La violence conjugale : simple symptôme ou geste planifié dans l’ordre social?

Cet article porte sur l'explication à donner au phénomène de la violence conjugale; il met en évidence et analyse deux approches opposées. Selon la première le phénomène de la violence conjugale est vu comme le résultat malheureux et non intentionnel d'une douleur émotionnelle masculine qui résulte de certaines conditions structurelles. La deuxième met plutôt l'accent sur l'acte planifié et le discours sociaux pour expliquer en quoi cette forme particulière de violence est liée aux rapports de genre. À cette fin, l'auteur puise dans son propre matériel de recherche et d'expériences tiré de Nuuk, au Groenland.The article deals with the issue of how to explain the phenomenon of wife-beating. Two contrasting approaches are outlined and pursued in the article. One tends to view wife-beating as the unfortunate and unintentional outcome of male emotional pain caused by certain structural conditions, while the other focuses on aspects of social agency and discourse in explaining the occurrence of gendered nature of this specific form of violence. For the purpose, the author draws on his own field material and experiences from Nuuk, Greenland

BEHANDLING AF VOLDELIGE MÆND

Siden 2002 har der eksisteret et behandlingstilbud til voldelige mænd (og kvinder) i Danmark, hvilket umiddelbart kan lyde ganske fornuftigt. Men ved nærmere eftertanke er der noget, der skurrer, for er vold egentlig et fænomen af den slags, der lader sig behandle? Artiklen tager udgangspunkt i det landsdækkende behandlingstilbud „Dialog mod vold“ og stiller spørgsmålet: Hvad er problemet, DMV søger at behandle? Med besvarelsen af dette spørgsmål vil artiklen bidrage til en diskussion af behandlingsbegrebet, og om koblingen mellem vold og behandling kan få indflydelse på, hvordan vi tænker fænomenet vold. Artiklen er dels forankret i forskning i behandlingsbegrebet, herunder konstruktionen og fremstillingen af sociale problemer, dels i samfundsvidenskabelig voldsforskning. Empirien består af DMV’s selvpræsentation i bogform, på hjemmeside og interviews med henholdsvis den tidligere direktør og nuværende afdelingsleder. Det konkluderes, at DMV grundlæggende ser volden som et symptom på underliggende psykiske problemer, som tilsyneladende ofte har sammenhæng med volden som social arv og kommer til udtryk i manglende følelseskontrol og manglende kommunikationsfærdigheder, der igen giver anledning til samlivsproblemer og haltende parforhold. DMV’s perspektiv er individpsykologisk og påfaldende kønsneutralt, hvilket står i skærende kontrast til, at vold mod kvinder blev anerkendt som et socialt problem og samfundsproblem i 1970’erne, og i kontrast til de danske omfangsundersøgelser af vold i nære relationer. DMV forventer, at klienten tager ansvar for sin vold, men denne forventning går dårligt i spænd med DMV’s egen generelle understregning af, af klienterne har personlighedsforstyrrelser og blot automatisk reproducerer den negative social arv. Når vold i nære relationer møder behandlingsindustrien, sker der en radikal transformation og medikalisering af fænomenet. Søgeord: behandling, voldsbehandling, voldelige mænd, Dialog mod vold, vold mod kvinder, vold i nære relationer &nbsp

ALKOHOL I GRØNLAND: Problemorienteret forskning og lokal drikkekultur

Bo Wagner Sørensen: Alcohol in Greenland: Problem-oriented Research and Local Drinking Culture The article sums up the main literature on alcohol in Greenland, showing its markedly problem-oriented approach. Drinking in general is read as a sign of the time - i.e., as a symptom that something has gone wrong in Greenlandic society. More specifically, the literature seems informed by the idea that Greenlanders are a people in transition, that they are trapped in between the so-called traditional society and a modem lifestyle and as such ridden by “acculturative stress”. Alcohol, according to this perspective, may have a function of reducing anxiety. Interestingly, the explanatory framework is roughly the same in research dating back to the early 1960s as in the recent research from the late 1990s, even if Greenland has changed in important ways during this time spån. In contrast to the general approach, I focus empirically on male drinking sessions, showing how they centre around beer drinking, and sometimes on getting drunk. The men involved are motivated, however, not primarily by the beer itself, but by the sense of community created during the sessions. The drinking sessions are not unproblematic as they may conflict with family obligations, and they also seem to confirm the idea underlying the dominant discourse on gender that men, in contrast to their female counterparts, are irresponsible, immature and even problem-ridden. The overall aim of the article is to point to new ways of going about alcohol research in Greenland in order to counter a one-sided problem-oriented approach that focuses on social anomie

Vigdis Broch-Due, Ingrid Rudie & Tone Bleie (eds.): Carved Flesh/Cast Selves: Gendered Symbols and Social Practices

Vigdis Broch-Due, Ingrid Rudie & Tone Bleie (eds.): Carved Flesh/Cast Selves: Gendered Symbols and Social Practices Anmeldes af Bo Wagner Sørense

Byen og bygden – grønlandskhedens landskaber

Denne artikel tager udgangspunkt i udtalelser om Grønlands hovedstad Nuuk som ”et stykke Danmark på klipper”. Formålet er at vise, hvordan og hvorfor Nuuk er omstridt, og hvordan synet på byen har ændret sig over tid. Ved hjælp af landskabsbegrebet defineret som en relation mellem det sociale livs forgrund (os som vi er nu) og baggrund (os som vi kunne være) påvises en sammenhæng mellem synet på byen og den politiske udvikling i Grønland. Hvor den anti-urbane fortælling var fremherskende fra sidst i 1960’erne, hvor byerne var associeret med danskhed og fremmedgørelse, og grønlænderen og byen blev set som uforenelige størrelser, blev den fra 2000 i stigende grad afløst af en mere inkluderende og kompleks grønlandskhed. I landskabsterminologi var situationen den, at folk levede et utilpasset, danskpræget dagligliv i byen, men drømte om et andet liv i pagt med grønlandske traditioner og værdier. Hvor forgrund og baggrund lå meget langt fra hinanden, er der sket en tilnærmelse ved, at byen er blevet approprieret som et grønlandsk landskab. Nuuks status har således ændret sig i retning af stigende anerkendelse. Men Nuuk beskyldes samtidig for at videreføre en dansk centraliseringspolitik og kan i den forstand stadig ses som ”et stykke Danmark på klipper”. ENGELSK ABSTRACT: Bo Wagner Sørensen and Søren Forchhammer: The Town and the Settlement – Landscapes of “Greenlandicness” This article analyses statements about the Greenlandic capital Nuuk as being “a piece of Denmark on rocks”. The purpose is to show how and why Nuuk is contested and how this perspective has changed over time. Using the concept of landscape defined as a relation between the foreground (the way we are now) and background (how we could be) of social life, the article demonstrates how this perspective of the town is connected with the political development in the country. The anti-urban narrative was dominant from the late 1960s when towns were associated with “Danishness” and alienation, but it was increasingly replaced by a more inclusive and complex “Greenlandicness” from around 2000. In landscape terminology it appeared that people lived incompatible “Danish” everyday lives in towns, but dreamt about another life more in agreement with Greenlandic traditions and values. While foreground and background used to be far apart, they have come closer as the town has been appropriated as a Greenlandic landscape. Thus the status of Nuuk has changed towards increasing approval. However, Nuuk is also criticized for carrying on a Danish policy of dominance and centralizing. In this sense it is still considered “a piece of Denmark on rocks”. Keywords: Greenland, Nuuk, urban studies, landscapes, migration

The impact of seasonal variability in wildlife populations on the predicted spread of foot and mouth disease

Modeling potential disease spread in wildlife populations is important for predicting, responding to and recovering from a foreign animal disease incursion such as foot and mouth disease (FMD). We conducted a series of simulation experiments to determine how seasonal estimates of the spatial distribution of white-tailed deer impact the predicted magnitude and distribution of potential FMD outbreaks. Outbreaks were simulated in a study area comprising two distinct ecoregions in South Texas, USA, using a susceptible-latent-infectious-resistant geographic automata model (Sirca). Seasonal deer distributions were estimated by spatial autoregressive lag models and the normalized difference vegetation index. Significant (P < 0.0001) differences in both the median predicted number of deer infected and number of herds infected were found both between seasons and between ecoregions. Larger outbreaks occurred in winter within the higher deer-density ecoregion, whereas larger outbreaks occurred in summer and fall within the lower deer-density ecoregion. Results of this simulation study suggest that the outcome of an FMD incursion in a population of wildlife would depend on the density of the population infected and when during the year the incursion occurs. It is likely that such effects would be seen for FMD incursions in other regions and countries, and for other diseases, in cases in which a potential wildlife reservoir exists. Study findings indicate that the design of a mitigation strategy needs to take into account population and seasonal characteristics

GRØNLANDSK SØNNEOFFER Eller: Riflen med den forfuskede inskription

Eller: Riflen med den forfuskede inskriptio

Periodicity in the BrO/SO2 molar ratios in the volcanic gas plume of Cotopaxi and its correlation with the Earth tides during the eruption in 2015

We evaluated NOVAC (Network for Observation of Volcanic and Atmospheric Change) gas emission data from the 2015 eruption of Cotopaxi volcano (Ecuador) for BrO/SO2 molar ratios. Statistical analysis of the data revealed a conspicuous periodic pattern with a periodicity of about two weeks in a three month time series. While the time series is too short to rule out a chance recurrence of transient geological or meteorological events as a possible origin for the periodic signal, we nevertheless took this observation as a motivation to examine the influence of natural forcings with periodicities of around two weeks on volcanic gas emissions. One strong aspirant with such a periodicity are the Earth tides, which are thus central in this study. We present the BrO/SO2 data, analyse the reliability of the periodic signal, discuss a possible meteorological or eruption-induced origin of this signal, and compare the signal with the theoretical ground surface displacement pattern caused by the Earth tides. Central result is the observation of a significant correlation between the BrO/SO2 molar ratios with the North-South and vertical components of the calculated tide-induced surface displacement with correlation coefficients of 47 % and 36 %, respectively. From all other investigated parameters, only the correlation between the BrO/SO2 molar ratios and the relative humidity in the local atmosphere resulted in a comparable correlation coefficient of about 33 %