Hope Springs Eternal: An Exploration of Hope at a Local Jail

Prevention and intervention research has indicated the malleability of hope in a variety of populations and the positive impact on treatment outcomes in general clinical settings and substance use treatment. However, despite its prospective role in improving well-being, research on hope is not often situated behind bars. Thus, the current project intended to explore the nature of theory-driven hope discussions for women involved in justice systems. The aim was to maintain and enhance hope, activate positivity, and thereby enhance the quality of life.

Four weekly focus group sessions were conducted with women detained at a local jail (n?=?23), with discussion prompts based on Snyder’s theory of hope (goal setting, agency thinking, and pathway thinking). Using interactional delivery methods, we emphasized hope among jailed women by: (1) facilitating the development and maintenance of hopeful thinking; (2) developing concrete goals towards rehabilitation and a positive life; (3) enhancing the capacity for developing enduring, cross-sectional strategies for goal attainment; and (4) facilitating self-analysis on their overall ability to produce workable plans required to reach the goals. Weekly journaling was also included to complement the process.

Results from the qualitative analysis suggest hope for these jailed women was constructed as belief in a better future and was also often embedded within a religious worldview. Further, jailed women’s perceptions of meeting goals were heavily dependent upon outside sources that would provide structure and discipline. Implications include providing strength-based reentry programs, offering mentorship, emphasizing goal-setting strategies, and reviewing visitation policies.     

The difference

Growing up in the 1960s and 1970s meant living in a time of turbulence and change. The music, literature, and films, combined with the passionate activism of the era, profoundly influenced people in my generation. My working class family struggled to raise a family and make a decent living, instilling values of social justice along the way. I knew from an early age that I wanted to make a difference, but had many internal conflicts to resolve before I could effect change. An education in sociology taught me what was wrong in the world and law school gave me the tools I needed to effect change. Working in the court system and with students has made a difference, one person at a time.     

Who were the families of “natural” children in nineteenth-century Rio de Janeiro,Brazil?: A comparison of baptismal and census records

The article analyzes the census records for Sao Cristovao in 1870 to determine the proportions of single mothers in the population and whether they were living in female-headed households, as companheiras in male-headed households (in consensual union), or as agregadas or dependent members of a household headed by someone else, who was not the sexual partner of the single mother. The socio-economic and racial characteristics of the single mothers are also compared to each other and to the married population. The data suggest that approximately one-third of single Brazilian mothers and their children were living in informal two-parent relationships. These women were not substantially different from the two-thirds of single mothers who were living either as female heads of households or as dependents in other households, in terms of race, age, or occupation. Women who were female heads of households were somewhat older than the average single mother in a consensual union, and the women living in dependent situations were slightly younger. The greatest difference between these two groups of women is that many married mothers had no occupations while the vast majority of single mothers listed professions. The baptismal records of illegitimate babies suggest that the vast majority of them had ritual kinfolk, and some were grandparents involved in their baptisms and perhaps also in their daily living arrangements.     

This is What a Police State Looks Like: Sousveillance, Direct Action and the Anti-corporate Globalization Movement

Activists across the globe have increasingly incorporated digital communication technologies into their repertoire of direct action tactics to challenge state and corporate power. Examining the anti-corporate globalization protests at the September 2009 Group of Twenty (G-20) meetings in Pittsburgh, this paper explores how activists used sousveillance and counter-surveillance as direct action tactics to make excessive force by police more visible to the public. Collaborative endeavors such as the G-20 Resistance Project, the Tin Can Comms Collective and independent media centers provided activists with the necessary tactical and strategic communication networks to coordinate direct actions during the G-20 protests. Through the use of surveillance technologies widely available to the public such as video cameras, cell phones and the internet, activists created an environment of permanent visibility in which the behaviors of police were subjected to public scrutiny. The images captured by anti-globalization activists raises a salient question: Is this what a police state looks like?     

University student beliefs about sexual violence in prison: rape myth acceptance,punitiveness, and empathy

Abstract

The public desires more punitive sentencing for sex offenders; however, treatment has been shown to be most effective in increasing public safety. It has been suggested that public education about the benefits of sex offender treatment could influence public policy. The purpose of this study was to determine if a brief psychoeducational intervention could influence individuals’ attitudes towards the treatment of sex offenders. Overall, findings showed that a psychoeducational intervention can affect subsequent attitudes; furthermore, the nature of the intervention will be significant in determining the level of attitude change.     

Framing the Ghanaian LGBT rights debate: competing decolonisation and human rights frames

This paper investigates how lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights movements in Ghana, both anti and pro, framed the debate that captured media attention in 2006 and 2011. Decolonisation and human rights frames were appropriated, challenged, and dominated by opponents of LGBT rights, making it difficult for LGBT activists to use them. The opponents' corruption frame overpowered the LGBT activists' preservation frame. When LGBT activists used a human rights frame (comparing sexual minorities to racial minorities and to persons with disabilities), the countermovement appropriated it in a way that excluded same-sex relations by comparing sexual minorities to “deviants”, persons with mental illnesses, and animals. The interaction between the decolonisation and human rights frames was also problematic: the corruption frame not only rendered the LGBT activists' preservation frame nearly useless, but it also made their use of the human rights frame appear to be cultural imperialism and problematised the help they received from international LGBT organisations.     

Of texts and practices: Empowerment and organisational cultures in world bank-funded rural development programmes

The World Bank's recent concern for ‘empowerment’ grows out of longer standing discussions of participation, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and civil society. While commitments to empowerment enter World Bank texts with relative ease, their practice within Bank-funded projects is far more contingent, and the meanings they assume become much more diverse. This paper considers the relationship between such texts and the development practices which emerge, using an analysis of the ‘organisational cultures’ of the Bank and the many organisations on which it depends in the implementation of its rural development programmes. The paper presents a framework for analysing these organisational cultures in terms of (a) the broader contexts in which organisations and their staff are embedded; (b) the everyday practices within organisations; (c) the power relations within and among organisations; and (d) the meanings that come to dominate organisational practice. A case study of a development programme in Bangladesh is used to illustrate the ways in which cultural interactions between a variety of organisations – the World Bank, government agencies, NGOs, organisations of the poor, social enterprises – mediate the ways in which textual commitments to empowerment are translated into a range of diverse practices.     

Challenging The Mandate Of Heaven: Popular Protest in Modern China

Arguing that popular protest has played an unusual role in bestowing political legitimacy in China, this article traces continuities in state responses to protest movements from imperial days to the present. The author compares the government's recent handling of three different types of protest: economically motivated actions by hard-pressed workers and farmers, nationalistically inspired demonstrations by patriotic students, and (at greater length) religiously rooted resistance by zealous believers. The central authorities' tolerance toward localized strikes and tax riots, and their overt encouragement of protests against the bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, contrasts sharply with the harsh and unrelenting campaign of repression that has been directed against Falun Gong adherents. Explanations for these variant state responses are sought in historically grounded assessments of the political implications of different types of popular protest.     

Creating Direct Incentives for Wildlife Conservation in Community-Based Natural Resource Management Programmes in Botswana

Community Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) programmes in Botswana were intended to create a wildlife conservation incentive by providing rural communities with tourism rights to wildlife—with limited effect. The 2007 CBNRM policy, increasing central control of CBNRM, is likely to further undermine communities' incentive to conserve wildlife. A complementary conservation corps is needed to create direct incentives to conserve wildlife and to reduce human-wildlife conflict. Responses to contingent behaviour questions indicate broad community support for such a programme and the availability of a suitable labour force willing to work at costs that can be financed from existing CBNRM revenues.     

Public Perceptions of Privatization in Ethiopia: A Case for Public Good or Private Gain?

Ethiopia is one of the many countries in sub-Saharan Africa attempting to privatize various state-owned enterprises since 1994. This study examined public perceptions about Ethiopia's privatization policy and procedures. Results support the concerns over the public's inability to know about, be involved in and comment upon public policies affecting Ethiopia's future. Findings also support the literature that a privatization policy is effective only when institutional and technical capacities for proper implementation are in place. Further, findings raise questions about the efficacy of privatization in a national context where interests may be misrepresented.