Between Constitutional Mo(nu)ments: Memorialising Past,Present and Future at the District Six Museum and Constitution Hill

This article explores the powers and potentialities of imaginations of political community at the site of the museum in contemporary South Africa. Taking the District Six Museum (Cape Town) and Constitution Hill (Johannesburg) as the empirical backdrop, I explore the ways in which memorialising practices at these sites bolster or deflate the exaltation of the post-1996 constitutional moment. This argument aligns closely with contemporary discussions by South African constitutional theorists about the role of monumentalism and counter-monumentalism. Indeed, I argue that memorialising techniques employed at the District Six Museum offer a practice of memory-making that resists the fixed and limited boundaries proffered by the new South African constitutional discourse exalted at Constitution Hill. However, my critique does not include a call for a reform of the latter. Instead, I argue that the continuation of monumental memory practices at Constitution Hill, in juxtaposition to counter-monumental practices at District Six, serves a key role in revealing the limits of fixed notions of law and subjectivity in imagining past and future political communities. Drawing on Antonio Negri’s concept of constituent power, I argue that the juxtaposition of monumental and counter-monumental memorial practices exposes the illusion of the division between transcendent Power (potestas) and immanent power (potentia). Finally, I turn to Emilios Christodoulidis’ conception of ‘strategies of rupture’ to consider ways in which this contradiction might be made to ‘persist’ through the site of the museum. Indeed, if the goal is to illuminate the illusion of transcendent power, the juxtaposition of memorialising practices between the two sites (a museological form of ‘tapping of contradiction’) may serve as a platform for the truth of constituent power to be realised.     

The effect of post-identification feedback, delay, and suspicion on accurate eyewitnesses

We examined whether post-identification feedback and suspicion affect accurate eyewitnesses. Participants viewed a video event and then made a lineup decision from a target-present photo lineup. Regardless of accuracy, the experimenter either, informed participants that they made a correct lineup decision or gave no information regarding their lineup decision. Immediately following the lineup decision or after a 1-week delay, a second experimenter gave some of the participants who received confirming feedback reason to be suspicious of the confirming feedback. Following immediately after the confirming feedback, accurate witnesses did not demonstrate certainty inflation. However, after a delay accurate witnesses did demonstrate certainty inflation typically associated with confirming feedback. The suspicion manipulation only affected participants' certainty when the confirming feedback created certainty inflation. The results lend support to the accessibility interpretation of the post-identification feedback effect and the erasure interpretation of the suspicion effect.     

Advances and future directions in the study of children's neurobiological responses to trauma and violence exposure

One of the most exciting developments to emerge from the field in the past 20 years is the increasing attention to neurobiological responses to violence and trauma exposure. Although researchers have yet to identify a consensual pattern of neurobiological response to violence and trauma exposure, it does appear that some type of alteration in the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis is likely. This article briefly reviews the multiple moderating factors that help account for the divergent patterns in HPA function as well as methodological advances that will continue to improve the assessment of HPA function in youth exposed to violence and trauma.     

Gender and Risk Assessment Accuracy: Underestimating Women’s Violence Potential

Understanding factors that contribute to mental health professionals (MHPs) accuracy in assessing patients risk of violence can inform efforts to improve accuracy and to integrate risk assessment technology with practice. Based on a sample of 147 clinicians who assessed 680 patients in a psychiatric emergency room, this study investigates the influence of patient gender, MHP gender, and their potential interaction on MHPS risk assessment accuracy. The results indicate that MHPs of both genders are particularly limited in their ability to assess female patients risk of future violence. This finding was not limited to a particular professional group and was not attributable to gender-related differences in violence. Implications for future research on the judgment processes that may underlie MHPs limited accuracy with women and for training programs in violence risk assessment are discussed.     

A comparative analysis on energy subsidies in Soviet and Russian policy

Russia’s recent intent to use gas supplies to influence the former Soviet Union Republics, and now New Independent States (NIS), has mirrored that of the Soviet’s handling of hydrocarbon supplies to the Eastern bloc, or the Council on Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA). This paper explores the historical and unique conditions in making a comparison of energy trading patterns in the 1970s and 2000s. In the end, by comparing ’then’ and ’now’, we see a pattern of negative repercussions when the energy card is employed. This study employs a within case study cross-temporal comparative framework and asks: why would Russia transfer a failed policy of subsidies onto its newly independent states?