Pursuing partnership: World Vision and the ideology of development - a case study

This paper examines the role of ideology in underpinning the operations of major development movements. As a confessional NGO, World Vision (WV) presents a useful case study; and this article examines the influence on this NGO of the interaction between ideology and wider development trends. It is argued that from roots in a specific cultural expression of Christianity-which enabled a highly focused and homogeneous ethos-WV's ideology has been transformed by growth and diversification into a fusion of mainstream Christianity and the pursuit of the concept of partnership; a process which underlines the role of development and geo-political forces constantly to challenge NGOs' self-image and strategic directions.     

End of an Era? Anti‐Americanism in the Australian Labor Party

Anti‐Americanism, sometimes called the “last acceptable prejudice”, is a common phenomenon in the modern era. This paper explores the ebb and flow of anti‐Americanism in the Australian Labor Party in the post‐Second World War period and argues that while at times it was reasonable or proportionate, at others such criticism became unreasonable, disproportionate and therefore prejudicial. When this occurs the Australia‐US alliance can become strained, the Australian electorate tends to become sceptical of the ALP's credentials on national security and the party's electoral prospects also tend to suffer. Nevertheless, following the brief leadership of the stridently anti‐American Mark Latham, such sentiment in the ALP has been widely discredited and is unlikely to emerge again in its prejudicial form for some time, marking the end of an era.     

History, War, and the Future

This article aims to delineate several issues raised by an historically based approach to understanding the present and the future. Beginning with a discussion of the profound impact that drastic changes have had on the international environment, the article then outlines what history suggests about human nature's influence on the course of future events; the future of war; the nature of governance and the United States. This essay does not attempt to provide answers, but rather suggests how policy makers, strategists, and military leaders might think through the complex political and cultural questions they need to be asking in the making of strategy. This is the essential first step for Americans. If they fail to ask the right questions, most answers will prove irrelevant to the challenges of the future.     

Infighting and Ideology: How Conflict Informs the Local Culture of the Chicago Dyke March

Although the study of local cultures has become established in American sociology, it often ignores the contested nature of how culture emerges and is negotiated within the context of small groups. To this end, we address the concept of infighting, a subtype of conflict, as it operates within a small group framework. Building on an ethnographic study of the Chicago Dyke March, we demonstrate that infighting highlights competing ideologies that may remain implicit in the absence of such conflict. Infighting treats divergent meaning systems as part of local contention between rival cliques and power centers. These ideological battles both reflect pre-existing differences between subgroups and serve to make explicit and public such differences, both in their background characteristics and in their interests. In the process infighting directs attention away from shared concerns and group building to questions of strategy, transforming the small group into an arena of ideological production and factional rivalry. Infighting recasts a group from a space of consensus to a contested political arena. We elaborate four analytic processes through which infighting connects to ideology and small group culture: infighting emphasizes the multivocality of meaning, cultural heterogeneity, an equilibrium of inclusion and group boundaries, and planning in light of ideologies of power.     

Alcohol Consumption and Females’ Recognition in Response to Date Rape Risk: The Role of Sex-Related Alcohol Expectancies

This study examined the pharmacological and psychological effects of alcohol on women’s recognition of and response to dating sexual aggression. Female participants completed measures of prior sexual victimization experiences, sex related alcohol expectancies, general alcohol expectancies, and drinking habits. Using a 2 (alcohol) × 2 (expectancy) balanced placebo research design, women were exposed to an audiotape date rape vignette and asked to press a button when the man’s sexual advances had gone to far. Upon pressing the button, the tape was stopped and participants were instructed to imagine themselves in the same situation and generate a response describing what they would say and/or do at that point. Results indicated that although alcohol and expectancy were not related to risk perception, individuals who consumed alcohol displayed significantly less resistant role play refusals. A significant interaction between expectancy set and pre-existing sex-related alcohol expectancies was observed indicating participants believing alcohol affects sexual behavior generated less resistant refusal responses when they expected to receive alcohol. Moreover, for those who expected to receive alcohol, stronger pre-existing sex-related alcohol expectancies predicted less resistant refusal responses over above the effects of blood alcohol level and general alcohol expectancies. The implications of these findings are discussed.