrian refugees in Jordan,Lebanon and Turkey

Abstract

Although the Syrian conflict continues, local and global stakeholders have already begun to consider the return of the six million refugees, especially as neither the option of local integration in the countries of first asylum nor that of resettlement to third countries is seen as a realistic possibility. Elaborating on the return debates in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan, we relate the politicisation of this question to the growing acceptance of the option of voluntary and involuntary repatriation in the international refugee regime as well as to policies and public opinion. We argue, based on empirical fieldwork, that any debate about the return of Syrian refugees is problematic, since the conditions of safety, voluntariness and sustainability are not fulfilled. Further, returns should not be left entirely to the individual hosting states and actors in the region but should be carried out in collaboration with representative authorities in Syria and the mediation of international organisations upon full resolution of conflict.     

A ‘synchronised attack’ on life: the Saudi-led coalition’s ‘hidden and holistic’ genocide in Yemen and the shared responsibility of the US and UK

Abstract

Since the Saudi-led coalition (Coalition) began its military campaign in Yemen in March 2015, upwards of 13,000 Yemen civilians have been killed, including nearly 2000 women and 3000 children. Additionally, Coalition aerial attacks have intentionally targeted Yemen’s civilian infrastructure, economic infrastructure, medical facilities and cultural heritage. Combined with the ongoing air and naval blockade, which has impeded the ability of Yemenis to access clean water, food, fuel and health services, the violence visited upon Yemen has created near-famine conditions. Furthermore, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) predicts another imminent outbreak of cholera, with the potential to be as deadly as last year’s which infected more than one million children and killed a child every 10?minutes. Through engagement with genocide studies literature, this article applies a holistic conception of genocide to the Coalition military campaign. It finds that the Coalition is conducting an ongoing campaign of genocide by a ‘synchronised attack’ on all aspects of life in Yemen, one that is only possible with the complicity of the United States and United Kingdom.     

Rethinking the future-seeking narrative of child migration: the case of Ethiopian adolescent domestic workers in the Middle East

ABSTRACT

Recent research on child migration has largely departed from the early trafficking narrative and has tended to highlight young people’s agency and the ways in which children’s migration can play a key role in their ‘future-seeking’. While we acknowledge that Ethiopian girls migrating to the Middle East in order to undertake domestic work primarily move voluntarily for economic reasons, our research – which used a multi-layered, qualitative research approach with girls and their families in the West Gojjam and North Wollo Zones of the Amhara National Regional State – found that the financial, physical, and psychological costs of such migration can far outweigh the benefits. Indeed, we conclude that the earlier trafficking narrative may, in this case, represent the most appropriate lens through which to view girls’ choices and experiences.     

Contract Scholars,Friendly Philanthropists and Feminist Activists: new development subjects in the Pacific

Abstract

Understanding new actors in development requires a reconsideration of how subjects come to be and how collectivities are formed. This paper works with post-structuralist notions of subjectivities and collectivities as ‘series’ in three distinct cultural historical geographies to show the subtle ambiguities in contemporary practices of development. Working with Iris Marion Young's conceptualisation of seriality, it provides an Antipodean perspective on the entanglements of contemporary critical geography with new development actors through case studies of indigenous scholars in Te Rarawa in Aotearoa/New Zealand, of contract scholars and a philanthropist in West Bengal and of feminist activist scholars in the Pacific. In doing so, it points to the need to radically rethink participation in development by closely analysing the ways in which the subjects are constituted, and the critical role of visions within development narratives, actions and practice.     

Transcultural body spaces: re-inventing and performing headwrap practice among young Congolese women in London

ABSTRACT

This article examines embodied representation of race, ethnicity, and gender, questioning ideas of cultural appropriation. Using the London-based Congolese transnational fashion brand Kiyana Wraps as a case study, the article addresses how young Congolese designers re-invent their cultural heritage to conceive the label stylisation and construct meanings of Blackness/Africanness. The article also explores the brand’s social spaces, where the headwrap ritual is used by different actors to perform hybrid identities. In addition, wearing the headwrap reveals symbolic metaphors of empowerment, through which intertwined ‘feminist’ and ‘feminine’ identities are evoked. The paper examines how Congolese women are creatively taking inspiration from the environment of London to produce innovative fashion trajectories as lived socio-cultural experiences. It argues how the headwrap ritual signifies an aesthetic and material process through which specific racial and ethnic boundaries are transcended, fabricating transcultural body spaces which encompass individuals with diverse cultural backgrounds.     

Counting the Soviet Union’s War Dead: Still 26–27 Million

Abstract

How many Soviet citizens died because of World War II? A new estimate of the Soviet war dead is 42 million. This figure, from Russian historian Igor’ Ivlev, is at least 15 million more than the 26–27 million previously estimated by Russian demographers Andreev, Darskii and Khar’kova and widely accepted for a quarter of a century. I consider the implications of the two estimates for the Soviet demographic accounts, contrast their sources and methods, and conclude that the new figure lacks substantial foundations. On existing knowledge, the best estimate of Soviet war dead remains 26–27 million.     

Problem-Solving Courts in China: Background,Development, and Current Status

ABSTRACT

As a judicial system, the Chinese problem-solving courts are more deeply rooted in traditional judicial approaches than in therapeutic jurisprudence that fueled the movement in the West. Nevertheless, they share many similarities with problem-solving courts developed elsewhere in the world. To provide a better understanding of the courts, the authors first introduce the cultural and legal tradition that served as background for the judicial innovations. They then review the social and economic conditions that provided the impetus for the judicial reform. Next, they examine the two most common forms of the problem-solving court—the juvenile court and the family court—and identify their key functions and procedures. Last, the authors discuss the significance of the legal reform, the challenges it confronts, and improvement it can achieve.