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Activists
Kinds of Activists Selected AbstractsTHIRTY CANS OF BEEF STEW AND A THONG: ANTHROPOLOGIST AS ACADEMIC, ADMINISTRATOR, AND ACTIVIST IN THE U.S.,MEXICO BORDER REGIONANNALS OF ANTHROPOLOGICAL PRACTICE, Issue 1 2009Konane M. MartínezArticle first published online: 13 JUL 200 This article explores the role of the anthropologist working with immigrant communities in the U.S.,Mexico Border Region. As an anthropologist, I have had to negotiate my role as an academic, administrator, and activist. The article examines these three roles by analyzing the experience of the anthropologist with immigrant communities and agencies over the past nine years and during the southern California wildfires of 2007. While in many ways the three roles are categorically distinct, they are also connected and work to inform each other. The position of an applied anthropologist in the U.S.,Mexico border has allowed for development of practical and applied solutions to help improve the wellbeing of immigrant communities. This form of applied, practical, yet academically grounded work has the potential to elevate the anthropology of immigration beyond that of traditional researcher. [source] Sociopolitical Activist or Conversational Partner?FAMILY PROCESS, Issue 1 2003Collaborative Therapies, Distinguishing the Position of the Therapist in Narrative In this article, we explore the similarities and differences of two contemporary family therapy approaches: narrative and collaborative therapies. These therapies are contrasted by describing positioning of the narrative practitioner as sociopolitical activist and the collaborative practitioner as conversational partner. The article begins with a brief overview of the two therapies. Subsequently, we outline their epistemological genealogies and the practice similarities that arise from the theoretical assumptions underpinning these therapies. The remainder of the article addresses the theoretical and therapeutic differences in narrative and collaborative approaches reflected in the positioning of therapist as either sociopolitical activist or conversational partner. While narrative and collaborative approaches share more similarities than differences in relation to their emphasis on the constitutive characteristics of language, focus on socio,elational contexts, and critique of singular objective truths, prominence is given to the starker contrasts in narrative and collaborative understandings of politics, power, dialogue, and discourse. It is proposed that by outlining some provocative contrasts between narrative and collaborative approaches, new conversations and generative practices will emerge in the therapy room. [source] Combining Work as an Historian and Activist: A Personal Account1PEACE & CHANGE, Issue 2 2007Lawrence S. Wittner This essay examines how I have blended my roles as an activist and as a historian. Over the years, I have participated in the peace, racial justice, and labor movements, and this activism has significantly affected both my scholarship and teaching. It has also complicated my professional life in a number of ways,absorbing time and energy that might have been devoted to additional scholarship, limiting fellowship opportunities, and (at least initially) blocking my receipt of tenure. Overall, however, I have found the combination of activism and historical work very satisfying, for it has contributed to humane causes and provided me with an interesting and meaningful life. [source] Let Me Continue to Speak the Truth: Bertha Pappenheim as Author and Activist , By Elizabeth LoentzRELIGIOUS STUDIES REVIEW, Issue 2 2009Shaul Stampfer No abstract is available for this article. [source] Medical Student Learning in the Community: Creation of a Compassionate Physician, Social Activist, or Biological Reductionist?ANTHROPOLOGY OF WORK REVIEW, Issue 2 2001Assistant Professor Nancy P. Chin Ph.D. First page of article [source] FL Teachers Urged to Become Activists with Candidates Running for ElectionFOREIGN LANGUAGE ANNALS, Issue 5 2000Article first published online: 31 DEC 200 No abstract is available for this article. [source] Diversity, Identities and Strategies of Women Trade Union ActivistsGENDER, WORK & ORGANISATION, Issue 4 2000Fiona Colgan Diversity among women trade union activists is explored with reference to feminism and the women's movement, and the social and civil rights movements of black, disabled and lesbian and gay groups. Relationships between this diversity and women's individual and group identities and priorities are traced through some of the women's own descriptions and reflections on their trade union activism. These are drawn from our research with the public service union UNISON, in particular, two questionnaire surveys and semi-structured interviews. We draw on theories of social identity, the relations of out-group status and gender group consciousness to help to understand and explain the complexity of the social interactions involved. This frames our central analysis of the role of self-organization in the union in the construction of women's identities and consciousnesses, and the potential of self-organization as a site for collective action leading to organizational challenge, change and transformation. [source] Collective AIDS activism and individuals' perceived self-advocacy in physician-patient communicationHUMAN COMMUNICATION RESEARCH, Issue 3 2000E Brashers In a study of AIDS activism and communication patterns between people with HIV or AIDS and health care personnel, parallel persuasive processes are described between social or political activism and personal self-advocacy. The analysis of public and private discourse leads to 3 interrelated conclusions about AIDS activist behaviours at the collective and individual levels: (a) greater patient education about the illness and treatment options is encouraged, (b) a more assertive stance toward health care is promoted, and mindful nonadherence is considered. Activists perceived that their self-advocacy behaviors, in turn, impact the physician-patient interaction. In communicative interactions, education allows patients to challenge the expertise of the physician, assertiveness allows them to confront paternalistic or authoritarian interactional styles, and mindful nonadherence allows them to reject treatment recommendations and offer reasons for doing so. Participants reported that physicians had mixed reactions to their self-advocacy attempts. [source] Norms, Activists, and Legislative Pressure in Strategic Commitment TerminationINTERNATIONAL STUDIES REVIEW, Issue 3 2009Andrew Flibbert No abstract is available for this article. [source] I'll Take the High Road: Two Pathways to Altruistic Political Mobilization Against Regime Repression in ArgentinaPOLITICAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 3 2001Kristina E. Thalhammer What led Argentine human rights activists to risk challenging state repression in the late 1970s? Chi-square analyses of 78 interviews with early activists and nonactivists suggested few commonalities among activists but revealed two distinct and inverse routes to high-risk other-centered political activism. Activists directly affected by regime violence tended to be relatively inexperienced politically, to have little experience with fear, and to see groups as comprising individuals rather than as monolithic wholes. An inverse pattern characterized activists not directly affected by regime violence: Their activism was preceded by experience in politics and survival of previous fear-evoking episodes. [source] Antecedents of Shareholder Activism in Target Firms: Evidence from a Multi-Country StudyCORPORATE GOVERNANCE, Issue 4 2010William Q. Judge ABSTRACT Manuscript Type: Empirical Research Question/Issue: This study seeks to better understand the antecedents of shareholder activism targeted at firms located in three common law countries (i.e., USA, UK, and Australia) and three civil law countries (Japan, Germany, and South Korea) during the 2003,07 time period. Research Findings/Insights: Our findings suggest that the antecedents of shareholder activism vary by the motivation of the activist. We demonstrate that activists target firms with two motives (a) to improve the financial performance, and (b) to improve the social performance of the firm. With respect to the target firm level antecedents, we find that firm size is unrelated to financial activism, but positively related to social activism; ownership concentration is negatively related to both financial and social activism; and prior profitability is negatively related to financial activism, but positively related to social activism. Further, these relationships in the case of financial activism are generally stronger in common law legal systems, whereas those in the case of social activism are generally stronger in environments with a greater level of income inequality. Theoretical/Academic Implications: Our findings suggest that future research should differentiate between the motivations of the activism event. Further, we find that while agency logic works well for financial activism, institutional theory provides stronger explanations for social activism. Overall, we demonstrate the complementary nature of these two theories in explaining shareholder activism. Practitioner/Policy Implications: We found that the "exposure" to shareholder activism varies by the motivation of the activist, and the nature of the firm and its national context. An understanding of these issues would help firms develop proper response strategies to activism events. [source] Sociopolitical Activist or Conversational Partner?FAMILY PROCESS, Issue 1 2003Collaborative Therapies, Distinguishing the Position of the Therapist in Narrative In this article, we explore the similarities and differences of two contemporary family therapy approaches: narrative and collaborative therapies. These therapies are contrasted by describing positioning of the narrative practitioner as sociopolitical activist and the collaborative practitioner as conversational partner. The article begins with a brief overview of the two therapies. Subsequently, we outline their epistemological genealogies and the practice similarities that arise from the theoretical assumptions underpinning these therapies. The remainder of the article addresses the theoretical and therapeutic differences in narrative and collaborative approaches reflected in the positioning of therapist as either sociopolitical activist or conversational partner. While narrative and collaborative approaches share more similarities than differences in relation to their emphasis on the constitutive characteristics of language, focus on socio,elational contexts, and critique of singular objective truths, prominence is given to the starker contrasts in narrative and collaborative understandings of politics, power, dialogue, and discourse. It is proposed that by outlining some provocative contrasts between narrative and collaborative approaches, new conversations and generative practices will emerge in the therapy room. [source] Loving America and Longing for Home: Isma'il al-Faruqi and the Emergence of the Muslim Diaspora in North AmericaINTERNATIONAL MIGRATION, Issue 2 2004Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi In this paper, I weave the experience of an emerging community of Muslim diaspora around a biographical narrative of the Muslim activist and scholar Isma'il al-Faruqi. Through this narrative, I illustrate that the diasporic experience begins in the place of origin and it does not inevitably lead toward a perpetual hybridization. The latter point is particularly significant because notions of diaspora and hybridity are conceptually linked and are often understood as a unidirectional cutting and mixing between the West and the East, or between the modern and the traditional. Al-Faruqi's experience shows that, in a Fanonian sense of colonialism, diasporic experience conveys living as a "stranger", at and away from home. The postcolonial condition has made it possible for ethnically diverse communities of Muslims to reside in the West, but maintain strong connections with their place of origin. Adopting the allegory of the Prophet's migration or hijra, al-Faruqi constructed a fantastic notion of the ummah and a normative homo islamicus subject. Although he was profoundly influenced by the diversity of the Muslim Student Associations' constituency, al-Faruqi encouraged Muslims to transcend their differences and sought to conceive a discursively homogenous ummah. Ultimately, however, his project failed because it did not correspond to real life experiences of Muslims of the West. Historically, Muslim communities have negotiated the boundaries of Muslimhood and the social responsibilities it entails, both in their homelands and in their new home in the West , a new home that increasingly becomes hostile to their presence, and thereby further complicates their triangular diaspora/host society/homeland relationship. [source] Combating "Cults" and "Brainwashing" in the United States and Western Europe: A Comment on Richardson and Introvigne's ReportJOURNAL FOR THE SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF RELIGION, Issue 2 2001Thomas Robbins The surge of harsh anti-cultism in parts of Europe may be generally contextualized in terms of recent spectacular violence involving new movements as well as globalization, which transplants esoteric, aggressive movements to societies with antithetical values. The notion of "brainwashing" as an anti-cult rationale was pioneered by American activists but is now more influential in continental Western Europe than in the United States due in part to the greater influence of secular humanism, the greater European tendency toward activist, paternalist government, the shock of the Solar Temple killings, American deference to religious "free exercise," and problems of national unity and cultural assimilation in Europe that enhance distrust of what are perceived as alien spiritual imports. Nevertheless, the legal climate regarding religious movements may conceivably become less favorable in the United States. In general the "brainwashing" controversy has been characterized by pervasive confusions of fact and interpretation and of process and outcome. [source] A Positive Theory of Moral Management, Social Pressure, and Corporate Social PerformanceJOURNAL OF ECONOMICS & MANAGEMENT STRATEGY, Issue 1 2009David P. Baron This paper provides a theory of firm behavior motivated by moral duty, self-interest, and social pressure. A morally managed and a self-interested firm compete in a market in which their corporate social performance (CSP) provides product differentiation. Some citizens have altruistic or warm glow preferences for products with associated CSP, personal giving to social causes, holding shares in firms providing CSP, and contributing to social pressure to increase CSP. Social pressure is delivered by an activist NGO funded by voluntary contributions by citizens. The model characterizes an equilibrium in the product market, the capital market, and the market for social pressure. The equilibrium establishes a price for CSP and for activist-induced social pressure. The theory provides predictions of the market values of firms, the prices of products, firm profits, target selection, contributions to the activist, and the amount of CSP supplied. For example, if citizens do not distinguish between morally motivated CSP and CSP induced by social pressure, the activist is more likely to target the softer, morally motivated firm. Higher quality activists are better funded, target self-interested firms, and obtain greater corporate social performance. Lower quality activists target morally managed firms. [source] Private Politics, Corporate Social Responsibility, and Integrated StrategyJOURNAL OF ECONOMICS & MANAGEMENT STRATEGY, Issue 1 2001David P. Baron This paper provides a theory of private politics in which an activist seeks to change the production practices of a firm for the purpose of redistribution to those whose interests it supports. The source of the activist's influence is the possibility of support for its cause by the public. The paper also addresses the issue of corporate social responsibility by distinguishing among corporate redistribution as motivated by profit maximization, altruism, and threats by the activist. Private politics and corporate social responsibility not only have a direct effect on the costs of the firm, but also have a strategic effect by altering the competitive positions affirms in an industry. From an integrated-strategy perspective the paper investigates the strategic implications of private politics and corporate social responsibility for the strategies of rival firms when one or both are targets of an activist campaign. Implications for empirical analysis are derived from the theory. [source] Activism, Ideology, and Federalism: Judicial Behavior in Constitutional Challenges Before the Rehnquist Court, 1986,2000JOURNAL OF EMPIRICAL LEGAL STUDIES, Issue 2 2006Rorie Spill Solberg In this study, we evaluate the individual voting behavior of the justices on the Rehnquist Court in cases raising constitutional challenges to federal, state, and local legislation. Using activism, federalism, and ideology as our guiding principles, we evaluate the extent to which the justices' voting behavior is consistent with the conventional wisdom that conservatives are more restraintist and more likely to protect states' rights in conformity with Chief Justice Rehnquist's focus on federalism. Although we find that there is some correlation between judicial ideology and activism, with liberals more activist than conservatives in general, we also find that the conservative wing of the Rehnquist Court is also largely guided by its own ideological reaction to the substantive policy embodied in the laws at issue. Thus, conservative justices as well as liberals are likely to strike down state laws when those laws fail to conform to the ideological preferences. This result underscores the importance of the attitudinal model of judicial behavior as an explanation of voting patterns on the Court, regardless of the justices' rhetoric in favor of judicial restraint or states' rights. [source] VANCOUVER: THE SUSTAINABLE CITYJOURNAL OF URBAN AFFAIRS, Issue 4 2008EMMANUEL BRUNET-JAILLY ABSTRACT:,Vancouver exemplifies the richness of the many processes that set the civic culture of large contemporary cities. This paper focuses on what drives the social and economic construction of Vancouver, pointing to the complex linkages that tie agents to their environment. It shows that, in Vancouver, power arises from strong popular control and local democratic and participatory values, where group interactions produce and co-produce community development. The Vancouver regime is open yet stable, socially progressive yet fiscally conservative and pro-development. It is a regime that upholds an activist, tolerant and entrepreneurial civic culture. It emerges from an on-going process where the openness of the regime is re-negotiated in each neighbourhood and around each policy arena leading to the emergence of a culture of ongoing participation where civic, neighbourhood, ethnic and business groups constantly re-invent the city. [source] Using the past to shape the future: new concepts for a historic siteMUSEUM INTERNATIONAL, Issue 1 2001Ruth J. Abram Ruth J. Abram is the founder and president of the Lower East Side Tenement Museum in New York City. An activist turned historian, Ms Abram holds graduate degrees in social welfare and American history, and has done pioneering work in the use of history for social issues. Her landmark work at the Tenement Museum has been widely covered in the media in the United States, including the New York Times, World News Tonight with Peter Jennings and the Public Broadcasting System series on the history of New York. Her work indeed sheds light on history from the point of view of those who are often left out of the history books. [source] The making and muting of an indigenous media activist: Imagination and ideology in Charles Round Low Cloud's "Indian News"AMERICAN ETHNOLOGIST, Issue 3 2010GRANT ARNDT ABSTRACT In this article, I examine an example of American Indian activism through the once-dominant mass medium of the newspaper. I focus on Ho-Chunk author Charles Round Low Cloud and his development of an "Indian News" column into a vehicle for activism against everyday forms of racial oppression in the 1930s and on the ways others involved in publishing his column used the medium to subvert his message. The analysis shows how nonindigenous actors can mute activist messages through practices designed to celebrate indigenous voices. I argue that both indigenous media activism and reactions against such activism rely on the "mediated imagination": the mediation of the use and reception of media messages by cultural ideologies and by individual creativity. Recognition of the mediated imagination, therefore, complements efforts to understand how language and other semiotic ideologies shape interpretations of social reality. It also facilitates analysis of the potentials and limitations of indigenous activism that uses existing media technologies. [source] Teaching in the Spirit of Socrates: Remembering Fergal O'Connor OPNEW BLACKFRIARS, Issue 1009 2006Joseph Dunne (The late Father Fergal O'Connor OP was born near Causeway, Co. Kerry, on 6 December 1926 and died in Dublin on 29 September 2005. Having studied at St. Mary's Tallaght, he was ordained a priest in 1951. He took the STD at the Angelicum in Rome in 1955 and then went on to take PPE at Oxford, staying at Blackfriars from 1956 to 1959. Having taught for a short time at the Dominican House at Cork, he was assigned to St. Saviour's Priory in Dublin in 1961, where he lived for the rest of his life. From 1962 he taught political philosophy at University College Dublin, continuing beyond retirement in 1991 to teach a course on Plato until 1997. A social critic and activist, he was for many years a provocative panelist on Ireland's foremost television programme, ,The Late Late Show', and wrote regularly for newspapers and periodicals; also he founded and for several decades directed Sherrard House, a hostel for homeless girls in Dublin, and ALLY, an organisation supporting single mothers. But it was as an extraordinarily inspiring teacher, primarily in the university but also in many other informal settings, that he was perhaps most deeply influential. The following is a slightly amended version of an article first published in Questioning Ireland, Debates in Political Philosophy and Public Policy (eds, J. Dunne, A. Ingram and F.Litton, Dublin, IPA), a Festschrift for Father O'Connor written by former students and colleagues (including the theologian, Denys Turner, and the political philosopher, Philip Pettit) and published in 2000.) [source] I Support Ayatollah Khomeini's RepublicanismNEW PERSPECTIVES QUARTERLY, Issue 1 2010MEHDI KARROUBI As the confrontation between the West and Iran over uranium enrichment comes to a head, the internal confrontation in Iran between the partisans of divine sovereignty, allied with the Revolutionary Guard, and popular sovereignty continues to simmer. In this section, the first president of the Islamic Republic, a leading cleric of the opposition, the Iranian human rights activist and Nobel Laureate Shirin Ebadi and a former British intelligence agent ponder what lies ahead. [source] Don't Sacrifice Democracy in Negotiations With IranNEW PERSPECTIVES QUARTERLY, Issue 1 2010SHIRIN EBADI As the confrontation between the West and Iran over uranium enrichment comes to a head, the internal confrontation in Iran between the partisans of divine sovereignty, allied with the Revolutionary Guard, and popular sovereignty continues to simmer. In this section, the first president of the Islamic Republic, a leading cleric of the opposition, the Iranian human rights activist and Nobel Laureate Shirin Ebadi and a former British intelligence agent ponder what lies ahead. [source] Combining Work as an Historian and Activist: A Personal Account1PEACE & CHANGE, Issue 2 2007Lawrence S. Wittner This essay examines how I have blended my roles as an activist and as a historian. Over the years, I have participated in the peace, racial justice, and labor movements, and this activism has significantly affected both my scholarship and teaching. It has also complicated my professional life in a number of ways,absorbing time and energy that might have been devoted to additional scholarship, limiting fellowship opportunities, and (at least initially) blocking my receipt of tenure. Overall, however, I have found the combination of activism and historical work very satisfying, for it has contributed to humane causes and provided me with an interesting and meaningful life. [source] No "Illusion of Separation": James L. Bevel, the Civil Rights Movement, and the Vietnam WarPEACE & CHANGE, Issue 1 2003Adam Mack As a student activist and member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, James L. Bevel played a leading role in the civil rights movement. After the passage of the landmark federal civil rights legislation of 1964,65, Bevel promoted a new set of goals for the freedom struggle including ending United States involvement in the Vietnam War. Bevel's objections to the war grew from the belief, shared by other African,American leaders, that America's Vietnam policy could not be separated from issues of race and racism. Yet Bevel's antiwar stance remained unique. Driven by the depth of his antiwar sentiment as well as by a commitment to push nonviolent social action to its fullest potential, he increasingly worked to make peace the leading goal of the civil rights movement. Bevel's effort generated new levels of cooperation between civil rights and peace activists but also highlighted some of the barriers to a strong alliance between the two movements. [source] Root Causes of Peacelessness and Approaches to Peace in AfricaPEACE & CHANGE, Issue 2 2000Yash Tandon Conflicts are endemic in society, but what is their specific nature in Africa, and why do they deteriorate into such intense violence as negates humanity itself? This article looks at the "mainstream" theorythat attempts to explain this, taking as example the UN secretary-general's recent report on the subject. The report is both partial and ideological; it seeks to hide the systemic causes of poverty and conflict in Africa. The role of the peace activist is to understand conflict in Africa from a holistic and systemic perspective. He or she must work at various levels to alleviateconflict and prevent its degeneration into violence, based on the dual strategy of partially de-linking Africa from the global system and developing tolerance towards interethnic and political differences. This approach requires a new kind of moral and political culture, and new structures of political decision-making and accountability that are locally accountable and diversified. [source] International development management: A Northern perspective,PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION & DEVELOPMENT, Issue 2 2010Jennifer M. Brinkerhoff Abstract This article reviews international development management (DM) from a Northern (primarily though not exclusively US-based) perspective, identifies lessons learned from experience, and discusses new challenges. The primary data sources are an on-line survey of DM scholars and practitioners, and the results of a focus group discussion. Survey respondents expressed dismay that the lessons from theory and experience have failed to penetrate the world of practice (largely due to political and bureaucratic constraints). They were generally pessimistic about DM's relevance and effectiveness in the face of new challenges. Our analysis points to implications for DM as a discipline, and examines the development manager as activist, the evolution of politics within DM, and DM as an art. Identified lessons related predominantly to DM's process and values dimensions, suggesting these may best define DM's unique contours. In response to the perceived absence of learning and to new challenges, research participants issued a call for development manager activism to speak truth to power, promote DM values, educate new actors and the public, and mentor and train newcomers to the field. This study underscores Northern-based development managers' commitment to the profession, including affirmation of the ongoing utility and relevance of DM's knowledge and lessons, and its underlying values of self-determination, social equity, and empowerment. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] The young Lipset on the iron law of oligarchy: a taste of things to come1THE BRITISH JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY, Issue 2010Patrick McGovern Abstract Lipset's ,Democracy in Private Government' was a remarkable publication for three reasons. It was his first attempt to challenge Michels' ,iron law of oligarchy' and would lead to a programme of research that that would culminate with the publication of the widely admired classic study Union Democracy. Second, the inspiration for this work came from Lipset's student days when he was a socialist activist trying to understand why leftist governments often failed to carry out substantial programmes of social reform. Third, although it was one of his earliest publications it bears all the hallmarks of the work that would subsequently make Lipset a giant of political sociology: the enthusiasm for classic sociological problems; the appreciation of history; and the ingenious use of the small n comparative approach. Finally, I would argue that Lipset's study of democracy within private government represents a missed opportunity for sociology though there are signs that this is being rectified in recent years. [source] THIRTY CANS OF BEEF STEW AND A THONG: ANTHROPOLOGIST AS ACADEMIC, ADMINISTRATOR, AND ACTIVIST IN THE U.S.,MEXICO BORDER REGIONANNALS OF ANTHROPOLOGICAL PRACTICE, Issue 1 2009Konane M. MartínezArticle first published online: 13 JUL 200 This article explores the role of the anthropologist working with immigrant communities in the U.S.,Mexico Border Region. As an anthropologist, I have had to negotiate my role as an academic, administrator, and activist. The article examines these three roles by analyzing the experience of the anthropologist with immigrant communities and agencies over the past nine years and during the southern California wildfires of 2007. While in many ways the three roles are categorically distinct, they are also connected and work to inform each other. The position of an applied anthropologist in the U.S.,Mexico border has allowed for development of practical and applied solutions to help improve the wellbeing of immigrant communities. This form of applied, practical, yet academically grounded work has the potential to elevate the anthropology of immigration beyond that of traditional researcher. [source] Front and Back Covers, Volume 26, Number 5.ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY, Issue 5 2010October 2010 Front and back cover caption, volume 26 issue 5 Front cover RETHINKING SUICIDE BOMBING The body is a key focus for anthropological research and analysis. The cover photographs highlight the way multiple aspects of life, including political life, are mapped onto the body, and the emergence of a collective, as well as individual, identity through these experiences. The front cover shows a young Palestinian boy staring at an Israeli guard's gun, inches from his face, while waiting at the Abu Dis checkpoint in East Jerusalem. Although the scene is calm, the photograph captures an implicit violence (any step out of line can and will be punished) and reveals the daily reality of political and structural violence in the lives of Palestinians. In this image, the child can be seen as an individual who may experience personal trauma as a result of these daily encounters with violence. But he can also be seen as representing a collective Palestinian body which, under the occupation, is humiliated and forced into a childlike position, with daily decisions, including over movement, entirely in the control of Israeli forces. In her article in this issue, Natalia Linos calls on anthropology to offer a critical analysis of suicide bombing and examine the central role of the body in this act. She posits that in a context of political and structural violence that encroaches on both individual and group identity, suicide attacks may be considered an extreme form of reclaiming the violated body through self-directed violence. Through suicide attacks in public spaces, the body may be used to contest physical barriers imposed by an oppressor, resist power imbalances, and reclaim authority over one's body as well as geographical space. Back cover ASSEMBLING BODIES The back cover shows a South African ,body map', on display at the University of Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (MAA) until 6 November 2010 as part of the exhibition ,Assembling bodies: Art, science and imagination', reviewed in this issue. This self-portrait by Babalwa depicts her life as an activist and epitomizes the ethical and political negotiations that surround definition and treatment of particular bodies in contemporary South Africa. Babalwa was a member of the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), which successfully campaigned for the widespread availability of antiretroviral treatment therapies. Her self-portrait is one of a series of life-sized body maps made by members of the Bambanani Womens Group in 2003, as part of a project documenting the lives of women with HIV/AIDS. The body maps and associated narratives trace the co-existence of multiple ways of understanding and experiencing bodies and disease in these women's lives. The imagery , referring to family and friends, political life, biomedical science, anatomical details, moral pollution and religious beliefs , suggests many bodies existing within a single corporeal form. In addition to revealing individual subjectivities, the body maps also highlight the shifting dynamics of sociality. Behind each self-portrait is the outline of another shadowy form, a reminder of the help received and the potential for future support. [source] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||