Changing housing policy: women escaping domestic violence

Domestic violence has risen up the political agenda, as women's action has inspired changes in police, social work and legal practice. At the same time, one of the oldest pieces of legislation that protected women from violence - the Homeless Persons Act of 1977 - has been transmuted into the Housing Act of 1996. This legislation was introduced by a Conservative government, which was anxious to reduce the rights of homeless people to secure permanent accommodation, on the grounds that these rights gave incentives to pregnancy, lone parenthood and economic migrants. New Labour have softened the Housing Act to give more scope to local authorities to respond to homelessness. This article asks: What are the implications of changing homelessness rights under this legislation and subsequent regulations for women's ability to escape violent relationships and find long term solutions to the housing needs which domestic violence creates? How new is New Labour policy as expressed in housing regulations and its policy Green Paper?     

CHINA’S ‘POLITICAL RE-EDUCATION’ CAMPS OF XINJIANG’S UYGHUR MUSLIMS

Recently, reports have emerged that China operates “political re-education” camps of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang. China justified them as a sort of vocational training program to assist Uyghurs in participating in the Chinese economy. In actuality, they are brutal incarceration camps; these forms of ‘education’ can qualify as torture that perhaps 1.5 million adults have been subjected to, and have led to detaining children of people incarcerated in state-run boarding schools. It is necessary to interrogate the underlying factors that have enabled the Chinese government to open and operate these camps under the guise of education. This paper first examines the impact of the current geopolitical interests of China's Belt & Road Initiative and the historical backgrounds of Xinjiang and the Re-Education through Labour program. It then explains the methods of ‘education’ taking place within the camps and interrogates China's justifications for building them. This education issue is more about inhibiting Uyghur power than China's claim that the camps are meant to empower Uyghurs to participate in the Chinese labour force.     

Working with personality disordered women in secure care: the challenge of gender-based service delivery

Abstract

Working with women in secure services is an infrequent subject of research and discussion in the forensic mental health literature. There are several reasons for this, which will be considered in the introduction to this paper. However, a consequence of this situation is that there remains a lack of clarity in key areas of practice in relation to working with women in secure services, and working with women with personality disorder specifically: how women with personality disorder may present in secure services compared to men, therefore, the particular skills required of the practitioners who work with women and the main design features of the services within which they are managed. The body of this paper attempts to summarise important issues in each of these areas in order to inform future debate and developments in the field.     

也论回教与市民社会的不相容--以马来西亚回教青年运动为例

关于伊斯兰市民社会的研究,西方学术界有一种观点值得注意:市民社会与回教在本质上是不相容的,因为市民社会倡导个性与差异,或者说多元主义,而回教正好缺乏多元主义。果真如此吗?通过对回教经典《古兰经》有关多元主义论述的梳理和马来西亚穆斯林市民社会组织——马来西亚回教青年运动的实践研究,笔者发现:回教从理论上并不反对多元主义民主,在实践中,回教与市民社会也完全可以兼容。     

Conspiracism In and Around Libya

Abstract

The idea that there is one cohesive Islamist movement with a clearly defined plan to conquer power in Libya is a deeply flawed argument. It is one that, among other causes, is at the basis of the current divisions in the country and its civil strife. The Islamist movement in Libya, on the contrary, is a highly heterogeneous reality. Understanding this divisiveness is fundamental to the elaboration of a strategy for reunification and the establishment of law and order. Such a strategy should be based on the principle of incorporating those Islamists who accept the democratic process and isolating the more extremist ones.     

Official incidents of inmate-on-inmate misconduct at a women’s prison: using importation and deprivation theories to compare perpetrators to victims

Importation and deprivation theories have long been used to explain prison misconduct and victimization among male inmates. However, the key variables from these theories have rarely been tested on female inmates. In addition, many of these existing studies use combined samples of males and females, while ignoring female-only samples of prisoners. Using data from official misconduct reports collected from 2007 to 2012 from a large women’s prison in Ohio, the current study sought to compare the characteristics of perpetrators of inmate-on-inmate misconduct to their victims. Findings reveal that variables from both importation (age, race, and current violent offender status) and deprivation (mental health status and prior violent disciplinary reports) theories were significant in predicting perpetrator vs. victim likelihood. Policy implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Norms and rage: Gender and social media in the 2018 U.S. mid-term elections

Previous research shows women candidates face double-standard with regard to fitness for office: women ought to be kind but leaders ought to be aggressive and agentic. At the same time, there is traditional division of what constitutes “women’s” issues (e.g. health-care) vs “male” (e.g. economy). Do these norms about what women politicians ought to be and talk about hurt or help them during elections? We investigate the case of U.S. 2018 mid-term elections on Twitter. Our findings suggest that engaging with “women’s” issues by female candidates as well as tweeting angrily is associated with higher likelihood of being elected. However, women candidates who use angry speech on Twitter, are more likely to also receive tweets with abusive language, in particular by other women. Thus, we show that social media could help female candidates to break stereotypes, and present themselves as nuanced candidates who can both stand for women’s issues but also be aggressive and leader-like.     

城市职业女性的社会网络

基于对2003年全国综合社会调查(GSS)社会网络的资料研究分析,城市职业女性的社会网络是一个高密度的核心网络,其中,以家庭成员为主的亲缘关系在城市职业女性的社会网络中占据着最重要的位置.在控制了其他结构变量之后,性别在网络规模、网络关系组成、网络异质性、网络亲近性方面的影响仍然存在.这种社会网络模式,说明职业女性虽然身兼工作角色与家庭角色为一身,但长期以来在中国传统社会里形成的"男主外女主内"的刻板式家庭分工模式促使职业女性的生活重心仍然比男性更兼顾家庭.此外,职业阶层地位、年龄、政治面貌、婚姻状况、家庭经济水平、居住地等社会结构变量对职业女性的社会网络模式也有着影响力.     

Comparative study of sustainable and non-sustainable interventions in technology development and transfer to the women’s vegetable gardens in the Gambia

In the Gambia numerous projects have been implemented to boost vegetable production. A survey was conducted in Kanifing Municipality and Western Division of the Gambia to determine the level of technology development and transfer. The result shows that the total membership of the intervention sites is 726 and 1,115 growers in the non-intervention sites respectively. From the survey 92% of farmers considered variety improvement as a priority area for technology development. The result indicated that 45% of the respondents regard that 80% of technologies comes research and farmers and 90% of technology dissemination to farmers is through the public extension system, and 20% of respondents mentioned farmer groups. The aim of this study was therefore to examine acquisition, technology development, and transfer to farmers and to come with appropriate strategies of technology transfer in The Gambia in the areas of production and marketing of vegetables.      

Islamism,secularization, secularity: the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt as a phenomenon of a secular age

The paper outlines parallels between the processes of secularization and secularity in the West, as interpreted by José Casanova and Charles Taylor, and Islamism as a modern social and political phenomenon. It focuses on the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood’s history and ideas and specifically on a number of public documents detailing its social and political vision. I argue that if we define ‘secularization’ not only as the weakening of religious belief, but as the institutional differentiation of modern state structures and the marginalization of religion, and ‘secularity’ as the process whereby faith becomes one option among others and religion becomes an identifiable set of beliefs seen as guidelines for reform, the Brotherhood, similarly to other Islamist entities, is a phenomenon of a ‘secular age’.