Racial and ethnic discrimination

Il saggio costituisce la prima pubblicazione dei risultati di una ricerca di durata triennale, dedicata all’analisi della copertura giornalistica degli omicidi di donne in Italia. Sono state prese in esame tutte le notizie in tema trasmesse dalle edizioni di prime time dei tre TG Rai e dai tre TG Mediaset nel 2006, quando, sulla scorta di delitti come quello di Hina Saleem, si è registrato l’inizio di un allarme sociale per l’integrità fisica e sessuale delle donne. I delitti commessi nel 2006 sono stati 162, oggetto di 473 servizi complessivamente trasmessi dalle 6 testate. L’analisi quantitativa svolta sugli stessi ha mostrato come la copertura giornalistica alteri l’effettiva fisionomia del fenomeno, privilegiando le tipologie di autori, vittime e casi che nella realtà sono i meno diffusi. In particolare, emerge una netta sovraesposizione dei cittadini non Comunitari, confermata dall’esame dei 7 casi di saturation coverage (i più notiziati del 2006): devono la loro “popolarità” anche al fatto di presentare uno o più immigrati nel ruolo di aggressori, o, più spesso, di sospettati. Il saggio analizza infine i risultati dell’analisi qualitativa svolta sui 250 servizi dedicati a questi 7 casi. Il discorso giornalistico li inserisce entro due frames, quello dello “scontro fra culture” e quello dell’emergenza criminalità, entrambi destinati a alimentare una retorica anti-immigrazione. Sulla base dei risultati dell’analisi, si conclude che la violenza contro le donne, in Italia, è stata raccontata in forme tali da legittimarne la classificazione come fenomeno di «panico morale», in cui gli immigrati hanno interpretato il ruolo dei «folk devils» mentre quello della cronaca televisiva può essere efficacemente descritto dalla categoria di «agente di indignazione morale».

Following decades in which the absence of immigration allowed Governments to claim there was no problem of racism in Ireland, the 1990s saw Ireland adopt new equality measures to combat racism. Whilst these measures are important and even innovative, paradoxically they are accompanied by policy initiatives which indicate the equality agenda is still very much a controversial one and possibly even in retreat. More radical reforms are needed than merely tinkering with the Equality laws.

"During the 2000s, the dress of Muslim women in Muslim-minority countries in Europe and elsewhere became increasingly a matter for debate and, in several instances, the subject of legislation. In France, a ban on the wearing of the headscarf
in places of education (2004) was followed in 2010 by the law criminalizing the wearing of the face-veil (usually but inaccurately referred to as the ‘burqa’) in public space. Other countries have enacted similar legislation. Muslim women’s dress has historically been a controversial matter in Muslim-majority countries, too, most recently in North Africa following the Arab Spring, but the present paper concentrates on the movement against face-veiling in Western Europe, documenting what has been happening and analysing the arguments proposed to justify criminalizing this type of garment. In doing so, the paper explores the implications for our understanding of contemporary (ethnically and religiously) diverse societies and their governance.
Is anti-veiling legislation a protest against what is interpreted as an Islamic practice unacceptable in liberal democracies, a sign of a wider discomfort with non-European otherness, or an expression of an underlying racism articulated in cultural terms?
Whatever the reason, is criminalization an appropriate response? An Appendix notes some topics for further research. "

"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"

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.

"From an intergroup relations perspective, relative group size is associated with the quantity and quality of intergroup contact: more positive contact (i.e., intergroup friendship) supports, and negative contact (i.e., experienced discrimination) hampers,
minority identity, and school success. Accordingly, we examined intergroup contact as the process through which perceived relative proportions of minority and majority students in school affected minority success (i.e., school performance, satisfaction, and self-efficacy). Turkish minorities (N = 1,060) were compared in four Austrian and Belgian cities which differ in their typical school ethnic composition. Across cities, minority experiences of intergroup contact fully mediated the impact of perceived relative group size on school success. As expected, higher minority presence impaired school success through restricting intergroup friendship and increasing experienced discrimination. The
association between minority presence and discrimination was curvilinear, however, so that schools where minority students predominated offered some protection from discrimination. To conclude, the comparative findings reveal positive and negative
intergroup contact as key processes that jointly explain when and how higher proportions of minority students affect school success."

"Rey Ty & Alkarzon, A. (2012). Where Law Meets Religion, Ethnicity, and Gender: The U.S. Constitution and Muslim Women and Men in the U.S.A. Proceedings of the Midwest Research to Practice Conference. Edmond, OK: University of Central Oklahoma.

Abstract. After 9/11, discrimination against Muslims in the U.S.A. has increased exponentially. This paper describes cases studies of discrimination against Muslims in the U.S.A. Provisions of the U.S. Constitution related to civil liberties and civil rights as well as landmark Supreme Court decisions are discussed, as they relate to religion and women, with a view to providing policy recommendations to adult educators and adult learners of all types to respect the Constitutional and human rights of Muslims in the U.S.A."

During historic times of turmoil and change, social scientists of various stripes are often called upon to shape our understanding of ways mortgage markets function. The question is asked; just how did we get here?  Subprime Cities: The Political Economy of Mortgage Markets presents a collection of works from social scientists that offer important insights into what is happening in today’s mortgage market including the causes, effects, and aftermath of the ‘subprime’ mortgage crisis. In addition to shedding light on how the current housing crisis has spread to other sectors of the economy, readings address the mortgage market itself and how problems have spread throughout mortgage and housing markets. Various chapters address changes that have resulted in the subprime mortgage crisis; others focus on the structural changes in the mortgage market, rather than on the crisis itself. Documentation of the geographical, social, and institutional inequalities associated with the crisis reveal how the recent mortgage boom created ‘subprime cities’, and how the victims of the crisis are the product of deep structural inequalities.  This book is a provocative wake-up call for us to reconsider the structures of housing finance and housing policy if we are to avoid another crisis.

In an American society both increasingly diverse and increasingly segregated, the signals children receive about race are more confusing than ever. In this context, how do children negotiate and make meaning of multiple and conflicting messages in order to develop their own ideas about race? Learning Race, Learning Place engages this question using in-depth interviews with an economically diverse group of African American children and their mothers in Detroit, Michigan. Through these rich narratives, Erin N. Winkler seeks to reorient the way we look at how children develop their ideas about race, showing the importance of considering this process from children’s points of view and listening to their interpretations of their experiences, which are often quite different than what the adults around them expect or intend. At the children’s prompting, Winkler examines the roles of multiple actors and influences, including gender, skin tone, colorblind rhetoric, peers, family, media, and school, and especially place. Winkler brings to the fore the complex and understudied power of place, positing that, while children’s racial identities and experiences with racism are shaped by a national construction of race, they are also specific to each particular place, which exerts both direct and indirect influence on children’s racial identities and ideas.