Amsterdam as a Global City: Restructuring,Identity Rearticulation,and Resistance in the Service Sector

This article explores the interconnections between political‐economic transformations of Amsterdam into a second‐tier global city and the rearticulation of (gender) identities and resistance practices in the service sector. The research focuses on both the high and low ends of the service sector, i.e., banking and cleaning. Given different positionalities of employees in respective sectors, the article shows that their responses to changes in their work environment take on different modalities. Women managers in the banking sector resort to a strategy of “hiding” their gender identity and individualized responses, while Moroccan (male) cleaners tend to underscore the masculine nature of their work and are joining labor unions in greater numbers than before.     

Short-term forces and partisan change in Canada: 1974–1980

The theoretical attractiveness of party identification derives in large measure from its presumed stability at the level of the individual voter. Recent studies conducted in Great Britain and the United States suggest, however, that partisan attachments are less stable than originally believed, and respond to the impact of shortterm forces. This paper uses newly available, national panel surveys to consider the Canadian case. Between 1974 and 1980 party identification in this country is characterized by aggregate stability and individual change. The latter is not confined to particular groups of voters and is not strongly associated with time-related reinforcement effects, but rather reflects variations in party leader and party/issue preferences. Further, interaction effects suggest that extent of political interest and patterns of partisanship across levels of the federal system condition processes of partisan change.     

Anti-sexist men: A case of cloak-and-dagger chauvinism

The paper looks at the sexual behaviour of anti-sexist men as this is presented in writing, in discussion, and in personal experience of them. It shows that changes in the sexual behaviour of anti-sexist men have been those that serve their own interests. Some anti-sexist male writing about sex describes how some of them cannot get an erection without objectifying the women they're in bed with; and they don't tell these women about the misogynistic fantasies they have in order to objectify them. Drawing on this, on discussions with anti-sexist men and on personal experience, it seems that ‘impotence’ is a common reaction to stroppy feminists and sexually active women. The paper concludes that male anti-sexism is more a ‘cloak-and-dagger form of chauvinism’ than a genuine attempt to lose their power over women.     

The Underexplored Species: Selective Participation in Direct Democratic Votes

While electoral research usually distinguishes voters from abstainers, in the Swiss direct democratic context one needs to take into account a third category of citizens, the selective voters, who decide anew at each vote whether they will participate or not. This article offers an investigation of this common but under‐researched form of participation. To that end, we take advantage of a unique data‐set linking official turnout data with survey data. Our results show that selective voters constitute the bulk of the electorate. While they form a heterogeneous group in terms of socio‐demographic characteristics, selective voters lean more towards abstainers than towards permanent voters with respect to political variables. We argue that this is not necessarily bad news in terms of democratic theory.     

Acute Respiratory Obstruction due to Accidental Inhalation of Perlite: A Novel Mechanism for Upper Airway Occlusion with Cast Formation

A 56-year-old man died following a fall resulting in complete submersion into a deep pit containing insulation material, expanded perlite. The most striking finding at autopsy was of impacted, moist pale yellow perlite that extended from the epiglottis into the main bronchi resulting in complete obstruction of the larger and smaller airways with cast formation. Perlite inhalation differs from inhalation of inert materials such as sand and wheat due to its hygroscopic properties and ability to expand forming an occlusive cast. Subsequent analyses of perlite from the worksite and within the airways indicated that hydration of perlite and adsorption of organic molecules into the perlite glass flakes had formed an interlocking, three-dimensional structure that was likely responsible for triggering a coagulation–flocculation process causing strong cohesion between the aggregates of glass flakes. This unique mechanism was likely responsible for the formation of the plug of perlite that obstructed the upper airway.