Now: prefigurative politics through a north Indian lens

This paper focuses on ‘prefigurative politics’ – embodying in the present one's vision of the future – among young people in north India. In so doing it contributes to wider debates on oppositional politics, temporality, India and youth. Building on recent fieldwork in Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh, we highlight the ubiquity of civic-minded everyday forms of prefigurative politics among a subset of young men and young women. We examine the temporality of this politics, which, like other recent prefigurative action across the world, emphasizes acting in the present. Young people in north India tend to view the future not as a point on the horizon but as the precipitate of their daily activities. By identifying the energetic attempts of young people within and beyond India to engage in social action, we also provide a counterpoint to negative stereotypes of youth circulating in the media and some scholarly circles.     

On Active Citizenship: Discourses and Language about Youth and Migrants in Italy

Abstract

The civic and political participation of young people and especially young migrants, who have limited rights of citizenship, is still a significant problem in Italy. Young people struggle to find opportunities and feel excluded from politics: the political agenda tends to see them more as a problem than as a resource. In this article, we illustrate the results of research to understand the dynamics of political and civic participation of young people and what the policy does in their favour. A content analysis of a corpus of European and Italian legislation, policy and planning documents has been undertaken. We also conducted six in-depth interviews with politicians and representatives of Italian nongovernmental organizations in order to investigate (a) policy priorities and institutional points of view, (b) consistency between these priorities and European programmes, and (c) European Union support for the policy actions and projects promoted in Italy about youth. The results showed a general difficulty for young people to ‘engage’ and be engaged in civic and political activities. There is also a gap between the political level and an effective investment which will recognize young people as a real resource.     

澳门青少年廉洁教育的方式与经验

青少年廉洁教育是澳门廉政建设的重要环节,澳门廉政公署将这一环节放在澳门廉政建设的整体布局中稳步推进。青少年的廉洁教育按教育对象的不同采用不同的方式,而相对于大学生和社会青年来说,价值观具备更多可塑性的中、小学生是廉洁教育的重点。澳门廉洁教育的一系列做法,如廉署主导、学校配合的廉洁教育模式、结合青少年的生活环境、寓教于乐地推行廉洁教育以及注重发挥青少年的主动精神和亲身参与等做法,符合青少年的成长规律,具有一定的借鉴价值。     

Young People's Everyday Politics in Post-conflict Sri Lanka

Since the civil war ended in 2009, political spaces in eastern Sri Lanka have remained restricted. The authors examine how young people in areas formerly controlled by or with the presence of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) engage in politics by making safe spaces. A framework for understanding youth politics is presented in order to explain how youths' political spaces are found at the interface of two axes: the axis between political presence and political involvement; and the axis between voiceless politics and vocal politics. Through locating young people's perspectives, practices and realities in relation to these axes, the authors find that war-affected youths in eastern Sri Lanka are stuck in their everyday politics, which prevents their full political presence and involvement. Repolitisation is needed to mobilise youths' political agency.     

Tourism: A Facilitator of Social Awareness in an Indigenous Mexican Community?

As Latin American economies and cultures become increasingly tied to a global political, economic, and social order, indigenous and other marginalized people find themselves at a crossroads where their cultural survival is challenged. Tourism is one important aspect of this new economic order and it is often one of the few resources remaining in countries such as Mexico whose economy has been tied more directly to interests of dominating leaders contributing to this new world order. And while many observers note that tourism often has an exploitative impact on indigenous and marginalized people, this article examines the contradictions in tourism, identifying those economic spaces where the indigenous people have been successful in renegotiating their position with the dominant mestizo group in their community. This article offers provocative insights about the impact of tourism on indigenous people in a community in the northern mountains (Sierra Norte) in Puebla, México. It examines the potential contradictions in tourism under the economic conditions of neoliberalism.     

Weighted student funding in the Netherlands: A model for the U.S.?

Although a relatively new idea in the U.S., weighted student funding (WSF) for individual schools has a long history in the Netherlands. This country of about 16.5 million people has been using a version of WSF for all its primary schools (serving children from age 4 to 12) for 25 years. In this article we describe and evaluate the Dutch system and explore what insights there might be for the U.S., taking into account the very different cultural and normative contexts of the two countries. We find that, compared to those with few weighted students, Dutch schools with high proportions of weighted students have almost 60 percent more teachers per pupil as well as more support staff per teacher. Even these large resource advantages, however, are not sufficient by themselves to eliminate all quality shortfalls in the high‐weight schools, where quality is measured by school policies and practices. We conclude that weighted student funding for schools within districts in the U.S. is not likely to deliver the same highly progressive funding patterns as in the Netherlands because of the complex, multilayered U.S. education system and the absence of a political consensus in favor of generous weights. © 2011 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.     

Why education matters: school ‘choice’ and differing views on citizenship in Pakistan

This article discusses young Pakistanis' self-articulation of their relationship with the state, focusing in particular on the perceptions held by those aged between 15 and 25 and who are in education. The research used a mixed methods approach. Data were collected in 6 private, 11 philanthropic and 3 government schools as well as 2 madrassas and 5 universities in urban, semi-urban and rural areas in Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan. A questionnaire with qualitative and quantitative sections was distributed to class 10 students and over 1000 questionnaires were returned. The research found, on aggregate response, that there is a high sense of belonging to the nation, yet paradoxically also a high sense of alienation with regard to the state. Whilst most of those surveyed professed awareness of their rights and duties, the youth was seen by the same respondents as mostly ignorant of these. The factor that caused the greatest variation was the type of school attended where responses and attitudes regarding the state, rights, responsibilities and citizenship differed markedly. This article discusses how this school ‘choice’ is linked with particular perceptions of citizenship by looking beyond class and problematising the relationship between education and the perceptions of the state.     

School choice in Chile: Is it class or the classroom?

Skeptics of school choice are concerned that parents, especially low‐income ones, will not choose schools based on sound academic reasoning. Many fear that, given choice, parents will sort themselves into different schools along class lines. How‐ever, most surveys find that parents of all socioeconomic groups cite academic aspects as important when choosing a school. Moreover, almost no parents refer to the social composition of the student body. Many advocates of choice hold up these results as proof that choice will produce desirable outcomes. However, these results may not be reliable because they may simply be verbal responses to survey items rather than indicators of actual behavior. In this research, we report on the search behavior of parents in the Metropolitan Region of Santiago, Chile, examining how they construct their school choice sets and comparing this to what they say they are seeking in choosing schools. The data indicate that parental decisions are influenced by demographics. Based on this evidence, we argue that unfettered choice may reduce the pressure on schools to improve their performance and could potentially increase stratification. © 2006 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management     

“A borderline issue”: Are there child soldiers in the United States?

The human rights literature on child soldiers has long emphasized conflict zones in the Global South, fostering the stereotype of the gun-toting African child while ignoring militarizing practices in the West. Of note, the existing human rights legal framework fails to address the reality of Western youth exposed to military recruiting in their schools. Seeking to address this limitation, we examine some of the primary methods the US military employs to “penetrate” American high schools in search of new recruits. We discuss the apparent targeting by military recruiters of communities with large numbers of low-income students, immigrants, and youth of color. Indeed, in many educational settings, students with limited access to college preparatory programs find themselves ensnared in a “web of militarism” that sharply limits their career options. Drawing on primary source material and military recruiting documents, we demonstrate how US schools are sites for the socialization of youth to a culture of militarism and, ultimately, the production of child soldiers. Thus, we argue that the military presence in US schools be included in the debate over the militarization of youth. We conclude by assessing the discourses and organizing strategies employed by US “counter-recruitment” activists, including some of those who use human rights-based arguments to curb militarism in American schools.     

Empowering New Agents of Civil Society or Fostering Good Citizens? Framing Youth Participation in Finnish Youth Organizations

This article investigates how nationwide Finnish youth civil society organizations frame their approaches to youth participation. By analyzing data from interviews, websites, and annual reports, five frames are identified. The frames differ in how they define the purpose of participation, whom they see as the main actors, and what kind of member, volunteer, or other participant roles they provide to young people. Three frames are used as master frames that see young people as agents, learners, or targets of support; two subordinate frames expand the scopes of the organizations. Only some of the frames include any concept of integrating young people into the civil society.     

Spies and scholars in the United States: winds of ambivalence in the groves of academe

Spies and scholars in the United States have had a close, largely hidden, relationship. Both professions are in the business of information acquisition. Spies, though, work for the government, while the allegiance of most scholars is to independent research and teaching. Moreover, spy organizations view students as potential hires; in contrast, scholars are likely to see students as young charges placed in their hands to educate and prepare for lives of consequence. One school of thought argues that, since spies and scholars are both citizens, they should work together in partnership: sharing knowledge to improve the intelligence product, training and recruiting students, warning of radical activities on campus. A second school counters that the university is meant to be a pure and open place, dedicated to unbiased learning and free of government ties – especially entanglements with secret agencies. Campuses can find themselves torn between the two schools, caught up in a swirl of practical and moral issues that lead to a sense of ambivalence about the proper relationship between the academy and a nation’s secret services.     

Implementing children’s right to be heard: Local attenuations of a global commitment

A critical challenge for human rights and human security alike turns on diminution of subject audibility and voice and the reduction of rights-bearing subjects to mere referent objects of security. Owing in part to inadequate theorization of child/youth subjecthood, this problem is especially acute where the rights and security of young people are at issue. Though the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child makes specific provision for recovery of the voices of children and youth, this may be frustrated at implementation in local settings. Moving beyond the Global South, where this problem has been more readily acknowledged, this article inquires into practices that undermine child/youth rights by reinforcing the subject/object positions of protector/protected in ways that disallow young people’s articulations of their best interests and security needs. Spurious presumptions about young people’s (in)capacity for independent subjecthood as well as emergent rhetorical technologies of silencing and voice-denial are identified.     

Labour's Lost Youth: Young People and the Labour Party's Youth Sections

Falling levels of membership and activism are threatening the Labour Party's status as a mass party. This problem has to be seen in the context of growing disillusionment with formal politics in Britain, especially among young people. If Labour continues to fail in socialising future generations of members and activists into its mission, its fate will be sealed. This article examines Labour's relationship with young people, with particular attention to the organisation of the Party's youth sections. It utilises the results of original research into the attitudes of young members to diagnose the problem of young people in the Labour Party, and assesses the prospects of meaningful reform.     

An Exploratory Study on International R&D Strategies of Chinese Companies in Europe

We here present a study that arms the reader with various discussion points on the research and development (R&D) foreign direct investment (FDI) strategies of Chinese multinational corporations (MNCs) in Europe. Through archival research and interviews, we adopted a multi‐case study approach to investigate how significant are these investments and how relevant do they become for the local innovation systems. Our analysis shows that the establishment of R&D centers, and more importantly the evolution of these centers, does not coincide with what international business theories would have predicted. The Chinese MNCs considered entered Europe in a variety of forms, guided by various learning goals. However, we found evidence of the growing tendency of these companies to insulate themselves from local partners and to engage in less explorative and more exploitative R&D activity, adapting technologies developed elsewhere for the European market, gaining access to good indigenous labor and technologies rather than to local partnerships.     

Teaching Race and Social Justice at a Predominantly White Institution

At our predominantly white university, students often shy away from controversial conversations. How can the classroom encourage students to value and engage in potentially explosive conversations? We develop a concept of “empathic scaffolding” to articulate an approach that integrates diversity and inclusion into the classroom. Empathic scaffolding structures content and pedagogy in a way that strategically expands students’ zones of comfort, starting with very personal experiences with the material and expanding to include broader groups of people and course concepts. Understanding and engaging with these concentric circles of students’ relationships to the course material is crucial if students are to hear and engage with voices to which they may have limited exposure. This article documents the best practices of implementing empathic scaffolding in the realms of content and pedagogy, offering a toolkit for professors to critically engage conversations about race and social justice.     

Does choice lead to racially distinctive schools? Charter schools and household preferences

A persistent fear regarding school choice is that it will lead to more racially distinctive schools. A growing number of studies compares choosing households to non‐choosing households, but few have examined the possibility that choosers sort themselves out based upon school preferences that are correlated with race and ethnicity. This report addresses this issue by analyzing the responses of 1,006 charter school households in Texas. It first examines the expressed preferences of choosing households, then compares expressed preferences with behavior. A comparison of the characteristics of the traditional public schools that choosers leave with the characteristics of the charter schools they choose indicates that race is a good predictor of the choices that choosing households make. Whites, African Americans, and Latinos transfer into charter schools where their groups comprise between 11 and 14 percentage points more of the student body than the traditional public schools they are leaving. © 2002 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.     

Choice in a World of New School Types

As school choice options have evolved over recent years, it is important to understand what family and school factors are associated with the enrollment decisions families make. Use of restricted‐access data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study allowed us to identify household location from a nationally representative sample of students and to match households to the actual schools attended and other nearby schools. This matching is significant as previous research generally has not been able to link individual households to school enrollment decisions. Using these data, we examined the role that socioeconomic status, race, and ethnicity play in school enrollment decisions. One of our more interesting results suggests that the newest public alternative, charter schools, attracts families with higher socioeconomic status than those that traditional public schools attract. The attraction of charter schools, however, unlike traditional public schools, appears to be racially and ethnically neutral. Families do not choose a charter school because of its racial or ethnic composition, nor do race and ethnicity within a household influence its choice of charter schools. Other socioeconomic factors influencing charter school choice are more similar to factors explaining private school choice than to those factors explaining the choice of traditional public schools. The findings suggest that policies governing the design of charter schools should focus on broader socioeconomic diversity rather than race only.     

Making civic engagement go viral: Applying social epidemiology principles to civic education

This paper explores the connections between education for youth civic engagement and theories and strategies from public health (specifically, epidemiology). We illustrate this with four applications of epidemiologic theory to youth civic engagement: social determinants and fundamental causes, vulnerable populations and cumulative disadvantage, positive spillover, and herd immunity and critical mass. Formalizing concepts of current civics, in schools and the public, as a civic epidemic, we present a case for individual‐ and group‐level interventions based around targeted, school‐based, effective civic education initiatives. Grounded in epidemiological theory, such approaches call attention to the simultaneous need to improve broad civics education and ensure that particular populations receive necessary attentions.     

Citizenship,justice and indigenous group‐specific rights—citizenship and indigenous Australia

Indigenous Australians and those supporting the cause of Aboriginal justice have used the language of citizenship rights to demand redress for indigenous peoples’ relative disadvantage. In doing so they make an appeal to rights of full participatory citizenship which have their roots in T.H. Marshall's writings. Liberal political theory, however, has resisted conceptions of citizenship which entail rights of assistance from the state: rights to welfare are more readily conceived of as charitable acts towards those members of a society unable to care for themselves. Unless the assumptions implicit in liberal conceptions of citizenship are challenged, demands for positive citizenship rights may re‐enforce stereotypes of Aboriginal inferiority. Drawing on Will Kymlicka's recent work, this article critically examines liberal conceptions of citizenship, welfare and demands for indigenous group‐specific rights as they may apply to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander citizenship.