Beyond risk theory: suicidal behavior in its social and epidemiological context

The effect of exposure to risk factors for suicidal behavior varies from place to place and from period to period. This may be due to contextual influences, which arise if individuals' suicide risk depends not only on their personal exposure to risk or protective factors, but also on how these are distributed in their social, cultural, economic, or even physical environments. There has been relatively little explicit attention in suicide research for such contextual influences even though they are an important component of the cross-level bias, which can arise when aggregate level associations are assumed to also apply in individuals and vice versa. Contextual effects are conceptually related to the issues of social selection vs. causation, population density, and network effects. Because of a lack of prospective multilevel research, it is unclear exactly which mechanisms underlie the phenomenon that the distribution of risk factors in an individual's context may affect their suicide risk above and beyond their personal exposure. A number of mechanisms, like deviancy amplification, formalization of restraints, and buffering effects of social support are proposed. Contextual effects may result in a concentration of suicide risk in persons when the risk factors they are exposed to become rare--whether spontaneously or through focused prevention. This has important but mostly overlooked implications for population-based prevention strategies.     

Nationalism and social welfare in the post-Soviet context

This paper offers hypotheses on the role that state social welfare measures can play in reflecting nationalism and in aggravating interethnic tensions. Social welfare is often overlooked in theoretical literature on nationalism, because of the widespread assumption that the welfare state promotes social cohesion. However, social welfare systems may face contradictions between the goal of promoting universal access to all citizens on the one hand, and social pressures to recognize particular groups in distinct ways on the other. Examples from the post-Soviet context (particularly Russia) are offered to illustrate the ways in which social welfare issues may be perceived as having ethnic connotations.     

外国执政党促进社会活力与和谐的做法

和谐社会建设是一项复杂的系统工程,而社会创造力和活力是和谐社会的一个重要组成部分.外国政党形态不同、功能各异、作用不一,其组织形式、运作模式、发展程度、执政能力差别很大,并深受本国的历史传统文化、经济发展水平、民族风俗习惯等多种因素的影响和制约.但是,外国执政党从执政理念、制度建设和具体做法等方面,均十分重视建设一个充满活力的和谐社会.     

Presidential popularity in a context of economic crisis and political change: The case of Mexico

The study shows how presidential approval ratings in Mexico during an era of crisis have been shaped by citizen reactions to environmental conditions but also by the effects of the transition toward a more competitive electoral system. Regime transitions toward greater democracy in Latin America and elsewhere may hold important implications for the formation of public opinion and mass political behavior. Charles L. Davis is associate professor of political science at the University of Kentucky. His interests include comparative politics, political psychology, and Latin America. Ronald E. Langley has been affiliated with the department of political science at the University of Kentucky. His recent research interests are public opinion and presidential politics.     

Mobility in pastoral societies of Northern Mali: Perspectives on social and political rationales

Since the 1980s, the so-called “nomadic” populations in the regions of Northern Mali and Niger have embarked on an extensive process of settlement. Today they mostly live in villages or “settlement sites”. But, at the same time, individuals and small groups among these same populations have considerably enlarged their area of mobility and accelerated the rate and the value of the trade in which they engage. These two phenomena could, at first sight, appear contradictory. But the observation of empirical situations shows, rather, compatibilities, similarities even, between these two concomitant phenomena. Building on innovative debates conducted in geography and sociology, this article puts forward the hypothesis that the building of villages, as well as integration into military bases and barracks, proceeds from (social) rationales of mobility, just as much as transhumance, journeys, migration. Much more than a simple displacement in space, the notion of mobility could describe an “art of doing”, a way of being to others and to the world.     

Converging social justice issues and movements: implications for political actions and research

Abstract

We argue that the multiple contemporary converging crises have significantly altered the context for and object of political contestations around agrarian, climate, environmental and food justice issues. These shifts affect alliances, collaboration and conflict among and between state and social forces, as well as within and between movements and societies. The actual implications and mechanisms by which these changes are happening are empirical questions that need careful investigation. The bulk of our discussion is dedicated to the issue of responses to the crises both by capitalist forces and those adversely affected by the crises, and the implications of these for academic research and political activist work. More specifically, we explore four thematic clusters, namely (1) class and intersectionality; (2) sectoral and multisectoral issues and concerns; (3) importance of immediate, tactical and concrete issues of working people; and (4) links between national and global institutional spaces and political processes. We know only a little about the questions we framed here, but it is just enough to give us the confidence to argue that these questions are areas of inquiry that deserve closer attention in terms of both academic research and political debates and actions.     

美国的科技优势与国际政治经济霸权

美国是当代国际体系中国际竞争力最强的国家,是世界的头号科技大国.美国的科技优势成就和维系了美国在当今世界政治经济的实力和霸权地位,对世界格局和国际关系也产生着巨大而深刻的影响.     

Convergence as political strategy: social justice movements,natural resources and climate change

Abstract

Critical scholars and activists have now been contending with a widely recognised convergence of global crises for a decade. The issues have intersected decisively, with staple food sources proving inaccessible for the world’s poor, banks foreclosing on the most vulnerable, fuel sources causing war and impacting migration, and climate change-related instabilities shaking low-income communities to their core. At the same time, agrarian, environmental, indigenous and fishers’ movements – among others – have used this moment to converge in their own right. This article explores this intertwining of social justice movements with an eye on such interrelated challenges. Its overall objective is, on one side, to provide some broad empirical brushstrokes on the intertwining of transnational social justice movements at the local, national and regional scales as they work with and trade frameworks of food sovereignty and climate justice. On the flip side, this article offers a set of tools to analyse and understand the politics of convergence as political strategy – as a means of advancing global social justice – against the rising tide of climate-related resource grabs.     

美国对华经贸摩擦的政治动因

当前,以纺织品为代表的中美贸易争端持续吸引着全世界的目光.争端主要由美国挑起,手段也从原来的反倾销、技术壁垒等手段,发展到现在的"非市场经济条款"、"特保条款"及临时保障措施等.中美贸易争端除了客观存在的巨大贸易逆差这一表面原因以外,还有更深层次的政治和意识形态因素.     

A political economy for social movements and revolution: popular media access,power and cultural hegemony

Abstract

One key marker of mass social movements transitioning to participatory democratic governance is popular media access. This essay argues that democratic media access by public constituencies becomes a site for constructing social revolution and simultaneously a manifest empirical measure of the extent of democratic participation in the production, distribution, and use of communication with new cultural possibilities. The participatory production practices (with citizens producing and hosting their own programs) and the democratic content (of oral histories, local issues, critiques of government and business, and everyday vernacular) reflect the hegemony of emerging ‘Bolivarian’ twenty-first century socialism expressed as popular participation in media production. Bolstered by constitutional changes and public funding, popular social movements of civil society, indigenous, women, and working class organizations have gained revolutionary ground by securing in practice the right of media production. Findings indicate that public and community media (that move beyond alternative sites of local expression and concerns) provide a startling revolutionary contrast to the commercial media operations in every nation. Popular media constructions suggest a new radically democratic cultural hegemony based on human solidarity with collective, participatory decision-making and cooperation offering real possibilities and experiences for increased equality and social justice.     

The denial syndrome and its consequences: Serbian political culture since 2000

Since the outbreak of the War of Yugoslav Succession in 1991 and the subsequent atrocities, a significant portion of Serbian society, including the upper echelons of the government, has displayed symptoms of the denial syndrome, in which guilt is transposed onto the Croats, Bosniaks, and Kosovar Albanians. This syndrome is also associated with a veneration for the victimized hero, with sinister attribution error, and with tendencies toward dysphoric rumination. In the Serbian case, it has also been associated with efforts to whitewash the role played by Serbs such as Milan Nedić and Draža Mihailović during World War Two and has reinforced feelings of self-righteousness in Belgrade's insisting on its sovereignty over the disputed province of Kosovo.     

The contradictions of neo-extractivism and social policy: the role of raw material exports in the Brazilian political crisis

This article explores how contradictory development tendencies within Brazil’s primary sector have contributed to the country’s enduring political crisis. I show that President Rousseff, when dealing with declining royalty payments from natural resource exports and a decrease in tax revenue from imports, financed social policies in ways that her opponents branded as unconstitutional to remove her from power. After documenting the central players within the political crisis, namely those who have been under investigation in Operação Lava Jato (Operation Car Wash), I illustrate how the ongoing corruption scandals plaguing Brazil have their roots in the country’s raw material export industries.