Conservative Context Research Articles

Class politics in red and blue: explaining differences (and similarities) in what rich and poor want from government

Much research suggests that the political views of wealthy people tend to be better represented in policy than those of the poor. But the degree to which this unequal representation is a normative problem for democracy remains the subject of some debate, simply because on many policy issues, the preferences of rich and poor are essentially indistinguishable from one another. Though rich and poor might have different material interests, in other words, they often share very similar views regarding what they want governments to do or not do. These high levels of policy agreement across class lines are puzzling, and beg the question of when and why self-interest matters to views on salient policy issues. This paper explores the contextual nature of income-based differences in public opinion, using contextual differences across US Congressional districts to understand why in some contexts rich and poor tend to want dramatically different things from government, while in other contexts they seem to be asking for many of the same things. The results show significant and systematic variation in the degree to which the policy views of rich and poor diverge from one another. By and large, rich and poor tend to be farthest apart in their views in Republican-leaning districts, as well as districts that are highly religious, rural, and located in the south. In general, then, the results suggest that political conflict between rich and poor is strongest in politically conservative contexts.

Innovation Factory for Sharing Knowledge

The introduction of an innovative organization like Digital Borgo in a strongly conservative context, made mostly by SMEs and few big companies, often with no relationships to each other modify their interests in collaborating and exchanging knowledge. Overcoming all limits, hurdles and an unfavorable mindset, we managed to define a corporate accelerator model that can represent a virtuous example, helping corporates, entrepreneurs, chambers of commerce and universities to collaborate to foster innovation. We are confident that in the future we will be able to say that our model has created a more connected ecosystem among entrepreneurs and innovating corporates, making Abruzzo a region where small cities and low cost of life becomes an advantage for setting up a great ecosystem for innovation and smart growth.

Perceptions of sexual risk behavior among Palestinian youth in the West Bank: a qualitative investigation.

BackgroundYoung people in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) are profoundly affected by violence, high unemployment, and economic hardship. Experiences of community-level violence and personal trauma increase the likelihood that young people will engage in risky behaviors that include smoking, drug use, and unsafe sex. Little is known about the sexual behavior of young people in the region, particularly in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt). Our aim in this study was to gain an insight into the perceived prevalence and patterns of sexual behavior among Palestinian youth.MethodsThe study was based on ten focus groups and 17 in-depth interviews with young people aged 16-24 years as part of the formative phase of a cross-sectional representative study of risk behaviors in the West Bank, including Jerusalem, in 2012. The sample was selected using a combination of purposive and convenience sampling. Qualitative analysis was used to code detailed notes of focus groups and interviews.ResultsBased on participants’ reports, different types of sexual activity outside marriage were not uncommon, even in conservative communities. The most reported sexual activity was non-penetrative sex: oral and anal intercourse, and virtual sex. Some young people had sexual intercourse with sex workers; they went to brothels in Israel and to brothels operating clandestinely in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Most respondents were of the opinion that young people did not usually use protection during sexual intercourse. Many reported that youth engage in different types of sexual activity outside marriage for several reasons: to challenge the culture, financial constraints and inability to marry, basic human need, personal pleasure, suppression, to kill boredom, and to prove manhood.ConclusionsIn contrast with the conservative social context of the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt), the findings suggest that sexual activities outside marriage may be more common than is currently assumed. Sexual behavior in the oPt is a concern because of the low awareness of the potential health consequences. The results draw attention to the need to incorporate sexual reproductive health into the national agenda and ensure that it is included in the programs of national institutions.

Stigma and the addiction paradigm for obesity: lessons from 1950s America.

To discuss an historical episode in which obesity was conceptualized as an addictive disorder and declared to be a major epidemic in the early postwar United States. This history illuminates past consequences of framing obesity as an addiction in ways that may inform constructive policy responses today. Review of secondary and primary sources, including archival documents, relating to obesity in biomedical and popular thought of the 1940s and 1950s. In the United States in the late 1940s and 1950s, new medical thinking about obesity reinterpreted overweight and obesity as chiefly the consequence of addiction (understood in the then dominant psychodynamic theory as a psychological defect, oral fixation). This new conception was rapidly taken up in popular discourse and clinical practice, with adverse effects through amplification of weight stigma. Further, in the conservative political context, the addiction concept contributed to an ineffective policy response to the alarming new epidemiological evidence about obesity's consequences. Despite a lack of evidence for efficacy of the intervention, public health efforts focused on correcting individual eating behaviour among obese people by encouraging self-help in lay groups modelled, in part, on Alcoholics Anonymous. Population-level intervention was neglected. Current public health policy initiatives must be mindful of the risks of reframing obesity as an addiction. These include inadvertently reinforcing stigma, narrowing responses to those aiming to modify individual behaviour and biology and neglecting population policies aiming to reduce the consumption of energy-dense foods, as all occurred in the 1950s United States.

Perceptions of drug use and sexual behaviours of adolescents in the West Bank, occupied Palestinian territory: a qualitative study

Background Little is known about the health-risk behaviours of young people in the Middle East, particularly the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt). Our aim in this study was to gain insights into the prevalence and patterns of risk-taking behaviours of Palestinian youth. Methods We organised ten focus groups and 17 in-depth interviews with young people (aged 16–24 years) as part of the formative phase of a cross-sectional representative study of risk behaviours in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, oPt, in 2012. A combination of purposive and convenience sampling was used to select the sample, with representation of male and female young people from different localities in the region (urban, rural, refugee camps). The non-probability sample was balanced across these categories, but the people whom we interviewed might not be representative of the overall young Palestinian population. NVivo (version 9) was used for the qualitative analysis. RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, CA, USA, approved the study protocol in January, 2012. We obtained informed verbal consent from participants aged 18 years and older, and assent from participants younger than 18 years and their parents. Findings 83 individuals (42 male and 41 female; mean age 20·0 years [SD 2·2]) participated in the study. Participants reported that substance use and sexual activity outside marriage were common, even in conservative communities. Use of drugs, the most common of which were hashish and marijuana, was perceived to be especially prevalent in refugee camps and in East Jerusalem. The most commonly reported types of sexual activity were oral and anal intercourse. Vaginal intercourse was less common than were other types of sexual intercourse outside marriage. Some young people had sexual intercourse with sex workers; they went to brothels in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and in Israel. Most respondents were of the opinion that young people did not usually use protection during sexual intercourse. Interpretation To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study of the health-risk behaviours of young Palestinian people. By contrast with the conservative social context in the oPt, the findings suggest that drug use and unprotected sexual intercourse outside marriage might be more common than is currently assumed. These results might be perceived as indicating surprisingly high rates of sexual and other risky behaviours; however, we cannot exclude the possibility that participants might have overstated or understated drug use and sexual behaviours, but this possibility is unlikely to be a major concern for focus groups discussing young people in general and for participants who are of the opinion that there is a high prevalence of these behaviours. Health-risk behaviours in the oPt are a concern because of the low awareness of the potential health consequences. The results draw attention to the need to include sexual reproductive health on the national agenda and ensure that it is included in the programmes of national institutions. The formative findings from this study will be used to further explore the issues in a larger representative sample to improve understanding of prevalence, patterns, and causes of risk-taking behaviours. Funding National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.

Disagreement about Division of Household Labour and Experiences of Work-Family Conflict in Different Gender Regimes

This article focuses on the level of disagreement about how to divide household labour as well as on the experience of work-family conflicts among cohabiting women and men living in different gender regimes. The German speaking countries Germany, Switzerland and Austria represent a typical conservative gender regime while the Scandinavian countries Sweden, Denmark and Norway are representatives of a typical egalitarian gender regime. The data used comes from the International Social Survey Program 2002. Results support the notion that people living in a context characterised by an egalitarian gender regime to a higher extent report disagreement about the division of household work and work-family conflict than people living in a context characterised by a more traditional gender regime. The results indicate that these differences can be explained by the fact that people in an egalitarian gender regime have a more egalitarian gender ideology than people in a more conservative context.

Teaching Chaucer and Popular Culture:

This essay is inspired both by an increasing disciplinary contention that Chaucerians engage with popular culture and by a refreshed critical interest (reflected in the burgeoning field of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning) in sharing pedagogical innovations and interests with peers within a public forum.2 Notwithstanding lingering professional suspicions about the value of the popular, engagement with popular culture involves the need both to better communicate Chaucer’s aesthetic distinction to the culture at large and to embrace the popular in our teaching. This essay offers a brief meditation on the value of the popular and offers two theoretical approaches that one might use to introduce the study of Chaucer’s popular constructions into the classroom. I suggest, in short, that Chaucer’s reproduction in popular culture has both pedagogical and critical value—both as interpretations of his poetry as it is adapted to

Empowering Women: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Afghanistan

In societies with widespread gender discrimination, development programs with gender quotas are considered a way to improve women’s economic, political, and social status. Using a randomized field experiment across 500 Afghan villages, we examine the effects of a development program that mandates women’s community participation. We find that even in a highly conservative context like Afghanistan, such initiatives improve female participation in some economic, social, and political activities, including increased mobility and income generation. They, however, produce no change in more entrenched female roles linked to family decision-making or in attitudes towards the general role of women in society.

Empowering Women through Development Aid: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Afghanistan

In societies with widespread gender discrimination, development programs with gender quotas are considered a way to improve women's economic, political, and social status. Using a randomized field experiment across 500 Afghan villages, we examine the effects of a development program that mandates female participation. We find that even in a highly conservative context like Afghanistan, such initiatives improve outcomes specific to female participation in some economic, social, and political activities, including increased mobility and income generation. They, however, produce no change in more entrenched female roles linked to family decision-making or in attitudes toward the general role of women in society.

The size and distribution of key populations at greater risk of HIV in Pakistan: implications for resource allocation for scaling up HIV prevention programmes

BackgroundWith competing interests, limited funding and a socially conservative context, there are many barriers to implementing evidence-informed HIV prevention programmes for sex workers and injection drug users in Pakistan. Meanwhile,...

What constitutes youth organizing? Exploring the role of conservative contexts in understanding practice

Abstract Context shapes how we come to understand activities, possibilities and constraints in youth organizing. Although there is increasing interest in youth organizing, little attention has been paid to the practice of youth organizing within socially conservative contexts, or to how such contexts shape the roles, perspectives, and actions of young people and of adults. Drawing on case examples of youth organizing work in Mississippi and Fresno, California, this article explores the importance of context as a core element in understanding youth activism and considers how a broader framework for understanding youth organizing through diverse contextual lenses can benefit the field.

Finding Sustainability in Conservative Contexts: Topics for Conversation between American Conservative Élites, Planners and the Conservative Base

Sustainability’s reception is dependent upon its presentation. While academics may be reaching the consensus that pursuing sustainability requires at least a triple-bottom-line approach, in practice, planners, legislators and other leaders often choose an approach that best suits their needs. In north central Texas, this has in recent years meant an approach with a focus on fiscal matters. Whatever the pro-market flavour of sustainability practice in north central Texas, elements of the conservative base have resented its pursuit. Because planners and legislators in north central Texas have muddled their concept of sustainability with jargon, conflated it with other causes and failed clearly to justify its pursuit, elements of the conservative base have interpreted sustainability as an externally motivated, threatening agenda. This paper presents eight points for planners and other leaders to consider when framing sustainability in conservative contexts for the purpose of finding for positive dialogue and outcomes.

Writers, artists, mothers: Author figures in the short fiction of Mary Lavin

This article traces the development of figures of the author in the short fiction of the Irish writer Mary Lavin against the background of her anomalous position as woman, writer and mother in the conservative and patriarchal context of mid-century Ireland. Through a detailed reading of six stories, the article shows how after staging a confident author figure in the early ‘A Story with a Pattern’, Lavin turns to dramatizing the tension between her roles as mother and artist in a series of oppositional characters in stories such as ‘The Becker Wives’, ‘Eterna’ and ‘In a Café’. Her artist figures, modelled after the Romantic conception of the author as exceptionally gifted outsiders, are unable to attain ‘ordinary’ lives as wives or mothers; while Lavin’s ‘alter egos’ in the so-called widow stories are depicted only in a domestic context. Only in two stories written at the end of her career does Lavin again stage an author figure who combines the roles of mother and writer, thus offering an alternative to the Romantic image of the author that has long dominated Irish literary culture.

‘I'm used to it now’: experiences of homophobia among queer youth in South African township schools

This paper explores how sexually marginalised black high-school students from conservative schooling contexts in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, experience schooling. It draws on queer theories through life narratives in presenting findings from a small-scale interventionist project designed by the author. The project involved 14 participants comprising teachers, school learners and pre-service teachers. The study found that queer youth have negative experiences of schooling which range from punitive actions expressed through derogatory language to vicious reactionary hate, often expressed through violence and often perpetrated by teachers. This paper also found resist-stances from queer learners in portraying a positive self-image for themselves as a mechanism for coping with homophobia. As a way of looking forward, it locates teachers at the centre of bringing about change for the queer learners and argues for a re-education of teachers in order to tackle homophobia in schools.

Effects of Tourism on Residents' Quality of Life in Saudi Arabia: An Empirical Study

This article presents the findings of a research project that examines the effects of tourism on residents' quality of life in Saudi Arabia and identifies a set of key derivatives that could be affected by tourism. This article discusses four key dimensions that specifically define the scope of tourism: economic, social, cultural, and environmental, and with the analyses of empirical data from Saudi Arabia these dimensions are tested for their relationship with the broader demographic variables of Saudi Arabia. The data was collected through questionnaire from a sample of 775 local residents who lived in the Makkah region—the destination of Muslim pilgrims from all over the world. A simple regression and t-test analyses were carried out to examine the study hypotheses. The regression analysis showed that tourism had a fairly direct impact on the quality of life of the residents. The t-test analysis demonstrated that several demographic factors were significantly related to the four dimensions of tourism. As such, this article provides a valuable examination of residents' perceptions and their quality of life with regards to the scope of tourism development in the Makkah region. This study potentially contributes to future research in the fairly conservative societal and cultural context of tourism in Saudi Arabia, and provides key parameters for an improved understanding of tourism impacts, planning and policy-making for the tourism industry, and “sustainable” tourism marketing.

Emotional Distress and Disordered Eating Practices Among Southern Italian Women

This study is one of the first to examine the narrative links connecting social change, contested gender norms, body image, and eating disordered practices among southern Italian women. The research is based on 16 months of fieldwork, and I compare and contrast the stories of 23 educated women in southern Italy to highlight the contentious realities of entering adolescence in conservative social contexts where gender relations and value systems are undergoing rapid transformations. I examine how these young women dealt with conflicting cultural expectations of womanhood and whether it affected their emotional, psychological, and physical well-being. Their stories shed light on how parental control, community surveillance, and conflicts in developing gender identities and maturing womanly bodies contributed to their emotional distress. Distressed young women used rebellion and manipulation and control of food and the body to negotiate unjust social relations, specifically gender relations, that delegitimized their selves and, in some cases, their bodies.

Intersubjectivity and evaluations of justice

The capability approach assigns a central role to the contexts within which social interactions take place, which make individual liberty achievable. However, an auxiliary concept is necessary to explain the contexts of collective action more accurately. In this paper I shall present Taylor’s concept of irreducibly social goods as a supplement to the capability approach. I shall also introduce the concept of hermeneutics as a strategy suitable for evaluating which capabilities are to be considered valid, as an alternative to aggregative methodologies. This conceptual development at the core of the capability approach demands to be framed by a normative criterion that enables us to distinguish between emancipatory and conservative contexts of social action; for that purpose I make use of the subject idealization that Honneth and Anderson present.

Gamers versus the Index

This paper presents an ethnographic study of pupils within a trial programme (P2), aimed at developing an upper secondary education for so-called ‘gamers’ who had ‘dropped out’ of school. It was done to follow up a previous trial programme (P1), since many young persons have problems with school. The main question examined here is: When we found situations where the learning worked, by means of social responsitivity, what components were active? How were meaningful affordances created? The trials may be understood from a historical perspective on orality and literacy. Print enabled words to be embedded in space as indexes (tables, lists etc) rather than in time (as orality implies). The index is practiced at the core of traditional school today, with attendance lists and schedules (controlling time and space) and schoolbooks (finalizing the word). Digital culture challenges these structures where the word is not as finalized, and literacy may include other modalities than writing. School is a culture conservative context, which fights back this transformation with more control, through the use of indexes and constraints on digital culture. As contrast, P2 replaced the schedule with full workdays. This enabled the use of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) computer games, especially massively multiplayer online (MMO) games, as replacement for schoolbooks (not all books). The study is based on interviews with the pupils as well as daily participatory observations for two years. Further, data about attendance over two years and grades at the start and end of P2 are presented. The results show that most of the pupils returned to school, became interested in learning again and got grades. They expressed a sense of freedom, which is closely related to the voluntary aspect of playing a game. In other words, to do things for the sake of the actitivity itself, rather than some external learning goal. The paper concludes with a comparison between P2 and traditional school, based upon the study and suggests future research. A review of related research is also included.

Constructing Moral Responses to Risk: A Framework for Hopeful Social Work Practice

The progressive politics of social work is threatened as social workers confront the widening gulf between professional ideals and the realities of their practice within the morally conservative context of neo-liberal risk society. Identifying how to subvert the despondency and despair that such a climate evokes, and being able to connect to an increased sense of professional agency, is urgently needed. This paper provides insight into how this can be achieved by considering how social workers, who participated in an Australian study, determined a moral response that was 'other'-focused when faced with the dilemma of whether to respond to their clients or their own sense of being 'at risk' within their respective practice contexts. The significance of these findings is that they reinstate social workers as active and purposive, as opposed to powerless and despondent, moral agents in the complex and fraught domains in which they respond to the ubiquitous presence of risk. The article considers how this framework can assist social workers in their day-to-day efforts to maintain their professional focus and values.

Quasi-periodic bifurcations in reversible systems

Invariant tori of integrable dynamical systems occur both in the dissipative and in the conservative context, but only in the latter the tori are parameterized by phase space variables. This allows for quasi-periodic bifurcations within a single given system, induced by changes of the normal behavior of the tori. It turns out that in a non-degenerate reversible system all semi-local bifurcations of co-dimension 1 persist, under small non-integrable perturbations, on large Cantor sets.