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AbstractSince the 1980s, the demographic literature has suggested that maternal schooling plays a key role in determining children's chances of survival in low- and middle-income countries; however, few studies have successfully identified a causal relationship between maternal education and under-5 mortality. To identify such a causal effect, we exploited exogenous variation in maternal education induced by schooling reforms introducing universal primary education in the second half of the 1990s in Malawi and Uganda. Using a two-stage residual inclusion approach and combining individual-level data from Demographic and Health Surveys with district-level data on the intensity of the reform, we tested whether increased maternal schooling reduced children's probability of dying before age 5. In Malawi, for each additional year of maternal education, children have a 10 % lower probability of dying; in Uganda, the odds of dying for children of women with one additional year of education are 16.6 % lower. We also explored which pathways might explain this effect of maternal education. The estimates suggest that financial barriers to medical care, attitudes toward modern health services, and rejection of domestic violence may play a role. Moreover, being more educated seems to confer enhanced proximity to a health facility and knowledge about the transmission of AIDS in Malawi, and wealth and improved personal illness control in Uganda.

This article is part of the special cluster titled Conceptualizations of the Holocaust in Germany, Lithuania, Poland, and Ukraine since the 1990s, guest edited by Grzegorz Rossoliński-Liebe. The Shoah belongs to one of the most thoroughly investigated aspects of modern European history. Scholars have used the Holocaust methodology to study other genocides, or forms of ethnic or political violence. Nevertheless, our understanding of the extermination of the European Jewry is limited, fragmented, and changes constantly due to new investigation methods, research interests, and public debates. The first studies on the Holocaust were conducted already during the Shoah but because of different reasons historians in some countries such as Germany and Ukraine did not pay much attention to them and concentrated rather on the documents left by the perpetrators and their fate during the war. While in Poland the research on the Holocaust never stopped, even if it was subjected to various political and ideological limitations, and the Shoah has been publicly debated since the middle of the 1980s, this was not the case in Lithuania, Belarus, and Ukraine. Nevertheless, in the last two decades, the importance of the Holocaust was discovered in these countries as well and it is currently conceptualized in the framework of regional, national, and European history.

Recent developments in the eastern Mediterranean, such as significant gas finds; disagreements over the demarcation of maritime boundaries; large-scale violence and political instability following the Arab Spring; mass migration via sea routes; Great Power dynamics in the region; and environmental hazards, make the political entities along the shores of the eastern Mediterranean part of a regional security complex and create strong incentives for regional coordination on maritime security. Material international relations theories predict that growing security challenges (realism) coupled with expected gains (liberalism) will facilitate regional cooperation. Yet, the political entities in the region rely mainly on unilateral actions, or limited quasi-alliances in response to these challenges. The article shows the puzzling gap between the theoretical expectation and practical outcome in the region and explains why regional cooperation in the maritime domain fails to occur. It argues that cooperation on a regional scale fails to take place due to three complementing reasons: 1) lack of shared ideational features like cultural traits, set of values and regime type; 2) enduring rivalries between political entities in the region (Israel–Palestine; Turkey–Greece–Cyprus) coupled with internal strife within other regional political entities (Libya; Syria); and unequal political standing and lack of sovereignty of some of the political entities in the region (Northern Cyprus; the Palestinian Authority and the Gaza Strip).

AbstractSoft power and hard power are conceptualised in International Relations as empirically and normatively dichotomous, and practically opposite – one intangible, attractive, and legitimate, the other tangible, coercive, and less legitimate. This article critiques this binary conceptualisation, arguing that it is discursively constructed with and for the construction of Self and Other. It further demonstrates that practices commonly labelled and understood as soft power and hard power are closely interconnected. Best understood as 'representational force' and 'physical force' respectively, soft and hard power intertwine through the operation of productive and disciplinary forms of power. We illustrate this argument by analysing the Sino-Japanese dispute over the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands. Both governments exercise representational force in constructing their respective versions of events and Self/Other. The soft/hard power binary itself plays a performative role as the Self is typically associated with soft power and the Other with hard power. The operation of productive power, moreover, privileges the attractiveness of the former and the repellence of the latter, and disciplinary power physically enforces these distinctions on subjects in both states. Finally, reinforced Self/Other distinctions legitimise preparations for violence against the Other on both sides, thus exposing how fundamentally entangled soft and hard power are in practice.

In this paper, we respond to feminist new materialist scholars' calls to explore what research in the field of gendered and sexual violence can be, do, and become. This paper explores the microprocesses of change within the more-than-human child–card entanglements as part of our research–activist campaign addressing sexual harassment in pre-teen peer cultures. Drawing on one of our creative workshops, we generate three analytical readings that map touch. We focus, first, on the intra-action of bodies, objects, and abstractions that reconfigures painful experiences of harassment for recognition; second, on the affective charge in moments and movements of response and resistance; and third, on what else touch can become when it travels across time–space domains as part of our research–activism. Re-engaging with our research–activism, we propose that different kinds of touch converge into a sensing-feeling, inherently ethico-political, matter-realizing apparatus that reconfigures painful experiences of gendered and sexual harassment for recognition, response, and resistance. Connecting to feminist new materialist endeavors to envision and enact response-able research, we propose that 'moving with touch' helps us shed light on the microprocesses of change in generative ways—that is, in ways that recraft response-abilities and invite movement.

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore fieldwork dilemmas for a Pakhtun researcher, educated in the West, to research family or domestic violence in the unstable, hostile environment of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, Pakistan.


Design/methodology/approach
A gender studies approach is here combined with masculinities studies, and a critical qualitative research methodology is used in this study.


Findings
The paper argues that unstable regions dominated by certain forms of masculinity require specific research approaches when conducting research and addressing a topic that is culturally taboo.


Practical implications
The paper suggests how the insider–outsider dynamic plays out for researchers who come from a particular field and return to it under changed circumstances. It also indicates how a taboo topic in a context where direct questioning is not possible might be approached through the use of vignettes.


Social implications
The paper suggests how the contradictory position of a masculinity, simultaneously bearing traces of the hegemonic and of marginalization, may be negotiated in the field.


Originality/value
Social research on the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan is rarely conducted and reported due to the unrest in this region. The paper thus contributes original insights from fieldwork carried out there. It also contributes to the limited but growing literature on conducting fieldwork in hostile environments.

Argentina has a deeply rooted tradition of rejecting participation by the military in internal security and legislation that prohibits such involvement. The current construction of a threat from drug trafficking and terrorism and the proposal of intervention by the armed forces to contend with them is the result of a narrative justifying the implementation of various government policies. Exploration of the mechanism of discursive threat construction, or securitization, from the critical perspective of the Copenhagen School demonstrates how security discourse and practices allow actors and institutions to mobilize resources, control agendas, and use violence with greater discretion. Argentina tiene una arraigada tradición de rechazo a la participación de los militares en temas de seguridad interna y posee, además, una legislación que prohíbe tal involucramiento. La construcción actual de la amenaza del narcotráfico y el terrorismo y la propuesta de intervención de las fuerzas armadas para enfrentarlas son el resultado de un discurso que es funcional a la implementación de distintas políticas por parte del gobierno. Una examinación de la dinámica de la construcción discursiva de la amenaza, o la securitización, a partir de la perspectiva crítica de la Escuela Copenhague evidencia cómo el discurso y las prácticas de la seguridad permiten a actores e instituciones movilizar recursos, controlar agendas y utilizar la violencia con mayor discrecionalidad.

Female sex workers (FSWs) in India experience unmet health‐care needs due to numerous barriers to care. The objectives of this study were to (i) explore the health concerns among FSWs in Kamathipura, a red‐light district of Mumbai, India; and (ii) understand their experiences using health‐related services and resources. This qualitative study used in‐depth, semi‐structured individual interviews with 15 FSWs recruited using snowball sampling. Data analysis consisted of reading transcriptions line by line, identifying themes, and coding categories. A matrix of health concerns and identified resources were created to examine relationships. Participants identified numerous health concerns. Six thematic categories emerged, encompassing all health concern codes: communicable disease, nutrition, substance abuse, reproductive health, mental health, and physical violence. Participants reported varying levels of availability of health services; additionally, their basic health needs exceeded resource availability. FSWs have vital health concerns that go untreated. Current health care and social service funding and interventions are insufficient to meet the needs. Health‐care services must be expanded across all identified health categories and FSWs informed of their existence. Furthermore, prevention and intervention programs, with support from both nonprofits and government, must be prioritized to address the basic food and safety needs of FSWs.

Despite frequent moves, low–income black families are more likely than any other group to churn among disadvantaged neighborhoods, and the least likely to escape them. Traditional explanations for neighborhood inequality invoke racial preferences and barriers to living in high–income neighborhoods, but recent work suggests that it is also involuntary mobility—such as eviction—which predicts the neighborhood destinations of poor African American families in urban areas. However, we know little about how individuals actually make residential decisions under such unplanned and constrained conditions. Using longitudinal interviews with low–income African–American families residing in Mobile, AL, and Baltimore, MD, we describe the array of factors that lead poor black families to move, and describe how families secure housing in the wake of unplanned mobility. We observe that moving among the poor is more reactive than it is voluntary: Approximately 70 percent of most recent moves are catalyzed by landlords, housing quality failures, and violence. We show how this reactive mobility both accelerates and hampers residential selection in ways that may reproduce neighborhood context and inequality. Where mobility is characterized by a greater degree of agency, we show that the strategies families use to make decisions often prohibit them from investigating a wider range of residential options.

This article examines one element of the state's responses to crime: the provision of a taxpayer-funded compensation scheme for victims of personal and sexual violence. The Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme 2012 sits within a political context that seeks to ensure that victims of crime are better served by the criminal justice system of England and Wales, the jurisdiction that is the focus of this article. The government's fundamental policy is that this scheme exists to compensate only those victims who are 'blameless', either in terms of their character, criminal record, conduct at the time of the incident, or in their engagement with the criminal justice agencies. It is a policy that illuminates elements of two of the questions that the editors posed for this Special Issue of Societies. Reviewing the increased urgency in government policies concerning the treatment of victims of crime, the first section addresses the question of how, why and when victims came to shape political and criminal justice discourse and practice. The question of how, and to what end, cultural representations have shaped perceptions of victims is addressed in the second and third sections, which examine the notion of victim status and illustrate the ways in which eligible ('ideal') victims are perceived and their claims under this scheme are determined.

This paper explores the variety of associated responses in later life to early life sexual abuse reported by aging Roman Catholic nuns (heretofore referred to as women religious). Specific attention is given to current effects and the strengths and resources these participants identify when integrating their personal histories of sexual abuse. The influences of their personal spirituality and institutional religious life are explicitly explored as factors in addressing the negative effects upon them in later life, which research participants associated with their sexual abuse.
Research on sexual abuse and its effects is extensive, due to a growing awareness and concern about the prevalence of sexual abuse against children and sexual violence against women (Koss et al., 1994). However, investigating sexual abuse rates and its effects among aging populations and specifically Roman Catholic women religious is severely limited. In response to this limitation, Saint Louis University's School of Medicine conducted a study to advance knowledge about "the consequences of sexual trauma among Catholic nuns in the United States and to compare the child sexual abuse experiences of Sisters with these figures for lay women" (Chibnall, Wolf, Duckro, 1998, p. 4). Twelve participants were recruited from this original study who were sexually abused before the age of 18 and are 65+ years of age.

Abstract
The ongoing civil war in Syria has displaced many citizens who have fled the violence in order to seek sanctuary and asylum in Europe. As they seek refugee status, they are living in liminal spaces in transit countries, in the hope that they will be relocated on a permanent basis to a new country. In many instances, family members have gone before them and are already 'settled' in new countries. The remaining family make the perilous journey out of Syria, in the hope that they will be reunited with their family members and accorded refugee status. In this article, we share the stories of five Syrian children (aged from 11 to 15 years of age) temporarily housed in the LM refugee centre near the town of Lehaina (Myrsini Ileias, Peloponnese, Greece). We asked them about their concept of 'home' and, using a narrative methodology, we present their personal stories of their reconstructions of 'home' while they are located in this liminal space. How do they share stories of their original homes? What are their lives like in this and the other unfamiliar places that they have found themselves in? What do the young refugees make of their 'new homes'? What challenges do they face? These are just some of the issues that we explore here in these narratives of a search for a 'new' home.

The representation and framing of events by news sources plays a critical role in the way society comes to understand a given phenomenon. For example, the use of force by police officers against civilians is covered regularly by news media outlets. Far less widely examined, however, is the excessive use of force against companion animals or pets. Thus, to understand the ways in which police use of force against animals is framed in the media, we conducted qualitative content analyses of 189 print news articles published in diverse regions of the U.S. over the course of a six-year period (2011–2016). Drawing on symbolic interactionism, analysis reveals that the media's representation of incidents of police shootings of dogs speaks not only to the social value dogs have in society, but also to the acceptability of friendships between humans and dogs. Specifically, we argue that some dog–human relationships are more socially acceptable than others and, therefore, shootings against some dogs are perceived as less acceptable than others. Ultimately, we find that news media representation and the ways in which incidents are framed reify existent social hierarchies. This research contributes to growing bodies of literature on police violence, the shift in perspectives on animals in society, and the power of the media to affect public perception of incidents.

ObjectiveRelatively few empirical studies have analyzed the foreign policy options that leaders employ to counter terrorism, and the results have been mixed to date. This study takes a fresh look at two such policies: foreign aid and foreign military intervention.MethodUsing system generalized method of moments to control for endogeneity and a technique that identifies short‐ and long‐term effects, we examine the impact of both policy options within a sample of 122 countries from 1970 to 2005.ResultsThe results suggest that foreign aid may be associated with an increase in the number of terrorist incidents, fatalities, and casualties. They also indicate that foreign military intervention increases terrorist incidents in the short term and may eventually reduce them in the long term.ConclusionThese findings should give pause to those who consider foreign aid to be a possible antidote for both transnational and domestic terrorism. Unfortunately, policymakers searching for ways to reduce terrorist activity will find little solace if they turn to foreign military intervention since a surge in terror incidents in the short term after a military intervention establishes a significantly higher baseline of terror activity and violence. It may take decades for terror activity to return to its preintervention level. Policymakers searching for options to combat international terror should consequently approach both foreign aid and foreign military intervention with caution.

ABSTRACTBodies are useful instruments for understanding the reproduction of inequalities. In this article, we investigate why and how bodily, social, intimate, and physical boundaries are crossed and what this can tell us about individual and social bodies. We unpack how seeing and being seen, touching and being touched, or feeling and being felt are conditioned in very particular ways by the broader political economy. Participants in this ethnographic research in Mexico used the term manitas to describe how they trained their senses (hands, ears, eyes) during medical practice; how they learned through practice on the bodies of less‐agentive populations (female, raced, or impoverished); and how they crossed intimacy, structural, and physical boundaries through what we term somatic translation: seeing others' bodies with their own. Manitas was developed unconsciously by doctors, never explicitly taught or learned in practice, reproducing social difference. These forms of learning highlight a friction between the violence of knowing and the importance of touch as a legitimate mode of care. This form of tactile and sensorial learning entails not only a form of boundary crossing that is medically useful, but it is also a form of boundary crossing that surfaces social inequalities by taking advantage of them. [hospital ethnography, anthropology of reproduction, embodiment, social boundaries, Mexico]