Lyon, Sarah and Mark Moberg, eds. 2010. Fair Trade and Social Justice: Global Ethnographies

Lyon, Sarah and Mark Moberg, eds. 2010. Fair Trade and Social Justice: Global Ethnographies. New York: New York University Press. ISBN 978-0-8147-9621-4. Paperback: 25.00 USD. Pages: 320

Note on Stuart Hall’s “Cultural Identity and Diaspora”

For some Marxists, issues of culture, identity and representation are secondary. In this research note, I analytically reflect on Stuart Hall’s (1996) canonical essay “Cultural Identity and Diaspora,” which stresses that these are significant concerns for anyone struggling for liberation. In his essay, Hall explicates two definitions of "cultural identity." The first is an essentialist identity, which emphasizes the similarities amongst a group of people. Hall argues that this definition can and does inspire feminist, anti-colonial and anti-racist art and activism, but cannot help us comprehend the trauma of colonialism. The second definition emphasizes the similarities and the differences amongst an imagined cultural group. Hall asserts that this definition is useful for understanding the trauma of colonialism because it emphasizes the historical and social contingency of identity. By using this definition in our analysis of power and normalization, we are better able to scrutinize historical and contemporary colonial relations and to struggle against them

Developing the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP) to Assess Evaluations of Death Within Suicidality

Over the last fifty years, psychological science can be credited with persistent efforts to prevent and treat suicidal behaviours. However, the utility of such interventions is often moderated by the ability to identity individuals who are likely to engage in suicidal behaviors ahead of time. Less progress has been made on this front; the ability to accurately predict such behaviors at an individual level remains limited. Recent evidence suggests that this may be due in part to the field’s reliance on self-report measures. One promising avenue that has emerged in recent years is the objective behavioural tasks referred to as “implicit measures”, which have shown greater promising predictive validity relative to existing risk factors derived from self-report measures. The current body of research sought to expand on these findings and, specifically, to explore implicit evaluations of death in both normative and suicidal individuals using the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP). This thesis begins with a systematic review of the literature on implicit measures and suicide. Based on the conclusions of this review, five analogue studies were conducted exploring implicit studies to death in normative student populations. Two further experiments developed a novel experimental methodology (i.e., manipulations of the IRAP’s “contrast category”) in order to facilitate a more detailed understanding of what drives effects on the measure. A final experiment compared implicit death-evaluations on the IRAP between psychiatric patients with current suicidal ideation and normative controls. All studies presented participants with one or more implicit measures (IRAP and IAT) and a number of self-report measures. Generically, the IRAP presents participants with four category pairings (e.g., “life-positive”, “life-negative”, “death-positive”, and “death-negative”), and compares the relative ease with which they respond to these pairings with “true” relative to “false”. The difference in mean response-latency between the two response options is referred to as an implicit bias. Together, these studies allowed for a more detailed interrogation of how death is evaluated between individuals with and without a history of suicidal behaviours than was previously possible. Specifically, across studies, results demonstrated the IRAP’s ability to isolate specific implicit biases between categories, relative to other measures. The results from the analogue studies were used to development and assess a death-evaluation IRAP that is sensitive to mortality salience. A final experiment to conclude that suicidal ideation was found to be associated with a specific rejection of the negativity (i.e., fearlessness) of death. Results across studies indicate that differential patterns of implicit bias between normative individuals and suicidal ideators were attributable to suicidality specifically rather than the salience of mortality more generally, thereby providing a degree of construct validity for death-evaluations on the IRAP. Importantly, these effects are consistent with leading theories of suicide (e.g., Interpersonal Theory and Integrated Motivational-Volitional model), and are in line with our stated goal to attempt to ground the effects found on implicit measures more closely with existing theory. Overall, results suggest that the assessment of implicit death-evaluations on the IRAP represents a good candidate for future research on the prospective prediction of suicidal behaviours

The Big News on Small Churches: Re-evaluating the Contribution of Small Churches to the Fulfillment of the Great Commission .

Although many small churches are declining, research presented in this article suggests that on almost every measure of vitality or effectiveness (including newcomers), smaller churches are doing as well, if not better, than larger churches. Of particular note is that people in smaller congregations tend to find it easier to make friends in the congregation and are more likely to seek to make new arrivals welcome. Indeed, small churches may have a number of strategic advantages that are discussed and identified as ways smaller churches can make a significant contribution to the fulfillment of the Great Commission

The Big News on Small Churches: Re-evaluating the Contribution of Small Churches to the Fulfillment of the Great Commission .

Although many small churches are declining, research presented in this article suggests that on almost every measure of vitality or effectiveness (including newcomers), smaller churches are doing as well, if not better, than larger churches. Of particular note is that people in smaller congregations tend to find it easier to make friends in the congregation and are more likely to seek to make new arrivals welcome. Indeed, small churches may have a number of strategic advantages that are discussed and identified as ways smaller churches can make a significant contribution to the fulfillment of the Great Commission

Challenges for Institutional Ethnographers: On the Paradox of Standpoint Epistemology and the Complexities of Difference

Feminist standpoint epistemology (FSE) is an important form of writing from below; that is, writing from embodied experience. FSE and other forms of writing from below involve practices of representation that are mediated by ideology. In this article, I tease out some of the complexities and limitations of feminist efforts to use FSE to situate and embody thought. Some feminist standpoint theorists understand Cartesian dualism as a dualism or a division that can be collapsed or reversed, but I show that what is called “Cartesian dualism” is in fact a paradox and therefore cannot be overcome but must be grappled with on an ongoing basis in our efforts to write from below. The article begins with an exploration of the basic tenets and presumptions of two schools of FSE. While neither school can evade the politics of representation, I show that one is able to withstand an intersectional critique whilst the other is not. Having unpacked these schools of FSE, I reflect on Himani Bannerji’s ideology critique of intersectionality to lay bare the limitations of this concept that some writers from below deploy and to advance a reflexive materialist epistemology

Choudry, Aziz, Jill Hanley, and Eric Shragge, eds. 2012. Organize! Building from the Local for Global Justice.

Choudry, Aziz, Jill Hanley, and Eric Shragge, eds. 2012. Organize! Building from the Local for Global Justice