Showing papers on "Contemporary society published in 2013"

The Cultural Politics of Lifestyle Sports

Abstract: This important new study examines the changing place and meaning of lifestyle sports – parkour, surfing, skateboarding, kite-surfing and others – and asks whether they continue to pose a challenge to the dominant meanings and experience of ‘sport’ and physical culture. Drawing on a series of in-depth, empirical case-studies, the book offers a re-evaluation of theoretical frameworks with which lifestyle sports have been understood, and focuses on aspects of their cultural politics that have received little attention, particularly the racialization of lifestyle sporting spaces. Centrally, it re-assess the political potential of lifestyle sports, considering if lifestyle sports cultures present alternative identities and spaces that challenge the dominant ideologies of sport, and the broader politics of identity, in the 21st century. It explores a range of key contemporary themes in lifestyle sport, including: identity and the politics of difference commercialization and globalization sportscapes, media discourse and lived reality risk and responsibility governance and regulation the racialization of lifestyle sports spaces lifestyle sports outside of the Global North the use of lifestyle sport to engage non-privileged youth Casting new light on the significance of sport and sporting subcultures within contemporary society, this book is essential reading for students or researcher working in the sociology of sport, leisure studies or cultural studies.

Education - An Anatomy of the Discipline: Rescuing the university project?

Abstract: Education – An Anatomy of the Discipline focuses on the development of the discipline of education, how it is understood and practised in contemporary universities, and the potential threats to its future. As the author, John Furlong argues, disciplines are not only intellectually coherent fields of study; they also have a political life, they are argued for, supported, challenged and debated. Nowhere is this more true than in the discipline of education. In this authoritative text, Furlong describes the history as well as the current state of the discipline of education in universities. He also explores the range of national and global changes that have helped to shape the discipline in recent years. Education’s final ‘arrival’ in the university sector coincided with major changes in universities themselves. Today, universities are very diverse institutions: they no longer have a sense of essential purpose and have largely accepted their loss of autonomy, especially in education where government intervention is particularly strong. If education is now fully integrated into universities, then, like the system as a whole, it urgently needs to find a voice, set out a vision for itself, and state what its purpose should be within a university in the modern world. The book therefore brings together four vitally important topics: -the changing nature of the university-the academic and scholarly study of education as a field -the professional education and training of teachers -the nature and organisation of educational research. Education – An Anatomy of the Discipline will occupy a central place in contemporary literature about education; although based on evidence from British universities, its implications are important across the world. The book will be invaluable reading for all professionals working in university departments and faculties of education as well as those with an interest in the changing role of the university in contemporary society.

Politicizing the expertise of the accounting industry in the realm of corporate social responsibility

Abstract: The accounting industry plays an important role in the production and implementation of accountability mechanisms surrounding corporate social responsibility practices. Operating as both politicians and implementers of knowledge ( Gendron, Cooper, & Townley, 2007 ), the expert activities of accountants are never purely technical. This paper focuses on the mediating role of accounting firms and professional bodies in aligning the socially responsible practices of organizations with the rational morality of the market. I show that the construction of the market as a moral marker of socially responsible action is the result of a major effort of rationalization aimed at justifying the emergence of a social and moral conscience in business, not in the name of subjective feelings or human values, but in the name of an economic and depoliticized logic of profitability. Drawing on the political analysis of Latour (2004) [ Politics of Nature: How to Bring the Sciences into Democracy ] and his metaphor of the ‘modern constitution’, I view the economicization of corporate social responsibility as symptomatic of the power imbalance between the world of humans and the world of objects governing the political structure of contemporary society and weakening democratic activity.

Cultural Policy: Management, Value and Modernity in the Creative Industries

Abstract: Contemporary society is complex; governed and administered by a range of contradictory policies, practices and techniques. Nowhere are these contradictions more keenly felt than in cultural policy. This book uses insights from a range of disciplines to aid the reader in understanding contemporary cultural policy. Drawing on a range of case studies, including analysis of the reality of work in the creative industries, urban regeneration and current government cultural policy in the UK, the book discusses the idea of value in the cultural sector, showing how value plays out in cultural organizations. Uniquely, the book crosses disciplinary boundaries to present a thorough introduction to the subject. As a result, the book will be of interest to a range of scholars across arts management, public and nonprofit management, cultural studies, sociology and political science. It will also be essential reading for those working in the arts, culture and public policy.

Risk society and the distribution of bads: theorizing class in the risk society

Abstract: Ulrich Beck states in the Risk Society (1992) that the rise of the social production of risks in the risk society signals that class ceases to be of relevance; instead the hierarchical logic of class will be supplanted by the egalitarian logic of the distribution of risks. Several trenchant critiques of Beck's claim have justified the continued relevance of class to contemporary society. While these accounts have emphasized continuity, they have not attempted to chart, as this paper will, how the growing social production of risk increases the importance of class. This paper argues that it is Beck's undifferentiated, catastrophic account of risk that undergirds his rejection of class, and that by inserting an account of risk involving gradations in both damages and calculability into Beck's framework, his theory of risk society may be used to develop a critical theory of class. Such a theory can be used to reveal how wealth differentials associated with class relations actually increase in importance to individuals' life-chances in the risk society. With the growing production and distribution of bads, class inequalities gain added significance, since it will be relative wealth differentials that both enables the advantaged to minimize their risk exposure and imposes on others the necessity of facing the intensified risks of the risk society.

The Political Power of Protest: Minority Activism and Shifts in Public Policy

Abstract: Gillion demonstrates the direct influence that political protest behavior has on Congress, the presidency and the Supreme Court, illustrating that protest is a form of democratic responsiveness that government officials have used, and continue to draw on, to implement federal policies. Focusing on racial and ethnic minority concerns, this book shows that the context of political protest has served as a signal for political preferences. As pro-minority rights behavior grew and anti-minority rights actions declined, politicians learned from minority protest and responded when they felt emboldened by stronger informational cues stemming from citizens' behavior, a theory referred to as the 'information continuum'. Although the shift from protest to politics as a political strategy has opened the door for institutionalized political opportunity, racial and ethnic minorities have neglected a powerful tool to illustrate the inequalities that exist in contemporary society.

Capitalism or information society? The fundamental question of the present structure of society

Abstract: Theodor W. Adorno asked in 1968: What is the fundamental question of the present structure of society? Do we live in late capitalism or an industrial society? In today’s society, we can reformulate this question: What is the fundamental question of the present structure of society? Do we live in capitalism or an information society? This article deals with these questions. A typology of information society theories is presented. Radical discontinuous information society theories, sceptical views and continuous information society theories are distinguished. Second, an alternative concept that is grounded in Hegelian philosophy and Marxist political economy is presented. The basic argument is that the emergence of transnational informational capitalism is a transformational sublation, but not a radical one, and that informational capitalism is just one of the forms of capitalism that co-exist today. There is a unity of diversity of capitalism(s).

The Politics of Education and Technology: Conflicts, Controversies, and Connections

Abstract: This book provides a much needed critical perspective on the use of digital technology in education. Drawing on a wealth of theoretical and empirical work, it examines the stakeholders in education technology, the struggles to settle how technology should be used in education, and the questions that underpin these debates: What, exactly, is the purpose of education? How can we use technology to achieve it? Whose answers to these questions win out in civic discussion, and whose win in the marketplace? With chapters covering everything from single-school studies to international political initiatives, The Politics of Education and Technology lays bare the messy realities of technology use in education and their implications for contemporary society.

Representational resources and the production of subjectivity: Questions for the theoretical development of Critical Discourse Analysis in a multicultural society: Gunther Kre

Abstract: Critical studies of language, Critical Linguistics (CL) and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) have from the beginning had a political project: broadly speaking that of altering inequitable distributions of economic, cultural and political goods in contemporary societies. The intention has been to bring a system of excessive inequalities of power into crisis by uncovering its workings and its effects through the analysis of potent cultural objects-texts-and thereby to help in achieving a more equitable social order. The issue has thus been one of transformation, unsettling the existing order, and transforming its elements into an arrangement less harmful to some, and perhaps more beneficial to all the members of a society.

Articulating Islam: Anthropological Approaches to Muslim Worlds

Abstract: This collection of arresting and innovative chapters applies the techniques of anthropology in analyzing the role played by Islam in the social lives of the world’s Muslims. The volume begins with an introduction that sets out a powerful case for a fresh approach to this kind of research, exhorting anthropologists to pause and reflect on when Islam is, and is not, a central feature of their informants’ life-worlds and identities. The chapters that follow are written by scholars with long-term, specialist research experience in Muslim societies ranging from Kenya to Pakistan and from Yemen to China: thus they explore and compare Islam’s social significance in a variety of settings that are not confined to the Middle East or South Asia alone. The authors assess how helpful current anthropological research is in shedding light on Islam’s relationship to contemporary societies. Collectively, the contributors deploy both theoretical and ethnographic analysis of key developments in the anthropology of Islam over the last 30 years, even as they extrapolate their findings to address wider debates over the anthropology of world religions more generally. Crucially, they also tackle the thorny question of how, in the current political context, anthropologists might continue conducting sensitive and nuanced work with Muslim communities. Finally, an afterword by a scholar of Christianity explores the conceptual parallels between the book’s key themes and the anthropology of world religions in a broader context. This volume has key contemporary relevance: for example, its conclusions on the fluidity of people’s relations with Islam will provide an important counterpoint to many commonly held assumptions about the incontestability of Islam in the public sphere.

Civil Society and Financial Markets: What is Not Happening and Why

Abstract: Why have commercial financial flows—as a major force in contemporary society with a number of significant problematic consequences—attracted relatively little effective public-interest response from civil society? Change-oriented nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), labour unions, faith-based organizations, and other social movements have mostly remained in the shadows vis-a-vis private financial markets. Impacts from these citizen associations have not gone beyond promoting modest rises in public awareness, certain limited policy shifts, and minor institutional reforms of a few public governance agencies. The reasons for these scant achievements are partly related to capacities and practices in civil society groups, relevant governance agencies, and financial firms. Also important in constraining civil society impacts to reform and transform contemporary financial markets are deeper structural circumstances such as embedded social hierarchies (among countries, classes, etc.), the pivotal role of finance...

Women in power Sex differences in Swedish local elite networks

Abstract: Women occupy a small minority of elite positions in contemporary society. In addition, the minority of women who gain access to influential elite positions are often assumed to have their actual influence circumscribed by mechanisms of marginalization. However, systematic evidence to support the latter view is relatively scarce. We apply social network analysis to study sex differences in local elite networks in Sweden, and show empirically that, despite the fact that women are the minority group across all elite dimensions, female elites uphold the same ‘structural status’ as male elites.

Commercialized professionalism on the field of management consulting

Abstract: Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore and construct a model for the mechanisms for authorization of actors in contemporary society performing in the role of the expert.Design/methodolog ...

A sociology of constituent power: The political code of transnational societal constitutions

Abstract: This article proceeds from a critical sociological revision of classical constitutional theory. In particular, it argues for a sociological reconstruction of the central concepts of constitutional theory: constituent power and rights. These concepts, it is proposed, first evolved as an internal reflexive dimension of the modern political system, which acted originally to stabilize the political system as a relatively autonomous aggregate of actors, adapted to the differentiated interfaces of a modern society. This revision of classical constitutional theory provides a basis for a distinctive account of transnational constitutional pluralism or societal constitutionalism. The article argues that the construction of transnational normative orders needs to be placed, in a sociological dimension, on a clearer continuum with classical constitutional models. Although contemporary society is marked by multiple, nationally overarching, and often functionally specific constitutions, such normative structures extend the original functions of constituent power and rights. The article sets out the concluding hypothesis that rights form a running constitution in contemporary society, facilitating highly improbable acts of transnational structural construction and systemic inclusion. It is around the code rights-relevant/rights-irrelevant that transnational society constructs its processes of politicization and political inclusion. This code, however, brings to light a subsidiary or skeletal coding, which was latently co-implied in the political exchanges of modern society, and which was already expressed in early constitutionalism.

Inequalities in the network society

Abstract: At the first sight, the claim that information and communication networks such as the Internet contribute to more inequality of information and communication seems rather odd. Aren’t networks particularly appropriate to diffuse and exchange information among all those connected? Isn’t the Internet a medium where you can retrieve most information for free and exchange emails, chats, twitters, SMS messages and others almost without cost? Hasn’t the Internet become much more accessible and user-friendly since the days the World Wide Web started? Yet, in this chapter the claim is made that the actual use of information and communication networks, such as the Internet, in contemporary society most likely leads to more instead of less inequality when no effective policies are invented to prevent this.

Holding on the anomaly of social entrepreneurship : dilemmas in starting up and running a fair-trade enterprise

Abstract: The different shapes taken on by social entrepreneurship in contemporary society show that social goals are integrated by commercial enterprises and commercial goals are incorporated by organisatio ...

Power/Faith: Governmentality, Religion, and Post-Secular Societies

Abstract: Foucault’s concept of governmentality, and its attending modalities of biopower and disciplinary technologies, provides a useful conceptual schema for the analysis of the role of religious and quasi-religious institutions in contemporary society. This is particularly important in the study of those neoliberal democratic states where religious organizations constitute an important presence in the civil society. As religion is thoroughly involved in the reproduction of social structure in most societies, an appraisal of the social and political importance of religious institutions is needed to understand the articulation and exercise of governmentality. This is not just limited to partnerships between state agencies and faith-based organizations in providing for social services, but also in rituals and other religious group activities of these organizations that play a vital role in shaping and molding the social and political subjectivities of the adherents. We argue that synergy between the scholarship on governmentality, and sociology of religion would allow for a more nuanced understanding of the politics and culture of post-secular societies.

An Epistemic Frame Analysis of Neoliberal Culture and Politics in the US, UK, and the UAE

Abstract: Neoliberalism is a loosely knit bricolage from economics, politics, and various forms of reactionary populism that can be envisioned as a kind of epistemic frame in which largely counterrevolutionary forces engage in the creative destruction of institutional frameworks and powers, forging divisions across society that include labor and social relations (Harvey, A brief history of neoliberalism, 2009). Such “creative destruction” implies that neoliberalism is actually a reactionary “catalog of mind” (Robin, The reactionary mind: Conservatism from Edmund Burke to Sarah Palin, 2011, p. 17); that when believers engage in reactions to programs and ideas which represent what Bourdieu (Acts of resistance: Against the tyranny of the market, 1998) called “the left hand of the state” (typically represented by teachers, judges, social workers), one result has been the “involution of the state” (p. 34) and the “destruction of the idea of public service” (Bourdieu, The abdication of the state. In P. Bourdieu (Ed.), The weight of the world: Social suffering in contemporary society, 1999, p. 182). We examine neoliberalism using Shaffer’s (Int J Learn Media 1(2):1–21, 2009) concept of an “epistemic frame” based on the epistemic frame hypothesis that suggests that a community of practice has a culture, and that the collection of values, skills, knowledge, and identity form the “epistemic frame” (p. 4). An epistemic frame has a kind of grammar and structure comprised of people’s thoughts and actions, reinforced by the ways that people see themselves, the values to which they hold, and the epistemology that binds together their agenda. The purpose of our analysis is to create a praxis for what has been termed Regressionsverbot, which is defined as “a ban on backward movement with respect to social gains at the European level” (Bourdieu, Acts of resistance: Against the tyranny of the market, 1998, p. 41). In the form of cases from the United States, the United Kingdom, and the United Arab Emirates, neoliberal initiatives are examined, unpacked, and interrogated.

Religious Environmentalism and Environmental Religion in America

Abstract: This essay aims to offer a rudimentary map of the subfield of religion and ecology by describing three distinct scholarly responses to the challenge leveled by Lynn White's influential 1967 article. It articulates an organizational view of the field by accounting for the three most prevalent perspectives on the antagonism between religion and environmentalism. The first, ecotheological apologism, looks to resuscitate “Judeo-Christian” theology from the critique that it is inherently anti-ecological. The second, sociological operationalization, forgoes normative engagement in favor of descriptive measurement, seeking to describe in empirical terms the environmental beliefs and behaviors of religious individuals in contemporary society. The third, theoretical functionalism, works to soften the very distinction between religious tradition and ecological morality. Examining the sources and outcomes of these scholarly divergences provides a reasonable account of the development of religion and ecology as an area of study and brings to the fore the challenges presently facing the subfield. In conclusion, the essay describes the exchanges among these scholarly threads and suggests how they might be woven together more closely.

The Social Value of Drug Addicts: Uses of the Useless

Abstract: Drug users are typically portrayed as worthless slackers, burdens on society, and just plain useless-culturally, morally, and economically. By contrast, this book argues that the social construction of some people as useless is in fact extremely useful to other people. Leading medical anthropologists Merrill Singer and J. Bryan Page analyze media representations, drug policy, and underlying social structures to show what industries and social sectors benefit from the criminalization, demonization, and even popular glamorization of addicts. Synthesizing a broad range of key literature and advancing innovative arguments about the social construction of drug users and their role in contemporary society, this book is an important contribution to public health, medical anthropology, popular culture, and related fields.

Social Class and Cultural Consumption: The Impact of Modernisation in a Comparative European Perspective

Abstract: Pierre Bourdieu’s work has argued that there is a homology of social classes on the one hand and cultural consumption on the other In contrast, theories of individualisation posit that social class plays only a minor role in shaping lifestyle in contemporary societies In this paper we examine a) how much contemporary highbrow lifestyles in 27 European countries are structured by class membership, b) the extent to which highbrow consumption varies according to the level of modernisation of a society and c) whether the explanatory power of social class in relation to highbrow consumption decreases in more modernised European countries The findings show that highbrow lifestyles are strongly influenced by social class, and that highbrow consumption is more common in more modernised societies Moreover, the findings confirm the hypothesis that the formative power of social class on lifestyle decreases in highly modernised societies, albeit without disappearing completely

Michel Houellebecq: Humanity and its Aftermath

Abstract: Michel Houellebecq is perhaps the single most successful and controversial of all contemporary novelists writing in French. Houellebecq has become a global publishing phenomenon: his books have been translated worldwide, three film adaptations of his work have been produced, and the author has been the subject of million-euro publishing deals and of successive media scandals in France. If Houellebecq is unique in contemporary French writing, it is thanks not only to his extraordinary success, but to the unparalleled scope of his narrative ambition. In the work which most forcefully marked his breakthrough to the mainstream – Les Particules elementaires – Houellebecq made a significant appeal to the science-fiction genre in order to undergird his critique of contemporary society. For Houellebecq presents humanity – at least modern, western humanity – as in a terminal state of decadence and decline and ripe for replacement by its post-human successor. His novels narrate a metaphysical mutation or paradigm shift through which humanity as we know it ceases to be the over-riding value or focus of our world when it comes into conflict with a competitor in the form of a post-human or neo-human species. It is the aim of this book to appraise the global significance of Houellebecq’s novelistic visions while at the same time situating them within the context of French literature, culture and society.

Media as a tool for fostering values in the contemporary society

Abstract: The media have an important role in shaping social consciousness. The media influence our perception of the world and thus the value structure that we create. Contemporary culture is dominated by images of electronic media. The audience is confronted with a world of real and invented events, stories and finally values that belong to the space and time that do not concern it. Humanity as well as an individual inherits a network of socio-cultural and moral traditions. Contemporary media transmit them as if truth has lost its value as a moral decision and exhausted its logic and importance. Our time is different. The nature of communications and media from the recent past is being replaced by a new and different reality which has been enabled by the new technology of electronic media. The values are reduced to a minimum or completely lost. The authors of this paper seek to provide insight into the possibilities of using media in the process of disseminating the moral values. At the same time, they reflect the change in the anthropology of communication caused by the rapid development and implementation of new types of electronic media.

What can history teach us about the prospects of a European Research Area

Abstract: This report is the result of work carried out by the Centre for the Study of the Sciences and the Humanities at the University of Bergen, Norway. The work was commissioned by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre at Ispra (Italy), and as such this report is the final deliverable of our Service Contract 257218 with the EC-JRC. The history of science has a lot to offer to contemporary debates on research policy and on science in society. This is especially true when the history of science is not seen as independent from political, economic and cultural history. This calls for a historical sensitivity also for challenges, problems, conflicts and crises; and such a sensitivity appears to be timely in present-day Europe, where the word “crisis” is taking a predominant place on public and political scenes. Having argued that the idea that scientific knowledge should determine or prescribe the course of action is in itself part of the 17 century solutions that contemporary society has inherited as part of the problem, the report suggests possible lines of action and reflection for the European Research Area focusing on European values including diversity and tolerance, universalism, democracy and public knowledge. The report also discusses Grand Challenges and Deep Innovation, reassessing the present function of the ERA, and what policy indicators might be of use. As the Commission’s in-house science service, the Joint Research Centre’s mission is to provide EU policies with independent, evidence-based scientific and technical support throughout the whole policy cycle. Working in close cooperation with policy Directorates-General, the JRC addresses key societal challenges while stimulating innovation through developing new standards, methods and tools, and sharing and transferring its know-how to the Member States and international community. Key policy areas include: environment and climate change; energy and transport; agriculture and food security; health and consumer protection; information society and digital agenda; safety and security including nuclear; all supported through a cross-cutting and multi- disciplinary approach. L B -N A -2 6 1 2 0 -E N -N

The Best of Both Worlds Aspirations, Drivers and Practices of Swedish Lifestyle Movers in Malta

Abstract: It has often been claimed that contemporary societies are shaped by globalization; the rapid interconnections of societies, economies, markets, flows and information potentially linking all places ...

Women, Religion and Space; Global Perspectives on Gender and Faith

Abstract: Karen M. Morin and Jeanne Kay Guelke (eds.), Women, Religion and Space; Global Perspectives on Gender and Faith (Syracuse University Press, Syracuse: 2007), 216 pp.First, a disclaimer: I am not a geographer. My interest in space as an analytic category is secondary to my interest in social and political critique, including feminist critique, of Judaism and Israel, and of human societies and their cultural history at large. It follows that I am impressed by the centrality of space as an analytic category not in itself, but only to the extent that it strikes me as a central concept that throws new light on the topic it deals with. Thus, I found that geographers such as Oren Yiftachel (1997) have indeed advanced the academic discussion of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by standing previous research on its head and making the issue of space-the control of territory-the major prism for reexamining well- known facts. A different narrative has emerged and aroused new controversies.Can the same be said about the present collection of articles, that bring the concept of space to the study of gender and religion? In all honesty, I think not. When I weigh the Israeli-Palestinian power conflict against the men-women power conflict, I see a significant difference: whereas the former is about the control of a particular space, the latter is about something else, and the conflict over the control of certain spaces is merely an expression of that conflict, not its cause. This does not mean that space is not worthy of examination in the context of gender power conflicts, nor that it is not a central expression of that conflict; but I find it important to preface my account of the reading of this book with this distinction. And I should mention here that at least on one occasion my own research took me away from the gender-and-space conjunction as an explanatory angle, towards the ethnocracy- and-space conjunction. Puzzling over the inability of Israeli society to contain the group of Women of the Wall for so many years, I came to the conclusion that issues of control of the space in question (the Jewish prayer plaza in front of the Western Wall in Jerusalem) could only make sense if looked at through the prism of the Zionist-Palestinian conflict, and that once women try to assert their right as active partners in the fight over control of that space, their attempt to define the conflict as "women's rights are human rights" is a non-starter, because in this case the territorial issue is a national issue and gender is subjected to it, rather than a category that stands alone (Shakdiel, 2002).The articles gathered in the book under review cover a variety of locations-East Africa and South Africa, Jerusalem and Istanbul, Pakistan and the United States. Some of the research included here looks at contemporary societies, and some of it looks into the past, the era of colonialism and missionary work. All articles are packed with interesting accounts of women's lives: I admit that I personally was intrigued above all by Jennifer Kopf's account of Muslim women's movements in colonial Tanganyika that were repressed by the German colonial regime by restricting their access to the sites of their worship, simply because this was new territory to me, and the pun is intended. But does the book offer an overall perspective on the title issue, about women, religion and space? Or at least, if the book's editors organized the articles "by three distinct yet linked themes: women in colonial regimes, religion and women's mobility, and new spaces for religious women" (p. xviii), are any new insights offered into each of those three themes? I am not sure.One thought that occurred to me was the need to accentuate the disparity between the assumptions about public space as constructed by Western modernism, on the one hand, and traditional patriarchal societies, on the other hand. Indeed, this concern is mentioned by Anna Secor in her afterword to the book:Why is freedom measured in terms of mobility instead of enclosure? …

Castells, Power and Social Work

Abstract: This article reflects on the important sociological contribution made by Manuel Castells. The potential implications for social work theory and practice are considered, especially in relation to his theories of networks and power. The article acknowledges Castells's thesis that we are witnessing a ‘transformational’ phase in social development, as ‘networks’ become fundamentally significant as a vehicle for ordering and shaping human lives. The interactions within and between social networks are considered, especially in relation to the domains of social work practice, and their inevitable concerns with processes of inclusion/exclusion and oppression. In light of these reflections, Castells's typology of network/power is introduced, and the relationship between structural and relational aspects of the typology is considered. The capacity of power-infused networks to construct and organise people's experiences is acknowledged, as are the implications for those who use social work services, and are often the objects rather than the subjects of power relations. Set against this are arguments for the potential to develop forms of ‘resistance’, for instance through ‘network-making’; this is exemplified by reference to social work practice. The article concludes with positive messages for the social work project, to the extent that practitioners are able to adopt a capacity-building role.

“Choose One!”: Challenges of Inter-Ethnic Marriages in Malaysia

Abstract: The fact that inter-ethnic marriage has been practiced in Malaysia since pre-colonial times is well known and recorded in its history. While there is a modest rise in number of people who choose to marry spouses from different ethnic group in the country, the practice itself has been generally portrayed as a problematic and wanting especially in the Peninsular Malaysia. Popular writings and mass media play a significant role in stereotyping the phenomenon as a current modern (read: western)-influenced trend in contemporary society, as well as its potential to create tensions between the spouses due to their differences in ethnic background and culture. Based on our qualitative study conducted in 2011 on 50 respondents with first-hand experience in inter-ethnic marriages, this paper argues that sources of conflict faced by the couples are not originated from spouses themselves. Instead, they were initiated by various external sources which stem from overwhelming dominance of authority-defined social reality in the organisation of social differences according to rigid ethnic lines in the society. As a result, positive effects of inter-ethnic marriages on maintaining social cohesion in the society, as reflected from first-hand experiences of spouses and progeny of inter-ethnic marriages, are affectively eclipsed.

Our Violent World: Terrorism in Society

Abstract: From 1960s student movements to today's global jihad, this text explores the factors and debates shaping violence and terrorism in our contemporary society. Each chapter confronts examples of disturbing terrorist acts and events of mass violence from recent history and uses these to examine key questions, theories and concepts surrounding this sensitive and controversial topic.