Transnationalism and the Karen wrist-tying ceremony: An ethnographic account of Karen settlement practice in Brisbane

When settling, people often use cultural schema from their original homeland to build familiarity in unfamiliar surrounds. This paper draws on ethnographic fieldwork conducted by the first author in Brisbane, with the Karen community from Burma, during which participant observation and interview methods were used. We present an ethnographic account of the Brisbane Karen wrist-tying ceremony. The ceremony acts as an insight into the challenges for Karen whilst settling into Australia. It reflects multiple accounts of history and tradition, but simultaneously speaks to emerging, contemporary Karen contexts. This research contributes to richer understandings of settlement: it frames transnational cultural practice as a flexible mode of integration, rather than an exclusionary mode of othering. We propose that the integrative discourse of the ceremony creates familiarity and social connection in local and diasporic spaces. This acts as a counter to the challenges of Karen settlement including the negotiations of local/global identity politics.

“And now to the rest of the trash…” Representations of begging Roma and an ideal society in two Nordic newspapers

Since begging East European Roma became a common view in the streets of larger Nordic cities, vivid discussions about their presence and activities have been carried out in the mass media. This thesis examines the public debates in Finland and Norway through a discursive analysis and comparison of press content from the two countries. The aim of the study is firstly to identify the prominent discourses which construct certain images of the beggars, as well as the elements and internal logics that these discourses are constructed around. But in addition to scrutinizing representations of the Roma, also an opposite perspective is applied. In accordance with the theoretical concept of ‘othering’, debates about ‘them’ are assumed to simultaneously reveal something significant about ‘us’. The second research question is thus what kind of images of the ideal Finnish and Norwegian societies are reflected in the data, and which societal values are salient in these images. The analysis comprises 79 texts printed in the main Finnish and Norwegian quality newspapers; Helsingin Sanomat and Aftenposten. The data consists of news articles, editorials, columns and letters to the editor from a three-month period in the summer of 2010. The analysis was carried out within the theoretical and methodological framework of critical discourse analysis as outlined by Norman Fairclough. A customized nine-step coding scheme was developed in order to reach the most central dimensions of the texts. Seven main discourses were identified; the Deprivation-solidarity, Human rights, Order, Crime, Space and majority reactions, Authority control, and Authority critique discourse. These were grouped into two competing normative stances on what an ideal society looks like; the exclusionary and the inclusionary stance. While the exclusionary stance places the begging Roma within a frame of crime, illegitimate use of public space and threat to the social order, the other advocates an attitude of solidarity and humanitarian values. The analysis points to a dominance of the former, although it is challenged by the latter. The Roma are “individualized” by quoting and/or presenting them by name in a fair part of the Finnish news articles. In Norway, the opposite is true; there the beggars are dominantly presented as anonymous and passive. Overall, the begging Roma are subjected to a double bind as they are faced with simultaneous expectations of activity and passivity. Theories relating to moral panics and ‘the good enemy’ provide for a deepened understanding of the intensity of the debates. Keywords: East European Roma, begging, media, newspapers, Helsingin Sanomat, Aftenposten, critical discourse analysis, Norman Fairclough, othering, ideal society, moral panics, good enemy, double bind, Finland, Norway

Monstrative acts and becoming-monster: on identity, bodies, and the feminine other

Using two examples of literary monsters, the Creature in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818), and Grendel’s Mother in Beowulf, this thesis demonstrates the bearing fictional identities have on “real” bodies, through an examination of two further literary texts, David Henry Hwang’s play, M. Butterfly (1986) and J. M. Coetzee’s novel, Disgrace (1999). Western definitions of Being have historically divided body and mind, favouring the mind as formative of subjective experience and denigrating the body as secondary and impure. This thesis demonstrates that this mind/body binary is symptomatic of the masculine ontological imperative to disown the body and its effects on Being, simultaneously ridding itself of the feminine it believes is its irrational opposite. Using recent feminist reviews of the canon, which emphasise the body’s importance to ontology and demonstrate the conceptual association between the feminine and the corporeal, this thesis links performative identity practices to theories of monstrosity, explaining how fictional qualities adhere to monstrous bodies by proposing a new theoretical category, the “monstrative.” The monstrative is a performative force that makes the Other into a living sign of Otherness; however, unlike earlier theories of Othering, the monstrative accounts for the Other’s being other to herself. This thesis also attempts to read the misrepresented body of the Other as a possible site for more empowered identity performances, where the monstrous “I” is interpreted as a potentially positive model for identity practice, through the conceptualisation of identity as a process of Becoming rather than Being. The transferal from a noun to a verb not only emphasises the performativity of identity, but also suggests fluidity and multiplicity in identity practice, which always already indicates a monstrosity at work. Thus, while monstrative acts constitute bodies as monstrous, Becoming-monster is an empathetic response to the Other’s monstrosity.

Short comment: To Nail a Jellyfish? Finding a progressive agenda for EU anti-discrimination law

The title of this short (about 4500 words) intervention translates to "To Nail a Jellyfish? Finding a progressive agenda for EU anti-discrimination law". I engage with those criticising EU anti-discrimination law as yet another emanation of the EU's "neo-liberal" nature which fails to establish a viable social policy regime. I criticise this in two directions. First, I take issue with the theory that anti-discrimination law and policy has to be part of social policy. Actually, the field has a mission which differs from social policy, in that it addresses disadvantage resulting from othering, combating stereotypes as well as promoting accomodation of difference. Second, I show how the critique of judicialisation of policy is not unique to anti-discrimination law and policy. The so called turn to rights based employment law has been criticised under this mantra by those who fear that collective labour law mechanisms will become less prevalent. Further, those who have engaged with anti-discrimination law for a much longer time than those criticising it have also devised means to overcome the individualistic tendencies of rights adjudication. They have (partly successfully) argued in favour of establishing equality bodies and creating positive obligations. Thus, the critique neglects the field it takes on, and does not accept the fact that anti-discrimination law and policy must be considered a field in its own right instead of the servant of social law and policy.
Now, this is more a summary than an abstract - since I realise that not everyone reads German.

Revitalizing the PE social-justice agenda in the global era: Where do we go from here?

Critical theorists have called attention to the intensification of diversity that is now occurring inside and outside of school, while critically engaging with the detrimental effects of globalization on equity, diversity, and social justice. Globalization presents new challenges to education and to issues of social justice. In this article, we argue that there is a need for scholars in the field of physical education (PE) to re-think and re-frame the social-justice agenda to address current inequalities produced by globalization. To support this argument, first, we reflect on the impact of global neoliberalism on PE; second, we discuss the ways in which, as a result of global neoliberalism, public health discourses have an “othering” effect on ethnically diverse young people; third, we propose a theoretical shift from a focus on equality to a focus on difference; and finally, we conclude with considerations for future research and curricula in school PE.

The world without outside

The world is all that there is. In the world, ontology and epistemology coincide. The thing and the perspective are part of it, scale is ingested in its multiplicity, communication stops at the world's edge. By reading together Deleuze and Guattari's plane of immanence and Niklas Luhmann's proto-global concept of Weltgesellschaft (“world society”), I suggest a conceptualisation of the world as the materiality of the multiple spaces of creation in an insular, all-inclusive immanence. Deprived of an outside, the world pushes its own understanding of circumference through, first, the expansion of its own limits through the process of worlding, and, second, the multiplication of modes of material (self-)production through its process of othering. Thus, the world swells up from the inside and expands on both the material and the semantic level, producing a multiplicity of fractal microcosms. Issues of responsibility and justice arise that are intricately linked to the materiality of the world and take place in and between the various bodies and spaces of the world but without an overarching hierarchy or principle. This approach is a way of counteracting the all-pervasive Hegelian understanding of synthesis, arguing instead for a plenitude that brims with positivity and that can never become fully complete. The world remains its own infinite process of worlding.

Análisis del discurso de la UE en materia de derechos humanos y democracia en relación con las aspiraciones de Turquía a ser miembro pleno de la organización (2000-2012)

El propósito de esta monografía consiste en analizar el discurso de la Unión Europea en materia de Derechos Humanos y Democracia y su importancia en el proceso de ampliación de la Organización. Se estudia y explica el criterio de condicionalidad del discurso como una medida preventiva y/o sancionatoria para la entrada de Turquía a la UE, estableciendo que dicho discurso es un factor determinante en las negociaciones entre la UE y Turquía. Para ésto, se analiza el discurso europeo a partir del análisis del discurso ideológico, de Teun Van Dijk, y el discurso de la condicionalidad, de Maria del Carmen Muñoz Rodríguez, lo cual permite hacer un estudio detallado de la incidencia del discurso de la UE en el proceso de negociación de la adhesión de Turquía a la Unión.

"Mad dogs and transnational migrants?" Bajan-Brit second-generation migrants and accusations of madness

Second-generation British-Barbadians ("Bajan-Brits'') returning to the land of their parents are frequently accused by indigenous Barbadian nationals of being mad. Narratives of the migrants reflect four major sets of factors: (1) madness as perceived behavioral and cultural differences; (2) explanations that relate to the historical-clinical circumstances surrounding the incidence of mental ill health among first-generation West Indian migrants to the United Kingdom; (3) madness as a pathology of alienation that is attendant on living in Barbados; and (4) madness as "othering,'' "outing,'' and "fixity.'' British second-generation "returning nationals'' to the Caribbean, living as they do in the plural world of the land of their parents' birth, after having been raised in the colonial "Mother Country,'' exhibit hybridity and in-betweenness. Accusations of madness serve to fix the position of these young migrants outside the mainstream of indigenous Barbadian society. Our analysis invokes recent postcolonial writings dealing with "strange encounters'' to theorize that the madness accusation serves to "other'' the young Bajan-Brit migrants in a strongly postcolonial context.

‘Doing school’: cross cultural encounters

In this paper, a series of vignettes is used to explore important current challenges in TESOL. These vignettes are drawn from many different settings, including Bengali-, Pahari- and Chinese-speaking children in UK primary schools, speakers of Aboriginal English in Australia and Chinese teachers of English on courses in Higher Education. A number of themes run through these different contexts: What counts as literacy and learning? What are the expectations of the students and, in the case of school children, their parents? How do these differ from those of their teachers? What power issues shape these expectations? In answering these questions, emphasis will be placed on the dangers of ‘othering’ and the importance of syncretic approaches that recognize and build on student experience.

"La leyenda tiene una base real" : Análisis crítico del discurso de un artículo de El País

This paper carries out a critical discourse analysis (CDA) of the article "¿Chinofobia?” published by the Spanish newspaper El País. It applies the theory of racist discourse in the media as formulated by Teun A. van Dijk. Its hypothesis is that the article, which supposedly analyses discrimination against the Chinese minority in Spain, covertly blames the Chinese minority itself for the discrimination. Applying CDA methodology as exemplified in previous studies by van Dijk, the paper analyses the article on global and local levels, and delineates its mental model. The global level analysis describes the article in terms of macropropositions and proposes a macrostructure: the self-alienation of the Chinese minority. The paper then analyses how the macrostructure is reinforced on the local level through micropropositions by examining 1) how vocabulary serves the negative presentation and othering of the Chinese minority, 2) how strategies of mitigation minimise discrimination by employing imprecise and vague language, 3) how quotes are used to give coherence and force to the macrostructure, 4) how implications associate the Chinese minority with criminality, and 5) how stereotyped beliefs about the Chinese minority are presented as common sense (presuppositions) and fallaciously argued. Finally, the paper delineates the mental model: the presuppositions about integration, and the implicit warning that minorities should integrate or they will be discriminated against.

Tillhörighetens gränser : Internationell adoption och ursprungets betydelse i svensk utredningsretorik

Boundaries of belonging: transnational adoption and the significance of origin in Swedish official rhetoric This article explores how the category of ‘transnational adoptees’ in Sweden is constructed in two Official Government Reports (SOU). The article is inspired by poststructuralist perspectives on welfare and social categorization, and draws from a postcolonial and feminist theoretical framework. ‘Transnational adoptees’ as a category is understood as constituted through discourse, and given meaning in different contexts. In the reports, a fundamental importance is attached to the fact that individuals with a background as transnationally adopted have been separated from their birth family and country of birth. It is argued that mental problems and a split identity are consequences to be expected from the separation. (Re)connection to the origin is therefore considered to be crucial for the well-being of the group. The article concludes that this line of reasoning is based on a specific logic of blood and roots, in which ‘transnational adoptees’ are understood as belonging to their countries of birth, rather than Sweden. The logic of blood and roots can be read as a form of racialized othering, but also as a discursive exclusion of ‘transnational adoptees’ from Sweden as an imagined, national community.

Crenças sobre a língua inglesa: o antiamericanismo e sua relação com o processo de ensino - aprendizagem de professores em formação

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

„Mönch und Jungfrau“ Eine Diskurs- und Dispositivanalyse zur medialen Konstruktion abweichender Geschlechtlichkeit der südafrikanischen 800 Meterläuferin Caster Semenya

Einleitung Die mediale Debatte um das Geschlecht der südafrikanischen 800 Meterläuferin Casta Semenya entbrannte in dem Moment, in dem die Athletin im Finale der Leichtathletik Weltmeisterschaften in Berlin am 19. August 2009 als erste über die Ziellinie lief. Ihr Sieg war begleitet von vielseitig öffentlich geäusserten Zweifeln an ihrer Zuordnung zur weiblichen Geschlechterkategorie. und damit ihrem Recht, mit Frauen in sportlichen Wettstreit zu treten. Die International Association of Athletics Federations (IAFF) forderte für die Anerkennung der gewonnen Goldmedaille einen sogenannten Geschlechtertest (gender verification test). Theorie, Fragestellung und Methode Aus sozialkonstruktivistischer (Berger & Luckmann) poststrukturalistischer (Foucault) sowie gender und postkolonialer (Butler; Hall; Spivak) Perspektive, wird durch den diskursanalytischen Ansatz (Jäger) aufgezeigt, wie eine mögliche Intersexualität der nicht weissen, südafrikanischen Läufer_in Casta Semenya im hegemonialen Diskurs deutsch-schweizerischer Printmedien verhandelt wurde. Eine zentrale Fragestellung ist, wie der Körper als deviant konstruiert wurde und welche Diskursverschränkungen eine Pluralisierung und Diversifizierung hätten nahelegen können, jedoch zu der gänzlichen Infragestellung des als abweichend rezipierten Körpers und seiner legitimen Existenz im leistungssportlichen Kontext führte. Im Zusammenhang mit der Fragestellung werden empirisch Befunde zu intersektioneller Überlagerungen der Differenzkategorien, Geschlecht, Ethnizität und Sexualität vorgestellt. Ergebnisse und Diskussion In der abschliessenden Diskussion wird durch eine theoriegeleitete Kontextualisierung aufgezeigt, wie die verschränkten Kategorien Geschlecht, Ethnizität und Sexualität den nicht weissen, Körper als spektakulär Anderen konstituierten (Gilman). Am Beispiel des vielfältig verschränkten Diskurses zu Casta Semenya wird in Rückbezug auf postkoloniale Theorien gezeigt, wie an hegemonialen westlichen Normen eines weissen weiblichen Sportkörpers das „Othering“ des vermeintlich devianten Körper vollzogen wird (Coleman-Bell; Hall). Deutlich wird am Ende, dass nicht nur das binäre, geschlechterdifferenzierende Modell des Sports im Diskurs rekonsolidiert wurde, sondern vor allem auch die Postulate der Natürlichkeit, Fairness und Chancengleichheit des Leistungssports.

„Mönch und Jungfrau“. Eine Diskurs- und Dispositivanalyse zur medialen Konstruktion abweichender Geschlechtlichkeit der südafrikanischen 800 Meterläuferin Caster Semenya

Einleitung: Die mediale Debatte um das Geschlecht der südafrikanischen 800 Meterläuferin Casta Semenya entbrannte in dem Moment, in dem die Athletin im Finale der Leichtathletik Weltmeisterschaften in Berlin am 19. August 2009 als erste über die Ziellinie lief. Ihr Sieg war begleitet von vielseitig öffentlich geäusserten Zweifeln an ihrer Zuordnung zur weiblichen Geschlechterkategorie. und damit ihrem Recht, mit Frauen in sportlichen Wettstreit zu treten. Die International Association of Athletics Federations (IAFF) forderte für die Anerkennung der gewonnen Goldmedaille einen sogenannten Geschlechtertest (gender verification test). Theorie, Fragestellung und Methode Aus sozialkonstruktivistischer (Berger & Luckmann) poststrukturalistischer (Foucault) sowie gender und postkolonialer (Butler; Hall; Spivak) Perspektive, wird durch den diskursanalytischen Ansatz (Jäger) aufgezeigt, wie eine mögliche Intersexualität der nicht weissen, südafrikanischen Läufer_in Casta Semenya im hegemonialen Diskurs deutsch-schweizerischer Printmedien verhandelt wurde. Eine zentrale Fragestellung ist, wie der Körper als deviant konstruiert wurde und welche Diskursverschränkungen eine Pluralisierung und Diversifizierung hätten nahelegen können, jedoch zu der gänzlichen Infragestellung des als abweichend rezipierten Körpers und seiner legitimen Existenz im leistungssportlichen Kontext führte. Im Zusammenhang mit der Fragestellung werden empirisch Befunde zu intersektioneller Überlagerungen der Differenzkategorien, Geschlecht, Ethnizität und Sexualität vorgestellt. Ergebnisse und Diskussion In der abschliessenden Diskussion wird durch eine theoriegeleitete Kontextualisierung aufgezeigt, wie die verschränkten Kategorien Geschlecht, Ethnizität und Sexualität den nicht weissen, Körper als spektakulär Anderen konstituierten (Gilman). Am Beispiel des vielfältig verschränkten Diskurses zu Casta Semenya wird in Rückbezug auf postkoloniale Theorien gezeigt, wie an hegemonialen westlichen Normen eines weissen weiblichen Sportkörpers das „Othering“ des vermeintlich devianten Körper vollzogen wird (Coleman-Bell; Hall). Deutlich wird am Ende, dass nicht nur das binäre, geschlechterdifferenzierende Modell des Sports im Diskurs rekonsolidiert wurde, sondern vor allem auch die Postulate der Natürlichkeit, Fairness und Chancengleichheit des Leistungssports.

Políticas de territorialización de indígenas en Chubut : Provincialización de las relaciones interétnicas a través del acceso a la tierra

En el presente artículo buscamos un doble objetivo. Por un lado, realizar una propuesta metodológica de lectura y análisis de presupuestos implícitos en los archivos estatales de tierras, construidos por el estado de la Provincia de Chubut. Por otro, nos abocamos al interior del discurso estatal a reconstruir las premisas que articularon las relaciones interétnicas entre el estado provincial y las familias indígenas, autoidentificadas como mapuche y mapuche-tehuelche. Tomamos como punto de partida con-ceptos como los de performance, contextualización y entextualización con la finalidad de (Bauman y Briggs, 2000) proponer una estrategia de análisis y reconstrucción de los marcos de referencia de los que partían los discursos estatales acerca del indígena y, al mismo tiempo, nos ocupamos de indagar cómo dichos marcos proveían de representaciones en curso a partir de las cuales se fijaba el sentido de las relaciones entre este grupo y el resto de la sociedad. El abordaje de las relaciones interétnicas entre el estado provincial y los indígenas requiere de un análisis desde una perspectiva histórica y multisituada. En consecuencia, cruzamos las sentencias de los archivos estatales con los posiciona-mientos de las narrativas indígenas y nos introducimos, entonces, en las particularidades de procesos conformación de comunidad provincial y de alterización de los indígenas al interior de las premisas que la primordializaban