Reflections on the Mutual Impact of Violence and Religious Change in Latin America

The mutual impact of violence and religious transformation in the recent experience of Latin America has reshaped the public presence of churches (both Catholic and Protestant) and altered their discourse and appeal. Many churches turned to promotion of human rights, protection of victims, and opposition to authoritarian rule. Others allied with repressive regimes in the name of a kind of Christian nationalism. The violence at issue ranges from the massive violence of repression, torture, and revolutionary struggle to the institutionalized violence of poverty, disease, and injustice, which is often accompanied by the violence of daily life and linked with migration, drugs, gangs, and domestic abuse. Religion itself has changed: the Catholic monopoly has been replaced by pluralism, as Protestant and Pentecostal churches reach new populations and offer potential converts a way of opting out of the violence of daily life through rebirth in a new religious community.     

The Deserving Worker: Decisions about Workplace Accommodation by Judges and Laypeople

Employment civil rights laws require employers to make reasonable accommodations for certain workers so that they can perform their jobs. The “reasonableness” of an accommodation request should be based largely on the cost of the accommodation relative to the company's resources, but how do people really evaluate such requests? This study examines determinations of the reasonableness of workplace accommodation requests made by trial judges and ordinary people. Using a 2 × 3 × 3 between‐subjects factorial design, we test the effect of worker identity (nursing‐mother worker, transgender worker, and Muslim worker) and cost on determinations of reasonableness. We find that (1) the identity category of the requesting worker impacts determinations of reasonableness by both judges and laypeople, (2) the cost of the accommodation impacts determinations of reasonableness, (3) judges are more likely to think that accommodation requests are reasonable than are laypeople, (4) there is a complicated relationship between accommodation cost and employee identity, and (5) the cost of the requested accommodation mitigates the effect of identity significantly for judges but less so for ordinary citizens. While judges are less influenced by the identity category of the employee‐requestor than are their lay‐counterparts, social status plays a role in determining what constitutes “reasonable accommodation.”     

Professionalizing Arts Management in Healthcare Facilities

An urgent need exists for trained specialists to manage organizational policies and practices involving arts programs and activities in healthcare facilities. This article introduces the field of arts in health and argues for what is currently needed within the academic and professional field of arts management to advance this emerging arena of arts management theory and practice. The authors integrate key references from existing scholarship alongside additional survey data to offer recommendations for developing professional management of the arts in healthcare facilities like hospitals, hospices, and long-term care centers. The article provides an overview of the responsibilities of arts managers in healthcare institutions, as well as insight into the knowledge, competencies, and skills that arts managers require to effectively work in these settings. The article concludes with articulating a conceptual framework for a long-term research trajectory to inform further advancement of this distinct sub-field of arts management.     

The Notion of Consent to Sexual Activity for Persons with Mental Disabilities

This paper seeks to examine the notion of consent to sexual activity as it is applied to situations involving persons with mental disabilities both by both medical professionals and the law. This will be achieved by analysing sexuality and consent through the lens of disability theory and subsequently by including feminist theories on the notion of consent and of sexual activity generally where this serves to assist in coming to a genuine assessment of the nature and existence of consent to sexual activity for persons with mental disabilities. It is concluded that in order to ensure that genuine substantive consent to sexual activity on the part of the persons with mental illnesses is accurately assessed at both a civil and criminal level, a fusion of both feminist and disability theory into such assessments and adjudications is vital.     

The de-medicalisation of assisted dying: is a less medicalised model the way forward?

Although assisted dying has been most commonly presented within a medicalised framework, the notion of de-medicalisation is employed in this paper to suggest that there are emerging models of assisted dying in which some medical aspects assumed to be an integral part of the phenomenon are both challenged and diminished. The paper considers cases where relatives have facilitated a loved one's assisted suicide abroad, cases of assisted death in which the assistor in the actual suicide act is a non-medic, and the growing debate surrounding non-medical grounds for desiring death. In evaluating the potential impact of partial de-medicalisation on the assisted dying debate, the argument presented is that whilst a de-medicalised model could well contribute to a richer understanding of assisted dying and a better death for the person who is assisted, there are cogent reasons to retain some aspects of the medicalised model and that a completely de-medicalised model of assisted dying is unrealistic.     

Gender in the Context of Same‐Sex Divorce and Relationship Dissolution

This article identifies ways that judges, lawyers, researchers, and policy makers may attend to the role of gender and gender dynamics facing same‐sex couples upon divorce or other relationship dissolution. When same‐sex couples marry, the legal system and society at large may project conceptions of gender onto same‐sex couples, often in a manner that conflicts with couples' intentions and practices. Gender and gender dynamics may affect the bases for dissolution, the financial aspects of dissolution, and the determination of child custody. The article also suggests directions for future research on the impact of gender on the dissolution of same‐sex relationships.     

Gorbachev's Economic Reform: A Soviet Economy Roundtable

The proceedings of a panel of American specialists devoted to the recent economic reform are summarized. The panelists noted that the most substantial changes to date have accompanied efforts to restructure the decisionmaking hierarchy—in particular, a recentralization of authority through the creation of biuros and state committees and legislation on individual economic activity. Changes in the systems of economic planning and incentives, on the other hand, have been minor, suggesting a continuing debate over the extent to which price reform and various economic incentives should be implemented. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: 052, 113, 124.     

The Aftermath of the 19th Conference of the CPSU: A Soviet Economy Roundtable

The aftermath of the 19th Conference of the Communist Party, held in Moscow from June 28 to July 1, 1988, is analyzed by eight Western observers. The discussion covers impacts of the Conference on Soviet society and abroad, General Secretary Gorbachev's speech at the Central Committee Plenum on July 29, 1988, and reviews results of his policies since 1985. It proceeds to look at the current transitional period of Soviet reforms, including the formation of new enterprise forms and horizontal links in the economy. Finally, the discussants view prospects for political and economic development in the future. journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: 052, 124, 113.