why queer diaspora?

‘Why Queer Diaspora?’ intervenes at the intersection of queer theory and diaspora studies to ask how the conditions of geographical mobility produce new experiences and understandings of sexuality and gender identity. More particularly, this essay argues against a prevalent critical slippage between queer and diaspora, through which the queer is read as a mobile category that, like diaspora, disrupts the stability of fixed identity categories and thus represents a liberatory position within the material and geographical displacements of globalization. Instead, I posit that the work of ‘queering’ diaspora must be to examine the new articulations of normative and queer as they emerge in the transformations of the late twentieth century. To this end, the essay looks to two contemporary documentaries, Remote Sensing (Ursula Biemann, 2001) and Mariposas en el Andamio/Butterflies on the Scaffold (Margaret Gilpin and Luis Felipe Bernaza, 1996), as models of alternative articulations of the queer and the diasporic. Ultimately, I argue, it is a focus on the labour through which the seemingly natural categories of gender and sexuality are produced, that a queer diasporic criticism might offer.     

A comparison of mothers of adolescent incest vs. non-incest perpetrators

One hundred and thirty mothers of adolescent sexual perpetrators were interviewed. Mothers of incest perpetrators (n = 48) were compared to mothers of non-incest perpetrators (n = 82). Results indicated that significantly more mothers of incest perpetrators reported having been physically and sexually abused, having a sexual dysfunction, and having been in prior psychotherapy. With regard to their sons, a higher percentage of mothers of incest perpetrators reported that they believed their son had committed the sexual offense, was in need of treatment, and had a history of being physically abused. Additionally, a significantly lower percentage of incest perpetrators had involvement with the juvenile justice system.     

Are Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers Associated with Reductions in Poverty and Improvements in Well-being?

Should Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) be the tool for implementing the new Sustainable Development Goals, as they were for the Millennium Development Goals? Surprisingly, despite the controversies around them, there has never been a quantitative evaluation of PRSPs. This paper estimates the impact of having a PRSP on various targets of the Millennium Development Goals. Results suggest that countries under PRSP treatment achieve much greater reductions than control countries, in head count poverty and infant mortality, while also achieving greater improvements in primary school enrolments and gender parity.     

Teen Motherhood and Pregnancy Prototypes: The Role of Social Context in Changing Young African American Mothers’ Risk Images and Contraceptive Expectations

Despite the declining rate of teen pregnancies in the United States, academic and public health experts have expressed concern over the still relatively high rate of rapid repeat pregnancies among adolescents, particularly among minority youth. Using a sample of over 300 African American female adolescents, the current study used insights from the prototype/willingness model of adolescent risk behavior to explore this risk. More specifically, it assessed the relationship between entry into unwed motherhood during mid-to-late adolescence and changes in prototypes of unmarried pregnant teens. Further, it explored the extent to which these changing prototypes accounted for young mothers’ later contraceptive expectations. We tested the possibility that social images were affected not only by personal experience (the birth of a child) but also by the family and community context in which this experience took place. The findings show that the early entrance into teen motherhood was associated with a shift toward more favorable prototypes of unwed pregnant teens, but that this was only the case for young mothers in disadvantaged contexts. Given this, prototype changes helped to explain the link between teen motherhood and contraceptive expectations only for those in disadvantaged contexts. We discuss these findings in terms of their practical and theoretical implications.     

Arts and Cultural Engagement,Reportedly Antisocial or Criminalized Behaviors,and Potential Mediators in Two Longitudinal Cohorts of Adolescents

Journal of Youth and Adolescence - Arts and cultural engagement is a potential strategy for reducing or preventing reportedly antisocial or criminalized behaviors (those previously and...     

Book Reviews

The Emergence of the East European Parliaments: The First Steps by Attila Ágh. Budapest: Hungarian Centre of Democracy Studies, 1994. Pp.306; NP. ISBN 963 7415 96 3

Parliaments in the Modern World: Changing Institutions edited by Gary W. Copeland and Samuel C. Patterson. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1994. Pp.xii + 180; £14.35 (paperback). ISBN 472 08255 8

The Evolving Role of Parliaments in Europe edited by Cees Flinterman, Aalt Willem Heringa and Lisa Waddington. Anterp: MAKLU Uitgevers. Pp.111; BF 975 (paperback). ISBN 90 6215 403 4

Democratic Legislative Institutions: A Comparative View by David M. Olson. New York: M.E. Sharpe, 1994. Pp.xvi + 183. $47.50 (hardback); $19.95 (paperback). ISBN 1 56324 8 and 315 6

Parliaments in Transition: The New Legislative Politics in the Former USSR and Eastern Europe edited by Thomas F. Remington. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1994. Pp.x + 246. $49.95 (hardback). ISBN 0 8133 8814 7

Westminster's World: Understanding Political Roles by Donald Searing. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1994. Pp.498. £34.95. ISBN 0 674 9507 2

Parliamentary Control in the Nordic Countries edited by Matti Wiberg. Helsinki: The Finnish Political Science Association, 1994. Pp.364; $30 (paperback). ISBN 951 96131 7 X