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In this paper I deconstruct the foundations of regional integration and propose a social constructivist reconstruction of the ontological field of regionalism. More specifically, I first show that regions are notions not only of space but also of time and culture. Then, I reconstruct its related conceptual field (regionalism, regionalization, regional identity etc.), arguing that regional integration is an incomplete category of regionalism. Within this framework and as an alternative to regional integration, I build the concept of regional cohesiveness defined as the degree to which a group of actors inhabiting a contiguous space act and represent themselves as a group. This analytical model builds a multidimensional space for comprehensively mapping and exploring all forms of contemporary regionalism, from both institutional and normative/representational perspectives.

In current Western consumer societies, the poor are excluded and occupy stigmatized positions. By analyzing an interview with a poor man, I look at how stigma is discursively negotiated through the interplay between individual and social dimensions of narratives. First, the interviewee resists the interviewer's 'poor man'-category projection by setting up alternative groups. Second, he invokes and aligns with dominant discourses regarding the necessity to own consumer goods and find a work-life balance, by which he constructs the identity of an empowered "bricoleur" (cf Gabriel et al., 2010). These findings are then related to Goffman's theory of stigma and information control (1963) and to the inextricable link between the performed nature of narratives, their individual and social dimensions and their local and global contexts.

The aim of this article is to demonstrate how body-representations offer an opportunity for its visual interpretation from a biographical point of view, enhancing, on the one hand, the image's own narrative dynamics, and, on the other, the role of the body as a place of incorporation of experiences, as well as, a vehicle mediating the individual interaction with the world. Perspective founded in the works of the artists Helena Almeida and Jorge Molder, who use self-representation as an expression of these incorporated (lived) experiences, constitutes an important discursive construction and structuring of their narrative identity through visual creation, the artists enable the other with moments of sharing knowledge, creativity and subjectivity, contributing also to the construction of the contemporary, cultural and social imagery.

AbstractThe purpose of this article is to suggest some historical milestones for a retrospective reflection on the photographic archives of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). This collection is little used by researchers, although the 120,000 photographs which it contains have helped to forge the symbolism and identity of the institution and to document its operations in accordance with a memory preservation policy which gradually emerged in the course of the 20th century. The photographs shown in this article are divided into three main themes (the ICRC delegate, the context of action, suffering and the victims), in order to make it easier to discuss the key aspects of this tremendous visual heritage which looks at humanitarian action, its protagonists and its beneficiaries from an anthropological and ethnological point of view.

Abstract
The text proposes a structural narrative reading of José Antonio Primo de Rivera's falangist discourse and shows how its thinking is based on spatial and dynamic imagination and a particularly strong sacrificial nationalist motif. It further suggests that the symbolic dimension in its nationalism constitutes a driving emotional force to be found in all nationalisms. Falangism was a religious version of fascism, famous for becoming the official ideology of Francoist Spain; but it shared with all militant national political forms of thinking the emotionally compelling mystique: the feeling of a spiritual essence and force emanating from a beloved land and conveying existential identity and value to its subjects, thus justifying and calling for committed violent and sacrificial acts that override ordinary systems of lawful behavior.

AbstractUntil 2008, only White candidates represented either of the two major parties as presidential nominees. Hence, little is known about how race appeals are framed by or against non-White presidential candidates. Barack Obama's election as the Democratic Party nominee allows us to investigate this issue. In this article, we conduct a content analysis of over 160 advertisements from the 2008 U.S. presidential election to examine how race appeals were framed (or countered) by each campaign. We find that the Republican campaign employed implicit racial appeals that played upon stereotypes of non-Whites as "un-American" and "other" and Blacks as "dangerous," "criminal," "incompetent," and "uppity." In contrast, the Democratic campaign de-emphasized race, portrayed "other" as positive, reinforced American identity, and spoke out against negative advertisements.

In 2000 the leftist camp in Israel experienced a crisis of meaning and identity. This was the result of the failure of the 2000 Camp David Talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. The atmosphere that emerged amongst the Israeli left was one of despair and disillusion, a void of meaning. Recently, however, a new Zionist "national left" discourse emerged, which refutes the idea of peace and reconstructs the ideology of the Israeli left. This paper engages critically with this discourse by deploying a discourse analytical approach, as it draws on Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe's theory of hegemony as well as semantic analysis, specifically the use of "semantic fields" and "semantic networks". This paper looks at a variety of public texts, which are exemplary of the "national left" discourse in Israel.

Abstract
Why and how do marginalized consumers mobilize to seek greater inclusion in and more choice from mainstream markets? We develop answers to these questions drawing on institutional theory and a qualitative investigation of Fatshionistas, plus-sized consumers who want more options from mainstream fashion marketers. Three triggers for mobilization are posited: development of a collective identity, identification of inspiring institutional entrepreneurs, and access to mobilizing institutional logics from adjacent fields. Several change strategies that reinforce institutional logics while unsettling specific institutionalized practices are identified. Our discussion highlights diverse market change dynamics that are likely when consumers are more versus less legitimate in the eyes of mainstream marketers and in instances where the changes consumers seek are more versus less consistent with prevailing institutions and logics.

A shift in governing modes is increasingly leading to new conditions for professionals. In view of such change, there is a need for deeper awareness of how hegemonic power struggles and processes of identification are deeply interconnected. In order to illustrate how such processes shape the acting space of professionals, a critical reflection on changing conditions for English local authority planning 1998–2010 is presented. The analysis focuses on deconstruction of power as ability, authority and identity. The conclusion is that if society is to reconsider the value of local authority planners having influence, then it is time to introduce a new perception of the political into planning. Such a perception hinges on increased understanding within the profession itself of how power shapes acting space.

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Renewed interest in cosmopolitanism has spread across the humanities and social sciences in recent decades. However, this growth has also carried many of the values underpinning cosmopolitanism as a Kantian ideal, including a denigration of consumption and material relations in favour of a putatively social core. In this article, however, I argue that cosmopolitanism is lived through the relations and politics of materiality and consumerism. Through an investigation of ethnographies of urban poverty in Latin America, cosmopolitanism emerges as a diverse, locally instantiated ideology and identity which diverges from many of the debates circulating in sites of academia. With an emphasis on marginalised communities, I reconsider cosmopolitanism as a series of material identities and relationships that develop within the context of economic and social inequality in both local and global scales.

ABSTRACTThis paper investigates gendered patterns of corruption and access to illicit networks among female cross-border traders near the Senegambian border. Despite a discourse of generosity and solidarity, access to corrupt networks is mediated by class and gender, furthering social differentiation, especially insofar as it depends on geographic and socio-economic affinity with customs officers, state representatives and well-connected transporters. Issues of organisational culture, occupational identity and interpersonal negotiations of power represent important sources of corruption that require an understanding of the actual dynamics of public administration. While smuggling depends on contesting legal and social boundaries, the most successful traders (and transporters) strive to fulfil ideal gender roles as closely as possible. Ironically, trading on poverty and feminine vulnerability only works for relatively affluent women.

This article analyzes the Memorial Hall for Victims of the Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders, opened in its present form in 2007 to commemorate the massacre perpetrated by the Japanese in 1937, when in the course of six weeks a significant number of harmless civilians were brutally slaughtered. The memorial is a highly complex semiotic object: it includes a large museum but is also, and perhaps above all, a huge thematic park that occupies an extremely large surface area of seventy-four thousand square meters. Through a close reading of the site, this article seeks to show how the Nanjing Memorial, more than serving the function of conservation and transmission of a tragic, traumatic memory, is mostly a monument to Chinese nationhood, an important step in the construction of a new national identity.

This article seeks to intervene in what I perceive to be a problematic opposition in feminist theory between ontological and epistemological accounts of existence and politics, by proposing an approach that weaves together Elspeth Probyn's conceptualisation of 'feminist reflexivity' with a re-reading of feminist standpoint through affect. In so doing, I develop the concept of affective solidarity as necessary for sustainable feminist politics of transformation. This approach is proposed as a way of moving away from rooting feminist transformation in the politics of identity and towards modes of engagement that start from the affective dissonance experience can produce. Moving beyond empathy as a privileged way of connecting with others, I argue that the difference between 'womanhood' and 'feminism' is critical for a universal yet non-essential understanding of what motivates gendered change.

This study sought to examine the association between parental behavior indicative of overinvolvement and control and young adult child self-identity, namely self-efficacy and psychological entitlement. Participants in this study were 339 parent-young adult child dyads who completed survey measures of family environment, parenting, family communication, and family satisfaction. Young adults also completed measures of self-efficacy and entitlement. Results showed that balanced family adaptability and cohesion, open family communication, and authoritative rather than authoritarian parenting, were positively associated with parents' and young adults' family satisfaction. Parental behavior that emphasized control over the child was associated with diminished self-efficacy and exaggerated psychological entitlement in young adult children. The relationship between these two classes of variables was amplified by open parent-child communication.

Popular music and indeed popular art forms struggle for critical attention in the academy (Larkin, 1992). Relegated to a focus on performance, or to peripheral sub-disciplines such as cultural studies, the study of popular art forms is risky terrain in higher education (Wicke, 1990). Instead, and particularly within the humanities, it has been claimed that the study of canonised art forms (Viljoen & Van Der Merwe, 2004) may enable the student to analyse a range of texts with equal skill and superior insight. This paper deals with both the popular and the interdisciplinary in relation to a theorisation of the lyrics of popular South African contemporary music group Freshlyground and the possibilities for a post-Apartheid identity explored in these lyrics through the theoretical lenses of New Historicism and Cosmopolitanism.