scholarly journals The Colony Writ Small: Vietnamese Women and Political Activism in Colonial Schools During the 1920s*

2008 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 3-23
Author(s):  
Micheline Lessard
Keyword(s):  
French Literature ◽  
Formal Education ◽  
Child Rearing ◽  
French History ◽  
Student Protests ◽  
Political Debates ◽  
Vietnamese Women ◽  
Political Views ◽  
French Colonial ◽  
The Public Sphere

Abstract French colonial rule in Vietnam (1858-1954) resulted in, for the first time, the formal education of Vietnamese girls. By the 1920s a small percentage of young Vietnamese women were enrolled in colonial schools where they learned, in addition to home economics and child rearing, the French language, French history, and French literature. As a result, they were able to read newspapers, novels, and other writings on a variety of subjects and issues. This ability thrust them into the public sphere of political debates in colonial Vietnam. A significant number of these young women were politicized in the process and expressed their political views in a number of ways, including student protests and strikes.

scholarly journals CHILD LABOR AND THE EDUCATION OF A SOCIETY

2009 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 220-249 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clive Bell ◽  
Hans Gersbach
Keyword(s):  
Human Capital ◽  
Child Labor ◽  
Capital Accumulation ◽  
Formal Education ◽  
School Attendance ◽  
Compulsory Education ◽  
Child Rearing ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Initial State ◽  
Continuous Growth

This paper analyzes policies by means of which a whole society in an initial state of illiteracy and low productivity can raise itself into a condition of continuous growth. Using an overlapping generations model in which human capital is formed through child rearing and formal education, we show that an escape from a poverty trap, in which children work full time and no human capital accumulation takes place, is possible through compulsory education or programs of taxes and transfers. If school attendance is unenforceable, temporary inequality is unavoidable if the society is to escape in finite time, but long-run inequalities are avoidable provided sufficiently heavy, but temporary, taxes can be imposed on the better off. Programs that aim simply at high attendance rates in the present can be strongly nonoptimal.

THE MEDIUM OF “TRADITION”: AMADOU HAMPÂTÉ BÂ’S CONFRONTATIONS WITH LANGUAGES, LITERACY, AND COLONIALISM

2010 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 217-228
Author(s):  
Ralph A. Austen
Keyword(s):  
Formal Education ◽  
Writing System ◽  
Administrative Training ◽  
Religious Poetry ◽  
French Colonial

In his efforts to communicate his research on African “tradition”—more specifically oral texts—Hampâté Bâ was faced with a choice of languages and alphabets. Much of his work appeared only in French, the language of his main formal education and administrative training. In collaboration with several French colonial scholar-administrators (Henri Gaden, Colonel R. Figaret, and Gilbert Vieillard) Hampâté Bâ eventually developed a system for writing his native Fulfulde in Roman characters. However for his own Fulfulde religious poetry (“mes seules oeuvres de ‘creation’”), Hampâté Bâ used Ajami (Arabic letters representing non-Arabic languages), a writing system that he also promoted as a medium of wider Fulbe literacy.

Perception of Cross-Generational Differences in Child Behavior and Parent Socialization: A Mixed-Method Interview Study With Grandmothers in China

2017 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 62-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chan Zhou ◽  
Wai Ying Vivien Yiu ◽  
Michael Shengtao Wu ◽  
Patricia M. Greenfield
Keyword(s):  
Family Size ◽  
Parental Support ◽  
Generational Differences ◽  
Formal Education ◽  
Child Rearing ◽  
Child Behaviors ◽  
Three Generations ◽  
Parent Socialization ◽  
Child Autonomy ◽  
And Control

China, having gone through rapid economic reform, supported by urbanization, educational expansion, and family size reduction over past decades, is an important part of a worldwide sociodemographic trend that can be summarized as a shift from community/ Gemeinschaft to society/ Gesellschaft. Correlated with this sociodemographic trend, our qualitative and quantitative analyses document intergenerational change in grandmothers’ perception of socializing environments and developmental pathways of Chinese children. Grandmothers from Beijing ranked (a) three generations of children at ages 4 to 6 in their families (themselves, their children, and their grandchildren) on autonomy, curiosity, self-expression, obedience, and shyness and (b) three generations of parents in their families (their parents, themselves, and their children) on child-rearing behaviors: support, praise, criticism, and control. As predicted, we found an intergenerational increase in perceived child autonomy, curiosity, and self-expression—individualistic traits adapted to Gesellschaft environments. Also as predicted, perceived child obedience and shyness, adapted to Gemeinschaft environments, declined across the generations. Related changes in reported child-rearing behaviors were also expected and found: Grandmothers judged that parental support and praise (promotion socialization), which foster individuated self-development, increased significantly, although the pattern of parental criticism and control (prevention socialization) was less clear. Promotion-based socialization strategies were found to serve as a partial mediator of intergenerational differences in individualistic child behaviors. Results suggest that the younger generations exhibit more promotion-based socialization, leading to more individualistic child traits, as they adapt to China’s more Gesellschaft ecology, comprising urbanization, formal education, and smaller family size.

The Changing Dynamics of Class and Culture in American Politics

2015 ◽  
Vol 663 (1) ◽  
pp. 229-269 ◽  
Author(s):  
Duane F. Alwin ◽  
Paula A. Tufiş
Keyword(s):  
General Social Survey ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Child Rearing ◽  
Culture War ◽  
Cultural Issues ◽  
Occupational Class ◽  
Political Identities ◽  
Political Views ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
Cultural Component

This article investigates the implications of Thomas Frank’s “conservative backlash” thesis that cultural cleavages have become much more important in contemporary American political life relative to traditional socioeconomic bases for political differentiation. We frame our research within the recent literature on the “polarization” of the electorate with respect to social and cultural issues. Using Hunter’s “culture war” imagery, we examine the extent to which opposing cultural forces on issues of abortion, gay rights, women’s extra-familial labor force participation, and child-rearing have become more important in shaping political identities and party preferences. We use data from twenty-six nationally representative surveys of the General Social Survey (GSS) from 1974 through 2010, and we find evidence of polarization in the liberal-conservative identities of respondents. We find that occupational class had a clear and consistent relationship to political views, which is relatively stable over time. We also find that cultural views are related to political identities, and that most features of the cultural component in our analysis are increasingly associated with liberal political views. Our results favor an interpretation of a changing role of cultural orientations in shaping political identities and provide tentative support for Frank’s “Kansas hypothesis” as revealed in the GSS data.

scholarly journals Francophone Muslim intellectuals, Islamic associational life and religious authority in Burkina Faso

Africa ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 90 (3) ◽  
pp. 625-646
Author(s):  
Frédérick Madore
Keyword(s):  
Burkina Faso ◽  
Transition Process ◽  
Security Threats ◽  
Religious Authority ◽  
Associational Life ◽  
The Public ◽  
Political Debates ◽  
Political Upheaval ◽  
Muslim Intellectuals ◽  
The Public Sphere

AbstractThe attention paid to the security threats hanging over Burkina Faso, while legitimate, has overshadowed the underlying transformations in Islamic associational life since the fall of President Blaise Compaoré in October 2014. This major political upheaval had a significant impact on the participation of Muslims in socio-political debates, the relations between generations and, more widely, the bases upon which religious authority is claimed. This article analyses the competition for religious leadership between Islamic actors in the public sphere in Burkina Faso by focusing mainly on francophone ‘Muslim intellectuals’. First, the study shows the gap between the gerontocracy at the helm of the main Islamic associations and the Burkinabe youth, which widened throughout the 1990s and 2000s and came strongly to the fore after the popular uprising of October 2014. Second, taking advantage of the space left vacant by traditional community leaders during the transition process, some young francophone ‘Muslim intellectuals’ actively sought to portray themselves as the vehicles of a ‘civil Islam’ and strove to promote new forms of civic engagement through religion. Other Muslim organizations have also tried to take advantage of the new political context to strengthen their presence in the socio-political arena.

Conclusion

2020 ◽  
pp. 187-194
Author(s):  
Christina Elizabeth Firpo
Keyword(s):  
Informal Economy ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Black Market ◽  
Colonial Rule ◽  
Unintended Effects ◽  
Colonial State ◽  
Vietnamese Women ◽  
Close Relationship ◽  
French Colonial ◽  
The Government

This chapter concludes that Tonkin's flourishing black market for sex during the interwar years owed its success in large part to French colonial rule. Colonial rule gave rise to sites of tension — economic disparity, an urban–rural divide, an uneven distribution of colonial law, and cultural shifts — and it was within them that the black market thrived. The colonial state's blind spots allowed this market to flourish. For one thing, colonial officials miscalculated the unintended effects of their strictly regulated “tolerance” system. In marginalizing certain colonized populations — in this case impoverished Vietnamese women — the French colonial state lost much of its ability to monitor and control them. Despite numerous regulations and ordinances, as well as exhaustive policing efforts, sex workers easily sidestepped the reach of the government and found ways to make money in an informal economy. The chapter also states that the stories of the women and girls in this book reveal a close relationship between choice and coercion. Taken individually, it is tempting to reduce these people's experiences to a binary of either agency or victimhood. But placing their stories within the context of larger historical trends such as mass poverty, migration, and cultural change reveals that this binary is misleading.

Leibniz on Hobbes, Locke's Two Treatises and Sherlock's Case of Allegiance

1975 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas Jolley
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Marked Contrast ◽  
Large Measure ◽  
Orthodox Christian ◽  
Political Debates ◽  
Christian Teaching ◽  
Political Views ◽  
Set Up ◽  
A Minor ◽  
German Court

Writers on Leibniz have frequently stressed the marked contrast in character between his metaphysics and his political theory. As a metaphysician Leibniz appears as a thinker of daring originality whose views have sometimes seemed to set up certain tensions with orthodox Christian teaching. In the field of political theory, however, we encounter a much more traditional and conservative figure. Writing in a post-Hobbesian period Leibniz is a determined opponent of any trend towards a secular analysis of political questions; yet, within a framework of conventional theological assumptions, he is quite as insistent as Hobbes that obligation is co-extensive with the ruler's ability to provide protection. In a large measure the conservatism of Leibniz's political views can be explained by reference to die external facts of his position. Occupying a semi-official post at the court of Hanover, Leibniz was dependent on the favour of his electoral patrons; his political writings tended to be occasional pieces composed with a view to promoting specific Hanoverian interests. Leibniz's experience of politics was thus confined to the world of a minor German court, and die narrowness of diis background placed him at a severe disadvantage for understanding the political debates of a country like England with quite different traditions.

scholarly journals Strange Bedfellows? Attitudes toward Minority and Majority Religious Symbols in the Public Sphere

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 309-333 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antoine Bilodeau ◽  
Luc Turgeon ◽  
Stephen White ◽  
Ailsa Henderson
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Negative Attitudes ◽  
The Public ◽  
Religious Symbols ◽  
Political Debates ◽  
Key Characteristics ◽  
Cultural Threat ◽  
The Public Sphere

AbstractIn this study, we contend that distinguishing individuals who support bans onminorityreligious symbols from those who want to banallreligious symbols improves our understanding of the roots of opposition to minority religious symbols in the public sphere. We hypothesize that both groups are likely driven by markedly different motivations and that opposition to the presence of minority religious symbols in the public sphere may be the result of an alliance between “strange bedfellows,” clusters of individuals whose political outlooks usually bring them to opposite sides of political debates. Drawing on a survey conducted in the province of Quebec (Canada), we find that while holding liberal values and low religiosity are key characteristics of those who would ban all religious symbols, feelings of cultural threat and generalized prejudice are central characteristics of those who would only restrict minority religious symbols. Negative attitudes specifically toward Muslims, however, also appear to motivate both groups.

scholarly journals Mobilizing Indigenous Languages for Democracy in Nigeria: A Discursive and Sociolinguistic Critique

2012 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Benson Eluma ◽  
Yinka Olarinmoye
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Political Culture ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
Indigenous Languages ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Road ◽  
The People ◽  
Political Views ◽  
The Public Sphere

For democracy to become the political culture in Nigeria, the discourse of politics has to be conducted through expressive mechanisms owned by the people. In the absence of popular ownership of political language, the road to disconnect, apathy and disenfranchisement lies wide open. We take the view that the problem of politics is located squarely in the public sphere and that discourse is the activity that characterizes the public sphere. We raise the point that the sociolinguistic environment in the country does not encourage whole masses of Nigerians to talk politics in languages in which they can freely articulate their positions and present their aspirations. We posit that citizens are disenfranchised and rendered inaudible and invisible to the extent to which they cannot undertake political discourse with an appreciable measure of linguistic ease. The benefits of diversity are endangered as many people and entire groups in Nigeria lose the means of expressing their political views and opinions, let alone political projects and programmes. Invoking Bakhtin’s concept of heteroglossia, we make a blanket case for the viability of each and every extant language in Nigeria for political discourse if such usage is actively promoted among their respective communities of users.

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