Do Multiculturalism Policies Erode the Welfare State (Working Paper 33)

The past 30 years have witnessed a dramatic change in the way Western democracies deal with ethnic minorities. In the past, ethnic diversity was often seen as a threat to political stability, and minorities were subject to a range of policies intended to assimilate or marginalize them. Today, many Western democracies have adopted a more accommodating approach. This is reflected in the widespread adoption of multiculturalism policies for immigrant groups, the acceptance of territorial autonomy and language rights for national minorities, and the recognition of land claims and selfgovernment rights for indigenous peoples. We refer to these policies as “multiculturalism policies” or MCPs. The adoption of MCPs has been controversial, for two reasons. The first is a philosophical critique, which argues that MCPs are inherently inconsistent with basic liberal-democratic principles. Since the mid-1990s, however, this philosophical debate has been supplemented by a second argument: namely, that MCPs make it more difficult to sustain a robust Welfare State (hereafter WS). Critics worry that such policies erode the interpersonal trust, social solidarity and political coalitions that sustain a strongly redistributive WS. This paper reviews the reasons why critics believe that MCPs weaken political support for redistribution, and then examines empirically whether the adoption of MCPs has, in fact, been associated with erosion of the WS. This examination involves two steps: we develop a taxonomy of MCPs and classify Western democracies as “strong”, “modest” or “weak” in their level of MCPs. We then examine whether the strength of MCPs is associated with the erosion of the WS during the 1980s and 1990s. The evolution of the WS is measured through change in four indicators: social spending as a percentage of GDP; the redistributive impact of taxes and transfers; levels of child poverty; and the level of income inequality. We find no evidence of a consistent relationship between the adoption of MCPs and the erosion of the WS. Our analysis has limits, and we hope it stimulates further research. Nevertheless, the preliminary evidence presented here is clear: the case advanced by critics of MCPs is not supported. The growing ethnic diversity of Western societies has generated pressures for the construction of new and more inclusive forms of citizenship and national identity. The evidence in this paper suggests that debates over the appropriateness of multiculturalism policies as one response to this diversity should not be pre-empted by unsupported fears about their impact on the WS.

Accommodating Muslim Minorities in Secular Societies: Public Education in England, Scotland, Ontario, and Quebec

Abstract This thesis examines one of the most sensitive challenges facing contemporary democracies: the accommodation of Muslim minorities in public institutions and services. It focuses on the field of education, and on two particular issues: the public funding of Islamic schools and the accommodation of Muslim needs in public secular schools. The analysis is based on an examination of outcomes in four jurisdictions that differ significantly in the level of accommodation that has emerged: England, Scotland, Ontario, and Quebec. I seek to explain why such variation in outcomes exists among these four cases. I draw on four bodies of literature to underpin the theoretical framework: historical institutionalism, political mobilization by civil society, political parties, and ideationalism. My argument can be summarized simply; historic church-state settlements, unique in each case, are the most important factor explaining the variation in outcomes in England, Scotland, Ontario, and Quebec. In some cases, the historic church-state template is incrementally adapted to accommodate Muslim minorities. In other cases, relatively little accommodation occurs and the path-dependent trajectory of church-state relations remains entrenched. While the historic church-state template is a necessary factor in the explanation, it does not fully account for the variation. For a more complete picture, I demonstrate that there are several additional key factors that also shape the outcomes: first, national identity and public attitudes towards immigration and immigrants; second, the extent of mobilization by political agents, such as civil society organizations and historic churches; and third, the response of political parties to demands by Muslims for institutional accommodation. Ultimately, I conclude that Muslims in these jurisdictions are receiving some accommodation, but the process is slow and partial. This thesis makes important theoretical and empirical contributions to the discussion of Muslim integration in liberal democratic states. First, a framework has yet to be developed that considers the theoretical implications of institutional accommodation of Muslims; I address this gap. Second, this research demonstrates the utility of historical institutionalism in explaining the adaptation of church-state templates to accommodate Muslims’ demands. Last, this study makes an original contribution by comparing the cases of England, Scotland, Ontario, and Quebec in the accommodation of Muslims in education. A comparison of Canada with the United Kingdom has not yet been done.  

Future fish distributions constrained by depth in warming seas

European continental shelf seas have experienced intense warming over the past 30 years1. In the North Sea, fish have been comprehensively monitored throughout this period and resulting data provide a unique record of changes in distribution and abundance in response to climate change2, 3. We use these data to demonstrate the remarkable power of generalized additive models (GAMs), trained on data earlier in the time series, to reliably predict trends in distribution and abundance in later years. Then, challenging process-based models that predict substantial and ongoing poleward shifts of cold-water species4, 5, we find that GAMs coupled with climate projections predict future distributions of demersal (bottom-dwelling) fish species over the next 50 years will be strongly constrained by availability of habitat of suitable depth. This will lead to pronounced changes in community structure, species interactions and commercial fisheries, unless individual acclimation or population-level evolutionary adaptations enable fish to tolerate warmer conditions or move to previously uninhabitable locations.

Future fish distributions constrained by depth in warming seas

European continental shelf seas have experienced intense warming over the past 30 years1. In the North Sea, fish have been comprehensively monitored throughout this period and resulting data provide a unique record of changes in distribution and abundance in response to climate change2, 3. We use these data to demonstrate the remarkable power of generalized additive models (GAMs), trained on data earlier in the time series, to reliably predict trends in distribution and abundance in later years. Then, challenging process-based models that predict substantial and ongoing poleward shifts of cold-water species4, 5, we find that GAMs coupled with climate projections predict future distributions of demersal (bottom-dwelling) fish species over the next 50 years will be strongly constrained by availability of habitat of suitable depth. This will lead to pronounced changes in community structure, species interactions and commercial fisheries, unless individual acclimation or population-level evolutionary adaptations enable fish to tolerate warmer conditions or move to previously uninhabitable locations.

"Mulheres Novas Com Cabeças Limpas": Pitfalls of the Revolution in Licínio Azevedo's Virgem Margarida

In this article, I focus on Licínio de Azevedo’s 2012 film, Virgem Margarida, in relation to Frelimo’s policy of forced re-education camps and their effects on marginalized women in 1980s Mozambique. I also examine the recent political instability in Mozambique and the gendered legacies of regional sentiments on Mozambican national identity

Possibility and agency in Figured Worlds: Becoming a ‘good doctor’

Context: Figured Worlds is a socio-cultural theory drawing on Vygotskian and Bakhtinian traditions, which has been applied in research into the development of identities of both learners and teachers in the wider education literature. It is now being adopted in medical education.

Objective: The objective of this paper is to show what Figured Worlds can offer in medical education. Having explained some of its central tenets, we apply it to an important tension in our field.

Application: The assumption that there is a uniform ‘good doctor’ identity, which must be inculcated into medical students, underlies much of what medical educators do, and what our regulators enforce. While diversity is encouraged when students are selected for medical school, pressure to professionalise students creates a drive towards a standardised professional identity by graduation. Using excerpts from reflective pieces written by two junior medical students, we review the basic concepts of Figured Worlds and demonstrate how it can shed light on the implications of this tension. Taking a Bakhtinian approach to discourse, we show how Adam and Sarah develop their professional identities as they negotiate the multiple overlapping and competing ways of being a doctor which they encounter in the world of medical practice. Each demonstrates agency by ‘authoring’ a unique identity in the cultural world of medicine, as they appropriate and re-voice the words of others.

Discussion: Finally, we consider some important areas in medical education where Figured Worlds might prove to be a useful lens: the negotiation of discourses of gender, sexuality and social class, career choice as identification within specialty-specific cultural worlds, and the influence of hidden and informal curricula on doctor identity.

Occupied childhoods: discourses and politics of childhood and their place in Palestinian and Pan-­Arab screen content for children

This thesis explores changing discourses of childhood and the ways in which power relations intersect with socio-cultural norms to shape screen-based media for Palestinian children. Situated within the interdisciplinary study of childhood, the research is an institutional and textual analysis that includes discursive and micro-level analysis of the socio-political circumstances within which children consume media in present-day Palestine. The thesis takes a social constructionist view, arguing that ‘childhood’ is not a fixed universal concept and that discourses of childhood are produced at specific historical moments as an effect of power. The study has a three-part research agenda. The first section uses secondary literature to explore theories and philosophies relating to definitions of childhood in Arab societies. The second employs participant observation and semi-structured interviews to understand the history and politics of children’s media in the West Bank. The final part of the research activity focuses on the impact that definitions of childhood and the politics of children’s media have on broadcasting outcomes through an analysis of (a) discourses on children’s media that circulate in Palestinian society, and (b) local and pan-Arab cultural texts consumed by Palestinian children. The analysis demonstrates that complex ideological and political factors are at play, which has led to the marginalisation, politicisation and internationalisation of local production for children. Due to the lack of alternatives, local producers often rely on international funding, and are hence forced to negotiate competing definitions of childhood, which while fitting with an international agenda of normalising the Israeli occupation, conflict culturally and politically with local conceptions of childhood and hopes for the Palestinian nation. While the Palestinian community appreciates the positive potential of local production, discourses and strategies around children’s media show that Palestinian children are constructed as vulnerable, incomplete and in constant need of guidance. Pan-Arab content presents a slightly less didactic approach and in certain cases presents childhood as a dynamic space of empowerment. However, by constructing children as ‘consumercitizens’, it alienates Arab (and Palestinian) children from disadvantaged backgrounds,as the preferred audience is middle-class children living in oil-rich countries of the Gulf.

Charte canadienne et droits linguistiques : frontières allégoriques et autres assertions consensuelles

La frontière entre le politique et l'intellectualisme militant est, d'ordinaire, ténue. Tout univers politico-constitutionnel est ainsi susceptible de faire les frais d'un martèlement doctrinal qui, à maints égards, relève davantage du construit que du donné. Résultante directe d'une construction parfois intéressée, le récit identitaire, à force de répétition, s'installera confortablement sur les sièges de l'imaginaire populaire. Il accèdera, au fil du temps, au statut de mythe pur et simple. Ce dernier, politiquement parlant, revêt de puissants effets aphrodisiaques. La présente thèse doctorale s'intéresse plus particulièrement aux mythes créés, depuis 1982, par un segment de la doctrine québécoise : en matière de droits linguistiques, objet principal de notre étude, Charte canadienne des droits et libertés et Cour suprême, toutes deux liguées contre le Québec, combineront leurs efforts afin d'assurer le recul du fait français dans la Belle Province. Quant aux francophones hors Québec, ceux-ci, depuis l'effritement du concept de nation canadienne-française, sont dorénavant exclus de l'équation, expurgés de l'échiquier constitutionnel. En fait, l'adoption d'un nationalisme méthodologique comme nouvelle orthodoxie politique et doctrinale rend ardue, en plusieurs sens, la conciliation de leur existence avec les paradigmes et épistémologie maintenant consacrés. Ainsi, et selon la logique du tiers exclu, une victoire francophone hors Québec signifiera, du fait d'une prétendue symétrie interprétative, un gain pour la communauté anglo-québécoise. Cette thèse vise à discuter de la teneur de diverses allégories établies et, le cas échéant, à reconsidérer la portée réelle de la Charte canadienne en matière linguistique. Il sera alors démontré que plusieurs lieux communs formulés par les milieux intellectuels québécois échouent au moins partiellement, le test de l'analyse factuelle. Celui-ci certifiera de l'exclusion, par la doxa, de toute décision judiciaire ou autre vérité empirique ne pouvant cadrer à même les paramètres, voire les prismes, de l'orthodoxie suggérée.

Våldets onda cirklar : En explorativ undersökning av mäns barndomsupplevelser, maskuliniteter, känslor, våld samt terapeutiska interventioner mot våld

Avhandlingens överordnade syfte är att utforska möjligheterna för ett integrerat forskningsperspektiv på mäns våld samt exemplifiera hur sådan forskning kan bedrivas. Det konkreta syftet är att öka kunskapen om hur våldsamma mäns barndomsupplevelser, socialisation, maskulinitetskonstruktion och emotioner kan relateras till deras våld mot andra män, mot sig själva och mot kvinnor samt till hur terapeutiska interventioner mot våld kan analyseras och utvecklas i korrespondens med denna kunskap. Med vetenskapsteoretiska utgångspunkter hämtade från den kritiska realismen och ekologiska metoder relaterar studien forskning från olika skolbildningar till varandra; - psykologisk: om barndomserfarenheter och socialisation, socialpsykologisk: om emotioner och interaktion samt sociologisk: om social klass, könsmaktsstrukturer och hegemonisk maskulinitet. Detta genomförs för att kunna få tillgång till kunskap om hur olika faktorer samverkar vid mäns våld. I studie I och II studerades möjligheterna att undersöka de sociala banden mellan terapeut/terapi och klient inom terapeutiska behandlingar mot våld. I studie I operationaliserades indikatorer på emotionerna stolthet och skam och i studie II testades dessa på terapeuter inom en KBT-orienterad terapi. I studie IIIundersöktes män i olika maskulinitetspositioner, där urvalet för den ena gruppen hämtades ur populationen män dömda till terapi för våld och missbruk och den andra ur populationen män som organiserat arbetade för jämlikhet och mot våld mot kvinnor. I studien jämfördes de båda gruppernas förhållningssätt till faktorer som i tidigare forskning relaterats till våld och våld mot kvinnor. I studie IVundersöktes våldsdömda mäns karriärer fram till deras nuvarande position som våldsbejakande kriminella i avsikt att öka kunskapen om det samspel mellan faktorer som i olika situationer leder fram till deras våld mot andra män, sig själva och kvinnor. Samtliga empiriska studier använde kvalitativa metoder för datainsamling och analys. I studie IV användes individuella intervjuer och biografisk analys, I studie II ochIII användes gruppintervjuer samt deduktiv innehållsanalys. I studie I, den teoretiska reviewartikeln, utgjorde sociologisk, socialpsykologisk och psykologisk teoribildning empiri. Avhandlingen visar att det finns fler fördelar är nackdelar med ett nivåövergripande perspektiv. Nivåintegrerande studier försvåras av att de kräver en komplex metodologi för att kunna hantera samverkan mellan faktorer bakom våld på olika nivåer men ger å andra sidan en mer holistisk förståelse av fenomenet i fråga. Resultaten visar att integrerande perspektiv kan minska risken för ekologiska felslut och ökar förståelsen av komplex samverkan mellan faktorer bakom mäns våld, något som kan komma att bidra till kunskapsutvecklingen inom våldsterapiområdet. Den teoretiska reviewartikeln (studie I) exemplifierade hur teoretiskt och metodologiskt driven forskning om sociala band kan göras pragmatiskt tillämpbar av terapeuter inom våldbehandlingar. Den tillämpade studien av en KBT-terapi (studie II) gav exempel på hur operationaliserade indikatorer på stolthet och skam kan användas praktiskt för att bestämma kvalitén på det sociala bandet mellan terapeut och klient. Den studerade KBT-terapin innehöll som förväntat både skam- och stolthetskapande moment vilket utgör värdefulla utgångspunkter för vidare forskning. Jämförelsen mellan män i idealtypiskt motsatta maskulinitetspositioner (studie III) visade att både gruppen av män som arbetar mot våld mot kvinnor och männen dömda till behandling mot våld, bär på ambivalenta attityder gentemot våld och våld mot kvinnor. Jämförelsen visade vidare att gruppernas maskulinitetskonstruktioner och attityder till våld korresponderar med grupperingarnas olika tillgång till ekonomiska, sociala och kulturella resurser. Den biografiskt fokuserade kvalitativa studien av män i våldsbehandling (studie IV) undersökte explorativt hur karriären fram till våldskriminell kan se ut och hur barndomsupplevelser, socialisation, maskulinitet och emotioner hos enskilda våldsverkande män kan tänkas ha samverkat med varandra när våld äger rum. Resultaten visade att de män som vittnar om utsatthet för allvarligt våld i barndomen är mer skambenägna och vid kränkningar från andra tenderar att omedvetet och utan föregående känslor av skam direkt reagera med aggressioner och våld mot båda könen. Övriga män var visserligen skambenägna men beskrev en mer kontrollerad våldsreaktion. Två män som blivit brutalt fysiskt mobbade i grundskolan, berättade om ett mer kontrollerat våld. En preliminär hypotes är att männen kan ha lärt sig att kognitivt, för att undslippa fortsatt mobbing, ta kontrollen över processen där skamkänslor ersätts med aggressioner. Föräldrarnas personliga problem tillsammans med deras bristande sociala kontroll och omsorg antogs ha ett samband med flera av männens skolproblem, deras umgänge med avvikande ungdomar, deras senare svårigheter med att kunna försörja sig med konventionella medel samt deras våldskarriärer.

“It’s the People That Drive It”: Motivating and Supporting Collaborative Data Use Practices in Three Teacher Education Programs

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2016-08

Return to Hanging Rock: Lost Children in a Gothic Landscape

Using the philosophical position of phenomenology this article examines the ways in which ideas of wildness combine with Australian Gothic tropes such as the white colonial lost child and the bush as a haunted locale to compose key features of an Australian Ecogothic. Joan Lindsay’s enigmatic novel Picnic at Hanging Rock (1967) has prompted scholars such as Lesley Kathryn Hawkes to describe how in Australian literature for both adults and children ‘the environment is far more than a setting or backdrop against which the plot takes place’ (Hawkes, 2011,67). On St Valentine’s Day in 1900 three young Australian girls and their teacher disappear from a school picnic at the ancient site of Mount Macedon in Victoria. The analysis, which focuses on Lindsay’s posthumously published chapter eighteen (1987) examines how elements of the material, sensing world combine with the mythological or sacred to connect the human protagonists with the gothic landscape they inhabit. The resulting intersubjectivity problematizes colonial ideology and unsettles notions of national identity. Using the philosophical position of phenomenology this article examines the ways in which ideas of wildness combine with Australian Gothic tropes such as the white colonial lost child and the bush as a haunted locale to compose key features of an Australian Ecogothic. Joan Lindsay’s enigmatic novel Picnic at Hanging Rock (1967) has prompted scholars such as Lesley Kathryn Hawkes to describe how in Australian literature for both adults and children ‘the environment is far more than a setting or backdrop against which the plot takes place’ (Hawkes, 2011,67). On St Valentine’s Day in 1900 three young Australian girls and their teacher disappear from a school picnic at the ancient site of Mount Macedon in Victoria. The analysis, which focuses on Lindsay’s posthumously published chapter eighteen (1987) examines how elements of the material, sensing world combine with the mythological or sacred to connect the human protagonists with the gothic landscape they inhabit. The resulting intersubjectivity problematizes colonial ideology and unsettles notions of national identity.

As vozes testemunhais em Longe de Manaus

A presente dissertação consiste na análise do romance Longe de Manaus, de Francisco José Viegas, publicado em 2005, em Portugal. O trabalho tem como objetivo responder ao questionamento de quais são as funções dos testemunhos na refiguração do tempo e na narração do passado? No âmbito teórico, analisa os atos de testemunhar e narrar associados ao conceito de memória e à ideia de distância a partir das abordagens de Paul Ricoeur e das contribuições de Carlo Guinzburg, de modo a relacionar a tradição do olhar interior com o exterior. Nos dois casos, a leitura de Agostinho se faz presente, pois o filósofo inaugura a memória como um produto da linguagem e preconiza a busca dos vestígios nos fenômenos mnemônicos. O contexto de produção é introduzido com as proposições de Eduardo Lourenço sobre a identidade nacional portuguesa, com a definição de sul proposta por Boaventura de Souza Santos e pelas colocações de Edgar Morin acerca do marxismo na atualidade, além de retomar a conjuntura da década de 1970 tendo em vista as pesquisas dos historiadores Eric Hobsbawn e Majhemout Diop, que estudaram o neocolonialismo. No âmbito analítico, é interpretada a organização cíclica do romance que entrecruza personagens e vozes narrativas de espaços e temporalidades diferentes, com a finalidade de abordar como a pobreza e a violência podem ser fatores constantes na África da década de 1970, sob o domínio imperial lusitano, ou nas cidades do Porto, São Paulo e Manaus contemporâneas. O narrador apresenta problemas sociais em Portugal, nos anos 2000, atrelados às politicas econômicas e à entrada de imigrantes do sul; concomitantemente, o protagonista Jaime Ramos debate a sua sociedade a partir de dois critérios: o de identidade nacional portuguesa, segundo o critério levantado por ele de solidão, e o de defesa da luta de classes como fator primordial para compreender os assassinatos investigados pela personagem. O estudo articula as noções de memória e literatura com a finalidade de analisar as estratégias narrativas presentes em Longe de Manaus.

‘Tenshillingland’: Community and Commerce, Myth and Madness in the Modern Scottish Novel.

While ‘community’ as a concept has come under increasing attack in a neoliberal era, it has remained in Scotland a mythic, though not unexamined, signifier of resistance to perceived threats to national identity. Community, central to the Scottish novel since the Kailyard, continues to be a prevalent theme in the many important novels of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries explored here. Yet, while often disturbingly oppressive in tenor, many of these representations of community actually attack the myth of Scottish communalism to critique, and often expose as forms of madness, the conventional values of social class, capitalism, patriarchy, and religion.

Estratégias de Marketing em empresas de serviços de ecoturismo - Estudo de caso de uma empresa de ecoturismo do litoral alentejano

Mestrado em Controlo de Gestão e dos Negócios