‘What’s the plan?’ ‘What plan?’ Changing aspirations among Gypsy youngsters, and implications for future cultural identities and group membership

PublishedMartin Levinson University of Exeter Graduate School of Education Heavitree Road Exeter EX1 2LU United KingdomArticleThis is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in British Journal of Sociology of Education on 28 March 2014, available online: http://wwww.tandfonline.com/10.1080/01425692.2014.897217Copyright © 2014 Taylor & FrancisConsidering data from a research project with two Gypsy communities (2010–2012) in South West England, this article explores issues of education and identity. The two communities have contrasting experiences within the education system. Informed by inter-disciplinary perspectives on identity and assimilation theories, the article explores these experiences within the wider context of the researcher’s work with Romani communities over the past two decades, exploring the impact of schooling on cultural identity and group membership. Questions are raised about theories concerning hybrid and multiple identities. Finally, the author emphasizes the need to acknowledge the heterogeneity of minority groups in formulating policy

Core and Periphery Relations: A Case Study of the Maya

How do indigenous peoples relate to the core over the longue duree? In this paper, we explore the implications of colonialism from a world-systems perspective, examining interactions in the economic and political structures in addition to the effects of landlessness for indigenous peoples in one case: the Maya. After reviewing world-systems theory and applying it to indigenousness, we discuss Ragins (1992) conceptualization of cases and the comparative historical method. Then we introduce the relational concept, a tool that allows us to employ both the comparative historical method and world-systems theory in our analysis of the Maya and their relationship to the state of Mexico. We then present our data, which consist of the economic and political conditions, along with the cultural implications of landholding across time among the Maya and in Mexico. We analyze these data using the relational concept to understand the consequences of colonialism and globalization for the Maya people

Globalization and high-risk systems

The argument of this paper is that globalization has reconfigured the landscape and operating constraints of high-risk systems. This article helps describe how the operating conditions of high-risk systems have been evolving over the past 30 years. In order to do so, findings from the literature on globalization, organization, regulation, multinationals, safety and disasters are considered and linked into an integrative framework. The article has three parts. First, the literature on globalization is introduced. It is shown that it constitutes a central feature of our time, but that this new historical moment is far from being unambiguous in its nature, implications and consequences. It is contested terrain that has given rise to a variety of interpretations. Second, the article discusses the extent to which safety as a field of research has acknowledged this new situation, concluding that it should be further explored. I argue that issues discussed in the field, such as ‘outsourcing’ or ‘standardization’, along with ‘financialization’, ‘digitalization’ or ‘self-regulation’ should be linked to the broader pattern of globalization. Third, this statement is empirically illustrated, building on the extensive writings about BP as an example of the failure of a globalized multinational. It is shown that BP’s series of disasters between 2005 and 2010 can only be meaningfully understood in the context of a multinational shaping and being shaped by globalization. BP is the paradigmatic example of a new industrial safety era