The Daily Lives of Urban Women during the Khrushchev Thaw in Soviet and Post-Soviet Scholarship

The article discusses the rise and changes of scholarly interest in urban women's everyday life in the USSR of the mid-twentieth century. By studying the Soviet and post-Soviet historiography of women's everyday life during Khrushchevs Thaw, the authors explain that at first this subject was treated in analogy to the customary celebration of Soviet achievements: also, the womens question would eventually be resolved. With rising doubts about the resolvability of the complex problems related to gender relations came a paradigm shift towards reflections on the difficulties and contradictions in the lifestyle of urban women. At the center of debate were now the necessity for shortening the working day and for additional vacation days, as well as the double bondage of women who had to combine a professional workload with heavy family obligations. The authors argue that in the 1990s (a period now often called the new thaw, and the nineties of the gender debates), the political aspects of female life in the 1950s and 1960s became marginal in scholarship. The main attention was now focused on the home and family spheres, on problems of corporeality and fashion, and on the woman's voice in literature, cinema and media. In consequence, some aspects of women's everyday life during the Thaw years remained unexplored. Finally, there are no generalizing works that would compare women's everyday life on the levels of the USSR, Russia, or Russias regions, and little work has been done on ethnocultural characteristics of women's life in the post-war USSR.

Transnational Cross-Border Family Ties: Diasporic Lives of Bangladeshis in Italy and Beyond

The scope of this paper is to gain a better understanding of how Bangladeshi migrants in Italy maintain transnational family attachments, across multiple destinations, with the home country as well as with several host countries. The data comes from fieldwork in Northeast Italy. Research methods include in-depth interviews and participant observation. The findings reveal that a high proportion of Bangladeshi migrants maintain a variety of transnational and diasporic ties with their family and friends living in the country of origin and different European countries. These include family obligations, remittances, establishing businesses back home, visits and communication. They also preserve their national identity in this host society by maintaining cultural ways of belonging and through religious practices and involvement in Bangladeshi politics. The findings have also shown that Italian Bangladeshi families work to foster transnational family ties among the new generations born in Italy, who have little knowledge of their ancestral country. On a final note, this paper argues that transnational connections with the homeland play an important role in shaping the diasporic lives of Bangladeshis in Italy.

The importance of moral culture in questions of welfare deservingness – the case of the US

PurposeDeservingness theory is gaining popularity in the study of European welfare attitudes but has found little application in the United States. In this article, the author explores what happens if deservingness theory is applied in the study of American perceptions of deservingness and ask which criteria Americans use when deciding the deservingness of needy individuals.Design/methodology/approach To capture the variation in American perceptions of deservingness, the author compared qualitative data from two cases. The first case is the liberal northeastern city of Boston, Massachusetts, where 19 interviews were collected, and the second case is the conservative southern city of Knoxville, Tennessee, where 26 interviews were collected. To ensure that any differences in the use of deservingness criteria are due to differences in moral culture, the author chose to interview a similar segment in both cases – the white middle class.FindingsThe author found that interviewees in both cases defined deserving individuals as those whose neediness is due to factors beyond their control and undeserving individuals as those whose neediness is caused by their own poor work ethic. Furthermore, the author found three so-called context-related criteria that do not fit into the existing deservingness framework: a criterion following a cost-benefit logic, the principle of universalism and a principle based on family obligations.Originality/valueThese findings confirm trends in recent deservingness studies indicating that the sensitivity of deservingness theory to the importance of moral culture in the use of both deservingness criteria and context-related criteria must continue to develop.

The Impact of Paternity Leave Compared to Unemployment on Child Care and Housework Distribution in Spain

Paternity leave has been introduced in many countries as a way to foster father´s co-responsibility in family obligations. This study aims \to analyse, for the Spanish case, if (1) the positive effects of the paternity leave are not only limited to the short term, but are maintained at medium and long term; (2) if a similar effect applies in the case of unemployment periods. Based on a subsample of 3388 cases derived from the Spanish Fertility Survey 2018, we perform OLS regression analysis of father´s involvement in childcare and housework. Our analysis shows that longer leaves are related to a greater involvement in care and housework activities, although only in the former, the effect is maintained in the long term. Regarding unemployed fathers, these individuals show more involvement in childcare during the first year, but the effect vanishes later and there is no significant relationship with housework.

Perceived Stress Among Faculty and First Year Students at a College of Pharmacy

Purpose: Female faculty and students could be affected by stressors disproportionately compared to male counterparts, especially those with children or family obligations. A study was undertaken to determine: 1) stress levels of pharmacy faculty and first-year pharmacy students; 2) whether gender affected faculty and/or student stress levels disproportionally; and 3) how child and family care responsibilities influenced stress levels. Methods: All first-year (P1) students enrolled in a College of Pharmacy were surveyed along with faculty. Stress levels were assessed using the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS10). Additional demographic information, including items related to children and family obligations, was collected. Results: Faculty reported average perceived stress levels (M=15.50) while first-year students reported high perceived stress levels (M=21.14). Perceived stress levels of female faculty (M=16.43) were higher than those of male faculty (M=12.00). Perceived stress levels of female students (M=22.60) were higher than those of male students (M=16.78). Perceived stress levels of female faculty with younger children (M=18.85) were higher than those of male faculty with younger children (M=9.67). Perceived stress levels of female students with ≥10 hours of family obligations per week (M=22.71) were higher than male pharmacy students with ≥10 hours (M=12.80). Conclusion: Lower levels of perceived stress for faculty compared to students may be due to the development of coping strategies coinciding with maturity. Results suggest more time spent on family obligations is negatively associated with stress levels for females, but not males. Colleges of pharmacy should invest resources to help reduce stress levels in faculty and student populations, particularly for the female gender.

Influence of social structures on transnational migration duration: the case of Vietnamese contract workers returning from Taiwan

PurposeLimited previous studies about Vietnamese returned migrant workers reviewed that a relatively high rate of migrants returned home before their contract ended. This paper aims to explore how the decisions to return were made under social lenses.Design/methodology/approachThis paper analyses data obtained through in-depth interviews of contract workers who had worked in Taiwan with a focus on Phu Tho province in Vietnam.FindingsThe authors followed O’Reilly’s (2012) adaption of Practice theory in migration research to examine a group of Vietnamese labour migrants returning from Taiwan. Under this theory, external and internal structures are the two divisions of the social environment. The authors identified external structures that might enable or constraint migrant’s mobility. When negotiating internal structures, Vietnamese women might end their contract early in response to family obligations.Originality/valueThe findings provide insights into how women make their decisions when to return, which may contribute to a better understanding of how to assist women engaged in transnational labour migration.

Towards a Systemic Approach to Business

Ram’s career has spanned over 40 years, during which he has donned multiple avatars: corporate leader (CEO), business builder, government advisor, angel investor and runaway monk internship. He is presently a systemic leadership coach. In this article, he argues that Indian leaders are schizophrenic. On the one hand, they are torn between the inherited cultural values of harmony and family obligations, and on the other hand, a product of imbibed Western B-School concepts of professional management and profit above all else. This dichotomy leads to hypocrisy and duplicity in Indian business. This is evidenced by treating people as means to an end rather than resources, much talked about, but not practised. Unlike their more forthright Western counterparts, who make no bones about profit making, Indian business leaders pretend to be of service to society and the system; yet acting only for personal gains of wealth and power through manipulation and lack of transparency. Ram shares his experiences on Indianness and the Indian business leaders. He explores where the hypocrisy may possibly emanate from, how this behaviour is at odds with changing generational needs and what are the likely fallouts even while pointing to emerging trends of systemic approach moving from diversity to unity, built on people engagement and collaborative teamwork in leadership. Indian companies and leaders, he argues, have what it takes to be far better and greater than they are now.

Diagnostics of social policy challenges in the field of labor relations of Russian mothers having preschool children

The article considers the social policy of the state in the field of labor relations of Russian mothers with preschool children and the main challenges faced by mothers in this area. The author of the research paper analyses such problems as female unemployment, occupational segregation, discrimination; issues associated with the functioning of a socially fair system for designed to protect working mothers, problems associated with combining family obligations and raising children with labor activity. The article is based on the results of the author’s sociological study of representatives of this category conducted by the author in the spring of 2020. The suggestions of respondents for solving the problems under consideration are outlined.

Rural youth in southern Nigeria: Fractured lives and ambitious futures

This article draws on recent research (2017–20) into the livelihoods and imagined futures of rural youth in four communities in southern Nigeria. The research involved observations, sex-segregated focus group discussions and individual interviews. Taking up insights from sociologists of education and work, our analysis shows how rural youth simultaneously navigated schooling, farming, low-paid vocational work and family obligations in ways that were highly gendered. We show the gulf between youth’s daily lives and their imagined futures, and how their desires for better lives, whether through ‘white-collar’ work or expanded farming activities, often involved moving to more ‘civilised’ or ‘developed’ contexts. Commitment to family nevertheless ran through youth’s narratives, in ways that reflected a deeply gendered, sexual economy. We conclude by highlighting the relevance of a connected sociology that embraces postcolonial and feminist scholarship to advance future studies of rural youth, gender and work in the Global South.

The Potential of Vā Part 5: Research-Informed Design

The article presented is part of a series of chapters that composed an exegesis, submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. The series is a narrative of discovery through practice-led research. Each article reveals its purpose and significance that leads into the next series, which then eventuate to that final design proposal. The exegesis is presented in this format, to break down the components that assisted in practice-led research. Each article can be read and unpacked on its own as a learning tool. The purpose of this edited series is for the exegesis to be more accessible and adaptable creatively to those being introduced to practice-led research. The Potential of Vā Part 5: Research-informed design, critically unpacks significant concepts. These include vā, materiality and processes, lalaga, lalava, lines of location, blended backgrounds, imagery and colour and experiments underpinning the research design. The importance of archiving Pacific indigenous artefacts is based on the importance of archiving Pacific knowledge. Sāmoan people have adapted their fa’aSāmoa in the diaspora for the advancement of their culture and people. This provides the basis for which I argue that Pacific peoples should seek out new methods to preserve their artefacts. With reference to the Lala-VĀ model, the interrelationship of family, language, genealogies, chiefly systems, religion, ceremonies and other family obligations is illustrated by the link between artefacts and other aspects of Pacific culture and tradition. The comprehensive nature of the artefacts and the stories that accompany the visual image ensure that the digital archive is all-inclusive.