Monthly Archive for January, 2011

The Long Revolution

Published on January 31, 2011 in News. 1 Comment

By Katherine Marino, in n + 1

Christine Stansell. The Feminist Promise: 1792 to the Present. Modern Library Chronicles. May, 2010.

In 1990 the economist Amartya Sen published a piece in the New York Review of Books the title of which had a strange quality of revelation and tabloid-worthy scandal. “More Than One Hundred Million Women are Missing” drew from new research to reveal that women’s mortality rates outside of Europe, the US, and Japan dramatically outstripped men’s. Neither simplistic East/West cultural differences nor economic “underdevelopment” theories held sufficient explanatory power, Sen explained, for the gender inequalities which stemmed from discrimination against women in basic nutrition and health care. “A great many more than a hundred million women are simply not there because they are neglected compared with men,” he said. “In view of the enormity of the problems of women’s survival . . . it is surprising that these disadvantages have received such inadequate attention.”

To read more…

Paul James O’Connor reviews ‘Youth Identity and Migration’

Published on January 29, 2011 in Book and Newsletter. 1 Comment

The book provides a broad engagement with migrant youth including work that encompasses new, second and third generation migrants, refugees and Muslims.

In the introduction, Mansouri addresses Vertovec’s concept of superdiversity (p. 12) and argues that this new era of diversity is more complex than census data and recourse to country of origin enable us to identify. The works that follow support this argument and also contribute to an understanding of this complexity. One of the clear contributions this work provides is that of situating migrant youth in a new epoch to that of their parents, an age where media enables youth to create and engage with global communities.

The review concludes

On the whole, the book is a timely addition to the field of minority youth studies and includes a balanced collection of conceptualisation, research and analysis. The issue of migrant youth health as an important issue is given context. A connection is made between the subtleties of social inclusion, well-being and friendships, and educational success, criminality and ill health.

Excerpts of the review are from: Hoellein, Timothy J. , O’Connor, Paul James , Shiobara, Yoshikazu , Murdoch, H. Adlai , Maddy-Weitzman, Bruce and Mehta, Monika(2011) ‘Book Reviews‘, Journal of Intercultural Studies, 32: 1, 91 — 106.

Youth Identity and Migration: Culture, Values and Social Connectedness edited by Fethi Mansouri is available from the On Diversity imprint.

The New Neurosexism

Published on January 27, 2011 in News. 1 Comment

By Carol Tavris, in The Sunday Times

Wandering wombs, an anatomically conferred destiny of penis envy and masochism, smaller brains, smaller frontal lobes, larger frontal lobes, right-hemisphere dominance, cross-hemisphere interaction, too much oestrogen, not enough testosterone – all have been invoked to explain why women are intellectually inferior to men, more emotional, less logical, better at asking for directions, worse at map reading, hopeless at maths and science, and ever so much better suited to jobs involving finger dexterity, nappies and dishes. Today we look back with amusement at the efforts of nineteenth-century scientists to weigh, cut, split or dissect brains in their pursuit of finding the precise anatomical reason for female inferiority. How much more scientific and unbiased we are today, we think, with our PET scans and fMRIs and sophisticated measurements of hormone levels. Today’s scientists would never commit such a methodological faux pas as failing to have a control group or knowing the sex of the brain they are dissecting – would they? Brain scans don’t lie – do they?

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Latest Diversity Journal papers

Published on January 26, 2011 in Journal. 1 Comment

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The latest issue of  The International Journal of Diversity in Organisations, Communities and Nations includes:

A British Muslim Who Would Rather Talk

Published on January 24, 2011 in News. 1 Comment

By Charles Moore, in Telegraph

Last week, I reviewed a book by John Gross about growing up Jewish in London 70 years ago.

Since there are now something like two million Muslims in Britain – a far larger grouping than the Jews – one longs for some comparable process with them. I am sure this is happening in many individual cases, but one of the dismaying things about debate since September 11, 2001 has been that most Muslim spokesmen have shown so little sympathy with British culture. They complain of being stigmatised as “the other”, yet that is exactly how they present themselves, proudly so.

Much of the book’s interest lies in the encounter between Jewishness and Britishness. The young Gross was well educated – much better than most Gentiles – in the history and culture of the country his parents had adopted. Jewishness and Britishness intertwined, each benefiting the other.

Diversity Journal: Recently Published

Published on January 19, 2011 in Journal. 1 Comment

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The latest issue of The International Journal of Diversity in Organisations, Communities and Nations includes:

The Illusion of Diversity: Visualizing Ownership in the Soft Drink Industry

Published on January 14, 2011 in News and Newsletter. 1 Comment

From Information Aesthetics:

“The Illusion of Diversity: Visualizing Ownership in the Soft Drink Industry” [msu.edu] consists of an elaborate cluster diagram of all the soft drink brands and varieties found in the refrigerator cases of about 100 Michigan retailers, along with their ownership or licensing connections.

It reveals the occurrence of “pseudovariety,” or the illusion of diversity, concealing a lack of real choice, as only 3 firms control 89% of US soft drink sales (i.e. Coca Cola, Pepsi and Dr. Pepper Snapple Group). The survey included a complete inventory of soft drinks in the refrigerator cases of 94 different food retailers. It recorded 987 varieties of soft drinks, sold under 195 brands, and 102 parent companies. But over 300 varieties were found in only one store each. More…

Diversity Journal, Volume 10, Number 4 now available

Published on January 13, 2011 in Journal and Newsletter. 1 Comment

diversity_frontThe fourth issue of Volume 10 of The International Journal of Diversity in Organizations, Communities and Nations has been published.

Volume 10, Number 4 contains:

Continue reading ‘Diversity Journal, Volume 10, Number 4 now available’

To See Muslim Discourse in Politics as a Vicious Anachronism is to See Very Little

Published on January 11, 2011 in News. 1 Comment

By Pankaj Mishra, in The Guardian

Last month in Kuala Lumpur I met the Malaysian politician Nurul Izzah Anwar. Just 30 years old, and formidably well-educated, Nurul Izzah is an MP as well as the mother of two children. Thrown into the political fray by the persecution of her father – Anwar Ibrahim, Malaysia’s former deputy prime minister – Nurul Izzah has risen rapidly within the opposition People’s Justice party. Admiring glances and whispers from other diners bounced off our table at a fusion restaurant in the smart suburb of Damansara Heights as she spoke frankly and persuasively about Malaysia’s frustratingly racial politics, its restless youth population, the changing role of Islam, and the country’s foreign relations.

Towards the end of our conversation, she said: “You haven’t asked me the big question.” Puzzled, I asked: “About what?” Laughing, she replied: “Many western journalists only want to know why I wear a headscarf.”

To read more…