Equity vs. Ethic Literacy – Socio-Educational Dilemma in the Case of Pandemic Finland, Autumn 2020

This case study aimed to comprehend socio-educational policy in the light of pandemic ethic literacy in Finland. Consequently, methodologically the official, public, and ethic research data were triangulated to analyze the Ministry’s understanding on educational equity in Finland. Discussion involved global pandemic ethic principles (transparency, participation, review and revisability). Hermeneutic methodology revealed imbalances. Ministry of Education and Culture failed regionally, as well as qualitatively, in its quantitative by-the-book policy. As the main finding, pandemic ethics were generally ignored by the Ministry. Ethic principles were not recognized – or were neglected. Furthermore, Ministry’s decision-making was unconditional, instead of being participatory and revising. Lacking transparency was revealed in rhetoric of “several” children, or probable “likelihood”, without argumentation. However, the policy could have been revisable with increasing evidence. Epistemic imbalances and hermeneutic injustice occurred regionally and qualitatively. Those involved all, both the vulnerable, and gifted pupils. Finally, the policy created inequity, adding ageist and racist elements in southern country. Moreover, the Ministry repeatedly acted against its vision. While Ministers, and responsible authorities, should update their “hidden” curriculum, regional policies and Covid-19 variants deserve further studies.

A Look at a Small Southern Country: Uruguay

In this work we take a look at a small southern country in Latin America: Uruguay, located between two large neighbors: Argentina and Brazil. In the paper some socio-economic features and historical facts about Uruguay were presented. Historically, the agricultural sector and export specialisation have been quite important for the country’s economic growth. Recently, services have become important too. The second part of the paper is entirely dedicated to the present situation, namely from March 2019, in which it was described how the COVID-19 pandemic has been dealt with in terms of the health and economic measures. Finally, some questions about the future of the pandemic and the country’s economy were posed.

Freedom as Accumulation

This chapter reassembles the immediate and concrete history of abolition after 1865, from the counter of the Southern country store to the international trade in cotton, as it sorts out the mechanisms of law and arrangements of political economy that chaperoned the tremendous value incarnated in slaves across the gulf of the Civil War. It explains how citizenship for the formerly enslaved was tethered to the racialization of debt and how the legal relations of formal abolition were actually economic relations of credit. This chapter analyzes the legal history of the Fourteenth Amendment and the interlocking forms of theft it enabled, from Southern sharecropping to New York corporations, from the Freedman’s Bank to the U.S. national debt, showing how liberalism is enmeshed with colonialism. Through a landmark Supreme Court case in 1897, this chapter describes how the personhood of the freed enabled the white accumulation of finance capital through global cotton markets, engaging with the theories of Giovanni Arrighi and world-systems analysis.

“Beating Eggs Never Makes the Evening News”

In One Crazy Summer and its sequels P.S. Be Eleven, and Gone Crazy in Alabama, Rita Williams-Garcia tracks the movement of African-American diasporas, generationally and geographically, through changes in food preparation and consumption. This chapter examines the third novel in the series first, showing how Delphine, the protagonist, becomes aware that her family’s identity is grounded in the deep roots of southern country foodways, dependent on personally raised or locally produced foods (especially milk and eggs) that are usually slow-cooked. The middle novel demonstrates the popularity of post-war convenience foods, cooked quickly and simply to match the faster tempo of urban life common to the generation that had made the Great Migration. The first novel, set in urban Oakland in the revolutionary year of 1968, shows the revolutionary power of food, most overtly through the Black Panthers’ breakfast program, which sought to better life for urban families by improving poor nutrition as well as to empower them politically. The novel also presents the deconstruction of the traditional kitchen: Cecile, the mother of Delphine and her sisters, rejects and revises the “yoke” of women’s service to men and family by making her kitchen into an art studio, redefining it as a new space that is both maternal and professional.

Chile: A Center of Global Astronomy, 1850–2019

By 2020, it is expected that approximately 70 % of the world’s surface astronomical observation will be located in Chile, considering both optical and infrared telescopes, belonging to international institutions. How did this happen? Can we explain the overwhelming importance of astronomy in this southern country only because of its geography? This process began when scientists from Europe, the United States, and the Soviet Union went to Chile in the 1960s, and each one of them decided to build a massive observatory in the country. The atmospheric conditions certainly had a role in these decisions, but they were also related to Cold War politics and, indirectly, to the previous history of astronomy in Chile. The international dimension of astronomy in Chile had been preset since the mid-19th century, when the first modern astronomy initiative took place. An American expedition built the first observatory, which later became the National Astronomical Observatory. By the early 20th century, another American expedition had arrived in Chile, and this one stayed for more than twenty years. Decades later, the global dimension of astronomy took the decisive step in the southern country and set the milestone for the development in the hands of Europeans, Americans and Soviets. In the process, Chileans became involved with astronomy, trying to promote science, the country’s international relations, and to grasp the attractions of modernity.

Russians in Spain. Book 2. The 20th century. The Beginning

Second in the anthology, the volume offers a rich collection of materials, including descriptions of 1900s–1930s Spain by Russian travellers. Artists, musicians, journalists and people of the theatre, all of them share their expectations, recollections and impressions from visits to this Southern country. A poeticized image clashes with reality, which often stands in stark contrast to the idyllic picture. Spain beckons, mesmerizes, and reveals its luxurious self. The country is wrought with controversy: the archaic lifestyle in the provinces and the dizzying pace of life in big cities; its amiable, but very apathetic people; its glorious past and almost desperate present. Russians travel to Spain to experience its natural beauty and splendid cultural heritage. Many of them revelled in visiting the Prado Museum. Numerous performers would come to Spain to tour, spreading knowledge of Russian music, ballet and drama among local audiences.

Job Security Across Europe

According to OECD statistics the unemployment rate in 2011 varied across Europe 10–20 per cent. At that time, European Social Survey Round 5 data was collected which showed that job security was highest in northern country cluster, moderate in southern country cluster, and lowest in the Visegrad country cluster. Our first research question addressed whether general, aggregated social indicators (unemployment and employment rate, and social expenditure) determine perceived job security in the three country clusters. The overall sample was comprised of three southern countries, four Visegrad countries, and four northern countries and consisted of people aged 20-60 who reported to be in paid work and working more than 30 hours a week. The main aim of the current paper was to examine the predictors of job security in the context of all three country clusters. Results indicated that the proposed model of job security predictors showed the best fit for the southern country cluster, explaining over 30 per cent of the variance of perceived job security (background characteristics explained there most of the variance there). Variation in the explanatory power of the job security variable in the northern country cluster was mainly explained by both job and organizational characteristics, while in the Visegrad country cluster it was mainly explained by job characteristics. The paper is a contribution to the discussion about job security in the current period of recession in Europe.

Critically Considering International Social Work Practica

Schools of social work in Canada and other countries of the North are increasingly offering their students the option of undertaking an international practicum. Often implied in this term is a placement in a Southern country. In this article I draw on a critical social work perspective, and the notion of the “encumbered self,” to consider the ethics of international practica in the context of a larger movement in Canada and elsewhere towards short-term international postings of various kinds. In conclusion, I argue for not only substantive pre-practicum preparation, but a post-practicum curriculum that leads students to interrogate, rather than consolidate, their learning overseas.