Friends Have All Things in Common: Utopian Property Relations

Utopian theory has long challenged the conventions of private property. Drawing on two case studies, this article explores utopian practices that challenge dominant property narratives. These practices range from the mundane to the profound and occur inside the domestic, economic, interpersonal and ideological structures of the cases in question. These cases are Riverside and Centrepoint Communities: two intentional communities, comprised of people who have chosen to live and work together for a common purpose, are critical of current socioeconomic (and ideological, spiritual and interpersonal) norms and who intend to create a better life for their members.     

The Messiness of Everyday Life: Exploring Key Themes in Latin American Citizenship Studies Introduction

This section seeks to provide a brief theoretical framework for the study of citizenship in Latin America by focusing on two characteristics which are of relevance to the essays collected here: belonging and political agency. It then goes on to discuss some key themes which emerge from a reading of the collected articles: methodology; civilisation and deviation; citizenship as the organisation of subordinate inclusion; popular ideas of citizenship as 'fairness'; role of public performance in defining political relationships.     

Enhancing Witness Memory with Focused Meditation and Eye-Closure: Assessing the Effects of Misinformation

Despite the decline in popularity of hypnosis as an investigative interviewing technique, this paper builds on previous research showing that some of the techniques employed in traditional hypnotic interviewing may still be useful in the development of simple, brief memory facilitation procedures for use by the police. Three experiments are described that investigate the effects of a short Focused Meditation with eye-closure technique in situations where participants are presented with misleading information. In the first study, which utilized a standard misinformation paradigm, a significant memory facilitation effect was shown with Focused Meditation, though the effect was not significant for eye-closure alone. There were no increases in errors when the Meditation and eye-closure procedures were used alone or in combination. The second experiment showed that a combined Focused Meditation with eye-closure technique reduced misinformation effects associated with fictitious events, and a third showed that the same technique reduced interrogative suggestibility effects as measured by the Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scale, whilst facilitating free recall memory. It is concluded that a Focused Meditation with eye-closure technique may potentially have applications in the field where brief alternatives to the Cognitive Interview are required.     

Reviews

Messages and Meanings: An Introduction to Semiotics Marcel Danesi, Canadian Scholars' Press Toronto 1994

Australian Popular Culture Ian Craven (ed), Cambridge University Press Cambridge 1994

Identifying Australia in Postmodern Times Livio Dobrez (ed), Bibliotech Canberra 1994

Text and Context Bev Derewianka & Louise Ravelli (EDGA 976) PAGE SBS University of Wollongong 1995     

Technical communication: rationale and technique for examination of nervous system in suspected infant victims of abuse

Most victims of fatal child abuse are under the age of 2 years and have a fairly typical pattern of injuries that involve the brain and spinal cord. Documenting these injuries in a systematic fashion is of paramount importance in establishing the cause and manner of death. Although the importance of recognizing these injuries is widely understood, there are few guidelines for the optimal examination of the central nervous system to document these changes. A standard procedure for postmortem dissection of the brain and spinal cord that preserves the anatomy of the cervicomedullary junction is outlined. Changes in the cervicomedullary junction and spinal cord are an underappreciated marker for shaking injury in children. This technique, along with examination of the eyes and optic nerves, will optimally identify the injuries associated with shaking injuries. A standard series of histologic sections are also outlined to document the corresponding microscopic changes.     

Will the Truth Come Out? The Effect of Deception,Age, Status,Coaching, and Social Skills on CBCA Scores

The impact of Veracity, Age, Status (witness or suspect), Coaching (informed or uninformed regarding CBCA), and Social Skills (social anxiety, social adroitness, and self-monitoring) on Criteria-Based Content Analysis scores was examined. Participants (aged 5–6, 10–11, 14–15, and undergraduates) participated in a rubbing the blackboard event. In a subsequent interview they told the truth or lied about the event. They were accused of having rubbed the blackboard themselves (suspect condition) or were thought to have witnessed the event (witness condition), and were or were not taught some CBCA criteria prior to the interview. CBCA scores discriminated between liars and truth tellers in children, adults, witnesses, and suspects. However, truth tellers obtained higher CBCA scores than liars only when the liars were uninformed about CBCA. CBCA scores were correlated with social skills. It is argued that these findings should caution those who believe that the validity of CBCA has been conclusively demonstrated.     

Growing inequality in black wages in the 1980s and the emergence of an African-American middle class

Much recent scholarship and popular discussion posits a substantial movement of African-American households into the “middle class.” Yet over the course of the 1980s, the proportion of individual black wage-earners receiving “annualized” (work experience-adjusted) wages and salaries in excess of about $35,000—three times the poverty line—fell by 22 percent, even as the share of African-Americans earning below the poverty line increased by a fifth. This was true for all age groups, and even for persons within the black community who had completed four or more years of college. The growth of low wage employment was most pronounced for black men between the ages of 25 and 34, among whom the incidence of below-poverty-level employment doubled. Black women aged 35–54 experienced relatively greater progress than any other part of the African-American community, but their gains lagged far behind those of comparable white women. We speculate on possible explanations for these developments, on the basis of which a potential public policy agenda is examined.     

Developmental changes through adolescence in the spontaneous nomination of reference groups as a function of decision content

The achievement of behavioral autonomy and psychological independence from the family is one of the foremost developmental tasks of the adolescent. This aspect of adolescent socialization is examined with regard to the developmental trends in the individual's nomination of socialization groups as competent referents in different areas of judgment. Eighty subjects, distributed equally between sex and among samples drawn from the fifth, seventh, ninth, and twelfth grades, were interviewed and allowed to nominate spontaneously reference groups of their own choosing for guidance in moral, informational, and social judgments. A significant relation was found between the nomination of a particular reference group and the nature of the decision to be made. The distribution of reference group nominations among the grade levels sampled differed significantly in the case of informational and social judgments. With increasing age during adolescence, peers seemed to be a more acceptable source of information in matters of social judgment than either parents or adults outside the family. Adults outside the family, however, exhibited a marked increase in acceptability as a reference group for judgments of an informational nature. Parents seemed to be the most acceptable referent across all grades for moral judgments. The findings are viewed particularly in relation to the results of studies which have examined developmental trends in simulated group conformity situations and susceptibility to cross-pressures. The possible reasons for the different developmental phenomena revealed by this study and by the conformity studies are discussed.This article is based on a thesis submitted by the first author to Duke University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Science with Distinction of Psychology.     

Barriers to services for rural and urban survivors of rape

A significant proportion of survivors of rape do not utilize formal services to cope with the aftermath of rape. Understanding victimization experiences in environments that differ on resources, such as rural versus urban areas, may be an important dimension to consider in understanding barriers. Thirty women (18 rural and 12 urban) were recruited from rape crisis centers to participate in focus groups. Study results suggest that (a) survivors of rape experience many barriers to service utilization, (b) there were some differences in barriers to service utilization that were mentioned only in rural areas and some that were mentioned only in urban areas that may suggest that community context is important to consider in understanding barriers to service use, and (c) barriers to health and mental health services overlap with barriers to criminal justice system services.