Gender,Sexuality, and Social Change in Contemporary China

Drawing upon Raymond Williams’ notion of culture and in-depth interviews with 40 women, this article examines forces that have shaped the landscape of sexuality in China. It argues that the process of changing sexuality contains multiple and overlapping forms of sexual culture, in which the party-state’s ideology, emergent sexual cultures and traditional Chinese beliefs intertwine and struggle. In addition to age-based differences in attitudes towards sexual practices within studies of youth culture, this study incorporates a class-based variable into the account.     

Families, Gender Relations and Social Change in Brazil: Practices, Discourse, Policy

We discuss three different areas in which policies on gender and the family have been debated and formulated in Brazil, revealing both the forces of change and the many contradictions that are at work within this society today. After a brief look at the historical vicissitudes of families and family life in Brazil, as representations and as forms of social organization, we come to our more immediate context: the re-democratization processes that engulfed Brazilian society as of the 1980s and the social actors generated therein. Issues relating to gender and sexuality become increasingly visible on the broad political agenda that, notwithstanding national specificities, also converges with social, political and cultural trends emerging all over the world in the latter decades of the twentieth century. The three specific issues we discuss here—the Maria da Penha Law on domestic violence, efforts regarding the legalization of abortion and recent debates that have emerged around a bill introduced to give legal status to same-sex relationships—provide testimony of a society characterized by tensions between mechanisms sustaining restrictive definitions of family, linked to male dominance, heterosexism and hierarchical gender roles, and those that push toward more egalitarian, diverse and democratic family relations.     

Humanities,Social Sciences and Islamic Studies

Three avenues in Islamic studies are distinguished. The humanities study the languages, texts and history of Islam as a civilisation and religion. The main difficulty confronting them is to understand properly the texts studied. Anthropology, sociology and political science constitute the main contribution of the social sciences. Here the main difficulty lies in explaining religious data correctly within their context. In religious studies, the third avenue, the main problem is to interpret correctly the way in which Muslim communities and persons have understood their cultural tradition and the religious elements which belong to it. Focusing on the people's intentions which make Islam a religion rather than a social system or ideology enables Islam to be understood from the perspective of religious studies.     

Islamic Female Sexuality and Gender in modern feminist interpretation

Sexuality, gender and patriarchy are modern concepts that Western feminist scholars have unquestioningly utilized in their historical inquiry into women in Islam without ample consideration of periodization or problemization. Within the revelation of the Qur'an, the sexes were gendered in relation to each other in a reflection of their physical and biological complementarity. There was not, however, the construction of sexuality and gendering that is evident in the patriarchal society of the modern world. In this essay, I will attempt to trace the historiographical evolution of female sexuality from the time of the Prophet until the Middle Ages, particularly through the development of the female gendered roles of wifehood and motherhood as found in the Qur'an, hadith and fiqh. Additionally, I will argue that until the present these modern constructs have been taken for granted by postmodern scholarship on the topic across many academic disciplines. This has led to scholarship that superimposes modern conceptual frameworks upon earlier time periods. Although these are modern concepts, they may be aptly applied to discourses evident in the period under review, but they must be properly clarified and situated. Furthermore, I myself will work with these concepts, but I will problematize them to show history as a process through which one can find the precursors for modern sexuality and gender construction.     

Minority Influence,Social Change,and Social Stability

From Moscovici (Social influence and social change. London, Academic Press; 1976) on, a growing body of research on minority influence has been conducted within the social psychology mainstream. A general guideline of most of the research on this topic associates minority influence with social change and innovation. Minorities have been considered as challengers to social stability, and their dynamics have been considered in relation to the mechanisms through which social changes occur and established norms are modified and evolve in human society. In the present paper, we try to extend this viewpoint by suggesting that it represents only one side of a much more complex story. We consider the conditions under which minorities produce social change as well as the conditions under which they are, instead, inclined to defend the status quo. We then suggest that an integrative account of different approaches – namely, social identity, social dominance, and system justification – might contribute to expanding the theoretical frame of minority influence.     

Gender, Social Networks, and Contraceptive Use in Kenya

The social network approach has recently come to aid our understanding of the ongoing fertility transition in developing countries. This study adds to the growing literature in situating the role of geography and interaction with significant others—community and family members—in understanding Kenya's puzzling fertility transition. Findings indicate that, contrary to previous findings that kin networks are conservative and against innovative fertility behavior, the respondent families, especially in the more prosperous Central Province, are supportive of fertility innovation. Community wide networks are not as influential in directing fertility behavior as own family members are. Family members are the ones who bear the burden of raising children and, as such, are the ones on the forefront of encouraging behavior adjustment. Not all of the social networks significantly influenced use of contraception; however, interacting with healthcare and family-planning networks and friends and being advised to use contraception had a positive impact on using contraception in both regions.     

Reaching Higher in Community Psychology: Social Problems, Social Settings, and Social Change

Forty years after the founding of community psychology, we have yet to deliver on the full promissory note of our birth, where we were poised to address social problems, social settings, and social change. Despite some success, we are at risk for selling ourselves short, for dying out in the discipline of psychology, and for failing to improve the common good. Given changes in demographics and in the safety net, the problem of entrenched disparities is even more urgent—in perception of the other, in the provision of opportunities for development, and in outcomes. Envisioning and enabling will be critical as we work with unified purpose toward a cumulative science where failure will not be predictable.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the mid-west ECO Conference in Community Psychology held in Saugatuck, Michigan, October 2004.     

Gender and Social Loafing in Japan

Abstract

The author investigated gender differences in social loafing among 18 men and 18 women in Japan. The participants were divided into groups of 9 members. Ropes were connected to strongly built steel frames set near the ceiling of the laboratory. Each participant had to pull the rope as through arm wrestling. The participants engaged in 12 trials—2 individual trials and 10 group trials. In the group trials, the participants believed that only the group's power, but not individual participants' power, was being gauged. The difference between the data from individual trials and the data from group trials was adopted as a measure of social loafing. The women tended to loaf less than the men, and the men's effort suddenly declined when the situation was changed from an individual to a collective work setting. However, the women did not show that change. The author interpreted the findings from the viewpoint of gender difference in the quality of achievement motivation among Japanese participants.     

Social Robotics,Education, and Religion in the Islamic World: An Iranian Perspective

Science and Engineering Ethics - The social impact of robotics applied to domains such as education, religion, nursing, and therapy across the world depends on the level of technology as well as...     

How Ethical is Islamic Banking in the Light of the Objectives of Islamic Law?

Islamic banking is based on moral foundations that make it distinct from conventional banking. Some argue that because of its foundation in Islam, Islamic banking may represent a more morally appealing alternative. Yet, evidence shows that this is not the case. Indeed, the current practice of Islamic banking has not been able to achieve its goals which are based on Islam's moral values: to enhance justice, equitability, and social well‐being. This essay examines the extent to which Islamic banking is ethical and concludes that the practice of the industry does not seem to be de facto ethical from the Islamic perspective of ethical values. It only consists in trading the same instruments of conventional banks without genuinely enforcing Islam's ethical vision. The practice of Islamic banking misrepresents Islam and does not contribute to solving social problems. The interaction between maqasid al‐shari?a (objectives of Islamic law) and qiyās (deductive analogy) provides a supplementary tool for interpreting the failure of the prior in terms of the practical misuse of the latter by Islamic banks. This essay provides an interpretive approach to the current debate about why Islamic banking has failed and suggests ways to move cautiously in the future.