Miscegenations of modernity: constructing european respectability and race in the Indian railway colony, 1857-1931

Abstract

From 1857 Indian railways built railway colonies to inculcate a practical mastery of middle-class domesticity solely in their European employees. These were key sites for the construction and contestation of European identity. They marked Europe and India as separate locales bounded by distinct racial typologies and gender identities. The central distinction reinforced was that between European modernity and Indian tradition. This project was complicated by the hybrid identities of Domiciled European and Eurasian railway employees, nationalist protests, and contradictions in the colonial discourse of modernity. By 1931 the racial logic of the railway colony was under threat, but its rhetorics of respectability, modernity, gender, and race intensified in new forms. By tracing the historical construction of boundaries between Europe and India and the history of interstitial groups that destabilize these, we can question the transition narratives of nationalism and capitalism that usually structure accounts of colonial history.     

Religion, Nationalism, History, and Politics in Hungary’s New Constitution

Positive and negative factors in Hungary??s history, politics, and society contribute to controversies over the new Constitution. Hungarians in Budapest conversed with the author about religion and secularism, nationalism and authoritarianism, the legacy of 1956 and 1989, and the work of the Constitutional Court.     

Italy and the Gulf Crisis: European and domestic dimensions

Much recent international press coverage of Spain's difficulties portrays a country rapidly approaching political, economic and social meltdown. Its economy is contracting, its unemployment rate is at unprecedented levels and its sovereign risk premium hovers at apparently unsustainable levels. Spain will undoubtedly require external financial help from its European partners, as well as more time and flexibility to achieve its fiscal targets. But it also has a number of strengths that are too often overlooked. Spending cuts and structural reforms are proceeding at a lively pace, unit labour costs are falling significantly, and exports and productivity are on the rise. In short, there is light at the end of the tunnel.     

Blood aspiration as a vital sign detected by postmortem computed tomography imaging

Blood aspiration is a significant forensic finding. In this study, we examined the value of postmortem computed tomography (CT) imaging in evaluating findings of blood aspiration. We selected 37 cases with autopsy evidence of blood in the lungs and/or in the airways previously submitted to total-body CT scanning. The CT-images were retrospectively analyzed. In one case with pulmonary blood aspiration, biopsy specimens were obtained under CT guide for histological examination. In six cases, CT detected pulmonary abnormalities suggestive of blood aspiration, not mentioned in the autopsy reports. CT reconstructions provided additional data about the distribution and extent of aspiration. In one needle-biopsied case, the pulmonary specimens showed blood in the alveoli. We suggest the use of CT imaging as a tool complementary to traditional techniques in cases of blood aspiration to avoid misdiagnosis, to guide the investigation of lung tissue, and to allow for more evidence-based inferences on the cause of death.     

Education, empowerment and community based structural reinforcement: an HIV prevention response to mass incarceration and removal

In the context of US urban jails, incarceration is often seen as an opportune intervention point for prevention interventions in public health. For the detained individual, it is an opportunity to reflect on individual choices and the potential for changes in one's life course. For population focused public health professionals, jail detention facilities represent a concentration of health risks, and an opportunity to have an impact on a significant portion of those at risk for HIV and other health concerns. This paper presents an innovative education and empowerment model that bridges across jail walls, beginning on the inside, and continuing on the outside of jail where individuals continue to be challenged and supported toward positive health and social choices. The intervention also seeks to foment community activism in the communities to which jail detainees return, thus aiming to have a structural impact. This paper examines both the intervention model and the challenges of examining the effectiveness claims for the intervention at multiple levels.     

Desorption atmospheric pressure photoionization-mass spectrometry in routine analysis of confiscated drugs

A comprehensive study was made, where desorption atmospheric pressure photoionization (DAPPI) was applied to the direct analysis of confiscated drugs and pharmaceuticals of various forms and matrices. The analyzed samples included herbal products [Catha edulis (khat), Psilocybe mushrooms, opium and Spice], designer drugs in tablet and powder form [e.g. meta-chlorophenylpiperazine (mCPP), 3-fluoromethamphetamine (3-FMA), methylenedioxypyrovalerone (MDPV) and methylone], and anabolic steroids in oil and tablets. The analyses were performed with ion trap mass spectrometer in MS and MS(2) modes and the obtained spectra were compared with GC-MS results. Contamination of the mass spectrometer was avoided by careful adjustment of the distance of the sample from the mass spectrometer inlet. DAPPI proved to be a fast and specific analysis technique, which does not require any sample preparation, and which therefore suits well to this type of forensic analysis.     

Intergenerational continuities and discontinuities in intimate partner violence: a two-generational prospective study

This study focuses on intergenerational continuity in violent partner relationships. We investigate whether exposure to caregiver intimate partner violence (IPV) during adolescence leads to increased involvement in IPV during early adulthood (age 21-23) and adulthood (age 29-31). We also investigate whether this relationship differs by gender. Although there is theoretical and empirical support for intergenerational continuity of relationship violence, there are few prospective studies of this issue. We use data from the Rochester Youth Development Study (RYDS), a longitudinal study of the development of antisocial behavior in a community sample of 1,000 urban youth followed from age 14 to adulthood. The original sample includes 73% men and 85% African American or Hispanic youth. Measures come from a combination of interviews and official records. The Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS) is used to assess IPV and severe IPV in the youth and parent generations. Analyses controlled for child physical abuse, race/ethnicity as well as parent education, family stability, and poverty. In multivariate models, adolescent exposure to caregiver severe IPV resulted in significantly increased risk of relationship violence in early adulthood (age 21-23). Furthermore, there is an indirect effect of adolescent exposure to severe IPV on later adult involvement in IPV (age 29-31), mediated by involvement in a violent relationship in early adulthood. These results were largely invariant by gender. However, we observed a direct pathway between IPV exposure and adult IPV for women (marginally significant) suggesting that adolescent exposure to caregiver IPV may set in motion women-specific processes.     

Markets,Politics, and Learning: Explaining Monetary Policy Innovations in Brazil

An increasing number of developing and emerging economies have adopted an inflation targeting framework for monetary policy during the last two decades. This article investigates the politics of inflation targeting by focusing on the case of Brazil. I argue that the decision to implement an inflation targeting system in 1999 did not only reflect the concerns of political leaders with maintaining electoral support and external credibility. In addition, the choice of this new policy approach was informed by a shift in the technical consensus among Brazilian economists about the most effective way to tame inflationary pressures in a context of high capital mobility. The shift to inflation targeting thus reflected a process of social learning among technical elites, facilitated not only by the failure of the previous policy but also by the successful experience of other inflation targeting countries. Moreover, the evidence presented here suggests that, as the first country to adopt inflation targets in the context of an IMF-supported program, Brazil became a test case and a natural experiment for the redefinition of IMF conditionality and surveillance mechanisms. The paper thus sheds light on a process of reciprocal learning, whereby the IMF not only contributed to collective learning but also learned from the Brazilian case, subsequently becoming an active promoter of inflation targeting among developing countries.