Social Disaffection Research Articles

The Ethical Question in Postwar Central America and the Mutilated Good in Rodrigo Rey Rosa’s El Cojo Bueno

This article examines how the novel El cojo bueno (1996) by Guatemalan writer Rodrigo Rey Rosa posits an ethics that reconstellates the motifs and assumptions that have informed the revolutionary and transition-to-peace efforts of Central America. Through a careful reading of the text, I demonstrate how the novel pushes against the limits of the neoliberal ‘culture of peace’ and gives expression to an ethics that is attuned to the complex sociopolitical conditions of the postwar period. More specifically, I show how the novel develops a moral vision that registers but also resists the impunity, violence, and social disaffection that have devastated the region. The novel dramatizes what the moral life has come to mean in postwar Central America, namely, that it is a matter of grappling with the antinomies of freedom and unfreedom, of compassion and cold survivalism, and refusing to rest easy with either option. Ultimately, El cojo bueno marks a key moment when a new conception of ethics begins to take shape in postwar Central American literature.

Masculinities in Transition? Exclusion, Ethnosocial Power, and Contradictions in Excombatant Community-based Peacebuilding in Northern Ireland

This study critically examines how masculinities and intersecting ethnonational and social class identities underscore the social and political agencies of excombatants in Northern Ireland and in the specific context of community-based peacebuilding. The authors draw on interviews with female and male leaders in grassroots and governmental organizations, which illustrate how state-led practices of exclusion reshape such intersectional identities and increase the instrumentality of hypermasculinist, pseudo-paramilitary practices in maintaining excombatants’ status and control on neighborhood levels. The research documents how structural dynamics of excombatants’ social class locations and political disaffection help shape their social agencies of “resistance,” underscored by desires for autonomy and recognition, and channeled by ethnogendered scripts rooted in both violent cultures of paramilitarism and nonviolent peacebuilding masculinities. The implications on women of male excombatants’ takeover of leadership roles in the community sector are also discussed.

The Ethical City: A Rationale for an Urgent New Urban Agenda

The ethical city, in contrast to many other adjectives used to describe our cities, implies an approach to urban development that is about doing the right thing for and by urban citizens. Acknowledging the rich traditions of urban development studies and human ethics, this article draws on examples of existing practices in cities that reflect a principled and ethical approach to leadership, governance, planning, economic development, sustainability and citizen engagement. An increased focus on ethics and justice is central in shaping how we respond effectively to global pressing issues such as climate change while at the same time tackling diverse social and economic problems in our cities including inequality, marginalization and lack of access to opportunities for the most vulnerable. While an ethical city points towards sustainability, resilience, inclusion and shared prosperity, the opposite direction could lead to corruption, poverty and social disaffection.

Vendiendo soluciones. Campañas tradicionales y profesionalizadas en Chile

This paper studies the relationship between candidates and the electorate through a in-depth analysis of three political campaigns for the Chamber of deputies in Chile in 2013. Confirming recent findings, this article shows the dominance of non-programmatic or clientelistic linkages between the electorate and representatives which implies the transaction of votes for information, material resources and influence. The paper distinguishes two campaign strategies: a traditional strategy supported on historical patterns of intermediation, and a professionalized one which rationalize and makes an efficient allocation of resources. The study makes a relevant empirical as well as conceptual contribution to the study of the patterns of political intermediation in social contexts of social disaffection.

Recess or Lunch First? Impact on Recess Physical Activity Levels and Pro-Social Behaviors and Classroom Readiness to Learn

ObjectiveWith calls for recess before lunch, more research is needed to understand how the order of recess and lunch impacts recess physical activity levels and social behavior, and classroom readiness to learn. This study explores these relationships.Design, Setting, Participants, and InterventionA cross-sectional study with 2nd and 3rd graders (n = 2664) from 14 New York City public elementary schools.Outcome Measures and AnalysisDuring recess, the System of Observing Play and Leisure Activity in Youth (SOPLAY) assessed physical activity level (sedentary, walking or vigorous) and the System of Observing Play Engagement Episodes at Recess (SOPEER) assessed social behaviors (“physical sportsmanship”, “verbal sportsmanship,” “physical conflict,” and “verbal conflict”). Minutes of playtime at recess were recorded, to determine if order impacted length of time to play. Two days of recess were observed at all schools. Teachers completed the Survey of Readiness, Engagement And Disruption in Youth (SOREADY) with 4 scales: behavioral engagement, social engagement, behavioral disaffection, social disaffection.ResultsWhether recess was before or after lunch, there was no difference in minutes of playtime, or social behaviors during recess. However, both boys and girls were more vigorously active at recess when lunch was first (9%; p=0.04 and 12%; p=0.009 respectively). Teachers reported better behavioral engagement in the classroom, with lunch before recess (p=. 012).Conclusions and ImplicationsWith lunch before recess being associated with more physical activity and readiness to learn in the classroom, these results contradict some prior research. Further research is warranted to soundly inform school policy makers on whether recess should come before or after lunch for young school children.FundingNone ObjectiveWith calls for recess before lunch, more research is needed to understand how the order of recess and lunch impacts recess physical activity levels and social behavior, and classroom readiness to learn. This study explores these relationships. With calls for recess before lunch, more research is needed to understand how the order of recess and lunch impacts recess physical activity levels and social behavior, and classroom readiness to learn. This study explores these relationships. Design, Setting, Participants, and InterventionA cross-sectional study with 2nd and 3rd graders (n = 2664) from 14 New York City public elementary schools. A cross-sectional study with 2nd and 3rd graders (n = 2664) from 14 New York City public elementary schools. Outcome Measures and AnalysisDuring recess, the System of Observing Play and Leisure Activity in Youth (SOPLAY) assessed physical activity level (sedentary, walking or vigorous) and the System of Observing Play Engagement Episodes at Recess (SOPEER) assessed social behaviors (“physical sportsmanship”, “verbal sportsmanship,” “physical conflict,” and “verbal conflict”). Minutes of playtime at recess were recorded, to determine if order impacted length of time to play. Two days of recess were observed at all schools. Teachers completed the Survey of Readiness, Engagement And Disruption in Youth (SOREADY) with 4 scales: behavioral engagement, social engagement, behavioral disaffection, social disaffection. During recess, the System of Observing Play and Leisure Activity in Youth (SOPLAY) assessed physical activity level (sedentary, walking or vigorous) and the System of Observing Play Engagement Episodes at Recess (SOPEER) assessed social behaviors (“physical sportsmanship”, “verbal sportsmanship,” “physical conflict,” and “verbal conflict”). Minutes of playtime at recess were recorded, to determine if order impacted length of time to play. Two days of recess were observed at all schools. Teachers completed the Survey of Readiness, Engagement And Disruption in Youth (SOREADY) with 4 scales: behavioral engagement, social engagement, behavioral disaffection, social disaffection. ResultsWhether recess was before or after lunch, there was no difference in minutes of playtime, or social behaviors during recess. However, both boys and girls were more vigorously active at recess when lunch was first (9%; p=0.04 and 12%; p=0.009 respectively). Teachers reported better behavioral engagement in the classroom, with lunch before recess (p=. 012). Whether recess was before or after lunch, there was no difference in minutes of playtime, or social behaviors during recess. However, both boys and girls were more vigorously active at recess when lunch was first (9%; p=0.04 and 12%; p=0.009 respectively). Teachers reported better behavioral engagement in the classroom, with lunch before recess (p=. 012). Conclusions and ImplicationsWith lunch before recess being associated with more physical activity and readiness to learn in the classroom, these results contradict some prior research. Further research is warranted to soundly inform school policy makers on whether recess should come before or after lunch for young school children. With lunch before recess being associated with more physical activity and readiness to learn in the classroom, these results contradict some prior research. Further research is warranted to soundly inform school policy makers on whether recess should come before or after lunch for young school children.

México 2015: Entre la fragmentación partidista y el descontento ciudadano

Mexico had a complicated year in 2015. It was a critical mid-term election year, organized under new electoral rules, amidst social unrest, insecurity and political violence accompanied by an increasing social disaffection with politics. After three years in office, President Pena Nieto faced adverse economic conditions and a significant decrease in approval rates after damaging events such as the Ayotzinapa tragedy, corruption scandals and low economicgrowth. However, due to an unprecedented vote fragmentation, the ruling coalition was able to retain its majority in the Chamber of Deputies.

Aprendiendo para la vida: estudio de caso sobre una radio comunitaria online

En un contexto de disgregación y crisis social, la adquisición de competencias que permitan aumentar las oportunidades de empleo y promuevan una ciudadanía más involucrada se ha ido haciendo cada vez más prioritaria. El proyecto RadioActive Europe surge en este contexto, proponiendo un aprendizaje no formal a partir de una radio ubicada en Internet. Este artículo examina la implantación del proyecto en Portugal, como una iniciativa dirigida a jóvenes en situaciones vulnerables. Se debate el potencial de proyectos de investigación-acción participativa y de la educación para los medios como forma de empoderar a jóvenes en contextos desfavorecidos, como complemento a las limitaciones de la enseñanza formal.

A community in splinters: communality in Michael Haneke's Code Unknown

In Code Unknown: Incomplete Tales of Several Journeys (2000), Michael Haneke's cinematographic looking at the state of community delivers a splintering world of life being many against the multiracial/cultural milieu of postcolonial France. Produced in a sociopolitical climate of revived nationalism and social disaffection, the film makes conspicuous an inoperative community, in Jean-Luc Nancy's sense, that links together several stories of life in motion (and collision) through which the fates of its dwellers intersect and dis/connect. The film carves out a site of friction, I argue, that is simultaneously an irreparable rupturing of communalism and a shared space of communication. This paper examines the communicative model of sociality through which a series of untranslatable ‘codes’ of bodily contacts, violent or otherwise, constitutes the internal breakage of collective fusion. The formation of communal existence, as iterated in Haneke's central thesis, therefore, extends beyond the symbolic register of the Self and the Other, and into the material dimension of transcultural and inter-ethno-racial incongruities, fostering a deepened sense of social unease.

Racist and Political Extremist Graffiti in Australian Prisons, 1970s to 1990s

Abstract: The article discusses graffiti found in Australian prison museums, in particular racist and extreme nationalist texts and images. The rise of prisoners' rights movements brought a concurrent reactive move to the political Right among prison officers. This enabled far‐Right and racist elements among staff to become influential in a number of prisons. Similarities are noted between Australian prison graffiti and graffiti found in British prisons in the 1990s, as reported by the British Commission for Racial Equality (CRE). The CRE found that prisons in Britain fostered a culture of racism. Apparent motivations of Australian and British graffitists show much common ground including a sense of national dispossession, far‐Right sentiment and social disaffection. It is concluded that the radically enclosed and violent nature of the prison exacerbates these issues, effectively promoting far‐Right tendencies among prisoners and staff.

The trouble with nature: Ambivalence in the lives of urban Australian environmentalists

The number and range of contests over the social production of nature is growing. Much environmentalist discourse, however, continues to appeal for unequivocal scientific support on clearly demarcated issues of pure, a-social nature. This paper explores the question of how participants in environmental movements view this demarcation in the context of their own lives. After introducing scholarly critique of dualistic ideas of nature and the ambivalence characteristic of environmentalist conceptions of nature, the paper draws upon a qualitative study with environmentalists in the Australian cities of Melbourne, Perth and Hobart. Inquiring into the interplay of discourse of nature and everyday worlds, interviews revealed a complex interdependence of dualistic and non-dualistic understandings of nature. This ecology of ideas was especially evident in spatial imaginaries of nature. Scientific terminology, social disaffection and pessimism were associated with abstract and mutually exclusive conceptions of society and nature. Reflections on personal experience, however, indicated more flexible and hopeful negotiations in everyday liminal spaces offering ‘the best of both worlds’. It is concluded that environmentalist resistance to dismantling of conceptual boundaries between society and nature may often stem not from failure to appreciate socionatural complexity, but from a strongly felt sense that the self can only truly be found in nature.

Adolescent substance abuse among young people excluded from school in Belfast

The lifestyles of young people excluded from school have received much attention recently, particularly in relation to illicit drug use. Commentators have acknowledged that they constitute a high-risk group to social disaffection and substance abuse. This paper reports on a group of 48 young people living in Belfast aged 13–14 years who are considered to be at a particularly high risk to substance abuse because they are excluded from school. The evidence in this paper suggests that many are already exhibiting potentially high-risk behaviours to problem drug use compared with their contemporaries in mainstream education. This paper examines the evidence within the context of a limited existing literature base on this group of young people. It suggests that a more focused approach is required for the development of appropriate drug-prevention strategies to meet their needs.

Encounters in the new welfare domains of the Third Way: social work, the Connexions agency and personal advisers

In England, the Connexions service is to provide a universal service which is to inform, advise and guide young people aged 13—19 years old. The role of the agency and the personal advisers `at the heart' of the scheme is also likely to have a major impact on other professionals working with children and families, such as social workers. A number of initiatives introduced by New Labour have already resulted in the marginalization of social work. Personal advisers and other `new emergent professionals', such as mentors, also provide evidence of cultural transformations that are being promoted in terms of how best to properly engage with children and families. It is critically important to respond to the range of discourses that are identifiable in the Connexions strategy. These are centred on: youth transitions; social exclusion and disaffection; risk and the surveillance of young people. In the latter context, particular concerns relate to a database or `register' of all those aged 13—19 and a Connexions Card which tracks `progress' in education and the `world of work', and which provides `rewards' for compliance.

School Exclusion and Adolescent Drug Use in Northern Ireland: A Problem Being Addressed?

Young people excluded from mainstream schooling are a vulnerable group who are at a high risk of experiencing social disaffection and are more likely to find themselves involved in anti-social behaviour. During the 1990s, Northern Ireland experienced increasing levels of illicit drug use, particularly among young adults and adolescents. The present paper examines existing empirical evidence for an association between these behaviours and school exclusion. The evidence has been obtained from studies carried out mainly in England and Wales, as such evidence appears non-existent in Northern Ireland to date. The paper also argues that the existence of this group of young people requires more in-depth qualitative research now that the Department of Education have begun to monitor their existence more systematically. This will help identify the full extent of the problem, particularly as existing empirical evidence shows the size of this group to be increasing in recent years. This complies with the Labour Government's social inclusion initiative advocated by the Social Exclusion Unit, but one that remains, as the present paper suggests, underdeveloped in Northern Ireland.

The land that could be: environmentalism and democracy in the twenty-first century

In this book, environmentalist and lawyer William Shutkin describes a new kind of environmental and social activism spreading across the nation, one that joins the pursuit of environmental quality with that of civic health and sustainable local economies. In the face of challenges posed by often corrosive market forces and widespread social disaffection, this civic environmentalism is creating nothing less than a new public discourse and dynamic social vision grounded in environmental action.Shutkin points the way to vibrant, sustainable communities through four inspiring examples of civic environmentalism in action: the redevelopment of contaminated urban land for agriculture in inner-city Boston, mass-transit-based development and waterfront restoration in Oakland, protection of open space and conservation-based development in rural Colorado, and smart-growth and sustainability strategies in suburban New Jersey. The book's underlying message is that the nation's environmental health is a critical factor in its success as a vital democracy. Social health, democratic community, and environmentalism, Shutkin shows, are one.From the author's preface :This book asserts that environmentalism is as much about protecting ordinary places as it is about preserving wilderness areas; as much about promoting civic engagement as it is about pursuing environmental litigation; and as much about implementing sound economic development strategies as it is about negotiating global climate change treaties. Ultimately, I believe, environmentalism is nothing less than about our conception of ourselves as a social and political community -- what the bald eagle, our national symbol, really means.

Memory and the transformation of social experience in modern Japan: rethinking the song `Home'

In modern society, memory is often constructed, and sometimes erased, in conformity with the political purposes of the nation-state. From this point of view many historians have analysed the construction of memory. However, cultural resources such as media and technologies support the concrete formation of memory; in other words, we can reconsider the problem of memory in the phase of social experience that is closely connected with the media, technologies and the flow of capital. It is this phase of social experience that makes possible the political projects of the nation-state. In this article, I consider the songs published in 1910 for musical education at primary school by the Ministry of Education. The song was considered to be an effective strategy for state education, because it is easier for children to learn and is internalized more directly and unconsciously through the medium of music, than literary texts such as novels, poetry, etc. In 1890, the Imperial Rescript on Education was promulgated as the fundamental principle of national education. Its main object was to build up the faithful subject of the Emperor system of Japan and musical education was also coordinated with this policy. In the society after the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-5 discipline relaxed among the people and social disaffection increased. The Ministry of Education songs were designed as a device to reinforce moral education. However, not all of people's memory was edited and manipulated by the government. In the song `Home' (1914), the scene took on a character of anonymity. How was this scene deeply impressed on the private feelings of individuals? At that time, due to changing social conditions, there appeared an abstract social space constructed from reproducible images and extended across national boundaries. The song `Home' mobilized the mass public not toward specific political goals, but to experience as actual that abstract social space.

Social currents in Eastern Europe: the sources and meaning of the great transformation

Feminism, religion, and rock music have all played crucial roles in the recent revolutionary changes in Eastern Europe. This important and engaging book traces the diverse social currents that have developed alongside and interacted with political and economic forces to bring about change in the region. Sabrina P.Ramet examines the meanings and sources of various social currents - intellectual dissent, feminism, religious activism, the formation of independent youth cultures and movements, and trade unionism - in seven communist countries: East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Romania, and Bulgaria. The author also highlights the powerful force of Albanian irredentism in the Yugoslav province of Kosovo. Drawing on interviews conducted over an eight-year period in Eastern and Western with those active in arenas for social change, Ramet argues that social disaffection provided the seeds for a steady and incremental transition to pluralist systems in each of these countries. Social Currents in Eastern Europe provides a useful perspective that should be of great interest to scholars and general readers seeking to understand the role of social change in the current transformation of Eastern Europe.

TECHNOLOGICAL VULNERABILITY: A NEGLECTED AREA IN POLICY-MAKING

Many technological systems are vulnerable to threats such as military attack, sabotage, sudden economic change or social disaffection. There are various ways to reduce such vulnerabilities, such as direct planning, diversification and self-reliance, but current policy-making takes little cognisance of the issue.

Social disaffection, friendship patterns and adolescent cigarette use: the Muscatine Study.

This study was undertaken to determine if adolescent social disaffection with school and family not only would be a significant predictor of cigarette use but would explain a significant amount of the association with friends who smoke. Eleven hundred and eighty ninth-12th grade students in Muscatine, Iowa, were surveyed in Spring 1984. Multiple regression analyses indicated several social disaffection variables were significant predictors of association with friends who smoke, explaining 20% of the variance. The combination of association with friends who smoke and social disaffection variables explained 48% of the variance in adolescent cigarette smoking. Variables related to adolescents' participation in school and related activities suggest prevention programs should recognize the impact of social disaffection on adolescents cigarette use.

Factors Affecting Social Change: A Social‐Psychological Interpretation

The concern of the psychologist with person‐blame attribution has meant a failure to analyze types of change and social causes of societal changes. Social change can be radically structural (revolutionary), incrementally structural, or cultural. Sources of change can be found in internal contradictions within a society as in Marxian analysis, in uneven rates of growth of various parts of the system, in contact and clash with other systems, and in generational differences. Ongoing social systems are based upon a number of mechanisms designed to insure a continuing input so that effective forces of change need some accumulation and mobilization of social disaffection along group lines rather than the alienation of scattered individuals or transient subgroupings. The basic contradictions in our society have led to incremental rather than radical change. Generational differences have produced cultural rather than structural change. Thus, the divisiveness and rebellion stemming from differences in social class, age, sex and race has not resulted in sharp deep lines of cleavage facilitative of revolutionary movements, but have been contained within the society. They may assume more significance, however, as the American system comes into increasing competition and conflict with other systems for resources, markets, and power.

Social disaffection among deprived groups

One test of societal cleavages is the extent of differences in the population between subgroups such as race, social class, or generations, at three levels: nationalism, support for the political system, and satisfaction with aspects of every day living. National sample data indicate no clear marks of division on these three dimensions in the U.S. for groupings based upon income, education, occupation, age, or sex. The greatest potential cleavage is racial, for here there are differences between Blacks and Whites. consistent though not great, at all three levels. Various groups are tied into the system in different ways. People in the lower strata are stronger than managerial groups in their nationalism and evaluation of administrative agencies but lower on their confidence in national political leadership.