‘Frenchmen’ in Polish Mines: The Politics of Productivity in Coal Mining in Poland 1946–1948

In the period 1946–1948, 13,721 Polish miners were repatriated by the state from France to Poland. The repatriation was vital to the development of coal mining. This repatriation was distinct because it did not involve returning to Poland people who had been displaced during the war. These Poles had emigrated to France during the interwar period. After a successful start, when over 5,000 men and their families came to Poland in 1946, the project came to a halt. Poland was not a welcoming environment for these men and France wanted to retain them.     

The Political Potential of Mindful Embodiment

This article argues that the emerging literature on mindfulness tends to de-emphasize embodiment, both in how it theoretically defines mindfulness, as well as in terms of the practices it tends to study. Alternatively, the article argues that a focus on embodiment is key to articulating the political potential of mindfulness. An emphasis on mindful embodiment, both in theory and in practice, can issue a challenge to the latent mind–body dualism of much of the theoretical discourse on mindfulness and highlights the capacities of relationality, empathy, and attunement, capacities which are the foundation of the political significance of mindfulness. Practices of mindful embodiment provide a counterpoint to the focus upon contemplation in the mindfulness literature and help to refute the concern that mindfulness practice is solipsistic and apolitical. The article concludes by exploring the Occupy Wall Street movement as illustrative of the significance of mindful embodiment to contemporary social movements.     

A Multidisciplinary Approach to Detecting and Responding to Elder Mistreatment: Creating a University-Community Partnership

As the aging population grows, the problem of elder mistreatment is escalating. Cases of elder mistreatment are anticipated to increase further as the—baby boomers age and the number of elderly individuals living and receiving care at home increases (Stiegel 2006; Kennedy 2005; Meeks-Sjostrom 2004). While there has been increasing attention placed on understanding the dynamic of elder mistreatment, advancement of public policy and scholarly work has been hampered due to the fact that much of this work occurs in disciplinary silos. This paper spotlights one example in which university scholars from various disciplines partnered with social service providers, legal professionals, and healthcare educators in the community to enhance the development of a sustainable comprehensive elder justice network.     

Review article

Janusz Bugajski and Maxine Pollock, East European Fault Lines: Dissent, Opposition, and Social Activism. Boulder: Westview Press, 1989. 332 pp., index, paper: $42.50.

H. Stuart Hughes, Sophisticated Rebels: the Political Culture of European Dissent, 1968–1987. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1988. 171 pp., index, cloth: $20.00.

H. Gordon Skilling, Samizdat and an Independent Society in Central and Eastern Europe Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1989. 293 pp., index, cloth.     

Obstacles to citizen participation by direct democracy in Latin America: a comparative regional analysis of legal frameworks and evidence from the Costa Rican case

Starting from the 1980s, institutions of direct democracy were introduced into most Latin American constitutions. To date, the practical application of these institutions remains almost exclusively restricted to the subtype of government plebiscites while the use of citizen initiated instruments remains scarce. To explain the region's low frequency of use of citizen initiated instruments of direct democracy this explorative study proceeds in three sections. The first recapitulates regulatory legislation on, and practical experience with direct democracy in Latin America. The second proposes and applies an index for the comparative measurement of legal obstacles provided by institutional frameworks and goes on to discuss further explanatory propositions on factors that may interact with these legal obstacles to obstruct direct democratic citizen participation. Finally, these hypotheses are tested through an interview-based study with actors involved in the recent practical experience with direct democracy in Costa Rica. The study concludes that the institutional design of citizen initiated instruments of direct democracy alone does not suffice to explain the frequency of their practical application. Rather than this, application frequency appears to be a function of the combined interactive effects of legal institutional factors with sociological and political party factors such as strategic action preferences and party elites' attitudes.     

Institutions of Direct Democracy and Accountability in Latin America's Presidential Democracies

The crisis of representative democracy in Latin America became apparent in a wave of constitutional reforms during the 1990s. A striking feature of these reforms was the incorporation of institutions of direct democracy (IDD) into most post-transitional Latin American constitutions. Despite the shortage of efficient mechanisms of accountability and its concomitant weakening of democratic consolidation in the region, the potential of IDD to bolster accountability in the representative structures of presidential democracies has not yet received systematic scholarly attention. To fill this theoretical gap, the article presents a typology designed to assess the accountability potential of IDD, which is used to classify the constitutional provisions for direct democracy in Latin America's 18 presidential democracies. After juxtaposing the findings of constitutional analysis to the actual record of direct democracy in the region, the article concludes that there is a considerable discrepancy between constitutional accountability potential and the empirical evidence. Whereas the adoption of IDD has hardly affected the vertical dimension of accountability, the practice whereby presidents use referendums to bypass legislative opposition has worked to the detriment of the horizontal dimension of accountability.     

The frequency of alcohol,illicit and licit drug consumption in the general driving population in South-East Hungary

In the framework of the DRUID (Driving under the Influence of Drugs, Alcohol, and Medicines) EU-6 project, a roadside survey was performed in South-East Hungary to determine the incidence of alcohol and the most frequent illicit and licit drug consumption (amphetamines, THC, illicit and medical opiates, cocaine, ketamine, benzodiazepines, zopiclone and zolpidem) in the general driving population. All 3110 drivers stopped between 01 January 2008 and 31 December 2009 were checked for alcohol, and among them 2738 persons (87.7%) participated in the further examinations, on a voluntary basis. Licit and illicit drugs were determined from their oral fluid samples by GC–MS analysis.Illicit drugs were detected in 27 cases (0.99%), licit drugs in 85 cases (3.14%), and alcohol (cut off: 0.1 g/l) was found in 4 (0.13%) cases. Illicit drug consumption was the highest among men of the ages 18–34, during the spring, and on the week-end nights. With respect to licit drugs, the highest incidence was found among women over the age of 50, during the summer, and on the week-days. All alcohol positive cases were men over the age of 35. In comparison to international European averages, the alcohol and illicit drug consumption was low, but the licit drug consumption was over the European average.     

Participation in Micro-Finance Programmes and Women’s Mental Health in South Asia: A Modified Systematic Review

Micro-finance provides financial services to poor women from developing countries where cultural and social constraints limit their opportunities for economic advancement. Using Forbes’s process of conducting systematic review, 12 quantitative studies from South Asia reporting on the impact of micro-finance on women’s mental health outcomes were analysed. Overall, studies revealed that the duration and depth of involvement in micro-finance activities would make a difference in women’s mental health and not just receiving loans; however, rigorous programme evaluation is needed. Collaborative actions by micro-finance and health care practitioners to recognise women’s mental health needs and to strengthen measures to optimise the beneficial effects of micro-finance must be considered.