Time Allocation and Economic Contribution of Women in Fulfilling the Basic Needs of Poor Households

The primary purpose of this study is to explore the time allocation and economic contribution of women in fulfilling their families’ basic needs. This research used a qualitative approach and applied observations and interviews as the data collection technique. The research sample consisted of 25 people, including 23 stone-breaking women, who have a family, and 2 village heads, whose village areas contain stone-mining enterprises. The obtained data was analysed qualitatively, implying that the processes of data collection, data reduction, data display, and data verification were carried out simultaneously. The results of this study show that the respondents allocate more time to household chores than to stone-breaking work. However, through the activities as a stone breaker, homemakers do make a significant economic contribution to the family’s income. Indeed, the sole reliance on the husband’s income as the head of the family cannot be sufficient for fulfilling the basic needs. The husband’s income only serves to maintain the survival of the family.

A breakthrough of Ethnic Groups and Boundaries – reality or a myth? (On amnesia in ethnicity studies)

There is universal agreement in the scholarly community on the crucial position of the book Ethnic Groups and Boundaries: The Social Organization of Culture Difference (ed. F Barth, 1969) in the modern study of ethnicity. General consensus goes that this work has a status of a founding work that developed a theoretical paradigm and model of ethnic groups, on which the study of ethnicity draws until today. This study critically reviews this reputation. The author, drawing on the works of authors who had published their works before Ethnic Groups and Boundaries, suggests that theoretical positions proposed by Barth and his colleagues in the famous book were not at all new by that time, neither were they considered novel by contemporary readers. Ethnic Groups and Boundaries acquired the status of a ground-breaking work, founding a new era of anthropological study of ethnicity only later, and not because of the results the book really provided, but rather thanks to statements about the contribution of this work to the study of ethnicity made by its editor, F Barth in his famous ‘Introduction’. This conceptualization of the history of ethnicity studies was, thanks to the immense influence of F Barth´s book, gradually accepted and the results of all work that had been previously done in the field of ethnicity studies, was covered by amnesia, continuing until today.

Elinor Wight Gardner: Pioneer Geoarcheologist, Quaternary Scientist and Geomorphologist

Elinor Wight Gardner (1892–1981) was the first female geologist who worked and published as a geoarcheologist. During her career, she worked in arid lands of North Africa, Mediterranean and the Near East, and was regarded as a pioneering geoscientist who made important contributions in multiple fields, including archeology, geomorphology, paleontology and Quaternary science. Despite her ground-breaking work at many archeological sites, Gardner’s impact has been largely unrecognized. Few details are known about her personal life; she was a private and reserved person who left limited first-hand accounts of her opinions and motivations. Gardner worked with charismatic figures such as her life-long friend and primary collaborator, the archeologist Gertrude Caton Thompson (1888–1985). This biography synthesizes primary sources and draws insights about Gardner’s character from her bibliography, publications and notebooks, and mentions by contemporary peers. Much attention has focused on the historical “ancestral passions” of characters working in the fields of geology and archeology, with much emphasis on the ‘founding fathers’ and significantly less recognition of its ‘grandmothers’. We bring attention to the full scope of Gardner’s insightful contributions through analysis of her important collaborative research projects linking archeology and landscape studies during the early twentieth century.

Amílcar Cabral and Amartya Sen

This article compares the ideas of Amílcar Cabral and Amartya Sen on capability, freedom, resistance and political change, thereby revealing the importance of radical realism in political thought and development studies. Sen’s path-breaking work has been transformative for multiple disciplines, not least development. Yet, reading Sen alongside the ideas of one of Africa’s most successful anti-colonial political leaders is revelatory: it provides the basis for the argument that radical realism is most valuable if it is action-guiding, comparative and about context-specific change. This involves a distinction between realistic political theory and realism in political thought where only the latter demands utopian thinking. What follows from this regarding democracy, impartiality and justice? In answering this with reference to some social movements, the article then defends the political potential of conflict, partisan positions, resistance and political change directed towards overcoming domination.

Introductory Article: French in Second Language Acquisition Research

Emerging in the late 1960s and early 1970s with the ground-breaking work of Stephen Pit Corder, followed by Larry Selinker’s (1972) conceptualisation of ‘interlanguage’, second language acquisition (SLA) has developed into a highly buoyant independent field within the wider terrain that is applied linguistics [...]

A/R/Tography as a Method of Awe: an A/R/Tographic Inquiry of the Canadian North

This thesis is a year-long inquiry on the Canadian North using the practice-based research method a/r/tography. This a/r/tographic research on the Canadian North follows the method's three modalities: theoria, praxis, and poesis. It concludes by presenting the North as a non-place, placeless, a pseudo-place. Ultimately, this thesis contributes to a/r/tography's ongoing development as a research methodology. I propose to expand the frames within which we conceptualize a/r/tography's theoria, praxis, and poesis. The re-defining and re-organization of these three modalities opens a/r/tography to a wider range of creators to allow for even more boundary-breaking work. In addition, I draw out the possibilities of Lures as a hitherto unrecognized seventh conceptual practice embedded in a/r/tography. Moreover, I describe a/r/tographers as child-voyagers who are able to momentarily dispense with their perceptual frameworks and enter spaces that allow them to see the world anew. Most importantly, I reconceptualize a/r/tography as a method of awe.

A/R/Tography as a Method of Awe: an A/R/Tographic Inquiry of the Canadian North

This thesis is a year-long inquiry on the Canadian North using the practice-based research method a/r/tography. This a/r/tographic research on the Canadian North follows the method's three modalities: theoria, praxis, and poesis. It concludes by presenting the North as a non-place, placeless, a pseudo-place. Ultimately, this thesis contributes to a/r/tography's ongoing development as a research methodology. I propose to expand the frames within which we conceptualize a/r/tography's theoria, praxis, and poesis. The re-defining and re-organization of these three modalities opens a/r/tography to a wider range of creators to allow for even more boundary-breaking work. In addition, I draw out the possibilities of Lures as a hitherto unrecognized seventh conceptual practice embedded in a/r/tography. Moreover, I describe a/r/tographers as child-voyagers who are able to momentarily dispense with their perceptual frameworks and enter spaces that allow them to see the world anew. Most importantly, I reconceptualize a/r/tography as a method of awe.

Differentiated Thyroid Cancer: A Health Economic Review

The incidence of differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) is rising, mainly because of an increased detection of asymptomatic thyroid nodularity revealed by the liberal use of thyroid ultrasound. This review aims to reflect on the health economic considerations associated with the increasing diagnosis and treatment of DTC. Overdiagnosis and the resulting overtreatment have led to more surgical procedures, increasing health care and patients’ costs, and a large pool of community-dwelling thyroid cancer follow-up patients. Additionally, the cost of thyroid surgery seems to increase year on year even when inflation is taken into account. The increased healthcare costs and spending have placed significant pressure to identify potential factors associated with these increased costs. Some truly ground-breaking work in health economics has been undertaken, but more cost-effectiveness studies and micro-cost analyses are required to evaluate expenses and guide future solutions.

EVERYDAY RACISM IN SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH

Since the 1980s, everyday racism has gained ground within the social sciences. However, the theory of everyday racism has not been properly adopted and, consequently, varies across different research fields. The main goal of this study is to improve the scientific rigor within research on everyday racism in the human and social sciences. Following a review of the ground-breaking work of Philomena Essed, three main components in everyday racism literature are theoretically distilled and conceptualized: (1) repetitiveness and familiarity, (2) racism and (3) the interdependent link between micro-interactions and macro-structures. This is followed by a critical assessment of what everyday racism means and how it is assessed in research today, by performing a systematic electronic review of qualitative-methods papers. We make three suggestions towards a more complete and sophisticated understanding of everyday racism. Firstly, the concepts of everyday racism and microaggressions need to be disconnected from each other. Secondly, research should focus more on the symbiotic relation between micro-interactions and macro-structures and should also identify relevant situational features at the spatial meso-level. Lastly, it is important to be cautious of the pitfall of cultural determinism that is still a popular perspective in today’s field of (everyday) racism.