Socio-political Trends Research Articles

Resource War, Civil War, Rights War: Factoring Empire into French North Africa’s Second World War

This article considers the Second World War’s socio-economic impact on the colonized populations of French North Africa’s three adjoining territories: Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia. It suggests that the war’s significance for the long-term political future of French colonial rule was markedly different from that typically ascribed to it both by contemporary French and Allied observers and by subsequent historians of the conflict. This argument will be developed by contrasting the signpost events usually assigned to north-west Africa in strategic histories of the Second World War with the internal episodes, socio-political trends, and local changes in the fabric of colonial rule that, arguably, held greater importance for the region’s people.

Review of James G. Crossley,Jesus in an Age of Terror: Scholarly Projects for a New American Century

Hans Christian Andersen’s The Emperor's New Clothes is frequently employed as a metaphor for any situation in which a young maverick reveals a major failing of the established order about which others have been inexcusably blind. In Jesus in an Age of Terror: Scholarly Projects for a New American Century, James G. Crossley dramatically exposes the pervasive Orientalism which continues to be proudly paraded in many quarters of New Testament scholarship, and which since 11 September 2001 has become, in Derek Gregory’s words, ‘hideously emboldened’. The book is divided into three main parts, each demonstrating how certain trends within biblical studies emerged at the same time as similar socio-political trends in the broader world. As Crossley also shows, these trends in biblical studies have in turn tended to reinforce AngloAmerican power and hegemony. Crossley’s concerns are not merely theoretical but also, as he is careful to emphasise, entail some deadly consequences. Instead of providing a radical countervoice to state propaganda and oppression, time and again scholarship has not only accepted stereotypes of Islam and Arabs, but has provided an ‘intellectual’ rationale with which to buttress it. As one particularly powerful example, Crossley discusses the American soldiers who raped and tortured Iraqis at Abu Ghraib – who were following procedures based in part on theoretical generalisations about ‘the Arab’ made by Raphael Patai in The Arab Mind (in particular, sexual and shaming stereotypes), and which happen to be the same stark generalisations quoted with favour by biblical scholars who are members of the Context Group. For Crossley, such scholarly complicity is diametrically opposed to the proper role of the intellectual, who should continually and severely question authoritatively received positions and problematise popular prejudices. In Part One, Crossley provides a historical survey of the ways New Testament scholarship has ‘been influenced by its political and social settings’ over the last century or so (p. xiii). He brings this survey up to date by closely examining contemporary biblical studies blogs, or ‘biblioblogs’. Unlike academic books and articles, biblical scholars frequently voice their personal and BOOK REVIEWS

AFTERWORD: JAPAN-RELATED LINGUISTIC INTERVENTION

In this commentary on articles published in a thematic collection entitled “Heritage, Nationhood, and Language: Japanese Connections” (Critical Asian Studies 42, nos. 1 and 2) the author observes that languages we speak are “often the product of historical, sociopolitical, and socioeconomic trends, accidents, and forces. They are insufficient to completely define or enclose our identities.” Thus, the author wonders, can any language be said to be “the best, most perfect one for any of us?”

Black–Latino/a relations in Boston: Two trends of collective identification

This study compares and contrasts two ongoing and yet opposed socio-political trends that are symptomatic of today's situation in Boston in the area of Latino/a – Black relations. On the one hand we find the New Majority, a top-down movement that emerged shortly after Boston joined the growing number of American cities in which the non-White minority population has surpassed in numbers the aggregate population of all the White communities, and having the principal objective of building inter-minority-group consensus at the leadership level by issuing calls for the creation of a working coalition among the city's growing number of minority communities, and hoping ultimately to see a unified agenda for all of the city's people of color. On the other, the search for unifying plans of common action is being undercut by drastic and ongoing changes in demographics – particularly due to high levels of immigration in the past two decades – that have provided the background for the collision of interests in minority groups competing for greater access to the scarce federal, state and local resources assigned to Boston's impoverished urban areas. The example of this trend in this study is an English-only workplace policy at Boston's Whittier Street Health Center, implemented in 2003, that went on to have a divisive effect on relations between the city's Blacks and Latinos/as.

Nutritional altruism and functional food: lay discourses on probiotics

This exploratory study set out to analyse discourse about 'friendly bacteria' by scrutinising data from focus groups convened to discuss participants' reasons for choosing probiotic food products and to set their use of probiotics in context in relation to other food choices. In discussing food choice and dietary patterns, participants in the five focus groups reported here drew on a major interpretive repertoire - that of 'nutritional altruism' in which participants described making choices and preparing food which they believed would benefit others. Those caring for children or shopping for a family member with an illness or disability expressed this imperative to make decisions which would benefit the other most acutely. So far, much research has focused upon the sensory qualities and perceived health benefits for individual consumers, but this study begins to explore the discourses drawn upon when people describe why they might buy food for others. The findings have implications for health education, but also reflect a broader socio-political trend in that risks and benefits are devolved and managed at the level of individual citizens and through processes of individual choice and consumption.

Oral/Past Culture and Modern Technical Means in the Literature of the Twentieth Century in Greenland

The present article takes as its starting point a short story from 2001 and relates it to the development of the Greenlandic literature in the twentieth century. The Greenlandic literature evolved around 1900 and mirrors the socio-political trends and the stages of nation building through the twentieth century. The overall tendencies of the century start with a striving towards more knowledge of and competence in European culture (including technical know-how) before 1950. Then a feeling of overwhelming impact from Danish culture followed during the Danification policy of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s and this resulted in a protest movement in the 1960s and 1970s and Home Rule from 1979. However, if we read the literature in details and supplement it with the contemporary newspapers a much more diverse picture of an appropriation process (i.e. a conscious adaptation of selective parts of the impact from outside) emerges. The present article focuses on how these sources give us glimpses of an ongoing debate already in the first half of the twentieth century i.e. in colonial times: the Greenlandic population was not just passively under colonial domination. The history of the twentieth century is the history about a fairly well functioning appropriation of technical means and cultural impact from outside up till 1950, and then – after three decades of heavy modernization and Danification –-a process from 1979 on towards more and more agency in a “ glocalized” Greenland.

A New Chronology for Pololu Valley, Hawai'i Island: Occupational History and Agricultural Development

A reanalysis of the chronology of Pololu Valley, located in the district of Kohala on Hawai'i Island, is presented using standard radiocarbon and accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) dating. Using curated materials from the 1970s, Pololu is reassessed and found to have the earliest coastal occupations in this part of Hawai'i, beginning about AD 1300. Occupations at the dunes and in the valley interior are investigated, as are dryland and wetland field agricultural systems. These data provide a refined model for expansion and intensification of agricultural production in the 15th–17th centuries, and link this remote valley to demographic and sociopolitical trends that were occurring in the rest of Hawai'i.

Technological Change and the Environmental Impacts of Food Production and Consumption: The Case of the UK Yogurt Industry

This article examines the changing food production and consumption system of yogurt in the United Kingdom, focusing on the environmental impact of the yogurt processing stage from a technological perspective. Based on interviews with key industry stakeholders, we describe the evolution of the yogurt industry since the 1950s, characterized by a shift toward industrialized mass production and increased product diversity. We explain how new technologies, sociopolitical trends, and industrial strategies have shaped the evolution of the industry over this period. Moreover, we argue that the environmental impact of the current yogurt production and consumption system has been determined to a large extent by technological change. The article explores the future of the yogurt production and consumption system, considering the environmental implications of increased production of more differentiated yogurt products and how technological change may mitigate some of those impacts. The analysis reveals that to appreciate the environmental impact of the yogurt industry, policy makers should not focus simply on the primary stage of production but on all stages of the yogurt production and consumption system. Minimizing waste and improving resource efficiency at the yogurt processing stage are found to be particularly important. Transformation to an alternative yogurt production and consumption system with substantially lower environmental impacts requires significant commitment to change across the industry and the wider sociotechnical landscape.

Harm Reduction – Ideals and Paradoxes

Aim The aim of the article is to critically reflect on the harm reduction approach used in Danish substance abuse treatment. Data The article is based on qualitative interviews with staff at treatment institutions in Copenhagen. Themes and Conclusions Three themes are addressed. First, our data indicate that low-threshold methadone treatment is difficult to combine with a long-term goal of abstinence. In fact, many harm reduction proponents among staff are directly opposed to treatment models in which abstinence is a goal. Second, we illustrate how the development of harm reduction measures is embedded in a socio-political trend focusing on a combined “autonomization/responsibilization” of social clients. This focus on clients as autonomous and responsible subjects clashes with another central conception among staff: the idea that heroin addicts are slaves to their substance use and hence cannot be treated as fully rational human beings. Third, the article analyses the relationship between harm reduction and social integration. Although social integration of substance abusers is part of the rationale behind harm reduction measures, this goal is difficult to reach with a group of clients as marginalized as the ones in focus.

Concept Evolution in Sensory Integration: A Proposed Nosology for Diagnosis

and growing area of practice in occupational therapy. Debate and discussion with colleagues have led us to develop a proposed taxonomy reflecting a new classification scheme to enhance diagnostic specificity. The nosology proposed here is rooted in empirical data first published by Ayres (Ayres, 1972b, 1989) that has evolved based on empirical and theoretical information. This new nosology provides a viewpoint for discussion and research. Two sociopolitical trends contribute to the timeliness of the ideas presented. First, a call exists throughout health and developmental services for evidence-based practice (Sackett, Richardson, Rosenberg, & Haynes, 1997). Diagnostic precision is crucial for homogeneity of samples in empirical research, affecting the validity of the research findings. Second, the condition of sensory processing disorders (SPD) has recently been acknowledged outside the occupational therapy profession in three diagnostic classification references: the Diagnostic Classification of Mental Health and Developmental Disorders of Infancy and Early Childhood, Revised (known as the DC: 0–3R) (Zero to Three, 2005), the Diagnostic Manual for Infancy and Early Childhood of the Interdisciplinary Council on Developmental and Learning Disorders (ICDL, 2005), and the Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual (PDM Task Force, 2006). Both manuals include diagnostic taxonomies with subtypes of SPD suggested by a committee of occupational therapists, who assisted in developing guidelines for diagnostic specificity related to sensory-based disorders (Miller, Cermak, Lane, Anzalone, & Koomar, 2004).

Monitoring Optimism in South Africa

An article with exactly this same title was published in Social Indicators Research (41:279–304, 1997). The purpose of the current article is to update the findings discussed in that first article. Therefore the abstract published previously is still relevant: The last few decades have been the most crucial and eventful ones in South Africa’s history. During this time, the empirical research and knowledge provided by opinion polls yielded much-needed insight into the grass roots of a society in transition, providing an instrument with which to measure the political climate, to observe trends and developments and to give input into the decision-making process of companies and political parties. Although the process of change and political transition still remains difficult to properly define, this article will provide some insight into the attitudes, perceptions and values of the South African public by giving attention to trends that have transpired over the years. Special attention is devoted to perceptions on pertinent issues such as the mood in the country, optimism, economic well-being, social harmony and trust – all essential elements in an emerging democracy. Again, extensive use is made of data and findings from Markinor’s bi-annual Socio-Political Trends surveys and the World Values Studies.

Beyond the Gibson Girl: Reimagining the American New Woman, 1895-1915 (review)

Reviewed by: Beyond the Gibson Girl: Reimagining the American New Woman, 1895–1915 Ann L. Ardis Beyond the Gibson Girl: Reimagining the American New Woman, 1895–1915. Martha H. Patterson . Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2005. Pp. xii + 230. $35.00 (cloth). Cultural historians and literary critics have used the term "New Woman" exclusively to describe white, well-educated, politically progressive activists and realistic women writers at the turn of the twentieth century. In her richly archival study, Martha Patterson emphasizes instead "the important regional, ethnic, and political differences of the American New Woman" as an icon of modernity (16), as figured in the work of seven American women writers: Margaret Murray Washington, Pauline Hopkins, Edith Wharton, Sui Sin Far, Mary Johnston, Ellen Glasgow, and Willa Cather. A chapter on Charles Dana Gibson's popular illustrations establishes "the rhetorical and visual context" within which Patterson interprets these writers' "literary production" (22). Taking important cues from Dale Bauer's work on cultural dialogics and Judith Butler's on the performativity of gender, Patterson explores how these turn-of-the-century writers reconfigure the dominant trope of the New Woman by reading "that discourse in relationship to the other circulating 'new' tropes" (22)—that of the "New Negro," the "New Negro Woman," the "New China," the "New South"—which they alternately "co-opted, rejected, transformed, and/or reiterated" (26). Demonstrating how "a seemingly celebratory term like the New Woman" can emblematize not only "progressive reform, consumer power, and transgressive femininity" but also "racial and ethnic taxonomies, social Darwinism, and imperialist ambitions" (26), Patterson productively complicates the American New Woman's literary and cultural history, reinforcing the "important shift in New Woman criticism" first registered in the efforts of scholars such as Kathy Peiss, Susan Glenn, and Marjorie Wheeler to give the term "New Woman" "essential class, ethnic, and regional specificity" (18). While Patterson does not herself stress this point, her study lends support to the argument Ann Heilmann and Margaret Beetham have recently made about both "the importance of the periodical press in the New Woman phenomenon" and the instrumental role that New Woman writers and the New Woman debates played "in developing the periodical press in all its diversity and polyvocality" at the turn of the twentieth century.1 As noted above, Patterson describes her project's focus as being on the "literary production" of these writers, and this study does indeed include extensive close readings of novels and short fiction. Yet one of the most interesting aspects of this book is its treatment of these writers' contributions to a fascinatingly diverse array of national, regional, and local periodicals and both highbrow and middlebrow mass circulation magazines as they engaged in contemporary debates regarding the various sociopolitical trends that "signaled hope for and anxiety about political and economic change in a new century" (22). If, for example, Sui Sin Far's "attitude toward the Chinese New Woman" is "necessarily … vexed because each word in the phrase is at the center of a contested sociopolitical debate" (24), it is also vexed because she is negotiating a complexly fragmented public sphere, writing for regional journals such as Walter Blackburn Harte's Lotus (Kansas City) and The Land of Sunshine: An Illustrated Monthly of Southern California, as well as for progressive, nationally syndicated periodicals such as The Independent. In the case of a writer like Willa Cather, the articles and literary reviews that reveal so much about her ambivalent fascination with the power and danger of a figure associated at once with "modernity, 'degeneracy,' professionalism, education, 'downright grit,' and gender transgression" (154) were collected and edited in the 1970s—and thus have been readily available to students and scholars for some time. By contrast, although Hopkins' "magazine novels" have recently been collected and edited, her writings for the Colored [End Page 168] American Magazine have not. This study's wealth of references to uncollected periodical press writings speaks volumes about the complex staging of "a public sphere that is not one."2 In this regard, though revisionary public sphere theory remains just beyond Patterson's explicit horizon of interests in this study, her research complements the arguments that scholars such as Todd...

Harm reduction – ideals and paradoxes

Aim The aim of the article is to critically reflect on the harm reduction approach used in Danish substance abuse treatment. Data The article is based on qualitative interviews with staff at treatment institutions in Copenhagen. Themes and Conclusions Three themes are addressed. First, our data indicate that low-threshold methadone treatment is difficult to combine with a long-term goal of abstinence. In fact, many harm reduction proponents among staff are directly opposed to treatment models in which abstinence is a goal. Second, we illustrate how the development of harm reduction measures is embedded in a socio-political trend focusing on a combined “autonomization/responsibilization” of social clients. This focus on clients as autonomous and responsible subjects clashes with another central conception among staff: the idea that heroin addicts are slaves to their substance use and hence cannot be treated as fully rational human beings. Third, the article analyses the relationship between harm reduction and social integration. Although social integration of substance abusers is part of the rationale behind harm reduction measures, this goal is difficult to reach with a group of clients as marginalized as the ones in focus.

Retaliatory discourse: the politics of attack and withdrawal

AbstractLong‐term and recent sociopolitical trends in the USA pull for narcissistic ways of fashioning the self and relating to others. Discourses that sustain a split between capacities for autonomy and capacities for attachment, and discourses that sustain a split between individuals and their social surround elicit omnipotent and/or submissive modes of narcissistic relating. An increasingly vulnerable and socially abandoned population, conditioned to be ashamed of its vulnerabilities and dependency, finds itself subject to discourses that pull for various splits between “us” and “them.” This situation is a breeding ground for a politics of attack, or a politics of hostile withdrawal, or both. Neoconservatism fosters a politics of attack, and liberalism fosters a politics of withdrawal. Drawing on the psychoanalytic concept of “thirdness,” the paper concludes that only discourses and institutions that foster interdependence, containment of vulnerability, and the bringing together of relational and autonomous capacities can counter retaliatory politics. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Socio-political Trends and Local Elite of the Dangjin Area in Late Modern Times

In Dangjin-gun, the Deoksu Yi, Jeonju Yi, Cheongju Han, Neungseong Gu, and Hansan Yi clans were relatively powerful in the Joseon Era. In addition, several clans among the common people were growing on the basis of economic power in the late Joseon Era. In modern times, clans who adopted the new learning (modern sciences) actively made remarkable developments. On the other hand, those who did not were on the decline. For example, the Gyodong Yin, Milyang Son, and Neungseong Gu clans made remarkable developments. The Gyodong Yin clan produced many great landlords, capitalists, high-class officers, etc. The Milyang Son, Neungseong Gu, Milyang Bak, and Gigye Yu clans appeared as leading figures on an economic basis. These clans actively accepted new learning, actively coped with exporting rice to Japan, and appeared as small, medium, or big landlords. Moreover, these people cooperated with the Joseon Government-General with a certain degree in the growing process.<BR> In the Colonial Era. Dangjin was divided into three districts: Dangjin-myeon, Hapdeok-myeon, and Myeoncheon-myeon. Dangjin-rnyeon was a political center while the Hapdeok district was an economic and social-movement center. In the Hapdeok district, Sinpyeong, Beomcheon, and Hapdeok-myeons were considered the most active places for youth and tenant farming movements in Chungnam. Most social movement leaders in Dangjin-gun were born in a middle (or lower) class and educated in a new school system. They lead youth, tenant farming, co-op, and Singanhoe movements. These social movement activists played a role in cooperation with the Seoul Youth Association group. Some Cheondogyo (Religion of the Heavenly Way) and Christian believers participated in the movements. However, police oppression continually collapsed the movements.<BR> When the Preparatory Committee for Founding Joseon and the People’s Committee were formed after the liberation from Japan, the leading figures included many socialists from Hapdeok and its vicinity. For instance, Bae Giyeong was one of them. After the United States Administration of Military Government in Korea (USAMGIK) gained power, they were arrested. Rightists who were fostered by the USAMGIK, such as right-wing youth organizations and parties, held power with the police. When the Korean War broke out, leftists dominated Dangjin temporarily. But the leftists’ world lasted only for two months. During the war, the bloody revenge starting from the murder of the Bodo Federation (Anti-Communism Group) claimed many victims. Both leftists and rightists were affected. Especially in the Hapdeok district many socialists, Cheondogyo believers, and Christians were affected. In addition, the Milyang Son clan of Godae-myeon, the Gyodong Yin clan of Seokmun-myeon, and the Neungseong Gu clan were affected to a considerable degree.<BR> Newly emerging clans in late Modern times still showed strength. In the 1950s, after the Korean War, Yin Taesik from the Yin clan was elected congressman consecutively in the 3rd and the 4th Parliamentary Elections. Son Yongbok from the Son clan was the chief of Godae-myeon for 14 years. Bak families who were big landlords in Hapdeok kept the position of myeon chief all through the 1950s.<BR> There were a considerable number of local elites who became myeon-clerks, chiefs, and members of the Provincial Council after the Japanese Colonial Era or who became members of the right youth associations, myeon chiefs, or the Provincial Council. Most of them were born common people, especially to the farmer and trader classes. Personal efforts made them local elites. They actively adopted modern education, and tried to grow into local elites through positions like myeon clerks and chiefs. After the liberation, they were on the rightists’ side actively participating in right-wing youth associations and parties in the middle of left/right confrontation and became local elites.

Accounting scholars in the groves of academe In Pari Delicto

This paper provides an overview of the emergence of Critical Perspectives on Accounting and of some of its achievements. The journal was originally created to provide a forum to question some of the notions that were systematically taken for granted in accounting practice and research, to explore the ideological underpinnings of the discipline, and reveal its role in processes of domination and social reproduction. The aim was also to encourage community-building around other important issues such as critical accounting interventions and their potential, or ways to bring out more emancipatory perspectives on accounting. We review three streams with a critical approach to accounting that were developed in the journal over 25 years: promoting a radical reflexivity to challenge mainstream views on accounting, questioning the normative claims of the profession to reveal its role in social reproduction, and highlighting the role of accounting in major socio-political trends.

Dreaming the Nation: Domestic dramas in Hindi films post-1990

Hindi cinema has functioned as a site for the production and exploration of national identities and ideologies in the popular imagination. An examination of some of the most successful films of the 1990s (Hum Aapke Hain Kaun, Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge, Pardes, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, etc.) reveals the emergence of the domestic drama as a highly popular genre wherein a troubling new construction of Indian identity emerges. This new construction is one that considerably narrows the diversity, multiplicity and secular constructions of Indian identities in previous decades. We argue that this trend in Hindi cinema post-1990 reflects the significant socio-political (rise of the Hindutva movement) and economic changes (liberalising of the economy) that have taken place in India during this time. Domestic Hindi film dramas post-1990 display a remarkably consistent pattern in producing a monolithic Indian identity that is Hindu, wealthy and patriarchal in nature. We find that the terrain of who gets included in the signifier ‘Indian’ has shifted significantly. The wealthy among the diasporic Indian community now find a prominent place within that signifier provided they conform to a particular articulation of Indian identity and traditions. Consequently, certain minorities like Muslims and Christians find themselves excluded and increasingly erased from this terrain. We argue that this cultural conflation (of Indian with Hindu and wealthy), the product of particular socio-political and economic trends (Hindutva, global capital flows and regressive gender politics), further marginalises and often erases the experiences of religious minorities and the poor who do not fit this constructed norm, a trend that is indicative of the restricting of the national imaginary.

Globalization, the African Renaissance, and the role of English

The way in which economic trends such as globalization and cultural trends such as the African Renaissance become economically as well as linguistically influential has repercussions for the quest for new political, cultural, and linguistic identity formations in the “New South Africa.” Background knowledge about the cultural, linguistic, and political identification processes that speakers are engaged in is a crucial part of the meaningful linguistic interpretation. In this paper, the role of English in national reidentification in South Africa is discussed against the backdrop of these two major sociopolitical trends. Issues relating to the position of African languages are also alluded to. Finally it is argued that “creeping global monolingualism” can only be countered by large-scale financial investment in large-scale language-policy planning in Africa which may elevate the status of African languages in the different regions.

Mutations of Eurocentric Domination and Their Implications for African American Resistance

An increasing observation by many social scientists is that the method through which European Americans maintain control over society's political, economic, and cultural institutions has mutated. Over the last 30 years or so, Eurocentric domination can be assumed to have mutated away from domination by repression/terror toward domination by seduction. This article discusses five sociopolitical trends through which this mutation has occurred and examines how this transformation has placed African Americans at significant risk of capitulating to Eurocentric domination.

World-View Entrapment: Moral-Ethical Implications for Gifted Education

Root-metaphorical world views strongly shape our thoughts and actions at the implicit level. The mechanistic world view provided the conceptual foundations for unprecedented technological progress throughout the modern era; however, its basic tenets have serious moral-ethical implications. Sociopolitical trends and issues reinforced by this world view include technological determinism, social Darwinism, and androcentrism. Educational practices reinforced by mechanism include positivistic approaches to curriculum, instruction, and research. The moral-ethical implications of these trends and practices are explored, along with recommendations for developing awareness of root-metaphorical influences on the field of gifted education.