Constructing the law: discourses and social practices

This paper presents an analysis of everyday understandings of the law, within the context of a dispute between colonial and indigenous land interests in New Zealand. The analysis is informed by developments in the areas of critical legal studies, methodological critique of legal psychology, the social constructionist movement within social psychology, and the application of discursive psychology to understandings of racism. Data for this work was drawn from a corpus of letters to the editor of a newspaper, published in the city where the land dispute took place. Writers constructed the dispute as a legal issue and deployed two divergent constructions of the law. When the ‘primacy’ of the law was invoked, indigenous interests and the protesters were positioned as lawbreakers. When ‘the law in context’ was the resource used, protesters became positioned as seekers of justice. These variable constructions are discussed in terms of the social practices they engender and their wider contribution to debates regarding indigenous and colonial interests. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Encountering the dream: Intersecting anthropological and psychoanalytical approaches

The human dream has been a central and contested therapeutic resource for the various schools of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy. However, anthropology has been less concerned with human dreaming, though many anthropologists have studied indigenous peoples' dream theories as a consequence of the importance that such people gave to their dreaming. During the twentieth century there has been a fertile interaction between psychoanalytical approaches to dreaming and pertinent anthropological studies. This paper situates these interconnected disciplinary approaches to dreaming in the context of the historical development of thinking about culture and dreaming. The dream is considered as a multiple human resource. Discussion focuses on a fourfold approach to the dream: as therapeutic and existential encounter; as potential social knowledge; as cultural template; and finally as reflexive opportunity. Overall, the paper asserts the centrality of the dream as both a cultural and therapeutic resource.     

Sonic discourses on Muslim Malay modernity: The Arqam sound

Not only has Nasyid music been successful in addressing questions about what it is to be a modern Muslim youth in Southeast Asia, reconciling piety with a ??funky but shariah?? consumerist lifestyle; it also has been expressive of political aspirations for a utopian-style communal society. This essay focuses on how, from the late 1980s to the mid-1990s, the Malaysian missionary movement Al-Arqam used nasyid music to articulate ideas of Muslim Malay modernity and on how nasyid music became one of the main interfaces to spread the Arqam message beyond its model villages. The focus is on Arqam??s main ensembles, Nadamurni and the Zikr, and, with the 1994 ban on Arqam??s activities, the celebrated pop group Raihan. Raihan??s sonic explorations into Muslim Malay modernity have challenged orthodox Islamic ideas, but also the entertainment industry and the secular Malaysian state at large. Nasyid culture provides us with an understanding of the larger changes that have occurred within Southeast Asian Islam, away from a previous Islamic revival and toward a post-Islamist chic and new cultural performances that successfully blend entertainment and education.     

The discourses of intimacy: adding a social constructionist and feminist view

Though most people desire intimacy in their primary relationships, it is more elusive than not. I argue that people's assumptions about intimacy interfere with their creation of it. Using a social constructionist and feminist perspective, two prevailing discourses of intimacy that shape our ideas about intimacy are identified and critiqued. Both tend to direct attention away from an assessment of particular interactions to a global assessment of the capacity of an individual or a relationship to provide intimacy. An alternative is proposed in which intimacy is conceptualized as built up from single intimate or non-intimate interactions that can produce a variety of experiences, including connection and domination. My critique of the two discourses of intimacy rests fundamentally on the belief that they obscure crucial distinctions that a discourse of intimacy as meaning-making would reveal, in particular, that there are politics nestled in the heart of intimacy.     

Exploring the everyday retail experience: The discourses of style and design

In contrast to earlier studies focusing on spectacular retail store environments, this study concentrates on examining ordinary retail stores and everyday retail experiences. The article explores how different sorts of retail environments influence consumers' experience and behaviour. The research uses a comparative case study and employs the theoretical framework of geosemiotics. Investigating three different stores from the perspective of architectural style reveals that cultural meanings are firmly attached to interior style design, and these can be traced in customers' retail experiences. Our findings suggest, firstly, that stores' focusing solely on functional aspects such as the efficient use of space, standardization and self‐service rather than also considering aesthetic issues leads to rather neutral and uninteresting retail experiences. Secondly, they show that the retail store environment affects the social relationships that consumers establish in commercial locations. Thirdly, the study indicates that customers' overall retail experience is linked to their perceptions of the store's social and environmental responsibility and moral values. On the whole, this research advances our theoretical understanding of everyday consumption experiences. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Dominant and marginalized discourses in interracial couples' narratives: implications for family therapists

This study explores inter-racial couples' family histories, their experiences of their life together, and the dominant and subordinate discourses employed in negotiating racial and ethnic differences. Ten black-white couples were interviewed individually and conjointly. Dominant discourses that emerged from the couples' narratives included those of homogamy, hypersensitivity of persons of color, and the insignificance of familial and societal history. Interracial partners also simultaneously subverted these prevailing ideologies by voicing experience associated with life at the margins of the society. Dominant and subordinate dicourses used by therapists and interracial couples in the therapy room are examined to integrate marginalized "truths" crucial to effective work with interracial couples and persons of color.     

Integrating Multiple Intersecting Identities: A Multicultural Conceptualization of the Power and Control Wheel

For the past three decades intimate partner abuse has received growing attention as a major social problem with its roots in socially structured systemic inequalities. However, much of the intimate partner abuse literature lacks adequate attention to issues of diversity, and more specifically fails to address how structural underpinnings beyond gender shape women's experiences of intimate partner abuse. The primary purpose of this paper is to highlight the importance of considering how various systems of oppression (e.g., heterosexism, agism, ableism, racism, spirituality/religion, classism, and sexism) shape the experiences of victims of intimate partner abuse. In particular, we address how these personal, cultural, and structural identities may individually or in combination influence women's experiences of intimate partner abuse. The literature on diverse identities and intimate partner abuse is reviewed, and a revised version of the commonly used Power and Control Wheel is presented, called the Multicultural Power and Control Wheel. Directions for future research and implications for practice are proposed with the hopes of initiating a dialogue among researchers and clinicians as to the most effective ways to serve victims of IPA.     

Giving Science a Bad Name: Politically and Commercially Motivated Fallacies in BSE Inquiry

It is a feature of scientific inquiry that it proceeds alongside a multitude of non-scientific interests. This statement is as true of the scientific inquiries of previous centuries, many of which brought scientists into conflict with institutionalised religious thinking, as it is true of the scientific inquiries of today, which are conducted increasingly within commercial and political contexts. However, while the fact of the coexistence of scientific and non-scientific interests has changed little over time, what has changed with time is the effect of this coexistence on scientific inquiry itself. While scientists may no longer construct their theories with various religious dictates in mind, growing commercial and political interests in science have served to distort the interpretation of science. Using the U.K.’s recent crisis with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) as my context, I examine two ways in which this distortion has occurred – the interpretation of the science of BSE by politicians and by commercial parties for the purposes of justifying policy decisions and informing the public of risk, respectively. Fallacious reasoning, I contend, is the manifestation of this distortion in these contexts. In demonstration of this claim, I examine how politicians and commercial parties alike have employed two fallacies in their assessments of the science of BSE. These fallacies extend in novel ways the set of so-called traditional informal fallacies. The interpretation of science, I conclude, is a rich context in which to conduct a study of fallacious reasoning; moreover, such a study can contribute in significant ways, I argue, to the public understanding of science.     

Families and family psychology at the millennium. Intersecting crossroads

This introduction to the International Perspectives section presents a global overview of various issues and trends that families and family psychologists confront at the beginning of the 21st century. These are presented in broad strokes so that a kaleidoscopic intermingling of pieces emerges. Some predictions are included about new and expanding directions the field of family psychology is likely to take in coming decades. The need for additional research to field test criteria sets for emerging relational diagnosis and to evaluate which are the most efficacious therapeutic interventions is highlighted (F. W. Kaslow, 1987, 1995b). This section also includes 3 other articles on various aspects of family psychology by leading psychologists from 3 diverse countries and continents--the Virgin Islands (R. Dudley-Grant, 2001), Israel (E. Halpern, 2001), and Japan (K. Kameguchi, 2001). Each is representative of the larger region in which each author teaches and practices. These articles are intended to present a collage of some of the problems families are experiencing, future trends, and a call to action for psychologists to intervene to prevent and ameliorate family distress. Each author describes the history and current status of family psychology in his or her country and relates key dilemmas to what is happening on the world scene.     

Intersecting identities of elite female boxers: Stories of cultural difference and marginalization in sport

ObjectivesThe project responds to calls for research that attends to issues of cultural diversity within sport and that facilitates expanded understandings of socially constructed identities. The intersecting identities of elite female boxers are explored in terms of how they shape experiences of marginalization and well-being within sport. Focus is on constructions of race and ethnicity, language, and religion.DesignAn intersectional lens grounded in social constructionism was integrated with a cultural sport psychology approach to espouse the complexity, fluidity, and multi-dimensionality of the athletes’ identities as the product of intersecting narratives.MethodsMandala drawings and conversational interviews were employed as open-ended data collection processes that enabled the participants to share their identities. Portrait vignettes were then developed as creative nonfiction to elucidate how identities dynamically intersect and shape sport experiences.ResultsFive portrait vignettes layer together to show issues of identity expression, oppression and White privilege within the boxing context. The stories provide contextual insight into the ways in which athletes continually construct and negotiate identities in relation to dynamics of difference and sameness. They move fluidly between identities that are valued and identities that are marginalized, moments of open expression and moments of concealment.ConclusionsThe research contributes to social justice missions within sport by illuminating how certain identities result in individuals being dis/advantaged, socially excluded, and discriminated against. Possibilities are revealed for challenging social inequalities and facilitating more inclusive sport spaces that resonate with who athletes are as holistic, multifaceted people.     

Religious/secular discourses and practices of good sex

This article focuses on the triangulation of sexuality, religion and secularity in Dutch society by analysing two contemporary case studies. We focus on sexual experiences and practices rather than sexual identities to further understand the constructions of what constitutes ‘good’ sex. The empirical research is situated in the Netherlands, where the binary of religion and sexual regulation versus secularity and sexual freedom has been dominant in both public and political discourse for a long time. Exploring sexual practices and narratives as central to the constitution of both religious and secular selves, we noted these to be fluctuating, inconsistent and subject to discourses. Our first case study discusses sexual experiences of non-heterosexual Protestant women, whereas the second explores the frequently considered ‘neutral’ notions of secularity in sexual education. Applying insights from both religious studies and queer studies, we bring the empirical study of sexuality together with the theoretical debates about the conceptualisation of the secular and the religious in contemporary Western Europe. This comparative approach to sexuality not only undermines the culturally presumed exclusive opposition of the secular and the religious but it also provides new empirical contributions for understanding the interactions between sexual practices and sexual discourses.     

Intersecting Constraints on Label Learning: Effects of Age,Label Properties,and Referential Context

ABSTRACT

This research investigates the development of constraints in word learning. Previous experiments have shown that as infants gain more knowledge of native language structure, they become more selective about the forms that they accept as labels. However, the developmental pattern exhibited depends greatly on the way that infants are introduced to the labels and tested. In a series of experiments, we examined how providing referential context in the form of familiar objects and familiar object names affects how infants learn labels that they would otherwise reject, nonspeech sounds. We found evidence of the development of intersecting constraints: Younger infants (14-month-olds) were more open to learning nonspeech tone labels than older infants (19-month-olds), and younger infants were more open to the influence of referential context. These findings suggest that infants form expectations about labels and labeling contexts as they become more sophisticated learners.     

Political and media discourses about integrating refugees in the UK

This article addresses political and media discourses about integrating refugees in the UK in the context of the “refugee crisis”. A discursive psychological approach is presented as the best way to understand what talk about the concept is used to accomplish in these debates. A large corpus of political discussions (13 hours of debate featuring 146 politicians) and 960 newspaper articles from the UK were discourse analysed. The analysis identified five dilemmas about integration: Integration is positive and necessary, but challenging; Host communities are presented as welcoming, but there are limits to their capacity; Refugees are responsible for integration, but host communities need to provide support; Good refugees integrate, bad ones don't; Refugees are vulnerable and are skilled. All are used to warrant the inclusion or exclusion of refugees. The responsibility of western nations to support refugees is therefore contingent on the refugees behaving in specific ways.     

Negotiating Gender and Sexuality: A Qualitative Study of Elite Women Boxer Intersecting Identities and Sport Psychology Implications

There is a lack of research on the social construction of gender and sexuality in elite women's boxing and the social psychological implications. Building on research that theorizes gender and sexuality as intersecting identities, this study explored elite women boxers' (n = 10) identities in relation to inclusion and marginalization on the Canadian National Boxing Team. Constructionist thematic analysis identified a central theme, “boxing as empowering and constraining,” encompassing multiple meanings of gendered identities related to physicality and sexualities. These were tied to inclusion and exclusion. Sport psychology recommendations are made for facilitating sport climates that encourage intersecting identity expression.