Explaining Kazakhstani identity: supraethnic identity,ethnicity, language,and citizenship

The demographic composition of Kazakhstan after the fall of the Soviet Union presented a dilemma to the new Kazakhstani government: Should it advance a Kazakh identity as paramount, possibly alienating the large non-Kazakh population? Or should it advocate for a non-ethnicized national identity? How would those decisions be made in light of global norms of liberal multiculturalism? And, critically, would citizens respond to new frames of identity? This paper provides an empirical look at supraethnic identity-building in Kazakhstan – that is, at the development of a national identity that individuals place above or alongside their ethnic identification. We closely examine the Assembly of People of Kazakhstan to describe how Kazakhstani policies intersect with theories of nationalism and nation-building. We then use ordered probit models to analyze data from a 2014 survey to examine how citizens of Kazakhstan associate with a “Kazakhstani” supraethnic identity. Our findings suggest that despite the Assembly of People’s rhetoric, there are still significant barriers to citizen-level adoption of a supraethnic identity in Kazakhstan, particularly regarding language. However, many individuals do claim an association with Kazakhstani identity, especially those individuals who strongly value citizenship in the abstract.     

Guess What Happened on the Way to Revolution? Precursors to the Supreme Court's Federalism Revolution

In recent years, the Rehnquist Court has been accused of usheringin a "federalism revolution." The Court's decisions have beencontentious and often viewed as assertions of the Court's anti-majoritarianpower. However, these assessments misunderstand the role ofthe Court in the American political system. Not only are theCourt's recent decisions relatively modest departures from existingconstitutional doctrine, but its rediscovery of federalism follows,rather than leads, developments in the elected branches. Effortsto rehabilitate federalism as a political value began in theelected branches as early as the 1960s. By 1980, federalismhad become an important cleavage issue between the parties;Republicans advocated a form of "fixed federalism" while Democratsadvocated a form of "flexible federalism." Despite the desireof the Reagan and Bush administrations to use the judiciaryto advance the GOP's view of federalism, confirmation hearingsfor members of the Rehnquist Court demonstrate that Democratsin Congress paid little attention to federalism. Attitudes aboutfederalism thus made their way onto the Court without noticeand without challenge, and the sharp disagreements that emergedon the Court during the late-1990s mirror the same party cleavagesthat developed much earlier in the elected branches.     

Maytree: A respite center for the suicidal: an evaluation

This paper evaluates the contribution to suicide prevention made by an innovative project, Maytree, a respite center for the suicidal. Maytree offers a distinctive brief period of sanctuary for four nights for suicidal people; within this limited time it aims to provide opportunities through talking, reflecting, and relaxing for reducing the intense feelings that lead to suicidal behavior. The focus of this paper is on evaluating the first 3 years of Maytree's operation, exploring how Maytree works, and its effects on the people who stay there as "guests". This shows that Maytree reaches people who are at significant risk of suicide. Guests report both short term relief and longer term benefits. These changes are understood, through applying crisis intervention theory, as being generated by the opportunities for change in the Maytree approach. Thus, there is the potential for a benign cycle to be established. Maytree's model is different from that of mainstream, statutory services; we conclude that Maytree complements these services and also challenges the values and frameworks of statutory provision in the field of suicide prevention.     

Who Engages in the Coproduction of Local Public Services and Why? The Case of Atlanta,Georgia

With the resurgent interest in coproduction, questions arise around who joins with government in coproducing services and why. This article reports an exploratory study of these questions using data from Atlanta, Georgia. To guide the research, the article first proposes a set of hypotheses on involvement in coproduction based on theories of political participation, where psychological motivations and social factors dominate, and citizen‐initiated contacting, where perceived needs for public services are usually primary. The hypotheses are tested using survey data on the engagement of 797 neighborhood organization participants in various forms of local coproduction in Atlanta. The findings provide some support for both theories along with evidence for significant idiosyncratic variations suggested by neither theory. A concluding section considers implications of the findings for future research and for public management.     

Atherosclerotic and Hypertensive Cardiovascular Disease are Associated with Death at Sublethal Carboxyhemoglobin Levels: A Postmortem Study

Residential fires are a significant cause for morbidity and mortality in the United States. Death is often the result of soot and smoke inhalation causing carbon monoxide (CO) toxicity. The approximate lethal level of carboxyhemoglobin (COHb) in healthy adults has been well described. However, a significant number of medical examiner cases involve infirmed decedents, often elderly, with complex cardiovascular disease burdens. It is well known that death in these cases will occur at sublethal levels of COHb; however, increased lethality has been largely documented via anecdotal experience and lacks quantification. Fifty-five cases were identified where death resulted from smoke and soot inhalation suffered in a residential fire. The control group, with no cardiovascular disease, had an age-adjusted mean COHb level of 61.6% at the time of death. Presence of hypertensive cardiovascular disease showed a 30% reduction in COHb (age-adjusted mean 43.2%), atherosclerotic disease showed a 33% reduction (age-adjusted mean 41.5%), and combined disease presentation accounted for 41% reduction (age-adjusted mean 36.3%). When controlling for age, atherosclerotic and hypertensive cardiovascular diseases were each associated with statistically significant decreases in COHb (p < 0.01). Increasing age was associated with decreased COHb levels at 2.8% per 10 years of life (p < 0.01), even when modeled with hypertensive and atherosclerotic disease. These findings carry important public health significance, as well as practical significance for the medical examiner when interpreting COHb levels in cases of suspected deaths due to smoke and soot inhalation.     

‘It’s what Emmeline Pankhurst would have wanted’: Celebrity Big Brother: Year of the Woman (2018, UK) and negotiations of popular feminism(s)

Feminist scholarship has invested attention in popular culture as a terrain upon which understandings of feminism are circulated, contested and explored. This is particularly so in the contemporary moment in which feminism appears to have achieved a new ascendency. But whilst popular culture and feminism are recognised as inextricably enmeshed, there remains the implicit or explicit assumption in feminist scholarship that popular media culture could do ‘better’, and that there is a more ‘authentic’ form of feminism waiting to find representation. In response to this context, this article undertakes an analysis of Twitter responses to Celebrity Big Brother: Year of the Woman (2018) in order to explore the ways in which a popular media text provides an arena for the negotiation of popular feminism. Rather than positioning reality TV and celebrity culture as a site of ‘ideological ruin’ for feminism, this article explores how CBB is discussed in relation to feminism as popular television, and the ways in which this may offer affordances and limitations. The article concludes that feminist media scholars need to give due attention to the complexities of popular feminism as articulated by popular media culture.     

Introduction to “Environmental Justice”

Justice issues have been prominent in the environmental debate since its beginning in the second half of the twentieth century. This is not surprising, because environmental crises highlight our conceptions of justice, challenging us to consider their adequacy as well as their implications. Does current justice theory accurately describe the issues raised by environmental threats, especially about the justice for future generations? What are the implications of perceptions of justice or injustice for responses to environmental problems, up to and including social protest? For the most part, environmental social sciences have not been at the forefront of these debates, despite some very important contributions. The goal of the present issue is, therefore, to bring together researchers in the field of environmental psychology and justice research and to provide a forum for current research in the field of environmental justice. This introduction gives a short overview of past, present, and emerging findings and questions.     

Comptes Rendus Book Reviews

This article follows the efforts of white settlers to impose cotton as an export crop in Natal and Zululand. Touted as a commodity capable of remaking land and life in the region in the 1850s, the 1860s, and again in the 1910s and 1920s, cotton never achieved more than marginal status in the region's agricultural economy. Its story is one of historical amnesia: although faith in the region's cotton prospects dipped following each spectacular failure, it was routinely resurrected once previous failures had been accounted for, or memories of them had faded.

Two crucial issues are at the centre of this episodic history. First, I explore the logistics of planned expansion, and the reasons for the repeated collapse of cotton-growing schemes. Second, I unravel the side effects of these difficult and disappointing efforts and argue that, despite repeated failure, cotton facilitated important structural changes to the region's agricultural, political and economic landscape.     

Who is willing to participate? Dissatisfied democrats,stealth democrats and populists in the United Kingdom

This article demonstrates that two quite distinctive types of political disaffection – ‘dissatisfied democratic’ and ‘stealth democratic’ – exist among British citizens, with the former being more prevalent. While both types manifest low trust in political elites, the dissatisfied democrat is politically interested, efficacious and desires greater political participation, while the contrary is generally true of the stealth democrat. However, stealth democrats are favourably disposed towards direct democracy, which can be attributed to the populist nature of stealth democratic attitudes. Even so, when given the opportunity to take part in a national referendum, neither stealth democrats nor dissatisfied democrats showed much inclination to vote.