Fictive Kinship Ties Research Articles

Political ecology of household water security among the urban poor in Malawi

This paper examines strategies used by the poor in urban Malawi in their struggles to ensure sufficient and continuous water supply for domestic and business purposes in a context where even though the state is the major provider of water, exorbitant tariffs mean that most people remain utterly excluded from or tenuously connected to the official grid. Using Mzuzu in northern Malawi as a case study, and applying theoretical perspectives grounded in political ecology, the findings of qualitative research (n = =52) conducted in Mzuzu indicate that the urban poor use a variety of contingent sources of water to augment supply from the ‘public’ water supply system. The findings also show that social ties and institutional affiliations operating outside of market relations provide an important avenue for ensuring adequate water supply. These non-market factors include, but are not limited to, blood relations, fictive kinship ties, membership and/or participation in civil society networks, ethnic affinities, and moral sentiments of need. The paper argues that, while the urban poor are themselves marginalized, the social and spatial strategies they pursue to access water are not necessarily inclusive. By shedding light on how the urban poor tactfully use these strategies to build spatial and intergenerational access to water, this study contributes to a better understanding of the non-market dynamics that provide an escape for the urban poor marginally integrated into the ‘public’ water supply system. The paper extends the applicability of political ecology beyond its traditional agrarian context to the realm of water politics in urban settings in the developing world

Contextualisation of Social Networks and their Impact on HRM: The Indian Scenario

Our study attempts to bridge the gap in the management literature with respect to the impact of social networks on HRM systems in the Asian context. We specifically examine the formation and the influence of social ties in the Indian scenario. Based on a comprehensive review of the literature, we have developed a conceptual framework which contextualises the fictive kinship ties from the sociocultural as well as the professional perspectives. The sociocultural perspective incorporates intrinsic features such as caste, regionalism, etc. and their extrinsic manifestations through cultural artefacts. The fictive kinship ties from professional perspective include educational and corporate alumni networks. The framework further illustrates the influence of these fictive kinship ties on various HRM processes and decision making within the organisation. The theoretical and practical implications of the framework have been discussed.

A Divided Sisterhood: Support Networks of Trans Sex Workers in Urban Turkey

This article examines how transgender individuals operating in the underground sex economy in urban Turkey form supportive relationships and mobilize against various forms of violence, given structural conditions that encourage distrust and competition and undermine collective efforts among the sex workers. I found that, despite their conditions, workers heavily relied on each other for matters ranging from small-scale interpersonal exchanges of resources to community mobilization. However, the violent and unpredictable circumstances of their lives still generated repeated conflict, making their ties precarious. The article considers the importance of fictive kinship ties in this community, and discusses the coexistence of solidarity and conflict in sex workers’ relationships.

Indigenous autonomy and the legacy of neoliberal decentralization in plurinational Bolivia

ABSTRACTThis article examines the legacy of 1990s’ neoliberal decentralization reform in shaping an indigenous autonomy project in Bolivia. It focuses on the municipality of Charazani, which is in the process of becoming an Indigenous Autonomy, or Autonomía Indígena Originario Campesina (AIOC), examining the local origins of the autonomy project, and the reasons why it has stalled. To do so, I refer to political projects of indigenous authorities in Charazani in the early 1990s, to take power locally as a bloc and disconnect themselves from the power of the local townspeople by challenging fictive kinship ties with them. The article explores the role that local devolved forms of government have had in producing competition among indigenous communities since the 1990s and the effect on the formulation of a joint project for indigenous autonomy. The establishment of indigenous autonomy requires cooperation and agreement among the communities of the municipalities undergoing conversion to an AIOC. This article posits that internal disagreements, which threaten autonomy, are closely entwined with the neoliberal structures upon which local governance is based (and from which AIOCs are supposed to spring), which encourage intercommunity competition for scarce resources.

Reproducing Elite Lives: Women in Aggarwal Family Businesses

This article explores the social reproductive roles performed by elite “upper”-caste Aggarwal women in family businesses in Delhi. With the substantialization of caste, there is an increase in heterogeneities within caste groups. By focussing on women’s associational and familial roles in a South Delhi neighborhood three strategies of reproduction are discussed: first, forging inter-strata fictive kinship ties for caste cohesion through women’s “social work”; second, forging intra-strata fictive kinship ties for business opportunities through sustained interactions; and third, steering the individuating aspirations of children around marital choices for the unity of the joint family and business. These strategies of elite reproduction highlight the secularizing pulls on gender and caste in urban contexts, despite the dependence of family businesses on caste and family ties. Furthermore, by focusing on women in family businesses, this article shows that while they are not passive victims of caste patriarchy neither are they invisible in the male-centric family businesses.

Structure, Hierarchy and Kin. An Ethnography of the Old Market in Puerto Princesa, Palawan, Philippines

Every day, thousands of customers patronize hundreds of vendors at the Old Market in Puerto Princesa, seeking the highest quality products at the most affordable price. It is a “buyer’s market” as the variety of available products is limited to mostly locally produced goods. Why does a customer patronize one vender rather than another? Do social relationships influence this decision? Or, is price king? Does the relationship between customer and employee affect the vendor’s success? This paper attempts to shed light on the kinship ties and social stratification between vendors, customers and employees and its effects, if any, on the market’s economic success. After more than 6 months of participant observations, my findings show that the fictive kinship ties which develop between the regular customer and vendor, and the social stratification between customer and employee provide a structured functionalism to support the overarching economic theme of the public market.

Empire by Collaboration: Indians, Colonists, and Governments in Colonial Illinois Country by Robert Michael Morrissey

Reviewed by: Empire by Collaboration: Indians, Colonists, and Governments in Colonial Illinois Country by Robert Michael Morrissey Michael J. Mullin (bio) Empire by Collaboration: Indians, Colonists, and Governments in Colonial Illinois Country ROBERT MICHAEL MORRISSEY Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015 326pp. Empire by Collaboration is the type of book one wants to review. It is illuminating, provocative, and insightful. Readers can easily fit this work into a variety of historiographical traditions. For example, Robert Michael Morrissey shows us how far scholarship of the trans-Mississippi [End Page 774] region has moved since Richard White’s The Middle Ground (1991) first appeared twenty-five years ago. Whereas White’s book gave us an overview of the pays d’en haut, Morrissey’s book reveals how Algonquians and Euro-Americans created an “intercultural community in the Illinois” via “durable agreements” (10). These agreements often forced European officials, whether French or English, to place the needs of Illinois residents over imperial desires. Morrissey, however, does more than just explain the history of these multiethnic communities; he challenges the notion that Illinois residents were, as officials complained, lazy, indolent, and lawless. Rather, the residents of the region under study were “opportunistic and innovative. Not wedded to tradition, they were flexible and adaptable” (140). They had to be, since both French and English officials only reluctantly integrated Illinois inhabitants into their North American holdings. The Indians and colonial settlers who made the Illinois region home were newcomers to the prairie. Each group sought something different when it settled, but what they shared was a desire to take advantage of the area’s natural resources. The Illinoisans became bison hunters, and eventually slave traders. The colonists started as fur traders, but eventually became grain exporters. Geography gave the area strategic importance. The Illinoisans, while nominally allied with the other eastern Algonquian peoples, often looked westward militarily and economically. The French arrived in the 1670s, in the midst of the Beaver Wars. Initially, the Jesuits and René-Robert de La Salle fought over whether French secular or religious interests would dominate the region. During the struggle, the colony of Illinois sprang up unplanned and unwanted. As a result, Indians and colonists created a unique society, one where “local agency” took precedence. The result was an “empire by collaboration” (87). The question was how to create the working relationships both sides wanted. Their solution was fictive kinship, and while scholars are familiar with how this system allowed both sides to frame a particular mind-set, what Morrissey does with fictive kinship is illuminating. Initially, fictive kinship gave traders and Indians a means of creating both personal and political relationships. A mature colonial community did not eliminate the bonds of kinship. Morrissey shows how communities used God parenting to create fictive bonds between French, Indian, and Creole residents. He speculates that slaves might have found their way into the network, but does not push beyond what the baptismal records allow. As colonists [End Page 775] moved from being traders to farmers, and the Illinoisans gradually entered the Jesuit orbit, Morrissey uses godmother networks to show how fictive kinship ties continued to hold families, and communities, together. Officials, whether French or English, believed the colonists who settled the area were libertines because, as Morrissey makes clear, settlers pursued their own agenda. They made practical decisions that often ran counter to imperial policy. For example, despite French policy, Illinois colonists secured their land fee simple, rather than as renters with seigneurial obligations. This development gave colonists an independence that residents of New France or Louisiana did not have. This independence showed up in other places too, namely in marriage. For French officials, it was one thing for a voyageur or coureur de bois to take an Indian woman as a wife, it was quite another to have the leading residents of a colony do the same thing. But the Illinois region accepted Indian-colonist marriage throughout the period under study. As Morrissey notes, “French officials objected to intermarriage for two specific reasons: race and property” (150). At a time when “racial” purity was becoming more important in Europe, the mixed-race communities of Kaskaskia and Chartres challenged the notion of...

Organizational Complexity and the Quest for Civil Rights

The traditional conception of an African American civil rights organization is one in which the primary focus of the organization is racial justice. The NAACP, National Urban League, and Southern Christian Leadership Conference fit this long and traditional mold. However, there are African American organizations that have what organizational behavior scholars would call “complex identities.” Such organizations have multiple constituent parts or identities. One type of organization that fits this mold, especially in the context of African American’s quest for racial justice and equality in the United States, are African American collegiate-based fraternities and sororities. Given the cultural-political, institutional, and organizational factors that gave rise to these organizations, it can be said that their identities are comprised of (1) intellectualism/academic achievement; (2) the development and sustaining of fictive kinship ties; (3) race consciousness; and (4) an abiding and life-long organizational commitment. Despite African American fraternities and sororities’ collective history of racial uplift activism via the American Council on Human Rights and their individual efforts, challenges that they face in each of their four identity domains likely undermine what could be their more meaningful and robust efforts in this regard.

Clanism

Abstract: * The objectives of this paper are: (1) to present and develop clanism as an indigenous management concept in Central Asia, and (2) to analyze the effect of clanism on a specific management function--human resource management (HRM)--in the concrete context of Kazakhstan. * This exploratory study employs a qualitative research. The data indicate that the degree to which clanism affects HRM practices depends, to a great extent, on the type of company. Clanism's effect is strong in state-owned companies and moderate in privately held companies, while it is weak in the subsidiaries of multinational companies. Furthermore, the influx of western MNCs has influenced Kazakhstani HRM in general and lessened the influence of clanism on HRM. However, some characteristics of the local labor market may strengthen the effect of clanism on HRM practices. * The paper proposes a definition of clanism; discusses the reasons for clanism's existence; investigates how clanism differs from other indigenous concepts, such as blat and guanxi; and analyzes how clanism affects HRM practices in Kazakhstan, a country that is strategically important for international management. Keywords: Clanism * Kazakhstan * Human resource management * Indigenous concept Introduction If newly developed economies (e.g., in Asia, South America, and Eastern Europe) are novel contexts that differ from the regions in which the bulk of management theories originated, research in these contexts must involve some contextualization if the limits of existing theories are to be discovered or if new theories to explain local phenomena are to be developed. (Tsui 2007, p. 1357) Why are indigenous management concepts essential to an understanding of management practices in emerging markets and transitional economies? The institution-based view of international business suggests that the formal institutions in emerging markets and transitional economies have less of an impact than the informal institutions that organize and govern those societies. Although some combination of formal and informal institutional frameworks shapes strategic choices (North 1990), advocates of the "third leg"[1] in the strategy tripod argue that "in situations whereby formal institutions are weak, informal institutions, such as norms governing interpersonal relationships, rise to play a larger role in driving firm strategies and performance" (Peng et al. 2008, p. 927). Therefore, in order to truly understand management practices in these economies, we must consider the powerful role of informal interpersonal social networks; how those networks adapt and change over time; and how they create, affect, constrain or undermine management practices in firms operating in these environments. Thus far, much of the literature has focused on the importance of such indigenous concepts as guanxi in China and blat in Russia. Indian dharma and South African ubuntu have also entered the discussion. One indigenous concept that is essential for understanding management practices in the emerging region of Central Asia has not yet attracted the attention of management scholars. Western political scientists refer to this concept as clanism (see e.g., Schatz 2004; Collins 2006). In the political science literature, a clan is defined as an informal organization comprised of a network of individuals linked by immediate and distant kinship, and by fictive kin identities. While kinship ties (blood ties) are rooted in the extended family, fictive kinship ties include individuals that are part of a network as a result of marriage, family alliances, school ties, long-lasting friendships or neighborhood affiliations (Collins 2006). Clanism has never been developed as a management concept and its implications for managerial practices have not been studied. This is unfortunate, as we believe that a deeper understanding of clanism as an indigenous management concept will contribute to debates on whether western managerial practices, ideas and concepts can coexist with local practices. …

The Great Divide: The Chasm between Black Fraternal Ideals and Reality

Black Greek-letter organizations (“BGLOs”) are unique and complex organizations with a rich history. BGLO members are defined by the ideals of high academic achievement, the development and sustaining of fictive-kinship ties, racial uplift, and a commitment to the perpetuity of their organizations. Drawing upon the growing corpus of BGLO scholarship, this article investigates the extent to which Black fraternities have remained faithful to these ideals.

Sisters in Spirit: The Nuns of Sant'Ambrogio and Their Consorority in Early Sixteenth-Century Florence

Formal associations of pious women, or consororities, were rare in Italy before the second half of the sixteenth century. This article examines a previously unstudied consorority, called the Company of the Holy Miracle, founded in Florence in 1534 by a group of Benedictine nuns who revived an older, cult-based organization to enlarge their local influence. Composed solely of laywomen and nuns, the Miracolo Company opened up a public arena in which members could express their religiosity and govern themselves, using diverse corporate models. Shared administrative and devotional activities allowed the socially mixed membership to create fictive kinship ties and sustain cross-class sociability at a time when all-male brotherhoods were becoming more homogeneous and hierarchical. Founded in the transition from republic to principate, the group reflected both the greater localism of cult life and the growing clout of nunneries, which structured new forms of public life for Florentine women.

From Mafia to Cosa Nostra.

The old Mafia of Sicily was a pre-industrial peasant institution. Its organization was intimate and diffuse. It now operates in the highly urbanized and industrialized milieu of the United States. As an urban, industrial institution it has envolved into a different kind of organization. The real and fictive kinship ties of the old Mafia are still utilized among fellow Sicilians and Italians. But these ties are now subordinate to bureaucratic ones as defined in terms of specialization, a hierarchy of authority, a system of rules, and impersonality.

Slaveri hos Tuaregerne i Sahara

Slaveri hos Tuaregerne i Sahara