The ‘SONY NIGHTCLUB’: Rural Brothels,Gender Violence,and Development in Coastal Ecuador

ABSTRACT

In the Ecuadorian public imaginary, Manabí province is constructed as a lawless frontier. Manaba men are characterized for their aggressive masculinity, robust and primitive sexuality, and their proclivity towards resolving conflict with violence. This paper examines community debates about brothels and healthy sexuality in a rural coastal region where the state is expanding its reach into domestic life via the regulation of sexual intimacies and family violence. Local debates about healthy sexuality embody the historically contested and currently changing nature of state–community relationships in this previously marginalized region. While certain community factions invoke modernizing discourses of women's rights in their struggle to shut down brothels and mitigate family violence, others argue for unregulated sexuality as a way to diminish violence. Drawing from over 10 years of ethnographic research on gender, violence, and human rights in Ecuador, this paper reveals the co-construction of rural intimacies and the boundaries of state intervention.     

Law and ‘race’ in the citizenship spaces of Myanmar: spatial strategies and the political subjectivity of the Burmese Chinese

As Myanmar undergoes political and societal transition, observers are asking questions about citizenship and ethnic identity. How does one think about citizenship and people's negotiations with law in political-legal regimes that do not subscribe to liberal democratic norms? This paper investigates how law marginalizes the Burmese Chinese minority in Myanmar and the nature of their legal participation. Since law asserts cultural power impacting the way people think and behave, we engage with the concept of legal consciousness to understand how perceptions of legal vulnerability shape political subjectivity ambivalently. The paper highlights the spatial strategies and everyday practices that the Burmese Chinese deploy to navigate oppressive laws, but signals that internal social divisions and geopolitical considerations deter collective action towards rights assertion. It argues that studying the multiple sites and scales through which law is engaged contributes towards recovering citizenship aspirations where engagement with power and authority are articulated differently from Western norms.     

中医临床路径化的法律风险及对策

通过分析中医临床路径的法律性质、潜在法律风险,认为中医临床路径由国家中医药管理局发布,但其法律地位低于部门规章,不足以成为技术规范,是一种技术性指导文件。实际工作中,中医临床路径存在背离保障健康目标、误导调解判决、影响医疗却不能为其提供法律保护等潜在风险。为规避中医临床路径潜在的法律风险,可以从“守”“攻”“和”3个方面探索对策。     

‘Scooty Girls’: Mobility and Intimacy at the Margins of Kathmandu

ABSTRACT

The recent explosion in the number of scooters on the road in the Kathmandu Valley signifies a transformation of women's mobility. Scooters allow women to move from the back of a motorbike to the driver's seat. In a context in which most women were discouraged from leaving the house without a reason, the ability to drive oneself rather than call upon a male escort has pushed the gendered boundaries of acceptable behaviour for young women outwards, metaphorically and literally. This paper analyses young, unmarried women's newfound mobility and their capacity to drive to peripheral, ‘out-of-the-way’ places that offer respite from the bustle and pollution of the city, scenic views of the valley below, and something rarely achieved in the past – privacy. Scooters offer a way out of the policed realm of a young woman's home and neighbourhood, leading to exploration and a new space for the creation of intimacy.     

Transnational migration and the redefinition of the state: Variations and explanations

In this article, we examine the shifting policies of sending country states towards communities living abroad, demonstrate the ways in which these are redefining the relationship between the state and its territorial boundaries, and highlight how these reconfigure conventional understandings of sovereignty, citizenship and membership. We begin by delineating the ­different types of policies that sending states are adapting in order to break down categories like "global nations policies" and to identify similarities and differences between states. We then suggest some possible explanations both for the convergence we see on the "repertoire" of policies that states employ and divergence we see in how far states are willing to go to ensure that migrants remain enduring long-distance membership. We draw on material from several countries, but look most closely at Brazil, Mexico, the Dominican Republic and Haiti.     

‘They’re my Contacts,not my Friends’: Reconfiguring Affect and Aspirations Through Mobile Communication in Nigeria

ABSTRACT

In Calabar, Nigeria, young women envisage their futures to be full of possibilities. By contrast, their present realities often see them stuck in the house enduring long periods of waiting. Restricted by failing institutions, family and church pressures, and the fear of others’ jealousy, young women find that there is no clear route to realising their aspirations. As they wait alone in the house, they constantly communicate with others on mobile phones and BlackBerries. This paper examines how young women in Calabar use mobile phones as a way of reconceptualising issues of trust, affect and intimacy. It argues that where they employ methods of concealment to chat with others – revealing neither their true identity nor personal details – mobile communication enables distance, becoming an invaluable means for creating new forms of sociality and future opportunities. Illuminating ‘feminine cultures of waiting’, this paper furthers recent analyses of youth, time and productivity.     

Arab football in Israel as an 'integrative enclave'

Over the last two decades, football (soccer) has become a major institution within the popular culture of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel. The centrality of football has given different identity agents opportunities to impose different meanings on the sport, depending on the agents' definitions of collective identity. This article utilizes ethnographic observation in the football stadium and coverage by Arab and Hebrew sports media to illustrate and analyse this battle over meaning. The Hebrew sports media, the Arab sports press, and the Arab audience are three different agents that attach divergent meanings to the notable presence of Arab players in the Israeli football leagues. The article argues that the overlapping interests of the Hebrew sports media on the one hand and the Arab football fans, players, and bureaucrats on the other lead to the construction of the football sphere as an integrative enclave in the general Israeli public sphere. The article considers the relevance of Gramsci's theory of hegemony to explain the production of the integrative meaning of football, and it suggests integrating this explanation with other recent theories regarding the tensions between different discourses of citizenship.     

Ciudadanía activa y personas mayores: viejos conceptos,nuevos abordajes. Una revisión sistemática y metasíntesis cualitativa

The politics of active ageing present active citizenship of the elderly as a key challenge for the coming years. Active citizenship has been defined in different ways (as complimentary in most cases), outlining an eclecticism of participatory activities that includes political engagement in a participatory and deliberative manner, as well as community and voluntary action. This term is found in different contexts such as formal politics, work, civil society, and the home. This paper, based on a systematic review, identifies the context in which this concept emerges in relation to older people and people with dementia. It also analyses the different expressions of active citizenship used, and provides key elements to be taken into account in the formulation of policies in a context of accelerated demographic ageing and where dementia is a public health priority. The notion of active citizenship in old age is a step forward from active ageing to a broader concept that integrates the principle of equality between people irrespective of gender, age and the need for support.     

Longitudinal association of intimate partner violence and depressive symptoms

Purpose The association between intimate partner violence (IPV) and depression has been well established in cross-sectional research, but how IPV is associated with depressive symptoms over time has not been well studied.Methods Using the Central Pennsylvania Women''s Health Study, a population-based longitudinal survey of women aged 18–45 (N = 1,420), we performed a two-step logistic regression analysis. In step 1, the association of recent IPV exposure at baseline with depressive symptoms 2 years later was analysed adjusting for relevant covariates; in step 2, we additionally included positive coping strategies (social support, physical activity) and negative coping strategies (binge drinking/drug use, smoking) in the model.Results Baseline IPV was reported by 4.6 percent of the sample and was independently associated with depressive symptoms 2 years later (adjusted or 1.88, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.02–3.45). The strongest predictor was depressive symptoms at baseline, which was associated with a fivefold increase in the likelihood of depressive symptoms at 2-year follow-up. Other predictors of future depressive symptoms were IPV at follow-up, older age, lower educational attainment, and lower household income. When we controlled for potential coping strategies in the model (step 2), the relationship between recent IPV and follow-up depressive symptoms was attenuated (adjusted OR 1.50, 95% CI 0.80–2.80).Conclusions Exposure to IPV increases the likelihood of depressive symptoms occurring two years later. Greater social support and binge drinking/drug use attenuates this association, suggesting that interventions focusing on coping mechanisms may serve to reduce the impact of IPV on future depression.     

Xiphidorus amazonensis n. sp. (Nematoda: Longidoridae) from the Brazilian Amazon Basin

Xiphidorus amazonensis n. sp. was found in the rhizospheres of Jatropha curcas, Musa sp., Anona muricata, Cassia tora, Panicum laxum, Paspalum fasciculatum, Aeschynomene sensitiva, Saccharum officinarum, Manihot esculenta, Abelmoschus esculentus, Tamarindus indica, Mangifera indica, Vigna unguiculata, Zea mays, Commelina sp., Cyperus rotundus, Fimbristylis miliacea, Citrus sinensis, and Eichhornia crassipes on the Amazon River island of Xiborena, approximately 40 km southeast of Manaus, capital of the State of Amazonas. The type habitat is flooded annually for about 6 months by the Amazon River. Xiphidorus amazonensis n. sp. differs from the closely related species Xiphidorus yepesara Monteiro, 1976 by the larger size, by a, b, and c values, and by the rounded tail terminus. It also resembles Xiphidorus tucumanensis Chaves and Coomans, 1984, but can be distinguished by its larger size, larger a, b, and c values, more conical female tail, bilobed amphidial pouch, and the presence of a spermatheca full of sperm.     

Should I stay or should I go? Why Roma migrants leave or remain in nomad camps

Drawing on fieldwork conducted among Roma living in Turin (Northern Italy), this paper analyses the processes surrounding the exit routes taken by Roma out of nomad camps. Starting with the overview of national policy to face the disadvantaged housing situation, it explores the agency and the active strategy of Roma in the improvement of their disadvantaged living condition. Housing careers are the centre of the analysis in a comparative perspective: those of Roma leaving informal slums are compared with those of Roma leaving municipality camps. The article focuses on different factors and social mechanisms that explain different pathways, in the frame of constraints and opportunities. Individual preferences and resources, as well as institutional and structural constrains are part of the explanation. The results show the complexity of the universe of preferences and opportunities, stressing advantages and weaknesses of governmental policy and other external constraints in the decision-making processes.