feminism and futurity: revisiting Marge Piercy’s <Emphasis Type="Italic">Woman on the Edge of Time</Emphasis>

This article considers the question of feminist futurity through Marge Piercy’s Woman on the Edge of Time (1976). While dominant readings of this novel have focused on its relationship to the feminist utopian genre and feminist theory from the 1970s, this essay aims to critically reframe the novel through contemporary feminist theorising on time and futurity. Drawing on recent feminist and queer theory that suggests that the future might most productively be figured through more nuanced and renewed engagements with the past, I argue that readings of Piercy’s novel that frame it only through its contemporary moment obscure the novel’s critique of singular, linear models of time. The novel represents the future through the themes of loss, mourning and haunting, which I argue resist a model of time that moves linearly from past to future and instead bring the past and future into complex relation with each other. In this regard, Piercy’s novel is read as representing a form of feminist futurity that engages with progress in time as necessarily uneven, discontinuous and fractured, speaking to contemporary demands for a feminist futurity that might require more nuanced accounts of the past.     

Reviews

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Resistance to Neoliberal Globalisation: A Case of 'Militant Particularism'?

This article seeks to help redress the relative lack of discussion of the movement against neoliberal globalisation and the relative lack of empirical work about this movement. Firstly it argues that this movement is not opposed to globalisation per se but instead is developing a new internationalism in the course of challenging the neoliberal nature of contemporary globalisation. Secondly it argues that this challenge is producing a universalising dynamic which is moving the movement beyond being a series of isolated militant particularist struggles. The article uses interviews with leading participants within the movement to help clarify these arguments.     

A Facebook post is born: exploring the process of generating MPs’ social media presence

Research on political communication between MPs and the public has focused on the role, activities and perceptions of the members of parliament (MPs) themselves. However, the authors’ prior research demonstrated that in fact social media necessitate a new prism through which to study such communication. The contribution of the present study is to look at this relationship through the heretofore under-researched prism of those who in fact are doing much of the actual communication (at least in Israel): the parliamentary assistants (PAs). Whereas other studies tend to focus on the communicative contents, the present research deals mainly with the behind-the-scenes processes that produce such content.

In this study 26 PAs were interviewed in Israel’s Knesset regarding three central questions: What are the goals of the MPs’ activities on Facebook? What are the key obstacles perceived by the assistants while maintaining MPs’ Facebook presence? What are the main professional dilemmas that PAs run into during their Facebook activity on behalf of MPs? By addressing these questions, the paper contributes to generating a more comprehensive picture of the ways political Facebook posts are born, and of the processes through which MPs’ social media presence is generated.     

Does investing in identity work? An examination of the ethnocentric social capital theory from an oriental perspective

The central thrust of this paper questions the notion of ‘investing in identity’ in the current approach to social capital, and challenges the assumption that the poor can draw upon their identities as productive resources to alleviate poverty. This paper argues that the mainstream social capital model is largely based on the economic model of rationality, which assumes that individuals are rational, and consciously construct social identities with purposive reasons. This perspective, however, neglects agency, subjectivity and the power dimension in the process of identity building. This paper also questions the ethnocentric nature of social capital thinking which plays down the influences of culture and context. Drawing upon the structuration theory of Anthony Giddens, and based on my ethnographic research on Chinese migrants in Hong Kong, I challenge the ‘Hong Kong-derived Chinese identity model’ by Gregory Guldin. Using the concept of ‘acknowledgeable agents’, I argue that the construction of ethnic identity amongst migrants is far more complicated, and agents may use their hyphenated identities to seek room for manoeuvre. I also highlight the transformative, fluid and fragile nature of identity to suggest that he notion of ‘investing in identity’ is problematic because which and what identities, and where and how to invest, are not properly addressed. Taking agents’ subjectivity into account, disinvestment, rather than investment, in identity may be a more desirable livelihood strategy adopted by migrants. Finally, I draw attention to the dark sides of identity, and point out that without a clear understanding of the existing structures of interaction, investing in identity may result in poverty aggravation and further exclusion of the poor.The writer is currently an assistant lecturer at the University of Bradford, UK.     

Muslims in prison: a case study from Ohio state prisons

The present study explores core issues related to the understudied population of Muslim inmates. Mail questionnaires were sent to the full-time chaplains employed by religious services in thirty Ohio state male prisons. The survey examines: (1) characteristics of Muslim inmates, (2) patterns of identification with Islam, (3) religious behavior inside the prisons, and (4) relations between conversion to Islam and crime committed. Our findings indicate that while the vast majority of Muslim inmates are African-American, they are otherwise similar to the incarcerated population in terms of age, education, and marital status. Most of the Muslims in our sample converted while incarcerated. The devotion of Muslim prisoners in the sample tends to be high as demonstrated by adherence to central religious practices. Finally, we found no relationship between crime and conversion to Islam inside prison. Although our data must be understood as tentative, it offers a basis for further investigation of this population of inmates.     

NGOs in peace-keeping operations: Their role in Mozambique

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) now play a prominent role in UN peace-keeping operations, mainly in the areas of humanitarian relief, demobilization and resettlement, support for elections, and mine-clearance. This reflects the preference of major donors to use NGO channels for their own aid. This article examines the challenges this expansion poses both to the agencies involved and to the government of the country in question, with particular reference to the 1992-1995 peace-keeping process in Mozambique. The author describes the many practical difficulties facing NGOs in a politically charged post-war environment, and concludes that there is a need for a sharper definition of appropriate roles and minimum operational standards if NGOs are to implement such programmes in ways that neither compromise their integrity nor jeopardize the longer-term reconstruction process.