Promoting Democracy and Promoting Authoritarianism: Comparing the Cases of Belarus and Slovakia

Although scholars have made great progress over the last few years studying the international dimension of democratisation, questions remain about this complex relationship, especially about the understudied area of external promotion of authoritarianism. This article seeks to develop more refined understanding of specific mechanisms linking one type of external involvement, financial assistance, to regime change. Financial assistance can increase the capabilities of either pro-democratic or pro-authoritarian elites and therefore contribute to regime change. These mechanisms are examined by looking at democracy assistance in Slovakia and Belarus and Russia's support for authoritarianism in Belarus.     

Seed struggles and food sovereignty in northern Malawi

In this paper I use seeds in Malawi as both an analytical lens and an empirical focus of study to examine how food sovereignty is threatened or enhanced in a particular location and time. I argue that while food sovereignty was eroded for smallholders through neoliberal reforms to the agricultural system, community and kin practices help to maintain food sovereignty. The intersection of gender and class dynamics, combined with state policies, however, works to undermine food sovereignty for particular groups in northern Malawi. Historical processes of exclusion, dispossession and exploitation changed the division of labour and reduced time and land for diverse farming systems. State policies reduced knowledge and availability of preferred local varieties. While peasants, particularly women, have considerable knowledge of seed varieties, and seeds continue to be exchanged in agrarian communities, young women, tenant farmers, food insecure younger couples and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS)-affected families are particularly vulnerable to reduced food sovereignty, in part due to gender inequalities, unequal land distribution and social stigma. New efforts to strengthen food sovereignty need to build on community and kin relations, while addressing social inequalities. Understanding the struggles and relations linked to seeds helps us to understand ways in which food sovereignty is undermined or strengthened.     

‘An admirable little book written by a lady’: Emily Williams and recording and restoration of stained glass in late Victorian England

The preservation of the papers of Emily Williams (1835–1900) allows a close examination of the work of an important female antiquarian of the late Victorian period. Williams, the first known woman to write a book on English stained glass, published Notes on the Painted Glass in Canterbury Cathedral anonymously in 1897. The book formed the foundation for later studies of the cathedral's monumental glass and includes multiple illustrations based on Williams’ drawings. In addition to writing this book, Williams partnered with the cathedral glazier to reinstate medieval glass in a number of the cathedral's windows, glass that is viewed by many thousands of tourists annually. A study of Williams’ work in the 1890s brings to light a new chapter in the history of Canterbury's famed stained glass; it also adds to our understanding of the work of female antiquarians, the activities of women in clerical communities, the publication and illustration of female-authored works, the roles played by women in the Victorian obsession with stained glass, the lives and self-fashioning of spinsters, and the gendering of types of intellectual labor.     

Fatima's Revolutionary Image in Fadak fi al-Ta'rikh (1955): The Inception of Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr's Activism

This article examines Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr's first publication, Fadak fi al-Ta'rikh, contextualising the historiographical depiction of the dispute that ensued between Abu Bakr and Fatima over the Fadak land. Informed by traditional Shi‘i approaches to this episode of early Islamic history, the study locates the text's themes within various Iraqi contexts, including the struggle for the ideological orientation of the state, the quest for a unified Iraqi Civil Code and the place of Shi‘is in the new Iraqi state. The main contention of this study is that through his engagement with contours of Iraqi oppositional discourse, Sadr transforms the traditional image of Fatima from a weak and abused victim of injustice to a revolutionary heroine who fought for Shi‘i political and legal rights. His innovative portrayal of Fatima's claim to the Fadak marks one of the earliest efforts to reinterpret Shi‘i parables in an activist spirit. Sadr is among the first to promote the shift from passive eschatological expectations for redress to temporal confrontation with forces of injustice and to convey the message that protest is desirable irrespective of its chances of success.     

“Fair and Balanced?” Justice Issues on Political Talk Shows

Like their news program predecessors, many political talk shows focus a considerable amount of their coverage on justice issues. Although numerous past studies have examined justice issue presentation in news programs, infotainment, and crime drama, to date only one forthcoming study has examined crime and justice coverage on political talk shows. Political talk shows often present issues in a debate format, as well as emphasize the balanced nature of the content in advertising, with one program even using the slogan “fair and balanced.” Building upon the format of previous media studies, we analyzed a composite month of videotaped footage of three popular political talk shows appearing on cable networks: CNN’s Lou Dobbs Tonight, MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Mathews, and The O’Reilly Factor from the Fox News Channel. Using content analysis techniques, this study examines balance in the form and content of these programs in terms of presentation of justice issues, political party identification of hosts and guests and realistic presentations of race and gender in the context of crime and justice. Results indicate that these programs tend to adopt an advocacy tone rather than an objectivist one. Furthermore, we demonstrate that racial and gender portrayals of crime and justice on these shows are significantly distorted from reality, with a priority afforded to white female victims of violent crime and minority male offenders.     

日本公务员制度改革述评

随着桥本内阁在世纪之交进行的行政组织改革目标的实现,日本公务员制度改革被提上了政府改革的议事日程。经过多种改革制度的探索,2001年12月,日本内阁会议通过《公务员制度改革大纲》明确了改革的方向;随后经过各方的探讨和论证,2008年7月日本国会通过《公务员制度改革基本法案》。至此,日本公务员改革的政策最终确立。本文在分析日本公务员制度改革的背景和具体内容的基础上,进一步对这一改革做出了分析和评价。     

Entering the Circle: The Praxis of Arts in Corrections

Abstract

When exiles create for themselves a new world in which to live and then construct that world in language, a poet, a writer, or intellectual may emerge. When the imagined world takes physical form and comes to exist in two, three, or four dimensions, it may be represented as the work of a performer or as that of a visual artist. This work creates a demilitarized zone, a place of safety, which defies old-world colonialization and presents a distillation of all the complexities within which one lives. Or, it may present a world beyond complexity that has imagined itself into synthesis. (Becker 1996, 113)     

A four-phase process for translating research into police practice

ABSTRACT

This article presents a framework that extends the discussion of translational criminology and the dynamic process of translating research to practice. The goal is to provide an explicit dissection of the translation process into four phases to help outline a structured way of thinking about how to incorporate research into police practice. The four-phases include: Phase I: ‘Does it Work?’ Research and Evaluation; Phase II: ‘What Works?’ Synthesis and Dissemination; Phase III: ‘How to Make it Work?’ Implementation and Evaluation; and Phase IV: ‘Make it Work!’ Institutionalization and Sustainability. The process is founded in implementation science and the ‘Knowledge to Action’ model (KTA) used in the medical and public health fields, as well as current translation activities for policing, and the authors’ experience as practitioners, researchers, and ‘translators’ over the last 25 years. It is the hope that parsing out four distinct phases for the translation of research to practice will assist researchers and police leaders to identify and fill gaps in current and future translation activities.