“We bleed for female empowerment”: mediated ethics,commodity feminism,and the contradictions of feminist politics

Discourses of female empowerment are increasingly prominent within ethical capitalism, which seeks to remedy global crises with private-sector solutions and their commodities. This article examines the intersecting manifestations of female empowerment, commodity activism, and ethical capitalism with case studies on Born Free Africa, a fashion collection combatting mother-to-child HIV transmission, and THINX, which sells “period-proof” panties. Each company articulates empowerment through a binary between the Western feminist savior and “in-need” woman of the global south. This article argues that this iteration of empowerment not only reinforces logics of neo-colonial capitalism, but also masks disciplinary regimes for individual feminine subjects.     

Sozialer Status und Spendenverhalten Ehrenamtlicher in Sportvereinen

While much research has been done to analyze whether socioeconomic status influences prosocial behavior in the form of donations, no consensus has yet emerged in the relevant literature. We contribute to this research by studying, based on a dataset from a questionnaire of volunteers of sports clubs in Palatinate (part of Rhineland–Palatinate, Germany) whether social status affects donations. We measured social status of volunteers of sports clubs along the dimensions income, vocation, education and we considered status crystallization. Results showed that social status has a positive effect on the likelihood of donations. We report similarities and differences across different categories of donations (donations to one’s own sports club, to other clubs, to aid projects, and political parties).     

“'Are we going to now govern by anecdote?’: Rhetorical constructions of welfare recipients in congressional hearings,debates, and legislation, 1992–1996”

Through a rhetorical analysis of the welfare reform hearings and debates from the 102nd, 103rd, and 104th Congresses, all of which led to President Clinton's historical August 22, 1996 signing of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, P.L. 104–193, this essay contributes to our developing knowledge of deliberative hearings and debates as precursors to legislation. Relying on a narrative approach, this study challenges the liberatory and participatory functions of the narrative paradigm as conceived by Walter Fisher. The central argument developed in this essay is that some narrative forms facilitate elite discourse, discourage the inclusion of alternative public views, and delegitimize particular public voices.     

On Publishable Research Articles

To assess the role of qualitative knowledge of results (KR) in children's motor learning, four-year-old subjects performed a linear positioning task. Children were divided into three groups, each varying on KR precision. A significant reduction in variable error (p < .05) over trials seemed to indicate that children can utilize KR to become more consistent in learning. No significant differences were found among the three KR groups; however, the most precise KR condition tended to show fewer errors than the least precise KR condition. Some recommendations for future research are discussed.     

From the Editor: The Literature Review

No abstract available for this article.