Citizenship,minorities and the struggle for a right to the city in Istanbul

Globalization is generating new forms of citizenship that often go beyond the institutional perception of social identity. These new forms of citizenship are developed in a scalable way to a greater extent than rights and obligations, and are entirely managed by the citizens themselves. To demonstrate empirical support for this issue, the case of minority communities in Turkey constitutes one of the most relevant examples, since citizenship in this country has long been associated with an idea of political loyalty and total allegiance to the nation-state. The main purpose of this article is to show how urban space and urban protest allow minorities to find alternative forms of expression for their collective identity, and to create a new understanding of citizenship beyond the classical definition, being based instead on institutional representation. The aim of this research is to examine the process of urban transformation in Istanbul, how this phenomenon shapes the structure of cities and how it gives rise to social resistance and protest, especially in neighborhoods housing minority communities. In this context, the article focuses on planning movements in Turkey through a comparative study of two urban planning projects and the citizens' protests against them.     

Racial Dynamics of Subprime Mortgage Lending at the Peak

Subprime mortgage lending in the early 2000s was a leading cause of the Great Recession. From 2003 to 2006, subprime loans jumped from 7.6% of the mortgage market to 20.1%, with black and Latino borrowers receiving a disproportionate share. This article leveraged the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data and multinomial regression to model home-purchase mortgage lending in 2006, the peak of the housing boom. The findings expose a complicated story of race and income. Consistent with previous research, blacks and Latinos were more likely and Asians less likely to receive subprime loans than whites were. Income was positively associated with receipt of subprime loans for minorities, whereas the opposite was true for whites. When expensive (jumbo) loans were excluded from the sample, regressions found an even stronger, positive association between income and subprime likelihood for minorities, supporting the theory that wealthier minorities were targeted for subprime loans when they could have qualified for prime loans. This finding also provides another example of an aspect of American life in which minorities are unable to leverage higher class position in the same way as whites are. Contrary to previous research, model estimates did not find that borrowers paid a penalty (in increased likelihood of subprime outcome) for buying homes in minority communities.     

POLICE,MINORITIES, AND THE FRENCH REPUBLICAN IDEAL*

This paper examines the strained relationship between French police agencies and ethnic minorities and discusses evidence of ethnic discrimination by the police and the criminal justice system. Until recently, the idea that ethnic composition of a police force ought to reflect, to some degree, the community it polices, seemed odd in France. We argue that there are two main reasons for this viewpoint: first, a conception of the role of the police in the State as accountable to the government rather than to the citizens; secondly, a conception of Republic and citizenship denying any political significance to the personal identities of citizens. We conclude that ethnic diversification of police forces is but one aspect of a more encompassing struggle against discrimination that requires a degree of accommodation with the present legal and statistical invisibility of racial/ethnic groups.     

The perils of empire: nationhood and citizenship in Portugal

After the demise of the Portuguese empire and even more after joining the European Union, the Portuguese state redefined the borders of national belonging. The shift was one from a multi-continental nation, which included parts of Africa, to a more restricted definition of nationhood, one that stressed Portugal's connection to Europe and thus defined belonging by descent. This article, based on research conducted in Lisbon, Portugal in 2003, discusses the impact of this shift on Portuguese citizens of ethnically diverse backgrounds. The Portuguese state, media, academia, and civil society are all involved in constructing, disseminating, and hence consolidating a notion of nationhood that treats ethnically diverse minorities as foreigners, placing them outside the national community. Not producing or disseminating information on ethnic minorities, the Portuguese academia, media, and the state are all actively involved in reproducing a process that perpetuates exclusion and obstructs the construction of political alliances to confront widespread discrimination.     

Translating the State: Ethnic Language Radio in the Lao PDR

ABSTRACT

The nation-building project of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic has been challenged by the task of uniting the multi-ethnic country under its political ideology. The Lao National Radio broadcasts in the Khmu and Hmong languages are the only official voice of minority languages and provide insights on how political messages are sent to the population. In their creation of programming material, the broadcasters must translate the socialist ideology of the Communist Party into language that is politically correct and culturally acceptable. In the process, they are creating a political register in the two languages that is heavily influenced by the linguistic structures of Lao. This article examines these two broadcasts to see how language use at the radio effects the message that is delivered to the listeners, enhancing the calls for mobilisation by teaching the people a new political language reflected not only in terms of lexicon, but also in the syntax and phonology of their translations. The result is a way of speaking that crosses ethno-linguistic boundaries to reinforce the control of the state.     

浅析加拿大多元文化政策的成因及其族裔问题

从建国之初的一元文化主义到20世纪中期的二元文化主义与多元文化主义，加拿大的民族文化政策经历了戏剧性的变化，这既有其历史成因，也有其现实环境。加拿大多元文化政策在协调与解决多民族国家共存的族裔矛盾、保持民族文化多样性问题上具有相当大的示范作用。但是，制定政策的理想性与政策执行的现实性之间的矛盾、政策存在的短暂历史空间以及移民源国复杂而又多样的文化差异性，注定了其在实施过程中步履维艰。因而，了解与分析加拿大多元文化政策所给予的训示具有现实意义。     

论西部开发中的民族法制建设

民族地区法制建设是我国法治现代化进程中既现实又迫切的重大理论与实践问题 ,西部大开发与民族地区及其民族法制建设交织包容 ,共同构成了我国西部大开发中不可或缺的重要组成部分。我国民族地区法制建设所走过的独特发展道路 ,我国法制建设中民族法制的地位、指导思想、基本原则、具体法律制度等 ,需要在西部开发中进行新的构建。     

少数民族法律的多元性与民族区域自治法律制度

通过对少数民族法律制度多元性问题的探讨 ,说明实行民族区域自治制度是与之适应的制度。同时进一步指出我国的民族区域自治制度多年来发挥了巨大的效用 ,但是也存在着不足。并结合贵州等少数民族省份存在的问题 ,提出进一步完善与发展民族自治法制度的建议     

少数民族非物质文化遗产概念界定及其法律意义

本文在概括、分析国内现有几种对"少数民族非物质文化遗产"代表性定义的基础上提出不同的定义表述。比较了少数民族非物质文化遗产与汉族非物质文化遗产的主要差异,意在证明少数民族非物质文化遗产概念独立存在的必要性。分析阐述了少数民族非物质文化遗产概念确立所产生的国内与国际法律意义,目的在于进一步推动少数民族非物质文化遗产保护的实践。     

台湾的少数民族究竟应该怎么称呼

台湾当局将台湾的少数民族称为“原住民”,这反映出其有意强化“本土化”意识,隐藏着政治意图,其用心一方面是制造省籍矛盾,一方面是妄图通过所谓“住民自决”的途径,把台湾从中国分离出去。