Neighborhood, Family and Individual Influences on School Physical Victimization

Few studies on the correlates of school violence include school and neighborhood influences. We use ecological systems theory and social disorganization theory to simultaneously incorporate neighborhood (e.g., concentrated poverty, residential instability, and immigrant concentration), school, family, and individual predictors of physical school victimization longitudinally among a large socio-economically and ethnically diverse (49 % Hispanic; 34 % African American) sample of 6 and 9 year olds (49 % female) from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods. These children were followed up at Wave II at ages 8 and 11 (n = 1,425). Results of Hierarchical Generalized Linear Models reveal neighborhood residential instability increases school victimization net of family and individual correlates. Furthermore, cross-level interactions were also supported where residential family mobility has a stronger risk influence in areas of high residential instability. Also, the influence of residential family mobility is decreased in areas with higher levels of immigrant concentration. We also found cross-context connections where parent-to-child aggression in the home is connected to a higher risk of victimization at school. The role of neighborhood and family residential instability on victimization warrants further research.     

Food for Thought: Reflections on a Counter-hegemonic Food-related Intervention in a South African University

Currently the Academy operates primarily as a space that helps to create and cement neoliberal hegemony in the Gramscian sense. However, since hegemony is never complete, universities are a site of struggle and the opportunity exists to engage in a “war of position” within them. This must necessarily involve allowing space for counter-hegemonic discourses to emerge through critical reflection on “common sense” discourses, as well as the deliberate inclusion of counter-hegemonic thinking and theory from below. This article reflects on an attempt to do this in a South African university, the University of KwaZulu-Natal, in relation to the issue of food. The Food Festival was an attempt to subvert interlocking hegemonic discourses, including that of food security, by “reading the world” (à la Freire) in order to understand the actual nature of existing food systems as inherently oppressive, and “inserting” the concept of food sovereignty as developed by the global peasants’ movement La Via Campesina. After considering the counter-hegemonic intentions of the Festival, the article reflects on its uneven success.     

Environmentalism and the internet: corporate greenwashers and environmental groups

Environmental degradation is a serious problem, for current populations and for future generations. Corporations are the largest offenders but seldom face the consequences of their actions. This article proposes that public relations campaigns and conflicting information on the internet pose significant challenges to calling for environmental accountability from corporations. Three companies – Coca‐Cola, Georgia Pacific, and Shell – are examined here in terms of questionable practices and public relations campaigns. While the internet could be an alternative news source, ‘corporate greenwash’ muffles a definitive voice on environmental issues. Both retributive and restorative justice processes are thwarted by misleading information. Despite environmental laws and efforts to increase accountability, calling for necessary change will continue to be exceedingly difficult without public knowledge of corporate behavior.     

Unwitting subjects of surveillance and the presumption of innocence

Mass surveillance programmes introduced by several EU Member States influence the protection that citizens enjoy on the basis of fundamental rights and freedoms. This paper focuses on the impact that these programmes have on the legal principle of presumption of innocence. The authors argue that even in those circumstances where the principle does not immediately apply because mass surveillance is undertaken before any criminal charge is issued, the collection of information and potential evidence limits the guarantees offered by the principle during the stages of a legal process. It is argued that mass surveillance programmes undermine the role of the principle of presumption of innocence at the stages of a criminal process and compromise, therefore, the very effectiveness of the legal process.     

Pathways to national economic benefits from ATP-funded technologies

An important component of the Advanced Technology Program’s (ATP) economic evaluation plan for tracking project progress and outcomes is the administration of an electronic survey on a regular basis to participants in all projects funded since 1993. Progress of projects is compared against business plans and projected economic benefit goals outlined in their proposals. The resulting Business Reporting System (BRS) database is used for ATP project management and for evaluation research. Based on BRS data compiled through December 31, 1996, filed by 480 companies in 210 projects, funded in 19 competitions, this paper provides an overview of pathways to achieving targeted commercial and broader economic goals. Progress reports for the group of projects provide a variety of evidence of (a) opportunities for economic spillovers and national economic benefit and (b) activities supporting technology diffusion.