A Historical Sociology of the New Cultural Diplomacy

International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society - Although the term ‘cultural diplomacy’ is familiar, it was infrequently used before the end of the Cold War. In fact,...     

‘Constant Violence from Everywhere’: Psychodynamics of Power and Abuse Amongst Rural and Small-Town Youth

Informed by psychosocial theoretical constructs, this study explores dynamic processes that underlie behaviors of what we call youth relational violence. The paper challenges earlier studies about teen dating violence that use models of adult domestic violence to inform the work, and posits, instead, that youth relational violence is not domestic, occurs beyond the scope of committed partnerships, and varies broadly in the degree and qualities of the relational dyads in which it occurs. Data from participants in targeted and random focus groups (n = 84) consider the social and economic context of a rural and small-town region. The study makes no gender assumptions about abusive teen relationships, nor does it limit data sources and analyses to heterosexual dyads. It conceptualizes elements of power and attachment, and operationalizes them into analyzable data forms, toward the development of a theoretical model that will inform research and practice about violence between teens in relational dyads. Whereas research in the last decade has focused principally on prevalence and evaluation, this paper introduces an exploration of dynamic processes that underlie power, tolerance of abuse, vulnerability to perpetration and victimization, and degree of attachment as it relates to abuse and power dynamics.     

Deconstructing naturalization ceremonies as public spectacles of citizenship

ABSTRACT

Naturalizations, unlike inaugurations and national party conventions, are one of the few daily repeated political theatre experiences, replete with monologs, dialogues, costumes, props, actors, stage managers, plural audiences, and staged practices. They serve as a public ritual to render foreigners into members. In so doing, they generate a citizen identity, reinforce the power of the state and confirm a relationship between new citizens, current citizens, and the state. In this article, through an interpretive process including participant-observation and grounded theory approaches, I question the presence, interaction, and roles of the multiple publics (immigrants, observers, civil servants, judges and non-governmental groups) in a naturalization ceremony. I present field notes and reflections from a ‘typical’ US naturalization ceremony. I deconstruct the choreography and structure of the public ritual to show what the public performance of naturalization tells us about what it means to be an American citizen. I explore what messages the state is trying to convey to naturalizing immigrants (and others) through the ritual of the naturalization ceremony. The locus of inquiry is New York City where 70,000 of the 680,000 naturalizations take place every year.     

After-School Programs as a Prosocial Setting for Bonding Between Peers

This study reports on the longitudinal analysis of a structured after-school arts program for Canadian youth, ages 9 to 15 years, from low-income communities where the relationship of peer social support, family interactions, and psychosocial outcomes is evaluated. Multi-level growth curve analyses suggest an increase in prosocial development with peer social support and a decrease in prosocial development when negative family interactions are present. Comparisons between matched controls, using estimated linear propensity scores, revealed significant improvement in prosocial behaviors for the intervention group. The structured after-school arts program was found to increase prosocial behaviors and bonding with peers for youth from low-income communities.     

The development and agriculture paradigms transformed: Reflections from the small-scale organic rice fields of the Philippines

This article tracks the debate about development in theory and practice, moving from the global level of the development debate to the rice fields of the Philippines. The authors offer a reframing of the development debate through the lens of ‘vulnerability’ versus ‘rootedness’ in social, environmental and economic terms. They argue that food and farming are currently at the leading edge of the development debate and of the vulnerability versus rootedness frame. They demonstrate this through their field notes from research with small-scale, rice farmers in the Philippines who have transitioned from chemical-intensive to organic production. The authors then show how their research results mesh with those of others and examine the significance of this farming ‘revolution’ for a transformation of the overall development paradigm.     

Federal constraints and state innovation: Lessons from Florida's family transition program

Prevailing wisdom holds that limiting the federal role in welfare will free the states to be more innovative in welfare‐to‐work programs. Findings from Florida's Family Transition Program (FTP), a pilot welfare reform initiative, however, suggest that the relationship between federal “strings” and state innovation is more complex. A central feature of the welfare‐to‐work program in the FTP was the direct result of federal requirements imposed by the Department of Health and Human Services during waiver negotiations. Federal regulation, in this case, promoted innovation. Outcome‐orientation, media and political attention, and fiscal structure are argued to be potentially important factors structuring the impact of federal regulation on state innovation. ©1999 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.     

Accountability and Coalitions: Evidence from a Negotiation Experiment

This article tests the effect of accountability on negotiation outcomes in a face‐to‐face classroom experiment. Student participants were asked to form coalitions in groups of three. In the treatment condition, negotiators were held accountable by a personal forum during the formation of the coalition. In the control condition, negotiators were not held accountable. Results show that accountability leads to lower group performance in coalition negotiations. Accountability also reduced the willingness of negotiators to include all negotiators in a “grand coalition.” Rather, accountable negotiators reached agreement with a subset of negotiators. Accountability increased the odds of reaching no agreement. These findings challenge the idea of increased performance as a result of public accountability in the context of coalition negotiations.