The importance of post-conflict socio-cultural community education programmes: a case study from northern Uganda

Using data from a programme in northern Uganda, this article argues psycho-social education supports post-conflict reconstruction better than humanitarian aid or materialistically-focused projects. The programme used post-Freirian, discovery-based pedagogies focusing on topics chosen by participants: family and community relations, gender power relations, education, forced sex, and reintegration of rebel fighters. It worked for a year with groups of men, women, male and female youths, its major focus being on deconstructing local gender identities. The programme’s impact was considerable: greater egalitarianism within families along with warmer relationships, increased community integration, significantly reduced levels of violence, and greater responsibility in sexual relations. Improved economic well-being was a tangential additional benefit. I suggest this approach can significantly reduce the likelihood of future conflict. This has important implications for the international community to consider when drawing up policies for support in post-conflict settings. More attention needs to be given to grass-roots work rather than macro-level interventions as the former can be far more efficacious and even prevent populations following radical leaders. Thus in the long-term it is also more cost-effective, although this clashes with contemporary neoliberal ideology

What Can Applying a Gender Lens Contribute to Conflict Studies? A review of selected MICROCON1 working papers

It is rare to find gender a specific focus of scholarship on conflict studies. In MICROCON we have tried to place gender in a central position within all projects and to convince all researchers to use a gender lens for their analysis. This paper uses a set of MICROCON working papers to illustrate how gender can be used at different conceptual levels in conflict analysis, and aims to show what can be gained by the use of a gender lens. The papers bear out Enloe’s insistence that those seeking an in-depth understanding of the social and political world require a feminist curiosity – that is, a curiosity about the roles gender categories play in political debate and action, as well as in scholarship.

Cognitive-Experiential Self-Theory: An Analysis Of Teen Court Decision-Making By Youth Jurors And Adult Volunteers

Few studies have explored the effects of emotional or rational stimulations concerning juror verdicts. There has yet to be a study to examine the impact of cognitive or experiential processing on teen juror decision-making in teen courts. The survey of teen court participants after the completion of teen court jury trials was used to gauge whether rational processing or experiential processing was triggered in selecting a verdict. Cognitive-Experiential Self-Theory (CEST) and juvenile decision-making theories and perspectives (The Focal Concerns Theory of Sentencing, Attribution Theory, and Formal Legal Perspective) were used to explain teen jurors’ decision-making. A sample of 107 grade, middle, and high school youth, 10 to 18 years-of-age (delinquent youth and youth volunteers), and adult teen court volunteers who are primarily judges, and attorneys was analyzed in this study. To test whether teen court youth possess more experiential than rational processing traits, and to determine whether experiential and cognitive processing traits were more influential in the verdict/sentencing variable, analyses of variance and correlations were run. One-way ANOVA was used to measure whether the categorical variables had a measurable effect on the CEST REI variables. This study found teen jurors were capable of making cognitive-based decisions, though there were some experiential influences on decision-making. Overall older youth seemed to be more willing to prefer complex problem-solving to prevent boredom and redundancy of the proceedings. Further comparison is required to determine whether the study’s statistical significance was derived from higher cognitive processing traits in some participants compared to other participants. Keywords: teen court, diversion, youth jurors, decision-making, juvenile justic

Miami-Dade County Status Offenders: A Literature Review of Punishment and Rehabilitation of Youth

The number of juveniles in detention centers has decreased across the United States. Although overall incarceration rates of juveniles in Miami-Dade County have declined, the number of youths at risk for delinquent activity and the number of girls in detention centers has increased. In the last nine years, Florida legislators have created laws to eliminate zero-tolerance policies in county schools, lessened the punishment role of law enforcement officers for in-school behaviors, as well as minimized the presence of law enforcement officers on school grounds. Although Miami-Dade County has been a part of the reformation of the Florida juvenile justice system, unlike Polk and Palm Beach County, it continues to enforce zero-tolerance policies. This is a comparable review of literature for the Miami-Dade County’s juvenile justice system’s treatment of status offenders

Application of clustering techniques to multispectral optical data over the ocean

MERIS, on Envisat, provides high-resolution radiometric data at nine discrete channels in the visible band. This paper looks at the potential of an unsupervised classification technique for utilizing these multi-spectral data to provide better discrimination between water masses according to their optical properties, and in particular whether phytoplankton groups can be distinguished. Although the majority of data do show a spectral peak associated with chlorophyll's red fluorescence line, clustering using only the red bands was found to separate out coastal waters according to their sediment content. Red-end classification also appeared to identify sub-pixel cloud, and demonstrate that the smile correction had not removed all the striping from the data. Classification using bands from the blue-green end showed a response to changes in chlorophyll concentration, but also indicated other variations. However, without in situ data no firm conclusions can be drawn on which phytoplankton groupings are present

Right Against Self-Incrimination: Revealing the Mental Health History of Justice-Involved Youth

In the last two decades, the juvenile justice system has focused on the early identification of youth mental health to provide timely assessment and needed treatment. However, there are potential risks in divulging youth mental health status because the information is often made available to juvenile courts and probation departments. Many state statutes allow such information to be used in the admission of guilt, adjudication, and dispositional phases. The study reviewed state and federal statutes related to protections against self-incrimination of youth at eight different stages of the juvenile justice system. A systematic content analysis of secondary sources and legislative updates of current federal and state statutes revealed that only a handful of states provide complete protection against self-incrimination when youth disclose mental health information during mental health screening, assessments, and/or treatment. Policymakers should consider the extent to which a constitutionally protected right is circumvented in the name of mental health treatment

Masculinities, New Forms of Religion, and the Production of Social Order in Kaduna City, Nigeria

From the late 1970s when serious economic woes hit Nigerians in general and the inhabitants of Kaduna in particular, the latter began to seek explanations for the ills that beset their country and support to deal with them. Some found this in new religious movements, both Christian and Muslim, that rejected earlier sects/denominations as religiously and ethically unacceptable and focused on more modern, individualistic lifestyles as well as providing some measure of material support, explanations, and solutions based in the supernatural for the ills the population was suffering. The situation sparked fear of social chaos, partly owing to men’s uneasiness at the threat of losing their dominance over wives and offspring along with their control of economic resources. The new religious movements support male superiority while offering greater space for women, provided they keep to their assigned places. These movements thus combine material and social support with the spiritual.</jats:p

The Functioning of Gender, With Special Reference to the Global South

This paper proposes theorising gender through complementary sets of behavioural prescriptions or norms rather than by a focus on women (and men). It posits the idea that gender is integral to a disciplinary regime aimed at producing social order, with masculinity at its centre. What appear as advantages to men simultaneously pressure them into conforming to their cultural and socio-economic group’s notions of masculinity including exerting control over wives and offspring. Four complementary foundational norms for both sexes are identified. They evolved during the nineteenth-century in industrialised Europe and were spread to the global south first through Christianisation and colonialism and later through gender and development programmes and mass/social media. These norms are first economic support for sustaining material life versus social reproduction and caring; secondly, male disciplining of (submissive) wives and children; thirdly heterosexuality, marriage and the biological production of children; and fourthly men’s protection of vulnerable women and their ascriptive (ethnic/religious) group for the context, as also the state. These do not determine behaviour but oblige everyone to consider them in negotiating their own conduct, with the most insecure interpreting them most narrowly. The ideology of masculinism supports the regime at the macro level, while also influencing individual behaviour at grassroots. Drawing on cases from my work in Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa, I show how this functions in practice in relation to how men treat each other and how it impinges on familial gender relations, with particular emphasis on Sub-Saharan Africa, and especially Kaduna, Nigeria. I also discuss how supporting men to delink their behaviour from the norms of masculinity (thus defying masculinism) can make a positive contribution to family life and I posit the importance of further research on the effects of the norms for both sexes to improve our understanding of the functioning of gender

Reviewing the evidence base : Attraction, pathways and retention : A focus on attracting candidates

[Extract] Key points for orienting readers 1. Induction and mentor programs are beneficial for early career teachers. 2. Close alignment between academic training and practice is crucial for preparing teachers to be effective and satisfied. 3. Positive and supportive school culture is one of the main factors associated with retention. 4. Supportive leadership is crucial for retention. 5. Equity: Schools with higher equity needs are more likely to face higher teacher turnover