Degrees without Freedom: The Impact of Formal Education on Dalit Young Men in North India

This article considers the capacity of formal education to undermine established processes of caste and class reproduction in an area of north India, with particular reference to the views and strategies of educated Dalit young men. It draws on quantitative and qualitative research conducted by the authors in a village in Bijnor district, western Uttar Pradesh (UP). We discuss how educated Dalit young men perceive education, how they seek to use educational credentials to obtain ‘respectable’ jobs, and how they react when this strategy fails. Increased formal education has given Dalit young men a sense of dignity and confidence at the village level. However, these men are increasingly unable to convert this ‘cultural capital’ into secure employment. This has created a reproductive crisis which is manifest in an emerging culture of masculine Dalit resentment. In response to this culture, Dalit parents are beginning to withdraw from investing money in young mens’ higher secondary and tertiary‐level education. Without a substantial redistribution in material assets within society, development initiatives focused on formal education are likely to be only partially successful in raising the social standing and economic position of subordinate groups.     

Foreclosure Risk and Community Health: Does Social Capital Have a Protective Effect?

This study draws upon the social determinants of health framework to model and test the extent to which a community’s social capital is health protective in the face of a substantial economic shock, namely the recent foreclosure crisis. U.S. county–level data are used to analyze potential moderating effects of social capital on health given a community’s foreclosure risk. We rely upon established social capital measures for U.S counties and merge them with county level foreclosure risk scores constructed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). While theorists suggest that social capital’s effect on health and other outcomes may be durable over time there have been few empirical tests of this. We interact established social capital indicators measured at two points in time with foreclosure risk to predict overall self-reported health. Our results provide strong support suggesting that high levels of social capital are health protective. Communities with high levels of social capital that are facing high foreclosure risks report significantly better aggregate health outcomes than comparable communities facing the same level of foreclosure risk, but lower levels of social capital.     

Crown,communication and the colonial post: Stamps,the monarchy and the British empire

This article investigates some of the possibilities for imperial history of using philatelic evidence. It explores the ways in which the British empire as a working world system was underpinned by the Imperial Penny Postage and the production and use of postage stamps bearing the images of successive British monarchs and other British imperial iconography. With particular emphasis on the reign of George V, who took an especially close interest in philatelic matters, it charts and discusses some of the ways in which British, dominion, Indian and colonial postage stamp issues (including their commissioning, design and public reception) reflected political and aesthetic judgments at home and overseas, and expressed sometimes unexpected notions of appropriate imperial, dominion and colonial imagery. It provides some cultural evidence supporting the contention that the apogee of the British imperial system may have occurred sometime in the middle years of the twentieth century.     

When nature nurtures children: nature as a containing and holding space

Contemporary theories of childhood recognize children as experts in their own lives, individuals whose perspectives are worthy of study. Immigrant and refugee children riding waves of historical, geographical, political, cultural and familial changes are likewise recognized as ‘socially competent actors’, anchored in part by their capacity to express personal interests and to form opinions. In a Montreal-based 2012 phenomenological study, 19 of these socially competent actors representing 5 continents were invited to share their perspectives concerning the role of the natural world in their socio-cultural adaptation process. Data provided information concerning children's lived experiences of nature. Research findings provided strong evidence that children entered into relationship with nature. Within this relationship, nature nurtured children by providing a space not unlike that of Winnicott's ‘holding’ or Bion's ‘containment’.     

World War II Underwater Cultural Heritage Sites in Truk Lagoon: Considering a Case for World Heritage Listing

This paper explores a number of issues in regard to the world heritage listing of the World War II underwater cultural heritage sites located in Truk Lagoon. The destruction of the Japanese Naval Base at Truk was an important event in the American strategy to end World War II and it had a profound effect on the indigenous inhabitants. Divers from all over the world visit Truk Lagoon to dive the 50 shipwrecks and numerous aircraft. The paper investigates the significance of the sites in accordance with the criteria for world heritage listing, and in context with Pacific Island Nations requirements.
© 2004 The Nautical Archaeology Society