Birds of a feather? UNDP and ActionAid implementation of Sustainable Human Development

By the 1990s, innovative ideas such as Sustainable Human Development (SHD) and People-Centred Development (PCD) had begun to shift the development discourse beyond economistic perspectives and the ideological (market versus state) debates of earlier days. This article describes how, despite their promise and the genuine efforts of international development agencies such as UNDP and ActionAid to put SHD/PCD ideas into practice, the conceptual deficiencies of the SHD/PCD paradigm, and internal organisational interests within the two agencies, have gradually displaced the agenda's core components.     

“Impossible Families”: Mixed‐Citizenship Status Couples and the Law

This article explores the complex and contradictory relationship between citizenship in the law and the immigrant reality of mixed‐citizenship family life through in‐depth interviews with individuals in mixed‐citizenship marriages. An examination of mixed‐citizenship marriage exposes the inadequacies of approaching citizenship as an individual‐centered concept. The data indicate that, though both immigration and citizenship laws focus on the individual, the repercussions of those laws have family‐level effects. Because of their spouses' immigrant status, many citizens are obliged by the law to live the immigrant experience in their own country or to become immigrants themselves.     

A “good fit”: Client sorting among nonprofit,private, and pro bono immigration attorneys

Existing scholarship finds that having an attorney in immigration legal proceedings increases the chances of a favorable outcome. This work, however, often acknowledges that the representation effect is underexplained: selection may explain outcomes, and variation among attorneys is difficult to assess. Through 103 interviews with attorneys who practice immigration law in three organizational environments (nonprofit legal services, private firms, and corporate law firm pro bono programs) in two East Coast areas, this paper argues that attorneys' sorting of clients between different types of legal organizations helps explain the representation effect. Attorneys define what type of case is a “good fit” for their representation, selecting cases they think they can help increase the probability of a favorable outcome. However, what they define as a “good fit” varies by attorneys' practice environments, and centers not only on the facts or characteristics of a client and their case, but also attorneys' organizational constraints. By documenting the central role of practice environment variation and its organizational constraints on attorneys' case selection, this paper helps explain the representation effect and its implications for increasing vulnerable immigrants' access to legal representation in the United States.     

“It’s Going to Make the Whole Tower Crooked”: Victimization Trajectories in IPV

Interest in the mechanisms by which childhood maltreatment can lead to adult intimate partner victimization (IPV) is growing, though limited research has examined these mechanisms from the direct perspective of the victims. Using qualitative methods to examine childhood histories in a sample of 23 IPV survivors, we identified two trajectories, childhood emotional trauma and childhood physical trauma, which lead to revictimization in adulthood in the form of IPV. The emotional trauma trajectory was associated with a desire for intimacy and deficits in navigating interpersonal relationships. Problematic interpersonal schemas and a fear of loneliness swayed many of these women to stay with an abusive partner. The physical trauma trajectory was associated with desensitization and normalization of violence. Problematic interpersonal schemas, and the belief that the experience of violence is normal, promoted tolerance of IPV. Implications for research and intervention are discussed.     

Kyz ala kachuu and adat: non-consensual bride kidnapping and tradition in Kyrgyzstan

The position of Kyrgyz adat (traditional customary law) on the practice of non-consensual bride kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan has not been documented nor is there a consensus among the ethnic Kyrgyz on whether or not non-consensual bride kidnapping is a Kyrgyz ‘tradition’. This paper provides a review of the historical and ethnographic evidence regarding the frequency and appropriateness (according to Kyrgyz adat) of non-consensual bride kidnapping in traditional Kyrgyz society before the political, economic and social changes of the Soviet period. The evidence presented by this research discredits the widely held belief in Kyrgyzstan, that non-consensual kidnapping is a Kyrgyz adat tradition that was widely practiced with general social approval in ancient times. The information provided in this paper can be used by educators, legislators and the media to demonstrate that non-consensual kidnapping is not legitimated by pre-Soviet Kyrgyz adat tradition.