Beyond suffrage: the role of Cuban women in the state-building years of a failed democracy (1940–1952)

During the first third of the twentieth century, several women joined associations to promote legal reforms. Between 1917 and 1934, the Cuban Parliament passed laws regarding women’s legal status, therefore challenging the traditional relations between state, Church and family inherited from the colonial period. Although the Constitution of 1940 incorporated these measures, Cuban women barely took part in state institutions, but their increasing presence in public affairs marked a turning point in their social status. A few women were appointed as Cuban representatives to international organizations, and political parties set up female auxiliaries. Moreover, several women’s associations worked for peace, demanded improvements in the healthcare system, took action towards enhancing education in rural areas and pushed for effective reform of the Civic Code in order to provide equal rights for men and women. African-Cuban women’s participation in these organizations was limited due to discrimination and they in turn set up their own organizations.     

Entomotoxicology, experimental set-up and interpretation for forensic toxicologists

Forensic entomotoxicology studies the usefulness of insects as alternative toxicological samples. Use of insects as alternative matrix for drug detection is well documented and recommended when conventional matrices such as blood, urine or internal organs are no longer available. However, several limitations of entomotoxicology have been highlighted, especially concerning interpretation of the drug concentrations in insects on human forensic cases. In addition, the lack of knowledge in pharmacokinetic of drugs in insects, large variability of experimental set-up and toxicological analysis compromise the utility of this science. This review focuses on the current knowledge of factors influencing drug detection in insects. Reasons for the current limitations, but also recommendations for future research are discussed and proposed in this paper.     

志愿者动机之社会和文化起源——六国大学生调查情况比较

虽然有关志愿者活动的参与以及志愿者动机(Motivationsto Volunteers,以下简称MTV)的研究已经受到许多国家(尤其是美国)的持续关注,但是,从文化和政治背景来解析的研究却鲜见。本文对志愿者活动的社会起源论和信息传递论这两种理论进行了比较,阐述了不同国家志愿者动机的差异,着重分析了来自6个国家具有不同文化背景的5,794名学生各自的反应。所得到的结果有力地支持了信息传递论,与此同时却淡化了社会起源论。文章得出结论:参与志愿者活动系个人的决定,更多地受个人影响,当然某种程度上也受到巨大的社会力量的影响。     

Na shariram nadhi, My body is mine: The urban women’s health movement in india and its negotiation of modernity

This article explores the Indian women’s health movement for productive insights into current debates on the “travelling” meanings of modernity. Taking the feminist demand for bodily autonomy as a starting point for the exploration, the article traces the trajectories described by some of modernity’s central concepts: choice, freedom, autonomy, rights, and [developmental versions of] progress. The journeys described here take place not only between the “global” and the “local,” but between metropole and colony in the colonial period, and between the nation-state and the women’s movement in the postcolonial period. As the case example of the controversy over amniocentesis (used in India in the identification and abortion of female foetuses) illustrates, terms such as choice and development have become central to contestations between the women’s movement, the state, and the professional middle classes.     

Party Polarization and the Business Cycle in the United States

A large literature has studied the trend of greaterpolarization between Democrats and Republicans in Congress.This paper empirically examines the extent to which inflationand unemployment explain cyclical movements ofpolarization over time. An informal application of thestandard Downsian spatial competition model of partiesgenerates the following relationships, ceteris paribus: (1)inflation should be associated with policy convergence, (2)unemployment should be associated with polarization, (3) theeffect of unemployment on polarization should be larger inmagnitude than the effect of inflation on convergence, and (4)the effect of unemployment on polarization should be strongerin the House than in the Senate. We estimate the relationshipbetween vote records and business cycle conditions over the1947–1999 period using a GLS model with varying lags. Ourresults are broadly consistent with these business cyclehypotheses of polarization, though greater support is found inHouse data than in Senate data.     

The Making of Mexican Illegality: Immigration Exclusions Based on Race,Class Status,and Gender

This article examines the history of US citizenship and deportation policies that have always been based on race, class status, and gender, as well as the effects of such policies on the making of Mexican illegality. Mexicans have been constructed as unassimilable and a threat to the US national polity. They are also viewed as working class likely to become a public charge. Mexican women have been imagined as extremely fertile and while their production has been desired, their reproduction has been feared. These social, political, and legal constructions resulted in the creation of Mexican illegality despite time of residence in the United States, ties to US citizens, or birthright citizenship. While scholars have documented immigration laws that have expatriated US citizen women (mainly of European racial backgrounds), policies that allowed for the deportation of “public charge” cases, and the racialization of Mexicans, who were once considered legally white for naturalization processes; the three identity-based exclusions have not been examined together to understand Mexican experiences in the United States. This article utilizes a racial, class, and gendered analysis to understand the making of Mexican illegality that began with the 1790 citizenship statue in which the United States Congress limited US citizenship rights to “free ‘white people’ and women’s citizenship was determined by their fathers or husbands.” The making of Mexican illegality continues with today’s immigration restrictions that perceive Mexicans as a threat to: national security, the white racial makeup of the country, and the stability of the economy.     

An exploration of public risk perception and governmental engagement of nuclear energy in India

Public acceptance constitutes an important factor in successfully establishing and operating nuclear power plants. This paper explores public attitudes to the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project commissioned in 2013 and situated in Southern India, through assessing the role of socio‐demographic factors, externalities, and social trust in determining the level of public acceptance. An exploratory survey (n = 100) was carried out in two administrative units in the vicinity of the plant. The study reveals that acceptance of the plant is positively correlated with positive externalities and trust in governmental entities, whereas negative externalities and trust in antinuclear nongovernmental organizations and media are associated with negative public perception. The results show that governmental policies on nuclear power must support the effects of positive externalities and reduce the effects of negative externalities.     

From Media Attention to Negotiated Peace: Human Rights Reporting and Civil War Duration

Violations of human rights in the context of a conflict have in recent years received an increasing amount of attention from the international media. Yet how such media attention influences conflict remains understudied and, a priori, uncertain. On the one hand, media coverage of human rights abuses may constitute “naming and shaming” that might temper hostilities. On the other hand, such coverage might spark intransigence and complicate negotiations among conflicting parties, thereby hindering rather than hastening peace. This article tries to adjudicate among these and other possibilities by exploring how media reporting on human rights abuses influences the development of conflicts. The analysis reveals that such reporting is associated with shorter conflicts and negotiated agreements between fighting parties.