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Contributing to recent work in the critical sociology of childhood, this article presents an ethnographic and discursive analysis of the multitude of cultural meanings associated with child-centeredness in US American early childhood education. Specifically, the article focuses on Waldorf education, a private educational alternative focused on "protecting childhood" from the perceived dangers of modern society. Although marketed as an alternative to the standardized and testing-laden environment of public education, the Waldorf philosophy has much in common with dominant US American ways of constructing childhood that reifies a Western, White, middle-class protected childhood as the most legitimate and healthy context of development. However, being "child-centered" does not necessarily mean the liberation of the child from regulatory discourses and practices; in fact, child-centeredness can often function to shape children in specific, adult-sanctioned ways. Instead, I argue, the field could benefit from a move toward discourses and practices of child liberation.

AbstractThe U.S. campaign in Afghanistan has been based, in part, on a pair of contradictory notions: First, that the Taliban are a supra‐ethnic, transnational group severed from the social and cultural heritage of Afghanistan; and second, that the Taliban represent a form of Pashtun nationalism. This article uses archival data and field research to show that both views are incorrect. The Taliban are historically rooted in Pashtun communities and yet are not a force of Pashtun nationalism. Rather, they comprise a network of exclusion, bound together in rhetoric by a particular conception of political Islam and Afghan sovereignty. This is an 'Islamist nationalism' in word, but crucially, not in deed: While the Taliban aspire to act as a nationalist force representing all Afghans, under conditions of institutional poverty and the lack of modernization, the Taliban are bound in practice by networks of trust and personal contact. This is an example of the 'combined and uneven development' of Afghan nationalism.

The article presents Buddhist mindfulness as a method for conflict transformation. On the basis of the concept of paticca-samuppāda (dependent origination) and anatta (nonself) the article (de)constructs the phases of identity formation. In Buddhist understanding, conflict is the result of defensiveness and misconceptions, and thus it is central to understand the mechanism by which the idea of "I" or "self" is established. The purpose of mindfulness is (among other things) to achieve a radical change in perception, which leads to "de-automatization" of mental mechanisms and suspends the identification with sensory and mental experiences that an individual calls a separate "I". Since the Buddhist approach to conflict is based on a theory of cognition, this article emphasizes the individual effort needed for conflict transformation. Only later could or should this knowledge be applicable to a wider social environment, taking into account the diversity of socio-cultural conditions.

Immigrants are a part of America's founding and history. Until this study, it was unclear how immigrants have been historically portrayed in youth American trade books. Utilizing a discourse analysis approach, this study offered a critical and comparative examination of the portrayal of first-generation immigrants, the authors' perspectives, and the historical evolution of American trade books written during two peak United States immigration eras (1880-1930s and 1980-2010s). After examining 98 books written over 100 years, findings indicated in both peak immigration eras, immigrants faced similar problems; first-generation immigrants were insensitively criticized and viewed as subpar individuals by Americans. As a whole, books were mostly tales of assimilation and mistreatment in the United States. Since youths' ideas of people and cultural groups are formed by what they learn from not only social interaction but also the media, it is important for books to provide meaningful representations of immigrants.

Megan's Year: An Irish Traveler's Story provides the reader with an in-depth look inside the life of a young girl growing up in Ireland. The author provides a realistic and a touching peek into lives of travelers through Megan's eyes, showing both the joys as well as the personal and familial challenges of a mobile lifestyle. Through the insights of Megan intermediate students will be able to develop an understanding and appreciation of cultural diversity. Students will be able to make connections to others in their global community by getting to know Megan and seeing the different ways in which she views the world. In this short unit, students will participate in the use of readers' theater, Venn diagrams, the Directed Reading-Thinking Activity (DR-TA) and the Know-Want to Know-Learned- Questions (KWLQ) strategy. As a culminating activity, the students will prepare a story comparing their lives to the life Megan experiences as an Irish Traveller.

AbstractEthnic migration from the former Soviet Union to Israel is widely considered to be a 'laboratory of ethnicity'. Most of the research into this subject focuses on the cultural and linguistic factors of identity restructuring, whereas critical engagement with social status, class, and urban environment is a much newer development. Social, economic, and urban explanations of the remaining relevance of 'old' (ex‐USSR) identifications are particularly needed in the face of increasing alienation among various disadvantaged groups in Israel and the mobilization of large numbers of Russian‐speakers around nationalist political parties. On the basis of interviews, participant observations, and media analysis, this article argues that simultaneously deterritorialized and reterritorialized ideas of home and belonging shape this group's social and political mobilization patterns in contested city spaces. Further, I suggest that nationalist mobilization is a strategy to reach beyond ethno‐politics and make majority rather than minority claims.

AbstractAlthough the majority of Latin American immigrants to the United States are Roman Catholics, increasing numbers of Latinos are converting to Protestantism. To understand the incentives for, and any possible integration effects of, immigrants' religious conversion, it is crucial to examine not only the religious but also the social boundaries of new immigrant congregations. This article examines the class‐based but ethnically labeled boundary construction of a Latino Lutheran towards a Latino Roman Catholic congregation in Madison, Wisconsin. The de facto ethnicised class differentiation via denominational choice shows that first: for ethnic discrimination to occur, no exclusive and imperative categories are needed, second: socioeconomic identification can superimpose religious and ethno‐cultural feelings of belonging, and third: the formation of a more liberal and higher educated 'Latino' Lutheran community facilitates the civic integration of its worshippers into the broader community based on the political mobilisation of panethnic identification.

AbstractUkrainian museums in the United States diaspora have attempted to construct a culturally authentic history outside Ukraine itself where, for the better part of the twentieth century, Ukrainian artistic endeavors were defined within a russified Soviet framework. Established largely by third wave post‐World War II Ukrainian immigrants interested in seeing an independent Ukraine, these museums have been a symbolic testament to democratic self‐definition. A separate Ukraine pavilion at the Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago of 1933 set an earlier precedent in its representation of Ukraine as an autonomous nation. This affirmed later permanent museums which collected indigenous Ukrainian folk art and artifacts as well as modern art – created by native Ukrainians and those of the diaspora – in opposition to the official Soviet Socialist Realist canon. Ukrainian independence in 1991 and increased national awareness after 2004 elections realigned these museums' mission from a cultural refuge to active participants in the new nation‐building process.

From the bombing of Serb residential neighbourhoods to the destruction of Afghan refugee convoys, a series of dramatic events in recent military campaigns have come to be labelled `accidents'. From the vantage point of a wider cultural and political history of technology, this article suggests that civilian deaths are being constructed as permissible, not impermissible, when normalised as `accidents'. For while the number of `accidents' involving civilian death may increasingly be known and the potential of high-tech warfare to produce disaster may also be recognised, small massacres of civilian populations are nonetheless - and perhaps necessarily- becoming normalised as part of the post-9.11 order of entrepreneurial (pre-emptive) war. Some of the most important military dimensions of recent campaigns - `accidents' in which civilians or Western military personnel were killed or injured - need to be understood as both technological acts and spaces of political subjectivity partly productive of liberal-state `humanitarian' war as currently conceived. ————————————————————————

Immigrants, who comprise a growing group in many European countries, are usually under‐represented in the political process. Sweden's immigrant policy, with its far‐reaching social and political rights, liberal citizenship laws and respect for cultural differences, is often regarded as an exemplary model of how to integrate immigrants in society. The 1975 electoral reform in Sweden gave immigrants the opportunity to become active in the democratic process by allowing foreign citizens to vote in local political elections. This article examines the political and organizational participation of immigrants. The findings indicate widespread and significant exclusion and under‐representation of immigrants in political and organizational life. We argue that immigrant political participation is best understood in terms of a tension between individual characteristics and institutional and organizational factors. In particular, the long‐term exclusion of large numbers of immigrants from labor related organizations is shown to be an important obstacle to their further social and political participation.

Bad on data from Denmark, the paper examines the development of gender differences in political tolerance during the 1970s and 1980s. There was a large gender gap in tolerance at the beginning of the 1970s. which had totally disappeared by the end of the 1980s. The analysis shows that at the beginning of the 1970s. the gender gap is partly explained by differences in political involvement. Interpreted as a result of the different political socialization of men and women. However. part of the difference is unchanged by any control. and this "unexplained" difference is interpreted as the result of a specific female culture. Against this background, it is surprising that the gender difference in political tolerance has vanished only twenty years later. The paper argues that, during these twenty years. a cultural shift has taken place in Denmark. merging the female and male cultures. and eliminating the hitherto 'unexplained' gender difference.

Transnational Economic Regions: Capturing an Illusive Phenomenon; Resurrecting the Rhine as an Economic Region; Energy Transition in the Rhine Region; Part I Regional Transformation: Energy Transition in the Rhine Region; 1 The Post-War Reconstruction and the Rise of Oil ; 1.1 Introduction; 1.2 The Question of Energy in Post-War Western Europe; 1.3 The Impact of the Allied Occupation on the Ruhr Coal Industry; 1.4 The Allied Refining Program: Restarting the Hydrogenation Plants.

En la región del Gran La Plata, existen más de veinte emprendimientos de trabajo formados por ex trabajadores de Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales (YPF) que se encuentran prestando diferentes tipos de servicios al Complejo Industrial La Plata. Surgieron a partir de 1991 producto de la reestructuración de la Refinería y sus vínculos se han ido modificando en diferentes contextos, los cuales pueden ser entendidos desde una mirada relacional como el resultado de las características del régimen de acumulación neoliberal y del régimen de acumulación neodesarrollista en Argentina.La investigación se estructura en tres partes: en una primera instancia se plantea el enfoque teórico del trabajo, en una segunda se caracterizan los regímenes de acumulación mencionados y en una tercera los estudios de caso. ; In the Greater La Plata region, there are more than twenty work ventures formed by former workers of Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales (YPF) who are providing different types of services to La Plata Industrial Complex. They emerged since 1991 because of the restructuring of the Refinery and their links have been modified in different contexts, which can be understood from a relational perspective as the result of the characteristics of the neoliberal accumulation regime and the neodevelopmentalist accumulation regime in Argentina. The methodology adopted is the intrinsic case study: it is the case in itself that interests, the one that once defined ". concentrates all the investigative attention oriented to an intense analysis of its meanings with the intention of understanding it in its specificity more than looking for generalizations "(Marradi, Archenti & Piovani, 2007: 238). The research is structured in three parts: in the first instance, the theoretical approach of the work is proposed, in a second, the aforementioned accumulation regimes are characterized and in a third, the case studies. ; Fil: Mamonde, Nahuel. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Saavedra 15. Centro de Estudios Urbanos y Regionales; Argentina

This article offers an explanation for the use of gender essentialisms in transnational efforts to advocate for the protection of war-affected civilians. I question why human rights advocates would rely upon such essentialisms, since they arguably undermine the moral logic of the civilian immunity norm on which their normative claims are based. This can be understood, I argue, as part of a strategic framing process in which pre-existing cultural ideas, filtered through an environment characterized by various political constraints, impact the rhetorical strategies available to advocates. In-depth interviews with civilian protection advocates reveal that many believe that warring parties, the global media, transnational constituencies & partners in the international women's network will all be more receptive to their message if it is couched in terms of protecting "women & children" specifically. Network actors believe that while this may undermine the protection of adult male civilians & while it may reproduce harmful gender stereotypes, these problems are outweighed by the gains in access to needy populations & the benefits of getting "civilians" on the international agenda. I conclude by considering the extent to which this cost/benefit analysis is being contested & reconsidered by some actors within the civilian protection network. 3 Tables, 163 References. Adapted from the source document.