Neoliberalism and Academia in Morocco

This article analyses the impact of international aid flows and the process of global market integration in Morocco on the role of academia—meaning research, teaching and intellectual debate conducted largely, but not solely, through publications and conferences—in social and political change. Drawing upon interviews and analysis of secondary sources, the article suggests that international development agencies working in Morocco and national policy strategies to further globalisation have had consequences for academic research and outputs as well as on intellectual debate in general. The first effect is to support the cultivation of an academic elite in the social sciences and humanities whose research agenda is often connected to national and international policy agendas and, likewise, to limit the evolution of a broader-based national or regional academic debate based on independent research. The second is to raise the importance of private higher education, which is focused for the most part on teaching and not on independent research. The impact of both has been to undermine the status of the academic profession and the role of higher education in pushing forward public debate on critical issues beyond programmatic concerns, for instance illiteracy or migration; and to address more fundamental questions, such as adherence to neoliberal policies or the pervasiveness of political and social alienation in Morocco. More importantly, the decline of public higher education has symbolic significance in that it reflects disassociation of the state from supporting a connection between craft, identity and citizenship. Taking into account the consequences of the impoverishment of higher education for training, research and critical analysis, the article ends by calling on aid agencies to regard academic research and public universities as means to reinvigorate public debate and new thinking around national and local development issues.     

Researching difference and diversity within women's movements: Sisterhood and after

This paper illustrates how Sisterhood and After: The Women's Liberation Oral History Project has approached difference and diversity within the history of women's movements. I argue that the terms ‘difference and diversity’ cannot do justice to histories of black women unless they are used to highlight the impact of race on black women's experiences in women's movements. Furthermore given the widespread acknowledgment that there was tension in the British women's liberation movement over the marginalization, exclusion and racism faced by black and Asian women, the project sought to ensure that black and Asian women's varied experiences as campaigners were explored and we also asked our white interviewees about race. I show how the in-depth nature of the life history interview method holds the possibility for greater reflection on these vital and often unsettling issues in feminism's history.     

Emotional Distress Among LGBT Youth: The Influence of Perceived Discrimination Based on Sexual Orientation

The authors evaluated emotional distress among 9th–12th grade students, and examined whether the association between being lesbian, gay, bisexual, and/or transgendered (i.e., “LGBT”) and emotional distress was mediated by perceptions of having been treated badly or discriminated against because others thought they were gay or lesbian. Data come from a school-based survey in Boston, Massachusetts (n = 1,032); 10% were LGBT, 58% were female, and ages ranged from 13 to 19 years. About 45% were Black, 31% were Hispanic, and 14% were White. LGBT youth scored significantly higher on the scale of depressive symptomatology. They were also more likely than heterosexual, non-transgendered youth to report suicidal ideation (30% vs. 6%, p < 0.0001) and self-harm (21% vs. 6%, p < 0.0001). Mediation analyses showed that perceived discrimination accounted for increased depressive symptomatology among LGBT males and females, and accounted for an elevated risk of self-harm and suicidal ideation among LGBT males. Perceived discrimination is a likely contributor to emotional distress among LGBT youth.     

The Polish underground organization Wolność i Niezawisłość and anti-Jewish pogroms, 1945–6

Tokarska-Bakir’s paper considers the deep-rooted cognitive habits among informers and reporters belonging to the Polish post-war, anti-Communist underground organization Wolno?? i Niezawis?o?? (Freedom and Independence) with regard to their perception of Polish Jews. The organization's archive is preserved in the National Archives in Krakow in Poland, and it thoroughly documents its members' social beliefs and fears. A theory of pogroms formulated by Senechal de la Roche understands the pogrom as an act of social control. Using the archival documents with that theory in mind, Tokarska-Bakir analyses Wolno?? i Niezawis?o?? in relation to the anti-Jewish pogroms that took place in Rzeszów, Krakow and Kielce in the years immediately following the Second World War.     

Social Influences on Online Political Information Search and Evaluation

Americans are turning to the Internet to learn about politics in greater and greater numbers. Under the current “Web 2.0” paradigm in which users are encouraged to interact with online content, voters encountering political information on the Internet are typically exposed to more than just the news; online information is often colored by the reactions of previous readers, whether in the form of displayed comments or in readily apparent tallies of the number of “likes” or “shares” a particular item has received. In this paper we consider the effect these social cues have on online political information search and evaluation. Using processing-tracing software to monitor the patterns of information search and evaluation among our subjects, we find that social cues can function as a heuristic, allowing voters to reach judgments similar to those of their more informed counterparts. However, we also find that negative cues can adversely influence candidate evaluation, making subjects less disposed to a candidate than they would be in the absence of such signals.     

Electro-acupuncture to prevent prolonged postoperative ileus:A randomized clinical trial

AIM:To examine whether acupuncture can prevent prolonged postoperative ileus(PPOI)after intraperitoneal surgery for colon cancer. METHODS:Ninety patients were recruited from the Fudan University Cancer Hospital,Shanghai,China. After surgery,patients were randomized to receive acupuncture(once daily,starting on postoperative day 1, for up to six consecutive days)or usual care.PPOI was defined as an inability to pass flatus or have a bowel movement by 96 h after surgery.The main outcomes were time to first fl...     

Developments in criminal law and criminal justice

Conclusion It follows from what has been said above that history, principle, and authority combine to compel the conclusion that § 80's guarantee of trial by jury precludes a verdict of guilty being returned in a trial upon indictment of an offence against a law of the Commonwealth otherwise than by the agreement or consensus of all the jurors. That being so, § 57 of the Juries Act, 1927, cannot, consistently with § 80, operate to authorize the conviction of either of the appellants by a majority verdict. Their convictions were unconstitutional and must be set aside.The appeal should be allowed. The orders of the South Australian Court of Criminal Appeal should be set aside and in lieu thereof it should be ordered, in the case of each appellant, that the appeal to that court be allowed, that the conviction be quashed and a new trial ordered.B.A., Columbia University 1972; J.D., Hofstra University 1975.