Constructing ‘active citizenship’: single mothers,welfare, and the logics of voluntarism

Across welfare states, rights-based conceptions of citizenship are losing ground to obligation-centred notions. Drawing on in-depth longitudinal interviews with lone mothers receiving income assistance in British Columbia during a period of significant welfare reform, we explore the mothers' practices and narratives of volunteer labour in relation to conceptions of ‘active citizenship’. Volunteer work and the narratives women construct about it emerge as key sites of struggle and tension over the meaning of motherhood, work, and social contribution.     

Psychedelic fungus (Psilocybe sp.) authentication in a case of illegal drug traffic: sporological,molecular analysis and identification of the psychoactive substance

In nature, there are >200 species of fungi with hallucinogenic properties. These fungi are classified as Psilocybe, Gymnopilus, and Panaeolus which contain active principles with hallucinogenic properties such as ibotenic acid, psilocybin, psilocin, or baeocystin. In Chile, fungi seizures are mainly of mature specimens or spores. However, clandestine laboratories have been found that process fungus samples at the mycelium stage. In this transient stage of growth (mycelium), traditional taxonomic identification is not feasible, making it necessary to develop a new method of study.Currently, DNA analysis is the only reliable method that can be used as an identification tool for the purposes of supporting evidence, due to the high variability of DNA between species. One way to identify the species of a distinctive DNA fragment is to study PCR products analyzed by real time PCR and sequencing. One of the most popular sequencing methods of forensic interest at the generic and intra-generic levels in plants is internal transcribed spacer (ITS). With real time PCR it is possible to distinguish PCR products by differential analysis of their melting temperature (Tm) curves.This paper describes morphological, chemical, and genetic analysis of mycelia of psychedelic fungi collected from a clandestine laboratory. The fungus species were identified using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), mass spectrometry, HRM analysis, and ITS sequencing. The sporological studies showed a generally smooth surface and oval shape, with maximum length 10.1?μm and width 6.4?μm. The alkaloid Psilocyn was identified by mass spectrometry, while HRM analysis and ITS sequencing identified the species as Psilocybe cubensis. A genetic match was confirmed between the HRM curves obtained from the mycelia (evidence) and biological tissue extracted from the fruiting bodies. Mycelia recovered from the evidence and fruiting bodies (control) were genetically indistinguishable.     

Comments to the CoE Convention 108 draft proposal on data protection

One year after the public consultation on the modernisation of the Convention 108, the Council of Europe issued the latest modernization proposal in March 2012 reviewed on the basis of the 27th Plenary meeting of the Consultative Committee of the Convention (from 29 November to 2 December 2012) and the 26th meeting of its Bureau (from 6 to 8 February 2012). Professor Graham Greenleaf and Mr. Nigel Waters on behalf of the Australian Privacy Foundation International Committee and a consortium headed by CLSR Editorial Board member Professor Sylvia Kierkegaard together with Dr. Elisabeth Thole, Professor Dr. Willem Grosheide and CLSR Professional Board Member Joseph V. DeMarco submitted separately their comments to the proposed text. Plenary meeting of the Consultative Committee of the Convention 108 will take place in Strasbourg from 19 to 22 June 2012, during when the draft text will be approved.     

Implementing a Strengths-Based Approach to Intimate Partner Violence Worldwide

Family violence is a core social issue in every country around the world. The extent and consequence of family violence as a major problem has received increased attention around the world. The focus of the present study is not only to inform about intimate partner violence (IPV) that occurs in individual countries, but to illustrate how individuals, families, communities, and cultures use their strengths to overcome the challenges that violence presents. An analysis of 16 countries, including 17 cultures is represented and includes all seven of the world’s major geocultural areas. Qualitative methodology was used to examine the stories of intimate partner violence in which similarities and differences across cultures were discovered resulting in a theoretical discussion of findings. The International Family Strengths Model was applied to examine the family strengths, community strengths, and cultural strengths used to mitigate family violence worldwide. Individual strengths emerged as a new and important component of the model. Suggestions for change include recognition of differing solutions across cultures, the need for mediation and policy changes, and the importance of empowerment.     

Policy advisory systems: change dynamics and sources of variation

The special issue aims to enhance our understanding of the conditions under which policy advisory systems vary. The contributions comprise both continental European countries (Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands) and Anglo-Saxon countries (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, UK). The introduction to the special issue briefly outlines existing scholarship on policy advisory systems and identifies different research gaps to the filling of which the special issue seeks to contribute. The introduction highlights that the articles in the special issue point to both political system and policy process variables to better systemize, theorize and explain the origins and change dynamics of policy advisory systems.     

Reviews

J. S. Prybyla, Market and plan under socialism: The bird in the cage, Stanford: Hoover Institution Press, 1987, xv + 348 pp. p/b $18.95.

Thomas A. Wolf, Foreign Trade in the Centrally Planned Economy, Chur: Harwood Academic Publishers, 1988, ix + 77 pp., $33.00.

Arie Bloed, The External Relations of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance, Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1988, xvi + 257 pp., Df1.135, US$66, £39.50.

Roger E. Kanet, ed., The Soviet Union, Eastern Europe and the Third World, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987, xi + 233 pp., £25.00 h/b.

Stevan K. Pavlowitch, The Improbable Survivor: Yugoslavia and its Problems, 1918 1988, London: C. Hurst & Company, 1988, 167 pp., £17.50 h/b., £7.50 p/b.

Ronald H. Linden, Communist States and International Change: Romania and Yugoslavia in Comparative Perspective, New York: Allen and Unwin, 1987, xviii + 201 pp., £28.00.

Olimpiad S. Ioffe, Soviet Civil Law, Law in Eastern Europe Series, no. 36, Dordrecht, Holland: Martinus Nijhoff, 1988, ix + 383 pp., £62.00.

M. M. Boguslavskii, Private International Law: The Soviet Approach, Law in Eastern Europe Series, no. 35, Dordrecht, Holland: Martinus Nijhoff, 1988, ix + 261 pp., £49.50.

Edward A. Allworth, ed., Tatars of the Crimea: Their Struggle for Survival, Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 1988, xvi + 396 pp., $52.50.

Timothy Edward O'Connor, Diplomacy and Revolution: G. V. Chicherin and Soviet Foreign Affairs, 1918 1930, Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1988, xx + 250 pp., $24.95.

Aleksander Kan, I Påvente av frigjeringa. Sovjetisk historieteori mellom Stalin og Gor‐batsjov, [Fråtysk ved Jostein Stokkeland] Det Norske Samlaget, Oslo, 1988, 304 pp.

Vladimir N. Brovkin, The Mensheviks after October: Socialist Opposition and the Rise of the Bolshevik Dictatorship, Ithaca, Cornell University Press, 1987, xviii + 329 pp., $39.95.

Leopold H. Haimson, The Making of Three Russian Revolutionaries: Voices from the Menshevik Past, in collaboration with Ziva Galili y Garcia and Richard Wortman. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1987, ix + 515 pp., $49.50, £37.50.

Allen K. Wildman, The End of the Russian Imperial Army, Volume II: The Road to Soviet Power and Peace, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1987, xv + 443 pp., £34.40.

Nurit Schleifman, Undercover Agents in the Russian Revolutionary Movement: the SR Party, 1902 14, London: Macmillan, in association with St Antony's College Oxford, 1988, xvii + 222 pp., £29.50.

Christopher Rice, Russian Workers and the Socialist‐Revolutionary Party Through the Revolution of 1905 07, London: Macmillan, 1988, xiv + 272 pp., £33.00.