Ethnography of the socio-sanitary reception in Rome. How are HIV/AIDS and hepatitis b involved in creating the construction of legal categories assigned to migrants?

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the role that Italian third sector organizations have in the process of social and administrative categorization of newly arrived migrants living with human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/Aids) or hepatitis b. In Italy, free access to health is provided to all migrants and residence permits for medical treatment is granted for migrants living with a “serious illness” since the 1990s. The case of HIV/Aids and hepatitis b shows how this political openness, however, clashes with the tightening of migration policies. Design/methodology/approach The study is based on ethnographic research conducted between 2014 and 2016 within an associative centre that deals with the socio-health care of newly arrived migrants in Rome. In addition to the participant observations, the study is based in semi-structured interviews conducted with 10 health-care providers (nurses, health-care assistants and socio-cultural mediators) and doctors and with 22 migrants coming from Sub-Saharan Africa and living with HIV/AIDS (10) and hepatitis b (12). Findings In Italy, the two infections have been identified as top diseases among migrant populations in the country but if HIV/Aids is always considered as a “serious illness”, hepatitis b is considered as a public health priority only in the case of a treatment prescription. These aspects have an important impact on the interactions between medical and social professionals and migrants affected by HIV/AIDS and hepatitis b, contributing differently to the creation of legal categories assigned to migrants. Originality/value The case of HIV/Aids and hepatitis b shows how the political openness of the public health system, clashes with the tightening of migration policies and analyse the role of the third sector has in this issue.

RADIKALISME ISLAM: SEJARAH, KARAKTERISTIK, DAN DINAMIKA DALAM MASYARAKAT MULTIKULTURAL DI INDONESIA

This study aims to elaborate the history, characteristic, and dynamics of Radical Islam group in Indonesia. Post New Order era has opened political opportunity for radical Islam group to colour the Islamic and political dynamics in Indonesia. This study concluded that radicalism teaching was not something new in Islamic history. Radical Islam group could flourish due to the political openness milieu post New Order Era as well as the infiltration of radical Islam teaching rooted in Middle East into Indonesian Islam. To anticipate the strengthening of Radical Islam group influence in Indonesia, the collaboration between the state and the populace are highly needed.

Beyond peaceful protest: When non-participants support violence against the police

One of the most controversial issues related to protests is the use of violence by protesters. Although there is a strong social norm against protest violence, research has suggested that protesters’ endorsement of non-violent actions can change according to the legitimacy of police actions during protests. However, both non-participants’ support for protest violence and its relationship with authorities’ measures regarding protests have barely been studied. To address this, we interviewed 17 British undergraduate students with diverse previous experiences as protesters about their views on protest violence. For the interviews, we used vignettes to describe two fictional scenarios, one where the government and the police actively restrict the right to protest and another where authorities facilitate protesters’ actions. A thematic analysis incorporating elements from the ideological dilemmas approach was carried out to explore the range of arguments related to protest violence. We found that most participants articulated a variety of expressions that made up a recognisable cultural pattern: protest should be peaceful. However, when participants perceived that ‘the right to protest’ was threatened by state repression, those who earlier rejected protest violence argued that they would support the use of violence against the police as ‘self-defence’. Our findings suggest there are pervasive frameworks for interpreting and responding to real contexts of political openness and repression, and reflective of people’s ability to simultaneously hold contradictory views about the legitimacy of protest violence.

Including political context in the psychological analysis of collective action: Development and validation of a measurement scale for subjective political openness

Sociological and Political Science research has argued that political conditions affect both the occurrence of protests and the actions protesters choose. However, an approach that considers people’s perceptions on these conditions is still absent in the social psychological literature. Subjective Political Openness (SPO) is a new construct which fills this gap by incorporating features of political context into the psychological analysis of protests. We propose that SPO comprises perceptions relating to three dimensions: government actions to allow/restrict protests, police measures to actively prevent them, and the extent that public opinion legitimizes protests. We conducted two studies in the UK and Chile to validate scales created for each proposed dimension, test their measurement invariance, establish SPO’s configuration, and demonstrate its convergent validity. Participants in Study 1 were university students (n UK = 203; n Chile = 237), whereas in Study 2 a general population sample from both countries was included (n UK = 377; n Chile = 309) with the purpose of generalizing the results. Both studies consistently showed that SPO is a multidimensional construct configured as a bifactor model comprising the dimensions associated with perceptions of the government and police actions to confront protests. Although we tested two different measurement scales for the perceived legitimacy given by public opinion to protests, results demonstrated this dimension is not part of SPO. The SPO configuration has implications for both our understanding of collective action and how we study it.

الدين في عيون الصينيين المعاصرين وضرورة دعوتهم إلى الإسلام (Islam in the View of Contemporary Chinese and the Need to Invite Them to Islam)

تعد الصين أكبر دولة في العالم من حيث عدد سكانها إذ وصل العدد إلى ألف وثلاثمائة مليون نسمة، وهو يمثل أقل من ربع سكان العالم. وقد صارت هذه الدولة بعد الانفتاح السياسي والإصلاح الاقتصادي قوة عالمية تغزو العالم كله بمنتجاتها المتنوعة، الأمر الذي جعل العالم كله ينظر إليها بإعجاب وتقدير. ومع هذا التقدم الهائل في الجانب المادي أصبح الفراغ الروحي مشكلة كبيرة تقلق قادة الصين السياسيين ومفكريها، وقد أدى هذا الفراغ الروحي مع توفر وسائل إشباع الرغبات الجسدية إلى انتشار الفساد الأخلاقي على جميع المستويات بالرغم من سيادة الفكر الكنفوسى الواقعي على الثقافة الصينية بشكل عام. ومن هنا يحاول هذا البحث معرفة موقف الصينيين المعاصرين من الدين عامة، ومن الإسلام خاصة مستهدفا إلى التعرف على كيفية توصيل نور الإسلام إلى قلوبهم. والبحث يتكون من مقدمة، وأربعة مباحث، وخاتمة مع توصيات. وقد اعتمد الباحث فى جمع المعلومات على المنهج الوصفى والإستقرائى القائم على الملاحظة والتجربة كما اعتمد فى دراسة الموضوع على المنهج التحليلي والنقدي لبيان ضرورة القيام بدعوة الصينيين إلى الإسلام باعتباره المنقذ الوحيد من الضلال والفساد والهلاك. ومن أهم ما توصل إليه الباحث إثبات فشل المبادئ الشيوعية في توجيه سلوك الإنسان، وتنمية القيم، وتأكيد عظمة الإيمان بالله واليوم الآخر في استقامة الإنسان، وتحسين صورته، وتحقيق السعادة الدائمة. الكلمات المفتاحيّة: الدين، الصينيون المعاصرون، الدعوة، الانفتاح السياسي، الإصلاح الاقتصادي، الفكر الكنفوسى، المبادئ الشيوعية. Abstract China is the world's most populous country with a population of 1.3 billion, representing a quarter of the world's population. This country after political openness and economic reformation has become a global force that invades the whole world with its diverse products, which has made the whole world admired and appreciated China. With this tremendous progress on the material side, the spiritual vacuum has become a major problem for the political leaders and thinkers of China. This spiritual vacuum, with the means to satisfy physical desires, has led to the spread of moral corruption at all levels, despite the predominant Confucius thought of Chinese culture in general. Hence, this research attempts to explore the position of contemporary Chinese people of religion in general and Islam in particular, aiming to identify how to connect the light of Islam to their hearts. The research consists of an introduction, four questions, and a conclusion with recommendations. The researcher relied on the descriptive and extrapolation method based on observation and experiment. He also adopted the study of the subject on the analytical and critical method of explaining the need to invite the Chinese to Islam as the only savior of misguidance, corruption and destruction. One of the most important findings of the researcher is to prove the failure of the principles of Communism in guiding human behavior, developing values, and confirming the greatness of faith in Allah and the Last Day in the integrity of man, improving man’s image and achieving lasting happiness. Keywords: religion, contemporary Chinese, advocacy, political openness, economic reformation, Confucius thought, Communist principles.

Open societies before market economies: Historical analysis

It is often assumed that the market economy and the open society reinforce each other and have risen together. Even those who are more skeptical about their long-run compatibility will usually agree that the rise of the two was part of a process of modernization, starting in early modern England and unfolding in the modern West. This article builds on the latest historical research to reject this assumption. It shows that several market economies existed much earlier in history. These were all preceded by social movements generating a more open society. In each of these cases, the functioning of the market economy slowly eroded social and, next, political openness, and later shriveled itself again. This endogenous, cycle-like process, in which the interaction of the market economy and the open society developed from positive to negative, may also be seen in modern cases, including the present USA.