Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The paper explores the implications of interpreting aid as a mode of practice of global justice, in order to move away from its common rendition as an abstract ideal of rescue to persons in distress or a technocratically defined, problem-solving activity of financial support to the underprivileged or their governments. Instead, we can think of aid as a form of cosmopolitan normative and political labour that implicates both those helping and those being helped in substantiating the latter's socio-economic rights, while simultaneously struggling against the conditions which cause and sustain vulnerability for vast sections of humankind. The paper proposes a model of the transnational practice of helping others in the context of the global HIV/AIDS pandemic, which highlights the urgency and significance of the former. Accordingly, the first section examines how, when functioning within the confines of the current world order, the work of assistance can contribute to the formation of substantively egalitarian North-South cooperation and thereby guard against its potential instrumentalization as a mechanism of economic domination and moral regulation over vast regions of the global South. Secondly, the labour of helping others can include struggles for the structural transformation of the established system of socio-economic and spatial segregation that produces abuses of the human rights of the poor and women.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: ABSTRACT


Contemporary racist organizations attempt to expand their bases of support by incorporating the crime issue into their collective action frames. Racist interpretations of crime rest heavily upon stereotypes of nonwhite individuals as having innate criminal tendencies. We draw on Simmel's insights on the social position of "the stranger," arguing that racist framing of crime should have greater resonance among those targeted for recruitment when nonwhite individuals are present within a community, but are not fully integrated into the community. Spatial and social distance between the white and nonwhite populations acts as a barrier to social intercourse that would falsify racist interpretations of crime. We test our arguments by examining county-level variation in the presence or absence of an active racist group in 2001. Results of our analysis show that the crime rate has a positive effect on racist activism, but only in counties with relatively high levels of residential segregation, and in counties with relatively large gaps between whites and non-whites in terms of income and education.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Abstract:

In 1996, a survey was conducted of youth hostellers in three U.S. hostels: Chicago, Boston and Seattle. The focus of the study was on trust, and specifically looking at hostellers attitudes towards other hostellers. One of the key questions asked whether the respondent had traveled with strangers met through a hostel ride board, whether they would feel comfortable doing so (if they had not) and what factors were behind their decisions to trust others. Essentially the study was looking at factors that encouraged trust in a setting where the level of trust needed to be high but there was little time to gather cues about trustworthiness. In 2006, the author had the opportunity to repeat the survey in the Boston and Seattle hostels and substituted the San Francisco hostel for the Chicago hostel. This poster will summarize the 1996 and 2006 results, then report on the changes between the two years.

Poster layout:

There will be five or so tables providing key statistics for the 1996 survey and the 2006 follow-up survey. These would include such factors nationality, age, length of stay in the US and expected weekly budget. Then the poster would report on whether the hosteller had traveled with strangers. The 2006 version includes rides arranged through Craig’s list in addition to hostel ride board rides. Finally, the factors influencing trust will be reported.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Trust is believed to be important in the development of relations and especially in initial contact. This paper examines factors contributing to the emergence of such trust in dyads. Two aspects of trust are distinguished. On the one hand the perception of interpersonal trust; this is a perceptual dimension that reflects the interpersonal relationship between two individuals. Results suggest that having a clear, unambiguous impression fosters interpersonal trust. On the other hand a behavioral dimension of trust is distinguished. Findings suggest that trustful behavior is not solely influenced by interpersonal trust. Whether or not interpersonal trust is a necessity for behavioral trust depends on contextual factors such as the group-membership of the people involved. Results show that when interacting within the boundaries of ones group, not knowing the individual with whom one has to interact, is no impediment to trusting behavior.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The conventional wisdom in criminal law is that violence between strangers is more serious crime than violence between individuals who know one another. When asked about their crime concerns, most people respond that they fear becoming the victim of a violent crime at the hands of a stranger. Yet more violent crimes occur between people who are intimate partners, family members, friends, or acquaintances than between strangers. This paper identifies and examines arguments in favor of treating stranger violence more seriously, and it concludes that none of the arguments sufficiently justifies the unequal treatment of stranger and non-stranger violence. The paper also identifies several affirmative reasons why violence in close personal relationships might be considered more serious than stranger violence. Ultimately, the paper concludes that non-stranger violence should be treated just as seriously as stranger violence, and it briefly explores a few practical challenges associated with the prevention and punishment of violence between non-strangers.