Minority Studies

The visibility of religious identities in workplaces has become a recurrent topic of certain public debates and tensions in France. It is generally the visibility of Muslim identities and practices of Islam that are at the centre of these tensions. This article shows in the context of French republican laïcité that religious issues are considered as private issues that should not play out openly in the workplace, which is considered to have a more public character. With a focus on the French labour law framework and religious discrimination issues, interviews with elected politicians, religious leaders, unionists, representatives of civil society organisations and legal experts show that religious discrimination in the French workplace is a more complex phenomenon than it seems. Discrimination of religious employees, in a direct or indirect manner, happens more often than is officially reported in France. Many respondents suggested that a great deal of religious discrimination is, at best, reframed as ethnicity-based or gender-based discrimination. The article also discusses some recent examples of businesses that treat the issue of religious diversity in the French workplace in a more pragmatic manner, opening up more possibilities for reasonable accommodation.

"Im Diskurs über die Bildungssituation von Roma bezeichnet der Begriff „Segregation“ in der Regel zwei unterschiedliche Phänomene. Zum einen wird von Segregation gesprochen, wenn Roma-Kinder und -Jugendliche in Sonderschulen oder Sonderklassen überrepräsentiert sind. Zum anderen ist Segregation gemeint, wenn Regelschulen oder -klassen mehrheitlich von Roma-Kinder und -Jugendlichen besucht werden. Entsprechend bezeichnet Desegregation in diesem Kontext einen Prozess der entweder die Überrepräsentanz von Roma-Kindern und -Jugendlichen auf Sonderschulen oder die Entstehung von ethnisch segregierten Regelschulen oder Schulklassen rückgängig macht oder im Vorfeld verhindert."
(Direct quote from the first paragraph)"

"CALL FOR BOOK CHAPTERS: "MAPPING THE ALTERNATIVE MEDIA IN TURKEY"

Editors: Barış Çoban & Bora Ataman

Extended Deadline for abstracts:
January 1st 2013

http://alternativemediamap.net/

We aim to map the alternative media in Turkey, which is varied in form, structure and working styles such as “cracks”, “rhizomes” and “fronts”. Similarly to what has occurred with the mainstream media, both large and small examples of the alternative media, alongside their widespread prevalence inside the country, have also already transcended the national borders. We argue that mapping the alternative media, embracing newspapers, radio and television channels, cinemas, blogs, forums and platforms, essentially the full range of conventional and new media organs and vehicles, is one of the most useful research approaches to comprehending the nature of alternative politics in Turkey.

The alternative media works as a source of memory and an archive helping to understand the historical and current structure of alternative politics in Turkey. IT also gives voice to alternative ideologies and politics and makes their political activities visible. In addition, the alternative media, which mainly represents the “otherised”, oppressed and marginalised groups, forms the vanguard of struggle against the hegemony and barbarism of the oppressive, globalized neo-liberal society.

Alternative media, as an umbrella term, applies to those media organs which are typically bottom up organisations. In principle, their organizational structures and decision making processes are democratic, participatory, polyphonic and dialogic. Their opposition to the mainstream media finds its roots, in its form and content, in social and political struggles and is based in radical ideologies such as anarchism, radical democracy and Marxism. The existence of alternative media indicates the struggle to construct a truly democratic and free sphere of communication from a number of broad perspectives, varying from the idea of simply being independent from either the state or capital, to being completely opposed to them. In this context, it is also possible to claim that every organ of the alternative media, as a centre of subaltern resistance, is part of a greater alternative communication network.

This so-called alternative network (or networks) is/are the voice of different political or social groups, communities, minorities or even individuals at the grassroots level. Thus, they open the way for these groups to actively participate in political and social life, as either real “agents” or as “spectacles” in the field of symbolic struggle. Therefore, individuals or groups can find opportunities to get involved in both real and symbolic struggles for hegemony, not only as consumers, but also as producers; as active agents.

Therefore, alternative media institutions either on the micro- or macro-scale cannot be considered as combatants solely at the informational level. In addition to their struggle to gather, record and spread news and ideas concerning local, national and transnational problems, they also provide a response to the establishment through real political actions. It is not unusual to see their active participation in protests, or even note that they hold the leadership positions in the organisation of some of these dissident political actions. Therefore, their active struggle with the hegemonic powers can also be considered as an effort to create alternative political forms. More commonly however, alternative media operate as the symbolic production centre of alternative politics and as an incubation ground for the intellectual and ideological constructs of social movements.

Alternative media, along with other dissident institutions, are seen as paving the way for a brighter and more just future by being the voice of the voiceless and contributing to the imagining of a different world. Threatening so-called representative democracy by supporting participatory social, cultural and political activities is also deemed useful to this end. By engaging in such activities, they may be able to cause the transformation of political culture in general. More importantly, however, the ways in which subordinate constituents of the society interpret politics and their own means of participation could change in a positive manner. Moreover, such efforts may also lead to the construction of efficient counter-public spheres alongside the more common examples of alternative spaces.
Diverse anti-systemic, reformist and revolutionary ideological orientations, varied political discourses and different modes of action constituting the alternative media landscape mostly open up an opportunity for the “oppressed” to actively participate in these alternative political spaces that are, to a certain extent, diverse, colourful, vivid and, most importantly, innately dialogic.
In this context, we argue that the “duty” of academia should be to understand these alternatives without stigmatizing them as the source of conflicts within the prevailing social system. After all, we as editors, would like to study these initiatives since the imagining of an alternative world may only be possible by embracing the oppressed and their voice, even though the world around us is not particularly welcoming.

Abstracts of papers are sought on topics such as:
• Radical- militant media (affiliated with revolutionary organizations)
• Radical media (Struggling within legal parameters to push the limits of the existing system
• Identity and rights-based media (Human rights, labour and trade-union rights, gender, environment, ethnicity, struggles based on faith or denomination
• Transnational and diaspora-based alternative media
• Independent, objective, opposition media
• Dissident voices, “cracks” in the mainstream media

However, it should be noted that the categories above do not refer to independent categories with clear differences. It is possible to say that; most examples of the alternative media operating in Turkey can be included under more than one of the rubrics mentioned above. Nevertheless, the alternative media organs in Turkey, despite a degree of permeability in the boundaries that separate them, may be seen as belonging more to one or another of the above-mentioned classifications, therefore, these categories will constitute the book’s chapters.

Furthermore, we are mainly interested in the case studies (comparative if possible) and empirical research possessing theoretical and methodological clarity, and focusing on at least one of three basic dimensions of media studies; such as “Production”, “Text”, or “Audience”, without missing the multi-layered and intertwined relationships between these dimensions.

Abstracts of a maximum of 250 words in Turkish and English outlining the topic, theoretical and methodological approach as well as the research question, should be submitted to either Barış Çoban (bcoban@dogus.edu.tr) or Bora Ataman (bataman@dogus.edu.tr) until January1st 2013.

Announcement of the abstracts selected will be made by February 1 2013.

The deadline for full paper submissions is August 1, 2013

The editors are planning to publish book in Turkish and English and have made an agreement with Yordam, to publish in January 2014.

After the evaluation of the abstracts, negotiations with foreign publishing houses will begin for the English version.
Barış Çoban & Bora Ataman (Eds.)
Extended Deadline for Research Proposals: January 1st, 2013"

In Analogie zu den stadträumlichen Inszenierungen jüdischer Kultur, den »Jewish Spaces«, gewinnnen zunehmend auch »Gypsy Spaces« an Gestalt. Roma-Festivals sind populär, während gleichzeitig die Angst vor einer »Roma-Invasion« grassiert. Monica Rüthers geht der Entstehungsgeschichte und den Funktionen dieser neuen Folklore im gegenwärtigen Europa nach. Sie vergleicht das jüdische Kulturfestival in Krakau mit der Zigeunerwallfahrt in Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer und passt beide Räume in die kulturellen Topografien Europas ein. Die Analyse dieser Anlässe erlaubt die Frage, ob solche Räume auch emanzipatorisches Potenzial entfalten können. Es zeigt sich: Im Umgang mit dem Fremden spiegelt sich der Prozess der europäischen Integration.

Interviews conducted with leading actors in England asking a range of questions about religious diversity and the legal framework and, in particular, about reasonable accommodation, helped identify a number of areas of concern. There was some doubt about whether specific legal provision should be brought in to guarantee reasonable accommodation. However, there was broad support for having the principle adopted in the practice of employers, whereas some preferred the current informality rather than the principle being enforced through litigation. None of the respondents came up with illustrations outside Judaism, Christianity or Islam. The results are consistent with recent critical studies showing that the assumption in social sciences that religion is a universal has been imported from theology. Religion-based questions only pick out certain phenomena specific to some cultures and an inevitable skew is created when asking such questions because they make sense only within an Abrahamic religious framework. Although enabling the identification of some aspects of culture considered to merit reasonable accommodation on the grounds of religion, the results also pose questions about the adequacy of current standard research methodologies which assume that religion is a universal.

"This article is an ethnographic study of the production of recorded music and popular music culture in Tibet, examining who gets their voice heard and how, and the roles played by the state, the independent realm that has emerged since the late 1980s, and the illegal/pirate sphere that has also resulted from economic liberalisation. While the question of IPR violations in China has become a global issue, it is largely discussed in the context of big, multi‐national business. This article examines the little known implications of China’s IPR and piracy issues for the production of minority culture.

Since the 1950s, the debate on Tibetan culture has centred on issues of political repression. This article aims to open up socio‐economic factors and international legal and trade issues as crucial to the question of cultural expression and identity in Tibet, now China is connected to global capitalism."

This article examines Russian foreign policy towards the “Russian diaspora”. It will be shown that Russian efforts to utilize its diaspora for its own geopolitical ends have come to little. Instead the main successes of Russian compatriot policy have been in cementing its own domestic identity and in placating calls for imperial expansionism from within Russia. To this end, it will be argued that Russia’s soft engagement with its “compatriots” in the Baltic states serves an important domestic function for the Russian authorities while doing little to undermine the internal stability and sovereignty of the Baltic states.  In fact, it is argued that Russia’s application of soft power in the region acts as a pressure valve, tempering Russian imperialism by creating the illusion of meaningful Russian influence.

This collection of essays addresses poetic and critical responses to the various crises encountered by contemporary writers and our society. The essays included discuss a range of issues from the holocaust, the Troubles in Northern Ireland and their aftermath and the war on terror to the ecological crisis, poetry's relationship to place and questions of cultural and national identity. What are the means available to poetry to address the various crises it faces, and how can both poets and critics meet the challenges posed by society and the literary community? How can poetry justify its own role as a meaningful form of cultural and artistic practice? The volume focuses on poetry from Britain, Ireland and the US, and many of the poets discussed in this volume are among the most acclaimed contemporary writers, including for example Seamus Heaney, George Szirtes, Paul Muldoon, John Burnside, Michael Longley, Alice Oswald, Louise Glück, SuAndi, Lemn Sissay and Alice Oswald.

In the face of crusades, conversions, and expulsions, Muslims and their communities survived to thrive for over 500 years in medieval Europe. This comprehensive new study explores how the presence of Islamic minorities transformed Europe in everything from architecture to cook- ing, literature to science, and served as a stimulus for Christian society to define itself. Combining a series of regional studies, Brian Catlos com- pares the varied experiences of Muslims across Iberia, Southern Italy, the Crusader Kingdoms, and Hungary to examine those ideologies that informed their experiences, their place in society, and their sense of themselves as Muslims and as members of multi-confessional societies. This is a pioneering new narrative of the history of medieval and early modern Europe from the perspective of Islamic minorities; one which is not, as we might first assume, driven by ideology, isolation, and decline, but instead one in which successful communities persisted because they remained actively integrated within the larger Christian and Jewish soci- eties in which they lived.

"Education should be a constant concern for political leaders, regardless of the regime in power, education being a key factor in the development of society, favoring progress and contributing at the same time to ensure skilled workforce for all departments of activity. Romanian communists have shown interest in education since 1944, when Ștefan Voitec, Social Democratic Party' leader, took the lead of the Minister. Soon the actions taken by him become to be considered "anti-democratic" by the communists who wanted a radical transformation of the education system. This will be concretized into the reform from 1948, which set up the basis of an education system similar to Soviet one. Minorities from R.P.R. (Romanian Popular Republic) were also affected by the provisions of the new law, present work aiming to investigate how the  education reform from 1948 and the measures taken by the government in the direction of education until 1956 affected the different “cohabitant nationalities”.
Article focuses on presenting the effects of education reform from 1948 on all national minorities, following in the same time, the role of this reform in the process of assimilation of nationalities. Increasing the number of minority language schools, textbooks situation and how the Romanian communists have copied, if this happened, the Soviet model of organization of education in the language of nationalities are also examined in my study.
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