Politics and Social Change Commons^™

It Ain’T Necessarily So: The Misuse Of “Human Nature” In Law And Social Policy And Bankruptcy Of The “Nature-Nurture” Debate, 21 Tex. J. Women & L. 187 (2012))., Justin Schwartz

Justin Schwartz

Debate about legal and policy reform has been haunted by a pernicious confusion about human nature: and the idea that it is a set of rigid dispositions, today generally conceived as genetic, that is manifested the same way in all circumstances. Opponents of egalitarian alternatives argue that we cannot depart far from the status quo because human nature stands in the way. Advocates of such reforms too often deny the existence of human nature because, sharing this conception, they think it would prevent changes they deem desirable. Both views rest on deep errors about what kind of thing a “nature” …

Of Coyotes, Cooperation, And Capital: Social Capital And Women’S Migration At The Margins Of The State, Anna O. Oleary

Anna Ochoa OLeary

Examined here are some of the tenets of social capital in the context of the migrants’ crossing the U.S.-Mexico border without official authorization. Using this context helps identify how social capital development is weakened by the structural and gendered dimensions of migration, contributing to the rise in undocumented border crosser deaths since 1993.

Mixed Immigration Status Households In The Context Of Arizona’S Anti-Immigrant Policies, Anna O. Oleary, Azucena Sanchez

Anna Ochoa OLeary

Although the seeds of legislated restrictions for immigrants can be traced to 1986 with California’s unsuccessful Prop 187, more recent trends epitomized by Arizona’s proposed Senate Bill 1070, signed by that state’s governor in April, 2010, have renewed concerns about the effects that such measures will have on the life and livelihood of communities that include immigrants present in the country without official authorization (“undocumented immigrants”). In this paper we use some of the results of a binational study of reproductive health care strategies to show how emerging anti-immigrant policies neglect how such policies impact mixed immigration status households, a …

Factores Que Determinan La Participación De Las Mujeres Inmigrantes En Actividades Por Cuenta Propia. Una Revisión Bibliográfica, Erika C. Montoya, Blas Valenzuela, Anna O. Oleary

Anna Ochoa OLeary

En este trabajo analizamos perspectivas teóricas que no ayudan a entender la participación de las mujeres inmigrantes en la creación de autoempleo, con el fin de lograr dos objetivos: primero, determinar los factores que llevan a las mujeres inmigrantes indocumentadas a convertirse en trabajadoras por cuenta propia, y Segundo, puntualizar las condiciones específicas de género que coadyuvan a enfocarse en estas actividades.

Tipicne Nadleznosti Regiona: Evropska Iskustva, Ivana Radic Milosavljevic

Ivana Radic Milosavljevic

No abstract provided.

Mahatma Gandhi, Lester R. Kurtz

Lester R. Kurtz

Mahatma Gandhi, is widely cited by contemporary activists as a source of inspiration and strategies. Gandhi was arguably unparalleled at mobilizing resources, taking advantage of – and creating – political opportunities, and effectively framing such messages as justice, equality, and independence or freedom (Swaraj, self-reliance). His legacy has almost become a cliché among movement organizers worldwide.

¿Adónde Chingados Va México?, Salvador Marti I Puig

Salvador Marti i Puig

No abstract provided.

Indian Courts And Social Change: A Case Study Of The ‘Doctrine Of Informed Consent’ In Medical Law And Ethics, Dharmendra Chatur

Dharmendra Chatur

The doctrine of informed consent in medical law and ethics has a strong grounding in the principle of bodily autonomy and self-determination of human beings. This emphasis on the freedom of every individual to decide what is best for his/her body and health has led to several controversies in the area of medical law and ethics in India and abroad, especially in the United Kingdom. Being a legal and ethical doctrine, ‘informed consent’ has been discarded, accepted, modified and emulated by various judgments of courts. This paper will examine the ingenuity of courts in bringing about social change by upholding …

Towards An Impure, Dynamic Concept Of Identity?, Rafael Rodríguez Prieto

Rafael Rodríguez Prieto

We live in homogenizing times, in an increasingly globalized world; at the same time, we are witnessing an era of ferocious particularities and rabid individualism. Both trends—rooted in essentialisms of identity—deny entire populations the opportunity to emancipate themselves and participate in self-government. Universalizing (or imposing a specific hierarchy of values and ideas on others) is as dangerous as refusing to recognize the role other values and ideas play in shaping one’s own value set. This paper will take a closer look at the notion of identity through the looking glass of globalization.

Visual Interventions And The “Crises In Representation” In Environmental Anthropology: Researching Environmental Justice In A Hungarian Romani Neighborhood, Krista Harper

Krista M. Harper

Participatory visual research, or "visual interventions" (Pink 2007) allow environmental anthropologists to respond to three different “crises of representation”: 1) the critique of ethnographic representation presented by postmodern, postcolonial, and feminist anthropologists, 2) the constructivist critique of nature and the environment, and 3) the “environmental justice” critique demanding representation for the environmental concerns of communities of color. Participatory visual research integrates community members in the process of staking out a research agenda, conducting fieldwork and interpreting data, and communicating and applying research findings. Our project used the Photovoice methodology to generate knowledge and documentation related to environment injustices faced by …

Russian Spirituality And The Theology Of Negation, Mikhail Epstein

Russian Culture

Toward the end of the twentieth century Russian culture found itself at a crossroads which cannot be ascribed to any political election but which rather presupposed a radical change in its religious and social orientation. Two somewhat opposing theses will be developed in this article. First I will discuss the processes of secularization in Russian culture and the necessity of a third, neutral zone between the "sacred" and the "profane." Next, the dangers of social neutralization in culture and the necessity of retaining elements of the dual model along with the introduction of intermediate elements will be presented. We will …

They Call Me Crazy: Factors To Conspiratorial Participation, Rachel Sparkman

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

This study investigates the public perceptions of conspiracy theories and the level and types of participation of those who believe such theories. It addresses the research questions of: (1) Under what conditions would a person speak openly about conspiracy, and under what conditions would they remain silent? (2) What are the social factors that draw a person into joining with others who believe a particular conspiracy has occurred? And (3) is there any relationship between a person's education and profession that would increase or hinder a conspiracist's visible participation of his or her beliefs? A total of thirty interviews were …

University College Connection Winter 2012, Dennis K. George, Dean, Wendi Kelley

UC Publications

No abstract provided.

[Introduction To] Leadership And Global Justice, Douglas A. Hicks, Thad Williamson

Bookshelf

What does global justice look like, and how can leadership help get us there? The contributors to Leadership and Global Justice confront the conceptual and practical challenges associated with pursuing justice beyond national boundaries. Essays analyze the roles and responsibilities of institutions - states, corporations, international financial institutions, UN bodies, nongovernmental organizations - in making collaborative progress towards international justice. They explore justice in various spheres: citizenship, the marketplace, health, education, and the environment. And they provide creative and constructive moral approaches for evaluating and promoting global justice, including human rights, capabilities, and solidarity of people across boundaries.

Making Boundaries And Linking Globally: “Material Politics” Of Phytosanitary Regulation On Mexican Mangos, Kiyohiko Sakamoto

Theses and Dissertations--Sociology

This dissertation illuminates how phytosanitary (PS) regulations enable mango exportation from Mexico to the United States. PS regulations are technical and legal measures to prevent plant pests from proliferating or being transported to other places and are important regulatory mechanisms enabling the globalization of agriculture. My case study investigates how PS regulations enable Mexican mango exportation as an aspect of the globalization of agriculture, illustrating the consequences of PS regulations to humans and non-humans. More specifically, three research questions are posed: (1) How does the PS regulation network operate to draw distinctions between pest/non-pest, thereby enabling the export of Mexican …

Voter Ideology, Tax Exporting, And State And Local Tax Structure, John M. Foster

Theses and Dissertations--Public Policy and Administration

State and local governments play an important role in financing and delivering public services in the United States. In 2008, state and local governments collected 57 percent of total federal, state, and local revenue (Urban Institute and Brookings Institution, Tax Policy Center, 2009). The decentralization of fiscal responsibility has enabled a high degree of variation in state and local tax structures to emerge. This dissertation presents two empirical studies that extend the positive literature on state and local tax policy.

The extant literature contains evidence of a direct relationship between voter ideology and state and local tax progressivity. However, the …

Torch (January/February 2012), Brandon Baldwin, Civil Rights Team Project

Torch: The Civil Rights Team Project Newsletter

No abstract provided.

International Civil Litigation In U.S. Courts: Becoming A Paper Tiger?, Stephen B. Burbank

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Razing Lafitte: Defending Public Housing From A Hostile State, Leigh Graham

Publications and Research

The contentious politics of the demolition of Lafitte public housing in post- Katrina New Orleans and its replacement with mixed-income properties is a telling case of the strategic conflicts housing advocates face in public housing revitalization. It reveals how the qualified outcomes of HOPE VI interact with local institutional and historical circumstances to confound the equity and social justice goals of housing and community development advocates. It shows the limits to public housing revitalization as an urban recovery strategy when hostile government leadership characterizes a region, and the state is recast as an adversary rather than revitalization partner. This case …

The Future Of Singapore's Civil Society, Gillian Koh, Debbie Soon

Social Space

Civil society activists are now in open disagreement with citizens and sometimes, other civil society groups. Gillian Koh and Debbie Soon explore how that horizontal relationship might develop.