“Sharenting,” parent blogging,and the boundaries of the digital self

ABSTRACT

This article asks whether “sharenting” (sharing representations of one’s parenting or children online) is a form of digital self-representation. Drawing on interviews with 17 parent bloggers, we explore how parents define the borders of their digital selves and justify what is their “story to tell.” We find that bloggers grapple with profound ethical dilemmas, as representing their identities as parents inevitably makes public aspects of their children’s lives, introducing risks that they are, paradoxically, responsible for safeguarding against. Parents thus evaluate what to share by juggling multiple obligations—to themselves, their children in the present and imagined into the future, and to their physical and virtual communities. The digital practices of representing the relational self are impeded more than eased by the individualistic notion of identity instantiated by digital platforms, thereby intensifying the ambivalence of both parents and the wider society in judging emerging genres of blogging the self.     

Progressivism and the History of the Public House, 1850–1950

ABSTRACT

In a recent article, Alistair Mutch suggests that twin concepts – ‘control’ and ‘interpretation’ – explain the evolution of the public house over a century of dramatic changes between 1850 and 1950. This article argues that these concepts are confusing, ambiguous and misleading. It was not regulatory pressures, the temperance movement, local politicians, pressure groups or magistrates that most shaped the history of drinking premises, but developments outside the brewing industry, most notably Progressivism. Emerging in the late nineteenth century, Progressives set out to reform drinkers and drink premises, first in the trust house movement, and then in the Liquor Traffic Central Control Board during the First World War. Appropriating their ideas and philosophy immediately following the war, England's foremost brewers launched the public house improvement movement, the most far-reaching attempt to transform the nature of public drinking in the twentieth century.     

Communicating through the Eyes,Feelings and Emotions...

When I started working on my ＂Chinese interiors＂ photography proiect in June 2004, about a vear after finishing my ＂Cuban Interiors＂ project, I believed that I could take the same approach in China as in Cuba - photographing people inside their homes, meeting them,getting to know them, positioning them as I, the photographer, saw them inside their homes. And most importantly, speak with these people in their language and blend into their lives for a short period of time.     

Eleventh- and Twelfth-Century Similarities in the Norman Influence,Contact and “Conquests” of Sicily,Southern Italy and England

The establishment of the so-called “Norman World” is a debated phenomenon. The influence of the Normans can be found throughout Europe in matters of politics, warfare, and cultural interaction. The empire established by the Normans from the tenth through the thirteenth centuries was based upon the fighting prowess and military might of a people led by notable men such as William the Conqueror and Robert Guiscard. The similarities and differences between the Norman conquests of the eleventh century reveal reciprocity in contact, influence, and exchange among Norman populations. Similarly, the autonomy and distinctness of Norman populations from England to the Mediterranean remained. This article explores the extent of Norman contact, areas of influence and methods of exchange during the most active Norman conquests of the Middle Ages.     

State Practice,Nationalist Politics and the Hunger Strikes of the Lahore Conspiracy Case Prisoners, 1929–39

ABSTRACT

This article examines the hunger strikes of the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association, a small group of revolutionary prisoners in India's jails in the midst of the nationalist movement. It examines the everyday practices of the state and demonstrates that the legal powers and medical duties designed to guide prison administrators in fact provided room for individual officers to improvise non-standard means of causing prisoners physical distress in order to end the strike. In these daily encounters, the prisoners adapted novel forms of resistance to meet each new technique. The second purpose of this article is to explore the reasons why their hunger strikes brought these men to the forefront of India's nationalist movement. It is argued, that although many members of the Indian National Congress were ambivalent about these revolutionaries, Congressmen nonetheless used the patriotic sacrifices of these prisoners to mobilize ordinary Indians for the nationalist cause.     

The good,the bad and the advantageous: Migrants’ attitudes towards other migrants

There is a growing number of various ethnic groups in Finland. The attitudes and categorizations that host country nationals have and make regarding migrants is frequently researched. The attitudes that migrants have towards other migrants has, however, been much less researched. This paper provides an in-depth analysis that considers what factors are behind the attitudes that migrants form of other migrants and how these impact categorizations and hierarchies. The empirical research material of this study is based on 77 qualitative interviews with migrants living in Finland, carried out in 2018–2019. In the analysis, various theories of minority relations are applied.The research finds that migrants evaluate other migrants according to their perceived advantageousness and, based on these evaluations, they form hierarchies, which are to some extent ethnic. Perceived advantageousness is based on being integrated (especially in economic terms), hard-working, non-threatening, pliable, similar to Finns (or an ideal of perceived Finnishness), “white”, and not being dependent on welfare benefits. As a fear of being lumped together and then discriminated against, migrants emphasise their distinctiveness from other migrant groups in a subjugating manner. Certain characteristics tend to be ascribed to certain backgrounds and ethnicities and, thus, migrant groups become categorized according to their positions in a hierarchy. Not being advantageous is attributed to personal shortcomings and even ‘racial’ attributes. A shared commonness of the majority population is presumed and functions as the underlying assumption which guides the idea of how and what people should be like in order to fit in.     

Christianity and Humanitarianism in the Doukhobor Campaign, 1895–1902

This article examines the campaign undertaken by British Quakers in the 1890s to defend the Doukhobor sect of Russian Christians. The notion of humanitarian sympathy is too often applied as if it were a constant. Quakers are seen by many as exemplars of humanitarian action. By contrast this article argues that the concern that led to defend the Doukhobors came from very specific images of Christian suffering, and that the campaign to defend the sect was shaped by religious, not humanitarian, aims and methods and the particular history and repertoire of Quaker campaigning. It contributes to the history of humanitarianism by showing how humanitarian campaigning derives from the social and cultural history of various actors, and how humanitarian activity is coloured, at all levels, by its social and ideological positioning.     

Is emigration worth the trouble? Satisfaction with life,group identifications,perceived discrimination,and socio-economic status of immigrants and stayers

In the present study, we examined satisfaction with life (SWL), group identifications, perceived discrimination, and socio-economic status among immigrants and stayers. The study had two main objectives: 1) to test the morbidity and salutary hypotheses of immigration by comparing the psycho-social characteristics of immigrants and stayers; 2) to test a resource model of well-being among immigrants and stayers by investigating the effect of different resources and stressors on SWL. The study was conducted using a random representative sample of first-generation immigrants from the Former Soviet Union to Israel (n = 400) and a not-random large and geographically dispersed sample of Jews staying in Russia (n = 935). The comparison of immigrants and stayers revealed that immigration is a mixed blessing, salutary in some aspects and onerous in others. In general, immigrants were more satisfied with their life than stayers. In addition, identification with the country of residence was stronger among immigrants than stayers. However, immigrants reported a higher level of perceived discrimination, and their socio-economic status was lower than that of stayers. Socio-economic status, identification with the country of residence, and perceived discrimination were directly connected to SWL among immigrants and stayers. In addition, among stayers, identification with the ethnic minority group was connected to SWL, while among immigrants, identification with the country of origin was not connected to SWL. Socio-economic status and perceived discrimination also affected SWL indirectly, through their connections to identification with the country of residence among immigrants and stayers and through their connection to ethnic identification among stayers.     

Poverty,Philanthropy and the State: Charities and the Working Classes in London 1918–79. By Katharine Bradley

Abstract

Nineteenth-century perceptions of alcoholism were shaped implicitly by notions of gender, class and morality. From 1879, legislation advocated the institutional management of inebriates as a response to the growing problem of habitual drunkenness. Examining the methods of treating varied classes of female alcoholics in three inebriate institutions between 1876 and 1898, this article highlights how reformatory and punitive treatment models were shaped by class and gender perceptions of the alcoholic. The article questions why the application of reformatory treatment models proved problematic and analyzes the points of tension encountered in the attempts to reform a mixed class of female patients.     

More facebook,less homesick? Investigating the short-term and long-term reciprocal relations of interactions,homesickness, and adjustment among international students

Homesickness is one of the challenges that international students may encounter when they leave home. Homesickness is associated with social interactions and sociocultural adjustment, yet the directions of associations and temporal precedence are not clear. Thus, in this study, we tested a model which proposes that face-to-face (FtF) interaction with the host-country network, and Facebook interactions with the host- and the home-country networks predict homesickness, which, in turn, predicts sociocultural adjustment. We used cross-lagged and non-lagged reciprocal effects path analyses on a three-wave panel data gathered via online surveys. The results indicated that Facebook interaction with the host-country network lowered homesickness, in the long-term and the short-term. Paradoxically, homesickness increased Facebook interaction with the host-country network in the short-term. Lastly, homesickness lowered sociocultural adjustment in the short-term. We discuss how Facebook interaction with the host-country network could provide solace to international students when they miss home; and describe the implications of these findings for Facebook use and sociocultural adjustment among international students.     

Confronting dictatorship,democratization, and post‐democratization – personal reflection on intellectual and social practices in the context of dictatorship,democratization and post‐democratization

Abstract

This essay tries to trace the life trajectory of an intellectual, in terms of his intellectual and social practices, who wants to live through modern Korean history via progressive activism. The trajectory can be divided into three different stages: the first comes with the military developmental dictatorship in 1961, ending in 1987. The next is during the democratic transition since the Democratic Uprising in June 1987, which put the Korean society onto the road of democratization. The last one should be the so‐called ‘post‐democratization’ period in which we now find ourselves. This is more a story than an analysis of the progressive intellectual movement in the form of the personal recollections. The story is, however, not just about an individual but it is a window giving a glimpse into the larger trajectory that many progressive intellectuals have gone through, and that directly reflects the huge changes in contemporary history of South Korea, such as the interaction between the domination and social movements.     

J.B. Priestley,the ‘Modern’ and America

ABSTRACT

J.B. Priestley has often been seen as representative of a nostalgic Englishness which rejected the modern world and, in the process, embraced anti-Americanism. However, as this article suggests, Priestley had a more complicated relationship with both America and modernity than has been accepted. Focusing on the 1930s, it shows how Priestley travelled widely in the United States and came to admire the democratic and collective aspects of American culture, whilst also developing a critique of what he saw as the lack of individuality and creativity in other elements of the ‘mass' society, anticipating arguments he would develop after 1945.     

Caroline Ware,Consumer Activism and American Democracy During the New Deal, 1933–45

ABSTRACT

This article focuses on how the New Deal consumer activist Caroline F. Ware crafted an ambitious consumerist vision for the United States during the 1930s and 1940s. This vision aimed to end the Depression and bring post-war prosperity and to create a new kind of American democracy and citizenship, one suited to the promises and perils of an industrialized, urbanized America. One member of a loose cohort of like-minded intellectuals, and self-styled consumer ‘experts', Ware made one of the most persuasively articulated intellectual contributions of the period to a particular kind of liberal consumer activism.