Transnational Corporations as ‘Keystone Actors’ in Marine Ecosystems

Keystone species have a disproportionate influence on the structure and function of ecosystems. Here we analyze whether a keystone-like pattern can be observed in the relationship between transnational corporations and marine ecosystems globally. We show how thirteen corporations control 11-16% of the global marine catch (9-13 million tons) and 19-40% of the largest and most valuable stocks, including species that play important roles in their respective ecosystem. They dominate all segments of seafood production, operate through an extensive global network of subsidiaries and are profoundly involved in fisheries and aquaculture decision-making. Based on our findings, we define these companies as keystone actors of the Anthropocene. The phenomenon of keystone actors represents an increasingly important feature of the human-dominated world. Sustainable leadership by keystone actors could result in cascading effects throughout the entire seafood industry and enable a critical transition towards improved management of marine living resources and ecosystems.     

‘A Culture of Immediatism’: Co-optation and Complicity in Post-war Angola

This article explores the notion of a ‘culture of immediatism’ that characterises the current political and socio-economic environment of Angola, according to residents of its capital, Luanda. Analysing the material and symbolic affects of the post-war economic boom in the lives of ‘ordinary’ citizens, the article proposes to read the discourses and practices deployed on the ideological terrain of ‘immediatism’ as renegotiations of hegemony. By ethnographically unpacking the ‘aesthetics of power', I sketch out the contours of hegemony to see how power relations change in practice over time. This then sheds new light on the social processes involved in rapid economic change and contemporary, ‘neo-authoritarian’ statecraft, balancing the standard ‘clientelist’ account of power in post-war Angola.     

Multicultural society and everyday cultural racism: second generation of Ethiopian Jews in Israel's ‘crisis of modernization’

Abstract

The core of this article sets out to examine the extent to which a multicultural society can prevent cultural racism, which, like multiculturalism, is by definition based on a culture of diversity and separation. The ‘first modernity’ was organized along national lines, with a centralist state that opted to create an essentialist and uncontested national identity. Immigrants, especially those who came from ‘third world’ countries, were expected to undergo a process of assimilation, and to integrate into the dominant culture by relinquishing their particular past and tradition. Multiculturalism, which emerged historically as a criticism of that perspective, aims at creating a kaleidoscope of associations and cultural communities, which inevitably presents a challenge to the one ‘truth’ of the nation-state with the argument that this ‘truth’ favours some groups over others. Within the multicultural model, identity politics of various groups is perceived as a means to achieve recognition, acceptance, respect and even public affirmation of differences. However, do multicultural society and identity-related differences provide a solution to cultural racism as well?

Investigating the second generation of the Ethiopian Jews, who migrated to Israel during its transformation from ethno-national republicanism to a neo-liberal, multicultural society, can help answer this question. By presenting their patterns of association, character of protest activities and the newly formed hybrid identity that Ethiopian youth have developed as a means to liberate themselves from a discriminating reality, and by examining the Others’ reaction to that challenge, this article uncovers certain mechanisms and methods of action through which a multicultural society, having a thin and mild version of multiculturalism, does not diminish cultural racism, particularly its everyday non-institutional version, but in fact augments it.     

‘Reproachable Victims’? Representations and Self-representations of Russian Women Involved in Transnational Prostitution

The article investigates how the concept of victimhood is constructed within debates on transnational prostitution and trafficking, and how representations of victimhood intersect with representations of the person/self, class, ethnicity, gender and nationality. Using research findings based on observation and interviews with women from post-Soviet societies involved in prostitution in Norway, we discuss how the women embrace, resist or rework dominant representations of migrant prostitution and attendant notions of victimhood, as well as how they relate to multiple notions of the person/self, femininity and nation through their handling of the stigma of prostitution     

‘They think of a family only in their thirties’: gendered subfertility and emergent intimate modernities in India

Recent anthropological scholarship on marriage in South Asia has chronicled a shift towards companionate marriage, with ideals of companionate conjugality becoming central to middle-class self-representations. However, the role of child-bearing and fertility within these marriages, as emerging life projects related to new family ideals, has not received much attention, even as literature on India has recorded extensive family concern with fertility. In this article, I focus on the endocrine disorder polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) – one of the leading causes of female infertility world-wide – to examine emerging conceptions of fertility and intimate modernities among the urban middle class in India. I argue that a comparatively limited concern with fertility forms a part of this class's self-representations and practices of distinction. Such attitudes to fertility, enabled by new orientations towards medical risk and ideals of companionate marriage, also function as markers of the emerging ‘modern’ subjectivity of this class.     

What the ‘greater good’ excludes: Patients left behind by pre-operative COVID-19 screening in an Ethiopian town

During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, bioethical analyses often emphasized population health and societal benefit. Hospital policies frequently focused on reducing risk of transmitting SARS-CoV-2 by restricting visitors; requiring protective equipment; and screening staff, patients and visitors. While restrictions can be burdensome, they are often justified as essential measures to protect the whole population against a virus with high rates of transmission, morbidity and mortality. Yet communities are not monolithic, and the impacts of these restrictions affect different groups differently. An ophthalmological unit outreach program in Ethiopia serves to illustrate. Pre-operative screening policies were designed to protect as many patients as possible but had adverse impacts on underserved communities. As this case study demonstrates, creating hospital policies that truly serve the good of the society may require a more holistic review of impacts on inequitably positioned communities.     

‘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.     

Visible minorities and ‘White’–‘non-White’ conjugal unions in Canadian large cities

The study investigates assortative mating patterns with respect to race (visible minority status) in Canada. Using the 2001 Census data, the article analyses the occurrence of White/non-White unions in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver. Log-linear models indicate that the relative levels of interracial relationships vary across racial groups, immigration status, and place of residence. First, the highest odds of cohabiting or marrying a White person are found among Blacks. Whereas the high level of racial exogamy of Blacks is observed in all metropolitan areas under study, the relative position of other groups varies. Second, the highest levels of racial exogamy are found among couples composed of an immigrant and a non-immigrant but this effect varies across racial groups. Third, our hypothesis that residents of Montreal (Quebec) will inter-partner less was confirmed only for unions between two native-born Canadians. Finally, we found that French Canadians are not more inclusive of their linguistic counterparts than Anglophones.     

‘Our fellow Africans make our lives hell’: the lives of Congolese and Nigerians living in Johannesburg

Xenophobia in post-apartheid South Africa has become a major issue. Much of the hostility is directed at Africans from countries north of Southern Africa who are often easily distinguishable due to their physical features, distinctive dress and inability to speak the indigenous languages. This article focuses on immigrants and asylum seekers from two countries, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Both groupings have experienced significant antagonism and prejudice from the local population, more especially from black South Africans. The article describes and analyses the interaction of the two groupings in question with the local populace and authorities. What is argued is that during the apartheid era the restrictions on black immigration meant that the number of black foreigners was limited. Since 1990, however, there has been a substantial increase in illegal and legal migration from Southern African countries and countries further north. This increase, in a context of growing unemployment and crime, limited infrastructural growth and fiscal resources, has intensified xenophobia against foreign Africans. The article is mainly based on in-depth interviews with Nigerian and Congolese informants living in Johannesburg's inner city.     

The ‘Psychic Surgeon’ and the schizophrenic patient: Crisis in a ‘Medicodrama’

This paper is concerned with a Filipino psychic surgeon confronted by a particularly challenging case of a kind perhaps unprecedented in his practice. The paper describes and analyzes how the practitioner modified his usual clinical performance and adapted his actions to demands of an extremely difficult situation. The case is viewed in wider perspective relative to the significance of performative acts of healing in a pluralistic medical setting.     

‘Culture shock’: Black students account for their distinctiveness at an elite college

Previous research on black students attending predominantly white colleges has emphasized race-based differences with white students while downplaying differences in social class. This research indicates that class-based differences are an important component of many black students’ discomfort at ‘Northern College’, a school that has traditionally served wealthy white students. Drawing on interviews and participant observation done on campus, I apply cultural capital theory to explain how differences in class-specific cultural styles make campus life difficult for non-affluent blacks and discuss the implications of the findings for future research on black college experiences.     

‘Genomemark’: Detecting Word Periodicity in Biological Sequences

Abstract

Identifying and predicting the structural characteristics of novel repeats throughout the genome can lend insight into biological function. Specific repeats are believed to have biological significance as a function of their distribution patterns. We have developed ‘GenomeMark,’ a computer program that detects and statistically analyzes candidate repeats. Specifically, ‘GenomeMark’ identifies the periodic distribution of unique words, calculating their χ² and Z-score values. Using ‘GenomeMark,’ we identified novel sequence words present in tandem throughout genomes. We found that these sequences have remarkable spacer sequence distributions and many were genome specific, validating the genome signature theory. Further analysis confirmed that many of these sequences have a specific biological function. The program is available from the authors upon request and is freely available for non-commercial and academic entities.     

‘Thunder’: Shock waves in pre-biological organic synthesis

A theoretical study of the gas dynamics and chemistry of lightning-produced shock waves in a postulated primordial reducing atmosphere was conducted. It was shown that the conditions are similar to those encountered in a previously performed shock-tube experiment which resulted in 36% of the ammonia in the original mixture being converted into amino acids. The calculations gave the (very large) energy rate of about 0.4 cal/cm²/yr available for amino produproduction, supporting previous hypotheses that thunder could have been responsible for efficient large scale production of organic molecules serving as precursors of life.     

‘Mental’ in ‘southie’: Individual,family, and community responses to psychosis in South Boston

The deinstitutionalization of psychiatric patients is a deeply cultural as well as political task. It entails the sharing of responsibility for human distress with family and community. Consequently, the locus of social control has also shifted from psychiatric and medical expertise to community and legal institutions. Diagnosis and treatment models must be more compatible with lay explanatory models. This paper explores the various meanings of going mental and being mental in the white, working class, ethnic neighborhood of South Boston. The data are extracted from a study of the impact of deinstitutionalization on a cohort of middle-aged, psychiatric patients discharged from Boston State Hospital in the attempt to return them to community living. Individual, family, and community responses to, and interpretations of, the symptoms of mental distress are discussed. The study indicates that even seriously disturbed individuals are sensitive to cultural meanings and social cues regarding the perception, expression, and content of psychiatric episodes. While madness invariably disenfranchises, it does not necessarily deculturate the individual.