bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Is Law Opposed to Politics for Feminists?: The Case of the Lusty Lady
Authors: Karalekas Nikki
Published: April 2014

Although feminists have historically engaged the law for political purposes, this article traces critiques of such engagements from early feminist legal theory to poststructuralist feminist thought. While early feminist legal theorists understood the law as patriarchal and oppressive, poststructuralists suggest that the law is productive. This theory of law would seem to necessitate reimagining how feminists might engage law. However, poststructuralist feminist thinkers argue that activists should eschew legal tactics in favor of political practices of resignification, collectivity, and agonistic democracy. Thus, these thinkers construct an opposition between law and politics that fundamentally contradicts their understanding of law as productive. Through an examination of this contradiction, the article shows that these thinkers implicitly share a conception of law as oppressive with early feminist legal theorists. Therefore, the poststructuralists fail to fully develop the insights of their own theory. Through a case study of the unionization of San Francisco’s Lusty Lady strip club in 1996, the article demonstrates how law is both productive and not inherently opposed to politics; it not only shows how law and politics are dynamically connected, but also how law can, at times, bolster politics. Thus, the article rethinks the place of law in feminist politics.
Micro-Cohorts, Feminist Discourse, and the Emergence of the Toronto SlutWalk
Authors: Reger Jo
Published: April 2014

In January 2011, Toronto activists reacted to a comment by a local police officer who equated women’s “slutty” dress with the probability of sexual assault. A group of women responded by planning a “slut walk” protesting what they termed “sexual profiling” and “slut shaming.” In a short period of time, the tactic of slut walks literally spread throughout the world. The article examines the rise of slut walks and their rapid spread. By focusing on the initial Toronto protest, it argues that the slut walk is an emerging micro-cohort within contemporary feminism. Through an analysis of the Toronto SlutWalk, the article proposes that along with structural factors, the discursive legacy of feminism contributed to the rise of this micro-cohort. That legacy includes the anti-victim–blaming focus of Take Back the Night, an emphasis on reclaiming language, and the aftermath of the feminist sex wars. It then draws on critiques of slut walks to illustrate the multiplicity and vibrancy of micro-cohorts within North American feminism.
Dreams of Uncommon Languages: Transnational Feminist Pedagogy and Multilingual Poetics
Authors: Neigh Janet
Published: April 2014

In the past thirty years, great strides have been made to diversify the curriculum in women’s and gender studies in terms of race, class, nationality, gender, and sexuality; however, linguistic diversity, perhaps not surprisingly, often remains an inherent stumbling block. What Adrienne Rich famously characterized in the 1970s as “the dream of a common language,” unfortunately often defaults to English in feminist classrooms throughout North America. This article argues that women’s and gender studies, as a discipline, needs to reflect more fully on the limitations of classroom discussions conducted in English and to develop more instructional strategies to engage multilingual voices. To this end, the article suggests that lessons based on multilingual and vernacular poetry by women can be used to disrupt the desires for a transparent univocal language, and to transform the widespread perception that multilingualism fosters disengagement and miscommunication. A key aspect of the approach involves using vernacular English poems to introduce students to the borderlands between different languages. By focusing on classroom strategies, the article demonstrates the value of small-scale acts, in addition to broader curricular changes for transforming systems of oppression.
Reaping the Bloody Harvest: “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and the US Imperial Project
Authors: Werner Maggie
Published: April 2014

On July 22, 2011, President Barack Obama certified the repeal of the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) policy. The fight for the repeal of the homophobic policy has become a defining issue for the national LGBT civil rights movement. The repeal of the policy has been widely heralded as a civil rights victory, but it also raises questions about the complex meanings of justice, fairness, and equality under neoliberalism. Thus, the fight for the repeal of DADT provides a vital site of critique for rhetoricians as a location where neoliberal discourses of equality mask an imperialist US agenda. The article uses fantasy-theme criticism, as popularized by Ernest G. Bormann, to analyze reaction to the repeal as it chained out on social-media sites in order to locate the strategies that enable a progressive movement—that is, LGBT civil rights—to become entwined with US imperialism. This analysis illustrates how popular discursive crafting of DADT as a US civil rights issue masks the many ways that the construction “gays in the military” shores up homonormativity and sexual exceptionalism that assist in the deployment of US imperialism.
Refuting “Refugee Chic”: Transnational Girl(hood)s and the Guerilla Pedagogy of M.I.A.
Authors: Weems Lisa
Published: April 2014

The article analyzes media accounts about and by international hip-hop artist M.I.A. to theorize the cultural production of racialized girlhood within transnational discourses on gender and sexuality. As a Sri Lankan Tamil refugee, M.I.A. is positioned as an exotic outsider to dominant discourses on race and gender in popular culture, and to the emerging canon of girlhood studies. Using a transnational feminist framework, the article illustrates the complicated tensions of racialized and gendered subjectivity in the context of the globalization of media and post-9/11 identity politics. Through an analysis of M.I.A.’s representation in mainstream media, as well as her reception in the South Asian diasporic community, it demonstrates how the artist actively resists binary constructions projected on and through her body, which is constituted by “refugee chic.” Specifically, it illustrates how M.I.A. rearticulates her outsider position to challenge the boundaries of both racialized girlhood and transnational citizenship. The article argues that M.I.A.’s self-identified mode of “digital ruckus” is a form of guerilla pedagogy that provides an important space for critical sociopolitical debate in the global youthscape.
A New Twilight in Zimababwe: The Military vs. Democracy
Authors: Mangongera Charles
Published: April 2014

Abstract: The militarization of state institutions in Zimbabwe now extends beyond just the state-security agencies to other key institutions including the judiciary, state-owned media, and the electoral commission. Just as certain state institutions have become militarized, so has the ruling ZANU-PF fused with the state. According to ZANU-PF’s “end-of-history” mentality, the party is entitled to stay in power forever due to its liberation credentials. To them, the attainment of independence in 1980 signaled the end of all struggles; any opposition is therefore deemed an attempt to reverse the gains of independence. The inevitable departure of President Mugabe, who is now ninety years old, will permanently alter Zimbabwean politics, but it will not necessarily provide an opportunity for a democratic breakthrough.
Ethnic Power Sharing: Three Big Problems
Authors: Horowitz Donald L.
Published: April 2014

In societies severely divided by ethnicity, race, religion, language, or any other form of ascriptive affiliation, ethnic divisions make democracy difficult, because they tend to produce ethnic parties and ethnic voting. Two commonly proposed methods of amelioration are called consociational and centripetal . Three problems derive from these proposals: The first concerns the adoptability of either of the two principal prescriptions. Under what conditions can either be adopted? The second relates to a possibility inherent in centripetal regimes: the potential degradation of the electoral arrangements that sustain the interethnic coalition. The third derives from a common consequence of the adoption of a consociational regime: Where robust guarantees, including minority vetoes, are adopted, immobilism is a strong possibility, and it may be very difficult to overcome the stasis that immobilism can produce. By examining these three problems, we can uncover some of the frailties inherent in both of the common prescriptions.
Shifting Tides in South Asia: Reform and Resistance in Nepal
Authors: Lawoti Mahendra
Published: April 2014

Abstract: Over the last decade, Nepal has been through a surprising series of major political upheavals: ending an armed rebellion, seeing democracy disrupted and restored, going from a monarchy to a republic, and twice electing a 601-member Constituent Assembly to serve as both a regular legislature and a constitution-drafting body. Bound up with these changes have been a number of democratic reforms. If these can be extended and institutionalized, they may help democracy to deepen in this culturally diverse, landlocked Himalayan country of 27 million people. Yet despite the resolution of the decade-old Maoist insurgency, widespread and deep-seated patterns of exclusion based on ethnic, caste, religious, and regional identities remain a key challenge to democratic deepening.
Mandela’s Legacy at Home and Abroad
Authors: Lyman Princeton N.
Published: April 2014

While Nelson Mandela’s greatness as a democratic leader in South Africa is unquestioned, his legacy in the realm of foreign policy is much more ambiguous. We have much to learn not only from South Africa’s own democracy, but also from the country’s “shortcomings” as a global democratic leader, including some underlying truths that its experience has revealed about how democracy can actually be fostered. Mandela’s legacy teaches that social, civic, and economic pressures against tyranny alone will not suffice; political movements dedicated not just to democracy but also to governing when the opportunity arises are required.
Shifting Tides in South Asia: Sri Lanka’s Postwar Descent
Authors: Stone Jason G.
Published: April 2014

Abstract: While many had hoped that the end of Sri Lanka’s long-running civil war in May 2009 might bring about a restoration of the rule of law and reconciliation between the Sinhalese majority and the Tamil minority, the government under President Mahinda Rajapaksa has continued its march down the authoritarian path. By further centralizing power under his office and family, by transforming the parliament and judiciary into veritable arms of the executive, and by promoting a culture of impunity whereby political elites and military personnel face little or no consequences for their blatant violations of human rights and malfeasance, the Rajapaksa regime has presided over one of the island’s worst episodes of democratic regression.
The Democratic Leadership Gap
Authors: Puddington Arch
Published: April 2014

For the eighth consecutive year, Freedom in the World, Freedom House’s annual report on the condition of global political rights and civil liberties, showed a global decline in freedom. While the overall level of regression was not severe, the countries experiencing setbacks included a worrying number of strategically or economically significant states whose political trajectories influence developments well beyond their borders.
Shifting Tides in South Asia: Bhutan’s Deferential Democracy
Authors: Muni S.D.
Published: April 2014

Abstract: The small eastern Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan has in recent years moved, under royal guidance, from absolute monarchy to constitutionalism and a regime that might be called “top-down democracy.” But royal initiatives in favor of constitutional democracy have not been driven solely by selfless enlightenment. Instead, the monarchy is best understood as acting prudently in reaction to pressures emanating both from Bhutanese society and from a demanding regional environment dominated by the two huge neighbors that completely surround tiny Bhutan: China and India.
Shifting Tides in South Asia: India and Its Neighbors
Authors: Ganguly Sumit
Published: April 2014

Abstract: Even in India, the South Asia’s oldest and largest democracy and a place where that form of govenment has become “the only game in town,” its deepening and broadening face important challenges. Indeed, while the country’s party system may look robust, it is in crisis. Hardly a single party is known for its commitment to internal democracy. With the exception of the two communist parties, almost no party harbors any real ideological commitments. Most party leaders care for little other than winning office and its vast benefits. The two dominant parties, the Indian National Congress (INC) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), though seemingly representing differing political agendas, have much more in common than first meets the eye. Given this context, the chances that political and economic reforms can be enacted after the next election prospects are limited.
Shifting Tides in South Asia: Tumult in the Maldives
Authors: Musthaq Fathima
Published: April 2014

Abstract: Maldives held its first free and competitive elections in 2008. Mohamed Nasheed of the Maldives Democratic Party (MDP) won the election, ending the 30-year presidency of Maumoon Abdul Gayoom. An opposition-led coup on 7 February 2012 and the victory of Gayoom’s half-brother, Yameen Abdul Gayoom of the Progressive Party of the Maldives (PPM) in the 2013 presidential elections signaled a return to pre-2008 politics. Challenges to consolidating democracy are manifold: a judiciary and a police force that remain loyal to Gayoom and his cronies; a rising trend of Muslim Nationalism fostered by increasing Islamic extremism and opportunistic politicians; and massive wealth and income inequalities sustained by a culture of patronage and an economy dependent on a high-end tourism industry.
Shifting Tides in South Asia: Renewed Hope in Pakistan?
Authors: Tudor Maya
Published: April 2014

Abstract: The victory of former premier Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League (known as the PML-N) over the incumbent Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) in the 11 May 2013 national elections marks a milestone in Pakistan’s history. During the course of the country’s 66 years as a sovereign state, instability has become the norm, with lurches from fragile democracy to military rule all too common. Against this stark backdrop, the convincing opposition win in a regularly scheduled vote, followed by a smooth handover of office, offers renewed hope that electoral democracy and civilian rule may be on the way to consolidation.
Democratic Parliamentary Monarchies
Authors: Stepan Alfred , Linz Juan J. , Minoves Juli F.
Published: April 2014

In this essay, the authors propose a three-part ideal-type typology that distinguishes between “ruling monarchy,” “constitutional monarchy,” and what they call “democratic parliamentary monarchy” (or DPM for short). For us, the defining characteristic of a DPM is that only the freely elected parliament forms and terminates the government. In a constitutional monarchy, by contrast, there is a strong element of dual legitimacy in that parliament and the monarch need each other’s support in order to form or terminate a government. In still greater contrast, in ruling monarchies the monarch can often unilaterally form or terminate the government. Moreover, each of these three types comes with its own set of patterns concerning the rule of law, constitutional constraints on the monarch, the status of parliament, and the relative autonomy of the judiciary.
Shifting Tides in South Asia: Bangladesh’s Failed Election
Authors: Riaz Ali
Published: April 2014

Abstract: The 10th Parliamentary election in Bangladesh held on 5 January 2014 produced a parliament with opposition party. The election, boycotted by the main opposition party the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), delivered a two-thirds majority to the incumbent Awami League (AL). The election result and behavior of the ruling party both pre- and post- election indicates that the future for a multi-party inclusive democratic process in Bangladesh is facing a serious setback. This paper argues t hat since democratization process began in 1991 Bangladeshi politics revealed symptoms of hybrid regimes, but a non-inclusive flawed election is a step back from the democratization process and it may lead the country to a de facto one-party authoritarian state.
A New Twilight in Zimababwe: The Perils of Power Sharing
Authors: LeBas Adrienne
Published: April 2014

Abstract: So far, most analyses of Zimbabwe’s 2013 elections have focused more on whether the contests were rigged than on why four years of power sharing failed to level the electoral playing field. In the author’s view, there are two main reasons that power sharing undermined—rather than enhanced—the prospects for democratization in Zimbabwe. First, there were significant flaws in the structure and the implementation of the 2008 Global Political Agreement (GPA), the three-party accord that governed the power-sharing arrangement. Second, power sharing brought the opposition into government, reducing its ability to run as an outside challenger and making it difficult for the party o claim credit for concrete policy gains.
Progressive Reform and the Moral Mission in Australian Public Libraries at the Beginning of the “Information Age”
Authors: Gaunt Heather
Published: April 2014

Progressive ideas about library economy, emanating from American and British libraries, contributed directly to the development of local procedures in public libraries in Australia in the late nineteenth century. The new consciousness of library professionalism, and scientific approaches to classification and library organization, led to new ideas on library design and functioning in the major Australian public libraries, building upon a consideration of local conditions and requirements. These developments coincided fruitfully with the Federation period, when the separate Australian colonies joined to form the Australian nation. Librarians sought to modernize their institutions in a positively charged climate of national progress, self-awareness, and pride. However, the transition to progressive practices was not uniform across the major Australian libraries. Conflicts between moral and technological values meant that some librarians rejected progressive practice and maintained older approaches, particularly in the area of classification. The Tasmanian Public Library, led by Chief Librarian Alfred J. Taylor, was an example of this. This paper examines Taylor’s approach in the wider context of changing attitudes to professionalism and library economy, his own paternalistic and humanistic approach to library organization, and the specific needs of the Tasmanian community.
Information Revolutions, the Information Society, and the Future of the History of Information Science
Authors: Rayward W. Boyd
Published: April 2014

This paper aims to discuss the future of information history by interrogating its past. It presents in outline an account of the conditions and the trajectory of events that have culminated in today’s “information revolution” and “information society.” It suggests that we have already passed through at least two information orders or revolutions as we transition, first, from the long era of print that began over five hundred years ago with Gutenberg and the printing press. We have then moved through a predigital era after World War II, finally to a new era characterized by the advent of the ubiquitous technologies that are considered to herald a new “digital revolution” and the creation of new kind of “information society.” It argues that it is possible to see that the past is now opening itself to new kinds of scrutiny as a result of the apparently transformative changes that are currently taking place. It suggests that the future of the history of information science is best thought of as part of a still unrealized convergence of diverse historical approaches to understanding how societies are constituted, sustained, reproduced, and changed in part by information and the infrastructures that emerge to manage information access and use. In conclusion it suggests that different bodies of historical knowledge and historical research methodologies have emerged as we move into the digital world that might be usefully brought together in the future to broaden and deepen explorations of important historical information phenomena from Gutenberg to Google.
Remodeling and Expanding Carnegie-Era Library Buildings
Authors: Schlipf Fred
Published: April 2014

One of the most satisfying undertakings in library building design can be the expansion and remodeling of historic public libraries from the early twentieth century. However, although the logic of preservation and conservation leads to strong public interest in the reuse of existing structures, the costs can be extremely high and the results can be functionally disappointing. Among the major problems frequently faced are modern building codes, load-bearing walls, the difficulty of installing modern HVAC systems, flimsy original construction materials, locations that no longer meet community needs, poor electrical wiring, elderly windows, historic brickwork that is difficult to match, inadequate sites, total inaccessibility for users with disabilities, bad modern lighting, and basements with low ceilings. However, many of these problems can be solved—or at least dealt with—with careful programming and planning, and expansion projects can result in handsome libraries that can serve for a second century.
“There and Back Again”: Reimagining the Public Library for the Twenty-First Century
Authors: Carroll Mary , Reynolds Sue
Published: April 2014

The redefining of the scope and function of the public library in the twenty-first century, and reconstruction of the virtual and physical space it occupies, appear to have taken public libraries on a journey to “there and back again.” In some of the debates surrounding contemporary challenges, we can discern echoes from previous generations as they too debated the primary role of the public library in the community, the nature and purpose of services and resources provided, and the best way to meet community needs. Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, many of the solutions reached by twenty-first century libraries have much in common with the solutions of previous generations. Reflecting early public library activities, today’s responses include the introduction of nonstandard classification schemes; the expansion of programs to enhance recreational and educational pursuits; the integration of multiple community services within the library; and provision of a variety of community learning, creative, and recreational spaces. Using the development of public libraries in Australia as a case study, and a critical narrative approach, this paper will argue that the vision for the function and purpose of the public library in the twenty-first century is not a new one but, perhaps unconsciously, a return to historical foundations.
“A Home-like Atmosphere”: The Advent of Children’s Rooms at St. Louis Public Library, 1906–1912
Authors: Kimball Melanie A.
Published: April 2014

Most public libraries in the United States did not include collections, rooms, or librarians dedicated to work with children until the early twentieth century. The establishment of children’s rooms as a customary feature of U.S. public libraries coincided with bequests to public libraries by the Carnegie Corporation. One such library, St. Louis (Missouri) Public Library, provides an example of how large, urban library systems expanded to included neighborhood branches as well as a central branch building, all of which contained a purpose-built space for work with children. As branch buildings with children’s rooms emerged, so did the need for trained children’s librarians. Paradoxically, as soon as there were rooms dedicated to children, librarians extended their reach to municipal playgrounds, schools, and other venues outside of the library. Children’s librarians found themselves traversing a variety of spaces, serving a diverse population in multiple sites.
Library Influence on Museum Information Work
Authors: Urban Richard J.
Published: April 2014

Contemporary literature on the divergence of libraries, archives, and museums over the course of the twentieth century credits the rise of distinct professional practices required to handle different physical forms. This paper explores the extent that librarianship influenced museum information practices in a predigital era. Instead of divergence, I find examples where museums adapted library methods to fit their needs instead of developing their own set of professional practices. Because museum professionalization placed an emphasis on discipline-based university training, information work in museums has been incorporated into nonuniversity technical education and on-the-job training programs. That this divergence of information work from academic preparation has fallen along gender lines requires additional attention.
Agents of Change: The Rise of International Librarianship and the Age of Globalization
Authors: Witt Steven
Published: April 2014

Focusing on the development of international librarianship in the interwar period, this paper uses the Paris Library School as a case study to explore the impact of new forms of internationalism on the development of the profession globally. Administered by the American Library Association from 1923 to 1928, the Paris Library School offers a unique view of the evolving international network of library and information professionals that formed such organizations as the International Federation of Library Associations. Through this historical case study, international librarianship is viewed in the context of globalization theories that focus the advent of international nongovernmental organizations, growth of global networks, and impact of transnational cultural flows. This analysis places international librarianship in the context of the wider social and technological developments that contributed to the economic and cultural phenomena characterized as globalization and provides a new theoretical basis for examining the growth, impact, and flow of international library development.
Digital Convergence and the Information Profession in Cultural Heritage Organizations: Reconciling Internal and External Demands
Authors: Marty Paul F.
Published: April 2014

Nearly twenty years ago, W. Boyd Rayward became one of the first academics to examine how electronic information and the functional integration of libraries, archives, and museums has affected, and will affect, the information profession. In doing so, he laid the groundwork for an entire research agenda on the topic of digital convergence, where the increased use of, and reliance on, digital resources in libraries, archives, and museums has increasingly blurred the traditional distinctions between these institutions. This paper explores how Rayward’s early work in this area influenced the development of this topic over time, focusing on how information professionals in cultural heritage organizations can and should reconcile their internal perceptions of identity with the external expectations of their users, particularly those who do not or cannot clearly distinguish between different institutions or the information resources they manage. In a world where the traditional assumptions we take for granted about information organization and access in libraries, archives, and museums are simply not shared by our users, the future of the information profession depends on the ability of cultural heritage information professionals to transcend the traditional boundaries between libraries, archives, and museums to meet information needs in the digital age.
Open Wide the Doors: The Children’s Room as Place in Public Libraries, 1876–1925
Authors: McDowell Kate
Published: April 2014

The word “place” can mean both the physical brick-and-mortar and the concept of “appropriate space,” defined functionally. This article examines the language of children’s place in public libraries from 1876 to 1925 in order to understand debates around the establishment of children’s rooms. Debates over the proper place for children encompassed the establishment of practices allowing children to enter the doors of the building as well as the creation of physical “children’s rooms,” although these rooms were policed in ways that restricted and defined their use. Examining the rhetoric of place and physicality illuminates some of the emerging cultural ideas about libraries as children’s places, their purposes, and their limitations.
Systems of Information: The Long View
Authors: Black Alistair , Schiller Dan
Published: April 2014

In response to the perceived (by some) onset of an information society, historians have begun to study its roots and antecedents. The past is replete with the rise, fall, and transformation of systems of information , which are not to be confused with the narrower computer-mediated world of information systems . The history of systems of information—which for digestibility can be labeled information history —lacks neither scale nor scope. Systems of information have played a critical role in the transition to, and subsequent development of, capitalism; the growth of the state, especially the modern, nation-state; the rise of modernity, science, and the public sphere; imperialism; and geopolitics. In the context of these epochal shifts and episodes in human thinking and social organization, this essay presents a critical bibliographic survey of histories—outside the well-trodden paths of library and information-science history—that have foregrounded, or made reference to, a wide variety of systems of information.
Library Towers and the Vertical Dimension of Knowledge
Authors: Van Acker Wouter , Uyttenhove Pieter , Van Peteghem Sylvia
Published: April 2014

Verticality, and related figures such as the tower, stack, or mountain, are commonly used as spatial metaphors to express the hierarchy that we apply to information and knowledge. But these metaphors that transform the vertical dimension of knowledge into words are also translated into library architecture. Different libraries include, or have been built in the form of, a tower. In these cases, verticality as a spatial metaphor is folded back onto the spatial and architectural field where it originated. Library towers transform verticality as a concept that conveys relations in knowledge into architectural language. The translation of verticality as a dimension of knowledge into architecture thus forms a strange double bind between space and knowledge. This article analyzes how libraries have expressed the vertical dimension of knowledge in their architecture and identifies different approaches that make the vertical dimension of knowledge architecturally present. The library of Ghent University (Belgium), by Henry van de Velde, includes a storehouse of books that has been completely accommodated in a tower. The architecture of the French National Library, by Dominique Perrault, plays with the metaphor of the tower in a semantic manner. Other libraries, such as the “Book Mountain” by MVRDV in Spijkenisse, exploit the book stack architecturally; and some libraries, such as The Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision, by Neutelings Riedijk architects, do not build up but down, in the underground, to house their collections.
The Puffery and Practicality of Etiquette Books: A New Take on Victorian Information Culture
Authors: Weller Toni
Published: April 2014

Traditionally, nineteenth-century etiquette books have been used by scholars mainly as evidence of conventions of manners and good behavior, supporting an expanding print culture in a new mass market. It is argued here that etiquette books should be re-explored in terms of the emerging information culture of the nineteenth century and that viewed in this light they can be seen to be disseminating information of two very particular kinds different from the traditional maxims of behavior and social decorum associated with etiquette. The first was the very practical type of information they espoused—information that served a functional purpose. The second was the way in which new forms of promotion and puffery about products and changing social expectations were used within etiquette books, embracing the broader information discourse of this period. Together, it is suggested that the Victorians’ fascination with information was not limited to early forms of information management or technology but also embraced more sociocultural forms and that information historiography can offer new insights into traditionally overlooked source material.
The Roaring Boy: Contested Masculinity on the Early Modern Stage
Authors: Gates Daniel
Published: April 2014

The satirical representation of the roaring boy shows how men of a variety of social stations aped the belligerent, courtly, military styles of the upper class. And this stock figure highlights how the demimonde of early modern London, a site where social class is harder to determine with precision, was represented on stage.
Violating the Black Body: Sexual Violence in Truman Capote's Other Voices, Other Rooms
Authors: Fahy Thomas
Published: April 2014

The distinction is an important one, for Capote recognizes that whiteness gives Joel access to power and privileges that African Americans do not have in the United States. He recognizes that the social and personal costs for black women are far greater than those for gay white men.
"Like a shadow, / I'll ever dwell": The Jailer's Daughter as Ariadne in The Two Noble Kinsmen
Authors: DeWall Nichole
Published: April 2014

My primary argument here is that Fletcher and Shakespeare did in the subplot what they did in the main plot—retold an old story—and that an investigation of how early modern audiences may have experienced the subplot is essential to a fuller understanding of the play as a whole.
The Playful "i" in Tato Laviera's Poetry: An Arte poética
Authors: Bird-Soto Nancy
Published: April 2014

The notion of belonging to a broader cultural landscape becomes obvious in the writer's intentions to offer a poetry that is accessible to the people, while at the same time tackling fundamental identity crossroads pertaining to social status, race and ethnicity, cultural heritage, and language. Attuned to the goal of accessibility, Laviera's poetry is decidedly oral in form, whereas in content it is devoted to the language and circumstances of what he calls "his people" and their everyday experiences.
William Ellis, John Williams, and the Role of History in Missionary Nation-Making
Authors: Werner Winter Jade
Published: April 2014

These surprising aspects of missionary narratives are worth consideration, not only because they helpfully inflect and nuance existing scholarship on missionaries' role in British imperialism. Perhaps more importantly, they make clear how missionary narratives provided (to borrow a phrase from Etienne Balibar and Pierre Macherey's essay, "On Literature as an Ideological Form") an "imaginary solution [to] implacable ideological contradictions."
Learning from Our Mistakes: Difficulty and Insight in the Literature Classroom
Authors: Locklin Blake Seana
Published: April 2014

In this paper, I argue for the value of the basic reading comprehension errors that despite the best efforts at teaching and learning occur even in an advanced literature class. What seems to be a basic misreading of a text can lead both teacher and students to insight.
I Don’t Know Why I Called You
Authors: Farroni Jeffrey S. , Gallagher Colleen M.
Published: April 2014

This case study details a request from a patient family member who calls our service without an articulated ethical dilemma. The issue that arose involved the conflict between continuing further medical interventions versus transitioning to supportive or palliative care and transferring the patient home. Beyond the resolution of the ethical dilemma, this narrative illustrates an approach to ethics consultation that seeks practical resolution of ethical dilemmas in alignment with patient goals and values. Importantly, the family’s suffering is addressed through a relationship driven, humanistic approach that incorporates elements of compassion, empathy and dialog.
Confronting Pediatric Brain Tumors: Parent Stories
Authors: McMillan Gigi
Published: April 2014

This narrative symposium brings to light the extreme difficulties faced by parents of children diagnosed with brain tumors. NIB editorial staff and narrative symposium editors, Gigi McMillan and Christy A. Rentmeester, developed a call for stories that was distributed on several list serves and posted on Narrative Inquiry in Bioethics’ website. The call asks parents to share their personal experience of diagnosis, treatment, long–term effects of treatment, social issues and the doctor–patient–parent dynamic that develops during this process. Thirteen stories are found in the print version of the journal and an additional six supplemental stories are published online only through Project MUSE. One change readers may notice is that the story authors are not listed in alphabetical order. The symposium editors had a vision for this issue that included leading readers through the timeline of this topic: diagnosis–treatment–acute recovery–recurrence–treatment (again)– acute recovery (again)– long-term quality of life– (possibly) end of life . Stories are arranged to help lead the reader through this timeline. Gigi McMillan is a patient and research subject advocate, co-founder of We Can, Pediatric Brain Tumor Network , as well as, the mother of a child who suffered from a pediatric brain tumor. She also authored the introduction for this symposium. Christy Rentmeester is an Associate Professor of Health Policy and Ethics in the Creighton University School of Medicine. She served as a commentator for this issue. Other commentators for this issue are Michael Barraza, a clinical psychologist and board member of We Can, Pediatric Brain Tumor Network ; Lisa Stern, a pediatrician who has diagnosed six children with brain tumors in her 20 years of practice; and Katie Rose, a pediatric brain tumor patient who shares her special insights about this world.
Responding to the Refusal of Care in the Emergency Department
Authors: Nelson Jennifer , Venkat Arvind , Davenport Moira
Published: April 2014

The emergency department (ED) serves as the primary gateway for acute care and the source of health care of last resort. Emergency physicians are commonly expected to rapidly assess and treat patients with a variety of life–threatening conditions. However, patients do refuse recommended therapy, even when the consequences are significant morbidity and even mortality. This raises the ethical dilemma of how emergency physicians and ED staff can rapidly determine whether patient refusal of treatment recommendations is based on intact decision–making capacity and how to respond in an appropriate manner when the declining of necessary care by the patient is lacking a basis in informed judgment. This article presents a case that illustrates the ethical tensions raised by the refusal of life–sustaining care in the ED and how such situations can be approached in an ethically appropriate manner.
Cartography of Endurance
Authors: Rentmeester Christy
Published: April 2014

This commentary canvasses a few prominent themes of ethical relevance drawn from the stories in this issue. I develop the metaphor of cartography to illuminate critical experiences in the moral lives of parents of children with brain tumors. Relationship transformation within families along the timeline of a child’s illness and recovery is one such set of experiences. Points for consideration in health professions education are also featured: clinical humility regarding “second opinions,” cultivating therapeutic efficacy from the clinician–parent relationship, error, and medical care itself as a source of trauma.
The Right Thing
Authors: Barraza Michael
Published: April 2014

In my hospital experience working with families of seriously ill children, parents describe being stripped of confidence and having their functioning so compromised that they are unable to process facts or initiate action in a meaningful way. These narratives offer a glimpse into the minds of these parents and two things are clear: they love their children and they want to do the right thing. Treatment for pediatric brain tumors can last for long periods of time (months, even years) and cause significant damage even while seeking to save the child’s life. Over the course of time, the family dynamic changes. Several important themes emerge from these stories and are explored in this commentary. An overarching theme is the agony that these parents go through as they struggle to make life and death decisions on behalf of their children
“Grey Matters”
Authors: Rose Katie
Published: April 2014

It’s common in this world , for diagnoses to be confused. This grey, oblique world is the “World of Brain Tumors” from which these narratives are written, a world I entered when a tangerine–sized tumor was found on my temporal lobe. Each narrative illustrates this world in which everything is covered in a thick film rendering things once obvious, now unknown. Parents are asked to choose treatment plans for their children, plans that will inevitably alter their child’s quality of life but in ways they cannot determine or even imagine. Parents are asked to play God. Most of the parents who share their stories in this collection, parents of PBT (pediatric brain tumor) patients have to walk the line of trying to not disrupt their relationships with their physicians, wanting the best for their child, and facing the decision to follow their gut or go with advised treatment plans.
Reflecting on Parental Concerns in the Treatment of Pediatric Brain Tumors: Observations From A General Pediatrician
Authors: Stern Lisa
Published: April 2014

This issue of Narrative Inquiry in Bioethics explores the concerns and point of view of parents who have had to confront the devastating diagnosis of a pediatric brain tumor. This commentary, written by a general pediatrician, is a synthesis of several narrative themes which touch on a range of topics from relapse to long-term sequelae and other issues that effect a growing population of pediatric brain tumor patients. It offers a glimpse into the problems that need to be addressed by health professionals, educators and support teams who provide short and long term care to these patients and their families.
Who Are You Going to Call? Primary Care Patients’ Disclosure Decisions Regarding Direct–to–Consumer Genetic Testing
Authors: Wasson Katherine , Cherny Sara , Sanders Tonya Nashay , Hogan Nancy S. , Helzlsouer Kathy J.
Published: April 2014

Background: Direct–to–consumer genetic testing (DTCGT) offers risk estimates for a variety of complex diseases and conditions, yet little is known about its impact on actual users, including their decisions about sharing the information gleaned from testing. Ethical considerations include the impact of unsolicited genetic information with variable validity and clinical utility on relatives, and the possible burden to the health care system if revealed to physicians. Aims: The qualitative study explored primary care patients’ views, attitudes, and decision making considerations regarding DTCGT. This article focuses on the disclosure decisions participants made regarding participation, testing, and results of DTCGT, a topic which arose as a secondary aim of the study. Methods: Through four longitudinal interviews (pre–test, results, 3 and 12 months post–test) we examined twenty primary care patients’ decisions, expressed intentions, and actions regarding disclosure to immediate and extended family, friends and coworkers, and physicians about participation in and results of DTCGT. Individual interviews were analyzed using qualitative content analysis and a summative approach to describe the global themes. Results: Most participants disclosed to some immediate family; less than half disclosed to extended family; approximately half talked to friends. Most participants stated they would or might disclose to physicians about DTCGT and a few did. Conceptual themes that emerged from the data analysis include ambivalence about disclosure, consistency between intention and actual disclosure behavior and decisions, and conditional information sharing. Conclusions: Participants’ intentional and actual disclosure patterns offer insight into how they view DTCGT, weigh results, and the potential impact of DTCGT.
Politics and Interest in Early Confucianism
Authors: Kim Sungmoon
Published: April 2014

This essay investigates the “morality of interest” in classical Confucianism by examining the philosophical thoughts of Mencius and Xunzi. It argues that despite many differences, Mencius and Xunzi strove to (re-)construct a civil political order that could best serve the welfare of the people by rejecting the stringent dichotomy of morality and interest and attempted to reinvent interest enlightened by ren (benevolence) and yi (righteousness) and harnessed by li (Confucian rituals). Examining Mencius’ advocacy of a creative entwinement between the Kingly Way and interest and his unarticulated idea of positive Confucian moral politics, it is shown how Xunzi brought Mencius’ nascent idea of positive Confucian moral politics to full fruition by, ironically, criticizing him.
Patience and Perspective
Authors: Bommarito Nicolas
Published: April 2014

In much of Western philosophy, patience tends to be either overlooked or described as being non-moral and valuable only instrumentally. This is in stark contrast with its central role in Buddhist ethics. Offered here is a Buddhistinspired account of how patience can be a moral virtue. It is argued that virtuous patience involves having a perspective on the place of our own desires and values among others and a sense of their relative importance.
Meaning, Understanding, and Knowing-what: An Indian Grammarian Notion of Intuition (Pratibhā)
Authors: Ho Chien-hsing
Published: April 2014

For Bhartṛhari, a fifth-century Indian grammarian-philosopher, all conscious beings are capable of what he called pratibhā , a flash of indescribable intuitive understanding such that one knows what the present object means and what to do with it. Such an understanding, if correct, amounts to a mode of knowing that may best be termed knowing-what . This essay attempts to expound Bhartr. hari’s conception of pratibhā in relation to the notions of meaning, understanding, and knowing, with a view to suggesting its relevance for contemporary studies of related topics.