Urban ethnic politics in the post‐modern city: Comparing Miami and Toronto

This paper synthesises variants of post‐modern political theory in order to examine contemporary urban ethnic politics in Miami, Florida, and Toronto, Ontario. Cities in general, and Miami and Toronto in particular, are conceptualised not as foundational entities to be excavated in search of pre‐given data, but as texts—configurations of signs, symbols and codes to be read, interpreted and analysed. The focus is on race and ethnicity as socially constructed and political contested imageries, but the approach, aptly described as empirical post‐modernism, has even broader implications for the study of power and identity politics in contemporary world cities.     

Physical Discipline and Socioemotional Adjustment Among Jamaican Adolescents

The study examined the relationship between physical punishment and socioemotional well-being in a sample of Jamaican adolescents. The data indicated that the overwhelming majority of adolescent respondents experienced physical punishment within their families. Physical punishment was significantly associated with adverse psychological and behavioral consequences, in that adolescents reporting being victims of physical punishment also indicated a greater propensity to developmental adjustment problems than their non-victimized peers. However, unlike findings from research emanating from more industrialized cultures, sociodemographic factors were not associated with the incidence of physical punishment. Gender showed statistical significance on all socioemotional dimensions and with behavior problems but not with physical punishment. Implications for policy decisions to reduce children’s exposure to violence within that particular cultural context are discussed.     

Book reviews

Christopher Andrew and Oleg Gordievsky, Instructions From the Centre. Top Secret Files on KGB Foreign Operations 1975-1985 (Hodder and Stoughton, 1991), 238pp.

Christopher Andrew and Oleg Gordievsky (eds.), More 'Instructions from the Centre': Top Secret Files on KGB Global Operations, 1975-1985 Intelligence and National Security (London, Frank Cass) 130pp. £24 hb.

Gunnar Skogmar, Nuclear Triangle: Relations between the United States, Great Britain and France in the Atomic Energy Field 1939-50 (Copenhagen, Political Studies Press, 1993), 240pp.

K.S. Sandhu, Sharon Siddique, Chandran Jeshurun, Ananda Rajah, Joseph L.H. Tan, Pushpa Thambipillai (eds.), The ASEAN Reader (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1992), xxvi + 582pp. S$58/ US$39.90 (soft cover); S$89/US$59.90 (hard cover). ISBN 981-981-3016-41-8 (soft cover), 981-3016-42-6 (hard cover).     

AGAINST JOINT CUSTODY: A DISSENT TO THE GENERAL BULLMOOSE THEORY

With the exception of the opening section, which is all my own, this article has been written in a kind of collaboration with authors from whose works and reports I have borrowed liberally, with permission. These include the majority report of the 1987–88 Executive Committee of the Child Custody Committee, Family Law Section of the American Bar Association, Professor Carol S. Bruch of the Martin Luther King, Jr. School of Law, University of California, Davis: Joanne Schulman, a gifted attorney who has researched, written and spoken extensively on the subject and the report of the Women's Legal Defense Fund on Joint Custody. Others are cited in footnotes.